Friday, March 05, 2010

Handspun Friday - The BFL project

I'm really surprised how many of you liked my simple Evilla shawl! Thank you so much for all your kind words. I'm not going to write a pattern for it though. If you are on ravelry, there's a very similar free pattern called Deirdre by Linden Heflin. You just need to pop in some of those gathered stitch rows from Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia", if you happen to have this book.

And now to my finished, long term BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) project:
I've started this in April 2009 by dyeing up some of my natural brown BFL fiber, seen here with a wet Biko:
May17, 2007-dark brown BFL roving 4 lbs and Biko
(I bought this fiber on eBay in May 2007)

I was a little to enthusiastic dyeing this up, stirred the fiber in the pot too much, and it was all a little felted. I did not look forward spinning this up, but ripping stripes from each color, loosened up the felted fiber, and I also did a real good job in pre-drafting. After I spun the first three skeins, I put everything aside, because there kept gorgeous fiber coming into my house, which distracted me from this project.
5 x 4oz BFL-2

But as you can see, I finished it! Over the last 3 weeks, I've spun the last 4 skeins. To tell the truth I got pretty sick of it by the end, also because it didn't quite turn out the way I thought it would. And to make it worse, my spinning kept getting thinner with each skein.

Finished BFL project

At the top there's the natural brown undyed skein (which looks rather grey here, but it's not). It's the smallest one, but for whatever project I'm going to use these skeins, if I need more of this, I still have plenty of undyed fiber left to spin. All the others are half/half with the color before them until I came to the last color, which is also only a 2oz skein of pure dark red colorway.

finished BFL project-3468yds total-4

finished BFL project-total 3468yds-1

There is a total of 3468yds of 2-ply yarn here. As I said, unfortunately not all the same WPI. I still want to use it all together for an as yet unknown project in the future.

I've still plans on giving this color play another go. Now that I have a clearer picture of what I really want.

I just realized that I have another long term spinning project, which I have badly neglected! It's the Shunklies Humbug project (official name for this project as of now) :o).
I've just read The Beebonnet report and it looks like America has discovered how cool dyed Humbug fiber is! (at the end of the blog post). You should see more of it all over the place soon! :o) Something like this for instance (Jacobs Humbug):
Jacobs Humbug # 2 I really like this kind of fiber.

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I'm also sharing this with you, against my better judgment, since it decreases my chances of winning! :o)
Wandering Cat Studio is having a contest, and I'm telling you this because I've had the pleasure of knitting with some Fluffy Cat yarn I bought from their Etsy shop, (and I would not mind winning another skein of it) and because I like to support this mother and daughter team, spreading the love of their wonderful hand-painted yarn! ravelry link. There's still time to enter the contest!

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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry Monica! I find your woolskeins totally gorgeous!! ;oD. Those colors are just lovely and perhaps you don't even see, that some of the yarn is thinner than the other. Perhaps you could work in some Goldthreads in the knitted work, where the yarn is thinner. Would eventually look like goldstrikes. Or work the whole thing on 2 different number of needles. Frontside thicker number- eakylabackside thinner number. . . Just some Ideas ;oD.

Liebi Grüess Hanne.

Martina said...

I really LOVE your handspun friday. It´s a pleasure to read your posts and see the nice colors of your yarn.

SockPixie said...

Your handspun, hand-dyed yarns look fabulous.

knottygnome said...

wow that is quite the project! i'm impressed that you soldiered through it. i love the gradual color changes. can't wait to see what you do with it.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

I think the BFL would make a lovely graduated shawl!
Thanks for the plug! And good luck!

Michelle said...

All I can say about that yarn is WOW. I understand being a little upset by the WPI but maybe the knitted gauge will be close? Can't wait to see what you make with it!

Kathy... said...

WOW! Totally awesome.

Susan said...

I love the gradient dyeing! I've been thinking about trying some of that myself. You know, when the puppy is a little older and I actually have some fiber time again.

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

Your spinning is always beautiful - and it will knit into something incredible :)

I saw your yarn on Flickr and before I even knew of the contest I googled and found Wandering Cat Yarns. Of course I succumbed ~ the pretty tea rose color did it for me :)

Päivi, Lankakomero said...

Lovely yarns! You have been very industrious spinner.

Knatolee said...

Beautiful!! I love your spinning work.

Jeanne said...

Gorgeous yarn - I love the colors - very very pretty!