Friday, April 06, 2012

Handspun Friday - handspun yarn for Old Forge # 2

It's a bit anticlimactic but here it is, the fiber and resulting yarn for my latest Old Forge blanket.
It started with FatCatKnits Fiber Club Famous Couples Romeo & Juliet:

FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-10oz-Fomeo and Juliet

I didn't exactly know what to do with it, but for once I wanted to spin it right away, and not bury it in my stash. I had 5oz of each colorway. After thinking long and hard how to spin it, I decided to make it 3-ply, with one strand of Romeo, one of Juliet, and one strand with some left over orange I had. Which became this yarn:
FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-10oz-Fomeo and Juliet-1.skein-3-ply-202yds

"So what now? ", I thought. I had to go hunting for some other fiber I could ply the rest with and then I found 10 oz of Corgi Hill Farm Jasper on Falkland (I love Anna Marie's fiber by the way). It was not exactly what I was looking for, but it would have to do, since at that point I didn't have a clue as what I would knit with the yarn anyway.
Corgi Hill Farm-10oz-Falkland-Jasper
This fiber was kind of a gradient, from beautiful sunflower yellow to the weirdest greenish/pinkish almost grey. Hm. Well, next up was the yellow one:
FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-10oz-Fomeo and Juliet-2.skein-208yds, 107gr, 3-ply
and the pinkish one looked like this:
FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-10oz-Romeo and Juliet-3.skein-3-ply-215yds
and the greenish one, almost the same:
FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-10oz-Fomeo and Juliet-4.skein-3-ply-250yds
With that I'd finished off all my 10oz of Romeo and Juliet, and there was only the middle, contrast color to be spun:
Corgi Hill Farm Jasper on Falkland, 5oz
Now I had a big pile of handspun yarn, and by then I guess, I'd decided on making Old Forge # 2 with it.
FatCatKnits meets Corgi Hill Farm
I started to knit, and knit, and knit

March 11

and ran out of yarn for the knit on border, so I had to order more Romeo & Juliet fiber from FatCatKnits (thanks Ginny!), but had no more of the Jasper fiber left over. I just added some undyed Falkland as third strand to make it the lightest of all. For the border it would be fitting.
FCK fiber club -Famous Couples-Winter-Spring 2012-February-Falkland-Romeo and Juliet-extra spun skein-3-ply-216yds-for knit on edge -

Then I started the knit on border, which is 10 stitches wide. It took me two days of knitting to get as far as the yarn stretched, NOT to the end though. I had to spin up some more, and with this little skein I was able to finally finish it.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And there you have it: the makings of Old Forge # 2.

handspun Old Forge # 2

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Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend, if you celebrate, and if not, yours should be just as wonderful!
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11 comments:

My Five Sons said...

Wow that is absolutley gorgeous,the planning and knitting fantastic!!I love checking out your yarns and spinning,wish i had more time for my projects!!

Vlaďka Cepáková said...

It´s very beautiful. I love your works.

Christine said...

It is so beautiful. I love the colour combinations.

CelticCastOn said...

Another beauty!!
I can't believe you're knitting a third!!

Sarah said...

Your spinning is absolutely beautiful and inspiring! I would never have thought to combine those colors of fiber together, but it totally works.

Rhonda said...

Holey moley, that is gorgeous. One of these days I'm going to have to get you to teach me to spin. :)

Susan said...

Figuring out how you want your colors while spinning sounds like a lot of fun! Such a beautiful blanket again!

Crochet with Raymond said...

so beautiful, loved seeing the entire journey and another glimpse of your beautiful mandala! I have decided to try to knit a circle with some yarn I am spinning right now to see if I can make the lovely stripey circles, so inspired by yourself!

Anonymous said...

You have a great sense of color. I would never have realized that all that different fiber would look so good together.
margieinmaryland

2paw said...

I agree, you have the knack with colour and design. Nice to see Denny making a cameo!!

hawknitr13 said...

awesome! do your needles ever catch the yarn on fire?!!! ^)^linda