Handspun Friday - Farmer Phil BFL & Special Blue BFL

This fiber/color was a little hard to photograph, but it's blue, that much is obvious. It's Blue Faced Leicester, which I like to work with.


It turned into two of those skeins. One I used for mittens. The second one is still in my stash. I wanted to start the mittens, so did only half of the fiber, and the other half later.


1. skein, chain plied, 195yds. 2. skein, chain plied 174yds.

I wanted to pair it with some Farmer Phil yarn I made earlier. Also BFL fiber, and chain plied.







I spun this one during Tour de Fleece this year. Chain plied, 304yds. Lots of left over after the mittens were finished.




I took the stitch pattern from the book "The Mitten Book" page 62. I didn't have a pattern, just put it together as I went. I should have taken notes. Because after the first mitt was done, I did some test knitting, and later, when I continued knitting the second mitt, I couldn't quite remember what I did the first time around.
So, stop laughing, because, yes, the second mitt is a bit larger. I find it very hard to rip out color work, and knits with cables. It's not that it's hard to do, just imagining doing it, after I'd slaved over it, makes me overlook some minor errors.

I still like them though. In my mind I didn't see the blue as dominant color, and was really surprised when they came out like this.



Even with being not perfect mittens, I like them, especially when looking at the details.



I was proud of myself, when I did the braid right from memory, and the first time around as well! I like the leaf pattern on the cuff, and how the yarn made it multicolored.



The thumb is a little tight. Next time I'll add more stitches, but I like the ribbing.



The rose stitch pattern is easy, but lovely. It didn't pop as much as I wanted it, but there's always room for improvement. When I squint at it, I can see the blue grid, or just the rose pattern. I have yet to knit something without an error somewhere in my projects.

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The other day, Maggie was under my desk, sleeping, when Denny came, and pushed her over, and made himself comfortable. I don't think she approved.



It doesn't look like it, but it was too dark in the room for the camera to focus. I still love this photo, because it's not often that the boys sleep so close together. They must have been quite tired.



I'm happy to say that Denny continues to run like a little locomotive after the balls I throw. But there are rules, and he made them up. First he looks at my hands. When I have only one ball I throw it once, and he will not give that up, until I can show him a second ball in my left hand (that's somehow important to him). Only then I can throw the ball, and he will run after that one.

Meanwhile I pick up the ball he brought back. If I throw the ball he just brought back, and pick it up right in front of him, he wont run after it, bark at me until I throw the ball in my left hand.
That's just how picky he is. He loves it, when I have more than two balls in my hands, somehow that makes it more fun for him. I don't care as long as he keeps running.

Yesterday, I threw the Frisbee for Happy, one ball for Maggie, and the rest of the balls as described above for Denny. At one point near the end, Happy was bringing back a ball too, so everybody got balls thrown, I was quite busy, as they kept coming back one after the other. I have no idea where the Frisbee vanished to. Everybody was happy, including me, and once their tongues hit the ground, we called it a night.

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Have a wonderful weekend!

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