Thursday, April 01, 2010

Handspun sweater to be.

I decided that one of my goals this year, to help make me a better spinner, was to try to spin yarn for an entire sweater. While I had goals of buying the yarn for this at fiber fest, and making it a goal for later in the year, two things happened that pushed this goal up to the top of the queue.
The wheel that I bought with my overtime check came with one lb of fiber to spend. Sure it wasn't the pretty pre-dyed stuff that I'm used to, but I put in a call to help to SamuraiKnitter (who has written dye your own tutorials for Knitty), and stocked up on Wiltons food dye and vinegar and made a plan.
This last weekend I dyed the pound of fiber that came with my new wheel (yes, I will get photos of the new wheel up soon). I forgot how much fun it is to dye in the kitchen, and dying fiber is not much different than dying yarn.



Last night was spent predrafting the fiber and rolling it into rolags for spinning, and I might have spun a little of the fiber. I think I have my first hand spun sweater started.

I fell inlove with Amy King's Tappan Zee pattern in the Spring Knitty, and decided to take the plunge. While I would love to have splurged on some of Amy's hand dyed Merino/Bamboo, I have to make due with what I have.

I'm hoping for a longer post tomorrow or Saturday.

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