Bags and Blessings
One of our computers died which means Ed usually has this computer in the evenings since I'm using it a great deal during the days. The downside is that I don't get much chance for keeping up with personal emails or blogs - reading and posting. I decided to stay up late tonight in the hopes of catching up a bit.
I've been asked how big the sample weaving is from a couple posts previous. It's 6 inches wide and 18" long. And no, I haven't done anymore. I'm on a time crunch to get a commissioned piece finished before next Friday. Since I'm a hopelessly slow knitter and spinner all fiber efforts are used for this.
Remember the felted bag I knit straight from pencil roving for Aurora last July? She's been using it for carrying her nutrition course books and one of her classmates wants one. This time I'm spinning the roving just enough to put in a bit of twist. By using the 3oz, 15" Ladakhi spindle I can spin an ounce at a time. The last picture best represents the true colors. Want some stats?
One ounce of this Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale Pencil Roving is approximately 17 yards unspun. After spinning it is 40 yards. 40 yards knits over 6 rounds on the bag. I predraft an arm's length of roving to about half the thickness before lightly spinning the Ladakhi and let the twist run up to my extended hand. Then I remove the half hitch and give the yarn a good shake to evenly distribute the twist along the length before winding on. I'm able to spin an ounce in under an hour.
It's a pattern I developed for Aurora's bag, this time I'm writing as I go so the pattern will be available on our website. The bottom was knit on 8mm needles. Here I'm picking up the stitches along the side and about to begin knitting in the round.
I switched to #15/10mm needles for the body. At first they felt clunky but now the knitting is moving right along. Since this picture I've completed two more ounces and finished row 20. Spinning an ounce at a time and knitting it before spinning the next ounce is breaking up the monotany and is a rhythm I hope to be able to use for other projects. It doesn't seem daunting to spin one ounce at a time as opposed to tackling eight ounces that need spinning.
This was on the roof of my car a little after 7 this morning when I went out to go pick up baby Faith.
After feeding and dressing her we bundled up into the car to return home to work. But the beauty of the morning waylaid me. First I had to gaze at this site from the back of their house:
Then instead of coming straight home I decided to take the long loop to see this site which is about 7 miles from our place. The Wooden Shoe Bulb Farm. By then Faith had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake her, and especially wasn't about to leave her to walk closer to the fields.
After Faith's morning nap we went for a walk to enjoy more of this sunny day after days of cold, pouring rain.
I've been asked how big the sample weaving is from a couple posts previous. It's 6 inches wide and 18" long. And no, I haven't done anymore. I'm on a time crunch to get a commissioned piece finished before next Friday. Since I'm a hopelessly slow knitter and spinner all fiber efforts are used for this.
Remember the felted bag I knit straight from pencil roving for Aurora last July? She's been using it for carrying her nutrition course books and one of her classmates wants one. This time I'm spinning the roving just enough to put in a bit of twist. By using the 3oz, 15" Ladakhi spindle I can spin an ounce at a time. The last picture best represents the true colors. Want some stats?
One ounce of this Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale Pencil Roving is approximately 17 yards unspun. After spinning it is 40 yards. 40 yards knits over 6 rounds on the bag. I predraft an arm's length of roving to about half the thickness before lightly spinning the Ladakhi and let the twist run up to my extended hand. Then I remove the half hitch and give the yarn a good shake to evenly distribute the twist along the length before winding on. I'm able to spin an ounce in under an hour.
It's a pattern I developed for Aurora's bag, this time I'm writing as I go so the pattern will be available on our website. The bottom was knit on 8mm needles. Here I'm picking up the stitches along the side and about to begin knitting in the round.
I switched to #15/10mm needles for the body. At first they felt clunky but now the knitting is moving right along. Since this picture I've completed two more ounces and finished row 20. Spinning an ounce at a time and knitting it before spinning the next ounce is breaking up the monotany and is a rhythm I hope to be able to use for other projects. It doesn't seem daunting to spin one ounce at a time as opposed to tackling eight ounces that need spinning.
This was on the roof of my car a little after 7 this morning when I went out to go pick up baby Faith.
After feeding and dressing her we bundled up into the car to return home to work. But the beauty of the morning waylaid me. First I had to gaze at this site from the back of their house:
Then instead of coming straight home I decided to take the long loop to see this site which is about 7 miles from our place. The Wooden Shoe Bulb Farm. By then Faith had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake her, and especially wasn't about to leave her to walk closer to the fields.
After Faith's morning nap we went for a walk to enjoy more of this sunny day after days of cold, pouring rain.
Labels: Baby, Felted Bag, Knitted Bag, Spindle, tulips
posted by Fiberjoy at 10:04 PM
10 Comments:
I appreciate hearing about your method of working on the bag, it is shaping up nicely! And thanks for the smiles this AM....that photo of Faith is pure sweetness!
Oh, and just incase we are ever driving past that Wooden Shoe Bulb Farm together, and if I happen to be asleep, please wake me up!! Those fields are a sight to behold!
We are doing the computer share also here - hubbies laptop died and we are sharing while I decide which laptop I want so he gets mine LOL
Lovely pictures as always and those cheeks Faith has just makes me want to sit here going awwwww.... I'm meeting afriend for lunch along with another her daughter and her two little (7 mos old) twins... along with another friend.
oooh, a flower farm.! sigh. that is certainly worth going out of your way for . . .knitting
Lovely to see the method for making the bag and hear how quickly you are spinning an ounce! Beautiful colours in this post today and Faith is such a treat to behold, any day!
Wanda, that bag...the colours are gorgeous! And the tulip field, took by breath away...but Faith, her eyes, that smile...if you can get her to open her hand you'll find my heart there. (not in a gross way, mind you).
Thank you so very much!
baby Faith is so sweet !
that spindle looks like a lot of fun -
oooh, love the spun yarn and the way you have described it makes me want to spin so much, and that bag! I can't wait to see the finished article and read the pattern. What a smiley little honey your baby is. I thought that was plastic on the roof of your car at first, I really had to look hard to see what you were talking about.
Thanks for the comment on my blog, it's good to know who'se been visiting!
Love the colors of the pencil roving. It's going to be beautiful bag.
Baby faith is just so darn cute!
What a wonderful mixture of topics in your blog. I've wandered over here from Cornflower so you can imagine the sort of things I like looking at and reading about. I've recently learnt to spin and was luck enough to buy a rigid heddle loom from a woman who was happy to sell it for an extremely affordable price to a good home. So far I haven't given the loom the attention it deserves, somehow work and family and the rest of life just get in the way...
What a lovely post full of delights:)
Great to see how you knitted that bag up . Great photos of the flowers etc but by far the best is the one of that cutie Faith . A smile like that can melt any heart
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