Anarchistelfliege 2

I'm trying a new way to spin a colour gradient. I've got merino tops of different colours (solid colours) and I'm carding them to blend them a bit with hand cards. The rolag I'm getting from this is split in half and each half is spun on one spindle. I've finished a skein spun this way yesterday, and when I would my plying ball, one single was only about 10 meters shorter than the other.



Now that I finally understood how to card fine fibers, it's such a joy to see those colours blend together and the spots of bright or dark colour, very subtle, I get this way.





The next thing I would want to do is make a blend with silk this way. I only think it would be maybe better to start with a commercially prepared silk blend instead of trying it myself without any experience with silk.

I'm feeling a bit bad, because this is really developping into a knitting and spinning blog instead of the quilting blog it was intendet to be.
But hey, I spun yarn!
This is my second ever attempt at artyarn spinning, and I was trying to spin thick and thin on purpose and make some coils. I thought it was easier, because some of this happened to me when I spun my first yarn ever. Then, it was not artyarn, but beginner yarn with beginner mistakes. If I want to do this on purpose and in a planned manner, it's suddenly hard to get texturered yarn.



But I'm really loving it!

Besides Artyarn, I'm also spinning "normal yarn" for unique projects... like... my handspun sweater!
Yeah, it's finished after all!
I've never dreamed of owning such a colourful and fancy garment.
It's so great to be able to spin and dye just the yarn I want.



This was taken by my beloved guy, when we went to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall being opened.
I've done some work on the bottom hem because I hated how it kept rolling upwards, now it's 2 inches shorter and looking much better.

I spent the weekend at Esmes place in Leipzig, where we went for a walk and took a lot of pictures.
She's also into knitting socks and spinning at the moment, and so the whole visit just became a very relaxed retreat of knitting, talking, sipping tea, cooking pumpkin soup, spinning, walking through falling leaves and jumping over little pools of rain along the path, more spinning, knitting and cuddling the cats. Just perfect, I feel so relaxed!
Some photos from our walk:

...and I seem to stand besides the carousel. Maybe that has to do with the dwarves and tree spirits in the park, maybe they've bewitched me?

It seems to me like I've completely become absorbed by knitting and wool and spinning and stuff. I would love to make more Midget Blocks, but I always end up knitting more socks. Some time ago, I have counted my sockyarn skeins and estimated that I've got yarn to knit at least 24 pairs of socks. Which means I will have to knit 20 pairs of socks until I may buy more sock yarn.
I have been tempted several times, seen really beautiful yarn, or yarn sold cheaply, and I stayed strong and didn't buy anything. Which means I can really be proud of myself. At the moment, I'm trying to knit up my stash, and here's what I'm doing:



September 2009 Mystery Sock designed by Nancy Bush "Fox Faces".
Ravelry link

And here are "Hat heel socks" from the new issue of Knitty:



I'm knitting 2 more pairs at the moment, but haven't photographed them yet, and I finished these "Spring Forward Socks", also from Knitty:



I've knit 14 pairs of socks so far. That means, I started knitting in November 2008, and that's what I did since then. Now I can wear my handknit socks every day. I'm a selfish knitter, I knit mostly for myself. I gave one pair of socks to my mum, who really loved receiving socks from me. She really appreciated them. And I, in turn, liked that very much, of course.

Now, summer is definitely gone. I've seen the wild geese leave for the south two weeks ago:



It really makes me sad each time, the end of summer. But then again, I like fall. If we only could skip winter.

Wow, it's finished!!





it's got a belly made of handspun yarn. I just spun a very small amount for this cute crab, and knit it up without washing it or doing anything but plying.

I think I'll have to make one for myself as well, that is, if my niece doesn't want the crab. If she doesn't like it, I'll keep it for myself, of course.
:-))

The pattern is available for free here at knitty.com

just what is it that makes the poor so patient so quiet?

Originally uploaded by bluemacgirl


Just came across this photo on flickr, and it's posted under creative commons license, so I can share this here..
It's a graffto in Kreuzberg, photo taken by bluemacgirl.

On the annual womyns summer camp I started to make a rattle for myself, out of goats skin, I think.
Today, I picked up the empty, hardened head of the rattle, and filled it with mung beans. I stuck the handle into the head, and wrapped a wet strip of cloth around the skin around the wood, to make it soft and adapt to the form of the wooden stick.
It was a wonderful day and I tried to capture the sun, the water, and the rattle with my camera:



I love it, I love it, I love it!!

And I finished my Revontuli Shawl:



It's made from handspun merino top, and it was quite a hassle to spin the colour gradient. The very fine fibers stuck together, forming lumps and knots, when I started to blend colours. But the result is really rewarding.