more project updates

The shawl is finished.  It was an easy pattern to remember since it was all garter stitch and increased 1 stitch at the start of every other row.   Once I had the stripe pattern done once, it was all that was needed to refer to once in a while.  Most of it was self explanatory.   I am sort of thinking I should have gone for the blue for the dark stripe like the pattern suggested but I'm happy enough with what I chose since I already had some of that dark brown/grey wool on hand.  I didn't add the fringe because it would have made the shawl less useful for warmth while doing things.  I just did a single row of double crochet along the edge to tidy up the side with all the yarn joins.   This pattern is in Peterson's, 1862, jan - June, pg 419 or so.

I was also knitting this bunny toy at the same time.  Well I'd started the bunny, set it aside while I knit the shawl and am now finishing up the bunny.   It's a large toy and it's taking a while to knit it, mainly because by setting it down for a while, I started knitting again at the wrong gauge.   Now I'm having to re-knit some of the pieces so that they match properly.   I just finished my 2nd set of arms.   I have the body done, 2 arms done properly, 1 leg.  I will start the second leg tonight hopefully and then re-knit the head which is the fussiest part.   It's the wrong tension though and looks odd with all the other pieces. 

This bunny takes a lot of knitting.  It's done on straight stitches so takes even longer.  I'm using handspun merino/cashmere/silk so it's really soft though.   It has knitted clothing as well.  I'm going to dye up the body pieces when I'm finished knitting them but before I sew and stuff them.  I'll also dye the clothing yarn at the same time.

Ashleigh got a new drum carder and want to play.  Since it's a spinning day next week, I'm washing up

some guild fleece to try out.   The guild was given 4 fleeces to play with.  The gals who picked them up were hoping we could spin them up for them to weave with.  However, they have no idea how much work that will be.   I'm not sure if they checked the fleeces when they got them, or even if they got to choose them.   The gal who was gate-keeping them finally let me have access when she was tired of storing them.  I just tossed them in my garage where they will be cold enough to not get moths all winter.   

However, in washing them up, one fleece turns out to have a significant break in a good part of the fleece.   Ashleigh has been playing with that one and with her new drum carder has gotten something useable in 5 passes - that's a fair bit of work.  The lamb fleece is so short and so much lanolin that I've test washed some and after 3 washes with soap and de-greaser, and 3 rinses there is still so much lanolin left in.   The other white fleece is meh- full of neps and lots of dirt and sand.   I couldn't card it but had to comb it with over 50% loss.   Not fun at all.   This is the last fleece, the black one.  It's really black and night time lighting doesn't show it up.  It it cards up it could be a nice enough fleece, but with the others being such as they are, I'm not holding up a lot of hope.  However, having a nice large carder to try it out with should be fun.

There are tons of second cuts that I've been picking out while washing.   I also heard a rumour that the farmer has sold off all its sheep because they couldn't get their wool processed in a timely fashion.   Some of the small mills around here have ridiculously long waiting lists, so I can understand the frustration.  It's nice having the skills to do it myself if I need to.