Hello from the Sunshine State!
I'm visiting my parents in California for the next few weeks. But before I left, I had to take a picture of this little guy snoozing on my fence:
But once I got into California, I could finally get my hands on this:
Those hanks are some of the first yarn I've ever spun. New spinners, take note, this is what your first yarn will look like:
Full of over and under twisted areas and thick and thin areas. It will end up making great novelty scarves, though.
Something I recently found out is necessary for handspun yarn is to wash before using in a project, as the handspun will shrink quite a lot after the first washing. And it's better to find out sooner rather than later how much. So, that being said, I washed all of those hanks of yarn in shampoo and conditioner. After wringing them out, I actually paid attention to directions (even if it was from the fairly incomprehensible knitty spinning article) and found something to thwack the yarn against to remove excess water and set the twist. (My shoulder hurts a LOT now!) It ended up being the side of my parents' new garden arbor. Standing there, in the sun, throwing hanks of yarn against the metal... well, it was quite fun and a good stress relief. Rather than lay the hanks out on the towel, I decided to utilize the arbor's scrollwork for other purposes.
Everything was dry by last night and I set to work on my kestrel bag. Here it is, in progress:
Both the green and white are my handspuns, while the oatmeal is this beautiful wool from a Hungarian shepherd. I'd been thinking I would felt it, but I may be changing my mind. Maybe only one run through the washer just to make it fuzzy.
I'm going to spend the next few days updating my non blog sites - getting them to have the new template and adding my more recent projects. Maybe I'll finally finish up the chiagu pattern... Anyone good at proofreading patterns and willing to read mine and give corrections/suggestions in two days? Keep in mind this would get you a free copy of my pattern. Free is always good!
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