PumpkinKnits

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Big and Fast and Beautiful

I have be-hatted my son for the winter, but no hat for Dizzle yet. I decided I wanted a bulky, colorful yarn for her hat. But alas, none in my stash. Whats a girl to do? Spin her own. I grabbed "Lantern Festival", the offering from Hello Yarn's fiber club for the month of July. Here it is all pre-drafted:

And here it is all spun up. There are 2 batches, the first 2.5oz I did watching the Sox win game 7 against Cleveland, and the last 2.5oz was done during naptime yesterday afternoon.


Attention mothers who are spinners: Not only to babies (still) like watching you pre-draft colorful roving (please note: mobile babies REALLY love it, to the tune of grabbing and helping a little too enthusiastically), you can also spin up a whole bunch of yarn during naptime if you are content with big fat singles. Who knew I could go from roving to knitting in 24 hours. I may have a new favorite spinning method. Talk about instant gratification.

Specs: 5oz Corriedale, "Lantern Festival", really not too bulky, about worsted weight (?) I got 450 yards out of 5oz, which seems like a lot. It is so hard to make my hands spin fat yarn. I split the top lengthwise into quarters, and predrafted it as you see above. Slapped on my biggest whorl, increased the take-up so I had to keep my hands off of it as I spun, and even then I positively could not prevent myself from drafting it down further. I was shooting for pretty fat and while this is fat for me, its not quite as fat as I like. Regardless, its still perfect for a hat and is knitting up very prettily.

Labels: ,

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is STUNNING! Kudos to you, because I've tried to spin like that several times with no luck (I tend to want to draft more, and end up much thinner than expected, AND over spun)
Can't wait to see it knit up.

9:02 AM  
Blogger Carole Knits said...

It looks fabulous! I have a hard time spinning thick yarn, too, which is pretty ironic considering what I was spinning when I first started!

9:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, yummy! That will make a fabulous hat. Lucky Dizzle.

9:16 AM  
Blogger Danielle said...

Pretty, pretty. With 450 yards, you'll have enough for matching mittens too!

10:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, it looks great! Good job!

10:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That'll be a great hat! I just spun my Lantern Festival this past weekend, I *love* the color and spinning Corriedale! Spinning even fat singles is beyond me now, I think. Just can't do it anymore!

10:42 AM  
Blogger yarnophiliac said...

what gorgeous, perfect colors for a little one. I found a huge love of big, fat singles last year, myself, and I love that it preserves the colorshifts without having to navajo ply.

11:13 AM  
Blogger knitmd said...

Love it! Perfect colors for a little girl's winter cap!

12:14 PM  
Blogger Manise said...

Gorgeous fat singles! I too have a hard time spinning those now. Can't wait to see the hat.

3:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That looks fantastic! I'm interested to see it knit up!

4:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It IS perfect! I can't wait to see what you do with it!

8:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful singles! How can you resist the temptation to keep them for yourself? ;-)

I tried to spin a fat single last night and failed miserably. It's harder than it looks!

2:05 PM  
Blogger Mini said...

GORGEOUS....

can we see the knitting??

1:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So. So. Pretty!!

3:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty! I haven't spun that style yet; I know I'd have the same problem. The quest for laceweight has changed my spinning.

11:57 PM  
Blogger Laurie said...

LOVE that yarn. Isn't it funny how the hands have a mind of their own? I tried spinning without looking yesterday (closed my eyes) and it did my same yarn.

Love the way the hat came out, even if the wee one is a fidget about it.

6:22 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home