Emily’s Knits

I just couldn’t help myself and bought this new spindle from (you guessed it) Dragoncraft Spindles last week.  As with the previous four it is delightful both to look at and to spin with.  The whorl on this one is a bit thicker than the other two I have, but it’s still under two ounces.

It also came with a delightfully soft bumblebee fibre, which the spindle is shown sitting on above, and which is much, much prettier than my camera decided to show.  The fibre on the spindle is a mill end sample sent by carly*original with the Enchantress roving I purchased.

I tend to purchase my fibres in big batches, so for now I think I’ll showcase them as I use them rather than when they arrive.

I just finished my second spindle of Fairy Wings singles.  The last one was ~81 yards when plied and I expect this to be around the same.  We’ll find out tomorrow.

We seem to have matching colours at the moment!

We’re working on Missy being able to control the entire drop spindle by herself without having the weight of the yarn changing so much.  She’s getting there, and we’re both having lots of fun :)  It seems the biggest rough spot left is grafting on a new piece of fibre.  Today she learned to wind an Andean Bracelet, and then did the second two all on her own perfectly.  She’s still stopping the spindle to draft, but I think she’ll get it all working together soon.

Missy is using the Royal Gem spindle I bought her from Dragoncraft.  In these pictures she’s spinning SarasTextureCrafts‘ merino/tussah mix in the Dawn colourway.  It’s beautiful to work with, though perhaps not the easiest thing to have started with.

Today was also a siblings-lunch-out after her orientation program ended.  I’m around so little (which definitely makes me sad) that I treasure all my time with my family.  It can be very tempting to move back to the east coast just to be closer to everyone.  Well, all except my friends, who are steadily immigrating to the Bay Area.

They say you learn things every day and I’ve always found that to be true. Some days I learn more interesting things than others. Somedays I learn things that are more applicable than others.

Today one of the things that I have learned is ‘when spinning variegated fibre don’t spin one dark section, one light section, and then a second dark section, 2-ply with an Andean Bracelet, and then expect it all to be roughly evenly coloured!’  Next time I will remember to try to setup my single so that I ply light with dark most of the way along it, rather than dark with dark and light with light.

I’m currently working with a Merino/Tencel blend called Fairy Wings from Spincerely‘s etsy store.  Doesn’t it look just luscious?  It feels that way too!  I love the feel of the drop spindles I’ve been using recently, from Dragoncraft.  They’re about an ounce and a quarter – just the right weight for me.  This one they made just for me!

[ravelry link]

The plan is for this yarn to be made into a Beach Glass shawl for my little sister.  At the moment I probably have 1/3 of the yarn I need.