Spinning Shetland again

The gorgeous fleece I bought at Jamieson & Smith in Shetland last year, I wonder if I'll ever get it spun? I have combed it on my finest dog comb, spun a few sample skeins, I've tried a light spindle and my wheel... Now I've started again. This time I comb the already combed locks on Gammeldags' mini two pitch wool combs, and the result is amazing.

This is Oliver Henry showing Shetland fleece at J&S:

This is what I did last year: my fleece last year

And this is what I'm doing to my fleece now, combing the once combed fibers again:

Spinning suddenly became very easy :)

Swap yarns

I like swaps, you never know what your partner will send you. Two days ago I spun two singles and yesterday I plied, skeined and washed the yarn. I'm so pleased with this yarn! I spun the hand dizzed tops with merino, alpaca and silk uneven, and the commercial merino top even, and got a yarn with character and structure.

The merino-alpaca-silk tops to the left, sorry I don't have a better picture

Merino top

Singles

The finished yarn shows the different fibers in a nice way

I also spun the pink Shetland-Merino-Nylon batt in the photo above:

Now I'm thinking of what to spin to ply it with. Gray would be nice, but I can also imagine other pink shades in a 3-ply and another gray 3-ply for a warm Fair Isle hat.

The swans have been grazing in the fields for a couple of weeks. Soon they will be gone.

In the garden the plants show colors you didn't know they had:

This is a cactus I got from a friend a couple of years ago. She sent it to me in a milk package, I put it in a pot, it grew roots and started growing bigger and bigger. Last summer it was hanging in a rowan for a couple of months. A few weeks ago I got the sad news that my friend had passed away. I call my cactus "Marie" in remembrance of her. Marie has four flowers now.

Spinning again!

So after knitting only for six weeks, I'm back at spinning and that feels so good. I have finished two yarns I started spinning in August. Four of the tops Jon from Easyknits.co.uk gave me are now transformed into a nice 3-ply yarn.

Have a look at Easyknits' new site, it's really good, and there are wonderful yarns, fibers, and recipes if you need inspiration for cooking. I love the new product, "Small Guys", I'd like to knit something really nice with the small skeins.

I also finished the BFL-silk I bought from Kariola. I spun it on one of my IST Russian spindles and plied on the wheel. Carola is now thinking of what color would be a good companion for this yarn. It's incredibly soft, so the only thing I can think of making with it is a shawl, and doubled as a hat.

I spun about one meter of gold:

Aluminum and wool, gift from Ingrid whom I met in Gothenburg earlier in October. Bosworth midi spindle

And I have started a new yarn from two swap gifts. I spun the first thread from wonderful hand dizzed tops from Hilltopcloud with merino, alpaca and silk. The shop owner is hilltopkatie on Ravelry. She has very good fibers, so keep an eye on her shop! I spun an uneven yarn trying to keep the character of the tops. Today I start the second thread, a merino top I got in another swap. I'll spin it thin and even. Photos when I have yarn to show!

Kravallslöjd nästa vecka

Nästa vecka bloggar jag på Kravallslöjd! Som några kanske såg i en kommentar här på bloggen för några dagar sedan fick jag en inbjudan som jag naturligtvis med glädje svarade ja på. Vi ses på Kravallslöjd på måndag!

I morgon åker jag till Göteborg över veckoslutet för att titta på dans: Leinonen/Franzén/Zappalà. Min son Jukka har komponerat musiken till Fading.

Next week I'll blog on Kravallslöjd, only in Swedish I'm afraid. I got an invitation that I gladly accepted, so will return here after next week.

Tomorrow I take a weekend trip to Gothenburg where I'll see a new dance production at the opera. My son has composed the music to Helena Franzén's choreography Fading.

Baaa!

The third thing I found at Loftet in Vaasa on Monday was:

Felted and knitted sheep flaps for my ears this winter! I love the pink ears sticking out! I love the face of the sheep and the cute locks on it's head! On the other flap there's a similar sheep.

Made by Marika Halme for BothniaDesign.