6 posts tagged “cashmere”
Ooooo...yes. Do you know how lovely a 2-ply cashmere and silk blend heavy lace-weight yarn feels? Well you should. It's one of the softest yarns I have had the pleasure of pawing.
My first Hand Springs Fingerless Mitts were made from some hand-dyed by Madeline Tosh. When I was told that they would not be carrying that line of hand-dyed yarn, I looked for another indie dyer.
I found Ellie of Crazy4Dyeing on Ravelry. She agreed to buy the yarn from a supplier and hand-dye it in appealing semi-solids.
She even sent a free skein with which to work another pair of mitts and get the gauge for the pattern! I'm so pleased with this yarn. It's the same weight as the Madeline Tosh yarn I had, so I know the results will be fantastic.
Here is the colorway I chose. The color is actually in-between the two photos, but I couldn't get my color tones just right in only one photo. I really need a light tent with an Ott Light to do it justice.
There are issues with copying and pasting from a word processing document to Vox, so I will only be able to provide you with a downloadable PDF of the pattern, located in my sidebar under My Links. One day after the Holidays I'll type up the whole pattern for you here in my post.
The pattern link is now in Ravelry.com and I have been dubbed an official designer. I guess I'd better start coming up with some original designs now!
Many thanks to my proof readers and test knitters, namely Bonnie, Donna, Jen, Katie, Linda, Sara and Susanna. Especially Linda Welch, who kindly gave permission for me to adapt her lace chart from the Spring Forwards socks. Such a gracious lady.
Also, Ellie of Crazy4Dyeing is now my supplier for the heavier laceweight yarn needed for the size 0 needles! Her new line, ElfinLace is a lovely 2-ply cashmere/silk blend in lovely semi-solids.
I finally worked up the gauge swatch for the Elfin Lace yarn...12 sts, 14 rows in stockinette equals 1 inch. I'll add this information to the PDF as soon as possible.
See THIS post.
Enjoy the pattern!
RM
Little baby feet need little booties! I knit these with the Moc-A-Soc pattern found at Bekah Knits here. It's a great pattern. I'll make more in the future, no doubt!
HERE they are in my Ravelry folder.
Oooo...and she just came out with an adult size pattern for it as well!
I did leave off the inside sock, as I got sick and ran out of time for knitting. I used some recycled cashmere sweater yarn, held together to make a sport weight. I hope the baby is comfy in them. He should be...they're soft and warm!
I felt so badly that day, and had a wedding to go to later in the evening, that I only stayed for a short time at the baby shower. I felt terrible about leaving just after she opened the gift. Oh well, she's a friend. She understood, I'm sure!
Now to just get the addendum to the Spring Forward sock pattern written so that I can post it for all my fellow knitters. I'll have it by next week...I promise!
Hello lovelies! Sometimes I use Flickr as a blog instead of posting here on my craft blog. That is because there are more of my crafty friends on Flickr than there are on Vox and they can easily post comments there. So, before I forget...
Here are some fingerless mitts I've been knitting for my mom. She says that the hospital, in which she receives her chemotherapy treatments, is as cold as an ice box. So, I wanted to make her some nice hand warmers out of the lovely cashmere and silk light-fingering-weight yarn that Amy of www.MadelineTosh.com hand-dyed for me. It has been a lovely experience! The yarn, plus KnitPicks size 0 circular needles and a sock pattern that I adapted to sprout a nice, graduated thumb gusset has yeilded an exceedingly smooth knitting week. The sock pattern, "Spring Forward" by Linda Welch, is found here on Knitty. My Ravelry page has some preliminary notes for this project here. Once I have tested my notes on the second mitt, I'll post instructions (free gratis, of course) for adding the thumb gusset, thus turning them into 'Hand Springs' fingerless mitts.
Click on thumbnails to view larger photos.
My Great-Grandmother used to make a Dewberry Cobbler that was my favorite kind of cobbler in the world while growing up! She would pick the berries from wild Dewberry vines that grew along the road on fences on the way to their lake cabin in Texas.
This hand-dyed yarn's color reminds me of what might have come out of dying with the juices of those berries. In fact, I have had enough of the cobbler juice on my clothes as a kid to know that it is pretty close!!! The color in the photo isn't as purple-wine color as the yarn is in real life...sorry the photos are so dark!
One half of this fiber marriage is reclaimed cashmere yarn from a super-soft sweater! So, it's just luxurious! The second half is HAND CARDED and handspun Llama fiber. The llama is the part that makes this a boucle yarn. When washed after being plied, the cashmere shrinks and the llama forms bumps and loops. It gives a more subtle effect here than in the commercially made boucle, but it's just as interesting!
Well, there's the story of this Dewberry Cobbler yarn. I like to think that my Great-Grandmother would be proud!
This yarn is available in my Etsy shop. More photos there and in my Photos section.
Later!
RM
