I mentioned in my last post that I've also been knitting a lot lately - well I've also been spinning quite a bit too...

I finished 3 different spinning projects in the last few weeks, the most interesting of them was probably that silk bell that I got in the fiber swap...

I've never spun anything like it before so I had to look up just how to go about it. Turns out you're supposed to separate these into layers. This was no simple task, but easier than it sounds, I didn't realise that this silk bell was actually make up of 9 or 10 super thin layers of silk that will actually peel apart. The hardest part was making sure I was only peeling off one layer at a time. The layers wer so light and thin I could suspend the whole thing in the air just by blowing on it...

I believe this is actually two layers, it was the first 'layer' I peeled off and it seemed thicker than the others --

After you peel apart the layers you have to make a hole near the center and stretch it out from that until it's a long narrow rope, how long an narrow depended on how thin I wanted to spin it... then I had to pile it in a glass bowl... ok so maybe I use a large glass loaf pan... same-difference.

I think this was probably 2 of the 9 layers, the whole bell weighed just over half an ounce...

This stuff is so thin and fluffy and cloud like. (think. puffy. clouds. *sigh*). But when you're drafting it doesn't feel as soft since it catches on every ruff spot on your hands or any finger nail that isn't absolutely smooth and perfectly filed. A little lotion helped but didn't completely cure the problem... it was also really strong so it took some work to draft it out which made my hands really tired by time I'd finished spinning just those 6/10 of an oz

I got it all spun up in one evening, spinning it as fine as I could to maximize the yardage. It was a lot of fun watching the color changes pile up on the bobbin. I've spun blended top and roving before, but never hand painted, so watching the color change every few yards was really fun and new to me. Watching the colors blend together to make a new color was really interesting too sometimes when the turquoise and purple would end up in the same area it would spin up sort of cobalt blue...

In the end I got about 100 yards of lace-weight (I should have used a penny or something to show scale a little better...) out of that 0.6 oz, which will be nice for a very small lace project (like a lined clutch bag) or a nice edging on a larger project. I haven't set the twist yet, but I have a feeling it wouldn't make a big difference to this particular yarn.
I lost some of the purple in the plying since a lot of it twisted with the turquoise, but it's still there and I think it will give a nice variegated/flecked look without pooling. Overall I had a lot of fun spinning this and trying the silk, even if my hands did ache afterwards...

I was told that it wouldn't kill me to blog... Now I'm one of those people that always have to question everything I'm told, and in this case the only way to do that is to test the statement by, well, blogging. This is the same reasoning that caused me stick my tongue to the inside of the freezer door shortly after being warned 'if you stick your tongue to something really cold, it won't come off' (they were right...) .

Well, I'm not dead yet! so I guess I'll continue.

There's been lots of knitting going on here - maybe that explains the blogging shortage, I've got 3 unreported finished projects (one of which is blocking as I type). Though today I'm only posting about one of them (sorry).

Remember that little bit of pink cabling I showed in my last post? It's a hooded scarf, and here it is in all it's pink glory!

Animal was chosen as the model - he looks so good in hot pink...

This is knit from the pink merino I was given for Christmas and spun up some weeks ago. The hood seems to fit a 2T nicely. I didn't use a pattern, once I figured out how to carry the cable over the top of the head instead of around the base of the hood it was really very simple construction

After I added the tassel my dad dubbed it a "best detachable party hood"

" 'Now we are all here!' said Gandalf looking at the row of thirteen hoods - the best detachable party hoods"
-- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

(No it doesn't have a full cloak attached, but it's the idea )

The other name it's been given is "PINK! HAT!" - That would be what my almost-two-year-old-niece calls it anyway...