Friday, May 29, 2015

Shetland - Yes Please!



First off, a wholehearted "Thank YOU!" to all you commented on my last post.  I usually respond to each comment, but there were so many I thought I'd thank you all at once.  You all made my day with your sweet kind words.  I read them all aloud to my husband who commented "Knitters are so cool."  How right he is!

Speaking of my husband, he brought home one of his knitted vests (he keeps them at work so they're on hand when he inevitably gets cold) that he stopped wearing because it was too short.  It's knit out of the first yarn I ever spun.  I used MN Shetland fiber as the Scots in me loves the heritage connection we have and well, it's super easy to spin too.  Needless to say I did not want to frog this sweater vest, but it was knit from the bottom up making me unsure on how to lengthen it.  The internet came to my rescue and with a video no less!  Seriously, the internet is wonderful for all the knitting information and videos you can find.  Following the Knitting Daily video I picked up a row of stitches just above the ribbing of the vest and then, gulp, cut the row just below and removed the ribbing.  It was very slick, not messy and I was able to save the handspun yarn from the ribbing to reuse.  Yay!  So, I've knit the 2 inches that was the ribbing in stockinette and just started on the new ribbing thankful that I had extra of this handspun yarn on hand.  I'm thinking I will finish it today and block it over the weekend.  There is a bit of a "ridge" from the old to the new knitting, but hopefully that will block right out.

In the Shetland theme of today's post I'm showing you the latest (and probably last for quite a while) addition to my stash - Clara Yarn Shetland 1.0.  Have you heard of this company?  They have a great story which I found so compelling that I bought a sweater's worth amount of yarn.  It came in the mail yesterday and man I am in LOVE!  The color, texture, feel it's just all so perfect for my taste and it's destiny is this sweater.  In my knitting schedule for the rest of the year (don't you have one of those?) I have it blocked off for December for a from me to me Christmas gift.  Thus, all the Christmas knitting I'm planning on has to be done by the end of November, which works on paper, but we'll have to see if I'm biting off more than I can chew as the saying goes.

Joining in with Amanda for Fibre Arts Friday and Linda for Creative Friday.

6 comments:

  1. I love that color! Good for you to fix the vest. I have a couple of socks that need darning, good idea to check the internet!

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    1. I love darning socks. It feels so good to save them from the garbage. Good luck!

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  2. Wow that is both brave and amazing, I also totally impressed that you spun that yarn too, my spinning isn't that great currently.
    what a fab way to estead the life of the vest, and it totally looks amazing. Awesome!
    Sx

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    1. Thanks so much! Try spinning different fibers. I'm definitely better with longer fibers like Shetland or BFL and not so good with short fibers like Merino.

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  3. Hooray! Yes, thankful for the internet. I am glad that you were able to fix it and that you had another skein of that handspun. I still haven't spun shetland yet. Maybe this year I will pick some up at a festival.

    Andrea

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    1. Do pick up some Shetland at your next festival. It is a wonderful fiber for spinning and can have a nice halo to it too. I'll bet it would blend beautifully with your Alpaca fiber too!

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