PROGRESS ON THE OATMEAL CARDIGAN

Usually, this is what Molly is doing while I am knitting or spinning. She is the sweetest dog ever.
This is my assistant Molly, my 11-year old mini-daschund. Sometimes she is interested in my projects & comes over to check things out.

Second sleeve started. Lookin' good! Not bad progress for 16 days work (on the knitting, that is!)


Body & 1 sleeve completed.
Here is the first sleeve completed & ready to attach to the body for the yoke. I am certainly learning alot about spinning by knitting this sweater! Now, I wish I had done a 3-ply yarn instead of 2-ply as I think that would have helped with some of the areas of thick/thin yarn, but overall I am pretty happy with how this project is turning out!

My First 3-ply Yarn!

My first skein of 3-ply yarn! Still not as perfect as I'd like, but I love it anyway!


Plied, & wound onto the niddy noddy to be made into a skein of gorgeous yarn!
This is a lazy-kate, a tensioning device used for plying.


The bobbins, with the singles evenly divided between 3 bobbins, ready to be 3-plied.



This is a Romney roving, hand dyed by SheepishCreations.etsy.com. I decided to try my hand at 3-ply yarn, so we will see how that goes. The colors are so yummy, it will be interesting to see how they work out. The yarn looks a bit over-twisted on the bobbin, I'm hoping it will work out though.

GETTING STARTED KNITTING THE SWEATER

In this photo I'm moving right along @ 12 inches. I think I will go to 15 inches length for the body, then set it aside to work on the sleeves.


I got started knitting the body of the Oatmeal Cardigan. The body is done all in one piece up to the armhole, then the sleeves are knitted up to the armhole, everything is joined at that point & the yoke is done from there.
I am using a size 7 needle to get gauge.

PHOTOS OF THE FLEECE BEING SORTED & WASHED & THE YARN IT BECAME

This gorgeous yarn from the combed fiber is destined to become a beautiful sweater for me!!!!

Lovely singles waiting to be plyed into a 2-ply yarn. I believe I had 16 bobbins spun in total.

Bat made with the drum carder & the shorter fibers left from the combing process. Equally lovely, just a different preparation from combing. There are several of these, at about 3 oz each, they will be used for another project.

This is the "waste" from the combing process. Combing removes the long fibers, then the short fibers that are leftover can be further cleaned, run thru the drum carder to make a bat, and anything that cannot be used in a bat can be put out in the yard for birds/squirrels to use in their nest-making, or it can be used to line the bottom of plant pots to hold moisture longer in the heat, or it can be used in felting projects. Nothing is going to waste here, which is way COOL!

More locks, sorted & ready for their bath. There were lots of locks to sort & wash!

A single lock, the staple is 4" long, perfect for combing.

Getting ready for a bath in Dawn dishwashing liquid & a lingerie bag.

Before all the combing, this is what the fiber looked like straight off the sheep--her name is EweNika! There was over 4 pounds of fiber, so it took me 5 weeks to get it all washed & combed. I mainly do this on the weekends.

This is a photo of EweNika, she is the all white sheep. Her fleece is destined for greatness!

Using a diz, making birds nests...

Lovely birds nests waiting to be spun. There were many of these spun up for the sweater I want to make...

Diz & threader used to pull fiber thru for a sliver. There are many things that can be used as a diz, this is just one of them.

Pile of fiber on the floor after dizzing, waiting to be wound into birds nest.

Pulling fiber thru the diz creating the sliver.

Starting to use the diz (this time it's a shell with a hole drilled in it.)

TRYING NEW TECHNIQUES--Combing fleece

The spray bottle keeps down static. At first I used just water but then I found a recipe for combing milk & I will try that with my next fleece.

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Combed & split evenly between the 2 combs, ready for the diz. Pulling the long fibers thru the diz creates a sliver of parallel fibers that can be spun easily. They get wound up into birds nests for easy handling & spinning.

I jumped right in & started combing fiber right away with my freshly prepared BFL fleece. The comb here is loaded with washed fiber ready to be combed with my Alvin Ramer Super Mini Combs.

First Yarn Spun!!

PRETTY!!!! THE RED DYED WITH KOOL-AID ; THE TEAL WITH WILTON CAKE ICING DYE. I REALLY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING, HAD MY FINGERS CROSSED THE WHOLE TIME, BUT I THINK THEY TURNED OUT NICELY!

Skeins hanging outside to dry after dyeing.

Then I decided to dye it... so I tried 2 different types of dyes.

This is the very first yarn, Romney roving spun thick & thin which is what I see everyone spinning until they get the hang of it, but I like it!

NEW INTEREST--SPINNING YARN!!!!!

This is the hackle, used for blending. Made special order by Alvin Ramer.

Super Mini Combs made by Alvin Ramer.
My gorgeous Kromski Minstrel in Walnut. It can be set up for either double drive or scotch tension, double treadle, & I was able to get the jumbo flyer & all the extras. Yay!!

Well, it's been forever since I last blogged. I got involved in Ravelry & it's about all I can do to post there! I did want to put some of my first spinning on here so friends can check it out.
It all started when I bought my Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel. It's a beauty...I guess I need to name her, but so far I haven't decided on anything permanent. I struggled for a little bit before it "clicked" & now I can't get enough spinning!
I bought some super mini combs from a man in Canada named Alvin Ramer, who also made me a hackle for fiber blending, & of course I've purchased lots of fiber. Then my husband bought me a drum carder for Christmas. (Photos of that later on.)I am such a lucky girl! So here it all is, the start of a wonderful new fiber addiction!

Updated Photos!