The ends almost match!

This makes me inordinately happy. Try to explain that to the Muggles. This scarf was knit with handspun Wild Things merino, fiber from Lisa Souza (see sidebar). I split a 4 oz. bump down the middle lengthwise and spun each half on a separate bobbin. I wound the singles off into two balls, and plyed each ball back on itself. When I knit the scarf, I started the first ball from the inside, and the second ball from the outside. Voila! Scarf ends that almost match.

Fern is finished and got to go to Madrona with me – barely dry. I don’t have a woolly board, so it took almost three days for it to dry.

From the sheep’s back to mine:

This is Kim and I, high on fleece fumes at the Salt Spring Fibre Festival in July 2005. Kim helped me pick this gorgeous Perendale fleece, a goodly portion of which has now become Fern.

Fern is an Alice Starmore design from the Stillwater book. It is designed as a pullover with dropped shoulders. I get more wear from a cardigan, and I was aiming for more of a jacket style. I gave it square armholes because I’m not fond of dropped shoulders. I wanted to finish all the edges with i-cord, however, when that was done the neckline was too big and looked unfinished; it needed a collar. I used a provisional cast on and picked up the cast on stitches to knit the second half of the collar so that it would be symmetrical in the front. I used a provisional cast on for the fronts and back too, then picked up the cast on stitches and worked an i-cord cast off. The i-cord down the fronts was knit along with the fronts with short rows thrown in occasionally to avoid curling.

I like the feel of the sweater. It’s warm and not scratchy and it hangs well. I have to say that by the end, I ws so very done with knitting grey yarn in the dreary grey PNW winter.

This is the Tabachek Mini spindle that my sweetie gave me for Christmas. It was purchased at my LYS, Knitopia in White Rock, BC, which now carries spindles, fibres and is a Majacraft retailer. The spindle weighs 26g., has a bubinga whorl and a hickory shaft, and it is a wonderful spindle.. I’m spindling some tussah silk from Treenway in the Desert Sage colourway.

Remember this from back in December? This is the spindle spun, Navajo plyed silk/wool, just over 1,000 yards weighing about 4 oz. Sadly, it lost a lot of its sheen after I washed the skein. I was thinking about knitting an entrelac scarf with it, but it may be a bit too fine for what I had in mind. It’s got long colour runs which I find so attractive in entrelac, so maybe I’ll try it anyways.