More Secret Smorgling projects.

A "Secret Smorgling" is a little box with 160g of random fibres. It's sold by Nunoco and they are often in the shop.
These are such a great idea, the yarn is always "one of a kind" and a pleasure to knit with because all the variations. I specially like the little roving packs that have some sparkle in them, that shows up in the yarn and final project.
For the challenge on Ravelry we have to use up all the box.

I finished 2 more "boxes" for the Secret smorgling challenge:

The first box:

Made these "Smorgling Fiddlehead" mittens:

Smorgling Fiddlehead Mittens

This is the first time I'm making mittens and I really like them. I had to spin 3 different yarns for this project: a light and dark for the colorwork and a fine yarn for the lining.

The 2 thicker yarns are n-plied to keep the colors clear. I've devided the fibre in 2 parts to make two matching yarns (for the 2 mittens).

The lining is a 2 ply yarn, mostly browns (from the "Hen batt") and a little greens.

and with the rest of the yarn I made a sweet little "Bonnie Wee mouse":

With my second box I made this "Spring Dreams Shawl":

For this one I spun all the fibre of the box as a 2-ply yarn. The colors are all mixed, but there's a bit of a gradient because I tried to keep the greens and pinks at the same side.

The fibre:

The yarn:

(dark weather in Belgium)

I love the texture of the garter stitch in combination with the lace parts in this pattern. I made it a little bigger by repeating one of the lace charts (to use op the yarn).

For the bind of I chose an I-cord edging. 

Detail while blocking:

This has been a fun challenge, I hope there will be more in the future :).

Secret Smorgling project 2

I finished a project for the Challenge from Nunoco on Ravelry, it's actually two projects:

I started with this fibre: a little box of surprises:

Secret Smorgling

I made 2 groups, with light and dark colors, and spun two yarns. The light fibres are carded with the hand carders, they made a yarn that slowly changes color. For the dark colors I used small bits of the fibres in random order, then navajo-plied. It made a yarn with bright colors. (Difficult to take good pictures because of the dark weather here in Belgium...)

The stranded jacket is made first, I wanted light flowers on a dark background. The pattern is the "Circular stranded surprise jacket". I liked that I could draw my own chart for this. The jacket came out a little small and used only 75g of the yarn...but I think it's really cute.

Then I made the regular surprise jacket, with random stripes to use up all the yarn:

I have to finish my doll from my first Smorgling now ;)

Secret Smorgling Challenge: Spinning part 3

The final yarns from this box:

I  had an idea for a project, but after spinning I'll have to change it a bit. Some yarns came out very different than planned :).

These are the fibres/yarn photo's:

N-ply 27m/15g

3 ply 46m/18g

N-ply 64m/28g

Dyeing wool

I had some time to dye wool for sock-yarn yesterday:

Some super-soft super-wash Merino, blues to make socks for a man:

100g Superwash merino

 And happy colors for the girls:

100g superwash merino

100g Devon

I'm searching for the perfect wool to spin and knit long-lasting socks. That's why I buy some less-known wool sometimes. The Devon-wool feels a bit coarse but OK for socks, I can't wait to see how this spins up...

Secret Smorgling Challenge: Spinning part 2

The first batt: "Bilberry Zest" is 90% Merino and 10% Silk. The colors are green, orange and purple.
This is very nice fibre and easy to spin a fine single.

Ready to ply

I made this gradient 2 ply yarn:

103m/25g

This was my lovely batt-dropping: greens, blue, pink...

Made this n-plied yarn:

70m/29g

I'm now starting the mixed merino packs, to make self-striping yarn.

Handdyed and handspun socks

Sometimes I buy white fibre to dye and spin. It takes more work than just buying a beautiful braid or batt, but it's fun to do.

This is 100g sw BFL, the colors used are: blue, emerald, brown and black.

I wanted to make sock yarn (because of that the super wash...), and 2 skeins to start two sock at the same time. The yarn is a regular 3-ply, but I really mixed the color-repeats.

The socks are a knitted toe up and two at a time, I made them with a wide rib pattern for a good fit. They are for my son, he's wearing them on this photo:

Secret Smorgling Challenge: Spinning part 1

I'll need different small skeins for my project. To start I made combinations of a blended top sample and 2 colors from a mixed roving pack:

Skein 1: 3 ply with 2 singles "March Hare" and 1 single from the two mixed rovings.
I hold the rovings side by side and draft them together, this blends the colors over all the yarn.

48m/17g

Skein 2:3 ply with 2 singles "Antique Rose" and 1 single from the two mixed rovings.

40m/16g

Skein 3: 3 ply with 2 singles "Cobweb" and 1 single from the two mixed rovings.

45m/17g

Secret Smorgling Challenge, the start

For this challenge you have to use all the fibres of a "Secret Smorgling" box in one project! the Smorgling is a box with 160g random fibres sold by Nunoco on Etsy.

So.... a box filled with surprises... a spinning challenge... and a designing challenge? I'm in :)

This is the contents of my Smorgling:

Batts:

- 25g Bilberryzest

- 25g batt dropping

Blended tops:

- 10g Antique Rose 

- 10g White Rabbit

- 10g Cobweb

- 10g Goosebumps

- 10g March Hare

- 10g Beryl

Mixed roving packs:

- 25g Rockpool

- 25g Robin Hood

the Blueberryzest Batt, so lovely, will make a fine gradient yarn...

Batt-dropping, looking forward to spinning this :)

I like the combination of fibres, the colors are mostly light and natural. It looks like a forest-theme to me... 

I had a few ideas for a project in mind, but after looking at this fibres, I think I know what this Smorgling wants to be...I'll have to make a few different yarns, so starting the spinning yeah....

Mystery yarn finished

I plied and washed the singles from the mystery fibre (blogged here), it made 271m/108g, I think DK-weight yarn.

It feels soft, probably because of the rolag-preparation and semi-woolen spinning. The colors have a nice variation of blues and browns in it. Don't know what to make whit this yet....so it goes in my yarn-stash for now...

Mystery yarn

I think almost every spinner has some 'mystery fibres' or wool waste lying around. It's time to spin some of that up.
First I selected the blues and some natural colors, for a total weight of 111g.

There's some silk in it, Merino and I think Corriedale, but all te rest is unknown...

Wool waste 111g

I carded the fibre with my hand carders and made little rolags. I randomly took a bit of every fibre to put on the carders. So every rolag is different :)

Hand carded rolags

I decided to make a regular 3 ply so made 3 groups of rolags, each 37g and started spinning my singles.
I use a half - woolen methode of spinning, supporting the thread (and controlling the twist) with my left hand and holding the fiber (moving backwards) with my right.

These are the 3 singles on my Lazy Kate:

Ready to ply :) I'm looking forward to seeing the yarn, I've no idea what it will look like...

Shetland/Corriedale socks

I've been dyeing some wool this summer. Two of those fibres were 65g shetland and 40g corriedale wool.      I decided to use them together and knit some nice warm socks...

But first the spinning...

65g shetland dyed in blue/green/purple and pink

The singles on my wheel

This fibre was divided in 4 strips and spun end- to end.
The singles were N-plied to make 190m self-striping yarn.

Finished yarn

I also had 40g light blue corriedale fibre, and overdyed it with blues.

corriedale

I spun a fine 2 ply yarn, 222m.

The two yarns are used together to knit these socks. They are not super-soft but it's ok for my feet.

I started the toes with the shetland and then added blue stripes, with double yarn.                                      The sock pattern is very simple but effective:
I cast on at the toe, make toe increases and continue until a height of 13 cm. Then I increase for the heel gusset. I put the sock on and decide to stop the gusset when I'm almost at the end of the heel. Then I knit a small heel-turn with short rows over the middle of the heel stitches.  The heel flap is knitted back and forth, knitting the side stitches together with the gusset until there are no more gusset sts left. I often use slip-stitches in the heel flap for strenght. The leg can then be knitted until you run out of yarn :)

shetland-corriedale socks

These are very warm socks :) The striping worked well and I will use it more in future sock-projects.

Spinning with a Turkish spindle

I love spinning on my spinning wheel (a Ladybug from Schacht), but some time ago I discovered the Turkish spindles. They are beautiful wooden spinning tools and make spinning portable.

Two little "turks" at work:

Right: Medium Capar   Left: IST-craft spindle

I have a few more of them....I promise to make a group-photo later ;)

The fibre that I'm spinning here is a batt named "Snow Glow" from Nunoco. They make soooo nice batts! Spinning them is a dream. 

This fibre has: 50% Merino, 40% faux cashmere and 10% Firestar.

I just love the pastel gradient, and it sparkles just a little bit....

I spun each batt (50g) as a gradient single, then plied them together on my wheel:

 "Snow Glow", 495m/100g

This will make a beautiful shawl some day!

Handspun Socks "De Luxe"

These are my first handspun socks knitted on fine (2mm) needles and with a 2ply yarn. Also the first handspun socks that have a pattern. (I like plain knitting for socks)

This is how I started:

The fibre:

I found this beautiful handdyed braid, a mix of 75% Bluefaced Leicester (BFL), 12% firestar and 12% Silk. (I bought this from Dutchwooldiva)
The firestar (= nylon) and silk should make this a strong yarn.

Spinning:

The braid was divided in 2 lengthwise, each half spun in a fine single, then plied together:

It made 320m/100g of this yarn:

The colors are mostly blended and less strong then in the fibre. The yarn feels very soft, but it's very strong, I have to pull hard to brake the strand. (the silk and Nylon are working!)

Knitting:

I started the socks "two at a time" on 1 circular needle. After finishing the toe I started searching for a pattern on Ravelry. I liked "Kalajoki" because it has a small pattern with a lot of plain stockinette. I changed the pattern a bit: added 1 extra rib, a slip stitch heel, and the movement of the stripes is made up. I also decided to make the two socks the same. (the pattern has socks with mirrored waves)

Here's how they look:

And that's my knitting needle on the left, with the left-overs. Yep, I really like toe up socks because you can use up all of the yarn.

The colors don't match in the socks but thats just how I wanted them (yarn was in a ball wound on my yarn-winder and I knitted one sock with the outside end, the other with the inside end...)

They fit great and are a lot "thinner" then the socks I make with store-bought yarn and a stranded pattern.

Here's a close-up of the knitting:

I really love how the colors blend, it's like a painting!

I hope these socks last a long time!