Thursday, February 16, 2012

Gunnister Purse and a Onesy and some spinning

I used Chris Laning's pattern for the Gunnister Purse replica to make my own. I didn't have US 00 needles, so I went with using some nice Sport weight yarn in my stash and knitting them on US 3s. So instead of a 3-1/2 x 5 inch bag, ended up with a 6-1/2 x 7-1/4 inch bag. There's no eyelet row, you just shove your drawstring in and go. I really like what the pom poms add to the look. It looked okay, but I think they just complete the project. Overall, happy with this little bag, such that I think one or two more will be made.
Without drawstring and pom poms
The red I dyed from the yellow I used in my other SCA bag. The white is what the original yarn looked like before any dyeing.

Trying to collect some sweaters for Leeloo for the upcoming camping season. Also need them to take her for walks while its cold out. They also count in my sweater count for the year. ;-) This was a pretty simple design, that should have been done quicker, but there was something about it that just slowed me down. The One Piece Dog Sweater. Along the way I needed to make adjustments to the pattern, lengthening here, shortening there, but forgot to add in button holes (not part of the design either, they planned for velcro and a side tab):
I have some spinning finally done! A couple of small ones that I had spun on Miss Molly, but plied on the Lendrum. Just a couple of samples that were part of a set of threes from the World Wide Spin in Public event.
71.5 yards 2ply lace weight (not including the smidge of white seen)
69.33 yards 2ply lace weight
Both are from Opulent Fibers and nice to spin.  

I started spinning the Abstract Fibers Blackberry colorway yak-merino-silk roving in December, but holiday knitting impacted a few knit days so I didn't finish spinning it until this month and finally able to ply it. I really wanted to try to keep the lovely color blocks so chain plied the four ounces. I'll have to find a project for the 446.3 yards to really show it off. Not a shawlette though. Any suggestions?


Cindy had given me a bunch of samples that she'd gotten from different events that she knew she wasn't going to spin. I've given some to other people to try out and a few I kept to try out. One of them was a bit of merino still in the grease. Since this is something that I've never tried, spinning in the grease, gave it a whirl. It wasn't overly greasy, so that made it easier. to spin. 11 grams and 54.2 yards:
For some reason it came out blurry. It softened up after washing.

Currently, I'm spinning 3 ounces of pygora I had gotten from Foggybottom Pygoras back in 2009 at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Its very soft, but I bought it before I really knew much about it and didn't notice that it was full of vegetable matter and had tons of guard hair and I paid $10 an ounce for it! So to spin a bit of it, I have to spend twenty minutes picking out all the grass bits and even worse, the clean dead bodies of fleas, before I can spin it. My shirt gets all hairy from the guard hairs falling out, or I pull out. Hopefully it will come out as soft as it is now.


2 comments:

  1. Your Gunnister purse looks great! I just had a friend ask me to knit him one, and I've been browsing pictures. Are you still having fun in the SCA?

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    1. Thank you Kristen! I did another one and actually followed the cast on for it and liked it much better.

      Still having fun with the SCA! Very busy eventing summer and I've been asked to be largess coordinator for our barony. Busy sewing for 12th Night, its local this year, so have to go.

      Would love to see your Gunnister when you're done, please let me know.

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