I have a fair amount of fiber in the stash, and one of my intentions for 2014 is to spin and knit more of it. I pulled out one of my favorites – a gradient wool-silk from Fiber Optics (Olive to plum colorway).
I split it into two bumps lengthwise,
And then spun each one, onto a total of four spindle shafts:
It was plied together (2-ply) into a lovely skein, sport-ish weight yarn, about 360 yards:
Then I had to find a pattern for a shawl – something simple enough to let the yarn shine through. And I found this lovely free (!) pattern called The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief which is quite adaptable size-wise. The knitting went very quickly, and voila! Yesterday I had a blocked shawl (I didn’t stretch it much – this is wool and silk knit on a Size 7 needle, and I knit loosely, so it’s going to drape beautifully without much help). See?
See that little end there – the 6 inches or so? That’s the yarn I had leftover from casting off – whew! I was really anxious that last row…
Now it needs to be cold enough to wear it!