Amy’s Babies

I have been kind of quiet recently because a couple weeks ago my husband was out of town on business, leaving me here by myself for about a week with the kids.  Then he took a week off to be with the kids for their spring break vacation.  It has been a heck of a couple weeks, but I have been busy during that time!  So, get ready for some photos!

I did some spinning for this month’s Spin Along.  I chose the color path this week and went with the St Patrick’s theme. 

This is superwash in my Erin colorway spun laceweight.  Turns out that it is almost an exact match for a bamboo merino blend that I got from Spunky Eclectic last summer that I am making a shawl with.  I think I will add this fiber to that project so I don’t have to worry about running out of yarn before the project is done.

I have also been knitting on my Galveston Shawl.  I am about a third of the way through chart E.  It still looks a lot like this, only bigger

This is the big chart before the borders start going on.  I am so in love with this pattern!  And the pattern has now been released to the public!  If you go to Zari’s blog, you can download the pattern PDF!

I have also just done a good sized shop update!  I added some new fibers, including new colorways such as Beach House, Dark Berries and All Your Base.

And NEW CRAFT CUBES!!!

These cubes are so fantastic for small or medium sized projects.  They are 6″ square and have two rigid sides and a rigid bottom panel.  This means that you can put a yarn ball or cake into the bag, set it someplace convenient and comfortable and not have to worry about the bag collapsing in on your project!  I am so completely in love with these little bags and I have already cut the fabric for lots more of them!

Along with dying for the shop, I also dyed up fiber for this months fiber club.  This month I chose a painting by Fragonard as my inspiration.  It is called The Swing

I love this painting.  It has such a feeling of fun and frivolity!  The woman is being pushed on the swing by her Bishop, kicking her shoe to her lover hiding in the bushes, as a cherub watches over the scene admonishing us to keep the secret.  This painting embodies Spring!  I chose these colors to create this month’s fiber (Link for peekers)

I hope to get back to the blog sooner next time!

So I showed you this picture last time

Of some Sable and Purple BFL I spun up, 5+ oz of each color.  Those are very accurate colors on the bobbins.  I finished plying them this week!  After spending a month spinning these colors it felt like I was never going to get to spin anything else ever again!

When I began plying the two singles together I was a little disappointed because the colors seemed to fade into each other.  There was not a strong purple single and a strong sable single anymore, they were just grey.  I expected the colors to blend together, but I wasn’t expecting them to get lighter.  That was my first surprise.

You know that sateen fabric that looks different colors in different lights?  Sometimes it’s blue or purple, other times it looks black.  Depending on how the light is hitting it.  Well, I apparently have spun up the yarn equivalent of that fabric!  Sometimes the yarn looks completely sable.  Not a trace of purple in it at all.  That is how it looked this morning when I took it off the shelf down stairs.  By the time I got half way up the stairs, in the direct sunlight, it looked like this

When I got all the way up stairs to my desk in a room that is full of diffused light, it looked like this

and now that I have the curtain closed, it looks exactly like the purple bobbin again!

I am so intrigued by this yarn.  I think I might run another experiment like this with some blue, or maybe green.  I think I might use it to knit the Secret of Chrysopolis shawl or something else that has high detail and needs a solid colored yarn.  I am wondering if it will hold its color shifting properties after it is knit up!

I have also been working on my Galveston Shawl.  After I recovered from the trauma of having to rip it all back, I have quickly caught up to where I almost was.  I am about half a chart away from where I think I got lost.  Here it is, sitting on the amazing color shifting yarn, which has shifted back to the darker colors again

Zari should have the pattern available soon.  I love this pattern and I know I will be making more than one of these.  The texture of the waves makes me insanely giggly!

 ETA:  Just counted up the yardage on the yarn, and it is 2800 yards and close to 12 oz total weight!