A new collection

Kim Hargreaves's new fall collection, Thrown Together, is now online. Her designs can be purchased only online. I have bought her kits before and was very impressed. Here are two of the new designs:


Beatrix jacket made from Rowan Felted Tweed. The moss stitch makes it even tweedier looking.


Hannah, made with Rowan's Kidsilk Aura. This is a chunky version of their Kidsilk Haze. I think it would look very nice in one color as well.

All in all, a pretty collection with very wearable pieces.

Handspun yarn

This weekend I plied some singles of natural Rambouillet combed top that I bought from Julie Mackenzie at Greatwool.com, a family run operation that sells fleece, combed top, roving and yarns to fiber artists. I really like their website -- it features Mr. Mackenzie's lovely photographs of their farm, sheep, and garden. Here's my test batch on the niddy noddy:


Even with the lumps and bumps that come with my spinning and plying at this point, the fiber was easy to spin and the resulting yarn very soft.


There's more to be plied and lots more to be spun. Don't have a project in mind for it yet. I had originally wanted to make a hat, scarf and/or mittens, but now I wonder if I should dye some of it. Many options!

A Donegal Journey

A new knitting journey has begun, this one Donegal from AS's book The Celtic Collection. I've had the Jamieson's Shetland wool for this project for ages. Looking at the beautiful colors, I couldn't resist choosing it as my next project.


Here is the swatch. It seemed to take an afternoon and my whole concentration, but the result was encouraging.


After a brief detour into Moebius-land (twisted stitches on my circular), I am halfway into the border. I will reverse the color sequence back to the original two I started with, and then start the main pattern.


There are a number of fine examples of this sweater by other bloggers: Vanessa's (Spinning My Life Away) comes to mind, and there are more out there. It's always been one of my favorites.

A clean Slate

I just finished Slate, from the Rowan book The Tweed Collection. This book features 20 rugged designs by Kim Hargreaves, many in Rowan's chunky, super chunky and Magpie tweeds, with interesting looking folks modeling them. It's one of my favorite Rowan magazines. Here is the original model:


Here is my version. In spite of the photo, the lower edges are the same length! I used gray matte shell buttons with a slight iridescence to them that picks up some of the colored flecks in the tweed.


Project notes:
Yarn: Rowan Super Chunky Tweed, color Shale 841, 9 balls
Needles: US 11 and 13
Alterations: None

The yarn felt a little scratchy to work with, but after a Eucalan bath, it's softer and fuzzier. This is a heavy sweater! I'm happy with it, and glad to have made something with this yarn which I've had for some time.