Rozetti Polaris Shawl

Shawl wrapped on dress form

On a recent trip to Tuesday Morning, I rummaged through their yarns, which was interesting, since they were in the bottom-most shelf - a very deep shelf.  So I just sat on the floor of the store and reached in, turning things over, moving skeins and balls of yarn all around.  And then, all of a sudden, I spotted a very pretty ball of Rozetti Polaris yarn - a soft and squishy ball with a lovely hand.  It is 65 percent acrylic, 31 percent wool and 4% sequins.  It feels a little like a wool and mohair yarn.  That particular ball was in a green and white colorway, Pisces, No. 71007.  I fell in love with it almost immediately.

Shawl wrapped differently

Knowing that I could not do much with one ball, I searched and searched for another but could not find one, whereupon I enlisted the aid of a worker at the store. She unearthed one more, at which point I noticed another colorway, the rust and green, Virgo, No. 71008.  Again, only one ball.

For those who are not familiar with Tuesday Morning, it is a retail liquidator of household items.  I immediately purchased the three balls of yummy yarn for about $3 apiece.  They sell for about $8.50 apiece at retailers who carry them.

I immediately went home and looked up patterns for this lovely yarn, thinking perhaps a pair of socks or a hat and fingerless gloves or a scarf.  But what I found when I Googled the yarn was this lovely shawl in two colors.

Hmm, I needed more balls of this stuff.  One more Pisces and one more Virgo.  Lo and behold, Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, NV, had both.  I live in Southern California, so the closeness of the Reno store appealed to me and I immediately ordered the two balls of yarn and, then, sat down and sampled the lovely lace pattern in this shawl to decide on needle size.  I usually have to size down one size, but upon making my sample, I ended up using the recommended US Size 8 needle, a 42-inch Hiya Hiya metal needle.

This pattern has a multiple of 10 stitches plus 1, but it is knitted horizontally, meaning I had to cast on 291 stitches.  That is a ton of stitches, but the shawl worked up fairly fast, and the pattern became quickly memorized and was easy to follow.

When I was finished with it, I began to wonder how the heck to block it.  Should I block it like an acrylic or like a wool yarn.  I decided to put it on a blocking board (half of it, that is - it is about 77 inches long) and spritz it with water, pinning out the one edge that wanted to curve, just a bit.  I patted the water into the yarn, smoothing out the decrease bumps, and left it to dry.  Hmm, the wool part was still pretty bouncy and the bumps were too noticeable. So I pulled out my steamer and carefully steamed half of it - steaming and patting, then left it to dry again.  Success!  I repeated that process with the second half, after which my shawl had grown a bit to just under 80 inches, but I had expected that, since I was trying to relax the yarn and open up the lace.

I am not sure the rust and green (same green, mind you) really works in this, but I like it anyway and will use it on my next cruise.

6-Shaft Flowers in Slubbed Tencel and Rayon

If you read my last post, you will know that I have not been weaving or spinning for a bit, but I finally managed to finish a project I started last summer, that had been sitting on my loom being ignored or, rather, just admired.

This started with a draft I downloaded from www.handweaving.net, Draft 49712.  It is only 6 shafts, in an advancing twill pattern, which I changed very slightly to make it work for me.



The next step was deciding what colors to use and what yarns I could use from my stash.  I was determined not to purchase any new fiber, since I have way too much for my own good.  I settled on a slubbed Tencel I had purchased some years ago to make some yardage for a top, which I have not worn in a while.  While making that project, I actually had to purchase a little more Tencel to finish all the yardage for this top, so I was left with one large cone and one medium-sized cone.  I had two colors of turquoise and one of rust, the latter of which had not been used in the top.  I decided to use one of the turquoises and the rust for the warp and decided to use an off-white 10/2 smooth rayon yarn, that I also had in my stash, for the weft.

I tweaked the pattern in Fiberworks until I had it where I wanted it and to an appropriate width for a scarf at 24 epi, using a 12-dent reed.  Because the weft was not quite as hefty as the warp threads, I ended up weaving it at somewhere around 28 ppi, which gave a fairly balanced weave.  I call this draft 6-shaft twill flowers, because it reminds me of the little flowers on my tea trees in the backyard.

It never ceases to amaze me how much patterning one can get from so few shafts. Of course, this is especially true of crackle weave and summer and winter, not so often true of twill.

Once done with the weaving, I hemstitched the end, twisted and tied the fringes and put the scarf on a delicate cycle in warm water with my wool wash to help settle all the threads, so I could cut off the ends where I had started and ended the second pirn in my shuttle.  I did not completely dry it in the dryer, but hung it to dry the rest of the way, then ironed on a low setting but with steam, to bring out the silk-like sheen, bringing it back to its original width with only a very slight loss in length. It is about 66 inches end to end without the fringe length, which adds another 10 or 11 inches, and just shy of 7 inches in width.

Now I have to think up another project!  Maybe it is time for a 16-shaft pattern, since my 16-shaft table loom has been sitting idle too long.

Huge skein of 2-ply yarn on one gigantic bobbin spun on Hansencrafts Mini Spinner

I have been going through a dry spell regarding spinning and weaving.  Purchased a new Bernina sewing machine last summer and have been exploring all of its many possibilities as much as I can.  Updated my Bernina software about a month prior to that and had many, many lessons to work through to get the hang of it.

Remaining Fiber with Inglenook Fibers Label

However, this past week, with sewing machine in the shop for an update and upgraded part, I returned to spinning and weaving.

To begin, I had purchased a couple of beautiful rovings from Inglenook Fibers, one of my favorite Etsy shops.  The first was almost entirely rust-colored, a Fawn Alpaca/Silk, 70/30 combination.  I plied that with a multi-colored singles yarn that was Merino/bamboo/tussah silk, 50/25/25 combination.  I used all 4.1 ounces of the alpaca/silk and about 4.2 ounces of the merino/bamboo/silk to create a 2-ply yarn that is 7.2 ounces - I know that does not compute, but after washing, that is the final weight of this skein of yarn.  This skein is about a DK weight of 562 yards, the longest skein I have ever spun.


This was a bit of an experiment, because my wonderful hubby purchased an electric Hansen's Mini-Spinner in walnut last summer at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR, much to my surprise and delight.  He purchased it with their new lace flyer assembly, which has wonderfully lightweight draw-in. However, being used to my WooLee Winder on my Schacht Matchless wheel, I almost immediately contacted Nathan Lee of WooLee Winder, to see if he had one available in walnut for the Mini-Spinner.  He immediately shipped me off one.  When I received it, I was amazed at the size of the bobbin's almost 10-ounce capacity and decided to put it to the test, which is how this project came to mind.  I had about a fourth of the bobbin left that I could have filled with even more fiber and had absolutely no issues with plying from start to finish.  My only issues were actually since I hadn't spun much in a while, re-educating my hands to the art of spinning.


Now I have to find a project to use this yarn!





  

Finished Skein

For those who do not spin yarn, it is very Zen-like and meditative.  This skein, while not perfect, is so amazingly soft, and I have a feeling that it will bloom because of the alpaca fiber in whatever project I use it in, developing a soft halo of fiber over time.