Handspun Blanket

I crocheted this baby blanket / lap cover from my handspun wool yarn.

The yellows and pinks are lincoln wool carded and dyed by me. The blues and orange were from purchased roving.

Not a quiet yarn

I found this yarn yesterday when I was looking through my stash. Yikes. An orange mohair single, a pink wool single, and 2ply green wool all plied together. I was hoping for an interesting novelty. Instead I found something even uglier than the sum of its parts. If you look away and back again quickly, you can almost see a swarm of caterpillars invading a pumpkin.

I love this yarn

The time I spent with this yarn has formed an unhealthy attachment within me. It is some of my earliest non-novelty (ridiculously slubby) handspun. Mostly lincoln wool, with bits of black rambouliet-cross spun in. Other than black, all the colors were from natural dyes I collected in the wilds of Missouri. Well, the wilds of the back pasture. I found lichen growing abundantly on limestone outcroppings, sassafras saplings invading the field, walnuts in green husks, goldenrod flowers, and so many other plants that I would make tiny batches of.

I plan to rip out the sock, and start over. Maybe it wants to be fingerless mittens.

the eldest only

Poor lonely sock. I knit this over a year ago. Whatever plan I had is long forgotten. It began as a spiral tube sock. Simple. Quick. But the cuff was so bulky that I couldn't imaginge it fitting inside a shoe. So a basic foot was born. The sock was away from home (and patterns) when I decided to shape the toe. Sad, pointy toe. Just looking at that toe and knowing that I would have to rip it back and reshape it sent the sock and all its yarn buddies into exile.