It hasn't been my habit to showcase my knitting here, since I meant to focus on the farm. But I promised, and since I'm using fleece from Victoria, our first born-on-the-farm ewe, well....why not?
It was the first batch of fleece I've ever processed from our Shetlands (see November 27, 2006 posting). And dyeing wasn't as easy as I had hoped...
But the actual finished product is absolutely dreamy. So soft and warm. I've gotten plenty of requests, but Madison and Bill are next. Just have to process some more fleece. What I processed the first time barely covered both mittens.. (Madison says absolutely NO pink in hers...)
What's amazing is what is created inside the mitten with the thrum of fleece...see?
2 comments:
GORGEOUS mittens -- even though I don't know what thrummed means! I have yet to use my own wool, but it's there, sitting and waiting for me in skeins of yarn....
Well...apparently the idea for these mittens came from Newfoundland, or so the pattern/article in Interweave Knits said so. So let's say "thrummed" means fuzzy in Newfoundlandish.
What's cool is that I can use cleaned wool without having to go through the whole carding thing (no drum carder, yet...) and no spinning (not good enough to call it yarn, yet...). So you knit as usual, and everywhere it calls for a thrum, you use a piece of fleece about 5 inches long which when twisted just a bit is the approximate diameter of the yarn you are using. Then you carry the regular yarn across the back to the next stitch and continue knitting. Next round you simply knit through the thrum like it was regular yarn, and viola! all the fuzz felts on the inside for deliciously fuzzy, warm mittens.
The only thing stopping me from finishing, is that I ran out of fleece, so there is a pile waiting for me to wash and dye when I get home. Enough to start another pair of mittens, too. Natural thrums this time (from a white-fleeced ewe) with teal wool for the DH.
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