

Knitting with luxurious angora
I ran across this knitting pattern for tams, written by Angela Sixian Wu, and I thought it would be a wonderful way to showcase my Kool-Aid-dyed angora yarn--and a good gift for my daughter. I spun up some white angora to use as the main color, and, with the variegated pink yarn as the contrast, I knit this: The hat is worked on Size 7 needles (Size 5's for the ribbing) to get the gauge of 5 stitches to the inch. I used three skeins of white yarn, with a few grams left over


Using my hand-spun yarn: My first project
I've been spinning for over a year now, and I couldn't help wondering: What does this yarn look like when it's knit into something? I had, last fall, knit up a little gauge swatch from Forsythia Fifty, my alpaca/angora blend. (This is the black/gray color.) The top end of this is worked on Size 8 needles, and gives about 5 stitches to the inch in a loosely knit stockinette. The other end is worked on Size 3 needles, with a gauge of 6-1/2 stitches per inch in a tighter stoc


Playing with Kool-Aid
Summertime had me busy with the garden, so I suspended my fiber activities. Once the last of the butternut squash and persimmons were brought in, I took stock of my fiber supply. Wow. So much fluff. The rabbits had had nothing to do all summer but sit in their cages and grow fur. I had been "harvesting" it, stuffing it in bags, and stowing the bags in a box, to be dealt with later. What was I going to do with all that angora? Well, spin it, obviously. But I might as wel