yak fiber and simple knits

It's been awhile since I have had a large spindle spinning project. I wanted something to take to our Tuesday gathering at Barnes and Nobles. This group started out as a spinning group, but we have evolved into more of a knitting group although almost all of the group does spin. I had read on the internet a push for the first week of Oct to be a 'show off your skills' week, so I decided it was time to do some spinning in public.

I purchased this yak fiber last year, because I have never had the opportunity to spin this fiber. I bought it from Little barn



It is a natural deep rich brown color and is as soft as angora. I was surprised though by the short staple. Most fibers are barely a half inch long. I first tried using my small combs to pull some top, but there was no way to comb a fiber that short. So I got out my hand cards that I use for angora and carded about 2 oz. The photo shows one roulog from that carding. It spins very nicely as a carded fiber, although I am not going to get it as thin as I originally envisioned the final yarn. I am thinking it will take me a year to spin all of the 8 oz I bought, because just spinning for an hour at the get together, barely touched the 2 oz I had carded. If it continues to spin this way, I am hoping to have enough 2 ply yarn for a cozy bed jacket for myself, or maybe in these days I should say, a computer jacket!

After pontificating in my last post about knitting to a new level of perfection, I have to meekly back up and submit my vacation knitting, a very simple knit toy for a coworkers baby. The pattern is from Oat Couture




It's an easy and quick knit done in a chenille yarn, stuffed and then a face embroidered on the front. The body is the same for all of the animals, but there are directions for knitting different ears, and embroidering different faces. It must not really matter though, because when I gave it to the coworker at the shower, she said, 'what a cute bunny!' Well they do know I raise and love bunnies, so it was a natural mistake, but in truth, the one I knit was suppose to be the kitty :)

CW