fingerless gloves

In these last weeks of waiting for baby, it seems like all I want to do is sit on the couch and knit. Which means that when I see a pattern that I can't resist, I immediately cast-on. This pattern, the cashmere fingerless gloves from Purl Bee was completely irresistable to me, but I couldn't justify the expense of the cashmere. Luckily I had some handspun alpaca, merino, bamboo yarn that seemed to be the right weight, and oddly enough I had even mentioned making it into fingerless gloves when I first finished spinning the yarn. I used Blue Sky alpaca sport weight in dark brown for the trim, as was recommended in the pattern.

The gloves are great, and the glowing hearth yarn is one of my favorite handspun yarns ever. I am giving these gloves to a friend for Christmas, but only because I have enough of the yarn left to make something for myself later. I don't think I could completely part with this one...it's so glowing and warm and gorgeous.

I am also planning to make these same fingerless gloves in red and brown (with an orange button, like in the original pattern) for myself...to go with a new wool coat with red trim that I got last fall. I anticipate that sometime in the near future this coat will zip up over my belly again and I'll be happy as a clam to have coordinating gloves to go with it!

some alpaca spinning

I am amassing quite the collection of handspun yarn, and I really need to start knitting with some of it! For some reason, spinning has been very therapeutic to me lately so I've been spending more time spinning than anything else.

These two yarns are from amazing batts I purchased from Loop. The brown yarn was spun from batts called "Butterscotch Sundae." It is three colors of baby alpaca: Dark brown, light brown, and white, topped off with some gold tussah silk. I love what silk does to yarn...the beautiful glowing quality that it gives. The brown skeins are spun pretty fine...a little heavier than true laceweight yarn, and I have no plans for it yet.

The green skein below is from Loop batts named "Sour Apple." It is a blend of 50% gray and green alpaca with 50% green bamboo and a touch of tussah silk and silk noil. It is a silky, drapey, and strong light worsted weight yarn...and I love the color! For some reason I think it would make a beautiful throw pillow cover. I was thinking of using it as the weft in a piece of woven fabric that I could make into the front of a pillow cover. My thought is that it would be really pretty aside my birch forest pillow on the bed that will (someday) be home to my quilt.

glowing hearth

Here is some yarn that I spun with some gorgeous batts I bought on etsy from loop. It is a blend of pumpkin-colored merino, burgundy alpaca, and gold bamboo fiber, and the bamboo just makes it glow! You can see all the colors better in the singles yarn before I plyed it:



It ended up being such a soft and luscious yarn, and I can't wait to knit with it. I've been wanting to make some fingerless gloves for a while now, and I think they'd be so luxurious in this yarn!