Jobo Designs

I've made a little more progress on my silk/satin angora project idea…

the Silk:
- Honey colored natural Tussah Silk – which I figured would match the satin angora perfectly… and it really really does!

the Satin:
- Beautiful naturally colored Satin Angora fiber from Twist of Fate Family Farm Bunny "Lady in Red"
- Nice long staples, smooth draws into lace, light beautiful halo.  Addictive.  I could spin this alllll day, every day.

Spun: 
- very fine laceweight, one ply of each delicacy, spun on light Zebisis Designs stone whorl spindles
- Small sample knit to do a swatch and test... 60 yards.  Seems to be just right for the pattern
- so far, spun half of the angora, did not weigh it though, so guessing.  I have approximately 300 yards of fine single... I might do some silk next so I can do some more knitting when the fancy strikes.
- The color of the silk and the angora are absolutely perfect for each other!

Pattern:  Frozen Leaves by Anusla
- as above, I wanted something that could be easily made larger or smaller depending on how much yardage I get.
- I really like the airyness of the swatch, and the light halo that is coming out.  I wanted the lace to be really light and open because I know the angora will be extremely warm.  I also decided to try adding beads, though I’m not sure I chose the right ones… I’ll have to ponder it longer before I add more in.  I can always break the two I put in and have them gone if I want.

The pretty:

Since I?ve been feeling a bit blue the last little while since the baby came? a friend sent me a care package in the mail with some nice tea and a handful of soft fluffy spinning inspiration ? some of her own home grown Satin Angora Fiber from her bum ?Lady in Red?! (if you want to check out Stella?s Farm Page, click the linky!  She has lots of different breeds of rabbits, sheep and alpacas.  I?m so jealous!  It?s called Twist of Fate Family Farm)

It?s been difficult to find much time for anything other than baby lately, so having a bit of satiny shiny light fiber just sitting there has been quite inspiring!  Just what I needed to kick me in the pants and pick up a spindle and see what I can do with it.

First off ? the staple length is great on this one.  It?s nice and long, so it spins up nice and strong, but not so lengthy that it?s hard to draft.  In a way, this spin reminds me a bit of working with silk, especially when I get a poof with a few extra guard hairs in it and feel the strong soft shiny fiber slide through my hands.  Angora in general is a bit slippery, but that?s nothing new to me :)  The color is a creamy, almost peach color, with auburn or rusty tips.  I love the way the two tones are blending together to give a shiny gold effect.

My plan was to just spin it fine and see how things went from there? and then I got the idea that maybe it would be suited to pair with some natural honey colored tussah silk, since the color is working out to be a nice gold/creamy/shiny effect.  I?ve been working on a zebisis designs stone whorl spindle, with a weight I can?t remember off the top of my head.  I don?t work with heavy spindles, so I can assume it?s much less than 30g? more likely 15 ? 17g.  After the fiber comes off, I?ll weigh it and remind myself. 

I hope to be able to get enough yardage to make something small and lacy.  If I can manage 400 yards or more, I might even get a shawl out of it since I?m stretching the angora out by plying it with silk.  I can?t wait for the silk to arrive in the mail? though I?m not sure what I?m so impatient for:  it will likely take me all month to spin the angora?!

You might have noticed the swatch under Grampy's Scissors in the post on Monday... What WAS that anyways?  Well... it is the latest Angora swatch... testing out some lovely traditional Estonian designs from a book I bought recently Haapsalu Shawl by Siiri Reimann.  The book itself is amazing!  It isn't exactly a step-by-step pattern book, more an anthology of wonderful traditional patterns and motifs.  Drool Drool.

The yarn (or dare I say "Thread") is a soft blend of "Blue" English Angora fiber (from my "Private" supplier *wink wink*) and some  Handpainted Seasilk Top that I've been tiptoing around in my stash.  The Seasilk is dyed in Blues and Purples, reminiscent of lazy purple sunset clouds and the color of perfect faded blue jeans.  When mixed with the Angora, the result is a very light, very soft hand, and a delightful muted purple tone.

To give you an idea of size... this swatch was knitted on 2 mm needles, with the light 2-ply laceweight, and still looks quite airy!  The blocked piece is around 4 inches by 5.25 inches.  Not very large, but full of movement, and very light and drapy.

The motif featured is a variation of "Lily of the Valley" - with lots of nice Nupp stitches (basically little bobbles) interspersed with lacy YO loops, and an alternating Maple Leaf.  I worked these nupps with 5x wraps, but I think if I actually go forward with this I might do 7x or 9x just to make them extra full and textured.

My goal is to choose a traditional pattern and make a classic Haapsalu shawl from my own Ruttiger Fuzzybutt fiber... complete with a sewn on border, and the proper Haapsalu dimensions.  I'm guessing I will need somewhere around 1500 yards of thread to accomplish such a project, but that shouldn't be a big deal if I can finalize my fiber blend.  I'm not sure how much the thread will fuzz up, or whether that fuzzing will obscure the lace and the nupps.  I plan on abusing the swatch a little and then I'll gauge from there if the yarn will serve the purpose.