Catching Up: Part II

As promised, here is my post of recent finished objects. Starting with the yarn, here is one of my finished spins from the Tour de Fleece.

This is a fingering weight, chain-plied yarn spun from WoolPig Crafts hand dyed Merino in the Fern Gully colorway. I'm guessing that Gladys takes a lot of care when dyeing her fibers because this roving was an absolute pleasure to spin. The colors in this one were a lot of fun too. It kept making me think of sandy beaches, palm trees and bananas.

The next spin is from a fiber buried deep in the stash. It's All Spun Up sw merino/alpaca from a SAL she had a while ago. Because the fiber is one of my all time favorite blends I bought a double dose and was saving this one for a special occasion, which ended up being this year's Tour de Fleece as well. For this one I chose to pre-draft the whole braid and spin it from end to end. It's also a chain-plied fingering weight yarn.

There are more on the wheel now, one of which I will have pictures of as soon as it is finished.

Now to the knitting. Pretty much all of the knitting I accomplished over the late spring and summer has been for Allie. The first is a sweater set knit from yummy Funky Carolina merino that was spun a long time ago. The yarn had been sitting in the stash waiting to become a shawl (so I thought), but as I went through the stash searching for baby sweater yarn I changed my mind, thinking that it was the precise amount of girl-y I was looking for.

The hat is my modified version of Simple Newborn Hat with a Touch of Lace by Ginny Foreman and the sweater is the Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater by Carole Barenys (both links go to their free patterns). I really enjoyed both of these patterns but I have to say that the sweater pattern is fast becoming my favorite for utilizing handspun in baby knits. It's a very easy knit and it showcases handspun yarns beautifully. So beautifully that I had to knit two...

This one was knit from Funky Carolina merino handspun by Laurs of Bee Mice Elf and gifted to me during the summer round of the Funky Junkies handspun swap. I fell so hard for this yarn when I opened the package that I wound it up immediately and began knitting. It worked out perfectly combined with this pattern.

Lastly, I just finished this hat last week. It's the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (pattern also free) and I knit it with leftover handspun sock yarn. It's a great pattern and it looks so cute on Allie. It's also great for using up those leftover scraps of yarn.

So, that's all I have finished for now. I'm still knitting and spinning as I get things cleaned, organized and packed for moving. I should have more to share soon.