The chunky green sweater

Done!



And now with the recipient as a Christmas gift.

Spinning dyed tussah silk top

I've had a go at spinning silk top before with mixed success (it seemed to want to spin relatively thickly and it was all too easy to over-spin), but over the weekend I played with some purchased henna-dyed tussah silk. This was more than happy to spin extremely fine, which made me very happy. Once I've plied this tonight I'll have some lovely lace-weight silk yarn. I've been able to work with this very quickly too, which would probably appal my former spinning teacher, as she was forever trying to convince me to spin more slowly and less finely.



This shot shows the loose fibre on the post of my wheel, with spun singles on the bobbin.

What do I plan to do with this? One of my spinning friends gave me a beautiful alpaca scarf she had knitted from this pattern. I think it's the perfect introduction to lace knitting, and I'll make myself a much-needed red scarf to boot.

The chunky sweater

It's become a green sweater for the woman I've been staying with. I experimented with some green single-spun rayon yarn I'd bought for next-to-nothing and realised that the colours would suit her better than they would me. It turned out that the colours looked best with all three knitted together, and this has slowly been turning into a very heavy, chunky sweater:



Laid out on the floor, with the arms left and right (this is knitted in rib from one wrist to the other), and then the front and back attached to that, to the top and bottom of the photo.

Close-ups of the rib and stocking stitch fabric:




And the sweater as it will appear when made-up (the purl hem is yet to be knitted, but this will be done within the next day or two):



The recipient wants this to be made shorter than it appears in the initial photo. I'm uncertain about how well this will work, as the pattern is so top-heavy with the rib. I'll find out very soon, I guess.