Handspun Yarn: The Curtain Dress

In my constant effort to use up my entire stash, I recently spun this gem up:



It's another bat from Butterfly Girl Designs. The color is called "Curtain Dress", and it's a rather dazzling blend of 67% bamboo, 25% merino and 8% firestar. I tore the batt into strips and let it spin up as it wanted to, with no real drafting and letting it lump and bump where it wanted to. This is a lot of fun sometimes if you can learn to give the control up and just let the yarn happen. Coming down after spinning from a sweater (lots of controlled spinning to get the yarn perfect and consistent) makes me okay with just letting this art batt become what it wants.



From 3.8 oz of batt, I ended up with 155 yards of a heavy aran-weight 2-ply.



I'm not quite sure what this will be yet- maybe a simple pair of mitts.

FO: Belle Starr Hat

Another handspun hat! I think after months of making sweaters, some instant gratification (and stash busting) is in order.

This started out as a batt from Butterfly Girl Designs. It was 3 oz of superwash merino, silk and a bit of sparkle called "Woodland Nymph".



Really pretty.

Ugh, I spun this up in the summer of 2008! It's been sitting in a bin ever since. I'm really trying hard to get rid of all these 100 yard skeins of handspun I have tucked away.



I did an aran weight 2-ply and got about 105 yards. Perfect amount for a lace hat.

I found the Belle Starr hat (pdf) online and dug this yarn out even though the pattern calls for a lighter DK weight. "B" is for Butterfly, and I am still plugging away at the letter "B" in my A-Z stashdown. So I cast on 10 fewer (1 lace repeat less) and ended up with a hat that fits nicely.







It's a handspun hat success. It only took a couple nights at home to make.

The Specs:

I used size 6 US needles and almost all of the 105 yards of yarn. I added an extra inch on the lace pattern as I wanted one a bit longer.