Adventures with YarnInformation about everything to do with yarn, knitting, fiber arts, sheep…

A reader of this blog, Sue, sent me a link to this adorable well-illustrated story of Yuri’s New Sweater, in which a mother creates a sweater for her son from the wool of his favorite animal on their farm. Do check out the rest of her blog! I’m greatly enjoying reading through her other adventures with both yarn and a self sufficient lifestyle.

Thanks for sharing the link, Sue! Readers, if you find such cool resources or stories that should be shared, I’d love it if you sent me the link via a comment!

I have to admit, I’m always happy to find other people named Megan/Meagan/Meghan/etc in the crafting world. Having the same name always puts a smile on my face, especially when we are both crafty creative people.

I’m glad to report that this is the case with Megan LaCore from theartofmegan.com, YouTube channel of the same name. She focuses on creating yarn with a drop spindle, but many of the concepts are handy to know even if you’re just a knitter.

Here’s one of her most recent videos, where she teaches us how to create center-pull yarn balls with only our hands:

And here are some of her other videos which I’ve found very helpful in my yarn adventures:

• Spinning Yarn on A Drop Spindle
• Finishing your Yarn (tying & wrapping)
• Plying on a drop spindle using only one ball of yarn

Thanks, Megan, for sharing such great content with the world!

This shawl is what I made with the alpaca yarn in the previous post. I ended up leaving it as singles. The real life color is much more amber, though not as amber as in the previous post, certainly not as muted as this shot which used my flash.

As this was my first ever shawl, I chose to keep the pattern dead simple. It’s a Josephine shawl, the pattern is pretty much do a yarn over right before the end of each second row, and knit the rest. This forms a right angle triangle, which rotated, becomes the shawl. I appreciated the simplicity of the pattern, it allowed me to take my knitting around and not having to remember what stage I was at in a pattern.

This also allowed me to test out my stitch markers! I used one to mark a few stitches behind the yarn over increase. This allowed me to knit absentmindedly, but to pay attention when it was time to do something. I learned that it’s very important to have stitch markers that are lightweight (or appropriate in weight to the project and needles at least), which may mean using plastic beads or wood beads in lieu of the prettier and more varied glass beads.

Website: http://disjointedwords.blogspot.com/

The blog disjointed words is written by a lady who lives in Finland. She enjoys spinning and knitting. With each post accompanied by a picture, it is a very interesting blog to watch!

Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/wolfcrik

Blog (ended): http://grannymillerblog.blogspot.com/

wolfcrik, a Youtube user, has a variety of videos uploaded regarding life on a farm. Some of the more valuable ones include one about tail docking and ear tagging sheep and a narrated video of a normal lamb delivery.

She also has videos about how to do canning, as well as much other self reliance tips on her blog. Sadly it seems she has chosen to stop blogging but hopefully she will continue to post videos on Youtube.

Website: http://www.shetlandsheepinfo.com/

This website is a comprehensive guide about Shetland sheep. It has a great section about fleece as well as links to other information sources.