Special request

After a phone call yesterday I was asked to put in those two pictures as well - to show that yes, you can use cotton wool for more than cosmetics (and also to show all the browns I did with natural dyes...). the sweater was done on commission, the only request was for brown in colour and the size. the dyes used are nz flax, chestnut hulls, cherry tree bark, lichen, walnut hulls and leaves, logwood and the main colour is irish tea. all done on alum. the yarn is the singles from Wollknoll, which takes the dyes very well and knits up nicely too.

the baby cardi was a silly idea really. after I started to spin cotton in the OLG cotton workshop last january I just had to try all kinds of cotton available. at first I tried the hospital sized rolls - but they contained lots of harder bits inside, not so nice. also it is a batt and it always rips very irregularly.... then I tried the balls and found that they are not really like a felted ball - they are like a top, just rolled together. when you fiddle around a bit you'll find the start of that top and can unroll them nicely. the quality seemed to be better too. I combed the town shops in search for nice colours, and eventually I found bags in the chemist that didn't only contain white and blue, but also pink and yellow. I spun a two-ply and did my best to avoid stripes - even knitted with two balls because of this. everything went well until I cast off stitches for the main part and cast on new ones for the sleeves.... after that - well, what else could I have done to keep the colours from going stripey? the pattern is one from interweave knits, the cardi is knitted all in one and only two small seams at the sleeves have to be tone, very simple. as I had to lead the two yarns along one of the outer borders, I finished it all with an attached I-cord in white cotton (handspun, but cotton top, not cotton wool balls) - which hasn't been done in the original pattern, because only one yarn was used. after finishing it I thought of doing an adult version - but then the good intentions of finishing some ufo's kicked in, so I put it on the still-to-do-list for later....