Friday, March 4, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday

For this Fiber Arts Friday, I would like to show case the projects I've made using patterns from KellyJ Knits.

All Keyed Up
I started off with her hat pattern All Keyed Up.  I used a blend I hand carded from one of our Suri alpacas.  I hand spun the yarn and used it as the accent color (contrasting color/CC).  This pattern is great for using hand spun.  I only used a total of 65 yds for the CC.

You do need to have a high contract between the main color (MC) and the CC color.  I paired my hand spun with Therapi by SWTC.  Therapi is a commercial yarn blend of 30% Bowlder (Jadeite) Fiber, 50% fine wool and 20% silk.  I love knitting with this yarn and it comes in many shades.  It just seems to mix nicely with the hand carded batts I've created..
                                                                                                   
You Hold the Key
Next, I knit KellyJ's mitten pattern called You Hold the Key.  Again I used a hand carded Suri blend that I hand spun.  I also used the Therapi by SWTC.  Why mess with a good mix, right?


Key to Warmth
KellyJ's third pattern is a cowl called Key to Warmth.  For my first cowl I used all commercial yarn.  Yep, I do knit with yarn that is commercially spun.  I used Misti Alpaca for my MC in a dusty rose color #3720.  I just love it when the yarn companies name their yarn instead of just giving it a number but I can certainly understand how hard it is to come up the just the right color name.  The CC color is di.ve Autunno, again only a color #30502, but it has a very slight variation of cream, grays and pink. 

I'm currently working on a second Key to Warmth using  a hand carded blend of Suri, Angora and merino that I hand spun.  It is in shades of purple, pink, grays and I'm using Therapi SWTC again for the MC.  I know, I know, as I've mentioned before, I just love this yarn and it's wide range of colors.

Key to Warmth in process
I was working along nicely on my second Key to Warmth when I got a very nasty cold which stopped me in my tracks. I was so tired I didn't knit for a couple of weeks.  Then our local yarn shop in Battle Creek, called Your Local Yarn Shop started a Knit a long with KellyJ's newest pattern Winter's Rhythm.

Of course I had to start this knit a long.  My last blog has pictures of some of our first efforts and talks about the pattern and yarn used.

So that wraps up my posting on the KellyJ Knits Key trio.  Hope you have enjoyed your Fiber Arts Friday as much as I've enjoyed mine.

6 comments:

  1. hope you're feeling better. Love all of your hand spun projects!

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  2. Your knits are beautiful. The hat is a nice color combo and the finished shawl is one of my favorite colors. Thanks for pushing me toward that pattern. Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

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  3. I really love these. I may have to knit the mittens for my sister, I've been wanting to try colorwork for her for a while now!

    Jess

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  4. Kelly's patterns really are rock star! I love all of the Alpaca in your projects and the blend of commercial and handspun together.

    Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

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