Fiber Arts Friday: County Fair 2019, part 2

I did enter 4 items into the county fair, but not all were in my plan.

Top to Bottom:  Clun Forest, Navajo-Churro,
Black Welsh Mountain, Tibetan Mastiff,
Twined Tibetan Mastiff Mittens

The Twined Mittens are here.

The Copperbranch Shawl is not.  It's been too hot to work on something this large, and it's too big to travel with now, so it has had no work in the last several weeks.

The Clun Forest yarn is here, along with Navajo-Churro and Black Welsh Mountain... all of which were grown in Colorado.

My photo is not here.  I had it printed... twice.  It's not as good as I initially thought, so it was not entered.

There are four items are in two classes.  The Clun Forest, Navajo-Churro, and Black Welsh Mountain will be competing against each other in the same Plied Wool class.  The Tibetan Mastiff Yarn and Twined Mittens are a single entry for the Non-Woven Project using Handspun Yarn class.... and everything is in the Spinning and Weaving Department.

Everything was dropped off on Tuesday evening.  The judging occurred on Wednesday, and the Fair opened to the public on Friday.

As usual, Hubba and I went over on Friday evening.

The display is two glass cabinets, a wall, and a (new) free-standing frame.

The competition is fierce... our county has an active guild and is home to both Interweave Press and the Estes Park Wool Market.  Which makes any recognition I receive all the more special.

So I am very excited that my mittens were awarded Reserve Grand Champion!

Tibetan Mastiff Twined-knit Mittens

This means that they won 1st place in the Non-Woven class, against 6 other gorgeous entries, then won Champion of the Spinning Section, then Second place to the Grand Champion of the entire Spinning and Weaving Department.

The Grand Champion was a gorgeous, finely spun yarn with pearl beads.

It appears that each of my yarns also won ribbons.... I can't wait to see the judge's comments.  As usual, I am primarily interested in the judges comments.

Black Welsh Mountain

Clun Forest - I feel like the red ribbon was
left in the cabinet by mistake, since the
BWM also has a red ribbon

Navajo-Churro

... Now that I have everything at home, there wasn't much in the way of comments, but the judge did rank my skeins in the same order that I did.

L-R: Clun Forest, Black Welsh Mountain, Navajo-Churro

I don't know why there are two 2nd places, but the Clun Forest was awarded one more point than the Black Welsh Mountain.  All three of these skeins were entered in the same class and as far as I can tell, they were also judged in the same class.

Tibetan Mastiff Twined Mittens and Yarn Sample

So not only did my mittens win Reserve-Grand Champion, and a special award from Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins (one of my favorite local yarn shops).... they received a perfect score!

Holy Cow!! I know they're not perfect, but wow.... this is my first perfect score.

Now I really have to decide what to do next.  ;-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: County Fair Entries, 2019

The Premium List for our County Fair was released yesterday.

I already knew that my Tibetan Mastiff Twined Mittens would be entered.

I have a skein of handspun Clun Forest yarn in the process of being plied that I'd like to enter.

I have been thinking about entering my Copperbranch Shawl as well, but the amount of work remaining, may not be accomplished before the end of July.  Per usual, I put together a plan that is doable, but aggressive.

Finally, I have wanted to enter the photo competition, but was never quite organized in time to get the prints made.  So as of today, I have selected the photo I plan to enter... we shall see if I can get it printed and matted in time.... yes, I know that's not a lot, but there's a lot going on in my world right now, and this is pretty low on the list.  ;-)

If all goes well, I'll have four entries in this year's county fair.  I will definitely have one entry, but most likely there will be two.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Twined Mittens, part 5

Knitting is Finished on my Twined, Handspun, Gunnar Mittens!

The ends have been woven in and the lifelines have been removed!

I chose not to try to match the more tightly wound section due to the multiple rip outs on mitten #1.  Mostly because I didn't realize how far along I was until it was too late.... ;-)

I love working with this yarn, and especially appreciate the subtle variation of color.  This 3-ply, handspun yarn has a lot of character.  My cell phone camera and bright light don't capture it well.

The finished mittens are quite soft and the fabric is very dense.  I'm looking forward to finally gifting them to my friend.... after the County Fair later this summer.  ;-)  The mittens and a yarn sample will be entered in the handspun/finished goods class.

I first queued this idea is September 2015.

I started spinning for this project in June 2018 and knitting began in October 2018.  I have published 28 posts over the last 11 months.

Thank you for hanging in there with me and Happy Fiber Arts Friday!


Final Status:
Total Fleece Prepared:  11 3/8 oz

Singles to be Plied:  3/4 oz
Finished Yarn Remaining:  2 1/2 oz
Yarn in Mittens: 2 5/8 oz

Carded Fleeces Remaining to Spin: 5 1/2 oz

Fiber Arts Friday: Twined Mittens, part 4

Both mitten tops are now complete.

Now, I have only two thumbs to go.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Diversification

After I learned that the Fiber Celebration was cancelled, I've been spending more of my available time working on other projects.

Isn't it funny how the removal of a deadline allows for the diversification of activities?

In this photo is Pussy Hat #9, Twined Mittens, Rill Scarf, a cashmere version of the Surfinia Wrap, and a couple starts on my own designs.

Clearly I have a preferred color palette, but this diversification of projects makes me a happier artist.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Twined Mittens, part 3

The second mitt is going much faster than the first.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Twined Technique

I recently found a video on the Twined Technique.  It's fairly long.  There is no sound.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Fiber Celebration, part 3

After setting up my plan to finish the Twined Knit (tvåändstickning) Mittens in time to enter the Fiber Celebration next February, I realized that I should do a test knit.

I don't have a pattern to work from... just a technique and set of guidelines.  So I figure I should practice before beginning the final work.

I started with a couple of swatches... a standard knit and a twined knit.

I chose a yarn I don't care too much about.... the Twined technique will unwind standard-spun yarns... so I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't care if the test yarn got ruined while I was learning how to do the technique.

The twined swatch is noticeably thicker than the standard.  Also there are slightly more stitches per inch on the twined swatch.

I think the back is interesting.  You can see the twisting of the strands.  It reminds of color-work, though I haven't done much.

The twined technique uses two strands and recommended knitting with both the inside and outside strand from a center-pull ball.

I did not care for the twisting of the strands.  My sample yarn is a very slippery acrylic, so the cake did not stay together well.  Certainly this is a contributing factor, but I've decided to start knitting the final project using two balls.

While my twined swatch doesn't look great, I feel I have a good handle on the technique.

Next steps are to keep spinning yarn and swatch with the actual yarn to determine needle size.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!