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I’m honestly completely in love with this fibre. The gradient is beautiful. It’s got the lovely subtle sparkle and tweed. I’m now glad I accidentally broke a braid when I was weighing them out, because now I get to keep one and not feel bad about it

As always, you can find these in my shop! And I can’t wait to spin my own (even though I will have to wait, bc I want to finish spinning my rolag gradient first)

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Chaosfay's Fourth Quilt Giveaway

Third goal reached, now it's time for the fourth. This is the largest of the lot, and will have a prize to match: a twin size quilt. The winner will either choose from one of three patterns or choose the theme. The pattern options will include one foundation paper pieced, and the price begins at $6750 USD for one of those, and 250-300 hours from when I cut fabric to finish the handquilting.

Deadline: October 1st, 2024

Do not tag this as a giveaway, raffle, or anything related to it.

Liking this post will not count as an entry. Don't click the heart/like button. Reblogs only. DO NOT LIKE THIS POST!!!!!!!!

Only one entry per person. Reblogging this multiple times will not count as multiple entries.

My Ko-Fi members are automatically entered. If you wish to sign up for a membership, it won't get you an extra entry here. You will, however, be automatically entered into any and all future giveaways I host.

When you reblog this, tell me which quilt I've made is your favorite. I have my gallery here, so head that way. If you don't include this in your reblog, you won't be entered into the giveaway. I would really appreciate it if you also link back to it. This will bring more people to my website, and some of them may purchase my work, and that will me to the goal more quickly.

Purchases, commissions, and donations will be applied to the goal. I have options for all budgets (free downloads in my shop), and the option to pay what you want with a minimum price.

Please reblog!!!

When we meet this goal, I'll make a separate post announcing the winner. Then I'll set up the next goal and giveaway.

If you have social media, please share a link to my ko-fi page. The sooner the goal is achieved, the sooner I'll draw the winners name.

Here are examples of my work:

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Sooooo it turned out larger than intended.

I had to cut the blocks to 9.5x9.5 inches rather than 10x10 inches due several pieces of the layer cake being cut incorrectly. Seeing as I can't do math, I figured I should add more blocks to make up for the loss. It was originally six rows of seven blocks, and I planned on seven rows of seven blocks. I accidently made it seven rows of eight blocks. Because I had the 7x7 layout in mind, I added two borders.

Keep in mind, the original pattern has the quilt at around 67x72 inches. I intended to have it closer to 75x80 inches. Well! It's 80x90 inches. Whoops!

I hope my client loves the quilt top! The commission is for just the quilt top, and I'll be shipping it off either tomorrow afternoon or day thereafter, depending on what they say about the results. I really do not want to take the borders and sashing apart to remove a row.

If you would like to commission me, check out my website. I have my gallery, shop, and commission info available there.

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split up a blended top to experiment with striping colours, doing chain ply to keep the colour changes, the bring green is so pretty and all the neppy white bits were so fun when spinning the single

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She is so close to being done, I can smell it.

I am a third of the way through the (530 stitch) cast off. After that one sleeve needs sewing up, a few ends need to be woven in and she needs some embroidery to finish her face.

Then I need a moody stormy night and a trip to the theatre.

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Finished this sparkly yarn

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Tried a houndtooth pattern this go, the warp was a bit annoying to setup doing the weft was fun.

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I knit this sweater in December. Made from 100% wool and very warm and scratchy. I've been dreaming about knitting an Icelandic sweater for years and the process of finally knitting one and having the finished piece keep me warm fulfilled (and continues to fulfill me, as April has been uncharacteristically cold this year) me very much.

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Okay, I've made enough "blease knit gauge swatches. Swatchless projects killedy family" posts. This post is an informational post a out gauge swatches. It will mainly be written in knitting terms because that is my main craft but it applies to crochet too. Even if you're an experienced crafter, you might learn something from this post. I talk about different reasons to make a swatch and some reasons a swatch might lie to you.

What is gauge?

Gauge is the size of your stitches, ie how wide and tall they are. It can be affected by the way you hold the yarn, your tension, and your needle/hook size. In knitting the style you knit can affect this, with the tendency being that English style is usually, but not always, tighter than continental. When I went from knitting English style to knitting Norwegian style, my gauge drastically changed to be much looser.

What is a gauge swatch?

A gauge swatch is a small piece of work that you use to measure your stitches per inch and rows per inch gauge. "Standard" gauge swatches are 4in/10cm squares, but often you'll see different sizes, especially for lace patterns that have you test knitting a certain chart or stitch

Why do we make gauge swatches?

We make gauge swatches to check if our gauge is the same as the pattern designer's gauge. Because you want your gauge to be the same as the pattern designer's so you know your size XL sweater will actually be size XL or your six foot in diameter shawl will actually be six feet across. Or that your airy and beautiful lace will actually be airy and beautiful and not too dense or too loose.

We also might swatch if we are substituting yarns. For example, a blocked lace swatch of wool will have different dimensions than a blocked lace swatch of pure silk because silk is less stretchy than wool. So if you are substituting fibers, you want to know that you'll like the finished item and might swatch a bit of the pattern before starting in earnest so you don't waste your time making something you'll be dissatisfied with.

There's also some differences between yarns of the same fiber and same weight. Some lace weight yarn is categorized as lace weight while being 600 yds per 100g, and some lace weight yarn is 800 yds or 1000 yds per 100g. So you should knit a swatch when substituting yarn even if they are the same fiber and weight if they are different yardage per gram ratios.

Do I always need to make a gauge swatch?

I talk a lot about the importance of gauge swatches but the honest answer is no, you do not always need to make a gauge swatch. If you are making something that doesn't require a certain size or airiness of pattern, like a bag or a simple scarf, you don't need to do a gauge swatch.

How do I make a gauge swatch?

Most patterns have a simple gauge listed, such as 22 stitches by 18 rows is 4in/10cm square in stockinette. However, some patterns have an "in pattern" gauge swatch or a separate pattern/chart for their swatch. So you cast on however many stitches (I often cast on a few more than the swatch calls for, but you don't have to), and knit that many rows in whatever pattern is specifed. If it's stockinette, knit stockinette. If it's "in pattern," locate the repeating part of the pattern and knit the designated amount of rows. If there is a separate pattern/chart for the swatch, knit as directed. Bind off. Don't measure on the needle, it will lie to you.

Then, you want to treat the swatch how you'll treat the finished object. If you're not going to block the finished object, measure it as is. But if you're going to block the finished object (and most things you should tbh blocking hides so many sins), you get the swatch wet, pin it out to shape, and then leave it to dry.

THEN! And nobody talks about this step for some reason and it's been the reason swatches lied to me in the past. Unpin it and let it rest. Different people give different time amounts for this resting. I'd let it rest at least three hours but some people recommend up to a week. The reason for this resting period is that many yarns, especially wool and other animal fibers, have elasticity to them. They'll rebound back a bit. Cotton and linen will have less rebound than things like wool. I'm not 100% sure where acrylic falls on that scale since I hate the texture of most acrylics.

OK I made and blocked the swatch and let it rest, what do I do now?

Now you measure! Does your stitches/rows ratio match up with the pattern designer's? Compare your gauge to the listed gauge. If it is different, you need to adjust needle/hook sizes. If your swatch is larger than the given measurements, your gauge is too loose and you need to go down one (or several) needle/hook sizes. If your swatch is smaller, your gauge is too tight and you need to go up one (or more) needle/hook sizes. At this point you can say "it's probably just one size up/down" and start your project, or you can repeat the entire swatch process. If unsure, repeat.

That's cool, can we see an example?

Sure! Here are two swatches I have pinned out.

I didn't follow my own advice about swatching and just started the Sapphira Lace Shawl on the recommended size 4 needles, but I got all the way through the first repeat of the body chart and then frogged the whole thing because my gauge was so loose you couldn't even see the pattern.

The Sapphira Lace Shawl has a separate pattern just for the gauge swatch and says "gauge is not important, swatch in lace pattern and use comfortable needle size to achieve airy lace that is not too holey." Too holey means that the stitches and yarn overs are so loose you cannot properly make out the pattern at all. That's what happened when I used size 4 needles.

The swatches you see here were knitted on size 2 (top) and 3 (bottom) needles. I knitted the bottom swatch first but was unsure if I liked the result so I went down another needle size and knitted a second swatch.

You'll notice the size 2 swatch is smaller and it's easier to make out the design. The stitches are smaller and denser, so the places where decreases and plain knit stitches are grouped together are easier to see. Versus the size 3 swatch where the stitches are looser and it's a bit harder to make out the design, though not impossible. On size four needled my stitches were so loose you couldn't really make out the design at all. With these swatches pinned out, I personally like the size 2 swatch better. However! That may change once I let the swatches rest for a while!

This yarn is an alpaca/silk mix. Alpaca is known for stretching out and not holding its shape. It's not ideal for lace. Silk is very good at holding its shape, but not very stretchy. I'm hoping together they make an okay yarn for lace because separately neither is my preference for lace. It was what I had on hand that was dyeable. Alpaca has some elasticity so it will spring back once I unpin it and let it rest. At that point, I may like the size 3 swatch better. I won't know until I get there.

I'll try to remember to post pictures of the rested swatches tomorrow to show if there's any difference. I might work up another swatch on size 4 needles to show what "too holey" looks like but that's more of a "how to knit lace" educational swatch than a "how to knit swatches" educational swatch so I might not bother.

That's it, that's the post. I'm sure my knitting mutuals will have comments and things to add so check the notes.

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everybody look at my cat in my lap as i was spinning

he had never done that before!!!! he just sat on my lap and fell asleep!!!

Fun fact! I drove 3 hours with my mom to get this spinning wheel. I have absolutely no idea how old she is but she was hand made by someones uncle. I call her Oma since that's whats etched into the lazy Kate that I also got from the nice old lady who sold it to me.

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Someone yell at me to do maths, my loom is crying out to be used but I need to do calculations first

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here's how this blue yarn turned out, plus an undyed jacob wool spin that I finally washed

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Pretty nice handspun yarn you got there; shame something’s gonna happen to it

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As the turtle grows, it consumes it's warm, wooly nest to grow it's shell.

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Scarp socks! I’ve told myself I can’t buy anymore sock yarn until I finish what I have. So in a drastic move I cut up all my ugly / scrap self striping yarn and sorted it by colour.

They turned out great and I love playing with colour like this but there are just so many ends to weave in! (too many, one might say).

The colour work was inspired by Emma Ducher’s Anni sock pattern, which in turn was inspired by Anni Albers’s Bauhaus weaving.

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50/50 yak silk | thread/light lace weight single | 1754 yds | ? wpi | 4oz

[id: three picture of yarn that thin and dark brown/warm grey, with some white mix in, shiny. first picture on golden muddy niddy noddy, second picture separate out individual strand to show thin, third is curly untwisted hank. end id]

took 2 week & half see how thin can possibly spin. plan is ply self together to make lace weight yarn for shawl :o

yak silk very very soft n nice