Swallowtail 2.0 bigger, better and now in handspun!

Handspun February has come and went but the spinning bug that bit me has yet to be satisfied. While my yarns are still far from perfect, they are the most consistent I’ve spun to date. I have also found my new favorite blend of fiber, wool with bamboo. The bamboo gives the yarn a lovely shine that I am absolutely mad about.

I’m really sorry that I did not have any photos of this roving before I began spinning to show how it was dyed. I picked this up from the Sweet Sheep a while back, it is a wool/bamboo blend called ‘fire starter’ but after spinning it up I think it came out more like a cherry blossom.





This was the first time that I really thought about how the colors would line up when I plied the singles together. Since the values were really close together, the pinks, peaches and yellow were barely distinguishable when the roving was drafted I decided to split the roving in half lengthwise then I took one half, found the middle and torn it off. I spun one single from beginning to end, then the next from the middle to end, then beginning to middle. For the most part there aren’t too many drastic color changes; there are some spots where the colors did line up and the pinks are a bit darker or the peaches a bit peachier. The other areas have a lovely barber pole effect that blends nicely when looked upon at a distance.

I was able to get about 484 yards, 25 WIP that was just itching to become a Swallowtail Shawl. At first I was sure I would have enough yarn for the shawl because I had to go up four needle sizes to get the drape I wanted so I thought that I would use some beads for the nupps. When I came to that part and realized that I did indeed have plenty of yarn I was a bit sad that I wouldn’t be using the perfect beads I found for the shawl. Instead I knitted the nupps as is and added the beads at the bottom edge of the shawl for a bit of sparkle.







I love how it came out and am so glad that I’m keeping this one for myself! This was one fact project, it took a bit over two weeks to spin this yarn, and then just over a week for knit the shawl. The pattern was easily memorized and went rather quickly. I’m glad I reknit this shawl; my first one was a bit too small for my liking. It still isn’t very large, about 57 inches from end to end and 35 inches from nape to tip, but it sits perfectly on me as a scarf. Thank you Kristy for putting together a great Handspun February, I had lots of fun!