I bought some Merino roving wool. I dyed it in various shades. You can see the wool here, it's drying in the garden on a drying rack.
I want to make a pair of warm leg warmers from the purple-green-ocher wool. |
| Before I can knit the wool, I need to spin it first, of course. You can see the colors of the wool clearly now. I've divided the roving in half, so I can spin two bobbins, each with roughly the same amount of wool. |
| In the spun wool, the color transitions are less abrupt. The colors blend gradually into each other, creating mixed hues as well. |
| Once I have filled two bobbins and all the wool is spun, I ply the threads on the bobbins together into one sturdy yarn. This plied yarn is stronger and warmer than a single strand. |
| Even though I've only knitted a small piece, it's already apparent that I probably don't have enough yarn. But it's looking really nice already! |
| I decide to buy some Shetland wool in matching colors. Luckily, I find shades that also complement the handspun yarn. |
| I'm not using a pattern. I cast on 56 stitches per leg using 5mm needles. Then I knit 20 rows of 2 knit/2 purl with the handspun yarn. After that, I switch to knitting with only the Shetland wool, creating stripes. When the leg warmers are long enough, I switch back to the handspun yarn and continue with 2 knit/2 purl. The leg warmers are almost finished. |
| The leg warmers are done. They turned out really nice. I hope Liza likes them. |
Self-knitted leg warmers. The leg warmers are made from hand-dyed and spun Merino roving wool, combined with some dark green and purple Shetland wool.
I bought some Merino roving wool. I dyed it in various shades. You can see the wool here, it's drying in the garden on a drying rack. 
Before I can knit the wool, I need to spin it first, of course. You can see the colors of the wool clearly now. I've divided the roving in half, so I can spin two bobbins, each with roughly the same amount of wool.
In the spun wool, the color transitions are less abrupt. The colors blend gradually into each other, creating mixed hues as well.
Once I have filled two bobbins and all the wool is spun, I ply the threads on the bobbins together into one sturdy yarn. This plied yarn is stronger and warmer than a single strand.
Even though I've only knitted a small piece, it's already apparent that I probably don't have enough yarn. But it's looking really nice already!
I decide to buy some Shetland wool in matching colors. Luckily, I find shades that also complement the handspun yarn.
I'm not using a pattern. I cast on 56 stitches per leg using 5mm needles. Then I knit 20 rows of 2 knit/2 purl with the handspun yarn. After that, I switch to knitting with only the Shetland wool, creating stripes. When the leg warmers are long enough, I switch back to the handspun yarn and continue with 2 knit/2 purl. The leg warmers are almost finished.