Tag Archives: romney yarn

Long Island Project Assist Autism Knit-a-Thon – Yarn on Sale!

Meduseld has donated yarn for the 6th Annual Long Island Project Assist Knit-a-thon.  Here is the description from The Village Knitter group on Ravelry.

Sunday, June 8th Knit-a-Thon! Long Island Project Assist will be sponsoring their Sixth Annual Knit-a-Thon at the shop to raise awareness and donations for the developmentally disabled and autistic population they service. Come join us or make a donation directly online. Long Island Project Assist supports the YAI Network and works hard to ensure that people with developmental and learning disabilities have access to the support and services that they need to live productive, independent and healthy lives.

In honor of the event, the two yarns Meduseld has donated will be on sale in the Meduseld store.  They are two of the sport weight Romney yarns in Monet’s Reflection  and  Monet’s Winter Sunset.  Normally $13.50 a skein, they are now only $10.00 each until June 10, 2014, or until stock runs out, whichever occurs first.

If you’d like to donate directly to the Knit-A-Thon, use this link.

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Alpaca Romney Bulky – Back in Stock!

I am thrilled to announce that Meduseld’s Bulky Alpaca Romney is back in stock!  Whew!  This is a highly popular natural brown blend that flies off our shelves.  We have limited production of this yarn since I use the same two fleeces each year to make it – one a natural brown alpaca and the other a natural grey brown Romney ewe.  Their blend yields a luxurious, shiny yarn.

Meduseld's Alpaca Romney Yarn

Meduseld’s Alpaca Romney Yarn

This yarn is so squeezably soft, wonderful for warm winter knits, and perfect for this time of year.  This yarn has no itch factor and is sutable for garments that touch your skin.  For some reason I cannot explain, it is darker this year than last, looking more like a rich dark chocolate.

This year's blend is darker, on left

This year’s blend is darker, on left

 We only have five pounds of this yarn, so supply is again very limited.  Each 250 yard skein weighs approximately 8.7 ounces – over half a pound!  They are $30.00 each, the same price as last year.  You can find them in our store here!

Gratefully,

Patricia

Icicle Shawl Pattern

Meduseld’s Icicle Trim Shawl was very popular at Shenandoah’s Fiber Festival last week, and I received numerous requests for the pattern. As promised, here it is, FREE!

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The shawl is springy and light and the icicle fringe gives it the appearance of winter, or even like dew on a spring morning.  The body of the shawl is knitted and the trim is an easy crochet pattern.

Materials:

2 skeins of Meduseld’s Lace Romney, approximately 500 yards

silver EE (#6) beads

US 6 Knitting needles

US G crochet hook

US 10-13 stainless crochet hook or beading needle

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BODY – Place one stitch on your left knitting needle. Make one YO on right needle and knit the stitch on the left needle. Turn. YO, knit the two stitches. Turn, YO, knit the three stitches.Continue with this pattern until you have 164 rows. Each row will have one stitch more than the row before, and very quickly you’ll have a shawl with large loops at each side from the yarn-overs. Bind off the stitches of the last row keeping the remaining stitch and do not cut the yarn.

ICICLE TRIM – Insert crochet hook into the remaining stitch. Turn the shawl so that the side is up. * SC in first yarn-over loop. Chain three. **SC three stitches, placing a silver bead in each SC (see photos). SC in third chain stitch, Chain two, SC in same yarn-over loop. SC in next yarn-over loop. SC in next yarn over loop, chain three, ** repeat stitches between ** until you reach the tip of the shawl where you create an icicle in all three of the yarn-over loops. Resume from * and finish the other side of the shawl. Bind off and weave in yarn end.

Place a bead on the #10 hook.  Pull yarn through the bead.  This loop forms the next crochet stitch.  Put the G hook through this loop and draw a stich through it to close the stitch.

Place a bead on the #10 hook. Pull yarn through the bead. This loop forms the next crochet stitch. Put the G hook through this loop and draw a stitch through it to complete the stitch.

 

Place three beads this way.  You can see that each is separated by the closing stitch.  Now SC in the third chain stitch, and chain two more to complete the "icicle."

Place three beads this way. You can see that each is separated by the completed single crochet  stitch. Now SC in the third chain stitch, and chain two more to complete the “icicle.”

BLOCK – wash gently with a mild soap and block or lay flat on towel to dry, shaping the shawl.

Special notes: You will have yarn left over. You can make the shawl larger by increasing the number of rows.  Just keep in mind the approximate amount you will need to crochet the edge.

For beading, I use a US #10 stainless crochet hook which is used for making crochet lace. The #10 size is fine enough to go through most of the beads and still has a large enough hook to draw the yarn through. Kate Rabjohns, our expert knitter, uses a #13, which being finer fits through more beads. Note that the hook is smaller though.

Meduseld's Icicle Shawl

Meduseld’s Icicle Shawl

Pattern by Patricia Culver, Meduseld

New Romney Fingerling Yarn Colors

Meduseld has added new colors to its high-sheen Romney fingering/Lace yarn.  They are sold in pairs of 500 yards, 5.5 oz for $25.00.  These vibrant colors called Royal, Full Moon and Titian are perfect for projects going into the fall.  They are in Meduseld’s Store.

Vibrant ROmney Fingerling/Lace yarn

Meduseld Lace-weight Yarn Back-in-Stock!

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Meduseld’s lace-weight yarn is back in stock in our store!

This is the beautiful, high-sheen yarn that has been shown in projects on these pages and on Ravelry.   This yarn is ideal for making lace shawls and scarves.  It makes stunning knitted Estonian lace work, and yields a lace fabric with shine and drape. 

Estonian Shawl - Kate

 

Lace Shawl Romney Fingering II

It is also delightful made into crochet lace.  Here it has been used in a pineapple pattern to create a shawl that is diaphanous and catches every breeze, despite being bordered with glass beads.  This yarn would be ideal for making bridal shawls.

Lace Shawl

Lace Shawl

 Meduseld Lace Shawl

Romney yarn holds dye beautifully.  These two-ply skeins are 250 yards  and are $13.00 each.  Each skein weighs approximately 2.9 ozFor bulk purchases, please contact Meduseld directly.

Free Knitted Shawl Pattern

We have a free knitted shawl pattern, courtesy of my friend Kate!

Kate created this shawl from the Meduseld Romney yarn that we dyed together for the dyeing wool with food coloring article a few weeks ago.  In these pictures, you’ll recognize the green and teal yarn that she dyed and subsequently swatched. 

Kate's Boomerang Shawl

Kate’s Boomerang Shawl

 

Here is a close-up of the border:

Close-up of Border

Close-up of Border

And this picture shows its boomerang shape and the subtle pattern in the dyed yarn as it moves across the shawl.

Kate's Boomerang Shawl

Kate’s Boomerang Shawl

 Here is Kate with the pattern:

Easy Boomerang shawl

This is an easy garter stitch shawl, knit sideways from one point to the long edge opposite. It can be very simple with no border, or fancy with a sideways knitted lace edge of your choice. If you continue the edging around the other side, you will only have to bind off a few stitches at the end. I’ve done two different versions, one with the Doris edging, the other with the Wave Lace edging, which I modified slightly to come to a point at the end. Both are from Heirloom Knitting by Shannon Miller.

Cast on three stitches (I used the long tail cast on), plus the number needed for the border. (For the Doris edging I cast on nine more stitches; for the Wave edging, eight.)

Knit across.

First row: k2, m1, k1, pm. Knit the first row of your chosen edging.

Second row: Knit the second row of the edging. Sm, k2tog, m1, k2.

Third row: k2, m1, k to marker. Sm, knit next edging row.

Fourth row: knit next edging row. Sm, k2tog, k to last two stitches, m1, k2.

Repeat the third and fourth row until your shawl is the size you like, or until you are running out of yarn. You can just keep going until you have just enough to bind off, or leave enough to continue the border around the other side.

I ended the shawl when I came to an inward point in the edging. I then knit one more row on the edging from the edge to the body of the shawl, and turned, knitting back down to the edge. I then continued the edging, knitting the last stitch of the edging together with the next stitch of the body, to finish off all the live stitches on the body. I then had to bind off only nine stitches at the end.

Kate

 

Crocheted Pineapple Shawl

Lace Shawl

Lace Shawl

 

Generously sized Lace Pineapple Shawl made from Meduseld’s romney yarn in the fingering/lace weight.  This shawl has approximately 600 yards of yarn.  It was inspired by a pattern in a Japanese crochet book, but the border is entirely changed to emphasize the pineapples on the edge, and each ends with a small cluster of glass beads.

Close-up of "pineapples"

Close-up of “pineapples”

The shawl is available in our store.

 

Hand Dying Yarn with Food Coloring

This weekend we had another fun visit from my skilled knitter friend, Kate.  She had a couple gorgeous WIPs with her, and I hope to convince her to let me take pictures of them.  She was making stunning knitted lace with some silk lace yarn she had acquired at last year’s Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival, and I can’t want to see what they look like when she’s finished.

While she was here, we thought it would be fun to dye some yarn.  We took some skeins of  romney worsted weight yarn and proceeded to the kitchen.

Using standard kitchen food colors, Kate decided to make her yarns in shades of blues and greens.  I selected autumn colors.   In order to begin, the yarn has to be soaked in water with white vinegar.  We used about 6 cups water with two tablespoons white vinegar.  The acid is what makes the colors bind to the natural wool fibers.  Some dyers also use citric acid to achieve the same result.  We allowed the yarn to soak in this solution for over 30 minutes. 

While this was soaking, we started to prepare our dying solutions and the work area.  To make the dyes, we used small dishes with 1/4 cup water.  To these we added between 5- 12 drops of food coloring, depending on the intensity that we wanted with each color.  This is fun to experiment with. 

To protect the counter we placed clear plastic wrap in a large hollow rectangle on the counter.  The rectangle has to be large enough to accommodate the dimensions of the yarn skein.  It is hollow so that it can be wrapped up around the skein once it is dyed.

Here Kate is almost done applying the colors to her skeins.  She has two skeins side by side so that each will have the same colorway.  She has been applying the dyes with a small syringe.  Please also note her gloves…this can be pretty messy business.

painting yarn

When finishes applying the dyes, Kate starts rolling the plastic around the skein from the outside it.  You want to enclose the skein so that one side does not touch the other and have color leaking into other parts.  You end up with a large hollow doughnut shape.  Kate placed this in a Pyrex dish, and put it in the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  The heat is necessary to “fix” the dyes.  (You can also microwave the yarn in two minute increments until it is steaming hot and the dye it set.)   After checking it, we decided another ten would help fix the colors.

 baking yarn

After removing the yarn and allowing it to cool, Kate has washed the yarn in warm water and a mild soap.  Wash until the water runs clear and be gentle so that the yarn does not felt.  Here she is showing the completed, yet still wet, product.

wet yarn

The two skeins turned out beautifully!  Some of the blue dyes separated and created spots of purple that add interest to the yarn. 

finished yarn

 

Kate has already swatched it.

kate yarn swatched

Here are the two skeins made in the autumn shades.  These two are available in our store.

 autumn romney

 

Meduseld Romney – Two New Yarns

We are excited to add two new sport weight yarns to our store, both made of 100 percent Romney wool.  They are both subtle blends of dyed wools and we are calling their colors Monet Winter Sunset and Monet Reflection.

Romney Yarn

Romney Yarn

 

Monet Winter Sunset is a blend of reds with hints of leaf green and gold subtley intertwined in the Romney wool sheen.  Monet Reflection appears purple or lilac at first to the eye, but actually contains no purple fibers.  It is a blend of reds and blues creating a tweeding effect that changes colors in different light, almost like a color-change sapphire.  You can see these blends in the photos.

I have made some swatches of each.  Sunset was knit with #3 (U.S.) knitting needles.  Reflection was crocheted with an “F” crochet hook.

monetsunsetknit monetreflectioncrochet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both compliment each other well.  Inspired by a sweater I have always liked in Rowan Magazine Number 50, I started knitting the two together in the rose pattern. 

Monet Rowan

This is is as far as I have gotten, and the colors compliment each other nicely.

 

 

monetrose

Each sport weight skein weighs just over 3.2  oz and is 200 yards long.  They can be purchased for $15.00 each in Meduseld’s store.

Meduseld Romney Yarn

Meduseld Romney Yarn

Meduseld Worsted Romney Yarn on FibreTown

Meduseld worsted romney yarn

The most recent FibreTown podcast showed two of Meduseld’s yarns.  Emily Estrada, with FibreTown, will be offering a choice of either to the winner of a drawing she will have when she reaches 100 members on her Ravelry group.  As of today her group called fiber town podcast has 91 members, so it won’t be long.  Make sure you go and join up.  It is a fun, active group where people share their FO’s (finished objects) and their WIP’s (works in progress)  Emily has many skills that she shares and its a good way to learn about some of the yarns and rovings that are available.

One of the yarns Emily showed was Meduseld’s Worsted Romney yarn in 200 yard skeins.  Here I have made some swatches that show how it knits and crochets.  But first, a picture of its luxurious drape.

Meduseld Worsted Yarn

The first swatch was knit on U.S. size 7 knitting needles which would be 4.5 mm.  This worsted yarn has approximately 12 wraps and the suggested needle size is between 7 and 9 – U.S.  As you can see in the picture, it has remarkable sheen.  This swatch has some stretch and has a lovely handle.

Worsted Romney Knit Swatch

The next swatch was crocheted on a size G (4mm) hook, and created a nice tight fabric.  The stitches are all double crochet.  You could certainly use a larger hook, and projects made with this should work up quickly.

Worsted Romney Crocheted

 

We will be listing this yarn on Ravelry.com for the members who want to be able to identify it with their projects.  It is available to buy in our store here