Little Treasures

Gift Tag from Little Oranges of California

I love this sweet little gift tag made by Little Oranges of California. You can actually read the size of the needle on the needle head: 13 US 9.0. At $6 for 8 tags they aren't cheap, but then neither is a handknitted gift. I found it at Paper Doll one of my favorite stores on Division St. Filled with interesting paper goods and special little tchotchkes of all kinds, not to mention a wonderful little pug, I have a hard time walking by without going in.

Thanks to everyone who said such nice things about my handspun. I think this yarn is looking more and more like a table runner. Or maybe some kind of sampler pillow. I do think I have to check out Alterknits and see if the idea Morgan metioned would work.

A couple of comments from yesterday's post included questions, so I thought I'd answer a few of those here today.

Morgan asked:

Where did you get all your info on the ratio's ??? since i am still learning to spin I am trying to find resources and I have no clue what you were talking about!!

You can get that info from a couple of places: your spinning wheel manufacturers site or from retailers that are selling the wheel you are interested in, or at the WooLee Winder site. I'd love it if the info was stamped into the flyer somehow because I always have to look it up. In general, the ratio tells you how fast you can put twist into a yarn. A 10:1 ratio means that for every 1 rotation of the big wheel, you have 10 rotations of the flyer. The smaller the whorl on the flyer, the higher the ratio, the more twist you can can create in any unit of time.

Liz (no URL) asked:

How long have you been spinning, if you don't mind me asking?

I don't mind the question at all. I got my first drop spindle (actually first 2 drop spindles) from MS&W, May, 2005 and my first spinning lesson from Claudia at the same time. I bought my wheel in late January, 2006. So I've just been spinning a little over a year now. I love spinning and find I can do it for hours and hours given the right fiber and something good to listen to.

Heatherly, on a different topic, asked:

I finally started my here b dragon sox. i am making them for a child so i am doing the scaled up, but in 3 repeats. what do you think?

If you mean three repeats for the leg, I say no problem. If you mean three repeats around instead of 4, then you may have problems with the heel and toe details if you want to include them, since those assume that certain parts of the pattern will be centered over the heel and toe when you get there. Depending on the size of the child, it might be better to experiment with a finer gauge yarn and smaller needles and stick with the 4 repeats. But if you don't mind spending time playing with the pattern, I'd say try the three repeats and see how it goes. You never know, you might get something you really like.