It’s Friday and that means a plethora of things to everyone, but across the board there is a collective sigh of relief that the work week is over and the weekend has, again, arrived! (And, it is Earth Day)

Before the weekend begins, it is Fiber Friday at Casa del KatKnits – and we have lots of fiber for you today.

I was unbelievably fortunate to talk with a knitting genius this week and she gave me a good bit of fiber food for thought. Which has me thinking about the economy of yarn and knitting things you love and, more importantly, will love wearing! And, swatching. Lots and lots of swatching. She shared a new to me way of determining if you like the fabric of your knitted swatch…close your eyes and let your fingers decide. Fantastic advice, which I did with the swatch from last week. And, my fingers like the fabric better with the smaller needle. Knitting is such a tactile process, yet I never thought of doing this. Thanks, Ina for closing my eyes and sharing a new dimension.

Rolag production has been going very well, especially with the addition of a bit of “pre-combing” to remove the vegetation. Pre-combing before carding? Something new I learned in the last week. It not only removed the chaff it also made carding incredibly easy and as a result, the carding is going faster.

I know. I am pretty sure I do not experiment enough, especially with fiber prep and spinning. I need to give myself permission to step out of my comfort zone, which is not always an easy thing to do.

Soon the spinning can begin in earnest.

Speaking of spinning in earnest, I am going to attempt to spin the braid above entirely on a drop spindle. I am aiming for a dk weight single. I struggle with this on my wheel, because of the ease of spinning and too much twist. Hopefully this plan will help that a bit. Add to that the portability of the project with just a drop spindle and a bit of fiber and it seems like the perfect summer combination. So far, so good!

Now, for the enabling portion of this post!

Ever wanted to knit stained glass?

Thea’s been cooking up some fun with Jill

Summer cardigans are so much fun, especially when they remind me of an Eileen Fisher-esque design!

It’s just knitting squares!

Did you ever wish for a Big Sister?

That’s all I have for today, have an amazing weekend and I will see you back here on Monday.

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