January Round Up

Sorry it's taken so long to getting round to posting but have been quite busy on the fibre front in one way or another....

Not in any order of priority just the way I loaded the photos into blogger we'll start with the spinning.....

This is "Twilight 2" Merino that I purchased from the The Yarn Wench before Christmas to add to my stash fibre; although I am determined not to let it get out of hand, famous last words!!!!

I decided I would join the SAL on Ravelry for January which was "Snowed in colours - Angora - Fulling" as you can see I only opted for the colour theme and thought it was quite apt, Icy blues and whites with a bit of black thrown in, now despite not being a fan of black I think it makes the singles look great. Here is 2/3 of the fibre spun up and I have just the remaining 1/3 to spin then I will ply and attempt my first 3ply yarn.....

Next up is part of the 2008 new years resolution, not so much as a resolution but a promise to myself that I will try and improve upon my crochet skills.... I have been able to crochet for a while give me a hook and yarn and I can practise virtually most stitches and get a sample, try and put that into anything other than a scarf and I loose it so I always say my problem is counting not crocheting as I usually end up with not enough or too many chains left at the end of a row.....

Anyway here are my attempts so far... these are worked in Patons Jet (gloves) and Patons Inca (hat) both from the book Patons Learn to Crochet

I started with the fingerless mitts (1 ball) and then moved onto the hat (2 balls) my crocheting in the round is still not brilliant again no problem with the stitches and the principle I struggle with completing the rounds and if I don't keep count I find it difficult were the start/finish is if that makes any sense?

Next a straight forward bag in treble crochet (or double crochet for my American readers) worked in Patons 100% Cotton DK. I have to say the cotton is a fantastic yarn to crochet with and very good value at £3.35 for 100g of either DK (210m) or 4ply (330m) weight. This pattern is originally from a kit introducing how to crochet... I just thought if people could see the bag made up it might tempt some one to have a go... I really enjoyed this

Next up is the scarf "Flurry" from the book Crochet Inspirations 1 using 2 strands of the Mohair blend "Misty" this takes 4 balls all in all, and as I couldn't make my mind up about the colour I went with 1 strand of "Sky" and 1 strand of "Thunder" so I've ended up with a heathery look which I rather like; again quite a straight forward pattern but looks more difficult than it is.

The nice thing about the Misty is that despite it's 70% Mohair (30% polyamide) it didn't irritate my nose when working with it, at all unlike Rowans Kidsilk Haze and if memory serves me right it's statistics makes it a suitable substitute for that yarn: 150m / 25g; tension 18-25 x 23-34 on 3.25 - 5.00mm or US 3 - 8 and at £2.75 per ball it's a heck of a lot cheaper!!!!

Sorry you're going to have turn your head side ways..... must make Soo & Fleegle work for their photos!!!!

Last on the crocheting front is the "Chevron Scarf" from the Learn to Crochet book above, but rather than use the Jet, I've used a smaller hook and yes you guessed it Patons yarn again, but the Washed Haze Aran, which is another good yarn although I normally prefer the DK weight....

With all the striping - 6 rows to the pattern repeat I am opting for the format taken by some lace knitters when doing knitted edgings and doing 6 rows a day otherwise I would go mad cutting the yarn at the end of every row and threading or crocheting in the ends

Now to the Lace Knitting.... I know I haven't said anything about this but I have been working on this since New Year for my friend Anita aka Dream Knitting who has a had a bad back for a few weeks, and was doing this for a friend who retires at the end of February; I didn't like to mention it on my blog until I had asked her permission to do so....

Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in "Georgetown" and of course as everyone knows it's the PLT MS3 stole otherwise known as "Swan Lake". I must admit I've enjoyed doing this as I didn't know what to do after Christmas, so it filled a hole.....

With the above lace knitting complete I finally cast on my 'Heartland Shawl" in Buffalo yarn that was a birthday present from my friend Mike last April.... lovely to knit and is a heavy fingering weight yarn although the pattern says 110g of DK weight I have 186g so I will be doing more repeats than the pattern states as it says 4 repeats before starting the edging.... shown here is halfway through the 2nd repeat......

I spent 3/4 hours the other afternoon re-charting the chart that came with it as it wasn't easy to read and I knew I wouldn't be able to work comfortably with it as it was.... so those hours were well spent....

Last but not least I cast on the "Alpine Scarf" from VLT which needs to be finished for April. I'm using some French 4ply silk from Colourmart and adding in 2 extra repeats of the central motif to make it wider and I will just knit it as along as I can. I did a test sample August when the yarn arrived so I could 'play' with the yarn, so you can see were I'm going with this one, at this stage I'm halfway through the first bottom border repeat. Once I get the bottom border done I will set myself the task of 1 repeat per day.....

And lastly to say thank you to Fleegle for nominating me for the "You make my day award" I was going to nominate a few people this morning but so far everyone I thought of has already been nominated... so I for those of you who I read your blog on a regular basis, you make my day when you post......

I hope the round up of January's fibre escapades has been worth the wait and there's sufficient photos for Fleegle & Soo...

Soon...

I promise I will have an update for you with photos (I promise Fleegle & Soo) of what I've been up to in the last week or so...

Bits & Pieces...

This just literally arrived through my door :o) lovely isn't it?

It's my fibre club parcel from The Yarn Yard a 50% merino & 50% tencil blend. As always Natalie sends a lovely covering letter describing the fibre and how she went about dying it and her opinion about spinning it and/or suggestions... it's certainly brightened my day up... It's a beautiful combination of colours, it's soft and has a beautiful sheen to it....

Here's the Wine Sap roving all spun up and plied now... I must admit I'm pleased with how it turned out, though as you can see the colours in the roving don't always come through into the yarn as strongly as you would want

I got a very respectable 336m weighing in at 114g with 11tpi and 21wpi, and I'm pleased because my plying has improved and is more even and firmer. Previous plying has been a bit sloppy in places and firmer in others so this is a definite improvement.

I got one or two suggestions for the yarn, and I've bookmarked them on Ravelry for future use, but at the moment I'm toying with creating my own shawl pattern following Evelyn's suggestions in her book Knitting Lace Triangles. I'll let you know what I decide and how I progress....

My Princess shawl pattern was delivered on Saturday so now I have the yarn, the pattern & the needles and I'm ready to go but it will be a few months before I start as I don't "feel" ready to begin yet and I have a couple of shawls I want to do before starting this, so I think it'll be summer before I begin....

Both socks are progressing nicely so hopefully it won't be too long before I have a couple more pairs of socks....

Some Knitting & Some Spinning

On the knitting front I have completed 1 sock form each pair of socks I'm knitting for ME... on the left we have the Trekking Ombre and on the right Lornas Laces "Black Purl". Both very nice yarns to knit with although the Trekking Ombre is quite a fine yarn and requires more knitting per cm than any other sock yarn I've knit with so far....

The Trekking one is being worked on Bamboo DPN's and the other is on my two Knitpick's circs.... I like both methods but I think the two circs win slightly, however it's useful to have both on the go at once to show customers the different ways....

The other reason I slightly prefer the two circ method is that my socks on circs are that little bit firmer as I knit 1 st/inch tighter on these than on the DPN's Now that's not much but enough that both my husband Paul and friend Mike can tell when they put the socks on for the first time which needles they've been knit on, who says men don't notice??? it's either that or they have very sensitive feet!!!!

On the spinning front, I have to say I was overwhelmed by all the lovely comments you left me and questions that were asked, I think I've responded to them all by various methods...

I was asked if I wanted to learn to spin several years ago by an elderly friend and I said no, it just wasn't me at the time (this was pre-knitting days) she had a couple of traditional wheels and I have to say they don't really appeal to me I like my castle wheel format, that and we don't have a lot of room for the bigger wheels... my friend wouldn't believe it now if I told her I was spinning as I was so adamant back then I wouldn't ever want to spin and look at me now I love it. I try and fit in 20/30 minutes a day just to keep my hand in and keep the 'feel' for the drafting; it doesn't always work but I am trying....

Anyway the latest spinning project is this from the The Yarn Wench, "Winesap1" - 4.2oz of Falkland

which has now after a week or so of spinning been turned into this:

Hopefully I will ply it tonight (2ply) and set the twist... unfortunately on the bobbins it doesn't show the rich plums.

I'm going to knit something with this, because as of yet I haven't knit up any of my hand spun; I've spun a few up as presents for Christmas and the one from the last post is destined to be part of mum's birthday present. Just as well I have good friends as they got my 'practising to make sock yarn" spinning....

I think this yarn will probably be a scarf, but all I can think of at the moment are My so called Scarf, Argosy and One row hand spun scarf any suggestions for patterns??? or anything else besides a scarf or socks? I'm hoping to have around 300m for 100g or thereabouts.....

Coming Out....

I bought a 2nd hand Ashford Traveller some months ago, so amongst socks and lace I have been teaching myself to spin... so just to prove I'm still alive and around as I've no real knitting on the go at the moment (I'm having that post-Christmas-knit-present phase) apart from two pairs of socks, both for me I thought I'd show you a photo of my latest hand spun.....

The fibre was purchased from The Yarn Yard at Woolfest last year; it's 100% Organic Merino Pencil roving, it has no 'name' so I deemed it "Spring Meadow" - it's the 3rd from the left.

Here it is after plying, but prior to wet finishing....

and after wet finishing, I was just curious to see the difference it made....

and the finished skein after finishing, drying and re-hanking....

As for the finishing I got a bit confused so it actually got a bit of a 'fulling' followed by 'Twist Setting' hence it has a bit of a halo, which if I'm honest I'm not so keen on.... but I'm pleased with the overall finished skein....

I managed to produce 242m in this 100g skein of a 2 ply yarn with 17wpi and 9tpi; it's the best I've managed to get out of pencil roving so far... I expect pencil roving to be easy but I still find it difficult to draft to get it even....

Wishing

you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best for 2008