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...