Signs of life....

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, we did it was quite restful and enjoyable....

I said before Christmas I'd been doing some secret knitting but couldn't reveal it because the recipient was a blog reader anyway I can reveal what I was up to now....

Earlier in the Autumn I spun some Texel up and then dyed half of it in a dark charcoal grey....

From these two skeins I made these.... Selbuvotter NHM#7

I can say I was and still am very pleased with how they turned out and so is the recipient :o) I must admit however, the next pair I make will have longer and stretchier ribs they feel a bit like a crop top (not that I wear crop tops) more the fact the ribs just seem to 'hang' round the wrists.... but I did enjoy knitting them....

On the fibrey Christmas present front I was well blessed.... I received a total of 5 braids of various fibres from friends & family..... OK one or two were pointed in the right direction of The Yarn Yard to Natalie's 'Fibre Surprise' parcels, which I am pleased to say she is leaving up year round...

This was from my friend and came from Kirsten at All Spun Up and is BFL

All these were from relatives and from the yarn yard

'Pink2Purple' - BFLSuperwash

'Autumn Tints' - Merino / Silk

'Liquorice Allsorts' - Shetland

'Cabbage Medley' - Merino / Silk

The 'givers' chose from a selection of fibres Natalie had to offer and then gave Natalie a colour theme to work with to dye the fibre... I think she's got this down to a fine art hasn't she?

I also got the book 'Estonian Lace' by Nancy Bush and still on order is the 'Intentional Spinner' by Judith MacKenzie McCuin....

I also bought a e-system lace flyer for my Rose just before Christmas from a fellow Raveler in the anticipation I would get some money for Christmas to put towards it..... but you really don't want to see a photo of a lace flyer & 2 fat core bobbins do you?

Anyway this will be my last post for 2008 so I will take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2009...

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas & Best Wishes for the New Year

Flower Basket

is finished :o))) and a respectable 72" across the top and 32" down the spine

Knit from my own handspun, which was spun from South African Fine in colour way 'Joshua Tree' dyed by Spunky Eclectic. The shawl was knit using 3.75mm needles (yarnw eight was 6m/g) and using Evelyn Clarks pattern 'Flower Basket'. This has 14 repeats of the main pattern before doing the 10 row edging...

Started last Tuesday (16th) and finished yesterday (21st) including blocking and arrived safely in Yorkshire today for my friend Mike to give to his mum....

Will do this pattern again at a future date....

Also completed for a Christmas present 'Lime Fire' a 3ply yarn.

Fibre from Spunky Eclectic and is Superwash Merino.

336m / 110g

21wpi

Were I'm at...

Well officially I've finished my Christmas Knitting - officially that is...

I completed the last pair of socks on Wednesday which are for SIL and I also completed the slipper socks last weekend, but as yet the soles haven't come so I can't stitch socks to the soles :o(
I have also finished another knitted project I was working on but the person who is to receive it reads this blog, so photos will have to wait until after Christmas!!!

I said I'd officially finished my Christmas Knitting but I ended up starting this on Tuesday

It's Evelyn Clarks 'Flower Basket'. I've had the pattern years and never done it... the yarn is my own hand spun which I did earlier this year; it's South African Fine by Spunky Eclectic in Joshua Tree

This all arose after an email conversation between me and my friend Mike (the one huddled under the shawls in the last post) last Saturday in which the conversation went something like this

Mike: Do you have anything in the shop I can buy for my Mum for Christmas?

Me: Well the odd embroidery kit but after having shingles in her eyes this year I don't think

she'll be up to it..

Mike: Oh...

a little bit of quick thinking and project calculating on my part

Me: Would you like to knit a shawl for her for you?

Mike: Have you got time?

Me: I think I can manage it, but will have to be my choice of pattern & yarn?

Mike: OK, thank you...

Hence I'm now knitting a shawl... it's grown a lot since then and I'm actually on the 12th repeat at the moment; somewhere heading towards 315sts as I've plenty of yarn left I think I'll do a couple of extra repeats and try and use as much of the yarn as possible :o)

On the spinning front I've completed Rhubarb which is also a Christmas present...

Fibre (superwash corriedale) originally from Spunky Eclectic which is a traditional 3ply and coming out a respectable 406m / 112g

Am currently about to go and ply Lime Fire after finishing my coffee....

Interlude...

We still have no heating :o( hopefully it will be seen today and either fixed today or tomorrow...

Our friend Mike came yesterday to visit and to collect his hand dyed sock yarn from the silent auction I hosted.... I came back in the room to find this scene ;o) and the comment 'the things you do for friends'.... For anyone that's interested he's modelling CW108 one of my very 1st shawls and Heartland by Evelyn Clark done in Buffalo yarn... in fact it was Mike who bought it me as a birthday present a couple of years ago so it seems only fitting he gets to use the shawl now and again!!!

Anyway I have had a little interlude from 'Christmas knitting'. Natalie of The Yarn Yard asked me if I would test knit some new lace yarn she has to go in the shop tomorrow, which is called Betwixt, and is a blend of 10% Cashmere & 90% merino.... it's very squishy in the skein...

I jumped at the chance to do a bit of lace for a change, so I did one of my favourite patterns 'Swallowtail' by Evelyn Clark. I had several reasons for picking this pattern to test knit the yarn. I knew I can do it fairly quickly, it’s an enjoyable knit (this is the 4th time for me), it’s a very pretty shawl and most importantly I knew it would give the yarn ‘a good work out’ in terms of lace knitting….

I find this pattern overall presents you with good solid and open areas to show off stitch definition. The pattern starts out with a nice easy pattern repeat which shows off colour well and then the lily of the valley pattern puts the yarn under ‘stress’ whilst doing Nupps, finally the peaked edging gives you a nice edging that you can really stretch out when blocking.

I am pleased to say that Betwixt lived up to all the criteria I want in a lace yarn….

It was very soft and ‘squishy’ and wound nicely into a ball with my ball winder.
It was nice to use and flowed easily through the fingers when knitting with it
It gave good stitch definition
It blocked well

I did notice when knitting that sometimes the yarn appeared to be ‘thin’ in places but I discovered this was just temporary when I was pulling the yarn tight to knit with it, but after releasing the stitch is ‘fluffed’ back to normal.

I used a 3.5mm needle and I personally wouldn’t go any higher, in fact next time I use this yarn I think I would opt for a 3.25mm as after blocking I would prefer my ‘knitted areas’ in the budding lace to be a little more solid, but that’s just my personal preference…

As those of you who are familiar with Swallowtail will see, the peaked edging is a little short as I had to omit the last 4 rows of it due to insufficient yarn, however, it's come out a respectable 48" across the top and 23" down the spine.

All round this is a good yarn for small projects and I will be using it in the future, especially it's £6.95 for a 25/26g skein with at least 300m on of every so slightly variegated colours...

This arrived this week from Juliespins etsy shop it was the 'not fibre club' she offered through Ravelry, were you signed up for a maximum of 8oz of fibre either all Wood or Surprise me or a combination of the two. I opted for 4oz of the 'Surprise Me' colourway in Merino/Silk which turned out to be called 'Polaris' it's beautifully soft and squishy...

How to Convince DH knitted things are a good idea

have the boiler conveniently pack up when you're expirencing the coldest weather so far this year!!!

My other half works from home quite a bit so this was the scene yesterday (and it's not much different today) when he had to spend his first day working from home after the boiler packed up...



I knit this Rowanspun top for him about 18 months ago, it was worn once until this week (today he has a t-shirt underneath the Rugby shirt as well). He has never worn a woolly hat or gloves in his life.. these were knit for a friend and left at our house; so now the regular John Deere cap is over the top of the beanie and he's very grateful for the fingerless gloves that go halfway up his arms.... What you can't see he has one of my shawls across is knees to keep them warm....

You might well ask what I'm wearing whilst I'm working from home in the same house - just a jumper and cardigan... says it all really doesn't it ;o ?

Anyway onto more exciting things than pictures of my DH dressed up... I finished knitting the fair isle gloves I designed and I have to say I am very well pleased with them.... They used just under 50g of Patons Diploma Gold 4ply and about 16g of Trekking Ombre sock yarn...


I still so hate knitting fingers though :o(

I've actually managed a bit of lace this week too.. quite basic but effective pattern to show my customers what can be done with one 25g ball of Rowans Kidsilk Haze - a scarf 6.5" x 45", excuse the bad photograph please...


On the spinning front I Navajo plied Sunny Side and got a very respectable (I am well chuft) 492m / 116g of sock yarn... and it stripes too ;o)


I've also finished spinning 'Rhubarb' which again will be socks when I've plied it next week... I'm working on another sock yarn at the moment 'Lime Fire' - these are all Christmas presents...


I have some secret knitting on the go at the moment to so unfortunately you won't be able to see anything of it until afer Christmas.... and I'm on the 2nd sock of both pairs of socks which are the last for Christmas...

Just to finish off some gratuitous Fibre pron :o) I'm actually thinking of insulating myself with all my fibre this weekend if the little man doesn't come to the boiler tonight... thank goodness we still have a coal fire...

From The Yarn Yard we have the first of n's 'Erica' series batts... beautifully carded several times to blend 7 different shades of green together especially aimed at Lace Knitters... theres 190g here I am so looking forward to spinning this...


From Loop we have 'Beautyberries' this is mainly Bamboo with some Mohair

and then all missalicefaye's fault from Enchanted Knoll we have 3 batts - Pumkin Juice, Fern & Chai