LittleBerry Knits

Iced Gems from The Yarn Yard

2011-10-06T10:16:00.000Z

Just a quick post to show you my progress on working with Natalie of The Yarn Yard's 'Iced Gems' that I purchased earlier in the week before her new Etsy Shop was cleared out of HDT...

From this:

to this:

UK has a new HDT Supplier!

2011-10-04T17:33:00.000Z

OK Natalie is not exactly new to the dying game as she's been successfully running 'The Yarn Yard' for several years now supplying knitters and crocheters with beautiful colour combinations of yarns in solids, semi-solids and variegated colourways.

Anyway she rang me last week about her venture into the 'embroidery' market with HDT as I've sold Oliver Twists for several years anyway we talked and she would send me a sample. We talked some more and due to my new found interest of tatting I said we're short of HDT supplier in the UK so I suggested some base threads and suggested she got in touch with Jane Eborall of 'Tatting and not a lot Else' who is one of the UK's foremost & prolific tatters. Natalie also sent Jane a skein to try and this is what she said about the 100% Swiss silk thread.

I tatted a small motif called 'Starchic' by Jon Yusoff with the silk thread and this is what it turned out like:

The thread was nice to tat with but as a new tatter I did find untatting I had to be careful not to pluck the thread. While it tats up nice I have to confess to saying I prefer 100% cotton to tat with - I love to see those crisp little stitches that have such great definition you get with 100% cotton. I know Jane felt the same in regards to what makes a good thread for tatting - but it does boils down to the individual tatters taste, but Jane and I seem to like the same base threads of 100% cotton and especially Lizbeth 20.

Anyway we reported back to Natalie, by which time she'd bought in some Lizbeth 20 and was under way in dying some HDT for her new Etsy shop. Here's were you can read about it and see some of the glorious colours she created with evocative names like 'Passionate', 'Iced Gems' and 'Gunmetal'.

Anway you got to support a new venture haven't you? so I ordered two skeins one each of 'Iced Gems' and 'Gunmetal' - they arrived today (Tuesday) and here they are, glorious aren't they?

Now I know Jane has already tried her thread she bought yesterday so go back and check her blog out on Wednesday to see what she did with 'Birthday' ;o)

Now does anyone know where I can buy 'time' so I can try out Natalie's new thread sigh...

Eye Candy

2011-09-27T15:07:00.000Z

Yarnplayer updated her shop last Wednesday... who am I to refuse her offerings... Have to say can't get over the USPS & Royal Mail when posted on 22nd September the postman handed over the goodies this morning (27th)

From top to bottom in size #20: Knitty Gritty, Solid Gold, Sugar Maple, Solid Green & A Leaf Falls

carrying on down from there in size #10: Stardate, Sugar Maple & A Leaf Falls

No projects in mind but the size #10 will probably be used for motifs on my little pots as the size allows to do a reasonbly small, uncomplicated motif which will when embellished nicely fill the lid.

I also received in the post last week my first purchase from Krystledawne a trio threads entitled 'Vineyard at Dusk' which consists of the variegated 'Vineyard at Dusk' and two solids 'Light Withered Vine' & 'Twilight Grape'

And last but not least I plunged and bought a 'pimped' shuttle from La Cossette - well could I resist with a shuttle called 'Autumn Berries' and looks like this ;o)

I learned to Tat

2011-09-20T17:52:00.000Z

I know it's been over 12 months since I blogged but somehow just couldn't get round to it and then I didn't feel like it and life has gotten hectic as well especially more so since the end of June when 'Dexta' our then 9 week GSD came to live with us we sadly lost Cara our 11 year old GSD 5th November 2010.

He is 5 months old next week and if anyone would like to see various photos of him over the time we've had him you can go here and see an assortment of photos of him....

Anyway since I taught myself to tat a month ago I thought I'd share what I've been doing with you. I haven't been dormant since my last blog post plenty of crocheting of garments and shawls but as most of you are on Ravelry yo can just go to my projects and wander through what I've done.

I decided rather than try and catch up as I never manage to do that I just decided that I would try and blog and keep my posts short and sweet then I don't feel like everything else is being sacrificed or precious crochet, knitting, spinning & now tatting time is eaten up IYKWIM?

Anyway I'll not bore you with the pictures of the bag of trials that were my 1st attempts but here's a selection of motifs I've been tatting adding beads and attaching to felt and then adhering onto the lids of pots that once came from 'The Bodyshop' and contained Body Butter.

3D Flower from Rosemarie Peel's Book - Tatting Basic Patterns in Anchor Freccia #12

Maggie from Rosemarie Peel's Book - Tatting Basic Patterns in Anchor Freccia #12

Yarnplayer's Easy Tatted Butterfly in Oliver Twists Pearl Cotton #5

Yarnplayer's Easy Tatted Flower in Anchor Freccia #12

My own improvised design in Yarnplayer's HDT 'Knitty Gritty' #10

6 Petal Motif from これならわかるタティングレースの本 in Coats Mercer #20

ISBN: 978-4-52904967-2

I have also completed 'Adiratna' from Jon Yusoff aka Tat-a-Renda in DMC Cebelia #10 although not sure what I'm going to do with it but as it was my first 'proper' tatting achievement I'm going to keep it for myself...

So after seeing these if anyone is interested in learning to tat you can do no better than go to Tatted Treasures blog and follow her very excellent 'Absolute Beginner' series on learning to tat.

That's enough for now don't you think?

Apart from perhaps I should rename my blog as Littleberry rarely does much knitting these days apart from socks, what do you think?

Thread & Thread alike...

2010-08-25T08:28:00.000Z

Since my last post I have been working a lot with thread (not exclusively) for crocheting... I enjoy the 'popping' it makes over the tiny Clover Soft Touch crochet hook... sad I know but none the less we all have our little quirks...

I was introduced (by Ravelry, where else) to the designs of a lady called Patricia Kristoffersen (PK is often how she's referred to) via the group 'PK Doilies'. I have since collected several, OK well the majority of her booklets with her designs apart from 'Wonderful Doilies' (ASN 1277) & 'Elegant Coasters (LA 2923) and am on a mission to find reasonably priced copies of these.... anyway rather than wax lyrical about the designs it's just easier to give you a photo heavy post of some of her designs I've worked recently and I'll let you make your mind up about her designs... However, I must warn you the photos may not show up her clever use of surface stitches such as post stitches which feature heavily in her work...

From her book - 'Coasters by the Dozen' (LA 3081) all worked in Coats Puppets 'Eldorado' Tkt 10 with a 1.5mm hook

From 'The Big Book of Little Doilies' (LA 2874)

From 'Doilies with Charm' (LA 3161) - Spellbinding worked with Coats Mercer Crochet #20 and .25mm hook

From 'Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies' (LA 2879) - Sunflower Bloom worked with Coats Mercer Crochet #20 and 1.25mm hook

From 'Coffee 'n' Cream' (LA 3073) - Café Latte worked in Coats Freccia #16 and 1.25mm hook

Now for a little of my own engineering - reverse that is ;o) This mat below (cream) has sat on my dressing table for years along with it's partner and the traditional larger centre mat. It was made by maternal grandmother pre 1966 (that's when she died) so I have no idea how old it is. Anyway just for the hell of it a few weeks back a random thought just wandered across my mind (as they do) if I could possibly reverse engineer a piece of crochet (only simple) - I'd heard other people talking about it and I just thought can I do it?

I grabbed the nearest and only thing in the house I could 'copy' - the above mat and the nearest thread that was hanging around - hence why it's pink when I can hear you saying 'Ann doesn't do pink!' and my hook. I came up with the mat below. I have to say I am more than a little pleased with myself :o)))) I wrote down the instructions I worked as I went along and at some point I will write them up and work the larger mat which starts off the same then changes to form a much more decorative centre piece, but it won't be in pink!

Next up was a free pattern from Coats Crafts UK - A Round Doily I used the stated thread but decided to have a go with multiple colours after seeing the work by the talented TheShrone on Ravelry. Am fairly pleased with the results and am just in the process of looking for a frame to mount it as a picture!

Nearly at the end of the post and I hope I'm not boring you. After I did a runner for my mum's 80th earlier this year, she asked if i would do her one to go on her dining room table - so we chose the Queen Anne Motif and two colours of Coats Mercer #20 from my stash Buttercup (it's more buttermilk) and a rather nice brown which we shall say is called Chocolate Brown otherwise if I give it it's correct name from the 1950's/ 60's I'll be up for politically incorrect remarks.

Here's the resulting runner (3 x 8 motifs) with close up below. I like it and looks great in-situ (no not on my carpet on he dining room table) but I am never doing it again! it was tedious and boring to say the least and the motifs could be easily memorized within completing one or two of them - no challenge to say the least! The up side is that each of the large motifs was easily completed within 1 hour - so as the Dr would recommend 'take one a day', I did one motif a day... the border was not much better and broken down into two sessions there's about 5 - 6 hours crocheting just of the scalloped edges but the runner is a respectable 13 x 39"

and finally last but no means least as they say - something I put together myself after working a pansy to work out how they were constructed so I could repair one on one of my grandmother's mats (she liked pansies) and yes it was repaired using the original thread too!

I had this pansy floating around so I made a few more, made some other little flowers, worked a few leaves and added a splash of colour with some non-de-script filler flowers and came up with this....

and a close up for detail...

I now have a crochet decorated project tote :o) all the threads are coats mercer #20 from my stash and are older than me ;o)

Next post we'll move onto something a little chunkier and bigger

Pierrot Yarns

2010-08-07T09:23:00.000Z

I can't believe it's well over a month since I posted last - time certainly flies as you get older...

As promised in my last post I said I was nearly caught up and that's more or less true, after this post the items I have to show have been completed relatively recently as opposed to last year or several months ago...

I came across a Japanese yarn company via Ravelry called Pierrot Yarns who have started to create a English based website for their western readers as well as their well established Japanese one.... so over 2 or 3 orders I purchased several different yarns. This company doesn't sell patterns but instead have all their pattern online free to download - and there's quite a lot I can tell you as well as good variety. However, they're all in chart form whether knitting or crocheting, which I have to say I much prefer to written word anyway. Most of the patterns have been added to Ravlery so you can see the suggested yarns for the project etc... and should you need guidelines for following Japanese Patterns Linda aka Dancingbarefoot did a very good job.....

Anyway I can hear you crying out for photos - I'm not going to list loads of photos of my stash you can always go route through my stash on Ravelry if you want to see what I purchased ;o) which by the way Pierrot Yarns are offering a 'flat rate postage service' after their summer holidays of $10 EMS postage to anywhere in the world (that accepts EMS) for any orders over Y5000. I have to say it's a very good deal.... and their service is exceptional.

Anyway I digress... I decided I'd show you 3 items all made with Pierrot yarns which I entered in their first competition and proud to say I got a 3rd prize with my African Flowers Blanket.

So the first Item I completed in Teori Wool is my lacy motif shawl. Made up of motifs and joined together it's from a Japanese book Crochet Winter Motif

here's a single motif:

and the finished object

Next I used Pierrot's Soft Merino Fingering yarn to construct myself a lapghan / throw using the freely available motif 'African Flowers' which now has several variations to it as people have interpreted the motif in their own way - me included. I constructed a join-as-you-go method for mine then there was no tedious sewing together ;o)

My 3rd entry as I was running close to the deadline was a small purse which could be used to put cosmetics in or needlework tools. This was my own design.... I used Pierrot's Cotton Lace No 20

and I think that's more or less it for catch up... next post should be more recently completed items and wip's....

Almost Caught up...

2010-06-18T12:11:00.000Z

Thank you to those of you who left comments and I was pleasantly surprised by how many of you liked the Wheat Ear runner in the #20's thread especially in today's climate of thinking by many that doilies are old fashioned.....

I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed working with the #20's thread that I opted to do more...

On Ravelry there's a group just dedicated to the doilies, coasters etc designed by Patricia Kristoffersen of which there are many talented ladies... I was bought for Christmas (it was one book on my list for Christmas) Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies by PK so armed with my newly acquired 1.25mm Clover Soft Touch hook and one 20g ball of Coats Mercer #20 in Turkey Red (as most of you know not one of mt favourite colours) I set about working Pineapple Patch.

The patterns are well written and no errors (well that I found) although for a UK candidate whose just spent months working from charts I had a few false starts converting US to UK terms on the fly, however I got there in the end and produced my very 1st PK doily.

I thoroughly enjoyed this pattern and decided I would tackle another form the book. This time I chose the Windsor Round, I have no idea why as I have to admit it wasn't one of the favourites when I flicked through the book, but I have to say it's now one of my favourites after working it. Again one ball of Coats mercer #20 a 1.25mm hook (I have to admit to this thread and this size of hook are my favourite combination); and yet again no idea why but I chose a pink colour called Coral Pink???????????? again another colour I don't like really... perhaps I was subconsciously trying to get it out of my stash!!!

Anyway 9 days later I produced this:

I love the detail around the centre created by the long stitches worked backwards and forwards into stitches of previous rounds - something I'd not come across before.

I'm sad to say I've not had chance to get back to doing any doilies since then due to other crochet and knitting comments but as I'm on holiday this coming week I may 'treat myself' Mmmmmm....

One last thing about doilies before I move on.

Can anyone tell me how such a small item can use so many pins for blocking?

Doilies seem to use far more pins than lace knitting, although DH is pleased as he doesn't have to get involved in blocking these ;o)
After the doilies I did some knitting, yes I did say Knitting - although sorry no lace.

I started stocking some Noro yarns in the shop so I opted to knit a waistcoat (Design 26 from Noro: MIni Knits 2 by Jenny Watson) in Noro's Kureyon to display the yarns and pattern books.

Although the pattern is per the book I converted it into knitting the fronts and back in one piece up to the armholes, I also lengthened it for myself and didn't make the collar quite as wide as suggested. All in all I'm pleased with it but glad to say we've really not had suitable weather to wear it yet!

The other thing I tried with this pattern was the Japanese 3 Needle Bind Off blogged about by Another Long Yarn. I used this to join the front and back at the shoulder seams and it worked beautifully...

And finally the last item for this post - back to crocheting!

I'd been fascinated by Mabel by Sarah London so when she published the pattern I purchased it and proceeded to make one of my own. It's a well written pattern and quick to work up - 2 days it took me; in fact it took longer for the cushion pad to arrive than it did to crochet it.

Worked in Patons Diploma Gold DK - and as I didn't have enough to do both sides the same I did a 'Light & Dark Mabel'

I've actually found women prefer the light side and men prefer the darker side... me I just turn it over when I'm passing so I get the best of both sides!!!

Well that's it for now - I reckon one more 'catch-up' post in which I shall tell you about my interlude using yarns from Pierrot Yarns in Japan and entering their competition and that I think should see me pretty much up to date and blogging about things I'm either currently working on or have finished in the last week....

What littleberry did next.....

2010-06-02T10:37:00.001Z

by my reckoning this post sort of takes me up to the end of January, but also includes a couple of projects that were done in March and April... and by the way I have found my crochet version of Swallowtail ;o)

OK deep breath... first up after all the crocheting for Christmas gifts was my Amijin Scarf (I'm assuming most of you reading my blog will be on Ravelry, if not give me a shout and I can point you in the right directions for pattern links). After all the gifts I'd made I decided it was something for me. I'd seen the pattern on Pierrot Yarns website and I fell in love with the colours they had used (they are not my normal choice of colours) so I ordered the yarn in the suggested colourways from Pierrot Yarns - English site. It was a quick and easy crochet pattern made all the more easier by being charted than written out - I find worded patterns are very hard to follow.... I 'get lost' in the words so to speak and keep loosing were I am up to and make mistakes.... now according to my Ravelry notes I had it done in 3 evenings so it must have been quick and easy ;o)

Mmm what was next??? Yes the Cabled Scarf (yes crocheted) for my friend Sharon aka Yarnimals birthday in early January. I found the Crochet Cable Scarf pattern on Ravelry, even if you don't use the forums or 'chat' much on Ravelry the pattern and yarn database is worth it's weight in gold. It was originally published in Crochet Today! Dec 2006 / Jan 2007 and is now available for free. I opted for DK weight and decided I'd try the newly launched (at the time) Patons (UK) Merino. This was a dream to work with, soft and squishy and bouncy and at £3.25 per 50g very reasonable. Thankfully Yarnimals was pleased with the gift :o)

Moving on towards the end of January now....My mum was 80 this January gone and you 've already seen the Swallowtail I did for her in hand spun, to be given to her at the SnB group. I also wanted to give her something personal from me that she would appreciate. So I decided that I would attempt to crochet a doily style runner for her in #20's crochet thread - eek!

I know I mentioned in an earlier post that my maternal grandmother was a superb crocheter especially of very fine work... so as my mum keeps things (not quite a hoarder) especially those of sentimental value (she was very close to her mum) I opted to go through her old patterns and of course her collection of thread inherited from her mother.

She'd already expressed an interest when I started crocheting about a runner for the top of the drawer unit in the conservatory in blue - so the project was an easy decision (that's half the battle for me, getting the right project for the person) and obviously the colour was an easy one too. I eventually found a pattern which had first been published by Coats in 1965 and then reprinted in 1981 (so mum had obviously bought this one, as her mum died back in the early 1960's. It was the Motif Runner from the Wheat Ear Booklet. So armed with 5 balls of what I thought were the same colour and a 1.25mm hook off I went.

I decided I'd go for the main motifs in the main blue and then the filler motifs in a paler blue. I discovered while doing this project that while each ball may have the shade number in,, there is no dye lot on the ball; this is because the dye lot for the box comes on a slip of paper in the box.. it must have been a nightmare for shop keepers if they had boxes of different batches and one of my 5 balls was most definitely a different shade of blue. So in the end I had to shorten the runner by one motif and used the 5th ball to make the filler motifs.

and last but not least.... I decided to do something else for me.... I'd chosen a Japanese book from Mum as part of my Christmas present and it arrived a week before Christmas and as I'd already decided I had to crochet the Crescent Moon shawl, I ordered 2 balls of Noro Kureyon Sock in colour S188 (that lovely purple/green).

So as soon as Christmas was over I began :o) I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this project :o) I used a 3.5mm hook for the body of the shawl and 2.5mm for the edging based on what one or two others had used. In the end I used approx 120g of yarn ( made myself a pair of socks with leftovers). Working from charts makes things so much easier IMHO, you can see what you're meant to be working towards, no transposing of US / UK terminology and you can see if you're on the right tracks! I was a little sad when this project was finished.

and socks with leftovers (although I still have a little left!) - yes I know they don't match fleegle!

I have to admit to loving this pattern and for me it has become to crochet what Swallowtail is to lace knitting for me :o) so needless to say I have done 2 more since January as gifts.... and again enjoyed working each one.

For my friend's daughter who was 16 in March I used Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in colourway Café Flair

and then my best friend Janet was 40 on the 22nd April (same day as me) so what else do I make her ;o) I used Noro Kureyon sock in colourway S40

Now as I said more or less takes me up to the end of January and a little beyond... so hopefully next time we shall nearly be up to date!

What I did at Christmas...

2010-05-22T12:58:00.000Z

that, and it's about time I did another blog post ;o)

I know Christmas is a long time since well 5 months to be exact, but it's when I started crocheting - seriously anyway. Apart from the odd shawl and some socks, that's all I've been doing and done.

I've enjoyed the spontineity of it, the speed at which things evolve and it makes me use colours I normally wouldn't....

With doing the shawl for presents I didn't think my friends were going to get anything handmade for Christmas but I decide that I could manage the odd potholder.... I think I ended up making 12...

I think apart from the Cupcake potholder one of my favourites is the top right which came from a book called Crochet Things bought for me by my mother For Christmas 1980 with the inscription:

Needless to say my maternal grandmother was an exceptional crocheter....

Persevere Ann, and you will be as good as your Grandma Miller was with her crochet work.
Mum

Now as the potholders worked up so quickly I decided I could add something else to go with the potholders, what else would be quick? Mmmm a Tawashi... I've made these before using Patons FAB DK and though it may seem a strange gift to give, everyone who's had one wnats another as they really are very good at getting the pots clean. My favourite pattern I go back to time and time again is a free one from Pierrot Yarns

So by this time it's still mid November and I'm thinking what about a crochet gift box with a selection of thingsin for my friends??? In the end everyone ended up with a tawashi and potholder, 2 small items and one larger one... not bad for someone who didn't have time to make anything for Christmas this year!

So rather than have a picture heavy post and I get fed up of uploading photos.. here's some mosaic's

Lavender Sachets

Pincushions & More Tawashi

Other Items

oven mitts, duster mitt, brooch, brooch

potholder, brooch, doily, doily

doily, Milk Jug cover, Milk jug cover, Milk Jug cover

all these projects can be found on my projects page on Ravelry should you wish to know were the patterns are from and what yarns were used.....

Well that's it for now before I get fed up of linking all these photos that or I loose the post!

Better Late than Never.....

2010-04-10T06:54:00.003Z

But I find I'm not the only one who struggles to blog at all these days from those days not so long ago of blogging on a frequent basis if not a regular one.

Reading several blogs as I still do, several people have mentioned an apathy for blogging since Ravelry grew. Micki of thing4string in March nicely summed it up when she said she wasn't going to 'feel guilty' about blogging regularly and I have to agree. Every time I read someones blog I think I should blog but just never seem to find the umpf to do so... Neither will I feel guilty that my 'knitting blog' is not just about knitting and at the moment it may severely become about crochet as that's all seem to have done for the last 6 months or want to do in the foreseeable future... at the end of the day as long as it involves fibre or yarn, needles, hooks or wheels or even looms (yes I got one of those too)... it doesn't matter we're all 'fibre artists' and there's room for us all....

Anyway to catch up from were I left off last year with my last post of 5 down, 2 to go (in reference to the handspun, handknit shawls I was doing for decade birthdays)... Here are the remaining two shawls.....

On the 24th January 2010... my mum Cathleen was 80 so I spun some beautiful 'Chai' batts from Enchanted Knoll and knit my 6th Swallowtail for her (it's a classic design and will always remain so with me, I may even knit myself one at some point!)....

Sorry you will have to lie on your side to view this because I have to edit and re-upload I may never get this post posted!

For anyone who wnats more details here's a link to my Ravelry Page

Last but by no means least for 11th March 2010 our friend Enid was also 80 and again from Enchanted Knoll I spun 'Ursula' batts into heavy laceweight and knit another classic from Evelyn Clark 'Shetland Triangle' (a 2nd for me).

and again for more details a link to my Ravelry projects page

Now I think that's quite sufficient for today, don't you, I don't want to burn myself out so it's another 4 months before I post again.

Now I warn you next time there could be quite a recap of my crocheting exploits as most people got some form of crochet for Christmas last year!

5 down... 2 to go...

2009-12-24T06:58:00.003Z

That is how many shawls I have not only given as presents in 2009 for special friends with special birthdays but how many times I have spun laceweight and then knitted it up.... and enjoyed every minute of it from drafting and dizing the fibre to spinning, to choosing the pattern and to finally see the recipients face when they open the shawl.....

The final gift of 2009 ws to Christine (a friend / customer) who was 70 on the 11th December. I chose the 'Leaf & Nupp' shawl from Estonian Lace as it just seemed apt for the 'Fern' batts from Enchanted Knoll I spun up.....

Finished Size 18 x 63” blocked

I omitted the nupps to reduce yarn usage and worked 18 repeats of the main pattern. I also omitted the border and opted to just to do an edging at the CO & CO edges.

To work the edges I used the Leaf & nupp Lace Edge in the book, unzipped the cast on stitches and worked the pattern as stated EXCEPT knitting/purling as appropriate one extra stitch at each end of the row to use the 2 extra stitches. I also worked a row 10 as a plain purl row to secure yo’s from row 9 before doing the K2tog cast off.

After completing the 2nd Leaf & Nupp border (cast off edge), I worked the Leaf & Nupp Lace Edge as before.

This may sound a little 'vague' but when I check my ravelry projects I actually completed this shawl back in May!!! yes I worked all the shawls out of sequence just to add something to the mix and make life interesting or difficult... no really just to break all the 'green' spinning and knitting up.....

Next on the needles after Christmas is this - 'Chai' from Enchanted Knoll and this will become a Swallowtail for those who are counting this will be my 6th! a pattern I never tire off and IMHO is a classic... This will be ready for on or about the 24th January when my mum turns 80....

and for the fibre addicts among you this is how it stated out in life...... I can't speak highly enough of EK's batts....

I will just take this opportunity to wish everyone a festive Christmas and Happy New Year...

Yes I'm a Bad Blogger....

2009-12-09T10:57:00.007Z

OK, I'm a bad blogger I know... but look at it this way I've some nice photos to show you of a couple of shawls which were spun and knit for two dear friends for their 40th and 60th birthdays at the beginning of November.... which I hasten to add was part of the reason for no posts as I couldn't post as they read my blog... yes Fleegle when I get round to writing it!!!

Anyway spun from 'Black Magic Woman' Batts from Enchanted Knoll - Baltic Blossoms by Evelyn Clark for Anita who was 40 on the 8th November....

Plenty of gratuitous close ups for those who like to study detail.... and I actually do like the close ups of these as I've managed to capture all the little glints for all the different colours of the sari silk and Angelina Josette puts into these batts :o)

I worked it as for the larger size, but worked 1 extra repeat (14 total) of the petal lace, followed by chart 3, 1 extra time to make the st count correct to begin chart 4A (petal lace could also have been worked 15 times before chart 3 to give correct st count for chart 4A). I also omitted the ‘centre’ stitches from the final edging chart.

It used about 618m of yarn in the end ......

Blocked Size: 86” x 34” at spine

For Anita's Mum, Kath who was 60 on the 1st of November - Aeolian by Elizabeth Freeman

This was knit from handspun yarn, spun from Batts made by Natalie of The Yarn Yard, unfortunately the photos don't do the subtle shading of all the shades of green she dyed and then blended to make these batts....

The Shawl used 94.6g of yarn and came out at:
Blocked Size: 80” across top x 39” at spine

I didn't decide to add beads as I was running short on time to knit this up but worked the 9 stitch Nupp throughout the body of the shawl until the Edge Chart.

I worked the 12 repeats of the Yucca Lace then the Transition Chart Agave Chart, Final Agave Chart and 1 Edge Chart were I changed to 7st Nupps. I cast off using the standard cast off you find on a lot of lace shawls to add 'give' to the edge, but I used the yarn doubled to allow for more 'give'.

Now I have another shawl to show you but the recipient won't get that until tomorrow when she is 70! but I promise I will try to post next week....

Other than that I have been busy crocheting and sock knitting with the odd hat thrown in for Christmas presents. I'm also part way through spinning more Enchanted Knoll Batts - 'Chai' for my next lace shawl which I think will be Swallowtail (for the 6th time) due for mum's 80th on the 24th January..... then one more for 6 weeks after that for another 80th and then my run of lace spinning & knitting has ended and I will have spun & knit 7 lace shawls in 12 months!!!

Homage to EZ???

2009-08-22T06:40:00.009Z

Promise you this is the last post for catching up on what has been completed while I wasn't blogging. My next post should have some 'action' shots for want of a better description of knitting, crocheting or spinning in progress rather than 'here's one I did earlier' in true Blue Peter style...

Anyway cast your minds back you may remember seeing a photo of this jumper I worked and completed as a prototype (you know smaller jumper, less sts, just in case EZ hadn't got it right and it was all a disaster) for one for our friend Mike who had requested a jumper for a Christmas present in the September of 2008. As the jumper he picked from my pattern books was in a lovey Patons yarn 'Jet' which is Wool & Alpaca and unfortunately hand wash only this was no good, so rather than try and use the pattern and do a bigger size with DK yarn, I decided it was time I put my Elizabeth Zimmermann (EZ) books to good use....

Well after a lot of stop, starting which means every time I got near a bit that was not straight forward or bit I thought was not going to work out right as EZ said it would, the above jumper was completed and as usual EZ was correct, I was having visions that the raglan decreases were not enough and all you would see was the top of the head above the neckline!!!

This then gave me the confidence that maybe just maybe I could actually do this jumper for Mike, so earlier this month I finally completed his 2008 Christmas present... I have to say I am very, very OK very pleased with this and can't wait for some colder weather when it will be getting put into regular service :o))

The basic outline of working the raglan came from EZ's 'Knitting Workshop', I think this is my favourite of her 4 books... the idea for the green contrasting bottom hem (which you can't see here) was from Brooklyntweed's Seamless Hybrid. The sleeves (3x3 rib) and the collar (1x1 rib) along with contrasting facings were what attracted Mike to the original pattern - Patons Jet 1266 (see bottom left thumbnail). I have to say I think I've done pretty well mimicking this hand wash only wool/alpaca blend in a machine washable, tumble dry able Patons Diploma Gold DK yarn, don't you?

Other EZ projects have been done as well... My friend Janet was expecting their 2nd child on 24th July, Anna Laura weighed in 11 days late on the 4th August at 7lb 11oz and was met with these...

EZ's surplice jacket worked in Patons new Eco Cotton (Lime & Primrose) this carries a similar tension to Rowans Cotton Glace...

and what must be considered EZ's most worked pattern looking at the number of projects on Ravelry, her Baby Surprise Jacket or BSJ as it's more commonly known....

I joined the July KAL on the BSJ Forum on Ravelry to do this using Dale of Norway's 'Baby Ull' on 3.5mm needles and I really enjoyed this, I must have done as I offered Janet another one if she wanted in a few months in a bigger size....

As you can see even though this is my 1st one I did a few modifications such as adding the collar, lengthening the sleeves and finishing with an i-cord buttonhole....

Think that's it for now, will be back soon with more current works....

Besides Lace....

2009-08-09T06:04:00.009Z

Besides lace while I've not been blogging there's been quite a lot of crocheting, mainly inspired by the Japanese crochet books that are out there, peoples Ravelry projects and Lucy aka Attic24

I've been fiddling on and off for years with crochet but counting was always the problem... anything other than a sample of a stitch would see me get to the end of a row with either too many or not enough chains left to work into!

Anyway I seem to be getting somewhere and enjoying it especially the motif style crochet as it doesn't require you to commit to too much time in one sitting and I have to admit was a godsend earlier this year when things were up in the air... Anyway as there's quite a few photos to show you I'm not going to waffle, if you want to ask questions you can always leave me a message and I'll reply or you can contact me on Ravelry, I'm what else but 'littleberry' on there :o)

There was Kaban from Rowan 35 worked not in Rowans Summer Tweed but Patons Vintage which gave it a firmer and IMHO more useful fabric for a bag...

Followed by Ingas Haekelbeutel worked in Anchor Magicline, this colourway is discontinued but manage to score this yarn on Ebay as I'd previously seen a bag done in this colourway and just thought it was stunning...

Next came Meadow Scarf by Robyn Chachula from the premiere issue of the UK magazine Inside Crochet which I worked in Patons Serenity as I already had an odd ball of green & red, so just added the yellow...

I also completed Sambuca by Doris Chan in Rowans Pure Wool DK in 'Spice (034) This was my 1st attempt at 'lacy crochet' and can honestly say it was a pleasurable experience ....

I then got hooked on Hexagons, easier than circles and more interesting than squares and also the join as you go method illustrated by Moonstitches ! If I hadn't have discovered hexagons and this method to join I doubt I would have contemplated starting this let alone complete it... My Hexagon Throw based on the Hexagon-how-to by Attic24

I used 13 colours all of one of which were Patons 100% Cotton DK at £3.95 per 100g (210m) for mercerized cotton is ridiculously cheap and IMHO is the best cotton of its type out there on the market, the other colour used was Rowans Cotton Glace in 'Shoot' and at £3.95 for 50g (115m) you can perhaps understand why I think the Patons is a cheap cotton... Patons IMHO is a very undervalued brand in this country and they really produce superb yarns for a good price...

Last by no means least completed only last week my Kaleidoscope Cushion based on the free hexagon motif Kaleidoscope by Lisa Donald which can also be found in the book Blue Ribbon Afghans from Americas State Fairs

Worked in a mixture of Patons 100% Cotton 4ply again £3.95 for 100g (330m) and Rowan's now discontinued 4ply cotton

Front

If anyone wants more details or to ask questions either leave me a message or contact me on Ravelry.

Its been too long...

2009-07-25T10:40:00.007Z

since my last post but life has been not chaotic but steadily busy here at the littleberry residence.

Not only has my husband and his partner started their new business in IT Consultancy (OK they're software engineers) and all the associated paperwork that has been coming my way for that, as well as running my own business, I've had my husband's business partner's (and friend) daughter not only for 2 weeks work experience but living with us as well... so somewhere in all that went the first few week of July... and my enthusiasm for keeping my blog updated!

Anyway as promised several posts ago the last of my lace projects that were knitted in my absence of blogging...

Peacock Tail & Leaf Scarf from the Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush as I'm sure most people are aware... It was knit for Renate who was 60 along with her twin sister at the end of June (see previous post). I used my own handpsun, BFL Superwash which I actually dyed myself and hand carded (never again!) with Trilobal Nylon in Silver just to make it twinkle....

and a close up with a more accurate representation of the colour...

That's all the lace projects that are complete at the moment, there will be more lace started soon, but just at the moment I've heading towards the finish line with Mike's Ribbed sleeve Raglan jumper (based on EZ's % system) that was his Christmas present for Christmas 2008!!!

I've just joined the sleeves to the body and done about 1" of knitting so am just about to embark on the Raglan decreasing.....

Here's what it will look like when completed

apart from the knitting I've been doing quite a bit of crocheting, I've found that while everything has been in the air I could concentrate on crochet motifs, so more on that in my next post...

Happy 60th Birthday

2009-06-30T06:53:00.007Z

Remember the shawls I've shown you (you actually haven't seen Renate's yet) well here is the reason, well partly....

These two ladies start the season of decade birthdays. This is Monica and Renate (either side of the counter, Monica on the right) who were 60 on 29th June and are two good customers of my shop and regulars to SnB, so how else would you treat twins on their birthday...

but with fruit cake, made and decorated by my mum; who very ingeniously arranged it so if I took the candles out, I could cut the cake in 3, we could all share in the centre portion but yet Monica and Renate could take home an 'individual' cake each.....

and flowers, I thought the florist had done a lovely job of making the flowers the same but different!

and finally the unwrapping of presents from various friends.....

Monica

Monica, Cathleen, Enid, Christine, Diane, Renate

Renate with her candy bracelet on!

The scene from behind the counter, I had lovely wafts of perfume all afternoon :o)

Monica and my mum (Cathleen)

Christine, Diane & Renate

Renate

They had a lovely time and were completely surprised and over whelmed by it all, they got shawls, socks, Etui boxes, stitch markers, and sweets that brought back memories of childhood; love hearts, sherbet fountain, Parma violets, candy bracelets

Happy 60th Birthday Monica & Renate

More from the Repetoire

2009-06-21T08:11:00.003Z

As promised another update...

Finished mid May this was started back in February and I got halfway and just simply stopped, not just this but lots of other things too looking back now....

For those of you who don't know what the pattern is, it is the Leaf and Nupp Shawl from Estonian Knitted Lace by Nancy Bush.

and for those of you who like detailed close ups:

It has come out a respectable 18 x 63" when blocked and is destined for a 70th birthday present foe December.

I know I'm well in hand but the yarn said it wanted to be this shawl and as I'd spun it why not knit it! The fibre was from Enchanted Knoll (see my sidebar) and was the 'fern' batts which were lovely to spin. I used 3.75mm to knit the resulting 2ply yarn.

For the eagle eyed among you, you may notice that I have omitted the border all the way round and just used it on the top and bottom borders. I initially did this because I thought I wouldn't have enough yarn, but with hindsight I'd plenty, enough to work 4 extra repeats of the main motif, but I have to say I think I prefer it this way...

I have another shawl to show you in my next post that was completed a few weeks ago and other things too.... I think now things are a bit more settled in the household I'm having a 'finishing' off session which is making me feel good; projects that have been hanging around for too long are slowly getting finished :o)

I've also been working on my crochet in the last few months as well so there will be creeping in as well... but I will leave you with a link to a newly found blog which is very inspiring Attic24

Dare I show my Face?

2009-06-07T08:47:00.007Z

I can't believe it's been 4 months since my last post... but being honest I just haven't felt like doing so and the same has been reflected in my knitting and spinning...

But this looking back has coincided with problems with my husbands work which in a nutshell has equated to he does the work and he may get his wage or not and also to when it may turn up; actually on payday is a novelty!!!

Anyway things are looking up he now has 1 week and 4 days to work his notice.... and while this may not be the best of times to do so he and a colleague are going into partnership together and basically carrying on doing what they're doing now. They already have work lined up for the 1st of July onwards which is definite..... so while 6 months ago when he mentioned he would like to do this and when I got down off the ceiling basically said we can't afford to do this.... the last 4 months have made me realise what have we got to loose at least he will be getting paid for the hours he puts in!!!!

Anyway you didn't come to read this and it's no excuse for not blogging but really I've had nothing to show....

I do however have a couple of finished knitted objects to show you and a further 1 nearly completed.... I've mainly been crocheting small things... things I don't feel I have to commit a lot of time and energy to IYKWIM?

Anyway here's the 1st of the 2 finished objects.....

Lilac Leaf shawl from Estonian Knitted Lace by Nancy Bush

and with close up...

This is worked in my own hand spun from 'Pumpkin Juice' Batts from Enchanted Knoll, and is for a friend who is 60 at the end of this month... I'm just completing another shawl for her twin sister....

Anyway I've promised myself no waffling so I'll be back at some point and show you the next completed object!

Progress...

2009-02-13T06:44:00.003Z

Well progress on 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' got halted for a couple of days while I did this.... yes another Swallowtail, I can't believe it but this is my 5th and still I don't find it boring, but it's something I know I can do quick and in most weights of yarn. This was for a lady who know who needed a black scarf quickly, so as you can see I've done the mini version with only 9 repeats of budding lace.

Other adaptions include omitting rows 3&4 of the peaked edging due to stitch count and rows 16 & 16 of the same chart as I didn't want the edging too scalloped seeing this is for a sombre occasion. Oh yes! almost forgot it's done in Patons Diploma Gold 4ply and used 1 full 50g ball and not quite half of the 2nd worked on 4.5mm needles...

Finished size 48" across the top and 23" down the spine...

So far so good with the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' I've done 2 repeats of the pattern, but I did stop to do the bottom edging before progressing further as I didn't want to run out of hand spun and thought at least if I d this bit now I can work out what weight of yarn I'll roughly need to save to finish the other end.....

I didn't want to do a border all the way round so I opted just to put it on the top and bottom edges. It worked quite well as by simply just doing an extra knit/purl stitch at either end the 75sts worked into the edging pattern nicely.

I also opted not to do the Nupps as well to reduce yarn usage.....

With all this lace knitting I now have a sore index finger and a hole were I keep pushing the point in to it :o(

On a happier note my 1st installment from The Happy Hooves Sock Batt club came from Enchanted Knoll this week... 'Roses in the Snow' its a wild card set of batts hence the contrast batt in a beautiful Buttercup gold.... I have to say I can't see myself spinning and knitting into socks they're far too nice I can quite envisage these becoming lace.....

Moi obsessed?

Sunday 8th February...

2009-02-08T09:33:00.003Z

I know uninspiring title.... but I couldn't think of anything else... anyway first of all if you're reading this Fleegle I hope you're feeling better and up and out of hospital...

After several weeks on the needles I finally completed the 'Embers' socks for Mike; I bought the yarn in 2007 as part of his Christmas present...

The yarn is 'Bonny' (75% wool & 25% polyamide) from Natalie of The Yarn Yard (keep checking back for updates) and was lovely to knit especially like orange/grey combinations...

On the lace knitting front or should I say knitted lace as the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' has no plain rest rows... I've completed the bottom edge and have actually managed 7 rows of the centre panel; mainly due to the fact that I had to have 3 attempts at getting the 1st row right!!!!

The 1st attempt saw me getting to the end of the row with an extra stitch as I'd missed a K1 at the beginning of the row. My 2nd attempt saw me as far as half way along row 3 before I realized that I had not purled the appropriate stitches on row 1. Finally on the 3rd attempt I got to the end of row 1 with no extra stitches and purling the stated stitches as well!!!

I should add the yarn is my own hand spun, which came from 'Fern Batts' produced by Josette of Enchanted Knoll so far I like the bottom edge but perhaps I've done insufficient of the centre panel, but it does feel like that the 'leaves' aren't showing up...

Finally this arrived in the post last week again from Natalie of The Yarn Yard, it's my Fibre club installment and its 80% Merino % 20% Nylon blend which is so soft and squishy, it's an absolute dream to spin (I got to test spin some over Christmas)... this is 'Faded Jeans'... and as you can see they're based on an old pair of jeans that are getting a bit faded and thread bare and have been splashed with mud from the garden....

I love Natalie's dying skills she truly comes up with some fantastic inspirations for the colourways :o)

Lilac Leaf Shawl

2009-02-03T10:48:00.005Z

From this.... to this...

and finally to this...

in approx 5 weeks :o0

I used 3.75mm needles and all but 7g of my hand spun lace weight which came from Pumpkin Juice batts from Enchanted Knoll...

I however only got 10 repeats instead of 14 due to lack of yarn and was concerned it may not come out sufficiently long enough... it ended up a respectable 19.5 x 55" when blocked which is actually generous enough for a scarf or a shoulder shawl and with hindsight I think the recipient will get more use out of this than a bigger shawl....

I am pleased with this and have started Leaf & Nupp shawl in my Fern lace weight spun from EK batts :o) but I'll save that for another day.....

Of all things spinning & knitting....

2009-01-21T12:31:00.004Z

OK on the knitting front... I got round to casting on for the Lilac Leaf Shawl last week with the Pumpkin Juice lace weight yarn I spun from batts of the same name purchased from Enchanted Knoll a few weeks ago so far this is the end of the border chart and am about to commence on the 20 row pattern repeat how many times (should be 14) will depend on how far the yarn goes.... but all said I've enjoyed knitting with the yarn and it doesn't mask the lace pattern which is what I aimed for when spinning it; although the nupps aren't very prominent....

The rest of the post content is spinning....

After Pumpkin Juice I spun up 'Fern' again from Enchanted Knoll and this time, I think because my plying was a little looser I ended up with 606m / 105g of 2ply lace weight (30wpi)

This is destined to be a shawl for a 70th birthday in December this year! and at the moment I'm thinking Leaf & Nupp Shawl (can't you tell I got Nancy Bush's Knitted Estonian Lace for Christmas)

Not quite lace weight but getting there with the next one.... A 3ply (21wpi) Merino & Alpaca blend (338m / 114g) from All Spun Up. This was Kristen's Jan/Feb spin along fibre that people are taking part in on her Ravelry group.... I must say it isn't a colour I would have bought but none the less I rather like the finished colours.....

Also on Ravelry in Spinner Central a skein swap was organised wherein you had to spin 4oz of fibre into a yarn for your recipient... you saw the one I sent to Regiknits in my last post. Anyway this arrived from her yesterday.... it's a beautifully squishy Merino / Silk yarn originally purchased from Funky Carolina which she's spun longdraw... have to say the colours are one of my favourite combinations... I've no idea what to make with it yet but am thinking hat at the moment....

Finally a little stash enhancement :o) both from Enchanted Knoll; although I know my Fibre Club from The Yarn Yard is in the post and I bought 2 beautiful braids of 'Copper' from Natalie the other week which she is going to 'enhance' for me....

8oz of 'Black Magic Woman'

& 4oz of Snow Moon, wish I'd managed to snag 8oz after seeing them up close and personal!!!

New Year... New Things

2009-01-07T18:16:00.004Z

I haven't done any knitting since Boxing Day! As I've had time off work and I didn't do much spinning before Christmas I've been indulging myself with spinning :o)

This should have been for DH for Christmas but the fibre only arrived Christmas week, so I spun it up afterwards... DH chose these colours after seeing what Natalie of The Yarn Yard had done with a previous fibre club parcel of a variegated and matching toning solid... He straight away said if you use some of the bright windows 16 bit colour palette colours and ply against a charcoal semi-solid you'll get a nice stripey yarn....

So here I give you 'Windoze' - A new fibre Natalie will be having in the shop shortly a Merino/Nylon blend which is an absolute dream to spin... I will be investing in more :o)

I am also taking part in a skein swap on Ravelry, so I spun this up and it's currently on its way to it's recipient... I hope she likes it... Again the fibre is from Natalie and is a blend of Merino/Silk spun up into a 3ply

After MissAliceFaye introduced me to Enchanted Knoll I ended up with some batts from Josette... which I have been itching to get to try out and turn into lace weight...... Here are 3.8oz Pumpkin Juice, which I started spinning last Friday...

Which I spun into 2 singles on my new e-system lace flyer & fat core bobbins using my fast whorl at 17.7:1 (I'm working my way up the ratios!) and produced these.....

After spending time plying on Monday I produced this..... I am as proud as punch with this even my plying has improved... 530m / 110g (612yds / 3.8oz) of 2ply lace weight at 30wpi

Now in the very near future this is going to be turned into a lace stole for a friend who is 60 in June... yes I'm starting early but from the end of June this year until the end of January 2010 I have 6 birthdays ending in a '0' and they all knit &/or spin... plus it lets me indulge my passions for spinning fine and knitting lace something which has been sadly lacking this last 12 months.... I'm planning to do one of two designs from 'Estonian Lace' by Nancy Bush so it's either going to be 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' or 'Lilac Leaf Shawl'....

I enjoyed spinning the Batts so much I have started on the 'Fern Batts' from Josette unfortunately I'm back at work so time is a little less abundant, so this yarn won't get produced in 3 days....

Signs of life....

2008-12-30T08:27:00.004Z

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

2008-12-25T07:44:00.002Z

Happy Christmas & Best Wishes for the New Year

Flower Basket

2008-12-22T10:42:00.004Z

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...

2008-12-19T16:44:00.004Z

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...

2008-12-10T09:56:00.003Z

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

2008-12-05T14:08:00.008Z

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

Busy Bee...

2008-11-18T11:52:00.009Z

I have been busy :o) over the last week or so and lots of things are starting to come together...

Jane of Janes Probably Knitting and I had been discussing between ourselves about the distaste for knitting gloves, mainly due to all that itty bitty knitting of fingers.... so we decided we would have a glove along together to gee each other on into getting the gloves knit....

I started a pair of fair isle gloves for a Christmas present... the Hand Painted Gloves by Karendipity but despite having done 2 pairs of her Mitts I couldn't get on with these so as life is too short for projects your not enjoying I frogged them last Friday.

Now knowing Jane is knitter supreme and quick too... I thought I'd better come up with something quick, as otherwise she would have finished her 2nd Selbuvotter mitten (scroll past the fibre) and have completed her gloves too....

Anyway I decided (foolishly perhaps) that I would do my own simple fair isle glove; it would have plain cuff, fingers & thumb (I didn't want to be bald for Christmas & I have other things to do) and there would be no purling involved except in the rib (read that as no left handed purling with contrast colour!)

So armed with several basic glove patterns and Shelia McGregors book The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting... I actually came up with a fair isle glove pattern... I still can't believe I have and I keep picking up the glove and showing my husband and saying look I've done this I can't believe it! (it's wearing a bit thin now ;o) )

So here it is.... I still have the RH one to do... but I'm going to type the pattern up 1st and then follow my instructions and if successful I will put it up as freebie for people....

This leads me nicely onto something that Natalie of The Yarn Yard has set up which is called p/hop (pennies per hour of pleasure) you can read more about it here, but In a nut shell it allows you to freely make a donation (it's not compulsory & isn't attached to the patterns when you download) large or small for free patterns that you use and the money is going to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Moving on to completed objects. I want to make my friend a pair of slipper socks for Christmas, so I bought the moccasin soles (Regia) & I used some of my handpsun that was too thick for socks but were perfect for this.

I followed the pattern that came with the moccasin soles (size 40/41) but followed the pattern for 42/44 as I thought I'd got size 43 soles (don't ask me how). As you can see the upper stops a bit short and I don't like it but they are OK for me and as I've discovered they're great for spinning in... I can't spin in my stocking feet as they slip on the treadles. and am conscious that the wood on the Rose is quite soft and easily dented, so with these I don't have to worry about grit and such likes getting embedded into my treadles from my shoes and marking them and they keep my feet warm too :o)) so a happy mistake and useful too....

I've also completed another 2 pairs of Christmas socks....
Kaffe Fassett Landscape - Earth

Regia Jupiter - Camouflage

and to finish off a bit of bright colour to brighten up November.... This is Sunny Side from Spunky Eclectic... it will become sock yarn ;o)

And the winners are....

2008-11-15T08:46:00.005Z

Anita / dippy2knit (ravelry) won the merino fibre form The Yarn Yard
Sally won my handspun merino / tencel yarn - 'Summer Pinks'
Cathleen / Cobol (ravelry) won the lovely Posh Yarns Cashmere / Merino sock yarn 'Flirt'
UKYorkie won the merino / bamboo sock yarn from Babylonglegs
RunningDeere aka as DH bought me the merino lace yarn from Kraftykoala

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who took part whether you won or not and the very generous ladies who jumped in and offered goods for this auction.... we raised a total of £90.00 and with a further £25.38 from gift aid that makes a grand total of

£115.38

As everyone paid up so promptly I've already made the donation to Breast Cancer Haven and here's the receipt I got....

Once again, thank you for your support

Ann

Thankyou...

2008-11-14T12:29:00.002Z

to everyone who bid....

I shall be contacting you by email to let you know whose won this afternoon and will post tomorrow who has won what and how much we raised....

Thanks

Bids

2008-11-11T15:37:00.003Z

For those of you have placed bids I have replied to your email just so you know your bid has been recieved. If you haven't recieved a reply from me then I haven't recieved your bid.

Only 2.5 days to go....

October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2008-11-04T09:31:00.031Z

As the title says October was Breast Cancer Awareness here in the UK... we were reminded 'to get in the pink' through various forms of the media and many people blogged about it, such as Janes Probably Knitting. She gently reminded us each post that it's important to check our breasts on a routine basis by simply asking us 'Have you?' at the end of each post. Jane also did a subtle reminder throughout the month of October by spinning some gorgeous pink merino / silk fibre from The Yarn Yard.

This got me to thinking about how I could best put my talents to good use and it was whilst spinning this merino / tencel I aptly named 'Summer Pinks' I decided when finished I might like to have a silent auction for the finished yarn to raise money.

I pondered long and hard whilst spinning and many thoughts flowed through my mind as I sat and spun. I'm not an accomplished spinner by any means and people may not want to give their hard earned cash for my handspun, especially in this economic climate. I may not raise an awful lot of money from the auction, and I would feel silly for thinking I could; but then I thought any contribution would be a positive contribution, no matter how small. Every little helps a worthwhile cause.... and whilst I admire people who raise thousands of pounds for charity, where would charities be without the people who make small, regular, annonymous donations...

I decided to see what my friend Natalie thought of the idea, she responded by saying it was a lovely idea and was generous enough to offer some fibre from The Yarn Yard as part of the auction.

I decided as the month of October is past and it was all about awareness it would be nice to give the money to a breast cancer charity that is helping women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and are undergoing treatment. With this in mind, I have chosen Breast Cancer Haven as my charity. As cancer can affect a patient both physically and emotionally, Breast Cancer Haven offers a free programme of care to help patients, and those supporting them during this difficult time.

I've had to edit this blog because other kind people have offered up items to be included in the auction for this worthwhile cause....

allstitchedup aka Jammam (Ravelry) from has offered up a skein of her precious Posh Yarns Lucia yarn in colourway 'Flirt', which is a 4ply (sock weight) yarn, made from 30% cashmere, 70% merino. 430 yards per 100g. Recommended needle size is 2.75mm (US 2).

Sarah aka BabyLongLegs has kindly offered to put up a skein of hand dyed merino / bamboo sock yarn in the winners chosen colourway.

Kraftykoala has generously offered 2 of her 50g hanks of hand dyed laceweight merino in colourway 'Powederpuff' and with 760m per 50g you'll get a great shawl from this....

So here are the items that are up for auction

'Summer Pinks' - 238m / 88g of 3ply Merino / Tencel

100g of Merino from Natalie of The Yarn Yard

80g of Posh Yarns 'Lucia' in 'Flirt' brand new and ready to knit from Jacqui aka Jammam of allstitchedup

Hand dyed merino / bamboo sock yarn from BabyLongLegs- In the winners choice of colour
2 x 50g Merino laceweight in 'Powderpuff' (760m per 50g) from Kraftykoala

The auction is open to anyone, anywhere in the world as we are prepared to pay the postage to any destination.

Now the way I propose to do this is as follows:

I would like you to email me with your bids to the following email address, in the following way:

charity[AT]littleberry[DOT]me[DOT]uk
(Replace [AT] with @ and [DOT] with . in the address)

In the subject please state the item you are bidding for i.e. Fibre, Handspun etc.. If you wish to bid on all of them please send a seperate email for each.

In the body of the email please state what you are prepared to pay BUT to make things easier and so I don't have a tie situation, I would like the bids to be in Pounds (£ - GBP) and Pence. i.e. £6.03 rather than £6.00

Payment should be either by cash funded paypal or bank transfer.

Should a tie situation arise, then the winner will be the first person to put that bid in.
The auction will be open until noon (UK time) on Friday 14th November. I will contact the winners on Friday afternoon and announce them on Saturday 15th on my blog. However, if you wish your identity to be kept secret I will respect your wishes.

Should you wish to make a donation rather than bid on the items you can do so by going to the Breast Cancer Haven Just Giving Page

Many Thanks to all of you

With which I am well pleased...

2008-11-03T17:35:00.003Z

Remember in my last post I showed you M*A*S*H from Spunky Eclectic a wool blend I was going to practise on to achieve a good yardage 3ply sock yarn?

Here's a couple of reminders to show you

Well I did it :o))) I managed 412m / 102g and my plying seems to have improved, however, it did take me the best part of 2 hours but I think the penny is finally dropping with the plying....

and just to brighten a dull & dark evening here in the UK (it's been dark for about 1hr now since the clocks went back) a bit of fibre porn.... all are superwash. The first two are Corriedale and the 3rd Merino... yep you guessed it sock yarn it will become.... all 3 from Spunky Eclectic

Sunny Side

Rhubarb

& Lime Fire

October Round Up

2008-11-01T08:57:00.015Z

OK were to start.... I will try and keep the babbling to a minimum....

With learning to spin I invariably ended up with the initial thick/thin singles and badly spun yarn and even more badly plied yarn that you don't really want to use.... anyway it was taking up space in my fibre stash box and that coinciding with mum saying she was going to get her shawl out just to pop round her shoulders whilst working in the conservatory I came up with this; this is Justify by Lynne Vogel...

Now as I'm obviously not as co-ordinated as Lynne to colour co-ordinate all my early spinning attempts in order that I would be able to use them all together at some future date I ended up using colours from similar/related colour families and then I over dyed the whole thing to 'unify' it.... Here's a front and back shot

Now as the dye hadn't exhausted from over dying Justify, I ended up having ago at dying my own superwash fibre (bfl - what else?) that I bought back in June at Woolfest.... I really didn't spend much time on it as I was working at the same time and TBH I didn't anticipate my results to come out that well so didn't want to waste too much time on it... so you can imagine how pleased I was when the fibre came out like this and it was still fluffy and open despite all my attempts at drowning it, heating it, spinning it dry in the washing machine!

I called it 'Halloween' since I did it on the 31st and it's sort of a purpley-blue and green... OK the method of dying and applying colours leaves a lot to be desired but at least I can still use the fibre after without too much effort :o)

Next remember Lush 2 from my last post? well it didn't come out quite as fine as I was hoping for but non the less will probably be sufficient to make myself a pair of socks...

I got 280m out of 100g of 3ply... I really need to get some lessons to brush up on my plying....

I also finished spinning the merino / tencel from my last post too and hopefully will get time to ply this, this weekend.... you will more of this in the coming week...

Anyway in my efforts to get a good sock yarn I decided rather than 'ruin' anymore superwash sock fibre I would use a wool blend to practise spinning even finer singles, so I opted for M*A*S*H from Spunky from my stash. However, I've seen this spun and plied as 2ply and like the effect so rather than Navajo ply it, I again opted to spin it as 3 separate singles and ply them together.... fingers crossed I get a good 3ply with good yardage...

Now to finish a bit of gratuitous fibre porn :o))))

This arrived in the post this morning from The Yarn Yard it's BFL humbug which has been over dyed to give this lovely stripey effect..... I got 2 x 100g braids too.... so I can do something useful with it...

and last but not least this came on Thursday and is called 'Popsicle' form Julie Spins (Etsy) and is superwash merino, I have just the person in mind that this will make lovely sock yarn for....

Each to their own....

2008-10-23T09:44:00.008Z

I've been doing quite a bit of spinning recently after my 4 month unintentional break from it over the summer.... and it's quite frightening really how quickly you loose your ability to spin consistently and finely..... well I found I did.

I was really enjoying my spinning and was pleased with my progress and that eventually I produced something that resembled a nice sock yarn :o) Then you read on different Ravelry forums that it's difficult to spin thicker yarns once you get to producing fine yarns. Then there's the chatter about it and you get to feeling (I felt this way) that fine even yarns aren't 'the thing' and are easy to produce bu t the challenge lies in thicker yarns and Art Yarns...

And so we came to the Tour de Fleece which I commited to taking part in and signed up to do something different that I would normally do. I opted for Art Yarns...

I bought some BFL Superwash from The Yarn Yard that Natalie was dyeing up especially for the Tour de Fleece.... when it came there was 3 small seperate braids of individual colours and 150g of a beautifully dark to light braid in tones of greys.... it was a dream to spin as always and my idea was to ply it with metallics and add beads and such likes.... I found myself starting in ernest but as I got nearer and nearer the end of spinning the fibre I found myself not spinning as much and thinking it's so beeautiful it would be a shame to spoil it... eventually I stopped spinning and for 4 months the bobbin sat almost complete apart from 2, 8" strips of fibre to spin... I just couldn't do it as I knew that then I would have to despoil that beautiful fibre... so I stopped spinning for what turned out to be 4 months....

Eventually I don't know what it was perhaps the 2 or 3 kind people who rav mailed me and 1 even rung me because I wasn't really posting and hadn't produced much spinning to see if I was OK or the fact that this bobbin kept 'glaring' at me every time I walked in the lounge but eventually I did finish spinning the yarn and just simply navajo plied it but all the time I was thinking it should have been an Art Yarn.....

So I think what I'm trying to say is that spin the yarns you enjoy spinning and using and don't feel forced into spinning other yarns that you've no interest in. Whilst I love some of the Art Yarns I see out there especially the coil ones, they're not for me... I couldn't see myself knitting with them... I'm not saying I may never do one but the time has to be right and at the moment producing a 3ply sock yarn and lace yarn and even the odd DK weight yarn is were I'm happiest... There's room for everything and to me a yarn of beauty is one that is evenly spun and beautifully plied....

Since then spinning has resumed normal service I'm pleased to say although it's taken approxamately 500g of fibre before I've got some decent sock yarn..... I've just spun up this (I don't need to tell you were it came from ;o) )

and turned it into this
I've just Navajo plied the 1st bobbin this morning and I've got 132m / 50g so we'll see what the 2nd bobbin produces later tonight....

I've also started some merino / tencel again a similar thickness... The braid came as 3 seperate colours so I'm spinning them that way and then I will traditionally ply them... I warn you now these are not my normal pick of colours.....

told you they weren't my normal choice of colours!!!!

These arrived from Canada yesterday for me and they are a set of 2 pitch Mini Combs made by Andrew Forsyth

They are strong but yet light and quite easy to use, although I will purchase a clamp or put it on my Christmas list as it would make taking the fibre off the comb through a diz a lot easier.... so I now have to make a date with half a Romney Shearling fleece that's been waiting since summer (washed I hasten to add) for these combs to arrive.... but they were worth the wait :o)

This also came for me this week, it's Falkland (one of my favouites) and it's called 'Plum Tree' and it's from a relatively new dyer here in the UK called Spindlefrog

On the sock knitting front I've finished Paul's pair of socks for Christmas and he hasn't even noticed me knitting them. I thought he deserved a surprise pair as I usually end up knitting a Christmas pair for him in front of him.... These have the elegant title of "Die Nachbarn 1 Spiralsonne und Mondhaus" are are as you've guessed from the Opal Hunderwasser 2 collection....

I've now 2 or 4 pairs of size 4's to do and complete a size 8 pair but I'm halfway there on that one ;o) am still uming and awing if to keep the green fairisle ones.... perhaps I will, as I've decided I'll wait until after Christmas to do my sock knitting for myself.... and just knit socks for others before then. I owe Paul and our frind Mike a pair as I bought them some handyed sock yarn last Christmas and haven't knit it up for them yet... that's not to say I haven't knit them any socks since....

I've also been knitting something with my handspun but I will have to make you wait until a certain friends birthday has passed ;o)

Of socks and spinning....

2008-10-15T07:45:00.006Z

Since my last post I've since completed these.... I couldn't stop knitting them, it's such a long time since I found a pattern I couldn't stop knitting :o) a word to the wise Opal Rendez-Vous has a long pattern repeat... it goes from the top of the rib through the heel and the oatmeal stripe just after the heel is the start of the pattern repeat!!!!

It is perhaps just as well I enjoyed knitting these (they are a Christmas present) as I have a further two balls in my stash one for me and one for DH (mum as a further ball of this for DH)... I suppose because we both see a lot of sock wool in the shop it really has to grab us both in pattern and in colour so when we see a pattern we like, well ;o)

I have more or less decided to keep the green fair isle ones for me you'll all be pleased to know but that does mean I now have 3 possibly 4 (the list grows) size 4 pairs to do for Christmas but at least they'll grow quick.... I'm on the 2nd sock of a size 10 in Hundertwasser 2 for DH and nearly finished the first sock of a size 9 in KF Landscape - Earth.... so sock knitting is progressing....

I've had a few people say to me recently they don't know how I can still knit so many socks and not be sick of them.... but then again sock knitting is my stand-by knitting to bring out for journeys, visits to MIL's and such likes or for knitting at SnB or when customers come, it's not my main knitting unless I feel tired but want to knit or I can't think what I want to knit which usually happens after Christmas....

How many of you out there are still 'regular' sock knitters?

On the spinning front am producing better yarn than I was a few weeks ago but not as good as I was back in May.... but practise, practise, practise.... Here are two from The Yarn Yard 'Turmeric' in BFL Superwash and 'Jewels' in Wensleydale both are 3-ply the s/wash is navajo plied and the Wensleydale is a more traditional 3-ply.

It was my first attempt at spinning Wensleydale and I spun it from the fold which I enjoyed but can't get the gist of long draw.... I opted for a traditional 3 ply as I wanted to 'break up' the original sections of bright colours so I split the roving down into blues, purple/pinks & pinks.... Here's how it started out...

and this is what I completed yesterday 'Monkey Farts' from Spunky Eclectic (purchased back when the £ was strong against the $ and it made the shipping costs worth while)

I'm not normally a yellow fan but I loved the colour combo and the name :o) DH says it looks like rotten bananas, but I ask you what else is a 'Monkey Fart' meant to be?

I've ended up with 280m of Navajo plied yarn so hopefully just enough to make ME a pair of socks at some point!!!!

I'm just about to start spinning some 'sock stuff' batts from Freyalyn's Fibres a blend of 80% s/wash merino and 20% nylon in 'Sandstone'...

I've been relatively good recently and not bought any fibre although Natalie of The Yarn Yard had a 20% off sale so I couldn't resist and I bought some merino/tencel and s/wash bfl most of which are not my normal run of colours ;o) I've also asked her for 2 more lots of 100g of this months Fibre club as it's beautiful and very aptly named 'Bramble Crumble'.... and I can see it being a shawl... it's Shetland btw....

I've also done a couple of trades recently too, one with Belaybunny for some spunky Eclectic merino/silk blend in 'Mandy'. Then yesterday with Jammam for 3 lots of Shetland that Natalie did in last months fibre club in those beautiful autumnal colours (see my previous blog post). I was so disappointed when I 'ruined' my Shetland fibre that when Jammam said on the Yarn Yard forum on Ravelry she could be persuaded to part with it I jumped at the chance.... again this fibre is shouting Evelyn Clarks 'Old Shale' shawl that was in Summer 2008 Spin Off

Well for someone who didn't think she had much to say I've certainly had my say... for those lace knitters of you out there there will be some on the Horizon but I must sort out my Christmas knits first....

Wet Wednesday

2008-10-01T07:20:00.008Z

I was lost for inspiration on the title and it's very apt title anyway and it's the sort of weather that makes you want to spin and knit :o) and thus I completed my Trekking Colour socks...

I'm on a roll with my Christmas knitting this year... although I have a confession that the recipient may not receive these as I may just keep them myself... which is something I've never done before! I've knit about 53 pairs of socks now and have never ever thought I like these so much I'll keep them to myself... but anyone who knows my penchant for greens will know these are just my favourite sort of greens and coupled with the fairisle pattern I can see them ending up in my sock drawer ;o)

I have regained my spinning mojo in the last few days and eventually finished spinning the lovely neutral fibre supplied by Natalie of The Yarn Yard for the Tour de Fleece... which she is now stocking in her shop as part of her permanent collection in a choice of 5 different fibre types.... this is BFL Superwash

I split it into dark, medium & light sections and spun them one after another

and this is the resulting yarn - 160m / 150g so quite a chunky yarn for me... well it was going to be an art yarn and I just couldn't bring myself to spoil the fibre so I navajo plied it, so as it came out quite chunky I think it will be a scarf which will show off the gradation of colour I hope....

and then I went onto spin last months Fibre club offering from Natalie - Shetland

I just tore off in chunks and split lengthways to produce this lovely, soft, bouncy yarn - again a chunky yarn 124m / 100g

at the moment I'm spinning some Wensleydale I bought from The Yarn Yard at Woolfest this year... I am spinning from the fold and also attempting long draw but I suspect it's my version of long draw.... I think I could do with some tuition on this.....

Think that's all for now.....

Just what I needed....

2008-09-23T12:28:00.005Z

After Spring Things I needed a quick fix, instant gratification, restoration of faith call it what you like in my lace knitting and this was just what I needed.... Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle

A simple straight forward pattern; I was slightly dubious I may get bored with it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and from start to finish it took me 3 days! It may be a simple pattern but it's very effective.... It's served a couple of purposes one I've already mentioned and the other I needed a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is looming on the near horizon... plus I used the yarn from my stash....

So from this....

to this in 3 days.....

Close up's for the more demanding of my readers....

It' s used virtually all but 4/5 metres of 2 skeins of Rowanspun DK (a lightweight DK IMHO - 200m / 50g) in Sugar Almond (no 746) and I included one extra repeat of the body pattern (9 instead of 8) just to use the yarn. I used 5.5mm needles as I do like to have stitch definition were there isn't meant to be holes....

The finished size a generous 72" across the top and 32" down the spine... just right for snuggling up in this coming autumn.....

I can heartly recommend this pattern if you need a quick fix....

R.I.P - Spring Things

2008-09-19T09:24:00.004Z

I got to the end of the 13 repeats and it wasn't very big and I'd 80 out of 100g of yarn left and I really couldn't face doing anymore repeats of the body pattern... so I frogged it and re-wound the yarn and put it away for another day.... and feel much happier...

I wanted the shawl to be a decent size and it wasn't showing any sign of being that at the end of the stated 13 repeats and seeing those 1st 13 repeats were hard work, I decided I couldn't face doing anymore, it even put me off doing the edging.....

I have finished my 'Splash' socks which are for Paul aka DH and this was my first successful hand spun sock yarn last year :o) The fibre was from The Yarn Yard (see my sidebar) and is my favourite fibre from Natalie BFL Superwash being the ever practical gal I am...

He must be pleased they're on his feet today:o) I'm also pleased in the fact they were my first toe-up pair too.. a definite necessity for hand spun to ensure there's enough yarn to do the feet ;o) I have to say they remind me of the Trekking Ombre range....

I will hopefully show you more of the 'green square' from a previous post next week and also my Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark I cast on last night in Rowanspun DK.....

Edge-to-Edge...

2008-09-09T10:23:00.010Z

Remeber this from my last post?

Well it turned into this (rather quickly I may add)

and finally into this (after several hours of on/off sewing yesterday) - the front view shows the colours (your monitor permitting) in their true form

and as I'm not modelling it, to show the shape and style to it's best advantage... here's how the pattern booklet shows it

This was an enjoyable and relatively quick knit and the garter stitch shows the yarn off to its best advantage as does this particular pattern.... although there are some other nice patterns in the book too.... which is Patons 1263 - Shadow Tweed

I have to say I'm pleased with this chunky yarn, as most of you know I don't really do chunky but I ended up with the short straw; 4 new yarns for Patons this season, 3 DK's and one chunky of course I let my other 3 knitters choose which yarn they wanted to knit with first and I got left with this one... but I have to confess to being very pleased with both yarn, pattern and resulting garment

This was knit on 6.5mm and used 750g of yarn and is fairly lightweight as the yarn is a blend of 56% wool, 40% Acrylic & 4% Viscose.... it's a loosely spun single which is actually fairly strong to kinit with and doesn't just drift apart like some yarns of this type do.... The yarn is interesting as it's a bit like self striping sock yarn as the colours do repeat through the ball but only every 60g out of the 100g ball, so I think it would make for a really simple garter stitch scarf or a scarf with a simple textured pattern such as my My So Called Scarf

On other front's knitting/crocheting is progressing and I'm getting my head round that I'm going to knit a sweater without a pattern so have been reading up on EZ... I'm trying not to think too far past the armholes at the moment when things will become interesting/difficult or I may never get to the armholes.... I think too much at times!!!

I have to say thank you to Fleegle for saying "I love your blog" am touched that someone that writes as well as she does considers my humble blog worthy to put on her sidebar.....

Next time I shall enlighten you as to what the green square was in my last post...

Of things to come...

2008-09-04T11:31:00.003Z

I thought I would be a bit mean and do a Brooklyn Tweed style taster shot of things to come (not that I'm in the same league of course!!!) of what I've been working on and the yarns I've been working with...

Item 1:

Item 2:

More at a later date ;o)

The Shame of it....

2008-09-02T10:31:00.004Z

not blogging for the last few weeks that is, I've really no excuse for not posting, it isn't as I've been sitting on my hands since my last post... I just couldn't seem to motivate myself to blog :o( anyway rather than do a massive post with what I've been doing and buying... I thought I'd start with a small post and not over tax myself and set blogging progress back!!!

So we'll start with the knitting that keeps me sane and just gets picked up and put down as I feel without guilt... the socks....

I completed these for my friend Mike's birthday at the end of August; there a rather nice denim blue colour and are Opal Fantasie 1912. As always with Mike + Socks they went down well, as apart from myself & DH, Mike is the biggest beneficiary of my sock knitting and to quote him the other day "I can't remember the last time I wore shop bought socks"... this is the type of friend a knitter should have ;o)

Days later off the DPN's came these Regia Galaxy 1557 (Ocean) these are for SIL for her birthday in October... I am being organised this year!!!

Now despite being nearly finished this is my 1st ever toe-up sock so just to prove it's toe up I thought I'd take it's photo on the needles.... I've been after trying to do one of these for ages, in fact probably since the beginning of the year but I just couldn't master the Turkish Cast On until through a blog of a blog I came across this post by FluffyKnitterDeb which just made the light bulb click on for me with this cast on....

I really wanted to do a toe up not just to add to my repertoire of skills but because the yarn is my own hand spun Superwash BFL "Splash" from Natalie of the The Yarn Yard. I've already knit a pair of socks from my hand spun and sweated all the way from top to toe so I was determined that as I'd spun the yarn into two balls for two socks I was going to do a toe-up sock so at least as long as the foot was knit (Size 10) then the amount of yarn could determine the length of the leg... so I started with the smallest ball. I should have enough yarn left for another 3cm of rib....

And for the final sock round up this is the start of my 2nd pair of socks towards my Christmas knitting and is Trekking 84 - a very unimaginative name for a very pretty yarn with a very big pattern repeat but as this is only a size 4 you will not see all the patterns in one sock before the yarn repeats; if my memory serves me right there is only 2 full patterns repeats on a 100g ball with a 3rd partial repeat!!!

And finally to lace.... the Spring Things... I have to say I've not been inspired to knit this and the first section has been a labour and certainly not of love... I have plenty of handspun but I can't face doing anymore repeats of this first pattern to make the shawl bigger... I have 80g of yarn left and I started with 100g... so by the time it's finished I will probably have enough left for a Swallowtail or a Forest Canopy or some other simple shawl... I wish I'd taken the gamble now and done Laminaria with it!!! Ah well hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say...

I'm pleased with how my first handspun lace yarn is knitting up though... but the shawl isn't going to come out as big as the pattern stated, but never mind....

I will be back soon, with other my other yarn related exploits....

Finishing things off..

2008-07-16T06:53:00.003Z

I'm still alive just really haven't had much to show this last week or so and TBH have been a bit lethargic, whether it's this lovely inclement weather we're having at the moment that's making me feel weary I don't know, but thought I'd better post before you thought I'd dropped off the face of the earth....

There has been no further progress on the Spring Things shawl with the hand spun, but there has been progress on the 2 new pairs of socks I'm knitting and I also started a 3rd pair with some hand spun after finally mastering the Turkish Cast On thanks to FluffyKnitterDeb's step-by-step instructions...

I have however, been finishing things off, which means making up in my language... I started doing some basic crocheting back in March.... as I'd seen a bag in Candi Jensen's book Crochet Bags! I liked entitled 'Granny's New Bag'... so did the crocheting and then it's sat there for 6 weeks while I decided how I wanted to line the thing... anyway Monday was a full day of finishing off things...

I'd also decided I was going to crochet a basket too despite disparaging looks from DH, even more so when I said I was going to put a lid on!!!! Oh ye of little faith ;o) The yarn is Spunky Eclectic 'Goblin Eyes' I had that I spun up ages ago and as it's Romney it's quite harsh so thought it would make something utilitarian... this I only finished on Sunday but it's been on the go quite awhile... can't quite remember exactly but if you go look at my projects in Ravelry you'll see the exact dates....

On the spinning front just a couple of purchases, this one from All Spun Up is Superwash merino... I'm being brave here as I usually don't go in for fibre with lots of white!!! it scares me... I did actually purchase this at the end of June so it's not a recent purchase...

and from The Yarn Yard I pre-ordered this back in June too and it came the 5th July just in time for the start of the Tour de France.... and it is the Tour de Fleece fibre a neutral and a contrast, which is actually 3 separate braids of colour.... I have started on the neutral, well in fact nearly finished it, 150g of superwash BFL....

and that as they say is about it for now....

Post Woolfest

2008-07-01T09:02:00.006Z

I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all at Woolfest. I certainly enjoyed myself being able to 'graze' the stalls and it was great to put faces to names of fellow Ravelry users.... so down to the nitty gritty as I'm not really in a blogging mood if you know what I mean... and lets face it everyone loves looking at 'purchases'....

From the The Yarn Yard we have from left to right on the back row... My June Fibre club "Chimnea" in Wensleydale, next to some Bonny sock yarn that DH chose himself (I banned blue!) and then a bfl & merino tencel batt, which has subsequently been spun up....

The pink roving is Shetland and my favourite green & grey is bfl superwash which I have named 'Grass between the cracks' as it reminds me of the fresh green grass growth creeping up between paving stones... sad I know ! Finally right at the front we have another braid of Wensleydale....

Then from Bluefaced.com I have 150g each of BFL superwash hand dyed (with what I don't know) and from Spindlers 2 some Bamboo & merino blend originally from Bonkers Fiber in 'Dragonfly'

Then from Wingham Wool Work we have a selection of British breeds for a project I'm hatching...;o) Theres Black Jacob, Mid Grey Cheviot, Light Grey Suffolk, Texel & Dorest Horn

and last but not least from Freyalyn's Fibres some 'Sock Stuff' a 20% nylon & 80% wool blend....both of these were chosen by DH, so not everything I bought was for me ;o)

Remember the 3 rovings I spun up well here is the resulting yarn 464m / 310g at 16wpi a little too thick for the project I had in mind and insufficient yardage and just a tad too busy as well... so it shall wait for better suited project!!! but it is colourful

on the sock knitting front pairs 48 & 49 of hand knit socks are complete... the Bosco are for a Christmas present and will someone please tell me if they've knit a pair of socks in this yarn and managed to get a pattern repeat because nowhere have I ever seen this yarn do a repeat pattern!!! but I did get the 2nd sock to match ;o)))

and the Hunderwasser 'Seeschlange' which were finished on Friday and as I type now are having their maiden airing... Mike is well pleased with them (he picked it) and I have to say they look a lot better on than off...

I have been spinning as well but the yarns are not ready for the debut photography sessions yet ;o)

Spinning 1st, Knitting 2nd

2008-06-19T06:06:00.003Z

I know c@*p title but I'm not really very creative when it comes to writing, I was always terrible at English, especially when it came to writing stories.... Anyway all I mean is that I decided to write about spinning rather than knitting first, mainly because there's not much on the knitting front to talk about...

Remember these 3 Falkland Rovings from The Yarn Wench ?

Sweet Pearl 2

Last Tango 2
Songbird 1

Well they are now turned into this:

and awaiting plying.... I think the yarn is going to be very colourful, but I can't envisage it working out to knit the Polka-Dot Stole with, can you?

On the knitting front things are progressing, the socks are well on to both having a matching partner, that will be a relief to the recipients I'm sure, well if they knew they were the recipients ;o)

The Spring Things is progressing, but I'm still on the 1st pattern, so there's no point showing you a larger version of the last photograph from the last post.

Apart from my crocheted container, in which I am just going round and round.. and round, I have some Granny Squares which need making up into a bag, I have all the bits, but not the enthusiasm to make the bag!!! So if I can find some mojo from somewhere I might have some completed Items for my next post, but don't hold your breath....

Actual Progress with Photos!

2008-06-12T05:47:00.010Z

There's quite a lot of photos in here so be warned/enjoy!

Mmm were to begin... knitting I think then if anyone doesn't want to read through the spinning bit at the end they can skip it or vice versa :o)

On the sock knitting front I've managed to complete a pair of socks in the last two weeks; for those of you before you're quick to point out they don't match, I know ;o) I quite often complete pairs of socks that don't match but fear not every sock gets it's matching partner in the end, it just may take a while....

We have a completed Hundertwasser on the left and a Lana Grossa Bosco on the right. I'm sad to say that the import of Lana Grossa into the UK will be / has ceased and therefore Get Knitted won't be getting there sock yarn anymore :o( I'm rather fond of their yarn and their range of patterns especially the Meetings pattern which is so classy I've knit it 4 times already and have a further 2 balls in my stash....

Anyway I digress this pattern is 'Bosco' I say pattern because LOOK it's a repeating pattern Aghhhh!!!!! I've never seen this happen in another ball of Bosco it comes out all mingley not a definite repeating pattern, have I got the only ball of Bosco that does this???

Now those of you who know me well and my sock knitting know that I like matching socks, should they be designed to match...

well after the initial Aghhh moment about 10cm into this sock when I realised what was happening I've carefully watched all the way to the end to see if I can work out were in the yarn I started as yes you guessed it, I hadn't made a note of were I started, I didn't need to this yarn doesn't pattern!

After much consideration as I headed towards the toe I realised I'd be finishing the toe more or less were I should be starting so I decided that I would use as little as possible to graft the toe and then start the 2nd sock immediately after, which I did. Hey Presto! they match yeahhhh!!!! in fact I'm about 1 row out but who cares I certainly don't as it's in the rib and apart from the bright yellow and orange band the rest of the colours are all mingley and dark so it doesn't show :o)))

Crisis averted and sanity restored well almost..... I know I have 2 knots to overcome in the 2nd sock of the Hundertwasser :oS

On the non-sock knitting front I have completed anothe pair of Marvelous Mitts. I was asked to knit a 2nd pair after the recipient of the 1st pair was thrilled with them and after showing them round her family a much loved Aunt expressed great interest in them. As it's her birthday at the end of June I agreed to knit her a pair... although this then posed me with a problem she's a size 9 glove :oS

Remembering back to Eunny's "Endpaper Mitts" were she used different needle sizes to produce different sized gloves I opted for a 3mm needle instead of the stated 2mm and they've come out just about right :o) without any struggling necessary to get them on or in fact blocking for that matter!

I used Rowan 4ply soft in 'Marine' for the MC and some leftover 'Desert Flower' in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for the CC... I'm pleased with them, but I still prefer my first pair in green and purple :o)

Next on the knitting front is some Lace.... I finally decided on the 'Spring Things' shawl to knit with my first hand spun lace... I opted for 3.75mm Addi Lace needles. I have to say it's slightly bigger than this now as I did a few repeats yesterday.... I'm feeling slightly smug as my yarn is nice to knit with and the colours are muted enough not to 'destroy' the pattern.... and surprisingly I haven't got board with the pattern, well yet!

OK on the spinning front... I finished the 'Blackberry' superwash merino from Freyalyn and managed 350m/100g... It's Navajo plied which I like for socks... I like the 'commercial' look to the yarn it produces... This will be off to it's new owner soon as it's a birthday present for a good friend....

On my wheel at the moment is some fibre from the Yarn Wench, Falkland to be precise. I love this fibre and find it easy to spin. I'm hoping to make sufficient yarn to do the Polka Dot Stole by Fiddlesticks for which the suggested yarn of Fiddlesticks Country Silk comes in at 800m / 250g... well I've got 300g of fibre so I'm in with a chance....

I'm also reducing my stash... well rather trying to 'manage' it so I'm using 3 different colourways of Falkland... this is the 2nd one I'm spinning for this 3ply, called "Last Tango 2" (I know country silk is a 2ply but I needed 300g and this was the easiest way to get the weight). It's also my first conscious attempt at spinning thicker singles, until now I've been working my way thinner and thinner... and whilst I have to concentrate more and refer to my 'control' sample a lot more I'm enjoying it....

This was the first one and is called "Sweet Pearl 2"

As you can see similar colours, the 3rd roving is similar in colour to this one, but has some common colours with the current one I'm spinning... It's either going to work really well or be a complete mess... I'll consider before I knit the stole if I like the yarn or it needs over dying or I may wait if I'm unsure about the yarn until I've knit the stole then over dye... who says knitting isn't adventurous or challenging ;o)

On the Stash enhancement side... Natalie of The Yarn Yard (see my sidebar) decided to do a shop update, what can you do but support a fellow small business owner.... I came away with one of her first batts 42g of Merino Sparkle +

bfl superwash - 'Lush'

bfl superwash - 'Turmeric'
I've also purchased a TdFleece pack from her in bfl superwash ready for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry... if anyone wants one go check her site out it's £15 + p&p and you have to purchase before Monday 16th June as that's when she's going to be doing her one-off dying day for this... We've no idea about the colours so it'll be a surprise... I'm opting for the 'Breakway' group and I'm going to attempt, OK force myself to do art yarn, so I'm mentally preparing myself to produce yarn that is completely unusable... I'm already waking up in cold sweats a the thought of yarn which is just so impractical ;o)

The question is will I be able to do it?

A Meme...

2008-06-03T09:11:00.003Z

Helen aka as Sheep Happens tagged me for this:

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?
I struggle to remember what I was doing last week sometimes; but what was I doing in May/June 1998... nothing really interesting apart from going to work every day and completing Part 1 of my C&G Creative Embroidery course for the first time!!!

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
As I'm a morning person I prefer to do jobs first thing, then when I finish work it's my time so to speak.... so far jobs I have done are:
a. Done the ironing
b. Tidied the lounge up so it doesn't look like a bombs gone off
c. Made sandwiches for DH & friends lunch
d. Took stock & placed an order for the shop (when you live and work on the same premises work and non-work roll into 1!)
e. Got things out the freezer for tea

3) Snacks I enjoy?
a. Low Fat Digestive with crunchy peanut butter (yes I know a contradiction)
b. Chocolate
c. Ryvita Minis with spready cheese
d. Toast or soft bread with butter & Treacle

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire?
a. Pay the mortgage
b. Expand the shop
c. Change the car
d. Donate to a few charities

5) Places I have lived?
If you include college & work placements...
Chorley - growing up
Bilsborrow, Nr Garstang (north of Preston) - College
Dalton Nr, Apply Bridge - Work Placement
Dunsop Bridge*, Nr Clitheroe - Work Placement
Chorley - 1st House after getting married
Chorley - 2nd House (still here)

*Interesting fact, Dunsop Bridge is the centre of England!!!

6) Jobs I have had?
a. Farm work (I did and do have a HND in Agriculture) - Dairy, sheep, Pigs, Poultry, Beef & Arable over the years

b. Dry Stone Walling Survey for what was then known as ADAS when I was on summer holiday from Uni studying BSc in Environmental Management

c. Data Input/Testing Software for a Multimedia Language learning software company - I don't speak foreign languages, but I can recognise and hear phrases in many languages enough to be able to break them up to put onto CD ROM including Tagalog (language of the Philippines) when we did an instructional CD ROM for Cunard to help teach the staff how to do things such as putting towels on beds, folding ends of toilet paper over and were the lifeboats were ;o)

d. I worked in a weighbridge office issuing dispatch notes & invoices + a myriad of other office duties for an International Dry Extruded Petfood manufacturer

e. Currently (3 years) run my own shop selling embroidery supplies and knitting yarns

Note: I have never lived or worked outside of Lancashire!!!

7) Peeps I want to know more about?
Well as I think I'm one of the last to be tagged, I'd like people who read my blog but don't necessarily leave comments or comment on a regular basis...please :o)

Heartland...

2008-05-27T18:48:00.004Z

Here as promised, at long last is the completed Heartland Shawl....

The design is by Evelyn Clark and was the winner of the 2006 Buffalo Gold/ Wild Fibers magazine creativity contest.

The fibre is Buffalo Gold # 4 which is 90% de-haired bison down/10% “buffalon” nylon. It's very soft to knit with and is a gorgeous chocolate colour. I used 4.5mm needles as stated in the pattern and did 5 repeats of the bison tracks pattern before starting the River of Life edging. I ended up with 12g of fibre out of the initial 186g.

Once I managed to get a reasonable amount of time to knit it I enjoyed knitting the shawl. The completed shawl came out 72" across the top edge and 36" down the spine.

As the kit was a birthday gift from my friend Mike in 2007, this one is mine to keep; and will be only the 2nd shawl I possess, as all the others are given as gifts...

Anyway here are the photographs.....

On the sock knitting front here are the completed Opal Magic 1040 socks for BIL's birthday... I've now started a couple of other pairs of socks to keep me out of mischief...

I've also made a start on a 2nd pair of Marvelous Mitts and am toying with casting on Spring Things shawl in the next few days with the lace yarn I spun....

Just a Quick One...

2008-05-23T05:40:00.003Z

The Heartland shawl is finally finished, with 12g of yarn to spare ;o) !!!!

The Magic socks are also complete and ready for the 6th June, yes I've cast on another pair already :o)

I appear to be on a mission of finishing projects at the moment.... Or is it the incentive of new projects?????

Fibre is good for your diet, isn't it?

2008-05-19T15:43:00.016Z

On the knitting front I completed DH's socks. My favourite pattern to work Lana Grossa Meetings (7740), this is the 4th time I've knit this pattern and the 4th different colourway.....

I've cast on another 2 pairs so I've Lana Grossa Bosca on the go (I'm starting my Christmas socks early this year) and Opal Magic which is for BIL's birthday at the beginning of June; I'm part way through the leg of the 2nd sock, so it's looking promising.....

The Heartland shawl is very nearly there I had a big push yesterday on knitting it, and I'm over halfway through the River of Life Edging, so hopefully next blog post will see it finished and blocked :o)))

And last but not least on the knitting front, do you remember the red & yellow sock yarn in my previous post? I said I'd given it to my friend Ann (blogless) to knit, well look what she did with it...... proudly presenting the Sunset Socks...

Hasn't she done a great job of making virtually matching socks... I think it's more down to my inability to split roving in half lenghtways evenly and my spinning skills that the pattern has gone astray on the foot of the 2nd sock..... To save you scrolling back down the fibre was my February/March fibre (BFL superwash) from The Yarn Yard Fibre Club.

I apologise now to everyone who isn't a spinner and isn't interested in spinning or looking at graphic images of fibre pron, as the rest of this post is spinning orientated....

Not by design, but I ended up with quite a bit of fibre arriving just in the last week or so.... The following 3 rovings are from The Yarn Wench and she was having a sale, so what could I do but participate? Serves me right I came in just over the £18 import on purchases so I had to pay the VAT & duty as well as the Royal Mails £8 handling charge; that bits gets me riled every time!!!

This is Chroma 2 - Falkland
This is Speckled Egg 1 - Merino

This is Sweet Pearl 2 - Falkland

Then my fibre from the The Yarn Yard Fibre Club arrived, which is gorgeous and is 50% Merino & 50% Tencel.....

Finally as I wanted to take part in the May SAL on Spinner Central on Ravelry (OK I've been looking for an excuse to order some roving from Amy)... I ordered some roving from Spunky Eclectic so I might as well make it worthwhile, so I ended up with :

M*A*S*H - Wool blend

Monkey Farts - Superwash Corriedale (DH can't get over the name ;o) )

and finally the reason I ordered the rovings, 'Joshua Tree' in South African Fine...

Now the Joshua Tree has since been turned into this:-

and finally in to this.....

A respectable first attempt at lace weight 636m / 100g & 28wpi & 6tpi (I used the 11.3:1 ratio on my Rose)

Now my only decision is what to make with it.... I've considered a few options but either I haven't sufficient yarn or my yarn is a bit thicker than a few of the patterns. I know that doesn't matter but I don't want to run out of yarn and would like a reasonable sized shawl... I have however decided not to include Swallowtail in the list having done 3 already I thought I'd go for something new. So far I have

I would like to have done Laminaria but I don't have sufficient to do the larger version and I'm not sure I want to do the smaller version..... Anyone got any other suggestions?

I think I've waffled enough.... I'm a way for the Bank Holiday weekend, so I hope you all have a nice weekend and that the weather is good, but seeing it's a bank holiday I doubt it ;o) but we can live in hope...

Not much to say...

2008-05-14T07:44:00.003Z

I haven't a lot to say really.... the Heartland shawl is progressing albeit slowly I'm now in my 5th repeat and will possibly have sufficient yarn left for a 6th repeat before the edging....

I finished the 'Firelight' socks for my friend Mike; these were my 1st hand spun yarn to socks project, I'm really rather pleased with them, for those of you who know me well and that I like my socks to match and are wondering but they don't match... I can live with non-matching socks as long as I know they shouldn't match ;o)

I can't show you the originally fibre as it was before I became conscientious about taking before and after photos, but the fibre is BFL Superwash from Natalie of the The Yarn Yard

they nearly match though!

I have more socks on the go as always but I won't bore you with details, suffice to say there's Lana Grossa Meetings (my favourite design) and Opal Magic on the go at the moment....

For those of you into spinning here's what I've been up to, this again is from Natalie of The Yarn Yard; again BFL Superwash but was part of my Fibre Club package... I have tried to keep the colour runs as Natalie dyed them. I spun the yarn to preserve the colour runs by spinning each chunk as it came and then I have Navajo plied it. Jane of Janes Probably Knitting decided to spin it up differently, go and have a look what she did...

I have gifted it to my friend Ann who is hoping to start knitting socks with it this week, so when she has sent me a photo I'll let you know how they turned out.... This was also the last yarn I spun on my Ashford Traveller, it has since gone to it's new home :o)

This was the first yarn I spun on my Majacraft Rose, it's a 3ply yarn and you saw the original Falkland fibre in my last blog post; Leafpile 1 from The Yarn Wench It does look a lot paler because it's had the twist set 3 times as I seriously over plied this.... It came out OK in the end though and fairly even, with which I am pleased...

Last off the wheel is this "Antigua" in Superwash Merino from SakinaNeedles again I Navajo plied this. It's meant to be sock yarn but I think it's a bit too thick so I am on a mission to spin a commercially (length for weight) comparable 3ply sock yarn at the moment in between other things...

I have to say I was thrilled when I opened up Ravelry the other day and I had a message from someone saying that they would be interested in buying this yarn from me :o)))))))))

At the moment I'm attempting to spin my 1st lace weight yarn (2ply) in some South African Fine in "Joshua Tree" from Spunky Eclectic but I'll tell you more about that next time along with my recent Fibre stash enhancement....

If anyone wants technical details of the yarns just ask....

Marvelous Mitts

2008-05-02T09:31:00.007Z

Here they are finished :o) and in time for my friends birthday next Wednesday....

I'd say each one has probably taken me 5 days to knit, but probably only doing a maximum of a couple of hours in total each day on them...

I'm pleased with the colours and the contrast between the two colours.... The Trekking Ombre yarn was leftover from my socks I did earlier this year, and is variegated enough but still subtle enough to provide a good contrast with the Rowan 4 ply soft...

The pattern is "Marvelous Mitts" from Karendipity and her instructions are easy to follow if you've never done fairisle before as she provides you with lots of hints and tips so you don't have to go off searching the Internet or books for how to do something.....

I ended up using 30g of Rowan (MC) and 26g of Trekking (CC) with the 2mm needles (I did mine on 2 circs). When I do subsequent pairs of this I'm going to use 2.5mm circs as even with my hands after blocking they were quite a snug fit...

Socks are progressing up to the heel on both socks of both pairs. I'm hoping to pick the Heartland Shawl up this weekend and make progress on that.

The spinning on the Rose is far more enjoyable than on the Traveller (for one it's easier on my knees) and I have spun 80g out of the 120g of the "Leafpile" Falkland roving I bought from The Yarn Wench a few months back...

Did I mention she's currently having a sale on her products; 10% off 2 items and 20% off 3 or more items.... you will have to wait and see if I bought or resisted ;o)

Wonderwool Wales

2008-04-28T06:13:00.006Z

Just a quick post apart from being part way through the 2nd sock of both pairs the only thing that has made progress on the knitting front is the Marvelous Mitts.

One down one to go as they say, well that's not strictly true as I'm just about to start the star pattern just above the cuff on the 2nd mitt. The first one took 5 days on and off knitting so really quite quick to do... anyway a couple of phtos of the back and front..... The first one is the palm side

On Saturday I went to Wonderwool Wales, apart from a nice day out with my DH, which is something we don't get a lot of chance to do these days. I did go with the intentention of trying out a couple of Majacraft Wheels namely the Suzie Pro and the Rose. I thought I would decided which one I wanted (this was presuming I loved spinning on either, if not it would have been back to my list of wheels to try) and then be able to order... when I spoke to Sarah from Hedgehog Equipment who was very helpful I was like a child when she said if I liked a wheel I could take it home; I could hardly contain my excitement...

We arrived just after 10am and I headed straight for her stand and because it was quiet I got to try both wheels out but it had to be the ......

the Rose for me :o))))))

I managed to get some time yesterday to play with her ans she is lovely, the treadling action is so smooth, well everything about her is smooth.... if it wasn't for the whirring of the nylon break band cord against the plastic bobbin it would be silent.....

Other purchase included fibre: the large bag at the back is BFL Superwash and then from L to R across the middle is Shetland, Gotland Grey & Alpaca. On the front row from L to R is Wensleydale & Ronaldsey White purchased from a selection of suppliers..... Bluefaced.com, Scottish Fibres, UK Alpaca & Hedgehog Equipment

On the coloured fibre front just some plain commercially dyed Merino Tops from Twist Fibrecraft to have a go at blending; and yes that orange is really that bright ;o) The two packets of handdye are a Superwash Merino (on the left) & 64's English wool top both from Freyalyn's Fibres

and last but not least Mabel Ross's "The Essentials of Yarn Design" part of my birthday present from DH....

So a good time was had by all, OK especially me but the journey there and back was good (despite 2hrs & 50mins each way for just 140 miles), the weather was great and the fact there was Mid-Wales Mouthful food festival on at the same time made for some interesting 'edible' diversions :o)

Wednesday 16th April

2008-04-16T06:32:00.006Z

Lame title but couldn't come up with anything else this morning :o| it was either that or Progress!!!

Anyway, this is the Heartland shawl almost nearing completion of its 4th repeat, definitely sufficient yarn for a 5th and possibly even a 6th; I'm weighing as I knit now to try and make an educated guess :o) if anyone else bought the Heartland Lace Shawl kit from Loom 'N Essence for this shawl and already done it, How many repeats did you do?

Here is what my main project is at the moment "Marvelous Mitts" from Karendipity These are for a birthday present for my good friend Carol at the beginning of May so I have 3 weeks to finish them, so I think I should be OK :o)

The yarn is Rowan 4ply Soft "Zing" (391) for the MC and Trekking Ombre 78 for the CC (which was leftover from a pair of socks I did earlier this year for myself... I like the colour combination but because the MC is a solid and the CC isn't too highly variegated I think you get good contrast between the two yarns to show of the pattern...

This is my 3rd attempt at colour work and I do enjoy it despite being a bit slow with having to use both hands; the knitting Continental style is getting quicker but the purl is still a bit slow and laborious..... but I'm persistent if nothing else... but then as I'm a Taurean "stubborn" is probably a more apt term for me :o))))

A finished pair of socks for my friend Janet's birthday next Tuesday (22nd) I completed these in 5 days but it does help when it's only for a size 4 foot... although I had problems with the yarn on the foot of the 2nd sock and ended up pulling 2" and the heel back because the stripes weren't matching..... there's that "stubborn" element again.... I know I won't see the socks after they go in the post but it would irritate me knowing I'd sent a pair of mis-matched socks... I'm fine if the yarn won't match but if it's meant to, it has to match

Here is one of my 'staple' pairs of socks on the go... this is my handspun sock yarn that I did at Christmas for my friend Mike who decided this would make a good pair of socks as soon as he saw the fibre (BFL superwash) I got from Natalie of the The Yarn Yard It's called "Firelight"

My other pair of "staple" socks that I have on the go (on DPN's) are in pretty much the same position and so far no problems with the self striping yarn.....

What's everyone else got on the needles?

Presenting (Finally) the Alpine Scarf...

2008-04-08T09:24:00.008Z

... after a truamatic start to this lace project (never have I experienced so much trouble with a lace pattern in all my life) due to my inability to read a lace chart properly!

Here is what's left of my cone of French 4ply silk from Colourmart that Mum purchased last year for me to knit this shawl as a 70th birthday gift for her cousin's wife next week (April 17th).

The silk felt quite rough whilst knitting after a couple of hours I could feel were the yarn had been running through my fingers however, after washing it has become softer and drapier....

I purchased the cone as 150g of yarn so thought the cone weighed 44g it would appear that I actually got 154g of yarn as when I have wound the remainder off I found I have 4g left; I could have done another 2 repeats of the leaft motif!!! I think not ;o)

Here she is blocking as you can see I have done 6 repeats of the centre motif rather than the stated 4 to make it wider and have worked an extra 10 repeats of the motif, working 47 instead of 37 to make it longer so it is more shawl like than scarf like.....

If anyone wants to do 6 repeats of the centre motif here are the stitch counts I used....

Cast on 157 sts
After the 1st 8 gt-st rows, knit your 25 border sts at each side as stated, then knit 107 in the centre
When it comes to increasing on row 8 of the gt-st (before starting the centre motifs) increase 5 sts evenly across the centre 107 sts

You will then be knitting:
6 gt-st / 19 diamond border / 6 repeats of centre motif / 19 diamond border / 6 gt-st

Below are close ups of the patterns....

and finally the final article a modest but respectible 25" x 70" :o)

Progression

2008-03-18T10:36:00.005Z

The Alpine scarf is at last making progress, I have done 22 repeats of the centre motif :o) and I am relaxing into knitting it a bit more now, so a repeat takes me just over an hour.

If I hadn't done the sample and washed it, I think I would have been dubious about the outcome of the yarn as my almost boil washed sample is soft and drapey whereas the 'rag' at the moment feels quite abrasive to the touch and especially when knitting with the silk, my fingers can tell I've used the yarn after a couple of repeats.....

No photo as the camera decided to eat the photo I'd taken of it's progress but it's really more of the previous posts photo so nothing really to see...

On the sock front as you see I've finished my two pairs of socks for me... I'm wearing the Neon ones today and they're bright and cheerful despite no pattern, bit like the sunshine we're having here at the moment!!!

For anyone who wants to know they are Opal Neon 1931 and Trekking 167 respectively.....

I know it may seem a bit boring just doing plain socks, but they're practical and I also think I am providing a service to other sock knitters... ever think about buying a ball of sock yarn and you wonder what it knits up like, so you google it to see if you can find someone who's knitted it, and posted a photo.... well I'm the one who does that ;o) especially necessary when it comes to Trekking yarns!!!!

SO I've cast two more pairs on Lana Grossa "Meetings" 7740 - a grey fairisle and probably my all time favourite pattern and also 'Firelight' which is one of my 1st handspun sock yarns... I will post photos when they are a little longer than the rib....

Hello, I'm Still here...

2008-03-05T09:11:00.005Z

I know I haven't blogged for nearly a month... but TBH I haven't felt like it and I haven't really had a lot to show for it... my knitting mojo just seam to get up and go, perhaps it was post-Christmas burn out from knitting I don't know :o(

I have been knitting but just not seaming to produce anything....

Anyway since my last post the Alpine Scarf from VLT has at long last made some progress.... as of this morning, bottom border and 3 repeats of the centre motif....

and a close up, especially for Soo , without whom I would not be this far and the cone of silk would be on eBay for sale!!! yes it got really bad....

I 'faffed' about since the last post and eventually did one repeat of the bottom border but wasn't happy so ripped it off the needles and stared again..... a week last Sunday (24th) which I m now referring to as 'Grey Sunday' I got back to having done one repeat at 8.30am I had reached row 5 of the 2nd bottom panel repeat... something was wrong... I knew the SK2P should group together a particular set of stitches... it didn't!!! I studied and studied, couldn't see were I had gone wrong I tinked back a couple or rows everything was fine so in the end I ripped it back to the garter stitch border. Again I got to the 5th row and the stitches didn't line up so I pulled it back again... I was getting a tad distraught by now... I emailed Soo

My problem I should have mentioned when I did row 1 and 5 of the chart was that I always had 1 less stitch at the end rather than being able to do K2tog I had to K. This doesn't seem to throw the pattern out until you get to row 5 of the 2nd repeat were things just don't quite line up properly....

After exchanging emails with Soo and her offering me her phone number I re-read her last email and **ping** the light went on.... and no more K just K2tog :o) by this time its 4pm on Sunday so we rip back to the garter stitch yet again...

What had I been doing wrong???

This is so silly it's unbelievably silly and embarrassing.... the only thing I can liken it to is doing a crossword... you read the clue, you get the answer but it doesn't fit... you repeatedly read the clue your answer is definitely right the grid must be wrong... you leave the crossword go back to it re-read the clue get a different answer and hey presto it fits and not only that it fits with all the other clues that intersect that one!!!!

Yes I know I'm putting off telling you what I did wrong :o(

OK Rather than reading the chart all the way across from right to left I was just reading the pattern repeat for the top and bottom borders... as those of you with the book will know or can go check the chart for the diamond edging has bracketed sections saying top and bottom borders, left border and right border etc.... well I decided that I should only be doing the pattern repeat for the bottom and not reading the whole of the chart because that bit was bracketed right border!!!

OK I told you it was silly.... but it didn't end there.....

By the end of Sunday evening 9pm I had now managed to complete 1.5 repeats of the bottom border, yeahh back were I started at 8.30am 12 hours earlier....

Monday came and went nicely my friend Janet and our god-daughter came to visit... I decided that I could get the last 8 rows of the pattern in before tea and do another 16 rows after tea.... I got to the last few stitches of row 16 and I dropped a stitch and it ran all the way down to the lifeline 16 rows below - the air was blue- so I was now further behind at 6pm on Monday than at 9pm Sunday Agghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

all DH could say was "you should have put your lifeline in half way through the repeat" - isn't hindsight wonderful!!!!

I did not touch it again that evening.... I managed to complete the 2nd repeat in the following days and this Monday (3rd) I managed to finally complete the 3rd repeat and the transition rows. It was only Tuesday that I finally managed to start the centre panel motifs....

And after all that I still have my knitting mojo, but at the moment it's a case of needing to knit it for a gift for the 17th April, I'm not hating it but am not enjoying it, I think it will be a while before every time I look at it I don't think of those wasted 2 days...

So thank you Soo without your help I wouldn't have made it this far..... you deserved your present... :o)

Less stressful knitting and a learning curve has been the Patons (UK) Sorbet top a new pattern this summer for one of last years summer yarns (70% cotton & 30% Acrylic). Quite chunky for me to knit (6mm) and a tension of 15sts x 22 rows.

I had 3 balls of the burnt orange left so opted for the contrasting ribs which I like immensely, again with hindsight I would have made the bottom rib twice as deep..... I had to lift the neck line as it originally started 2 rows after the armhole shaping which would have seen me done for indecent exposure!!!

I also knitted the body and the sleeves as far as possible in the round... another first for me as you may guess I pulled my EZ books of the shelf and having being enjoying leafing through..... It fits lovely too... DH is out so no photo of me modeling :o)))

And last but by no means least my sock knitting which has probably kept me sane through the last month... both socks have partners halfway through.....