With which I am well pleased...

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

Each to their own....

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)

Wet Wednesday

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.....

The Shame of it....

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..

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....

Actual Progress with Photos!

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?

Not much to say...

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....

Wonderwool Wales

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)