Spinning 1st, Knitting 2nd

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!

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....

Marvelous Mitts

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)

Some Knitting & Some Spinning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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