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....

Wednesday 16th April

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?