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.....

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)

Joining the Border Gang....

Yes that means at long last (it does feel longer than 4 months) the body of the VLT Sampler shawl is complete and to prove it.....

It's going to be big without the border and blocking it's about 5' 5" and 20" wide :0 but it's finally complete.

I didn't think it would come out quite as big as the yarn is quite fine [finer than it was meant to be :S) ] The yarn should have had 250m in a suposedly 25g hank (it's sold by length) however on weighing the hanks after starting they turned out to be approximately 22g which means that the yarn I thought was 10 m/g was in fact just over 11 m/g if I had known this at the beginning then I would have used 3mm needles instead of 3.25mm and it perhaps wouldn't have come out so huge...... so far I have just started into my 6th and final hank so I'm not sure if I will need to purchase more; however they do still have some smaller skeins (25m) of this dye lot left so I'm not sweating too much......

So along with Fleegle, lacefreak and missalicefaye I will be starting on the edging but not until weekend.

I now have questions for people if you don't mind....

I'm contemplating buying Hazel Carter's "Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts" and was wondering if any of you have it and what you think of it? or if you have recommendations for any other Lace books, I do have a few already....

I'm also asking what's your favourite lace yarns those around the 10 metres per gram mark (it's just my way of calculating how fine lace yarn is for comparison), the reason being I'm going to be knitting the Alpine Scarf from VLT and just thought as I'm not paying for the yarn it would be nice to experiment with a different yarn.... I don't do fluffy yarns such as KSH and don't want a cotton based yarn, preferably a merino or merino blend, so if anyone has comments or suggestions please leave in the usual manner.... TIA

Finally thanks Fleegle for the Norwegian Purl link, I will give it a try when I've watched it a few times..... perhaps trying it after a glass of wine will help ;)