Flower Basket

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...

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....

Busy Bee...

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)

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

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

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

1. Spring Things
2. Shetland Triangle - E Clark
3. Flower Basket
4. Forget-me-Knot
5. Hyacinth Lace

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...

Progress?

Well after completing pair of socks number 40 on Friday evening, I completed pair 41 on Saturday evening :o) and have promtly cast on pairs 42 & 43 - Opal Neon 1931 and Trekking 167

These were lovely to knit the yarn is very soft and the stripes are very subtle which appeals to someone who likes matching socks... because no-way could you make this yarn match all the colours are there but they blend differently to produce lots of combinations.... I have another ball in my stash a bolder combination of pinks & greens and I do have my eye on a blue/ ochre combination which may make it's way from shop to my stash shortly...

On the spinning front I have finished my 3ply yarn from the Merino fibre "Twilight 2" from The Yarn Wench which is my contribution to the Spinner Central January SAL; I was only a few days late finishing...

I haven't got all it's technical specifications yet as I haven't re-hanked it, but prior to twist setting I guaged I'd got about 340m + as I didn't split my roving very evenly I ended up with 70m of a 2ply yarn too for my 100g....

I am thoroughly pleased with this meterage from Merino... I can't say enough good things about Lynns fibre, it's always so well packaged, the dying is beautiful and the fibre is lovely to work with.....

Next up is some Romney which originated from Spunky Eclectic October 2007 Fibre Club and is called "Goblin Eyes"...

I'm using this for the February SAL so I will be having a go at producing a beaded yarn.... am meeting 2 out of the 3 guidelines for the month with Romney & beaded yarn but I don't think my fibre fits with "Nordic Colours" but I'm not sure what they are, I think reds and oranges, someones else suggested blues and whites...

What colours does "Nordic" suggest to you?