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....

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...

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)

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?

January Round Up

Sorry it's taken so long to getting round to posting but have been quite busy on the fibre front in one way or another....

Not in any order of priority just the way I loaded the photos into blogger we'll start with the spinning.....

This is "Twilight 2" Merino that I purchased from the The Yarn Wench before Christmas to add to my stash fibre; although I am determined not to let it get out of hand, famous last words!!!!

I decided I would join the SAL on Ravelry for January which was "Snowed in colours - Angora - Fulling" as you can see I only opted for the colour theme and thought it was quite apt, Icy blues and whites with a bit of black thrown in, now despite not being a fan of black I think it makes the singles look great. Here is 2/3 of the fibre spun up and I have just the remaining 1/3 to spin then I will ply and attempt my first 3ply yarn.....

Next up is part of the 2008 new years resolution, not so much as a resolution but a promise to myself that I will try and improve upon my crochet skills.... I have been able to crochet for a while give me a hook and yarn and I can practise virtually most stitches and get a sample, try and put that into anything other than a scarf and I loose it so I always say my problem is counting not crocheting as I usually end up with not enough or too many chains left at the end of a row.....

Anyway here are my attempts so far... these are worked in Patons Jet (gloves) and Patons Inca (hat) both from the book Patons Learn to Crochet

I started with the fingerless mitts (1 ball) and then moved onto the hat (2 balls) my crocheting in the round is still not brilliant again no problem with the stitches and the principle I struggle with completing the rounds and if I don't keep count I find it difficult were the start/finish is if that makes any sense?

Next a straight forward bag in treble crochet (or double crochet for my American readers) worked in Patons 100% Cotton DK. I have to say the cotton is a fantastic yarn to crochet with and very good value at £3.35 for 100g of either DK (210m) or 4ply (330m) weight. This pattern is originally from a kit introducing how to crochet... I just thought if people could see the bag made up it might tempt some one to have a go... I really enjoyed this

Next up is the scarf "Flurry" from the book Crochet Inspirations 1 using 2 strands of the Mohair blend "Misty" this takes 4 balls all in all, and as I couldn't make my mind up about the colour I went with 1 strand of "Sky" and 1 strand of "Thunder" so I've ended up with a heathery look which I rather like; again quite a straight forward pattern but looks more difficult than it is.

The nice thing about the Misty is that despite it's 70% Mohair (30% polyamide) it didn't irritate my nose when working with it, at all unlike Rowans Kidsilk Haze and if memory serves me right it's statistics makes it a suitable substitute for that yarn: 150m / 25g; tension 18-25 x 23-34 on 3.25 - 5.00mm or US 3 - 8 and at £2.75 per ball it's a heck of a lot cheaper!!!!

Sorry you're going to have turn your head side ways..... must make Soo & Fleegle work for their photos!!!!

Last on the crocheting front is the "Chevron Scarf" from the Learn to Crochet book above, but rather than use the Jet, I've used a smaller hook and yes you guessed it Patons yarn again, but the Washed Haze Aran, which is another good yarn although I normally prefer the DK weight....

With all the striping - 6 rows to the pattern repeat I am opting for the format taken by some lace knitters when doing knitted edgings and doing 6 rows a day otherwise I would go mad cutting the yarn at the end of every row and threading or crocheting in the ends

Now to the Lace Knitting.... I know I haven't said anything about this but I have been working on this since New Year for my friend Anita aka Dream Knitting who has a had a bad back for a few weeks, and was doing this for a friend who retires at the end of February; I didn't like to mention it on my blog until I had asked her permission to do so....

Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in "Georgetown" and of course as everyone knows it's the PLT MS3 stole otherwise known as "Swan Lake". I must admit I've enjoyed doing this as I didn't know what to do after Christmas, so it filled a hole.....

With the above lace knitting complete I finally cast on my 'Heartland Shawl" in Buffalo yarn that was a birthday present from my friend Mike last April.... lovely to knit and is a heavy fingering weight yarn although the pattern says 110g of DK weight I have 186g so I will be doing more repeats than the pattern states as it says 4 repeats before starting the edging.... shown here is halfway through the 2nd repeat......

I spent 3/4 hours the other afternoon re-charting the chart that came with it as it wasn't easy to read and I knew I wouldn't be able to work comfortably with it as it was.... so those hours were well spent....

Last but not least I cast on the "Alpine Scarf" from VLT which needs to be finished for April. I'm using some French 4ply silk from Colourmart and adding in 2 extra repeats of the central motif to make it wider and I will just knit it as along as I can. I did a test sample August when the yarn arrived so I could 'play' with the yarn, so you can see were I'm going with this one, at this stage I'm halfway through the first bottom border repeat. Once I get the bottom border done I will set myself the task of 1 repeat per day.....

And lastly to say thank you to Fleegle for nominating me for the "You make my day award" I was going to nominate a few people this morning but so far everyone I thought of has already been nominated... so I for those of you who I read your blog on a regular basis, you make my day when you post......

I hope the round up of January's fibre escapades has been worth the wait and there's sufficient photos for Fleegle & Soo...

Bits & Pieces...

This just literally arrived through my door :o) lovely isn't it?

It's my fibre club parcel from The Yarn Yard a 50% merino & 50% tencil blend. As always Natalie sends a lovely covering letter describing the fibre and how she went about dying it and her opinion about spinning it and/or suggestions... it's certainly brightened my day up... It's a beautiful combination of colours, it's soft and has a beautiful sheen to it....

Here's the Wine Sap roving all spun up and plied now... I must admit I'm pleased with how it turned out, though as you can see the colours in the roving don't always come through into the yarn as strongly as you would want

I got a very respectable 336m weighing in at 114g with 11tpi and 21wpi, and I'm pleased because my plying has improved and is more even and firmer. Previous plying has been a bit sloppy in places and firmer in others so this is a definite improvement.

I got one or two suggestions for the yarn, and I've bookmarked them on Ravelry for future use, but at the moment I'm toying with creating my own shawl pattern following Evelyn's suggestions in her book Knitting Lace Triangles. I'll let you know what I decide and how I progress....

My Princess shawl pattern was delivered on Saturday so now I have the yarn, the pattern & the needles and I'm ready to go but it will be a few months before I start as I don't "feel" ready to begin yet and I have a couple of shawls I want to do before starting this, so I think it'll be summer before I begin....

Both socks are progressing nicely so hopefully it won't be too long before I have a couple more pairs of socks....

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.....