Progress...

Well progress on 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' got halted for a couple of days while I did this.... yes another Swallowtail, I can't believe it but this is my 5th and still I don't find it boring, but it's something I know I can do quick and in most weights of yarn. This was for a lady who know who needed a black scarf quickly, so as you can see I've done the mini version with only 9 repeats of budding lace.

Other adaptions include omitting rows 3&4 of the peaked edging due to stitch count and rows 16 & 16 of the same chart as I didn't want the edging too scalloped seeing this is for a sombre occasion. Oh yes! almost forgot it's done in Patons Diploma Gold 4ply and used 1 full 50g ball and not quite half of the 2nd worked on 4.5mm needles...


Finished size 48" across the top and 23" down the spine...


So far so good with the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' I've done 2 repeats of the pattern, but I did stop to do the bottom edging before progressing further as I didn't want to run out of hand spun and thought at least if I d this bit now I can work out what weight of yarn I'll roughly need to save to finish the other end.....

I didn't want to do a border all the way round so I opted just to put it on the top and bottom edges. It worked quite well as by simply just doing an extra knit/purl stitch at either end the 75sts worked into the edging pattern nicely.

I also opted not to do the Nupps as well to reduce yarn usage.....

With all this lace knitting I now have a sore index finger and a hole were I keep pushing the point in to it :o(

On a happier note my 1st installment from The Happy Hooves Sock Batt club came from Enchanted Knoll this week... 'Roses in the Snow' its a wild card set of batts hence the contrast batt in a beautiful Buttercup gold.... I have to say I can't see myself spinning and knitting into socks they're far too nice I can quite envisage these becoming lace.....

Moi obsessed?

Sunday 8th February...

I know uninspiring title.... but I couldn't think of anything else... anyway first of all if you're reading this Fleegle I hope you're feeling better and up and out of hospital...

After several weeks on the needles I finally completed the 'Embers' socks for Mike; I bought the yarn in 2007 as part of his Christmas present...

The yarn is 'Bonny' (75% wool & 25% polyamide) from Natalie of The Yarn Yard (keep checking back for updates) and was lovely to knit especially like orange/grey combinations...

On the lace knitting front or should I say knitted lace as the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' has no plain rest rows... I've completed the bottom edge and have actually managed 7 rows of the centre panel; mainly due to the fact that I had to have 3 attempts at getting the 1st row right!!!!

The 1st attempt saw me getting to the end of the row with an extra stitch as I'd missed a K1 at the beginning of the row. My 2nd attempt saw me as far as half way along row 3 before I realized that I had not purled the appropriate stitches on row 1. Finally on the 3rd attempt I got to the end of row 1 with no extra stitches and purling the stated stitches as well!!!

I should add the yarn is my own hand spun, which came from 'Fern Batts' produced by Josette of Enchanted Knoll so far I like the bottom edge but perhaps I've done insufficient of the centre panel, but it does feel like that the 'leaves' aren't showing up...

Finally this arrived in the post last week again from Natalie of The Yarn Yard, it's my Fibre club installment and its 80% Merino % 20% Nylon blend which is so soft and squishy, it's an absolute dream to spin (I got to test spin some over Christmas)... this is 'Faded Jeans'... and as you can see they're based on an old pair of jeans that are getting a bit faded and thread bare and have been splashed with mud from the garden....

I love Natalie's dying skills she truly comes up with some fantastic inspirations for the colourways :o)

Lilac Leaf Shawl

From this.... to this...

and finally to this...

in approx 5 weeks :o0

I used 3.75mm needles and all but 7g of my hand spun lace weight which came from Pumpkin Juice batts from Enchanted Knoll...

I however only got 10 repeats instead of 14 due to lack of yarn and was concerned it may not come out sufficiently long enough... it ended up a respectable 19.5 x 55" when blocked which is actually generous enough for a scarf or a shoulder shawl and with hindsight I think the recipient will get more use out of this than a bigger shawl....

I am pleased with this and have started Leaf & Nupp shawl in my Fern lace weight spun from EK batts :o) but I'll save that for another day.....

Of all things spinning & knitting....

OK on the knitting front... I got round to casting on for the Lilac Leaf Shawl last week with the Pumpkin Juice lace weight yarn I spun from batts of the same name purchased from Enchanted Knoll a few weeks ago so far this is the end of the border chart and am about to commence on the 20 row pattern repeat how many times (should be 14) will depend on how far the yarn goes.... but all said I've enjoyed knitting with the yarn and it doesn't mask the lace pattern which is what I aimed for when spinning it; although the nupps aren't very prominent....

The rest of the post content is spinning....

After Pumpkin Juice I spun up 'Fern' again from Enchanted Knoll and this time, I think because my plying was a little looser I ended up with 606m / 105g of 2ply lace weight (30wpi)

This is destined to be a shawl for a 70th birthday in December this year! and at the moment I'm thinking Leaf & Nupp Shawl (can't you tell I got Nancy Bush's Knitted Estonian Lace for Christmas)

Not quite lace weight but getting there with the next one.... A 3ply (21wpi) Merino & Alpaca blend (338m / 114g) from All Spun Up. This was Kristen's Jan/Feb spin along fibre that people are taking part in on her Ravelry group.... I must say it isn't a colour I would have bought but none the less I rather like the finished colours.....

Also on Ravelry in Spinner Central a skein swap was organised wherein you had to spin 4oz of fibre into a yarn for your recipient... you saw the one I sent to Regiknits in my last post. Anyway this arrived from her yesterday.... it's a beautifully squishy Merino / Silk yarn originally purchased from Funky Carolina which she's spun longdraw... have to say the colours are one of my favourite combinations... I've no idea what to make with it yet but am thinking hat at the moment....

Finally a little stash enhancement :o) both from Enchanted Knoll; although I know my Fibre Club from The Yarn Yard is in the post and I bought 2 beautiful braids of 'Copper' from Natalie the other week which she is going to 'enhance' for me....

8oz of 'Black Magic Woman'

& 4oz of Snow Moon, wish I'd managed to snag 8oz after seeing them up close and personal!!!

New Year... New Things

I haven't done any knitting since Boxing Day! As I've had time off work and I didn't do much spinning before Christmas I've been indulging myself with spinning :o)

This should have been for DH for Christmas but the fibre only arrived Christmas week, so I spun it up afterwards... DH chose these colours after seeing what Natalie of The Yarn Yard had done with a previous fibre club parcel of a variegated and matching toning solid... He straight away said if you use some of the bright windows 16 bit colour palette colours and ply against a charcoal semi-solid you'll get a nice stripey yarn....

So here I give you 'Windoze' - A new fibre Natalie will be having in the shop shortly a Merino/Nylon blend which is an absolute dream to spin... I will be investing in more :o)

I am also taking part in a skein swap on Ravelry, so I spun this up and it's currently on its way to it's recipient... I hope she likes it... Again the fibre is from Natalie and is a blend of Merino/Silk spun up into a 3ply

After MissAliceFaye introduced me to Enchanted Knoll I ended up with some batts from Josette... which I have been itching to get to try out and turn into lace weight...... Here are 3.8oz Pumpkin Juice, which I started spinning last Friday...

Which I spun into 2 singles on my new e-system lace flyer & fat core bobbins using my fast whorl at 17.7:1 (I'm working my way up the ratios!) and produced these.....

After spending time plying on Monday I produced this..... I am as proud as punch with this even my plying has improved... 530m / 110g (612yds / 3.8oz) of 2ply lace weight at 30wpi

Now in the very near future this is going to be turned into a lace stole for a friend who is 60 in June... yes I'm starting early but from the end of June this year until the end of January 2010 I have 6 birthdays ending in a '0' and they all knit &/or spin... plus it lets me indulge my passions for spinning fine and knitting lace something which has been sadly lacking this last 12 months.... I'm planning to do one of two designs from 'Estonian Lace' by Nancy Bush so it's either going to be 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' or 'Lilac Leaf Shawl'....

I enjoyed spinning the Batts so much I have started on the 'Fern Batts' from Josette unfortunately I'm back at work so time is a little less abundant, so this yarn won't get produced in 3 days....

Signs of life....

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, we did it was quite restful and enjoyable....

I said before Christmas I'd been doing some secret knitting but couldn't reveal it because the recipient was a blog reader anyway I can reveal what I was up to now....

Earlier in the Autumn I spun some Texel up and then dyed half of it in a dark charcoal grey....

From these two skeins I made these.... Selbuvotter NHM#7

I can say I was and still am very pleased with how they turned out and so is the recipient :o) I must admit however, the next pair I make will have longer and stretchier ribs they feel a bit like a crop top (not that I wear crop tops) more the fact the ribs just seem to 'hang' round the wrists.... but I did enjoy knitting them....

On the fibrey Christmas present front I was well blessed.... I received a total of 5 braids of various fibres from friends & family..... OK one or two were pointed in the right direction of The Yarn Yard to Natalie's 'Fibre Surprise' parcels, which I am pleased to say she is leaving up year round...

This was from my friend and came from Kirsten at All Spun Up and is BFL

All these were from relatives and from the yarn yard

'Pink2Purple' - BFLSuperwash

'Autumn Tints' - Merino / Silk

'Liquorice Allsorts' - Shetland

'Cabbage Medley' - Merino / Silk

The 'givers' chose from a selection of fibres Natalie had to offer and then gave Natalie a colour theme to work with to dye the fibre... I think she's got this down to a fine art hasn't she?

I also got the book 'Estonian Lace' by Nancy Bush and still on order is the 'Intentional Spinner' by Judith MacKenzie McCuin....

I also bought a e-system lace flyer for my Rose just before Christmas from a fellow Raveler in the anticipation I would get some money for Christmas to put towards it..... but you really don't want to see a photo of a lace flyer & 2 fat core bobbins do you?

Anyway this will be my last post for 2008 so I will take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2009...

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas & Best Wishes for the New Year