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

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....

Interlude...

We still have no heating :o( hopefully it will be seen today and either fixed today or tomorrow...

Our friend Mike came yesterday to visit and to collect his hand dyed sock yarn from the silent auction I hosted.... I came back in the room to find this scene ;o) and the comment 'the things you do for friends'.... For anyone that's interested he's modelling CW108 one of my very 1st shawls and Heartland by Evelyn Clark done in Buffalo yarn... in fact it was Mike who bought it me as a birthday present a couple of years ago so it seems only fitting he gets to use the shawl now and again!!!

Anyway I have had a little interlude from 'Christmas knitting'. Natalie of The Yarn Yard asked me if I would test knit some new lace yarn she has to go in the shop tomorrow, which is called Betwixt, and is a blend of 10% Cashmere & 90% merino.... it's very squishy in the skein...

I jumped at the chance to do a bit of lace for a change, so I did one of my favourite patterns 'Swallowtail' by Evelyn Clark. I had several reasons for picking this pattern to test knit the yarn. I knew I can do it fairly quickly, it’s an enjoyable knit (this is the 4th time for me), it’s a very pretty shawl and most importantly I knew it would give the yarn ‘a good work out’ in terms of lace knitting….

I find this pattern overall presents you with good solid and open areas to show off stitch definition. The pattern starts out with a nice easy pattern repeat which shows off colour well and then the lily of the valley pattern puts the yarn under ‘stress’ whilst doing Nupps, finally the peaked edging gives you a nice edging that you can really stretch out when blocking.

I am pleased to say that Betwixt lived up to all the criteria I want in a lace yarn….

It was very soft and ‘squishy’ and wound nicely into a ball with my ball winder.
It was nice to use and flowed easily through the fingers when knitting with it
It gave good stitch definition
It blocked well

I did notice when knitting that sometimes the yarn appeared to be ‘thin’ in places but I discovered this was just temporary when I was pulling the yarn tight to knit with it, but after releasing the stitch is ‘fluffed’ back to normal.

I used a 3.5mm needle and I personally wouldn’t go any higher, in fact next time I use this yarn I think I would opt for a 3.25mm as after blocking I would prefer my ‘knitted areas’ in the budding lace to be a little more solid, but that’s just my personal preference…

As those of you who are familiar with Swallowtail will see, the peaked edging is a little short as I had to omit the last 4 rows of it due to insufficient yarn, however, it's come out a respectable 48" across the top and 23" down the spine.

All round this is a good yarn for small projects and I will be using it in the future, especially it's £6.95 for a 25/26g skein with at least 300m on of every so slightly variegated colours...

This arrived this week from Juliespins etsy shop it was the 'not fibre club' she offered through Ravelry, were you signed up for a maximum of 8oz of fibre either all Wood or Surprise me or a combination of the two. I opted for 4oz of the 'Surprise Me' colourway in Merino/Silk which turned out to be called 'Polaris' it's beautifully soft and squishy...