Hat Yarn!

I managed to finish the second bobbin of singles and get my hat yarn plied last night!

It's Bluefaced Leicester, mainly from a semi solid braid I had called 'Blue Suede Shoes' with a little grey and turquoise added for interest. I'm hoping it's going to co-ordinate with the first woven scarf off my loom. There is 145g/486metres (the hat should only take 80g). I am hoping I have enough left for some gloves or handwarmers.

Inspired by the silk scarves here which were raffled off at the Textiles in Sussex Exhibition, I have been dyeing some of the faux cashmere/silk that I have with a view to spinning and weaving my own silk scarf.

I have also been attempting to dye some silk too, it's funny how the addition of faux cashmere makes the silk easier to dye!

Another Fine Mess.....

There are lots of bitty things happening at freestylefibre HQ at the moment.

I've been knitting on a secret knitting project, for the limegreenjelly secret santa swap, so since it is a completely secret swap, unless my swapee guesses it's from me, you won't get to see the knitting anyway!

I'm also trying to spin some yarn to knit a hat, before the weather gets too cold. I can't find my old faithful stripy hat anywhere, and yes, it is about time I knitted one. Especially since I've found an ideal pattern in the Fall Vogue (edited to add ravelry link just for big sis Marianne!)

My Swallowtail did have a few more rows knit, until the secret knitting jumped up the queue. I've also got a scarf on the loom.

So why oh why did I decide I needed some more lace in my life? I have had the yarn for quite a while, a few months ago I found the perfect colour mother of pearl discs, and so I thought it was time I purchased the pattern (Hanging Garden Stole) and wound the skein into a ball in preparation to cast on. Unfortunately the skein had other ideas, it wound fine for a little bit and then it just got caught and wouldn't turn on the rice any more.....I could be untangling for a little while!

Just to make life a little more interesting I have decided to open a second etsy shop for handspun yarns and other creations, it's called freestylefibre. Actually I have been planning to open freestylefibre since June, I just had to put aside a little time to get a few items in there!

Heartland Lace

It's done, actually it's been done for a couple of weeks but we had alot of rain and I couldn't get any decent photos, I did 5 repeats of the main pattern...and size wise I thought it was huge, but actually it's only 2 inches wider across the top than the one in the pattern (66 inches)

It's a really nice pattern to knit, especially if you like following written instructions....I worked without lifelines, but it was just one of those designs I could actually read!

It also goes to show it doesn't matter how thick and thin your handspun is when it comes to some lace patterns, as the yarn was far from perfect, as thin as lace in some places and like dk in others, but I did spin quite alot of this yarn while demonstrating at the Alpaca Festival back in April.

Spinning & Weaving:

Last week I decided to get spinning something from my stash. This fibre started life on my spindle at Woolfest, but I had only spun 10g! I decided to speed things up a bit and transferred everything to the Little Gem.

I was spinning this all week so I was a little disappointed with the 220m I got in the end, still I'm hoping it will make a nice 'Howl' a cowl I can turn into a hat!

I've also been weaving Noro Silk Garden and Silk Garden Lite Warped Scarves! Mostly these are to sell, but wonders will never cease....my other half wants to keep one of the Autumnal one's. So far I have woven 2 of each, although there is quite a bit of the shade 203 left over frogged from a sweater and last seen in my Clapotis.

I think I only have 2 rows left on the Heartland Lace Shawl so maybe a photo of some actual knitting soon!