Casting On.....and On

I have had good intentions of getting back to the blog this year, but have let life get in the way....anyway I'm here now!

So here I am, February 24th. Back in November I was weaving cowls and hoping to sell a few bits at a craft fair, unfortunately I didn't sell much at the craft fair but I did manage to spin this:

This was only the second skein of yarn I made last year, but oh it was lovely to get back to spinning on the wheel. It is hard to fit it all in these days, spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing....everything has to take turns so if the loom is out the spinning wheel is away, although for a few weeks the knitting has been in the naughty corner and I've been back weaving blanket squares on the weavette! Small things like knitting and weaving can be hidden away from the toddler behind the chair...but weaving and spinning are harder to keep out of his way!

I have been lucky enough to be sent a  review copy of  The Weavers Idea Book from the people at Search Press, and it's a fab book, I won't go on and on about it because I should get a review up, but I did warp up a spaced warp just before Christmas:

I bought some Wash and Filz It Fine Felting Wool for this project, although next time I will use some handspun! I didn't have time to get much weaving done before Christmas so this was the first project off the loom this year! I have got some pre wash photos but it really needs a little blocking and a photo shoot to do it justice. Something to show when I get round to it!

My knitting mojo went a bit AWOL last year so Christmas was approaching and I decided it was time to get knitting that sweaters worth of scraps yarn I have...so did a little swatching and cast on....the rib was too sproingy so I recalculated and cast on less stitches....I knit and knit and knit over Christmas....tried it on a few times got as far as the armpits and left it in the naughty corner for a bit....decided I didn't like it and finally frogged it after a second opinion....I then spent days looking at patterns on Ravelry (again) and started knitting a top down cardigan...following a pattern that was written for a heavier yarn at a different gauge, bound to be a winner (not).... but that isn't working either. In the mean time I would really like to be knitting something.....so I'm knitting a Mizzle for Clare at Nimu with some yarn she has sent me....so she can display it at shows she is attending this year.....I cast on last night, the yarn is her new silk and baby camel, it's gorgeous!

BusyBusy!

I can hardly believe I have been quite this productive since I last posted, I really need to make time to post more often! This first scarf is a bit of a cheat, well it was made before the scarf in the last post, but I didn't get any photos of it. The yarn is a cashmere mix and the skein was just a tangled mess when it was given to me, I spent months untangling it, I used to carry it in my knitting bag!

This is the first woven cowl I have made, the warp was a real mix of colours and I did the same with the yarn as I wove, I didn't bother using a shuttle as I changed colour every 2-3 rows.

This second cowl is a mix of green and purple with a little black sparkle and some sari silk!

These are my handspun thrummed mittens. I was knitting them last December, but they were thrown by the wayside in January just needing some thumbs, so I finished them last Friday, just in time for the fashion show at Guild!

New Scarf!

Ok so here is what the warp looked like, there was a range of yarn from sock to chunky and a bit of everything, mohair, alpaca/silk, bamboo tape, linen, wool, etc.





Here is Maddox modelling the finished scarf!

I have no hope of doing NaBloNoMo....or blogging everyday at the moment, I would like to post at least once a week, it's just not quite happening yet, although I'm not beating myself up over it!

I'd like to do a bit of spinning next, although I still have a sweaters worth of wool looking at me from my basket...always so much to do....so little time!

Dynamic View?

Every time I come to Blogger something has changed, I'm not necessarily complaining about change, it's just one of those things, when I logged in they were offering me a 'Dynamic View' it looks good, modern, different, although I'm not sure it will allow me to change colours and things and that leaves it a little too clinical for my tastes! Facebook is another place that likes to keep you on your toes changing things. Sometimes the best changes are the ones that happen without you noticing.

I am still weaving my little squares, I have over 180 now, although I have rethought the colourway. I decided I liked the blues/greens/grey of the Kureyon Sock so much that I would make a blanket with just those balls, but I had already made 122 squares in other shades of Kureyon Sock, so these will either be made into another throw, or divided up into cushion covers or something. I have just discovered that the shade I am using has been discontinued, but I only need 2 more balls and it's not too difficult to get hold of just yet.

I have booked a stall at a local Christmas Craft Fair which is on the first Saturday in December. I am not going mad making things....I still have a few woven scarves and some handspun yarn ready to go, but I have got the loom out of storage to start work on a few more things. The scarf above is the first I have woven with a pattern stick. The yarn was dyed by my friend Clare Dunn at Nimu (she is busy at the Knitting & Stitching Show at the moment). This ball was a tangled skein she gave me, it took me several weeks, months even to detangle, but I'm so glad I did, it looked great on the loom! It's off the loom now and waiting for a wash and finish!

I've got another scarf on the loom now, it was going to be a woven Mobius, until I realised I was weaving it vanilla (plain) and it needed to be woven 'stripey' as the end of the warp gets twisted and woven back in....the trouble was I had woven quite a bit when I realised, I tried to add some stripes of colour but because I am using a range of yarns from sock to chunky, they didn't work very well together as weft. In the end I had to unweave what I had done and re-tie the warp and start again. I may try the Mobius on my next warp once I have a good root through the stash and see what I am going to use!

I will try to get back into the habit of blogging now that I'm back and making things again! Isn't November Blog everyday month? Have just been to investigate, and found a place where you can be supported to blog every day any month you like, I will think about it!