Blah!

Just going to squeeze in a quick post before August comes to an end! Yes I've been neglecting the blog a bit, I have had good intentions of getting a new post up for the last couple of weeks, but this and that have kept me from it.

I have been out spinning in the sunshine a little bit, here I am at the Winchelsea Féte with the 1066 Spinners. An enjoyable Saturday afternoon, and they brought us fabulous tea and cakes!

I have been doing a little bit of spinning, not a huge amount but these have been finished off recently while I was waiting for the loom to be fixed (yes it is fixed now, and another scarf has been and gone, I would show you photos but its very like the first scarf as I decided to make another one with the leftovers)

Both Bluefaced Leicester, I was spinning the first one with 'masculine' woven scarves in mind, although I have some more merino/angora (which I finished spinning last week) to go on the loom first! The second one is a braid I started spindle spinning at Woolfest, I got impatient and finished it off on the wheel.

On the knitting front my Swallowtail just needs a little quiet time, I've also started a Heartland Lace Shawl with some overcooked handspun alpaca you may get to see soon.

A Scarf's Tale!

Gosh golly and darn it, I was happily weaving away on the scarf, firstly after the last photo and a little advice from the 'ashford loomies' on Ravelry, it was apparant that going on the way I was my scarf wouldn't have had the right sort of drape....my gauge was too tight, so I unwove it (not as much fun as frogging), and started again.



Then last Saturday I took the loom off its stand, folded it and took it to a Spinning Group and when I got there the right shed block that holds the heddle was just turning when it should be rigid, and the plastic handle had threaded onto the bolt that holds it. Anyway I got home rung my dealer who arranged to send me a new block, and I wedged it in place so I could at least finish the scarf.



As you can see it's all done, even finishing the thing left me with a dilemma, a wash fluffed up the threads a little, but not enough, I did a bit of walking on it in the bath....nothing happened! I then gave it a 10 minute wash in the machine, which only managed to almost felt and entangle my extra long fringe (seemed a shame to cut it off) together.



So I rescued the fringe, and then ting....just gave it a good rub and soaping to hand full it a little, and ta da:

It is done! The block came today for the loom, unfortunately it's the left block when I need the right.....deep breaths.

Inspite of all the bad omens I'm not ready to throw in the loom yet!

Weaving....

Finally the planets aligned enough to allow me to wrestle a warp onto the loom. It was a bit like putting tights on an octopus....but we're weaving!




Handyed merino/alpaca warp
Handspun merino/angora weft

I'm hoping for a scarf, it depends on its drapability when it comes off...who knows! You learn as you go!

Stretching my Jelly Legs!

323m superwash BFL

Chasing Rainbows

280m superwash BFL

Singles Night

I had Keith take some photos of the singles I have been spinning 'in motion'. Some kind of funny coincidence that it matches my socks!

This colourway is called Chasing Rainbows, I'm hoping to have it plied today!

Tour De Fleece Time Trial

I finished spinning the singles after lunch and finding myself home alone I just couldn't resist and started plying and just didn't stop (apart from having to answer the doorbell once) until it was done:

This Week!

I don't really know where last week went, I came back from Woolfest last Sunday and the rest of the week just seems to have disappeared down a black hole, I haven't even done any knitting.

Woolfest itself seemed to pass in a blur of excitement and a flurry of colour!

I did take my camera to Cumbria, but unfortunately left my card in my computer, so I don't really have any photos. This photo was taken by the I-Knit boys.

There are a couple of photos of me on the stall I haven't seen yet. I know MrsWoman has a photo of me, and it was brilliant to meet you after all this time!

I met alot of people, too many to name them all, because I'm bound to forget someone! There were people from Ravelry, people who have bought from me before, new people, it really was a whirlwind couple of days, and very hot and sticky, and I really couldn't have done it without Peri, and also a special thankyou to SussexYorkie for helping us out on Friday too!

One of the highlights was the Creative Weaving stall, I have had the book since earlier this year. I always said I would weave one day so Woolfest 2009 will be the weekend which really pushed me over the edge. Funnily enough the last Woolfest I went to (2007) I was almost tempted to buy a Knitters Loom, and after a brief lesson on Saturday afternoon from the Elizabeth Ashford on the Knitters Loom, that is exactly what I have ordered in the 20" size.

I have a moderate haul from Woolfest, 2 balls of fabric yarn and a skein of sari ribbon, I thought I could weave with these! and a new spindle, Mexican Rosewood, made by IST Crafts on the Isle Of Wight. I also bought a 1.5 bump of organic merino which is naturally dyed a gorgeous silvery grey colour, which I will probably use for plying.

Yesterday the Tour De Fleece started. I started spinning the Spiral Dyed BFL as I wanted to start with something bright and cheerful, I finished the singles yesterday and did the chain plying today:

And finally The Knitter Issue 7:

Managed to get our Knitting Group 'KnitJam' featured in the Gallery pages, timely as we have been meeting up twice a month for 3 years this month!

Whatever Next?

Tuesday afternoon and all the fibre is labelled, packed and ready to go!

I haven't had much time for knitting or spinning over the last couple of weeks, but now that all the dyeing is done I've been casting my eye over my knitting projects to pack....but nothing really is that simple.

Take project one....some handspun silk with beads threaded on being knitted in a freeform manner into some kind of scarf....







It's quite mindless...in fact it's almost so mindless it bores me senseless, but will look pretty when it's done!



My Swallowtail, I had knit the first 12 rows of the Lily Valley Border, but had to frog back to my lifeline, and it's a bit too full on anti-social knitting, so not suitable for Woolfest.

Ahhh yes project 3, cast on at Knitjam last week! I had 200g in one colourway and 200g in a very similar colourway I was saving for a bigger project and decided it would be great for a handspun Clapotis....except I spun some in a hurry without displaying due care and attention and ended up with 2 skeins of overspun singles, 1 is ok and I've got one left to spin!
...slightly chunkier than I really wanted but I am knitting on 5.5mm needles only .5mm larger than normal anyway...and it looks and feels ok.

I just wonder if the slight bulkiness of it would work better as a scarf, but when I knitted a small piece and did the drops it just changes the whole appearance of it....you know me I just don't want to spend a couple of weeks knitting on this and frogging it back, although I have just put in a lifeline at what I would call scarf width, so maybe that is exactly what I am going to do!

I estimate it will be about 16" wide...and am estimating if I used all 4 balls it would be longer than 68" so quite long enough....but do I want to knit it wider and shorter...so more of a wrap..or do it this width/length....I just can't decide.

Option 4....I have wanted to knit Lizard Ridge for a long time...my favourite blanket is in tug of war between the cat and the child on a daily basis..so a gorgeous afghan just for me is just what I need, so yesterday I picked up a ball of Kureyon at the LYS.
I thought I could just pick up a ball and knit on it now and then until I have enough, no pressure!

I usually like 2 projects on the needles....but if I cast on a square for LizRidge that will be 4..aaarrgghh WIP anxiety, this is just as bad as having no knitting on the needles and stressing over not having anything to knit!

People Get Ready.....

Here I Come....

Less than two weeks till Woolfest and the dyepots are bubbling hothothot @ limegreenjelly!

Thankyou for all the lovely comments about my clapotis! It feels like this merino/angora was hanging around on the bobbin for ages, but I knuckled down over a few nights last week to get it finished and plied.

I may well have some merino/angora in the 'too spin' pile this week, I came back from the dentist Tuesday to find the cat had taken a fancy to some which was hanging on the airer in the sun...it's no longer in saleable condition, but still spinable. She has never really been bothered by it before, but she was in a funny, playful mood, and we think it may be because the breeze was just blowing it a little!

Clapotis Clapotis Jiggity Jig!

Just the usual bustling, flurry of dyeing going on here, but I finally grabbed 5 minutes for a photo of my Clapotis!

There is a little lace knitting going on, and I have just finished spinning some merino/angora, also finished 2 skeins of alpaca from the alpaca show, but I'm probably going to dye them 1st, they may even turn into a shawl, or wrap, photos soon!

This Weeks Dyeing!

Build Me A New Spindle!

I decided that it was time to expand my spindle collection, and what better way to start than commissioning Karen from Wildcraft to make me a One of A Kind spindle with some treasured lego bricks? It's great to see the colours merge and blur as it spins!

Admiring Alpacas at Ardingly!

Last weekend I set off for Ardingly Showground as a couple of other ladies from the Kent Guild had invited me to spin with them at the Alpaca and Llama Festival. This is the display Marian and Wendy had laid out when I arrived Saturday, the garments you can see are all Marian's and mostly from alpaca!


I slept just infront of the table where the spinning wheels are for the photograph.


The festival was on for 2 days and Alpaca Farmers came from all over to show their animals.

We were given alpaca to spin and although the weather was very windy on Sunday and we had a little rain on Monday, it was still an enjoyable time, demonstrating the art of spinning and chatting to people!

Still here!

Yes I've been a very bad blogger, my weekly posts have been dropping off as the year plods on!

I have finished my Clapotis, just need to sew two ends in, (all my other ends were Russian joined) and take some photos, to say I love this pattern would be an understatement.....I can see why some people have knitted multiple Clapotis'!

So this week I have been very excited to have some new fibres in the house:

First up is the merino/seacell, this hasn't been readily available here in the UK.....but now I've got my hands on some it's going to be a regular in the shop...I LOVE it!

The second selection is a merino/carbonised bamboo blend, I just wanted to try something a little different that hasn't been seen anywhere else:

Dye Workshop

Sometime last year I was asked if I could do a dye workshop, I tentively agreed and the date was booked for 6th April 2009. I packed up the car last night and off I went this morning into deepest Kent.

I started with a demonstration and let them loose with the dyes, here are some of the results:

I think I had 13 dyer's in all but instead of pandemonium it all went very well!

This is a little sampler of Bluefaced Leicester which I dyed up as a colour sampler so people could see the strength of colours we were going to be using today. It is spiral dyed with 11 colours.

For a good visual explanation about spiral dyeing see here

Naughty Knitting Alert!

So shhhh, I should be beavering away on the Sweater of Doom...but I cast on for some naughty knitting this week, I am knitting a Clapotis in some silk garden that was a sweater!

I have been practicing my navaho or chain plying...yes I know I've almost been spinning for 3 years this June but when I started out I had one horrific attempt at navaho and hated it.

The trouble is my dear friend Jill in Canada sent me this:

It's Karaoke merino/soy and it really screams CHAIN PLY ME, just to stop all those beautiful bright colours from muddying up. So I did a couple of practice bits, and then I did this:

This is some bright merino or BFL I had lying around, infact it was almost ugly fibre and I was just keeping it out of the shop, because I didn't think it would sell, but spinning it almost prettied it up a bit! My first 100g skein of navaho....it's not perfect, but it is actually balanced and I feel alright about it.

Finally feel like I'm catching up with everything, I just need to spend a little quality time with the Sweater of Doom!

This weeks dyepots!

Merino/tencel and merino/silk!

Oh No...Not Me!

Ok it's been two weeks, it's not a major blog break by any means, but apart from a secret dye project, and the latest shop update, there doesn't seem to be a muchness of anything happening here at the moment.

The Sweater of Doom is almost up to the armholes! But I haven't had time to work on it for yet another week, and I don't have anything else on the needles, maybe I should cast on some...'I don't know what else to do' socks, although I really do want to be working with my stash of handspun.

There is a little merino/angora on the wheel.

I don't like to leave without a photo....so unfortunately it's just this weekends shop update, I seemed to be behind last week, no matter what I did, and much as I really need to get ahead again this week (yes I know it's only Monday) I just don't feel very motivated to do anything.