New Year, New Stuff!

So Christmas came and went, and was virtually hassle free, I had some lovely gifts..notably Norah Gaughan-Knitting Nature (which has been on my wish list for a long time) and Inspired to Knit aswell although they both inspire me to keep working at it. My bestest pressie has to be the complete DVD set of the Buffy The Vampire series, I just need to find the time to watch them all the way from the beginning!

The frogged Sweater of Doom is back to where it was and a little more since frogging, and I've been doing a little dyeing. After the experience with the merino/cashmere/silk/angora that Rosie gifted to me, I decided it was time to branch out a little and try some different fibres in my etsy shop. 1st up is Swamp Thing, a blend of merino/cashmere/silk....I listed it earlier (sorry it was snapped up!)

This second one is a blend of 50% merino/50% angora, it's soooooo soft and it's called Beautiful Stranger, over in my etsy shop now!

It's Christmassssss!!!!!!

So Christmas is here....this is the only Christmas knitting I did to use up the second half of the ball left in my stash.

On the needles.... still working on my college sweater design project, slow progress and after completing 37 rows I dropped a drop stitch only to find it ran into the garter stitch border, so had to rip it out and start again! gahhh! Have a handspun scarf on the needles, I really hope this is a keeper not a frogger!

And I feel a case of startitus coming on, as I've been spinning some bulky merino/silk to test knit a scarf for a friend on Ravelry, I never have more than two projects on the go usually.

So there we have it....just want to Wish You All a Very Merry Christmas!

see you on the other side!

New Yarns!

First up I have a green BFL supercoil! The last supercoils I spun was only 15 metres, so this time I spun the single much thinner, to ensure I had a bit more yardage!

Next up is the merino/cashmere/silk/angora that was gifted to me by Rosie in the first UK Swap! I'm really pleased how this has turned out, although I would have liked to spin it finer. I do think it might even be whispering cowl to me, but we'll see how it swatches!

Warming Your Hands!

This weeks UK Swap inspirational post is about warming your hands.

I have knitted gloves and handwarmers, and even knitted and frogged some bulky mittens in a handspun yarn. But so far colourwork has eluded me, mainly because I have favourite patterns but haven't really found the right combination of yarns.

What is your favourite Winter Warmer for your hands?
I like gloves, mittens, and handwarmers equally, there is room for them all in my Winter wardrobe!

Do you have a favourite pattern or FO?
I have several that the keen eyed will have spotted in my Rav favourites,recent additions are the Fresco Fair Isle Mitts, and the Snowflake Fingerless Mitts, although I'm also quite partial to the Squirrelly Swedish Mitts too, among others!

What is your favourite yarn for gloves, mittens or handwarmers?
A yarn suitable for its purpose, obviously some of the semi solid and solid sock yarns are ideal for colourwork because they are so hardwearing.

Are there any patterns out there you would love to own?
I think I have most of the ones I like, or they are free downloads. Actually there is the Fiddlehead mittens....I don't own this....if I had found the right yarn, maybe I would have bought it!

Or do you already have a winter warmer and you would like some mittens/gloves/handwarmers to match?
Nothing finished I want to match with at the moment!

Live Earth - Short Film - Don´t Let It All Unravel

This is ACE!

UK Swaps Round 3

Have signed up for round 3 of the UK Swap:

Kit Swap

What kind of kit are you interested in receiving? Hat, gloves, mittens, scarf, handwarmers, cowl, or socks.

Are you interested in any particular techniques? Cables, fair isle, hmmmm, I've always fancied having a go at thrummed mittens.

Do you knit, crochet, or both? I knit, I can do some crochet stitches, never really managed to follow a crochet pattern.

What is your favourite colour? Purple, Blue, Lime, Charcoal

What is your least favourite colour? Pink and Orange

What’s your style? (elegant, traditional, glamourous, girly, natural, sporty, outgoing, etc.) Sort of thrown together boho scruff.

Do you have a favourite type of fibre or brand of yarn? Anything soft, pure wool, wool blends, noro, habu.

Do you have a least favourite type of yarn? eyelash acrylic.

Do you do any other crafts? I spin a bit, dabble with dyes, and sew!

Are there any knitting accessories you are interested in receiving? I don't have any bamboo double points in 2.50mm.

What do you like to eat? Gummi bears, strawberry creams, orange creams, peppermint creams, I don't like dark chocolate, but don't mind it wrapped around a flavour.

Any allergies/preferences (fiber-wise or treat-wise)? I don't like nuts, apart from toblerone or belgian seashells!

Anything we missed that you’d like your partner to know? Anything else you need to know about me, just ask!

On a Roll....

I'm still here, the weeks are starting to pass in a blur but the wheel has been turning with this mix all week. It's the merino/silk/cashmere/angora, Rosie gifted to me in the UK swap back in March, dyed by me! All ready to ply when I have a few hours to spare!

I am doing a little knitting, I finished a pair of aran handwarmers this week for my mother-in-law, infact they were finished in an evening and a half, just a basic vanilla handwarmer pattern. I've also cast on for another pair of Scrunchie Handwarmers, as there was almost enough Trekking left. Not quite enough yarn left to do a pair so I'm just working less ruffles!

This is the second project off my new wheel, (sorry Lesley no photos of my baby bean yet but it looks like this one). The weather has been so bad I feel lucky to get photo's at all!

Ok so here we have 340metres of aran weight merino, about 11 wraps per inch.

I've also lowered all the prices in my etsy shop to reflect the strength of the $, and added some more merino last night, I will hopefully upload some Bluefaced Leicester later in the week if the weather improves enough for photographs.

Beansprout!

This is the first skein off my new wheel, Jellybean...hence I gave it the name...Beansprout, I've also finished spinning the other braid, I have about 265 metres altogether.

I realised this week that I had probably dyed too much for the Knit Safari tomorrow, but that means I can take it easy for a bit and concentrate on spinning, knitting and filling a second order of Lavender bags, I also need to make some more sticks of rock too.

Pest!

Still I did manage a small update in the shop!

Arrivals and Departures!

During September and October I had been thinking about replacing my Ashford Joy with a double treadle version, and while I was humming and ahhing over the expense of a new wheel somebody on Ravelry posted that they were going to be selling their Majacraft Little Gem, and that it would be available for a pick up in London late October. I slept on it, thought about it, and got in touch with the seller, we chatted through Ravelry and the decision was made.

So early last Saturday morning I delivered my Ashford Joy to it's new home. My SP10 buddy Jon jumped in first when I mentioned I was going to be selling Joy, as he has well and truly caught the spinning bug! Then Jon accompanied me to Clapham to pick up Jellybean my new portable wheel.

This is one of the last projects completed with the help of Joy, and plied on PukaPuka. Watercolour Dreams was a superwash fibre, I started spinning it back in August, and decided to ply it with a silk thread to make the 100g of fibre go a little further!

I have already spun my first skein of yarn on Jellybean, early this week, so weather permitting, I should hopefully get some shots of that up soon too!

Party Girl!

Sorry to keep you in suspense, Rosie got it straight away, it is indeed a tea cosy! It's called Party Girl, and was designed by Loani Prior from the forthcoming book Wild Tea Cosies, which should be available in December! I've been asked to knit a couple of tea cosies in readiness for the book launch. Here she is in pride of place, sorry I can't take any credit for any of these beautiful cakes either!

A Mysterious Object!

Bigsock has been at Mew Mew's Yarn shop in Louisville, Colorado since Labor Day, September 1st, I just had to show you Mew Mew napping on the job, one of my favourite photos of the sock on it's journey so far! I've just had word that it has reached it's new destination....Alaska!!






This week I have been finishing off my Lavender Bags.

And knitting a mysterious object!

Hmmmmmm.......what could it be?

Special thanks to Rosie, she sent me a pompom tool in the first UK Ravelry Swap, and it came in handy while I beavered away on 27 pompoms for this project!

Can you tell what it is yet? I shall reveal all.......soon!

I'm also the lucky recipient of two 'I Love Your Blog' awards! First Victor and also Peri gave me the award on the last post, and if they hadn't been the two that nominated me in the first place, well they'd be up there at the top of the list as I love your blogs too! I had also recieved a reward ealier in September from Angie, I always enjoy reading what you've been upto too Angie, and look on in wonderment as you fit everything in!!

Its really hard to choose blogs to award because I love all the blogs that I visit on a regular basis, but I have picked a few out:

The first one I am giving to Caroline. I've alway found a visit to Caroline's blog brings a little peace and serenity, or just stops you in your tracks and makes you think or laugh!

The second one I am giving to Elsie Dinsmore, the 'Punk Pensioner!' I only found this blog this week, but how could you not love it!

Now according to the rules I think I'm supposed to nominate at least 4 bloggers for the award, but since I think everyone should get one I'm just going to stop there. If I'm a visitor at your blog, you can be sure of one thing, I do love your blog, and consider yourself a recipient of this award!

The Sweet Smell of

...... Sussex Lavender!

This week I've mostly been working away on some lavender bags for Aardvark!

There have also been some new colours added to the shop:

And I'm also busy dyeing a few braids for this fabulous FREE local event:

In other lives Kim transformed this yarn (which she purchased through etsy)

into this scrumtious chevron scarf:



and matching hamdwarmers:



It's always a thrill to see my handspun yarn complete it's journey, and also heartwarming to know it's so well loved and will be warming the neck and hands of a dear friend!

Competition Results and Sp12 Comes to an End!

Ok let's get straight down to business.....I took all the comments from the last post (yes you too Nicole because winning a competition doesn't excempt you from entering another) and put them into the List Randomizer.....in the order in which they were left....

And I pressed the Randomize button and tahdah.....

There they are in the order of randomisation, and the winner is Kim! Well it is fitting that Kim was my first ever swap partner, in a swap organised by Miss Knightingale, she's also recently celebrated a birthday, which almost co-incides with my blogiversary, which I'm pretty sure makes us fraternal twins, ;-) I'll be talking to you pretty soon Kim about which colour STR you would like me to have sent from Blue Moon Fiber Arts! Thanks to everyone for the comments, there were some great suggestions for colourways for me!

This week also brought the arrival of my final Secret Pal 12 Package, here it is before unwrapping, we knew my pal was in Finland, but everything else this far has been kept a Secret.

Unlike my downstream, because I stupidly managed to reveal myself before the second package arrived with him, but luckily he took it in good humour!

First up is a pair of gorgeous handknitted socks that were tucked away in this great little project bag, I've never recieved handknit socks as a gift before, and even better they are a perfect fit!

Edited to add, this sock pattern is called Autumn Lace Socks from the six sox knitalong (ravelry pattern link)
Here we have lots of sweet treats, some chocolate covered bilberries and lingenberries, some tea, ravelry pins, and some special chocolates, very yummy!

A ball of Noro Sock, in gorgeous greens, perfect!

More Finn sheep!


And some Bluefaced Leicester Fibre! This round of SP has been most enjoyable and my dear spoiler has finally revealed herself to be Hanna. Thankyou so much Hannah for being a such a great Secret Pal!


Had to show you that even Willow loves the package, Hannah!

Yay, I've been spinning again! I do love the subtle colour variations in a two ply yarn, lots of purples, violets, lime and green through these two skeins!

This is Superwash BFL, one of my favourite fibres to spin, it's just so sproingy!

So the blogiversary is Thursday, hard to believe it's been 2 years! I've decided to have a little contest, I was looking at colourways over on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website, there are so many lovely colours to choose from I've been finding it hard to pick one, so to win a skein of STR for yourself all you need to do is pick one out for me and leave a comment on this post telling me why you've picked that colour.

I'm going to leave the contest open till Thursday 25th September, I will either pick my favourite comment or I'll put all the entries in a random number generator, it really depends how many entries I get!

Obsession is Normal!

Edited to add this photo of me and the braids hanging too!

Here's Jon, sitting behind our stall just before the doors opened and everyone arrived! For most of the day the stall was surrounded by people fondling fibre and yarn and Jon was rushed off his feet all day as people went wild for his 'sushi sock rolls' a machine knitted handpainted roll which is then handknitted as you unravel, and his bamboo mix too!

At 2pm sharp I left Jon to it, as I hightailed it over the road for the Harlot addressing the masses. It was pouring with rain as we all queued outside Lindley hall, but thanks to my new best friend, whoever you are, who didn't mind sharing her umbrella with me while we waited to get in, I didn't get too wet as I was only wearing a t.shirt!

As I was on my own....I managed to nab a stray seat 4 rows from the front, and who should be there directly infront of me but my friend from City & Guilds Knitting, Heather, and just infront of her Celtic Memory Jo too!

After the talk (it was hilarious and so true, of course) I went for a wander around the other stalls, and settled back with Jon for a bit, but the above photo is just to show you, that Stephanie was seated right behind within almost touching distance, for the rest of the afternoon doing the book signing.

Eventually towards the end of the day, as the queue started to dwindle Luke and I took our places.

Here is Stephanie writing Obsession is normal in my copy of Things I Learned From Knitting! hence the title of this post.

I had a wonderful, wonderful and busy day, not only did lots of nice people come and buy my braids, I got to meet lovely UK Swap Pal, Rosie, blog friends Cassandra, and Jen (again), I met Natalie from the Yarn Yard, and Probably Jane, and even a lurker who reads here, lovely to know I have lurkers! Hi Caroline, and a special hello to Larissa who we queued with for the book signing, and who took the photos for me, and who was lucky on the draw and won a spindle and a whole pile of gorgeous fibre and didn't spin, it was fate, she had to learn and a quick spinning lesson was the order of the day! and hello to anyone else I met in the excitement of the day who wanders in here who I may have forgotten to mention.

So all the excitement doesn't really stop here: I need to get dyeing and get some more fibre up in the etsy store, my 200th post is coming up aswell as my blogiversary, and I've also had a brilliant idea to start Bigsock from the toe up to travel around Europe and the UK, so that when the top of the sock comes back from the US we just need to unite the two parts by grafting!