Dejá vu part deux!

Caught some photos of the finished yarn this morning when the promised rain didn't materialise.


Still on the purple theme, here are some silk hankies I dyed up last week, I've actually done most of the drafting, just the spinning left to do!

Dejá vu

This is the second batch of purple yarn cakes ready to ply. I dyed this second lot of 8oz with the leftover dye from the first batch, this is more violet and black where as the first batch had a little more amethyst and grey in.

I seem to be drawn to purple at the moment.

I started spinning Monday 4th June, and was averaging 1oz a day, and suddenly things seemed to speed up towards the end of the week and I had completed all 8oz Saturday morning and got them plied on the Joy Saturday night.

Niddy noddied and twist set Sunday they just need a photo shoot and we're done!

Not much going on this week apart from last minute homework for the C & G Knitting course.

Knit Happens!

I'm still running a week behind, but I don't have much more to show you and I'll hopefully be caught up. I cast this on last Tuesday the yarn is 50% baby alpaca, 50% merino in a colour called strawberry cream, and I'm knitting matching cardigans for a friends baby and toddler, for a wedding in October...just thought I'd make a start, so there's something on my needles, and another friend is expecting a baby girl at the end of the month...so why not knit 3.

I know baby stuff does fly off the needles, it's so small, I could probably finish one of these in a few days and even get it stitched up but I've got other irons in the fire. I have made a bit of progress stitching up the Vogue cardigan, the sleeves are in, I just need to do the side and sleeve seams, I just don't have an incentive to finish it because I'm worried that the sleeves won't give.

By the way there's a story behind my favourite Pony size 4mm needles, a couple of months ago I actually lost one of these needles, out and about, and I replaced it with a 4mm of the same length.

Whilst browsing second hand shops I always look at needles, even though I have plenty, but I still like to buy up any chunky wooden ones I find, anyway in a pot of needles I found this pony needle, exactly the same as the one I lost, and the eerie thing is it was a lone needle, I couldn't find another one, and they only charged me 30p for it.

You can't hurry Fluff!

Look I made 'emo' yarn. This is spindle spun merino plied on Joy which I dyed myself, this first batch of 8 oz/200g, is a waste not want not yarn.

I basically had a problem getting it dry, I wanted some fibre to spin at the craft fair I was having a stall at, and the merino only arrived on the Saturday morning, the fair was on the Sunday it had been sunny all week, but was quite a dull and cold day, I persevered none the less and got to work dying.

Although after dying I tried to cool down the fibre too fast, then I spun it to take out some excess water, and it looked a bit sorry for itself, so I rinsed it again and left it to drip dry for a bit. When it wasn't drying fast enough later in the day I took the hair dryer to it and finally by 9pm I put on the central heating, it was dry enough to start spinning on the Sunday.

But the combined process of all this treatment frazzled the fibre a little bit, but it's still super soft merino fibre, so I spun it. It was kind of fluffier and harder to draft but spinable...as you can see and you know what they say...waste not want not.....but always remember when dying...you can't hurry fluff!

This yarn was completed Saturday 2nd June!

Fuzzy Felts!

More felted yarn experiments!

Still time travelling...this was last Saturday afternoon!

30th June

Finally finished these socks on the 30th of June, so I'm only just a week behind on my blog but I've still got alot to show you.
It was a Regia self striping, and this was my first attempt at toe up and knitting two socks on circulars.
I used the Knitty Magic Cast-on for Toe Up Socks , I then did row below toe increases, this is one of my favourite methods of increasing, on the left slant of the toe (this is actually right of foot as you look at it) you knit the stitch but do not drop, then knit into the stitch below, and on right slant you knit into the stitch below then knit into the stitch.

For the heel I followed Wendy's Generic Toe Up Pattern, and wrapped the stitches twice.
I have given these socks away to my mum!

Catching Up!

I'm still on the catch up trail as far as finished work is concerned, so here is the finished superwash merino in the Twist and Shout colourway from Crown Mountain Farm, spun on the Turkish Spindle, and plied on the Joy.

This yarn still has a story of its own, I had all the skeins plied and skeined up on the niddy noddy, must have been about Friday the 18th May. Saturday morning I decide to give them a warm bath while I get dressed and go back to my soaking skeins only to find that the dark blue had somehow run and everything was a shade of blue, which although still looked pretty wasn't quite what I had in mind.

So I e-mailed Teyani from Crown Mountain Farm, and she was very helpful and spoke about a product someone else had used to remove colour, I think it was some kind of washer sheets you can buy, but not wanting to put this yarn through my unpredictable washing machine I went off to my local shop and bought myself some Dylon Colour Run Remover. You basically add this sachet of liquid to the water and soak the item in question in it for 20 mins.

After its soak again the water was an alarming shade of indigo, but it has restored the white highlights to a pale blue colour, and something I'm much happier with. None of these pictures really capture the true combination of blue, green, pink and purple in this yarn, but it's really soft and pretty and ideal for baby clothes.

What do I do with all this handspun UK Marianne? Good question, well I did a craft fair last week, it wasn't very busy due to the horrendous weather we had, but the one thing I did sell was yarn!

I'm going to tidy my knitting cupboard this week, and will be sorting all the handspun out and anything good enough to sell that isn't lined up for a project will be going into my etsy shop.

Now I've written it down I better get on with it!

I can see you all wondering about the cookie cutters...it's how I can tell which skein is which before I label them up ready to sell.

Blog Fodder

I seem to be a bit behind with photos queued and waiting to be uploaded to my blog but I've been worrying a bit lately that my lack of knitting content and my spinning obsession, may be a bit boring sometimes....look I made yarn, look I made more yarn, but I called my blog Freestylefibre for the simple reason that way back last September after only spinning for 3 months I knew making yarn was my thing.

So look more yarn...

BEFORE

This fibre started life as a deep purple unknown sheep fibre lurking in my stash, it isn't soft enough for much, but as the saying goes waste not want not, so I tried spinning it without carding, just by teasing the fibre into short lengths, and as I did this I raided my 'Treasure Box' of fibery bits and just threw them at the wheel as I spun. once finished I wound the yarn onto the niddy noddy and tied it with a cotton yarn every five inches.

Next I put it into the washing machine with a little soap and an old towel, and felted it. You do have to be careful where the yarn is tied when you take it out of the machine, as it does try to felt onto itself.

This process creates a strong felted yarn suitable for making bags!

AFTER

The Idealist - No Surprises!

Found this over on Marianne's Blog, No surprises here!

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

What's Your Personality Type?

Summer Holiday?

Our SP10 hostess is quizzing us again with a couple of questions, so I thought I would play along.

With the weather turning warmer, many of you are thinking of traveling (though some of you have just returned, you can play along). 1) What do you pack to knit? and 2) What do you hope to shop for?

Assume that you will be gone for ten days to someplace "foreign" that is known for having great knitting locations. (Bonus: Where would you go on a "knitting holiday"?)


Hmmm, a knitting holiday, my immediate reaction was to go to New York, I've never been to the US and I could take in the sites and visit some of the local yarn stores we read about, of course Habu would be top of my list of places to visit, and if I was really going I would have a long list of places to visit and things to see. I would probably be looking for something special or unusual like Habu's paper yarn, I like to think I'm quite a discerning shopper, I won't just buy for the sake of it, unless it's something I can't do without.

What would I pack? Well since there are so many rules and regulations about carrying knitting needles I would have a good book for the flight, and something small and portable like socks, and I couldn't travel without my spindle and some fibre!

Jo Grins and Bears It!

Remember that gathering of crocheted bits I showed you on the 25th April.... How can something so small take me so long to finish?


Anyway I've been tagged by Angie with the 7 Random Things Meme,which has been doing the rounds, so here is my best shot...



Well for starters sewing up knitting or crochet projects is not one of my favourite things, maybe that's why I love to spin so much....the finishing process for yarn mainly involves washing and then setting the twist, I find stitching up quite stressful and need to be in the right frame of mind.

I hate my belly button being touched, the feeling when somebody touches it, well its a strange expression but it goes right through me, makes me shudder to think about it!

I have 3 tattoos, the first one is a small heart on my right shoulder, I had it done when I was 18, by a man called Fat Bob at the local Tattoo parlour, the second is the Chinese symbol for birthmark on my right ankle (I was being ironic), and the 3rd and largest is a tribal symbol between my shoulderblades.

My short hair has been many different colours but the brightest colour it has been is bright turquoise, one of my friends said I looked like a troll doll, you know the craze for these bright haired little dolls which comes and goes. The colour itself didn't last very long as I didn't like the attention it drew, I like to keep a low profile, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

My first driving instructor told my siblings I would never pass a driving test. I passed in 1998 after 20 lessons after not driving for 10 years, I've now almost been driving 10years! I love to drive too!

I ran myself over with my own car! My handbrake had broken and I was having to leave my car in gear, something I don't do as a rule. It was a frosty morning after a long night shift, and I was taking moving boxes to my car, as it was frosty I opened the door and stuck the keys in and started the car to warm it up, forgetting that the car was in gear, the car itself jumped up the curb behind it and started rolling down a grassy bank, only being stopped by the wire fence at the bottom, as the car rolled down the hill I let go of the keys superfast and went under the car door, I was only bruised but there is still a dent in my leg. Apparantly this was all captured by the security cameras where I used to work but they never did manage to get me a copy.

I am absolutely hopeless at establishing a routine, although I do manage to clean my teeth everyday!

So thats seven, I'm not going to tag anyone else because it seems to be covered in most areas at the moment, if you want to list seven random things just go for it!

Testing!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try something different with the single of Suffolk fleece I had spun. I plied it with an unusual 'novelty' yarn that I had found in the sale at my local yarn shop. The novelty yarn knitted on its own is quite hard on the hands, almost a nylon twine with the long lash every few inches, so I plied it with the green Suffolk single that I had test spun for Rachel. I also added a few spots of merino fibre between the plies as I spun them together, it's turned the novelty yarn into a softer more interesting yarn, and I think it will make a nice decorative garter stitch band around a simple knitted bag!



The finished yarn is 21.58m (23.60yds) and is semi bulky at 7 WPI, I started to knit a sample up yesterday on size 5.5mm needles, as it was coming straight off the wheel, and it was looking good!

Spinning Around

Yes Marianne, it is all about spinning at the moment, this is the Superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farm, in the Twist and Shout colourway, I just love to watch the colours dancing through my fingers!

As you can see I got some brightness in the loggia yesterday for a little fibre foto shoot!

I also forgot all about my 100th post which was the previous post, only noticed when I logged in to put up the new photos, I got a bit carried away but I love the way the colours change in this yarn, you can see more on flickr!

100th Post!

This is no way to wrap your Turkish spindle, but I just got carried away as the colours kept forming this mandala like pattern. I finished plying the Sunset fibre from Suzie Thursday night, but there hasn't been the right sort of conditions for photos just yet.

The back of my cardi has been blocking all day, and I've been spindling some new fibre up on the Turkish, I've done 3 oz since Friday, photos as soon as the weather brightens.

No knitting content, I'm turning the heel on my socks using the wrapped method, which I haven't done before and need some quiet time to settle down and get it done.

This week I'll be catching up with my homework for college!

Snippets!

There's been a hum of activity around here this week, so I thought I'd just show you some snippets of what's been going on:

On the floor

I've finally started blocking my Vogue cardigan, it's only been sitting around since Easter, that's the fronts and sleeves you can see, just the back left to do. I do have a bit of an issue with the sleeves, according to the pattern the measurement around the upper arm should be 11 inches, now I dont have Jennifer Aniston upper arms, but they're not bingo wings either, but mine clock in at 12 inches, I've blocked the sleeves to this and hope that they might give a little bit, or this cardigan could be winging its way to someone with skinnier arms than me.

On the spindle

I've been spinning up the fibre that Susie gifted to me in the Knitters Treat Exchange.

On the Joy

I'm test spinning some Suffolk lambs fleece for Rachel

Something for the Weekend!

The postman came with a package from my SP10 this morning, and what a package it is.

If there is one yarn company in the whole wide world that can always excite me to the point of drooling, Habu is it. I only saw their yarns for the first time last October at Alexandra Palace, but I was entranced with their tiny little balls and cones of silk and steel wool then, and still am.

So how lucky am I this week to get a package with two cones of 100% silk, in this fantastic shade of green, this stuff is very special, and will be taking pride of place amongst my stash awaiting a special project to do it justice.

This other thing you see is called Tangle, its a fabulous little thing that I haven't come across before, but great fun, you can just play and twist and turn, it's so sculptural, I've been trying different arrangements of it this afternoon, and seeing what kind of shapes I can make, seeing how tall I can make it, but keeping it balanced, just bending it around, perfect for fidgety children and restless knitters!

Thankyou Secret Pal!

Thankyou all for your birthday wishes, it's been a bit of whirlwind week, and I'm getting to grips with a new laptop, which is very nice but I'm not really technically minded, anyway as you can see I have managed to upload a photo. Maybe that's not such a big deal but dh has updated my photo cropping programme, and it doesn't make as much sense as the old version I was using. I only know how to do certain things and end up with 3 different programmes running at the same time. My favourite programme for doing things is Corel draw, simply because they give you a sheet of paper, aslong as I've got that sheet of paper I know where I am, but if I'm in Corel and I need to crop something I have to take it to Paint Shop Pro, then take it back to Corel draw, computers can be so frustrating, or is it us, misusing them or not instructing them what to do that's the problem!

Anyway Mayday came with more sunshine and the postman bearing gifts from my Knitters Treat Exchange Pal, Suzie, this is a fantastic, well chosen package that Susie has put together for me. There are some really quirky ideas in Knitscene, and its not a magazine I have seen, there's also this beautiful handpainted merino fibre, and the 2 balls of wool, you're absolutely right Susie, you can never have enough wool, there's the junior mints, simple perfection, and how did Susie know about the facial scrub....I was trying some foundation with a Clinique beautician Saturday, who was telling me I needed to use a facial scrub and this Mint Julep arrives, I tried it out this morning and it does make your skin feel so tingly and fresh.

All in all it's a fabulous package and I've really enjoyed being part of this Knitters Treat Exchange, thankyou so much Suzie!

As it is my birthday today, we drew the birthday competition this morning, there were 5 correct entries, and Neo had the job of pulling a name from the hat....drum roll please......the winner is Sheila. Who guessed correctly that I was number 16. Did you notice how odd the numbers on that photo were, there were 6 combinations of 6 and 7, which were 6,7,15,16,42 and 43, with a 5 (32) in there for good measure. I was born at home in house number 7, and I know its a lucky number for some, I like to think its lucky for me too.

Ok here are some pictures...

I was born at home and was a much longed for baby for my mum and dad, my older sister Jackie is 12 years older than me, although she would have liked a little brother...but had to wait another year for one, musn't forget to mention the younger sister too! As you can see I was quite a bonny little thing, I was born with dark hair but by 1972 it started getting lighter.

And eventually I ended up quite blonde, in this school photo I would have been about 5, I love the blue dress, I'm not sure whether my mum or Jackie made it but I do have the same fabric in pink and yellow, waiting for a special project, in my fabric stash.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the competition and everyone who visits and supports me by commenting on the blog.

Works in Progress

Can you see what it is yet? maybe I should have put a ruler in for scale, I've still got the Vogue cardigan waiting for blocking, but I've been busy with other things and having a little dabble with amigurumi too!

I wasn't happy about having nothing on my needles, so I printed out the Knitty magic toe up cast on and started my first toe ups, this is my first time knitting socks on circulars, and I couldn't see the point of knitting one sock and then the other, now I've worked it all out although can you spot the deliberate mistake!

Yes indeed socks are meant to soar on 2 circular needles, I wasn't paying attention this morning and managed to knit both onto one needle, doh!

Gratuitous cat pic, just because I felt like it, Keith thinks I've lost my mind because I've started collecting Willows fur, just wait until my cat loving friends start to collect they're cat fur and send it to me too, completely barmy.