Lovebox!

It's not often a whole week has gone by without a post from me, what can I say, I've been collaborating on a project in the garden, and although inbetween times I have managed to dye 800g of fibre, it's like watching paint dry...waiting for fibre to dry. I did get 200g of superwash bluefaced leicester spun, I was quite unhappy with the colour of the fibre, so I didn't take any photos, but now that it's spun, it looks completely different, and I really like it. It's just resting on the bobbins at the moment waiting for finishing.

On the knitting front I have 2 garments waiting for buttons, I have got the buttons ready, but I'm still dragging my feet, I'm ashamed to say!

Last Sunday was a much awaited trip out to the Lovebox Festival in Victoria Park, London.

1st up on the main stage were Nouvelle Vague, unfortunately after a great start, the girls went off stage and we had a couple of slow tracks, which was good, but they must have run out of time and the girls just came back on to say goodbye, quite disappointing.

This is 'Charming Steve' who was keeping us entertained between acts! You can read about Steve antics here.

The big act of the day for me were Hot Chip who were on at the very civilised hour of 3.30pm, this is us waiting at the front.

When they came on it was a bit worrying to see that there were only 3 members instead of the usual 5, but with a little help from an old friend of the band, they put on a fabulous show, and halfway through the set a fourth member put in an appearance!

Later in the day The B52's played an incredible set on the Main Stage. It's completely surreal, 21 years later to see a band like the B52's, who were an 'art school' favourite, and still be able to Dance This Mess Around!

A great Summers Day out, and the sun shone too!

Cooked!

These are my 'cooked' muffins, all plied and ready to go, I love the way the two original co-ordinating fibres have turned into two co-ordinating yarns, the warmer set of two balls, and the cooler set with a bit more blue. This is a supersoft bulky yarn, one of the bulkiest I've made so far, at 6 wpi (wraps per inch).

Fondant Fancies

I've just plied all these muffins and as the sun was still shining I managed to get them washed and they're drying outside.

The fair on Saturday went very well, I sold 2 cushions, a bag and quite a bit of yarn. I met Tusa, and her beautiful happy baby Elizabeth. Infact I think Tusa was my first customer of the day, and she bought the Crown Mountain Farm superwash to knit a baby surprise jacket for Elizabeth. I was quite surprised to see my felted yarn dashing off my table too, so I shall be making some more up, and I was also asked about running some Spindling Workshops and 1 to 1 Tuition!

I do have a picture of my stall, well I will have, I happened to venture out with my camera minus the card, always useful, but my friend Erica did have her camera and took some photos and will be sending them on.

I have just put my name down for a small Craft Fair over in Rye on August 4th, I'm just off to flickr to print some moo cards, as things are going so well.

Thankyou to all for stopping by and making comments and for your continued support!

Let the sun shine!

Here is the grey half of cloudy skies merino that I dyed up myself, I did a little experiment with this fibre. People are always asking me about how quickly you can spin on the wheel compared to the spindle, and although I knew the wheel would be a little faster I was curious about how much faster, so I divided the roving and did the dark grey on the wheel and the light blues on the spindle, I can spin an ounce to the thickness I was aiming for in half an hour on the wheel, and it took 45-50 minutes on the spindle, so really not much faster at all.

The light blues are actually much paler in reality, but my camera was having trouble with blues as always!

I finished weighing, measuring and labelling 33 skeins for the fair this morning, actually that light blue to the left is the same one as above all labelled and ready to go.

It's been a great exercise getting all of this yarn ready, I'm a bit lax about weighing and measuring as I finish yarn, so only 8 of these actually had cookie cutters attached, but from now on I will keep better records as I finish my spun yarn, and attach the labels. Also on the plus side is now I've got them all finished if they don't sell tomorrow they will all be ready to list in my etsy shop.

Fibres in waiting and more spun stuff!

I am desperate to get my hands on this giant batt, but for the moment am havingsatisfy myself with just opening the hobby cupboard and taking a look. I love the mixture of subtle colours but especially that shot of lime green at the end. It's a merino/silk mix purchased from Winghams whilst at Woolfest.

This second roving is also a merino/silk mix from P & M Woolcraft

So everything is on hold this week, while I finish my homework, and prepare things for a fair in Worthing on Saturday. I did manage to finish a baby cardigan, and my friend Astrid finished sewing up my Vogue cardigan for me and has also offered to do any sewing up I need in future. I really enjoy the knitting but I don't like putting things together, she likes to see a project come together in the sewing stages. Both finished items are awaiting fastenings, especially the baby cardigan, I actually finished it at Knitjam last Wednesday, and the baby is a week old today.

This is the silk hankies I had dyed here and was actually spun up and finished pre Woolfest, the black and white have mixed together to give it a wonderful silvery sheen!


This is 30g of merino 2ply spun on my baby Bosworth, last week, and plied on the Joy, about 72 metres, 27 wpi.

This is 30g of silk, again spun up on the baby Bosworth and plied on the Joy. It was lurking in my stash, from Ally Palace last year. I just wanted to try out spinning some silk fibre as oppose to the hankies that I've tried n the past. It's slghtly finer than the merino and therefore is about 116metres. I'm not sure if I like the colours though I've lightened the photos so you can see but in the actual skein it's more subtle, I just feel it's a bit dark, and dreary, especially for July.

I'm now waiting for some Tussah silk top, that I dyed last night to dry. The scattered showers aren't helping. Where is the sun we were promised!

THINGS TO DO:

• Get fastenings for cardigans and do photos, blog it!
• Take photos of cloudy skies
• Draft next lot of silk hankies
• Finish labelling and pricing for the fair Saturday
• Finish homework for knitting course on Sunday

And last but not least my invite for Ravelry dropped into my inbox this morning, something else to do...but may help me keep track of everything eventually!

SP10 Revealed!

Yesterday morning the postman delivered my final SP10 parcel...and look at the lovely goodies inside, 2 contrasting skeins of Fiberspates laceweight silk, just the right amount to knit the most gorgeous stole pattern you can see in the background. It's called Hanami, and represents the yearly Japanese tradition of viewing cherry blossoms.

Just have a quick look over here for some close up photos of Hanami, it starts with a beaded cast-on, then the basket weave symbolizes the friendships and interweaving of our lives.

'The second half of the stole is dedicated to the cherry blossoms and the reminder they give us of the beauty of life. As anyone who has seen cherry blossoms blow in the wind can tell you, they make a beautiful pink and white cloud of blossoms. Starting out with just a scatter of blossoms, they get thicker until at the end of the stole, there is a full cloud of blossoms. The second end of the stole is finished with a simple, flirty ruffle that is reminiscent of the delicate blossoms themselves.'

What a gorgeous and clever pattern, and a fabulous gift to end SP10!

Mustn't forget these pretty little stitch-markers, and the best surprise of all is finally getting to find out who my secret pal is.....those keen eyed among you may have seen that nice little card in the picture, I'd like you all to meet Jon the Easy Knitter.

I really can't thankyou enough Jon, THANKYOU! you've made my first venture into SP very special, they've all been lovely, well thought out gifts, I can't wait to cast on the Hanami, but need to finish a couple of commissions before I do. I do hope you've had fun picking them and I havent been difficult to buy for. I'm going to enjoy observing your venture's in spinning, knitting and dyeing, now that I know where to find you, and I'd really like to come and visit the I-Knit group one day, just to say hello and thankyou in person.

Wonderful Woolfest

Thursday saw us drive to the Lake District for Woolfest, we arrived at our secret * B & B destination at 4.30pm, it was raining about as heavy as I think it could and you couldn't help but think of other bloggers coming up who were camping, because the weather was horrendous.

Friday I spent my first full day at Woolfest, quite alot of the time I felt like I was walking around in a daze with so much to see, and do. My first purchase was a 2nd hand Jumbo Flyer for my Ashford Traditional.

I obviously bought a little bit of fibre, it was my first chance to see and feel different breeds of sheeps fleece, and I came away with a little grey Shetland, which was baby soft. I chose some pick and mix colours from Wigham Wool, and bought a huge multi coloured batt of merino/silk. I bought some alpaca noil, just for blending and some rugmaking tools, a prodder and a hooker! Some bags of sari silk waste, again for blending and some stripey merino silk roving.

I also had a go at 'Longdraw' spinning with the Guild of Longdraw Spinners, something that will take a bit of practice quietly at home, not at a big fibrefest with people watching!

I also bumped into a couple of other bloggers for the first time, I recognised Celtic Memory Jo, from the photo on her blog, she just happened to have an armful of cones at the time! I also saw Ambermoggie, Wye Sue, and Woolly Wormhead struggling to get around, not because she has a poorly leg, but because everyone kept stopping her in her tracks to chat!

I also met a few new people at the Spin-In Friday night, I met Freyalynn, and I sat with the Eden Valley Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers, who were very welcoming and friendly.

Saturday morning started wet again, and we set off for a drive around the surrounding area, to take in the scenery. We got all the way down to Sellafield, the site of the Uk's first nuclear power station. It had been raining quite heavy all morning but just as we arrived and decided to have a look around the visitor centre, it got even heavier.

We drove back to Cockermouth and dh decided to go back to the B & B, I decided to make second visit to Woolfest, and made a couple of extra purchases. I bought some lovely sockstuff from Freyalynn, and a Bosworth featherweight spindle, I'd seen quite a few people using these top whorl spindles, getting them spinning on they're thigh and decided to give it a go.

Saturday evening was dry and Sunny and we took some photos on the way back to our B & B.

* I'm having to keep our B & B a secret, because I would like to stay there again for Woolfest 2008, shhhhh.

This is my Bosworth, I've been spinning a little merino laceweight, but I have also bought some Tussah silk to dye and spin, just wish it would stop raining!

Cloudy skies!

I like the blues in this first batch of fibre, I actually dye 100g at a time in a microwave steamer.

I found a second microwave steamer in a second hand shop, so I usually prepare the second batch while I'm waiting for the first to cook. I'm not trying to make them exactly the same, although this second batch is not quite what I had planned, but it will still compliment the blues, whether I ply them together, or keep them seperate.

These last two, are my favourite dye experiments so far, I can't wait to get spinning them up, maybe later this week, I've still got that cardigan kicking around, the sleeves are in, just the side seams and sleeve seams to go, might even see if I can finish it off this week, now it's there in writing I better go and see where I left it.

Green Meanie!

Inspired by the beautiful greens of Emerald City over on the Weekend Whirls, I set about dyeing some fibre in shades of green. I've seen some great green results with the limes and blues of Koolaid, so gave it a go, I used 1 sachet of Koolaid per ounce as recommended, but all I got was this, I started spinning it up, maybe I thought it was going to miraculously transform into a green goddess, but the colours just weren't strong enough to satisfy me.

Someone with a bit of patience may have just spun the whole lot up and then overdyed it, but spinning takes a little time, and really you want to be spinning with colours you like, so I took my fibre and little ball back to the dye pot and got this:

This is the original pale green ball, overdyed with emerald, and turquoise, not a caterpillar!

Actually I overdyed the fibre and the ball twice, because it was too bile green second time round so I had to introduce some more blues, to achieve the desired effect.

Now as we at Freestylefibre are very aware you have to be very careful and patient and gentle when dyeing fibre, but unfortunately after 2 trys at overdying and cooling, the fibre hadn't faired aswell as the ball and hadn't bloomed back to its original fluffy self, so not to be defeated I put it through the drum carder, added a little sparkle with some blue angelina and spun it into this:

7oz of feltable fluffy green singles to play with!



Monday afternoon I dyed another 16oz of fibre and some more silk hankies, and this time I've actually achieved the kind of results I was hoping for, coming soon!

Bag Tag!

Going back a couple of weeks, well actually June 1st to be exact, Marianne showed us the contents of her purse, or bag as us Brits are apt to call it. I like to see what's inside people's bags just as much as the next person and as I am actually about to move on to a new bag, one that will hold all this and a knitting project, I emptied mine out and took a snap.

I love the concept of 'bag tag' so I thought I would bare all with the contents of my bag, I'm not really going to tag anyone else, well I tried to tag Jackie, (but she seems to think just because she doesn't carry house and home around in a big sack that it's somehow not valid). If you do pass this way though and would like to join in and show us the contents of your purse or bag, please link back, or leave me a comment as I would like to come and nose through yours!

Right at the back is the 'old bag', it's quite a roomy babycord sack of sorts, and serves its purpose well, now round to the right is my purse or wallet, I always used to carry a black purse but this is easier to find in the dark of a bag, next to that is my i-pod nano, for-head headache stick and imodium tablets, a diary I use as a notebook, below that is a Scoobydoo Mystery Machine dice. This is a great little dice within the cab of the van, when you press the button it flicks the dice!

Just below this is a credit card wallet, which is completely unnecessary, the cards I use are in my purse, mobile phone on the diary, piece of old jigsaw I picked up in the street to use in a journal page, small change, chewing gum, lipsalve, almost empty bottle of perfume, 3 pens and a crochet hook, a tissue, and a calender. The only other thing that is missing from this picture which is usually in my bag whilst I'm out is car keys, and I sometimes carry a tape measure aswell.

Naked Tuesday!

Today as it is naked Tuesday I am exposing my body art, this first tattoo is a heart of course, I had this done when I was 18 by Fat Bob. I think he may have been drunk! Anyway somebody told me that the outline is the painful bit, so rather than choosing a butterfly or a rose I picked a little heart to wear on my sleeve. Another girl who was with a gang of boys went in before me, and she actually left as soon as he turned his buzzing needle gun on, me, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth just sat there and let him get on with it, to be honest it's no worse than having a pinprick for a bloodtest.

This second picture is the chinese symbol for birthmark (at least I hope it is). I chose it out of a book I borrowed from the library all about Chinese symbols, it was a toss up between this one or the Chinese symbol for cake. I had this done age 29,by John Treharne at Skin Creations

This is my third tattoo, also by John at Skin Creations, and was a 30th birthday present from a girlfriend, it really is my favourite tattoo so far, but I'm not entirely sure if it is my last!

You see I like this tattoo, this is Carrieoke's KNIT tattoo, I found it on a random search one day for images of balls of wool, although I don't think I have anywhere to put it, the trouble with tattoos, you have to think carefully about them, and where you put them, and whether you want them to be on show all the time, and whether you want to be able to cover them aswell, you've got to be able to live with them for life! The only one I really regret is the first one, simply because I didn't really think about it much, I was just a naive 18 year old who wanted a tattoo.

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!