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.

Finally....

Just completed this last night: Handspun Swiss Cheese in Watercolour Dream.

The fibre timed out of the 'shop' in the 'old' days....and as it was only 100g, I plied it with a silk thread to make it go a bit further. I had about 260metres at 22WPI, 125g.

Well almost finished, I haven't sewn in the ends or blocked it yet, but I couldn't wait to show it off!

This week!

This week I've been working harder than usual to get the update ready a day early, as we're off visiting family today.

I'm really quite pleased with the steely greys and reds!

The update will be going live tonight!

Love Is In The Air....

I have been back at the dyepots again this week, but I have been working with a few new blends.

First up is a blend of merino/baby alpaca/silk:

Then some merino/soybean:

And some merino/tencel:

Hoping to find time for a bit of spinning and a few rows of knitting this weekend!

Can I do 7 Quick Takes Friday in a Blur!

1) My life is just passing in a blur of dyed fibres at the moment!


2) My dear friend Kim at Fibre Café nominated me for a Kreative Blogger Award, and I'm not going to nominate anyone else....I still love to drop in on my friends that still blog, it's like meeting a friend for a coffee, peeping into these lives and watching all the paths that cross and intertwine.


3) I still haven't found a new Winter Coat, maybe by the time that I do Spring will be here, and I can start to take a leisurely look at coats at the start of next season!


4) Keith has just given me a new intrigueing Rubik's Cube from Japan, it's called Rubik's Mirror Cube, the blocks are different sizes, will take some photos tomorrow before I start to mess with it! This is a photo I found on the web, except mine is gold!








5) I am reading Neil Gaiman- Neverwhere really slowly at the moment, can't seem to keep my eyes open for long when I get into bed!

6)If you haven't heard Fleet Foxes, Mykonos then go and listen NOW!

7) I didn't really think I would make it through 7 Quick Takes but here I am at number 7, what can I tell you...how did I manage to not to mention the weather that has caused chaos around the country this week!


I will leave you with a glimpse of this weeks update:

There be knitting content!

Finally the Sweater of Doom makes an appearance, this first picture is of the front, just to make things as complicated as possible the back and front are different! There are 5 dropped stitches on the left front, and 2 plus a third on the back!



The design itself is inspired by some very cracked painted woodwork, maybe when it is finished I will make a collage of the photos that inspired the design along with some artwork and progress photos!





This is also my other plodding project, it feels like I've been knitting it forever, the first half seemed to move really quickly, and now it just plods slowly. I did manage a few rows while watching Men of Honour last night (what a great film). But I'm not sure if I like it...I keep looking at the yarn and thinking it would make a lovely baby surprise jacket. My grim determination to knit things up with my handspun this year is definately wavering a bit!



Also the UK Winter Warmers Swap comes to a close this week, it was pre-arranged that all the parcels would go out the same week, which I think was a great idea. I posted my package to my unsuspecting victim , yesterday and came home to find this collection of goodies from my surprise swap partner! It's a package to make some thrummed mittens in a lovely shade of blue merino. I've always wanted to make some thrummed mittens, which my partner obviously picked up on. Also in my package were some Brittany Birch DPNS and a very large box of After Eights, yum! Special thanks to Ali for putting it all togther for me!


Not quite sure why blogger started typing in a different colour inbetween photo's, or what I can do to adjust it, so I'm just going to let it be!

New Fibres!

In lieu of any knitting content, here's the latest additions to the shop:

I'm still chugging away on the Sweater of Doom, and the scarf that I'm working on, I'll try and get some progress photos up this week!

Happy Birthday Neo!

My baby is 5 today, for weeks now we have been planning his first big birthday party, with all his old and new school friends in attendance, so later today we'll be decorating the hall and waiting for 28 children to arrive. This is the fabulous cake I had made, it's Banacafalata from the Doctor Who Christmas special 2007!

Just uploaded some more fibres to the shop, wasn't going to blog about it, but I liked the flickr mosaic so much I just had to share it!

I am planning an update of luxury fibres by the end of the week!

Dashing around!

Just putting my head up above the parapet to let you know I'm still here, have been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks, and it shows no signs of slowing down just yet.

Have been dyeing some merino this week and have just been updating the shop:

On the wheel I have some merino/cashmere/silk:

On the needles: still working on a handspun scarf (tv and travel knitting ) and the Sweater of Doom, which is just the biggest swatch in the world!

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!