BusyBusy!

I can hardly believe I have been quite this productive since I last posted, I really need to make time to post more often! This first scarf is a bit of a cheat, well it was made before the scarf in the last post, but I didn't get any photos of it. The yarn is a cashmere mix and the skein was just a tangled mess when it was given to me, I spent months untangling it, I used to carry it in my knitting bag!

This is the first woven cowl I have made, the warp was a real mix of colours and I did the same with the yarn as I wove, I didn't bother using a shuttle as I changed colour every 2-3 rows.

This second cowl is a mix of green and purple with a little black sparkle and some sari silk!

These are my handspun thrummed mittens. I was knitting them last December, but they were thrown by the wayside in January just needing some thumbs, so I finished them last Friday, just in time for the fashion show at Guild!

New Scarf!

Ok so here is what the warp looked like, there was a range of yarn from sock to chunky and a bit of everything, mohair, alpaca/silk, bamboo tape, linen, wool, etc.





Here is Maddox modelling the finished scarf!

I have no hope of doing NaBloNoMo....or blogging everyday at the moment, I would like to post at least once a week, it's just not quite happening yet, although I'm not beating myself up over it!

I'd like to do a bit of spinning next, although I still have a sweaters worth of wool looking at me from my basket...always so much to do....so little time!

Dynamic View?

Every time I come to Blogger something has changed, I'm not necessarily complaining about change, it's just one of those things, when I logged in they were offering me a 'Dynamic View' it looks good, modern, different, although I'm not sure it will allow me to change colours and things and that leaves it a little too clinical for my tastes! Facebook is another place that likes to keep you on your toes changing things. Sometimes the best changes are the ones that happen without you noticing.

I am still weaving my little squares, I have over 180 now, although I have rethought the colourway. I decided I liked the blues/greens/grey of the Kureyon Sock so much that I would make a blanket with just those balls, but I had already made 122 squares in other shades of Kureyon Sock, so these will either be made into another throw, or divided up into cushion covers or something. I have just discovered that the shade I am using has been discontinued, but I only need 2 more balls and it's not too difficult to get hold of just yet.

I have booked a stall at a local Christmas Craft Fair which is on the first Saturday in December. I am not going mad making things....I still have a few woven scarves and some handspun yarn ready to go, but I have got the loom out of storage to start work on a few more things. The scarf above is the first I have woven with a pattern stick. The yarn was dyed by my friend Clare Dunn at Nimu (she is busy at the Knitting & Stitching Show at the moment). This ball was a tangled skein she gave me, it took me several weeks, months even to detangle, but I'm so glad I did, it looked great on the loom! It's off the loom now and waiting for a wash and finish!

I've got another scarf on the loom now, it was going to be a woven Mobius, until I realised I was weaving it vanilla (plain) and it needed to be woven 'stripey' as the end of the warp gets twisted and woven back in....the trouble was I had woven quite a bit when I realised, I tried to add some stripes of colour but because I am using a range of yarns from sock to chunky, they didn't work very well together as weft. In the end I had to unweave what I had done and re-tie the warp and start again. I may try the Mobius on my next warp once I have a good root through the stash and see what I am going to use!

I will try to get back into the habit of blogging now that I'm back and making things again! Isn't November Blog everyday month? Have just been to investigate, and found a place where you can be supported to blog every day any month you like, I will think about it!

Manic Monday!

Ok so I didn't manage a weekly post last week, nevermind, sometimes weeks with a baby around pass in a blur!

I have been beavering away on my squares, so much that I have just finished another ball of greens, just a few ends to sew in. I might get around to taking a new photo of some of them laid out at some point, I will have to start laying them on the bed, almost 150 squares now.

Maddox will be 20wks old tomorrow, he has been rolling over in his cot occasionally for a few weeks, and turning his upper body around to reach for things but today he managed to finally turn himself right over on the floor, and then proceeded to keep going!

He has also started sucking his thumb, Neo never did this, I think it's sooo sweet:

He is also enjoying his food now that we have started weaning!

Square Eyes!

Well yes it is about time I got back to this blogging business. The 7th of Feb was my last post and the day after, well in the early hours of the 8th Feb as most of my facebook and ravelry friends will already know, I did give birth to Maddox James Reilly:

So he's now 4 months!

When I do have a little down time I am still weaving 4 inch squares. I have woven 120 so far and have just started my 5th ball of Noro Kureyon sock.

Pictured is 2 balls, I've added a ball in shades of brown, and a ball with a mix of colours with a little urple since then.
I don't know what I'm going to find to blog about apart from Maddox and a few more woven sqares but I will try and make an effort to post something on a weekly basis!

OVERDUE!!!

Well not unexpectedly I have now reached my due date and am counting the days hoping the bump will arrive before the medical profession insist on inducing me! Neo was 2 weeks late, infact he was due 4th Jan 2004 and arrived on the 18th, so this baby could be here any time between now and the 19th Feb.

Infact Rosanna has started a Stork Pool in the limegreenjelly ravelry forum, whoever guesses closest to the day. Strangely enough my mum had all four of us on Thursdays!

So apart from gazing into space, moving into my new home, washing baby things and preparing for the new arrival I have been doing a little knitting and spinning. Infact I finished some singles last night and did some chain plying today.

I haven't had much of a knitting mojo of late but I did start some handspun thrummed mittens just before Christmas. I just need to stitch up the top of one and then pick up and do the thumbs, although it looks like we may have seen the last of the freezing weather.

They'll be able to keep my handies warm next winter while I'm pushing the bump around!

Still Here!

 I'm still here, now 32 weeks pregnant so if Baba Jelly does decide to arrive on time that's 8 more weeks! Last February we saw alot of white stuff. I am hoping that all the white stuff stays out of the way around my due date for obvious reasons, in the recent white out several babies were born in cars on route to hospitals and birthing centres.

 Every year the Front Row Fashion Show is held in Hastings and they have a Charity Shop Challenge where you spend £10 or less on garments from Charity Shops and then re-make them into an outfit. This year I finally got it together and entered this dress made from ties and an old leather jacket!

 I've also been doing a little more weaving on my mini weaving square, I've been using Noro Sock and Noro Silk Garden Sock, I did get 29 squares from my first ball used double, and now I'm using a different colourway and introducing a few new colours. It is a long term project I keep picking up from time to time, as I want about 300 squares for a decent size throw!

I have finished my handspun Annis, although I haven't managed to get a photo of it yet. I've also been spinning steadily away on my sweater scraps yarn. I wanted to get the yarn spun before the baby arrives. I have 600g spun which I washed and measured last week to see how it was going. 500g is all about the same and I measured 1,702 metres, this actually averages out at 340 metres per skein and is enough for me to start on a sweater. I have a skinny 100g which is much finer than the other 5, but may work when I've done some swatching and finalised the design. I have another 200g left to spin but since I think I have enough yarn already I'm not going to start on it yet!

100 Days To Go!

100 days to go, and it's about bloody time I updated the poor neglected blog!

There has been a little knitting....and frogging going on.
I started another Clapotis, much as I love the first one I made in the Silk Garden it is quite heavy so I thought I would make a more colourful option in silk garden sock, although I wasn't happy with the way it was going so I frogged it. Maybe I'll stripe it with a similar yarn for a different effect.

I realised at the last Kent Guild meeting that I still hadn't made anything for this years Guild Fashion Show which will be the last Saturday in November so I had a little look through my Ravelry favourites and picked out the Annis Shawl. Then I balled up the camel/silk I had spun for the 800yard Challenge and cast on, well attempted the cast on....at least 3 times before I went back to Ravelry and had a little read up on it, then it sat around for 2 more weeks waiting for me find the time to do the crochet chain for a provisional cast on.

Finally got it done last week, although had to frog and restart when I decided the 5mm needles were going to make it too big....I'm on 4mm needles now and almost finished, but worrying that I should have used 4.5mm instead......not going to be able to tell now till I've finished the short rows....which are becoming quite long and tedious!

Maybe I should stick to spinning, I'm still slowly working on the Scraps Yarn for my sweater project. Part of me is in no hurry to finish, because it probably won't be a sweater I wear this year, over the ever expanding body. I was going to upload the latest (25 week) bump shot, unfortunately although the photo appears up the right way on my computer, the new photo widget is turning it landscape so I look like the Himalayas. You can see it my my 'Mind The Bump' set on flickr where I have been documenting the bump as it grows.

I will try to be a better blogger, and come back soon, this will be dependant on me actually having something worth blogging about....like a shawl....although since I have just given another pair of handwarmers away I may have to start knitting some more, I can't possibly go wrong with handwarmers now can I!

MIA and news from the other side!

Instead of coming back every week, like I had hoped to I seem to have been Missing In Action for longer than normal.

I did have a bit of a break from knitting....I wasn't really happy with the sock I was knitting and the neck of the self designed sweater wasn't going as planned.

I did get some spinning done for the Tour De Fleece, this is from Scraps Swap 2 and 3, I have divided the 400g of scraps into 4 bags. This is the first skein and the second skein in progress on the bobbin. I am plying with grey merino and should have about 800g for a cardigan or sweater by the time it is all spun, I'm almost half way!

Last weekend we dressed up to take part in Pirate Day, and attempt to get the World Record for the most pirates gathered in one place, Hastings now holds the record with 6,166 Pirates!

I have also been spinning and dyeing in public at the Kent County Show, and last weekend I was spinning at the Winchelsea Féte with the 1066 Spinners.

For anyone else who happens to stop by who isn't a friend on Ravelry and Facebook and hasn't seen my other news, there is going to be a new arrival next February:

I was waiting for the 12 week scan before I went public, and now I am 15 weeks this weekend I can feel the baby moving around more.

Hopefully now my knitting mojo has returned as I need to get on and design the jacket or cardigan for my City and Guilds Handknitting. Ideally i would like to crack on and get it finished before the baby arrives, although I am having trouble getting a yarn and the early samples to work together!

Bigsock/Little Sock

As it was Worldwide Knit In Public Today we arranged a little meet up in Princes Park, Eastbourne. I thought we should mark the occasion by casting on the heel of Bigsock.  That is Becks on the folding chair casting on! Also in the photo is Lesley (in the hat) and Lou. Obviously the empty space is where I was sitting, I think Lesley will have a similar photo with me in it!

We decided the simplest way to work the afterthought heel for Bigsock was from the inside out like a toe, although rather than a closed cast on we have 500 sts cast on into a crochet chain which we will graft later on. The plan is for this part of the sock to travel the UK.  Germany are going to be casting on the toe and we can then be working the foot between us!

I finally got past the short row heel on my little Leyburn sock, after 6 failed attempts for one reason or another. I think the first time I wasn't paying attention with my wraps....a couple of times I got a stretched stitch I couldn't fix, then I got further up and realised that the leg was going to be too big, once when I frogged back I didn't check the position of the heel and foot stitches and was a stitch out, another time the foot was too long, then I knit it too short,   but on the bright side I am very pleased with how my handspun has held out after all that frogging and re-knitting.

I'm not that far off finishing the first sock now, maybe a few more inches and just weighed the ball of wool to see how it is going....I have 110g on the scales which means so far I have only used 20g! I think I will check again when it is cast off!

It's about time!

Oh me oh my, I can hardly believe I seem to have lost the whole month of May! There was I on the 22nd April counting down the days (quietly) to my 'big' birthday, and before I knew it we had hit 22nd May...and now look we're into June.
So my birthday was a quiet affair and there have been a few photos set aside for blog posting, although I've just looked for a picture of the long legged sheep that the boys got me, and I can't find it, I know I took one, but it's not in my photos folder or on the laptop, so we'll just continue with some photos from this week!

First up is my Leyburn sock, I had knit up to the ankle and frogged back once, simply because I made a few adjustments as I went and decided to take it out and redo it. This is part of the spin/knitalong we are doing in the limegreenjelly group at the moment. Some people are doing Scrunchie Handwarmers and some are doing the Leyburns and a few are doing both!

I have also been experimenting with a little yarn dyeing this week, these are superwash nylon sock:

The handknit sweater design is coming together, I am just hemming the sleeves and sewing the sleeves in, although you may not get a peek just yet!

I will try not to leave it another month!

Oke!

I finished the 3ply this week. It didn't actually turn out quite how I  imagined. When I split the fiber up I had 7 pieces following the same colour sequence so I figured if I made each piece into 3 then I would have 7 repeats of the colours. I know some of my pieces were thicker than others but didn't think it would split the colours up quite as much as it did, still I'm pleased with the result!

I had been warned that the fibre would bleed a little so I did fix it with a couple of big spoons of citric and bring it up to cook slowly. There wasn't alot of bleed in the water at the end, but the brighter yellow and lime are a little more muted in places, but it hasn't spoiled it!

I have 130g and 450metres, ideal for socks which is handy because we are having a spin/knitalong in the limegreenjelly group over on Ravelry at the moment, I'm hoping it will be suitable for the pattern which is the Leyburn Socks!

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad!

The knitting is still plodding steadily, and I have managed to get a little more spinning done. Good job really as Scraps Swap 2 and Scraps Swap 3 (400g of scraps) have arrived and I can't really start spinning them until I finish this 3ply!

I'm Still Standing!

Yeah, yeah yeah! In the great words of Sir Elton John!

Yes I have been neglecting the blog a little! In knitting news I'm still busy knitting the sweater. It is going well, I am up to the armholes, and have just started working on the back piece. The small gauge makes it slow going, although it is starting to take shape.

I did start a little spinning for the Pararavelympics, although haven't got past the 1st bobbin of the 3ply I started., mainly due to sweater knitting, and when I'm not knitting on this sweater or working I am also thinking about the cardigan/jacket design I need to start when the sweater is finished. Maybe I should start practicing the 5 minutes a day....I would like to finish this yarn at some point!

It is almost a month since we held our 1066 Spinners Dye workshop, this was the 3rd Workshop I have done and the best one so far, mainly because I've learnt as I go what works and what can go wrong. We had a great day in a lovely hall and I think we'll probably hold a simlar Dyeing Day next year.

I put Gemma, one of the knitters I invited, in charge of taking photos and we have some great shots.

These are the before and after shots!

There are quite a few inbetween shots of me demonstrating, and of the group dyeing too, I will try and get them edited and up on flickr....but for now I've got to get back to that sweater!

This Time Last Week......

I was at Brixton Academy, one of my favourite venues for seeing a band.



Waiting (not quite) patiently for one of my favourite bands...




Hot Chip...this was the third time I've seen Hot Chip and the best gig so far.

I could see them 'over and over and over and over' again. I'm a little frustrated that I can't see how to share the YouTube video here any more...but nevermind.

Knitting news, I am quietly beavering away on my sweater project. No sneaky peeking yet!

I still need to block my Swallowtail and I've had a scarf on my loom since Christmas, ok so the scarf is still on my loom because the sweater design is my top priority at the moment, closely followed by spinning, but I would just like to free the loom up ready for something else, maybe knowing that I haven't really got time for something else right now is the problem!

Scraps!

I finished plying my scraps yarn late on Thursday night....it's been very wet and grey since so I haven't had much light for decent photos. Managed to grab these between showers this morning!

Scraps!

This week it's all been about scrapping fibre for the 1st UK Scraps Swap!

Inspired by the Scraps Swap Group on Ravelry I decided to see if there were enough people in the UK interested in a scraps swap. We had 28 people in this first swap and over 5kg of fibre.

I gradually worked my way through scrapping all the fibre by doing 8 braids a day, and just had a few left Monday lunchtime.

I then started making up scrap bags, and once I started I got through all 28 quite quickly. I then got them all packed up and labelled and off to all the participants of the swap!

Here are my scraps, I have split every scrap into 2 pieces and have 2 bags ready to make a 2ply yarn. It has been such a successful swap we have decided to do it all over again, although I'm not hosting it this time!

Blah!

So we've done with January and here is February already! I had hoped to have been back sooner with yarn photos, but keeping all the balls in the air at this time of year always seems harder.

Hopefully by Spring my multi-tasking skills may get back to normal!

This first skein is camel/silk. It was an attempt at the 800yard race, but fell quite short at 576 yards, although probably my best effort yet from 100g!

The second one is about 200g of merino. I spindle spun half, back in October when I was at the Textiles in Sussex Exhibition. I found a very similar braid so wheel spun that up to ply together.

There is alot of sample knitting going on for the sweater I am designing, and finally the Swallowtail has been cast off and is waiting for some blocking.

Scrunchie Rides Again!

I could probably knit this pattern in my sleep. Wouldn't that be great sleep knitting, just think how much you would get done! The yarn is trekking xxl, knit on 2mm. I may still knit another pair....my pair are missing presumed lost....I can't actually think of where I had them last, they may still turn up, but it's looking unlikely. I do need some knitting on the needles for Wednesday (knitjam) although it would be nice to get my Swallowtail finished before I cast on something else.

I think this pair will be for my neice as her mum had a pair while I was visiting at Christmas and I said I would knit her a pair too.

Not alot else to show at the moment, there has been a little bit of spinning, and I washed some skeins today so maybe some yarn photos later in the week!

Take The Weather With You!

There has been a bit of snow causing havoc in the UK this week. More snow than I have seen since the 1970s!

I did manage to finish my camel/silk. It's not really a contender for the 800yard race, I had 576 yards, which was a little disappointing, although I think I could achieve 700 with a different fibre. No photos yet, I've not got around to washing it!

Apart from that I've been doing some garment sketches for my City and Guilds Handknitting, and working on some tv handwarmer knitting.

I also want to say a big Happy Birthday to Marianne, for Tuesday! Happy Birthday Big Sis, hope you have a lovely birthday! xoxox