July & August

It's been a busy couple of months inspite of the holidays...I'm going to do a quick round up of everything I can remember I have made since June!

In no particular order I'll start with July, I made some more lavender bags, 10 infact. I made 4 when I did the hospice fair back in June, which I sold but forgot to take any photos of them....they are simple little things with handwoven fronts and recycled linen fabric backs.

Next up this month there has been a little knitting, infact there was a bit of knitting that got frogged so we won't talk about that, but I was fed up of carrying a ball around in a carrier bag, when we were young we had a net bag which we carried a ball around in, infact I've heard that balls were sold in these little net bags although I don't remember, anyway I decided I would knit a cotton bag for the ball and found the perfect pattern over on ravelry....

Annoyingly blogger has rotated my photo and I don't know how to fix it, this wasn't perfect knitting at it's best either, but it's functional! Although saying that since I knitted the bag we haven't actually been out with the ball!

I also made this scarf in July, black cotton on cotton warp with some wool.

and finishing the same warp off another scarf in cotton (August project) weird how this one is the right way up (I haven't the foggiest)!

Finally as Autumn starts to rear it's head, I have booked a couple of Winter fairs and have set myself the task of making one thing every week for my stalls.

These neck cosies are knitted in chunky yarn that I have dyed myself!

May and June

1st up we have 2 scarves done on the same warp in Texere wool silk, which is quite rough and breaks really easily, although I can get it on the loom ok. This is May's projects.

These 3 spaced warps are June's projects. I also did 4 lavender bags with handwoven fronts yesterday before I went off to a fair at the local hospice, but they all sold before I'd even thought about taking photos.

I took Ruby out to the Hospice fair as they wanted me to do a public participation thing at the event, I decided the easiest thing was to warp something narrow for a banner and had the bright idea that they could hang the banner at the Hospice. I did try to get hold of a ready made warp but there weren't any available so I wound this in black with some brightly coloured cottons. It was 10m, I didn't know how much we would get through in a day. Turns out only 2.5m, but you wouldn't want to run out, and that leaves me a little to play around with.

there are some close up shots in my Ravelry projects here

April round up!

So here we are halfway through May, so it's about time I did my April round up.....

29th April I finished my Handspun scraps cardigan. Well it was blocked and I sewed the buttons on and thought I had sewn in all the ends, I think I have found a couple of underarm ends that got missed, I'll get around to it at some point. It weighs in at 398g and I was really pleased with the mother of pearl buttons.

 I also finished another little garter yoke cardigan, I love these little flower buttons! I altered the raglan increases this time around into left and right increases, because it looks nicer!

May looks like another busy month but I am already ahead on the project front, with the scraps cardigan out of the way I got back to weaving the cotton warp I had put on the loom back in February and finished it.
3m of fabric, just waiting for the perfect project to turn up!

The loom is already warped for 2 scarves, infact the first scarf was woven quickly and taken off the loom Monday. It's now waiting for wet finishing.

A Marching On We Go....

So February came and went and there has been quite a bit of knitting going on. One of the girls in my IT class was expecting a baby girl and was having a c section just before half term so I decided I'd whip her up a quick baby cardigan for her return to class.

I'm loosely trying to achieve at least one project a month, although if it all falls apart I'm not going to be hard on myself.

Feb 24th I finally cast on the Handspun Scraps Cardigan. Once I stumbled onto the 'perfect pattern' there was no stopping me. I have a few issues with the pattern, and my gauge but the body is almost finished and I am a few inches from finishing the first sleeve. Bearing in mind that I had to frog a weeks sleeve knitting (because I hadn't checked the fit, doh) I think I'm making good progress and will hopefully finish it in April.

Looks like Blogger is playing with my photo placement now, I'll just carry on regardless and see what happens!

Also in March I whipped up this little notebook cover for a weavalong in one of the Saori groups, no other weaving has been taking place, I've found I need to be 'almost' monogomous on my 'main' project or I'd not have made as much progress as I have!

Finally, last weekend I went on a breadmaking course, we made 2 different loaves Saturday and Sunday we made an enriched dough which we turned into Focaccia and Fougasse! Spurred on by my new found baking skills, today I've been making Hot Cross Buns!

250...a nice round number!

I am now putting square 250 on the Weavette.  I am aiming for 272 squares for a blanket that's 17 x 16. I still haven't chosen a colour to join them with or attempted to crochet any together. I try to tell myself that by the time I've joined 272 squares I'll be an expert, but I don't really have that much belief in my crochet skills. I'm not sure how long it's going to even take to join that many squares, watch this space!

I finally knuckled down and finished the 6m warp on Ruby (my Saori loom). I think I finished it off New Years Eve and New Years Day. Not got any definite plans for it at the moment, just vague musings for the time being!

So January arrived and I decided not to leave Ruby standing idle, but what to weave. I dug through the stash and found this handspun merino/angora/silk. There wasn't alot of it,(200m) it was spun back in 2008 and was actually dyed by Freyalyn. I hadn't taken delivery of my warping board or cross holder so I decided to keep it simple and work this yarn into a spaced warp scarf. I used an upright lazy kate as a makeshift cross holder and the actual warping, tying and weaving went painlessly. I did a little hand fulling (doesn't take me long to get bored of it) and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Spurred on by the success of the spaced warp scarf and seeing a 7 Warp Weavalong in one of the Saori groups on Ravelry I decided I would give this a go, still without the warping board. I picked seven yarns from a bargain bag of part balls that had followed me home the week before. I then proceeded to make the warp holding all 7 yarns at once....this was probably the first mistake, then I didn't tie it properly and lost my cross. It was only a 3m warp so I decided to battle it out and get it on the loom.  Infact the whole thing was a battle, I had issues with tension due to the way the yarns were going in the clipping rod, some of the yarns were slipping and others were too thick, I also had tensioning problems with it on the loom, all part of the steep learning curve. There were times I thought I might have to give it up, cut it off the loom and chuck it in the bin, but I do have a stubborn streak and a waste not want not attitude.

So what does February have in store? for starters more squares,  if I can manage 3 squares a day I will have almost reached my target by next weekend, and warping Ruby for another weavalong in different Saori group. Then I'm going to tackle the handspun cardigan scraps yarn again. A wise woman has told me to set myself 5 goals, if I complete the 5 I can have 5 more....they are not quite set in stone but top of the list (obviously) is to finish The Blanket of Perseverence, 2 is to make the Handspun Cardigan. Other projects are floating around the grey matter at the moment but one thing I would really like to achieve this year is some handmade clothing, whether it be woven, knitted or sewn.

November.....

So I am and have been taking at least 2 photos every day this month, that's creative isn't it, and every day I am posting 2 different photo's in 2 groups. I've also been posting one of these photo's over on flickr. The prompts come from fatmumslim. So no there's nothing really new about taking a photo everyday, someone posted it in our Feb 11 group on facebook and I liked the idea so much I got some friends and friends of friends to start another group, which is why I'm posting twice. The photo's you haven't seen which I'm not posting on flickr mainly feature my little Feb 11 man. Not that he's shy, I just want to keep flickr neat and tidy because I thought at the end of the month I can do a mosaic of all my supposedly arty shots.

Just for the record here is a shot of the little man from earlier this week:

So what else have I been upto, there hasn't been alot of weaving, I did weave a quick scarf on the AKL the week before last, no photo's of that yet and there is absolutely no knitting mojo at the moment.

Yesterday I did a nice little dyeing workshop for the 1066 Spinners which went really well, and next week I am going to be doing a little workshop at Hollington Library transforming these:

Into this:

actually I won't be doing much.....just showing people how to add the cream, berries and leaves, and sending them home with a Christmas Pudding to hang on the tree!

I still haven't captured a nice photo of the handspun warp and weft scarf I completed while demonstrating at Coastal Currennts,  so busy taking daily photos, there haven't been any photos of anything else happening.....this month does look pretty hectic, hopefully things will slow down in December!

Another month!

Alot has happened in the last month......the children have gone back to school. The weather has been doing all kinds of unpredictable things, where you wake up and dress for Autumn and by the afternoon it was sweltering heat again.

I have been very busy aswell and spent a couple of weekends out and about demonstrating at Coastal Currents Open Studios in the Old Town and just before that Ruby arrived:

Ruby is my new loom,  a Saori WX60. Thanks have to go to Woolforbrains for telling me to drape a table cloth over it. That table cloth is like a cloak of invisibility, which is good because I don't want those toddler fingers poking at Ruby.

I'm slowly weaving on Ruby at the moment, (quite ironic as I bought her to speed things up) but I am lacking a decent light to weave by, but hoping to remedy this soon! I took a while to settle on a weaving height too, but the bed seems just right.

The final photo is the weaving I have just taken off the loom, it's about 80cm long and 25cm wide, I just wanted to have a look and feel the fabric and think about what I might do with it. I have started a new piece with the same colours, I might try and go off at a tangent and weave larger stripes with different textures peeking through, or I might carry on just as I am, infact I don't really know what I'm doing and I still don't know what I'm going to do with it but the main thing is I'm enjoying what I'm doing!

I've just been winding some balls to put a warp on my Knitter's Loom too, as if my attention wasn't stretched enough.

I did make a lovely completely handspun scarf while weaving at Coastal Currents, when we get a brighter day I will attempt to get a photo as I'm really pleased with the way it turned out!

Getting better!

I finished this yarn at the end of August, it's merino, I really like these colours!  I have recently finished another skein and have decided it's definitely time to get knitting on my handspun cardigan before I spin any more....I haven't cast anything on though. I need to do a couple of swatches but my knitting mojo is still awol!

Neo thought this was hilarious, no they're not my missing marbles....infact I'm not going to tell you what they are just yet......obviously balls of some kind....all will be revealed soon!



Not sure how these photos are going to look, I've copied them from flickr, it's the first substantial piece of cotton I've ever woven, and the most Saori, experimental piece. It's been waiting for me to make it into a bag, I suppose that's the good thing with scarves, apart from washing and fringes they don't really need alot doing with them once they come off the loom.

Last week I warped up the width of the loom so Neo could weave a cushion for his room, we've been recycling some of his old tshirts into yarn, once the cushion pad arrives I am going to let him loose on the sewing machine to help me complete the project!

So Where Was I.....

yes well good intentions don't write a weekly blog post unfortunately and before you know it we're in August! I haven't been keeping up with posting some of the things I've been working on, which was the primary point of keeping a blog in the first place, but I'm going to try and catch up and stick with it!

Of course the first problem I encounter is Blogger for some reason wants to turn my photo on it's side, when it's already the right way up, so I've high tailed it over to flickr and will copy it in from there!



So this was the scarf warped up in February.....not sure when it was finished and felted.

I then warped up some very fine yarn (this was in a bag of donated cones) It's a wool and silk blend and I have about 4 or 5 cones of this, one in each colour. It breaks really easily, so I was a bit apprehensive about putting it on the loom, I based the size on a linen and silk fine scarf that I own, but if I do another one I will make it narrower! I finally gave in and ironed the fringe this week, as it's a singles yarn it goes a bit mad when it's washed and I had to wash it twice, mainly because I was being careful, but also because a sample square I washed shrunk!



I also started a bit of spinning while the Tour De Fleece was on, I didn't join any teams, but I did make an effort to spin every day.



This was a fine silk which I had dyed myself.



and this was a superwash/cashmere/nylon blend.

Coming next time....there has been a long cotton project on the loom and that silk has been woven too! I've also managed to spin another 100g and have more spinning on the wheel, if I can just get caught up maybe I can stay caught up!

Casting On.....and On

I have had good intentions of getting back to the blog this year, but have let life get in the way....anyway I'm here now!

So here I am, February 24th. Back in November I was weaving cowls and hoping to sell a few bits at a craft fair, unfortunately I didn't sell much at the craft fair but I did manage to spin this:

This was only the second skein of yarn I made last year, but oh it was lovely to get back to spinning on the wheel. It is hard to fit it all in these days, spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing....everything has to take turns so if the loom is out the spinning wheel is away, although for a few weeks the knitting has been in the naughty corner and I've been back weaving blanket squares on the weavette! Small things like knitting and weaving can be hidden away from the toddler behind the chair...but weaving and spinning are harder to keep out of his way!

I have been lucky enough to be sent a  review copy of  The Weavers Idea Book from the people at Search Press, and it's a fab book, I won't go on and on about it because I should get a review up, but I did warp up a spaced warp just before Christmas:

I bought some Wash and Filz It Fine Felting Wool for this project, although next time I will use some handspun! I didn't have time to get much weaving done before Christmas so this was the first project off the loom this year! I have got some pre wash photos but it really needs a little blocking and a photo shoot to do it justice. Something to show when I get round to it!

My knitting mojo went a bit AWOL last year so Christmas was approaching and I decided it was time to get knitting that sweaters worth of scraps yarn I have...so did a little swatching and cast on....the rib was too sproingy so I recalculated and cast on less stitches....I knit and knit and knit over Christmas....tried it on a few times got as far as the armpits and left it in the naughty corner for a bit....decided I didn't like it and finally frogged it after a second opinion....I then spent days looking at patterns on Ravelry (again) and started knitting a top down cardigan...following a pattern that was written for a heavier yarn at a different gauge, bound to be a winner (not).... but that isn't working either. In the mean time I would really like to be knitting something.....so I'm knitting a Mizzle for Clare at Nimu with some yarn she has sent me....so she can display it at shows she is attending this year.....I cast on last night, the yarn is her new silk and baby camel, it's gorgeous!

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!