A February Catch Up....

So February is drawing to a close and it's about time for a catch up! I finally finished the warp off that I put on the loom for the Hospice Vintage Fair. It is quite narrow but lots of fun, you can view a video of the whole thing here. Not sure what it will become yet, I may make some more bags!

 January saw me finally getting to grips with my knitting machine after it has been in storage for 5 years. I've been knitting some blanks up for the time being, yes and dyeing them!

and with the loom being free I soon got the blanks warped and wove a couple of scarves, although I wove scarf one at less ppi than scarf 2 and scarf 2 has a much better feel to it, the moral to this tale, sample you nitwit, you had plenty of yarn! Anyway now I've got a better idea how much warp and weft I need for one of these I will probably experiment a little more with the hand painting and add some more colour!

See you in March!

Finally a FO!

So this week I finally sat down and sewed in the ends of these mittens. They've been hanging around for longer than 6 months. I kind of fell out of love with them before I'd sewn in the ends which is why it has taken so long.

No spinning this week but I have managed to a do a little dyeing. I very rarely dye anything for myself but this sparkly superwash nylon has been in my stash for years waiting for me to do something with it!

I've almost finished another row on the weavette blanket, but decided there was enough yarn left for yet another row of 16 squares, it's all about numbers I think, 304 squares meant more to me than 288!

It's been a dry week....

.....on the craft front! There has been some very serious rain, but in my world that is always preferable to snow! I did finish up the second spin of the year Monday evening and haven't done alot of anything since. Well I wove in some ends on the weavette squares and I did finally get my knitting machine to knit so that was a celebration in itself!

This was some merino/camel that had been put aside. It was the end of the bump and there were some straggly bits making up the 100g, not good enough to sell but still perfectly fine to dye and spin.

I haven't done alot of weaving, still need to plug away at what's on the loom and I've also dug out the last knitting project I worked on which isn't finished.....high time I got the ends sewn in, think it's been in the bag quite a while. Hopefully by moving it into a prominent position they (some mittens) will be completed soon, my project notes said they had been cast off way before LAST JUNE....eeek! I have set myself the target of actually completing them before I start anything else, it would be good to complete the weavette blanket too, but one thing at a time! Achievable goals but maybe it's time spinning took a break while I get these things done and dusted!

Achievable Goals!

Well here we are in January. I have decided New Years Resolutions are not for me and instead I will set myself regular achievable goals, these can be weekly, daily or even monthly. The main thing is not to try and do everything at once, prioritise, plan and execute, but don't try and overload yourself with too many goals at once!

I'm still being strict with what wips are on the go and trying not to start anything else until something is finished.


I have almost finished the weavette blanket, except when I finished joining all 272 squares, 16 x 17, and laid it on the bed there was something in me that decided I REALLY MUST do another row of squares and make it 17 x 17. I need to make 5 more squares, join them to the the rest of it and then I can procrastinate about doing the edging

There is a warp left on the loom from some public weaving in September. I have been working on this a little, but I have been distracted with some spinning. I am trying to finish this though as there are things queueing up to jump on the loom. I have the warp that came from the Saori warp exchange, a ready made warp in purples which I bought in 2013 and now I've been very lucky to have been sent a beautiful handspun warp from the lovely Sarah over at Yarnspider, although as this is handspun it is going to need some special yarn to make something fitting, there is some nice camel/merino on the wheel at the moment but I have plenty of time to plan these projects in the mean time! I also haven't experimented with my comb reed yet, I have some beautiful silks from Handweavers studio and a new finer reed to play with!


This is my first spin of 2015! 400m of superwash and nylon sparkle. I bought this as a roving from Caroline at WoolforBrains. Its been a lovely spin, very sparkly and made a nice change from my own fibre. I've never made a roving from a batt, something else to try one day!

And now for something completely different......

So this could be my last post of 2014, I have disappointed myself by blogging 3 times (ok this is 4) this year.

But I don't want to give my blog up! I want to blog, I'm sure I can find things to blog about, so really all I need to do is make time! My second failing in 2014 was I wanted to sew more, I made one dress, there is a second dress cut out, this has been cut out since April and stored carefully in a shoe box, there is also a growing fabric stash! My 3rd, I might aswell make it a hat trick fail, I was going to sign up to do my Certificate of Achievement in Dyeing. I did start a notebook and dyed some samples.

I don't really think of any of these things as fails really,  I have achieved an awful lot this year.

So....something completely different, I went out to Tescos earlier to buy a dvd player, this is the second time I've been to Tescos to buy a dvd player and come away without one, simply because I am unable to make a decision once I get there, faced with the choices on offer. Do I want upscaling, will I notice the difference, etc.

Anyway I didn't quite come home empty handed, I purchased this:

I flicked through it and it made me smile, it was released in October.....it wasn't overly expensive. If you want to buy a knitter or crocheter a last minute stocking filler I would suggest you GET THIS BOOK!

There is a website from where the book has originated from, even better halfway down the page on the website is a picture of a friends husband in an Elvis wig she knitted him (6 degrees of separation and all that)

My only bugbear in this book is this:

Why does Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo offend.....oh it's not the poo.....it is the words 'handy knitted version......,IT IS CROCHET!

I don't mind the book containing crochet, but if it is crochet PLEASE don't refer to it as knitting!

So a book review, I may even find more books to review in 2015. There will hopefully be more sewing, more knitting, more weaving, more dyeing, more spinning and MORE BLOG POSTS about it all.

It's Been A While

It's been so long I am sat here wondering where the time goes. It goes anyway and I was busy for a while working on my PTLLS (Preparing To Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector). Which I completed and passed in July!

I haven't been entirely idle either. There has been spinning going on.....mainly on a Tuesday. I simply decided that I didn't spin enough and I missed it so I set aside Tuesday nights just for spinning! Before too long a few friends joined me and now we have a very open and friendly facebook group of spinners. Come and find us, it's called the Tuesday Night Spin In!

Alot of what I have been spinning is just rejects and things that have been sat in my stash for ages, but it's been great having regular spinning time.

I did spend a few months stitching this for a very special couple:

Its off being framed at the moment!

50 Shades (types) of Green is off the loom and patiently waiting for me to make it into something for the Guild competition in November.

I've just finished 2 scarves with some (now discontinued) Noro Sekku. The first one is all Sekku, the second was done with Habu stainless steel silk as weft. It's the first time I've used the Habu, but I have more in my stash to experiment in as time allows! Ok not adding photos of the scarves just yet as they are portrait and blogger is turning them back to landscape, annoying but I will try and rectify the problem and show them off soon!added all the photos of my scarves to flickr

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Well it's been a funny few months, and about time I did a little update! Knitting has been slower than slow, I see why so many of my friends have more than one knitting project. I got bored with the mittens I was knitting which slowed things down, any normal knitter might start something new, but I'm not a 'normal' knitter! I have actually cast the mittens off but they need ends sewing in and one has a hem to sew too. 

I did manage to get a dress cut and sewn. I tried the sample on in the Merchant & Mills store and liked it so much I bought the pattern. Just had a new sewing machine for my birthday so there are plenty more Merchant & Mills dresses in my future, infact I have cut another one of these out but have stopped sewing to get on with a bit of weaving and spinning!

It was about time I got something on the loom, it WAS April after all, I couldn't really leave my loom standing empty any longer and since I had help to get the warp on the loom for once that's what I did. The Guild have a bi-annual competition and the theme this year is 50 Shades of Green, I'm hoping for 50 types of green, I have no idea what it will be when it comes off the loom but I have till November to think of something! I don't even like green!

Weaving stopped for a few days as I also decided I missed spinning and the only way to fit spinning into my life is to allocate a 'Spinning Night'. I started this 'imperfect rainbow' last week. (It's imperfect because the red was too dark, the blue was too blue and I have too many colours between red and yellow) I created this as a sample for a workshop on mixing from the primary colours. Anyway Tuesday night spinning turned into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday spinning, I became a bit obsessed once I started it and yesterday morning after another Tuesday night spin, I finished the chain plying. Photos of the finished yarn soon but I have a few of yarn on the bobbin.

I love watching the colours from underneath mixing in with the colours from above, it may turn into warp at some point and this gives me ideas for mixing the colours around a little! 

In other news I am now on a 10 week college course (PTTLS- Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) so that takes precedence over all other work but finishing those mittens, a bear and a throw are also on the list too.

Happy New Year!

The plan was to upload all my 2013 projects to flickr so I could make a nice mosaic around now with lots of pretty pictures of the things I had made last year. Unfortunately they are almost all on ravelry, but somewhere along the line I stopped uploading them to flickr so I'll give up on the idea for last year and try and do it this year instead!

This is the list of completed items for 2013 as it stands, 10 neck cosies, 16 scarves, 2 pieces of woven yardage, around 20 lavender bags, 4 woven notebook covers, 2 knitted baby cardigans, 1 pair of handwarmers, 400g handspun yarn, 1 handspun cardigan and a pair of Latvian mittens. I also knitted and stuffed a very small bear back in April who is STILL waiting for eyes and embroidery. I must finish him soon, it's not even for me, it's for my sister! Here he is:

So goodbye 2013, I finished the last thumb on my Latvian mitten kit on Christmas Day while watching Gone With The Wind (lets hope that never happens). I've enjoyed them so much I have ordered myself one of the few Latvian Mitten books that is still available for a reasonable price. I've cast on a free Latvian style mitten pattern for now just to have something on the needles.

I had set myself the goal of sewing something from my handspun in 2013 and so I have failed, there is a recycled skirt I was working on which has been abandoned in a pile of things that need sorting.  My goals for 2014 will just be to get to the end of the year without shouting too much, to try and finish some of the abandoned little things that need doing and to sew more, watch this space!

Picture Heavy Catch Up!

So, another month has rushed past. No sooner had I done my last post when I realised I'd forgotten the yarns that I spun. Possibly the first yarns I have spun this year. I spun 2 skeins of singles during the Tour de Fleece, and then went on to spin a merino cashmere and silk 2 ply.

It's been all go on the make stuff for Winter fairs production line.

In total there have been 5 neck cosies, and 5 scarves all made in time for the 5th October fair.

These 3 are all handpainted! I have also done 2 handspun, one from stash yarn and the other from some thick and thin bulky I spun up one night.

As for the scarves there were 2 more lace spaced warps, although one of these met a sad end as there is a fine line between gently fully and felting alpaca/cashmere/silk and I had to find it oops.

I also made 2 handspun singles scarves (using the yarn from the first picture) to make up for the one I killed, and then I managed to kill another one in the washing machine, ooops! But hand fulled the second one.

I also got a new camera this month (I'm still in September) and finished another cotton scarf

Yup picture heavy! So I'll save Octobers projects for my next post and try to get it up before the end of the month!

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!