I know a lot of knitters would be bored knitting vanilla socks over and over but not me.  These socks are like toasted sourdough and freshly churned cold butter, truly magical and at the same time, utterly simple.  The pattern is intuitive and familiar, the colours remind me of Tartan and Harris Tweed and the slightly rustic, woolly feel of the yarn and the fabric they are creating is heaven to me.

Their job is to restore my faith in my ability to complete a project. I am absolutely certain that there will be no frogging of these socks. They are going to be knee high and both balls start at the same colour, though 100% matchy-matchiness is not a necessity.  I am completely in love with them, so much that I spend every free moment knitting and admiring them.

Happy knitting x

…to the point where the sleeve was nearly done bar the ribbing and then the denial I had been comforting myself with vanished and the horrible truth hit me with all of it’s clout.

In desperation I did suggest to Ian that perhaps I could finish it for him but he had to choose between possibly a cropped jumper or 3/4 length sleeves, but more than likely both. Of course he declined this offer despite being more than a little bit tipsy after a day at the cricket. So much for alcohol affecting your reasoning and judgement!

So, to thwart any possible frog induced melancholy, I got the needles out straight away and cast on for a comforting pair of colourful toe up vanilla socks in one of the Zauberball colour ways (Herbstwind, the red and teal one). As for the Zarina, it will probably become a Folded for me, at some stage in the future when the pain has eased.

Because I’m not completely mean I have promised to knit a scarf for Ian and a pair of fingerless mitts for Sam. In the meantime I will continue to search for 10ply yarn for Brooklyn Tweed’s Brownstone for Sam and Cobblestone for Ian.

Things that I have learned from this episode are that

1) I am no pattern designer!

2) If you’re going to knit a jumper without a pattern make sure that you have way more yarn than you think you might need or easy access to more of the same dye lot.

3) Knitting a man sized jumper in 5ply is just plain silly!

ttfn x

Sorry for not blogging for a while but I have been busy. I spent the last weeks of my staycation mostly on a health kick, exercising and suchlike.  I did indulge myself a little bit, I went to Ballarat for the excellent Vic beer festival with the wonderful knitting/spinning/beer-loving Sharon. I also spent some time noshing yummy foods with friends, but that all comes under psychological well being I reckon.

So far I’ve lost 3kgs and want to lose another 9kgs. Trouble is restricting your calorie intake isn’t easy when your a foodie/beer/cider/gin lover. If anyone has any recommendations for healthy and delicious recipes and/or blogs I’d love to hear them. To help keep me on track I have dangled a lovely knitterly carrot, which of course comes in the form of stash enhancement.

My first stash enhancement/reward includes, Shelter and Zauberball. In the photo there is also some Jamieson & Smith supreme jumper weight but it was ordered at the beginning of December and has only recently arrived so it pre-dates the health kick. I just wanted to include it in the photo.

This morning, however, I added my 100th stashed yarn to Ravelry, which was also my 20th handspun yarn. It’s a 3 ply worsted spun 9-11wpi yarn (due to thick and thin-ness).  I spun 3 tops from The Thylacine, 2 were Cormo that I custom ordered in a colour way called sunlight hits the snow. The 3rd a birthday gift from the lovely Sonia, Optim (stretched merino) in Colebrook, thank you again beautiful lady.

It was a wonderful coincidence that the Cormo that I ordered was such a perfectly beautiful match to the Optim in colour. The Optim also provides the yarn with a beautiful silky sheen to complement the rather matt Cormo. I’m now on the lookout for a pattern to show off this dreamy yarn.

I have another 3 Thylacine tops to spin into singles and ply but not until I’ve finished the Contiguous jumper. I’ll blog about Contiguous progress soon.

Well I’m off to burn 500 calories! ttfn x

I have knit on the Contiguous jumper and am three inches below where I split the sleeves from body. Sadly for Sam the jumper looks as though it will be too big for him. I think I should have stopped increasing for the sleeves earlier but he wasn’t around to try it on. Happily for Ian it fits like a glove. So rather than frog back to make it fit Sam I am giving this one to Ian. I’ll knit Sam a jumper at a later date, he’s ok with that. I’m thinking yardage might be a bit tight but will worry about that later. This could be a case of famous last words but…

…anyway… I’ve also been spinning.

Over the holiday period I did a private swap with the lovely Elephantjuice and in my parcel I got 100g of Merino tops that had been dyed by the lovely lady herself.

Sadly I was so giddy to spin this that I forgot to take a pic until I had split the tops ready for spinning. This is my usual thing to do with tops, I find it easier to spin that way. I don’t know if others do it or if it’s frowned upon by the spinning police and frankly I would still do it if it was, so there! Here’s a dodgy iPhone pic with shaky hand in crap light, sorry but I was more focused on spinning the pretty fibre.

A shot of the singles also on iPhone, same crappy conditions.

I spun the fibre and Navajo plied the singles that same night  like a woman possessed, spinning gets me a bit like that.

My spinning is still a bit thick and thin, some parts look like they would make great sock yarn and others are up on the bulky end of the spectrum but it roughly works out at between 9-10wpi and 117 metres/100g. The twist is more or less even and the yarn is balanced so I’m a happy bunny, as you know I love a bit of rustic about my yarn.

The colours are so rich and beautiful, she really did a great job with the dyeing. As I was spinning I kept thinking that the colours remind me of blue jeans and a favourite jumper I had so that’s what I’ve called it. I find colour to be very evocative and like to name the colour ways I usually find that the names come to me as I spin them.

I’m planning to knit it up into a hat at this stage but we know how yarn likes to tell you what it wants to be half way through knitting with it so don’t hold me to anything. For a while it needs to sit on my desk and be petted and admired for itself because that’s the law.

Finally, thank you a billionty Cheryl for the beautiful swap gifts. I’m still savouring the butterscotch and toffees

That’s what I keep saying over and over again as I look at the yarn I just made. This surely is the greatest high that crafting brings. I mean, there are the regular pleasures of simply making stuff and frequently there is the “well it’s a little bit shit, but it still tastes nice/knits up well etc. But with this hand-spun it has been joy all the way.

It started out as two purple and blue tops and one blue tops (apologies for iPhone photo).

Which I spun up into three singles ready for plying.

I managed to 3 ply 250g/255m which turned out at 10wpi before running out of the blue singles.

So I continued and got 36g/67.5m 11wpi of 2ply before I ran out of one of the purple singles.

I Navajo plied the remainder into 13.5m which will nicely make a puff I think.

The colours are just beautiful, (I kept singing Purple Rain in my head whilst plying hence the name) the fibre is lush and I’m getting better at this spinning malarkey, Wayhay!

One thing that really made the spinning was that the tops had been prepared well and dyed beautifully so there was no felting whatsoever. It really highlighted for me that spinning joy is all in the preparation, which is why I NEED  to buy some wool combs because that will make spinning my 2 fleeces much more pleasant.

Ooh, and for those who are interested Bond sheep are an Australian cross of Lincoln rams and Merino ewes.  They get their name from the man who initially bred them Mr Bond, Thomas, not James )

I’d like to thank everyone who visited my blog and posted comments in 2011, it’s been fun and I would love it if you continue to follow my crafty, woolly ramblings in 2012.

Last year was an excellent year for craft. I took ownership of a Majacraft Little Gem and some hand carders and in the final days of 2011 I bought a sewing machine. I dyed fleece, tops and sock yarn. I learned to sew, completing 4 skirts and a bag. I started 30 knitting projects, finished 25 (if you count the first attempt at Idlewood). Two of these projects remain on the needles, Sam’s contiguous jumper and the hand-spun hexipuff blanket. Fourteen projects were gifted and ten made for me. I also spun 14 skeins of yarn 5 of which have been gifted. All in all I’m very pleased with my progress, even though there was a lot of frogging and I’m excited for more craft adventures in 2012.

Just like last year I began the year with some spinning and yesterday I spun up a Bond top that I purchased from http://www.thethylacine.com/ and this morning I spun up another one.

I have another of the purple coloured top to spin tonight and then I plan to ply them together, no ideas as to what I will knit with the finished yarn though.  I am happy to say that my spinning skills have definitely improved since last year.

As for plans for this lovely new year, well, I’ve decided to buy some combs but I haven’t decided on which make. When I finally decide I shall comb the Polwarth and Corriedale fleeces and spin them up. So I shall be learning how to comb a fleece in 2012.

Also, I’ve been wanting to learn Fairisle knitting for such a long time and I’ve decided that this is the year for that. So, once Sam’s jumper and a scarf that I promised Ian are finished that’s my plan.  Other than that, I’m making no other knitting plans, I’m going to be spontaneous for a change and knit whatever takes my fancy, which for a pathological planner like me is something of an adventure. As for non-fibrey crafts, I’m hoping to continue to improve my photography skills and bread-making skills.

So here’s to a 2012 full of crafty promise.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Sam’s contiguous jumper is progressing slowly, but it is progressing. There was some minor tinking of a row or 3 but that’s all in the past now.

I have completed the neck increases and am working in the round increasing for the sleeves as I go. These pictures were yesterday lunchtime so I am a bit further on from that.

Aww, such a handsome young man.

Anywhoo, So I’ve basically followed the contiguous instructions for the sleeves and now that the neckline is finished I have started doing the sleeve increases every other row and not every row.  I’m working with the measurements from his current favourite jumper and measurements I took from him and bugging the crap out of him by getting him to try it on all the time but hey that’s what knitterly Mums are for right?

I’m feeling very nervous about this whole thing. I’m worried that the neck is too high at the back but hoping that the weight of the final jumper will bring it down a smidgeon. I’m worried I may not have started alternate row increases on the sleeves early enough and the sleeves are going to be humongous. I’m thinking about increasing every 3rd row perhaps a bit later on if that is the case. I think the official term for that might be botching but if it looks ok then what the heck! I am basically making the pattern up as I go!

I do like the length of the V-neck though and Sam really likes the look and feel of the fabric so not all bad.

I guess I just have to keep knitting on until at least the sleeves are at the point where they separate and then see. I am seriously hoping I don’t have to frog because this yarn is a 5 ply and I can already see me knitting this into my dotage!

Finally, I hope everyone has a safe and splendid New Year!

It’s to be a plain V-neck jumper, nothing fancy. It has been frogged once because the neck looked like it was going to be too big.  I think now, I’m on track (famous last words) and have about an inch and a half of the shoulder “seam” to knit before I separate for the sleeves.

As I’m completely making it up as I go along (the sitting down and writing thing got a bit half baked and tedious) I thought I would blog about it blow by blow. So here goes…

Yarn- Zarina a 5ply, superwash Merino in a charcoal grey by Filatura Di Crosa.

Gauge 26 stitches per 4 inches and 35 rows per 4 inches on 3.5mm needles.

Measurements

neck-7inches across, 16 inches around

shoulder length for seam- 4.5 inches

chest 38 inches

hip 39 inches

upperarm 13 inches

lower arm 8 inches

Shoulders 17 inches across

cross back 15 inches

armhole 9 inches depth

torso length 26 inches

shoulder to wrist 24 inches

Cast on 52 stitches

Row 1-P1, pm, P2, pm, purl to 3 stitches from the end, pm,p2,pm,p1.

Row 2-K1-f/b, sm,K2, sm, K-1r/b, K to 1 stitch before marker, K1-r/b,sm,K2,sm, K1-f/b

Purl rows thereafter- P to 1 stitch before marker P1-f/b, sm, P2, sm, P to 1 stitch before marker P1-f/b, sm, P2, sm, P1-f/b.

Knit row thereafter-K1-f/b knit to 1 stitch before marker K1-r/b, sm, K2, sm, K1-r/b, K to 1 stitch before marker K1-r/b,sm,K2, sm, K1-r/b, knit to I stitch before end, K1-f/b.

continue until shoulder seam is 4.5 inches long.

So far I’m happy with the way it is going, these might not be the most elegant instructions (Ysolda Teague I am not!). Suzie Myers states in the method that the increases can be whatever increases you like and indeed there is a whole thread discussing the pros and cons of different increases for the shoulder seams here.

This garment is worked seamlessly from the top-down using the contiguous sleeve method developed by Susie Myers, SusieM on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/people/SusieM).

It’s 163g and 225metres long, very thick and thin but squishy and quite well balanced.

Being from a long wool breed, I was rather intrigued by it being prepared as a carded batt but the fleece and fiber sourcebook states that shorter stapled BFL is perfectly fine to prepare this way.

I think my long draw needs to improve a little more before I tackle the British breeds downs  tops I have in my fibre stash.  That’s not to say I’m not happy with this yarn, I am, I see that I’ve improved since the Gotland but I need more practice… anyone know how to make an extra day in the week?