My Monday night knitting group the Richmond Knitters have a blog thanks to our lovely hostess Sonia. The whole group contribute to it so you can read about what we’re up to collectively. I hope you pop over some time to visit it, see what we’re up to.
So with all the knitting that I’ve been doing there has been barely any time for spinning also I have an injured drafting thumb which is a bit sore.
I did start the second bobbin of the Skein fibre but I haven’t really got that far.
Hopefully I should be able to make some more progress when my current knitting frenzy subsides.
At the beginning of the week I borrowed some combs from a friend because I’m contemplating buying some. I haven’t managed to use them yet due to lack of time and the fact that the Polwarth fleece I was planning to comb still had quite a bit of lanolin in it. This was so disheartening because washing that fleece took FOREVER not to mention so much water I cringed when I opened up the following water bill. So I decided to cut my losses and I put a post on Ravelry asking if anyone wanted the fleece.
Almost immediately I had a taker and yesterday I handed over the fleece. In return she gave me some tops and some washed locks from two fleeces she had one of which was white merino.
Do you see how perfect and fluffy they are? I am humbled, I truly suck at fleece prep and where I would normally learn from my mistakes and try harder next time, I think I may just give up on fleece prep and just spin from tops and batts from now on.I feel like a quitter but the preparation of fleece is so time consuming and to be honest not something I enjoy, I’d rather be spinning and knitting.
I still have my gifted washed, clean Corriedale that I am planning to make an Owls with. In fact once the Skein tops have been spun and plied the Corriedale is next up on the wheel. I am looking forward to it because it is so beautiful. I also still want a jumper that I knit from yarn that was prepped and spun by me. It is a goal that I’ve had since I started to spin and it’s one that I’m determined achieve.
After that it will take a lot to induce me back to fleece prep and I will definitely steer well clear of merino/polwarth fleeces with their high lanolin content. They are for people with way more talent and time than me.
All of this has made me think that I’ll buy some hackles and a drum carder so I can play with blending fibres, that seems like it would be heaps of fun don’t you think?
Well hello there, how’s your week been?
Since we last spoke I’ve become polygamous again. I’m not normally comfortable with polygamous knitting, it tends to overwhelm me with all the WIPs bearing down on me but for many reasons I seem to have not two but three projects on the needles and it’s actually ok.
So you may recall I was knitting a pair of socks and I got this far on the second sock…
Then last weekend whilst browsing Ravelry for potential patterns for a handspun birthday gift for my sister I recalled a pattern for handspun fingerless gloves that I had queued previously. I started wondering whether the mini skeins of Bond 2ply and N-ply combined would be enough to make a pair of mitts. Then before I knew it I’d cast on for one because a pair of mitts takes a day and a half to knit up tops. Happily one mitt used just less than half the mini skeins in weight.
I love knitting with handspun sooo much it’s silly.
So anyway despite the fact that it takes less than a day to knit a mitt up I didn’t cast on for the second mitt because erm… *shrugs*
Instead I cast on for Ian’s birthday scarf in a bid to have it knit for the 2nd April which is his birthday. I am all impulsiveness at the moment which is so uncharacteristic but I’m quite enjoying it. I’m about half way through this scarf now and it’s ticking a number of happy boxes for me. It’s a pleasurable yet mindless knit, it is using up some stash from way back when, there are stripes and Ian loves it (he chose the yarn and the pattern).
I have decided on a pattern for Fiona’s birthday but only because I saw one of my fellow Richmond knitter’s wearing hers and I knew that it would be perfect instantly. I won’t blog about it though until it’s with it’s owner.
Sorry for the belatedness Fi but it had to be right.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I want to spin my own yarn for socks. Ever since I learned to spin I think this has been a goal of mine and so when my favourite fibre dyer, Megan from The Thylacine announced she was starting a sock fibre club I jumped at the chance. I’ve never been part of a yarn or fibre club before but I felt it would be a good idea to push my boundaries and spin fibre for a purpose and also spin fibre that maybe I wouldn’t normally choose myself.
The first instalment was 55%superwash alpaca/25%superwas merino and 20%nylon, I chose 150g because I like longer socks and more is better.
I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to spin alpaca because during my learn to spin classes we were given some alpaca to try and I failed so dismally that I vowed never to spin alpaca again. This top however, I found stupidly easy to spin, happily so.
Did I mention green was one of my favourite colours?
So I spun 3 singles using my spinners’ control card which is a nifty little tool. Basically you multiply the wpi you require (so for sock weight 14) by the number of plies (3) and then the gauge from the card shows you how fine you need to spin (42) except it only goes up to 40 but I just tried to spin 40 or less.
I managed to 3ply 265 yards/130g which is more yardage than I normally get and is more or less 14wpi and the finest I’ve ever spun so I am really happy with it. I would like to get more yardage in future, tips on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.
The remainder of the singles became 50 yards of 2ply and then 6 yards of N-plied.
I want to knit this yarn up into socks immediately but as I’ve only just started the second Zauberball sock it might be a while. Obviously when I do I shall be using David’s toe up sock cookbook because I am a creature of habit. Come to think of it this pattern may also be big a reason for my hand-spun sock obsession.
Although March’s instalment is due soon I have been going through my growing fibre stash (I also succumbed to the regular The Thylacine fibre club, my bad!) and I have quite a few BFL tops that are now destined to become sock yarn. However, currently on the wheel is the second Skein singles, the first one was transferred from spindle to bobbin and looks like this…
A shawl in the making perhaps?
My favourite online spinning store Spun Out has reopened, since the owner moved from Perth to Melbourne. So to celebrate I felt I aught to make a purchase or two. This was purely a selfless show of support of course, not at all because I am a greedy addict when it comes to beautiful fibre.
Amongst my purchases were three Skein merino/silk tops in the Wasabi colour-way. I love these colours so much.
I am a huge fan of Skein yarns as you know but sadly Kristen has stopped dyeing fibre so these tops are indeed a rare thing. They are 50% merino and 50% silk and so fine and slippery that I struggled to spin it on a wheel. This is probably my fault as I am a fast treadler, I am therefore spindling and enjoying every moment. I haven’t decided whether to 2ply or 3 ply yet but I definitely know I want to make a shawl with the yarn when it’s done.
Knitting is also very enjoyable at the moment, I’m up to mid-calf on the first sock.
ttfn x
My knitting joy is all restored, thanks to my favourite toe up vanilla sock pattern and beautiful yarn.
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
The contiguous jumper landed firmly in the frog pond last night, even though I had made promises to Katie that there would be no frogging in 2012. It just had to be done on the grounds of insufficient yardage. I knit on it for most of yesterday after lunch and evening past this point…
…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
Hello all,
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
Last week was the first week of my Staycation. I’m on annual leave at the moment as I’m in between jobs and so I planned lots of fibre fun. So far I have done a heck of a lot of Spring cleaning and sorting out of stuff to give to charity and some fibre fun.
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 
“OMG I made that!”
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 
)
