Nostepindling

You know how I raved about needing a Nostepinne, well I got me one! I bought it from Spun Out, the last one in stock. It’s made from English Cherry and I’m in love, I’ve been winding up balls of yarn just for fun, even though they were already wound up! Huh, crazy I know, but I love it.

I’ve taught myself how to do it the way I teach myself most yarn things these days, by watching You Tube videos, this one in particular I like, mostly for the accent and the enthusiasm.

While I was at it, I bought a couple of spindles that Em was destashing because they were so beautiful and I want a Turkish spindle so badly. I love the cute little ball of singles they make.

To complete my purchase I bought some fluff simply because it’s my favourite colour and I thought it would be fun to spin it on the Turkish.

A Spun Out Buffet Batt, carded and pulled through a diz.

Rare Beauty

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

Long time no post

It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had anything worth posting on here but that’s what life is like sometimes. I sometimes wonder if I should just post whatever but then after 10 minutes staring at the screen without touching the keyboard, I give up.

Anyhoo, there is some good news to post.  Idlewood Again has been finished and I love it! I loved knitting it and now I love wearing it! Except that it’s now coming into Melbourne Summer so there won’t be much wearing going on for quite some time.  Here are the details.

After an absolutely gorgeous lunch with Sonia last week, in one of Melbourne’s Southbank restaurants she took some photo’s of me wearing it and here they are…

See how it now fits and I’ve even knit a pocket for it, just one because I think that one is cute. Also, notice the cute skirt wot I made, love the fabric for this skirt but wish the skirt itself was a tad longer. Anyhow, the point is, Idlewood Again is now everything I intended it to be so I’m really glad that I chose to frog it completely (though if I’d have been smart I would have not frogged the cowl as that’s the same regardless of size). Ah, c’est la vie…

It has made me realise that getting the results you want is absolutely worth that extra time re-knitting, which brings me to the socks…

…I noticed that one cable was a row longer than it should have been and it irked me a bit but I continued to knit on.  Then, at knit night on Monday I knit some cables a row too short due to lack of concentration. So now, I’ve dropped the cable row and hopefully will be able to fix the problem. I’m still on the first sock but here it is.

The yarn, Stranded in Oz, Dye…my pretties in fairies in the garden is just delicious and I hope to be back on track again soon.

In other knitting news, I’ve decided to concentrate on just the handspun bee-keeper’s quilt  and scrap the other one. Mostly because the handspun one is more significant to me and also those puffs are larger so it will take me less time to make a decent sized quilt.

This leads me to spinning, oh it seems like now there is tonnes to blog about, what was I thinking?  I have been spinning but a little half-heartedly. Here is what I’m on with…

It’s still the Finn X Corriedale/Romney that I dyed but I’ve decided that I want to N-ply it and I felt the urge to get the spindle out for a Crafternoon I had with some of my Richmond Knitter friends so I’m spindling it too.  Because of this I’m thinking mitts/hat, maybe both but definitely not socks which was my first inclination. As for the half-heartedness about spinning this, I can’t really explain why, it’s just the way I feel.

So, that’s all my news, I hope it won’t be too long again before I have something to blog about.

ttfn Melanie x

Happy knitting

Yay my mojo returned this week!  For various reasons, one simple reason is that the extremely hot day was just one day.  Though Spring does herald the inevitability of a hot Australian summer, bleurgh!  I wish my hubby would agree to me working for 6 months in the UK so I could have 2 winters.

Last Monday I started my Socktober project early but don’t tell the knitting police will you. They are the Delicious Knee high socks by Laura Chau and I’m knitting them with Noro Kureyon sock yarn.  The trouble was the heat made it really hard to work the tiny 2mm needles, I’ve since upped to 2.25mm to get gauge which is a huge relief I can tell you.  I’ve only got as far as the first stripe but already they are making me HAPPY Woohoo!

Stripy deliciousness, what’s not to love really?  (so long as you have air con)

Another thing that made me happy is the realisation that my stash that I’m no longer in love with needn’t weigh me down.  All I have to do is have a little destash, (thanks Katie and Jen) why did this not occur to me before?  I think I was holding on because I do love the colours and it’s not as if my stash is of considerable proportions, it’s quite modest really.  So if you are interested here is the page.

Here is the stash cupboard sans destash yarn, it looks so much better I think.  There is more room for more Skein sock yarn and the Shelter I need (only 3 colours) and more handspun.  Plus Sam’s jumper will start as soon as my Norovember project is off the needles.

The destash yarn now sit’s patiently in a space bag waiting for someone to love it and welcome it into their stash.

My other happy happenings this weekend were that I almost have 2 finished skirts, just some hand sewing to do and I had some friends round for a spinning afternoon.  Spinning with friends is so much fun, better that knitting in some ways because no one has to count stitches, rows or remember patterns so the conversation and beer can flow as we spin merrily on.  I finished plying the Gotland/Polwarth this morning.  My long draw technique is improving but I need to pedal slower as I’m creating too much twist for woollen spun yarn.  Pedalling slower is not easy for me, any tips?

Last week I also  Navajo plied some singles to make hexipuffs with, fun fun fun.

There’s a lot to be said for knitting and spinning what you love.  I know I’m a slow learner but I was brought up with a deep sense of duty, obligation and stoicism which I’m learning is not always a good thing.

ttfn x

Spot the difference

Hmmm, same colour, same dye lot…

Really!?!?

Apparently Noro silk garden whilst it comes in 100 metre balls is dyed with 150 metre colour repeats. *big sigh* well, you live and learn!

So today I went back to the wool baa and the assistant got every ball of this colour way/dye lot out and I went through them to find one that started with black and grey and contained the rust and blue colours so it doesn’t look like a blind person chose the yarn for the socks.  These socks are extra big socks for my poor Dad whose feet and ankles have swollen badly due to his poor health.

Much better!

On a more positive note, remember this batt that I made at Bendigo on the Ashford drum carder?

Well last night I got my favourite Ken Ledbetter spindle out and spun it up, then Navajo plied it.  It looked very pretty.

Today I knit it up into a swatch.

Mmmm, yummy tweedy goodness.  A drum carder is definitely on my wish list so I can make tweedy yarn for tweedy jumpers (life’s too short to hand card for a jumper).

 

Three colours Shetland

This weekend I finished spinning and plying 3 of the 5 Shetland sample tops from Jamieson and Smith. They were utterly gorgeous to spin on my spindles and I love the finished hank.  I spun the singles simultaneously but making sure that the lengths of the different colours were unevenly matched so that I had an marl type overlap when plying as advised by Binkaboo Jen.  In hindsight I should have been a bit more precise about this and made sure that the overlapping/marl lengths and plain lengths were more or less equal but I’m chalking that up to experience, I’m sure there will be a next time.  It’s still a bit damp so I haven’t weighed it or checked wpi but I will be adding it to my Ravelry stash page tomorrow.  It is dry enough to take a photo of though and because I’m excited to share here it is…

Anyway, a little factual something about Shetland that I have learned since I began spinning with this wonderful fibre.  Shetland sheep are a primitive breed like Icelandic and Finn and Jacobs with a fine inner and longer coarser outer coat.  Traditionally it has been used to make exquisite lace shawls, Fair Isle jumpers and carpeting so clearly it’s a very versatile  fibre anything between 12-40 microns.  It is an excellent steeking wool which is handy considering that’s an integral part of Fair Isle knitting, hmm what came first?.  It also comes in many different natural colours, one day I plan to knit a Fair Isle jumper from all the natural colours, but before then I shall have to learn Fair Isle, which I plan to do this September.  I’m planning Endpaper mitts and to spin the fibre (Shetland of course) for them myself, it seems silly not to really.

According to Clara Parkes “knitters book of wool” it’s best spun “woollen” for Fair Isle purposes as the fibre then blooms and this conveniently hides the yarn that is carried behind.  As my fibre came as combed tops and I don’t have a drum carder (yet) I spun this hank semi-worsted.  Given that Shetland is a low lustre fibre though means that there are no losses in the lustre department with spinning woollen.

I’m beginning to see that spinning from combed tops has it’s restrictions when it comes to learning about different breeds and their fibre.  I realised this the other day when admiring a friends recently acquired fleece how much of the character of the fleece is lost, this is probably down to all the processing the fibre has undergone which makes for a very homogenized fibre.  Unfortunately as I live in Australia I cannot import unprocessed fibre for my spinning adventures so I guess for now I shall just have to suck it up.  I’m definitely not put off and shall continue to purchase combed tops of British breeds because it’s fun but will just have to save and plan for a spinning holiday around Britain in the meantime.  Something to look forward to don’t you agree?  Speaking of something to look forward to I have purchase a wheel now that I’m completely hooked on spinning.  It should be in my possession in 3-4 weeks because of the public holidays, I’m soooooooooo excited.

ttfn xMelanie

Opposites

Yesterday morning I had nothing on the needles and nothing on the spindles.  It was a day full of crafty potential, oooh what to do?  So I did two opposite things…

I began knitting a highly textured, very rustic, chunky hap blanket with handspun undyed Romney X, one of the first things I spun with a wheel.

I do love mindless garter stitch, so soothing.  I’m also loving knitting what I’ve spun.  I think perhaps the bug doesn’t hit you properly till you’ve knit what you’ve spun.  I think I may have got the bug big time.

I also began spinning some BFL tops dyed by Serenknitty in Maple colourway.  It’s very soft and smooth textured and wants to be spun finely and the colours say bring on Autumn!

I’m thinking sock yarn and getting giddy with excitement at this possibility.

Today I shall be sewing a skirt with Jamsandwich and then knitting with the lovely Richmond knitters. Joy!

ttfn Melanie x

Black Welsh part 2

I finished spindling and plying my Black Welsh yarn and I’m even more in love with it.  I think it’s the best I’ve spun so far and I’m even more determined to buy a wheel this year and spin a jumpers worth for Idlewood.  Here it is…

It’s 90 metres long and 100 grams between 7-8 wpi so aran to bulky weight.  It’s squooshy with a bit of scratch, just how I like my yarn.  I’m madly in love with it.

Next on the spindle will be some BFL beautifully dyed by Serenknitty, woot!

Black Welsh

So I decided to spin the Welsh black tops next.  Because I don’t have to make any decisions about dyeing it before or after spinning or decide how I’m going to spin it and subsequently learn any posh techniques, I’m thinking about the Shetland here and how to get the best out of it.  Also it has been in the fibre stash the longest after the Wensleydale so really  it has to be first in, best dressed and all that.

Anyway, I have become completely in love with it.  It spins like a dream and the singles are turning out to be very beautiful and not what I expected at all.  Welsh black is often describes as quite a coarse yarn and not one you would wear next to your skin.  But while the tops are definitely not merino soft they are also not at all carpet harsh and have a rich, demi-lustre to them that is very appealing, I also think it smells pleasantly sheepy.  It is delightfully easy to draft and so far I have managed to create lovely even singles.

I’m going to spin up 2 singles and ply them, again I’m working on even-ness in thickness and of twist, not that I’m trying to achieve mill-spun regularity because that’s absurd and I don’t want to lose the charm of hand-spun-ness.

One thing that spinning this yarn has done though is to get me thinking about buying a wheel again.  The reason is, I can absolutely see me very happy to spin a jumpers worth of Welsh black, I’m loving it so much and that’s not easy on a spindle.  In fact I used to own a Welsh black cabled jumper some 20 years ago, I bought it from Freemans catalogue but it got inadvertently felted.  I know Blacker yarns do aran weight and chunky weight in Welsh black but it would be heaps more fun to spin my own jumper.  I’m thinking an Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald or Vivian by Ysolda Teague would be lovely.  Anyway those are projects for a later date in the meantime I have to actually spin this yarn.  The weather is being very obliging and we are having thundery rain at the moment, perfect spinning and knitting weather.  I shall put the kettle on and get to it, I’ll talk more when I have something finished to show you.

ttfn Melanie x

Postal fun and spinning decisions

The postman came twice this week, the first time to deliver my sock yarn from Serenknitty in two beautiful blue shades.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy blue faced Leicester in Neptune colourway, possibly for Leyburn socks by mintyfresh.  It will be my second pair of Leyburns as I think it’s a gorgeous looking pattern.

Superyummy superwash merino in my favourite eau de nil/duck egg shades colourway Seaglass. Lush! I’m planning to make lakehouse socks by Jasmin Köck with these because I think the name fits the colour.

The second time the postie came he had a conversation with the boys.  Apparently it’s always the same guy and he’s English too and he was intrigued to know what was in all these parcels.  The boys told him “mostly wool and knitting stuff” he looked rather amused apparently.  I’m due another delivery soon a really special one from Baaramewe, I can’t wait to show you all.

Anyhoo, so in this second parcel was my second Ken Ledbetter spindle.  I’ve decided that I don’t need a wheel after all.  This decision came about because I couldn’t decide on a wheel but there were two Ken Ledbetter spindles for sale at Spunout that I absolutely had to have.  So I decided to get them both, always go with your gut instinct, that’s what I say.  So now I have two spindles to spin on and my big beginners Ashford to ply with.  Here they all are…

The newest one is the red leaf design, it’s made of bloodwood, walnut and shell, completely one of a kind and utterly gorgeous to spin with.  Factors that also influenced my decision were portability and ease of use, I can spindle for ages or in those snatched minutes whilst the pasta cooks or I’m waiting for the computer to do it’s thing.  The spinning in snatched moments tends not to happen with the wheel don’t know why.  Also, I have to admit getting a kick out of using a tool that was used way back in ancient times.  Plus, they are so brilliantly simple and I can spindle on a plane without anyone thinking I pose a security threat.

I’m going to make the most of my remaining two weeks with the wheel but I don’t think I will be as sad to part with it as I originally thought.  I’ve decided to make a Hap blanket by Ysolda Teague with my handspun yarn.  Tomorrow we are learning about dyeing yarn and fleece, as you can imagine, I’m very excited about that.  I’m going to miss the last class though due to a yoga retreat I booked ages ago.

Off to spin now, ttfn x