Spinning news

Hello,

I just thought I’d update on the spinning front.

I’m still spinning the Skein Merino/silk and trying to spin it really fine which I struggle with. Or more to the point I struggle to spin fine without overspinning. I’ve been playing slow music when I spin in an attempt to slow my treading down and I think it’s working.

I now have 2 bobbins of 100g and I’m very happy with them.

So I got out the third top and I started unravelling it width-ways, just because. I liked the unravelled top so much I took photos.

I had to lay it out on the floor because it’s so long (260cm) which meant I had to clean the floor first, but the extra mopping was well worth it I think.  I find it remarkable how there is not even a hint of felting or anything especially having dyed fibre myself and knowing how easy it is to felt it. Taking the fibre from the vinegar water bath to the table for dying is I think where I manage to felt it. Perhaps the use of a colander or something would help. I’d love to hear any tips on dyeing fibre without felting it too much if you have any.

My son Elliott was watching the photo shoot and was amazed at the sight of the unravelled tops, he got to pet it too (I made sure his hands were clean first). I like when the boys pet and admire the fibre, it’s important to nurture the wool love in them.

Reluctantly I split the tops lengthways for spinning.

Hopefully I should get the last bobbin spun up and the yarn plied by the end of the month, well that’s the plan…

 

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

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).

 

Hand-spun to hand-knit

I’m a bit excited by the results of knitting my hand-spun, hand-dyed, navajo plied yarn.  I need to share the sample I knit with you.

I think it’s pretty and also when I put it next to the bunny nuggets I can see progress, which is good.  I should do this more often.  The trouble is I want to knit with hand-spun most of the time but I also want a larger hand-spun to mill-spun ratio in my stash and in order to do this I must knit more mill-spun.

The most exciting thing about this though, is that now I’m reassured that I could spin well enough to make a beautiful hand-spun jumper which is a bit of an ambition of mine.  First of all though I need to make this jumper for Sam, should I feel bad that his jumper is going to be kind of a prototype?  Today I got him to stand still long enough for me to take measurements except that I forgot to take the top of shoulder to armhole measurement which is probably kind of crucial, doh!  I’m also going to be doing more swatching.  I’m having a bit of difficulty finding some zip up, mesh, laundry  bags so I can start washing my fleeces ready for spinning, the last 3 times I went to my local supermarket they didn’t have any, I’m going to try Kmart next.  Then I can make my hand-spun, hand-knit jumper, squeee!

Happy Birthday Julie

Here are the pics of your birthday yarn being made.

I took some beautiful BFL/Tussah silk tops.

I dyed it using colours I know you like.

I spun it into 2 bobbins of singles.

I plied the 2 singles and finished the yarn.

Then I knit my fellow homesick Yorkshire lass a Yorkshire rose, just because.

 

Wishing you a very happy birthday Julie x

A hive of activity and new loves

My wheel arrived on Monday and I would have posted earlier but I was on my way to knit night with the Richmond knitters when I got the text and then I was at work on Tuesday and so yesterday was the first day I had to get to know Owen.  So called because that’s the name written on the underside of the wheel “Owen Poad”, maybe the guy that made my wheel, I don’t know, I would love to know though so if anyone can tell me I’d be grateful.  Two other friends that have Little Gems have Andy Poad and Jemima Poad, I’m sure we shall be having many a spin-in together which will be heaps of fun and the whole point of a Little Gem, you pop it in the bag and go and spin with friends.

It would be very true to say that Owen is my new love, he is so pretty and very eager to put twist into fibre.  It’s very exciting this new love affair as I’m learning how to spin with him, it’s quite a different feel to spindling but knowing that we have a lifetime of making beautiful yarn together makes me so happy.

I haven’t lost any love for my beautiful spindles though so don’t worry. Anyway, pardon my waffling on.  Pictures are required, so without further ado, here he is…

Isn’t he gorgeous?  I’m spinning the BFL/Tussah silk Wintry walk on Filey beach that I dyed first and it’s looking very pretty.

On the day that Owen arrived a parcel of fibre that I ordered from Spun Out also arrived, It’s New Zealand Polland which, is a blend of Polwarth and Gotland.  Polwarth is a fibre I have spun a taster of before and Gotland has been on my must spin list for a while now.  It is a primitive breed from the Island of Gotland and their fleeces are supposed to be a handspinner’s dream, as fine as Merino and as lustrous as Wensleydale, how could I resist?  I shall wait until Owen and I are much better acquainted before I spin it I think, as I want to do it justice.  Also, I need to start thinking about spinning with a purpose and not just randomly spinning things because I want to, so I shall have a ponder. Here is a picture of that lovely fibre…

On the knitting front, I turned the heel on the first sock, yay socks!  The BFL sock yarn is lovely, soft and shiny-pretty in my favourite colours, if you haven’t tried BFL sock yarn do it!  You must experience the soft, shiny, prettiness, though the silky sheen isn’t all that apparent in this poor photograph.

Although David’s toe up sock cookbook could well be my all time favourite sock pattern, particularly good for handspun socks, oooh, handspun socks, drooooool.  I have purchased two more toe-up sock books the first arrived today.

It’s true to say there isn’t a sock pattern in this book that I don’t want to knit so while I waited for the book to arrive I dyed some BFL sock yarn to knit socks with, I particularly wanted some solid colours for the intricate cable patterns because I think they look stunning in solid colours so here’s the outcome.

Not bad for a beginner I think.  I shall dye some more soon, I have another 6 undyed hanks but need to have a think about colours first.

Well that’s all my exciting news for now.  As life isn’t all about the fun stuff, I have to leave it there, essential housework needs doing unfortunately, then brownie baking at the boys’ insistence.

ttfn Melanie x

Dyeing to spin

I’m still awaiting the arrival of my spinning wheel, I’ve kind of got my hopes up it will arrive today.  As of yet the postie hasn’t been but I shall post as soon as it arrives.

So what does one do when one is not very patiently awaiting one’s spinning wheel? (I’m still very much affected by the Royal wedding, sorry) One dyes some combed tops, that’s what.

The first one is kind of colour wheel dyed Wensleydale, Teeswater and Tussah silk.  I’m calling it somewhere over a slightly muted rainbow.

The next one is BFL and Tussah silk, the colours remind me of a wintry walk on Filey beach so that’s what I’ve called it.

The last one is BFL, Angora and silk and I’m calling it, Here comes the rain again, from the Eurythmics song.

Now hurry up Mr Postman!

New, clean, minty-fresh year

Happy New Year to you all!

I love New Years, not the drunken revelry and hype (because that means more busy at work) but new clean years, unsullied and unspoiled by the usual rubbish that life likes to throw at us from time to time.  It’s the promise and hope that this one will be better than the last that excites me. But, what is it about this “better” that us humans, or some of us  at least, are compelled to search for it.  Having grown a year older and a smidge wiser lately I’m inclined to think it a double edged sword. But still, it excites me and I hope that we all have a better year this year even if the last was pretty special already.  Anyway, enough of this philosophising! (I’m never sure if the spell check is correcting my bad spellings these days or whether it is subversively turning me into an American when it comes to z and s’s, I must buy myself an OED)

I usually take my tree down as soon as New Year is over and give the house a really good clean and I also wanted to have nothing on the needles and spindles too.  Sadly, this didn’t happen due to being at work helping to patch up drunken revellers and other people who unfortunately were very ill over the holidays.   So knitting, spinning and cleaning deadlines were delayed somewhat.  Therefore, my New Year is starting now, All WIP’s are competed and the spindles are empty and I have new yarn.

Behold! Minty-fresh!

It’s about 106 meters of 3ply merino at 12wpi.  The lovely spearmint blue-green was dyed at spinning class using Landscape dyes shade kingfisher and the undyed merino came from Serenknitty.  It’s 3ply by accident rather than design, due to the fact that I had twice as much of the spearmint/kingfisher dyed singles than undyed singles.  I found this out when plying so I added the other ply as an afterthought which is probably not how you’re supposed to do it but what the heck.

As for the other finished object you will have to wait for it’s raison d’etre to arrive before I reveal all.

In the meantime I have a new WIP to cast on and my Wensleydale tops to spin. Oh goody! ;o)

Btw, I’m suffering a bit with a foul cold so apologies for any rambling, though I know I’m a bit of a rambler anyway, this is rambling under the influence of cough syrup which might be worse.  The gist of the post is I have new yarn wot I spun!

love Melanie x

Yoga weekend

It’s been a dull week really, I missed Monday night with the Richmond knitters and have been feeling a bit under the weather.  This is all because my lovely menfolk gave me their less than lovely germs.  So, I have had a bit of a snotty nose and an irritating tickley cough and my head has been even more muddled than usual.  Still I managed to finish one of the sleeves for Manu and made a start on the second one.  Hurrah, I may even finish it before the end of the year, fingers crossed.

Last weekend at spinning class we got to spin some alpaca, cotton and bamboo and play with some landscape dyes.  It appears that I am a massive failure when it comes to spinning anything that isn’t wool, I could barely get 10cm of twisted together fibre out of any of it.  I was beginning with the cold on that day so maybe that impaired my performance but I doubt it.  The dyeing was more successful and differed from the way I had done previously by putting the cling film wrapped yarn/fleece/tops into a zip locked bag (don’t squeeze the air out) before putting it in the pan of hot water.  This means that you can do several colourways together in the same pan and therefore use less water and gas/electric.  Amongst other stuff I dyed a combed merino top in the kingfisher colourway  and whilst it doesn’t look spectacular as a top it is spinning up rather nicely.

Once it’s all spun I’m planning to ply it with this…

It’s the undyed New Zealand merino top gift from Serenknitty which was an absolute joy to spin. I’m thinking once plied they will look like a peppermint twist and hopefully I’ll have enough for a pair of mitts or a hat, we shall see.

Anyway, regarding the title of the post, my yoga teacher Anna has been away to India for several months and before she left she organized a yoga retreat.  So that’s where I shall be this weekend and I am so looking forward to it.  It means that I will miss my last spinning class but I can make it up by joining the next group.  There’s free time allocated between yoga and meditation sessions plus a long drive there and back so I will be taking my spindle and tops and Manu of course to keep me occupied.

Hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are.

ttfn

Melanie x

It’s getting better all the time

Getting better, The Beatles

I keep singing this song since yesterday, in my head of course because my singing voice isn’t great (that’s British understatement right there).  It definitely mirrors how my life is going in many ways, which is a bit uncanny, but there are definitely  a few good reasons for me feeling this way.

Firstly my neck has improved greatly since my accident.  My nursing background helps, as I knew that taking my painkillers regularly would enable me to exercise little by little and thereby prevent the stiffness from persisting.  The limits to my range of movement are quite minimal now.  So that’s great!

It’s great because it enabled me to enjoy a day out at Rose Street Artists Market with my lovely friends from the Richmond Knitters SnB.  The market is a wonderful place for people who love all that is handmade and crafty.  Everything from jewellery, clothing, accessories, home-wares, stationary and  lots of other lovely stuff.  We had a great time and then popped into a vegetarian eaterie nearby to eat some gorgeous food.  I must apologise for my slack memory in not remembering the name of the restaurant but I’m crap like that sometimes.  Here are some photos of a few things for sale at the market…

I love the hungry caterpillar

I bought a pendant that says “not from here” and a badge that says “I miss my mum” from here.

For who could not love a sock monkey?

While we were waiting for our food Sharondoubleknit got out her spindle to show me her technique.  She’s a great spinner and watching her encouraged me to pick up my spindle again.  I haven’t spun since my accident due to my sore neck but managed an hour last night and the spinning too is getting better, look…

Yes, that’s the superwash merino Jamsandwich and I dyed the other day it is still a bit thick and thin but not as bad as before.  I am loving it spun up, I only wish I had enough for a pair of socks but I don’t think I do.  I will just have to dye some more and then I can practice my new skills some more to make some socks.  For what could be lovelier than hand-knitted socks from handspun, hand-dyed yarn mmmmmmm.   Getting better all the time ahhhhh…

The knitting is progressing too, I have knit up to the sleeve bit on Manu and I’m now doing the same with Coraline.  I must say that I am really enjoying having half a cardigan on my lap while I knit it, ’tis a great feeling (till summer).

The other exciting news is that this blog was mentioned in the UK knitting magazine Lets Knit, which is very exciting and flattering.  So if you’re visiting after seeing the piece in Let’s Knit then hello and welcome, hope you like and come back again soon.

And whilst like most people not everything is completely rosy in my garden (I won’t bore you with those details) things are definitely getting better ahhhhh…

ttfn x