Edinyarnfest

Well hello there, I’ve had such a whirlwind few weeks I hardly know where to start. I know I never blogged here about Edinburgh Yarn Fest but I did on the Richmond Knitters blog.

The weekend was an absolute blast and there was so much to do and see that it could have easily gone on for a day or two longer for me. Bee and I decided to spend the first day shopping and then we’d booked a class for the morning of the second day. We arrived just before the doors opened and already there was a queue around the block of knitters eagerly waiting to get in.

There were lots of vendors that I’d never heard of and a few who I’d heard of but not had a chance to check out properly. I’ve taken a lot of business cards with a view to future purchases too. I am actually trying to stashdown a bit believe it or not. The plan is that when my stash is at a level I feel comfortable with I can decide what I want to knit and then buy appropriate yarn. I’ve decided that I like to be spontaneous with my knitting and having a big stash prevents me from doing that. However, things didn’t quite go to plan and I ended up with quite a haul but most of it has a project in mind and not all of it was yarn.

The first thing I bought was a project bag by Fiona Daly. It has a picture of a Welsh Mountain ram on it and a woven tab from Welsh Mountain yarn. The first British Breed that I knit and spun were Welsh Mountain so I have a particular fondness for the breed.

The pic is a bit crappy, sorry. Fiona also had cushions and I’m keen to get some for the sofa at a later date.

I bought buttons from Magictea who have an etsy shop because… Buttons!

I can see the tartan buttons adorning a grey cardigan and the grey buttons on a mustardy yellow cardigan and the other two on tealy-turquoisey or neutral coloured cardigans and of course, it goes without saying that in my head they are all sitting in my wardrobe because that’s the way it works doesn’t it?

I bought a kit for an Icelandic Spring shawl from Helene Magnusson herself who was very lovely and helped me pick out colours. The yarn Gryla is just gorgeous, quite crisp with a bit of residual lanolin and I think it will knit up light and airy for a worsted yarn, especially after a soak.

One of the vendors I knew I wanted to check out was Midwinter Yarns because I love the Nordic thing and they didn’t disappoint. I don’t quite have a plan for these yet but… Erm, yarn!

I’m going to swatch the yellow for maybe a Turmeric jumper and I have two of the blue and grey and they will become a shawl of some description because you can never have too many shawls. This yarn has a softer hand feel to the Gryla and a lovely halo to it. From the samples they had it softens up after a soak but it’s never going to be as soft as Merino, which is probably why I love it so much. I’m definitely going to be buying more from them.

I had in mind that I was going to look for yarn for the Abalone cardigan that I’ve had in my favourites for ages and I found the perfect yarn at Ginger Twist Studio’s stall. I’m so envious that GInger Twist is Bee’s LYS I can’t tell you.The yarn is a hand dyed by GTS BFL/silk/cashmere.

The other yarn that I bought was from J.C. Rennie mini balls in 2ply fingering weight Shetland for my Bee Keepers Quilt. Twenty little balls of joy and though I tried to get twenty different colours I managed to get two balls in my favourite ice-blue colour. My subconscious need for all the blue green things is obviously deeply ingrained.

Oopsie, I fibbed a bit, there were two balls of Sock yarn that slipped in too. Roma by Wendy in lovely vintagey colours.

After that there were fat quarters of tweed from Jamiesons and their shade card and project bag. The fat quarters will become a quilt one day when I’ve found some more and a suitable backing fabric. The shade card I could drool over all day.

The first day was topped off with en evening’s entertainment from Knitsonik and Ysolda which was hilarious and informative at the same time. It was also a good time to meet other knitters and catch up with knitting friends like lovely Jules (Woollenflower) who had been working all day on her much admired stall and still managed to look gorgeous.

On the Sunday Bee and I attended a class on Fairisle knitting with Hazel Tindall. We were pretty excited!

With Hazel’s words of wisdom and encouragement I managed to knit the cuff project and in very ‘me’ colours too.

So that was our EYF 2015. We will definitely be back next year and I can’t wait.

A week to go

This time next week I shall be on the first leg of my flight back home. I’m very excited, as are my two sons who are moving back with me and my family who are waiting eagerly for our return. Most, if not all of the organizing is done. I’m quite pleased with my efforts in this regard since moving back to the other side of the world is no mean feat. The one thing I think I did badly however is plan appropriate knitting projects. Instead of knitting the several sweaters worth of aran and 12ply yarn into lovely warm sweaters in readiness for the English Winter I am knitting a 4ply sweater at quite a loose guage. Yeah, I didn’t quite think that one through.

The pattern is Reed by Cecily Glowick-McDonald but without the reedlike eyelets. The yarn is Skein BFL sockyarn in Cocoa and Beach Shack, alternating rows.

Hopefully the airline staff will look kindly on my short wooden interchangables.

In other news… My stash and books and other stuff should be delivered to my sister today, as in Friday but in England. Hurrah!

Still here

So it’s been a while…

I’ve been kind of busy with stuff which is why I haven’t blogged for a while.

Anyhoo, some crafting has been happening but not much, I finished a pair of ankle socks yesterday. They were my usual toe-up in a really beautiful Skein colour way “Industrial Age” I just cast off as soon as the heel was completed to give them a cute curled edge look. Here is the obligatory FO pic.

The cast off was the purl 2 together pass stitch back onto the left needle cast off, I don’t know if it has a proper name or anything. Sonia helped me pick the yarn out of my stash for them and she has excellent taste as you can tell.

I’ve also been working on a squishy blanket that’s going to take FOREVER! Actually I hope it doesn’t take forever because I might need it at some point this year if it ever gets cold. I am sooo very over this hot summer we’ve been having.

The pattern is Stephen West’s Garter Squish Blanket and I’m knitting it in Cascade Ecological and Eco+. I seriously can’t wait for some cold weather to snuggle under it.

 

 

 

Alfresco

Well, Summer is nearly upon us here in the Southern Hemisphere and though I’m not a huge fan of the hot weather (British understatement) I do enjoy an alfresco lunch with friends, preferably under the dappled shade of a tree or two. I love warmer days when you can throw open the windows and patio door to let some fresh air in. Gotta love fly screens though 😉

Anyway to the point!

I created a delicious double blended colour way for my Etsy store that makes me think of alfresco lunches with friends. It’s called, Alfresco! Ha, fancy that!

 

Alfresco on the hackles 2nd blending.

 

A dreamy cloud…

 

…or 2

 

I spun up a sample because I needed to see it in the yarn so to speak. Obviously I’ve kept some back for myself. I’m not totally selfless! I see it as a shawl but then all I want to knit at the moment is shawls.

Oh, it’s a blend of BFL, English 56’s, Merino and a bit of Bamboo. There are only 2 x 130g boxes for sale for now so better be quick!

Finished projects and new ones too

I finished my stripe study shawl this morning. I feel a bit ambivalent about this shawl and I don’t know why really. It is in my favourite colours and from yarn out of my stash, it was an easy mindless knit but not boring. It looks good and will be perfect for throwing around my shoulders when there is a bit of a breeze but still… meh!

Maybe, it’s because I had high expectations and just hasn’t lived up to the hype. Maybe, I just need to wear it to appreciate it more, who knows. So next on the needles is Terra by Jared Flood. Yes, another shawl, not one for the coming summer season but what the heck. I’m very excited to cast this one on, I was supposed to cast on ages ago then I had a bit of deliberation about which yarn I was going to knit it in and now I’m going with my original choice of Shelter in Homemade Jam colour-way.

I also finished spinning the Hilltop cloud yarn. Nearly 700 yards between 2 and a bit skeins of squooshy yumminess.

 

I haven’t allocated it to a pattern because that method doesn’t seem to work for me being so fickle and apt to change my mind as I am.

Next on the wheel are two of my own blends. Spun out spinners on Ravelry are having a shawl themed spin-a-long/knit-a-long and I couldn’t resist.  So Friday being my day off I dove into my stash and found some merino fibre.  I blended it on my hackles and pulled through the diz. I have 3 colour-ways peppermint creme, meringue and creme caramel.

I wish you could feel how utterly light and fluffy they are. I may never spin from commercial tops that haven’t had the hackle treatment again. Anyway, I’m thinking I might make a dream Stripes shawl for the KAL part with the peppermint creme and meringue but you know me 😉

Stash Musings

Hello all,

I have a confession to make.

I haven’t even begun my cold sheep period and already I’ve fallen off the wagon. When I say I haven’t begun I mean I still have one more sock fibre club instalment and my Skein custom order to come. This week I treated myself to 2 skeins of the Yarn Yard’s BFL cashmere in fingering weight. It was the colour-way that got me hooked, it’s called leghorn. Yes Sonia, chuckle away, this colour-way is hen egg blue not duck egg blue and the reason I caved is that after seeing it on the internet once I couldn’t stop going back to the website to drool and covet.  This yarn absolutely has to be mine!

This week also saw my stash grow by one Fibre club instalment and one skein of forgotten yarn. Yes, you heard it right! My stash is not so sizeable that I forget what’s in it, so how could I forget a skein of yarn you ask? Well it was in it’s paper bag from the shop and tucked inside a handbag that hasn’t been used for months. The yarn? Oh yes, pardon me, it’s Pear Tree 4ply in yolk. Still on an egg theme but this time it’s yellow, which isn’t a colour I’m normally drawn to but this shade I like. This isn’t the best representation of the colour I’m afraid but it’s the best I could get.

I nostepindled it, because I can! (Yes I know nostepindle isn’t a word but an amalgamation of two words that Ursula, Sharon and I made up one crafternoon, we kind of prefer it). I’ve been Nostepindling a lot lately just for the sheer fun of it.

Today has been a day of fibre prep for my OWLS jumper. I can’t decide whether to flick a bit, spin a bit or flick it all then spin it all, it seems like an insurmountable task and I’m afraid to start in case I stuff it up.

I’ve also been musing about my relationship with my stash a bit. I think, I think of my stash as a woolly to-do list which is why it feels like it’s getting out of hand at times. This is odd seeing as I have a fair sized stash of patterns that don’t have that effect on me. Why is that? Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that I should relax and enjoy my mini yarn and fibre shop and stop fretting. This doesn’t mean that I’ve completely relapsed, no. I’m still going cold sheep, no more yarn or fibre this year!

Honest.

 

Skein Merino/silk Wasabi

My Skein handspun is all spun up, plied and finished! Yipeee! I can’t tell you how proud I am, it’s so beautiful. If I haven’t said it enough already, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Skein colour ways.

So it’s 300g/773.2 yards of 3ply spun on my Little Gem though I did begin the first singles on a spindle.  On average comes in at 14wpi/fingering weight, which is what I was aiming for. Go the spinners control card! Full disclosure, the last 35 metres were navajo plied from the remaining singles but that’s an improvement also.

Eighteen months ago when I started my spinning course I would never have thought that I’d be able to spin anything like as finely and consistently as this.

Squeeee! The prettiness! I should mention that this yarn has all my favourite colours, It’s like it was especially made for me. As for what it will become…

…well, after it has been petted in the skein for an appropriate length of time I plan to knit a shawl, probably the Botanical Garden shawl by Skein.

Clueless

I need help.

I’ve been sorting through my stash again and sorting through my queue again. Yes this has become a bit of an obsessive habit, trying to designate yarn to patterns and yes it eats into my knitting and spinning time but it’s all stoking the fires of creativity. Well, that’s how I justify it anyway.

That’s not what I need help with though. Actually I think there may be people out there who would probably disagree, maybe some of them would be knitters.  I would hope that the knitters would be sympathetic though.

No what I need help with is this…

…beautiful isn’t it?

What you see on the tag is all the information I have about it. I’ve had it in my stash for a couple of years now and every now and then I get it out to pet it. Trouble is, I don’t have a clue what to knit it into. All I know is that it’s so incredibly soft it needs to go around my neck. So what would you do with it? Please help.

 

Stash enhancement

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

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