am I still knitting?

 Hi, Sorry I've been quiet but we've had a bit of house drama which I will fill you in on in another post.

Back to the fibre crafts, I have actually been spinning and knitting and more importantly prepping fleece ready for or next trip.

There's a bit of everything in here, Romney, Shetland, Jacob and some of Pete's dyed fibres. I'm not sure how much will be spun up but it doesn't weigh much.

On the Argonaut I have some Portland, one bobbin down so far and its nestling on a rather colourful hat that I'm thinking of embroidering with tapestry wools that I've been hanging on to for years.

On the needles I have mitten, I'm still using up a lot of old hand spun that been lying around for years.

My last spin of Jacob and white faced woodland has now morphed into a couple of hats ( nearly) and there should be enough yarn left over for another one.

Also on the needles is something rather unusual for me, some commercial yarn which I will review in another post as I have had a few thoughts about it. This is the first time I've knit with anything other than my own yarn for a good long time but I'm knitting these mitts as a KAL with some friends as they venture into stranded knitting.

I will gift them once finished and that has dictated the colour choice. The pattern is Starla Mitts by Traci Scott, a free pattern on Ravelry.

Gently pootling around the house.

 Since I'm now confined to the four walls of our house, I've been slowly doing small jobs that have been hanging around in the craft room.

I have several boxes of craft materials and magazines, these are now all destined for the local scrap store where I know they can make good use of them

Yes, three vacuum bags full of yarn, all acrylic from several years ago.

I've had a sort through my books shelves and destashed some more books even though there are many more to be checked through in other cupboards.

I finished the latest headband, sewed in the ends and even washed and blocked it.

oops, photo before washing and shows the jogs at the back haha

I did some more spinning, still working on the Jacob so will photo once finished.

During a sleepless night I cast on some mitts for myself as I can't find my thin Shetland yern mitts that I usually wear indoors.

and discovered a lace pillow that I bought second hand some time ago but haven't used.... up till now.

I hadn't used this one mainly due to the fact that its a funny height on my desk however I have found that I can now sit with it on my knees quite comfortably so I've decided to try it out.

Another job that I had been meaning to do was re - skein about eight skeins of hand spun and measure to see exactly what I have.

Other than that , I've been stitching which will be in a future post and prepping some dark brown fleece that I was gifted at the weekend. 

Once I've finished with the Jacob on the Argonaut, I'm going to have another go at plying as last time it was a disaster. This time I will use commercial yarn to see where I was going wrong!! I prefer to ply on the Ashford but when we are travelling that will not be an option.

what happened to the mitten and Shetland fleece update.

 Hi,

First, the mitten/gloves. As I wasn't able to find a giant to wear them or make them into fingerless easily they are awaiting unravelling.

Final conclusion s are 

1 I didn't spin fine enough

2 wartime yarn was super fine

3 the cast on number of stitches seems at odds with other patterns for the same thing

Next steps...

I've ordered a pattern for the gloves from the Scottish Women's Institute for comparison and will have another go, probably knitting them as gloves even though the thought of knitting fingers sends me into a frenzy.

Shetland fleece

I've processed some ready for spinning and I'm currently knitting a pair of mitts to replace the ones I have been wearing for the last four years.

I have a four week plan to work solely on the Shetland, use my nano as much as possible  to spin fine and knit a couple more pairs of the fingerless mitts.

Spin down the stash or at least get some washed... Day one

So, just over two years ago I handed my manager a letter asking for retirement. I'd looked at the figures and decided that I could just about get through the 6 years or so before I'm eligible for state pension on my small company pension.

This is my happy face, this is how I now spend my time, no customers complaining, no uniform to wear and very little stress.

Ok, my glasses are wonky as usual haha but its sunny, cold but possibly a bit breezy so the plan of action is to attack one of the bags of fleece.

This bag of grey ryeland was included as an extra with a brown ryeland fleece that I had ordered on line last year.

I must admit that at first glance I welcomed the gesture but a little dismayed when I found that at least a third of it was covered in coloured spray or raddle which I've found doesn't wash out. Green I can live with if its just a slight stain after washing but PINK !!

I did spin one skein of this fleece earlier in the year and it does spin up really nicely so I divided it into marked and unmarked and chucked it in the bucket of very hot, soapy water. A couple of rinses later it was on the line.

I generally try and get out a couple of days during the week at least so today it was down to the post office, some quick shopping and grab a coffee whilst casting on some knitting.

Coffee shop for today was 200 degrees in the centre on Nottingham.

and breakfast was a very unhealthy coffee and almond croissant ! delicious x

Unfortunately I cut my knitting time short as a young mother who came and sat at the next table had a child with her ( possibly school age) who was constantly coughing which I found distracting when try to count stitches etc even with my headphones on. ( I'm afraid covid fear lingers on )

As I know that the castle cafe usually opens at 10 and tends to be really quiet I headed off there.

In Nottingham we have a castle that isn't a castle, there was one here many years ago but now we just have a few ruins and a stately  home but the new café in the visitor centre does a mean coffee and not a bad pot of tea.

Success, the mitt was cast on whilst I listened to an x-files audio book.

The afternoon was spent at home emptying all my bobbins ready for the stash spin down.

Two more skeins for the wash bag, one of Jacob and one Hebridean.

Ryeland fleece update to follow in next blog, its drying off near the radiator and I'm going to settle down with some stitching for the night.

Speak soon xx

back to the woolly stuff

 The house is now warm which means that the radiators are strewn with yarn and knitting, the heating works a little differently to before so it will take a while to find the proper temperature setting for us.

I have managed to give the mittens a soak and they are nearly dry (having radiators that now work really helps)

.My destash continues, this time I've donated several books on quilting and bag making to a close spinning buddy and in return I received two packages of fleece. The first ( we think ) is black welsh mountain and looks lovely. I do like spinning this breed so I will probably wash in small amounts and get to grips with it over the next few weeks.

The other is a faun/cream brown Shetland, looks quite fine, very crimpy

The fair isle hat is finished and washed. I'm thinking about getting a mannequin head to both block and photo my hats.

The plain hat is also finished and washed.

Texel and Jacob skeins are also washed and ready to be measured and weighed, Jacob x Dorset now on the wheel.

The house is still a tip as we can't put anything back in place until we are sure that the boiler is working properly as the installer had a lot of problem adding it to out existing heating system. 

I'm now off to town to post out the mitts and a birthday card, may even grab a coffee as well.

Speak soon xx

the days are getting colder, wool is warm :-)

 We have just two more trips planned for this year and we are keeping our fingers crossed that they can still go ahead. So, for the time being, its back to business as usual. Mittens have again been in demand and hopefully I will get all these ends sewn in tomorrow. ( day trip planned, of interest to knitters so watch for next post)

I had a simple 1x1 rib hat as car knitting last weekend and I need to do about 3 more inches before shaping the crown.

Also on the needles is the start of a fair isle beanie.

The lovely Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery has assigned November as black sampler month, work on any sampler as long as its black. He has some amazing designs and also has a really informative you tube channel . I was lucky enough to have a long zoom conversation with him earlier this year and his knowledge of samplers is astounding. As he is Dutch, some of his collection are different to the standard English/American samplers usually seem.

Anyway, I had a look through the early issues of The Gift of Stitching. This digital magazine, is no longer in exitance but I was able to buy all 70 issues for under £30 as pdf and there are enough patterns that I like for me to justify the purchase ( plus I used birthday monies ) I found a small Quaker inspired sampler perfect for this stitch challenge. Then ,me being me, I started it early !! 

Sshhh, don't tell Jacob that I cheated haha :-)

So now I have two red things and a black thing on the go ! I'm trying to get ahead as November is also Wovember on Instagram with daily photo prompts which I will probably share on here as well. I think that it will be similar to the lace month that I did back in January? My instagram link is here and if you scroll back aways you will find a lot of daily lace photos from the beginning of the year.

Finally, I did some shopping on the Lace suppliers spotlight page again. This time its a pattern for a small piece of lace to fit into a ruler. Pattern by Sally-Anne Smiddy. I will get round to it eventually.

A very quick crafty update.

 As we have had a few days of reasonable weather, I washed the skeins of Ryeland and Texel together with the latest mitts. The pattern works well with the slightly thicker rustic yarns.

The brown mitts (shetland) do not have the same feel even though the thickness is very similar.

The others are a mix of ryeland, portland, black welsh mountain, all fleeces that I really like to spin. The two skeins washed up beautifully.

I currently have an oddment box, leftovers from knitting hats, skeins with knots in etc  that I am knitting up as more mitts. This box will probably go on the next road trip to give me some evening knitting.

On the stitching front, I've been working on the two red pieces, the French one has another motif or so in it.

And I've made a little more progress on the Friends and Family Quaker SAL 2020 (didn't start it until end of June 2021)

I will admit to looking for my next project and may have found it.

I think that this may be a serious challenge !! I bought the DVD of the complete magazine collection with some birthday money and this one really appeals. The picture is of the original from 1816 and it has been re-charted  but I just love the motifs. Its big and it may be next year before I get round to finding the fabric and treads but it is very much on my wish list.

a sort of a nothing week.

 No trips out except to the shops.

No exciting weather just sunshine and showers.

No stitching progress.

It's really been a a bit of a non week, the highlight being moving all the stuff back into the van. Just taking out that crate of stuff has made the cupboards emptier all round.

                                             TDF spinning washed, labelled ready to use/sell.

I have been knitting though, four pairs of fingerless mitts knitted from yarn oddments and the skeins that have knots in the, I'm really quite picky about which skeins get sold.

No set plans for this week at the moment, if the weather improves I will have fleece to wash as I'm making good progress processing the clean fleece stash in the work room. We have a two week break coming up so I'm hoping that I have enough fibre to spin whilst away also crossing fingers for dry windy days as we have a couple of kites in the van that haven't been flown since we put them in there, nearly four years ago !

Take care, speak soon x