knit and stitch

As many people know, I am really a spinner more than a knitter (still probably more of an embroiderer really) and as a result I occasionally have spinning disasters as well as knitting ones. This yarn is hand dyed, hand spun super wash merino, love the colours but not so keen on the feel of it so seemed an ideal candidate for a bit of experimentation.


I've always had a fear of DPN's mainly as a result of trying to knit a pair of wrist warmers and constantly taking out the wrong needle so I cast on a few stitches and knitted until I had the rhythm.
Brilliant except that it left me with a tube of rough knitting!!! so I cast off, washed in hot water and tried to felt it BIG mistake, super wash doesn't felt( I forgot) so I dried it off using a rough towel  which softened the knitting giving it a slightly worn appearance.



Waht to do next? well I machine stitched two lines and cut the tube open. That seemed to work ok :-)
So I cut it in half again, and fished out my embroidery threads, adding a few simple stitches and backing the knitting with fuseable quilting wadding. I ended up with a phone sock for my new phone.



Interesting experiment, knitting technique nailed, inspiration gained for further projects and some unpromising handspun used up.

Beneath the surface

Papplewick Pumping Station is a favourite place of ours to visit for a couple of hours just to watch the huge beam engines in steam. This in turn means that we always visit over the Easter period to renew our annual membership and have a wander round. They are getting quite used to the crazy woman who spins on a drop spindle as she walks round the grounds.





In the grounds there is a large pond that supplies the water and this is used by  a model boat club and we stopped to watch the boats drift quietly by.


All appeared calm and serene until ........as the owner said, he gets to play in all the water, not just on the surface!!




Have a good weekend :-)

little baby lambsies, aaahhh

Over the Easter break, spinnotts had the chance to provide spinning demonstrations alongside the Clumber Park  Easter lambing event so I thought I would post a couple of pics just to prove that we were there :-)



baby jacobs, all together now, AAAAHHHHHH aren't they cute!!!



getting ourselves organised before the onslaught! we had a good time but I was somewhat put out by the behaviour of some of the parents who seemed to think that we were part of a theme park. One woman even put her child on the treadles of one of the wheels and encouraged him to jump up and down. When politely asked to remove him her comment was that she thought it was there for demonstration suspect she meant demolition which would have been the result if he had not been spotted! Others stood watching whilst their children tried to get on to the wheels even when they were being used so next time there will be keep off notices.Even though I hate to do it but it will be safer than having to unravel one of the little darlings from the yarn being spun.

I must say that this is the first time we have encountered this behaivour and I am hoping that it will be the last but I am not that confident.

Wonderwool....the pics.....the shopping

 we worked, we shopped



we helped raise £225 for the air ambulance



as for the shopping....

1kg plus of organic merino from John Arbon
200gm green falkland from Mandacrafts
2 braids from feltstudio UK
more knit pro needle tips and cables
1kg alpaca--split with spin buddy
100grm angora- split with spin buddy

there may be more but that is all I'm confessing to at the moment

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm busy trying to organise the next spinning outing/demonstration with the help of friends, its the spring lambing at Clumber Park and hopefully some of us will be there over the Easter weekend.

Wonderwool...the sheep, the camping, the fluff!!! Part One

Well, we did it all again!! You would have thought we would have learnt the first time round, Wonderwool is full of fluff, sheep, spinning wheels... terrible place to spend your weekend! This was a trip that had been on and off for a few weeks due to both of my regular spinning friends moving house at the same time. Sadly, Toadoftoadhall couldn't make it but Wikkidknitter managed to at the last minute. Ravelry friends helped us with the transport and we arrived in Wales early Friday evening in order to be ready for work and play on the Saturday the Ravelry Interactive area. The trip also gave me the chance to try out my new tent although my mate considered it more important to get his spinning wheel reassembled before putting his tent up. We camped nearby by the river starting the day on bacon sarnies and gallons of coffee to warm us up after a cold night.

We did shop, but also spent most of our time showing people how spinning wheels and other pieces of equipment worked.

As promised, photos of sheep, more photos to come :-)