TDF day 9, short and sweet

 Not a lot to say today.

 2 bobbins of jacob and one of hebridean.

That's all x

Except.

For anyone who is new to my blog.

This is why I spin natural colours.

I hope you all had a great weekend xx

just a quickie

Hi, I'm about to go work but here is an update on the fair isle kep.

I'm having great fun knitting this one! I also received a parcel of Shetland fleece yesterday so it look like I am going to be seriously busy :-)

slow time of year

Hi,

I can't believe that we are already 3/4 of the way through January, not sure where the time goes!

Firstly a confession, I've stepped down from the embroidery challenge as after a day or so it just didn't grab me. I think my head isn't into thread at the moment, just fluff and yarn!

We did manage a day out last weekend, headed off to the east coast and watched some sand racing but it was very cold and wet so didn't hang around for long. I only took my small camera which really doesn't like being cold so not many photos.

After  we had thawed out in the café we headed down to Skegness and trawled the charity shops for books, cds and dvds.

The previous day I had been out with my mate and popped into the nearby Oxfam shop and came out with these.

               

I like the Journal book as it also has squared paper in it so you can chart your designs for fair isle although most of mine have mistakes in them... must not do this when tired, just leads to frustration.

The purple hat is completed and I've decided that this one is mine !!

and I've started another kep, this time Jacob. manx loaghtan and Portland in the mix.

I nearly forgot, I bagged this book from Amazon as it was on sale at £4.99 so much for my desire to stop buying books etc!!

Still, I have plenty of fleece to spin, at the moment its more of the grey Ryland :-)

Have a great weekend xx

a chance to sit down and stitch

Hubby has gone back to work today in spite of being very much under the weather, I had expected to see him back on the doorstep within the hour but no sign of him as yet.
I don't return to work until this morning so I've been having a tidy up whilst I don't have anyone under my feet!
I just realised that I didn't show the progress on my hat yesterday, so here it is...

I've also joined in 'a year of stitches' on Facebook, the idea is to try and stitch everyday. I think this would be good to spend 10 mins or so once hubby has gone to bed (usually around 8.30 due to early starts)

I hadn't realised how rusty I was at this sort of thing and faced with a blank canvas I'm really at a loss. In the future I will colour my fabric but didn't have much time with this as it was a bit last min.

So far I've managed to find my embroidery hoop and some off white cotton, onto this I've layered some handmade lace to give me a starting point...the photos aren't much good as taken at night but you will get the idea,.

My first thought was to embroider down the sides but after looking at it I decided that it really doesn't work.

so back to the drawing board and I found some textured threads to play with.

I'm couching these down with herringbone stitch, now this feels a bit more like me but I still have to think about where this going next.

However this is still very much in line with my plan to use up my stash :-)

a new year, same old me :-)

Hi

Well that was exciting. I spent the New Year break pretty much on my own as my man has a really bad cough and hasn't ventured out of bed since early Friday evening.

I did some housework Saturday morning then decided that I would spend my time chilling and catching up on some craft work as well as having a bit of a turf out in my work room.

The yarn for the next kep is spun and washed, I'm taking past in a Fair Isle Fisherman Kep knit-a-long starting next week just for a bit of fun. I've yet to sort out a design but will have a look at that tomorrow.

so, this is Jacob, Ryland and Manx loaghtan ready to be balled up, I just have to decide which grey to use.

Slow progress on the hat and I'm still choosing the patterns as I knit along. This was going to be a short, normal size hat but I think I will knit it up to kep length as I'm enjoying it so much.

I have some embroidery planned ( in my head) so not much to show but I did spin some silk to use in it, just a small amount spun on a drop spindle.

This is from a silk 'brick' that I bought many years ago at one of the big embroidery shows, I've been chipping away at it over the years but there is still plenty left.

Well, that's about it, the weather is cold wet and damp and I was in bed before the fireworks started last night.

I hope you all had a good New Year xx

more chit chat and a bit of knitting

Hi

I'm sorry that my blogging is a little sporadic at the moment but often I really don't have a lot to tell or show.

Today I ventured out of the house, too many weekends have been spent at home recently but I didn't stay out for long. I went into town to have a look at the Christmas market but it was very busy and pretty much the same store holders as last year, and the year before etc.

The sun was very low and in the wrong place for this photo but just right for these..

I quickly visited a couple of shops, walked through the arcade and headed back to safety of my workroom.

I did pop into the crafts in the city at Waterstones, some nice pieces of glass jewellery and pottery caught my eye but there were two stalls of hand knitting and the prices made me wonder whether to ever try and sell my hats or just to give them to nice people :-) plain handwarmers at £10 per pair, not even sure how much the hats were but also I don't know how much the stall cost or even the yarn and the time taken to knit them.

Food for thought..

On the subject of knitting, Kep no 4 finished and waiting blocking,

 ( and a bobbin of texel 3/4s full)

this is tonight's homework...a basket of Jacob to prep, I didn't intend buying this in the summer, it just jumped into the car with several others!!

And on the needles....not sure what the fleece is as I inherited from Pete when he had a bit of a clear-out a couple of years ago.

a little knitting

so this is what the ryland and lleyn look like once I started knitting :-)

this one is a bit more random with the patterns :-)

a fibre post :-)

Hi

I'm not missing in action, just a little busy and stressed with real life.

On the spinning front, I have been working through the bags of oddments, small skeins of different breeds, perfect for hat knitting.

( as usual I still need to block this one and unusually it doesn't have a home yet, I may even keep it for myself!! )

Mainly white fleece at the moment but I have started on a bag of coloured Ryland, mainly dark grey with lighter patches. Although on the wheel tonight is some Jacob lamb.

the Ryland is being sorted and processed ready for the evenings next week

quite a range of greys!

Pete, aka wikkidknitter popped round last weekend to show me nis latest fleece purchases, all really nice and squishy and I sort of gained 1/2 a mule fleece at the same time. Of course this is now hidden away especially since I had a 3 kilo box of fleece delivered in the week!!

I'm thinking of getting the dye pot out at the weekend and dyeing some of the fleece before I prep it. I've not done this for years so I'm not really sure how good my dyes are at the moment. The only way to find out is to try it (then try to wash the dye out I suppose).

I've cast on the Dorset poll lamb yarn for the inside of the next hat and I'm looking for a pattern for a smaller hat to knit as well.

It has been pointed out to me that I probably have enough spun to knit a sweater or two. I've never knitted anything other that hats, mitts and shawls. Maybe one day but it seems to be the spinning process that I really enjoy at the moment.

so, Octobers spinning total, smallish skeins, Grey Ryland, light grey Norfolk Suffolk, 2 lleyn, 2 Portland, I texel and the green is small mule that I dyed several years ago but never got round to processing. In fact a lot of these were bags left over from when we used to do a lot of spinning demos.

have a great weekend x

Fisherman's kep

hi
I'm back at work part time, slowly getting used to the routine again although I get very tired which may be the drugs.

On the fibre front, I've been knitting, yes I've finished the fairisle fisherman's kep and it has already been gifted to a friend on the Isle of skye.

I loved it so much that that I've just cast on the next one !!

Jacobs, ryland, norfolk/suffolk cross, unknown white and Polwarth for the lining.

Back to work

HI. I went back to work on Monday on a gradual return to work plan. I only work 3 hours a day for the next two weeks which is just as well as on Monday I came home with a killer of a headache from the bright lights and fell asleep for 3 hours! With not having been at work for so long I have a lot to catch up on and some new faces to get to know.

On the craft front, I have started knitting my Fishermans Kep, all was fine until yesterday when the stitches slipped off the needles twice, I suppose that's what happens when you knit when tired.

I always worry about my spinning being uneven but spinning this as a 4 ply (thickness) has really surprised me.

I have a parcel sat downstairs waiting ro be opened, it contains fleece but it could be one of two breeds. I don't mind as long as I can use it!!

wish me luck

Hi
This is my April spinning (except one ball which I've included as its much softer and will do for the head band)
This is the project for me as I'm back to work so not so much free time, it will also be my holiday project!!
After two trial bits of fair isle I thought I would drown in the deep end. The pattern is from the Fair Isle museum and is more of a recipe, giving the designs but leaving the choice up to the knitter. There is also a Facebook page so if I get in a mess I will be able to get help.