Compare and Contrast

 I realised the other day that I tend to use the same half dozen or so hat patterns whilst we are travelling and restrict the amount of yarn packed in the van. Consequently many of the recent hats are simply dark brown and white as the yarn has been Wensleydale/Zwartble and white Shetland.

On our last trip I had some slightly thicker yarn spun during Tour de Fleece, Light grey Jacob,  darker grey and white Ryeland with me and the same pattern.

I'm now trying to decide which version I like best .I still have to wash and block the grey version but having tried both of them on I do like it.

                                                                      Which do you prefer ? 

Different yarn, different needle size, same pattern, I may have to try this again on our next trip.

New Colours to spin

 A few days ago I spotted a giveaway on a good friends facebook page. Some of you may remember Wikkidknitter who would feature on this page some years ago, after uni and starting a career he still hasn't lost his love of fibre, spinning and knitting.

Pete now has a facebook page selling dyed fibres and a couple of days ago I received a box from him.

                                                Beautifully wrapped inside was some goodies

the gorgeous fibre

 

                                              and a couple of extras, tea and stitch markers.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed the Easter egg hiding in the box as well as the draw was made on Easter Sunday. Thanks Pete x

I now have two of his braids to spin on our next trip and one on the nano which I really need to finish up soon.

I may have dyed a rainbow, sort of :-)

 Two days dyeing resulted in this.

Thank goodness for a couple of sunny days. This is mainly texel x bfl, border leics cross unknown and an odd skein of lleyn. I still have plenty more to spin but this has made a small dent in the pile. Each skein is just over 100gm.

What I did today, fibre finishing.

 I have the house to myself today and the sun is shinning. The domestic goddess part of me loaded the washing machine, the fibre hippy filled a couple of buckets with yarn to soak.

I also took the opportunity to was and block some knit wear as the forecast is back to winter in a couple of days and I need to clear the decks a bit.

Soaked yarn was popped into the dye pots, I can only do 200gm at a time but I have a good routine worked out so should get through 600-800gm today and possibly the same tomorrow fingers crossed

I have other yarn activities lined up, trying out the crochet lace and winding some lace bobbins so I have a demo strip of lace on the go for the next few weeks whenever I go out.

I do have some prepped fibre to spin but its doubtful that I will get round to that today as I have a zoom meeting this afternoon and possibly a zoom craft meeting tonight.

Stitch n Dye

 hi

This just about sums up my week, I now have five skeins to label up, two Texel cross and three spun from oddments.

The only other thing I've been working on is my band sampler, I've now decided to incorporate Take a Stitch Tuesday into it so there in a patch of running stitch (week one) and pattern darning, butterflies in back stitch ( week two)

Band sampler patterns are Fox and rabbit sal 2017, Algerian stitch, Blackwork from The Gift of Stitch Magazine, Traditional Russian pattern from early 1800's, running stitch and pattern darning, cross stitch from TGOS, blackwork butterflies from TGOS and alphabet also from TGOS.

For anyone wondering, The Gift of Stitch was an Australian magazine that started in 2007 and ran for 70ish issues. I bought the full collection download a couple of years ago for around £25, maybe a little less and it proving to be a great resource.

In other accomplishments, a good friend came over and between us we managed to reduce the contents of my wardrobe by around half, filling the car with black bags of donations to the charity shop. The house clearance continues.

Speak soon xx

Long overdue crafty update

 I've just had a quick look back over my previous posts and realised that I haven't updated the craft side of this blog since I got back from Cornwall.

I have been busy but haven't recorded all of it. One of my different tasks was to design and make up a cross stitch kit for a friend based on her family tartan. I also stitched up a version of it to check for any errors. I gave her the stitched version just in case hers wasn't finished on time for Hogmanay. This is the project that I didn't take photos of ( I simply forgot)

I have been at my wheel from time to time, sometimes at home and sometimes in public. The staff at Starbucks obviously weren't too sure what spinning was when they said it was ok for my to sit in the corner. As when I looked up after settling into my rhythm I found all three of them staring back at me. I asked if they had any questions and I was bombarded with them !

Over the last couple of months I have been spinning, mainly Texel cross and the odd skein of  black Ryeland

knitting the usual selection of hats, mitts and headbands

spun and knitted a shawlette using some amazing shetland fleece from Ullapool. This needs a good wash and block, it also reminded me how bored I get when knitting a shawl hence its smaller size.

Last time I was in my local cafe, the owner threw a ball of yarn at me and asked if I could knit something for a fund raiser. It looks and feels like wool, a very softly spun commercial single that drifts apart if you don't keep an eye on it ( I suspect that I tend to untwist a bit as I knit) I knocked up a pair of mitts ( had to rewrite my pattern due to the thickness of the yarn) using 5mm needles which felt huge as I'm also working on a hat on 3mms.

Currently in progress I have a bag of prepped fleece and 3 bobbins holding around 50 gm each ( one looks bigger as there is another spin under it.

At this point my knitting and spinning may slow down as I've noticed that I'm tending to find my hands aching so I'm trying to pace myself a bit more.

I've been stitching though, our guild ask us to wear a name badge so I've designed and stitched one.

Looking ahead to next year, I may be stitching more and as I'm well aware that I rarely keep up with annual stitch alongs,  I've decided to do a sampler band and pick out small parts of the many designs I have in both cross stitch and other techniques with no time frame as such. This was I can add material as required and as my restriction in 79 stitches wide in cross stitch I shouldn't get too bored, It will also give me chance to include any of my own designs along with any historical ones that I come across when using the Internet Archive which has needlework books dating back to around the 1500's

Finally. my biggest ongoing challenge will be to reorganise the chaotic mess that is my work room !!!!

There is a rag rug on the floor in the last photo which hasn't seen the light of day for sometime,,,,, watch this space.

speak soon as usual xx

back to the craft(yness)

Hi

Welcome back to the workroom for a quick crafty update 😀

Firstly some knitting. As you may expect, I took some knitting on our recent trip, especially for the long drive up which enabled me to get a good start on the first hat.

As usual, hand spun, hand-dyed and unfortunately I do not have a photo of the finished item as the hat stayed on the Isle of Skye.

On the journey back and over the last week I carried on with the knitting bug and now have items in my 'to be finished and washed' bag.

Yes, one of these patterns is now well and truly embedded in my memory, no more looking at the chart.

Currently I have another hat on the needles, managing a row or six between chores.

Whilst on Skye, I was gifted a knitting belt to help with my wrist problems and a trip round the charity shops in Callender supplied me with a variety of different length dps to practise with.

The spinning wheel also travelled with me but unfortunately, I only took two bobbins instead of the usual three, so I had to wind singles into balls to ply once home. I also found that the foot pedal was no long working so I now have a replacement which makes life much easier.

The Jacob was ready to ply.

One bobbin of Aberville was spun so I spun another one earlier today.

I was then left with a ball of Texel and the bobbin of Lleyn that I spun whilst minding the shop in the middle of the holiday ( Its always nice to spin on something different, in this case an Ashford Joy) is still sat on the wheel in the shop. I suspect that it will be plyed and used for something.

A small bag of fleece arrived during the week, extremely well picked and skirted and now washed awaiting combing. Another bag has just arrived as I'm typing so will be investigated tomorrow.

I've fallen back down the rabbit hole again after checking Facebook and learning about tow SAL (stitch a long) starting this weekend. One blackwork and one cross stitch, both running for 36 weeks.

I've kitted them up using mainly thread and material from my stash.

I'm back, did you miss me ? ( Tour de Fleece update )

 I have my laptop back so I'm taking the chance to try it out whilst grabbing a coffee and sausage sandwich at my favourite cafe.

The offending files have been removed and since this used to be my mother laptop , I asked him to remove her profile, pictures and documents as I have these backed up elsewhere.

So what have we missed, a couple of weeks ago we went to the Major Oak festival at Edwinstowe. In case you don't know, the Major Oak is a very old tree famous for its connection with Robin Hood.

                                  As you can see, the last 800 plus years have taken their toll.

People had the chance to try our various wood crafts, textile crafts, archery etc.

                    Diane from Murmuring wheel and Nancy provided the spinning demo.

                We spotted these wonderful gates as we left, studded with small creatures.

A few days later I was walking around Netherfield, admiring the new Festival banner and spotted some mosaics made by the local children.

                                                            Netherfield Arts Festival

 Fibre, knitting, Tour de Fleece update.

 Tour de Fleece, I've decided not to participate this year for a couple of reasons. I've found that I am spinning most days and have now reached a natural break to do some stitching for a change. I also have a busy couple of weeks coming up with the arts festival and a couple of trips away. I hope to be back with the tour next year.

Fibre, I'm busy taking advantage of the good weather and washing fleece most days,

Latest knitting and spinning.

I think I'm all caught up now, I'm going to try and get back to my weekly posts :-)