Quick knitting update

 Hi, I'm sat in a coffee shop , on my way to the Notts and District branch of the guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, and I've realised that I haven't posted a knitting update recently.

                                         This beanie is my current knit, nice simple repeat.

This hat was a commission that I finished last week, the one below is a beanie from the same pattern.

I took a lot of oddments away with me when we went to Wales.

All but two pairs of mitts and the cowl were holiday knits.

My plan is to finish this beanie before the start of tour de fleece although I will always have knitting in my bag whilst out and about.

I've had it with knitting !!

 Just joking, I'm taking a break simply because I'm running out of yarn so the next couple of weeks will be focused on spinning.

My knitting tally for the last two months is seven hats, five pair of mitts and four head bands, I still have plenty of oddments for headbands and mitts but I'm running really short of skeins for hats.

        (Sorry, terrible photo, if I close the blind, it doesn't make much difference this time of year)

I also want to put some time into the big red thing and try and get it finished as I'm aching to start a new project.

I've had this on my wish list for ever but its really big, however I'm really (much to my surprise) enjoying stitching on 18 ct aida at the moment and when I spotted that it was half price recently, I grabbed a piece big enough. I just need to decide on the thread colour as it is charted in this magazine using a burnt umbre but traditionally it would be stitched in black. I suspect that this will be a 10-year project haha.

If you are unfamiliar with this magazine, it is no longer published but you can buy a cd containing all the published issues. It's a mixture of patterns and needlework history and the cd contains 80 issues.

I've made a start on the spinning, one skein of mixed breeds i.e. all the odds and ends from my spinning where I've prepped the fibre but there is a lot less than 100gm left to spin.

So, for now, I'll pop the kettle on, get some housework done, finish last weeks cross stitch square then get the fleece done.

Have a great week 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.

Still having a fluffy time

 When I spin, the resulting skeins are generally around 110gm as I prefer to be on the generous side for yardage .As a result I often have combed fibres left over, just 20 or 30 gram, which go into a bag until I get the drumcarder out.

I then blend these together to make batts, the mix of breeds varies each time but this ensures that I get the most from my fleece.

These are spun up as a fairly rustic yarn.

The resulting skeins will have to wait for a dry day when I can wash and then dye them ready for knitting.

Anyway back to my knitting, will update again in a few days xx

Tour de Fleece day 20 & 21

Hi,

I'm not sure whether I'll get chance to spin any more over the weekend so I'll do a proper round up of the TDF on Sunday.

I the meantime, here's the spinning from the last two days,

All washed and clean, 109 gm Portland and 52gm  Manx.

and 140gm of Jacob which is still waiting for a wash,

My TDF stash currently looks like this

and with the Jacob stands at around 1.45 kilo, plenty of yarn to play with :-)

After Sundays post, this blog will revert to weekly round ups of general crafting and life stuff, basically trying to record my retirement or as it feels at the moment, extended lockdown !

Take care, have a great weekend xx

Tour de Fleece day 17

Hi

A rest day, yep , I had a list that included finishing some bobbin lace. Did this happen? of course not !! but I did do some knitting and a little spinning.

First, an update on the spindle spinning, I did weigh this spindle when I got it and it weighed in at 17gm. It now weighs in at 20gm so there is 3 gm of Shetland/Romney wrapped around it and its taken me ages. I'm going to weigh it again once empty just incase I got it wrong !

Mind you, I am looking for a lace weight yarn from this so I can have a practice at some lace knitting.

On the needles is a simple hat in hand dyed, hand spun Balwen/texel, I usually knit fair isle in 4 ply so this makes a change :-)

and on the wheel there is some Portland as I happened to have some already prepped.

audio listening today has been MASH by Richard Hooker, this is the book that the TV series was based on.

That's about it for now, tonight I will probably put my feet up and knit some more on the ugly hat . The colours should have been stronger but both attempts to dye this fleece have been unsuccessful. I know the dyes are ok as they dyed the wool that I tied the skein with without any problem, just not the spun yarn.

Take care xx

Tour de Fleece day 13 & 14

Hi

I've been having a bit of a nightmare getting my camera and computer to talk to each other so I've rolled two days into one and will post now even though its still the middle of the afternoon.

I finished a skein of the unknown breed, 105gm now waiting to be washed

and I've spun another 60gm, just need to process a bit more and start on the next bobbin.

Whilst moving things around earlier, I found some Shetland/Romney fleece which had been hiding from me for the last 3/4 weeks ! I'd been wanting to try it on my new Turkish spindle.

That's about it for now, tomorrow I have a couple of drawstring bags to make and a pair of jeans to patch, I've cast on a simple hat to start work on over the weekend, just mindless knitting for when we are watching a film.

Tour de Fleece day 12

Hi

Its been another dreary wet day, I've not really had the enthusiasm for the short manx so I just finished the 60 gm and left it at that. I will get the drum carder out tomorrow and attempt to make some more batts.

I'm going to add a few photos in a future post about this fleece and the results Whilst I had my camera out I took a photo of a small corner of my desk, would you like to see it ?

Details of the fairy doll at the bottom can be found here Take it further challenge  . The doll in the middle was made on my embellisher. The lizard at the top was a present :-)

Back to spinning, here is the best staple length I could find on the manx

and this is the mystery fleece that I'm spinning this afternoon.

I'm not sure what this is, I was given it last year whilst in Scotland but the person who gave it to me didn't know either !

My first thought is Herdwick but it's actually quite a bit softer than the Herdwick I've spun before, reminds me of Jacob but not quite if you know what I mean.

looking at this, I'm swaying back towards Herdwick.

The only other thing I have to show is my new mug.

Take care, speak tomorrow xx

Tour de Fleece day 8 & 9

Hi,

I've not made the progress that I hoped over the weekend but did spin every day plus its only 5pm so I hope to do some more tonight.

I did process and spin another 60 gm Zwartbles (prep Saturday, spin Sunday)

I also popped some of the Manx Loughton in the drum carder so I could sample it. I'm a fan of the colour of the fleece but not the short staple. Neither am I a fan of hand carders! I spun a small sample, yet to be washed but passable without too many neps. The colour is a little browner in real life.

The BFL/Swaledale survived being in the slowcooker, the colour is certainly more vivid than I expected.

Also on the agenda this weekend was clearing out the camper as its due for a full service including the habitation ( gas, electric water etc) So this is my annual sort out where I discard anything that's been travelling with us unnecessarily. Hopefully not too much this time, just a good sort out and replacement of bathroom items.

A quick trip out of around 60 miles assured us that all is well, seems strange as the last time we were away in her overnight was February and we've missed a holiday, music festivals and the odd weekend this year. There was one ukulele still in the wardrobe so I've bought that back to for Ian to check and tune

Puffin and Lucas enjoyed the ride out.

Stay safe xx

Tour de Fleece day 7

Hi

Day 7 round up, I'm up early and realized that I didn't blog last night. I'm still working on the zwartbles and have another 3 bobbins of around 60gm, I hope to start the 4th today and maybe ply them.

Due to a slight mishap ! I've had to replace on of the brake band springs with an elasticated hair tie. Strongly my wheel now runs quieter than before but I've ordered new springs and line just incase.

Since its the weekend, I suspect that I may just have one blog to cover the next few days but I did pop the remnants of the bfl mule into the dye pot yesterday so we will see what happened. just over 100gm of fleece so any yarn will make its way into my fair isle knitting stash.

Have a great weekend xx