Plague-ville Scarf

This project started life as braid of fibre. Irrisistably called Oh, go to Plague-ville!, the braid was part of the Vespasian themed collection in Countess Ablaze's Twelve Caesars Collection. I was eager to throw this on the wheel and went for some low twist fulled singles...

The twist wasn't as low as I wanted and the consistency wasn't as even but the entire process of fulling - sloshing the yarn from hot water to cold and throwing it about a bit - was incredibly fun and the colour is amazing.

Like with the spinning I felt I had to work with the yarn as soon as possible but I had other projects on the needles. Unfortunately just before Christmas my Grandma passed away. Knitting and the act of moving my hands is something that's always managed to help me cope. I craved for simple movement and the lacy front of the tank I was working on wasn't cutting it. So the night I heard the news I bought the pattern Quaker Yarn Stretcher Boomerang and started knitting the soothing, predictable ridges in soft singles.

I cast off on the train back from staying with my family. I never know really how I'l feel about these simple comfort knits knit in times of stress and sadness. Will I feel like I can never wear it, or will I be able to forget it's origins? With this scarf it's neither. I remember why I started knitting it, but I still love it. It reminds me that good can still happen after all.

Fiber East Stash Additions

The weekend before last I was volunteering and taking classes at Fibre East. Unfortunately I was too busy/didn't bring a camera and missed out on taking any pictures of the evert itself. Really though a picture wouldn't show the best bits anyway: friendly people, sunny skies, and amazing amount of knowledge going round. And while I didn't get pictures of the bunnies or the sheep to share with you I do have pictures of the new additions to my stash. with some ramblings about my plans for them.

My first purchase was an ashford Flick Carder. It's part of some grand plan I have to spin and knit a hat for Stephen this winter. Hopefully one that he will wear

Then I spent the bulk of my money on this. This is Big Boy from Easyknits.co.uk because I wanted to do a birght, bold version of the Stoxa tank from this summer's Knitscene. The yarn is delicious, the colours are fabulous and I'm always happy with everything I buy from Easyknits. I can't wait to cast on.

And on the subject of bright colours I picked up these beautiful little mini skiens in seven colour rainbow from The Knitting Goddess. I made two equally sized magic balls, one running purple to red and the other running red to purple. I'm making socks and I'm already over the second heel. I've been tweeting about their progress but if you missed the pictures they are on my project page.

On the more naturally coloured side of things I bought some angora. I could not resist buying angora. I adore angora but I don't like to buy it commercially and if I'm not certain it comes from an ethical supplier. Buying freezer bags full of fluff from the National angora Club seemed like a good way to get some fibre from a good source.

I bought two natural shades. The grey, confusingly referred to as chinchilla, and the golden white, helpfully referred to as golden. It's so, so, so soft. I'm spinning the chinchilla to get a feel for how it handles and I'm going to blend the white with some BFL I have lying about to see if I can't get the yardage for a hat and mitt set.

I couldn't resist buying something from The Farm Animal Sanctuary but as I was slowly running out of funds I made do with just this small sample of Wensleydale. No plans as of yet.

My last purchase of the day came from Sara's Texture Crafts. It was red and irresistible and I'm spinning it up on my bottom whorl spindle from Abby's class. It's ravelry project page is here.

That was it until sunday when I set off fully intending to buy a tub of samples from Low Land Legacy. Each sample is 20g and I want to spin each up to practise with the breed and then make it into a somewhat random lap blanket with other breed samples I've accumulated.

That was my good intention. Just to buy that tub. And I did buy it. You can hardly fault me that it came with a pack of free buttons.

Or that I found a bit more money when I was packing up. I'd forgotten all about putting my chage into that pocket. I was determined to spend all of it so I bought some more John Arbon fibre to add to my collection. Some broken merino tops.

Then because they are so cute I spent my last few pennies in some of Jack Laverick's cool ceramic buttons. And I felt very, very poor indeed. But with some cool new craft supplies, and isn't that what counts in life?

Tour de Fleece Wrap Up

 A month ago I posted that I was going to sign up for the Tour de Fleece but as the rest of my month looked somewhat crazy all I was going to set as a target was spin everyday. My month was somewhat crazy but I did manage to spin every day of the tour.

As it was the end of term my Guides took up a couple of my weekends. I spun, for the first day of the tour, on my spindle at Zooom. Zooom was a South West Region event for the Brownie's 100th Birthday and fittingly some of my Brownies helped with my spinning.

I took the same spindle, and the same fibre on holiday with my Guides. The fibre was the North Ronaldsay I bought from John Arbon Spring Clean and admittedly that is a small cop but I did spin everyday.

When I was at home I got to work on The Spin Along Knit Along. I've got 612g of my 1k spun into singles. Pretty decent.

And then my tour ended at Fibre East I spent four days there. Most of the time I was playing on my in hand spindle from Portugal but I also got to play of a great wheel and take Abby Franquemont's All Spindles All Day class. I honestly can't say anything more about that class then you should take it if you ever get the chance. It was fun and I learned so much it was unbelievable. It was the best end of the tour I could hope for.

Commitment Issues

As I've barely had time to blog the last couple of weeks it may come as a surprise to you that I've got myself signed up for a few things. It may not. You know me.

 My first sign up came as a surprise to me. I had my shetland fleece on the bobbin and my Zwartbles, Exmoor Blueface and North Ronaldsay ready to go. I had absolutely no time or fibre to take part in the Knitmore Girl's Spin Along Knit Along right? No time to spin and knit an entire jumper.

Well actually after the Shetland was off the bobbin everything turned out to be much faster to spin. Not entirely a surprise as I'd spun the shetland straight from the lock and in it's closed up state it was much harder to get through then well behaved rolags. So, okay I have space on the wheel but the fibre? Well we may have ordered a kilo of Exmoor Blueface roving.

That's a kilo alright

Spin along, knit along here I come. I really didn't think I'd be able to use it as a Tour De Fleece goal though. The first day of the tour is a large scale Guiding event which I won't be able to take my wheel too. The last days of the tour I'll be at fibre east. But I have a spindle for a reason so I'm officially signing up to spin every day. A more manageable goal given my commitments.

My Exmoor Blueface spun from the scoured fleece 

And with that first lot of Exmoor Blueface off the bobbin I have to do something with it... as it averages at a light fingering/lace weight why not dye it green, buy some black beads and a specific kind of dental floss and knit the Heart To Heart Beaded Scarf for the Knitmore Girls's Summer Of Lace and Beads. A knit along for knitting beaded lace, why not?

I think I have some kind of commitment issues.

Zwartbles, fresh from the bobbin.

My Dad came to visit a few weeks ago. He stayed in a rental cottage and I went to hang out with him. I took my wheel and the 113g of scoured Zwartbles I got from the John Arbon Textiles mill sale back in April.

If you ask the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (and I always do) it will tell you that Zwartbles is coloured - much like my fading hair right now - brown to black, with a disorganised crimp and 'unarguably springy'.

I decided I wanted a woolen spun here and teased my fibre into lovely rolags. On the wheel it felt like a struggle to get the singles fine so I didn't bother. Made into a three ply it's DK weight, although it would benefit from being knit as an aran and allow it to bounce out into that space. The spring makes it feel alive. Give it a quick cuddle and it will spring back as quickly as possible.

It's not soft but I think I could wear it against the skin. I'm not terribly sensitive. I think I'll make a hat though. something plain to say 'behold my handspun'.

John Arbon's Spring Clean, Part 2: The Three Bags Full

So there I was at the Spring Clean, vegetarian quiche in my stomach looking for something to buy. Whatever did I do?

Clearly the answer was dive straight into of wool. I filled a couple of the green carrier bags with fibre. I went for fairly small amounts of breeds new to me. That way I get to try them out without worrying about how to use up a full fleece.

I got some Zwartbles and Exmoor Blueface at £1 per 100g and the North Ronaldsay (I know I spelt it wrong above, forgive me please) for 50p per 100g. I'm really excited about trying these. Especially the Exmoor Blueface considering how much fun it is to knit.

My main purchase of the day was a whole jumper's worth of yarn. At least I intended it to be a whole jumpers worth of yarn. It's probably going to be a lot more than that. I wobbled between buying enough of the Knit By Numbers (so gorgeous! Amazing colours, fabulous lustre) to knit Lauriel or enough Excelana to knit Laika.

Just as I was nearing a decision Stephen pointed out the yarn above to me. It's called Excelite, it's a 3-ply, and it's a 70/30 mix of Exmoor Blueface and BFL. I bought five skeins (2443m) for about £20. That's a Laika and a bit and it's already swatched.

Clearly there was something about the colour. I also grabbed an very similar coloured skein of Exmoor Sock. To knit socks with.

My last purchase was two skeins of this white merino lace weight. Stephen liked the look of it because it was organic and who am I to deny him really? Stephen bought a pair of alpaca bed socks for himself and one for my Dad. So altogether we bought 2 pairs of socks, two skeins of lace weight, enough yarn for two pairs of socks, enough yarn for a jumper and then some and some cool fibre. Good shopping trip then!

Loving Liesl

Off the needles, blocked and pictured is the Liesl I knit for the Ravellenic Games. I thought that, along with the pictures, I might offer some insight into why I picked this pattern.

One Grumpy Face

Why do I have an obsession with bulky cardigans is probably the first question I need to answer. I'm aware that most people don't think they look good but I think the key is picking a pattern were you can tell the bulk is in the cardigan and not you. Cardigans are better then jumpers at this because you can always open a couple of buttons to show the shape underneath. But why going to the effort of finding one that flatters? Well I just think that they look more whimsical than their finer counterparts. Some people use whimsical as an insult. I'm not one.

One Silly Face

So then why Liesl in particular? Well a lacy bulky cardi is great for the in-between days. The days when you don't want to put your coat on but can't exactly manage jeans and t-shirt. Which is what we have instead of winter most of the time here in Torquay, at least it feels that way to my Northern Blood. I've had my eye on Liesl for a bit then but it wasn't until I saw this one (think you have to be logged into rav to view it) that I knew I had to make it out of handspun. Which is why the yarn was one of the first projects I did on my wheel.

As my other Ravellenics project seems to be finding reasons to be pissed at the Russian government may I direct you here.

The First Three Yarns

Just before Christmas my present arrived. I was a very good girl and waited until Christmas to open it. Just kidding, it was opened as soon as it came. I couldn't really help myself. After all inside was my shiny new spinning wheel.

It's an Ashford Joy 2, and I love it. It's a portable wheel so everything folds away into a neat little package ready to be carried all about the place. It's really light even with the double treadle so I can walk around without breaking my back. I got the travel case to go with it and I'm really impressed with that too. It's a sturdy bag with plenty of space to stash your extras. I also got some fibre. So let's look at the yarn I've made.

You'll recognise the background as the only place with light in my flat

To play with I got 200g of BFL which I spun up, trying to do nothing but make a yarn. I kind of succeeded. I made it into a 2-ply and dyed it with red, turquoise and pink because that's what my hair has been doing lately.

It looks like yarn?

Yarn number two comes from trusty alpaca Chieftain. I tried for a thinker single this time and made a three ply out of them. I was pleased with the consistency. It's not 100% but it's an improvement. I love the chocolate brown bulky alpaca that came out of it.

mmm... chocolate

Then for my third yarn I thought I might try something different so I took some dyed BFL and spun thick and thin singles. I took my chunky funky singles and plyed them with commercial thread. Which is amazing fun. Incredible amazing fun. Even if I had to stop a couple of times to shove the yarn through the orifice.

Thick and Fun

Good writing dictates that I use my final paragraph to sum up everything else I've written. So... I love spinning and my wheel and yarn and... You know what I'm too excited to write paragraph that you'll actually enjoy reading so here is a picture of my bobbin:

Alpaca, soy, nylon

I've not been sinning nearly enough lately but I have got to the end of my blending bubble.  I bought my blending bubble from Manda Crafts at the Fleece Sale this summer. I loved it for it's wonderful colour pallet and I wanted to blend them a little but essentially keep them as separate colours.

When I took them to the hand cards during the Tour de Fleece I made a mixed batch of barely blended rolags. Recently I made them into a lovely two ply. I adore the finished yarn but oh the angst it put me through. Let's get a list going:

1. The soy and, especially, the nylon where hell to blend. They had a great big static party and I'm still picking them off my clothes. 
2. The soy was a pain to spin alongside alpaca and nylon. It was just so much more slippy than anything else. If the spindle dropped and the yarn broke at any point I knew the soy was the culprit before looking down. 
3. Given the difference in slipperyness you'd have to be a spinner more skilled than I am (most spinners) to keep these three even. 

That said:

1. I still love the play of these three colours.
2. The texture of the different fibres running through my hands is fabulous.
3. The nylon is sparkly nylon. It sparkles!

In conclusion: no regrets! You can find it as Sea Foam on Ravelry.

Pretty, Pretty Girl Hair

It's a skein, honest

Remember those Gotland Locks I was so entranced by at the Fleece Sale? Well it had it's turn on the spindle. I just reached in the bag pulled out some locks, inserted some twist, and let the curly bits all hang out. It's been christened Pretty, Pretty Girl Hair and mittens are in it's future.

Already looks good on my hands

Tour De Fleece: The Last Three Days

Final Statistics for ya.

Days Spinning: 3 (Friday 19th - Sunday 21st)
Weight Of Alpaca Spun: 10g
Number Of Rolags:  6
Amount of Plying: 250g

Goal

Number Of Days Carding And Spinning Three Rolags: 0
Days Overachieving: 1
Days Plying: 2

Spinning In Public

Spinning Group
Knitting Group
The Bach

Grand Totals

In 23 days
342g of Alpaca carded, spun and plyed
Measuring 500 meters 
With a wpi of 12 

I've also bought a fleece, spun in public nearly every day, visit my local guild, spun standing up, spun walking, worked with banana for the first time, fixed my slubby spots, blended soy and nylon for the first time, started my first art yarn, and met - both in real life and on ravelry - lots of fantastic, amazing knowledgeable spinners. 

Tour de Fleece Progress: Week 3

Vital Statistics

Days Spinning: 6! (friday 12th - sunday 14th, tuesday 16th- thursday 18th)
Weight Of Alpaca Spun: 135g, so I've spun 300g since the begging of the tour 
Number Of Rolags:  30, so 41 since the begging of the tour
Amount of Plying: 100g

Goal

Rest Day: 1
Number Of Days Carding And Spinning Three Rolags: 0
Days Overachieving: 5
Days Plying: 1

Media Consumed While Spinning

TV: DS9 (we're working our way through) Gilmore Girls
Podcasts: Just One More Row, Twinneedles,  Knitmore Girls
Films: Alice In Wonderland (which seems more creepy to me as an adult than it was to me as a kid), X-Men First Class (awesome as always) 

Spinning In Public

Knitting Group
Fleece Sale
In the park

New Skills

Spinning banana
Making punis
Does buying a fleece count as a skill?

Weight Of Illicit Banana Spun
None, honest

Fleece Sale

The Devon Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers had it's annual Fleece Sale and Open Day last Saturday and as I was considering joining anyway I thought I might check it out. Just a thought, not really sure. And then I was enabled. Another Devon spinner from Ravelry offered to drive me and introduce me. You see that I had to go then right?

Everyone was really friendly. The visitors, members, vendors. Lovely, lovely people. I got the recruitment talk. Not the Guild recruitment talk, I was told I looked like a Girl Guide and only hastily saying I was already one got me out of making the promise then and there.

Unfortunately I left before seeing any of the demonstrations. I'm screwed with a combination of insomnia/hay fever/asthma and made a run for it when my antihistamines wore off. But I enjoyed meeting new people and I'll be filling out the Guilds membership form soon.

That's all I did. Just talked. Aright so I also did a but of shopping. Just a bit. Not like I bought a whole fleece or anything. Fine. Just one whole fleece.

1.6kg of restraint

To be fair it's a really delicious fleece. A Shetland, first shearing, fabulous colour. The fleece goes from a light brown to a silver grey. 1.6kg, £10 for the lot. And I was so in love with the colour. I walked past it three times before inspecting it and paying up. I'm hoping to get it washed this week and no doubt there will be better pictures to come but for now I hope this gives an idea of the colour I love.

I'm not going to lie, I've made smoothies far thicker than this

Colour is often what draws me to a fibre or yarn. After buying a whole fleece based on colour love I thought buying a 50g blending bubble wasn't so bad. In this adorable package is a mix of soy, sparkly nylon and alpaca. It's got the blue/green combo I'm obsessed with right now. From Manda Crafts.

Nylon, Alpaca, Soy: I've made less nutritious smoothies too

These jewelled tone dyed Gotland locks where pic and mix. I got 50g and I regret not getting 100. Still I'm sure they'll work their way into spinning and felting projects soon. Adding a slash of gorgeous colour and some funky texture. From Sara's Texture Crafts (and her stall was so gorgeous it almost made me break the no batts and braids rule I adopted for the day)

I want to dye my hair each one of those shades (not at the same time)

A cute back of buttons came back with me from another stall. I have a feeling I'll be needing them soon.

There is always one who won't smile for the camera

I bought a new spindle. At 28g it's half the weight of my current spindle, the whorl is a lovely yew and it was only £8. I've already been using it with the one thing I didn't buy for it's colour.

What are yew looking at? (I know, I know)

50g of Banana top. I like experimenting with plant fibres and Stephen like's bananas. It seemed like a good idea. I've been spinning a little with it and it's delightful. It's from Spinning Weal and I'm sure I'll be posting more about it soon.

One of my five a day.