highlandheffalump

YOP8 – Week 12/52

Not strictly on my list, but I made a new seat for the chair I picked up on Gumtree (like Craig’s List).  I cut various layers of thin laminated wood we had in the garage and covered it with the old thin padding and fabric which I took from our old sofa, which I also used for doing up my granddad and grandpa’s old chairs.  Next year I will likely strip the paint off it, but I want to use it for spinning for a while, to see if its a keeper!  I had been using a dining room chair which is a wee bit too high and causing hip pain.

Spinning chair

I signed up to the World of Wool fibre club (like I don’t already have enough!?) and my first box arrived this week.  It had a small amount of grey Herdwick wool, pineapple fibre tops and 150g custom blend of merino and sari silk which I decided to do a sample spin, chain ply and knit a small sample.  I really like how it spins and knits up, when its done I probably will make a larger shawl from it, we shall see.  My box also had a notepad and pen, which I’m going to use for tracking my felting projects, seeing as Ravelry doesn’t include felting.  In Ravelry I have created a dummy handspun project, where I can assign fibre used for felting to it, so that my fibre stash leftovers are showing correct weights. (Hopefully that sentence makes sense to readers with Ravelry accounts.) 

Himalayas (custom blend from World of Wool)

I mentioned last week I had made a scarf for my sister, I also made a wee purse too, but forgot to photograph it properly.  Unfortunately it didn’t arrive in time for her birthday, which is very disappointing. None of the pictures are really showing the true colours. I started off with a silk hankie stretched as long as I could and then wool and silks were layered.  It ended up thicker than planned and so I maybe used too much wool fibre or may have shrunk it too much trying to get the silk to stick, but this was my first go at nuno felting.  I am still getting a lot of movement in the silks, so perhaps I need to leave them longer after wetting, before I start rolling.

Nuno felted scarf

On a previous post I had shown a wet felted bag with flap that I made, which has become home to my circular needles…so I decided to make a matching roll one for my double pointed needles.  The top picture maybe looks weird as it was on my sofa seat but then rotated 90 degrees…it is a long rectangle.

DPN case (with circular needle case)

I have added to my YOP list ‘to knit (or crochet) all the left over bits of yarn.  I had thought about making one of those sock yarn blankets made up of wee diamonds of sock yarn.  After searching YouTube for videos to make diamond shapes I messaged the Crazy Sock Lady and asked her, and she explained they are made from mitred squares and so finally I found some ‘how to’ videos and had a go! And another go and another one!! They are addictive when you have a bunch of scrap wool next to your chair!  I also knit a cover for my phone and a wee dog poop bag holder.

Look how well my poop bag holder goes with the trim on my dog treat bag!!!  Hehe!

 

Heather DK yarn leftovers

And finally I started to knit one of the arms of my Chimney Fire cardigan (not that I have finished the body yet).  To protect the body whilst I am knitting the sleeves with DPNs I used a circular tray, so its kind of like a Lazy Susan…every time I finish one DPN I spin the tray! 

Arrggghhhh! On Saturday evening I realised I had missed some of the arm decreases and I’m a bit further on than the image below so don’t want to rip out rows, so I have made a note of what I did and a plan for remaining decreases to get me back on track, so as long as I do the same on the other arm I should be ok.  At least there’ll be no struggles to get my chubby upper arms in the sleeves 😂

Chimney Fire Lazy Susan

 

Chimney Fire progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 comments

  4. I’m always intrigued by felting but my attempts have always been frustrated by feeling like I can’t predict and control the outcome… I guess i’m a control freak!

    Absolutely love the Chimney Fire cardigan. That yarn colour is gorgeous!

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  5. I agree that all the colors above look beautiful. I love the felting jobs you’ve done. I would imagine it’s something of an inexact science, but what you’ve created is really pretty. And your Chimney Fire is gorgeous!

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  7. Love the sweater! The colour is gourgeous. And I also love what you made out of that chair. I wish I could sew, but I am somehow reluctant to add that to my list of crafts as I would have to buy a machine and do not know where to store it.

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    • No sewing involved in the spinning chair seat 🙂. I used a cardboard template of the hole size, cut out the layers with a jigsaw, cut some padding or webbing I think it’s called (was on the arms of old sofa) and then used a staple gun. Then pushed and pushed and pushed until the seat fit in the hole…it was very snug fit and I thought I’d end up ripping it out. For my grandad and grandpa’s chairs I basically pulled the covers off a little, used a bread knife to reduce the size of the cushions and then put the covers over, folded the excess fabric and then it’s got a couple of safety pins in. I have a sewing machine, but no desire (at the moment) to finish them off properly…because you can’t see the backs anyway 😉

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  8. Wow, you have been super busy this week. Your silks are beautiful.

    That sweater really is great. Loving the color of it as well as the cabling down the front. Hopefully you will model it when finished so we can see the true shape of it.

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