My List
There’s a separate blog post I have done with my ambitious list for the new year of projects that started this week. I do need to balance that with household tasks and improving my weight and exercise, so they may not all get done…but may as well aim high!
Felting
I drum carded the fibres and did the felting of the 4 lampshades for my sister. She specified what she wanted and I found the lack of being able to be creative with the design a real challenge. They seem a bit bland, but her wallpaper is going to be the main feature in the room so she assures me they are fine. They won’t be constructed until the end of July when I’m down visiting. I definitely prefer making things to my own design and taste and if others like it and want to buy it that’s great, but making to order is a bit stressful and restrictive.
Knitting
My Easy Goes It shawl in baby camel and tussah silk home-spun yarn is finished and was blocked this week. When I spun it last year and wet the yarn to set it, I mentioned the wet camel smell. Well, those wet camels were back, good job they live in arid places lol! I’ll forgive the wet smell, as when it is dry it feels so soft and warm. I can’t wait for autumn to wear it. It has been grey and rainy so has been drying for days!
I started knitting my 5th pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks (HES) by Erica Lueder, in Regia Design by Arne & Carlos in ‘Myth’. I’m knitting them two at a time (TAAT) but had started each one on my Addi Sockwonder needle. A couple of mistakes made but I’m sticking with them. Every pair has some mistake, but seriously who is going to be studying the pattern symmetry on my feet!
I am toying with the idea of frogging Such a Winter’s Day! I’m unhappy with the size it seems, perhaps I’m wrong and it will be fine. More thought is needed.
Spinning
Early in the week I played with my blending board and spun up some rolags on my Turkish spindle. The batt and rolags are soooo pretty, it seems a shame to spin them.
This was some practice for the Tour de Fleece which started on Saturday 6th. Tour de Fleece is a challenge spinners can take part in during the same time frame as the Tour de France. You spin each day the riders cycle, rest on their rest days and on their 2 hardest mountain challenge days you do something that is a challenge for yourself.
For more information on Tour de Fleece see my separate post with more details of the fibre I have prepped, challenge plans, and which teams I’ve joined.
Before Tdf started this week I chain plied and set my first batch of the BFL/Seacell fibre I had spun, hoping it would be ok for sock yarn. I don’t think this is sock yarn though…definitely need more practice and I have plenty of this fibre left to try again. When I measure the wraps per inch it comes out fingering weight yarn, but the grist calculations puts it as DK yarn??? I asked the Guild members if they take notice of Grist, but no-one replied. I like the subtle colours, greys and a hint of pink.
I tried spinning some cotton punis but it is quite tricky. When I’m at Fibre East at the end of this month I am going to treat myself to a supported spindle, I got a supplier recommendation from the Ravelry Group for the festival. I also started to spin the grey rolags, practicing my long draw drafting for a nice woollen yarn.
Weaving
I had a go at weaving with the sample cotton I’d ordered (cotton unmercerised 8/2) on the 10 dpi reed on my rigid heddle loom. This was a test, for a future aim to make some tea towels. Well the gaps in the weave have created a weird fabric and definitely not what I’d call a tea towel. Perhaps I need either a different sized reed or thicker cotton or try double threads through each slot.
This is a Year of Projects update. If you would like to find out more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, or you’d like to join in, please follow the link for details. To read what the other members of the YOP Group have been getting up to please click on the latest weekly folder and follow the links to their blog posts. This is a friendly group with a wide mix of skills and crafting interests.
HighlandHeffalump 
You have been busy this week Liz!
I find making to order to also be completely un-creative and try not to take on orders now but sometimes when it’s family it’s hard not to.
The rolags looks so pretty, I’m not sure I’d be able to spin with them and I know the woven cloth isn’t quite what you want but it is pretty. I like the colours and I think it makes for a really pretty scarf. I will be interested in hearing how making tea towels progresses though.
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Your spinning and fibre all look so luxurious. good luck with Tour de Fleece. I won’t be participating this year because of my arm, but I do need to get into that fibre this year. And now you are weaving too! Looking good to me, and I am sure with a bit of tweaking it will be what you want. It has been cold and rainy here for a week and your shawl looks perfect for drizzly weather.
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Shawls, socks, felting, weaving, spinning… you are so multi-talented! All is a feast for the eyes and I’ve enjoyed following you on Instagram too. Here’s to a lack of wet camel smell! LOL!
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Love the shawl, and the weaving is very pretty. I love the colours of the replays, I’m sure I would just spend time looking at it!
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My gosh – you are getting so much done already, and it’s only week one! So many lovely projects, as usual 🙂 Though the cotton fabric isn’t what you were looking for, it would still make lovely lightweight shawls, maybe?
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I only bought tiny rolls of the cotton yarn to try, but did think it would be ok as a summer wrap if bigger…not that we seem to have summer this year. 😂
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It will come back!
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Or sheer curtains?
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Amazing goals and I like your header for YOP. I checked your personal goals and I am with you girlfriend! I could have taken that list and applied it to me and my house for sure! I love all your projects and I know what you mean about “custom orders”. I like to make and give gifts but then they want to pick out the yarn and the pattern and it takes away the enjoyment. So, I am making less for others and more for me or for money! LOL! Yes, I would just display those rolags…so gorgeous! I could go on and on about your projects…..you know I love them and you are so ambitious. The learning you have in store this year is amazing! Glad you are back and can’t wait to see more of your lovely creations.
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Liz, you just leave me wondering when you find time to sleep!Still missed you at Guild as didn’t make May as I had dreadful cold. Plan to be at September, so hope we can catch up then?
Your projects are amazing!
Best wushes
Glenda
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I need to check dates but may go. I’m planning to buy a supported spindle and that’ll be easier to bring along or my loom, definitely not bringing my wheel again.
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You are such a busy lady! I am very particular who I will knit for–basically my kids and their spouses and my Granddaughters! Luckily none of them give me too many specifics- I know their favorite colors the type of hates they like and fingerless mitts— I have not gifted socks yet, but might make a pair for my husband for Christmas for the first time.
I love your camel shawl and can just only imagine what that yarn smelled like wet!
xoxo
Kim
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Liz, you did quite a bit this week. Since I do not spin, I really enjoy watching others take fleece and turn it into yarn. You have quite a nice list for this year too. It will be so much fun to watch things be accomplished by you.
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Can’t wait to see the newest lampshades, Liz I feel similarly when asked to make something for someone else. Your Easy Does It – the yarn sounds really soft. And it turned it so pretty! Those ARE beautiful rolags. They look like art all by themselves. Your first weaving looks good, though I do see what you mean about the gaps. It looks like it would make a pretty airy scarf or shawl, though.
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[…] in July 2019 I knitted an Easy Goes It shawl by Finicky Creations in my first handspun baby camel and silk yarn. There’s now a DK […]
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