Felting
I finished my latest 4 lampshades.
- The skies are all the BFL Shetland cross fibre from Roxy the sheep, that I dyed last year, the sheep are from her too.
- The grass is a mix of North Ronaldsay wool (those seaweed eating sheep) and Corriedale cross.
- The heather and bracken is made from wool curls/locks.
- The water is Corriedale and Corriedale cross with some silk and flax waves. And the one without sheep has some angelina in the water for some sparkle.
- The sand is merino and some wool nepps for rocks.
So these are a real mix of different sheep breeds. Merino is definitely the quickest and smoothest to felt, the BFL Shetland cross is very tough to felt but it does give the skies a lot of depth of colours and textures, but it is very labour intensive and I did go over some areas with a needle felting tool. The North Ronaldsay fibre is very hairy, I manually pulled out a lot, but have left some as they do give that rustic Highland hillside look.
Knitting
So I finally, after months of procrastination, started my first two colour brioche project. The Cabriolet by Carolyn Bloom, using two Cookston Crafts yarns. More details are on a post I wrote earlier this week, since that post I ripped it out and re-started it and noticed another mistake, ripped it out again and hopefully this is now 3rd time lucky. I’m putting a safety line in every time I finished a round. They are cotton thread trimmings from some tea towel weaving, I knew they’d come in useful one day.
The pale yarn has some alpaca in so has a slight halo and the green has some silk in so will be smooth next to my skin and gives flashes of a gorgeous silky sheen. I have to concentrate on every single stitch so it is hard to follow what is on the TV and this definitely isn’t a project to take to Yarn Club this afternoon, so I’ll take my hat.
I’ve added some rows to my hat and about to start the decreases. Fingers crossed next week it will be finished.
On Thursday I was tidying up my hat and scarf mountain and realised there are quite a few items I don’t wear for one reason or another, so I did a whole bunch of frogging and did some surgery to some other items!
These are the ones I frogged, Interlude was soooo loose that when I’d bend over it would flop over my face! The cable knit headband has never been worn and was a bit odd with the pink bits. The cabled hat was always too small at the top for my head and the Purple tones hat was also too tight. That was one I’d crocheted without a pattern before I learned to knit.
Then these two I did some surgery on, the Perky Little Hat in my homedyed chunky yarn was too small to come down over my ears, so added some length to the body, so it basically looks almost the same. The swirly smooshy hat was another like Interlude that was too big for my head and would flop over my eyes if I bent down. I sound like I’m Goldilocks! As I was unravelling it I realised it would make a nice cowl, so just did a suspended bind off once I’d frogged the decreases section.
So I now have a swirly smooshy cowl instead!
Spinning
At the Ben Wyvis spinning group on Tuesday I practiced spinning rolags on my Russian supported spindle and then transferred the singles to my Turkish spindle and plied from that. I need a lot more practice to get a more consistent yarn.
I have found on Ravelry an Ashford Traveller Spinning Wheel that is for sale in North Wales, it is a low price as it isn’t as attractive with a dark varnish and some scratches and it’s collection only, so I’ll pick it up when I’m down visiting friends and my dad on the Wirral (hopefully in April). That will be much easier to cart around to spinning groups than my Traditional. I can also then take it over to my friend’s as well and we can hang out and spin. So fingers crossed that will all work out.
Weaving
We have been given some instructions for what yarn we need for the weaving course in March and I don’t have any in my stash! And this is a yarn buying ban year! Hmmm…not sure what my plan is yet!
Other News
We have had even more rain, some snow and its been very windy. Our usual walks are now getting so boggy and flooded, but still we aren’t as bad as the North of England so I’m grateful for that but hoping that soon we have some days without rain to give us all a break.
Last Sunday I met a friend for a late lunch, a bit of shopping and we went to see Parasite. Quite often with heavily awarded movies I can be disappointed (like La La Land that I didn’t enjoy), but Parasite didn’t disappoint. A unique film, that I really enjoyed. Before the movie I bought a new Goretex Jacket and black padded jacket to wear underneath. They are both a size up from what I’ been wearing and now I can fit them over my knitted jumpers. I’ve given up kidding myself I’ll lose weight enough to manage in my smaller blue jacket. I love the colour of my new coat and it goes great with all my accessories lol! I have a purple crocheted hat I made a few years ago that I can wear under my soft perky little hat and my head is super warm.
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HighlandHeffalump 
Do you have any hats that aren’t purple? It looks great on you, and is celarly a good choice. My best knitting friend also has only purple hats.
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Hahaha well I have less now I’ve frogged some, but yes they mostly are purple, 1 blue one and 1 red one but even the felted hat I made is purple 😂
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Being predictible is not a bad thing!
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Love your new purple coat. It does go well with all your hats and cowls. I am impressed with the ‘surgery’ you did on a couple of your projects to make them work for you again. Also, good idea to frog projects and be able to reuse the yarn for something else. I have a sweater I am going to do that to, one of these days. Your lampshades are so sweet. I always love the ones with little sheep in them.
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I wanted a purple coat this year (well… actually, I’ve had a purple coat for over 5 years now, but it’s a dark and kind of dull purple and I think it’s time for a pretty new coat, relegating my current one to a work coat of sorts. I love your bright purple one. Your brioche is beautiful and I do love that green that has a pretty sheen on it. And it was interesting to read how the different wools felted. All the lamp shades are lovely.
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Love your lampshades – they are gorgeous, as always! Good idea frogging the items you don’t (and won’t) wear. Now you have more yarn to use 🙂 Your new coat is a great choice – it goes really well with your accessories, and looks very warm!
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your post just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Such great progress and well done on frogging and reclaiming yarn and for turning a hat into a cowl! Our local library is showing parasite tomorrow afternoon and I plan to go!
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I love the color of your coat, and it is just perfect with that hat!! Really, you just can’t go wrong with purple. 🙂 I started knitting brioche a few years ago and the first project was pretty intense. I kept making mistakes, dropped stitches, didn’t understand the increases, the whole thing just didn’t make sense. I’m really good at reading my knitting, but it did take some time for me to understand brioche. I was even dreaming about it! Now, finally, it is a favorite. I just love the yarns that you have chosen to use for your project!!
All that mending, ripping and repair work! It makes my sweater surgery pale in comparison. I’m so impressed!!
Have a great week. We’re having more snow here…
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Thanks, for sure at the moment I can’t read my stitches in brioche. I do know where I kept going wrong the first two times, but I am safety line crazy on this thing and haven’t even started on the cables yet 😂. It was most likely your sweater surgery that subconsciously led to my little surgeries and frogging. So thanks for being such inspiration. 🙂
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Brioche cables?! Yikes! I await the photos!
I have mending and darning that stacks up until I get a surge of confidence that makes me tackle it. Cleaning the yarn stash is the same. Talk about inspiration… I dyed yarn this evening!! I am so happy with it and it was your update that nudged me into it. Next I’ll be spinning!
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You are a talented lady. I definitely need to try my hand at brioche. I love the idea of felted lampshades. I imagine the lighting they affect is dreamy.
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You really get so much done it is just amazing! I love your lampshades…each and every one of them. You’re smart to undo the hats and turn them into something you will get some use out of. Your new jacket is beautiful and will really go well with all your purple accessories. Good for you attempting the brioche. I have a book on it that someone gave me but I have not tried it. It always seems that the 3rd time is the charm! Good luck, it’s looking lovely so far!
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Your brioche looks lovely and the coat is perfect. You look perfectly put together.
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