highlandheffalump

YOP9 – Week 41/52

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Happy Easter!

This blog post is link heavy, if you fall down a rabbit hole on one or more of the links – please remember to come back and read the rest.  😁

Knitting

Drum roll please!  Void is finished, blocked and I love it!  Who would have thought I’d make such a U-turn on it.  It goes really well with my Turtle Dove and Such a Winter’s Day jumpers.  It is super cosy.
Here’s a photos of it on.  The colour is pretty close on this photo.
Apart from blocking Void, I have been concentrating on my socks this week, I’m on the foot section of the first sock so it’s pretty mindless knitting, as I’ve done this pattern so many times.  Now I read, or heard somewhere, that when knitting with a mini sock wonder needle, you are less likely to get hand pain if you put the sock inside out and still knit the stitches, see that knitting a stitch is further away from you…hopefully the picture will show you what I mean.  It works well.

Spinning

I have now spun 2 x ~100g skeins of 3 ply John Arbon fibre and made up lots more rolags.  I think I’ve finally got the hang of doing long draw spinning.  I posted a tiny wee video post on my Highlandheffalumppage on Facebook and the same on Instagram of me spinning. (I don’t think you need an Instagram account to view it.)
Because I’m doing 3 ply, from 3 separate bobbins, it is quite forgiving of any inconsistencies in thickness of my yarn and skeins look pretty good to me.

Weaving

Well having spent all that time re-warping my loom and trying to weave my rug yarn, this week I ripped it out and removed the warp carefully, so I can use it in future.  It just wasn’t working well enough.

I plan to make a scarf with 2 skeins of yarn from Cookston Crafts, more on that once I’ve started it.  I need to decide on a pattern or plain weave first.  I’ve found a Ravelry group doing a double heddle (on Rigid Heddle Loom) Weave-a-Long in April and May, so I’m going to join in that.  With 2 heddles I can either do double weaving, that gives you double width (with use of pick-up sticks as well).  Or I could do 2/1 twill or some other patterns.

Other News

Ylva has had an upset stomach for a few days which had us worried, but a telephone consultation with the vet and some dishes of boiled white rice and chicken seemed to help a little.  We aren’t sure what set her off, but she was needing to go out at midnight, 3am and 6am, so I’m very relieved the rice seems to be reducing the frequency.  We usually buy brown rice, so I had to do a special trip to the supermarket for it!
So here’s 12 things that brought me joy this week:
  1. Video calls with friends (where there’s a link on a name, State or location, it links to their blog or page):
  2. Watching Taskmasters Home Tasking Tasks (on YouTube). I’ve linked to the latest, but they are all great.
  3. Watching Portia try to cook Ellen dinner (on Ellen De Generes’ Instagram). There’s a few videos, they don’t even know how to use their oven.
  4. Watching ‘Some Good News’ by John Krasinski over and over again (on YouTube).  If you haven’t seen it, here’s the link to episode 2 (watch it to the very end, including credits).
  5. Watching episodes of The Office (US version) and loving it as much as the first time.
  6. Playing ScrabbleGo with my sister and being able to use the word Qiviut (which is Musk Ox fibre), that I learned about last year on Knitting the Stash’s podcast!  I think I’m highlandheffalump on ScrabbleGo too, if anyone wants to play. *
  7. Finally sorting out which power adaptors go with which Christmas trees and lights!  I know it must seem random, but our outside lights were still hanging up in the garage to dry…yep 3 months later, they were dry!
  8. Seeing my cucumber, sweet-pea and some other seeds sprouting in my propagator
  9. Being able to sit outside in a t-shirt on Saturday to eat lunch
  10. Making 3 loaves of fresh bread (well putting the ingredients in the bread-maker)…gee whiz we are both rubbish at slicing it.  I did a post earlier in the week about my first loaf using mostly out of date ingredients from my baking drawer.
  11. Finding out Matt Lucas’s song Baked Potato is number one in the UK.  He’s been doing some duets of it too, with Gary Barlow and another with Rick Astley too.  Warning, this song is an ear worm and you’ll find yourself singing it!
  12. Talking of duets, Gary Barlow has been doing Crooner sessions at 5pm BST on Facebook, he’s had Brian May, Cliff Richard, Catherine Jenkins and many more.  I tune in to this now, instead of the 5pm doom and gloom News briefing.
What has been bringing you joy this week?  Please do share on your own blog and link in comments or write in the comments below what has been bringing you joy at the moment?  We all could do with some joyous moments, and if you’ve not had a chance to be on a video call with anyone then do reach out.  This week’s calls have been lovely.
* I’ve done a screenshot of one of the games…look at my tiles…all vowels!!
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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.

 

 

17 comments

  3. Oh my, I want to thank you for the little tid bit about knitting on the small sock needles. I do get hand cramps using mine but will give the inside out knitting a go on the next round. I have ear marked a couple of your links to watch. They look quite interesting. Your spinning fiber looks very nice. I see a lovely Harry Potter project bag off to the side. LOVE IT! It was so much fun talking with you yesterday. Very nice to really get to know other fiber lovers, even if we are an ocean apart. Stay Well, Liz.

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  5. Void is lovely. Looks super cozy. I have yet to try weaving – just the idea of putting on the warp raises major issues for me. Good for you for carrying on though. Your list of 12 things is great – and yes, I can’t wait to yop with you again too. Interesting about the inside out sock idea. I knit socks with tiny circulars and don’t really understand why it would make a difference, but hey, I will give it a try.

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  6. Love the void! That color looks great on you. And your spinning looks very professional. I’m so glad I came and read your blog post before I wrote mine this week — I added my 12 joys to mine this week.

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  8. I love your Void, Liz! And I also love your garland and toucans on the wall behind you. 🙂 Your hand-spun skein looks terrific. And that was fun little video watching your spin. 🙂 And Taskmaster! That is hilarious. I’d never seen that before, but I’ve subscribed now. Thank you for sharing the link.

    Going to take a cue from you and try to come up with a list of “joys” post sometime in the next week.

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  9. I love your list of good things. And just look at all the things you did! I love that Void, and I really envy your spinning skills. (I know – practise, practise, practise – I just can’t bring myself to get started. LOL).

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