Knitting
This week I’ve continued knitting Reyna.
The inconsistency of this homespun yarn is pretty obvious whilst I am knitting it; some areas it’s lace weight and others almost chunky! Look at the 2 circled areas below!! This is what happens when you work on a spinning project and don’t make notes or sample cards and that project goes on for 12 months!
I started spinning it at last year’s Tour de Fleece (TDF) and the 3rd skein for it was spun recently during this year’s TDF! Hopefully with it having 50% silk it won’t struggle to hold its own weight at the points where it is like lace. I do still have more of this fibre to spin, so I could go bigger than the pattern suggests, or do a fancy bind off edge, we shall see. It should definitely be finished this week.
**Okay this post was scheduled to post and on Saturday evening I noticed an error and I’ll need to go back I think 6 or 8 rows of the lace because on one side my lace has a misalignment. It is more obvious than the photo may suggest. So I’ve added a line for you to clearly see arrgghhh!
My new swift, I bought last month with my birthday money, got some use as I caked up handspun to finish Reyna and 5 skeins of Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK yarn in the colour Goathland (a shade of dusty reddish purple).
I plan to make Fine Sand cardigan out of. This will be my 4th pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier, which is exactly like her Quick Sand pattern, but for DK yarn instead of Aran weight. I will knit up a swatch and hopefully make a start on that this week.
Sewing
I made another face mask, this one is for keeping in the car in case we happen to go out and forget to take one. It’s the same material but the pleated style, not my preference, but definitely easier to cut out. I’ve not taken it out of the car to photograph, as knowing me I’ll forget to put it back in and won’t have it when we need it!
My sewing skills are so poor, I need to spend some time working out how to use my machine as all the masks have thread barfs in places. I haven’t worked out how to fix the tension and whilst the top side looks fine the underside is a mess of chewed threads.
Spinning
I finished spinning and plying all the purple baby camel and silk (3 ply Aran weight).
I also spun up some Samoyed dog hair (3 ply) on my wheel. It was going to take forever doing it on my supported spindle. I feel so bad as this fibre was sitting around waiting for me to do something with it for 23 months and I found out unfortunately the dog it is from died in February. I have offered to knit or crochet something for the owner, I just wish I’d not procrastinated about it for so long. I shared my results with the dog hair spinning TDF group, which I’d forgotten I’d also signed up to. So this year I’m actually on 3 teams.
Whilst I was wet setting the Samoyed yarn I thought I’d finally get around to setting the 3 yarns I spun last October during BritSpin. The wet wool smell helped to mask the wet dog smell. Considering how many times I have washed the dog fibre and now the yarn, even with dog shampoo, there just is no getting away from the dog smell. It makes me realise my own house must absolutely whiff of our dog.
TDF ends this evening, so I’ll do a wrap up post of what I completed. Less than I’d hoped, ah well.
Weaving
You know how I’m always complaining about how small my loom is? It’s a 10” Sampleit…well I have bought a 2nd hand 32” one with stand!
The lady I am buying it from has arranged for it to be collected on Monday by the courier and it should hopefully arrive Wednesday and then I’ll need to assemble it! I won’t be starting off using its full width, I’ll just start with some tea towels in worsted weight cotton that are a decent width, and go from there.
The Sampleit I will keep, as it is ideal for sampling and is portable for Guild meetings …once they start back up.
Other News
I did another reorganisation of the study/craft room to make room for my new loom. It looks much better and cutting the bookcase in half made a huge difference, I just need to hang the pictures leaning against the wall. That’s where my new loom will fit. Some Minions have moved into our bedroom and living room, as they wouldn’t all fit!
It’s my husband’s birthday today, so time to eat more cake! I ordered a cake from Ems & Co. for him, I could have baked one but that is supporting the conglomerate supermarket for ingredients rather than an independent bakery business…that’s my excuse anyway. 😉
Tomorrow my friend Steph and I are booked to go to Highland Wildlife Park. This is very exciting. I haven’t seen her since 29th February! We both stuck to the rules during lockdown and the Highlands have gone 6 days with no fresh positive cases. The Park has put lots of safety measures in place and I’m taking a picnic with me. I hope the weather will be dry.
This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 10th year, but this is my 3rd year participating. To avoid confusion I am labelling my posts as YOP10. If you would like to find 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 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. The YOP year runs from July to June.
*Some people have experienced some visual problems caused by the new Ravelry style, so if you are prone to problems then I recommend changing to Classic Ravelry View.
HighlandHeffalump 
Is the white yarn in the photo the Samoyed? It’s really lovely.
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Yes. It has quite a halo on it.
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It sounds like you have had a great week! I am just starting to think about learning to spin! I have two antique spinning wheels that need to be prepped to use and some raw fleece a friend gave me that needs to be played with. I am thinking of buying a spindle to give that a try as well. Do you have suggestions for buying a new spindle?
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For a spindle I have a dropped, turkish and a russian supported. Out of those I prefer the Turkish Spindle as it is very easy to create your single, slide out the cross pieces and then ply without the need to wind the single off onto anything else. If you google Turkish spindles you’ll see what I mean. Mine is a handmade hand carved one by a local guy, its lightweight and a pleasure to use.
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first of all, happy birthday to hubby, don’t forget to post a picture of the cake 😜
I really love how your studio looks, so great to have a dedicated crafting space! Just a pity than when I had the space I didn’t have the inclination to craft, sod’s law I guess!
I think your Reyna is coming out really beautifully! Your yarn is wonderful, and that handspun skein is so inviting. I am increasingly tempted by taking up spinning, though I’ve got so much yarn already – still, being able to create the exact yarn you like is a very attractive thought to me… so thanks also for the tip on Turkish spindles in the comments.
Of course I am very excited about your new loom: which one is it?
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It’s an Ashford rigid heddle again, just way bigger. I’m so excited and the good think about weaving is it eats through your stash quicker than knitting which is an excuse to buy more yarn hahaha
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so exciting! And, I couldn’t agree more on yarn – anyhow we do need it, don’t we? 😉
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That camel is gorgeous, I can’t wait to see that knit up! I’m sorry about the alignment issue with Reyna, but you’ll have it done soon.
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The Samoyed yarn is beautiful. Does it only smell bad when wet? I sure hope so. Love seeing your study/craft room. I can see now that mine is just way too small – because it’s not possible that I have way too much stuff in it. ;^)
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Still a little bit dog smelly when dry up close
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Your craft room looks great! And I’m sure it will look even better with a new loom in it 😆
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Reyna is looking great. And I love that purple handspun. Is there some blue in it as well, or is it just the light playing tricks?
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Some blue yes it is a lovely blend
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So sorry about Reyna but it looks gorgeous with the handspun. I am really partial to handspun…especially the uneven bits. I love the rustic look of it. The samoyed yarn is beautiful but I have heard you don’t want to get caught in the rain with dog yarn items. Congrats on the new loom and enjoy your picnic!
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Happy birthday to your hubby! Your Reyna looks great as do all of the skeins you have spun 🙂 Yay for your new loom! My gosh you are getting a lot accomplished!
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Your weaving is so inspiring – and I must say I can’t really see the problem with the lace – it isn’t suppose to zag? It could be a design element! Spinning dog hair – I can imagine when it gets wet it is a bit smelly. Will that ever go away? Hooray for birthdays! and your trip to the park sounds wonderful. I hope we get to see some pictures.
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Your shawl is turning out to beautifully! {Pitty about having to rip back 😦 I hate that }
I am so envious of how lovely your craft room is! Mine is always such a mess with all the different crafting projects going on!
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I added that shawl to my queue. Your office/craft space looks fantastic.
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I would never had noticed the difference in the thickness of the yarn used for Reyna. I just think it is super pretty. The spun dog hair………..I had to chuckle about the wet dog smell. I had always wondered if that would be an issue. Your craft Craft room looks so inviting. Congrats on your new loom too. Can’t wait to see what will be made with it.
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I have only just discovered the year of projects group. I retired this month so I am planning to jump in and start finishing some things. Love your posts.
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Happy retirement 😀. More details of the group are on Ravelry and you can join any time. There’s an introduce yourself page too.
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Your craft room looks amazing. I am very jealous of all that space. I need one of the kids to leave home before I get one that big. As the eldest is only just 18 I think it’s going to be a while. Love the shawl you are working on. The colours are divine.
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Your craft room looks great! It’s so nice to have a dedicated space for crafting. I am the same with sewing… My masks also have thread barf all over. Please let us know if you figure out how to adjust it. I’d like to make some more masks soon and I have not been able to figure it out.
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I’ve tried tweaking the tension on the top of the machine dial…I believe the tiny screw on the bobbin holder may have something to do with it, but I haven’t tried adjusting it yet. That’s just from some research.
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Isn’t having a dedicated crafting space wonderful? I love how your’s looks so welcoming. I keep thinking I will collect hair from the dogs brushings and try to get enough to spin in with some wool, I think it would make a beautiful keepsake. Smell and all included.lol.
That baby camel and silk is a beautiful color and It sounds luxurious.
I hope your outing went well and that you had a lovely time and good weather.
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[…] some purple baby camel and silk ✅ started week 1, finished week 3 during […]
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