Happy Valentine’s Day!
Crochet
I thought I’d have a go at making a granny square following the Battenberg blanket tutorial, but having re-wound the video 99 times I haven’t a clue how she’s joining the loop. I tried about 5 other videos and decided crocheting with 4ply/fingering weight yarn is not likely to feature in my life!
Knitting
I finished Litmus Cowl on Friday and have done a detailed post. You will see I managed to do the same width of grey stripes by using 2 grey shades of the minis and not using 3 of the coloured minis. The thing is once I get an idea in my head I want to see it through to completion ASAP and that lead to me sitting for hours knitting and then wondering why the plants were wilting and the TV stand looked dusty 🤦🏼♀️
Spinning
On Saturday the Guild had a workshop on spinning silks by Skye Silks. As I was zoom host and wanted to make notes I just listened but in our afternoon session I had a go at spinning from a silk cap. I spun a single, wrapped it on my Handy Andy and then made a 2 ply. I got some tangles I had to snap off. A really enjoyable day though.
As I haven’t eaten meat for 32 years I always feel a bit of a hypocrite liking to spin the baby camel and tussah silk I love so much (see my Reyna shawl). Today that hypocrisy became a bit real when in the sample of the carded cocoon stripping I found a couple of dead worms. But it was really interesting and I use silk waste on my lampshades as it is great for waves and adding sheen so I can’t see me stopping using it.
Weaving
I obtained 4 partial cobs of tweed wool yarn from a Guild member this week. A purple, a pink and two shades of blue. These are from the mill on the Isle of Lewis, where they make the wool yarn that Isle of Harris weavers use in their homes to make Harris Tweed. (I’m not sure if our holiday in March to Lewis is going ahead yet, but we live in hope.) I’m going to weave up some samples on my Sampleit 10” loom and get an idea of what it’s like to weave with. I have a wider selection of reed sizes on my Sampleit.
I have optimistically bought myself a pattern for weaving some cloth to make a top! This I will do in my large loom with cotton warp and linen weft…well that’s the plan. I have so many plans don’t I!?!
Other News
Decluttering has continued and I did a separate post earlier this week about it here. Some objects finally left the house woo hoo!
We had our first decent amount of snow fall on Tuesday night. We didn’t measure it until the afternoon and it was about 7cm (just under 3”). My friend who lives a couple of towns over had 3 times that and they were able to do some skiing and snowboarding in their town parks and open spaces. The Highlands had their coldest night since the 1940s and we woke up on Thursday to -10°C. I know for my friends in the mid-west of the US this isn’t that low, but that’s unusually cold for here.
This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 10th year, but this is my 3rd year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry.
HighlandHeffalump 
FOR ANYONE WHO READ THE EMAIL VERSION, IT IS 32 YEARS I HAVEN’T EATEN MEAT, NOT 2! Well except accidentally eating frogs legs I thought was smoked trout pate!
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I thought tussah silk was cruelty free – when they let the moths leave before harvesting the silk? It’s a pretty purple! I dyed and spun some silk and then knit it into a tam a long time ago. It’s really pretty, and I still have it, but never wear it anymore.
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It can be cruelty free, there’s lots of environmental issues with silk production too. I think I have enough in my current stock to not require buying new and creating more demand. Having slept on it I am going to avoid buying new.
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I love your litmus cowl, beautiful colours and finished at just the right time. I can’t remember which tutorial I watched to help me with the Battenberg squares, but I think I improvised a little. I know there are some very accomplished crocheters here that will be able to give you some guidance if you want it and can probably recommend another tutorial!
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You would be right about the temperatures here in the central USA. This morning it’s -15 Celsius and blowing snow. A good day for knitting.
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That purple silk is to die for. Soo beautiful. The tweed wool is also quite stunning. So many pretty things to make, so little time.
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Exactly, it’s like I need to stop household chores altogether so more time for all the crafting hehe!
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Haha- this appears to be my current strategy.
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Gorgeous yarns there, and the tweed is especially intriguing, left overs from Harris tweed sounds amazing to me!
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That purple silk is dreamy.
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Your cowl is gorgeous and I love the colours you have for your next weaving project. Dusting? Are we suppose to dust? Lol, well yes I finally dusted on Friday AND changed the furnace filter – so that’s where all the dust was coming from!
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Our houses don’t have the same air systems, we have radiators in each room that have hot water running through, so I don’t even have that as an excuse lol
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oh dear me, what a landscape, just glorious!
Obviously I am rooting for your yardage going on the loom – that wool you have looks fantastic, what weight is it? It is most definitely a treat, and you could combine those colours so beautifully, I really look forward to seeing what you will make of it.
I had to look up “silk caps”, and that looks pretty difficult to spin, so quite apart from the terrific colour, chapeau for spinning that!
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I am not sure, I wrapped it around an inch and think it came out about 16 wpi, it’s in the grease still, so not sure how that affects it. I was thinking of doing a test. Is it 7.5 reed or maybe 10 dpi reed with that I’m not sure. Maybe try 10 first as when the grease is washed out after spinning it will be thinner?
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Those tweed yarns are STUNNING!! They will look amazing when woven up.
Re: Knitting Clutter: I have been gifting/donating a LOT of accessories this past year! I love to make them, but I literally cannot wear all the things!
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I put quite a few early pieces I never wore in the donations I dropped off. I could slim down more.
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WOW….you did a lot of spinning this week. Why would you have an issue with using camel hair or silk to spin. According to the internet, the fiber is she naturally during molting season. It wouldn’t me any different than from using wool or alpaca or llama. Maybe I am missing something. Or is it the silk that is the issue? Can you tell I am not a spinner or connoisseur of yarn? Your 10C is just a little too cold for this dessert rat. I am wearing layers and it is 68F here. Your snow fall is just about the right amount. Just enough to play in but not so much you can not drive in it.
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It’s the silk not the camel I’m having the issue with. The silk worms are killed in mulberry silk processing. Our heating is set to 18°C which is 64.4°F. We are definitely acclimatised to different temperatures.
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Your Litmus Cowl is really pretty, Liz. I’ve recently gotten it into my head to give that a try. Seeing yours makes me want to even more. 🙂
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You have an “estate”? I don’t think we have those in the U.S.,lol! How big is your estate? It looks beautiful along with your litmus cowl which I adore.
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Ok this is funny because there are country estates where a big house has a load of land and they are called estates but it is all owned by the one person/family. What I am referring to his a housing estate. As in a road off the main road and it has lots of roads off it all with houses. So you’d maybe call it a neighbourhood or subdivision? I’m not 100% sure on the US translation.
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Oh my gosh – all your projects are so lovely! The silk you spun is just gorgeous! And I can’t wait to see how your weaving turns out 🙂 Glad you got some snow finally – hope you get plenty more!
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