Acquisitions/Stash Management

I ordered some canvas fabric, zips and interfacing fleece to make some bags with. I’m going to combine these with material already in my stash.

Felting

Where has my felting mojo gone? Anyone seen it lying around? If so post it back to me please 😉

Knitting

Jumpers/cardigans

The weather is really motivating my knitting on my 2nd Such a Winter’s Day (SAWD) jumper. Pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier.

From Autumn to Spring I am usually wearing either my original SAWD or one of my Turtle Dove jumpers. On Wednesday I wore a synthetic fleece jumper instead and felt cold.

Anyway, my notes from last time were a bit vague and I know I had accidentally gone up a needle size when I had tried it on after splitting for the arms. So I’ve made some additional adjustments to stitch count and decreases so that it is big enough.

It’s funny I find rib stitch (K1,P1) on socks so tedious so I skip doing some rows. This jumper is basically 2/3rds K1,P1 and P1,K1 and yet I love knitting it! It’s like American Moss (AM) stitch but with a row of knit stitches between the 2 rows of AM. Broken American Moss?? Anyway I love it and rather than wanting to sit and knit a row, I want to knit all 3 rows of the stitch pattern.

For the hundred+ days I have worn my first Such a Winter’s Day it has hardly bobbled/pilled at all. It’s getting a little thin on the elbow I lean on when knitting but otherwise looks great still. I’m using my favourite, again, New Lanark yarn Aran weight. It is warm, its incredibly hard wearing, especially in this stitch pattern and its UK sheep wool spun on a hydro powered spinning mill in Scotland. What’s not to love?

The pattern says to use 4.5mm needles but to get near gauge I’m use 3.75mm needles. I have another sweater quantity of this yarn in a pink colour too…I’m wondering about making a 3rd with the recommended needle size but change the pattern size I knit…just to see and have 3 of these jumpers that I love so much. Anyway I need to finish the 2nd one first lol.

Sewing

Have you seen the beautiful project bags that Alissa from Headknits blog/Chestnut Hills Farm and Fibre on Etsy makes? Well I love them but can’t afford the bag plus postage to the UK plus import taxes, so I have bought the sewing pattern to have a go at making my own.

If you have followed my blog for a while you will know my last few sewing projects used a selection of Winnie the Pooh (WtP) fat quarters.

I clearly bought loads of them because I’ve already sewn a tissue pouch, sewing bag and a spinning project bag from WtP material. Well now I’m making a knitting project bag using WtP material and the Juniper Basket bag pattern from Sotak Patterns. For the drawstring top section I’m using some of the indigo cotton I dyed in June last year. I need to start using up all those dyed pieces of fabric on some projects too.

So far all I’ve done is cut out the pattern pieces and the fleece interfacing has arrived so I’ll maybe find time next week to make it.

Spinning

I have finished spinning and plying my first US Rambouillet now. Super soft and squishy.

Yesterday I was on an art yarn workshop at the Guild. We did a variety of methods and of course I have forgot the names of them but coils, beehives and slubs were some terms. The yarns need setting and then I am not sure what I’ll use them for.

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Other News

Lots of this week has been taken up with me doing paperwork for the Highland Guild (I am the Treasurer). Finishing year end, sending out renewal notices, updating details and recording income. Still quite a bit to do next week on it.

I was invited to join some of the spin group ladies at one of their homes on Friday so that was great to get out of the house and away from the laptop. I took my jumper to knit on rather than spin, so that’s why I’ve made some good progress this week.

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This is a Year of Projects post.  Officially the Group is in its 12th year, but this is my 5th year participating.  If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry. 

Year 12 list.