highlandheffalump

YOP12 Week 40/52 – A week of Finished Objects

Acquisitions/Stash Management

I’ve ordered a Jumbo flyer and bobbin for my Ashford Traditional wheel. This wheel is now mostly being used for plying so converting it to have more capacity on the bobbin makes sense. It will also be ideal if I want to spin chunky/bulky yarn or art yarns. More on that once it’s arrived.

Felting

I finished 3 baubles and 3 lampshades and delivered those to the Alchemist Gallery, Dingwall on Tuesday.

Also I did a ‘new to me’ project which was just for me – a sewing bin! Okay, well the kit was called a sewing bin but I’ll be using mine to store my spinning projects.

I have another kit that I will eventually make one in the colours of the sunroom. For a bit more information and photos I did do a post earlier this week. With some of the leftover trimmings from the kit I felted a bauble too…at the moment its just dangling from the sewing bin.

Knitting

Shawls

I’ve added some rows to my shawl but not enough for a new photo.

Socks

I finished my socks. These are my combination of Hermione’s Everyday socks pattern with Rose City Rollers heel and toe and a change of where I did the purl bumps. The yarn was an sock blank from Ewenique Fibres. I have enough for another pair of socks with contrast heels and toes. I quite enjoyed knitting from the sock blank and it has made a matching pair pretty well.

Spinning

I finished spinning the BFL/alpaca/Seacell fibre from Hilltop Cloud. It is beautifully soft and I’ve ended up with about 210g, 307.75m of 3 ply that is roughly Aran to Bulky. The singles were spun on my EEW Nano 2 and plied on my Ashford Traditional. I was thinking about weaving a scarf with it, maybe 🤔.

The merino/tussah silk/natural flax fibre (proportions unknown) that I bought in June 2021, dyed in January 2022, started spinning in July 2022 is finally finished!!!! This was spun and plied on my Ashford Traveller. Bit weird as the bag of fibre said 100g but I’ve ended up with 150g 270m of roughly DK yarn. No idea what I’ll use it for! The larger skein was plied from 3 bobbins and the smaller was chain plied.

Other News

We did a bit more tidying of the garage, it’s been full of all the leftover pieces from when we had the kitchen done over a year ago and it needed a good clear out of the clutter. I still want to set up an area in there for doing microwave dyeing of yarn and fibre so I don’t have to keep buying dyed fibre which costs a lot more.

Gayna, from Tales from Cuckoo Land YouTube channel (currently my favourite knitting/life style channel to binge watch), had said she worries when donating to a charity shop that things will still end up in landfill. I hadn’t really considered this before but I think she is right that at least on Facebook marketplace you know someone wants it rather than being unwanted at the charity shop. For example we’d been sent the wrong sized cutlery drawer insert last year…it was nearly a metre wide! The supplier wouldn’t take it back and I don’t think people with kitchen drawers that big are necessarily going to be dropping in the charity shop just in case. Clothes, shoes and bags I’ll continue to take to charity shops, but other bits I’ll try to find people who definitely want them.

It’s surprising what people can make use of, my 50+ used empty CD boxes and the drawer insert have gone to people already; saving non-recyclable plastic going to landfill 😀. (If you live down south in the UK you may have places that can take CD cases, we don’t have recycling facilities up here for them.)

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.

19 comments

    • It’s still not arrived yet, I’m wondering if they are waiting for delivery from New Zealand as all the other suppliers here were showing sold out…suspect they were too but awaiting delivery. I have the green Shetland to finish this week so it’s not urgent…I’m just impatient

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  5. Beautiful spinning! I’m intrigued by what people can make use of. I’m such a hoarder of things ‘just in case’ I can find a use for them, but even I eventually gave in with my cd/dvd boxes. Even my local recycling centre drew a blank. Well done on finding them a new home!

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    • The lady was making up CDs of family photos so I was very lucky and glad I’d tried to give them away. My husband is definitely worse than me at “let’s keep it just in case”, we now have to negotiate and if he can’t give me one example it goes…like the copper look trimmings from our kitchen units the were in the garage 12 months and he still couldn’t think of anything. 😂

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      • Well we have kept some old worktop and that is being repurposed into my dyeing station in the garage. Worktop I can definitely agree is useful. 2-6” bits of copper look trim…nope! 😂

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  6. Your colors used on the sewing bin are very pretty. Reminds me of our Arizona sunsets. The socks turned out well. Such lovely fiber from your spinning. You had a busy week.

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  7. So many questions! Did you ever show a photo of the sock blank before you started the socks? Too late now, but I’m wondering what it looked like! If you are knitting two at a time, I can’t picture how you end up with matching socks, knitting them at the same time! My sister would definitely wear those socks…
    Spinning: the Hilltop Cloud fiber sounds luscious – I think a scarf, whether knit or woven, is a perfect project. And plied from three bobbins vs. chain plied: they come out the same weight, right? How do you choose which to do? Or is one easier than the other? Or do you chain ply when you want three plies, but don’t have three bobbins?
    One of the frustrating things about some of these wonderful blogs is not having a person there for immediate dialogue. Oh, well – you aren’t even on the same continent!

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    • Distance does make it more of a challenge to chat for sure, but I’ll try to answer your questions. Week 38 when I started knitting the socks is the closest thing to a photo of the blank. https://highlandheffalump.com/2023/03/19/yop12-week-38-52-fo-mittens-and-lampshade-fibre-prep/. The blank is basically a knitted rectangle with 2 threads of 4 ply, so when dyed both threads should be pretty much identical. You start unravelling it and knit the two threads separately. You could unravel it all first into 2 separate balls but I just knit the yarn from the blank.

      For the spinning I’d mismanaged how much was on each bobbin so when one of the bobbins was empty but the other 2 still had a lot of singles left that caused me an issue with continuing with 3 ply, so the best solution was to chain ply. Chain plying can affect the look of the colours and thickness and also I do tend to have more twist in the finished yarn, but they are more similar to each other than if I had just done 2 ply with the remaining 2 singles. I hope this makes sense.

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      • Thank you – ALLof it makes sense! It never occurred to me that the sock blank was 2 strands. Especially if you are knitting them simultaneously, I can see them coming out the same.

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  8. The socks turned out wonderfully. I have a couple of pairs from sock blanks and really enjoyed both! Your spinning is gorgeous 😍

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  9. I donate to the local homeless shelter, I make 2X2 ribbed hats from the beautiful shades of prints that change color as I knit of I love this Yarn at Hobby Lobby. I think if you donate directly to the shelters you are less likely to find them in the trash.

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