Acquisitions/Collection Curation

I needed a set of 2.25mm double pointed needles (DPNs). I usually use some very cheap bamboo DPNs that came in a big set from Amazon when I started knitting. I treated myself to my first set of Lykke DPNs and so far I’m loving them. (A lot of my circular needles are Lykke.)

Felting

I’ve felted 6 x 20cm lampshades this week! 

On Tuesday I felted a beach scape, a loch/hill and a sari silk with sparkles 🦄 ✨ .  Yesterday I felted 3 more beach/seascapes. 

I constructed one beach scape and the sari silk one and dropped those off at the gallery on Friday. 

I am going to needle felt some sheep on the loch/hill one and the others need to dry so I’ve just got 2 photos at the moment.  I’ll show the rest next week or maybe do a separate new stock post about them. 

Knitting

Accessories

I thought my Pinwheel fingerless mittens might be feeling neglected so I gave them some attention this week.  I need to bind off and do the thumb of the first mitten.

Other/household

I ignored my jumper and blanket most of this week and made a start on another gnome! This one is called All Work, Gnome Play! I’m using the Peruvian Highland (non superwash) wool from Lamington Lass in the colours Beware the Jade Dragon, Pewter and Snowflakes. So far I’ve made the arms, hands, braids and hat.  I still need to sew down the icord on the hat and stuff/finish the nose…then make the body!

Spinning

I plied the John Arbon Devonia (Nightshade), which has a lovely sheen and is soft. Last week I thought it was scratchy but that was in comparison to another fibre blend…now feeling it on its own it is soft enough.

I forgot to mention last week that I had spun a single of some Icelandic wool fibre. I was not keen on it thus me stalling plying it!  I will ply it and show it next week!

I also started spinning a blend called Candytuft.  The blend contains:

Merino Aubergine (37.5%)
Grape Flax/Linen Top (12.5%)
Natural Muga Silk Top (12.5%)
Amethyst Tussah Silk Top (25%)
Marine Flax/Linen Top (12.5%)

I thought it was going fine but my goodness my finger felt weird after, it felt sticky and sore and I washed it a dozen times and couldn’t get rid of the sticky feeling.  I may need to wear a plaster (band aid) next time I spin it.  I assume it’s the flax causing the issue.

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Other News

I watched Nyad this week on Netflix. Knowing nothing about the movie or why it had the strange sounding name I had ignored it for a couple of weeks but I’m so glad I watched it. It’s very inspiring and made me feel incredibly unfit and lazy at 51 years old. It’s definitely worth a watch and I should have known with Jodie Foster in it would be good.

I did a lot of pruning on the sunny day we had this week.   I did various trips to the tip to drop off the garden waste that was more than our garden waste bin could take and also did a trip with some metal, wood and huge cardboard recycling too.  

I have also put the rest of my fleeces in one of my compost bins.  I was never going to wash them and I’d already taken the best bits from them years ago.

It’s F1 (Formula 1 racing) season again woohoo, so my husband and I will be watching.  We make our predictions and keep track of our scores during the season.  Plus we have joined the official F1 Fantasy this year. Reminds me, I must finish sorting a space for my Scalextric track!  My husband was away and back this evening so although the race was yesterday we haven’t seen it as I’m waiting for him to get back to watch it…so no spoilers please. 

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This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 13th year, but this is my 6th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, as you’d be very welcome to join us. (There are 53 Sundays this YOP year, it happens sometimes!).

Year 13 list.