Knitting

I have cast on a new Litmus cowl using baby camel and silk handspun. 

Sewing

Quick question to those of you who sew…how do you wash your fat quarters without all the edges getting into a tangled mess of threads and frayed edges? Do you sew them before you wash them? You can guess what I did this week!

Spinning

The January challenge has drawn to a close and I managed to do a bit more non-wool spinning this week.

This one is milk protein (casein), it is a creamy colour and was a little bit squeaky in my hands as I was drafting it, although a little odd feeling I didn’t mind.  Its soft and very shiny. 

During my 2024 World of Wool Advent I remember I loved spinning “Cheeses for Meeces” blend which had 25% milk protein with BFL and Eri silk. 

Next up was Angora rabbit fluff!  This was from Skyrack Angoras called Sapphire Blue.  I suspect Sapphire was the name of the blue angora rabbit. The colour of the fluff is grey, not blue!

It is very soft.  I used some tiny pet brushes to card it first.  It has ended up a little lumpy and bumpy but was an interesting sample. 

I have some more angora in my stash that I think I would blend with something else before spinning.

On Friday, some of the January challenge group and I went out for lunch together at Culloden Battlefield visitor centre.  I consumed a lot of food and drinks whilst there but did manage to spin some Egyptian cotton.  It was a challenge, quite hard on my hands to draft it and its ended up very over spun in places. 

So, over January’s challenge I spun the following non-wool fibres: banana, pineapple,  ramie (nettle), milk protein, angora rabbit and Egyptian cotton.  It has been an interesting exercise but going forward I would say sheep wool, camel and silk are my definite preferences.

The samples have been long term loaned to the Guild for their non-wool alphabet.  Hopefully in a year or two they’ll come back to me and I can do some dyeing practice with the plant fibres.

Also this week, I have adjusted the ratio on my Ashford Traditional wheel, which is set up with a jumbo bobbin, so that plying will be a bit quicker.  I am not sure whether it is called re-plying but I ran the BFL and silk yarn, from last week, through my wheel again to add some more twist. 

I was going to weave it in a Brooks Bouquet pattern, but one of the members suggested I use it in a twill as the flecks of red will look better in a twill.  So during February I will give that a go!

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Other News

I appreciate that for those of you who follow me for my knitting, there has been a serious lack of knitting happening in 2026 so far…just the DK socks I finished a couple of weeks ago!

In February I have a number of weaving projects planned but I am sure I will pick up my knitting needles more regularly then. Although, I also plan to make the bunting for the sunroom before Spring comes so that may also eat up some knitting time.  Oh and I started building my 2nd Book Nook yesterday.

I did some ‘paperwork’ on the computer this week, but apart from that it was another week which flew by with me getting no time for laundry or housework. Amazing how much time I can find for fun things but not the boring jobs of life lol. I also finished my re-watch of Northern Exposure, gosh I love that show. I think that is my 4th time watching the whole series through and pretty sure its been one watch per decade! Maybe in the 2030s I will re-watch it for a 5th time 😉

In January I finished 12 books! 1 audio, 8 short stories (obviously) and 3 books finished that I started last year! My Kindle Paperwhite is really working out well for reading before bed and reading when I wake at 3am or 4am and struggle to get back off again without reading. I have a few more short stories in my queue and then will get back to normal length books.

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This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 15th year, but this is my 8th 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.

Year 15 list.