Although I am following the Year of Projects year, which runs from July, I thought it would be useful for me to jot down a list of things I’d like to achieve this calendar year.
2019 Project List
Category: Crochet
Answers to NothingbutKnits new year 2019 Q&A
I love these Q&As that people post and get me thinking and planning. The latest Q&A from Nothing but Knit asks on her new year post…
https://nothingbutknit2.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/new-year-new-q-a/
- What are your crafty plans for 2019? Are you going to try something new? If you could learn one new thing this year what would it be?
- Do you have a special project planned for 2019? Are you going to make something special for yourself or someone else?
- I’ve been wondering if you’ve ever donated something you’ve made to charity. Is it something you’d consider doing? Why or why not?
My answers…
My crafty plans are to finish my year of projects list, plus knit a sweater from North Ronaldsay yarn…something chunky with cables and/or with colourwork. I would like to do more nuno felting and need to sort out selling items I have made and future makes. This year I need to learn crochet terminology properly and be able to follow a pattern. Also years ago I crocheted a hat I wear a LOT, no pattern just made it up and I want to try to write the pattern if I can learn the names of the stitches I used and before it wears out!
I haven’t planned anything extra special, but lots of good things are in my queue and on my Year of Projects (YOP) list.
On my YOP list is to make an octopus and jellyfish for a preemie. This is a charity that give your curly legged octopus or jellyfish (once they’ve met the strict checking for holes etc.) to premature babies in incubators to stop them pulling out all their tubes, instead their fingers hold the curls. Pre-Christmas I had gift knitting and now have flu and you can’t make them unless you are cold and flu free. But I have the instructions, the approved cotton yarn, a handled crochet hook, so once I am germ free it’s next on my project list. Apparently it is difficult to get them so they pass as swimmers but any that fail are given to angel babies instead. I’ve enough cotton to make one a month this year but I will see how I get on and how my local co-ordinator rates them.
2018 Summary
I started 2018 on sabbatical from work and finished the year having resigned, so I haven’t done any paid work all year. But what I have done is work on my creativity and what a wide range of projects I have done!
So this post is a summary of the things I achieved this year (and some memorable highlights).
Bullet keys
🧦 knitting (unless noted as crochet) 🌀 spinning 💦 wet felting 🗡 needle felting 👩🏻🔬 dyeing
🖼 drawing 📷 photography 💎 sea glass
🏕 camping trip 🏡 holiday cottage\B&B 🎫 concert 🎟 show
January
🧦 Alpaca lace scarf, poncho and red fingerless mittens
📷 3 credits at camera club
💎 sea glass and Pooh bear pendant
February
🧦 arm knit throw and finger knit cushions (with mahoosive acrylic), Crazy sexy wool hat
🖼 sketch of Ylva
📷 Bolivia Audio Visual show
March
🧦 really warm hat, quick and bulky mittens, Allistar’s alpaca hat, purple fingerless mittens, big wool colour hat for Elaine, 2 x cable headbands, rasta fasta hat, swirly squishy hat,
📷 came 4th in Annual Mini Comp., 3 acceptances in Annual projected image and 2 acceptances in Annual Print comps and Flamingo on Salar de Uyuni included in Club’s submission in Highland Challenge.
🏡 Isle of Skye holiday cottage and day trip to Raasay
💎 sea glass pendants
April
🐈 Dice died aged 16 years and 5 days.
🧦 chunky basket (crochet), cat hats for Merri and friend, drinks cosy and cathedral hat
💦 dusty pink handbag
💎 sea glass wind chime
👨👧Dad visited
🎟 saw Hamilton musical
May
💎 sea glass pendants
🏕 Dunnet Bay
🌀 bought spinning wheel, carders, niddy-noddy and fibre stash and acid dyes
🧦 hitchhiker scarf
June
🏕 Sango Sands and Clachtoll Beach
🌀 landscape rolags to 2 ply, purple and red scraps
🧦 my 1st socks, ipad cover, business card holder and 2nd hitchhiker, dog poop bag holder
💦 rose and blue circular needle case and soap bars
July
🌀 Tour de Fleece spinning purple merino and gold bamboo, ethereal ether, some British 56s, perpetual purple
💦🗡 highland cow
🧦 fair isle hat, 3rd hitchhiker, started chimney fire cardigan, alpaca cowl for Allistar, coffee cup cosy
👩🏻🔬 British 56s wool
🏡 Met up with Elaine in Kinlochleven
August
🏕 Orkney camping
🎫 🏕 Belladrum 3 day concert
🌀 samoyed dog hair, ethereal ether, home dyed British 56s
💦 purple wool and silk scarf
🧦 still knitting cardigan
👩🏻🔬 cheviot bulky yarn
September
🎫 🏕 Jocktoberfest 2 day concert
🏡 Loch Sunart holiday cottage
💦 turquoise wool and silk scarf and tiny purse for sister, rose and blue double pointed needle roll case, attempt at nuno felting
🧦 glasses case, crochet dog poop bag holder and finished Chimney Fire cardigan
October
🌀 Brit Spin in team ‘more enthusiasm than skill’ Shetland
👫 visit by Annie and Michael
🧦 Allistar’s socks, cheviot 3 set (hat, cowl & mittens), 2 at a time fingerless mittens
💦 green and red wool and silk scarf for Annie
🎫 saw Turin Brakes in concert
November
💎 sea glass progress markers
💦 suri alpaca and silk scarf, stripe scarf for dad
🌀 finished camel and silk blend
🧦 started Lintilla and dad’s socks
🗡 autumn sparkle fairy
📷 came 2nd in annual Portfolio comp
December
🌀 poppy corriedale fractal, finished Shetland
🧦 finished Dad’s socks, poppy fractal hat for husband, started Void shawl
👩🏻🔬 dyed BFL fibre, merino/silk blend and Shetland
🗡 Christmas bauble, mouse pictures and Christmas pudding
(I don’t remember which month but I also sewed a project bag.)
Selection of 2018 completed objects
Year of Projects – week 26/52 Half way!
This is a longer post than normal, as I am doing a snapshot for the half way point and have had quite a busy crafting week.
Knitting
Finished Object
I finished my husband’s latest hat. Two by Two pattern by Anne Gagnon, available free on Ravelry. As my husband has a large head I increased the needle size. I hadn’t actual measured the length of the yarn I had spun, so I was getting a little nervous and started the decreases early, but it still fits. I could probably have done a couple more rows but that’s the problem with bottom up hats. Playing yarn chicken is stressful. (Which reminds me to find a simple toe up sock design for the 2nd pair for myself.). The fractal handspun Corriedale has interesting subtle colour stripes. He says it isn’t as warm as the alpaca hat I knit him, using Anne’s Ribs n’ Cables design, but he likes it…I think.
Cast On
I started knitting a shawl this week with my Rowan Lima yarn. It is unusual yarn, as it isn’t plied, its like one long crochet chain, but in worsted weight! It’s 84% baby alpaca, 8% merino and 8% nylon. It is purple! I am so predictable. I bought the yarn at a de-stash sale 6 balls for only £3 total!!!! It couldn’t have worked out better though, as it is a perfect match for a really warm hat I knit with some purple alpaca yarn I bought in Cusco, Peru! The pattern I have chosen is Void by Melanie Berg.
This pattern has brand new stitches I have never done before (LT2, RT2, kfbf and bundle). I mis-read how to do an LT2 (left twisted) stitch and got my knitting in a knot and frogged it 5 times!!!! Eventually I viewed some YouTube clips and finally realised where I was going wrong. With the lack of memory and soft drape that alpaca has I am not sure this is really the right pattern for it, but I am going to stick with it and see how I get on and can always re-make the pattern with a different yarn choice in the future.
Oops!!! On Saturday afternoon I realised I made a mistake a couple of rows back but with the complicated stitches I tried tinking it back but failed, so I have now popped a marker in the spot I need to create a new stitch. With my rubbish memory I will no doubt forget where the mistake is, like I did with the cardigan I knit. Also it’ll be hidden by my hair when worn, if I grow my hair longer lol! I will get it back on track later today.
Lintilla is still parked at the moment, but as Void requires a bit lot of concentration I may pick up Lintilla when I need an easier project.
Advent
My husband bought me a yarn advent calendar, which arrived late, so I had a binge on opening the little parcels. They are art yarn singles and until they are all open I am not sure what I will do with them. Here’s a snapshot of the colours so far. Suggestions are welcome, as I haven’t made anything with art yarn before. I did think about making some mini mittens as an advent for next year, but uncertain how much yarn I will have. I have found a cute pattern called Smittens, so may try that and see how it goes.
Dyeing
This week I dyed 100g of Blue Faced Leicester fibre and wanted to try some different colour combinations in heather colours. I used my landscape dyes from Kraftkolour in Fern (green), Ice (turquoise) and Raspberry (deep pink) and a touch of Ashford hot pink dye. I pre-soaked the fibre in some citric acid, gently squeezed out excess water and then applied the colours in stripes both neat and mixed in pairs (landscape dyes only). I then rolled in cling film and steamed for a bit. Some pink escaped into the water so I later soaked up the colour with 25g of mohair. Once the dye bath was exhausted I put the BFL fibre back in but this time without the cling film and directly in the water…just to be certain the hot pink had enough citric acid contact to ensure it set. The landscape dyes already have setting agent in it, unlike the Ashford.
Of course I love the results…what’s not to love about something with shades of purple in. #purpleaddict
Not sure whether I will use it for wet felting or spinning.
Christmas
I would like to wish all my fellow YOPers and anyone else who follows or stumbles across my blog a Very Merry Christmas. My MIL and parrot arrived today and most food shopping was done. Tomorrow they pick up the turkey, trimmings etc. and then we just need to get another Christmas pudding (yep we’ve already eaten one!) and some Christmas cake (which usually lasts to Easter!) We played cards this evening and probably will most evenings, so I am not expecting much progress to report next week….but now follows my half way update.
Other than The Grinch I still haven’t watched any Christmas Movies yet!!! I watched the 4 seasons on The Killing this week, definitely not Christmassy! Will put Elf on when I do some ironing later today.
Half Way Point in the 8th Year of Projects
So already we are at the half way point of the Year of Projects! Although it’s the 8th year it has been running, this is my first year. At 13 weeks I took a snapshot, so here’s my 26th week snapshot.
There are 50 items on my list and I have completed 24 and made a start on some others, so I am pretty pleased with my progress.
Wet felting
- A case for my craft scissors ✅ wk 16
- A picture of my dog Ylva
- A loose casual waistcoat or top ❇️ (Wk 23 Bought black icelandic top to use)
- A project bag using the plastic loop handles in my stash
- A coin purse
- Make a fancy scarf or wrap using nuno felting ✅ wk 11 and wk 16
- A picture of a Highland Cow ✅ wk 4
Needle felting
- A 3D animal…probably my dog Ylva
- Make up some more bug related fairies…to go with my ladybird one
Spinning
- Spin all the commercial fibre currently in my stash (for spinning not felting) on Ravelry @ date of posting!
- Perpetual purple merino ✅ wk 3
- Plum merino and gold bamboo ✅ wk 3
- Ethereal ether ✅ wk 8
- British 56s ✅ wk 12
- Shetland ✅ wk 24
- Camel & silk ✅ wk 24
- Corriedale poppy ✅ wk 24
- Blue Faced Leicester (dye it first)
- Master chain ply ✅ wk 12 (Himalayan blend chain ply nice and smooth at joints)
- Create a fractal spun yarn ✅ wk 24
- Spin some tweed yarn
- Create my own wool and silk blended spin
- Create an official (not accidental) art yarn
- Spin first batch of Samoyed dog hair ❇️ wk 6
Dyeing
- Dye some of the natural fibre tops and/or homespun yarn from my stash
- Samoyed Dog hair
- Bamboo
- Merino/silk blend
- Merino/suri alpaca blend
- Corriedale fibre
- Blue Faced Leicester ✅ wk 26
- British 56s ✅ wk 4 and 11
- Portland
Also, over dye ethereal ether ✅ wk 6
- Dye undyed commercial spun skeins
- Cheviot chunky wool ✅ wk 6
- BFL/silk blend
- Merino silk blend ✅ wk 25
- Merino bamboo blend
Knitting
- Finish my Chimney Fire cardigan ✅ wk 14
- Make my husband a pair of socks ✅ wk 18
- Make my dad something for Christmas ✅ wk 25
- Make something with purple and gold homespun yarn ✅ (Hitchhiker wk 11)
- Make up a matching accessory set from my perpetual purple paradise homespun yarn
- Make the shawl with my Rowan Lima yarn ❇️ (Started Void wk 26)
- Make a 2nd pair of socks for myself
- Learn brioche stitch ❇️ (YouTube watching wk 13)
- Learn fair isle knitting and knit one of the small fair isle items in my queue ✅ wk 3
- Knit (or crochet) all the scraps of left over sock and sport weight wool. ❇️ wk 12
- Knit something Two at a Time ✅ wk 18
Crochet
- Make an octopus for a preemie (cotton and hook arrived wk 13)
- Make a jellyfish for a preemie
- Get to grips with UK -v- US terms!
Sewing
- Create a project bag and notions pouch ✅ wk 6
Year of Projects – week 13/52
A very different week for me this time. No long list of items, I have finished both arms of my Chimney Fire cardigan, so now it is just the body to finish. No photos this week as hopefully I’ll have a finished cardigan to show next week.
I spent a greater proportion of my days this week knitting and I think I over did it. I had a sore right hand but didn’t want to risk switching to continental knitting because my tension/gauge is much tighter then. My lower back and hips are sore and my shoulders full of knots. So this week I am not going to over do it.
My crochet hook with handle and cotton yarn suitable for making the Octopus for a Preemie arrived this week, so I am ready for when they are number 1 in my queue (currently #3).
As this is 1/4 of the way through the YOP I thought I’d snapshot where I am up to on my list. Not quite a quarter finished, but I feel happy with my progress so far.
Wet felting
- A case for my craft scissors
- A picture of my dog Ylva
- A loose casual waistcoat or top
- A project bag using the plastic loop handles in my stash
- A coin purse
- Make a fancy scarf or wrap using nuno felting ✅ wk 11
- A picture of a Highland Cow ✅ wk 4
Needle felting
- A 3D animal…probably my dog Ylva
- Make up some more bug related fairies…to go with my ladybird one
Spinning
- Spin all the commercial fibre currently in my stash (for spinning not felting) on Ravelry @ date of posting! ❇️
- Spin 200g of alpaca fibre currently in my stash
- Master chain ply ✅ wk 12 (Himalayan blend chain ply nice and smooth at joints)
- Create a fractal spun yarn
- Spin some tweed yarn
- Create my own wool and silk blended spin
- Create an official (not accidental) art yarn
- Spin first batch of Samoyed dog hair ❇️ wk 6
Dyeing
- Dye some of the natural fibre tops and/or homespun yarn from my stash
- Samoyed Dog hair
- Bamboo
- Merino/silk blend
- Merino/suri alpaca blend
- Corriedale fibre
- Blue Faced Leicester
- British 56s ✅ wk 4 and 11
- Portland
Also, over dye ethereal ether ✅ wk 6
- Dye undyed commercial spun skeins
- Cheviot chunky wool ✅ wk 6
- BFL/silk blend
- Merino silk blend
- Merino bamboo blend
Knitting
- Finish my Chimney Fire cardigan ❇️
- Make my husband a pair of socks
- Make my dad something for Christmas
- Make something with purple and gold homespun yarn ✅ (Hitchhiker wk 11)
- Make up a matching accessory set from my perpetual purple paradise homespun yarn
- Make the shawl with my Rowan Lima yarn
- Make a 2nd pair of socks for myself
- Learn brioche stitch ❇️ (YouTube watching wk 13)
- Learn fair isle knitting and knit one of the small fair isle items in my queue ✅ wk 3
- Knit (or crochet) all the scraps of left over sock and sport weight wool. ❇️ wk 12
Crochet
- Make an octopus for a preemie (cotton and hook arrived wk 13)
- Make a jellyfish for a preemie
- Get to grips with UK -v- US terms!
Sewing
- Create a project bag and notions pouch ✅ wk 6
Year of Projects – week 12/52
Not strictly on my list, but I made a new seat for the chair I picked up on Gumtree (like Craig’s List). I cut various layers of thin laminated wood we had in the garage and covered it with the old thin padding and fabric which I took from our old sofa, which I also used for doing up my granddad and grandpa’s old chairs. Next year I will likely strip the paint off it, but I want to use it for spinning for a while, to see if its a keeper! I had been using a dining room chair which is a wee bit too high and causing hip pain.
I signed up to the World of Wool fibre club (like I don’t already have enough!?) and my first box arrived this week. It had a small amount of grey Herdwick wool, pineapple fibre tops and 150g custom blend of merino and sari silk which I decided to do a sample spin, chain ply and knit a small sample. I really like how it spins and knits up, when its done I probably will make a larger shawl from it, we shall see. My box also had a notepad and pen, which I’m going to use for tracking my felting projects, seeing as Ravelry doesn’t include felting. In Ravelry I have created a dummy handspun project, where I can assign fibre used for felting to it, so that my fibre stash leftovers are showing correct weights. (Hopefully that sentence makes sense to readers with Ravelry accounts.)
I mentioned last week I had made a scarf for my sister, I also made a wee purse too, but forgot to photograph it properly. Unfortunately it didn’t arrive in time for her birthday, which is very disappointing. None of the pictures are really showing the true colours. I started off with a silk hankie stretched as long as I could and then wool and silks were layered. It ended up thicker than planned and so I maybe used too much wool fibre or may have shrunk it too much trying to get the silk to stick, but this was my first go at nuno felting. I am still getting a lot of movement in the silks, so perhaps I need to leave them longer after wetting, before I start rolling.
On a previous post I had shown a wet felted bag with flap that I made, which has become home to my circular needles…so I decided to make a matching roll one for my double pointed needles. The top picture maybe looks weird as it was on my sofa seat but then rotated 90 degrees…it is a long rectangle.
I have added to my YOP list ‘to knit (or crochet) all the left over bits of yarn. I had thought about making one of those sock yarn blankets made up of wee diamonds of sock yarn. After searching YouTube for videos to make diamond shapes I messaged the Crazy Sock Lady and asked her, and she explained they are made from mitred squares and so finally I found some ‘how to’ videos and had a go! And another go and another one!! They are addictive when you have a bunch of scrap wool next to your chair! I also knit a cover for my phone and a wee dog poop bag holder.
- Look how well my poop bag holder goes with the trim on my dog treat bag!!! Hehe!
And finally I started to knit one of the arms of my Chimney Fire cardigan (not that I have finished the body yet). To protect the body whilst I am knitting the sleeves with DPNs I used a circular tray, so its kind of like a Lazy Susan…every time I finish one DPN I spin the tray!
Arrggghhhh! On Saturday evening I realised I had missed some of the arm decreases and I’m a bit further on than the image below so don’t want to rip out rows, so I have made a note of what I did and a plan for remaining decreases to get me back on track, so as long as I do the same on the other arm I should be ok. At least there’ll be no struggles to get my chubby upper arms in the sleeves 😂
Year of Projects 2018
Whilst reading MrsMcD918’s blog posts I came across the Year of Projects. I then went onto Ravelry to read a little bit more about it and joined one of the Ravelry groups. The ‘year’ technically started at the beginning of July but I am only a few weeks late.
So, what is on my list for the year?
Wet felting
- A case for my craft scissors
- A picture of my dog Ylva
- A loose casual waistcoat or top
- A project bag using the plastic loop handles in my stash
- A coin purse
- Make a fancy scarf or wrap using nuno felting
Needle felting
- A 3D animal…probably my dog Ylva
- Make up some more bug related fairies…to go with my ladybird one
Spinning
- Spin all the commercial fibre currently in my stash on Ravelry @ date of posting!
- Spin 200g of alpaca fibre currently in my stash
- Master chain ply
- Create a fractal spun yarn
- Spin some tweed yarn
- Create my own wool and silk blended spin
- Create an official (not accidental) art yarn
Dyeing
- Dye some of the natural fibre tops in my stash
- Dye some my own spun yarn and the undyed bought skein I have
Knitting
- Finish my Chimney Fire cardigan*
- Make my husband a pair of socks
- Make my dad something for Christmas
- Make up a matching accessory set from my perpetual purple paradise homespun yarn
- Make the shawl with my Rowan Lima yarn
- Make a 2nd pair of socks for myself
- Learn brioche stitch
- Learn fair isle knitting and knit one of the small fair isle items in my queue
Crochet
- Make an octopus for a preemie
- Make a jellyfish for a preemie
- Get to grips with UK -v- US terms!
Oh my is that too many things?! But that barely makes a dint in my stash, so is it enough!?! We shall see as the year goes on.
*I drafted this earlier in the week…and after a few days of knitting my Chimney Fire cardigan I am only on row 9 of the upper body and I am already stuck and have reached out to a lady on Ravelry who created one that inspired me to buy the pattern, to see if she’d be willing to help me…if not I will have to contact the designer…at this rate I will be struggling to finish by Christmas, never mind the rest of my list!
Spinning progress
I thought I should make a note of my spinning progress so far, especially as I am now spinning a little everyday.
In a previous spinning post I had talked about my problems with drafting fibre and disastrous results…or should I call it art yarn!
My next post was about creating rolags and spinning from those which I definitely found easier, I made some useable 2 ply yarn in the landscape colours and went on to knit an ipad cover with the yarn. Don’t look too closely or you’ll notice some cables aren’t the same length! Oh and Judy’s Magic Cast On was a disaster as its on the inside of the bag!!! oops!
I had other attempts at spinning from rolags, I had spun a selection of peach and red toned fibre scraps and I really liked it on the bobbin…but when I set it, I massively overheated it and ended up felting the yarn and the colours ran and it ended up orange. Regardless of the quality I am determined to make something out of everything I spin, so thanks to Ravelry’s pattern search I found this wee business card holder pattern. The cabling doesn’t really stand out I think because it felted so much, plus it was 2 ply.
I also spun some purple and pink scraps, again making a 2 ply yarn. This time I made a dog poop bag holder! I crocheted it, without a pattern and it is sooo soft, it feels lovely. Again the yarn slightly felted when setting it, but not as much.
Then I took on a bigger challenge, rather than using a bag of scraps and creating rolags, I wanted to give pre-drafting a go. So with 200g of Perpetual Purple Paradise from Gilliangladrag online shop I pre-drafted and then spun all 200g. What I have ended up with is 3 ply yarn, some of which is Aran weight and some is Worsted weight. (Not intentionally different weights, just shows the improvement in my drafting.).
I am thinking I will make a hat, cowl and mitten set…depending on how I get on they may be wrist warmers and not mittens. I gave chain plying a couple of goes, but again I would call that art yarn based on the inconsistency, the lumps, the coil spinning in parts. Not sure if it is usable yet…it may end up being used to make a bobble instead.
You’ll notice it says Pre-TDF and then Tour de fleece day 1 on the image above. I will explain more about that on my next post.
What I have learned so far
- As a beginner its much easier spinning from pre-drafted tops
- Rolags make a very fluffy soft yarn
- Accidentally boiling yarn makes it felt and run! (and it loses the merino wool feel)
- It was much easier for me to rest my right arm on a small cushion and draft at exactly the same pace as my leg pressed on the treadle. This stops you spinning faster than you can draft
- Practice and preparation definitely improves the final results
- Measuring yarn on the niddy noddy is not a good judge of final length (as its under tension and shrinks slightly during setting)
- Chain plying is tricky and I need more practise at it!
Side thought – writing a blog that may be read by Americans and Brits is a challenge re: spelling! Do I just stick to UK English and assume Americans will understand we spell things differently? In the UK practice is a noun and practise the verb…in the US practice is both noun and verb! Then there’s fibre and fiber! Never mind all the words we put a u in that American’s have done away with! Hmm perhaps I’ll just randomly mix them up and confuse everyone 😉
How craft making and Scotland rescued me
Life before…
My life was consumed with working hard and very long hours to earn money for a few weeks a year of international travel. We went to many fabulous and breathtaking places around the world including Hawaii, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Australia, various US states and parts of Italy. I also travelled to Peru and Bolivia for 31 days as a mix of holiday and unpaid leave (Follow links to see photo highlights). And so I thought my blog was turning into a travel blog…
The breakdown…
At the end of 2016 I started to burnout and lose control of my mind, I wasn’t coping at work despite (or perhaps because I was) working almost every waking hour and not making enough progress to satisfy my own high standards. By early 2017 I was a jibbering wreck, unable to stop crying all the time and was eventually signed off with anxiety and depression. When my sick pay ran out I couldn’t face returning to work, stressed at the thought and afraid that my resilience was too weak and I would return to old habits of working every hour and so I requested a 12 month sabbatical (unpaid leave). So I am due to return in September, unless I resign.
My new life…
Whilst off work I have started doing more craft type things, I have wet felted a hat and a handbag learned how to knit, made some sea glass jewellery, bought a spinning wheel and I’m now learning how to spin. We bought a tent last autumn and instead of international travel we have been exploring the North of Scotland and some of its many Isles either with the tent or renting small cottages.
I have been blown away by the scenery that we have seen…and with my calmer mindset I can actually be present and fully enjoy being in the moment and after walking 20k steps enjoy an evening sitting in our tent with my husband and dog and knitting another hitchhiker scarf! Scotland has white sandy beaches and turquoise water, okay you need to wear layers, not a bikini…but then you often get a beach to yourselves!
As for my future…we shall see!
October 2017
March 2018
June 2018
A brand new adventure in fibre
Yesterday I bought an Ashford spinning wheel from a lovely lady, who also sold me lots of goodies to go with it. I had bought a niddy-noddy (yep that really is it’s name) the day before from Bunloit Woolery at Dingwall Wool and Textile fair, but all my other equipment came from this lady’s mother’s things.
There was already some single ply yarn on one of the bobbins, so I moved half of it to another and then today did some spinning to make 2 ply. It was a good way of practicing rhythm and holding the yarns plus with the different tones I could see the spinning in action.
Thanks to YouTube and Knittingthestash blog I knew roughly what to do and have now steamed my spun yarn and it’s drying in the gorgeous weather we are having in the Highlands (for a change).
Tomorrow I am going to have a go at spinning some of my wool fibre! But I don’t want to do too much on one day…in case I’m sore muscled tomorrow.
Niddy-noddy
