Year of Projects – week 39/52

I have two finished felted objects I completed this week, and they have separate blog posts with further details. Felting is so quick to get a finished object, in comparison with knitting and crochet.

I added to my YOP list the felted lampshade, as that was a course I hadn’t expected. I loved it and have since ordered kits to make lampshades for every pendant light and lamp in the house!! Oh and I ordered quite a bit of pre-felt, both merino that I am used to, but also some British Shetland wool pre-felt that was slightly cheaper.
The felted tide clock was on my draft YOP list for next year, so I have moved it to this year’s list instead. It will be ideal for me deciding when to take our dog to the beach (and obviously collect more sea glass after high tide, before others get to it lol).

I also did a post about the Andean plying tool (Handy Andy). I forgot to mention on that post that the Andean’s used one hand to wrap around yarn in the same way, and that is called an Andean Bracelet. This wooden tool is a hand substitute.

Other than that I finished my fair isle hat. The first time I made a fair isle hat I had to give it to a 2 year old it was so small! Too tight with my floats! This is my 2nd fair isle hat and it is pretty loose fitting on my head, my gauge ended up being off, despite doing a swatch. Oh actually I think the swatch was just stockinette, not fair isle in the round. Perhaps just an over loose knitting stitch and super loose floats. Ylva and I went for a walk up the fields behind the house on the 1st day of Spring and managed to spot the first 4 lambs of the year. Once the sheep and lambs come down from the higher fields, into these lush green ones we won’t be able to walk up them.

I was debating about a pompom for this hat but have decided to go without. It goes quite well with this particular coat (I can’t possibly say how many purple or pink coats I have. It’s like asking a knitter how big her stash is lol!). I am going to try to make some fingerless gloves to go with it.

As this week marks the end of the 3rd quarter of our Year of Projects, it is time to snapshot where I am up to on my list. Some new things have been added and one deleted (as I have decided to keep my purple handspun for a larger project than a hat and scarf set). I have also tidied up the order of items in each section, so the outstanding items are shown at the bottom. As the days warm up I will be starting to do some dyeing practice, which is my least completed section of my YOP list.

Feel free to skip to the bottom where I talk about some new cast ons.

Wet felting

A picture of a Highland Cow ✅ wk 4
Make a fancy scarf or wrap using nuno felting ✅ wk 11 and wk 16
A case for my craft scissors ✅ wk 16
A coin purse ✅ wk 35
A pair of slippers ✅ wk 33
A loose casual waistcoat or top ✅ wk 37
Lampshade ✅ wk 39
Tide clock with sky and sea blends (moved forward from next year’s draft list) ✅ wk 39
A picture of my dog Ylva
A project bag using the plastic loop handles in my stash
Felt the edge of my hand painted autumn flowers silk painting, and felt a back – to make a cushion.

Needle felting

A picture of our parrot ✅ wk 37
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 ✅ wk 33
North Ronaldsay humbug (added to list and started wk 31) ✅ wk 33

Master chain ply ✅ wk 12 (Himalayan blend chain ply nice and smooth at joints)
Create a fractal spun yarn ✅ wk 24
Create my own wool and silk blended spin ✅ wk 29
Spin first batch of Samoyed dog hair ❇️ wk 6
Spin some tweed yarn ❇️ wk 29 attempt with silk flecks
Create an official (not accidental) art yarn

Dyeing

Dye some of the natural fibre tops and/or homespun yarn from my stash

British 56s ✅ wk 4 and 11
Over dye ethereal ether merino ✅ wk 6
Blue Faced Leicester ✅ wk 26
Samoyed Dog hair
Bamboo
Merino/silk blend
Merino/suri alpaca blend
Corriedale fibre
Portland

Dye undyed commercial spun skeins

Cheviot chunky wool ✅ wk 6
Merino silk blend ✅ wk 25
BFL/silk blend
Merino bamboo blend

Knitting

Learn fair isle knitting and knit one of the small fair isle items in my queue ✅ wk 3. Try >2 colour fair isle ✅ wk 38
Make something with purple and gold homespun yarn ✅ (Hitchhiker wk 11)
Finish my Chimney Fire cardigan ✅ wk 14
Make my husband a pair of socks ✅ wk 18
Knit something Two at a Time ✅ wk 18
Make Lintilla scarf ✅ wk 24
Make my dad something for Christmas ✅ wk 25
Make a 2nd pair of socks for myself…as part of the Grocery Girls 2019 sock KAL I am going to roughly join ✅ wk 32
Learn herringbone stitch to make a neckwarmer ✅ wk 38
Knit (or crochet) all the scraps of left over sock and sport weight wool. ❇️ wk 12
Learn brioche stitch ❇️ (YouTube watching wk 13)
Make the shawl with my Rowan Lima yarn ❇️ (Started wk 26)

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
Make autumnal leaves cushion

On Thursday I finally cast on my Elda cardigan, but not much to show yet, I’m still on the raglan increase section. The wool is a blend of Bowmont (a Saxon Merino/Shetland cross) and Bluefaced Leicester (BFLj, so it has a slight Shetland woolliness about it, but softer and has a nice subtle sheen. I am enjoying it so far. The Estonian Braid sections are done at the very end, so at the moment its a very simple pattern.

On Saturday, the camera club had a trip up to Wick (almost the top of Scotland) to attend the Highland Challenge. An annual photography competition between the camera clubs in the Highlands (and Shetland Isles). The mainland Clubs take it in turns to host it and this year it was Wick’s turn. Wick is a couple of hours north of us on a single carriageway, mostly coastal road. Despite knowing I get coach (bus) travel sick I cast on a 4th pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks to continue to knit on the coach there and back!!!

I made a mistake, when knitting on so little sleep and on a bus, so these are now a subtle variation on HES. On the plus side Dingwall Club won the challenge.

I wish the Shetland Isles would host the challenge one year, but at a different time of year…I’m thinking specifically to coincide with Shetland Wool Week lol!

Google map of where Wick is 😀

I have to keep busy to keep my mind from taking me back into depression, so please don’t compare your own outputs to mine. Everyone has their own things going on, including juggling responsibilities and some battling their own demons.

If you would like to see what the other YOP members are up to check out our Ravelry group for the links to their posts.

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Year of Projects – Week 37/52

Knitting

After spending many (many) hours searching patterns on Ravelry I finalised my choice on a pattern for my Cochrane yarn. It is a challenge because its such a new yarn, spun specially for Ripplescrafts, so there are hardly any projects that have used it, mostly just shawls. In the end I did finish a couple of swatches and picked ….drumroll…Elda cardigan…the same pattern that I’d originally picked months ago! I found with a slightly larger needle I was able to get gauge.

The pattern has Estonian Braid so that will be a new skill for me to learn, I think I will be practicing that on some cheaper wool first. Nothing to show yet, but hopefully some progress next week.

Needle felting

I did a separate post earlier this week about the picture of my husband’s parrot that I created and gave to him for our 11th Wedding Anniversary (on Thursday).

Wet felting

I also did another separate post about converting a beach silk blouse to a nuno wool felted jacket!!!!

Spinning

I did some practicing with my hackle, blending fibre for spinning but didn’t get a chance to spin it yet.

Wait, “What about the Handy Andy?l I here you ask…well, I have watched some YouTube instructional videos but didn’t manage to find time to do any spinning this week. I will do a separate post about it, once I’ve had a go. But it is going to be ideal for taking away with my spindle when we are camping. After spinning on my spindle, I will then be able to wrap the yarn around the handy andy in the correct method and then magically you are able to pull both ends of the yarn at the same time and ply spin it on the spindle…therefore creating 2 ply. The secret is in wrapping it correctly. It comes from the Andes, where the spinners would use their own hand to create an Andean bracelet, instead of using your hand you use this wooden tool.

So this is a short post, but would ask you have a quick look (pretty please) at the other 2 posts (if you didn’t see them earlier this week), even if its just for a quick look at the pictures. I’m pretty proud of both projects. 😀

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Needle felted Orange Winged Amazon Parrot

My husband has an orange Winged Amazon parrot, that we share custody with my mother in law. When she is in Australia 3 months a year we have the parrot here and when she’s home it lives with her.

For our 11th wedding anniversary (today) I gave him a picture of the parrot, I created by needle-felting.

In 2011 I had drawn him a picture of the parrot, using pencils and pastels. Turns out I used the exact same photo of her to do both! Ah well. The felted picture is more accurate a shape for her, as I ended up cutting around the photo and stabbing through the eye to get it in the right spot. She does have 2 feet but seems to always have one tucked away…like a flamingo!

Year of Projects – week 35/52

With it feeling like Spring I have been doing some Spring Cleaning this week and doing jobs around the house (like cleaning carpets and windows) during times when I would normally do some knitting or spinning.

Spinning and Knitting

I did do a bit more rolag spinning practice, with rolags I’d made with random bits of leftover fluff. I thought with the yarn I would do a test version of the Northeasterly blanket, to try out a new increase I saw on someone’s blog. The pattern says to use M1L and M1R for increases, but they are too fiddly, so I’d gone with Kfb. However, this gives an uneven look, so instead of kfb you do knit front of stitch, leave it on the needle and then slip instead of knitting the back. This gives a far more symetrical pattern on either side of the centre line. I don’t think you can tell on this photo, as its dark scraps I used, handy for storing my stitch markers though. (Fellow YOPers and regular readers…Read under sea glass section below for information about how you can own a set of these markers. First come first served basis.)

I’m wondering whether to frog my current progress on my real blanket…but then I’m impatient to finish Void and my socks, so I’ll pop the first strip on stitch holders and start a new column and then decide at some future date what to do with the strip I’m unhappy with.

I am also getting impatient to start knitting a jumper (sweater) or cardigan.

(I have 2 wonderful project bags from Tatty Designs on Etsy. One is ideal for shawls and has Void in it, one is for socks and so when she finally made some in Winnie the Pooh fabric I couldn’t resist buying one in the larger size (ideal for jumper projects!). I love it!)

So I am going to knit a swatch next week in my Cochrane yarn from Ripplescrafts. I haven’t used this particular yarn before (although I am VERY familiar with her sock yarns). I have the colourway called Bramble Picking…so of course it is purple…I am so predictable. The yarn is a blend of Bowmont and Blue Faced Leicester breeds and I think I have decided which cardigan to make, assuming I get gauge on my swatch! I have a shortlist on Ravelry by creating a Bundle…what a handy function! The gauge swatch may sway a decision, but at the moment I am thinking the Elda cardigan.

In the meantime, my wood pigeon coloured socks are progressing. I got to the end of the gusset decreases on sock one and decided to start sock 2, so that when I knit the foot I can knit them 2 at a time and won’t have to bother counting rows! This did mean finding the end of the yarn inside the ball and winding it into a cake, so that the order of the colours was correct. No issue with knots thank goodness, which had put me off before.

Dyeing

As the weather is improving I have been making plans to start dyeing practice again. I have some yarn to dye for the Quick Sand cardigan pattern, plus multiple sock yarns to practice with. So many things I want to knit, its frustrating I am not a quicker knitter.

Felting

I made a coin purse this week, which was on my YOP list and I am really pleased with it. It only used 15g of corriedale wool and some bits of an old purse. (Now in the US I am aware they call handbags ‘purses’, so not sure what they call things specifically to hold loose change.) There’s a separate post about it if you’d like to find out more.

It was my felting group on Saturday and instead of taking my wet felting gear I took my needle felting stuff. No picture yet, as its a surprise for someone and isn’t finished yet!

Sea glass

Earlier this week, I also did a separate post about some more sea glass and shell stitch markers I made, asking for some advice.

Subsequently, I did another post aimed at my fellow YOPers and other regular readers/commenters of my blog. It offers you the chance of having a set or two of the sea glass markers for just covering the costs of post and packing fees. See the comments on that post first, as some have already been chosen and will be heading to Alaska and Arizona this week! I picked up postage costs leaflet and some small padded envelopes today. I just need to look up if PayPal take a % for converting currencies.

Drafted ideas for 2019-2020!!!

There are so many yummy things I keep spotting, so I have already started to draft next year’s list!!! If you fancy a nosey to see if something you made has inspired me to try to make my own next year.

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2019 Project List

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

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.