Year of Projects – week 42/52

This really feels like the home straight now…week 42 of 52! Yet I have been totally distracted from my YOP list by lampshade making and buying a loom.

I have updated my YOP list and have removed Crochet as a category. I’m not saying I won’t ever pick it back up again, but the longer I have been knitting the harder it seems to go back to crochet. I can’t get used to the hook and yarn in my hands and there are other crafts that I am currently more drawn to. That being said, I shall be crocheting vicariously, by reading the blogs of my fellow YOPers, many of whom make amazing and beautiful crocheted items.

So crochet is out and weaving has filled its place. I was going to do a separate weaving blog post, but didn’t get around to it, so that’s included here instead.

Weaving

So my first ever woven item turned out ok. There are a few mistakes but overall I am pretty pleased with it. This photo is before I washed it.

I seemed to get to grips with the process pretty quickly, but I need to learn the terms, learn some patterns, purchase some pick up sticks, so I can do patterns in the weaving.

The yarn was Hayfield Spirit DK Acrylic/Wool blend. Not really ideal for a first weaving attempt from a stretchiness of the yarn point of view, but the colour changes in the yarn work well.

My 2nd attempt was playing with some DMC Just Cotton yarn that is so splitty it was impossible to knit or crochet with. I think I need a different sized weave thingy…heddle?…so that it makes a tighter weave, but it was ok to practice with. Obviously I should have differently spaced the cream warp (vertical) lines to make it symmetrical.

Knitting

It was our Camera Club’s AGM on Monday evening, that dragged on for over 2 hours…so I got quite a few rows done on my socks. Without measuring where I was up to I did more sock knitting watching Bridget Jones movie and of course by the time I measured they were 1/4 inch too long, so I made toe decreases every row and tried to make a left and a right sock by decreasing more on the pinky toe side. There was much swearing done when I was trying to fix my Kitchener stitch on one sock, as it had a hard bump at the end. After hours trying to sort it I went to bed and in the morning decided the feet are too short and so I unpicked the toes!

So these have a few accidental changes to the Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern, including where the purl stitches on the main pattern!

I finished the waist decreases and started on the hip increases on my Elda cardigan. The marker shows my progress this week, even though I didn’t post a picture last week!?! So far it fits well, but I need to stop putting weight on or it is not going to fit! I just cannot stop thinking about biscuits (cookies) and chocolate, all day, every day…and obviously consuming them too!

I even did another few rows on Void shawl, but barely any difference since I last posted that…they are seriously long rows now. On the trickier rows they take about 45 minutes to do 1 row!!! I still can’t see me making this to the full pattern length….pretty sure as it gets wider I’ll eventually hit 2 hours to do 1 row!

Felting

Yep more lampshades!

#8 for the landing, outside the bathroom. The dark blobs were supposed to be pebbles, but most of them were lost during trimming and folding edges…doh!!

#9 is a larger (25cm instead of 20cm) lampshade for the living room. Designed to go with the photograph it illuminates.

#9 Stormy seascape — Stormy seascape lampshade

I have 4 kits left, think I miscounted last week. Hall table, spare bedroom, study and one more landing light to do.

I have been saving all the trimmed edges from the lampshades to make something with. I’ve been thinking about dusting off my sewing machine and experimenting putting embellishments on felt.

What I am listening to

On BBC Radio 4 for over 70 years there’s been a radio show called Desert Island Discs. The guests have to pick 8 record singles/tracks, they are given the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and they can pick 1 other book and a luxury item. Hundreds of the episodes are available as podcasts and for licensing reasons the tracks on the podcast are cut short. This means I can get 2 episodes in per dog walk. This week has been so interesting. Lauren Bacall, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates, Dustin Hoffman, Goldie Hawn, Alice Walker (author of The Colour Purple) are some of the American guests I’ve listened to. Kenneth Williams, Dame Judy Dench, Russell Brand, Dawn French, Liam Gallagher, Claire Balding are some of the Brits I’ve listened too. It gets you thinking about what 8 songs you’d want to take and what book and luxury item you’d want to take with you. I’ve drafted a list of the songs, my book choice would either be Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (which I’ve already read 5 times and still enjoy) or the complete works of Pam Ayres Poetry, that I could learn off by heart. The luxury item…yarn perhaps? Goldie Hawn chose lip gloss!

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Wet felted lampshade #2

I bought a lot of lampshade kits for the pendant lights and some lamps around the house. So this morning I made my 2nd lampshade ever.

Rather than a specific scene I just wanted some blended colours, so I used my hackle to blend various green shades and a touch of cream.

To decorate I put a touch of white flax/silk, some orange angelina fibre (doesn’t show up on photos) and some of the Winter’s Kiss blend by World of Wool.

The result is a subtle blend that I am really pleased with.

The pre-felt I used this time was British Shetland wool, rather than Merino. It is a bit cheaper, less air miles and seems to do as good a job as the merino. The kits are from Dannells Ltd, who make them in Britain too. Previously in the sunroom, we had an IKEA paper lantern that was at least 15 years old. In case anyone is interested, the string of lights are from Cable & Cotton, and are a string of LED lights and you can order pre-set colour packs or pick your own shades for the baubles.

So that’s 2 down, 11 lampshades to go!!

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Wet felted lampshade

I showed a sneak peak of my lampshade on my previous YOP post and here it is finished!

The wave isn’t as good as I’d have liked but hey ho! It’s my first seascape, first big wave and first lampshade, so overall I am still pretty happy with it. It will be on my computer desk on our landing so I’ll see it every time I come upstairs. That light is basically never switched on, so it won’t matter if it is too dark to see through.

I am definitely going to make another lampshade so will be ordering some kits and will do some paler colours for ceiling lamps and other lamps we have around the house where we need to actually see through them. My aim is to replace every lampshade in the house, because they are all super naff ones that were just in the house when we moved in, which was I think 13 years ago!!!! It’s like I knew I’d get the bug for making them.

I am also in the process of making a tide clock! More on that when it’s finished, but here’s a sneak peak of stage 1!

Dornoch Fibre Fest

This year was the 10th Dornoch Fibre Fest, but my first time attending.

What a wonderful wee festival. Firstly I’ll share a bit about this beautiful wee town.

Dornoch is a beautiful town about 45 minutes north from me. The town centre is set back away from the sea front, with its beautiful long sandy beaches a short walk from the town centre. It has the Royal Dornoch Golf Club with 2 x 18 hole courses plus practice holes and even has a teeny tiny airport, which I have only ever seen model airplanes use.

Here’s a photo of me on one of the beaches at Dornoch last March.

It’s population is only about 1,300 so it is small, but in the summer it is busy with tourists and has a campground and caravan park, numerous B&Bs, some nice old hotels and a charming sandstone oldie worldie feel about the place. (Random fact – Madonna married Guy Ritchie at Skelbo Castle nearby!) I did manage to squeeze in a visit to Cocoa Mountain that sells the best hot chocolate. I had the vegan version with oat milk, but you can have soya milk instead. The vegan ones are dark chocolate. The regular cow’s milk version has white and milk chocolate. They drizzle melted chocolate all around the edge of the mug and drizzling down the side…and oh my its messy but sooo good.

Back to the fibre fest, which was split across 2 locations; a church hall and the social club.

Apparently the Saturday was extremely busy with people queueing to get in and out of the church hall. I was booked on a Fair Isle course on the Sunday morning so I was lucky to be there on the much quieter day, where I really got time to look at things and pick yarns with patterns in mind.

Our fair isle skills course was taught my a genuine Shetland Islander, Janette Budge Instagram link.
Ravelry link .
Her mother taught her to knit and it was interesting hearing her talk of the days when everyone was knitting and it just wasn’t right to sit idle in the evenings. And about how when knitting fair isle jumpers for the fishermen they would need to catch all the floats in the arms as the fisherman took little care of their jumpers, but they still lasted well. Also she explained that there are still people in Shetland that make jumpers for mountain climbers and about famous climbers of Everest wearing Shetland wool jumpers, ideal for their warmth but very lightweight. She said nowadays she hand-knits the yokes but mostly the plane bodies are machine knit. She was also telling us about the yoke bag course she teaches and had a lovely example and explained it was a great way of testing a yoke pattern before starting on a whole jumper. I’ve taken this image from the Shetland Wool Week website of her course. One year I will go along but the Shetland Isles is a flight away or overnight ferry and accommodation is expensive during wool week due to demand.

The course at Dornoch was a bargain, only £25 for 3 hours and included 3 colours of Shetland wool. (Loch Ness Knit Fest courses were £45 and you brought your own wool.)

We were making headbands, but mine is too small for my head (my fault as I should have gone up a needle size when she suggested). Anyway, I will sew one side and pop some felt in the ends and it’ll be ideal as a DPN project holder, ideal as I have my northeasterly blanket strip that can go in it. So here it is before its sewn.

I was using some of her enormous length double knitting needles and she lent me her ‘knitting belt’. This is a belt with a leather pod on it with holes in and stuffed with horsehair. You put the other end of your right working needle in it. It worked well and stopped me stabbing myself in the arm. Overall I will stick to very long circular needles and magic loop, over enormous DPNs.

After the course it was time for some shopping and I had 3 projects in mind…a brioche hat, a brioche shawl and a chunky jumper.

From the Bunloit Woolery stand I bought 6 skeins of the blue for Such a Winter’s Day“; jumper. I had planned on getting one of the yummy oatmeal type colours, but then thought about dog hair and grubby cuffs on a pale pink jumper I have, so went for this lovely blue. The pattern called for Worsted Weight, but others have used the same Aran weight yarn for it, so I should be ok.

The bottom 2 yarns are to try Brioche Knots hat. They were so helpful and patient with me trying to work out what would work. (My lovely hand-carved niddy noddy is carved by them.)

From Cookston Crafts I wanted to get some yarn to make some socks and a brioche shawl, both to go with my Chimney Fire teal cardigan. After my previous post, an Instagram and Facebook survey it is unanimous that my brioche shawl will be made with the middle ‘Emerald’ ‘60% merino, 20% silk and 20% yak and ‘Crathie’ 60% merino, 20% nylon and 20% alpaca. So it should have that hint of luxury, warmth and durability. I haven’t fully decided on a pattern, but I am thinking about Tributary which I managed to get when it was free when launched. The top skein I’ll make some hermione’s everyday socks I suspect.

Skybluepink I bought 3 x 100g blends of 67% Bluefaced Leicester and 33% Shetland. Ok so I couldn’t resist the purple!

Kiki’s Craft Corner I bought some Polwarth to try spinning and a couple of bags of Shetland to try to spin some yarn to dye for more colour-work projects,

Last but not least, from Travelling Yarns I thought I should buy a hat kit to make use of my new Fair Isle skills lol. So I bought the Copper River Hat pattern kit which came with these lovely colours.

The problem is where is all this new stash going to be kept? I was thinking about buying another big plastic box and then thought a good alternative would be to this week knit up some quick bulky yarn patterns to make some room hahaha!

How I will find time to garden, do laundry, walk the dog or do housework with all these new projects added to my already large Ravelry queue! All I can think is “Thank goodness I am not going to Edinburgh Yarn Festival”

Coin Purse

On my Year of Projects list is to ‘make a coin purse’. This is because I had a grubby looking purse that I thought I could have a go at re-using the clasp.

I would love to tell you how I carefully designed it and measured a template to make it but I didn’t, I just winged it and by some miracle it ended up being the perfect size to fit the clasp. Albeit a struggle to get the fabric to stay in whilst I closed the metal with pincers and trying not to mark the metal. In the end I had to do away with protecting the metal and so it is scratched but the fabric has stayed in!

I have never tried felting on a balloon before, so thought I would try it and it reminded me of newspaper and flour paste makes as a kid. I was wetting bits of wool in soapy water first and then laying them on. I added a tiny bit of sari silk waste to the outside just to add some interest, although the colour blend of the wool was lovely to start with.

The wool is a Corriedale cross so should be sturdy, from Fleece 4 Ewe. I bought the carded batt, in sea blend colour-way, at a local fair for £4 and thought I’d do a seascape picture…I only used 15g of the 45g so still have plenty for a picture at some point.

When I was dismantling the old purse I found a waterproof layer between the cotton lining and commercial felt outside, so I thought I’d reuse that as my lining, once it was trimmed a bit and hand sewn to the new shape.

So here are the photos I took, I forgot to photograph it before fitting the clasp so you could see the shape! Doh!! Also it isn’t even fully dry yet so will lighten a touch. I love it, despite the scratches and it isn’t pink or purple!!! Is turquoise my new favourite colour?

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Year of Projects – week 33/52

I saw on another blog they were doing ‘Finish it February’…with the aim to complete as many Work in Progress (WIPs) as possible. I liked that idea and so I have tried to finish some projects off. (Including clearing out junk.)

Knitting

The pattern for Lintilla advises to start the rippled edge when you have 25% of your yarn left…but I couldn’t be bothered walking a few yards to the kitchen to get scales and try to do some sums and estimate how much my needles weigh etc etc….so, when I’d done as many repeats as Martina’s pattern example I figured that will do and any spare yarn can go on my Northeasterly blanket or some contrasting heels and toes on future socks. So on Thursday I started the final edge ripple pattern. This photo was taken before bed on Saturday night and I still have quite a lot more ripples left and then the tip to go. I must admit I am pretty sure there are a lot of mistakes on the end edge ripples, I kept mixing up which stitches I was doing, but it’ll be fine once its on and it should be bigger when blocked.

I also made some progress on Void and my new longer cable arrived which makes my needles 150cm long, so should be ok to finish it. No photo as the progress isn’t obvious and I need to switch the needle over to be able to stretch it out.

I cast on a new pair of socks, this time with West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply, in wood pigeon colourway. I haven’t used this yarn before and did I bother to knit a swatch to check gauge? Of course not! When I finished one cuff I showed my husband, and he thinks its way too small…I agree it looks much smaller than my ones I have made using the Ripplescrafts sock yarn. So they are on hold at the moment whilst I concentrate on finishing the shawls.

Spinning

Lots of spinning related activity this week.

I plied the brown North Ronaldsay yarn and set it. Mostly traditional 3 ply but a small amount of chain plying done on a bobbin that had a fair bit left. I really should perhaps weigh my bobbins before plying, to get them more evenly loaded. I think I may keep this yarn for having a go at weaving with, or perhaps crochet some circles to put under plant pots around the house. I like the rustic look, but not sure in a garment…this shade of brown is definitely not my colour for clothes. It is 138m long and worsted weight.

You may have seen, in my previous post, the scarf I wet felted with half of the Bluefaced Leicester fibre I had home dyed. After some thought I decided to spin the other half into 2 ply yarn. I did short forward drafting, so it was really smooth and shiny before I soaked and snapped it to set the ply! Now it has fluffed up, or I think bloomed is maybe the technical term!?! I am hoping once it is measure I will have enough length to do a hat, if not then I will make some wrist warmers instead…so they can be worn with the scarf I made.

It isn’t measured yet and is very uneven 2 ply, but hey ho who cares when the colours are so pretty!

I made up some rolags, using the Sugar Plum merino/silk blend fibre from World of Wool and some homedyed Mohair. The intention being to take them along to the Highland Guild meeting to spin them. On Thursday when drafting this post I was thinking I can’t be bothered to carry my spinning wheel to the meeting and maybe I would take Void and knit instead. In the end I went without any gear briefly and chatted to a couple of ladies and then headed home to clear out junk from the garage loft.

Felting

My slippers are 95-100% finished! That makes no sense, you are probably thinking. The thing is, they are finished except me painting on some dots or squiggles with the non-slip stuff I bought at Loch Ness Knit Fest. The only problem is, I have no idea where I put the bottle of stuff!! Doh!!! So I will have another hunt for the bottle at some point and if I don’t find it then I will just wear the slippers and try not do any crazy dancing in them on the wood laminate floors lol!

The urge to felt another scarf hit me, so I used the rest of the Winter’s Kiss fibre and some dark green bamboo fibre, I got from World of Wool’s fibre club box. This is definitely a Christmas/Winter scarf, it has such a lovely sparkle to it, which hopefully you can tell from the bottom right photo. I also scattered various silk waste in pale and dark greens. This will go with the others, as potential sale or gift items. Colours and sparkle are stronger in real life.

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Year of Projects – week 32/52

Knitting

Well my 2nd pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks are finished! I am honestly thinking why bother doing other patterns, when this fits my small feet so well (using 2mm needle). It is more interesting than just vanilla knitting (sockinette/K3P1 on alternate rows). The pattern was free on Ravelry. I love this yarn, in electric light it has warm colours and in daylight cool colours!

I can’t stick to the official Grocery Girls Sock bash KAL rules, as it says 1 x 6” leg pair or 2 shorties a month, and I just want to make 12 pairs of socks this year and don’t want socks that long. But this month’s theme is cables, so I may still have a go at some cable socks….or may just have another pair like these! Shall we have a sweepstake on how many pairs end up being this pattern lol!?

Void has soooo many stitches now (about 274 …kept losing count) and I am just finishing the 2nd ball of Rowan Lima yarn and there are 4 more balls of yarn to go (you stop at 404 stitches wide) and my head explodes with thinking how the heck this is supposed to be knit on one circular needle, my current needle is 100cm long and I think I’ll need to order a longer interchangeable cable to accommodate the stitches. The other issue is how long it takes to knit each row and its just going to keep getting longer….but then I really want it finished as its sooo soft and warm alpaca yarn that feels lovely and I want to wear it whilst its still cold. Progress since last time is shown by the marker. I also included a photo of the yarn close up, very unusual construction…but think of all that warm air it will trap…this is going to be so cosy to wear.

There’s been some people talking about yarn and needle elitism on Instagram, with many of the most popular YouTubers and Instagram account holders only buying very expensive, indie dyed yarns only for it to sit in a stash that may never get knit with. My yarn stash is relatively small and very mixed and this Rowan Lima yarn I bought for £3 for all 6 skeins at a local de-stash sale. I think Ripplescrafts yarn lasts really well and is my most used yarn, but I believe in trying to support Highland small businesses.

I do ooh and aaah at the beautiful colourways that lots of indie yarn producers post and I see phases of ‘must have’ yarns that you find everyone suddenly using and I’ll admit I was feeling jealous and if I was still working I would probably have bought but have no time to knit with. But as I have no income and I am spinning yarn myself and have a lot of undyed yarn to practice dyeing myself, I am on a yarn buying freeze! I haven’t bought any finished yarn since October. (Only yarn for dyeing.).

Regardless of how expensive or cheap a yarn is, if the finished object is practical and beautiful then what does it matter? I am interested to hear your thoughts.

Spinning

I continued to spin the brown North Ronaldsay wool, making more rolags and spinning them long draw (you allow some twist between your two hands whilst moving your hands apart and don’t smooth out the fibres, this makes a warm woollen spun yarn). I am definitely improving in this method, although I seem to get a sore left shoulder and right knee, as I am not used to this method or position yet! It is all spun and ready for plying into 3 ply, so I will show the finished yarn next week.

Felting

Just to explain, my slipper booties aren’t finished yet so no pic…more on why later. But after some comments last week I thought I should explain these were felted from Icelandic fibre tops and lined with merino wool tops, so no knitting involved.

You can make slippers by knitting them first and then felting them, but to me that seems a much longer process than just felting the fibre. Another option, if you’ve accidentally felted a wool jumper in the washer or tumble dryer then you can use that felted fabric to sew some slippers or gloves! I have seen YouTubers buying old wool jumpers/sweaters from charity shops/thrift stores and making pairs of mittens, slippers and scarf from one old jumper after they’ve felted it on a hot wash! Great if you are on a budget.

I did use half of my homedyed bluefaced leicester fibre to make a nuno felted scarf. Nuno felting is where you felt wool and silk together. On a blank white silk voil scarf I lay out the fibres in roughly vertical stripes one side and horizontal stripes the other and then put additional coloured locks, tussah silk and silk scraps. Then felted slowly to allow the wool fibres to go through the silk and felt together. The result is a very lightweight but warm scarf that can be worn on either side up.

I know what your thinking…these colours match my new socks lol!

The idea with felting is you lay the fibres in horizontal and then vertical layers, so that when they are wet the barbs on the fibre open up and start to lock together, then I use olive oil soap and friction from bubble wrap and tools made for felting. I can spend hours on Pinterest looking at the amazing felt creations people make.

There are so many amazing Russian and Belarusian feltmakers, I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos of felting and even if I don’t understand what they are saying I can see how they are doing things. Here’s a link to my Pinterest wet felting folder with some ideas I’ve pinned, includes some of my own creations.

Side tracked!

On my slippers…I have tacked the sole to the bottom, but need to properly sew them on, when I work out the right yarn to do that. I planned to finish them on Saturday, but we drove down to the Cairngorms National Park (about an hour south) and went for a walk around a frozen Loch Morlich in the snow. Nothing to do with YOP but thought I’d share some pics anyway 😀

It was only -5°C/23°F so nowhere near the low temperatures the USA has been getting.

Top picture is our dog Ylva on the lochside beach, the photo bottom left there are some people in the distance doing cross country skiing around the loch. We passed more people on skis than walking, so it is obviously increasing in popularity. There is hill skiing nearby too.

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 31/52

Felting

Well I felted the Icelandic fibre test sheets and decided to join them first, to see if there’s a noticeable join. Also I was testing whether I like the feel of the fabric, as it was bought to make a waistcoat. The results are in…I don’t notice the join but this fibre is definitely not what I was after for a waistcoat. It has a bit of a hairy look and it seems like it ate the sari silk I placed on it!!!

So instead I used a good amount of the fibre to make some slipper booties. This collage shows 1) the template I made, 2) post initial felting and cut, 3) slipper on the polystyrene foot where most of the felting was done and 4) them ready for drying. I would say, this is a sneak peak of them so far, as they are still wet, need defuzzing, need the soles sewing on and non-slip gel squiggles adding and I will add some needlefelted decorations on top. I partially lined them with some merino wool and put some detail on the outer side of each cuff, so I know which is left and right! I will post a new photo when finished.

This week I also made a scarf with the autumnal colours I had blended on my hackle last week, plus some more I did on Sunday. I was keen to try to make a more rippled edge and decided to also make some points too. I don’t have a coat it goes with so I may sell it at some point. It is nice and soft and when folded over it has some nice detail. The colours look much better in real life, considering one of my hobbies is photography I am a bit rubbish/lazy at taking pictures of my creations.

Knitting

I did a few pattern repeats on Void before deciding I had procrastinated long enough about my January socks.

So I divided my yarn into 2 cakes for making 2 at a time socks. I did the legs, heel flap and turned the heels and then got in such a muddle trying to do the gussets using the one circular needle…so I moved one sock to the sockwunder needle and now I am doing one pattern repeat on one, then switching to the other, so on 2 separate circular needles!! I think when I have finished the gusset I will be able to move them back to the same long circular needles again…but not sure. Definitely sockwunder needle is quickest, no need to stop to move the cables, just round and round you go. Considering I started them on Tuesday I have made great progress and definitely should finish before the end of the month.

Pattern is Hermione’s Everyday Sock. As I have small feet (UK3/US5) I have gone down a needle size and should be fine. The yarn is from Ripplescrafts, 4 ply Reliable Sock Yarn base (75% merino 25% nylon) in the “It is Bluebell Time of Year” colourway. I absolutely LOVE this colourway and of course it was a limited batch. This happens a lot with Helen’s yarns, I fall in love with the colour only to not be able to get any more! Now I have switched from being a monogamous knitter to having multiple projects on the go, I felt I deserved a new project bag from TattyDesigns on Etsy. So I bought this cute bag for holding sock projects. The photo shows my progress on the socks by Friday afternoon. I was at the ballet on Friday night and wet felting group all day Saturday, so just a bit of further progress made Saturday night.

I have a sweater quantity of a thicker special blend she had done for her 10th anniversary. Lintilla is being knit with the same sock yarn and I have crocheted a number of hats, 2 pairs of fingerless mittens and my first pair of socks with Helen’s yarns in various colourways. Anyway, her yarn is reasonably priced for an Indie dyed yarn and she is great with colour.

One of the hats I crocheted years ago and it is still going strong and not pilling, so I hope the socks will last well. Since casting them on I haven’t touched my other knitting, I love this yarn colour sooooooo much! I nearly made long socks and then thought what a waste, I’d rather try to get 2 short pairs out of it, even if 2nd pair needs contrasting yarn for heel and toe.

Spinning

I did some rolag making practice with various scraps of colours. I will use these as art yarn practice at some point.

When I started spinning it was really fat yarn I was producing, in my practicing to draft thin amounts for fine yarn I thought I would go back to making a thicker yarn…seems thicker yarn will now take a bit of practice! I made a bunch of rolags out of one of the bags of North Ronaldsay sheep wool in natural white and brown (humbug) and have started to spin it. Not sure what I will use it for when its finished, but it is good for practice and won’t go to waste. Perhaps some woolie socks for inside my walking boots or when I am watching TV! I’ve started on my 2nd bobbin so should have it all spun next week.

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 Project – week 30/52

Well we have finally had some snow fall, all symptoms of my flu have finally passed and I am feeling good. I have re-signed up for Audible 3 month free trial and on dog walks I’m listening to Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming”, which means we have been doing longer walks to keep listening.

Fibre work

This week I had fun playing around with my blending board and hackle (that I got for Christmas).

I have done some test sheets of the Icelandic wool with sari silk, this is the fibre I bought to make a waistcoat, but if I don’t like the finish/feel then I will use the rest to make some slippers and use the tests as place mats.

Here’s a pic before it is felted. (I’ve made 3 and they are in a box with tissue between.) They don’t look much yet! Finished pics next week.

Below, is a close up of the subtle blues, greens and sparkles I combined using the hackle and then wet felted into a neck warmer. The sparkles aren’t showing on the photo (Note to self: I really must find a location for photographs that gets the colours and textures right at the same time!).

Anyhoo, those YouTube peeps make everything look so easy. So I struggled a little pulling the fibre off the hackle in one continuous length, perhaps I over loaded it, but finally found a rhythm. Like everything it will take practice.

I decided to trim the corners of my neck warmer template and then lay the fibres out in a fan shape at the ends to get the ripples (although again these aren’t clear in the photo). This was inspired by the BEAUTIFUL felted scarves and wraps that @Woolysquirrel produces and shares on Instagram and sells on Etsy.

On Friday I had another go with the hackle and seem to do much better at getting decent sized strips off, but towards the end it was harder and too thin to braid, so I just rolled those into nests instead. But definitely an improvement. It is quite magical how you can make a long strip out of short tufts.

Spinning

I finished spinning my rolags and did a chain ply as it was all on one bobbin. I like the final yarn, is green taking over from my pink and purple addiction? I am amazed how much thinner my yarn is than spinning using short forward draw, I thought it would end up chunky but my 3 ply is DK weight. I need to find an easier way to measure the length of yarn, I tape a measure to the kitchen worktop and measure 100cm and then wind into a ball and repeat. This ended up 80+ metres and took ages to measure and wind! The good news is that this is the first yarn I have spun that has the same ‘weight’ in all methods of measurement. For non-spinners this won’t mean much, but against my yarn thickness measure it showed as DK, the wraps per inch were DK and the Grist puts it in DK…so if all that makes no sense then trust me, it is an achievement I am proud of. Normally the measurements are all over the place due to lack of consistency in my drafting and spinning.

My next spinning challenge is to spin some sock yarn. I bought the online copies of last year’s Ply Magazines. I couldn’t resist as the winter edition has a lot about spinning sock yarn, so I have been trying to read (and understand) the articles. There’s mention of totally new plying methods, so I will do some practice trials.

Knitting

I haven’t done much knitting, mostly I have worked on is my Lintilla, as its soooo easy plus I’ve memorised the pattern…not sure I will ever memorise the rows on Void!

But if you spot the green sea glass marker (where there’s a large pool of purple) you will see in 2 weeks it hasn’t progressed much…perhaps I will switch back to Void as the thicker yarn feels like more progress is made lol! Do you tell yourself these things?

I had a change of pattern plan on my January socks as I was going to try my first toe up sock, but then decided to do my first knit 2 at a time of a pattern I have already done, but then remembered how quick my sockwunder needle is in comparison to magic loop and so….I have not yet cast on a pair of socks!

Organising

I have, however, been playing with my fibre (and yarn) stash, updating Ravelry stash details (unused 140 fibres and 56 yarns!) and thinking of future designs and uses of my fibre. I also realised you have to manually move your used stash to the Used Up folder, so I have done that. My storage boxes have been re-organised and I now have:

‘To be dyed’ box (fibre, yarn and silk scarves)
‘New commercial yarn’ box (excluding scraps)
‘Rainbow colours fibre’ box
‘Earth tones fibre’ box
‘Mixed fibres’ box (locks, silk scraps, nepps, cotton fibre, flax)
‘Special blends’ box (wooly blended roving and batts)
‘Bag of silk’ (dyed silk fibre and sari silk scraps)
‘Bag of alpaca fibre’
‘Bag of scrap yarns’
‘Bag of handspun yarns’
‘Bag of the yarn from frogged jumper last week’
Oh and some overflow small cardboard boxes of the World of Wool Fibre Club custom blends and other 100g blends I have purchased elsewhere.
Oh and I just remembered I have some shoe boxes with dog hair and alpaca that I drum carded!

Maybe it doesn’t sound very organised but everything is easily accessible as the bags hang from the wardrobe (closet) rail and boxes sit on the wardrobe floor. So rather than buy another big storage box, I need to get more blending and then felting or spinning done to stop the need for these overflow boxes! I have at least 200g of fibre that comes each month and I need to be exceeding that in usage each month, or cancel my subscription….but I LOVE when a new box arrives! I get more excited than a kid opening Christmas presents.

Other

After reading a fellow YOPers blog last week I did some research into the discussions regarding white supremacy and diversity in our knitting and crafting community and I am working my way through the ‘Me and White Supremacy’ workbook that is available for free download. I almost thought I didn’t need to do the workbook because I have a diverse group of friends, but now I realise I did need to do it.

It is challenging my thoughts and opening my eyes and I will keep working through the remaining days of the workbook. I still remember an episode of Oprah from nearly 30 years ago about racism and them talking about things like ‘nude’ coloured pantyhose or tights as we’d call them in the UK and ‘flesh’ coloured things all being for white skin tones. Even the other day I noticed in my Ravelry stash some ‘flesh’ coloured wool fibre…that’s what it was called when I bought it last year. But that’s white person flesh colour! Subtleties like this are covered in the workbook and it really makes you realise that racism isn’t always blatant. I am thankful to this community for discussing the issues and raising awareness and notice Ravelry now have a discussion thread and I noticed on Instagram I am now seeing recommendations of blogs from people of colour. I am not following anyone out of tokenism, but on the same basis as I have already operated…if they post beautiful images that inspire me then I follow them.

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Year of Projects – week 29/52

Knitting

Frogging

Oh my goodness, what a pickle I got in trying to frog the jumper I mentioned last week. I had done such a good job at weaving in the ends, I couldn’t find them! Plus I forgot which direction I had knit it, so started trying to unravel it in the wrong direction! So the scissors had to come out, a couple of times.

I ripped out and re-started my Northeasterly blanket to change down a needle size. I also wasn’t enjoying the method of increasing stitches, so I started doing fbf, then switched to doing a couple of different methods as I was getting a weird line on one side. I even tried going back to the original increase but there’s no way I will have motivation to knit a whole blanket with fiddly stitches so frequent. The thing is it is quite addictive and I unpicked what fingering weight mitred squares I had made to do a few more tries with other increases and used some homespun yarn too. Any tips for avoiding that ridge on the left side of the middle? I am out of scraps now so it will be parked for a bit.

WIPs

I did a few rows of Lintilla and a few on Void. I now understand the appeal of having different projects on the go. Lintilla is long easy rows of knitting with occasional ripples to work on, Void requires concentration on every row, Northeasterly is good when you don’t have enough time for long rows of a shawl…and oh my does Void get long…or should that be wide?!

Ready to Cast On

I found a toe up pattern to try for my January socks in the KAL and have chosen a nice local sock yarn, so I will cast on those on Sunday…so hopefully a photo next week.

Spinning

I had some fun playing with my blending board this week making some more rolags and spinning them on my wheel. (The white balance of the photos on the bobbin is off. We have so few hours of daylight at the moment, it is a challenge to get accurate pictures.) I used some sugar plum merino and mulberry silk blend, with some home dyed mohair and some sari silk waste. The idea being to practice making a tweed type yarn (on my YOP list). I think officially tweed is supposed to have wool flecks, not silk, but I am counting this as a first attempt at tweed.

I made some other rolags on my blending board using the Himilayan custom blend from World of Wool (white merino with sari silk) mixed with some dyed merino wool in greens and deep purples. My husband likes the rolags before they are spun and thinks I need to find some way of doing a picture just using the rolags! I may have a think about it…perhaps a box frame?? Anyhoo, I put my big brave girl pants on and went to the Highland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and someone showed me how to do long draw drafting, rather than short forward drafting I have been doing. This method gives you a woolen yarn (softer and warmer) rather than worsted yarn (smooth, hard wearing).

The Guild was very hot and noisy with 40+ women chatting and spinning and I found I can’t do both at the same time! I am pretty happy with my first day doing a new method. I left at 3pm because I was getting sore shoulders, so didn’t manage to finish all the rolags, so it isn’t plied yet. I will finish them this week, ply them and maybe knit them into my northeasterly! Depends on my final length and thickness of the yarn.

No felting this week but I did prep some squares of black Icelandic wool fibre with some sari silk on my blending board. The idea being to test joining the squares together so they form one long rectangle. We will see how that works out and I will post some pictures when it is done.

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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

Year of Projects – week 28/52

I think this is the first year ever (well since I was old enough to write) that I haven’t written a list of new year’s resolutions! On the 3rd I packed away all our Christmas decorations, a bit early but the tree was drooping and dropping needles and I was ready for a tidy house.

It is interesting to be just over half way through the ‘Year of Projects’ and at the same time thinking about 2019 ambitions and plans. I obviously want to finish my list by the end of June, but also have been thinking of some other ideas for this year. As I haven’t really felt well enough to be knitting or doing other crafts I have been doing some catching up on other crafters blogs and vlogs, looking at Ravelry pattern searches and getting some inspiration for the year ahead.

I have decided to join in the Grocery Girls 2019 Sock Bash KAL, which in January has the theme of ‘local to me’, so I am going to use some of the locally dyed yarn I bought at Loch Ness Knit Fest. I still need to pick one of the skeins and a pattern but they’ll be short socks for my small feet. Under their KAL rules if you knit shorties then you need to knit 2 pair to qualify, I don’t wear long socks so better I make short socks I will wear. I can’t see me knitting 24 pairs of socks this year though, so suspect I will only lightly participate in the KAL.

In 2017 I knit a short sleeve chunky jumper that I wore on a walk on January 1st 2018 and haven’t worn since. I re-blocked it but realise I just don’t like how it sits on me. It’s too short, neck is too tight, it is still pretty stiff and scratchy wool and so at some point I am going to frog it. I will probably make a hat, cowl and mittens set with the yarn.

I have updated my YOP list to include the sock KAL, but still thinking and planning what else I may add to it, without endangering completion of everything already on it!

I had a go at making some rolags on my blending board on Boxing Day (before I was ill) and I seemed to wind them around the wooden poles so tightly it was very difficult to slide one of the poles out. It looks so easy on the clips on YouTube. I haven’t spun them yet.

On Saturday afternoon I found some clamps in the garage and had my first go with my hackle using some black suri alpaca, merino silk blend and mohair! You may think me nuts using expensive fibres for first attempts, but when it is spun I will knit it into a keepsake as my first attempt. It isn’t like I am short on fibre, I have 3 boxes like the one bottom left + tubs + cardboard boxes + bags!! I have more fibre than yarn at the moment, but given I wet felt, needle felt and spin it, that makes sense.

On Thursday, I made a start on the Northeasterly blanket by Melissa Alexander-Loomis aka Skeinanigans. The short rows are quite appealing, but I don’t have many sock yarn scraps at the moment, so will treat this as a very long term on-going project.

I know I have said it before, but I am so glad I joined this YOP group, it keeps me motivated, the other makers inspire me and I love seeing their weekly posts. 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 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

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Year of Projects – week 25/52

Knitting

The vanilla socks are finished and I’ll post a photo after Christmas, just in case the recipient reads my blog!

I started on the hat for my husband, using the corriedale fractal wool I spun (as shown in last week’s update). I am using a pretty simple ribbed pattern, as I think the yarn colours would blur an intricate design; plus cables work best with 3 ply, not 2 ply. It seems a long while since I have knit something with a worsted weight yarn and larger needles. So this photo is just one day’s progress, so should be finished early this week and I can do some selfish knitting.

$Allistar’s fractal hat$

The stressful situation I have been dealing with for a long time is finally over…so to treat myself I have bought some interchangeable needles. I prefer wood or bamboo needles, so opted for KnitPro Interchangeable needles in sizes 3.5mm to 8mm. And they perfectly fit in the opening flap pocket of my circular needle case I made! Perfect!!

Needle case — Colour is wrong on this photo…but you see the perfect fit

Felting

This week at my felting group I did some needle felting instead of wet felting for a change. I used a ball of wet felted samoyed dog hair I made months ago (these parts were too rough to spin). I then needle felted a picture similar to one I had noticed on Pinterest. I just need to sew a loop on top and hang it on the tree. It is very lightweight.

I also made some replacement pictures for a couple of Christmas frames I had. These are clearly mice who have been tucking into too much Christmas cheese!!! Especially the one on the left (she’s hanging a stocking on a toadstool…in case it isn’t clear.

Dyeing

Well you couldn’t make up my numptiness! I thought I would dye a skein of merino silk blend yarn. The idea being to test the different coloured landscape dyes I have and see how they turn out. So I carefully mixed the colours, put in little pots, kept the pots of dye in the same order…..then when I finished I packed it all away having not written notes about what colours I used where!!!! Doh!!!

The same day I also dyed my Shetland homespun yarn that I finished the week before. I used hot pink, raspbery and opal blue colours and Oh my goodness I love this purpleness! And this will be another hat for me! You can’t have enough purple hats!

Oh and for regulars to my blog, I have now finished watching all 12 seasons of Bones. It was easy to have on in the background without needing to watch the actual screen, so I could still be productive. Now to start watching Christmas movies!

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Year of Projects – week 24/52

Spinning

As we are approaching the half way point of the year of projects, I reviewed my YOP list and ticked off some things. I had been a bit vague about what I planned to spin during the year, so have updated my YOP page and will snapshot the progress when we get to week 26, like I did week 13.

After much indecision about what wet felted item I would make with my corriedale wool in poppy colourway (that was a prize from the Tour de Fleece), I instead decided to use it to create a ‘fractal yarn’. On the picture below you can see the original fibre, I then split it in half; one half (a) is split into the different shades and the other half (b) is split so it has each colour in each strip.

On bobbin 1 I spun (a) so I started with all the burgundy then all red and then all greens (BRG).

On bobbin 2 I spun (b) so spinning each of the multicoloured strips, starting with the burgundy ends each time.

I then plied the 2 bobbins together and that creates a fractal yarn. If you want 3 ply you would split the colours in 3 ways, e.g. bobbin 1 BRG, bobbin 2 BRG BRG BRG and bobbin 3 BRG BRG BRG BRG BRG BRG.

I love the end result and look forward to dyeing some fibre myself to give it another go. This handspun yarn will be used to make a ribbed hat for my husband. He has green eyes, so it should suit him well.

I also finished spinning my Shetland wool, transferring what was on my spindle onto the larger amount on my spinning wheel. I set it and then remembered I am going to be dyeing it so probably didn’t need to soak and snap it before dyeing. Ah well! Once I have dyed it I will post a photo!

My camel and silk handspun yarn is dry so that is all labelled and ready to make something with. It is the softest yarn I have ever held. Has anyone just kept hanks of wool to cuddle!? It is soooo soft to touch I love the feel of it.

Hopefully in this photo you will better see the colour differences between standard and chain plying…the colours on the chain ply are more evident (top and bottom hanks). I haven’t chosen a pattern for it yet, something to go against my skin for sure!

Knitting

I have cast on a new pair of socks, this time just a vanilla pattern, in the hope I will have them finished before Christmas! I decided to cast on 64 stitches with my 2.5mm sockwunder needle and so far it looks a much better sized sock. I can’t believe how fast I can knit a vanilla sock with this needle, highly recommend for speed. Next on the needles will be the fractal spun yarn hat. My Lintilla has been temporarily parked, I thought I could try alternating between projects but the socks have a deadline so are getting all my focus.

Felting and fibre craft

I have mentioned my fairies before, but thought I would post a picture of them all hanging, so you know where they live! Also I ordered a couple of empty baubles from World of Wool and popped some sparkly fibre in them and hung them on the real Christmas tree. They are very hard to take a photo of and you’ll notice a reflection of Bones TV show lol! I am already on Season 10!

Finally, I was inspired by @Gilliangladrag Instagram to make a fibre christmas pudding. I used milk protein top for the brandy sauce. If you need a few moments of joy each day then I recommend following @Gilliangladrag and watching her daily stories. She owns the Gilliangladrag Fluff-a-torium shop in Dorking, England. Unfortunately, I live hundreds of miles away so haven’t been, but have bought her fibre blends and some other bits from her online shop.

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Year of Projects- week 22/52

Having taken a break from the problem sock situation this week, I started to knit “Lintilla” pattern from Martina Behm (designer of the hitchhiker shawl which I’ve done 3 versions of). This is my first pattern with wrap and turn stitches and in the variegated yarn from Ripples Crafts I really like it. This is sock wool with some nylon in, so this isn’t going to be a cosy fluffy scarf/shawl, but it is ideal for practicing new stitches and should last well and stand up to lots of wear.

At felting group this week I made a present, which will need to be posted on here after Christmas. I am really pleased with it, no idea what the fibre was, as it was out of my stash I bought with my spinning wheel.

I had some time left over so used some black suri alpaca fibre and sari silk to make a thin scarf. It is very thin in places but its lovely and soft and has lovely drape to it. It is hard to photograph to do it justice. It was an experiment really, but a nice result.

I have been working my way through episodes of Bones on Amazon Prime, whilst doing a lot of spinning. This is the baby camel and silk blend I have mentioned before. The smaller (bottom) skein was Navajo plied (chain ply) and you can see (hopefully) that you get separate sections of colour rather than just the barber pole type effect you get when you ply 3 bobbins (which is how I plied the larger top skein). I’m only just over half way through spinning it all, so I am hoping to get a decent sized item out of it when its finished….what that item will be I am not sure yet. The colours are subtle and again not photographing well. The weight is DK-ish, i.e. worsted and sport weight in places!

I thought I’d post a wee photo of my Shetland spinning on my spindle, so I can check progress.

Making things definitely lifts my spirits, so it has been a better week. Oh and I have managed to sell some kitchen gadgets and a game. My Christmas presents arrived this week…I will wait until Christmas to use them, but they are fibre related so I am looking forward to trying them out after Christmas. More on them and their outputs in the new year!

There’s another felting group in mid-December, so I need to have a think about what I’d like to make then, perhaps do some needle felting for a change.

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Year of Projects – week 11/52

This week I wanted to tidy the sunroom and dining area, which meant dealing with the fibre hanging around, waiting to be drum carded. I have borrowed the carder from my felting group, so need to return it at the end of the month.

The first half of the Samoyed dog hair has now been washed numerous times and drum carded and comes to 118g (4.16 oz). The other half has been washed and has been drying most of the week, so I will card it next week. There is still a whiff of dog about it, but once spun it will need washing again and hopefully that will work. I started pulling guard hairs out, but lost the will, perhaps as I spin I will try to pull out any very thick ones.

I also drum carded some brown alpaca, this is just a small amount from a much larger bag of alpaca fibre I picked up at a de-stash sale. I am not enjoying processing raw alpaca fibre…it is just soooooo dusty and full of vegetable matter (vm) that I dread processing the rest. I thought I would see what its like spun and then decide about the rest. I got in a mess with trying to create a rolag (see pic), so folded the other as a batt, and have separated them in a boot box with acid free paper ready for spinning.

I also drum carded this black fibre, I picked up in a stash with my spinning wheel. I am not 100% sure what it is, given the lack of grease, the amount of dust/vm and the softness, I think it is alpaca. The staple length varies but is mostly pretty long with odd short fat curls, which could be from its head? I am not an expert in fibres, but alpaca is my best guess. This photo is only a small part, there’s actually 119g of it now carded….similar amount to the white Samoyed…so I could try a humbug inspired ply (does the US have humbug sweets/candy!?!?!) Or I could knit something with black and white stripes?!

Onto more fun things I have done…

I finished my 3rd Hitchhiker scarf (albeit with some pattern variations shown on my Ravelry Project page). I love this pattern because I have memorised it (not hard, its just 8 rows repeated); you easily can tell where you are, so you can squeeze in a row when you have a few minutes; and you can make the scarf any size you want, so ideal for homespun yarn you aren’t sure how much there is. There is something pretty very cool about making something with yarn you have spun yourself. This is the first garment I have made with my homespun yarn and now the evenings are getting colder I will have a chance to wear it!

I have purchased some more of Martina Behm’s patterns, so will post details of those when I have done them. They call for fingering weight so its something to aspire to achieving in my spinning.

I finished spinning and made 3 ply yarn from my early dyeing attempts of British 56s wool. I had spun 2 bobbins of singles a while ago, so did 3rd today and then plied. What was left over on one bobbin I chain plied and feel I am getting better each time.

On Thursday I wet felted something for my sister’s 50th, but I won’t post the picture(s) yet, as its not her birthday until next week!

Other than that I have been knitting my cardigan….suspect I will be saying that for many weeks! If only I had chosen a stockinette and not American moss stitch and cable pattern!! Ah well!

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Year of Projects – weeks 9 & 10/52

Not much done…in fact nothing on my YOP list, but I have expanded my stash, which was definitely not on my ‘to do list’ oops!

But whilst in Orkney for a week, you HAVE to buy some wool from the rare North Ronaldsay sheep, which eat the seaweed on the coast of North Ronaldsay and Isle of Auskerry, which are the only 2 places they live. So when I say ‘some wool’, what I mean is…

Enough undyed wool to knit a jumper (6 balls in Seal Grey and 1 in Slate Grey)
Enough dyed wool to add some interest to the jumper or for accessories
Enough fibre (in 3 different natural colours) to spin goodness knows how much more yarn

Oh and…

some silk hankies and silk in colours that will go on the scarf I am going to make for my sister’s 50th birthday (hand dyed on Orkney)
And while I’m at it I may as well buy 200g of sari silk because it was too beautiful and reasonably priced not to..despite having nothing to do with Orkney!!!

Hopeless!!

Anyway, I did manage to knit a bit of my 3rd hitchhiker scarf, using home spun yarn and did some spinning of one of my first dyeing efforts.

If you are interested in seeing some pictures of Orkney, please check out my Week in Orkney post.

British 56s spinning — British 56s spun from first dyeing and drum carding practice

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Year of Projects – Week 8/52

Having signed up to join in on the Year of Projects 2018 on Ravelry, I had forgotten all the rules and was creating things but not doing the weekly Sunday blog posts and sharing the link on the Ravelry group page. So on Thursday I remembered to share the link…but now realise some of those things were done this week and not the week before! Also I’ve commented about other people’s blogs on the group page, which I don’t think I am supposed to do. So basically a total muddle. Hopefully the group members will forgive my blunderings. 🤞

It is interesting to see all the different projects people are working on, and how I am not alone in having lots of different types of projects on the go at the same time.

If you are interested to see what the Year of Projects on Ravelry is about click here.

So this week I also made the project bag and notions pouch and spun some Samoyed dog hair (as shown on my previous post)! Both should have been on my projects list as I was expecting the dog hair and had the material to make the project bag!! Hopeless!

I also finished spinning the ethereal ether fibre from Gilliangladrag…I was going to post a poll on my HighlandHeffalump Facebook page, but see (below) what Facebook said about it! The poll was going to ask if people thought I should over dye it with a brighter colour!!! Seeing as Facebook thinks its a nude body I decided to definitely dye it with some deeper colours!

Suspect the position of my finger didn’t help matters! 🤣

I did dye a previous batch of this when it was spun, as I thought the colour definitions had been lost and I love the wee drink cosy I made from that batch, so tried to replicate that again. Its a shame to dye what started off as such pretty colours, but this fibre is better suited to wet or needle felting I think…or a method of spinning that maintains the colours better.

I have kept aside a small amount unspun in case I ever make a unicorn, as the colours would be great for a pastel rainbow mane and tail…but what I have spun I used as more dyeing practice using hot pink, Ice and Opal mixed in different quantities, and carefully applied with a pipette to get lots of variation, only to discover it was all pooling together underneath the yarn, so has ended up with less tonal changes than planned…it is also spookily similar to our bedding colour! I am such a purple addict!!!

Talking of purple, I had a go at felting a lightweight scarf using merino, silk and some locks…of course its purple! The next one I make I will only have the locks on one side, as they are a bit scratchy on my neck.

No new knitting or crocheting is allowed until my Chimney Fire cardigan is finished! It must be finished by the time it gets to winter. Although saying that we are off to the Orkney Isles for a week camping in a tent and I won’t want to take that, so maybe I can let myself do another shawl with some homespun that week.

To help keep track of my YOP list I have created a separate page with the list, so I can tick things off when completed and add links to the separate posts.

So fellow YOPers please forgive my faulty start 🙄

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Catch up on projects

I haven’t posted on my blog recently so I thought I’d do a catch up post on what I have been up to.

Dyeing

I had a go at dyeing 200g of White Cheviot Super Chunky Weight wool. I started using Azalea and Tasman colours from the Landscape dyes and then added Pilbara and then put some Ashford Hot Pink mixed with Ice (blue). This wool was a real sponge soaking up the colours, so I just kept chucking more of the colours in! I love the finished hank, except the Tasman colour has made a few green bits. I don’t have much imagination for colourway naming, so this is logged in Ravelery as “Dusty Rose”.

Sewing

Today I made a knitting project bag and notions pouch.

Wet and needle felting

At my felting group I made my first picture, of a Highland Cow! He has a hunchback and some other issues, but for a first attempt at a proper picture I am quite happy.

Spinning

My neighbour’s parents have a Samoyed dog and kindly collected some dog hair brushings for me to spin. I have only done a test spin and chain ply with one handful and I’m excited to spin the 2 bags full that I have. My first attempt was unwashed when spun and I am going to try a small washed batch to see how that compares. The raw fur was lovely to spin with, very soft on my fingers, but my dog, Ylva, kept coming over for a sniff!

Knitting

My Chimney Fire cardigan is progressing, despite a number of struggles with the pattern. I have a baking tray with various sections of the pattern stuck on with magnets and have a list of row numbers so I don’t lose track of which body row number goes with which cable pattern. I did the same for the collar section too, where there were 3 different row numbers to keep track of on each knitted row!!

Tour de Fleece

Finally, I mentioned previously that I had taken part in this year’s Tour de Fleece, as part of The Corner of Knit and Tea team. I was randomly selected to receive a fiber gift and all the way from Kansas, USA came this lovely Corriedale wool in Poppy colourway. I am thinking I may use it to wet felt a poppy handbag or poppy picture, rather than spinning it. It also came with a couple of tea bags too. 😁i

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Dyeing practice and my first go with a drum carder

It has been so hot here in the Highlands of Scotland…not America hot but hotter than any other summer I ever remember, especially for the Highlands.

So what did I choose to practice on the hottest day of the year??? Dyeing fibre! Yep a steaming hot pan of fibre and dye on a summers day!

Despite the heat I really enjoyed the process of playing around with some of the dyes. I already had a hot pink but combined with the Opal coloured landscape dye made a lovely purple. This time rather than adding knots I made a crochet chain of fibre and plopped the dyes on randomly…when the dye was almost exhausted in the pan I undid the chain so the white parts could pick up the last traces of the turquoise.

I loved the finished fibre and wondered what it would look like spun.

Meanwhile, I went to my monthly Highland Felters meeting today and discovered they have a drum carder that you can borrow. So when I had finished my initial construction of a Highland Coo picture (more on that when it is finished) I came home and wanted to play with the drum carder. What fibre was literally hanging around? Yep, I took it down from the drying pole and fed it into the drum carder.

The results are these 2 lovely batts (plus some scraps stuck on one of the drums). I will post an update when its spun, but so far I LOVE the colours. I am going to a 3 day music festival on Thursday but for sure I will be playing around with the drum carder at the start of the week.

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My first attempts at dyeing – Part 2

A quick update on yesterday’s blog post.

I have knitted up the small amount of dyed ethereal ether into this wee drinks cosy! This was an early spinning attempt so its unofficial thick’n’thin! But I LOVE the colours! I need to try to repeat this in a larger batch and make something bigger.

Also I have spun the dyed fibre; I made a 2 ply (right of pic) trying to get different colours in each single, and with what was left on one bobbin I had some practice at Navajo (chain) plying (left). This gave me a nice break from spinning the purple and gold tops. I did have a slight disaster where I had z spun my singles and then started z plying them!!! I wish I’d had a free hand to take a photo of what that looked like when I pulled it off the bobbin!! Anyhoo, I managed to rescue it.

I have decided I am definitely going to spin up the rest of the ethereal ether and dye it, I just don’t like the original colours when spun, but LOVE the colour range when dyed. Fingers crossed it will work.

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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?