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 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 27/52

Christmas presents can now be revealed!

This is the scarf I wet felted for my dad. From the softness and sheen on the wool fibre, I think it is Blue Faced Leicester fibre. It was part of the stash I bought with my spinning wheel. It is nice and soft so can easily be folded over and wrapped round his neck and keep him warm when playing golf or at the football.

The socks I made him used Susan B. Anderson’s How I Make My Socks pattern, after the disastrous previous attempt at another pattern which resulted in a giant sock. The photo isn’t great as they were finished, wrapped and posted off pretty quickly. The yarn was from Henny Penny Makes, an indie dyer who was at Loch Ness Knit Fest. I really like the colour-way, called Squid Ink. He says they are a perfect fit, which is a big relief.

My husband has had a bad case of man flu over Christmas, so this has meant I have been able to continue my Void shawl more than expected. The marker shows my progress, but is deceiving as this is getting so much wider with each row. I am on the 2nd of 6 balls so this will be very long when finished.

For Christmas I received a blending board and hackle…more on those next week!

On Boxing Day (day after Christmas Day) we always go to the pantomime, but he felt too ill to go and my MIL doesn’t like panto, so I went on my own. I took my Lintilla with me to knit in the interval, but instead bought an ice-cream. I still enjoyed the panto and joined in with all the booing the baddie and shouting “he’s behind you” etc. Towards the end they invited some children on stage and asked them to name an animal so that we could all sing a version of ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ and make the animal noises. The first girl said ‘panda’! It was hilarious as no-one in the theatre knows what noise a panda makes, so lots of strange noises made. There was a wee 6 year old boy on the stage who, when asked who he’d come with, replied ‘my mum and dad, my granny and grandad and my spare granny’. This got the biggest laugh of the night. I love the panto, it is a thoroughly British Christmas tradition and I’m glad I still went.

As I have now fallen ill with the bug and needed some mindless knitting to do I have made quite a bit of progress on Lintilla. I forgot to pop a marker in from last time, but there’s now quite a few ripples. I am thinking that I won’t make this too big, but at the moment not sure how big to make it. It’s sock wool so not cosy soft, perhaps when finished a good soak in fabric conditioner may soften it up a bit. Any ideas?

I have done a blog post summarising 2018, this includes a selection of achievements and memorable things and it has a selection of photos of things I have created this year.

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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 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 – weeks 15&16/52

After a lovely week away at a holiday cottage on the West Coast of Scotland, this week has been so stressful and depressing. I need to keep up with my projects to keep me sane and keep me from slipping back into depression.

I have put up lots of unused craft supplies on Facebook Marketplace and already have sold some things. This was prompted by me having too many warning signs I was teetering on the edge of being a full blown hoarder. For anyone interested here’s a link to that post. I think its important as a community we show that life has ups and downs and that’s ok and normal. Electronic lives can seem like everyone is living perfect lives.

A quick update on my nuno felted scarf that I was unhappy with; I re did it adding more fibre around the edges and the roses. I am so much happier with it. It is so light to wear but warm!

Last week I finished Allistar’s first sock and I am doing the heel of the 2nd at the moment. Already I spot they aren’t ‘Pairfect’…as per the yarn name. My long tail cast ons were different tail lengths and despite re-doing the cast on 3 times it wasn’t perfect, so this has had a knock on affect at the top of the foot! Typical as thats the bit people will see when he sits down. The yarn was really splitting though so a 4th attempt wasn’t possible.

I wanted to see what the sari silk looked like felted, so made a weird shaped scissors case! I love the silks and wish I had loaded more on!

I joined the Brit Spin marathon on Ravelry, in team ‘More enthusiasm than skill’. Our team each received 100g of Shetland fibre from our sponsors Curtis Fibres. It is now the morning of the 4th and final day of the challenge and I have only managed to spin a third of the Shetland so far, partly because I am trying to spin very fine so that I end up with a 3 ply fingering weight yarn, but mostly because I am frantically dashing from one priority to the next, not sleeping well and really feeling the physical signs of some stress I am under at the moment. My fitbit says my heart rate was in fat burn for 15 hours on Friday despite me not actually exercising! When I did some spinning at 6.30am, having been awake for hours, you can see my heart rate drop. It drops again when I did some spinning about 2.30pm…the final drop is when my husband tried it on! I wish I was better equipped to manage stress, but at least I know the spinning makes a physical positive difference.

Stress! — Stress affecting my heart rate

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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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Hitchhiker scarf

I found this pattern when searching Ravelry for something to make with a ball of light fingering weight Reliable Sock Yarn I had in my stash. My yarn was from Ripples Crafts Hand Dyed Yarn, Helen is an independent local(ish) dyer and can be found along the North Coast 500 route so at some point I will pop in. Helen also sells online with worldwide shipping and attends various yarn festivals in the UK and Ireland. I have made quite a few hats and fingerless gloves with Helen’s sock yarns and they are warm, fit in your pocket and are lasting really well…although I did lose one in Italy 😢

I started the scarf in April and finished it at 1am last night…I was determined to finish it in May…it was still May somewhere!

The hitchhiker pattern can be bought online through Ravelry and cost €4.30 when I bought it. This pattern is linked to nearly 30,000 projects on Ravelry!!! I’m sure some people make a few different versions, but still…this must have made its designer a good income…oh to come up with a popular and unique pattern!

I used an alteration to the pattern for the final edge (that has teeth rather than the pattern’s straight edge). For those with a Ravelry account this was found on Amanda2127’s Reflective Hitchhiker. The only problem was I started to panic over how much yarn that would use and so I’ve ended up with a fair bit of yarn left, not enough to make anything useful I imagine, I should perhaps have weighed it rather than guessing.

If I make another I will do the Hitchhiker with eyelets adaptation that lots of others on Ravelry have done, with eyelets on each 8th row. I may also go up a needle size as this seemed to take forever to make.

My sister is buying me some blocking boards for my birthday next week, so it will be blocked then…but for now here’s how it looks unblocked.

I have caught the knitting bug!

Whilst taking a year off from work, I decided to learn how to knit! And now I can’t stop knitting things. YouTube, Pinterest and Ravelry are my new best friends, with so many ideas for making things with the yarns that I have accumulated over the last few years.

Buying yarn is quite addictive! I have logged all my yarns in Ravelry and realise I need to resist buying any more yarn until I have made at least some impact on my stash…that said, there’s a Knit Fest coming to my town in the next couple of months eek! Can I resist buying more?

One of my favourite suppliers is Ripples Crafts, they sell sock yarn that crochets into really warm hats that don’t take up too much room in your pocket and the colours are amazing. I lost the first hat I crocheted with their yarn, and was pretty devastated for sentimental reasons, but also the batches of colours are small, so finding the same coloured thread would be impossible. If I can ever stop knitting items, I will get around to learning how to crochet proper stitches and patterns! But I’ve enjoyed giving it a go.

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