WIP Wednesday - Oh my, where did all this come from??

I felt this morning that I hadn't really done that much this week to write about. I've been kind of skipping between projects again, and that's made me feel like I've hardly accomplished anything on any of them. Then I went through my project bags to take photos :)

I've been knitting on three projects this week. I've got an afterthought pair of socks on the go - this pair from the toe up. No photos yet of them though. And I cast on two new scarf projects. I finished the Willow Scarf (I think I said that already in another post) but it's not steamed out yet, so it doesn't count as an FO yet.

The first scarf is another rectangular scarf to work on when the bf's mother comes to visit. I'm using yarn from two cones held double, so it has to stay beside the sofa, and that's the only time I'm on there. Same yarn as the willow scarf - laceweight burgundy acrylic. I got the two cones from a charity shop ages ago, and they've been never ending. This should be the last scarf that comes off those cones though, they're nearly finished! :D



The pattern is Falling Water by Bonnie Sennott. It's a free pattern off Ravelry. I cast on 48sts, (an extra couple of repeats) and it's been going really fast. I chose that pattern because the repeats are quite a few rows long, so I wouldn't get bored with it so easily. That's the plan anyway. I've got to the stage where I've memorised the pattern, and can just read where I am on my knitting, which is always good :)

I also cast on Celaeno by Rosemary Hill, from the 7 small shawls ebook (the first one). This is the first pattern I've knit from that book so far, but there are lots more that I want to make from it. I've purchased the second book too - can't wait to see the patterns she comes up with for it!

I'm using the Sundara fingering silky merino that I won in a blog giveaway from Lina at photoknitdog. It's so lovely to knit with!! So soft and squishy! I'm really enjoying it. I was going to make Elektra from the same book with it, but it turned out that I didn't have quite enough yardage for it. With this pattern, I have a bit too much yardage, but I'm just going to make the shawl/scarf bigger. I've knit up to the point where the pattern says to start the lace, but I'm going to follow her instructions for making it bigger and knit more garter stitch.



I've also done lots of spinning and spinning related stuff. I plied and set the green yarn I'd been working on (it turned out to be merino), and I'm very happy with it. I'll be casting that on soon, as a pair of Deep In The Forest mittens. The pattern is printed and I'm all ready to go!









I was worried that the dark green would be a lot thinner than the light green, but I think it'll be fine. Setting the yarn seemed to make it a lot more similar to my eyes at least.

I also spun and plied all of the pink fibre that I had.





This is corridale - I'm going to make some sort of scarf/shawl thing from it but I haven't decided yet. It turned out to be somewhat of an aran weight - I'll have to search Ravelry and see what patterns are there. I had quite a bit less of the dark pink, so I still have some light pink singles sitting in my basket. I'm going to go back to my LYS and see if they've got more of the dark pink, then spin that up to go with it (there's enough of the light pink left to make that worthwhile)



And so, with all that spun, I was still itching to spin something, so I went back to some cream coloured corridale that I'd spun singles of ages ago. So long ago, that the twist is completely unenergised just now. So I'm plying them up, and I'll see what they turn out like.

And that's another WIP Wednesday! I've been a lot busier that I thought I had, and I've still got 2 FO posts to write :D

WIP Wednesday - Pink Bubblegum

This week I've been spinning :)



This is baby pink Corriedale fibre spun into singles on my spindle. I spun this at spinning guild on Saturday. I'm using my heavier spindle, which I'm not terribly good at using, so the singles are a bit uneven, but I'm not terribly bothered. It'll all even out in the plying (I hope) ;)



The colour of this fibre spun up is sooooo pink! My next door neighbour's girls would just love this, it's so pink (they're a bit obsessed with that colour, which makes for interesting viewing when they have all their toys out in the front garden). I've got a darker pink which I think I'm going to ply it with, to mute the girliness a little.

I've spun three lots of 25g so far. I have 100g of this, and 100g of the darker pink, and I'm going to spin them all together, and make some sort of scarf, I think. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I spun 25g, but didn't get any done yesterday. I'm not taking part in this year's Tour de Fleece, but I do want to get this spun up quickly.

I've also been plying the green yarn I was spinning a few weeks ago. I think the two greens have turned out to be different weights though :( The light green seems to be a bit heavier than the dark green, so I don't know if I'll be able to combine them to make mittens. I think I'll just have to buy more dark green fibre, it's the only thing for it, lol! The dark green I've got just now might have to go with that dark pink that I spun intending it to be for the galileo mittens, but it was too thin... I don't know. I've still got to ply the last lot then set the twist, so I'll decide after that.

Social Crafting

I haven't written since before I went to the spinning guild, but I have that and more social knitting to write about! I've been a busy little bee :D

The guild was awesome!! It was so lovely to be in a room full of people who were also really into making things with fibre! It was the first meeting of the year, and also the Annual General Meeting of the guild so there were a lot of people there. The hall was full of spinning wheels and looms :) I took my spindle along and started plying my pink yarn while I was there. I got a bit tangled more than once, but it was lots of fun, and to see the things other people were making was just so inspirational. There were amazing arty yarns which I just loved. It gave me lots of ideas :) There were also projects people had brought that they had made from their own handspun, or yarn or fibre they had dyed, and it was so cool to see just what could be made! Who knew that all these talented crafters lived near me? It's something you don't hear about generally, but there are all these people around being so creative and amazing, it's just astounding!

Once I got back home, I sat and plied yarn all evening on my spindle. I figured out the perfect technique for minimizing tangles while sitting on my sofa (not sure I could manage it while in public, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out) My singles had been rolled into a ball, because they were so thin that it seemed easier to do that than attempt to ply it using my makeshift lazykate (chopsticks and a cardboard box). Ha!! The balls rolled everywhere, got tangled in everything. Then the singles would twist back on themselves and create knots that I had to untangle while trying to keep everything else from tangling. I figured that when I'm on my sofa at least, I can put one ball on my knee, and one down by my left side on the sofa. Then I put a book or something in front of that ball to stop it rolling on the floor (the one on my knee I have more control over stopping doing that) That seems to work well for plying thin singles on a spindle. I'll need to get a photo of me doing that, I don't know if I described it well enough.

I also was so excited that I blabbed on to the bf and his mother for about two hours about spinning and all the ideas I had. I'm sure they thought I was completely mental, especially when I told them about my idea for an art yarn involving barbie heads ;) But it had been so nice to be with people who understood spinning and crafting and accept the mentalness that goes with it :)

Then this Saturday I went to the knitting group at Twist Fibre craft studio. That was a lot of fun. I was knitting my Maeva socks (more on those in another post, but here's a quick pic)



I was on the cuff, which is just moss ribbing and I had been getting a bit bored working on them at home, so I took them with me. I managed to race 3/4 of the way up the cuff while I was there, which was great! It was much easier to knit them while talking to other people about knitting and crafting (and a side journey into talking about bed bugs and cockroaches, but I won't subject you to that here, it made me itch just thinking about them!) My friend that I'd gone with came to the Twist Fibre group too, so that was fun, to see her again.

I had loads of fun at both these events, and now I can't wait till next month for the next meetings :)

Excited :D

Tomorrow I'm going to a spinning guild meeting :)

Well, a weaving/spinning/dying guild, but there's spinning!! And since I've been using my spindle more and more recently, I'm super excited about going.

One of my friends from dance class spins, and it turns out that she's been going to this guild for ages, so I asked her if I could tag along :D The meeting is held in a nearby village, so it's easily reachable by the bus, which is great! I'm very excited about getting to meet other people who do fibery stuff. I already go to the knitting morning which is held every month at my LYS (twist fibre craft studio), and it'll be great to meet even more people who are into the same stuff as me. From what my friend told me about the guild, it sounds very interesting - classes, sales, demos, I can't wait!!

Here's some of the spinning I've been doing recently.







It's hot pink corriedale, which I purchased from twist fibre. I've got about 75g of that and 75g of black, which I've already spun up into singles. However, tiny black strands of fibre is really hard to photograph :/ The pink was easier :) I've finished spinning the pink into singles now, and I'm going to ply them up next. Just black with black and pink with pink. Then I'm going to make some colourwork mittens or something with them. I think it'll end up being a DK weight. I'm using my smaller spindle that I got at Knit Camp, and I'm getting a lot better at spinning the singles consistently. There's still some thicker and some thinner bits, but it'll even out in the plying, I think.

Can't wait till tomorrow!!! :D

My Tour De Fleece Spinning

My plan for the tour de fleece was simple, just to spin :) I didn't manage every day, but I got quite a bit done, and my spinning has definitely improved.

This is what I managed to get done:



and this is one of the chopsticks of single ply up close:



I bought a big bag of corriedale fiber from Twist Fibre Craft Studios. I bought 3 colours, because part of the thing that intrigues me about spinning is the ability to mix different colours, and create different effects. So what I've been doing with the three colours of orange that I have is just taking out a piece, spinning it onto the spindle, then taking a piece of another colour, and just joining it straight on. I've been choosing the size and colour of the pieces at random. Then, once I've spun up all the fibre (I probably have another chopstick's worth of fiber left, if not two!), I'll ply them into a 2-ply yarn. The colours should mix together totally randomly, I'm sure it'll be very interesting. But spinning gives me a way to experiment with colour in a way that I'm not too comfortable doing in knitting or crochet. I'm really enjoying the randomness :)

I've also spun some other singles:





I'm going to ply these together to make a barber-pole effect yarn - which reminds me, I haven't posted my other attempt at this sort of yarn yet! Must take pics tomorrow and post about it!!

I've been doing quite a lot of knitting and crochet as well, which is the reason why I didn't finish the whole bag of orange corriedale fiber in the actual tour de fleece. Of course, I need to catch up on photo-taking for that too :/ I'm so bad at getting photos, I just tend to get really excited about the next project and jump right onto it!

My First Handspun Yarn!!

Yes, I've finally gone over to the dark side (they had cookies, I couldn't help it!), and have finally learnt to spin!

I got a spindle way back in February, but I was a bit intimidated by it, and it just kind of sat at the top of my shelves for a few months. Then I saw that my local yarn shop, Twist Fibre Craft Studios, was running a drop spindle class last month. So I booked in before my courage ran out, and then excitedly waited for it to come along.

The class was great! There were four of us there and we got shown the basics of spinning, told a bit about the history and techniques, then given some fibre and encouraged to go right ahead and just do it.

It was much easier than I thought it would be! And so much more fun! Very addictive :D In the class I didn't really understand the whole mixing colour thing (my brain was obviously trying too hard to get the technique to think about things like colour!), so I stuck with one colour of fibre to make my first handspun:







It was very "rustic" ie, lots of thick and thin bits, but once it was plied together and set, it evened out and I'm really pleased with it. It turned out to be a chunky/bulky weight yarn once plied and set. I've no idea how many yards it is though. It kind of seperated into three skeins because I had to judge halfway to ply it, and I didn't do too well at that judging. Also, my joining of bits of fibre wasn't great, so a couple of pieces kind of came apart when I was plying them. I'm much better at joining them now though. Practice makes perfect! This was done in the middle of June, so I've done a little more spinning since then, and am even taking part in the Tour De Fleece over on Ravelry. I haven't been active on the boards due to this grotty cold/infection that I've had, but I've been spinning nearly every day, and it's so much fun! Only trouble is, I thought I had a big enough problem with buying yarn, now I have to resist filling the house up with spindles and fibre too!