Kiwi Wheel

I have a new spinning wheel.

I got an Ashford Traditional at Christmas  for a bargain price....  But I never really got on with it.  I held on to Natalie's Kiwi until I had finished the fibre I was on and then returned it to her.  In the meantime I tried the Traditional and every time got cross with it and me - we weren't bonding.

Then the week I returned the Kiwi to Natalie I was offered a cornflower blue Kiwi and I declined and I turned it down.  It just didn't speak to me.  Then.... only a couple of days later I saw a scarlet Kiwi for sale and of course it was now almost my birthday....  so I grabbed it- yippee.

She arrived and was re-assembled - didn't take too long.  Here she is in all her glory:

Isn't she gorgeous?  The previous owner called her Marcy - but don't think that's a name that works for me.  She's definitely a lady.  Something red?  Scarlet, Red, Ferrari, Ruby ???  What do you think?

Here's a close up of the kiwi itself:

And what is she like to spin on?  A dream.  An absolute dream - I have been spinning so much.

I have spun this:

All the Pretty Fibres - 2 Drum Carded Batts - 100g - 100% Merino Wool

Into this:

I also finished spinning some rainbow pencil roving and made this:

I really am enjoying spinning with this wheel - she's a keeper.

Of course I now have an Ashford Traditional Wheel for sale....

An Olympian Challenge

I have been planning (and blogging about) a jumper for my husband for quite some time. It has been started a few times and frogged back for different reasons. It was going to be Cheesy Puffs at one point but I finally settled on the Elizabeth Zimmermann's EPS jumper. It is a simple pattern using lots of (easy) calculations to determine how many stitches you cast on/increase by etc...

The Yarn Harlot has used the Winter Olympics (again) as an opportunity for knitters/spinners/crocheters to start a project during the Opening Ceremony and the idea is you complete it before the Closing Ceremony (or during if you are running out of time...)

I signed up for it with Martin's jumper as my challenge. I won't keep you in suspense - I didn't finish it. It was just too big a challenge for me - especially being a slow knitter. A bad cold in the middle of the 17 days didn't exactly help either.

Anyway - I am pleased with the progress. I have done about a half of the body and almost finished the first sleeve.

Here's the body:


Here's the sleeve:



The stitch markers show where I have increased so that I can match the other arm.

I am loving the colour - it's called Oatmeal and is from New Lanark (bulky). It has lovely yellow flecks all through it and it gives a lovely effect. It also knits up incredibly quickly which for this slow knitter is ideal.