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.

Woolfish Meal and Swap

It had been a while since I had been to my old knitting group. I now live almost an hour and a half away so it now needs more planning.

Anyway - before Christmas we had decided we would meet up and have lunch together one Saturday. We also pulled names out of a hat and we were to make something for someone else using no more than one ball of wool.

Over Christmas and New Year I had a lot of time for knitting so I made the gorgeous Crest of the Wave Scarf by Judy Jacobs. It's a very simple pattern with just 12 rows to repeat - perfect for my little brain ;-)

I made it using a ball of Posh Lei in mermaid so it was a lovely mix of blues and greens.

The .pdf is available here.

I had a fun time choosing the beads - it took me so long to decide - so in the end I used two colours. A bronze to contrast with the yarn and a green to add a bit of sparkle.

I think Irene was pleased with it.

(Sorry - the colours are a bit off)

I received this unusual scarf/neck warmer. It is made from the softest cashmere in a lovely olive green with a flowery wooden button to hold it together. It's great isn't it? Perfect for keeping my neck warm.

I think everyone was delighted with their presents and the meal was fantastic too.

There are more pictures of some of the other creations over on Louise's Blog.

Personal Sock Club

There is a new fad about. It’s the personal sock club. Yarn Harlot has talked about it and it has been a common conversation on Ravelry.

Basically what you do is instead of subscribing to an online sock club where you get new yummy yarn each month you create your own. So you raid your stash - choose twelve sock yarns and twelve patterns. Pair them up and knit one pair a month. You need to package up the pairs - so you have everything you need to hand. Buy the patterns, download them, print them, photocopy if you have the book, or put a reference in with the yarn telling you where to find the pattern. The Yarn Harlot has bagged hers up. For the first month she just reached in and grabbed one blind. Another friend has wrapped hers up in brown paper so she’s no sure which one she will pick (and got someone else to number them.)

We started discussing this in the Yarn Yard’s shed on Ravelry and I have hatched my own plan.

Here are my rules…

• There is no deadline - if it takes longer than a month that’s okay.
  
• I am not playing catch up for missing January
  
• I am not just doing socks
  
• I do not have to finish one to start another
  
• I do not have to limit my number to 12

So - I have searched the stash and pulled out some yarn I want to use. Some of it was bought for specific projects and this is my kick to start those projects. I still have some gaps - so need some help deciding on projects for some of the yarn. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Noro Striped scarf using Silk Garden Lite - I have a specific person in mind for this - so have a birthday deadline. So this may well be the first to be cast on.
2. Little Birds jumper by Ysolda using Jamieson’s Spindrift. I have changed the base colour to dark brown and am using pink/blue/pale yellow for the birds.
   
3. 5 skeins of deep red/pink Noro Lily. I got these in a swap and love the colour and really need help finding the perfect pattern.
   
4. Yarn Yard Croft - in a deep red. This lovely tweed-look yarn needs a great pattern - any ideas?
   
5. Clan - two 65g skeins in deep brown and one skein undyed - so obviously this needs colourwork/fair-isle - maybe gloves/mittens? Ideas please.
   
6. Iceland lace-weight yarn in pale pink. Small ball (need to weigh this and work out its WPI) brought back from Iceland by my Mum. Thinking something lace-weight. This will not be for me - but will be a gift - something pretty?
   
7. 100g of Caber by the Yarn Yard - in a silver grey - ideas please.
   
8. Deep red Alp from the Yarn Yard - super squishy. Inspiration needed.
   
9. 1 ball of Rowan Big Wool in deep purple. 1 ball. Bought to make a scarf for Orla - maybe just a cowl/neck type one? Ideas please.
   
10. Yarn Yard Club Yarn Bonny This is lovely pink/orange/green - with a plain mini-skein of pink. Thinking maybe socks using the contrast for toe/cuffs/heel. I have TWO sets of this though - so could consider a larger project - maybe a cardigan using the contrasting colour for button band/collar… Just had a revelation - this lovely cardigan was mentioned today on Ravelry - wonder if I have enough yarn for it?
11. Yarn Yard Macushla in Paprika - gorgeous colour - ideas please.
    
12. Lots and lots of New Lanark bulky yarn in oatmeal to make my hubby a jumper. I have toyed with Cheesy Puffs and an EZ EPS jumper. My criteria is easy and knit in the round (oh and super-big - my hubby is a big man!)

What do you all think? I need some help - do let me know your thoughts.

Knitters Invade York

Wow - can't believe I have not posted here for over two months. I have been so busy, moving house, Christmas, New Year, terrible weather but that's all been and gone. What I want to tell you about is York.I went away this weekend to York to stay in a convent. There is a wonderful group on Ravelry - we are all fan's of Natalie's wonderful yarn - The Yarn Yard. But it's not all about the yarn - there is considerable amount of chatting, listening and supporting that goes on. There has developed a core of women who have become good, good friends. As a group we booked out most of the rooms on both nights I was there. (Some people stayed on for another night too - so not sure how full it was that night.) The convent was perfect for us. There was simple accommodation with a cafe downstairs. Breakfast was included - which was great but best of all was the large recreation room and kitchen which we completely took over as our crafty playground.

Both afternoons and evenings the recreation room became the centre of attraction. People were knitting, spinning, drop spindling, crocheting and tatting. There was non-stop chatter as people got to chat with old friends and to make new friends. The kitchen was soon over-run with food and drink - including an abundance of home-baking. What a talented group of ladies.

Every so often I would pause from my chat and knitting and look around in admiration of how this weekend had come together and how lovely it all was. Everyone was getting on so well together.

On Saturday I went with some others to the National Quilt Museum. It had two exhibitions on "The Celtic Fringe: Wholecloths of Wales and Scotland" and "Namad: A Persian Journey in Felt". Both were interesting but I was disappointed that we couldn't get into see the Museum itself. I think it is only accessible to Guild members. Oh well. I did get my mum something nice for her birthday though - so not a wasted journey at all.

No trip to York is complete without a visit to the amazing Duttons for Buttons. I got some buttons for a XXXX that I am knitting for my lovely friend XXXX. (hee)

Saturday afternoon was great fun. Natalie gave out club parcels to people who were in the yarn club - made me very jealous. Then we had our snowflake parcels. Everyone had prepared a parcel for someone else. What fun. Mine was the first one out and I got some gorgeous hand-knitted gloves from Kay - I adore them - Orla has her eye on them but they are too big. I also got some chocolate and bits and bobs - all still in my suitcase. Will take pics when I have unpacked. (ETA: Now unpacked and pics below - didn't I do well?)

After that Natalie opened up the shop so people could buy any of her yarn if they wanted to - was glorious to see all those amazing colours together. Yum! I bought a skein of the new (as yet unnamed) Alpaca yarn and some green yummy fibre. I was very restrained.

Finally we had a p/hop swap. Everyone brought along some yarn to destash. You could then take anything from the table that you wanted with the promise that you would donate money for the pleasure. I got some Lorna's Lace in black/yellow, some blue Posh Lei, some pink bamboo/silk sock yarn and a Meg Swansen book. Much, much less than I had brought so. my suitcase was much easier to close. I've given my donation - have you?

I think I have made a whole load of new, lovely friends and can't wait until next years.

Spinning

I finally got round to washing and taking pictures of my hand-spun. Here they are drying - so lovely:


Here is what I have been spinning:

First up is some Babylonglegs BFL in Mirasol - the most gorgeous colourway - oranges, browns and yellows:

(Picture taken from the Babylonglegs Folksy Site)

I was going to ply it with a pale cream undyed BFL but it was lying next to some dark brown Ronaldsay - and they just talked to each other. So I plied them together and got this yummy yarn:

Top Skein: Next up is some blue/green roving I bought from Natalie at The Yarn Yard. This was rolled into a ball and was aptly names gobstoppers and there is one shown on her blog. I plied this back onto itself and it is so soft and squish and was a dream to spin.

Botton Skein: I emptied the bobbins of all the yarn I had been using as training yarn and got a skein of mixed colours that looks a little like ice-cream. It's a bit slubby but I couldn't throw it out.

Top: The top skein is a small skein made from plain dyed merino bought from shunlikes.

Middle: I still had some of the Mirasol left and plied it with some pale grey Ronaldsay.

Bottom: I hadn't split the gobstopper exactly in half so had some left over so for fun I plied it with some of the remaining Mirasol from Babylonglegs. I really like this combination.

I was really surprised with some of these combinations and am very proud of my bundle of skeins. Do you like them?

Stuffed and Sent

Thought I'd show you pictures of the stocking I made for my swap. I based it on the Mason Dixon Christmas Stocking.

Here it is just before I sent it - all stuffed and ready to go.

Close up of the name (and yes that is how you spell her name) and I chose to do the corrugated rib as I love the effect.

Do you like the snowflake? You can see my tension is much tighter here and the stocking pulls in. Maybe next time I will go up a needle size for the fair-isle.

I put the year on the back - I like that idea. The foot just kept going though - and that toe is super-pointy!!!