A Tale of Two Yarns

This is post one of the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011. A week in which knitters and crocheters around the world blog about the same topic every day for a week.

Today's topic is 'A Tale of Two Yarns.'

Being the statistically-driven person I am I was stuck about what to choose to talk about so went to Ravelry and downloaded my stash into a spreadsheet. Yes, yes - once a geek, always a geek.

So - according to my statistics I have two clear favourites in my stash and I shall discuss my love affair with them.

The first yarn is Cascade 220. I do like this yarn - a lot. It is a comforting, thick yarn. It comes in every colour you need and is thick. According to Ravelry I now have 34 skeins - whoops! I gave up individually listing each colour and bunched them all together. Being a worsted weight it knits up really, really quickly so is brilliant for hats, scarves and christmas stockings...





I did buy a whole heap of it with the intention of making my hubbie a Tom Baker Dr Who scarf but I couldn't bring myself to make it. So - I have lots sitting in my stash that I am gradually using.

I find it lovely to knit with - a really solid yarn which does exactly what it says on the skein. There is a reason why it is the most popular yarn on Ravelry.

The second yarn is The Yarn Yard's Clan. I am lucky in that I live fairly close to Natalie of The Yarn Yard so often get to see the yarn at shows local to her (and me). Occasionally I make it over to her house too and get to see the dyeing in progress. It endlessly fascinates me and the colours she produces are simply stunning. They are saturated and beautiful. I joined the Yarn Club about a year ago which for a while was giving me a monthly dose of Clan - so I got to build up a collection of colours I probably would not have chosen at all. It's fun to have someone else selecting your colours for you. As you can see I have a small stash:



It is lovely to work with and just begs to be made into socks. Natalie sells them in 65g skeins which means they are ideal for buying to mix the colours. Colourwork is gorgeous with it. I have to say one of my favourite socks is a fair-isle sock made out of a very dark grey and an orange variegated. I love it - so effective. Looks like a stained-glass window:

Flying Saucer Socks

I had a knitting weekend last week. It was rather nice. On the Saturday my lovely friend had a house-warming barbecue in Perth and Kinross which was a convenient 20 minute drive from Knit Camp in Stirling. So, after a slow start, I dropped off the kids and husband at the party and headed off to knitting-ville.I won't dwell on the negative sides of Knit Camp as, to be honest, I knew I couldn't make any of the classes with the summer holidays on, so I just concentrated on the Market Place ;-) Although - my one (small) issue was that I paid in advance and was supposed to get a Goody Bag. I arrived late and there were none left. A disappointing start.

So the Market Place was lovely and I loved looking round the stalls. I picked up a yummy parcel from Natalie at The Yarn Yard. I also got to squish her lovely new lace yarn - crannog. (Also discussed here.) Boy is it squishy! I am looking forward to getting my hands on some when she has dyed up some more.

Also at the Market Place was Shilasdair - The Skye Yarn Company. I have looked at their site so many times and love it - but have never bought anything so it was lovely to see it in real life and I couldn't help but buy a lovely skein of their aran yarn in a deep red.

The lovely Vicki from Wild Fire Fibres was there. I have bought from her in the past and love her yarn. When I got to her stall she only seemed to have lilac left (I was there very late) so I just bought a couple of packs of DPNs from her.

What else did I buy? Oh bother - struggling to remember - I finally subscribed to Yarn Forward Magazine. I also bought a whole heap of buttons.

Oh - I know what else I bought - I went to the Knit 'n' Caboodle stall. I didn't realise it has recently been taken over by new people - and good luck to them. I bought some DPN tubes for sock projects which has come in very handy with my flying saucer - also bought from them. What on earth is a flying saucer? Well - it is a new sock yarn from Schoppel Wolle that is dyed as two threads so you get *identical* socks. The two threads are wound onto a core which spins - like a flying saucer... Check out this video to see it being unwound.

I have it in a pink/red/purple colourway. But - I am not winding mine in two balls and knitting from them. I am knitting two pairs of socks at the same time. Remember those needles I bought from Wild Fire and the DPN tubes I got - well they are all coming in very handy. I am basically knitting on 9 needles at the moment with one spare. It's fun - unwind a bit, knit a lot, swap sets, knit more, unwind a bit and so on.... I am loving it - just a plain vanilla sock (well two.) This means I may get my August socks done after all...

Oh - and then the other bit of the weekend. Well I went with Natalie (of Yarn Yard fame) to Glasgow to a lovely PicKnit organised by Antje from The Yarn Cake (a shop soon to open in Glasgow - squeeee). It was at the Botanics and it was a gloriously hot day. I was absolutely in awe as Ysolda was there (who I have seen a couple of times before) but also Ravelry's Jess and Casey. I was too shy to approach them but did have a quick conversation about Irn Bru with Casey. Hee. Seriously I was so shy in their presence. I had a ball!

Woolfest 2010

Finally I got to go to Woolfest yesterday.

What a day!!!  It was incredibly hot and by the time I arrived at the showground in Cockermouth it was already sweltering.  I staggered in with the spinning wheel (the Ashford Traditional) and took it straight to its new owner.  So now with some spending money in my pocket I headed straight for The Yarn Yard stall - of course!  I grabbed the red that I was buying for a friend and some yellow for her too and some red for me....

So now with the essentials sold and bought I could browse at will.  Wow - what an amazing show.  Stalls oozing with yarn and fibre of every colour and variety.  Spinning wheels in use all over the place.  Oh my - it was such fun.  There were sheep and llamas and angora rabbits and the cutest lambs.  So many familiar names from Ravelry, online stores and bloggers.  Lots of Ravelry badges to peep at as I brushed past people.

I was intrigued by a lovely Russian lady who was making the most amazing shawls and spinning super-fine yarn on a drop spindle.  I bought some cobweb lace yarn from her in the deepest of purples:

I got a bit carried away with the fibre and fell in love with a HUGE batt at the Wingham stall.  I have named it Jupiter because it sort of looks like the colour of Jupiter - hee.  See how big it is?  It's 80% Merino, 20% Silk.

I also bought some sock blockers - been thinking about getting some for a while - and now I am doing the 12 pairs in 12 months challenge I want a better way to display the socks.  Here they are with this months finished socks on:

I bought some plain white merino/silk - to ply with the large batt and some small felted brooches for the boys to give to their teachers tomorrow on their last day of term.  I got some sparkly fibre to play with too.  Then I sneaked back to the Yarn Yard stall and bought a skein of the new yummy sock yarn in a gorgeous dark blue/green - I think it looks like Black Watch.

After the show some of us met up in a pub in Cockermouth for a lovely meal and lots of hilarity and chat.  I'm definitely up for it again next year - but will have to stay over as it was exhausting doing it in a day.  I'll have to see if I can get someone to come with me next year.

Clan Obsession

I'll skip past the usual apologies for not posting for a while and move on to some knitting.

What do you think of this?

It's the start of a fairisle sock using the wonderful Yarn Yard Clan in Soot and Saffron.  Lovely to knit with and I am loving the contrast.  Can you see the problem?  Probably not as you have no sense of scale from that shot.  Well - for some unknown reason I cast on the same number of stitches and used my normal size needle (2.5mm) and expected them to be a good fit - yeah - well that didn't work out at all well.  The sock has been frogged and now been cast on again with lots more stitches (72 - but maybe it should be 80?)  Re-thinking the pattern too.  The one above was corrugated rib and then a pattern taken from Alice Starmore's Fairisle book.  Now I am thinking of doing Stained Glass Window Socks which look lovely - but just with the two colours.  

In other sock news I have finished ONE - a mojo sock.  Do you like it?  It was a fun knit - and I must cast on the second one soon before it gets added to the single sock jar of doom.  Knitted using autumn-coloured Yarn Yard Clan.

Such a cool sock - looks great off the foot too - all wibbly wobbly.

Also on my needles are some Slip-Stitch Socks in yummy daffodil coloured yarn.  This yarn was especially dyed for me by Natalie from The Yarn Yard on what was otherwise a very blue day. (Huge thanks to Judy who insisted that I got some new yarn - what a lovely lady - do check out her blog!)  Natalie asked what I would like and I roamed away from my normal colour range and looked out of the window onto some flowering daffodils - and this is the yarn to match.  Isn't it gorgeous?  And isn't Natalie talented?  Oh yes!!  

Excuse the blurry shot:

Oh this one is in focus:

Do you think I have a small Yarn Yard Clan obsession?  Maybe a little ;-)

Here's my secret Clan stash (with a little Natural Dye Studio hidden in there):

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?

Woolfestival - St Abbs

At the weekend my friend Louise hosted a Woolfestival in St.Abbs. As I am sure you are all aware she runs the wonderful Woolfish shop based at St. Abbs Head. A real Aladdin's cave. The festival is held in the local village hall, formerly the school and is wonderful.

This time there were stalls from Woolfish, Yarn Yard, The Border Tart and the gorgeous Cairndinnis Alpacas. I didn't get chance to go out and spend time with the alpaca like I did last time - they are so sweet.

I came away with a smal stash of lovely yarn. This is some hand-spun from The Border Tart:


I bought three skeins of Caber from The Yarn Yard in the most gorgeous metal-toned colours:



I also got some gorgeous hand-dyed yarn with a matching plain small skein to make contrasting heel and toes on socks:



So two days before the festival I contacted Natalie from The Yarn Yard and asked if she wanted a hand on the stall. I turned up at just before 10 and sat down, I think four hours later, having never stopped talking and selling on her lovely stall. It was an absolute dream. In the afternoon it was a little quieter and we had the chance to get to know each other a little (we have never met before) and Natalie taught me how to spin on a drop spindle.

Well - I loved it - and here are some pictures of it all. Please bear in mind this is the first time I have ever spun and I am thrilled with the results - even if it does look a little uneven.

This is the first yarn I made - it is hand spun on a drop spindle from a mixture of merino silk and shetland roving and plied together using Andean plying:





This is what I have on my spindle at the moment - this is the merino silk roving which is wonderfully smooth. 80% merino wool and 20% silk.



I absolutely love working with this fibre and have another 100g in one of the other colourways to also spin. This is available from the Yarn Yard in five colours and is gorgeous - I may have to get some of the other colourways too..