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..

Wunderknauel

A Wunderknauel is a ball of yarn full of gifts.

How does that work you may well ask - well you get some gifts together and a skein of wool and you wrap the presents up in the wool. The idea is that the intended then knits from the ball and gradually reveals the secrets hidden within. Such a fabulous idea don't you think.

I was involved in a swap with Ravelry and I was the luckiest person to receive mine first. So while others are still fretting about sending theirs, never mind receiving I had the luxury of my gift arriving super-early.

Here is what it looked like when it arrived...





Intreaguing huh?

The yarn is hand-dyed silk and a great shade of purple. Included were four suggested patterns - all lovely scarves and shawls. I decided to try one but it really did not suit the yarn so frogged back and settled on the gorgeous Cobweb Shawl. It really is a nice knit. As I am not a purl-lover I am making all the purl rows garter stitch - I'm still loving it though.





Now as you will have also seen from the picture above there is some weird stuff going on. I started to knit thinking I would be able to leave all the presents wrapped in the wool but as I progressed it was becoming harder and harder to do that - the yarn was getting caught on some of the objects inside. So I decided to unravel it. But - I was already knitting and didn't want to frog back - so I started to just go for it. Of course I got in a complete mess and at the moment have three mini sections of yarn that all need winding back into one ball before I can continue. Such a numpty. Oh well - you live and learn.

It does mean, however that I have released the presents. Here they are:






Lots of lovely things - tea, coffee and jewellery. No wonder the yarn kept getting snagged - all that lovely bling!

And finally.... here is a little sneak preview of the one I am sending - a small hint - it's a very Posh parcel....

BSJ - number 3

Did I mention I have finished Finlay's Baby Surprise jacket? Forgive the poor quality photos - taken on my mobile - not the best camera.

I used Noro Cash Iroha - an absolute dream to work with.

The buttons are fair-trade ones that Morag chose from a wool shop in Livingston.

The hat is a woolly wormhead creation which I love. A little like the umbilical cord hat. Pity it's too small for Finlay though.







A much better quality photo from Morag of them in use:

February '09 Update

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment so thought I'd give you a but of a run-down.

First of all I rounded up all the socks I have on needles to shame myself into finishing a pair...


Yarn: Lorna's Lace - Sassy Stripe
Pattern: Simple sock from the label on Colinette's Jitterbug
Progress - 1 complete and 25% of sock 2


Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug - Berry Coulis
Pattern: Simple sock from the label on Colinette's Jitterbug
Progress - 1 complete and just cast on sock 2
Notes - no ribbing at top of sock - plain knitting so curls (love that!) First sock is too small so either need to frog back or gift


Yarn: Can't remember - I suspect it has bamboo in
Pattern: Simple sock from the label on Colinette's Jitterbug
Progress - 1 complete and need to start no. 2


Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug (?)
Pattern: Simple sock from the label on Colinette's Jitterbug
Progress - 80% through no.1
Notes: Simple curl top and 1 x 1 rib on heel flap


Next up is a jumper I have cast on for Martin. I am using New Lanark's chunky wool which I had to phone up to order as it is not on their site. It is gorgeous yarn - in a mushroom colour with flecks of colour through it. The pattern is called Cheesy Puffs on account of the bumps that are created. I really like the pattern - nice and simple but the texture looks good. The photo doesn't do it justice - but it is a lovely knit. I want to check my measurements before I go any further though.



Also on my needles is my first lace project. Aptly named A Beginner's Triangle it is still causing me problems. But I guess it will get easier - there are just a few odd stitches that I need to master. I haven't got very far with it yet.





I finally finished knitting the squirrel mittens but still need to block them. They were a good exercise in mitten knitting and I learned that I knit really, really tight - these are adult size (apparently) but fit my five year old son!



The practice on the squirrel mittens was useful when I started the Posh Winter Cottage Mittens. I love the pattern on these and the yarn is gorgeous to work with. I went up a size or two on the needles to help with my tight knitting but have still not got it right. This is where I got up to before frogging them back completely as they were still too small. Maybe I need to make man-size mittens to get the right size!!



I do have other things on the needles - a secret present for XXX, a jumper for me, a scarf for Orla and a jumper for Orla - all are either secret or stagnating - must sort them out....

Ruaridh's Scarf

Ruaridh's Scarf
Originally uploaded by Pollianicus

Excuse the poor photo - taken from my phone.

Ruaridh and I have been doing some weaving - what do you think. Rua is choosing the colours - so lots of bright stripes.

Orla is planning on doing one too and has chosen her wool - mainly pink.

What colour is your rainbow?

Your rainbow is slightly shaded blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Seen on glittykittyknitty

Feather and Fan Scarf

This really has been a long project.  My first big lace project.  It's a simple feather and fan scarf - made using 4 balls of ONline Linie 135 Goby in bronze - although to me it looks more gold.

It is a very easy pattern to memorise - four row repeats.  Cast on (18 x no. repeats) +2.

Row 1: knit

Row 2: purl

Row 3: k1, k2tog 3 times, yo k 6 times, k2tog 3 times, k1  (repeating the middle 18 as required)

Row 4: knit

Very, very easy - but it still took for ever.  The yarn was nice to knit with but became heavy so I stopped at 4 balls.

Taking pictures was difficult - I just couldn't get the true colour to show up at all.  Use your imagination - it's gold.

To illustrate the picture above - the background is supposed to be white!

I hope my mother-in-law likes it - it's her Christmas present.