Tour de Fleece - day one

This is a bit unofficial as I've not joined a team or set anything up on Ravelry but I am entering the spirit of the thing and spinning each day while the cycling event is on.

The daily spin will be very useful as I've really built up a huge stash of fibre, partly thanks to Wonderwool and partly thanks to a membership of Picperfic's luxury fibre club.

Not a huge amount today as I've been out all day but have just been unwinding by spinning a bit of this lovely angora from Bigwig's Wardrobe at Wonderwool. The very cute little spindle is from 1st class also Wonderwool. I've seen them at two previous shows and regretted not starting a collection.

I've not done all that's on the spindle because I started this a few days ago and have picked it up for a quick twirl occasionally. (I do realise that I've got things muddled and have been winding 2-under, 1-over rather than vice versa which means I won't get as much on this cake.)

Are you taking part in TdF? Tell me about it in the comments - especially if you're blogging about it.

Finished Project - Manly Scarf (Father's Day gift)

The thinking is that despite having a wife who crochets and a daughter who knits, the old man doesn't have nearly enough embarrassing knitwear.

(That's me modelling it)

More seriously, I thought it would be a great use for the All Seasons Chunky which was a prize from Knit Now magazine. (I bought a fourth ball - though if I'd made it a more sensible length, three would have been plenty...)

The pattern is A's Manly Scarf by Johanna K Sarten - a lovely stitch pattern and knit lengthways.

Woolly Wednesday for June

It's lovely to sit back and look at progress on the current 'active' works in progress.

I love casting on and the rapidly-approaching Father's Day gives me a great excuse to cast on and also gives me a very real deadline, so there'll be some late nights over the next few days.

 The balls of Rowan All Seasons Chunky were part of a parcel gratefully received from Knit Now magazine; they liked the letter that I wrote about my finished Twinkle. (Star letter KN number 22). More of that later.

The very chunky scarf on 7mm needles is the perfect antidote for my current 'lace' phase. Here are the socks I'm making from a wool / silk / yak mix from Picperfic's Fluff & Stuff luxury fibre club. They're going to take ages - the lace and cable pattern (yes real cables in socks) on 2.25mm needles. You can see that I'm now past the heel on the first sock.

And in spinning news, again with the fine yarn, this is the first skein of luxury fibre from Yummy Yarns, to be a cowl for me.

The prize that I mentioned earlier also included this amazing book. It really does feature 80 different yarns / techniques. Lots of inspiration there and I'll be reviewing the book here shortly.