Woolly Wednesday for January 2014

I finished Jane GreenHowe's Christmas Crib just before Woolly Wednesday last month. It ate up so much time, it has been really good to get back to some of my other projects.

I had nearly finished these wonderful socks last Woolly Wednesday. With a bit of commitment they joined the finished projects pile and I've really enjoyed wearing them over Christmas.

The fibre was from Picperfic's luxury fibre club - a mix of yak, merino, silk which seems perfect for socks. Pattern is Piccole Onde. It's a painstaking pattern (those are real cable crossovers) but the resulting air pockets make the socks very cosy. More pics here.

I've made a little progress on my Glacial cardy. The fleece was from a woolly pet of a family friend, washed, dyed and spun before Christmas.

I didn't intend for this next project to be as addictive as it has, but I needed a 'pick-up-and-put-down' project to carry with me over Christmas so I cast it on just before the holiday and have touched very little else.

Once again the fibre is from Picperfic's club, this time merino, cashmere and silk. It's going to feel lovely against my neck and I'm so pleased with the way that the colours have worked out. It's my first go at fractal spinning. I'm surprised at the strength of the stripes, but this is a good thing. I loved the small amount of green in this particular fibre and didn't want it to be lost

Finally, something I've just started but has really absorbed me over the last few days. Since I first saw the 'Town and Country' skirt in the Ashford Book of Projects years ago I've wanted to make one. The houndstooth pattern is surprisingly easy to weave - I've already made a purse a while ago. The skirt I have in mind is a 4-panel straight design and so the fabric can be made on a 12" knitters or rigid heddle loom. I've not spun for this one - yarn is Ashford Tekapo wool - which means I've been able to get straight on with the warping and weaving which have been very fast and I'm pleased with the neatness of my fabric.

I'm less confident in my sewing skills and so have asked a friend to do the dressmaking bit for me!

Woolly Wednesday for October 2013

Oops, a week late this time, but it is Wednesday. I notice that my previous post was last Woolly Wednesday so Dawn's monthly gathering really is useful as well as a nice virtual social event.

Two things that have been occupying me this month. The first is a felted solar system.

Here are Earth (and our moon), Venus our twin, Mars and tiny Mercury. I realise now that I can't work to scale (if I do Jupiter will be wall-sized!)

This project was inspired by a visit to the Space Centre in Leicester. I love the place and my favourite area is 'the planets'. It's not particularly interactive, mostly just information boards with some models. I think it's the varied and beautiful colours of the spheres that grabs me and this time it occurred to me that the coloured wool tops that I stock would lend themselves perfectly. It's been fun picking the colours, and unlike spinning and knitting, each felted disc is very quick to make.

What's been taking most of my knitting time is a nativity (or 'knitivity'?). I've heard people moan about friends who ask "If I buy the wool will you make this for me?" but I didn't think I'd be caught out myself....

Woolly Wednesday for September 2013

Oops - just missed Woolly Wednesday (by 40 minutes as I start writing). Hope it's still OK to join in.

Since last time I've finished this handspun, hand knit cowl which I'm really pleased with. Shame it's been too hot to wear it....

I felt a very strong desire to start some of the other projects that I've already spun for. But these socks have been on the go for ages, and because they're so slow (tiny needles and cable crossovers!) I've been putting them to one side to do other things. Funny how illogical the mind can be....

So I'm very proud of my self-control - I've decided not to cast on anything else until I've finished them. Here's the first one, I'm now on the heel of the second. They're looking and feeling so good, I'm really looking forward to wearing them. A good incentive to keep going!

I have taken advantage of the nice weather to wash a fleece. This is Smiler. I used some of Smiler's fleece last year to make this cowl and it was lovely.

So when offered the most recent fleece of course I said yes.  I've decided to process the fleece, dye it myself and make a cardy. (Definitely thicker yarn this time; I'm cured of my lace obsession!!)

There's a horrible amount of straw here, but it's large pieces and is picking out ok.

Among the straw are some lovely locks! Given the large amount of wool in a fleece I didn't feel too bad about being ruthless when I skirted it. I threw away not only the dirtiest bits but the coarser parts too, keeping probably only about the best half of it.

It's now washed and dried, ready for the carder.

Woolly Wednesday for August

Once again, the monthly opportunity to round up current and recent projects has arrived.

The Tour de Fleece is for me an opportunity to spend more time spinning without the guilt. I have some lovely skeins of wool to show for it, even if I didn't finish it all before the end of the Tour. First this 200g of various natural shades of Masham wool. This will be a Carousel Tea Cosy.

 Second, this Merino/Cashmere/Silk in 'Foxgolves' from Picperfic's luxury fibre club. The fibre mix is lovely, it's incredibly soft and has a silky sheen. The colours are beautiful too. It was my first try at fractal spinning and I'm very happy with the way it's mixed the colours. It really needs to be worn next to the skin and so I'm thinking a cowl.

On the knitting front, I'm really loving knitting my Sisterhood Cowl. Progress appears slow but that's only because I only occasionally pick it up and knit a few rows. But those rows are very swift, thanks to large needles and a straightforward pattern. It's one that I've picked up and put in my bag because it's largely stockinette with some easy lace rows.

 And finally, a first reveal of something I'll be writing more about. For a recent visit home I'd bought a Schacht Zoom Loom each for me & my Mum. Like everyone else who's tried them, we found them fun and addictive, a great way to use up oddments of handspun.

Woolly Wednesday, July 2013

Woolly Wednesday gives me the chance to take stock of my active works in progress. It's also making me think about my inactive ones...

This is some lovely angora I bought from Bigwig's Wardrobe at Wonderwool. It's going to be a fluffy pair of lacey wristwarmers.

The Tour de Fleece will see me spinning every day over the next couple of weeks, so I expect to make some progress with the angora. It's also the reason I've started this project, the sheep carousel tea cosy. I LOVE the pattern and will make the sheep in alternating colours.

I'm spinning thicker than the lace I have been making recently so progress is quite quick with this one, more pics to follow

On the knitting front, this is the Sisterhood Cowl from Shared Secrets (aka Secret Spinner). The yarn is merino / tencel (hence the silky sheen) dyed by Patricia of Yummy Yarns UK. I know the designer and the dyer and I love the fact that this is such a collaborative project.

I thought the cowl would be a long-term knitting project, but it's on big (6mm) needles and I've opted for shorter rounds so it's knitting up really quickly.

This next one is the opposite. Very fine yarn and thin needles, plus cables in the pattern. It's all worth it, I really love the pattern (Piccole Onde) and can't wait to wear them. The wool is lovely - wook/yak/silk from Picperfic's luxury fibre club.

According to Ravelry I have five other projects on needles. Some I've not touched for years. I'm wondering whether to pull some of those out.

Are you like me and just keep dormant projects on life support for years, or are you quick to frog something that's not going so well?

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.

Woolly Wednesday - More projects in progress than ever!

It's good to have Woolly Wednesday back, thank you Dawn, and for the first time in a while I've remembered on the Wednesday itself.

Despite my efforts I now seem to have more projects in progress and on the starting lines than ever. I'm having to clear a new shelf for my stash. How did this happen??

First of all I'd like you to meet Twinkle Twinkle. She's finished and is the spin/dye/knit project I'm most proud of ever. 

I worked very hard to finish her in the week leading up to Wonderwool so that I could wear it there. That was without knowing that Ruth of Rock n Purl, the designer of the pattern, would be there, so it was the highlight of my day to meet her. I love her work and bought the pattern for this warmer cardi, ironically called Glacial.

 I spent far more money than I should have done. Among the purchases you can see here are some Masham wool in various natural colours for the sheep carousel tea cosy, some soft and fluffy angora, some hemp. (Bear with me on this one. Spun fine and woven it makes surprisingly soft fabric. I have cushion covers in mind.)

 Also in the picture above (looking more blue than it really does) is this 'Seriously Gorgeous' Mohair/Silk. Despite looking like fluff for spinning, it's very fine yarn with a real halo, dyed in a sophisticated deep green. It's very difficult to resist casting on right away using one of the patterns from the Victorian Lace book I've bought this week.

As if all that isn't enough to be getting on with, I bought some stainless steel a while ago. It's very fine, almost soft and fluffy like wool tops. 

 I've carded it with wool; white with a little green to achieve this metallic grey / green colour. After passing it through the carder a few times, the colour (and hopefully the metal fibres) are well-distributed and it's started to take on that 'stays where you put it' quality, although not to the extent I expected.

 And finally, a project I'd already started before I finished Twinkle, this is a wool / silk / yak mix which was from Picperfic's Fibre Club. Perfect for socks and the colours are lovely. Ranging from orange through to violet and mauve, they blend into an almost-solid Valentine pink. I spun it a little thin, so picked a pattern using smaller needles. The free pattern is Piccole Onde toe-up socks that I featured in February's Purl Two Together

Woolly Friday

Wooly Wednesday comes round so quickly (and then whooshes by before I realise). This is my second less alliterative Woolly Friday in a row.

Since last time I've finished two spin / knit projects that I'm very proud of. TheWater Sprite socks that I've posted about so many times are now done! These pictures are all on Flickr here. I enjoyed spinning the singles by spindle, slower but very relaxing.

After Christmas I decided to make a present for a friend who had donated several fleeces to Mum and me. After some dyeing experiments, I made a lacy cowl that I was really happy with. More pictures including me modelling it are here

Since then I've started a project that I couldn't wait to start. This is Twinkle and I need lots of very fine yarn. This is the finest yarn that I'll have made and it's taking an age. But very enjoyable.

Woolly Wednesday - yellow, green, blue, red

it's Woolly Wednesday again and a great opportunity to once again show off my finished bathroom curtains project.

Woven from merino wool / silk, spindle spun. I drum carded the dyed merino with white, well blended but there's still some variance in the colour which is nice. Warp is commercial cottolin, woven on a 4-shaft 32" loom. Pattern is a herringbone twill, more photos including the draft on Flickr

Finishing the curtains means that I've been able to officially start this sock project. I've now finished spinning this really lovely fibre from Yummy Yarns, it's BFL / Bamboo dyed in 'Water Sprite' colours (I especially love the bluey green). This time I've spun really fine, again by hand spindle, and navajo (chain) plied to concentrate the colours. I have two skeins of reasonably fine 4-ply (which *should* be identical, I split the fibre down the middle) and I'm looking forward to seeing how the colours stripe when knitted.

Another dormant WIP  may see some action soon is my Tatiana pullover. I'm not spinning this one but using Ashford's Tekapo 100% wool in dark red (looks brighter in the photo than it really is). I'm dipping my toe in the crochet pool, I'm relatively new to it. This jumper has a lovely 'shell' pattern made from puff stitches, which I'm enjoying.