Whippets are cool!

Whippets are cool! (in more ways than one)Thet like to be snug and warm especially when they are out and about on a cold day.
So thats why I thought of making this neck warmer.
When Peahen bought me this bag of ready carded and dyed fleece in mixed colours from Norfolk Yarns.
I spun lengths of each colour, so when it was plyed it came out this lovely random mix.
When knitting it I stuck to 2 knit 2 purl rib to give stretch.
Bryn loves it, he even likes to keep it on indoors.

First time with silk

In order to give my Caprice yarn a little sheen and strength, I've tried blending some silk with the white alpaca.

Silk comes in several different forms - 'hankies', 'caps', even coocoons, degummed or not.

A cap consists of several layers, each layer being a whole coocoon stretched over a former. To use it, you can separate a layer, poke your fingers through the top and pull it out into a long circular roving. I enjoyed doing this, and I love its properties; its strength and sheen.

There are some things that I found very annoying though. The first is that unless your hands are baby-soft, your nails and skin will constantly catch the silk fibres. And those fibres are so long that putting the silk down and letting go of it is almost an impossible task - there's always an invisible thread attached to you somewhere - it starts to follow you around. The 'olive oil and sugar' trick did help, but it's not a total cure. (It leaves your hands feeling lovely though - I'll probably do that even when I'm not working with silk.)

I'd read that you shouldn't card silk too much because it can form bobbles. I found initially that I wasn't separating the silk fibres enough and, being stronger and longer than the alpaca fibres, during spinning it would all pull out of the rolag together, so I found myself spinning pure silk for a while, and ending up with a rolag of pure alpaca in my hand. Making a few more passes with the carders seemed to cure this problem, separating and blending the fibres together better.

Using commercial thread to make my Caprice yarn has certainly given a result closer to the 'music notation' effect I was aiming for; a much finer line of black with shiny black beads against a pure white background.

I'm still not 100% happy with the result. It's very uneven - the commercial thread has no bulk, so I've had to try and spin the white alpaca quite chunky, and I still can't get that very even.

It's interesting to ply with a commercial thread, because it has no twist and therefore can't help to balance the spun single.

Lacy Shawl

I have finished a lacy shawl I knitted for my mother. The yarn and pattern were a gift from my sisters to my mother, but with her ailing eye sight, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to work on the project. So, she asked me to knit it for her.

At first it seemed daunting because the bulk of it is a 24-row pattern, but once you understand how the rows work together, it becomes easy to memorize, and there are no overly difficult stitches. The "ties" in the front were complicated, though. One of them has a pocket that the other slides into so the shawl will stay on your shoulders, and you won't have to fiddle with it to keep it on.

I think I'd like a narrower scarf without the ties made with this pattern, so my next project is to figure that out.

Toddler-size Cecilias

These are a present for a sweet little girl in my family. I've spun some more Caprice yarn and adapted it a little. I've added a little silk to the white alpaca to give it a little bit of a sheen. It makes it so much stronger too. For this batch I plied that with a commercial black thread rather than spinning a very fine black alpaca thread. It was much easier to work with and to thread the beads on. It obviously has no twist and so doesn't balance the white in the same way, but I really like the effect. It is closer to the 'musical' effect that I was originally after, ie thin black lines and dots on a white background. These smaller gloves are even quicker to knit than the original adult-size ones! I've used smaller needles (4mm) and 23 stitches across rather than 32.



Finished! They're so tiny. The picture isn't very good, but I've had a few goes and it's the best one!

worlds collide

I don't usually like re-posting stuff from other sites, but this one's especially for Alifan, who is both skilled cake maker and knitter.

I noticed a story about knitted wedding cakes here on CraftyCrafty and that article leads on to more examples and patterns.

Cecilia Mitts

I've just finished stitching up my simple mitts, made from the Caprice yarn I wrote about in an earlier post. It's 100% alpaca and beaded.

Leaving the fingers unencumbered and using cosy alpaca fibre means that they'll be perfect for outdoor Christmas caroling or busking!

Thank you very much to the lovely lady at Norfolk Yarns who gave mum and I a free pattern for some similar mitts. She hates sewing up and so knits hers in the round, which has the added bonus of leaving no seams inside. I decided to keep my pattern very simple to knit.

I've called them 'Cecilia' because of the simple pattern and because the yarn was inspired by music. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians, and the hymn tune known as St Cecilia is an uncomplicated tune.

Since knitting the first ones in the brown marble, I adjusted the pattern a little before starting these ones and again now that these are finished. hopefully it's getting closer to being right.

Here's the pattern

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Caprice Yarn

Inspired by some of the amazing handspun yarns in Creative Spinning, and another love of mine, music notation, I've come up with this handspun yarn I've called 'Caprice'.

I've made a small amount to see whether I've got the thicknesses right, and I'm very pleased with the first lot.

The thin black thread and black shiny beads suggest the staves, phrase marks and musical notes, against a much thicker white yarn.

I've made this from pure undyed alpaca, which is softer than wool and is said to be warmer.

The next step is to knit some mitts using the pattern I've been working on, and if they look the way that I hope they do, they'll be perfect for next year's Christmas caroling!

The 'recipe' for this yarn is:
Z-spin a very thin black thread, as thin as you sensibly can without risking breaks. Z-spin quite a thick white yarn from white alpaca. Thread the black thread with beads, around two per yard. S-ply the two yarns, distributing the beads evenly.