Tour de Fleece

I'm busy spinning, spinning, spinning. While the Tour de France is running, there is a spinning challenge going on. I'm participating over on Ravelry, and I have three challenges on the go.

1. Spin a sweater's worth of yarn - I'm using Polwarth from Southern Cross Fibre in the colourway Hay Sunrise, and in two sessions, I've spun up 8oz of singles. I'm going to spin 3 lots of 4oz, then ply it off as I go, so I can then start spinning my next load of singles on the ends of the "leftovers". This is for Team Monkey Farts
   
2. Spindle 100g of Spinning A Yarn Downland English Wool Tops. I've not spindled for yonks, and so am using this to get cracking again. This is for Team Spinning a Yarn
3. Teach my OH how to spindle. This isn't for a team per se, but he has joined Team Spinning a Yarn, and is progressing better than I would if taught by someone like me.

Before I got going on the Sweater Polwarth, I span some more SCF Polwarth as well. Anf yes... if there are no pictures, it didn't happen...In other news, we escaped the chaos surrounding yesterday's terrible news (one of the shootings was very very close to us) and went up to collect some more fleeces. OH has blogged about it here. What he doesn't say, is that he very kindly treated me to a delicious carvery Sunday lunch in return for my services as driver. But let's face it - fleeces as lovely as those are their own reward!

Spinning Around

I've been indulging and spinning these past few weeks...
The Delightful David of Southern Cross Fibres got so enthusiastic about some Targhee over at Spunky Eclectic, that I went and bought some, not knowing what on earth it was. Now I love Amy's fibres, and David supplies my fibrelust on a monthly basis, so combine the enthusiasm of one with the skills of the other, and it's a pretty safe blind buy - I bought two lots of 4oz - one in Abyss, and one in Tempest, and was over the moon when they arrived. Targhee descended from sheep including Corriedale, and the fibre was soft and squooshy.
I try to take part in the Woolly Wormhead monthly KAL, and this month's was Aeonium, from her new Twisted Woolly Toppers book. It called for aran/worsted weight, so I set to with my Abyss Targhee, and my beloved Darry the Mazurka, and produced the skein on the left there.

I cast on, and shortly had myself an Aeonium, which I am really pleased with. This is the first time I have ever spun anything for a project - I normally spin and allow the fibre to become the yarn it wants to be. Of course, since I finished it, the weather's been beautiful - so no chance to wear it!
Aeonium was a great pattern to knit - much more straightforward than it looks, especially if you can get the hang of cabling without a cable needle. And Targhee is a delight to spin. It drafted like a dream, making it very easy to keep a consistent single. The striping was a complete happy accident - that's just how it came out - and I am really pleased with the results!


After that, I went to my first proper Guild meeting at Tynedale Guild in Stocksfield. While there, I began to spin up some Australian Extra Fine Merino in Molten, the March installment of David's Southern Cross Fibre Club. I'm not normally a "yellows" person, but this has jumped out at me, and ended up as 240 yards of roughly DK weight when spun up as a 3 ply.
I'll be going back to Guild regularly - a full day to sit and spin with other fibery people. Very welcoming, and this month coming is the Spinners' Gathering, so there will be Shopping as well!


Finally, I leave you with my latest WIP - another Southern Cross Fibre - this one is Polwarth/Bamboo Viscose in the colour Border Crossing. This is my first bobbin of singles, and the second is on its way. Just one more little wisp of fluff to go now. This is beautifully soft, with a shimmering sheen that my lack of photography skills didn't quite capture. But I love it, and will take more photos once it's plyed.
This week, I have bought some laceweight, and will be starting the GoddessKnits Anniversary Mystery KAL. This is a "choose your own adventure" shawl - so Renee publishes 4 charts each week, from which you choose one to knit. Choices... choices... there's a potential for 256 combinations by the time the last clue is published, so I may be a little time with this one...

Project 365 - Week 2

So this week was my first full week of Project 365. It's been back to work for me, after two weeks off, which has limited my opportunities for taking photos. I have no car at the moment, so I leave for work before it is light, and arrive home after dark. It's also been a little cold this week, which has left me feeling too nesh to think about going out! I have still managed to take seven photographs, so here they are.

Monday's shot was of my La Novia scarf. I'd finished the scarf over Christmas, but had not photographed it, so it was a good excuse. I got down quite low to take the photo, as I wanted to capture the texture in the scarf.

This is some 70% BFL, 30% Silk fibre from Warratah Fibrecrafts on Etsy. This was a prize in a charity draw run by Ramblings of a Yarn Junkie, in memory of her mother. The fibre is as beautiful as it looks, and I am so glad that Laura reached her £1000 target.

On Wednesday, it was late, and I popped to the front door and saw the streetlight shining through the sycamore tree - the same tree I photographed last week. I thought I would give it a go, and see what came out. I'm going to photograph this tree a lot, I think - it's one of the first things I see when I open the curtains or leave the house, and I'd like to track its life throughout 2009.

Thursday finally saw me photographing my Golding Cherry Tsunami spindle, surrounded by The Yarn Yard's Merino/Silk roving, which is my current spindling.

Friday was a bit panicky. It was late, I hadn't taken a photo, and I was stuck. I looked at the table, and saw my musical frog looking back at me. He was a Christmas present from Jon a few years ago, and if you remove the stick from his side, you can run it up and down his back to make a not unpleasant noise. I wouldn't say it was great music, but it's better than I thought it would be.

Remember Thursday? Well yesterday, I plied my first spindleful of yarn from this roving. I got 71 yards from it, of very lustrous yarn, and it's coming out at about 14 wpi.

Finally, Jon and I went for a walk earlier today. There are a number of old industrial sites very near to us, which have been developed as nature reserves by the local ranger service. This one is the old Percy Pit in Lemington. It was a blustery walk, but it helped to clear the cobwebs. In terms of wildlife, we saw magpies and pigeons, but not much else. In the spring, we get lots of wildflowers, so the area will be well worth investigating then. As it was, we called in at the local pub on the way back, so any health benefits have probably been lost...
So that's it for Project 365 for this week. I'm writing ideas down as I go in a little notebook, so hopefully I can have more ideas than there are days in the week, and build up some ideas, so I'm not stuck at half 11, thinking "what on earth can I photograph today?"

A Post! With Photos!!!

I’ve not been wasting my time… Finally there was 10 minutes of light yesterday, so I took some photographs. Here we have three handspun yarns. The top one is the End of September club yarn from The Yarn Yard (Bramble Crumble). The second one is also from The Yarn Yard, and came un-named – as I was spinning it, I realised it made me think of Refresher sweets with all the lovely sherberty colours – so I have named this BFL Superwash Refreshers. Finally, there is Lafant Glas – Falkland from Mam a Mi. You may notice that there are only 2 skeins – more on that later. I got 300 yards or so from each 100g, using my Golding Cherry Tsumani for the singles, and then my Louet spindle for Andean Plying.

I’ve also been a bit busy knitting. Firstly, the reason why I only had 2 skeins of Lafant Glas left to photograph - my Spiraluscious. I love this neckwarmer. I love the yarn, the pattern, just everything about it. It’s an Anne Hanson design, and wow – that woman can design good looking but straightforward lace, can’t she? (Yes - I cast on Friday, and grafted the edging together Saturday - have noted in the "omigoditschristmasnextweekandIhavenothingspecialfor..." file!)

Then, I snaffled some Helena Aran from Posh Yarn a couple of weeks ago, and turned it into a Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama, and a Woolly Wormhead Spring Cap (wishful thinking!).

And, a pair of Aran Island Slippers from Interweave Knits Holiday 2008 for my MiL knitted in Rooster Almerino Aran.

Oh... and I got them off my hands long enough to take a photo! My Cranford Mitts - from The Yarn Yard Kit I bought at Woolfest.

Busy, busy, busy.

On the spindle at the moment is 2oz of Gotland that I got as part of a Spinners Set from Spindlefrog. The Spinners Set is a brilliant idea - 2oz each of 6 unusual fibres all dyed in the same colourway. I love it, as I get a chance to play, and can decide before I commit to a load of something which may be quite expensive, and which I'm not keen on. The Gotland is lovely. Very silky with a long staple.

On the needles are the Estonian Lace Christening Shawl, my Guess at Tess’ Shawl, a pair of Undulating Lace Socks in Wollmeise Suzanne for a Christmas Present, and a Booga bag (adapted slightly by using smaller needles and more stitches to accommodate finer yarn) in Kauni.

In Arm News, there is little news - still waiting for the MRI Results, however things have Deteriorated, and after having negligable sleep for nearly a week, I went to the GP this morning. So I'm on Codeine, which isn't the best, but it has to be better than lying there, tossing and turning, and trying to find somewhere to put my arm where it doesn't hurt!

Busy, busy, busy… But Fun, Fun, Fun!

Just a Quickie!

I need some decent light! I have a nearly finished Forest Canopy in Noro Sock Yarn, a chunky scarf in Colinette Point 5 (knit in one evening!), a swatch of cables lace and general playing in a new yarn from Linzi, the Alpaca Spinner, which I am so going to stalk her for, a little progress on the Estonian Lace Christening Shawl, and 4 lovely skeins of my very own handspun to show off - but when the light's been good, I've been elsewhere, and when I've been here, the light's been non-existent! Ah well - it will come.
In other news, it was a mad week last week... Monday off, Tuesday normal, Wednesday and Friday covering earlies (yawn) and the MRI Scan on Thursday. It's not an experience I want to repeat in a hurry. There was no pain involved, I was seen on time, the scanning team were brilliant - as well as being very capable and experts in their field, they radiated a reassuring confidence - but I did not feel good. It was being out of control in a confined space that did it for me. I was strapped in, with a shield over my torso, and while I had hold of a buzzer, I was in a tube where it felt like the roof was an inch or two above my nose. If (and yes, I know this is a Big If), anything went Really Wrong, and the buzzer didn't work, I was incapable of escape. There was no way I could have wriggled out. But nothing went wrong, I'm here, I'm fine, and now I need to wait for the Registrar at the hospital to interpret the results (I've been told 6 weeks, however when I was told 2-4 weeks, it took 7 and a lot of pressure from me to get them, so I'm not holding my breath).
That's it for now. More if we ever see daylight again while I'm in reach of a camera and my little doings!

Oops

Well... More tomorrow I said... Oh well. Our computer decided to die on us last week, so unfortunately I've taken a little hiatus from being online. We now have a new computer, and I am getting to grips with it (I love it, actually - it's lovely and fast compared with the old one, and the colours on the screen are a lot better) but that means that I have no photos to share.
I have been spinning - I received my Yarn Yard fibre on Friday, and have spun up about a third of it - and it is beautiful. The Shetland seems to have spun itself on my Golding Tsunami, and it is the most even yarn I have spun. Completely yummy. I love being in the Fibre Club - for a start, I love surprises, and the anticipation once Natalie says she has posted is great. Then when it arrives, I read the letter, and try to guess what the fibre will be like. Then I open the pack - and it's even better! As a beginner, it's giving me the chance to try different fibres and find out what happens with fibre dyed in different ways. I have just finished plying the first of this month's (when it arrived on Friday, it was so lovely that the pack of fibre and my Golding went straight into my handbag and came with me), and I love what I have spun. I need to skein it, but I think it's about a fingering weight, so I'm thinking a delicate scarf...
We've been away this weekend - Jon's dad turned 60 on Friday, so we drove down to Cannock on Friday (it took us 3 hours to do the first 40 miles, thanks to an accident on the A1, but we got there eventually). When we got there, it was great - we'd got his dad a digital photo frame, and Jon had scanned a load of slides from when he and his sister were little - his dad was very touched with it all. Saturday night was his party - which was great. I have now found I am skilled in the art of balloon arch making! Everyone had a great time, and we tootled back up the road yesterday afternoon. 6 hours 30 minutes to get there, 4 hours to get back (and that included a big stop for a cup of coffee, so that was good going). Today, I have been plying my yarn (amazing how much I managed to spin, given how busy we were), am catching up on the 'puter, and then I will be settling down with the last episode of Tess, which I recorded last night (I watched the Harry Potter film, which was just what we needed) and my Estonian Lace Christening Shawl while Jon's out at college.
Back to work tomorrow, and hopefully some photos (maybe).
ETA - I am now booked in for my MRI Scan - this Thursday at 9am - so credit to Alliance Medical who operate this for the Trust - at least someone round here seems able to shift their stumps and sort things out. The good news is, I may know what on earth's going on in a couple of weeks.

Ravelympics

Well - thank you Ravelympics! During the Beijing games, Ravelry's been inviting members to knit a challenge, the start time being the opening ceremony and the end time being the closing ceremony. I committed to 4 projects - to finish my Slow Bee shawl in WIP Wrestling (I was really enjoying the pattern, but with over 800 stitches per row, I was really flagging by the final 2 clies), to knit a Whisp Wrist Warmer from my own handspun, to knit Anne Hanson's Orchid Lace Scarf from Knitspot, and to knit Susan Pierce Lawrence's Edgy Scarf.
So how did I do? Let's see the evidence...

This is the Slow Bee 1 - a Faeroese Mystery Shawl by Monika Eckert. Lovely pattern - using over 2000 yards of laceweight and nearly 2 large tubs of Gutermann 9/0 beads. I've not blocked it too hard, as I wanted a snuggly winter wrap, rather than a gossamer weight wisp of a thing. It's massive - I'm 5' 7", so you can probably get the scale from the photo. I used 100PureWool Merino Lace from Uruguay, bought from Ebay.

This is my Whisp - pattern my Mazzmatazz, and published in the Guardian newspaper (although I am currently having some issues with the Guardian - it seems to be using knitting in a peculiar fashion at the moment). The yarn was some merino fibre from Shunklies on Etsy, which I span myself to about a DK weight on my spindle from Whorl Drop Spindles, then knitted up. This is my second handspun that could be called yarn, and since then, I have joined the Yarn Yard Fibre Club, and bought more lovely fibre from Mam a Mi, so I can quite safely say I am addicted. This may only be a teeny tiny knit, but I am so proud of it.

Finally, my Orchid Lace Scarf from Knitspot. I knitted this with Posh Yarn Eva 2-Ply in Faraway Tree, which was a deep, dark forest green with paler flashes. I love the pattern - simple and elegant. Anne Hanson designs such beautiful patterns that are a joy to knit.
I "failed" on Edgy - I am currently 21 repeats through out of 30. I am loving the pattern, and am looking forward to finishing it in the next few days.