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Spinning - after sitting on my bum drooling over pages and pages of art yarns on Ravelry, and imagining what I might make at the workshop this weekend, I got inspired to ditch the screen and sit in front of my wheel instead. Last night I spun up a few pouffy blue batts into a lumpy woolen style yarn to practice my long draw. I am not sure that it is a true long draw, I will dig out my Maggie Casey DVD and check. Anyhow, the yarn turned out fine, and today i have been spinning it as a coil spun yarn. Slow going, since keeping overtwist out if the yarn is no mean feat.
Spinning related - more delicious goodies arrived for me to take away to my course this weekend. Yummy yum, they are all gorgeous. Can't wait to play with them.
Sunday Market Shawl
Labels: knitting, yarn
Completed - Sunday Market Shawl, pattern at http://knit-fish.blogspot.com/2008/12/sunday-market-shawl.html
One skein of Noro Kureyon Sock, and a week or two of mindless knitting. Mindless is fantastic in a busy house full of kids. Knit with 3.5 mm needles, cast on/off with 8mm needles.
The Noro yarn was tied in two places, the first in the middle of a colour band, and continuing would have totally mucked up the stripe pattern, so I had to wind off that part and splice the yarn at the right colour and match the spare bit at the end as best I could. Ahh Noro, you are a fickle mistress but I love you still!
I finished the knitting and the dropped stitches last night, and blocked it this morning by pinning it in sections on the ironing board, and steaming it with the iron held above it. There is not enough kid free space to block it anywhere else in our house. And if anyone sees my bought-for-the-purpose-like-grown-ups-use T pins, please let me know. Frustrating to have the perfect tool for the job but have misplaced it.
Now to wait for the weather to cool down enough to wear it.
Fewer loose ends
Labels: crochet, knitting, spinning
A day for finishing stuff. Feels fabulous!
Knitting - I finally finished sewing up my first proper knitting project, a kimono wrap top for Monkey 4. It is knitted out of a very soft light green bamboo/cotton blend. I started it probably a year ago, when I was first learning how to knit continental. I didn't quite have the hang of picking the stitches, and twisted each stitch. The twisted stitched look pretty good, even though they aren't what I was aiming for.
It is blocked, and has been worn by Monkey 4, fits pretty well, and will likely fit next summer as well. Having this finished feels great, since it was started for a rapidly growing kiddo so long ago.
Crochet - I did a couple more rows on the Wedding Shawl, the rows are getting shorter and I can't say it is for a wedding Next Year any more. Only three and a half months to go, I would really like this finished sooner than later. Must crochet more.
Spinning - not exactly spinning, but today I washed and set some yarn, some spun months ago... I am trying to get my yarn up to date, and empty my bobbins and niddy noddies to take to the Art Yarn Workshop next weekend. So, washed and set are
• a few skeins of brown cross breed yarn, among the first I ever spun on my wheel. Not top notch. The thick single is overspun and will skew when (if) I ever knit it.
• green plied yarn, I didn't like it at all when I first plied it, or skeined it, but lying parallel I like it more. Seems to be well plied, the skein is hanging nicely.
• a little bit of alpaca core spun onto cotton crochet thread. An experiment that was more technique practise than anything. Might become a soft toy one day.
• some thick and thin single ply parrot coloured yarn. I lightly felted it to stabilise the twist and to help it stay together. I thwacked it on the side of the bath a few times, and snapped it between my hands, and it turned out just like I hoped it would. Yay!
• some blue wool, spun thick, then coiled around crochet cotton. It really isn't pretty, but once again, it was technique practise. Overtwisted to buggery. Nice to have a hank of coils to my name though.
• some red, blue and white roving, received in a fibre swap, that I never liked and was stuck for an idea as to how to use it. This yarn is swap roving, torn from a striped batt, and core spun around crochet cotton. Technique practise again. I made this yarn one day when I was having a crazy / can't be nice to anyone / best to make something kind of mood. It was overspun, so I ran it through the wheel a few more times to take the kink out, but my nice smooth wrapping went all fuzzy and I didn't like the yarn much at all. Washing, lightly felting and setting has calmed it down a lot and I don't hate it any more. I don't know what it's future will be. Hat? Weaving?
Dyeing - in preparation for the workshop I have dyed some tops.
• first top, procion dye, coloured jade, set with vinegar and heat in dyeing crock pot. About 100g. I really wanted some greens for my final art yarn for the course, and had a wee bit of jade dye left over from Jaqi's Leo Storch baby carrier. Still wet, so the jury is still out. Looking promising though.
• second top, drimarene K dye, violet, set with vinegar and heat in a snap lock bag in the sun for 2 days. About 50g. It is fierce hot here at the moment, and I figured the hot was for free and experimented with ye olde snap lock bag. Still drying, but looks luverly so far. Very soft colour.
• third, lime green, food dyes set with vinegar, snap lock bag method as above, about 50g. Just what I was hoping for. Will be even better when dry.
Art Yarn Workshop - I asked for, and got for Christmas from The Love Of My Life a place on the two day Art Yarn Workshop taught by Michelle from Wooldancer. I am Officially Very Excited to be going, sitting with my wheel and fibre for two whole uninterrupted days, learning from such a talented fibre artist, and being with creative and groovy people. I have been sorting out my fibre stash, my stash of goodies to add in to art yarns, dyed some fibre and trawled the interwebz for the best that Australian dyers have to offer in the way of batts, tops and roving. Etsy came up trumps (when doesn't it?) and there is some very nice stuff on it's way to me. There are also some bits I want to order from eBay if I remember tomorrow. Squee!
Knitting - I finally finished sewing up my first proper knitting project, a kimono wrap top for Monkey 4. It is knitted out of a very soft light green bamboo/cotton blend. I started it probably a year ago, when I was first learning how to knit continental. I didn't quite have the hang of picking the stitches, and twisted each stitch. The twisted stitched look pretty good, even though they aren't what I was aiming for.
It is blocked, and has been worn by Monkey 4, fits pretty well, and will likely fit next summer as well. Having this finished feels great, since it was started for a rapidly growing kiddo so long ago.
Crochet - I did a couple more rows on the Wedding Shawl, the rows are getting shorter and I can't say it is for a wedding Next Year any more. Only three and a half months to go, I would really like this finished sooner than later. Must crochet more.
Spinning - not exactly spinning, but today I washed and set some yarn, some spun months ago... I am trying to get my yarn up to date, and empty my bobbins and niddy noddies to take to the Art Yarn Workshop next weekend. So, washed and set are
• a few skeins of brown cross breed yarn, among the first I ever spun on my wheel. Not top notch. The thick single is overspun and will skew when (if) I ever knit it.
• green plied yarn, I didn't like it at all when I first plied it, or skeined it, but lying parallel I like it more. Seems to be well plied, the skein is hanging nicely.
• a little bit of alpaca core spun onto cotton crochet thread. An experiment that was more technique practise than anything. Might become a soft toy one day.
• some thick and thin single ply parrot coloured yarn. I lightly felted it to stabilise the twist and to help it stay together. I thwacked it on the side of the bath a few times, and snapped it between my hands, and it turned out just like I hoped it would. Yay!
• some blue wool, spun thick, then coiled around crochet cotton. It really isn't pretty, but once again, it was technique practise. Overtwisted to buggery. Nice to have a hank of coils to my name though.
• some red, blue and white roving, received in a fibre swap, that I never liked and was stuck for an idea as to how to use it. This yarn is swap roving, torn from a striped batt, and core spun around crochet cotton. Technique practise again. I made this yarn one day when I was having a crazy / can't be nice to anyone / best to make something kind of mood. It was overspun, so I ran it through the wheel a few more times to take the kink out, but my nice smooth wrapping went all fuzzy and I didn't like the yarn much at all. Washing, lightly felting and setting has calmed it down a lot and I don't hate it any more. I don't know what it's future will be. Hat? Weaving?
Dyeing - in preparation for the workshop I have dyed some tops.
• first top, procion dye, coloured jade, set with vinegar and heat in dyeing crock pot. About 100g. I really wanted some greens for my final art yarn for the course, and had a wee bit of jade dye left over from Jaqi's Leo Storch baby carrier. Still wet, so the jury is still out. Looking promising though.
• second top, drimarene K dye, violet, set with vinegar and heat in a snap lock bag in the sun for 2 days. About 50g. It is fierce hot here at the moment, and I figured the hot was for free and experimented with ye olde snap lock bag. Still drying, but looks luverly so far. Very soft colour.
• third, lime green, food dyes set with vinegar, snap lock bag method as above, about 50g. Just what I was hoping for. Will be even better when dry.
Art Yarn Workshop - I asked for, and got for Christmas from The Love Of My Life a place on the two day Art Yarn Workshop taught by Michelle from Wooldancer. I am Officially Very Excited to be going, sitting with my wheel and fibre for two whole uninterrupted days, learning from such a talented fibre artist, and being with creative and groovy people. I have been sorting out my fibre stash, my stash of goodies to add in to art yarns, dyed some fibre and trawled the interwebz for the best that Australian dyers have to offer in the way of batts, tops and roving. Etsy came up trumps (when doesn't it?) and there is some very nice stuff on it's way to me. There are also some bits I want to order from eBay if I remember tomorrow. Squee!