Saturday 30 October 2010

Drained

Unfortunately, this week i have succeeded in contracting a lovely cold bug that my brother very thoughtfully brought home. due to this wool production has ground to a halt, which is very annoying as i was planning to do some dyeing. I wanted to dye a whole slew of reds, and so far the fibre has been sitting in a bucket of vinegar water for 4 days now as Ive been unable to manage it. I've spun some beautiful yarn as well and was planning to set it (again, something that isn't currently happening). hopefully by next week, I'll be over this enough to take some pictures as they're relay lovely. including these batts, which have been transformed into a lovely thin single full of unexpected goodies.
so, till next week everyone! 

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Keep warm, Keep knitting

OK, I'll admit it, I may be addicted to knitting gloves. In the last week Ive managed about seven pairs and am now on my eighth (which is pretty decent for someone who only a few weeks ago hated knitting). After the first couple I even got confident enough to start writing my own patterns, which, surprisingly, wasn't actually as complicated as i thought it would be. I've got a couple of local shows lined for December, so have been making things like mad. I even started making some very nice beachcombers jewelry, which I love, even though I have managed to glue my fingers to just about everything in the process (bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "sticking with you"). I need to get it together and do some spinning (the knitting has taken over slightly), maybe the dyeing I've got planned for the weekend will kick it into gear (I'm thinking deep reds, though I'm pretty spontaneous with the colour mixing, so i might get something serendipitously unexpected).
Its definitely cold outside now (and that's saying something for Cornwall) So I hope everyone is wrapped up nice and warm. We've started lighting the wood burner in the evenings and its lovely to sit and work in front of its flickering warmth and watch the dancing flames float across the glowing logs. soon we'll have this years first frosts, so keep warm everyone, and keep knitting.

Monday 11 October 2010

All Blue

Happy Wool Week everyone!
I finally finished the gloves, they're lovely (if a bit loose), I had to adjust the pattern for the yarn, but i obviously didn't get it quite right. never the less, they're lovely and warm, and super soft. I even made a pair for a friends birthday.
Ive had blue fingers all this week, but its not from the cold, its because I've been dyeing . so far I've come out of it with 500g of some lovely falkland top and 200g of fleece, all of which I love.

some of the colours didn't quite come out as i thought they would, mainly as i hadn't squeezed quite enough water out, but they're beautiful and i cant wait to spin them 

Sunday 3 October 2010

Freezing fingers

Summer has definitely given way to autumn now, the wind is cold and the air has that strange fragile quality to it, the leaves are already thick underfoot and it won’t be long till the first frosts are coating the veg patch with spirals of silver. so I've decided to attempt to make a pair of fingerless gloves (cold fingers and spindles not being the best of friends), and this pattern for hand warmers I found on Ravelry appealed to me as they look well within my current ability level (otherwise known as the "what am I doing with the pointy sticks again?" stage) as they're knitted flat then sewn up the side and don't have finger holes (which are apparently "tricky" ).
so far they seem to going reasonably well, even though I seriously considered chucking the whole lot out the window after having to redo the first two rows at least 5 times (thankfully the parent showed me what I was doing wrong before I did anything I might have regretted).
Hopefully they’ll work out as I’m planning to make a pair for a friends birthday. I've alredy started spinning the yarn which, so far,  has been very interesting as although I’ve blended for texture and colour before, I’ve never blended for different fibre characteristics. As gloves the yarn needs to be soft and warm but also durable. So I decided to blend super soft merino fleece with some angora and llama and a bit of BFL and astle milk morrit to increase durability. This seems to be working pretty well but I cant realy tell how well its worked till I start knitting it up.