Dyeing, Spinning etc

Been really busy this week, working on Christmas presents, which are going ok but I'm starting to panic!

Anyway, here are my adventures.

First I dyed up a sample skein, in 100% laceweight lambswool. It's called SugarPlum :)





So I was really happy with that, so went ahead and dyed up some BFL roving.



BUT managed to semi felt it. Doh!




I decided to try and spin it anyway. Since I only know how to spin via pre-drafting, it meant I could pre draft the lot, then spin it. I'm looking forward to learning to spin 'properly' (ie without predrafting).




Looks a bit Noro-esque to me, mostly because the colours are darker than I expected, and it's semi felted. Anyway I dyed up two lots of singles.

Then plied them.

Making this nifty wee skein. I'm very happy with it :)

There's not many yards though. I think once I've got a pile of small sample skeins I will knit them all up into an abstract scarf, hand dyed, hand spun and hand knitted :D


I dyed some bright red lambswool too :) just to be different!

Little update

WEll I can't really post much because I'm knitting all Christmas presents, so if you know who I am on Ravelry you can see my projects there ;) (I'm about to go update there).

So no WIPs to show you I'm afraid on here. But I can show you some yarn I dyed, it's 2 ply lambswool. I've got loads of ideas for the shop but finding time to do them all is the hindrance ;)

Anyway here's my 'Ice' colourway which I really like (I know, I'm biased).

I'm making handpainted/sketched personalised tags for everything which I Think is a rather nice touch, and it's enjoyable for me!

I also made a load of Jack Skellington stuff, which I really enjoyed too. Here are the earrings, hanging on my pretty purple pin (well one of them)!

So apart from Christmas presents, my other WIPs are the FC, which is really getting long, I'm nearly at the end of the second out of three balls of Kidsilk Night. Obviously WIPs for me have completely taken a back seat since Christmas isn't far away. I'm also doing that retro sock. I had to frog it all because I cast on too many stitches! I'm nearly to the heel. Actually I'll take some pics of that and the FC and will update with them :)

Haven't got any spinning done recently :( but I'm going on a day course soon, which should be brilliant!

My OH got me the book 'Spin to Knit', which I would highly recommend!

Ooh just thought, if you're a member of the UK Swaps group on Ravelry, they are having a load of contests and I'm proud to be sponsoring one of them.. how exciting!

Ciao for now then!

Lots of exciting stuff!

First an apology - I've been AWOL for a bit, due to having been at my parents' place for a bit. I kept up taking photos of everything though ;)

Lots has happened.. I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate with Mum and friend Lyn, I recieved a drop spindle from Yoshimi, and taught myself to spin (with lots of daft questions on the forum). Then yesterday was my birthday which was nicely relaxing and squishy :D


Here's my spindle (poorly photographed). Embarassingly, I didn't have the slightest clue how to use it, as I hadn't even seen one used before. So after some googling and asking questions on the AY forum, I figured it out!




Here's my first singles wrapped on my latest hi-tech gadget.. the loo roll.




And here it is all plied, my first mini skein of Blue Faced Leicester which I got from D&T Crafts,



HEre's my second mini skein, but it's a bit bigger. It's a littleuneven but I rather like it. I found it tricky getting the twist right, I felt it should be well twisted, but that was too much, so I had to let it untwist a little. It seems, so far, that the hardest thing (apart from juggling it all about to ply), is getting the twist right.

And here's what I did last night. My OH's up for the weekend so he helped by holding the loo roll bobbins when I wound it off for plying. This is merino wool, pre dyed and I pre drafted it. There's 25g so prob not much yardage. I'm thinking of buying two more lots of the same stuff and spinning it all so that I could knit a hat.

I'm rather pleased with this, I got it quite even.

Close up:

Here's some ladybirds I made for Fluzzlewett, aka Jacqui. I think they're really cute!

I've made loads of stuff for the shop recently, lots of rainbow stuff and clay stuff and that. These are my favourites though, even though they're small and simple! ;)

Ok here's my booty from Harrogate!

Here's the list:

- 3 balls purple wool for a felted bag,

- 2 skeins sari silk for another bag

- blue sock yarn

- purple sock yarn

- pink and purple sock yarn

- Chunky blue wool for a hat

- Kid Classic

- 3 balls alpaca for leg warmers

- purple DPNs

- Sock circs

- bamboo circ for FC OTN

- 2 bags 100g BFL from DT Craft

- 1 bag 50g baby yak hair (DROOL!)

- Pink acid dye

- some beads

- The Tea Cosy book

Considering how much I got, I didn't spend that much! I had a considerable amount of cash left over anyway :)


Here's some close ups!

Sari silk:

Chunky blue wool:

Blue sock yarn:

Purple sock yarn:

Multi coloured sock yarn:

Here it is being knitted on the circ. It's a 30cm one though, and is actually too big. I didn't get on with it at all so I'm back to my trusty DPNs!

Here's some beautiful handspun, hand dyed wool that my lovely Godfather got me for my bday! Isn't he ace!

Purple:

That's going to stay in a skein and be drooled over for a while before I decide what to do with it.

My OH got my Spin to Knit too, which is excellent. Also my Mum got me Jan Messent's Knitted Garden book, which is brilliant! My OH's also booked me a place on a day course for spinning on Dec 21st, which will be awesome, and my Step Dad has got me a year's subscription to the National Geographic!

OTN I have my FC (still!), which is getting big now, well I'm at around 300 stitches I think, and am on the second ball. Also I'm nearly done on my Step Dad's socks, I have my sock (that's just for simple knitting while watching a DVD etc). Also I'm doing my OH's hoody (success not guaranteed), and a hat for Mum, and the Shawn the sheep figures from Simple Knitting. Phew! What a list! I still have tonnes to do too! So I should stop rambling and go and get on! I need to upload my new stash to Ravelry though.. ;)

Ciao for now!