Needles on the Move

All the details here

According to the weather report, it’s currently 22% humidity here in London. Which just goes to show that you should never trust the BBC. I swear, it’s more like 85, and although I was planning to work all day on the blue barf, I’ve finally tossed it in favour of sitting at the computer near the open window, hoping that a breeze might wander in.

There’s not much in the way of pictures to show, I have been spinning a bunch, and doing some blends, but most of it I can’t show you atm. This is a bit of what I’m working on though:

It’s some advance mohair from mum, the kind of stuff which will be appearing in her Etsy shop later in the year. It’s great fun to spin and comes out with a gorgeous sheen! Sadly, this was all I had of this particular colour (it was a mixed bag) so I’ll be combining it with some other yarns in the project I have planned.

I also have an FO:

Pattern: Fiori di Zucca by the lovely Alice. It’s the June Socktopus club sock and I love it to bits! If it wasn’t such bleh stincky weather today I’d be wearing them now.

Hand-carved bead from a little shop in Amsterdam: 80p

Bamboo dpn: free really, as I bought the set for making i-cord.

Sheepy egg-cup from Wonderwool ‘07: £2

That thrill you experience when your tiny support spindle stands up and spins with grace: Priceless.

I spotted 10 minutes a day on a blog somewhere and later discovered that there’s a ravelry group. The idea stuck in my head and I decided to apply it to improving my support spindle spinning. I hereby pledge to practice for ten minutes every day this summer.

At the moment I’m spinning some cashmere which I bought ages age, it’s boring white but ok to practise on. I’m getting some cotton sliver, and will hopefully progress to the gorgeous naturally coloured cotton like you can see here.

The spare bead, btw, which isn’t a spindle yet, is for Kai. Who I’m hoping will join me on this venture!

I’m happy to announce that I will be teaming up with Alice of Socktopus to offer an introductory Learn to Spin course next month.

Over two Sunday sessions you will learn all the spinning basics, with time in between to practise. I’ll also be running my toe-up sock class again. All the details, and sign-ups can be found here.

Alice is also offering some sock classes with the ingenious Jane, so make sure you pop over and check them out. If you can’t make it, or miss out on a spot, don’t worry - the classes will probably run again in the autumn.

See you there!

The scarf is done - there was only a couple of inches to go as it turned out.

Now I just have to decide whether I keep it :-D or give it away as a present this year to someone who likes green. I have a 4oz hank of the same colourway fibre left over too if anyone wants it.

I have been knitting, I finished the second Tulip cardi - photos later this week as I left it at Stash - and have almost finished the first sleeve of Venezia. The rows there are getting very short now at the top of the sleeve cap and somehow that beautifully striped steek just makes me go all gooey inside!

Mostly though, I have been spinning. Here’s a taste of what’s been going on:

These mini skeins are shetland and will be dyed up for a somewhat traditional, but actually quite modern stranded project (that came out sounding weird - but you’ll see what I mean when it’s published).

There has also been more lace:

I am having to pace myself on that a bit as I’m finding that the concentration required is not so good for my back and neck. So I’m only spinning it every second day which means, obviously, that I need a second wheel! So I can have two projects on the go at once you see …

Today being a non-spinning-lace day I have been washing and flicking and generally enveloping myself in Supernova’s fleece. The most amazingly soft alpaca I’ve ever been able to play with. In an extreme display of stupidity, however, I manage to felt some of it in the washing process, I’d washed 100g and managed to rescue about 1/3 of it from the tangle. You can be sure I’m being extra careful with the rest!

There has been much spinning happening here lately. A number of projects, secret and not-so-secret, are on the go and I have been spending at least five or six hours a day at the wheel (yes, there is a certain amount of bliss in work at the moment!).

There is more blue yarn, which I mentioned once before:

This is the weft to go with the earlier spinning. I didn’t need to make this skein quite so smooth and firm - the warp is subject to abrasion from the heddle and imperfections can cause breaks - and it has more of the character which I like in my handspun. I don’t see much point in always creating yarn which looks machine-made, one of the reasons I also like to choose things like Polwarth and BFL rather than processed Merino. The heavier fibres somehow feel a bit more like ‘real’ wool and give a bit more interest to the finished yarn.

We also have some last-minute Falkland which I spun up to augment a project which is running out of yarn:

I dyed it with Landscape dyes and I love the colour variation which comes through when you don’t stir the dye around too evenly. It makes me think of melted chocolate!

Finally, another project which I can’t tell you much about yet:

This is some of the baby Polwarth fleece which I bought last year, I have washed and dyed it in lock form and am spinning it for lace one lock at a time.

It’s rather time-consuming and not generally a weight that I choose, but I’m blocking a swatch right now and I think I could get very into the idea of lace-spinning! There’s a great deal of satisfaction in creating something so fine - a sense that practice has paid off and anything can be achieved with care and effort. (That’s a dime, btw, almost the same as a 5c, or a 5p - just trying to cater for everyone…)

And believe it or not, I have still been knitting during the gaps!

One Neighborhood Tunnels sock is finished and I should be able to cast on the second tonight, ready to knit all Saturday in front of Pride and Prejudice.

My weekend down in Berkshire was loads of fun, I managed to find several new fibres to experiment with and played with some new spinning techniques as well. I managed to come home with only a small moderate pile of purchases - some Spin-Off back issues, Landscape dyes, a colour wheel, mini niddy-noddy, and a few hundred grams of fibre. More interestingly though - here is what I played with over the weekend…

The Camel fibre was very nice to spin. Fluffy and soft and not too short. I didn’t buy any of this as I’m not a huge fan of pale brown, and I already have a little bit of Camel in my stash.

Milk Protein was a new one. It is a bit like soy fibre to spin, a fairly long staple and luxurious without having the annoying fly-away quality you get with silk. I have no idea what I would do with it though!

The silk cocoons were lots of fun - they actually draft really easily: just hold the cocoon in the back hand and draw the fibres off with your forward hand. The yarn has a bit of texture, like you would get from silk hankies, and is quite fuzzy (although that might just be the low twist in this sample) I bought a load of these and have big plans for them!

I have been looking for some Possum fibre for a while - in Australia at Christmas I couldn’t even find any yarn - all the supplier had was made-up garments at that time. This is a blend which makes the extremely short fibre a bit easier to manage. It’s harder than spinning plain merino, but holds together ok and makes a lovely fuzzy yarn. I tried some pure Possum as well (see below), but need to get out my support spindle I think as it just wasn’t playing ball.

I bought a pile of this particular batt - falling in love with the colours and texture. It’s not at all my type of fibre usually - hence the trialling of new techniques. I tend to spin smooth, crisp and reasonably fine. This batt, however, begged me to use a long-draw method and make a thicker, textured yarn. The neppy silk makes lovely little slubs and textures and the colours blend into soft squidgy yumminess. You can’t really tell from the mini skein I know, but I have 200g of this so there is more to come.

Finally, the Yak fibre (de-haired according to the label on the bag). This was also very short but not as bad as the possum. I gave up on the wheel - I may be able to get it to work but I was using a borrowed wheel and couldn’t figure out how to fine-tune it the way I wanted. I switched to a very light spindle and managed the 2-ply with no problems. It’s a lovely soft yarn, a lot like the pink cashmere I spun a while back.

These four I grabbed handfulls of but quickly realised I would need to either blend with something (we forgot to take hand cards with us), have my own wheel, or use the support spinde. I like the feel of the cotton - it’s probably going to be quite easy to draft compared to the carded cotton I’ve tried in the past.

Yesterday, as Londoners will know, was butt-bitingly freezing and rainy and windy. I decided I desperately need a new hat even though the daffodils are trying to convince us that spring is coming. So as soon as I got home, I spun up 50g of some deep burgundy/red merino I bought - it’s squidgy and yummy! Once I have the other 50g done I’m going to make a Koolhaas for me. (sorry, red is terribly hard to photograph - I’ll keep trying).

It’s not news that spinning is meditative, relaxing and even possibly the new yoga. I find it very calming and although I enjoy experimenting with new techniques, most of the time I spin to a standard no-thinking-required grist and finish as a 2-ply. I usually end up with about a sport to DK weight yarn which is one I consider most useful in the types of things I like to knit.

Not every fibre likes being this thickness of course, but it works fine on my two favourite fibres - BFL and Polwarth - and funnily enough, that happens to be what I have most of in my stash. I like that I can spin this kind of yarn pretty much without looking or thinking. It’s great when you’re chatting away at spinning group or watching TV or demonstrating at a show. I used it here for the Emerald City yarn, and here again on Nathalie’s Deep Sea yarn (I think I did all of that on a LOTR marathon).

Again on the no-thinking thing, I like to choose colours which blend and tone together. This is not the kind of spinning where I want to be fiddling around with matching colours in plies and worrying which end of the strip of tops I should be starting from. I love the way in the Emerald City I get green on blue, and dark blue on blue and bright green on green and more, making it exciting to watch the way the scarf is coming out with each new colour variation.

Yesterday I grabbed the bag of Tulips colourway from the Spunky fibre club which has been kicking around since last June. I couldn’t figure out how to place the colours and I have been fussing over it for ages wondering what to do. In the end, I realised it was the black that was the sticking point - I just don’t really like red and black together. So I pulled it out, and most of the yellow and just spun red with a teeny hint of orange. I love it! It’s fiery and really red but has depth of colour due to the slight variation the orange adds. There’s only a little over 50g so I will probably stripe it with something or perhaps do a colourwork hat.

In between spinning, of course, there were muffins. And Ali’s lemon cake. And Jan’s cheese biscuits. In fact, I’m surprised I got anything done at all!

Banana Choc Chip Muffins:

2 cups plain flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 cup chopped banana, 100g good quality chopped dark chocolate, 1/4 cup vegetable oil.

Beat wet ingredients, stir in dry and add banana and chocolate. Bake at 180 C for about 20 mins or until golden. Makes 12.

* Aussie measurements: 1 cup is 250ml, 1 tsp is 5ml.

The disadvantage of being three weeks behind is that what’s currently happening tends to get overlooked. Also, it’s far easier to use ready-made, nicely lit pictures from the summer holiday than battle with the greyness here in London. Today the sun came out (!) and I quickly grabbed the opportunity to take some pictures of things which are happening right now.

I finished one of the more pressing projects I had on hand and promptly cast on for the Karenina Socks, the Socktopus club December pattern. The yarn is Knittery cashmere blend and although I’m finding it a little splitty, it’s knitting up beautifully. You can see what these are going to look like here.

Another recently begun project is causing me a bit of a dilemma. This is a dead-easy mistake rib scarf knitted with Misti Alpaca Chunky. I LOVE this yarn. It’s the third time I’ve used it, having made two quickie cowls for Christmas presents.

It’s gorgeous. It’s sublime. It’s like cuddling kittens. But, it takes at least a 6.5mm needle and I can’t stand fat needles. It takes. so. long. to make every stitch. The way I form the stitch (I’m a thrower) means that it’s quicker the smaller the needles - less movement required to get around the end of the needle tip. Yesterday I knitted 15 rounds of 2×2 ribbing on my sock in about an hour (960 sts). This scarf is also essentially 2×2 ribbing and I have done about 80 rows (2,160 sts). I estimate I’ve spent at least 4 hours on it. Gah! So, should I keep buying it?

On the spinning front: One of the Ravelry groups I’m in set angora (among other things) as a theme for January. So I’ve been picking this up every so often…

Angora/silk blend from P&M Woolcraft. It’s lovely! As long as you don’t object to being permanently covered in white fluff.

Grab a hank of top. Admire the colours a bit. Split, pre-draft a bit. Feed it onto the bobbin at the grist it wants to be, not arguing with it to make it something it’s not. Pause a while to eat chocolate and admire the colours again.

Then find an empty bobbin, chain, chain, chain… Admire the colours. Skein off, dunk in water, whack a bit.

Admire.

Did I mention that I love this colourway? It’s the November club fibre from Spunky Eclectic and it’s called “Pie For Everyone.” It’s Falkland fibre and pretty soft, although not super-soft, and drafts like a dream. Get some!