Roadkill - 02 Sep 2012

So. I'm getting asked to make more knitted roadkill toys. I reallyreallyreally don't want to make a load more, but I'd write up a pattern if folks are interested.

I thought I'd taken photos of the poor creature, but I'm damned if I can find them. When Jules is here next week I will take some.

Post a comment if you'd be interested in a pattern! It's very straightforward to make.

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UPDATE: I found a couple of terrible photos!

17th Aug 2012

Last one!

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12th Aug 2012

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7th Aug 2012

And now I'm carrying an injury - sliced the pad of my left thumb chopping fruit :-(

I may have to switch events to something crocheted...

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4th August 2012

(scuse the typo, I'm waiting for TPTB to fix)

28th July 2012

Fleece!

Two fleeces arrived this morning! I have Polwarth, from a ewe called Cassy, from Donna at The Whorl's End, and some Poll Dorset x Charollais. I also dug out the Bowmont I got from Lesley at Devon Fine Fibres earlier in the year.

I also have Manx Loaghtan and Zwartbles batts from the Natural Fibre Company.

Polwarth
Wow. This is a truly lovely fleece. It's very clean with excellent "lace curtain" effect. I've popped most of it in a cold soak just to loosen up the small amount of yuk that's in it. It has good lock structure, with a staple of about 2.5 - 3". The crimp isn't especially obvious. It's very fine and doesn't seem to be too weathered either. It's not as greasy as I expected, and my bastardised Margaret Stove washing technique (dunk in very hot soapy water, swoosh, squeeze, rinse and leave on a towel) cleaned it up beautifully. I washed it in small bundles of locks.

I think this deserves combing or maybe even spinning straight from the lock after a light flick. 

Bowmont
The finest fleece I've ever had my paws on. It even smells nice. Bowmonts have a lot of Merino (75%) in their breeding and it shows. It is very greasy, though it's not sticky or goopy. I used the same wash as above and ended up with delightfully fluffy locks. I did find the tips were weakened through weathering, so I've been pulling those off after washing. The staple is fairly short, around 2". Very good lock structure with a tight crimp. It spreads out amazingly on contact with water - it's vital to wash carefully. I did a lock at a time and smooshed the tips which are quite compacted. It washed up very well, if rather slowly.

Again, combing or lock flicking is the way to go here. I might try carding the weathered tips just for the hell of it.

Poll Dorset x Charollais
This is an interesting fleece - in fact, I wonder if I have fleece from three different sheep! There are three distinct types:

A blocky, dense 2-3" lock with a very strong crimp. This is very Dorset-y.
A coarser, almost longwool type of lock. 3", wavy and a bit hairy.
A disorganised, shorter type with much less distinct locks. 2" ish.

Overall this was a greasy fleece, but quite clean - it seemed to have a reddish cast but I think that was mainly dust. It's in a cold soak at the moment, I washed up some representative parts to get a feel for what I have.
Reading the FFSB, the Poll Dorset genetics seem to have come out a lot in this crossing. I think I will probably card the disorganised parts, and the more distinct locks I will comb or flick. Alternatively I could blend the lot together on cards or combs.

I'm still waiting on a Romney to arrive, and some North Ron batts. The source for the others I think is going to be a letdown - it's frustrating when you're trying to get people to take money off you and they don't seem bothered!!!

I'm still spinning the Shropshire - it really is a big beast of a fleece. I'm also spinning up the Oxford Down I had off eBay yonks ago. The Cotswold I'm thinking about dyeing.

Ravellenics
Yup, taking part again! I'm trying to finish a couple of WIPs first - my Hap Shawl needs an edging for starters.

I'll take some fleece pix soon!

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22 July 2012 - TdF and Fibre East Round-Up

Blogging slipped a bit there in favour of spinning ☺

Here's a photo round-up of the 2012 Tour de Fleece.

















And the results of Fibre East! It was very wet but I had a grand, if rather expensive, time! Click through to Flickr for notes on the picture!



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I'm now on a mission to get my paws on smallish quantities of as many different breed fleeces as I can. So far I've secured some carded North Ronaldsay and some Poll Dorset x Charollais (not strictly a breed I know but it sounded interesting!) I'm bidding on some Romney on eBay, and I've potentially found a source of Portland, Kerry Hill, Norfolk Horn and Soay. Excitement! ☺

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July 11th, TdF Day 12

back on the case after a "rest day" - some rest, I hoovered and cleaned the bathroom!

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July 9th, TdF Day 10

Back to work today, so not much achieved. I did a little spindling last night and made some singles for hexapuffs:





I'd carded some merino batts a few months ago. I decided they were a bit dull, so I re-carded them with some tussah, milk protein, flax, treasure fibre and sari silk. Much more interesting!

I woke up with spinner's cramp this morning, so decided to lay off the wheel for today. Instead I fetched the Haldane downstairs and switched it over to single drive / scotch tension. I really don't like double drive I've discovered.

I have a terrible pic:



I ended up using an Ashford scotch tension knob, as it was ready to go; however I ended up taking about a foot off the cord and retying it all, so I could have actually used the proper Haldane knob. I might swap it at some point! Tomorrow I shall try and spin something up to test it out properly.

So instead of spinning tonight, I dug out the Shropshire fleece from the stash, and I'm doing a bit of combing:





by the way, that was way too much fleece on one comb ☺ I ended up with one foot braced on the table to stop me tipping it over. Whoops...

In other news, we've spent a bit of time this evening watching our resident barn owl hunting. Very cool. Steve took a photo, so we'll wait and see if it came out once he gets round to finishing the film off!

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July 8th, TdF Day 9

Fractally spun Shetland from Old Maiden Aunt, in the Bracken colourway; two bobbins' worth of the merino blend.

What's next???

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July 7th, TdF Day 8

About 150 yards of silk hankies, just needing a wash. I'm saving all the skeins I'm making and I'll have a washing session at the end of the Tour.

I'm back on the merino / camel / silk / alpaca for a bit now, I want to finish the second bobbin and then decide what I'm going to do with it. I can either 2-ply it into a heavy laceweight, or n-ply it and get a light fingering weight. Not sure, I'm very out of practice with navajo plying!

In other news the man came this morning and finished off the new cooker installation ☺ so we have a shiny new cooker. It's barely stopped raining all day, so I've been watching the British GP practice and qualifying and spinning away steadily. I'm starting to feel a bit spun out I must admit! I might do some fibre prep tonight / tomorrow, I can either comb some more Shropshire or maybe card up a crazy art batt. We'll see...

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July 6th, TdF Day 7

Formula 1 watching tends to distract me from spinning :-)

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July 5th, TdF Day 6

Can't believe we're nearly a week in!

Anyway, tonight, more hankies. Hopefully these will be done tonight and I can get back on the merino blend with my new flyer.



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July 4th, TdF Day 5

Spindle spinning silk hankies (mawata)

Bit of a change of pace before I get stuck back into the merino blend again. My new flyer arrived so I'll get that fitted to Caroline, hopefully tonight.

Electrician has fixed the dodgy fuse (hopefully, he says he has) and the cooker now has an electrical supply. (Hurray) Now we just need a gas fitter to do their bit and we will finally have a fully functional cooker again.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spin hankies.

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July 3rd, TdF Day 4

It's a bit challenging to spin tonight. The electrician has been in to install the new cooker (we need a 30 amp feed putting in) which he hasn't done; then earlier on we could smell something familiarly stinky in the hall. Turned out the 5 amp fuse for the downstairs lights was glowing orange-hot. Meep. So we yanked it (once it had cooled off a bit) and have no lights for the evening. So I'm spinning by lamplight ☺

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July 2nd, TdF Day 3

FeltStudioUK batts, one skein I'd spun up previously, the rest I finished yesterday and today. I have some blue to do next, it's a nice change from the fine merino spinning ☺ Also means I get to use Genevieve the Joy as well as Caroline the Traddy!

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July 1st, 2012 - TdF12 Day 2

Not much more to report, wedding reception last night and I'm feeling like ass today and I wasn't even drinking!

June 5th, 2012

The last day of the Diamond Jubilee, and the extra day off nearly halfway through :-( That's the fastest four days off I've had in a while. I needed it, I've been shattered for ages, and it's been a bit of an up-and-down few weeks:



My granny's funeral was held in the middle of May. She was nearly 97, so a jolly good innings by all accounts, but she was the last of my grandparents and it feels rather end-of-era-ish. We had a good turnout though and it was nice to catch up with my rather large extended family. She would have approved of the flowers - she was a florist by trade and a very enthusiastic gardener. Sadly, her house will most likely now be sold, and the garden she put so many years into will go with it. It's slipped a lot over recent years, but I'm trying not to think about someone putting decking and slabs all over it, and probably pulling the house down. Instead I dug over the border outside our kitchen window and planted it up. It now has hardy geraniums, hebe, dahlias, a hydrangea and the climbing rose "Crimson Glory" which grew up the gable end of Granny's house. A small, but fitting tribute.

Back at home, the quilt is nearly done (I'll finish it today) and while I was up North I picked up my fabric stash, including an almost-finished quilt top, so that's now on the list.

I finished my handspun Ishbel, and it's already had a couple of wearings now the weather's gone to crap. We went to Durdle Door on Saturday and it was very handy keeping the chilly wind off my neck. I don't have any photos yet as I was using the Diana and I haven't finished the film off!

I started a Japanese crochet pattern  but it's looking enormous so until I've sorted it out there's no picture - it's in the naughty corner just now. I'm still making hexapuffs - I've completely lost count, but I keep filling up my bag then tipping it into my puff box upstairs. I have sewn some of it together, and it was alarmingly small.

I finished off the blanket made with quilt weaver squares. I still had quite a bit of yarn left, so I crocheted a deep border with bullion stitches. It looks well, so I'll snap a picture when I can find time to spread it out. I really like the Hazel Rose looms, the quilt weavers are quite a large gauge though so I'm thinking about getting a finer one. You wouldn't want to use anything lighter than an aran weight on the quilt weaver, I used mainly chunky weights and that came out perfect.

In other news the Sky dish packed up (now fixed), the oven has given up the ghost (typical Bank Holiday, we found two dead mice in the back of it) and the lawn has turned into a hayfield. We do have a family of fox cubs entertaining us, although the resident bunnies are less impressed.

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7th May 2012

Can't talk.

Quilting.



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14th April 2012

I signed up for the Ravelympics again ☺ Sucker for punishment here, I just have to remember that last time I was a) living alone and b) unemployed, so I can't really use that as a guideline for how much I get done!

Anyway, down here in the valley we've run out of heating oil (whoops, the sightglass was stuck), ended up with a new hot water tank and have a pair of resident ducks moved in. This means that cats are out of the question at the moment - along with the ducks we have green woodpeckers and three species of owl!

Of course now we have no heating the weather has turned back into winter and it's bloody freezing :-(  The oil is so expensive we went for the "delivery sometime in the next two weeks" option...that might have been a miscalculation!

Here are the ducks, with their new best friend:



We had a barbecue, and it was perishing:



(we ate indoors!)

And here is my Sewing Disaster:



Looks okay, right?



That's a pair of jeans that fit me.



They're a bit on the big side. That's a Medium. I've now learned that a lot of patterns don't just run a bit large, they are truly immense. Lesson learned ☺ I've parked the trouser project until I know what I'm going to do about it (maybe re-cut them smaller, or just put in new side seams) In the meantime I'm working on my quilt top (no pictures as I had to pick it up off the kitchen floor so Steve could cook) and knitting hexapuffs again ☺

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