Woolfest 2011

I went, I shopped, I drank a lot of coffee, missed my man and did a lot of driving - 650 miles (ouch)

Worth it? Naturally ☺ So what did I get? Well, some hand-dyed tops from Freyalyn and FSUK, silk brick from Oliver Twist, carding stuffs from Wingham, some yarn from Texere, an Andean plyer from the Mulberry Dyer, a spindle from IST, some tops from P&M Woolcraft (I think) a Kucha Kucha scarf kit and some books. Result.

When I can get some decent daylight I'll take some proper pictures.

Some musings on Woolfest
They really need a bigger venue. I was queuing on the A66 to get in, at 10.30 on Friday...and it was packed inside all morning, you couldn't get near some of the stands.
They also need more places to get a drink and something to eat. The café is very good but simply can't cope with weight of numbers. Their veggie lasagne was darn tasty mind, but they were two hours late with the sausage supper :(

There seemed to be a bit more weaving this year, but no pin looms (Hazel Rose type, shame cause I wanted one), and there seemed to be less hand-dyed yarn and crazy carding / art yarn stuff. I think this is more of a change of emphasis on the part of the organisers rather than a shift in customer taste. The focus seemed to be more on sustainability, pure British wool and natural dyes. Which is all good, but a bigger venue would allow for both camps...

ANYWAY. I wanted to tell you about the book I got - The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius.

If you have any interest in wool, sheep, other fibre animals, spinning, weaving, felting or breed history, you need this book ☺ You don't need to be a spinner to find it interesting and informative, though it might turn you into a devoted "from-raw-fleece" spinner! Although it is American (what gave it away??) it covers the British breeds in great detail and explains the differences (where they exist) between American and British varieties of the same breeds. Handily, for most breeds, it shows a lock, one or more spun samples, a knitted swatch and a "weavie" square. For some breeds it shows a colour range too, and has a general description of each type of fibre, e.g. longwools.

For particular favourite breeds they go into more detail. They even touch on the interesting, and not very well-known, fact about commercial "Shetland" yarns - the term only means the wool has all been SOURCED on the Isles, NOT that it is all from Shetland breed sheep. So in theory it can be a mixture of breeds. Not a lot of people know that, and funnily enough, the wool brokers don't make a major point of it ☺

There's some interesting thoughts in the book on Down type breeds, so I thought I'd share my limited experience ☺ I have a Shropshire fleece I'm working with at the moment, and I've also had Oxford Down and Texel, which is not strictly a Down breed but is damn close. I think they're underrated as spinners' fleeces. They have good elasticity and crimp, they wash up easily as they don't seem inclined to felt and they spin up nicely into a bouncy, passably hard-wearing yarn. The downside is finding a decent one - Down sheep are mainly meat breeds, so the shearing is often decidedly utilitarian - second cuts and disorganised shearing are the norm it would appear. They're also often filthy and marked with shepherd's paint. They don't hold onto the yuk as badly as a locky longwool, but they do seem to act like Velcro for bits of the landscape. However once you get it clean, they're easy to process with cards or a drum carder, but you might want to use Viking or mini-combs on one if it has a lot of second cuts. I've even English combed some Texel and it made a lovely, floofy, crimpy top with lots of bounce and airiness. Massive amount of waste though as you'd expect.

So in short, don't ignore the Down breeds! Just don't buy all the good ones before I get there ☺

And now I'll finish off with some more pictures from Woolfest:


Breakfast


Wensleydales


Teeny Ouessant sheep


Pitiful-looking alpacas


Some of the Clyde Coast Guild on tour


Innes trying out her new Mayan spinner


Spinning in the Travelodge bar

~♥~

Sprint

Yup, motorsport content again ☺ Bank Holiday Monday was time for a trip over to the Smoke (literally as it turned out, a huge fire in Thornton Heath meant some nifty work on my part with the road atlas and Google Maps to get us home again) and to Crystal Palace for their annual Sprint. For those not familiar, sprints are not "racing" as such - each competitor has a number of runs on the circuit one at a time, and the fastest wins. There are lots of classes so like cars compete against each other for the honours. At this event there was also a nice sideshow of interesting cars and bikes, and you can wander around the paddock to look at the competitors.





I found some Honda Civics - my Mum had one of these! Cracking little car it was too:



There were some very serious Minis:



some tidy French retro:



and one of my personal favourites:



oh and the beloved found his next car...he wishes:



There was Actual Knitting Content™ - my Liesl got an outing (excuse the gratuitous butt shot, that's what happens when a certain person is put in charge of the camera)



and I took my latest project and knitted in between cars ☺

Latest project, I hear you cry? Yup, I caved and cast on another project...I do have a (feeble) excuse - I wanted to try out the Wollmeise before KnitNation, to see if I wanted to buy any more. Of course I do. It really is nice, feels like cotton, knits like a wool/cotton and apparently blocks like a dream but I haven't got that far. One thing I have found - it's somewhat overspun imho, so it tends to twist up a bit. This gave me a problem when I cast on the first pattern I had in mind - Pogona. You have to switch between stocking stitch and reverse st st. This lead to this:



EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW. I often have a slight ladder when swapping between the two (and some Rav-searching has suggested some solutions) but the twist seemed to exaggerate the problem to an unacceptable degree :-( After a little soul-searching I faced facts and ripped it all out. It's now becoming Sweet Jazz, a nice shawly, crescenty scarfy thing with an appealingly pointy border. Moving on nicely so far, no picture because it really doesn't look very exciting yet.

I've been doing some weaving -



made a start on the "net" curtains for the lounge window. I'm sick of the neighbours gawping! Note the rather dubious warping set-up - I do miss having a really big dining room! I finished the weaving today, I just need to secure the edges and give it a wash, and see what I end up with...there's still quite a lot to do yet. I'm still ploughing on with an epic peg loom rug as well. I keep doing a row or two whenever I walk past.

Colour Project

Still on Red for a week or two yet, I've decided to use the blog as my sketchbook so here's a bit more (I still haven't photographed the yarn I spun, oops)



I was hoping to do some painting, but to be realistic, I doubt I'll have time or space - my huge collection of art materials will remain unmolested for a little longer I fear!

~♥~

didn't we have a lovely day...

the day we went to London?



Yup, the Ravelry LSG UK Hoars Meet Up.

Look! Tweasels in their natural environment (the pub):







Now, I am the first to admit that I dislike London. I love some of the things IN London - the yarn shops, the V&A, the British Museum, the Doc Martens shop (is that still there?) but London generally you can keep. It's too busy, too dirty, too noisy and there isn't enough greenery. No, Hyde Park doesn't count. Really, no, it doesn't. It's a field.

However, it has some compensations.



Need I say any more on this matter? I thought not.

Also:



The coned yarns are from the Handweaver's Studio, where I met up with a few other weaving-minded souls in the morning. It's a great shop, see:



Well worth the short trip up to Finsbury Park.

I actually had a really good time, it's the first time I've been into the Smoke since I moved, and it was weird coming into Paddington on the Great Western, I'm so used to landing at Euston. I kind of felt like I hadn't arrived properly, if that makes sense. What absolutely gobsmacked me, and this is one for the railway buffs, is that the Paddington trains from Reading had slam doors. SERIOUSLY? I thought Southerners were all advanced and posh?! SLAM DOORS??!? Haven't seen them in years. Even the Clyde Coast line trains have sliding push-button doors.

ANYWAY. I digress, as usual.

There are other good things to tell you about. My date has rekindled (hurray) so I'm all happy about that. I'm not telling you any more :-)

I have a new chair! A spinning chair! You may envy me now:



Isn't it awesome? I love it. This means I can sit properly and spin, rather than sinking into the sofa and wrecking my back.

I was given an incredibly generous present. I'm still rather overcome to be honest.



That's a Don Porritt tapestry loom. Oh my. I don't actually know how to make it work yet, but I'm going to find out! As far as I can tell, everything is there ready to go, just the reed needs a clean as it's gone a bit rusty. A soak in some Coca-Cola and a going over with some wire wool should sort that out. I just need to put aside some time to devote to sorting and learning.

I think that's it, I've just been to the dentist for a super-deep clean and I feel like I've been smacked in the mouth with a cricket bat. Hopefully though this will make my gums better - I'm not convinced personally, they've always been a bit dubious, but hey, I'll give it a try and see what happens. I get a week off then go back for the other side to be done. Can't wait...at least the anaesthetic has worn off enough so I can drink without dribbling, and the bleeding seems to have abated somewhat. Ouch. Soup for dinner again :-(

~♥~

Random Friday

Can you believe this new year is two weeks old already??? WTF?

So far this year I've managed to buy a new umbrella (it's awesome, it's this one), some CDs (how retro of me!) catch up with a couple of peeps on Failbook, sorry, Facebook, one of whom has had twins since I last saw her, go to Basingstoke, watch a lot of snooker, knit 3/4 of a sock and a bunch of shawl AND make progress on the sweater and go to work. It's going fairly well I think, the only things I haven't managed yet are winning the lottery and seducing Christian Horner. Well, the year is young :-D

Oh and I joined Twitter, but you won't find me tweeting much. I just live vicariously through other people.

Basingstoke is quite nice! I was surprised. I had a vision of it being all 70's brutalist and just plain boring but the bit I saw was okay. Admittedly it was mainly the ring road and the shopping centre (made famous by Jeremy Clarkson driving a Ford Fiesta around it) but it was pretty good. Excellent branch of Lush, which gave me a happy. And lots of samples. I likes samples. Unfortunately the super-speshul conditioner for my speshul snowflake hair isn't as good as the Aussie industrial-grade stuff, but it smells a damn sight better. The Aussie goop smells like rancid air freshener, but it works. Dilemma. Me and my first world problems, huh?

Southern Electric suck. That is all on that subject.

My former letting agents are muppets. I FINALLY got my deposit back, today. I moved out in NOVEMBER!!! Anyway, I have it. This is fortunate as I need to go buy furniture...

I have been weaving. I made a curtain for the bathroom, as I reckon my neighbours at the back can see mah boobs when I'm in the shower :-) Not that this is a great treat for them or anything...



Saori curtain. I finished it off and hung it today, so when I have some decent light I'll try and photograph it in situ. It's pretty neat, if a bit lumpy. I had the usual issues with the warp, it was so varied it was very tricky to beam it evenly, especially as I couldn't find my special card warp separator. Anyway it is done and seems to be pretty effective at blocking the boobie-view. Now I just need to make something for my lounge windows...

~♥~

More fame

I shan't be able to fit my head through the door at this rate.

See here - Jane is busy putting everyone's KAL projects onto her blog. There's some AWESOME work on there! Go and have a look. I'll wait.

Not a great deal has been happening here other than Izzy (the trainee knitter, remember?) coming back from another leg of her trip and bringing me FOUR Hebridean fleeces. Four. What's really nice is these are truly from the Hebrides - from Oronsay to be exact. I forgot to take a photo (duh) but the fleeces vary in colour and texture in a really cool way. There's a wiry grey one, two with sunbleached, gingery tips and one mainly soft black with distinct locks. Interesting to see such variety in one breed!

So now I have to start working out what I'm doing with them :-) I've started the scouring with the roughest fleece, a chunk of that is in a fermented suint bath as we speak. I think I need to go and buy a couple of really big containers. Maybe a dustbin?

In other news, I'm still spinning that lovely ArtemisArtemis fibre, it's so nice I'm deliberately dragging it out :-) I also pulled a chunk off the Texel fleece and have got that on the Golding. I'm shooting for a heavy laceweight, but I don't know how much it will bloom and poof out. I'm spinning it literally straight off the fleece - no carding, no scouring, just "as is." It's a really nice clean fleece in the main so not a problem to work this way. I will need to scour the remainder at some point though otherwise it will go all sticky and nasty.

I'm also knitting (of course) - I finished the Travelling Woman shawl (photos to come). I'm quite pleased, I couldn't get the curved top edge to block out right so I blocked it straight and pulled the whole shawl out widthways. I still have a bunch of yarn left, I wish I'd made the shawl wider in hindsight. However it's still really nice so putting it down as a success :-)
I'm now ploughing on with the Shetland Hap, I'm onto the border (hurray) and just started the third colour overall. Only 70-odd ever-increasing rows to go, then it's edging time. I'm trying not to think about it too much. Gulp.

Also this means I only have seven WIPs listed on Ravelry! Blimey. I really want to clear the decks a bit before I scratch the startitis itch again.

So I finally got the Saori blanket laid out and have started hemming the pieces. There's some variation in length (hardly surprising) so I have a bit of a job to come to sort that out. It looks grand though, and I think it will be nice and warm but light. The different textures are really great.

I also had a play with the peg loom I brought back from Leek. It's good fun, and once you've sorted out the warps the weaving goes very quickly. It's surprising how much weft you get through though! I suppose you are producing a very weft-faced weave so I shouldn't really be all that surprised. I'm thinking some unspun fleece would make a gorgeous bedside rug, maybe combined with some handspun. I also have a bunch of sisal cord which would probably make a fab doormat. Another project for the list!

Formula 1
Well Hungary was far more exciting than I'd feared! That was a relief as it's now the summer break so no race for four weeks. I will have withdrawal symptoms! Thank God for Eurosport. I was annoyed as the electricity board managed to cut my power off for three and a half hours so I missed the final part of qually. That's my favourite bit! I was chuffed to see Pedro de la Rosa finish so high, go Sauber! and the Lotus was much improved as well. I was also delighted to see Rubens Barrichello get one over on Michael, and horrified at his manoeuvre which nearly stuffed Rubens into the pit wall. I am not impressed. He's not improved his attitude with a few years off. Anyway, next race is Spa which is one of my favourites.

and I think that's it, other than if you haven't been watching "Sherlock" on the BBC, you have missed out and need to catch up ASAP. Brilliant.

~*~

OH OH OH yes I forgot to mention I've added the "reactions" thingies to my posts. So just like Ravelry, you can press my buttons! Go on, click away :-)

We Have Achieved Fleece (oh and Woolfest too!)

First off, an apology, my camera is still in Ange's car so I have no pictures for you. I took it all the way to Woolfest, left it in the car because a) I couldn't be bothered to carry it; and b) Ange has a fancy-pants new smartphone with more megapixels than my camera (jealous? Moi?) Of course, we were so addled with wool fumes that we barely took any pictures anyway :-)

I'll come back to Woolfest in a minute, first a picture-free catch-up. Use your imagination.

KAL
The Jane Thornley KAL project is nearly completed (yay!) I have just cast off the second sleeve, so all it needs now is bands and edging. I'm toying with a crochet shell edging, but I still need to ponder on it a bit more. Very pleased with it though, it is light and summery, but has a good drape. I did a bit of fancy stitchwork at the bottom of the body and it's really worked well. Pleased, I haz one.

Fleece!
I have achieved fleece! Can't remember if I mentioned it, but my lovely neighbours have gifted me a Blue-faced Leicester fleece. It was as mucky as all hell, and quite disordered, but I gave it a good skirting and pick-over, and have washed up all the good stuff. I have a large storage box FULL of lovely clean fleece now. I've carded a bit of it, both on the hand cards and the drum carder, and hopefully this week I'll get chance to start spinning it. I have a feeling the hand-carded rolags are going to spin better than the batt, but we'll see. I want to keep some of it as-is, as there are some nice locks which will make a super-fab tailspun yarn, if I can get my head around it.

Visitations and Reorganising
I had a semi-unexpected visitor last week (Hi Izzy!) so much tidying and cleaning was undertaken :-) She made her way over to Gigha, and has been having an awesome time and I think wants to move there immediately :-) I now have my lounge floor back again, and reorganised some of the yarn storage. I had a flash of genius (happens occasionally) and dug out two bread trays I recovered off the beach. They make great yarn containment devices and fit perfectly under my sideboard. I must go back down to the beach and see if I can score any more :-)

WIPs
I'm working on the last panel of the SAORI blanket - it's been going a bit slowly as I've been doing other stuff too, but I'm roughly at the half-way mark now.
Shetland Hap Shawl - I picked this up again as a potential "take to Woolfest" project, then realised there was little point as I wasn't likely to sit down long enough (a totally accurate assumption as it turned out!) However it was ideal TV knitting, watching the Grand Prix (OMG talk about Red Bull Gives You Wings) and I could put it over my head whilst watching England get knocked out of the World Cup (man, we sucked.) I'm about three quarters of the way through the diamond centre, so not long before I can start picking up eleventy million stitches for the borders and edging.

Okay, WOOLFEST!!!
Ange kindly offered to drive me and Lilith down there, as she has the biggest car :-) So a 7.15am start and a three-hour drive later (Lilith came prepared with a Thermos of coffee, clever girl) we arrived in sunny Cumbria. And it really was sunny. In fact, it was baking. The poor Teeswater sheep in the hall looked rather warm, as they'd not been sheared yet! On the other hand the alpacas looked pitiful, as only a freshly-sheared alpaca can. We spotted the cutest lamb in history - a Ouessant. You could have fitted it in a handbag - it was smaller than the average cat. In fact, we considered sheep-napping it, but decided the owner might notice. Hopefully I have a fleece coming my way shortly.

Woolfest is much more "woolly" than Wonderwool - probably because Wonderwool is too early in the year for shearing, whereas Woolfest is bang-on in the middle of shearing season. There was fresh fleece everywhere, and somehow I managed to not snag a single one, apart from the potential Ouessant. Fail. Ange scored two lovely Shetland fleeces though, cowbag that she is :-) I think I was suffering fleece overload to be honest. I did spy a Lincoln / Merino cross that appealed, but it was HUGE and really needed combing to make the most of it. I wanted to get some English wool combs, but as the only proper ones available (it seems) are £210 from Wingham, I gave them a miss.

So what did I buy? Well, lots of fibre :-) Some beautiful tops and batts from Daniela at FeltStudioUK (again - I can't say no to her batts); some more blended tops from Wingham, along with some goodies for carding; some fibres from Freyalyn; back issues of Spin-Off from P&M; silk brick from Oliver Twist in a gorgeous green; some Udderly Smooth handcream (if it's good enough for dairy cows, it's good enough for me); a lovely shawl pin from Michael Williams; (and I'd like to apologise now for drooling all over his fabulous new skein winder - I'm saving up already); a kit from the House of Hemp for the Metamorphosis Coat though mine won't be so long; a bag and badge from the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers; some fancy yarns for Jane Thornley-type projects; and finally a BEAUTIFUL Forrester drop spindle from Spindlers2 and some fibre from them as well. Phew.

In other news, I'm shattered, I need a holiday, my ironing basket has gone critical and I joined an online dating website. Yeah. Y'all can start laughing now. Let's just say I smacked myself upside the head a few times and I think I've got my shit together relationship-wise now, i.e. yes I'd like one please. Knights in shining armour or sheep farmers are particularly welcome to apply for the role...

:-D

Ploughing On

Still here, still breathing, still working, still knitting :-)

There's not been that much to blog about for a few weeks to be honest. Awfully quiet chez Knotty, which is how we like it. The heating is in, it works, I think the plumber has "finished" - we won't mention the missing woodwork and the hole in the floor...

This weekend I think I will spend some time putting my house back in order - I left it last week as I didn't know if the plumber was coming back. I think it's time to rediscover the lounge floor!

I'm taking part in a KAL, with the Jane Thornley group on Ravelry:



I've done the second panel of the Saori blanket, and started the third, and I'm testing out the banana yarn that I bought at Wonderwool in a top-down cardi-thing.

Other than that, all quiet on the western front :-)

~*~

Weaving WIPs

Part I is finished, just taking a turn around the washing machine. I used a crazy warp crammed and spaced. I had a lot of problems as I got down the warp with variable tension, but when you're using really random yarns like I did, and at varying setts, that's hardly surprising :-) Also I had trouble beaming it evenly - it's really a four-handed job, and I only have two...and I was naughty and didn't use anything to separate the warp layers on the back beam. Yep, revoke my weaver's card already :-)

I have woven in a hem of plain weave in a nice plain wool, and once it was off the loom, I trimmed the warps down to about 1.5" and then ran the edges through the sewing machine. I love this new machine SO HARD, it has a diamond-y stitch setting which makes a fabulous edge. It behaved itself beautifully as well. The trick now will be to match the other pieces for length :-) Hopefully any differences will be easy to take up in the hemming. That's the plan anyway...

There's quite a lot of handspun in the weft. I spun up 100g of Falkland tops to a super bulky thick and thin on my new toy:



Caroline with her new jumbo flyer fitted. Getting the bobbins in and out is a PITA but otherwise it's fab. I also spun up some Wensleydale, and a couple of batts which I drumcarded. It's made for a nice variety of textures in the weft.

So without further ado, here is some weaving p0rn for you.

SAORI musings

As promised :-)

I first saw SAORI weaving on Ravelry (no surprise there then) - made by Terri in Canada. Her website and blog are both great and gave me lots of inspiration - and also a lot of affirmation that freeform weaving could be a valid form of expression and could also retain the functional appeal of textile. Also, like a lot of my craft stuff, I like to wander into the free-range realm quite often, and it's nice to know I'm not alone in that place :-)

Some more digging led me to research the SAORI philosophy in a bit more depth. SAORI is actually a trademark now of the people who make the looms, but it is much more than a name or a technique. I recommend you have a look at SAORI Worcester's site, especially here and here, which describe it far better than I ever could :-)

I think what appeals to me most about this philosophy is the celebration of the unique, the no-mistakes approach and the meditative qualities. Something that clicked with me was one of Misao Jo's principles:
Kikai to ningen no chigai o kangaeyou / Consider the differences between machines and people

Hmmm. Yeah. I like that one. It takes me back to my days of studying ceramics and the importance of the hand of the potter in bringing a piece to life. Perfection never interested me when working with clay (still doesn't) - one of the many clashes I had with my idiot lecturers :-) It also calls to mind the philosophies of William Morris and John Ruskin. Interesting. I could chew over this one for a while, and probably will :-)

And this principle I adore:

Kira-kira kagayaku me o motou / Let's look out through eyes that shine

Being open to seeing beauty in everything (remember Morris again!) is something that I've strived for (striven? strived?) over the years. It has been noticed that I look at the world in a "funny way", or see things that other people don't notice. This is probably because I look, rather than just seeing. I tend to bump into things and am at risk of falling down holes, because I'm always gawping somewhere and not looking where I'm going :-)

I just had an interesting thought. I reckon, if I had been born five or ten years ago, rather than 30-odd (aargh) I'd probably have been diagnosed as autistic already :-) I think I meet quite a few of the criteria. Hah. One part of this is the one aspect of SAORI that I really appreciate, but only on an intellectual level, which is the community / group aspect. I think it's great, but I'm not sure I could do it. My social uncomfortable-ness (I can't think of another way of putting it!) seems to be increasing as I get older, rather than decreasing. Though saying that, maybe this sort of activity would be beneficial. More to ponder on. Like-minded people and all that. I spend a lot of time, when I'm in the company of other people, thinking "what am I doing here? What are they thinking? Why am I not having fun like they are? I really don't want to be here..." It used to bother me a LOT, but I think I got over that. Now I don't really care :-) and spend as much time away from social situations as possible. I got better things to do...

Anyway, enough cod-psychology for now. I'm a third of the way through sleying the reed so I need to extract digit and go thread warps. Pictures soon, promise.

~*~

Recovery

Well, somewhat...I think the amazingly warm weather must have de-gunked some minor parts of my brain, as I've actually managed to achieve quite a bit in the last week or so. This will probably be a bit disjointed, sorry :-)

Firstly, I did some fairly major housework :-) which regular readers will know is not exactly one of my top priorities. Inspired by something I spotted in Spin-Off (I think) I bought a rubber brush. Which may sound a little kinky, but is the absolute awesomesauce when it comes to dragging that nasty combination of long hair, spinning fluff, yarn and fibres and dog hair off your carpets and into the bin. My godawful cheap knackered carpets have never looked so good :-) I've still to do my bedroom, as it's actually rather hard work...

Of course, this cleaning frenzy meant that this week a miracle happened.

THE PLUMBER CAME ROUND AND OMG PEOPLE I HAVE A BOILER.

Okay, I don't have an oil tank or the new radiators yet, but we're making progress. I dunno where I'm going to put all the junk that used to live where the boiler is though :-) Of course he and the sparky made a right mess (and rather casually TOUCHED MY YARN AND WORK IN PROGRESS OH THE HORROR) which means I've had to have a bit of a tidy-up as well and put things out of harm's way. I have a dining room floor! Who knew?

This is what was on the dining room floor:



Yes folks, in yet another attempt to bust some of the crap stash, I resorted to granny squares as it's about all my poor frazzled being could cope with. There's quite a few more now, but oddly the yarn pile doesn't seem to be diminishing much. I think the crap yarn pixies are sneaking it in at nights.

Along with the sewing machine came a gigantor bag of yarn which I've sorted out:



95% of which is pure wool :-) There's some Wendy Shetland Chunky in there, some Emu Finlandia, a few balls of Jaeger Matchmaker (oh Jaeger how we miss thee) and a fab hank of what must be very early Colinette Prism which will be a hat for me I think. There's enough for a couple of sweaters here, as long as I don't mind stripes :-)

Ange and I went over to Perth, for the Scottish Machine Knitters' Association do, and I got this:



which is Rennie's tweed, from Di Gilpin. It is the nom, and entirely Scottish. It has that lovely "dry" hand of a really good tweed. The shawl pin came from Ripples Crafts. I also raided Scottish Fibres for magazine back issues, and scored a bag full of naturally dyed raw fleece from Artisan Threads.

What else, what else...

I finally caved and bought a jumbo flyer kit for Caroline. I got a bargain price due to a customer return, but it was missing the little grommet-y thing which fits into the orifice that allows you to use the standard flyer without changing the maidens. So I'm waiting to see if that arrives, I've sent an email. Phone-phobic, moi? It's interesting using it, the ratios are different so it takes a bit of getting used to, but it's already proved its worth plying some seriously bulky thick-and-thin Falkland tops. This is part of a project, more on that in a moment :-)

I spun up two batts of lovely blue-silver-green-purple:



I used my new Banksia / purpleheart spindle for the singles, then wound them onto bobbins and I will ply them on Caroline. The batts are dyed merino, lap waste, silk, angelina, trilobal nylon, yarn snippings and sari silk threads. It should ply into something resembling a fingering weight.

I finished Liesl today!!! She's drying upstairs (it's a sauna up there) I will try and find some suitable buttons in the stash tomorrow. The only tricky bit with this pattern is getting the sleeves to match the body. In the end I ignored the pattern and used my brain instead :-)

Right, the project I mentioned earlier. In brief: I've been spending a lot of time looking at freeform and Saori weaving this week. (I'll do another post on this with some links and that next time, it's way past my bedtime!) I'm planning a large blanket, made in sections (this is where a 24" rigid heddle becomes a PITA!) and done in a freeform / Saori style. When I say planning, I'm not really as that wouldn't really be Saori, let's just say I have an idea and I'm running with it :-) Lots of handspun, lots of different textures, some clasped weft and all in natural-ish shades. Should be good. I might do the first warp tomorrow...

I think that's it, I have some more pictures and things and I will write a bit more about the Saori project but now it's way past bedtime and this old lady needs all the beauty sleep she can get :-)

Night all

~*~

Still here! Still here!

Just about :-)

Until May anyway. Yes, I have had to take the fateful step of handing in my notice on my beloved, if chilly, cottage. There's little to be gained by staying any longer, sadly. The job market here still seems terribly depressed, and I'm having no luck with applications south of the Tartan Curtain either - maybe my location is putting people off? I don't know.

So, unless a miracle happens and I get offered a job in the meantime, I will be off back to Staffordshire. My parents have very kindly said I can stay with them until I can get back on my feet financially. Well, I can stay as long as I want actually. It makes sense, as even if I can't command the sort of salary I've been used to, my bills will be reduced to just the car, mobile, investments and internet, rather than the £1000 or so I'm shelling out now each month on rent, tax and utilities.

It's going to be hard though. I will have to put a LOT of my things in storage, and go from a three-bedroomed semi-detached house to one 11 foot square room. Gulp. How long do you think it will be before I get cabin fever? I am determined to make room for the stash, a goodly selection of books, the computer, Caroline the spinning wheel and my rigid heddle loom though. Even if it means throwing out half my clothes :-)

The privacy and peace is going to be a factor as well. Here it is tranquil, the only regular noise (apart from next-door's grandson when he's visiting, who sounds like he is wearing size 10 army boots most of the time) is the sheep baa-ing, the buzzards mewing, an occasional hoot from a coal train and a very distant sound of the A78. Occasionally you can hear the hum of the power station, or the faint sound of their tannoy. At the parents', although it is much better than it was, there are other houses each side, and a main trunk road right in front. The TV is always on, and my parents are both retired so are usually at home. Aargh. There are no snowy mountains to gaze upon, or a beach to stroll on either. Sigh.

It would play hell with my sex life, except I don't have one any more. Le sigh.

There are upsides. I won't need the potassium iodate tablets Ayrshire and Arran NHS dropped round a few days ago (for use in the event of a release of radioactive iodine from the station grin) I won't have to cook unless I want to, I imagine, and there are shops and a pub and civilisation within walking distance. I have good friends down there too, and of course the family, even though I might curse them sometimes :-)

So that's where I am at the moment. I'm still crossing my fingers that a job comes up before all this becomes a fait accompli, but it's not looking too promising. Well, hope springs eternal, right? :-) I would love to get back on the railway if I can. Yes, sad I know. I like trains. No I'm not a trainspotter. I just like the whole thing with trains and stations and all the possibilities they offer. Also I like big, mechanical, noisy smelly things. I should have been a mechanic :-) I enjoyed working on site, although I never went on track. (I don't have the tickets for it.) Shame, cause I'd find it really interesting trackside I'm sure, if a little nerve-wracking - 125mph train right past your earhole :-) Okay, there were times when it sucked, but find me a job that doesn't suck sometimes!

Anyway. I have been knitting:



The Serina shawl from Yarn Forward magazine, done in Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply in "Little Foxes" colourway. I'm actually up to the knitted-on edging now, which is of course taking a frigging eternity to finish.

I did some spinning:



This was some left-over-from-plying singles, mixed up with odds and ends in my fibre box. Mainly merino, some Jacob, silk, BFL, Shetland and synthetics. About 200 yards of something approximating a 5-ply / sportweight. Ish. Maybe a DK. I've not tested the WPI yet, it varies a bit through the skein. Which is a good thing. I like my handspun to LOOK like handspun, you know?

Next up I want to work up some Scottish Tweed Chunky into a top-down sweater, maybe a cardigan. I also want to do another shawly-scarfy thing, maybe Ysolda's Scroll Lace, maybe I will design something. Don't know yet. I want something that isn't a standard triangle, more of a stretched-out one, so that it will wrap round my neck better and not have loads of fabric all dangling about. Suggestions gratefully received :-) Also I got "Socks from the Toe Up" by WendyKnits and now want to knit about a zillion pairs of socks.

I wove a poncho-thing! Using stuff from my Berber Jacket, and a pattern out of "Intertwined" by Lexi Boeger, I wove a longish piece of fabric, cut it in half (aargh that was stressful) added a bit of commercial fabric and poof! A poncho-thing. It's not quite finished yet though. It needs something, I just don't know what. Yet.



That's it in progress. Crazy warp. Good fun.

That's me for now. I need to go wash dishes and clean the bath - the landlord wants to bring someone round this afternoon who might move in after I've gone :-( Apparently I don't need to clean or tidy or anything, but I don't want to appear a total sloven :-)

~*~

Fed Up on a Sunday

I realised this evening that I am fed up. I'm sure it's a passing phase mind, but just for tonight I am In A Funk. This is because I have things that need finishing which are getting on my wick. I have weaving to do:



but the warp is giving me FITS and I'm not enjoying it much. It's a 10/1 linen warp doubled, which is a bit like fishing line, and I cannot keep it tensioned evenly. One end will be twanging like a guitar string whilst another is sagging sadly. Grrrr. It's supposed to be a rug - the weft is a rough aran wool that I dyed an eternity ago, which is too scratchy for much else. I'll keep ploughing on with it, but it's a "bit-at-a-time" job otherwise I'll take scissors to it :-)

I have plying to do - I spun up some leftover raw Jacob, carded with some BFL, trilobal nylon and a few odds and ends. It was not great fun to spin, and the plying is killing me. I'm using a cone of very very fine "Kash / Seta" (whatever that is) which I had off a car boot sale. It's lovely soft stuff, but it's full of breaks and snaps as soon as look at it. You can't even pull it straight off the cone, you need to unwind it carefully. Aaargh. I'm about halfway. I keep doing a bit more of it but it's nearly as frustrating as the weaving.

I did do some successful spinning though -



This is the single, it's now plied up with another similar bobbin. Handcarded, hand-dyed merino, commercial merino top, some yarn snippets and metallic sparkly bits. I'm slowly piling up the handspun, and I'm going to knit myself a luridly stripy sweater with it. Oh yes.

A note on the hand-dyed merino. I bought 500g of "merino", expecting nice rovings or top. In fact I got what I can only assume are the leftovers from combing, smooshed up into a sort-of roving. The staple is about an inch. If it's merino, I'll eat it. Disappointing. Always check your fibre when you have the chance folks!

Full Moon



Pretty huh? I was fetching in the washing when I spotted it.

The Job Situation
Still sucks ass. Nowt much to report. I'm trying, but I'm not getting very far at the moment. I might end up completely re-doing my CV AGAIN. Only downside is as I use OpenOffice, the formatting seems to go off a bit when you view in Word. Maybe I'll try saving in .RTF format instead. I re-did it on the advice of an HR person, but I'm starting to think she didn't know her backside from her elbow. I have seen a part-time job just up the road, but I'm torn. I could do with the money, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot for taking a full-time position. Dilemma. I think I might leave it. See how I feel in the morning!

Improving My Mind
Just recently I realised there are an awful lot of classic books I have never read. I have never read Jane Austen for example (I KNOW, I'll surrender my Female Card at the door)so I've been polling the lovely people of the Completely Pointless group on Ravelry for suggestions.

I've now got a list of about 200 books. Eep.

Tomorrow I hit the charity shops in Largs :-)

~*~

Twitch

I can feel Startitis coming on. Twitch twitch.

It's because I've nearly done the Xmas stuff. Mum will be the recipient of a woven scarf in Artesano alpaca (warp) with New Lanark weft - I'm pretty pleased with it, I'll photograph it when it's had a wash. Nearly gave me brain damage weaving it though. I'm not really a "one-colour" kinda girl :-)

Dad's woven scarf is progressing - New Lanark warp, with the leftover Manx Loaghtan (from the Hemlock blanket) as weft. I adore this yarn. If I had moneyz to spare I would go buy myself a sweater's worth.

I also managed to put up my Christmas decorations. Just because a) I'm redundant and b) not going to be here on Christmas Day, does not mean I can't have a sparkly tree or two :-) I love Xmas decorations. I have a quite ridiculous collection, but they're mainly somewhere at my Mum's. As I only have tiny trees - one is about 12" high, the other about 2', I don't really have the room to put all the pretties out anyway. One day...







Anyway. Startitis. I am jonesing for a pair of Fiddlehead Mittens. This is one of the few colourwork mitten patterns I really love. Also, my hands are cold.

I really desperately want to knit a pair of these Elf Boots for myself. I mean, really? How CUTE are they?

I need to rip the sleeves on two of my sweaters and reknit them, because my arms are longer than I think they are and I don't like having cold wrists. (And it looks stupid.)

I have a terrible urge to knit myself a complicated colourwork vest, for which I will make up my own patterns. I even have the yarn ready (Scottish Tweed 4-ply and Felted Tweed, which is near-enough a 4-ply whatever Rowan might tell you.)

I want another sweater, possibly in the very lovely Castlemilk Moorit yarn I bought in Coventry.

The February Lady sweater is still floating my boat. I have some nice red lambswool / angora bought on Skye that would do really nicely for this. That Pamela Wynne over at Flint Knits has a lot to answer for.

Laura at Cosmicpluto is going to have to stop with the cute patterns. I love her Honeybee Cardigan. Want me one of those. Her Monday Morning cardigan is full of awesome too. Grrr.

I'm really liking the Boneyard shawl from westknits (Stephen has some really nice stuff on there) and Multnomah.

I want to make pretty much every pair of socks in Cookie A's "Sock Innovation." I also have four balls of Regia ready for some kickass knee socks.

I have the pattern ready (and possibly the yarn) for Ysolda's Liesl. I'm also loving Adeline, Lilith has done a test knit which I've seen in person and it is nommy. I want the Lopi vest from Istex, and pretty much everything that Jane Thornley has ever designed. Especially the Ripenings Shrug. Mmmm.

Oh and there's Faery Ring by Mary Scott Huff (love that pointy hood!)then there's all the lace, a Hap shawl...

And I still need to finish the Must-Have Cardigan.

Onwards.

~*~