What I’ve been up to (infodump edition)

So, in between working, having a few mental breakdowns, losing my sleep schedule, I’ve also been crafting up a storm. More detailed posts will follow, but this is just an infodump to get it out of my head!

 

I finished the Paris sweater(this is the most recent picture I have of it, it will get its own photo shoot when I work out logistics)

I started knitting with my handspun!!!

(Again, old most recent pic!)

I’m doing a massive amount of spinning!

Some crochet

and I’m still cross stitching the 50 shades of blue

Longer posts to come on most of these!

More spinninggggggg

I’m having a whale of a time with the spinning at the moment, even though it’s decidedly not my favourite spindle. I finished the blue

It’s very smooshy and warm and I pet it routinely. (it’s sat next to me right now). It’s a very gently 2ply, which I love after the chunkyness of the 4ply I ended up with.

I’ve hit 10 WPI (which apparently makes it thicker than DK, which I’m not sure I believe at all). And I’ve got about 220 yards, which is hard to measure without a niddy noddy, so I may be off. I think it wants to either be a hat or a scarf/shawl thing, but it’s going to have a few days more to decide before I cast on.

And I was going to have a break and finish the jumper, but then I tripped and started this. Spinning from rolags wasn’t my favourite at the start but I think I’ve got the hang of it now. I’m thinking I’ll knit a scarf diagonally- I want to keep the width the same for the stripes, but slightly more interesting than just knitting. Suggestions happily taken!

The previous spinning is now knitting!

Quite how I got the stripes I have no idea! But hey ho. Turns out I need more of the fluff. Luckily they had one more braid of it in the shop (it’s not at home with me!). Along with quite a lot of other fibre! Hopefully soon it will be spun and I can get on with this! In the meantime, I’m having fun with other fluff!

Stay sane, everyone!

Spinninggggggg

So, on Saturday I got my first new bit of squishy mail

So, naturally I had to stop the cross stitch I was doing and make a start spinning it. I did originally aim for a fractal spin but then realised I wanted more than 2 plies so I gave up trying that and just went for it.

The brown is magical. It doesn’t look that pretty by itself (or maybe I’m just biased against brown), but paired with the pink it turns into rubarb and custard, and paired with the turquoise it gives jade and amber. *sigh* It is so smooshy too- it’s jsut spinning a cloud.

And then very quickly I had 4 turtles. Two of them go pink/green/pink/green/pink and the other two go green/pink/green/pink/green so I *really* thought those colours through. Oops! I may have ordered some more to have more fun with it, so I’ll try something else next time (if I can wait!)

Then I made a plying ball, which was a massive new experience for me. The turtles look so cute on their back!

Next step is to ply it all. I’m making a bigger spindle to hopefully get all 100g on it…wish me luck!

From spindle to hat

So, after spinning a lot of the fluff from the last post, I decided the time had come. It was time to actually start knitting with my handspun.

So I grabbed a cute pattern, 3mm needles (that was a mistake, apparently I can’t eyeball my yarn thickness yet…) and started. Turns out I don’t have a picture of the ball of yarn I made before knitting, so don’t forget that step! I didn’t however wash the yarn before knitting it (who’s got time for that???)

…and then stop because you run out of yarn. *sigh*

I’m at the last stage of decreases before the icord tie. Grr. Luckily, I still had more fluff to spin! (So much for getting three hats out of this stuff. I would do much better to have gone up one or two needle sizes. I’ll know for the next hat…)

It’s so pretty! And much nicer in person- the problems of taking pictures in Winter. To give you some idea as to how mcuh pre-drafting is needed, have some pictures- one before, one after

Twice the length! And then I’m still stopping to pre-draft more while spinning (does it still get called that then?? It’s different to drafting while spinning, so I guess so?).

 

Knitting with my handspun is a fascinating experience of what I thought was really obvious thick and thin bits aren’t registering, but there are some times I’m having to draft lumps out and coax twist around. I can see that continuing to do so will really enhance my spinning (who’d’ve thunk really???). I’m excited to do more now!

 

Anyway, I’ve got to get back to this spinning! I’m hoping to finish this batt before I finish the baby hat, otherwise it’ll never get done! There’s so much other stuff to tell you about, I just need to find the time…

On the drop spindle

Last Saturday was my spinning group meeting. I still have that merino getting slowly spun (I lie, it’s not being touched really. One day I’ll get back to it), but I didn’t feel like that, I wanted something fast and fun.

So I grabbed this batt and a large spindle.

It’s a mix of merino, corredale (I think), bamboo and sari silk and oh boy is it not at all easy to spin. The silk has a ridiculously short staple length compared to everything else, so it needs predrafting to high heaven (and back)

And even then I find myself having to stop and predraft some more. It’s a challenge at a time I would uite like to not have a challenge bc work has just started and it’s like I had to go from stationary to 60mph in hours only to crash into a glass wall.

Anyway, I am persevering, and nearly have a spindleful already

The silk gives pops of yellow and green where it all gets spun together thanks to the staple length, which is nice. I’m currently thinking keep it as a single and knit a baby hat (or three). Any nice patterns I should know about?

Update on everything

So, I didn’t mean to be gone so long! Instead of my planned post about the delights of backstitch, let’s have an update on EVERYTHING. (And it will also remind me what I’ve got going!)

Wedding sampler:

B, D and E are finished, F is started nearly finished:

I’m working on a blanket. Its done in pieces, and then sewn together. I’ve finished all the squares (and half squares and quarter squares)

and done the first 7 rounds of the octagons (there are 16 of these). Of course the second 7 rounds will take longer because it’s getting bigger.

I’m not thinking about all the ends I have to weave in afterwards…

I finished a spinning thing! This is 187 meters of singles. I had to spin it as two spindle-fuls, and then do some nifty stuff to make it one length in the end. I’m very pleased with that 🙂

I’m doing more spinning, but I dont think that’s particularly interesting to photograph. At the moment I’m going to use the yarn to make a blanket, but I figure there’s a 75% chance I’ll change my mind more than once before I start it, so…

I decided I didn’t want to make the bird socks for the mother, so I’m now making them for me. Surprisingly, this ended my massive procrastination over the whole thing, so I’m working on these at the moment

Umm, what else is there?

Sami’s blanket has kinda ground to a halt because I’m using the hook for the other blanket (and the cross stitch needs to be finished first), but Im up to here with that:

I may take it to spinning with the hook and just plow on with it. (Again, I’m ignoring the ends on this thing…)

The elephant head will get frogged (if anyone can remember that far back…) so no picture of that.

My OLAS cardigan is in the corner staring at me because I’m not working on it…

And the breathe embroidary is still mostly being ignored… I’m too busy having fun with other things?

I think that’s everything important. Of course I have many socks on the

Start it Sunday-Aran weight edition

So, over a year ago I knitted a cardigan for a friend, with the plan of knitting a matching (but smaller) one for me. And I finally started it!!!!

The problem with the large balls of yarn is that they’re not particularly portable…any suggestions anyone???

I also started some new spinning for a friend

Excuse the quick post, I’m off to do some more knitting now I have the time again! Catch you all later

A spinning update

So, the crafting has been very quiet here recently, so this is clearly an excellent opportunity to catch you all up on my spinning.

I’m still doing the green/purple/copper singles for some scarfy thing. This is about 68 grams of it, and so far it comes to about 316 yards, which isn’t bad at all, me thinks 🙂 (I love the disparity between my skein sizes!)

 

And I’m also doing some two-ply spun from the fold to make it nice and smooshy. I think I’m under-spinning and under-plying this, but oh well. It adds to the smooshyness. If anyone wants to comment on it, feel free 🙂

 

More new stash

Ok, fine, I admit it. I’m just feeding the stash beast at this point. But, in my defense, it was a new yarn shop, and you have to support your local, right?

So, firstly, some more sock yarn! This will (theoretically) become Christmas socks, but…

The purple contrast for toes, heels and cuffs is actually this really bright pink, and there are specks of ‘fairy lights’ in the green yarn. Christmas tree socks! Which, knowing me at the moment (knitting has kinda fallen by the wayside…), may get done over the Easter break…

Other theoretically) socks yarn!However, this stuff has sparkles, so I’m thinking maybe another Age of Brass and Steam. Or some triangular shawl thing I can wear. But I’m not sure how big I want to make it. Which isn’t a problem since those are made up from the middle out. I can always make matching handwarmers with the extra I guess 🙂

And finally: Slytherin fibre!

This is 100g of BFL/bamboo/nylon which I’m currently thinking I’ll spin quite chunky and knit…something. It’s for a friend, so I’ll have a sneak peek through their ravelry and see what they like. And then probably not spin it for another few months…

So yeah, that’s me. Not really crafting at the moment, but still feeding the stash!