Look what's arrived.................

These arrived this morning, two parcels of purely woolly gorgeousness! Teh Freedome Spirit is to knit the poppies into my waistcoat I've started, from a Kaffe Fassett pattern; the Kauni is for the Ravelry shawl knit-along, starting on the 8th Feb. Not sure if I can wait that long, looking inside the ball of wool is just wonderful ........................
I really want to start on both of them today - now! I've a pair of gloves to finish for an order for tomorrow, a dishcloth to finish, a cat's paw scarf to get on with,and the lace shawl in the cotton. Enjoying them all, but temptation, thy name is wool in the post LOL

Stash busting multi coloured spinning!

Well, to be honest, it didn't use a lot of the stash, but I got through a few bits of coloured prepared fleece I had acquired from somewhere LOL I then plied it with half a ball of Jaeger merino in cream that wasn't enough to do anything else with and this was the result. Quite pleased with it, it's turned out fairly even, which is always a bonus LOL. As usual, no idea what it will end up as, but I enjoyed the spinning, which is an end in itself, I feel.

New project!

Yes, I know - another one LOL

Look at this, though: http://www.ullaneule.net/0307/ohjeet_revontuli.html

I've ordered the correct Kauni wool in rainbow shades, should be stunning, and have joined the Ravelry KAL group for knitting the shawl. Don't know if I can wait until the start date of 8th Feb though :)

Using it up!

The yarn for these came out of the bin I hauled down from the cabin the other day, except the dark cotton, which came from the scrapstore the other week. The cow cloth is a pattern I printed out from the net a while ago - turns out "a while ago" was 2003, according to the date on the print out! LOL. Anyway, here it is now, and I love this one, and think I might transfer it over to some sort of eccentric jumper in the near future, I have a stash busting idea forming already.............:)
The navy cloth, with the eyelet pattern is the first one I've done from the Cloth of the Week group; I've just joined this one, and would like to catch up by the end of January, so I have a full year's worth maybe. I'll see how it goes, but there look to be some nice patterns on there. This is in addition to the monthly KAL of two cloths. What will I do with them all? No idea..............even I don't wash that many dishes:)
The lace is the Shetland shawl pattern I started with the mothy wool and gave up on. I found several balls of this top quality Egyptian cotton (Spanish make) in a charity shop a couple of years back, and at a silly price, I couldn't leave it there. It turned up in this bin of stash bits, so I hoiked it out and it's on the needles for a cotton shawl now. The quality is superb, and it's looking nice so far.

I have been knitting, honest!

Been a few days since I posted here.........
I've made the little bobblesheep cloth, which I think is rather lovely; I have one of a pair of fingerless mittens done for an order; I tried to start a Shetland shawl, but both cones of wool had been "mothed" so, got no further with that. I might need to actually buy some instead - it really has to be pure wool of good quality for such an investment of time, I feel! I need to find or spin/dye some up for the poppies on the waistcoat as that has come to a halt in the interim, also to get on with finishing the couple of small projects I pulled out of the storage box the other day.

Stashbusting!!

I've brought in one of the storage boxes from up in the cabin to work my way through. A quick appraisal has resulted in two small projects that need finishing off - achievable by tonight I think. I also found some wool for a specific project I'm doing, only requiring plying the two yarns together, took about 10 minutes, and that is now on the needles. I'll feel very virtuous if I get even this one box cleared!

Second January KAL cloth

Finsihed this this morning, before the last instructions came through! The pattern was easy to replicate on the top, so I just went ahead and did it while I had my coffee. The yarn is a nice gold cotton, which shows this textured pattern very well.

Just as well I do a lot of washing up, isn't it? LOL

Tee hee................

Now, I wonder...........................................?!

Look what I found!

I found this little bundle of 3 ply pure wool in the charity shop for 50p, the most gorgeous primrose yellow. Really old-fashioned, with labels intact on 4 of the balls. Amazing what still turns up, isn't it? Probably destined for socks, I think.




This is my tin cosy! LOL. I found a savings tin in the charity shop where I found the wool; it was purple and had some nonsense on theside about saving for shoes or soemthing - bit bling! So, I knitted it a cosy of its own to smarten it up. It is sealed, and you can only get at the money by using a tin opener. I hope to fill it before I succumb to the opener! :)



This is the pink and green balled up ready to go; I'm very pleased with the colour combination i this, I think it's really pretty. Still got a notion to weave with it, rather than knit. We'll see...............

Latest dishcloth

This is the forum dishcloth! Nice retro colours, like a Tala cake tin, in green and cream

Spinnings

The spinning is a full bobbin of Jacob towards MrL's scarf. I think Jacob is my favourite for spinning so far, it's really tactile and just "woolly"! The pinky colour is some pre-dyed prepared fleece I found in a bag, and can't remember when I bought it, but imagine it came from the sales table at the
Guild. It's OK for a colour, but didn't grab me, so it has now been plied with a sage green 4ply commercial yarn I didn't have a use for after it proved unsuitable for socks. It's pure wool, and actually looks quite pretty with the pink. I'll do the rest over the weekend, then will have to decide what to do with it all. I think it suggests woven something to me, so might get one of the looms out.

Interesting site to look at here, Elizabeth Zimmerman

www.monticellowi.com/textilesSep04.htm

This has an interesting article about Elizabeth Zimmerman, and some pictures of exhibits realting to her and her work. Must dig out my EZ knitting book later...................

Link to Schoolhouse Press:

http://www.schoolhousepress.com/

The knitted alpaca................

Sometimes I go off to bed at night, and by morning I have completely forgotten what I was knitting the night beforeLOL - so (mostly) it's a pleasant surprise to come down and rediscover what was on the needles! The top oicture is what greeted me this morning. We were given 100g of alpaca each at the Guild for the annual fleece challenge - do anything you like with teh fleece. I spun mine, but didn't enjoy spinning it much. It's very soft, and required great cocnetnration on my part. anyway, I got it done and plied and skeined and it sat looking at me for a week before I decided to knit an actual alpaca with it! A very small alpaca...............! The pieces are loosely knitted and a bit floppy, but when it's finished and all put together, I'll full it. The filling will be fleece, so it should felt down and full quite nicely I hope. I found a picture of a knitted alpace on the net which helped a bit, but I really think mine might be going to be unique. Looking forward to getting on with it later.

I've also cast on for a version of Kaffe Fassett's Poppies waistcoat; I did one years ago (wore it out, I loved it so much), and have been toying with the idea of trying it with some of the new self-striping yarns instead of tying all the different ones together, although that was always a good stash busting method for me. I'm using the wool from MrL's ill-fated jumper that never worked, and will do him something else, in addition to the aran whose wool is far too thick for any of the patterns I own, so will have to do my own thing there as well.

Sock Summit or summat................

On the Creative Living forum, we came across something called the Sock Summit; some of us joined up for it, but I haven't heard anything back yet. In the meantime, we are having our own sockfest, organised by the inimitable aliwood, who helps to run our knitting forums. Take a look at the categories she's come up with for us:


http://creativeliving.10.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=80

The Ultimate Sock Book

From Vogue Knitting. I bought thsi a while back, and have just finished the first pair of socks from it, the red ones down below.
The book is a good read, with a huge amount of info in it: history of sock knitting (fascinating stuff), basic techniques, anatomy of a sock, desiging socks, stitch patterns for socks, sock knitting traditions, patterns.
One very useful part is the Vogue Knitting sock calculator and Universal patterns - this gives the required number of stitches for each part of the sock, covering from baby to adult XL sizes. There is a universal pattern for a toe up and a toe down sock, into which you can fit your own variations in size, yarn and stitch.

Having been inspired by the book, the next pair of socks I knit will be a pair of my own desiging I think.

Well worth investing in if you are a sock fan, or to give to a sock knitter - a great present.ISBN 1-933027-19-3. Not sure what the RRP is, but I got mine from the wonderful Amazon.

First socks of the year!!

I finished these red socks yesterday; pattern was Diamond Lace socks from the Vogue book "The Ultimate Sock Book". Really enjoyed knitting these, and pelased with them. The five needles as opposed to four took a bit of getting used to, though.

I've cast on for the next pair, from the January page of the Simply Knitting sock calendar for 2009. The picture shows the I-cord underway, then the stitches are picked up around for the leg. Pattern looks quite challenging!

Mittens for me!!

I found some of the very lovely Moonglow wool very cheaply yesterday, but they only had three balls, so I bought it all LOL, plus a ball of crinkly purple, with the intention of knitting mittens for myself - I love mittens, lovely and warm, lovely to knit too. Sadly, I think the Moonglow is being discontinued, but I'm sure something equally lovely will be made available to take its place!

The pattern from the mittens is taken from Compassionate Knitting by Tara Jon manning - a lovely book, along with her Mindful Knitting. Nice and quick to do, these were done by 10pm last night.

Jacob on the bobbin

This is the start of MrL's scarf (I hope ); pure Jacob, one of two fleeces I was given last year. I got the drum carder out the other day, and after MrL fixed the spring, it worked much better, so made two very big batts, now awaiting spinning over the weekend. In the meantime, the picture shows how far I've got with the spinning. It's a lovely wool to work with.

Give your mug a hug!

I knitted this up this morning to put in with the January giveaway on my main blog. They're great fun, they do work, and would make a lovely little present for someone. Also, you can use up scraps of wools for stripes and patterns, so it would go a teeny weeny way towards stash-busting LOL.

This one is knitted in Rowan Cocoon - a mixture of merino wool and kid mohair, in a very lovely shade of forest green. Size 5 1/2mm needles, cast on 34 stitches and 1x1 rib until it is the length suitable for your mug (13 rows for this one), standard size mug. Cast off in rib, and sew a few stitches at each end to make a sleeve, leaving a gap for the mug handle. Voila - your mug will get a hug and your tea will stay warmer longer! LOL

KAL dishcloth

I've been taking part in an e-mail dishcloth KAL for a couple of years now; I get e-mailed 10 or so rows a day, for two cloths a month. Keeps me well supplied with dishcloths, with extras to give away. I finished this one yesterday - Andi always does easonal ones, this one is an ice skate. One of my projects this eyar is to do a book of my own cloth designs, so watch this space..........

Red diamond lace socks

I'm determined to expand my sock repertoire this year! I like my basid DK 48 stitches on 4 needles, cuff down, basic turned heel - nice and quick, no pattern required. I cast these on last night, Diamond Lace socks from Vogue Knitting's Ultimate Sock Book, which is very good. Lots of new things for me to try - toe up, lace pattern on instep, 5 needles rather than 4, temporary cast on (only done that once before). Pictures show how far I have reached, hope to crack on with them today.