Having a Wheel of a time!!

Well it's Tour de Fleece time again and yet again I'm joining in with 'Team Raw Power' on Ravelry to encourage myself to spin up some of my fleece mountain with a challenge of preparing and spinning 1lb of fibre or just under 500g to us in the UK!

So far the fleece I've spun this first week has included alpaca (with added angora rabbit), Icelandic, batts of random dyed fleece including Suffolk shearling and Wensleydale. this last lot has been in the form of extra lock dyed locks that I've been tail-spinning which I'm thoroughly enjoying - so much so that I just had to film the process... not a sensible 'how-to' film but a 'watch that fluff whizz round' silly kind of film :)

Not sure if this will work but it amused me at the time!

FO Flashing!

Well as promised I would give you all the full details of my latest knitting as soon as it was finished and here you have it! It was finished last Tuesday/Wednesday and I'm pleased with it - it really is warm but being such a heavy chunky wool has given me a case of Knitters Elbow with my left elbow and wrist being painful. So there was no knitting for a few days to ease the ache!
The pattern comes from N.Y. Yarns but mine has been modified due to lack of yarn. The original had a fold down collar which I didn't do. Instead I did some short row shaping around where the collar would have been and I also added another button hole to stop the from gaping open quite so much. In these pictures there are only 3 buttons because I didn't buy enough (typical!).

I went to visit Mum for her birthday the other week which was the perfect chance for a photo shoot! Mums treat was a pic-nic to a local beach, Black Rock Sands, where we had chip in the camper van. We had a great time going for a walk as well even if it was a wet and blustery day.

And I even braved the weather to 'flash' my FO!!

Mum called this my 'Norman Wisdom' pose!

Well in my defense it was cold and wet!!

Here's a 'normal' pose for you! It had a brilliant test drive on the beach - it's lovely and warm and cosy and I've been wearing it loads since! Definitely a success which I'll be knitting up again but will try and spin enough for a collar as well next time!

Sorry it's a bit short and sweet this time. I'm feeling a bit anti-computers lately and have been avoiding it a fair bit. Yes, even avoiding Ravelry. No Computers, no blogging, no Knitting even - what's come over me? I think it's a case of the blues right now but DH has promised me a week away at my Mums without Emily at some point in the near future!!!! Bless him, he's good and I certainly feel due to escape and switch off for a while! Right I'd better go and get ready for week 2 of my course - so far so good. I promise I will try and be a good blogger this week and attempt to catch up with all your blogs ASAP, thanks for sticking with me!

Edited to add: The yarn I used was my own chunky handspun Merino/Silk from the giant batt I got in WoolFest. I'd decided to set myself a challenge of spinning enough yarn for a garment and knitting it up before the 31st October as that will be a year from when I first had my spinning wheel and I thought it would be a good way to see how much Id learnt in that time! I am really pleased with the result and the thought of spinning for garments now doesn't seems as daunting anymore!

Finally Some FO's!

Well I did say I'd have some FO's to show you soon but I've been a bit slow to photo them plus there's been a few dark and gloomy days that make for poor pics. So, determined to keep up my 'better pics' policy I waited for the right conditions.
So to start we have the completed Twillies Freedom Spirit vest top.

I made it longer than the pattern said to because I wanted to try and cover my belly and avoid sneak peaks of it and so bought an extra ball of yarn . . . which was never needed as the yardage of Spirit is great. These balls just seemed to keep on going and I've still a fair bit of the 4th ball left over! The colours are fairly accurate - lovely subtle stripes blending throughout the fabric and I really love them all - so autumnal, earthy and woodsy (if you know what I mean!). So I give the yarn a resounding thumbs up and it's warm and squishy soft too!

Number 2 on the FO parade is a quick little instant gratification knit from the 'Knitting Pattern a Day' desk calendar from sometime in August (OK - I peeked!). Can you tell what it is yet?Of course it's just what we all need and want - a felted vase! My Dad was here when it came out of the washing machine and was put to dry on the radiator (filled with a bag of dried beans and rice to keep the shape) and was heard to comment 'So it's not water tight then.' I had told him I was making a vase so I guess I'd filled his head with traditional vase thoughts! I meant to take a photo of the insides before I felted it as this was also my first dabble in colour work. Those greeny bits are supposed to be a check pattern but they don't show clearly due to my poor choice in contrast yarn but the reverse of the work did look neat which was good seeing as it was late and I was kind of making it up as I went so no 'official' techniques were used!

Next onto the fibre front. My dyes have been burning a hole in my pocket as it were waiting for a suitable pan to dye in. I gave up after a bit and tried some Cotswold curls in the microwave with unsatisfactory results - the colours just didn't want to blend this way. Anyway, after a trip to Ikea (resulting in a big 5l pan for £10 - my max dye pan budget), the dyeing was back on. I'm pleased with the results as well. The fleece that had been microwaved ended up with black, green and yellow bits surrounded by parts that hadn't taken any dye so this was overdyed greeny yellow to give the below results which are quite a true representation of the zingy sap green.

There was still a bit of green dye in the pan after taking the first lot out so another load went in after having a quick vinegar/water soak with a dose of blue dye which produced this icy green/blue which isn't as pale in reality. Also in there I dunked a small skein of wool/silk mix from a giant cone that I thought would work well with the curls for my next spinning project of boucle yarn (to copy Mum!).

You can really see the difference between the yarn and the fleece and it almost seems hard to believe they were in the same dye pot!

Also in this shot is my current bobbin of spun stuff this time some beautiful Jacob fleece from Sandie at Yorkshire Woollybacks This is such a lovely soft fleece which I'm spinning without carding and having just given it a little wash but it really wasn't that dirty at all. Fellow spinners I heartily recommend her fleeces - she really looks after her sheep and their coats and it show in their fleeces. I've also had one of her Suffolk shearling fleeces (baby sheeps first haircut!) which was also very clean and beautifully soft and is being saved for a project for Emily from Interweave Knits latest issue but I need to calculate yardage etc before I let you all in on that one!

Finally some silliness also taken from Mum. I'm:

Get Your Cyborg Name

And DH? Well of course he's:

Get Your Cyborg Name

And I couldn't miss out little DD:

Get Your Cyborg Name

It's all just a bit of fun after all!

I like this one!

Thanks to Sarah at All Fingers and Thumbs for finding this fun thing. Unfortunately there were no pictures of yarn or knitting to show as my vice! But you get the idea and as far as the scenery was concerned I could have picked them all - never mind, I do love woodland walks so that will do for now!

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