Heather Knits

I finished this back in April and am only now catching up on sorting out photos of finished stuff.

And here is a closeup:

I am very pleased with how this has come out. The pattern is Haruni, and I used 3.5mm needles. The yarn was some I spun a while back, and the colour changes have worked very fortuitously with the pattern. The only fly in the ointment was that it got a bit felted when I spun it in our rather temperamental washing machine after hand washing it. Needless to say the washing machine will not be remaining in our employ for very much longer. After some serious blocking the shawl is mostly recovered, though a bit fuzzier than before, and luckily is still perfectly wearable. It is more of a little scarf than a big snuggly shawl, but I think will be very useful in the neck of my coat once the weather cools down a bit.

The afternoon of the day I went up to Knit Nation saw me frantically plying the first lot of my sunshine coloured 70% merino / 30% silk that I had been spinning during the Tour de Fleece, in an attempt to have enough free bobbins for the workshops I was doing.

I am very pleased with how the first skein has come out:

455m and 78g, 3 plies, it is a bit thinner than a standard commercial 4ply yarn.

It has come out a bit thinner than I was planning. I think I got a bit paranoid about the last sock yarn I made being a bit thicker than I had planned so this time went overboard in the other direction. I am quite pleased by how even it has come out though and I think it should still make useable socks.

I’ve still got one single left to spin, and then I can finish off the plying and start knitting!

I had a lovely time last week at Knit Nation. Luckily my foot was much better and I was pretty much completely mobile (it has improved even more since then, and my foot is only slightly swollen now, and the blister is healing quite well). I went up to London on Wednesday evening, and checked into the hall of residence so that I didn’t have to drag the wheel through rush hour traffic in order to get to my Thursday morning class.

Thursday I had an all day class on Spinning for Lace with Janel Laidman. She was lovely and knowledgeable yet relaxing and I had a great day. We spent the morning fiddling with our wheels and our techniques, trying out different things, like changing the speed at which we treadled, changing the ratio on the wheel, and changing the tension going on to the bobbin. It is definitely something I am going to be experimenting more with. I was also surprised at how much I loved the highest speed ratio on my wheel. I had been concerned that it would run away with me and I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but actually when you are spinning fairly fine yarns it is really handy, since the likelihood of the yarn not having enough twist and drifting apart is much reduced.

Here we are, all concentrating hard:

And here is my rather wonky efforts from the first part of the morning:

The fibre was a lovely 70% bluefaced leicester/ 30% silk mix. Lovely to spin, I shall definitely be on the look out for something similar.

After that we learnt longdraw, something I had tried before with little success, so it was great to be able to try again and pick up some more tips. My longdraw is still not terribly convincing but I am at least making yarn this time In the afternoon we got to play with several different luxury fibre mixes. Another very enjoyable and useful experience.

We all came away with very useful cards with information about what we had done and samples of our spinning. I shall definitely be using these to keep a better track of my future projects. I am hoping that tying my project card to my wheel whilst working on a project will help me stay a bit more consistent too!

The afternoon’s fibres were 70% merino / 30% silk, 80% merino / 20% tencel, a mixed fibre batt, 50% alpaca / 50% tussah silk, and 100% Mongolian cashmere (I think I need a lot more practise with the cashmere ).

Thursday evening was the market preview. Wow! what a lot of lovely stuff! It was fantastic to see so many lovely yarns, fibres, and various knitting and spinning accessories, and of course to see all the wonderful people who sell them. I did not come away unscathed (what a surprise!). These lovely goodies came home with me:

400g of 70% alpaca / 30% bluefaced leicester fibre from John Arbon:

100g of New Zealand Polwarth in TreeHugger by BabyLongLegs:

100g of supersorted BFL in TangyDoodleTastic again from BabyLongLegs:

A 300g skein of Wollmeise Lace yarn in Grashüpfer (which I am assuming probably means grasshopper):

2 balls of Biggan Design‘s new 4ply in Colour 630:

I am really thrilled that she is making a 4ply now. It is great to see such lovely colours in a nice soft yarn in both 4ply and DK weight.

And finally some fun stitchmarkers from The Bothered Owl:

After all the excitement I staggered off to bed to get some sleep before the next day’s classes.

On Friday morning I went to Wonders of Wool with Clara Parkes. Unfortunately half an hour into the class there was a fire alarm and we had to trudge down the 5 flights of stairs of the Physics building we were in and assemble in the car park. However this was an excellent excuse to continue the rest of the class at one of the large picnic tables in the quad outside the market place.

Clara has a photo of me and the lovely lady from Boston I was sitting next to (who I have unfortunately forgotten the name of ) up on her review of Knit Nation (why is it that I am always talking on photographs?).

As well as learning lots about different kinds of wool from all around the world we got to knit up samples of several very varied wools from different sheep, spun in different ways.

Here is the sample before I washed it:

From the white cast on end these are:

• Saxon merino from Catskill Merino. This one feels gorgeous, a jumper in this would be fantastic
• Wensleydale. A little scratchy for me, although it softened up quite a bit after washing.
• Columbia, which is a mix of Rambouillet and Lincoln Longwool, woollen spun, from Imperial Stock Ranch.

• Columbia, worsted spun from the same fibre source. It was really interesting to observe the differences between the same fibre spun in different ways. This would make great socks. I hadn’t come across Columbia before, and really love both the yarns.
• Dorset down, woollen spun. Springy yarn which bounces back well, I found it a little harsh.

• Finn. Another one I hadn’t tried before, surprisingly nice, a bit similar to Shetland.
• Shetland, woollen spun, from Garthenor Organic. This is the softest Shetland I have ever met, a very nice yarn.

• Icelandic. I found it rather hairy.
• California Red. A really interesting yarn, whitish with occaisional dark red fibres, it felt rather hairy.

• Perendale. Not that keen on this one, a little bit scratchy.

• Columbia worsted spun with some different stitch patterns.

• Columbia woollen spun with some different stitch patterns.

This was a great way to try out lots of different types of wool yarns and I learnt a lot. I definitely see some of the merino, Columbia and Shetland in my future

In the afternoon I was back with Clara, this time for her class on the Wonders of British Wool. Unfortnately my photos taken during the class are dark and blurry so you will have to imagine interested people listening to Clara in a physics classroom

We did more sampling and this is what I produced:

Here is the unwashed sample:

From the cream cast on end these are:

• Bluefaced leicester. One of my favourite fibres
• Teeswater. This feels a bit like Wensleydale. It holds the structure of the stitches well, but I find it a bit scratchy.

• Southdown. Very dense and springy, I was surprised how much I liked this one and will definitely be looking into trying some more.
• Dorset. This was the same as the sample from the morning’s class. It is not quite as dense, springy, or soft as the Southdown.

• Swaledale. Very scratchy, made me think of rope!
• Manx Loghtan. I have had a go spinning and knitting with this before and it is a very nice fibre. Quite rustic but still soft and I love the colour.
• Shetland. This was the same lovely Shetland from the morning, and I still loved it

Another very interesting class, and a great introduction to lots of the different kinds of British wool. I shall definitely be having more of a play with several of these. Especially when I buy a lot of my yarns and fibres mail order or over the internet it is very valuable to know which breeds of wool I do and don’t like.

Friday evening was the Ravelry talk. It was really interesting to hear more about the origins and future plans, and the nuts and bolts, from the horses mouth. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures as at that point I had a roaring headache In all the excitement I failed to drink enough on Thursday and got a bit dehydrated, and even drinking 6 litres of water on Friday hadn’t put off the inevitable headache. Stupidly although I had brought loads of plasters and antihistamines and steriods for my bite on my ankle, I had totally failed to bring any painkillers. Luckily Lisa was a total life saver and gave me some she had in her bag and after half an hour I was feeling so much better.

While we were hanging around in the quad trying to decide what we wanted to have for dinner we noticed that the sun had lit up the tower a most amazingly pinky-orange.

My picture doesn’t quite capture the way the light made the stone glow. Beautiful.

And to round off a wonderful day I had dinner with Lisa, Terri, and Kathryn. Just what the doctor ordered, a nice meal among wonderful and interesting friends

Saturday was an all day class with Judith MacKenzie McCuin on Spinning for Socks. In the morning we each chose 5 colours of merino and practised blending the colours while spinning worsted style. I was having some trouble with my hands sticking to the fibre so I think I shall have to try this again when the weather is cooler and I am less stressed!

We also introduced a bit of dyed silk which I loved. This was the first time I had tried spinning silk top and I am definitely looking forward to trying more.

Into the afternoon we did two more singles and then plied them together. I was a bit slow so two of my singles were about the same length and the third one was much shorter, hence I ended up with a bit of 3ply and then plied the remaining two together to see the difference. The lower skein is the 3ply, the upper the 2ply:

She also gave us some samples of other fibre blends which I didn’t get round to trying during the workshop but which I am looking forward to trying in the next few weeks.

Judith has been involved with the fibre world for a long time and it was very interesting to listen to her talk about all sorts of things not necessarily related to spinning for socks during the workshop. I am looking forward to reading her book, when I find it, I am pretty sure it is in this room somewhere.

After dinner it was time for the Ravelry party.

I only lasted a couple of hours before I had to crawl off to bed, but it was lovely to see everyone again, and to admire everyone’s beautiful shawls.

I came home Sunday morning and was very grateful that Paul retrieved me from the station saving me from the walk home.

All in all a very enjoyable few days. I learned lots and had a great time meeting new people and previous friends. I hope they will hold another next year, although I am rather tempted by a lighter wheel if they do. I love Suzie but she is a heavy girl (rather like her owner).

Good: My neck is loads better, and is very nearly back to normal.

Bad: Some nasty insect has bitten me on the ankle and it has swollen up horribly over my ankle and down my foot, and developed a nasty looking huge orange blister, so it looks like I have an under-ripe cherry tomato stuck to my ankle.

Good: The swelling is better than yesterday, I can now walk. Yeah! It is also not nearly as painful, I now only feel like I am being stabbed with hot needles for most of the time rather than all of the time

Bad: I can’t treadle the spinning wheel, and I can’t drive the car I don’t have enough range of motion to tilt my foot up and down, and at the moment I can’t even get my foot onto the clutch peddle let alone change gear (though it was probably greatly amusing watching me try).

Good: With all the sitting and not spinning time I have managed to do quite a lot of my City and Guilds class homework, although progress has been hampered by feeling a bit grotty.

Bad: I probably wont be able to get to the class tomorrow unless the swelling goes down enough for me to drive the car.

Good: I did manage a bit of spinning before the swelling got too bad, nearly done on bobbin 5 of the merino / silk.

Bad: I really wanted to finish this before Knit Nation next week so I have all my bobbins clear. So I had better hurry up and get better soon.

We had a lovely day out today at the Singleton Rare Breeds show at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. We saw lots of sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, fleeces, hand spinning, and knitting, and met up with a surprising number of people who I know.

The animals were all beautifully turned out, and in general were very well behaved, although there were a couple of escapees and one Manx Loghtan sheep who was doing a good impression of a toddler in a supermarket and lay down on the grass in the path and wouldn’t get up Here is a Kerry Hill sheep and owner:

I was amazed again in the variety that exist within the sheep family, the Soays were tiny – not much bigger than a cat, and the Teeswater huge with long ringlets.

There were of course some purchasing opportunities, we had a yummy hog roast for lunch (not a whole one ), and I bought this gorgeous IST spindle.

60mm spindle, 22g, tulipwood on sycamore with a walnut shaft.

I managed a bit of spinning this evening, continuing on bobbin 5 of the merino / silk, inbetween chasing the foxes out of the back garden and stopping the neighbours cats jumping in through the lounge window (oh the delights of summer).

My neck is definitely better than yesterday though still a bit niggly. Hopefully tomorrow will be better still.

I’ve been having continued problems with heavy treadling, but following some reading up on the Majacraft group on ravelry, I tried cleaning out the hinges with compressed air and then using silicon lubricant. Hopefully this will have done the trick. They were also recommending white lithium grease on the hinges so I shall see if I can pick some up.

Well a lot of stuff has been going on here in the last week and a half, but not much spinning.

Last friday we went to Stratford to see Morte d’Arthur done by the RSC, the inlaws treated us in celebration of their birthdays. It was a really good production, very gripping and imaginative. We were back home on Saturday in time to clear the piles of stuff off the seats in the lounge just in time for my parents to come and stay for 4 days. They went home Tuesday, and I collapsed in a heap. On Wednesday morning I woke up and couldn’t move my head (sleeping is a clearly a dangerous activity). It is a lot better now but is still very painful, and although I can now move my head side to side it still wont go up and down properly. I have had enough of it now and would like it to just get better.

It is a bit painful to spin (actually its a bit painful to do a lot of things) so I haven’t done very much, although I have made a bit of headway on bobbin 5. Another dark photo today I’m afraid.

I am feeling a lot less tired than I have been the rest of the week though so I am finally starting to get caught up on bits and pieces which need doing.

Right, bedtime for tired Heathers. I am hoping to wake up tomorrow and feel miraculously better and less whingey

Finished bobbin 4! (yes I’m afraid it does look rather similar to bobbin 3)

and managed to photograph it before I went out for my Bollywood dance class. The class is marvelous fun, I am very much an unco-ordinated beginner ( this was my third class) but our teacher is very enthusiastic and welcoming and the music is very addictive. It is certainly quite energetic though, and I am feeling my lack of fitness. I thought I was doing slightly better this week as I managed to get through the warm up without feeling like I was going to die. This all changed when it came to recapping the dance we learnt a couple of weeks ago, by the time we got to the end I was doing a very convincing impression of a sweaty beetroot! I am hoping I will get a bit better at it all soon, but it is good fun anyway, and is a dance style where manic grin is an appropriate facial expression which is always a good thing

We were out all day Sunday but I did manage a little bit of spinning in the evening, and finished off bobbin 3.

Half way through the singles now!

It was spinning group at Ash yesterday, so I got started on bobbin 4 although I was having a bit of trouble with the treadles feeling very heavy. A bit of oil on the hinges sorted that out and I managed to spin quite a bit more in the evening.

I re-oiled the wheel again this morning, and wiped off some black gunk which was on the hinges and it has been spinning much better!

Before I had to go out today I spun a bit more of bobbin 4, hopefully I might finish this one tomorrow, it feels like I am rocketing along now (though luckily with fewer crashes than the cyclists). So here is bobbin 4 as it looks now:

And this is a recap of what I have spun on days two, three, and four, with a bit of the fibre too.

I realised looking back at last years tour that I started that on the back foot too. Last year I went to the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM on Day One but did manage a bit of spindle spinning.

Today was my brother in laws wedding. I thought taking the wheel might be a bit conspicuous though I did have a bit of knitting in my bag in case we were early, in the end I was very restrained and it stayed in the bag. We were lucky to have much better weather than the cyclists in Rotterdam and it was a lovely day, the bride and groom both looked very nice and everyone had a lovely time.

We got home a couple of hours ago, in time for me to do a bit of spinning while I watched the highlights programme.

I feel I am starting to get back into the swing with this fibre. I haven’t actually done much spinning since the demo at Clandon back in May, and was having some trouble with the bobbin jerking, but I think I have solved that now. I am definitely glad to be getting a bit of practice in before Knit Nation since I have booked into 2 spinning classes and want to be a bit more on top of my game before that.

I’m afraid I am starting off with a bit of a dark photo, but you get the idea.

This is bobbin 3 of 6, so coming along!

Well, best laid plans and all that. I seem to have spent the last couple of months squashed flat underneath City and Guilds stuff. I did manage to hand in another wodge on Sunday (lucky Fiona!) but everything else seems to have slipped by the wayside recently. I shall catch up on blogging about the stuff I have handed in fairly soon hopefully.

I am still spinning the stuff I started shortly after Christmas. Luckily it is lovely

This is a merino / silk mix from Wingham Woolwork. I think it is 70% merino, 30% silk. The merino is a blend of about 4 colours in shades of yellow and orange, and the silk is white undyed. It is such a lovely cheery colour, and I am enjoying spinning it.

The grand plan is that it is going to become socks. I have about 200g and I have split it into 6 hopefully equal bits so that I can make two lots of three ply.

After much umming and ahhing I have decided I am going to do the Tour De Fleece this year even though I know I have stuff going on during the next three weeks which means I wont be able to spin every day. It was such fun last year that it seems a shame to miss out so I will spin when I can.  I have joined the Lantern Rouge team for those stragglers at the back of the pack, the Majacraft group, and Jo‘s Lime Green Jelly group, though I will have to get a move on if I hope to actually start on my LGJ fibre! My goal is to finish spinning the sunshine merino/silk, I am hoping this will actually be attainable! So Happy Spinning to anyone else who is doing this, and see you (virtually) in Rotterdam tomorrow.