Yesterday’s sunset…

Today’s FO, my Fluffy the Vampire Sweater.
Yarn: Sirdar Blur (fluffy mohair, impossible to frog)
Pattern: Birgitte Lace Pullover
Ravelry project link.

Tomorrow’s (and Sunday’s) Knitting WIP:
Pattern: Central Park Hoodie
Yarn: Sirdar Click (yeah, it’s acrylic, but it’s cushy and cheap, and machine washable!)
Ravelled.

It was a dull grey Saturday here today, so I took my camera for a walk, taking photos of things that make me happy. Despite the dim light, I found plenty to photograph - so many that this is a photo-heavy post, sorry if that makes it slow to load…

First of all there’s my bowl of hyacinths, which have just started to flower.

And my iPod touch, which I got this Christmas (now with spinning and knitting aps installed on it)

My current spinning project, this is Wildcraft superwash BFL in ‘Cornfield’.

The braids of Wildcraft club fibre that I managed to keep for myself this month…

My newest handspun, handknitted socks. (Ravelled here.)

The latest batch of Wildcraft fibre, dyed in preparation for next weeks’ shop update.

The fluffy purple jumper that I’m knitting, which now has sleeves attached, at last!

The Rodrigo y Gabriela album that I bought last week (amazing guitar sounds).

The expectant faces of my sheep, looking forward to their dinner.

And the contented munching sound they make when eating it…

Finding a piece of fallen lichen in the woods (I can use this for a resin spindle whorl).

My little grey cat, Fili, on her favourite outdoor perch.

Inara’s nose, which is very soft.

Finding that the connection on the horses’ water trough made it through the recent cold spell without leaking.

And finally, discovering the first snowdrops of the season.

I guess it was a good day after all!

I hope you all had a lovely festive holiday. We’ve had a wintry few days here in the UK, only ice and rain here on the farm so far, but the snowy weather looks to be turning our way this week, so I’m hoping for at least some by new year. I do love snow.

This Christmas I treated myself to an iPod touch. It’s very shiny and lovely and I can write blog posts on it as well as surf ravelry, check my email and listen to my favorite podcasts.

My inner geek is very happy

I’ve written part of this post on my new toy, although the picture editing side was done on my laptop as I’m still figuring out how to drive the iPod…

This is a photo of one of several knitted Christmas gifts I made this year.

It’s a set of ten mismatched mittens that I made for my brother from leftover scraps of yarn. He likes wearing mitts for typing on the computer, but he’s always losing them. So I decided to make a set that wouldn’t be spoiled if he lost one or two. But to prevent the mislaid mitts scenario in the first place I also made a ‘mitten dispenser’ to store them in.

It’s like one of those dispenser bags you can get for recycling supermarket carriers, only designed specially for errant mitts. I’m delighted to report that my brother loved his gift!

This week, as well as doing crazy Christmas knitting that I can’t post photos of yet, I finished spinning some yarn.

It’s made from some Falkland wool tops that I bought at Wonderwool Wales in 2008, so it’s been marinating in my stash for a while. The yarn’s a three ply, around 12wpi/250m - plenty for a hat for me (ideal for a post Christmas knitting treat for myself!).

I was surprised by how different the colours looked in the finished yarn compared with the tops. Here’s how it started out…

I like the colours of the finished yarn much more than in the tops, and I’m thinking I’ll be making more three ply in the future, despite the fact that it takes forever to spin compared with 2ply…

Oh and also this week, I’ve been having some fun playing with the editing tools on Flickr. Result - a grumpy Christmas sheep. Bah humbug to all from Truffle!

p.s. she wasn’t looking nearly this grumpy today, as I gave them all extra hay and sheep nuts rations on account of it being so cold

Ever since I started Wildcraft I’ve wanted to have another go at natural dyeing. I did some natural dye experiments way back when I first learned to spin, with mixed success. This time, I have a proper dye studio to work with, and considerably more understanding of how not to felt wool!

Natural dyeing is a much slower process than chemical dyeing: dye materials need to be soaked, fibre mordanted and yarn/fibre gets left in dye baths for longer to ensure that they’ve taken up the colours properly. It’s a very interesting change from my everyday chemical dyes, I needed to put away my ‘put colour on now’ attitude and take a more chilled approach. For my recent experiments I decided to start out with some dye materials that I’d bought, rather than raiding the back garden. The garden raiding will happen when I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

So a few days ago, I mordanted some fibre and some yarn with alum. This took about a day in total as I left everything to cool down completely after cooking, to make sure I didn’t felt the fibre.

Then I heated up a solution of brazilwood chips in water to extract their red dye, and after an hour’s simmering allowed it to cool completely.

I used this to dip dye some fibre, and some yarn. Here’s the fibre, it was BFL/seacell.

The colour wasn’t as bright as I’d hoped, but it’s a pretty coral shade, and the fibre remains soft, fluffy and not in the least bit felted.

The yarn I overdyed with logwood, which I’d made into a dyebath in the same manner as the brazilwood, except I used only 20% by weight of the logwood chips (logwood contains a lot of colour). This came out rather darker than I expected, it’s almost black in places, not the mid purple I was expecting - and that made it really hard to photograph accurately. I love it though…

I’m expecting this deep colour to fade a bit in sunlight, as logwood isn’t particularly light fast. It should make some pretty socks though.

So, I’m counting these first experiments as a success, and am now planning all manner of garden and woodland raids, as well as some other natural colour experiments. And really looking forward to spinning up that BFL/seacell fibre!

OK, so I can now personally vouch for the reports that flu is not a good thing to have. I’m getting over it now, but a few days disappeared in a haze of paracetamol and too much TV (I got through a whole series of Gilmore Girls in two days, but please don’t ask me to recount any of it, I simply don’t remember).

It was however fantastic for my knitting UFO list, and a heap of them have now transformed into FO’s. Amongst the things I finished were two cropped cardigans (which were already knitted up so I just had to sew in the yarn ends), a hat and a pair of socks.

I also made good progress on a lace shawl, knit the body and legs of an elephant (only a small one), started the body of a mohair jumper for me, and cast on for my first ever pair of Monkey Socks.

Like the TV viewing, I don’t have much memory of knitting these things. Unlike the TV however, I do have evidence that they have been done, in the form of a pile of finished knitting and several new projects with needles in them.

Oh and I got a great new book in the post last week - The Knitter’s Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes.

This is the book that had the original pattern for the pair of Maine Morning Mitts that I made and had featured in Spin Off magazine this spring. I’ve had this book on my wishlist for ages, but hadn’t seen it in person so dithered over buying a copy. But I’m so glad I did buy it, it really is an excellent reference. It’s a mine of technical info on yarn construction and use, and the knitting patterns in it look great too, a few have joined my Ravelry queue already. Clara has another yarn book due out any day now (I think it’s already on the shelves in the US, but we have to wait a little longer here in the UK). The sequel’s called The Knitter’s Book of Wool, and needless to say I’ve already preordered a copy.

I’ve come over all bashful… and excited, as I’ve just seen that my first wholesale batch of resin spindles are now listed at The Spinning Loft.

I took a couple of photos before they left here…

But do head over to Beth’s site and take a look, especially if you’re in the US, as she’s there too - so posting should be much easier!

p.s. I hear the chilli ones have already gone to new homes - one of them to Abby Franquemont. So um, yes, I’m very pleased about this new venture into the wholesale market!

During the week I cast on from the ball of yarn that I posted about last time, and after a very productive (and enjoyable) afternoon’s knitting at the Salisbury Knitter’s group, I now have the top of a cardigan for me.

The pattern is the ‘Favorite Cardigan’ from Wendy Bernard’s Custom Knits book. Like most of the other designs in the book, it’s knitted from the top down so I can try it on as I go along. I’m knitting the smallest size, which is going to be a small fit for me, with around 2″ negative ease. But I’ve just reached the bottom of the armholes and divided for the sleeves, and the fit looks as though it’s going to be ok. This is my third project from the book, I’ve already made ‘Ingenue’ and the ‘Lettuce Coat’, both of which are now much-worn favorites, so I can thorougly recommend it. The yarn’s handspun organic merino and it’s really soft, this is going to be one snuggly cardigan.

I’ve also cast on for a secret Christmas project, and feeling pretty organized since it’s my second of the year (the first’s finished, but the recipient reads this blog so pics will have to wait til after Christmas). The current project’s made from handspun coloured Ryeland, made with wool from ‘Coffee’. It’s going to become a hat, which is really all I can reveal for the moment. But it looks good so far!

I’m absurdly happy at having wound this ball of handspun yarn tonight… is that weird?

I’ve been teaching myself how to use a nostepinne, after Mum made a whole batch of them for the shop. I love the results of winding handspun yarn on one, this ball looks almost edible.

The yarn’s my Wildcraft Club Fibre from July, organic merino in a colourway called ‘Tea and Roses’. I have nearly 700m of it, so I’m planning to make a garment for myself from it, probably a cardigan. That’s if I can bear to begin knitting from that pretty ball…

Yup, it’s definitely autumn here now, I found these on the lawn yesterday…