spin one, knit one
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I was going to take photos of my nostepinne-wound birds’ nests. However…
…I was in bed, when I heard a question from the front of the house: “Is that meant to be there?” I knew what he meant. I had to look. My freshly-plyed, freshly-balled, hand-spun opus was scattered all over the sitting room floor.
My money is on Mr Treacle.
Maybe photos after I repair the damage?
Today I plyed for the first time. It’s funny how things go just fine when G is about but once I try it alone, it all goes horribly wrong.
Anyway - I have one single ply ball wound on my nostepinne, and a 2ply ball wound as well. I have a bobbin full of 2ply waiting to be balled. I also have about one third of a bobbin left to do something with. I want to get it all off, so I can try to spin some better quality stuff. The plying is very difficult without a lazy kate. I have two jugs to contain my bobbins but one of them keeps on falling over and the yarn in the other one keeps tangling round the jug handle.
I suppose I should skein it now, ready for washing.
I know one thing - it is going to make for some very odd knitting!
Still struggling with my cat’s paw scarf and longing for my wooden needles to arrive. What do I do if they don’t improve matters and I have to blame my own ineptitude?
I think I shall have a change of activity now and see if I can recall how to bind a book…
These are the carders that came the other day, and two nostepinnes (nostepinde) from the same parcel: 1 for me and 1 for Gill.
I am trying the carders out this afternoon. This package came on Saturday, having been ordered earlier last week on eBay from UK-collect. I am happy with this seller and will most likely use them again.
No doubt the spinning ladies of Sanday will have much hilarity tomorrow morning as we attempt to wind our birds’ nests!
After three pattern repeats, and taking far too long - with endless ripping out… I have analysed the problem as being a combination of slippery needles and ultra soft yarn*. I have always loathed plastic needles and this project is showing me why. I wonder if I can strain my plastic a bit further and send for some nice wooden ones.
These, maybe? A birthday present to myself.
* The yarn overs are slipping around to the other side of the needle on the purl side - so I can’t see where to put my needle in.
After 2 full pattern blocks (12 rows in total), I still have 34 stitches. See? There are Miracles!
This afternoon’s knitting has consisted mainly of frogging. It is entirely conceivable that knitting is not quite like riding a bike and maybe, just maybe, I should have been at the stocking stitch muffler stage right now. But I always hated boring knitting…
There is a definite hole in my scarf, where a hole should not be. But I can’t bear to rip it out one more time, I want to get his pattern set and I do still have the correct number of stitches this time. So the hole shall remain and this will not be the scarf that I enter in the show.
The yarn is fantastic - really soft and good to knit with, it also seems amenable to being frogged without having a kink set in it.
*sigh*
I could do this thing at one time, you know. I mean really do it. Behind my back, eyes closed kind of thing. May I blame my specs?
Yay - more post! 10 balls of Cashsoft 4ply Merino/Cashmere/Microfibre mix in a dusky baby blue. I only needed 2 balls of yarn but I couldn’t resist this eBay bargain.
Can’t remember if I posted about my carders and nostepinne coming on Saturday last?
Photos of both soon - but I may have to begin knitting after lunch. Oh - it is so soft!
I must be feeling heaps better. Today I have begun to tidy my workroom (”before” pics follow soon) and I have also purchased some yarn via eBay.
The yarn is madness. I needed 100gms of 4ply, to enter the “any item from 100gms” class in the local show in August. I found this pattern [.PDF file, small] for a cat’s paw scarf [see on this page] that takes 80gms (I’ll just keep knitting) - so I just needed a 100gms oddment ball. So, what did I buy? This
Now I have to figure out what to do with the remaining 400gms… not enough, I think, to knit a garment for a fat old lady like me.
Any ideas?
More scarves, perhaps?
And now, back to the tidying.
EDIT: Oh heck - now I seem to have gone and bought some sock wool as well! 2 balls of Opal - and I’ve only done an inch and a half of my first pair, begun 3 years ago!
Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions has special Mother’s Day Offers on (yes, I know - but the Americans… *sigh*) until the 13th. Move fast to get ‘em
Very useful link.
I used to have a book that had basic designs, with neck/sleeve variations etc, and a contained encyclopaedia of knit and colour patterns to ring the changes with. I lost it in The Great Divorce Débacle. Wish I could find a new copy. It really is a better/cheaper way to knit. Anyway - I’ll start with Colin’s instructions.
The Scotsman - Why Granny’s knitting adds up to a complex mathematical equation
A rather interesting article in itself but - oh, how times change. Written just 4 years ago, but nobody today would speak of knitting as a lost “granny skill.” Knitting has become trendy in a very short space of time. This is kind of good - but also very bad. The prices have shot up now that there is a consumer market!
