Woolgathering

Testing asides functionality

My second laceweight silk skein arrived today. It’s very nice - but far less “flame” in appearance than I had thought. The light is pretty awful today so it’s really hard to tell but I think I would describe this more as a Peach Melba experience - it has the peach of the fruit, the pink of the redcurrant sauce, and the chemical bright golden cream of Wall’s Cornish Ice Cream… with a little white whipped cream added, and some acid yellow going spare. Not entirely convinced that I love it - can you tell? I’ll use it to practise on the Lead or Follow Lace Scarf before using the green and blue skein on it, as I would hate to waste that gorgeous skein.

I love it when Mr L wants to buy a book. That usually means that I get one too. I’ve been wanting to buy this book for ages, and had been putting it off until my account returns from the red. Now I get to have it sooner

It’s very timely, as I’d like to incorporate some cables from it into the wall hanging that I am now ready to knit with my early handspun Jacob. I plan to use it to produce some knitted/felted items for the Sanday Spinners. I like the idea of the Viking connection.

Forgot to say - I hoard jam jars. Ostensibly for preserves, I amass far too many for use on the intended manner, and occasionally I rationalise the bags of rubbish.

The other day I was clearing them out before we went to the bottle bank. Mr L asked for some of the nastier ones, to go into the garage as paintbrush cleaning pots and screw storage etc. I spotted the Lloyd Grossman sauce ones (Lidl sometimes do them on a BOGOF basis and we like the green curry ones) in his hands and suddenly realised that I had a far better destination for them. I seized them back and went to clean the label glue off a little better than I had done previously…

…and today I began to sort out little pots of colour. I’m putting scraps of fibres and small embellishments in colour-sorted jars. I’ll decorate the lids at some point, as they aren’t pretty at the moment, and then I’m going to line them up on the windowsill in my workroom as storage cum decoration cum inspiration. They are nice jars, they have a pleasing shape to them.

The only thing is, I don’t have enough jars of the same shape to sort all my colours in a totally aesthetically pleasing manner. I’m going to have to buy more curry sauce!

Spinning

I’ve plied two bobbins of my early Jacob spinning and it is now both skeined and soaking in the sink. It was funny to see how the spinning had improved so rapidly across the two bobbins. I shall have to mix up the 5 balls before I knit my wall hanging, or it will be a very funny shape indeed!

I had a spiffing time yesterday. I really did. I found that I was relaxed and happy and perfectly able to talk to people who asked me questions - without stopping spinning to do so! I didn’t even blush furiously when complimented on the fineness of my spinning. I didn’t even demur…

It is strange to think that only a few weeks ago I was fretting about the demo and how I would never be ready for it. I kept wailing “I can’t possibly do this in front of people!” and I meant it.

I owe much to those very kind readers who sent me tops and roving. They know who they are, and they have my heartfelt thanks and gratitude - as does my wonderful husband. I really would not have made it without my new wheel, I am sure - and the gifts have given me time and space in which to settle to spinning without tussling with carders and combs and knotty tangles.

I had a lovely fibery conversation with a lady who spotted the mohair/merino tops that I was given. She was something of a fibre junkie and she was asking about character yarns. I showed her my first three balls of Jacob, and I think she would have made off with it on the spot if she could have, she stroked it and said she loved it and it was her favourite item on the table. I didn’t cave in, though - it’s mine and I do plan to knit it up when I have plyed the rest of my early Jacob spinning.  This I can do now, because I finally have the new driveband on the Haldane. In fact, I think that I may go and do it right now. I fancy a change of activity.

I have been working on the second Hedera sock. I’ve made a fairly serious error - I seem to have skipped a row on the 4 row lace pattern. Unfortunately the error has occurred right at the point where I picked up the gusset stitches and I find myself enormously reluctant to tinker with it now, so the error will probably remain - testament to the notion that nothing is perfect.

Whatever - the old arm/shoulder thing  is complaining. It seems to take very little knitting now to set it off. The best thing I can do, save giving up all my obsessions interests is to rotate activities, and not do any one thing for too long a stretch. Plying up the Jacob sounds like a really good idea, much as I want this sock completed and out of the way. Do you think it possible that I could teach my Dragon to K1P1?

finished cheviot

Originally uploaded by demiurged

I niddy noddied my last bobbin of plyed Cheviot this morning. Here’s my first really knittable handspun. Proud? You bet!

The two scratty skeins on the left are the leftovers from plying bobbins together. I learned Navajo, or chain, plying with the ends. But there’s five reasonable skeins there.

But what to do with them?

I’d like to dye, I think - but have no plans for a knitting project as yet. I suppose that will come to me once I see the dyed product.

And now? Well, I am going to add these skeins to my Ravelry stash

The Navajo-plyed skeins are up for grabs - anybody want them for a textiles project? They could be felted as surface decoration, or couched/stitched - or braided… anything really. I don’t recommend them for knitting though, unless it’s going to be felted - but there’s only a wee bit, so knitting anything other than a pot holder seems impractical.

You can have them now, or wait until I dye them… and see what happens.

My weekend has been one long whirl this time around. Yesterday was our once-every-two-months supermarket trip. This takes all day, as there is only one ferry out to Mainland Orkney, and one return in the evening. Shopping involves two enormous trolley loads and a long stint of “putting away” once we finally get home. It’s a long day, and arduous - so the last thing I really needed was to be on display

today…

However, today was the annual craft exhibition - and the Sanday Spinners put on a display and exhibition of spinning. Here’s some of the photos from today.

Can I confess to  being too tired to write about it?

Apologies to G, for seeming to get  her in shot in almost every photo that I took today.

I did get quite a lot of spinning done today, and the BFL is coming along very nicely (and was much admired)

Still fascinated by the BFL. There are other things that I should be doing but I find this spinning hypnotic. So many subtle shades of grey in this BFL.

I tried to photograph my work. I did very badly. I’ll try again another day, when the light is better.

This blurry shot shows the colour variation best (because I shot in RAW and had flash turned off - long exposure and wobbly hands)

But this shot gives a better idea of how well my spinning is doing

and now I really must crack on with getting ready for Sunday, as I shan’t have much time, if any, to spare tomorrow. The sitting room is full of fibrous things… there’s no room to sit down. I haven’t been able to rule out very much as being of no interest for the craft exhibition.

I may have cause to regret my benefactor. I may be developing a lifelong obsession with BFL. What wonderful stuff it is!

Yes, I couldn’t resist having a go. And I have spun almost a full bobbin. It’s beautiful. I love the rich shading and the lustre of it. I can’t wait to knit it - it’s much nicer than the commercially spun BFL that I have in my stash.

But it does mean that I didn’t get the extra book made - nor have I yet tried out the drum carder and carded the fleece for Sunday.

Come to think on it - I haven’t cleared the table and washed up the tea things yet either.

oops.

Obsession, I tell you - obsession.

Drove to spinning again. I found myself panicking as I headed to the door and was fretting about the weather. Mr L offered to chauffeur me, but I would not let him. I need to get a grip on this thing. I did not like driving that big thing in this wind, though.

At spinning today I learned to chain ply. I had to do this because I miscalculated on the number of bobbins required. What I failed to realise was…. it was no solution - I still needed an extra bobbin :-)

Anyway - two new skills today - chain plying, and I found out where the wiper switch was on the car.

This afternoon I completed the Cheviot tops; all spun and plyed now. I had some left over from the 2ply on one bobbin, so attempted the chain plying again. What a mess I got into without G’s assistance!

The final bobbin of 2ply will be skeined on Sunday, when I get my noddy noddy back from loan to J. Then there will be a photograph to mark this historic occasion!

Am now disappearing into the workroom to try and create another book example for Sunday - still struggling with my haiku for the contents… and my head is brewing up again. Maybe it’s the weather, which is foul.

Hope the weather improves, or its going to be a bouncy ride to Kirkwall at the weekend. That’s if the ferry isn’t cancelled due to strike action.

Never a dull moment….

All I really want to do is go to bed and sleep for a week. Or maybe… try the BFL tops…

Today’s cakes were Carrot Cake and Fruitcake. I can’t vouch for the fruitcake, but I had two slices of light and delicious carrot cake.