More handspun

I managed to fit in a bit of spinning this weekend. I'd already done half of some Dragonfiber bamboo/merino and on Saturday evening I was on my own. Simon was doing night time charity walk on Dartmoor and girls were in bed so I put on a chick flick (the Holiday) and spun up the second bobbin. Had to stay up late (length of film plus an extra half an hour) to finish it but I was keen to finish the rest of the fibre.

On Sunday night I sat down and plyed it .I tend to put too little twist in when plying and I'm also not very consistent with the amount of twist I put in. So this time I put in more twist than I htought was right and I counted my treaddles all the way through. It's paid off as this is my best handspun yet. The twist is perfect (or hte way I like it). It's fairly even and I love it. Not checked WPI yet as its still not completely dry but I reckon it's between 4ply and dk which is what my yarns tend to come out at.Here's the fiber it was spun from:

On Sunday after church I cast onfor the Sockamania August socks after 'arguing' with hte pattern for a couple of days. My first idea didn't work out, then I wasn't happy with hte yarn and the cuff I chose. On SAturday I dyed a trial skein of the colourway for Augsut and on Sunday after church I cast on. I finished by teatime. I thought I'd knitted the foot long enough for my feet but it's a tiny bit short so I need to frog the toe and redo it at some point. But I want to get photos done first. I love the pattern and colourway though. No pics obviously as until 1st August it's a secret.

The Sockamania PLUS yarn for August is dyed and nearly dry now. Parcels will be going out tomorrow and Thursday. It's a new yarn this time, 80% merino and 20% nylon blend. Iwas a little hesitant about using a new yarn as I love my regular merino but this yarn is gorgeous. As soft as the merino but with nylon it should be harder wearing. And it's gorgeous to knit with. A little bit more twist than my regular merino I think. I love it anyway. And the best hting is that i comes in skeins so no skeining off cones. Makes a huge difference.

Las night another project came off the needles. Unfortunately I can't tell you what it is or show nay photos. It's been blocked this morning and I wish I could share phtos as it looks gorgeous . I love it but you'll wait till next winter sometime and keep an eye on Yarn Forward magazine to find out what it is. I did hit a tiny snag at the end. Either I've made a mistake during knitting or my maths is wrong. I'm trying to work out the problm with my test knitter, Pixie. I'm hoping it's me who's made a mistake rather than the pattern being wrong. So annoying though. Better not say anything more about it as I don't want to give anything away. It'll all be correct when it's sent off to the editor.

And we've got sunshine again. Can't remember wha Saturday was like now but Sunday was lovley and so was yesterday adn today it's quite warm. Might see if I can sneak in some knitting time in the garden before dinner time.

And it's gone again...

...summer that is, or at least the sun. It was raining again today but the weather man promised more sunshine on Sunday and hopefully it may stay a little longer then. I went to Plymouth today to meet a lovely knitting friend, Marianne. We meet at the Theatre coffee bar for some knitting once or twice a month. We didn't have as much time today as normal but we got a bit of knitting done. Marianne is working on Fetching from Knitty and I helped her do a sewn bind off a she didn't like the picot bind off she did for her first pair. She's knitting her 2nd pair in a gorgeous colour of Noro Silk Garden and has made a longer cuff. I tried the first one on today and it's gorgeous. I'm so jealous. I may have to knit myself a pair.

I came home to a big box of yarn. The sock yarn for the Sockamania PLUS Merino Sock Club and the lace yarn for August's Lace Variety Club. And some more Luscious Lace. The Merino sock yarn is a new merino I'm trying. It's got 20% nylon in it which should make it harder wearing. I was quite keen to see it nad touch it to see if it's as soft as my normal merino and it is. I love it. It's very squishable. The reason I decided to go for a different merino this month is that Ispent last week skeining 35 skeins of lace weight yarn off cones and it killed my right shoulder. The sock yarn needs to be done next week and my normal merino comes on cones and I just couldn't face more skeining. Just hope all my members like it......

Last night I went to hte Tangled Threads knitting group which meets at the pub in Tideford every 3rd Thursday of the month. There were only 4 of us last night but we had a great time. I has cast on for the Sockamania socks for August before I went. I've had the pattern planned in my head for ages so thought it'd just be a case of getting it knitted up then when I had done the cuff (and I actually got half the heel done last night) I didn't like it. The other girls at the knitting group assured me it looked good but when I got home at 10.30pm I looked at it again and hated it. Not happy at all with it. So frogged it. Panicked, thinking I've left it too late to come up with anything this month. Then had an idea. And cast on again. Had to knit enough to make sure it would work so ended going to bed at midnight. But itworks and I love it. Now I've just got to make a decision on the yarn colour. If you still want to join Sockamania PLUS you can if you join before Sunday evening. Pop over to Etsy and look in the 'clubs' section.

Got two main projects to work on and finsh this weekend. The Sockamania August socks and a secret project which I'm nearly done with. So back to the sofa, some Thorntons chocs and my socks.

Have a great weekend. x

Found

Remember a couple of days ago I reported summer missing? Well, it's been found. It's sunshine here in Cornwall today. Okay, don't all fall off your chairs. I was shocked this morning when I looked out of the window, especially as they didn't forecast good weather. Well, got to make the most of it. Washing is on the line and so is the last of the Lace Club Yarn which will be posted tomorrow, unless it's dry and I can catch the post this afternoon.

I've got no finished stuff of my own to show you so I thought I'd share with you a friend's FO. Laura knitted the Scrolls cowl knitted in Luscious Lace Grey Skies. It's gorgeous, don't you think? Apparently all her girls love it and have all ordered one. I think Laura will be busy for a while.

Talking about the Lace Variety Club, did I share last month's yarn with you? Don't remember. Well here it is:

Merino Lace in a lovely blue colour. If you want to join the Lace VAriety Club there are a few memberships available still, but be quick. Places are very limited and I'm reducing numbers for next month as at the moment it's over subscribed and the max I can cope with is 30.

I'll share this month's yarn in a few weeks. It'sgorgeous though.

As we're sharing, perhaps it's time to show pics of the Sockamania PLUS Merino Sock Club too. The yarn on it's own and here it's knitted up into the short version of the Celtic Cable Heel Socks.
Which leads me nicely onto another celtic cable pattern. When we went to Norway in May i spent an evenign or two converting the Celtic Cable pattern into a fair isle pattern and here it is:
The colours are the colours of hte Cornish Rugby Team. The pattern isn't quite ready yet and for the final verison I want to change the heel for a short row heel which I think will look better.

Off to enjoy the sunshine.

Missing - summer

Please someone bring back summer. We had some lovley weather back along but lately its been miserable. A glimmer of sunshine yesterday but I spent the afternoon in a school hall in a nearby town providing child protection training for some of our church's childrens workers. Simon and Emily went down to Looe for a church picnic and baptism service. Guess where I would have preferred ot have been.

Today we've had drizzle for most of the day. Emily's school were having thier second go at sports day this afternoon and unfortunately decided it was dry enough to go ahead alhtough there was a steady drizzle all afternoon. I sat with a friend under a big golf umbrella but hte kids were sitting on the field in their PE kits and only some of them had sweatshirts on and none of them had coats. I did notice that most of hte teachers had coats on. When I had two girls at primary school sports day wasn't too bad as I had 4 races to watch but now with only one child left, I've only got 2 races to watch so I've got to sit there for nearly 3 hours and my child is only on the field for a total of 2 mins. Even with chatting to good friends and knitting it's boring. Just about tolerable in the sun but on a miserable day like today there were other things I could have been doing.

Like finishing packing up the Lace Variety Club parcels. I thought I was going ot get them posted on time this month. But due to the rain and other things getting in the way I'm behind. The non-UK parcels will be posted tomorrow and I'm hoping the UK ones will be posted on Wednesday. I've still got yarn that's not dry but tomorrow I think I'll have to put the heating on to help the drying process along a bit unless the sunshine returns.

I'd hoped to show you pictures of some gorgeous yarn I bought on Etsy which has real silver in it. It's just hte right amount of sparkle. It's sock weight yarn but I'm not knititng socks out of it. It's got merino/nylon/silk and silver. It's gorgeous and I've got a purple and a pink skein. Not sure what I'm going ot knit wiht it yet but it'll have to be something special. The pics will have to wait as our camera has gone on strike. Hoping Simon can sort it out later.

Now I've got kids that need feeding and parcels to wrap.

What happened to summer?

Will this rain never end? I know this is typical Cornish summer weather. Rain, rain and more rain. But I'm fed up with it. So fed up i even checked out flight to Spain yesterday but they're too expensive. No sunny holiday ot look forward to either. our next holiday is Christmas in Norway which I'm sure to a lot of you sound terribly exotic and although I love it, it's not going to be hot that's for sure.

I managed to get some knitting done this weekend. The Tootie Fruitie Shurg got finished but due to the rain I've not managed to get photos done yet.

Did lots of knitting on a secret project which is coming along quite nicely at the moment.

Also managed to fit in some spinning. And finished the first half of the Dragonfiber Merino/Bamboo. This is truly scrummy fiber. Perly looking and soft. And so easy to draft and spin. My aim is to spin the 2nd half this week and ply it next week.

After that I was going to have a go at this Wensleydale from th Yarn Yard but today my final installment of the Dragonfiber club arrived and it's silk/cashmere. Isn't it gorgeous? I've spun silk before but never cashmere or cashmere/silk so very excited about that. Not sure which to do next the Wensleydale or the Cashmere/Silk.

Also did some knitting on this
It's a cardigan knitted from side to side in Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend and Lang Silk Dream. Both yarns are silk/merino blends and very soft and gorgeous. Not a very exciting picture though. I'm doing alternate rows of each yarn in a modified garter stitch. My own design, designed as i go.

This week is Lace Variety Club dyeing week. I dyed some trial skeins yesterday and got two varieties to choose from and deciding is not easy. I'm really struggling and got exactly 15 minutes to make a decision befoe I start dyeing the first lot. Off to the dye pot.

Exciting news

Two posts in a day!!! Schocking. I just had to tell you something and I'm bound to forget tomorrow.

One Planet Yarn and Fiber are now stocking more of my patterns and they're available for immediate download. It's so exciting to see my patterns for sale on other websites. Go and check it out. They've got a large selection of indie designers and yarns as well as well known brands.

Sock Treats

I've got some new sock inspiration which arrived yesterday. I've had my eyes on the Cat Bordhi book for ages and nearly bought it at teh beginning of the year but decided to wait a few months. it's not that easy to get hold of and the two UK online shops that I'd seen stocked it, were sold out. So when I saw that Socktopus had it back in stock, I had to get it. At the same time I treated myself to one of the Lucy neatby Sock techniques dvds. I got volume 2.I was determined to avoid adding any yarn to my Socktopus order but this gorgeous Handmaiden Camelspin was just too tempting. I got one skein and then realised I already had two skeins in exactly the same colour in my stash. I've got them all out. I'm trying to decide between a shawl or a hat/scarf set. I don'twear hats veryoften but probably will do when we go to Norway next winter and this yarn is jsut so incredibly soft I might even enjoy wearing a hat. But at the same time, I'd love wraping myself up in a luscious shawl knitted in this yarn which is camel and silk. And incredibly soft. Three skeins should make a decent sized shawl. I think the shawl idea is winning and ideas for a design are forming in my head but I'm resisting casting on as I've got other stuff to do first.

One of the more urgent wips is this one. It started out as this

but I wasn't happy with hte design so it's now being thrown in the frog pond. When I worked on it it just didn't gel with me at all. So yesterday I started with a new design instead and I'm much happier. I didn't have time to dye more yarn so I'm working this one in undyed yarn, wasn't happy with the original colour either.

And I've started another spinning project. I eventually decided on this gorgeosu merino/bamboo from Dragon Fiber. teh colours are just so gorgeous together and I love spinning merino/bamboo. This is how much I managed yesterday evening.

Socks and sunny yarns

I can't believe it's July already. Yesterday I had a fab day at Spin A yarn in Devon. I met up with Pixie again and the usual crowd from the knitting group and we had a great morning chatting and knitting. Lately I've been reading the lates yarn Harlot book, Thins I learned from Knitting, and at the end of the obok there are some observations on knitting groups and how knitters from all sorts of different backgrounds and political persuations etc who probably wouldn't get on normally are suddenly getting on like a hosue on fire and I think that's true. At knitting group you meet people of all ages and from all walks of life and everyone has something in common.

As it's July it's time to reveal the Sockamania socks for July and here they are:

Two versions this month, the standard version

and the trainer sock version.

I designed these with heel-less shoes like crocs and clogs in mind, or if you like wearing socks with your sandals. These heels are too good to hide.

Lately i've been working on one or two secret projects. One of themtook me a long time to finalise the design. I started out with a name then worked the design around that, then dyed the yarn. Every time I knitted on it I had doubts and last night it just wasn't jelling with me at all so I made a big decision to redesign the whole thing. So this morning it was back to my notebook and charts. Teh new design is now finalised. I've chosen my new yarn and started again. Only done a few rows but so far much happier.

I'm also working on this sunny combo:

I'm not going to tell you what it is yet but the yarn is Posh Yarn's Emily in two sunny combos.

lacking sun in your life. How about this to brighten up your life?

Three sunny yarns destined for my Etsy shop later or tomorrow. Two of them are Luscious Lace and one is Lacy Merino.

And I'll leave you with my latest handspun. BFL from Dragon Fibre. 220 gr of sportsweight yarn.