from fuzz to finished

2011-08-21T16:54:00.002+01:00

I feel that this is a little self indulgent - but I had a lot of fun putting it together and you might like to see - the very first picture is Poppy at 7 weeks - the day we brought her home (looking so sad to be wrenched from Mum) and all the others are our pups.

Create your own scrapbook design

Puppies 2 & 3 and The Knitted Maze

2011-08-19T12:30:00.004+01:00

Here are the missing two puppies from the previous batch of photo.s Numbers two and three - two is the little girl with such a sweet personality and three is the most Chihuahua like one - also very sweet - rather quiet and cuddly.

Am off to Saffron Walden later to help with the knitted maze project - below is my contribution.

Spinning in the Museum Gardens (and puppy update)

2011-08-14T10:19:00.004+01:00

We were very lucky yesterday - we had lovely weather for spinning and it's a lovely setting. A lot of people don't realise that Harlow museum has beautiful walled gardens - there's a knot garden with lavender, large lawns and paved areas with seating (where we gather to spin) and some lovely planting. I found a couple of dye plants which we may be able to use for our dyeing in October - Solidago (golden rod) and Tansy

The museum is very interesting in itself - with the Roman history of Harlow, bits on the Anglo-Saxons and a room full of exhibits for each decade of the 1900s - you will see stuff your grandma was using! The old bicycles are worth a look too.

There were only a handful of us yesterday but it was still a nice meet - we had a few newbies which was really nice and I continued to spin the yarn I started last weekend at the Sammy Rally - a blend of pink silk (from the travelling tea box) and Samoyed fur from last year's Sammy rally.

My In-laws visited the pups yesterday - they were all very good (the pups that is).

Here are number one, four and five looking much more grown up now.

My Canine Family

2011-07-22T22:59:00.010+01:00

This is dad 'Dylan' - an exceedingly fluffy Chihuahua - taken the day Poppy came home - a handsome little chap - laid back and very cuddly.

This is mum 'Poppy' - wire coated Jack Russell with really cool tufty bits IMHO - looking a little forlorn whilst the babes are suckling fiercely out of shot!

Number four cuddling up to mum between feeds

Number two - we call her 'the little girl' (people seem to think calling her number two is somehow wrong)!- she's the weeist baby - but has metaphorical balls - definitely a strong mind of her own.

This week all their eyes have opened and they're just starting to try and stand (more fun to come when they're totally mobile) - I think at least some of them can hear now - they're ears have certainly flopped forward and become more fluffy.

I've been trying to coax them to lap - with mixed success - Number three is keenest - one, four and five have had a little bit of a go - but the little girl is adamant that this is not for her (yet).

2011-07-05T15:40:00.006+01:00

We have puppies - 5 of them - 4 male, 1 female. Born last night.

Poppy had a bit of an ordeal with number 1, who took 3 hours to arrive, but then two to five arrived within the next 3 hours. She's proving to be an excellent mum - but is now pretty much exhausted - as are we!

These are the first four - safely ensconced in a heated box while number five makes his entrance!

2011-07-05T15:40:00.005+01:00

We have puppies - 5 of them - 4 male, 1 female. Born last night.

These are the first four - safely ensconced in a heated box while number five makes his entrance!

Dunmow Christmas Tree Festival and Craft Fair

2010-12-11T12:52:00.003Z

This weekend there's a Christmas Tree Festival being held in my local town and a friend & I were invited along to demonstrate hand spinning.

Yesterday we went along for a day of spinning and chatting - all very enjoyable. We started at 10am and were immediately surrounded by children from the local schools who were fascinated by what we were doing - especially when we told them we were spinning dog fur!

In fact we were both spinning Samoyed fur which spins into a beautiful white fluffy yarn. We had a selection of samples on the table - including German Shepherd hats, Newfoundland scarves and little samples of Poodle, Labradoodle, Bichon Frise, Border Collie and others.

We were there for 6 hours - spinning fairly continuously - when I got home I measured the 2ply yarn I'd spun and plied, and it was 82m in length, and weighed 30g (approx 1 oz) which means it would be approx 328m per 100g or roughly a 4ply weight yarn.

I took photos of the chrismas trees on my mobile - if I can work out how I'll post them here later.

The Bothered Owl Christmas Yarn Party

2010-12-11T12:24:00.004Z

Last weekend Sophie of Twist Yarns got a late invite to The Bothered Owl Christmas Yarn Party and wanted some help with her stand, so Monday evening after work I headed into London to give her some support.

It was a fun event with several Indie dyers and a selection of other knit related stalls - oh and lovely mince pies and nibbles.

Twist Yarns were set up just as you came in through the door, and next to Fyberspates - (what temptation). In fact it was a room full of temptation (and I didn't spend a penny!) with luscious yarns in every hue and combination of hues - there was silk, alpaca, merino, bamboo, angora and more - dyed as semi-solids, random dyed, hand painted, kettle dyed, naturally dyed and probably some other methods as well.

There was a lovely hubbub around the room with people chatting, and eating, and buying soft, colourful, wonderful yarns and fun knitty cards and patterns and stitch markers.

WOOLLY WEEKEND

2010-11-29T22:26:00.008Z

Last weekend (19th/20thNov) was a good woolly weekend - on Friday evening a new experience - I'd been invited to a Yarn Party held by one of the knitters in the 'Stitch in Bishop's Stortford' knit group. I was one of the first to arrive - well I was very excited by it all - I'd been saving my pennies and was really looking forward to a night out with knitters and loads of wool. I wasn't disappointed - when I arrived there was yarn everywhere - in soft, colourful, squishy piles. A heap of knitted & crocheted samples on the table, a bag of zauerballs here, a basket of Natural Dye Studio there .....sigh

The lady running it all was Sophie of Twist Yarns - she entertained us (it wasn't very difficult) with talk of yarn and then showed us all how to do Tunisian (afghan) crochet and then let us loose on the bags......sigh

I bought 3 zauerballs and a crazy zauerball, a NDS precious and angel, and a skein of Louisa Harding Grace.

The photo below is what one of the zauerballs and the crazy zaurball look like now ;-) nearly finished - one row left plus blocking - look for the finished version soon on Ravelry. it's called seraphina and is a free pattern by grumperina - there are a few hiccoughs in the pattern but once you get the hang of it - it's really straight forward.

Then Saturday

I went to a workshop at the Middle Essex Guild of weavers, spinners and dyers. The speaker was Tricia Holman talking on the Elizabeth Zimmerman way of knitting - Tricia is Elizabeth Zimmerman's niece so is well qualified to talk on the subject, and indeed was extremely informative and very approachable. She talked about (in hushed voice) cutting your knitting, knitting with different coloured yarns in each hand, and a host of other techniques aimed at speeding things up and making them less complicated - very inspiring.

Then we had a little go at stabilising the edges and then cutting a piece - I'm really up for learning more of this - hopefully a workshop or two next year - I've always wanted to knit with more than one colour at a time, it's so easy in crochet, but I get in a complete pickle with knitting - I have one project that's been hibernating for over 20 years because it became such a nightmare.

If only all weekends could be this much fun.

Spoonflower Fabrics

2010-10-03T12:17:00.004+01:00

This is a slight divergence from the things I normally talk about - It has nothing to do with fibre - although there is a crafty link in that I can use the fabric I design for finishing/lining other knitty/crochety/felty projects.

To the point - for years now I have been playing around with different programmes to make repeat patterns. I used to use a lot for 'teabag papers' and backing papers for card making, but I'd always wanted to be able to use some of the designs to create fabrics - I had a little dalliance with crafty cumputer papers where you can buy fabric backed with paper which goes through a home printer - but the biggest you can do is A3 (unless you pay a lot for a fancy printer) and in reality not many printers go bigger than A4.

Recently I discovered Spoonflower an American company that will print your designs for you - and even better sell them to other people - hurrah my dreams were answered :-D I couldn't wait to set up my own shop.

I've been playing around and I now have my first handful of designs for sale - first you have to order test swatches to check how they print out - I've had a few surprises. Often the designs about which I'm most confident surprise me by not printing as I'd imagined and the ones about which I'm not sure turn out better than expected! Ho hum.

Any way yesterday I took all the swatches I've received so far outside and photographed them - so here they are.

Spindle Spinning With The Leonards

2010-09-17T12:31:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday we had a fabulous guild workshop with Carol & Pete Leonard. I can't express how much I enjoyed the day, and it's funny because it wasn't a bells and whistles sort of day - but very informative and incredibly satisfying.

The day started with a little talk about, well, all sorts of spindle related stuff including what makes a spindle a good spindle, and an introduction the The Leonard Collection of spindles. (Of course I DON'T have a collection myself - 5ish spindles doesn't count as a collection).

After the talk it was time to have a go - I picked a fairly heavy spindle from the ones handed round, with the intention of practising spinning a chunkier yarn than I normally do - and was moderately satisfied with the results.

Later we were shown two new (for me) techniques - first Andean plying and second how to wind a ball on a nostepinne. I was chuffed to bits to try the Andean plying - Pete made it so easy to understand. I chickened out of practising the nostepinne method - I felt that if I tried to do both, then I'd forget one small thing from each and not be able to do either! I shall save the noste for another day.

After lunch we split into two groups and those of us who had a little more experience with a spindle went off to a smaller room to learn cotton spinning on an Akha spindle - again brilliantly communicated - so I have a small piece of hand spun cotton made on the day.

The Akha spindle is interesting, because it's not just a 'drop' spindle - we started by hand twizzling until the thread had enough strength and then we dropped and spun in more twist. We were using spindles from Michael Williams which felt lovely in the hands - so I've asked for one for Christmas (I wonder if I can have it early).

At some point during the day Carol & Pete put out a display of beautiful spindles and fibre for sale - which I wasn't going to look at - but I weakened - I bought some fibre (merino/tencel from Bonkers and pure bombyx silk from The Royale Hare)

and I saw a spindle - it was made of Ipe (pronounced ipee) & Birch and had a pyrographed design that looks like giraffe skin. Sadly not enough money to buy the spindle :-( so I went home without, but I kept picturing it in my mind wistfully.... and then I awoke at 6.30 the following morning and my first thought was this blooming spindle - so I told my hubby about it - and he suggested that I could have it for Christmas as well - it must have taken all of three seconds of persuasion - so that's Christmas settled then!

The Samoyed Rally

2010-08-31T21:28:00.007+01:00

On Sunday a friend & I went to Potten End for a Samoyed Rally and fun day. We arrived early to set up, and were immediately greeted by the sound of excited sammies! The first ones we saw were in a heap at the entrance - one on top of the cage and two inside.

We each received a big bag of fur to spin and got straight to work - my it's lovely stuff - pure white and soft and fluffy.

The day went off well with lots of competitions - many of which were very entertaining to watch, like the sausage competition where the dogs had to fetch a sausage and carry it back to the start line - the winner was the dog who had the most sausage (or any sausage) left!

The owners of the dogs at the rally were very interested in our spinning, and we had a lovely day talking to them. Many wanted to buy things made from Samoyed fur, or even just the yarn - sadly, as it was our first time, we didn't have anything available for them - maybe next time.

The rally was organised and run by Linda Brasier who organises a rescue centre for neglected Samoyeds - where people have bought dogs not understanding what is involved in keeping them. There were some awful stories, but, in this case, all with happy endings. This largely explains the excitement of the dogs, as they've all come back to their rescue home - and many of them know one another. Having said that - it was suggested that they are 'talkative', and there certainly wasn't a quiet moment the whole day! even when the rain came down for about half an hour. But they are beautiful, happy dogs and it was great to see them having fun with their owners.

BOXY LITTLE BAG

2010-07-21T14:42:00.008+01:00

Earlier this year I saw a Lets Knit magazine in my local supermarket - it had free bag handles in it and I stood transfixed thinking about whether I could justify spending the money. My hubby saw me holding this magazine and gazing at it wistfully - so he came over gently removed it from my hands - and placed it in the basket - saying 'I'll get it for you'

Well having the handles inspired me to come up with an idea for a little bag. I decided that I wanted to use felted crochet so I popped along to Hobbycraft and browsed the woolly section for a happy half hour or so. I finally chose two shades of Twilleys Freedom Spirit - a red and a purple.

I made a little swatch using a 3.5mm crochet hook - 10 stitches wide by 12 rows - and then I shoved it in the washing machine on 40 degrees and waited impatiently.

I used my swatch to work out the number of blocks required for the bag. It turned out that two blocks fitted perfectly into my handles and I added a block either side. I decided that the bag would be three blocks high and a block deep, so 4 blocks by 7 plus 2 blocks added on later at the top on either side. Finally I crocheted two plain side pieces a block wide by three high and felted the lot in the machine (that bit was scary - even though I'd already swatched it)!

I have been looking at the fabulous bags made by Lisa at U-handblog and had wanted to make something a bit more finished, so I bought some grid bag bottom, some bag feet, an invisible snap and two types of iron on interfacing, which came really quickly.

I then thought I'd make a start on piecing it together - well once I'd started I just kept doing the next bit, and the next bit - and then it was done - all hand pieced (I'm not terribly comfortable with things that go whirrrr and have pointy things attached - my minds eye sees horrible things)

Then I took it to the guild to show off and was promptly requested to do a workshop on it - hopefully one day I can add some pics of the other guild members' finished bags - watch this space!

My First Knitted Lace Shawl

2010-07-06T17:22:00.006+01:00

Well this is going back a bit now - but I am still very proud of it so I shall tell you all about it.

Last year (February to be exact) I dyed a wodge of blue faced leicester fiber with some Kool-Aid - four colours, a yellow, a green and two blues.

Once it was dyed I admired the pretty colours for a week or two and then I started to spin. I set myself to spin a lace weight yarn, and I was hoping for enough to create one of the shawls that I'd favourited on Ravelry.

When I finally finished spinning - a couple of months later - I had about 980 or so metres - this narrowed the field for choosing shawls, as a couple took 1000m or more.

I settled on the North Roe Shawl by Dodile as it was soo pretty and didn't look too difficult.

I started knitting in May and really enjoyed the pattern - it's essentially a diamond, so when you reach the middle the other half is the same, therefore after 6 rows of the main pattern I pretty much knew what I was doing. It was so satisfying watching it grow - and I loved the way it formed bumps, as each motif was formed, that looked like mermaid scales. The only slight fly in the ointment was that the instructions were translated from French and were incomlete - however it was easy enough to work out what needed to be done - basically follow chart one, then chart two, then chart three. I did an extra repeat or two here and there - I can't remember now exactly what I did .

I knitted on a pair of quite long bamboo needles, which were ideal as the yarn was quite fine and light - by the time I got to the outer rows it was taking an hour or so per row! Anyway - finished in July. This was the first project I ever blocked -I'm not entirely satisfied with the blocking but am proud as punch with the finished shawl.

I've finally worn the shawl - it spent 11 months wrapped in tissue in my bottom drawer until I suddenly realised that it's really daft to put all that effort into something and not use it - so this summer it's had a few outings at last.

ONE YEAR (AND A BIT) ON

2010-06-29T17:11:00.004+01:00

Well - is that a record?

It's a year and a quarter since the last post - I was almost scared I wouldn't be allowed in any more!

I've done quite a lot over the year - it's funny how I always think that I've not done much - but once I start to add it all up I realise I'm just being hard on myself and actually in a list it looks more impressive than it does in my brain.

A short summary:

KOOL AID SHAWL (FROM FUZZ TO FINISHED IN 5 MONTHS)

FIRST SOCKS FINALLY FINISHED (IT ONLY TOOK 2 YEARS)

ACQUIRED A KNITTING LOOM SET

MULTIPLE LOOM KNIT SOCKS (THEY TAKE LESS THAN 2 YEARS)

BOXY LITTLE BAG & THE WORKSHOP WHICH FOLLOWED

QUICKIE SHAWL IN NORO

2 PONCHOS

A SELECTION OF SCARVES

MANY MITTS - SOME IN PAIRS

FELTED MOBILE PHONE SNUG

THE KNIT GROUP - 'STITCH IN BISHOP'S STORTFORD'

THE KNIT GROUP WORKSHOP - HAND DYED SOCK YARN

I solemnly pledge to blog weekly - it's not as if I haven't got things to witter on about, as evidenced by the above list.

Besides the above, it was my birthday this month and I received lots of lovely, exciting fibrey gifts.

HEY I'VE GOT AN ETSY SHOP!

2009-03-26T18:33:00.004Z

This is one of the reasons for my lack of blogging - I've been working on getting an Etsy shop off the ground - - well it's open and it has 9 items for sale.

My shop is called The Crafty Heffalump so please go and have a look - I'd be grateful for feedback too :-)

RUSH WEAVING WORKSHOP

2009-03-25T22:39:00.006Z

A couple of weeks ago our guild held a Rush Weaving workshop - taught by Olivia Elton Barrett at Widford Village Hall.

It was a great day - fun, interesting and well taught. We had the opportunity to make a variety of things - three of us made hats (myself included, as I've wanted to make a rush hat for quite a few years), one person made a rather fabulous herringbone pattern mat and the rest made baskets of various shapes.

When we arrived Olivia was setting out her tools and finished objects on different tables, and I had a moment of weakness at this point, as she had so many lovely things displayed - I wavered because of the cutest little bag - essentially an oblong, tall

basket with fabric handles woven through it - I really wanted one - still do in fact, and it turns out that Olivia holds open house meetings where it is possible to develop rush weaving skills further......

I did manage to stick to my guns though - I reminded myself of how long I'd wanted a rush hat and that I'd spent the previous afternoon making my hat mould!

My first rush weaving:

I was so inspired that when I got home I immediately made my own version of the bag with the only useful material I had to hand - felt. It's a bit floppy, and when I tried to wet felt it the floppiness was exacerbated slightly, but I still have hope for it, I just need some bag stiffening and some lining fabric!

KALEIDOSCOPES AT KRAZY DAD

2009-02-08T01:15:00.005Z

This is a really cool toy that, whilst being creative doesn't have a lot to do with fibre.

There's a great website that allows you to do this:

KOOL AID DYEING

2009-02-03T14:43:00.012Z

In December of last year I joined the Random Acts of Kindness group on Ravelry. I posted my wish list and sent out various bits and pieces to other people - all arrived safely to their various destinations over a period of time (well it was approaching Christmas). I was amazed at the response to my wish list - I received one of my requests within a matter of hours by email - I then started to receive little packages through the post - of Kool Aid Woohoo - I also was given some by a friend in our newly started knitting group - so I ended up with a large and fabulous selection of different colours to play with.

My first play day resulted in this selection

When I went over to Hilary's I took some blue, green and yellow and did this

Here it all is ready to go to the next phase - which is the admire and fondle phase

The first spinning I did was with some Blue Faced Leicester that I'd dyed with left over liquid - one batch grape and one batch mixed reds and pinks - I spun them separately and then plied them together - and was then terribly disappointed as I didn't feel they worked particularly well together. I then spent some time humming and hahing and came up with a plan to make a scarf in broomstick crochet - and, actually, it really works with the yarn, bringing out the best of it.

I have also spun some of the red/yellow/pink mix and that is on it's way to being (hopefully) a hat, scarf and gloves set.

I'm daydreaming at present about spinning the turquoisey mix into a lace weight yarn and knitting a nice shawl - but by the time I get to it my plans may change!

Having added my mosaic picture to one of the Ravelry forums I received a good offer for some more Kool Aid - 18 packs hee hee - off to play now :-)

NATURALLY DYED SAMPLE PIECE

2009-01-28T20:55:00.007Z

I wrote this ages ago and hadn't got around to posting - I'm trying to get a business started and all sorts of other things have got in the way of blogging - I shall try to be more regular now - so much has been going on I've got loads to pass on.

As I mentioned in my previous post a group of us get together every year and go down to West Dean (near Chichester) where we demonstrate natural dyeing at the Wholly Herbs open

weekend. Each year we come away with a plethera of little woolly samples all dyed in those lovely shades that only come from natural dyeing.

The way we do it is to pre-mordant and wind all the skeins - 5 skeins to a batch - mordanted with alum, chrome, copper, tin and one left plain to be after bathed with iron. Each batch is put into a dye bath and we consequently get 5 colours from each one.

After the show the skeins are wound into balls, then the balls are passed to me to turn into a mini afghan - which is then shown at next years show.

This years finished afghan

Previous years

MY SWAP PACKAGE CAME - HOORAH

2009-01-11T18:12:00.006Z

Yesterday was a good day - the best for a while, in fact - there was an early start as we were getting the house ready for a new arrival (this is nothing to do with textiles or craft) - by 11.15 she'd arrived and was safely ensconced ......

Meet Bumble - she's the 1 year old bunny from a friend at work who could sadly no longer keep her.

We decided to go out for a late (and lazy) breakfast, and just as we were leaving postie arrived and signed that he had something for us - there was a box for me that had travelled all the way from New Zealand - it was my colour swap package I went all round Tescos saying 'I've got a parcel' with a silly grin on my face!

When I got home I could hardly wait to get it open and this is what I found

I'm chuffed to bits with it - can woolly things wear out if you pet them too much?

The fibre and the yarn will, no doubt appear in later posts :-D - I don't yet know what I want to do with them, so I shall just admire them until inspiration strikes. There were also some girly stitch markers, and sweet smelling, hand made soaps and sweeties and all sorts of other goodies. Christmas all over again!

Later in the day we had a friend over to stay and took him to our fave Italian restaurant (his birthday pressy). So all in all a jolly good day.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

2009-01-01T15:25:00.002Z

I wonder what all your new years resolutions will be...

I often don't make them but this year I have a few as follows:

Open an Etsy shop (and maybe one on Folksy too)
Do a 'how low can you go?' and spin a really fine yarn
learn to spin thick again
learn to spin to DK, aran etc
make some super fun art yarns

Well that's it - nothing too daunting or groundbreaking - but I'd be chuffed if I can shift off my wobbly bits and do the above ;-D

If you have resolutions - crafty or otherwise, do tell........

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-24T13:26:00.002Z

To all who read this MERRY CHRISTMAS

I have quite a bit to blog about, but am just off to my parents for the next few days to celebrate Christmas with them, so I will blog upon our return.

Good wishes to all .... are you all thinking about your new years resolutions?

THE GUILD CHRISTMAS PARTY

2008-12-12T16:29:00.006Z

Yesterday it was the East Herts and West Essex Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers' Christmas party.

For the first time this year Hubbies were invited - about 4 other halves arrived (mine included) which added nicely to the atmosphere.

As usual it was well organised - we all take some food/drink to create a buffet and various members organised fun things to do. There was a little quiz - guess the contents of the packet, with dried dye plants and fibre and later in the evening there was a fun make. Most of us joined in and we made the hempen angels that were in Spin Off last year.

After the angels were made we had a little show and tell - I stupidly didn't take my camera so can't show you the lovely things that were shown. One of our members - an expert knitter brought some knitted shawls that she'd spun and knitted - she had a lovely alpaca version of the morning surf scarf - and another lovely scarf/shawl that was very simply knitted but in gorgeous colours.

Then another expert knitter showed us a beautiful polo neck aran style jumper that she'd knitted for a friend with Alzheimer's - it was made from some stash yarn that she'd spun from one of her own sheep a few years ago - the sheep is no longer in this world but his legacy goes on.

She'd also made some bits and pieces for another friend from the fur of their, now deceased, dog - a very welcome pressy I expect.

It was a really fun evening with lots of chatter and nice food. We came home with a candle making kit for my Hubby - who'd expressed an interest in candle making (motivated by annoyance at the inadequacy of many wicks) - given to him by a friend who is now too busy to enjoy candle making - she spins and knits and has a horse to care for besides working long hours. She also insisted we brought home the leftover Christmas cake that she'd made for the guild party - I resisted slightly but didn't want to be rude - anyway it would've been selfish to say no knowing how much DH enjoys cake :-)

KNIT KNIGHT AT THE HALF MOON

2008-12-10T16:24:00.004Z

On Monday a group of 8 of us knitters got together for the first time to form a Knitting Group for Bishop's Stortford. We met in the Half Moon Pub at 7pm and knitted until gone 10pm, and chatted, and had an occasional beverage. It was a very nice evening and, hopefully will lead to many other happy knitting occasions.

Quite a few of the group are already on Ravelry and, no doubt, the others soon will be .

Two of us had our hubbies with us - who immediately hit it off - and, I think, were relieved to be able to have a bit of man talk (beer, sport etc ) while we ladies discussed - well all sorts of things - not all knitting related.

QUICKY MITTS

2008-12-06T20:26:00.013Z

Last weekend I finally got around to making something from the Blue Faced Leicester fibre dyed in the workshop at the Middle Essex Guild a few months ago.

I'd spun it during the week and was really pleased with the two balls of yarn I had. (In the picture the two bigger balls are the two ply ones spun to match - the little ball is the leftover singles - navajo plied)

Needless to say I was itching to get going - I actually started knitting in bed when we went to stay with friends! By the time we left I'd done one cuff.

I just measured my wrist (six inches) did a quick swatch and worked out that with size 10 knitting needles my rib was 61/2 stitches per inch. As I was doing K1P1 rib. and needed and even number. I cast on 38 stitches and worked a couple of inches of rib. I then cast off all bar one stitch.

Next I did 2 chain and then picked up along one edge with a 3.5mm crochet hook - I picked up using double crochet stitches - enough to open it up a bit but not so many as to make the edge of the cuff start to flute.

At the end of the first crochet row I joined with a slip stitch, then again did 2 chain and worked in double (american single) crochet increasing every 2 or 3 stitches over this row, once again joining with a slip stitch. I did the same for the next row by which time I had enough stitches. (basically I just tried it on with every row and had a look to see how much I needed to increase) I now carried on in double crochet until I reached the thumb knuckle.

At this point I changed to crocheting back and forth missing the 5 stitches at the end of the row. I worked like this until I passed the web between thumb and forefinger.

I now made three chain at the end of the row and slip stitched to the other side.

Then I carried on working in the round until the work reached just past my knuckles.

Finally I picked up double crochet stitches around the open square around the thumb and worked in the round decreasing several stitches each row and trying every row for fit.

IT'S SHAUN THE SHEEP

2008-12-06T16:25:00.004Z

Hubby and I have been doing an advent calender with pressies - He's odds and I'm evens - so it was my turn on Thursday - look what I got.......

It's a shower lily - ahhh sooo cute :-D

PINK GIRLY GLITTERY YARN

2008-11-30T22:37:00.009Z

In October I joined a swap - it was colour themed and one of the items to be included was something hand made. I had a forward partner who loves pink and is a keen knitter so I decided that the hand made item would be a specially designed hand dyed and hand spun yarn - well what else from someone who's number one favourite craft is spinning?

I had originally thought that I'd dye some alpaca that I had, but I couldn't find the right dye for it - in fact I'm quite certain that fate intervened and made the decision for me - whilst rummaging for the pink acid dye I found a 100g bag of glossy tencel fibre - obviously I kept looking for the pink acid dye - and found a cone of sparkly pink lurex - so I kept looking - still no acid dyes - aha some soft, fluffy angora - but still no pink acid dye - then.... I had it pink dye - not acid but direct dye suitable for cellulose fibres - at this point cogs turned, pennies dropped and I realised I had all the ingredients for something unique, pink, shiny, sparkly and ever so girly!

So off I pottered and dyed the tencel pink.

Then I carded it with a smidge of the white angora bunny fluff into masses of light as air rolags. This took a couple of weeks, but the rolags were a delight in themselves - everyone who saw them cooed and ahhed!

The next phase was to spin - I spun long draw style and tried to keep it reasonably fine.

Then on to the plying - at this stage I added the lurex thread.

Finally it was all spun - I wanted to wash it and measure it, so I put it into skeins with my swift - (it was almost 100m worth). Then I washed it and left it to dry.

At last it was ready to be wound into balls - at the end it weighed 140g (if I remember rightly) with the addition of the angora and the lurex.

This is the first time I've ever 'designed' a yarn with a specific aim in mind (to please a knitter who loves pink and sparkly things) - in the past I've just spun - often without a great deal of thought - so I've learned something i.e. if I can do it for someone else and take that much care over it, then I could quite feasibly do it for myself too.

SILK PAPER MAKING

2008-11-23T13:56:00.007Z

I meant to post this earlier but have had flu all week. I'm still not right, but, at least in terms of relativity, am feeling much better.

Last Saturday I had a lovely day out at the Middle Essex Guild, at a silk paper making workshop run by Claire Sylvester.

We started off with decorating Christmas baubles with silk - quick and easy, we all made at least two - some made several. (I've only kept one of mine - a friend has the other). It was done using silk throwsters waste and a cellulose paste - we arranged a small square of fibres, painted the paste onto the bauble and then put it all together - then there was a certain amount of fiddling 'til it looked right (or otherwise).

Next we made sheets of paper. We used a different method for this, it was a method I've not used before so I was quite excited to try this. It was also a lot quicker and easier than I expected (I made two sheets). First we laid out a layer of gummy silk fibres on a sheet of baking parchment, then we laid another layer on top in the other direction (like wool for felt making). Next we damped it with a water spray and then sprayed dyes onto it. To finish we made a sandwich of it with another sheet of baking parchment and ironed it - the moisture and heat work with the seracin (gum) in the silk to glue it into a sheet of paper. Great fun.

The final part of the workshop was to make a bowl, this used the same method as the bauble except using more of the silk. I decided not to make a bowl and to make another sheet of paper/fabric instead. But there were many lovely bowls made.

I was also rather chuffed to find an old paper making kit on the sales table, which I brought home and am looking forward to trying when I feel more like a human being again!

TASSEL TIME

2008-11-13T23:41:00.003Z

This evening was our guild meeting and we had a wonderful talk on tassel making - the lady doing the talk is based quite locally and did a talk and demonstration of what she does.

She demonstrated wrapping the mould, then she showed how to make a netting decoration. She also showed us how she makes the skirt and ruff and a variety of embellishments including pom poms, bundles and bows Turks head knots and wrapped shapes and drops.

She also had an amazing array of samples that she'd made which were mind boggling in their detail. She'd made tassels for Windsor Castle & Brighton Pavilion, for Elton John, for rich Arabs and famous designers amongst others. The sample for Windsor Castle was rich gold and red, but there was every colour imaginable in the box.

I went along thinking hum har I'm not too sure about this talk, but it'll be nice to see the girls - and I was blown away by the tassels. Whatever you may have seen in the shops, no matter how fancy they may seem, these are on another level entirely - I so wish I'd taken my camera. Every stage is hand made, the moulds, the weaving and the cords - and almost everything is sourced in the UK - most of it reasonably locally.

We've had many talks over the years, but I'd put this right at the top - really interesting.

Of course it was nice to see the girls - and I also came away with a bag of green tomatoes and a bag of apples (Chutney making tomorrow). and two carrier bags of lovely alpaca fibre (woohoo). I've also been lent 'Three Bags Full' by Leonie Swann which I'd been hoping to read - so a good night all round.

MORE BIG KNITTING & CROCHET

2008-11-10T19:23:00.007Z

Well I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front but have been quite busy in other ways!

I've made another BIG knitting scarf and a BIG crochet cushion cover. Yes I've really got the bug!

My original cushion cover has been hijacked to become a seat warmer - my collapsible chair can be quite cold in the nether regions when demonstrating at events, so I now have a solution.

This is the next project in progress (I've wound the ball anyway)!

I'm also interested to find that all the modular knitting and now the super quick BIG knitting has regenerated my interest in knitting in general - these in conjunction with looking at all the amazing work on Ravelry - anyway, I've started my first non-scarf knitting project in about 22 years - and I'm enjoying it - in fact doubly so, as I know there's no joining - it's knitted in the round - Hussah! :-)

BIG KNITTING

2008-10-26T09:09:00.004Z

On Friday I was playing around with a few knitting ideas which led to an idea for a chunky scarf - so I thought why not do it really chunky and make it a BIG knitting scarf. so I grabbed several balls of yarn and off I went.

It knits up beautifully and is surprisingly easy to do - tuck the left needle under the left arm and work the right one with the needle resting on the sofa at your side - it's (surprisingly) not a problem for the wrists because it's so big that you use your whole arm to wind the wool around the needle and not just your wrist.

It took just under two and a half hours - and it's a really long scarf. It's also really soft and warm and lovely to wear.

SOCK YARN DYEING WORKSHOP

2008-10-18T14:56:00.008+01:00

My brain is scrambled and I'm all overexcited having just arrived home from a workshop at the Middle Essex Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers. It was run by Elizabeth Kendrick & Sarah Howard - it was so much fun.

The idea was to dye sock yarn in order to be able to knit two matching socks - being slow on the uptake I read the list of items and where it said 150gm of wool I took 150gm of roving instead of woollen sock yarn - ho hum!

The idea is to wind out a 40ft hank which is well tied, then to fill various jam jars with acid dyes, poke the yarn into the jars (which are sitting in a pan of simmering water) and then at the end of the dyeing process to re-stretch the hank as it was at the start, and divide it into two - both lots having the same dye repeats - obviously I didn't wind my roving into a hank, I just poked it into my jars, heated it, rinsed it and brought it home - I suspect that a similar repeat effect could be achieved this way as with the yarn, if one was careful enough (I wasn't).

Winding the yarn

Jars of dye ready to be filled with yarn

Yarn in jars dyeing

I'm quite excited about this method as the protection the jars offered from the bubbling water in the pan meant that the roving didn't felt at all (of course the fact that you can't prod and poke at it when it's tucked away in a jar might also help).

It occurred to me on the way home that this would be a good way to approach natural dyeing in order to get space dyed yarn/fibre with natural dyes. I am now plotting this as a project for the (hopefully near) future.

My dyed roving

TOADS IN A SPOT OF BOTHER

2008-10-15T13:58:00.005+01:00

This is nought to do with fibre crafts but interesting anyway (or at least I think so).

On Sunday I was standing admiring the garden when I noticed the contents of a bucket of water moving - I looked closer and realised that there was a pair of toads in there. Of course I grabbed my camera and took a picture, only to realise that they were trying to get out, but because of the smooth sides of the bucket they were stuck. They'd obviously come in via a pile of compost next to the bucket not realising there wasn't a way out.

I called my hubby who topped up the bucket and added a pole (as a sort of toad ladder) and sure enough one climbed straight on to it - the other one was too tired and was beginning to sink so he gave it a helping hand.

they both sat and recovered for a while and have now moved on - hopefully to devour the slugs abiding in the shrubbery!

ASSOCIATION OF GUILDS STAND AT ALLY PALLY

2008-10-12T14:01:00.007+01:00

I thought that the Middle Essex Guild members who set this up did a lovely job of setting up the stand at the knit & stitch show, and it looked great - a good advert for what we do. It was a shame that the area was a tad small this year - especially as the stand next door had a small display and no people manning it at all! however, we managed.

My goodness what a lot of interest we had on the day I was there - we had a lot of people from guilds around the country popping in to say hello, which is always fun. This year though we had an enormous resurgence of interest from people interested in taking up spinning or developing skills that hadn't been used for a while - in previous years I've never been aware of this much interest, so it's really exciting to find this happening now. In fact people were practically falling over one another at times trying to get close enough to ask questions and I'm pretty sure that it was like that on the Friday too.

YET MORE FIBRE FOR THE STASH (OH AND SOME YARN)

2008-10-12T13:34:00.010+01:00

Yes I know I probably shouldn't have, but when you see lovely Blue Faced Leicester tops at £8 for 500 grammes you just have to don't you? This was from Laughing Hens.

I also found a Finnish stand called Piiku selling fibre mainly aimed at felters. They had batts of fibre, spun yarn, fine pencil roving and sheets of machine needle felt all in undyed and multiple dyed colourways.

I bought 2 metres of the needle felt which is at a stage I think of as pre-felt (ie you can finish it or pull it apart still).

I also bought a big cheese of undyed pencil roving (see pic above with bfl tops) - I've had a small amount in the past which I made a lovely sample from, but have never found the same stuff again to make an actual 'thing' from - so now that I have it would have been completely potty not to take the opportunity.

And yes - me a yarn maker bought yarn! It was however something I can't make - fair-isle style, self striping, cotton, sock yarn along with a lovely pattern for a little tank top. I shall save this for my next holiday break - I think it would make a lovely relaxed holiday project. It came from Web of Wool who seem to specialize in that sort of thing. I was also nearly tempted by a lovely bamboo/soy yarn which was only a little more expensive, but it was only self striping not self patterning so (with a little difficulty) I resisted!

ALLY PALLY AND THE STASH BUSTING CROCHET HOOK

2008-10-12T13:20:00.017+01:00

I have now recovered from the previous two days of manic enjoyment. I went to Alexandra Palace on Friday for a mammoth, crafty shopping spree and yesterday to help out on the association stand.

I bought lots of fun things and found all sorts of wonderful stands - my favourite purchase, at the moment, is the giant crochet hook that I bought from Rachel John Extreme Textiles.

I've named it The Stashbuster because you have to use a multitude of yarns to create a single strand to work with - However - boy is it quick - I'm on my way to making a cushion cover which by the time I've finished will take approx 2 hours or maybe a little more with the finishing.

For the first few rows it was a little awkward to use, but then I adjusted and I was away like the clappers and, seeing as a project can be completed in so little time, it's not a problem for the wrists either. I also bought some matching humungous knitting needles and a normal, sensible sized, double ended and rather pretty crochet hook by knitpicks (from Get Knitted) - it's the little one in the pic above.

This picture is showing some tunisian crochet (Left) and some garter stitch knitting (Right).

Some of the samples on the stand.

Finally in the tools department (loosely speaking) I bought some miniature, wooden knitting needles with hand painted blobs on the end - I don't particularly intend to knit with them - I wanted them, in the main, to be hair sticks. They came from a very friendly stand called Knitting 4 Fun, who also stocked an interesting array of fine fibres and posh yarn.

These are size 5.5 mm needles and they're about 6 inches in length

GODDESS SCARF

2008-10-07T20:08:00.006+01:00

Well now I have full photographic capabilities back I can show you the finished scarf made from the Goddess fibre that I bought way back when it was sort of summer.

I used the Morning Surf pattern that was in Spin-Off. I'm really pleased with it - there was a worried moment when I thought it wasn't going to be long enough but when washed and blocked it turned out just right - they do seem to stretch in the wash (better than felting I s'pose).

HURRAH - I HAVE MY CAMERA LEAD!

2008-10-07T19:03:00.006+01:00

It came this morning, so I shall endeavor to upload lots of pics.

I can hardly wait 'til the end of the week for the Knitting and Stitch Show at Ally Pally - I'm going Friday and Saturday. Friday I shall shop 'til I drop and Saturday I'm on the Association of Guilds' stand demonstrating. Woohoo - only another three days!

I'm busily preparing rolags so that I'll have plenty to spin - I hope to have a bag of border collie rolags, a bag of persian cat and a bag of pink rayon/angora.

LOOMING - PLEA FOR INFO

2008-10-02T22:28:00.003+01:00

Does anyone reading this know a bit about knitting looms? I've come across them on Ravelry and am intrigued. I've read a bit and would like to have a go - my main question is this: what are the best brands? also where would I find them? I've seen some on Amazon but don't know if they're the best starter looms - I'd like to make something useful like a hat or a scarf or possibly socks or gloves but don't really have enough information to choose. I've asked a few questions in the groups on Ravelry but I've not had a response so I thought I'd throw it open on the old blog in the hope that someone out there might offer some insight.

SWAP 'TIL YOU DROP

2008-10-02T22:06:00.005+01:00

Well I've done it - 'I've joined my first swap! I know my forward partner - it's a round robin - and I've started 'stalking'!

I'm ridiculously excited - and also I'm chuffed to find out that she likes a lot of what I like - chocolate, cats, woolly stuff, things from Lush and The Body Shop (sounds like an excellent excuse to go shopping!). She's also a foody who clearly enjoys cooking and she likes a good read. (different tastes there though - I'm not sure that many girlies are quite as into sci-fi as I am.)

I've already got a few plans - the swap is a favourite colour swap and her favourite colour is one of my faves too - so no probs there. I know what I want to do for the hand made bit and I'm itching to get stuck in - thank goodness it's nearly the weekend.

It's a secret swap so there are a few things I'm not sure about - still I'm sure that it'll all become clear as I participate. There's nothing like doing something in order to learn about it.

I've got my camera back in use today - so can take pics - but still can't trasfer them - so annoying!

LOVELY BLUEY GREEN FIBERY DELICIOUSNESS

2008-09-30T22:52:00.004+01:00

I can't wait to get my camera back in action - I want show you the yummy, bluey, greeny superwash merino I bought on Etsy shop - The Ranch It's just soooo pretty. I bought 8oz this time as I really would like to make something other than a scarf or little itty bitty projects.

My plan is to make a little tank top - I'm not much into sleeves - except in deep midwinter - I just get too hot. I've been eyeing up several pretty little projects on Ravelry - will start as soon as I have a sensible block of time (or when I can no longer resist the woolly call).

MOBILE PHONE BAGGY THINGY

2008-09-28T17:49:00.005+01:00

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself - I've just finished a wee project that I hadn't even planned to start! A little bag thingy for my mobile phone - bright pink.

I started it on holiday - actually I suppose I started it earlier than that, because I spun the yarn - an energetic singles (half of a two ply barley twist) - at a guild meeting in August (for the Ireland scarf fringe).

When we were in Norfolk I took it off the bobbin to create space - whereupon I started to look at the yarn or maybe it looked at me - anyway I ended up picking up a pair of knitting needles to do a little sample - but I didn't stop - it ended up as a strange, long, slightly twisted, knitted strip - I looked at this and thought "mmmm - mobile phone cover..... it needs another colour - shocking pink and..... ah yes lime green speaks to me". Next stop Etsy for a button! oh and of course a necessary trip to handweavers for some lime green merino.

So, there we have it - finished. Very girly it is too - must charge my phone!

FUNNY HAT - GO SEE

2008-09-18T22:56:00.020+01:00

At the Fast Falling Feathers Blog there's a fab hat to see in the style of a viking hat with chicken drumsticks for horns

AWAY AGAIN

2008-09-18T22:56:00.011+01:00

We're off to Northampton tomorrow to begin the celebrations for my parents 50th wedding anniversary - gosh what a milestone.

LLAMA, SILK & WOOL BLEND & LOGWOOD

2008-09-18T22:56:00.008+01:00

Whilst on hols in Norfolk I spun my pre-prepared rolags of llama, silk & wool blend fibre - this was the stuff that went into the accidental dye bath - the one where I brewed up my bag of madder (to over-dye something else in red) only to find that the solution was the wrong colour - logwood not madder - "um" thought I "what now?" - well I dyed some alpaca (from Charlie the alpaca) which came up a pretty lilac (not the purple I was hoping for - disappointing as I don't wear lilac and wanted a tank top). So, in went the llama blend...... hoorah a good purple. Anyway, long story short, I spun this on hols and it came up in a very pleasing way - much like a linen yarn but with extra sheen from the silk.

Next I knitted up a couple of tension squares, inspired by an article I'd read in Smallholder Magazine. I knitted one on size 11 needles (3mm) this I did 30 stitches by 30 rows, then I did another on size 12 needles (2.75mm) 20 by 20 - I'm having difficulty deciding which is better - maybe once I have a pattern in mind it will become clear - the larger swatch is definitely nicer to handle but the other seems to have more boing. Either way it's become clear that there's not enough for a tank top - unless it's a very small one! So yet another rethink is in order. Time to trawl Ravelry (not that I need much excuse here)

RIGID HEDDLE WEAVING WITH THE GUILD

2008-09-14T23:48:00.007+01:00

We had a guild meeting Saturday where we used the guild rigid heddle looms. Several of us keep a loom which belongs to the guild and, because we have these looms each year a workshop is done specifically for rigid heddle weaving.

This year the chosen project is a rag rug bag - I believe it's based on a pattern from Handwoven magazine - simplified for us idiot beginner weavers!

The guild member who ran the workshop put in lots of work preparing instructions suitable for non-weaving folk, finding out what colours we'd like and sourcing the yarn. She also warped up looms for people and helped others with their warping up. Besides all that she baked some lovely goodies for morning coffee and afternoon tea - so well done her - we all award her a medal.

It was a good day - everyone was in good spirits. I was the only one who hadn't warped up - so used the time to warp up and get started - I'll add photos & progress reports here as I have them.

HOME SWEET HOME

2008-09-09T23:22:00.002+01:00

Well we're back from our hols in Norfolk - and very restful it was too hubby played lots of guitar and I spun and knitted and crocheted. The third member of the family mostly slept!

FEELING FINE AND DANDY

2008-09-02T15:00:00.004+01:00

How utterly fabulous - we've discovered that the local library has free internet access so we're not entirely cut off from the world! So here we are side by side at Wroxham Library (a delightfully friendly place) playing on our favourite websites (him on Ebay and me on Blogger/Ravelry and Etsy).

The last few days have been superbly relaxing - I've finished the morning surf scarf apart from washing and blocking and I'm stuck into the Llama, silk & wool blend that I'd dyed with logwood. It's spinning up really nicely and I've done a little tension square that looked good too - I can't post photo's here so those will follow when I get home.

OFF ON HOLS

2008-08-30T22:56:00.005+01:00

We're off to Norfolk for a short break - I'm hoping to do lots of spinning .......and stuff while we're away so will post upon our return.

We'll be in a strange car - one that is bigger but actually has less space rather strangely. However it has air conditioning and a fab stereo and is quite nice to drive - slightly nippier than mine (well actually quite a lot nippier!)

I've prepared a heap of rolags in a fibre that's a blend of llama, silk and wool, which I dyed with logwood to a rather nice purple colour. Should be able to post a bit about this when I return.

BUMP

2008-08-20T23:06:00.002+01:00

I had planned to do a little post on how to do a curlicue today - however someone drove into the back of my NEW car today, so this evening was actually spent phoning insurance companies - and being annoyed - especially at the relentlessly cheerful hold messages!

So curlicue tutorial will follow soon........

HOW TO DO A CURLICUE

2008-08-19T18:20:00.011+01:00

Just in case anyone wants to know - here's how to do a curlicue - it's really easy - a great finishing fringe for a beginner - or novelty earings made from those wee bits of really fabulous handspun yarn.

start by making a chain of any length you fancy - for the green & pink one in the pic I did a starting chain of 7.

Next do another 3chain to make your first treble (double for Americans) then do 4 trebles into 4th chain from needle.

from here on do 5 trebles (doubles) into each chain.

The principle here is that there are too many stitches for the piece of work to lay flat - so it will all curl up on itself - once you've finished just manipulate the curl as you want it.

The picture above is how it might look as it comes of the hook - just start at the end and coil it up on itself so it looks like the picky below

now all you need is to do is make enough for your fringe

Woad dyed curlicue earings - made with yarn dyed in Norfolk.

IRELAND SCARF - ALL FINISHED

2008-08-19T17:51:00.008+01:00

Over the weekend I finished off my Ireland scarf - hoorah! I'm really pleased with it too - it's been my consolation for the lousy "summer" weather, because I've had an excuse to wear it!

It was the simplest pattern:

I made a chain with an uneven number of stitches

then I did a row of double stitching (singles if you're American) before starting the pattern rows

then the patten consisted of one row of - three chain to make first treble(double if you're American),* chain one, miss one double stitch, treble into next double stitch repeat from * to end.

then three rows of double stitching - then repeat pattern row and three rows of double to end of scarf (finishing with only one row of doubles after the final pattern row).

I added some rows of double stitches in a solid colour and then some more in a matching barley twist yarn at each end, then I added a row of curlicue danglies done in the barleytwist yarn.

notes about spinning of the yarn I used for this can be found at

http://fromfuzztofinished.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

OH RAVELRY!

2008-08-12T14:44:00.003+01:00

Well I say - I've joined Ravelry - finally.

It's amazing - I'm completely hooked (no pun intended!) - there's just so much going on there. I love looking through all the patterns - and there're FREE ones too - I've picked loads as favourites.

I love the fact that you can look at other peoples projects and read their notes - errata and things to look out for eg with sizing or choice of yarn. You can also see how patterns really look when hand knitted by ordinary mortals (as opposed to the designers version on the cover).

It's also nice to have a record of projects of one's own - both for current organisational purposes and for reference in the future.

Then there're the groups - linking with like minded people - I've joined the Time Team group and the Ravelympic Slackers Group already along with the UK Swappers group (which I don't really understand yet, but hey what the hell).

If you're into Knitting and Crochet I'd strongly recomend Ravelry - it's just so cool.

SPINNING IN THE MUSEUM GARDENS NOT

2008-08-09T20:07:00.005+01:00

The title of Saturday's meeting was Spinning in the Museum Gardens - however the weather intervened and we were, sadly, indoors instead. It was, nonetheless a fun meeting - one of those chatty informative ones where you find out snippets of useful info that can be taken away for future use - in this case we were talking about weaving and it came up that someone in the Mid Essex Guild always leaves thread on the loom so that a new warp can simply be tied to this and pulled through - how cool is that.

We had visitors from the Mid Essex Guild (hence the previous conversation) which was particularly nice, and the museum had a Roman event where they built a bread oven based on an upturned basket covered in clay - this was fired by lighting a fire inside, the embers were later scraped out and bread was cooked inside. The first loaf cooked to a crisp on the outside in 5 minutes flat, whilst remaining soft inside. They also had a little bakery type stall set up demonstrating other Roman delicacies.

Inside in the dry with us was another lady in Roman attire demonstrating drop spindling and weaving on a warp weighted loom.

I spun more green and pink fibre towards the finishing of the scarf that I started in Ireland - this is nearly finished now, just a curly fringe to complete the look - so, by the end of the week.......

HOME FROM IRELAND

2008-07-26T13:48:00.009+01:00

Well we got home safe & sound yesterday evening having had a wonderful time. Ireland is completely stunning and we saw quite a chunk of it in the few days we had - our friend, with whom we stayed, drove us all over the place - via all of the most scenic, one track, country lanes.

He lives on the rural edge of a small town with quiet neighbours....

and a dog

SOME VIEWS EN ROUTE TO SLIGO

SOME SIMILAR VIEWS ON THE WAY HOME

DYEING DAY

2008-07-20T17:20:00.007+01:00

Last Saturday (actually it's a few weeks back now - pre Irish break) our guild held a natural dyeing day at one of our members houses. The weather was a little unpredictable so, instead of dyeing and spinning in the garden, we were housed in two barns - one for dyeing and one for spinning, chatting, eating and general conviviality. There was a good turn out and we also had visitors from the Mid Herts guild which was really nice.

We arrived in the morning and got ourselves settled in with tea and coffee and some wonderful home made biscuits - yumm. Then the mordant baths were set up and we all put various bits and pieces into each bath - four mordants were used - alum, chrome, copper and tin. These were then left to work and we went off and spun or knitted or socialised or all three. I had a sock knitting lesson - which was great fun and I may have a new obsession gripping me now!

After lunch various dye baths were brewed including coccineal, cota, bracket fungus (don't know which one) hollyhock, comfrey, coreopsis, dyers chamomile and maybe a few others - actually I wasn't paying proper attention as I picked three dye baths only, and then went back to sock knitting and yattering. I had some super wash merino and silk fleece which I split and put into the coreopsis and cota dye baths and I also had some alpaca, silk and wool fleece which I put into the cochineal dye bath. In the afternoon the tea and coffee came around again - this time with the most amazing cakes - I was briefly sent to heaven with a chocolate muffin stuffed with cream and jam.

I wasn't totally happy with the coreopsis samples, so I've over dyed one piece with some ancient dye bath which I'd had in the garden - I think it may have been madder - it was a little pungent and it came up a warm brown which I was quite pleased with - I'm planning to over dye another couple of bits - hopefully with a very fresh madder dyebath - perhaps next weekend when we get back from Ireland - I'm hoping that I'll get a stronger orange - can only try.

sadly I have no pics of the actual day as my batteries were out of power - lack of planning and forethought there!

I'd hoped to post this earlier but life is a little busy right now - my in-laws have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary so it's been a very family oriented time with my niece and nephews over from Canada and brother & sister in law over from Paris and the celebrating and general getting together. Then my own father will be visiting later this week, in order to go to the cricket at the oval with my hubby. All of this means that housework needs to take precedence over spinning (and blogging) - how dull!

OFF TO IRELAND

2008-07-20T17:20:00.004+01:00

In about 35 minutes we're off to Ireland - I've only got one thing left to do - seeing as we're not taking hold luggage I've got to work out what I can take with me to do - knitting needles are out - can I get away with a drop spindle? opinions are divided on crochet hooks hmmmmmm....

next post when we return - next weekend

MY MOSAIC

2008-07-20T13:25:00.007+01:00

Finally - I've done it - I've been looking at other peoples' mosaics and finding them fascinating and have wanted to do one myself to see what it'd turn out like - it was really fun to do and I'm pleased with the results.

Basically you answer 12 questions (see below), for each question you put the answer into the flickr search and then pick your favourite pic from the first page. You then paste the URL for that pick into http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php (4x3 mosaic) and when you're done copy it to your blog or where ever.

The Questions:

1. What is your name?2. What is your favorite food?3. What high school did you go to?4. What is your favorite color?5. Who is your celebrity crush?6. Favorite drink?7. Dream vacation?8. Favorite dessert?9. What do you want to be when you grow up?10. What do you love most in life?11. One word to describe you.12. Your flickr name.

Answers:

1. Michele 2. soup 3. Northampton High School 4. green (& red) 5. Keanu Reeves 6. tea 7. Thailand 8. chocolate & strawberries 9. textile artist 10. Billy 11. artistic 12. spinner.lady1966

TDF - OOPS

2008-07-13T22:29:00.002+01:00

Oh dear - I haven't managed much spinning this weekend - I did a little yesterday but was somewhat distracted by sock knitting (well it makes a change from scarves)! and dyeing. Sadly none at all today we went out without our front door key so when we arrived home (me thinking I'd be able to spin a bit before bed) we had to go straight off to friends who keep a key, who, it turned out, were celebrating another friends' birthday - so, of course, we had to help celebrate and consequently have just got back - and it's already past my beddy bo beeps time - so nighty night - will post about the dyeing, sock making, cake eating etc in the next couple of days.

TOUR DE FLEECE - END OF FIRST WEEK

2008-07-11T12:53:00.004+01:00

Well I'm pleased to say that I have spun every day so far - by Wednesday I'd finished the Carnivale yarn and on the same day received a little wrist distaff that I'd ordered in my last Etsy frenzy. So, obviously I had to have a little fiddle with that - more about that later.

Yesterday I started spinning some Persian cat fibre that I've had lurking about the place for a while. It starts off looking not much better than a fur ball and ends up looking and feeling wonderful - in fact I wish you all could feel it because it's indescribably soft and lovely. I've decided to carry on with this for a while, as I've some vague plan of making a scarf from it (yes I know I always make scarves - I like making scarves - in fact I like wearing scarves)!

Tomorrow will be exciting - we have a guild meeting at one of the members houses where we're going to be mordanting and dyeing ... stuff - whatever we bring. There'll be plenty of chat - also I'm going to be having a sock making lesson and hopefully spinning a bit too. We're all praying for decent weather - it's so much nicer when these things can happen in the garden.

TOUR DE FLEECE - day 3

2008-07-07T22:02:00.002+01:00

Well -today was the first day of the Tour De Fleece where I also had to work - Boo! still it gave me something to look forward to.

It's interesting that I feel I have permission to spin just because I've made this commitment - normally I'd find a dozen housework related reasons not to spin because 'I ought to ....'

I'm hoping to finish the Carnivale fibre tomorrow or Wednesday so I'll post pics then

TOUR DE FLEECE

2008-07-06T14:29:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I signed up to join the Tour De Fleece - I think it will be fun to do and a really good extra incentive to spin daily. I'm currently spinning the wool I received from Etsy a few days ago - it's a delight to spin and I'm hoping to have it ready for a lesson in sock knitting scheduled for next weekend.

I haven't been able to work out how to put the Tour De Fleece button here, but below is link to find out more about it. It's basically a great spin along with 138 spinners joining last year - I'm sure it will mushroom rapidly.

I will endeavour to join the flicker group and if I can work it out will add a link or button to this.

http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2008/06/tour-de-fleece-2008.html

flickr link

http://www.flickr.com/groups/33126376@N00/

first day's spinning.......

THOUGHTS UPON BLOGGING

2008-07-06T13:29:00.003+01:00

I'm going to break with tradition here and talk about blogging rather than spinning. I'm so excited by it all - I hadn't been prepared for how easy it is to blog - I thought there was some sort of magic and I couldn't possibly be a party to it!

No really - if you've been tempted to have a go and have not yet done it - DO IT SOON - now , even - it isn't as hard as you think it's going to be. Ok there are the banging the head against a wall moments - but equally there are the epiphanies "Oh ... that's how you do it'. Then there are the ' oh... I wonder HOW I did that (but I'm glad I did)' moments, (or I wish I hadn't!).

There have been some other fun happenings along the way - the first time someone looked at my site (as shown by the counter), the first time someone who wasn't family looked at my site, the first comment made about an article I'd written. Then I joined some webrings - fun places where like minded people link their blogs together - and viewing figures went up (by one or two a day - but hey it's still good to feel appreciated!) and now I have a friend - someone who has a lovely blog all of her own. So, let me reiterate - if you're humming and hahing - just go do it - it's fun.

I FEEL LIKE THE QUEEN

2008-07-04T16:21:00.011+01:00

Gosh it's been a good morning - the postman has been and he brought me lovely pressies. I feel like I've just had a second birthday!

Last month it was my real birthday and I was given lots of loverly money to spend. Needless to say I imediately went mad on Etsy and ordered a selection of bits and pieces - mostly spinning related.

Yesterday after a tiring day at work I arrived home feeling a little flat - soon after there was a ring at the door - my neighbour delivering some lumpy post that wouldn't go through the letterbox - and...YIPPEE - it was some scrumptious fibre that I'd ordered from Frog Hair Fibres. one called Carnivale and the other Goddess - both very aptly named I feel.

This morning I couldn't wait to start spinning Carnivale and, just after getting stuck in, the bell went again - postie delivering more lumpy post - WOOHOO - this time it was a lovely little fabric basket that I'd chosen with the express intention of putting hand spun balls of yarn into it, and also a hackle complete with diz and clamps from Catskill Mountain Fibers. I am delighted with the hackle - it's nicely made and finished, so now I'm torn between carrying on spinning the fuzz I started on this morning, and getting out some more fuzz and blending it on the hackles! I just love the roving that comes from using a hackle and diz to blend colours. (mmm can feel another post coming on)!

Below is a pic of the basket from Wrap 2 Patch

links:

wrap 2 patch

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5692334

catskill mountain fibers

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5790175

frog hair fibers

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5586487

FINISHED - AND IT'S NOT A SCARF!

2008-07-02T13:12:00.001+01:00

aaah yes - sorry about this - I keep hitting the return key before I should - this blog post isn't yet ready - it's more of a work in progress - expect to see it pop up again later!!

COOL AID & OTHER USEFUL LINKS

2008-06-29T11:47:00.006+01:00

I've been rambling through various blog rings and such like and have come across some fun and useful stuff to look at - see below:

This links to a blog with some good instructions on how to use cool aid

http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/basic-howto.html

This is a blog with some excellent instructions on space dyeing

http://www.helloyarn.com/crockpot_dyeing.htm

more dyeing instructions

http://www.knitty.com/issuespring07/FEATdyeyourown.html

a useful page showing how to estimate yarn length based on wraps/inch plus recommended needle guage

http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/yarnsize.shtml

another useful page from the same website on needle sizes english/american etc - this website also has all sorts of other useful information in the same vein

http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/needles.shtml

FLEECE TO GARMENT DAY AT GRANGE BARN

2008-06-28T09:25:00.023+01:00

Last Saturday the Mid Essex Guild held a fleece to garment day at Grange Barn near Coggeshall - the same event had been held last year and was a great success. It was a cold and miserable morning when I left to make my way there and I had that sinking feeling you get when it's an event open to the public and the weather has turned on you.

Upon arrival it was clear that fewer people were there than at the previous year's event and then Leslie - their Chairman - announced that the Lavenham guild had been called upon by the National Trust to demonstrate at another event so we were a team down as well. The upshot of all this was that a decision was made that due to lack of numbers we wouldn't attempt the scarves that we'd done the previous year - instead we were all to make 9" squares for a project by Oxfam to make a huge patchwork blanket to be sent to the government as a patchwork petition - as a protest against the number of women who die unnecessarily in childbirth every year -

see http://www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/blog/2008/04/patchwork-protest.html-

These would later be broken up and sold in Oxfam stores to raise money. We were all up for this as it's such a worthy project so off we went in our little teams and started spinning the beautiful dyed fuzz that was available for us - all provided and prepared by one of Mid Essex's members.

Grange Barn is an amazing building and it has a wonderfully calm atmosphere - it's a great place to spin, especially with like minded people with whom to chat while working. There are a couple of old carts and some weird and wonderful farm equipment as well as various displays about the history of the building and others that are similar.

The day gradually warmed up - the atmosphere was already very warm and welcoming - and as time went on more people arrived - some to join in and some to watch. It was nice to catch up with another guilds news and swap tips and stories. There were some fantastic displays that various members of the Mid Essex Guild had set out Jackie Crook had a table full of luscious samples of all her natural dyeing plus signed copies of her book for sale. Jill Goodwin was there with more naturally dyed samples. There was a truly fabulous selection of hand made items for sale at ridiculous prices - truly made for the love and not the money! I bought my first christmas pressy here - a beautiful little bag made with deliciously soft and silky angora - the fibre was also for sale. I also saw two items of clothing that I WANTED..... a grey angora sweater which turned out to be slightly too small and a wrap around serape thingumy in amazing reds (made by Lesley - see below, also her lovely blue woolly).

photo of serape by Lesley Ottewell

Becky Poynter of http://www.yarnsmith.co.uk/ was there and being very helpful with us novice knitters. Rather fortuitously she had a selection of bamboo knitting needles for sale - which we needed for the squares as they required a different gauge to the scarves that we had been preparing to knit. I actually borrowed Hazel's needles, she then borrowed Hillary's needles and Hillary went and bought some bamboo needles from Becky!

There was also a display from Melford Alpacas - the fleece in the middle of the table was the softest I'd ever felt - I just wanted to make a nest in it! There was quite a selection of yarns and fibres available from super super fine to moderately coarse for felting. We were told that alpaca fibre is non-allergenic which I didn't know previously.

Oh gosh there was lots more to see and so many people to talk to - it's amazing that we got any work done at all. We did though - in our little group only Hilary finished her square - through sheer bloody mindedness - she was still working whilst we were packing up around her! I've almost finished mine - I need to put a border on it as it's not quite 9". There were a few squares handed in towards the end of the day - by the quicker knitters (or maybe they spent less time nattering and more time focusing on the job at hand!) - well done to all those who finished.

It turned out, once again, to be a wonderful day - full of interest and we were made very welcome - bring on next year's fleece to garment day!

WHOLLY HERBS AT WEST DEAN

2008-06-17T21:31:00.008+01:00

Every year in May our guild is invited down to West Dean Gardens to demonstrate natural dying at their Wholly Herbs weekend. This was our 4th year there and four of us (plus one hubby) went 'down south' for the weekend - full of anticipation for another two days of playing with fibre and yarn.

The first of the two days was fairly grey and misgog and consequently quiet - We had a good day though with some pleasing results - in particular we were delighted with the rich, warm oranges and rusty colours on the batch of yarns that came out of the coreopsis dye bath.

There is a lot of preparation done in advance of the show, growing dye plants to sell, preparing kits for people to try spinning and dying, and skeining wool and mordanting it ready to be dyed at the show. One of our members skeined 30 sets of skeins, 5 in a batch mordanted with - alum, chrome, copper and tin plus one un-mordanted which we afterbath with iron. This means that we put 5 skeins into each dye bath and get 5 different colours out of each single dye bath.

The second day was a sunny spring day and there were a lot more people many of whom were very well informed and extremely interested. We also started an indigo vat on the second day and dyed several batches of un-mordanted wool yarn and fibre - and a pair of cotton trousers!

Among the dyes used were Avocado skins, weld, coreopsis, madder, rooibosh, daffodils, cow parsley, nettle, hopi black sunflower seeds, logwood, yorkshire gold tea, dyers chamomile, rhubarb root, juniper berries, dried lavender and several others that I can't call to mind.

I now have quite a bit of work to do as it is my job to turn all those skeins into a sampler for next years show - I crochet them up into 5 colour medallions which become, when joined, a sort of mini throw to go on our show table - the first two years I used a hexagonal patten from the harmony crochet book - last year, and probably this year too, I used a square pattern.

This year I thought about things in advance and got some fibre lined up ready mordanted with alum in 10g batches to go in some of the dye baths. I also had some un-mordanted fibre for the indigo vat. We achieved some lovely colours in both yarn and fibre and had a generally good time talking to people and visiting the other stands. It's also nice to meet up with people that we've seen in previous years - it's getting to be quite a little community in it's own right -in fact I'm already looking forward to next year.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

2008-06-17T20:16:00.007+01:00

A while back I decided that I would like to make my dad a scarf for Fathers Day. I thought about the colours my dad wears and decided that blues and greys would be good colours for him, so that gave me the perfect excuse to scour Etsy for fibre. I chose superwash merino fibre, as I know my mum is unlikely to want to handwash anything (actually Im with her all the way here!). I found two lovely fibres, a blended grey. from theranch.etsy.com

and a space dyed mix of bluey colours from Freyalyn.etsy.com

I spun them on my millefiori drop spindle from butterfly girl designs (also on Etsy) and then Navajo plied them on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel to keep the colours separate.

I particularly enjoyed spinning the blue yarn as it was so lovely to handle and it spun into a beautifully soft yarn. The finished yarn was 12 wraps per inch. The Grey yarn was silkier than the blue and was lovely enough that it almost won me over even though it was grey.

To make the scarf I chose to use a modular knitting technique which shows the colour variations very well and is easy for a dodgy knitter to handle - I learned this technique at a guild meeting earlier this year - it was taught by Rosie Sykes who inspired me so much that I picked up my knitting needles for the first time in years for this project. It uses only knit stitches and no purl which I liked a lot. I knitted 19 squares in the first row using size 5 mm needles then picked up all along one edge and created a grey stripe down the middle, then knitted the next row of blue squares. I finished by adding a grey stripe at either end and then did a single row of crochet as a border.

I washed and pressed it and marvelled at how much softer it was after washing - and breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't shrink or felt and in fact stretched slightly back to the length I'd hoped it would be when I started knitting (scarves always seem to shrink as they're worked I find).

The finished scarf weighed 4.5 oz or 135g and it took 16 hours to spin, ply and wind the balls and 22 hours for me to knit - probably very slow compared to all you super knitters - but hey I did it and got it posted in time for Fathers Day!

GREEN & PINK PROJECT

2008-04-27T12:15:00.007+01:00

Many apologies for having been away for a while - computer problems :-( now mostly sorted, although my photos are on one computer and I'm typing this on another - so please forgive any delays in adding photos to posts!

A couple of weeks ago I had an "uninspired by life" moment - I paced the house for a while contemplating various potentially exciting snacks and nibbles - I fiddled on the computer - which wasn't being very helpful - "cannot find server", "this page has expired" etc., and then I fell upon the idea of playing with some fibre - something different - a bit of fun - so I rummaged in the stash and found a heap of different coloured merino tops (see pics). I divided these into two piles - greens and bright pink in one and warm colours in the other.

I chose to do something with the first pile and weighed the Merino - 65g pink, 110g mixed greens. I then hummed and hahhed for a bit before deciding that I wanted a slightly chunkier yarn than I normally spin and that I wanted an overall greenness with splashes of pink. This led me to take pieces at random to pre-draft in pairs of colours. I took alternately two pieces of green merino then a piece of green and a piece of pink. I spun these into a singles yarn which I then Navajo plied - this was to keep the pink in it's separate "blobs" and also because Navajo plying produces a 3 ply yarn it's a little thicker.

I have produced three skeins and I have some of the pink merino tops left and one of the greens. I shall probably spin these up to one plain pink batch and a plain green one.

I am undecided as to what to do with it now - I'm very pleased with the yarn - it's quite girly - and some of my favourite colours - so perhaps something for myself? hmmmm - I'll think on it.

In the meantime what shall I do next? more colours? perhaps some cellulose fibre or maybe a bit of drop spindling............

EQUIPMENT - YARN WINDING TOOLS

2008-03-25T10:08:00.003Z

There are several tools for winding your finished yarn - the first decision to make is whether to wind into a skein or a ball - and this is determined by what you are going to do with it next.

If you want to dye your yarn you will need a skein. If you are planning to knit or crochet your finished yarn you will want a ball - ideally a centre pull ball as this won't then roll all over the place as you work. If you are planning to weave then you might possibly want both a skein and a ball at different stages of the preparation process.

SKEIN WINDING TOOLS

NIDDY NODDY

I just love the name niddy noddy and it is actually quite apt for this tool - when in use it nods up and down as you wind your yarn onto it. It is shaped like a capital "I" except that one of the cross bars is at right angles to the other. Niddy Noddies come in many sizes including a tiny one by Ashford that slots together for use and comes apart for easy carriage - great for portability. There are different sized fixed ones and also adjustable ones for different sizes of skeins - although these can slip when winding once they've had a bit of use.

SWIFTS

There are several designs of swift - they're basically tools that spin around a central shaft and wind a skein. My favoured style of swift is an "umbrella swift" as these are adjustable for different sizes of skeins - and anyway I just love the way they look! With an umbrella swift it is quite easy to measure a length of yarn and then adjust the swift to create that size of skein. They're quite big though and not terribly portable.

BALL WINDING TOOLS

MECHANICAL BALL WINDERS

These come in many designs - the most commonly available are the plastic ones - cheap to buy and do a perfectly adequate job. Occasionally bits fly off mine and I have to put it back together again but all in all it does what I want it to do. It is also possible to buy a variety of hand made wooden ones - which I would imagine are better quality - but come with a substantially higher price tag.

NOSTEPINNE

This is in essence a fat stick turned and marked on which a ball can be wound by hand - I've not used one - indeed I've not actually seen one in the flesh - only in photos. They are very portable, have no mechanical parts to wear or go wrong and can be very beautiful. However I imagine it takes a little longer to wind a ball on one of these by hand than it does on a mechanical ball winder where you just turn a handle - although carefully winding a ball by hand may be quite rewarding in itself.

I would like to add a few photos - but am having a few problems with my computer at the mo' so will add them later - along with some useful links.

NEXT PROJET - ANOTHER SCARF

2008-03-23T17:21:00.004Z

Having spun the bamboo fibre that I'd made into rolags I'm now mulling over what to do with it - I fancy making another scarf. I'm now spinning some cotton which I'm planning to ply with some silk yarn that I bought at Handweavers Studio. Somewhere I've got some Soy Silk so that will be next on the wheel.

I have it in my mind that I'd like to crochet a similar scarf to the last one but this time use undyed fibres of different types to create the "stripes" - then when it's all crocheted up I want to dip it in an indigo dye vat and see what happens - I have a suspicion that I may get a slight variation in each yarn so that it will end up shades of Indigo blue - it'll be fun to try - will keep you posted as it developes.

Below is a pic of the Bamboo yarn - not a very good one I'm afraid it doesn't really show the soft sheen to the yarn.

ETSY - OH DEAR!

2008-03-23T17:03:00.005Z

Oh no I've recently discovered Etsy - this has definitely become my latest obsession. Over the last week I've spent hours browsing the Etsy shops (research!).

I've saved several pages of favourites - both sellers and items - I've made my first Etsy purchase - surprise, surprise two little bundles of space dyed tussah silk. I'm eyeing my next purchase - probably a scrummy polymer clay drop spindle and am currently trying to persuade my hubby to take a look at all my favourites (never miss a chance to drop a huge hint!).

I've also earmarked several pressies for family and friends and am now working out what my own future Etsy shop should look like, contain, etc, etc.

I've found someone on Etsy who will design banners for Etsy shops and only this morning have found the links to "Moo" where you can have designs printed for business cards, tags, postcards and all sorts of other bits and pieces - all to match your Etsy image.

If you want to browse Etsy for yourself use this link.
http://www.etsy.com/buy.php

EQUIPMENT - DROP SPINDLES

2008-03-21T10:02:00.009Z

There are many different styles of drop spindles and a warning should be issued here - once you've mastered drop spindling there will be a temptation to COLLECT lots of them! I said, when I started, that I wasn't going to do that - but I'm up to 4 and I've had my eye on a few seen in Spin.Off and on the internet - just yesterday I saw a couple of gorgeous ones on Etsy (Oh no I can feel another obsession coming on)!

A starting point if you've never spun and would like to have a go is to buy or make a CD spindle - these are very light so for a more experienced spinner are not so easy to use. However if it's too light some blu-tac or other maleable material could be pressed around the edge to give more weight here - having more weight at the edge makes a spindle spin for longer due to cetrifugal force (apparently). I will try to find a site with instructions or where these are sold.

My most recent addition is a (possibly) Saxon spindle whorl - which doesn't yet have a shaft - it's carved stone - very pretty and supprisingly heavy for it's wee size - it weighs 15 grammes (1/2 oz) I can't wait to spin with it - have to find a wood turner first.....

My favourite spindle was a fourtieth birthday pressy - it's a Golding Ring Spindle. It spins forever and is an absolute joy to work with - it's a top whorl spindle which I think is more stable and easier to spin with than a bottom whorl one. I'm currently spinning some lovely caramel Alpaca fibre that I bought in Norwich during the Norwich & Norfolk Artists Open Studios.

My first ever spindle was a simple wooden one (bottom whorl) made by one of our Guild members. I paid very little for it except that having bought it I was instantly volunteered to demonstrate at a show in Harlow - Gosh you learn quickly when people are expectantly watching & waiting for your words of wisdom! Truth to tell it was almost as much drop as spindle that day but I did spin a sizable quantity of Black Sheep fleece that I'd been given and I learned and even began to enjoy drop spinning.

My second spindle is made of polymer clay with cute little sheep on it - I found it at West Dean's Wholly Herbs Show (Our guild demonstrates natural dying there once a year and a fellow stall holder was selling them) It's small and light and fits in a pocket - great for spinning on the go.

Sites for drop spindles:

Golding
http://www.dropspindle.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=106

Etsy shop - butterfly girl designs
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5207884&section_id=5123666

glass drop spindles
http://www.glasspens.com/glass-spindles.htm

Woolly Designs - with lambs, alpacas, rabbits........

http://www.woollydesigns.com/spindles/fancy.htm

how to make your own
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/make-dropspin.shtml

how to use a drop spindle
http://www.handspinning.com/lollipops/spininst.htm

video - spinning basics by Abby Franquemont
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drXid5cT0y8

A EULOGY ON ROLAGS

2008-03-19T20:33:00.005Z

"THE ONLY NORMAL PEOPLE ARE THE ONES YOU DON'T KNOW VERY WELL" (Joe Ancis)

http://www.quotablecards.com/

I love rolags - I love the way they look and the way they feel - and, because I love them so much, I enjoy making them. In the eyes of the other members of our guild (East Herts & West Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers) this makes me a very strange person indeed!

My husband & I have a little game (oh please - put your imagination away!) - I tell him to close his eyes and hold his hands out and then I drop a rolag from about a foot - it's amazing how he often can't feel the rolag land.

With the bamboo rolags that I prepared in Norfolk you could hold 30 in your hand and only feel a whisper of a fibre tickling your skin.

The bamboo rolags were deliciously tactile - soft to handle and with a delicate sheen which intensifies when they're spun.

I recently dyed a mix of Llama, silk and wool in my slow cooker - it came out of the pot in beautiful shades of sugar pink, peach, raspberry and lavender - the rolags from this were almost edible - looking at those I found it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn't just want to make rolags just to admire them in their own delightful right. (hey we all have our quirks - right?)

Of course it's quicker to spin from tops direct, even if you have to open the fibre out first, but no matter how pleasing little nests and balls of prepared tops are I have to say that, in the main, rolags win my heart.

KAFFE FASSETT TALK

2008-03-15T18:13:00.008Z

Today I went to a talk and slide show by Kaffe Fassett held by the Middle Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers at White Notley (near Braintree). Wow what a day! We had a free pass to the Museum at Braintree for the morning - I would most definitely recommend visiting this museum if you are interested in textiles as there's plenty here to see including quite a lot of information about Courtaulds and Warners. Not far away is the Warners textile archive which I didn't get to today but am told that it's well worth a visit - one for the future then!

The talk began at 2pm and the hall contained - well it must of been over 100 - excitable women eager to hear Kaffe Fassett talk. He provided a slide show which showed some of his inspiration and a lot of his work. He talked about how his ideas come about and proclaimed that it's so easy we could all do it! (If only we all had his special eye for mixing colour). He showed us so many things including latest designs for the Peruvian Connection (oh how I wish I could afford this stuff - beautifully designed and made - wonderful colours - ah well, maybe one far off day in the future!).

If you get a chance to see Kaffe Fassett talk do take the opportunity - he is so inspiring - I am buzzing with ideas for what to do next - watch this space!

He then showed us a selection of his samples and quilts.

After the talk we were able to buy his signed books. I desperately wanted his "Pattern Library" but by the time I got to the front they were all gone - I shall just have to see him again in the future!

If you want to see what Kaffe does visit his website at

http://www.kaffefassett.com/

and you can see his work for the Peruvian Connection at

http://www.peruvianconnection.com/

There were also displays of books published by members of the Middle Essex Guild and many lovely hand spun yarns and beautifully knitted woollies (see pic - I don't know which Middle Essex Guild Member did this but it's really lovely).

All in all a very yummy day indeed!

WHERE TO GET YOUR FIBRE

2008-03-09T15:51:00.004Z

There are many sources of fibre - it's not uncommon to find people who have a few sheep in their garden who have fleeces to find homes for - very often these fleeces are simply given away to whoever would like them - however these fleeces are frequently not the finest!

There are quite a few websites that sell fleece and tops - below are some of my favourites:

Hilltop http://www.handspin.co.uk/page2.html

P & M Woolcraft http://pmwoolcraft.co.uk/

Wingham Wool Work http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/

My favourite shop is The Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow - only a short drive for me and sooo exciting to visit - I would advise taking cash only and no cards otherwise you WILL overspend! there is a website which I will find asap (but the shop's better):

http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/9814/

It's also possible to find hand dyed fibre on ebay some ofwhich is really stunning - it's certainly worth a look.

SIMPLE SCARF PROJECT

2008-03-09T10:47:00.016Z

THE PROJECT

This project came about because of a fleece to garment day that was held in a lovely old barn last year. Several guilds took part (the guild that I belong to came 3rd - or second to last!) It was a great day with all sorts going on and I'm really looking forward to taking part again this year. The garment(s) we had to produce were two knitted scarves, knitted end to end - 125 stitches on size 8 needles for 25 rows. The finished scarves had multicoloured lengthways stripes and were extremely pretty - so naturally I thought "I could do that at home" - and, being more of a crocheter than a knittter the natural progression was to crochet my scarf rather than knit it.

FIBRE PREPARATION

The fibre I have used for this project is commercially prepared and dyed Merino tops. I've chosen warm reds and pinks with a little white for highlights. I bought the tops from my fav crafty shop - Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow.

The tops come as tightly wound balls which need to be opened out and then split. To do this I hold the top up and gently peel off a strip from one side (see pic) - if the top is fairly new this will be relatively easy. However if it's been in the bag for a while it may resist a bit.

Once I have my strips ready I then pre-draft them prior to spinning - this just makes it easier to control the thickness of the yarn that's being spun. (If you want to mix colours you can do so quite easily at this stage by pre-drafting two colours together or by pre-drafting two colours separately and then winding them into balls together).

To pre-draft simply hold the yarn in your left hand (if you're right handed) and, with your right hand, pinch between forefinger and thumb and pull gently toward you - just enough to open the fibres up - not so much that they drift apart. The strip you end up with is much longer and thinner and the fibres are very open - this is the key to controlling the fibre during spinning.

I then wind all my pre-drafted wool into loose balls (I used to use "nests" but I find that they snag more, when you're trying to spin, if you move them about too much).

SPINNING

I then spin on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel and ply into a two ply yarn which I like to wind into centre pull balls ready to be crocheted.

I had six colours - two pinks, two warm reds, a deep burgundy and almost white (one ply white and one ply mixed white and red).

For this project I spun a yarn that was about 17 wraps per inch. The finished scarf weighed 75g. This means that it weighs about .4 of a gramme per 10cm square.

CROCHETING THE SCARF

The final phase is to crochet the yarn into a scarf.

For this scarf I used a crochet hook that's around about 3mm (It's an antique bone hook so I can't be exact but this is a reasonable estimate). I crocheted 200 stitches lengthways then, using double crochet (American singles), I randomly changed colour for each row until I'd completed 39 rows. My scarf measures approx 49 inches by 6 inches (125cm x 15cm)

I then washed it in a gentle woollen washing liquid and blocked the scarf to finish - I don't always do this but these scarves tend to go a little curly if you don't also it does give a smarter finish, which I felt was appropriate here.

The yarn weight is unimportant as you can change to an appropriate size of hook for your yarn and then crochet an appropriate number of stitches - this is dependent on the length that you want your scarf to be (I like a shortish scarf that can easily be tucked into the top of whatever woolly I'm wearing - but this isn't to everyone's taste). you can use your own colours and if you're not a spinner you can use commercial yarns - these projects are a great way to use up oddments - you can create scarves with a rainbow of colours and a myriad of touchy, feely textures. So have a go it's simple and can be completed quite quickly.

2008-03-03T20:35:00.006Z

TIME OUT

Well I've not posted anything new for a few days - My hubby & I went away for the weekend - We had a lovely peaceful time - he played lots of guitar and I prepared loads of fibre. I washed and carded some lovely black alpaca fibre into rolags and prepared the rest of the newly rediscovered bamboo fibre. I also prepared some commercially dyed and combed tops by pre-drafting them and winding them into balls. So I've lots of prepared fibre ready to start spinning.

Tomorrow I shall continue my series on animal fibres.

ANIMAL FIBRES (part 1)

2008-02-26T17:06:00.019Z

ANIMAL FIBRES

This includes Silk produced by silk moths of various species - It differs from other animal fibres in that it isn't a type of hair and doesn't have scales. It's a smooth tube - hence the sheen - it's produced to create a safe cocoon in which the grub can transform into a moth.

ALPACA

There are two main Alpaca groups - the suri is the one I am most familiar with. I don't really know a lot about the differences between the two groups (except one looks cuter than the other!).

I've spun Alpaca in several different colours - Black, Grey, Caramel, White and Brown - interestingly they have all been different in texture. I'm sure this is not down to the colour but to individual breeding. Only one has been fairly coarse - the others have been varying degrees of lovely. Not the easiest fibre to spin but not too difficult either and well worth the effort of getting it right.

My first Alpaca was from a beast by the name of Lily living in Cambridgeshire (a really pretty grey). More recently I've been spinning the fuzz of Charlie who lives in a small herd in Essex - Charlie's was the dirtiest fuzz (and the smelliest) that I've ever encountered! However, once washed, it magically transformed into a pristine white that spins into a soft fluffy yarn - so nice - but I don't know what I want to do with it yet! when I find a project for it I will share it with you.

ANGORA

This is the fuzz from the Angora Rabbit - a pretty cloud of fluff with a face poking out at one end! (Angora goats provide us with Mohair).

Angora is wonderful - quite difficult to spin - but I manage by carefully carding on my fine cotton carders and then spinning with a slow draw (so it doesn't pull into the machine too quickly) and I put a fair amount of twist in. Once spun and washed it fluffs up with a halo - in fact if you want to knit or crochet it can be helpful not to wash until after working up, so that the halo doesn't get in the way of working - all a matter of preference.

Like Alpaca there are many different colours of Angora Rabbit - but you are most likely to be able to buy white only as this is most freely available. Quite often you will find Angora in a mix e.g. Alpaca, Silk and Angora.This is helpful as all the hard work in preparation is done for you and if you want to you can spin straight from the "top".

CAMEL

I'm sure anyone reading this doesn't need to be told what a camel looks like! Scruffy, lumpy, moody beasts. Their down is marvellous though and is the stuff of camel hair coats. In fact camel down comes in a variety of colours from almost white, through caramel to brown, but is most frequently only sold in typical camel colour - a sort of warm caramel. It's one of many fibres that has to have the guard hairs removed before spinning, though, like the others, the guard hairs can be spun in their own right to a coarse hairy thread or string.

I've spun camel - it was the first fibre that I practised long draw style spinning with and it was really lovely. I feel that it's really not suitable for a worsted style of spinning as the fibres are very short and downy. The results were very pleasing and I look forward to spinning camel fibre again in the future.

CASHMERE

The most expensive of fibres this one - I handled a small sample once but I've never spun it. It's harvested from Cashmere goats and I believe the expense has a lot to do with the time consuming removal of guard hairs.

Cashmere is very fine and soft and I hope one day to be able to afford to work with it to create a special project.

CAT

The fur from long coated cats e.g. Persians can be spun very effectively. Long coated cats need regular grooming and the fuzz that's collected in the comb or brush can be saved for spinning. It is very similar in texture to angora fur and spins up into a yarn with a similar halo. It's nicer to spin than dog fur as it doesn't smell at all.

DOG

Many species of dog have fur that can be spun. Probably the best is Samoyed, but I've seen wonderful results from German Shepherd which was also lovely warm colours (see pic below) - this was spun by one of our guild members who tells me that she's just finished spinning some Spanish Water Dog fur. I've only spun Poodle fur myself - it spun up quite easily and made a nice, if very slightly hairy yarn. It's biggest drawback for me is that it began to smell quite doggy when my hands got warm. I would still very much like to try a few other species to see what they are like.

The following picture is a little treasure bag made from poodle fur - spun into a singles yarn then crocheted & fulled.

LLAMA

These animals are closely related to Alpacas - the difference being that llamas are more frequently mainly pack animals and consequently their fleece contains more guard hairs which need to be removed for spinning. Like Alpacas they are members of the camelid family.

The fleece is not dissimilar to alpaca if a little coarser in the main. I have recently spun a mix containing llama, silk and wool - it was a little hairy but spun quite nicely - I'd dyed it prior to spinning with a mix of colours - using acid dyes and food colouring in my slow cooker. I then spun a dyed singles and an undyed singles which I plied together.

MOHAIR

This is another goat fibre - it not the hair of a Mo it is, in fact, the fuzz from the Angora Goat. It's quite different from cashmere in that it's not so fine - instead mohair is quite lustrous and is particularly known for the halo it gives a finished fabric.

I don't particularly like mohair garments and consequently haven't got around to trying it for spinning.

QUIVIUT

This is the fibre obtained from the musk ox and spinners who've worked with it rave about it - so I look forward one day to finding a source and buying some to play with. It is brown in colour and quite downy - once again it is one of those fibres that has guard hairs which need to be removed before spinning. The finished items made with quiviut are supposed to be very warm to wear.

WOOL

There are so many species of sheep that I plan to do a separate post with an overview of as many different varieties as I can find out about - so look out for that soon.

YAK

Yaks are members of the bovine family and are said to be quite bad tempered - I've never met one so I can't vouch for this! The wild ones are black in appearance with a long black outer coat of coarse guard hair and a rich brown downy undercoat. This undercoat is wonderful to spin - it behaves a lot like camel and other downy fibres. Once spun and washed it fluffs up nicely in a woolly way as opposed to, for instance, angora which is very fluffy.

2008-02-24T11:50:00.005Z

CHOOSING FIBRE

So where do you start when you're looking for fibre to work with? Firstly you need to think about what you're going to do with it.........Plant fibres and synthetics won't felt so if you're thinking of a felt making project you will need animal fibres. If you're spinning you can choose whatever you like - depending on your ability level. When demonstrating at shows I've had people say "Oh I couldn't do that - I'm allergic to wool" - not a problem, most people who are allergic to animal fibres can live with silk (yes it's an 'animal' fibre) and there is an amazing range of plant fibres and synthetics to work with.

PLANT FIBRES

BAMBOO

Bamboo fibre comes in different forms - I've spun Bamboo Tops which were very slippy - definitely not for the beginner spinner! The end product was not dissimilar to perle cotton - I tried dying mine with Dylon dyes in a deep purple (in the same bath as some silk and some wool which came out beautifully purple) the bamboo doesn't take dye that well - however it did come out a delightful lilac which I was ultimately very pleased with. It's not a fibre that I'd leap to work with again as it was quite difficult - but the end product was nice.

I've since won in a raffle some bamboo fibre that is quite different. The tops had a staple length of about 3 or 4 inches this has a very short staple and is finer and fluffier. I haven't yet tried spinning it on my spinning wheel or on my drop spindle - will keep you posted on this one. I have, though, had a go with a primitive spinning method which uses no tools except the human hand - will do a post on this method ASAP - it "spins" well with this method into a strong, attractive yarn - with a bit of a slub. UPDATE: I've now spun some of this fibre - I carded it with cotton carders into a rolag and I spun it on my wheel and plyed it - it was really nice to spin easier than the other stuff - a nice result too, I think - would recommend this - give it a go.

There is now a source of pre-dyed bamboo fibre - in lovely strong, warm shades - will try to find a link for this.

COTTON

I've not yet tried to spin cotton. I have looked at all the different naturally coloured cottons available but haven't succumbed to temptation and bought any - yet!

FLAX (linen)

In case you don't know flax is the plant and the fibre - the finished fabric is linen.

My local guild did a project with this a few years ago. We were each given some seeds from which we grew some flax plants, harvested them and retted them (a bit like rotted - allowing the outer layers to break down). Then one of our brave members ran a workshop and showed us how to prepare the fibres using hackles (seriously vicious equipment this!) until we had wonderful golden strands ready for spinning. We then spun our fibres and used the guild Rigid Heddle Looms to weave a wall hanging. (photo to follow)

The really fabulous thing about flax is that you can grow your own! It's very easy to grow and quite pretty too. You can also by the fibre as tops. It's not difficult to spin - but at the same time it's not easy to spin really well. It's quite satisfying to work with and if you weave as well can produce some gorgeous end products.

HEMP

This is not that easy to get hold of but it is out there. I have not spun it myself but I imagine it's pretty similar to Flax (except you can't grow it yourself as you need a license to grow it!).

INGEO

This is fibre produced from corn and is not that freely available in England although I've seen American websites advertising it. I would very much like to try this and as soon as I do I'll let you know what I think about it.

NETTLE

I have an experiment in progress - will update you as it goes along. Obviously you can grow your own or as it's so common there is probably a local hedgerow that you can raid without causing harm (I got mine from a verge on a local farm). It's supposed to be a lot like flax and I've seen a finished shawl made from nettle yarn which was lovely - darker in colour than flax and slightly softer.

RAMIE

I don't know a lot about this - I will find out more and add some information later.

SOY SILK

This is, unusually for a plant fibre, a protein fibre and not a cellulose fibre like all of the above. I believe that it is extruded from a liquid form. It comes as tops in a beautiful golden caramel colour and it does feel very similar to silk - with a gorgeous lustre. It's not easy to spin but is very satisfying - I enjoyed the experience and was delighted with the results - again very similar to perle cotton.

Newbie Blogger

2008-02-23T17:32:00.000Z

Wow - I've got a blog - I thought it would be really complicated but here it is (and it's not). I hope that sometime soon this will be a really exciting textiles blog with lots of tutorials, tips, articles and masses of colourful photos.

I want to share tips about working with fibre - whether it be to spin or to felt - and then to take it to the next phase and CREATE A THING - a bag, a cushion, a scarf, for yourself, for the love of your life, for a friend..... you get the idea!

So tomorrow watch this space for tips on choosing fibre for your project.