THE GUILD CHRISTMAS PARTY

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

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.

BIG KNITTING

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.

MOBILE PHONE BAGGY THINGY

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

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

LLAMA, SILK & WOOL BLEND & LOGWOOD

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)

FEELING FINE AND DANDY

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.

OH RAVELRY!

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.

DYEING DAY

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!

TOUR DE FLEECE - END OF FIRST WEEK

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

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.......