BOXY LITTLE BAG

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!

NATURALLY DYED SAMPLE PIECE

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

QUICKY MITTS

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.

MORE BIG KNITTING & CROCHET

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! :-)

ALLY PALLY AND THE STASH BUSTING CROCHET HOOK

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

HOW TO DO A CURLICUE

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

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!

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.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

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!

EQUIPMENT - YARN WINDING TOOLS

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

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.

SIMPLE SCARF PROJECT

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.

ANIMAL FIBRES (part 1)

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.