MERRY CHRISTMAS

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

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.

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.

IT'S SHAUN THE SHEEP

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

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

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!