Bluebells

I credit my Eureka moment when I was learning to spin to some lovely fibre I bought from HilltopCloud (WARNING if you visit this shop you will want to buy everything in it, the colour combinations are gorgeous). It is called Bluebell Wood and it is merino, shetland and sparkle (I'm not a massive fan of sparkle generally but this isn't overwhelming, very subtle and just right) and it is a beautiful mix of mainly blue with a bit of yellow and brown mixed in too.



This what the shop says about the technique used to produce these bumps of fibre:

A hand blended length of roving. I hand blend the selected fibres on a hackle, and then pull the blend off in to roving.
There is some variation in each little bump of roving, but this will create an unique yarn when spun. This way of creating roving makes drafting a dream.

It really does make drafting so easy and thats what finally allowed me to produce something resembling yarn. I spun about 30g of it before I went to my Spinning Class at Knit Nation, after my class I was able to produce a single that was much more consistent and much finer than I had been spinning before. I plied what I had already spun and this is the result:



I think it's about 30 meters and it's probably bulky/super-bulky weight. I'm going to use it in a King of Confidence cardigan.

This is the same fibre spun after my class:



It's much much finer. I'll probably use this for a shawl - possibly combined with something else, maybe striped, maybe not, I haven't decided.....

Naturally Beautiful

Yesterday I went to the Natural Dye Studio trunk show at Fibre Flurry

This is the sight that greeted my when I arrived at Knit Night. All their yarn is dyed using natural dyes (you might gather that from the name) and it's beautiful, lovely subtle shades and some more vibrant colours. My personal favourites are the semi solids but there are also some very lovely variegated skeins and there was such a wide variety of bases and weights, lace, sock and DK, there was lots of talk of hats, shawls and hitchhikers!

This lovely skein of sock yarn came home with me, its purple with just a hint of pinkness and I'm going to use it for the Solid Socks purple month in October

Knit Night was busier than ever due to the irresistible pull of the lovely yarn, I met lots of new people and I really hope they come again, one of the things I really love about Knit Night is seeing what everyone else is knitting, last night there were some amazing pooling socks, a lovely mustard vest and a lace weight cardi in the most fabulous green.

I had a chat or two with the Amanda and Phil, who answered all my daft questions with a smile on their faces, Amanda also had some of gorgeous pattens and samples on display - yet again I find myself longing to learn how to crochet......

These blankets were my favourites and if I could crochet blankets would be the first thing I would learn how to make.

My crochet blanket envy began when I saw the lovely blankets my Rav friend Tash has created:



These 2 are my favourites and one of these days I will sit down with my hook and really really try to conquer it! (Or maybe I will wait for one of the workshops taking place at Fibre Flurry)



(Also how cute is Tash's little girl holding the blanket for the photo????)

Knit Nation - Part 4 Lacy edgings and a snowflake in July

Ok this is the last Knit Nation post - truthfully I should have finished them all earlier but I got a horrible cold and the kids have been off school and lots of other excuses......

My final class on Sunday afternoon was Lace Edgings: Before, After and During with Franklin Habit. I think this was my favourite class of all. We started by adding lace edges to a garter stitch rectangle using mattress stitch and herringbone stitch and then by picking up stitches on the rectangle and knitting the edging on. My sample is a bit of a mess and there are a bajillion ends but I liked the results - especially with the mattress stitch.



Then we began to knit a Stupid Little Snowflake. This was the result, it is cute but more than that - it's clever.



It's really clever. The point of knitting this is that really it's a tiny little shawl, the lace edging is knit alongside the body of the shawl. I was intrigued by the possibilities of the concept but I needed to size it up to cement it in to my mind...



This is beginning of my Stupid Little Snowflake thinks it's a scarf, I'm using some Malabrigo Lace from my stash I had intended to knit for my Mother in Law so this will be her Christmas present - Yes, I said Christmas in August. Yes, I know thats ridiculous.

Knit nation - Part 3 Photograph your fibre

On Sunday morning I attended the Photograph your Fibre class with Franklin Habit, it was 3 hours jam packed with information on how to take better photos and get the best from your camera.

We were supposed to bring the manual for our camera but I was given my camera by my sister and I have less than no idea if she gave me the manual at all and where I put it if she did. Happily, when I got to class someone mentioned they had downloaded theirs from the manufacturers website and the day before a lovely lady in the tea salon had shown me how to download PDFs to my iPhone - thats what you can serendipity (one of my favourite words, I will use it as often as I can), I managed to download the manual and it was a big help.

Part of the class was talking about putting together an inexpensive light tent - this the one Franklin brings to his classes, it can be packed away in to his suitcase, I'll be trying this out, I'll let you know how I get on.

Franklin was a joy to listen to, he's so funny and engaging and although there was A LOT of information (I made A LOT of notes because my memory is not great!) I could have listened to him for another 3 hours. He recommended this book for further reading and I will read it on holiday, it will be the only actual book I take along with my kindle.

(What I really learned is I need a better camera.......)

Knit Nation - Part 2 The one where I learn to spin.....

On Saturday afternoon I attended 'Introduction to Top Whorl Spindling' with Carol and Pete Leonard. In October I took a spinning class and failed miserably, I didn't give up but I got very frustrated, watching 'Respect the Spindle' and trying some fibre bumps from HilltopCloud resulted in a breakthrough and I was able to 'park and draft' (which means I could spin the spindle and draft the fibre but not at the same time).

This class consolidated everything I knew and I can now spin! (small round of applause) Here is what I produced in the class:

Two little skeins of slightly thick and thin but most definitely YARN.

The class was great, the teachers were friendly and knowledgable, I also learnt how to ply and was inspired by the lovely finished items knitted from spindle spun yarn which were on display

Inspired, I visited the market place and bought a braid of fibre from Old Maiden Aunt, I started spinning in on Saturday night and even managed a bit on the train journey home on Sunday, this is my progress:

The fibre is black shetland and tussah silk and it's really lovely, I think I'll probably knit it up in to arm warmers and maybe stripe it with something else.

To practice plying I finished spinning the little samples that Megan from The Thylacine very kindly sent me:

Not perfect but it's ok, I did get in a tangle towards the end and had to abandon a little bit, I couldn't save it from it's knotty fate.

I'm really pleased that I've conquered a new skill and you can expect lots more spinning from me in the future!

Knit Nation - Part 1

Last weekend was Knit Nation in London, this was the second year this event was hosted and this year was every bit as good as last year. The shopping was great, the classes were fantastic but what really makes the whole thing is without a doubt - the people. The people who organise, the people who attend, everyone is so friendly, at various points in the weekend I just sat down next to people I had never met before and chatted.

I met new friends, caught up with old ones and put names to faces/ravatars/twitter personalities. One of the highlights (apart from the classes I took, which I'll blog about separately) was the charity Bingo on Saturday, although it did require concentration and I couldn't chat during the games and there were maybe a few too many games, there were lots of giggles and a great atmosphere. The Bingo caller was very funny and charismatic, especially impressive when we found out he was only 15 - if he doesn't end up on the stage or television, I'll eat my (knitted) hat.

The Marketplace was a delight, so many lovely vendors and their beautiful wares, here are my very favourite purchases:

A lovely card from TillyFlop
A bag from NicsKnots - a vintage William Morris print and a bag design that hangs from your wrist while you knit to keep your yarn ball off the floor
Some Chiaogoo needles from Loop - I'll do a proper review when I've used them but I'm excited by their pointy tips!
Lego Head Stitchmarkers from The Bothered Owl (who are no more but their new companies The Undercover Owl and The Quizzical Owl will be up and running soon)
Some very cute duck stitchmarkers from StephCuddles

Some lovely Sokkusu sock yarn
Gorgeous Milly Sock Yarn from Juno Fibre Arts
2 skeins of Wollmeise - the grey for man socks (cabled so I will be glad of the extra yardage) and the blue/green for a Lintilla



My favourite new discovery of the weekend was NiMu yarn - I love the colours and the unusual dye techniques, the top one is Eclipse which is a dark grey with tiny flashes of colour which will knit up in to little flecks.

When I got home on Sunday night I was exhausted - too exhausted to knit on the train but I did spin for a while. It's Tuesday and I'm starting to feel normal again, who knew that chatting and knitting was such a energy sapping activity?

Louder than a Hitchhiker...

I've finished my Hitchhiker Scarf! I've had my eye on the pattern for a while and when I saw a KAL was happening in the GothSocks group on Ravelry, I was helpless to resist! The pattern is simple but clever and addictive, once I had about 15 points I rationed myself to knitting 2 points a day to ensure I got other things done - otherwise I would have neglected everything else and knit this all day! I got 40 points in total, I've got a small ball of yarn left but my scales are broken so I don't know exactly how much but I would guess about 3 grams.



The yarn is a delight to knit with and the colours are beautiful and so bright! I know some people are not big fans of garter stitch but I love it, it's so squishy and warm.



I blocked it in the sunshine on Saturday morning, it dried in record time - in fact I spent longer looking for my blocking pins than it took for the scarf to dry. I looked and looked, couldn't find them, used dressmaking pins instead, remembered they were in a safe, sensible place in my knitting bag which is so unusual for me I didn't even bother looking there. I scare myself sometimes.



Here I am wearing it, taking my own photo so it's not perfect but I can't tell you how much I love this, I might even break my 'never knit the same pattern twice' rule for it!