Spinning Sue

Baby Knits & More

I knit a pair of newborn baby socks for the soon to be great-neffy poo yesterday. No pattern, I just knit until I got the first one right and then quickly made the second before I forgot what I'd done! I think they are soooo cute! I've started a hat in the same yarn which is a nasty acrylic. Yuck! But no point in making anything in nice wool as my niece will just throw it in the washing machine I think. I want to make some thumbless mittens too and that will be it for this round of the neffy poo knitting.

Koigu socks are progressing but slowly. I have about half of the leg still to knit. With only 2 days of commuter knitting left, I will have to make an effort to knit on these at home.

Wavy is slightly longer! The flash has brightened the colours quite a lot. The colours make me think of a forest and sky. I don't usually do brown but lately I'm becoming more attracted to it. Maybe I'm finally becoming a traditional redhead or, terrible thought!, my love of all colours I 'shouldn't' wear is mellowing as I get older.

I've done a bit of spinning this weekend too. The first pic is a possum/merino blend. It was an interesting spin. I think if I spin any more I will card it first as it didn't draft very well. Pic on the right is a close-up.

Second interesting spin was some flax tops. Its quite easy to spin but feels completely different to wool. The fibre feels quite soft as tops but hard, like string, when spun - not surprising I suppose! I made myself laugh when I realised I was picking vegetable matter out of... well... vegetable matter! Pic on the right is a close up of the spun single thread. (And quite a good one of my fingerprints!)

Both of these unusual fibres were given to me by Sue who seems to have become my fibre pusher! Thanks Sue!

Only 2 days of my very intensely disliked job left!! On Thursday, second day of freedom, I'm going to the NEC for the Sewing for Pleasure/Hobbycrafts show. Come and say hi if you see me! I'm the mad red-headed Aussie - a fairly distinctive accent in Birmingham!

Friday Night Spinning

I joined Friday Night Spinners and this is the first instalment. I just don't get around to spinning as often as I'd like and I really don't know why! So I thought joining a spin-a-long might help. It will at least get me spinning regularly which is a good thing.

This is the fibre I carded a while ago. Its a superwash wool/nylon blend - perfect for socks of course. It feels a bit harsh while I'm spinning it but I'm sure it will soften up when its washed after I've plied it. I've got more of the lime than the darker blue-green, which is three distinct shades, so I'm alternating a rolag of lime with a rolag of the darker colours. I like it! I'm going to navajo ply it so that it will make striped socks when knit up.

Come Card With Me

About three weeks ago, I blogged about some Sock Stuff! I bought from Freyalyn. This is her Lime and Cedar colourway. Freyalyn dyes this herself and uses the bits that are left on the commercial machines that produce roving for spinning. The best thing about it is that its 80% merino and 20% nylon.

Because its the ends off the machines, it needed a bit of processing to be nice to spin. This afternoon has been spent carding and watching 'The Darling Buds of May' which I recently bought on DVD. The fibre now looks like this, a mountain of fluffiness!

I actually got three different colours out of the darker greens and there is some variation in the lime but not enough to bother separating it out.

The first picture (with flash) shows the varying shades of the dark greens better but makes the lime look nuclear! Its not quite that bright. This second picture shows the lime green more accurately. Hmmmm.... maybe it is nuclear. I've just looked at the photos again and the lime is, well, pretty bright. I can't wait to spin this!

A Monday Post - Gasp!

Its a rare and marvellous thing... I'm posting on a Monday!

The reason?

Hard carders! Most amazing is that I can do it! I can card wool. My technique sucks but will improve with practice and I plan to get plenty of practice. :-) I've put off buying a fleece because I didn't have any carders but now there's nothing to hold me back.

I bought these off Ebay (yup, yet another reason why I said I'd been bad) and they've arrived from The Netherlands in just over a week.

Really exciting news now - I got a post card from my Hot Socks pal! Thanks very much HS pal, that was very thoughtful and made my day. :-)

I did a bit of shopping for both my Hot Socks and SP9 pals today. I don't know who my SP9 spoilee is yet but I thought I'd get a few fairly generic things for starters. If I find out that my pal doesn't like that sort of stuff, well, I can always keep it for me. hehehehehe

Now, what can I card next...

Socktoberfest

I've finished a pair of socks for Socktoberfest. Of course, I started these on the 19th September but they qualify because I worked on them this month. :-) I no longer hate the colour but we all knew that wasn't going to last!

Vital statistics: Trekking XXL colour #100, 2.5mm dpns, 60 stitches cast on, top down, flap & gusset heel. (Ooooooh! I just noticed that Lolly herself has left a comment on my Flickr pic of these socks!)

Of course, pair of socks off the needles means new pair of socks on the needles! These will be my next commuter project. I'll be spending about 6 hours on trains on Thursday going to Ally Pally so I should have a bit of progress to show by the end of the week! These are being knit from 'Schoeller & Stahl Fortissma Socka Cotton Color' colour #6537. Once again, I'm not sure of the colour. I loved it in the ball, it looked mainly muted olive green and purple, but so far its more dark grey than anything else when knitted up. I will, however, reserve judgement after the Trekking socks episode. :-)

Finally, a few purchases.

Some gorgeous plum alpaca DK I bought from Ebay. I've been a very bad girl on Ebay lately and must not buy anything else! There are 500gms on the cone so enough for a sweater or cardigan. I'm not sure what pattern I'll knit yet and I may even weave with it as its a 2 ply yarn.

Freyalyn has some fibre for spinning on Ebay (see, told you I'd been bad!) at the moment which is 80% superwash wool 20% nylon - yup, sock yarn! I got some black/grey mix (the flash has emphasized the grey - its not really that bright) and her lime and cedar colourway which is a really nice mix of lime green, blue and bluey-green. I'm going to spin these as part of Twisted Knitters. I will be dying my own fibre too but when I saw this wool/nylon blend I just had to try it.

Right! I'm off to watch Season 6 of Red Dwarf and knit socks in between snorts of laughter. :-)

The Dobby Hat

I can't help myself. I have a fit of the giggles every time I look at this latest finished object. Its not that I think its awful, because I don't, but its just too cute for its own good. :-)

The pattern is the Dobby Hat from Stitch 'n' Stitch, a Harry Potter fan! Its very simple, knit in the round with no shaping, other than that caused by changing needle size, with a three-needle bind off at the top. When you wear the hat, the corners fold down and look like ears. That's what causes the giggles. Too cute! Unfortunately, due to my complete inability to wear a hat with anything even approaching style, the model is a saucepan! Mum wouldn't model for me either. I'll just have to hope that Meg likes it and sends me a photo of her wearing it. She wears hats well.

I've spent hours messing about with Typepad and early indications are that I like it. Its quite different to Blogger but adding links to the sidebars etc. is a lot easier - once you figure out how to do it! Their knowledge base is quite good and does actually tell you how to do things. I'll be continuing to tweak here and there so things will appear and disappear no doubt. I've signed up for a 30 day trial and will decide at the end of that if I'll stick with them.