Tag: knitting

(All) We like sheep….

This lot don’t look as if they’ve gone too far astray… I’m pretty sure they are Suffolks, despite being photographed in a field in East Sussex. I do know people who are very knowledgeable about sheep care and breeding – but I confess to being less interested in the animal than in its fleece. Like many spinners, I like to work with Wensleydales (long, crimped locks, rasta looking!) and Blue faced Leicesters (again, long and lustrous staples). Imported Merino tops are always soft. Local Jacobs are not, but make up for it by having such lovely colour patches. The Lake District Herdwicks are plucky little animals, hardy in the snow but with wiry fleece only usually used for carpets. The traditional flock near me are Southdowns, not nearly so numerous as they were but now being re-introduced to keep the Downs well cropped. They have a short staple which can be a pain to spin, but their fleece dyes well. There are many other breeds – including interesting rare ones. I once had fun knitting a series of hats from as many different breeds as I could get hold of to spin. I did not dye any of these – sometimes it’s good to let the sheep dictate the colours!

I fully intended to post pictures of the breeds I have mentioned – but with my current internet setup that would take me half the night, so I will have to let you Google them.

Sad sock story alert.

Every now and again I have a crazy sock week, when I can’t stop myself racing away on tiny 2.5mm circulars. This last one did not end well, however. I can’t wait to see those patterns emerging from the magic sock yarns – but I am destined never to know what that middle one would have been like. I had been knitting it on a car journey (as a passenger, don’t worry!) When it was time to come home I grabbed the knitting off the car seat and got back into it – only to run out of wool within seconds. Took me a while to realise that I had in fact slammed the car door on the 100g ball, which had chopped it off neatly and deposited it somewhere along the road. The wool was beautifully soft and silky – but I can’t track it down anywhere on the internet, not even on Ravelry. Those sock wools go in and out of production every season. I am well over it now (and have dozens of alternative sock yarns waiting their turn in my stash, including my own hand dyed ones). The only thing that rankles though – I had JUST FINISHED turning the heel….

Drawing a veil….

Some difficult months – not helped by the random popup ‘memory’ feature on the iphone – thanks, Apple….

But after some debate SpinningStreak has decided to resurface, and maybe I’ll hide behind her for a while!

September in the Auvergne

I spent the last few weeks keeping an indigo bath on the go – temperatures in the 30s definitely helped to prolong it. These pictures are a mixture of indigo and logwood on merino, alpaca, silk and one skein of linen.

The hedges looked pretty strange at times.

Made a good start on the cosy stuff as well – though it is always a bit weird to be working on winter items in 34 degrees.

Crescent scarves next on the list – need a stock of those because they seem to go down well as gifts.

Apparently I have entirely forgotten how to edit these posts – can’t even shift the images around any more. So, apologies – but if I mess around wasting any more time I know I will just delete the lot!

The only way to avoid this:

Is, I think, this:

Second sock syndrome….

I’ve discovered six hand knitted socks squirrelled away, and only two match… It’s just so much more fun to see how a different colour knits up….! So now I must be disciplined and do two at the same time – slow, but apparently more practical.

This is a quick and slightly scruffy post – definitely not Instagram standard. The daylight for photos is all but gone by the time I get home (yes, I am still at work…) and the single socks are clearly not yet blocked (that does make a surprising difference, by the way.) But I am afraid there’s no faffing at the moment. Even the missing socks will have to wait till I have shrunk my Etsy list a little. I sold six pairs of leg warmers today – all but one pair to the same person. Are we about to face a cataclysmic Winter, on top of everything else? Have I missed something?

Liberation

From quarantine (technically ‘quatorzaine’) after our time in France. Where, in fact, we had voluntarily isolated ourselves, turning down all invitations and never setting foot in a town. We even froze outside on the ferry, keeping rather more than social distance, so we were not worried we were importing anything nasty.

The two weeks confined to the house were spent in an orgy of Etsy work. Lots more spinning (always my favourite) and somehow managing to turn myself into a baby blanket machine – hours and hours of it, got a bit carried away…”just one more…”

It was a good move, though – I’m now back at work (in a drastically altered classroom) and won’t have that sort of time for a while!

Disassembling

Apparently that is what I should be doing this week. It is Etsy Speak. NO, not ripping up all my work. I think it means kits. Now that we have all this extra time (???) we allegedly want to make everything ourselves. So the Marketing Magi have decreed that we stuff our materials into a bag and tell everyone to get on with it!

As it happens, I do already have beginners’ kits for fingerless gloves, hats for newcomers to circular needles and some cowls for anyone wanting to have a go at simple modular knitting.

Any other suggestions?

How weird cool to be on trend…