2012 knitting

Surely there must have been more!

From start to finish

A finished object to report.

First I dyed the top:

Then, I spun the yarn:

Finally, I knit the sweater and designed it - ok, made up a pattern as I went along)

Today, I'm wearing it:

Home made Saturday Kitchen

I love the Autumn. Autumn half-term is probably my favourite of all the school holidays (except the long one, of course, although I think I'd rather have that in the Autumn).

I love the range of produce available at the moment. We've been getting organic veggie boxes delivered each week and I've been challenging myself to use all of the vegetables in our meals.

This is tonight's dinner - beef and root vegetables in a Rigwelter gravy sauce. It smells wonderful.

Veggie soup with haricot beans. For lunches.

I really need to find something to do with the ruby chard that is still in a bag at the bottom of the fridge. I shall consult River Cottage Veg Every Day later on.

Went to the knitting group at Nature's World this morning. Had a relaxing time working on this:

It's a top-down cardi/vest I'm making from the yarn I spun from the top I dyed back in the summer.

I'm pleased with how it's working out so far.

Browsed through a couple of charity shops in a reasonably affluent area near us this afternoon. Best buy has to be this dress. Still on the website for £97, but hanging, with tags still on, on a rack in Age for £9.99. Did think I was going to have to wrestle for it as another lady came up behind me as I picked it up.

"Are you having that?"

"Yes, I think so."

"It's just that I really like it."

"Yes, but so do I and it's in my hand."

Woke up this morning and I got myself a

Sorry, Jim, not a beer, actually. A Pumphrey's Daterra Bruzzi. Not as Rock and Roll, but much better suited to a Sunday morning.

Maybe when I drag J to Masham Sheep Fair at the end of September, I'll tag along on the brewery tour and pick up a couple of bottles.

Despite falling asleep, exhausted, at 9pm last night after a day of moving ivy, bits of tree and thorny berberis (which has left my arms looking like I self-harm) I was awake early, as usual.

A pyjama-clad, make-upless shot to show how much my Propello hat, knit in handspun from Jacqui at Spinning a Yarn, improved with blocking.

More tree shifting on the agenda today. What fun! So, I'm grabbing 10 minutes while I drink my coffee to work on this:



More handspun. Details to follow when I have more progress to share.

Yesterday, before I was on labouring duty, I unpacked the contents of the living room from their temporary storage in boxes in the dining room into the new cupboards I assembled for the living room. I say assembled rather than built, as I don't want IKEA to feel under-appreciated for their role in the whole process. I can't believe they (J and j) have so many dvds and cds. There's hardly any space left for hiding my stuff!

After that, I sorted out the, now dry, wool top I dyed the other day. I'm very pleased with the outcome!

Bottom L: Dusk to Dawn spotted, top: Dusk to Dawn dilute, bottom R: Dusk to Dawn saturated. I have 300gms of this Falkland fibre and I may fractal spin it all together to make enough yarn for a waistcoat/vest/cardigan if I get it fine enough.


75g of left-over needle felting (I am so never going there again!) shetland. I like this a lot. It's not unlike something I bought at Woolfest.

110g Blue Faced Leicester. The colours are not really true in this shot. It's more subtle and less turquoise. The grey is also really dusky pale purple.



100g alpaca. This has come out much better than I ever hoped. It was looking a bit sad and frightening during the drying process. You know what cats look like when they get wet? Well, the alpaca is the wet cat of the roving world.

I learned how to plait the fibre from this handy video.

And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light

I've had a wonderful morning! Inspired by the work of other local crafters, I dug out the dyes I bought at Woolfest yesterday and prepared them into bottles of dye stock. I'm glad I did this yesterday as it took longer than I anticipated, especially as I was completely paranoid about getting the kitchen covered in multi-coloured splotches. Everything was carefully covered in polythene and old curtains and it went without mishap.



This morning, after J had left for work (he really doesn't need to know how messy this could be. It wouldn't be good for his stress levels ;)), I prepared my working area again.



I dug out our old vegetable steamer and some new microwavable bowls I bought from Discounts UK (99p for a set of 3).


I set my wool top (some Falkland, some Blue Faced Leicester and some alpaca) off to soak in a mix of water, white vinegar and a little washing up liquid.




I wrestled with a new pack of cling film and eventually laid out two lengths on a damp surface. I put the wet, but squeezed out, fibre on top, snaking it backwards and forwards and poured on the acid dyes.)


Then I wrapped it up in cling film, massaged it a bit to spread the dye and put it in the steamer for an hour. I did three lots using these colours in various ways; one deep, saturated batch, another lighter, more dilute batch and a spt dyed batch.


Then I did it again with a different set of colours.




I put this lot in the microwave for 5 minutes.



Yesterday, I did some more prep. I had a cone of wool and silk yarn from Alexanders of Selkirk. Can't remember where it came from (eBay or charity shop). It was a bit grubby on the edges and had the spinning oil still in it. So, I skeined it up and washed it in hanks.





It bloomed nicely and feels much better.
I soaked half of it and dyed it a kind of variegated grey colour.



The other half, I left natural. I see more stripes in my future.



After all the fibre had cooled down, I rinsed it until the water ran clear and set up an improvised drying rack in the garden.






It's all still out there and seems to drying nicely. Pictures of the finished product to follow when it's all dry!