First up was Tethys which was entered for Shawl Sailing and Cable Steeplechase:
Now if I can just get started on my gift knitting for the year I'll be doing really well!
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Ravellenic Games Success!
I medaled! Several times!
First up was Tethys which was entered for Shawl Sailing and Cable Steeplechase:
I did then have to reality check my other plans slightly when it became obvious at the end of the first In and Out sock, that I wasn't going to get two of them done, never mind two pairs! Cue a slight change of plan, and casting on Sake in the hopes that I'd get 2/3 of the way through one of them, making both socks eligible for the Cast On Trapshoot.
Sake has been an utter nightmare it has to be said. 2" in and I realised the gauge was way too tight. Change up from 2.25mm needles to 2.75mm needles and 5 attempts (I have no idea what I was doing wrong that night!!) to cast it on and I'm now just finishing off the toe.
Now if I can just get started on my gift knitting for the year I'll be doing really well!
First up was Tethys which was entered for Shawl Sailing and Cable Steeplechase:
Now if I can just get started on my gift knitting for the year I'll be doing really well!
Posted with Blogsy
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Some days just don't work out how you expect!
Ok so I've had a fairly lousy week at work, following on from a less than stellar previous couple of weeks, so the plan this weekend was a lot of chilling out and general TLC. Best laid plans and all!
One longish lie in achieved, hurrah! A bit of knitting and spinning before lunch, brilliant. Managed to find my new rifle club, hurrah (I shoot small-bore rifle - I get to lie down for an hour, shoot at bits of paper and can still call it sport!), then headed off to a local craft fair, and that was the point at which it started to go a little down hill.
Now I've seen road kill on the road plenty of times before, and thanks to a previous occupation have ended up turning the same into a very welcome dinner on one occasion. That said, this was the first time that I saw a deer jump directly in front of a car! There was nothing the driver could have done, and in many ways things turned out as well as they could have in the circumstances. I was about three cars behind, but sadly only one of two (the other was passing the opposite direction) that stopped to help the driver. Given there was a deer prone on the road, a driver blatantly in shock, and a car with obvious damage I was kinda shocked by the lack of help offered. As it happens the other driver that stopped and myself managed to get the deer to onto the verge (it had evidently been killed outright which is a small mercy) allowing the traffic to pass safely, and I gave the driver a hand checking his car for damage before a police office turned up by chance. We think he'd cracked something as the car was leaking a fluid of some description but other than that he was just a little shaken.
It sounds funny but I always wonder how I'd cope in a crisis but today taught me a couple of things. Firstly, my reactions are pretty ok. Having seen this happen just in front of me I was one of only two that stopped to help (shame on those who drove straight on by!). My first thought was to put my car somewhere safe, grab my phone and assess the situation. Secondly, it seems like my instinct is to care. While the others wanted to just move the deer, I wanted to check if there was a chance of saving its life first. Maybe daft in the circumstances, but I'd rather check before we cause more damage though just moving it. I doubt any of the cars backing up had something so urgent to get to that they couldn't wait a couple of minutes on the off chance we could save a life! Thirdly, I'm pretty practical :) The deer might have been a write off but the driver that hit it was evidently in shock and not really thinking completely straight. Ok so I'm no car mechanic but even I can do a quick once over to check for the most blatant damage, and can spot a blatent leak. It wasn't much but the guy decided to head to the nearest garage to get it looked at before jumping on the motorway, hopefully saving him some bigger problems further down the road.
All in all a bit on the exciting side, which meant turning up to the craft fair to find that the advertised spinning stuff wasn't there was even more disappointing. What there was though was a group of wood turners giving demonstrations. Now, I will talk to anyone pretty much, and I love crafts of all descriptions. Anyway I jokingly asked if they were taking requests. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, if you are demoing in public and someone asks that, check what they want before saying yes :) Believe me this is something I learnt myself the hard way! Anyway Gordon who was on the lathe at the time said yes, what would I like. A wraps per inch gauge please? A what? Turns out this rather brave gentleman usually turns much much larger pieces of wood, playing to the unique fissures etc in each piece. So not so much with the small accurate work then :) Anyway a bit of description later, a trip over the field to another turner who had some rosewood scraps and he agreed to give it a go. I think you'll agree they really are pretty good for something he'd never done before, with people watching and making it up on the fly!
The rest of the day though has proved as relaxing as I'd hoped, finishing one WIP, getting the last bits of a bobbin spun up and learning how to make a new cocktail, oh and watching Team GB win a bunch of gold medals was pretty darned cool too :)
It might not have been the day I was planning but you know what, I got a lot of crafting done, I did a good deed, and I have some cool stuff to show for it :)
One longish lie in achieved, hurrah! A bit of knitting and spinning before lunch, brilliant. Managed to find my new rifle club, hurrah (I shoot small-bore rifle - I get to lie down for an hour, shoot at bits of paper and can still call it sport!), then headed off to a local craft fair, and that was the point at which it started to go a little down hill.
Now I've seen road kill on the road plenty of times before, and thanks to a previous occupation have ended up turning the same into a very welcome dinner on one occasion. That said, this was the first time that I saw a deer jump directly in front of a car! There was nothing the driver could have done, and in many ways things turned out as well as they could have in the circumstances. I was about three cars behind, but sadly only one of two (the other was passing the opposite direction) that stopped to help the driver. Given there was a deer prone on the road, a driver blatantly in shock, and a car with obvious damage I was kinda shocked by the lack of help offered. As it happens the other driver that stopped and myself managed to get the deer to onto the verge (it had evidently been killed outright which is a small mercy) allowing the traffic to pass safely, and I gave the driver a hand checking his car for damage before a police office turned up by chance. We think he'd cracked something as the car was leaking a fluid of some description but other than that he was just a little shaken.
It sounds funny but I always wonder how I'd cope in a crisis but today taught me a couple of things. Firstly, my reactions are pretty ok. Having seen this happen just in front of me I was one of only two that stopped to help (shame on those who drove straight on by!). My first thought was to put my car somewhere safe, grab my phone and assess the situation. Secondly, it seems like my instinct is to care. While the others wanted to just move the deer, I wanted to check if there was a chance of saving its life first. Maybe daft in the circumstances, but I'd rather check before we cause more damage though just moving it. I doubt any of the cars backing up had something so urgent to get to that they couldn't wait a couple of minutes on the off chance we could save a life! Thirdly, I'm pretty practical :) The deer might have been a write off but the driver that hit it was evidently in shock and not really thinking completely straight. Ok so I'm no car mechanic but even I can do a quick once over to check for the most blatant damage, and can spot a blatent leak. It wasn't much but the guy decided to head to the nearest garage to get it looked at before jumping on the motorway, hopefully saving him some bigger problems further down the road.
All in all a bit on the exciting side, which meant turning up to the craft fair to find that the advertised spinning stuff wasn't there was even more disappointing. What there was though was a group of wood turners giving demonstrations. Now, I will talk to anyone pretty much, and I love crafts of all descriptions. Anyway I jokingly asked if they were taking requests. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, if you are demoing in public and someone asks that, check what they want before saying yes :) Believe me this is something I learnt myself the hard way! Anyway Gordon who was on the lathe at the time said yes, what would I like. A wraps per inch gauge please? A what? Turns out this rather brave gentleman usually turns much much larger pieces of wood, playing to the unique fissures etc in each piece. So not so much with the small accurate work then :) Anyway a bit of description later, a trip over the field to another turner who had some rosewood scraps and he agreed to give it a go. I think you'll agree they really are pretty good for something he'd never done before, with people watching and making it up on the fly!
It might not have been the day I was planning but you know what, I got a lot of crafting done, I did a good deed, and I have some cool stuff to show for it :)
Friday, 27 July 2012
The countdown has begun!
At 2100 tonight a hush will descend across the land as knitters, crocheters and fibre crafters all across the world pick up their tools of choice and jump into a frenzy of project commencement... oh and apparently the telly should be pretty good too, some sporting event or something starts :)
Well I might not quite have won my maillot jaune during the Tour de Fleece (life won on two days that weren't the rest days, though given I spun on both of those I kind of did spin the right number of days?!?!) but I did achieve my first goal of finishing spinning the silk I need to knit Tethys.
I've got two of the skeins caked up and ready go. A quick note on which, I decided against using the ball winder for these as they are just so slippery. My winder is in fairness a cheap one, with a tendancy for the yarn guide to collapse resulting in the yarn getting caught in the mechanism. Not so bad when it is commercial yarn, or even hardy handspan sock yarn. My nice soft silk though, not on your life was I going to risk that!
In the spirit of both preparation and procrastination I also decided that this really did need a project bag of its own too. I'm going to be dragging this everywhere I go for the next two weeks and it is a pale colour so it needed to go in something, and I'm enjoying making the bags at the moment. This though was going to rapidly outgrow any of my little sock bags. A new plan was needed.
I don't think I've mentioned it, but a month or so ago I bought a Namaste Monroe bag for work... and now general life! It is perfect! The front zip pocket holds my valuables (iPad, phone, purse) while the back non-zip pocket has everything else in it (pencil case, notebooks, hand gel... you get the picture). This leaves me the middle half height pocket for whatever projects I'm schlepping around that week. Normally I have a spindle and a set of socks in there, in bags of course, and I tend to throw the iPod in too as it is zipped up but still really easy for me to get to. The obvious answer to my bag problem therefore was to make the largest bag I could, whilst still enabling it to fit in the Monroe.
As you can see it is a bit of a wierd size when it is on its own, about 37cm long, 14cm tall and 9cm deep. This though fits that centre pocket of the Monroe perfectly when I have all my other stuff in it too. As you can see from the next picture, this also perfectly fits full cakes of yarn.
The cakes on their own fill maybe 2/3 of the height, so I've still got plenty of space on top of them to put in the WIP itself when I get started. Given it was daft o'clock when I got this finished last night I stopped when I finished the seams. I kind of feel that I want to go back and put some extra pockets on the inside of the bag though. Initial thoughts are a longish pocket on one side to hold a folded pattern out of the way, maybe some tip sized ones on the opposite side so I can have a couple of different ones with me, for those patterns that change part way through, and maybe some little bar type sections that I could hang some stitch markers on. I'll have to see how I get on though before making any decisions.
In other crafting news, I still need to ball up some the "This one's Ewenique" Footsie I bought from Yarnscape two separate 50g cakes. That will be my tiny carry project for the Games and will hopefully live in the pyramid bag. I'm also heading off to my parents for a weekend at some point soon and would really like to have made a spindle project bag for the top whorl that Dad made me. It'll probably be very similar to the box bags, though a little smaller in height and depth, with a carry handle but also a loop for a carribina to clip to. That way I can clip the bag to my trousers etc pull the zip down a little and use it as a fibre storage while spinning. I get the feeling I should have joined Team Hopelessly Overcommitted rather than Team Yarnscape for this one!
Well I might not quite have won my maillot jaune during the Tour de Fleece (life won on two days that weren't the rest days, though given I spun on both of those I kind of did spin the right number of days?!?!) but I did achieve my first goal of finishing spinning the silk I need to knit Tethys.
In the spirit of both preparation and procrastination I also decided that this really did need a project bag of its own too. I'm going to be dragging this everywhere I go for the next two weeks and it is a pale colour so it needed to go in something, and I'm enjoying making the bags at the moment. This though was going to rapidly outgrow any of my little sock bags. A new plan was needed.
I don't think I've mentioned it, but a month or so ago I bought a Namaste Monroe bag for work... and now general life! It is perfect! The front zip pocket holds my valuables (iPad, phone, purse) while the back non-zip pocket has everything else in it (pencil case, notebooks, hand gel... you get the picture). This leaves me the middle half height pocket for whatever projects I'm schlepping around that week. Normally I have a spindle and a set of socks in there, in bags of course, and I tend to throw the iPod in too as it is zipped up but still really easy for me to get to. The obvious answer to my bag problem therefore was to make the largest bag I could, whilst still enabling it to fit in the Monroe.
In other crafting news, I still need to ball up some the "This one's Ewenique" Footsie I bought from Yarnscape two separate 50g cakes. That will be my tiny carry project for the Games and will hopefully live in the pyramid bag. I'm also heading off to my parents for a weekend at some point soon and would really like to have made a spindle project bag for the top whorl that Dad made me. It'll probably be very similar to the box bags, though a little smaller in height and depth, with a carry handle but also a loop for a carribina to clip to. That way I can clip the bag to my trousers etc pull the zip down a little and use it as a fibre storage while spinning. I get the feeling I should have joined Team Hopelessly Overcommitted rather than Team Yarnscape for this one!
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Useful side effects...
Of course the positive side effect of all this new sewing is a) a whole bunch of rather nice scraps and b) a good excuse to buy fat quarters, and who doesn't need more of those in their life? :)
I am though, at heart, a knitter. So what's a knitter to do with all this fabric? Make project bags of course :D
My first was the one on the right made from two fat quarters, some very thin batting and a zip. Total cost, about £5. Not the cheapest thing in the world but it is perfectly customised to me. It fits one full 100g cake of yarn with space for the inevitable pair of socks, stitch markers and an A4 pattern folded in quarters. I tend to magic loop but it also fits a set of 15cm DPNs if needed. Just inside at the zip end are a set of loops that I'll eventually be able to hang crochet style markers on. What really gives this one it's strength though is the quilting. I'm most way through quilting all around the coastline of the pattern and have been amazed the difference it has made.
The second bag was almost completely made from scraps. The only 'new' materials are the zip and again the batting. I've not quilted this one as it's pretty robust in its own right, especially as the inner is a smidge too large. Personally I've always doubted the use of the pyramid bags as they seem to waste a lot of space. This one was constrained by the size of my scraps but I think it should prove useful for 50g cakes of sock yarn, for those Cookie A patterns where each sock is a mirror of the other :)
I am though, at heart, a knitter. So what's a knitter to do with all this fabric? Make project bags of course :D
The second bag was almost completely made from scraps. The only 'new' materials are the zip and again the batting. I've not quilted this one as it's pretty robust in its own right, especially as the inner is a smidge too large. Personally I've always doubted the use of the pyramid bags as they seem to waste a lot of space. This one was constrained by the size of my scraps but I think it should prove useful for 50g cakes of sock yarn, for those Cookie A patterns where each sock is a mirror of the other :)
Monday, 23 July 2012
And now for something completely different!
A while back I (think I) blogged about spending a very crafty weekend with my little sister, incorporating spinning, hand-piecing and beading into about 48hrs of crafty fun. Well it seems that it has had a slightly longer term impact than originally anticipated, namely I seem to have added quilting to my list of burgeoning skills.
With the imminent birth of a good friend of my DH's first child I oddly thought it would be faster and cheaper to stitch a baby blanket than to knit something. Wrong on both accounts but I am considerably less worried about the finished article being trashed in the wash so it is still a win in my book. I didn't think this was bad for a first attempt, took probably about as long in total to make as a good sized baby cardigan type thing, and probably cost in the region of £30-40 by the time it was finished.
Now the mistake I made the second time round was to utterly underestimate the cost of these things! The one above had used a lot of fat quarters for the tiny squares, and it turns out that the yellow polka dot which it is backed in is one of the cheaper fabrics that this store carries. Cue one heck of a shock when buying stuff for a second blanket that a) couldn't be done in FQs and b) featured very large amounts of the 'designer' fabrics. I almost fell over when I found out what I'd just asked to be cut. PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT: check the cost before they start cutting!!!!! Anyway life being what it is, I've now been pulled off the expensive blanket project (which if I'm honest has yet to make it to the cutting stage... baby is much more distantly related, someone I get on with at work but don't have that much to do with etc) by my darling DH dropping into conversation that another set of good friends are moving back to the UK from places hot and sunny, and wouldn't it be nice to give their newborn a blanket to help her acclimatise to the rather cooler climes of the UK. Sure I agreed, when are they due back? Two weeks.......
Oh heck!
With the imminent birth of a good friend of my DH's first child I oddly thought it would be faster and cheaper to stitch a baby blanket than to knit something. Wrong on both accounts but I am considerably less worried about the finished article being trashed in the wash so it is still a win in my book. I didn't think this was bad for a first attempt, took probably about as long in total to make as a good sized baby cardigan type thing, and probably cost in the region of £30-40 by the time it was finished.
Oh heck!
Saturday, 7 July 2012
What is a girl to craft?
I need to get this finished for friends of ours who have just had a little girl...
I want to get these finished as they're soooo close to done, and my feet want new socks :)
I should be spinning this for the Tour...
That sleep stuff is optional right? :D
Friday, 6 July 2012
Tour de Fleece
This year (my first) I'm taking part as a member of Team Yarnscape. For those of you unfamiliar with this odd event the concept is simple, you spin every day that the Tour de France rides, attempting along the way to set yourself particular goals. Now in the run up to the start I had all sorts of wonderful ideas but very quickly realised that with life messing me about the way it is at the moment, that in a lot of ways just spinning every day was going to be a whole challenge in itself! That said in the first week I've got quite a lot done...
Agh those caps! Now I've spun some samples of hankies before, learning the technique of splitting off a hankie, or more realistically two, before putting a hole in the middle and essentially pre-drafting the heck out of them. I don't know what it is with these caps but I'm damned if I can get only one or two separated at a time, which is making the drafting an utter nightmare. Put it this way, I now have matching blisters on the first knuckle of both my index fingers :( The yarn does look pretty though so pictures will shortly follow.
All three of these mini-skiens have been spun and plied during the Tour, I have about another half bobbin of the Tethys silk brick (one of my original goals) spun up and the other day I started messing about with some silk caps I'd bought at Woolfest.
Agh those caps! Now I've spun some samples of hankies before, learning the technique of splitting off a hankie, or more realistically two, before putting a hole in the middle and essentially pre-drafting the heck out of them. I don't know what it is with these caps but I'm damned if I can get only one or two separated at a time, which is making the drafting an utter nightmare. Put it this way, I now have matching blisters on the first knuckle of both my index fingers :( The yarn does look pretty though so pictures will shortly follow.
Woolfest
Wow was that ever a wet weekend!!!!
Woolfest 2011 was the first fibre festival I'd ever attended, taking my Mum on a magical mystery tour involving much fluff and night in the Cockermouth YHA. 2012 though was a solo affair, partially due to things being utterly up in the air at work and the related last minute planning. Luckily for me, the latter included re-waterproofing my tent!
Well the drive up to Cheshire on Thursday was surprisingly dry, and I got to my parents a little before 2300. All thoughts of an early night quickly disappeared though as I don't see them that often and took the chance to have a good catchup. Managed to get a pretty early start though (fuelled by a very nice cooked breakfast that's to Dad) and promptly it started to rain. Hmm rain. That word really does fail to describe the sheer amount of water falling from the sky that weekend. The drive itself was pretty uneventful until about 10 miles from Cockermouth an idiot driving in front of me managed to kick up a huge pile of stones etc (breaks, accelerator, breaks, accelerator in quick succession on a semi-flooded road is the fast way to annoy those behind you!) promptly cracking my windscreen. Not impressed. Anyway I made it, got parked and started sniffing the wool fumes :)
The event itself was to me a little of a let down. That though is through no fault of the organisers. Last year it had been my first festival, I was a brand new spinner and I was deep in the "must learn all the things" phase :). This year I had a list, I know what I enjoy spinning and to be honest was just being a whole lot more sensible on the money front.
It was good fun though. Dinner wasn't bad and the spin in was lovely. Driving back to the campsite was erm interesting(!) and by the next morning I think I was the only camper on the site not washed out (see my remarks about the re-waterproofing!). For all the jokes the previous day I think what saved me was that I was in an ultralight tent. Was it small, erm yes! but that seemed to a) allow me to use the car to shelter it to an extent and b) the rest of the rain/wind just went straight over it. What I really could have done without though was breaking down on the way home the next day and having a three hour wait to be rescued. Ho hum an eventful weekend in more ways than one!
Woolfest 2011 was the first fibre festival I'd ever attended, taking my Mum on a magical mystery tour involving much fluff and night in the Cockermouth YHA. 2012 though was a solo affair, partially due to things being utterly up in the air at work and the related last minute planning. Luckily for me, the latter included re-waterproofing my tent!
Well the drive up to Cheshire on Thursday was surprisingly dry, and I got to my parents a little before 2300. All thoughts of an early night quickly disappeared though as I don't see them that often and took the chance to have a good catchup. Managed to get a pretty early start though (fuelled by a very nice cooked breakfast that's to Dad) and promptly it started to rain. Hmm rain. That word really does fail to describe the sheer amount of water falling from the sky that weekend. The drive itself was pretty uneventful until about 10 miles from Cockermouth an idiot driving in front of me managed to kick up a huge pile of stones etc (breaks, accelerator, breaks, accelerator in quick succession on a semi-flooded road is the fast way to annoy those behind you!) promptly cracking my windscreen. Not impressed. Anyway I made it, got parked and started sniffing the wool fumes :)
The event itself was to me a little of a let down. That though is through no fault of the organisers. Last year it had been my first festival, I was a brand new spinner and I was deep in the "must learn all the things" phase :). This year I had a list, I know what I enjoy spinning and to be honest was just being a whole lot more sensible on the money front.
It was good fun though. Dinner wasn't bad and the spin in was lovely. Driving back to the campsite was erm interesting(!) and by the next morning I think I was the only camper on the site not washed out (see my remarks about the re-waterproofing!). For all the jokes the previous day I think what saved me was that I was in an ultralight tent. Was it small, erm yes! but that seemed to a) allow me to use the car to shelter it to an extent and b) the rest of the rain/wind just went straight over it. What I really could have done without though was breaking down on the way home the next day and having a three hour wait to be rescued. Ho hum an eventful weekend in more ways than one!
Saturday, 9 June 2012
When Indy dyers go bad...
So those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware that I've had a bundle of fibre take rather longer than I'd hoped to turn up at my door, and indeed at the time of writing this it still hasn't. As I said to someone who asked I'm not going to outright name and shame (yet! This may change if I get messed about much more though) as the matter is now being resolved, or at least I hope it is.
So what happened I hear you ask? Through social networks various I became aware of a dyer offering a limited time deal, had a look on their site, liked what I saw and put in an order. Nothing much of a controversial nature there I thought. That would be my first mistake then. Whereas places like Etsy are only supposed to allow you to list stuff you actually have ready for sale, this dyer has their own site and it turned out that they a) received way more orders than anticipated and b) had consequently taken orders for stock they simply didn't have dyed and ready to send.
Grouch 1 - I don't mind waiting for you to dye my order but I do mind only finding out that is the case several days after placing my order!
Ok so they're dying it the Monday after I place my order, irritating but not a problem, and I duly followed the progress on Twitter. Kind of hoped it would turn up by the end of the following week as I would be demonstrating spinning, and face it nice bright stuff pulls people in far better than dull white fleece. No such luck. Ok must be the Jubilee weekend messing up the post methinks. I'll give it to later in the week. Wednesday comes and goes, Thursday arrives and still nothing. No parcel, no email, no nothing and from Twitter I know said dyer is now deep in Woolfest prep.
Grouch 2 - please don't broadcast to the world all the fun you're having doing other stuff when you have paid for orders still outstanding, it does not make your customer base feel loved!
Ok so by Thursday and knowing they were busy now on other stuff I finally cracked and sent a chasing email. By this point it had been 17 days since I'd put my order in. Now in fairness I did get a response, an out of office email obviously set weeks earlier and no longer relevant. Hmm gave that one about 24hrs, by which point they knew about the problem with the out of office and had stated on Twitter that they're working through their backlog. Ok I think, I'll get an email soon saying where the holdup etc is (to be honest at this point I was still fully expecting to be told that it had been sent and that Royal Mail were making a mess of deliveing it, how wrong was I?!?). Instead, nada.
Ok two seemingly ignored emails, no delivery and over 48hrs later I thought I'd send a slightly more direct email, this time not just asking for an update but pointing out how long I'd been waiting. Being completely fair etc that did get a response.
Grouch 3 - manners cost nothing and can go a long way to repair a poor customer experience
In short, unless (when) this stuff turns up it spins like butter and is dyed to perfection I won't be ordering from this dyer again. Life is too short for bad fleece and Indy dyers that don't have a basic level of respect for their customers!
Oh and if it isn't waiting for me when I get home on Tuesday I am naming names! You have been warned!
PS for the sake of clarity etc I am not talking about any of the fabulous dyers etc listed on the right of this site, you guys are all amazing :D
So what happened I hear you ask? Through social networks various I became aware of a dyer offering a limited time deal, had a look on their site, liked what I saw and put in an order. Nothing much of a controversial nature there I thought. That would be my first mistake then. Whereas places like Etsy are only supposed to allow you to list stuff you actually have ready for sale, this dyer has their own site and it turned out that they a) received way more orders than anticipated and b) had consequently taken orders for stock they simply didn't have dyed and ready to send.
Grouch 1 - I don't mind waiting for you to dye my order but I do mind only finding out that is the case several days after placing my order!
Ok so they're dying it the Monday after I place my order, irritating but not a problem, and I duly followed the progress on Twitter. Kind of hoped it would turn up by the end of the following week as I would be demonstrating spinning, and face it nice bright stuff pulls people in far better than dull white fleece. No such luck. Ok must be the Jubilee weekend messing up the post methinks. I'll give it to later in the week. Wednesday comes and goes, Thursday arrives and still nothing. No parcel, no email, no nothing and from Twitter I know said dyer is now deep in Woolfest prep.
Grouch 2 - please don't broadcast to the world all the fun you're having doing other stuff when you have paid for orders still outstanding, it does not make your customer base feel loved!
Ok so by Thursday and knowing they were busy now on other stuff I finally cracked and sent a chasing email. By this point it had been 17 days since I'd put my order in. Now in fairness I did get a response, an out of office email obviously set weeks earlier and no longer relevant. Hmm gave that one about 24hrs, by which point they knew about the problem with the out of office and had stated on Twitter that they're working through their backlog. Ok I think, I'll get an email soon saying where the holdup etc is (to be honest at this point I was still fully expecting to be told that it had been sent and that Royal Mail were making a mess of deliveing it, how wrong was I?!?). Instead, nada.
Ok two seemingly ignored emails, no delivery and over 48hrs later I thought I'd send a slightly more direct email, this time not just asking for an update but pointing out how long I'd been waiting. Being completely fair etc that did get a response.
That was it. No "Dear Mindfulknits" or salutation of any description which is frankly rude in my book regardless of the preceding events, unless being sent between friends etc... this person does not fit into that category. Now it could just be me being a miserable so and so but I was distinctly less than impressed with it as an answer. Ok I now know that it is being posted three weeks after I ordered it, but there is no explanation as to why, no reference made to the fact I had to repeatedly contact them to get this measly answer. I don't know how anyone else reads it, but to me it says they're glad to take my money, will get my order to me when they can be bothered and beyond that couldn't give a rodent's behind for concepts such as courtesy or customer service.It will be in the post for you on Monday. It's ready and packed.
I will email when it's on the way for you.
Please accept my apologies.
Grouch 3 - manners cost nothing and can go a long way to repair a poor customer experience
In short, unless (when) this stuff turns up it spins like butter and is dyed to perfection I won't be ordering from this dyer again. Life is too short for bad fleece and Indy dyers that don't have a basic level of respect for their customers!
Oh and if it isn't waiting for me when I get home on Tuesday I am naming names! You have been warned!
PS for the sake of clarity etc I am not talking about any of the fabulous dyers etc listed on the right of this site, you guys are all amazing :D
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
A very crafty jubilee weekend!
For reasons various I'd invited my little sister to come down to visit me over the jubilee weekend and wow did we ever get some serious crafting done! Having been very close as kids, but now living almost at opposite ends of the country, crafting in its various forms is the one thing I can guarantee we can both enjoy whatever life may be throwing at us.
So first up was a visit to Millers Ark farm for their jubilee party. I'd volunteered to demo spinning weeks before but little sis was ok with a day of chilling out surrounded by very cute baby animals. Brilliantly a couple of ladies from the Hampshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers joined us so we had three wheels running plus my drop spindles. By the end of the day I'd mostly got my carding technique more or less there, and my longdraw was getting reasonably consistent.... bobbin one of I have no idea for the Kelmscott Throw
The only down side of the day was that the Shetlands being sheared really didn't want their fleece to go. It was still a little early for them, the lanolin hadn't risen, and the shearer was having to really fight to get the fleece off. All in all a recipe for lots and lots of second cuts so I sadly passed on asking to buy one. Beautiful to touch but life is too short to mess about with poor fleece.
After a full day on the farm, demoing, spinning (little sis even managed to get some viable not too think and thin by the end of the day), eating cream tea and generally chilling out, we headed home for white wine and general late night chatting.
Having done our patriotic bit on the Saturday we elected for a lazy morning before a quick google brought up a free hand-piecing class just outside Andover. A fast lunch etc and we were in the car and ready to go. As luck would have it we managed to squeeze into the class which was fantastic (who said you need to plan these things!). I'll post up details for where/when etc when I have them to hand but for now I can say we worked on an Ohio Star using scraps of material that Meg (the teachers/shop owner) provided. Little sis went for a complicated jubilee themed square, carefully lining up the patterns on the material provided. I really wasn't that fussed so plumped for a simple teal and grey...
Not bad for a first attempt I thought. Each of the squares is about 10cm across and I got it to mostly lined up. Now me being me I'd a) bought a bunch of fat quarters with the intention of making some more project bags as the one I made a month back is proving very useful and b) I promptly bit off waaaay more than I could chew on a new idea for a project. My cunning idea is to make a hand pieced project bag, a little more sophisticated than the one I'm currently using, with pockets for a couple of spare DPNs, a pattern, stitch markers... oh and my Oyster card given I normally end up shoving it in with my knitting rather than put it away somewhere sensible. With that lot in mind I came up with the following hand-pieced section:
Don't ask how long that has taken me up to now, but to give an idea of scale etc the squareish sections are about 3cm across and the whole thing is only 16ish cm tall. Now I just need to make it 50 cm long before I can start turning it into a bag! Should be ready about Christmas time at a guess...
Monday sadly saw little sis have to head back home, but not to miss a crafting chance we swung by the Beadworks in London to get some embelishments for her now new hand-pieced cushion! Three days, three technically different crafts can't be bad :)
On a separate but important note though, I got the Ostara Twisted Flower socks finished :D
Here's to having a crafty weekend!
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Sunshine.... yay!!!
I may work in an office in central London but darn it I'm going to spend at least some time enjoying the sunshine!
Having lost quite a bit of weight since Christmas I've been in sore need of some new work clothes, yesterday proving I was in even more dire need of work clothes that I wouldn't slowly boil to death in. A quick lunchtime shopping trip yesterday and I have new linen trousers (that are somehow resisting the urge to crease like crazy) and a very lightweight new blouse thingy. All of which I am wearing today with the net result that the sun is shining, I'm wearing my favourite sunglasses, new clothes and feel a million dollars... oh and this was the view when I was eating my lunch...
And as if that wasn't decadently chilled out enough, I treated myself to sushi and a magazine too..
Having lost quite a bit of weight since Christmas I've been in sore need of some new work clothes, yesterday proving I was in even more dire need of work clothes that I wouldn't slowly boil to death in. A quick lunchtime shopping trip yesterday and I have new linen trousers (that are somehow resisting the urge to crease like crazy) and a very lightweight new blouse thingy. All of which I am wearing today with the net result that the sun is shining, I'm wearing my favourite sunglasses, new clothes and feel a million dollars... oh and this was the view when I was eating my lunch...
All told, not a bad way to spend 20 mins :) (oh and I might have gone and bought myself something fab to wear tomorrow for my hot date with my DH... well going to a sake tasting course in the evening... it's like a date but for married people :D )
A quick knitting update...
The Twisted Flower socks are finally getting somewhere. Having got as far as turning the heel before deciding the gauge was too tight, I've had to frog and re-knit the lot. I've now got both onto the foot though with both heels fully turned.
What is becoming rapidly apparent though is that I've not got enough yarn spun up. I'm not sure at this point how much short I'm going to be so the hope is that for the final bit I can pinch just a bit from the second braid of this, leaving me enough to do something nice for my Mum with the rest of it. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Catchup after a rather extended haitus!
Ok I admit it, I suck at blogging when life gets manic, and boy has it been a manic six weeks or so. For those of you in the UK, do you remember/are familiar with UCAS forms to get into uni? Well it turns out they have an evil big brother... he's called The Pupillage Portal. Short version is that all would-be barristers have to do something called pupillage - essentially a year long apprenticeship, for which we apply via said portal. There are only so many ways you can explain why you want to practise law, why you think you'd be good at it, why you want to practise at that particular set and why you are interested in the work they do... oh and by the way your entire career rides on this having already shelled out for a three year degree and a £15k post-grad course! No pressure then...
Anyway suffice it to say that it has pretty much trashed my crafting time, though I did make it to Wonderwool (detail on that in a later post I think) and somehow seem to have acquired more fluff than I currently know what to do with!
So what's new, erm fleece for one! First up I bought this Jacob fleece, which if I'm completely honest about I was kinda disappointed in.
Now I know buying sight unseen is always dodgy but this one came as a destash from someone I regularly buy dyed fluff from. Almost all of the brown was so matted it wasn't worth the hassle of cutting the locks off (life being too short to faff with lousy fleece!) but I've hopefully got enough mixed to make some welly-socks from, and I'm not sure by weight how much of the cream I have but it fills a good couple of bags as flicked locks. £5 plus £7.50 postage I suppose wasn't bad but I'm still a bit irritated.
Next up was this beautiful shetland.
I've got it all washed and now just need to decide what to do with it. The staple length is about 2" with the most ridiculous crimp I've ever seen, and it is sooooo soft... did I mention I paid £4.50 for it!!! All told I think I've got about 600g which is just shy of what I need for a jumper that I'd wanted to do, but to be honest I think this one is destined to be an uber snuggly shawl, the type you curl up in on a cold evening with a decadent cup of hot chocolate :)
Lastly on the fleece front was this beast!
Its an Oxford Down and I only have myself to blame as I picked it and was very generously given it for free. Despite testing it (with my fledgling knowledge of how to do so) I think I've managed to get one with a break in it :( That said all is not lost as a) I have the better end of I think 4-5kg!!!!! of it b) not all of it seems to have the weakness and c) it is currently carding up well. Only downside is I think I've been rushing the washing by packing too much into the tulle bags so I've not got rid of all the lanolin (it turns out I really really really hate spinning greasy fibre!) and now need to re-wash the half a pillowcase or so that I've done up to now. A slight added impetus on this one is that I hope to be spinning it at the Millers Ark Jubilee party on 2 June as that is where I got the fleece from. I figure there is nothing like a demo with the sheep the fleece came from standing behind you :)
Just to give you a better idea on the break(?) etc these are some washed and unwashed locks from the Oxford.
Check out the crimp though!!! :D
Anyway suffice it to say that it has pretty much trashed my crafting time, though I did make it to Wonderwool (detail on that in a later post I think) and somehow seem to have acquired more fluff than I currently know what to do with!
So what's new, erm fleece for one! First up I bought this Jacob fleece, which if I'm completely honest about I was kinda disappointed in.
Now I know buying sight unseen is always dodgy but this one came as a destash from someone I regularly buy dyed fluff from. Almost all of the brown was so matted it wasn't worth the hassle of cutting the locks off (life being too short to faff with lousy fleece!) but I've hopefully got enough mixed to make some welly-socks from, and I'm not sure by weight how much of the cream I have but it fills a good couple of bags as flicked locks. £5 plus £7.50 postage I suppose wasn't bad but I'm still a bit irritated.
Next up was this beautiful shetland.
I've got it all washed and now just need to decide what to do with it. The staple length is about 2" with the most ridiculous crimp I've ever seen, and it is sooooo soft... did I mention I paid £4.50 for it!!! All told I think I've got about 600g which is just shy of what I need for a jumper that I'd wanted to do, but to be honest I think this one is destined to be an uber snuggly shawl, the type you curl up in on a cold evening with a decadent cup of hot chocolate :)
Lastly on the fleece front was this beast!
Its an Oxford Down and I only have myself to blame as I picked it and was very generously given it for free. Despite testing it (with my fledgling knowledge of how to do so) I think I've managed to get one with a break in it :( That said all is not lost as a) I have the better end of I think 4-5kg!!!!! of it b) not all of it seems to have the weakness and c) it is currently carding up well. Only downside is I think I've been rushing the washing by packing too much into the tulle bags so I've not got rid of all the lanolin (it turns out I really really really hate spinning greasy fibre!) and now need to re-wash the half a pillowcase or so that I've done up to now. A slight added impetus on this one is that I hope to be spinning it at the Millers Ark Jubilee party on 2 June as that is where I got the fleece from. I figure there is nothing like a demo with the sheep the fleece came from standing behind you :)
Just to give you a better idea on the break(?) etc these are some washed and unwashed locks from the Oxford.
Check out the crimp though!!! :D
Sunday, 15 April 2012
The unsimple, simple socks strike again
I loved how the first set of these knitted up so much I went and did them all over again :) My gauge was a little out if I'm honest so these aren't the snuggest of socks, but boy are they warm.
In keeping with my utter sock obsession at the moment, I've also managed to cast on Twisted Flower in the Ostara 2012 yarn I finished spinning a week or so ago.
I really must get some actual work done soon!
In keeping with my utter sock obsession at the moment, I've also managed to cast on Twisted Flower in the Ostara 2012 yarn I finished spinning a week or so ago.
I really must get some actual work done soon!
Dear Masham,
Dear Masham,
I must confess I’m smitten. Sorry if that is a little strong after a first date, I promise the bunnies are safe.
I’ve not been long at this spinning game (6 months ish) and am still settling in with my wheel (6 weeks) but when these nice Ravelry people suggested you as this month’s fiber I had to dig the sample bag of you out of my stash. You looked so smooth and shiney in your bump, but the staple length, oh my. I’ve made good friends with merino, shetland, corriedale and oddly silk but with you I had no idea where to start. I knit lace, I knit socks but where would we find common ground? Was our first date to be one of awkward silences, stilted half started singles and a tangle of plying?
Luckily Beth Smith came to our rescue, introducing us and suggesting a good “first date venue”. Outfit chosen (wheel not spindle), date set (last night after a long day demo’ing spinning) and a suitable glass of wine poured and we were good to go. It was a jump into the unknown.
I was so worried about overspinning the singles that the first couple of grams kept drifting apart… not a good start. A quick re-read of Beth’s instructions though and I took my courage in my hands and started treddling faster. My wheel bless her is a slow old thing. I love her to bits but her 1:6.5 ratio makes for fun spinning lace. Two treddles for every 1.5-2” drafted short forwards draw though and we seemed to be getting on much better. Drafting was a dream though you still felt a little harsh on the bobbin to my untutored hands, but at least we were sticking together now. Then came the second course, plying. Ours was a short, get to know you type date so an Andean ply seemed the sensible way to go. Aside from me losing one end for about 10 mins it went swimmingly. A quick backply test, doused in suitably hot water to get a feel for what was needed and we were up and running.
All too soon your 44wpi singles were transformed into 40.6yds of 21wpi lace, set in a quick bath of warm Euclan water and dried lying across a rack in the airing cupboard. I hope you don’t mind but I took a quick picture.
Anyway I hope you had as much fun as me. Fancy a second date? I was thinking maybe from the fold or heading over to Wonderwool? Let me know what you think.
Yours still spinning,
K
I must confess I’m smitten. Sorry if that is a little strong after a first date, I promise the bunnies are safe.
I’ve not been long at this spinning game (6 months ish) and am still settling in with my wheel (6 weeks) but when these nice Ravelry people suggested you as this month’s fiber I had to dig the sample bag of you out of my stash. You looked so smooth and shiney in your bump, but the staple length, oh my. I’ve made good friends with merino, shetland, corriedale and oddly silk but with you I had no idea where to start. I knit lace, I knit socks but where would we find common ground? Was our first date to be one of awkward silences, stilted half started singles and a tangle of plying?
Luckily Beth Smith came to our rescue, introducing us and suggesting a good “first date venue”. Outfit chosen (wheel not spindle), date set (last night after a long day demo’ing spinning) and a suitable glass of wine poured and we were good to go. It was a jump into the unknown.
I was so worried about overspinning the singles that the first couple of grams kept drifting apart… not a good start. A quick re-read of Beth’s instructions though and I took my courage in my hands and started treddling faster. My wheel bless her is a slow old thing. I love her to bits but her 1:6.5 ratio makes for fun spinning lace. Two treddles for every 1.5-2” drafted short forwards draw though and we seemed to be getting on much better. Drafting was a dream though you still felt a little harsh on the bobbin to my untutored hands, but at least we were sticking together now. Then came the second course, plying. Ours was a short, get to know you type date so an Andean ply seemed the sensible way to go. Aside from me losing one end for about 10 mins it went swimmingly. A quick backply test, doused in suitably hot water to get a feel for what was needed and we were up and running.
All too soon your 44wpi singles were transformed into 40.6yds of 21wpi lace, set in a quick bath of warm Euclan water and dried lying across a rack in the airing cupboard. I hope you don’t mind but I took a quick picture.
Anyway I hope you had as much fun as me. Fancy a second date? I was thinking maybe from the fold or heading over to Wonderwool? Let me know what you think.
Yours still spinning,
K
Sunday, 1 April 2012
A FO! The unsimple simple socks
I realised that a lot of my blog seems to be about the stuff I have in progress but that I rarely remember to get up pictures etc of my finished objects, which seems a shame really. So here is a more positive FO posting :)
All good projects have a bit of a story behind them I think, and this one is no exception. Ages ago I bought some fluff in a destash on Ravelry. Anyway it turned out that there was an utter confusion as to what I'd actually bought as the beautiful grey/purple/lavender goodness that I was expecting turned out to be an equally gorgeous blue/green/teal braid. Much PMing too and fro between me, the seller and the lady we thought had got my order and it transpired that the listing had been wrong. Both me and the other lady were expecting the purple which didn't actually exist. Well what I'd received was still lovely so kind of no harm no foul I thought. The seller though, bless her, was mortified by the mistake and insisted on refunding us both the money we had paid whilst telling us to keep the braids. Keeping with the thought that what goes around comes around, I decided that I'd find some other yarn to buy with the refund with the idea of gifting the FO.
So the money sat in my PayPal for a while and life continued on as ever while I tried to find something suitable. Sure enough another Raveler came up with a destash and I had a slight moment of inspiration, why not knit some deep red socks for Lama Zangmo? Sure a white kata is more traditional, but they always strike me as singularly wasteful. The majority that you can buy feel like man-made fibers, and I'm not totally sure what happens to them after they are given. Part of me hopes they're washed, ironed and re-sold, but either way, the creation of so many from a non-sustainable source always feels a little wrong somehow. Shetland wool on the other hand is pretty sustainable, and warm socks when you're walking round a cool temple floor have got to be a good idea.
I finally got round to casting them on on 7 Feb, having waded my way through several other WIPs and they've clocked up a good few miles since. They've been my commuting project, sitting in my bag with my sports kit, lunch, books, laptop etc and have been kicked about the floor at home. Though not a yarn I'd necessarily have gone for as a first choice (2ply rather than a 3ply) they have finished up far nicer than I was thinking they would about half way through. Yes the yarn was a bit on the splitty side which with this pattern could get a bit annoying, but once washed the yarn really floofed up to fill the space between the stitches. The pattern is Back to Basics from Knitty which describes itself as a slight twist on plain vanilla socks. I wasn't 100% on it when I was knitting them, for starters they do actually require a fair bit of thought at one point, but seeing the final object... yeah I've already cast on another pair.
I think that is probably enough on the talking about them though, how about some photos :)
If you are thinking of casting this one on, I would just warn you they look terrible on the needles! I don't know what it was about the pattern or how I was knitting them (2 at a time on one circular needle) but they were possibly the most misshapen sorry looking things I've ever knit. Blocked though, or on my feet and they are the ultimate ugly ducking transformed.
All good projects have a bit of a story behind them I think, and this one is no exception. Ages ago I bought some fluff in a destash on Ravelry. Anyway it turned out that there was an utter confusion as to what I'd actually bought as the beautiful grey/purple/lavender goodness that I was expecting turned out to be an equally gorgeous blue/green/teal braid. Much PMing too and fro between me, the seller and the lady we thought had got my order and it transpired that the listing had been wrong. Both me and the other lady were expecting the purple which didn't actually exist. Well what I'd received was still lovely so kind of no harm no foul I thought. The seller though, bless her, was mortified by the mistake and insisted on refunding us both the money we had paid whilst telling us to keep the braids. Keeping with the thought that what goes around comes around, I decided that I'd find some other yarn to buy with the refund with the idea of gifting the FO.
So the money sat in my PayPal for a while and life continued on as ever while I tried to find something suitable. Sure enough another Raveler came up with a destash and I had a slight moment of inspiration, why not knit some deep red socks for Lama Zangmo? Sure a white kata is more traditional, but they always strike me as singularly wasteful. The majority that you can buy feel like man-made fibers, and I'm not totally sure what happens to them after they are given. Part of me hopes they're washed, ironed and re-sold, but either way, the creation of so many from a non-sustainable source always feels a little wrong somehow. Shetland wool on the other hand is pretty sustainable, and warm socks when you're walking round a cool temple floor have got to be a good idea.
I finally got round to casting them on on 7 Feb, having waded my way through several other WIPs and they've clocked up a good few miles since. They've been my commuting project, sitting in my bag with my sports kit, lunch, books, laptop etc and have been kicked about the floor at home. Though not a yarn I'd necessarily have gone for as a first choice (2ply rather than a 3ply) they have finished up far nicer than I was thinking they would about half way through. Yes the yarn was a bit on the splitty side which with this pattern could get a bit annoying, but once washed the yarn really floofed up to fill the space between the stitches. The pattern is Back to Basics from Knitty which describes itself as a slight twist on plain vanilla socks. I wasn't 100% on it when I was knitting them, for starters they do actually require a fair bit of thought at one point, but seeing the final object... yeah I've already cast on another pair.
I think that is probably enough on the talking about them though, how about some photos :)
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Commuting fun
As anyone who regularly reads my blog will know I have a pretty long commute each day. On a good day it is probably about 90mins door to door, on a bad day though that easily hits two hours. So what's a girl to do to stave off the boredom? Well of a morning sleep is the obvious answer :) and one in which I quite frequently indulge but of an evening I often just want to use the time to chill out making spinning or knitting the perfect answers.
This week's knitting project for some odd reason seemed to attract more interest than usual. All I was doing was winding the Black Magic skein into two connected balls so that I could get started on a pair of socks. Because I tend to do them toe up and two at a time, winding a double ball but not cutting the connecting thread allows me to use up all the yarn without worrying about weaving in ends etc. Anyway I'm sitting there minding my own business just winding my yarn when I realise the woman opposite me was utterly staring at me. I'm not sure what it was but she seemed to find the winding hypnotic. To cut a long story short, I ended up giving an impromptu lesson in how you get from fluff to socks via my tiny turkish spindle (which goes everywhere with me) to winding a skein then a ball to the actual knitting to her and two others who then joined in asking questions. I swear I must have a friendly face :) It was good to get people interested though, and one of them who was very enthusiastic bemoaned the fact that she had learnt to knit as a kid but had forgotten. She got off the train asking where in London she could get some yarn etc to get started! Enabling is such good fun :)
When I'm not feeling so social though I tend to stick my headphones in and listen to my iPod. With something mindless on the needles though, I tend not to listen to music as I want something to occupy my mind. Step forwards aJoyfulGirl and her podcast Spin Control. Shilo is a brilliant host, combining sewing, knitting, spinning and other crafty things with straight talking reviews and frequently hilarious anecdotes about her family. With a cast of her DH the JoyfulBoy, her eldest daughter Bird and the littlest daughter IttyBitty she paints a brilliant picture of a crafty (in a good way) loving family facing all the challenges life with kids tends to throw at you. Shilo, on the off chance you ever read this, you rock :)
This week's knitting project for some odd reason seemed to attract more interest than usual. All I was doing was winding the Black Magic skein into two connected balls so that I could get started on a pair of socks. Because I tend to do them toe up and two at a time, winding a double ball but not cutting the connecting thread allows me to use up all the yarn without worrying about weaving in ends etc. Anyway I'm sitting there minding my own business just winding my yarn when I realise the woman opposite me was utterly staring at me. I'm not sure what it was but she seemed to find the winding hypnotic. To cut a long story short, I ended up giving an impromptu lesson in how you get from fluff to socks via my tiny turkish spindle (which goes everywhere with me) to winding a skein then a ball to the actual knitting to her and two others who then joined in asking questions. I swear I must have a friendly face :) It was good to get people interested though, and one of them who was very enthusiastic bemoaned the fact that she had learnt to knit as a kid but had forgotten. She got off the train asking where in London she could get some yarn etc to get started! Enabling is such good fun :)
When I'm not feeling so social though I tend to stick my headphones in and listen to my iPod. With something mindless on the needles though, I tend not to listen to music as I want something to occupy my mind. Step forwards aJoyfulGirl and her podcast Spin Control. Shilo is a brilliant host, combining sewing, knitting, spinning and other crafty things with straight talking reviews and frequently hilarious anecdotes about her family. With a cast of her DH the JoyfulBoy, her eldest daughter Bird and the littlest daughter IttyBitty she paints a brilliant picture of a crafty (in a good way) loving family facing all the challenges life with kids tends to throw at you. Shilo, on the off chance you ever read this, you rock :)
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Taking stock
Ok I think the theme of the past month or so has been of utter manic energy, and not necessarily achieving much. That is certainly how it feels. Either way having got a couple of events out of the way, and with a whole pile of deadlines coming up I decided that now was a good time to clear the decks and create a bit of a work plan, whilst making sure I don't stress myself out too badly.
First up the wip list has been thinned out a bit. A couple of those projects were sitting there with no hope of me actually getting on with them. The Zauerball socks for instance are blatantly getting frogged, and the Poppy Shawl, whilst not as finished as I want, is bound off and wearable. I also went for a couple of easy finishes to get things out of the way and space freed up at home. A couple of nights spent spinning and the Herdwick is done for now... not sure I'm there on yardage but its enough to be getting on with. Lama's socks have also come to a very pleasant end. For a pattern that I didn't overly enjoy knitting and which looked decidedly wonky as a wip on the needles they look really good when on (well I think so anyway :D )
So that's me down to four projects actually on needles at the moment ( I might have cast on the Herdwick bag in a moment of weakness last night). Next up was deciding in what order to get stuff done! My commuter projects was going to be Lama's socks but they're now off the needles. Looks like I might be hoping for enough space on the train to spin up the yarn to finish off the other socks and/or try getting Mum's shawl in my bag... hmm watch this space. The plan then is to get Mum's shawl done on the train leaving my evenings a bit freer to work on the stupidly complicated In Dreams when I'm at home.
With the amount of knitting I've been doing recently though I definitely need a spin project to keep me sane. There is, contrary to popular belief (and for goodness sake don't let my DH hear me say this), such a thing as too much knitting. I pretty much topped out my knitting ability at the end of last week with the rush to get the Poppy Shawl done. The better end of two weeks knitting on trains, on buses, before work, after work, and it felt like in my sleep... oh and of almost all of that being stst was not the fast way to feed my knitting mojo. So a spin project is definitely needed. I've got two spindle projects at the moment which are good for commuting, and I think I'll make a start on the latest instalment from Yarnscape's Year of the Wheel club. I'm going to shoot for a wheel spun 3ply sock yarn to then knit into the utterly delightful Twisted Flowers socks by Cookie A.
Should keep me out of trouble for a while anyway!
First up the wip list has been thinned out a bit. A couple of those projects were sitting there with no hope of me actually getting on with them. The Zauerball socks for instance are blatantly getting frogged, and the Poppy Shawl, whilst not as finished as I want, is bound off and wearable. I also went for a couple of easy finishes to get things out of the way and space freed up at home. A couple of nights spent spinning and the Herdwick is done for now... not sure I'm there on yardage but its enough to be getting on with. Lama's socks have also come to a very pleasant end. For a pattern that I didn't overly enjoy knitting and which looked decidedly wonky as a wip on the needles they look really good when on (well I think so anyway :D )
So that's me down to four projects actually on needles at the moment ( I might have cast on the Herdwick bag in a moment of weakness last night). Next up was deciding in what order to get stuff done! My commuter projects was going to be Lama's socks but they're now off the needles. Looks like I might be hoping for enough space on the train to spin up the yarn to finish off the other socks and/or try getting Mum's shawl in my bag... hmm watch this space. The plan then is to get Mum's shawl done on the train leaving my evenings a bit freer to work on the stupidly complicated In Dreams when I'm at home.
With the amount of knitting I've been doing recently though I definitely need a spin project to keep me sane. There is, contrary to popular belief (and for goodness sake don't let my DH hear me say this), such a thing as too much knitting. I pretty much topped out my knitting ability at the end of last week with the rush to get the Poppy Shawl done. The better end of two weeks knitting on trains, on buses, before work, after work, and it felt like in my sleep... oh and of almost all of that being stst was not the fast way to feed my knitting mojo. So a spin project is definitely needed. I've got two spindle projects at the moment which are good for commuting, and I think I'll make a start on the latest instalment from Yarnscape's Year of the Wheel club. I'm going to shoot for a wheel spun 3ply sock yarn to then knit into the utterly delightful Twisted Flowers socks by Cookie A.
Should keep me out of trouble for a while anyway!
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Impossible Intarsia - update
Up to now I have:
- Knitted
- Followed a chart
- Amended/written said chart up from original sketch
- Tinked
- Ripped out several rows (using of course the very sensible "Agh darn it, I'll just pull the needles out of the lot and go from there" procedure)
- Worked with five cones of yarn all connected to the piece at one time
- Tried and failed at not swearing
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Impossible Intarsia
I hate intarsia. Actually I don't think that quite covers how I feel about this particular technique. I loath it. It drives me nuts faffing about with twisting the yarns on the back, it totally messes with me getting into any kind of a rhythm knitting, and trying to do it on a train....!
So quite why it is I've set myself a near as damn it impossible deadline for an intarsia shawl is slightly beyond me. You really would think that I would learn wouldn't you? Not a bit of it :) A works dinner with my DH needed me to get a new cocktail length dress, and of course having found said dress my next insane thought was "ooh I know what would look good with that in terms of a wrap". For some reason, I forget what, I'd had the idea to use Habu's stainless silk for something knocking about in my head for a good month or so. You can see where this is going can't you? So a quick lunchtime trip to Loop later and I had two cones of the stainless silk, one of BC Garn's Jaipur Silk in black and another in red. Now you would think that the better end of 600m of each type would be enough really... yeah next time I design from scratch I really need to think that yardage thing through better. Been back already to get another black silk and another two of the Habu! Oh and all of this needs to be knitted by 21st so I can block it an pray it dries in time for the 22nd... that last bit might not be happening! Delights of using the Habu seems to be that blocking isn't really that needed, the steel bits rumple anyway and the silk sections have a really interesting drape all of their own. Its stiffer than normal silk, but still very drapy... almost like a very fine leather oddly!
So what is this nuts project like? Well so far it looks like this:
I've started with a single strand of the Habu, then moved to holding two strands of it together, before moving to the most solid area which is a strand of Habu with a strand of silk. The plan was to create a graded effect which actually shows up slightly less in real life. The dress itself is black with a lot of red patterning so I wanted something that wouldn't be too dark on my arms, but would have the wow factor of red on black across the back. That photo shows me just over a quarter of the way through the patterned area, with another graded section at the opposite end still to go as well! Some how I don't think I'll be getting much sleep next week!
So quite why it is I've set myself a near as damn it impossible deadline for an intarsia shawl is slightly beyond me. You really would think that I would learn wouldn't you? Not a bit of it :) A works dinner with my DH needed me to get a new cocktail length dress, and of course having found said dress my next insane thought was "ooh I know what would look good with that in terms of a wrap". For some reason, I forget what, I'd had the idea to use Habu's stainless silk for something knocking about in my head for a good month or so. You can see where this is going can't you? So a quick lunchtime trip to Loop later and I had two cones of the stainless silk, one of BC Garn's Jaipur Silk in black and another in red. Now you would think that the better end of 600m of each type would be enough really... yeah next time I design from scratch I really need to think that yardage thing through better. Been back already to get another black silk and another two of the Habu! Oh and all of this needs to be knitted by 21st so I can block it an pray it dries in time for the 22nd... that last bit might not be happening! Delights of using the Habu seems to be that blocking isn't really that needed, the steel bits rumple anyway and the silk sections have a really interesting drape all of their own. Its stiffer than normal silk, but still very drapy... almost like a very fine leather oddly!
So what is this nuts project like? Well so far it looks like this:
I've started with a single strand of the Habu, then moved to holding two strands of it together, before moving to the most solid area which is a strand of Habu with a strand of silk. The plan was to create a graded effect which actually shows up slightly less in real life. The dress itself is black with a lot of red patterning so I wanted something that wouldn't be too dark on my arms, but would have the wow factor of red on black across the back. That photo shows me just over a quarter of the way through the patterned area, with another graded section at the opposite end still to go as well! Some how I don't think I'll be getting much sleep next week!
Sunday, 11 March 2012
A Perfect Saturday in Spring
Last weekend my DH and I had hoped to get over to Miller's Ark to see the lambing but the weather was absolutely horrendous so we stayed in with a nice log fire instead :) This weekend though the weather was beautiful so we thought a couple of hours looking at the lambs before a 5 mile walk was a good plan, and boy was it ever!
First up, Miller's Ark. These guys are based a couple of miles away from me and have a brilliant setup for kids and adults alike. The volunteers are all amazingly helpful and evidently really care about the animals. The animals themselves are utter characters! It is very evident that they've all been raised being used to being handled and as such they are very friendly especially if you have a cup of feed in your hands.
The area you're allowed into as visitors is split up into a couple of well marked areas. The first is a series of pens with sheep, lambs and goats in them for you to feed. In these ones are the Angora goats (very nimble at climbing up the fencing to snaffle feed from your cup when you're not watching!) and some very placid Oxford Downs with their lambs... the latter not being half as smart as the goats!
How could you not want to feed this cheeky chappy?!?
You can just make out the second pen in the top picture which has some Devon(?) Longwools in it. Their fleeces really are amazingly heavy and I was lucky enough to get chatting to one of the volunteers about them. Turns out the fast way to get the whistlestop tour is to ask about the breed then say you're a new spinner :) I'm sure I didn't remember half of what I got told.
The far pens had the real characters in them though, a bunch of Herdwick Shetland crosses! Yes you did hear me right on the mix. The reason being they only had ewes of one breed but no ram (sorry I can't remember which way round it was). As a farm that specialises in hands on kids stuff they try to breed so they have new lambs for as much of the year as possible, and breeding the Oxford Downs with anything else just wouldn't have worked due to the size difference of the animals, so a Herdwick Shetland cross it was :) From what I remember it also means they get a good sized lamb early on which again helps with them being handled a lot by non-experts.
These guys were utter hooligans, running from one end of the pen to the other whenever they got so much as a sniff of feed. You can see how they've managed to wear down the wool on their necks by shoving their heads through anything that they can fit through! When you look at them they have very Herdy'ish faces but the wool is surprisingly soft, very much more like what you would expect from a Shetland. Funny how the genetics works out isn't it.
Prize for most chilled out sheep though has to go to this little guy...
whilst the "how far down is that?!?!" prize goes to this one...
The award for utter Awwwhhh though has to be split between this bunch of baby rabbits...
and little guy who was less than a day old...
My DH took great delight in stroking, cuddling and petting everything small and furry within sight :) We'll definitely be back for the sheering though... now I just have to hope that they'll be willing to sell me a fleece or three rather then sending them all off to the Wool Board... Angoras and Herdy crosses I have my eyes on you :)
A five mile walk, several pints of cider just before the end whilst watching the sun go down, then takeaway in front of a crackling fire at home and the day was complete. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I think you'll agree.
First up, Miller's Ark. These guys are based a couple of miles away from me and have a brilliant setup for kids and adults alike. The volunteers are all amazingly helpful and evidently really care about the animals. The animals themselves are utter characters! It is very evident that they've all been raised being used to being handled and as such they are very friendly especially if you have a cup of feed in your hands.
The area you're allowed into as visitors is split up into a couple of well marked areas. The first is a series of pens with sheep, lambs and goats in them for you to feed. In these ones are the Angora goats (very nimble at climbing up the fencing to snaffle feed from your cup when you're not watching!) and some very placid Oxford Downs with their lambs... the latter not being half as smart as the goats!
How could you not want to feed this cheeky chappy?!?
You can just make out the second pen in the top picture which has some Devon(?) Longwools in it. Their fleeces really are amazingly heavy and I was lucky enough to get chatting to one of the volunteers about them. Turns out the fast way to get the whistlestop tour is to ask about the breed then say you're a new spinner :) I'm sure I didn't remember half of what I got told.
The far pens had the real characters in them though, a bunch of Herdwick Shetland crosses! Yes you did hear me right on the mix. The reason being they only had ewes of one breed but no ram (sorry I can't remember which way round it was). As a farm that specialises in hands on kids stuff they try to breed so they have new lambs for as much of the year as possible, and breeding the Oxford Downs with anything else just wouldn't have worked due to the size difference of the animals, so a Herdwick Shetland cross it was :) From what I remember it also means they get a good sized lamb early on which again helps with them being handled a lot by non-experts.
These guys were utter hooligans, running from one end of the pen to the other whenever they got so much as a sniff of feed. You can see how they've managed to wear down the wool on their necks by shoving their heads through anything that they can fit through! When you look at them they have very Herdy'ish faces but the wool is surprisingly soft, very much more like what you would expect from a Shetland. Funny how the genetics works out isn't it.
Prize for most chilled out sheep though has to go to this little guy...
whilst the "how far down is that?!?!" prize goes to this one...
The award for utter Awwwhhh though has to be split between this bunch of baby rabbits...
and little guy who was less than a day old...
My DH took great delight in stroking, cuddling and petting everything small and furry within sight :) We'll definitely be back for the sheering though... now I just have to hope that they'll be willing to sell me a fleece or three rather then sending them all off to the Wool Board... Angoras and Herdy crosses I have my eyes on you :)
A five mile walk, several pints of cider just before the end whilst watching the sun go down, then takeaway in front of a crackling fire at home and the day was complete. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I think you'll agree.
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