Morning Surf finished

It's done and blocked, measuring 55" x 7". I didn't stretch it very much, so it could have been bigger, but I'm pleased with it. It didn't even take me very long to knit, it's nice to have something finished quickly for a change.

The photo is of just one sleeve, but as of this evening, there is another one as well. Next I'll cast on for the body of the Cabled Spiral sweater by Norah Gaughan. I ripped the yarn (Sirdar Salsa) from the Weekend Sweater which had been hibernating for some time, and which I eventually realized was a bit small and I didn't really want a tight fitting sweater. The Cabled Spiral is mainly stocking stitch until the yoke when it gets interesting.

This is the current state of the crocheted Rosemary sweater, the longer sleeve needs a few more rounds, and then I need to make the other one match. I need to work out a way to make the neck opening less revealing because I don't want to have to wear a camisole underneath necessarily. I had made the opening higher than the pattern stated, but it wasn't quite enough even then.

I had a little dyeing session at the weekend, this is about 500g of english wool tops which I dyed in four different semi solid shades. So far, I've spun up about 2oz of the brown. At the moment , the plan is to make a 3 ply with it, maybe for a hat. Other ideas include spinning a thick singles yarn for a change.

The brown was dyed using leftover unexhausted dyes from previous sessions, after all, brown is usually the result of mixing all sorts of colours isn't it? There was separation of some of the constituent shades, giving this mixture shown clearly in the predrafted tops.

This is fun

I'm having fun with this scarf, it's the Morning Surf scarf modified a bit. I cast on 36 sts on to a 4.5mm needle and instead of 2,3,4,3,2 YOs, I'm doing 1,2,3,2,1. I don't normally get on too well knitting scarves, I get fed up before half way usually, but I'm past that point already and still going strong. Knitting with my own handspun is more special somehow and the colours are so vivid with a bit of candy striping shading one to the next.



This is more restful on the eyes, two skeins of two ply totalling 542m from the pastel batts along with a smaller skein of three ply. It isn't too bad considering the aggravation it gave me during the spinning of it. I have no idea what to use this for yet, hopefully something will occur to me soon. It would be good to use my handspun before it gets too old in the stash.

It's a bit bright

The BFL I dyed a couple of weeks ago has been transformed into this.


It's 219m of 2 ply weighing approx 100g, thicker than I anticipated so I don't think it will become socks, maybe a scarf. It's very soft, so well suited to that use. I did have to cheat a bit when plying because there were differences in thickness and therefore length between the two bobbins, so I removed and added lengths of colour from one single or the other in order to align the colour changes a bit better. Next time, I think I'll try to spin thin and navajo ply.
So far, my favourite dyeing and spinning experiment was the one where I dyed two different, but harmonising colourways, spun each into a single and then plied them. This gave rise to my Swallowtail shawl and it's still my favourite FO from recent times.


This curiosity is half a slice of cheese on toast. Originally, it was leaning in an A shape with another piece, and remained standing when the other piece was removed.

Noils and Neps

It's been quite a trying time lately. The pastel dyed batts I've been spinning are rather full of those little tangled lumps which I think are called neps, and assorted short fibres or noils. Both make it difficult to spin an even yarn. I removed a large percentage while pre-drafting, and more while spinning, but some got through anyway. The picture above shows one such piece of pre-drafted fibre along with the crud that came out of it. I've managed to fill two bobbins with singles and am currently plying them. I'm thinking that I may try felting the remaining fibre rather than spinning it. I nearly ran out of patience with this stuff.

To take my mind off this fibre, I finally got to dye some of the superwash BFL that I have had for a while. I didn't have a clear plan for this and ended up with a rainbow of colours.

Once it was cooked and dried, it looked a bit different.

This might be socks eventually, I'm going to attempt a 2 ply and maintain the colour sequence by dividing the roving lengthways into an even number of sections and hopefully spinning two matching singles. Watch this space!

With a few UFOs hiding around the place, I promoted one of them to a WIP - my Rosemary crocheted sweater which has grown quite nicely over the last couple of weeks. It still looks like a green blob, but I'll try for a picture soon. I also finished my pair of plain Online socks, ready for the cooler weather.

A spinning time

With the exception of one knitting project, my crafting time has been spent spinning lately. I seem to have accumulated yet more fluffy stuff, and the best way to make it more compact is to spin it. This is Cheviot cross Border Leicester carded fleece dyed in pastel shades.

So far, it looks like this - I'm just tearing strips off the batt and letting the colours do what they like. It'll probably end up a 2 ply with assorted combinations of colours. It isn't next to the skin soft so I'm trying to think what to make with it.

The laceweight I mentioned last time made from my BFL fleece is not very good. Actually, that's an understatement, it's the worst yarn I've spun on this wheel. It's very wrinkly and even though I ran it through the wheel again to put a bit more plying twist in, it still isn't right. So for now I'm going to try spinning that fibre a bit thicker, maybe spinning laceweight isn't for me with this particular fleece.


This is my Mystic Meadows finished, it's been a push for the finish for the last couple of weeks. I blocked it yesterday, and it looks pretty good. This is the first half, the picture of the other half was blurry, so I'll try again later. It took just a few yards under the 2 skeins of yarn, so I'll definitely be knitting some matching socks with the third skein, although I don't think I'll be wearing them at the same time! The pattern is by Anna Dalvi and I used a 4mm needle. It blocked to 21" x 67", but relaxed somewhat when I unpinned it, especially in the cabled sections.

Cleaning fleece

Since I last posted, I succumbed to the lure of the raw fleece, and bought a BFL fleece. I figure that every spinner should try the experience at least once. With it being shearing season there are quite a few on offer, so I thought why not? Well, I can think of a few reasons now which didn't occur to me at first. I didn't expect it to be so much work to get it clean, endless rinses, and the potential felting risk. Yes, I did matt a bit of it, but it will tease apart. Then there is the sheepy smell, which lingers even after washing. But the main thing is the time it's going to take to prepare it for spinning. I don't have a drum carder yet, (I'm working on it), and the fibres are too long for hand carding, so I'm having to tease out the locks with a small carder and spin from the lock.

Some of the fleece having a soak

A couple of teased out locks

So far, I've spun a miniscule amount of very fine singles just to try to see if I can produce laceweight. When I've got the same amount on another bobbin, I'll see what the 2 ply looks like.

No, this isn't it, this is the white alpaca I was spinning before. Sadly, it's a little bit too thin to go with the other colours I already spun, although I might get away with it. I'll have to swatch.

I have done a bit of knitting, mainly on Mystic Meadows which is now 3/4 done, and the Goddess Knits mystery is about 2/3 though the third clue. There are still only 288 stitches for a while yet, but I can tell that after the next increase round it's going to grow very slowly.

Just in time for the cool spell

My Sweet Tea top is done in time for the summery weather to take a break. Outside is grey and cool, and inside I can't get the camera to capture the green of this yarn. It persists in showing it as grey. Imagine it as a pale spring green (see here) scroll down a bit, shade 13. The top is a snug fit, but I like it. To recap, it is Debbie Bliss Cathay, a cotton, viscose microfibre and silk blend DK yarn worked with a 5mm hook and I used nearly all of 6 balls.