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.

Jewel is done

Well, the crochet mojo is back I think. I actually finished Jewel and started another top from the same book, (Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan). I've wavered between knitting and crochet for a lot of years, one or other taking precedence for a while. Crochet wins on speed since the fabric grows so fast, ideal for jumpers that you want quickly. This is really comfortable to wear and I'm glad I persisted with it. Getting the right gauge with this stretchy stitch pattern is a challenge, so trial and error seems to be the way to go. I've had a similar experience with Sweet Tea, the next crochet project, but I think I've cracked it now.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cathay, a DK cotton, microfibre and viscose mix. I tried knitting with it, but it is very inelastic, and I wasn't enjoying the experience, so tried crochet which is much better. I still have to do the shoulder straps and then I'll just keep going on the body until I run out of yarn.

Spinning has been happening too. I now have a 100g skein of the dark brown alpaca to add to the other two colours. The white fibre I bought is spinning up even better and I've got 50g of singles already. Once this is done, I really must dye some wool so that I can spin something colourful!

I haven't forgotten knitting either. Mystic Meadows is growing, onto clue 3 now. And gasp, shock horror I cast on another lace project. This one is the Goddess Knits Mystery shawl, a circular pi shawl KAL. I've never done a round one before, so this is going to be interesting. The picture is of the first clue with 4 rounds done of the second. I think this will take a good blocking to look it's best. So far each clue has four pattern options, so everyone has to choose which to use. I went with D for clue 1 and B for clue 2.

Plodding on

I'm still here, just not getting many knitting opportunities lately. I do have some progress to show though. Mystic Meadows has grown to row 180. When I pinned it out to measure I decided that I do need to extend it somewhat, so I shall use some of the lengthening options available. The pattern is lovely and I'm still enjoying it. I was hoping to have enough yarn left from the third skein to knit some socks, but this might not happen now. We'll see.

A plain vanilla sock is the only FO I've had in a while. This is Online Supersocke City Color shade 917. I'm using a 2.75mm circular and 64sts. At least I started the second one.

It's very frustrating when you want to knit, but other things take precedence. The brown alpaca I was spinning hasn't been touched in over a month, I'm hoping I can get back to it soon.

The grass is growing

Well, actually it's Mystic Meadows which is growing. It's going pretty well and I'm really enjoying the knitting so far. The only other knitting I've been doing this week is a plain stocking stitch sock, I needed a 'no concentration needed' project as well.

More alpaca to spin

Why do I do it? Not content with having nearly enough mid brown alpaca spun up to knit a sweater or jacket, I've gone and bought 500g each of two other colours of alpaca fibre to contrast with it. So now I have some dark brown and some white as well. I've made a start on the dark brown, the picture is 50g of singles. In addition I spun some more of the dark chestnut fleece I bought last year.

This is over 120g and 222m of roughly aran weight. Once I get the other two colours done, I'll have to get designing. I'm going to have to find some willpower from somewhere, because I also want to dye and spin some BFL for socks.


The Charade variation socks are finished. They fit fine and I'm happy with them. I'm still not too fond of short row heels, but at least I know I can do them if I want. These were knitted on a 2.5mm circular needle with 72 stitches.

Lace knitting has had a little break since I finished Secret of the stole ii about a week ago. It isn't blocked yet, so no picture. The weather is so damp and dull, it would take forever to dry. Still, the chart for Mystic Meadows was released today, and I cast on. It looks promising so far, but there isn't much to see yet.

Having dithered about Jewel, I finally opted to rip back far enough to change it to a smaller size. It seems that a couple of inches of positive ease was too much, so now I'm aiming for no ease at all. This seems to actually fit quite nicely and with just a few more rounds on the body to do, I'll soon be on the sleeves.