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.