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.

The colour of meadows

As part of the preparations for taking part in the Mystic Meadows KAL, I've been preparing some yarn. I wanted to use a non-solid colour of fingering yarn and decided that I would try to dye my own. Three skeins needed to be dyed at the same time, so first I had to get a suitable dyeing vessel. Previously, I've only dyed 100g at a time in the microwave, but this needed to be a bigger dyelot. Luckily, M&S are currently offering 7 litre stock pots at a good price, (stainless steel with a glass lid) which proved to be ideal. The idea was to create a range of greens to reflect my idea of meadowland, but the first attempt was a bit off colourwise. Very yellow-green. I had prepared three different greens, then dipped opposite ends of the skeins in each of the first two, followed by total immersion in the third. Something wasn't quite right obviously.


Realizing that this wasn't quite what I wanted, I overdyed the whole lot with blue, and finished up with multishaded greens, maybe a bit darker than I had planned, but still pleasing.


The swatch for the KAL was released today, so I'm all ready now.


The Tidal Wave socks are finished, I really enjoyed working with this yarn (merino/tencel) and the socks feel so soft on my feet. It's almost a shame it's nearly sandal weather.

Sometimes, life gets in the way of knitting

Having realised that I haven't written anything here for over a week and a half, I thought I'd better try. Blogging about not very much seems a bit pointless really, but this is supposed to be my fibre related journal, so I'm going to do it. It's hard to isolate the reason, but there are no FOs, nothing started, and only a bit of progress on Secret of the Stole ii. I'm halfway through the penultimate clue, and I'm finding it hard to keep enthusiastic about it. I'm past the heel turn and gusset decreases on the second Tidal Wave sock and on to the plain stockinette of the foot.

I've spun up a little of my mid brown alpaca, and spent some time this morning carding some more.

We're having a warm spell of weather at the moment, and I think Mollie has the right idea.

Done and blocked

Mystic Light is done. It's been a really nice knitalong, and the design is lovely. It used a bit less than 200g of yarn, and it stretched out to about 34" deep and 68" across. I'm glad I learned to cable without a cable needle which is easier than I thought it would be.


Progress on anything else has been slow, but I have made a start on the second Tidal Wave sock. I couldn't resist reversing the pattern to make a mirror image of the first one. This merino/tencel yarn is so soft, it's very nice to knit.