Fibre Friday #37

Happy Friday everyone! And back to regularly scheduled Fibre Friday programming! I was hoping to blog during the week this week - as I've had some time off work - but I've been too busy, which I suppose is a good thing! Anyway. On to the knitting...

My handspun socks from handdyed fibre are finished! I'm really pleased with these as I was aiming to get socks that were as matchy-matchy as possible - and I think it worked! Before I started spinning, I split the fibre lengthways down the middle, so I had two long, thin strips of fibre, then I predrafted the heck out of them, and rolled them up into huge airy 'roving balls' (technical term!) and spun from them, then chain plied the singles. I'm really happy with them - they're not my typical colours, but who cares - they were really fun to knit! They're my standard toe-up, with an afterthought heel, that I knit using the other end of the ball, just to add contrast. Also: In the spirit of last week's post - this is my tenth project using my handspun yarn! Goal unlocked! ;)

In the spirit of colourful socks, I cast on for a plain toe up vanilla sock out of some very vibrant, sparkly sock yarn I picked up at a local Wool Fair in the summer. These were predominantly worked on while I was 'queuing' online for tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (I did manage to get tickets, after a heck of a lot of hassle - for December 2016). These might be too colourful for my taste, but they'll make fun bus knitting.

More on the sock front - and I cast on for a test knit for the lovely Amelia Putri. These are her Farmer's Socks and I'm knitting them out of some handdyed yarn (I'm off to a slow start because I had to the dye yarn and wait for it to dry before I could cast it on! Haha). I'm really enjoying how it's knitting up so far, but I think it may be a little small for me (although I have substantially sized feet, so they'll go to someone else if they are!).

I went away for a few days - to visit some of my lovely friends in London Town - and only took two projects with me - my handspun socks, and my Hitchhiker Shawl by Martina Behm, which I'm also knitting out of handspun. I think I added four points to the shawl - I was hoping for more, but the needles I was using, snapped, rendering the project unworkable (I'm planning to do a mini-review on KnitPro's Symfonie Needles at some point - spoiler alert - I'm not keen on them!). Luckily Katy didn't me 'dragging' her to Waterloo to visit I Knit London and pick up a set of Addi's...

I don't think I've showed this on the blog before - I've started working on the first sleeve for my Pomme de Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers. I'm knitting it out of Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the 'Leopard' colourway and the body is finished and I'm two sleeves and a neck band away from a new cardi. I have loved the pattern so far, it's been easy to follow and fun to knit. Until I got to the sleeves. The sleeves are a nightmare! There isn't any shaping, they're just a straight tube - which is fine if you're knitting the smaller sizes - but my wrist is a significantly different size to my upper arm! So I cast on the number of stitches recommended in the pattern - I can't remember the exact figure, but I think it was in the sixties... And the rest was a cuff I could've easily fit both wrists in to... So I'm working from some mods someone else on Ravelry has made - and starting at the smallest size and building in increases - if you look at the above photo you can see the strip of stockinette on the right side of the sleeve, where I'm increasing. This is slowing me down a little and I haven't worked on it at all this week!

My Divine cardigan commission is still hanging over my head! I've blocked the back, which is finally dry - it turns out that wet blocking an acrylic/polyester mix on a blocking mat (essentially plastic-on-plastic) takes forever to dry! So I'm going to do the fronts next, while I work on the second sleeve, which I've just started. This is taking me a lot longer than I'd like! The pattern is 7176 by Sirdar and I'm using Sirdar Divine to knit it.

I've done a little bit of dyeing this week! This is one of the colours I dyed up - a really fun blue-turquoise mix.

As I mentioned above, I needed to stop by I Knit London for the emergency purpose of picking up some more needles - and obviously I had to have a little look at their yarn while I was there! I picked up another skein of Vivacious DK from Fyberspates and two skeins of Socks Yeah! the new yarn line from Rachel Coopey, in the colourway 'Malachite'.

Phew. That was a pretty wordy post - I guess that's what happens when I skip a week! Okay, I'm off to actually do some knitting, as I haven't had a chance to much over the last couple of days. Happy weekend everyone!

♥

10 Weeks To Go - A Knitting Resolution Update

Sorry for the lack of a Fibre Friday post this week - this isn't because I've been lazy - I promise! I've done a fair amount of knitting and dyeing this week, but I've been working lots and I'm going away for the weekend tomorrow night, so I haven't had a chance to take photographs of anything, in daylight! There is a chance that after the clocks go back this weekend, Fibre Friday will turn into a Fibre Fri-Whatever Day I Have Enough Daylight haha. But I promise they'll be an extra long post next week. Anyway. Onwards...

The majority of the socks I knit during Stash Dash over the summer.

There are ten weeks left of 2015 (I counted - on a quiet afternoon at work last week! Haha). So that's just over two months to finish up my 2015 Knitting Resolutions. I did a six month recap back at the end of June and I thought it was time for an update.

My Knitting Resolutions were as follows:

- Knit ten projects from books I own.
- Knit ten projects, including a sweater, out of my handspun yarn.
- Continue onwards with #operationsockdrawer and knit twenty five pairs of socks.
- Steek something.
- Start a knitting podcast.

Well, two of those haven't happened at all - I haven't steeked anything and I don't see myself starting a podcast. I have too much to juggle right now and I don't think I could do it justice!

My handspun Little Fair Isle Hat

My handspun Linus Shawl

But, I have fallen in love with knitting with my handspun yarn. I've yet to make a sweater out of it, but so far I've knitted three pairs of socks, four hats, a shawl and five Birds of Happiness. I'm currently working on my fourth pair of socks, which - if you don't count each bird as a finished item, but as a collective, will be my tenth project.
Unless I finish my Hitchhiker first of course...

Knitting ten projects from books I own however, isn't going quite as well... So far, I've finished four things - all socks.

A pair of Budleigh socks from Coop Knits Socks by Rachel Coopey.

A pair of Tic-Tac-Toe-Up socks from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson.

A pair of Dyad socks (top) and a pair of Strie socks both from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel.

My sock drawer is another matter entirely - I am making fabulous progress on my biggest goal, knitting twenty five pairs of socks over the course of the year. I'm currently on my 22nd pair - a couple of pairs have been gifts, but the majority have been for me (priorities - am I right!?) and with another ten weeks left of the year, I think I can make it to twenty five...

I'm ready for 2015 to be over now I think - I want new resolutions! Bring on the Year Of Sweaters! (I know, I know, I'm a glutton for punishment)

♥

Fibre Friday #36

I feel like my 'knitting time' is gradually being eaten up lately - there are too many demands on my time! I think I'm going to need to start getting up earlier if I want to get anything done - this working lark doesn't half get in the way of everything! This week some knitting has happened, not a crazy amount, but that's okay. 

I finished my socks! I cast them off last night whilst watching The Apprentice (guilty pleasure) and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. These are knitted out of some of my hand dyed yarn - they're plain vanilla toe-up socks with a short row heel, I used a Merino/Cashmere/Nylon base and they are so squishy (technical term).

I also knitted two more handspun birds of happiness - using the Bluebird of Happiness pattern by Sara Elizabeth Kellner. I love these little birds - I'm going to put them in my Gift Drawer and give them as little Christmas presents.

Next up is my Divine cardigan - the fronts are done and I'm onto the sleeves! I've modified the pattern to knit the sleeves in the round and I've made a bit of progress on sleeve number one. This is a commission that I'm knitting out of Sirdar Divine yarn (a polyester/acrylic mix...) using pattern 7176 published by Sirdar. I want this project finished by the end of the month - which I think is pretty doable - although I have to get the recipient to try it on before I do the button band, so that might slow me down...

I have made some progress with my crochet granny square blanket! I put edges around the six circles I crocheted a while back and then crocheted a bunch more circles. I'm using Cascade 220 in a whole load of different colours, to make what will either be a sofa blanket, or a bedspread. This is a pretty long term project - I'm aiming to finish it during Stash Dash next year ;)

After casting off my hand dyed socks last night, I had to cast on a new pair of socks immediately. Luckily I'd already wound up some of my hand dyed, hand spun yarn - so I didn't even have to leave the sofa! I really need to knit some socks with cables or lace - but I'm on a hand dyed and/or handspun kick and I just want to use yarn I've made! Haha.

Again, another spinning-less week. I'm not going to be able to get back to my wheel until both my cardigan projects are done! But I did spend an afternoon over the dye pots and dyed up all the pretties you see on the shelf above! They're not exactly those colours in real life, but by the time I got home from work to take the photograph - daylight was against me, so the yellow-y cast is the overhead light!

I wanted to share some of the things I purchased at the Knitting & Stitching Show (you can see my photos from the show here). I shopped very differently from how I did last year, when I essentially bought every skein of sock weight yarn in sight! Haha. This year my purchases were more considered, I bought 4 cones of Habu Tsumugi Lace in 'Color 3' to knit Insouciant by Julie Hoover. (Oh my goodness typing Color instead of Colour messes with my little English mind, but that is what's written on the label!)

I also bought two skeins of Fyberspates Vivacious DK in '813 - Slate' and '80805' - very pretty yarn, but not very inspiring colourway names! These are going to be used to knit the Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn. I also bought three beautiful batts from Spin City UK - but I couldn't do them justice!

Finally on the shopping front - I was lying awake at 2am the other night and browsing etsy - which is what smart phones were invented for, right?! And Fab Funky Fibres popped up in my feed - I love FFF yarn and I thought Elaine had stopped dyeing because her shop's been empty for months, but she's back and the shop is full of gorgeous self striping. It's without a doubt the best UK based self striping yarn I've come across so far - which is a big deal, because sometimes buying yarn overseas works out very spendy! Anyway, I bought a set of 2 matching 50g skeins of 'I Believe in the Impossible' which is a 23 colour striped rainbow. I'm very excited to cast these on - but they might have to wait for a while!

I think my Fibre Friday posts may be a little shorter for a while - I'm working lots of overtime at my job and I need to start studying hard for my theory test - so I can take my practical driving test in the not too distant future, but I intend to keep posting what I've worked on, so watch this space!

Happy Friday everyone!!

♥

Lately In Pictures #8 - The one at the 2015 Knitting & Stitching Show

Sitting and knitting on the train - I wore my Old Romance cardigan, my Linus shawl and a pair of hand knit socks to celebrate!

The Spin City UK booth was the highlight of the show for me - I love Louise's fibre and I treated myself to three of her beautiful batts. Louise herself is lovely - she was doing almost constant demonstrations of her fabulous resin drop spindles to an awestruck crowd. She was the only vendor solely selling fibre and I think she converted many a knitter over the course of the show!

I was very tempted to purchase a kit to knit this Robin - for my friends little girl - my honorary niece, whose name is Robyn. But I restrained myself - I have plenty of things up my sleeve for Robyn for Christmas this year!

The exhibitions at the show are always interesting and inspiring.

The showstopper for me was The Stitchmonger installation by artist Kate Jenkins - who had created an entire fish counter, knitted, crocheted and felted - down to the lemon slices and seaweed garnish. Lobsters, anchovies, sardines, tentacles - everything you'd expect to see at a fishmongers. The detail is incredible and I could've stared at it for hours!

Pretty yarns in the Colinette booth.

The TOFT alpacas stand was fabulous - I've visited their booth at the show several times in the past - but since the publication of their book Ed's Menagerie, it's so much brighter and busier than it has been in the past. All the crochet creatures hanging from the trellis ceiling has got to be the best promotion for a crochet book, that I've ever seen! I wish I could crochet properly so I could give these critters a try...

This unicorn! This unicorn is glorious!

I was very tempted to buy this yarn from Debonnaire yarns to make a sweater - but unfortunately they didn't have enough (don't worry - I bought a sweater quantity elsewhere!).

These birds by Katherine Bertram are stunning!

This is my fourth year of visiting the show - and while the exhibitions are incredible - and you can get some some fabulous yarn there, every year it seems to get more and more commercial. I think that's primarily due to the cost of having a stand there - but I think it would benefit from more indie businesses like Spin City vending. Next year I think I'm going to head to Yarndale and/or Unravel to get my fix of handdyed yarns! But maybe I'm just a yarn snob. Haha.

♥