Fibre Friday #44

Guys - I am on a ROLL this week. I have done every fibre related craft that I'm interested in, over the course of this week. Knitting, Dyeing, Crochet, Sewing and I dusted off my spinning wheel!

My sparkly rainbow socks are DONE! I cast them off at knit night on Wednesday. This is pair number twenty five of 2015. Knit out of yarn from a local wool fair, these are wonderfully colourful and sparkly.

...My Pomme de Pin is finished too! I stitched grosgrain ribbon into the button bands to stabilise them - I also decided against adding buttons and buttonholes because I don't wear my cardigans buttoned. It fits just how I hoped it would! It was a little tight pre-blocking, but because the yarn I used - Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the 'Leopard' colourway - is super wash, so it grew just enough to be perfect. Except for the sleeves, which I've pulled up here - they are about 10 inches too long! Luckily they look okay slightly wrinkled up ;) Pomme de Pin is a pattern by Amy Christoffers.

I don't know what came over me this week - I tripped and fell and landed on the hexipuff bandwagon!  Hexipuffs are the name given to the little stuffed hexagons that make up The Beekeeper's Quilt pattern by Tiny Owl Knits. I'm not committing myself to making a blanket - but I thought I'd use my leftover sock yarn to make a seat pad for my spinning chair. I used to scoff at these for being too much work to bother with, but they're actually highly addictive!

I also put a little bit of work into my crochet granny square blanket - and made lots of inner circles in various states of completion! The ones on the right are done, the rest need another round or two. I'm saving up all the inners so I can crochet the edges in one go - as that's my favourite part! I'm using Cascade 220 in too many colours to name to make this project!

I finally got my spinning mojo back! I took the silk I was spinning off the wheel and cracked out the Nunoco mixed merino bags in the 'Fen' colourway I got for my birthday. I got two packs and I'm combining them to make a long gradient yarn that I will probably chain ply and make a shawl out of... I'm on the third colour so far - this will be getting some action while I catch up on The Apprentice later ;)

I've also done some dyeing this week! The batch of skeins pictured above need tidying up and labelling and then they'll go into the shop over the weekend.

I had the day off on Thursday and I decided I should finally get around to sewing the project bags that I cut the fabric out for, months ago! I may keep some of my finished hexies in one and probably a sock project in the other...

I also wanted to share a photograph of the Miss Winkle shawl that my mum has just finished, knit up out of my hand dyed yarn. It looks glorious - the loopy edging is fabulous.

Phew. It's been a busy week! Now, I'm off to get my Christmas on! ;) There is a chance that this might be the last Fibre Friday post of the year - because it's Christmas next Friday, and New Year the week after... I'm thinking of probably switching it up a little in 2016, but we shall see what happens!

♥

Fibre Friday #41

I've had the week off work this week - and I've been enjoying it immensely - I must get out of retail! ;) I've achieved a fair amount on the fibre front this week - without further ado...

I finished my Skinner hat by Melissa LaBarre! This is knit out of my handdyed yarn - Stranded Dyeworks Oasis, in the 'Shiner' colourway (which I listed in my shop this week)! I love how the colour has knit up, the lace was enjoyable to knit and the finished hat is very pretty. BUT. It's too close fitting for me - I like my hats to have a certain amount of slouch, otherwise I worry that I look like I'm wearing a swimming cap! Not a good look. But this is a sample for my shop and not for me to wear out and about - although I would've done if it looked better on me - so it's not the end of the world! If I was going to knit it again, I'd consider increasing after the ribbing, to fit another pattern repeat into the stitch count widthwise and possibly add another repeat in length...

I have also knit another Bird of Happiness! This is knit out of leftovers from my Prickly Thistle Mittens - the 'Steel' colourway on Bowland DK by Eden Cottage Yarns. The pattern is Bluebird of Happiness by Sara Elizabeth Kellner. This is the first I've knit out of something other than my handspun - and I really like it! I'm going to be knitting a few more of these as Christmas gifts I think.

I've put some work into the first sleeve of my Pomme de Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers - after avoiding it for weeks in  favour of the dreaded Divine cardigan... I'm knitting it out of Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the 'Leopard' Colourway. The sleeves are driving me a little crazy if I'm honest. I looked back over past FF posts, but I haven't talked about it before - despite having cast on for the sleeve about a month ago. There are no increases on the sleeve, you cast on with the full amount of stitches, knit the ribbed cuff and then knit the pattern until the length desired. Now, I have seen a few podcasters knit this cardigan - Laura of The Dyer's Notebook and Kristen of Yarngasm - and I don't think either of them mentioned this, but they are both slim ladies so perhaps this wouldn't have been an issue. However, I am more upholstered person, and my wrists and my upper arms are not the same width! The first time I cast on for the cuff, I knit the recommended amount of stitches for the third size and it was huge! Like a wizard's sleeve... Haha. So I'm knitting the smallest size and increasing up twice at the end of each pattern repeat - until I reach the stitch count of the size I'm knitting! These are mods written by Meljay on ravelry. I have a stockinette panel going up the centre of the inner arm - which I'm not thrilled about, but who's going to see the inside of my arms, right?! I just want it done now!

My Duotone cowl has seen a bit of work, I'm at 11 stripes - with 4 more to go until I switch the colours. However, it's not anywhere near as long as it's supposed to be - I didn't swatch, because who swatches for cowls?! And my row gauge is way off. So this will be frogged and restarted with bigger needles... The Duotone cowl is a pattern by Orange Flower Yarn that I'm knitting out of Fyberspates Vivacious DK in 'Slate' and '80805'. I may switch out the green for another colour, because it's just a bit too Slytherin for me and while I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd, I don't think I want a house coloured cowl.

The sparkly rainbow socks have progressed - I've passed the heel and I'm working my way up the leg of sock number one. I'll be pleased to get these off my needles to be honest, there are too many colours for me to cope with! These are being knit out of some yarn I picked up at a local wool fair in the summer.

My Sunburst granny square afghan is progressing! I have 19 squares finished and another 7 inner circles to edge. I'm making it out of Cascade 220 in a variety of colours, using a 3.5mm hook - I'm a really loose crocheter...

Dyeing-wise, I've been working on some tonal solids this week - and I'm pretty happy with the results - although today's dye session was a bit hit and miss, but I guess it goes like that sometimes.

I'm heading to Milton Keynes for a dress fitting this weekend - one of my good friends is getting married next Spring and I'm a bridesmaid - which is exciting - so there's a lot of hours of train journeys ahead of me, so hopefully plenty of knitting time! I haven't decided what project I'm going to take with me yet - probably socks... Anyway. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

♥

Fibre Friday #40

Happy Friday! I'm one day away from a week off work - and pretty pleased about it. This week, I've actually done quite a bit of knitting - although I've just realised I've completely forgotten to photograph an FO and now it's dark, so it's going to have to wait until next week!

This week I cast on for a Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn. This has been in my queue for ages and I've been waiting to cast it on for ages. I'm using Vivacious DK by Fyberspates in the colourways 'Slate' and '80805' and it's looking rather Slytherin-ish - which isn't a bad thing, but not quite what I was planning...

I also cast on for another Slable Hat by Woolly Wormhead out of a lovely burnt orange 100% Merino fingering weight yarn that's been in the stash for a while (You can see my first Slable Hat here). This was going to be a Christmas gift - but after knitting the three inch ribbed cuff, the yarn is so hard and unforgiving, like knitting out of cotton rather than merino, that I decided it wasn't acceptable to gift to someone, so it's been frogged and going back to the stash. I'm not going to name and shame the yarn company, but I've had similar problems with other skeins, so I'll think twice before buying from them again.

I have made progress with the sparkly rainbow vanilla socks, which are being knit on 2.25mm (US 1) Karbonz needles. I bought this yarn from a local wool fair in the summer and it's very cheerful! I've actually worked on them a little more in between taking the photo and actually writing the post, it's got a heel now! It's ready to be my cinema knitting* at the movies tomorrow night - for Mockingjay Part II obviously.

*cinema knitting differs from take-along knitting or handbag knitting, because in the dark, at the movies, I can only knit stockinette in the round - so sock legs are perfect! I can go and go until the film's over. While I can knit without looking in general, when I'm trying to concentrate on something like seeing a film for the first time (especially one with Jennifer Lawrence in it), I can't be worrying about messing up a stitch pattern!

Also on 2.25mm (US 1) needles is the beginnings of a Skinner hat by Melissa LaBarre - I only started this last night, after abandoning the Slable, so it's got a ways to go yet! This is going to be a yarn sample for my shop - I'm using Stranded Dyeworks 'Oasis' in the 'Shiner' colourway, which is a colour I created this week, that I'm really happy with. I just love muted tones.

The reason for all this casting on is because I finally finished the Divine Cardigan!! I have been working on, and whining about, this cardigan for months - and now it's finished! It was all but button-band last week, and now I've knitted the button-band, added a neckband and sewn on the perfect buttons. It's still lumpy, it's still questionably ugly. But it's done, and it's exactly what the lady it's for, wanted it to be. I'm going to reblock it now it's finished and then it's out of my life forever! If my whinging hasn't put you off making a similar cardigan for yourself, this is pattern 7176 by Sirdar, knit out of Sirdar Divine in the 'Lucia' colourway. I modified it to have a button-band as there wasn't one in the pattern and eight buttons rather than six.

I have also done a little bit of dyeing this week - I have yet to list anything new in the shop, but I created a few new colourways - see above - and dyed on a new lace weight base - see below!

Drift is an 80% Merino, 20% Silk base, it's a 2ply with 800m per skein - perfect for shawls, or maybe a Featherweight cardi....

I also had fun dyeing up a couple of sock blanks - one for a custom order, and the one above - just because!

I'll share my forgotten FO next week - but here's a hint - it's my eleventh project knit out of my handspun! Okay. I'm off to check more things off of my to do list / watch back-to-back episodes of the Gilmore Girls - I haven't decided yet! Have a lovely weekend, whatever you get up to!

♥

Fibre Friday #39

I seem to be saying this every week at the moment - but it's another short post this week! There just isn't enough hours in the day. I'm not sure where time is going, but I wish it would stop running away with me!

I do have one FO this week - I finished my Farmers Socks test knit! This is a pattern by Amelia Putri that will be released in the not too distant future! I love the mirroring travelling rib. These are knit out of hand dyed yarn on a sparkle base I'm not sure if I want in the shop or not yet... in the colourway Ice Skating Party. I love this colourway, it's my current favourite colour! The socks are a little small for my feet - that's partly because I have huge feet, and partly because I went down a needle size.

My Divine cardigan is so close to being finished. All it needs is the button band. It looks very lumpy and unflattering in this photo, which makes me a little sad, but apparently using lumpy yarn means a lumpy finished object! I did a very good job setting in the sleeves though - setting in sleeves is my knitting super power! Haha. This is 7176 by Sirdar and I'm knitting it out of Sirdar Divine. The recipient tried it on this week and apparently it looks really good on her (I wasn't there to witness it). However it's going to be tight across the bust, if it meets at all. That however, is not my fault as I did advise going for the bigger size in the first place! I just need to buy buttons and then I can get it done and out of my life forever.

I put one my point on my handspun Hitchhiker shawl in bed last night - after finishing my Farmers Socks - now I'm at 38 points and it is still very very small. I can wear it as a tiny kerchief at the moment, so I have a lot more knitting to do! Hitchhiker is a fabulous pattern by Martina Behm.

I spent my day off this week dyeing sock blanks. This isn't the most colour accurate photograph of them - I was having a 'My camera has 30 seconds of battery life left and the daylight is fading' moment - and one is still drying so isn't included, but they're all quite fun! I'm tempted to keep one for me... I've also done a little bit more dyeing today, but everything's soaking wet, so I'll photograph it for next week's post!

Now my cardigan is nearly finished and my test knit socks are done, I'm going to have a lot more time for knitting my own projects!

♥

Introducing Stranded Dyeworks

I have been dyeing yarn for myself for years - I started out with Kool-Aid and progressed to acid dyes fairly quickly. Selling my own yarn has always been in the back of my mind and it's something I've been working hard on over the past few months - so today it's my great pleasure to introduce you to the reason a lot of my Fibre Friday posts have been on the short side of late: Stranded Dyeworks!

Currently I'm just stocking fingering weight bases - Oasis - which is 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon and Paradise - 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon - as well as a range of fibre braids for spinning. The majority of my colourways are repeatable and I'm excited to expand my range of colours as I progress. Above we have (L-R) Bonanza, Goldfish, Garden Pansy and two skeins of Bonfire Night. And below...

(L-R) Spook, two skeins of Ice Skating Party, Skyscraper, Blue Rinse and Buddleja.
The keen eyed amongst you may have spotted that Ice Skating Party is the colour I'm using for my Farmers Socks test knit - it's currently my favourite colourway, but that's already changed several times!

I have very big plans for my shop - essentially ending with World Domination - haha. But before that, I plan to have an update with some hand painted Sock Blanks - so I'm sharing sneak peeks of two that I've already dyed. I love sock blanks - they're so much fun to knit with. If you're not familiar with them, they're a hand dyed piece of pre-knit fabric, that you unravel and knit from, it creates interesting gradients and effects - especially for sock projects. These are currently all going to be one of a kind sock blanks - because I don't have enough bandwidth to write out recipes for each one yet!

So there you have it - my baby. She's eating up a lot of my time at the moment, after all - you only get out, what you put in! This, and my Divine Cardigan are the reasons my poor spinning wheel is giving me sad eyes from the corner of the room - there are just not enough hours in the day!

I will be having a giveaway for a skein of yarn on my instagram at some point in the next couple of weeks - you can find me there as @amyflorence for details of that, when I decide them! But I'll probably mention it here too...

I hope you have a lovely week!

♥

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!

♥

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!!

♥