Stranded Podcast - Episode 14

Intro - I'm still filming with my new camera - it's a bit hit and miss but there you go!

Knitting - The only active work in progress I have is the Quicksilver shawl by Melanie Berg, which is being knit out of Stranded Dyeworks Oasis fingering weight in the colourways 'Party Dress', 'Spook' and 'Highway Code'.

Finished Objects - I have finished my Treeline socks by Hey Lady Hey. These are out of a OOAK skein of Voolenvine Yarns on her Footsie base.

I have also finished my Mira Sweater by Justyna Lorkowska. This is out of Stranded Dyeworks Oasis in the 'Magpie' colourway. The ends still need weaving in and it needs blocking...

Spinning - I finished spinning the handdyed orange Polwarth that I was working on last week. It's a 2ply 173m.

I experimented with spinning some single ply yarn - we think it was Corriedale fibre - that I was gifted by a good friend of mine.

I spun a braid of merino from Shunklies - which is a seriously ropey overspun 2ply - entirely down to the fact that I was having driveband issues with my wheel - which I have now solved! This is 141m for stash dash!

I also spun a braid of BFL from Artists Palette Yarns in the 'Creek' colourway.

Dyeing - I have a brand new colourway in the shop - Scuba is a tropical turquoise colour that is currently in stock on all of my fingering weight bases. I also restocked some other colourways - you can find them all in my Stranded Dyeworks etsy shop.

Stash Enhancement - This week I show my yarn haul from the fabulous Haus of Yarn in Nashville TN. I purchased the following things...

The S/S issue of ami isu magazine.
A sweater quantity (which is five skeins for me, to be on the safe side) of Malabrigo Sock in the 'Piedras' colourway.
Mrs Crosby Satchel in the Peacock blue colourway - which was a gift for my mother.
Sweet Georgia Worsted in the colourway 'Basil'.
Plymouth Yarns Happy Feet in the colourway 'Lipstick'.

Fibre Friday #38

Hi everyone! This week's Fibre Friday is prettttty short on actual knitting content - if I wasn't lucky enough to have received lots of woolly goodness for my birthday this week, then it would be a super short post all round! The reason for this week's shortness is primarily because I'm writing on Thursday morning, instead of Friday evening (for daylight reasons, today is the only day I have for photographing things) so that cuts off two days of knitting time! Stupid work - getting in the way!

I have split most of my time this week, between two projects. My test knit of Farmers Sock for Amelia Putri (you should look her up on instagram @amelia_put - her feed is gorgeous!) is coming along wonderfully. I'm knitting these out of some handdyed yarn and I'm really enjoying how the speckle effect is knitting up - I think it showcases the travelling slip stitch rib really well. The first sock is finished and I've just started the pattern on the leg of sock number two. I'm aiming to get these finished by next week - but we shall see.

The other project that's eaten up a bunch of my time is my Divine Cardigan. If you're not familiar with the saga of the Divine Cardi - firstly, lucky you! - and secondly, let me fill you in. This is a cardigan commission I'm knitting for a friend of my mum's, I've been working on it for what feels like a thousand years and it's knit out of a polyester/acrylic blend with a thick and thin texture - lots of sparkle, lots of felted slubby patches and lots of knots. The yarn is Sirdar Divine - I'll admit, I am a massive yarn snob, but I also appreciate a good acrylic because it has it's uses. This, in my opinion, is not a good synthetic yarn and it's very unpleasant to work with. I'm knitting the pattern 7176 by Sirdar and I'm on the second sleeve. I've finished the increases and I just need to knit it to length and do the cap shaping, then I can start sewing it together and add the button band (which isn't in the pattern but I heavily recommended to the recipient that it should have one, as it looked lumpy and unfinished without it). Okay. Rant over. Next thing...

Finally, and you can be forgiven for noticing any difference from last week's shot of this project, is my very rainbow vanilla sock that I'm knitting out of some yarn from a local wool fair. I've put a few rows on it here and there this week - on car rides in the dark primarily - but it hasn't seen much progress because my Farmers Socks have been my take-along knitting. Also, they're very sparkly in real life, but that was hard to capture on a grey November day!!

And that's it - that's all I've knitted this week. I haven't done any spinning or any dyeing. I cannot wait to get that cardigan done so I don't feel guilty about starting new things! Luckily my parents know me very well and all of my birthday gifts were yarn and fibre based...


My mum was in Scotland in September and she picked me up some Scottish goodies - some North Ronaldsay Roving dyed in fabulous colours. I've never spun, nor even heard of North Ronaldsay wool - this has been predrafted and feels lofty and fairly soft - not quite soft enough to be worn next to my face / neck, but would be perfect as mittens or wristers - I have 45g in total, so I'll probably ply the greeny-blue with a grey so I have enough to make something small. I've also got a pretty hand dyed silk hankie to spin - which is something else I've never used before, so it's going to be a learning curve all round! These are all from The Little Orkney Dye Shed and they have a small online shop.

I also received some beautiful sock yarn - on the left, a skein of 'Ollie's Sock Yarn' from Wren & Ollie in the colourway 'Serendipity' and on the right, a skein of Hedgehog Fibres 'Sock Yarn' in 'Birthday Cake'. I cannot wait to cast on both of these!

This pretty braid is from All The Pretty Fibers, it's hand dyed German Merino and I love the colours. I think it's going to need quite a lot of predrafting before I spin it as it's a little bit on the felted side (sidenote: it's so hard to tell the quality of fibre from photographs!).

I also got a copy of Curls by Hunter Hammersen - I am excited to cast almost all of these on! Just need to finish my Divine Cardigan first...

I also got some little batts from JellyBeans Yarns in 'Candyfloss' and (not pictured) two fibre packs from Nunoco in 'Fen'. Lots and lots of goodies from my wishlist and I'm very grateful. I just want to play with all of them right now!

Okay, that's enough show and tell for one day I think - I should probably get back on with some of my projects!

♥

Yarn Haul

 I'd been planning to film a yarn haul video to share all the pretty things I picked up in Bristol, but I chickened out. There was just too much effort involved in making a space that was 'video friendly' and I'm having a terrible hair day, haha. But I thought I'd blog some of the yarn I purchased - because I love a good snoop into peoples yarn buying habits.

First up, from Wool in Bath - two balls of Cashmerino Aran by Debbie Bliss in 'Willow (shade 76)'. Usually I just buy sock yarn when I'm out on impulse yarn buying trips as there is always enough yardage in a skein of sock yarn for socks, or a shawl if you're so inclined, but I've been shopping for some commercially dyed aran yarn for a while. A blend of 55% Wool, 33% and 12 % Cashmere, it's a pretty squishy yarn (squishy is a technical term, right?) that I intend to use to knit another Spring Beret by Natalie Larson, as I really enjoyed the one I made for the Buckalooview Hat Swap and I want one for myself!  Next, I picked up a skein of Roam Fushion by Wendy in in the 'Heath (shade 2021)' colourway, as I was lured in by the pretty colours and the handspun-esque effect. 75% Wool, 25% Nylon fibre-wise this is a pretty standard sock yarn, although in my humble opinion it looks a little loosely plied - so I'll be interested to see how well it wears.

I also picked up 3 skeins of Artesano's Alpaca Silk 4ply which is 70% Alpaca, 30% Silk and is every bit as soft as you'd imagine! The store didn't have that many colours left but I chose 'Robin Egg' which is not really an Amy colour, but this will wind up being a gift for someone it'll suit much better (I find I'm a lot more likely to actually give the gift away if it's knit out of colours that I'm not overly fond of - I get very attached to my projects!)

 I got overexcited in A Yarn Story. It's unusual for me to be in a shop with so many pretty hand dyed yarns and I spent ages trying to decide. I stuck to my rule of 'when in doubt, just by sock yarn' - it was such a nice change to get to touch the yarn before I bought it, as my hand dyed purchases are usually made online. I bought a skein of Skein 'Top Draw' in the 'Blackcurrant' colourway. It's 85% Superwash Merino and 15% Nylon - I've been trying to buy more semi solid sock yarns, so I can knit some of the lace and cabled socks from my ravelry queue.

I also bought two skeins of 'Sock Yarn' by Hedgehog Fibres, in 'Coral' and 'Seaglass'. Not only were the colours beautiful, the yarn is so soft - 90% Merino, 10% Nylon and 100% squishable. These are going to sit in the stash for a while and be admired, before I make incredible socks out of them.

I also bought some more acrylic for another baby sweater, a bottle of 'Celebration' scented Soak and a copy of Knit, Swirl by Sandra McIver - primarily because it was 99p in a charity shop, although it does have some very pretty cardigans in it.

Have you made any pretty yarn based purchases recently? Because I clearly need to be enabled... ;)

♥