What's in Progress?

Like pretty much the rest of the planet, as far as I can tell, I've been feeling basically terrible for the last few weeks. When I last posted I thought I was beginning to shake it off but I was very, very wrong! A couple of days later I had the shivers and a fever and it's really only the last few days this I've been confident enough to say that I'm on the mend. If anyone else has been suffering you very much have my sympathy because UGH. So mostly I've just been pottering around doing a bit of one project here and a bit of another there when I've been feeling up for it.

In knitting I've been slowly beavering away on the Tauriel pattern by Josiah Bain. I was hoping they'd scratch the cable itch I've been suffering with but I've found they've been requiring a little more concentration than I've had to give recently. Now I'm feeling better they are going a bit faster so hopefully I'll finish them in a week or two. The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer which unsurprisingly is a little glittery and is doing a lovely job of cheering the magpie in me right up.

In sewing I'm whipping up (in the very slowest sense of the phrase) another pair of jeans. They're a sort of stone colour, which is a bit boring for me so I decided to jazz them up a bit with some pink top stitching. I'm not regretting it so far. I'm just about to stick the zip fly in so there's not too much to do now.

I've also been spinning, finishing the spinning on a project that has seen me get married, become a homeowner, buy a spinning wheel and have 2 children! This has been spun from 2 batts from Shunklies in a colourway called Monsters Inc. I still need to ply so there's plenty of opportunity yet for more procrastination but I'm hopeful it'll be done this year.

Speaking of procrastination, I did immediately start spinning up these lovely batts while the other singles chill for a day or two. The plan is to spin the first one then ply the Monsters Inc and then I'll spin the second batt and ply them both. I'm really hoping that I can make the finished yarn as pretty as the batts are (Snow Glow by Nunoco), it was almost tempting to just never spin them and keep them to look at.

And today I'll leave you with this pair of Easter bunnies who have been having loads of fun doing Easter crafts this week. I'm loving that they're getting big enough for making little projects like these masks and I'm having great fun planning more things for them to do.

 

New kit

Yesterday I included a quick pic of some the Yummy Yarns fibre that didn’t get to come on honeymoon with me, although it is clear from the photo that I have now started to spin it up.  I was going to save it for a while, but when I got home from my holiday this lovely IST spindle I ordered a while back was waiting for me.  The next fibre on my list for spinning was an alpaca silk blend, but I only had to spin for a minute to realise that that was going to require a heavier spindle so I swapped to the merino bamboo instead.  I’m enjoying spinning with the spindle, it’s so delicate and refined and it spins for ages and the fibre is spinning up nicely too.

 The other fibre that I did take away with me was a small portion of the merino silk top that I got from Shunklies a wee while back (first blogged here).  I got most of this spun up on holiday and finished it up quickly once we were home and now I have this lovely colourful skein of 4-ply.  It is 68m long and weighs 23g.  I was aiming this to be fairly stripy and it sort of is.  Each section is certainly mostly one colour and I think that the little variations make it interesting.  I’m still rather amazed each time I finish a new skein that I have produced actual yarn that I can actually knit with, once I’ve decided what I want to make that is.

Spinning Wednesday

For the second week in a row I have an FO for you.  Quite frankly it’s about time because I feel like I have been plying this for months.  So here we are, 345m and 46g of 2ply merino tencel from FeltStudioUk.

This has turned out really lovely, smooth and shiny and the colours look great.  This was only half the top and I will start spinning the second lot soon, but because I like a bit of variety I started spinning this instead

 This is some top merino silk I got from Shunklies a little while back.  I decided to make this a bit stripy and found that if I split the top in a certain place I had two matching lengths with just a bit leftover that didn’t match anything.  I’ve therefore split that bit into four skinny strips and am spinning that separately, the idea being that I’ll have a little mini skein with much shorter stripes which I can use to accent the longer striping main skein.  Well that’s the plan anyway, who knows how it will actually turn out!

Self sabotage

Looking at my spinning projects, all so tempting and numerous, I know that really I should just concentrate on one and actually try to finish something.  Yet somehow I accidentally ended up on Etsy and once again fell in love with some Shunklies fibre.  Luckily I’m really unsure exactly how I want to spin them, so hopefully by the time I’ve come up with a plan I will have possibly completed another project.

These are 2 beautiful bright bright bright merino batts, with little mohair curls.  I can’t decide if I want to spin a yarn which gradually goes from blue to pink throughout the whole skein or if I’d like it to phase back and forth in gradual stripes.  I like the idea of both, but wonder whether the latter would suit my attention span a little better!

This is a blend of merino and silk and once again I just fell in love with the colours.  I’d like to make a 4-ply with this, but I’d also like it to stripe.  I think this may involve me splitting up the entire thing, grouping the colours and laying them out carefully in the right order.  This sounds like effort, so I can’t imagine I’ll be starting any time soon.  I’m enjoying the planning of it anyhow.

And finally, this is the reason I ended up on Etsy having my little fibrey accident.

I was having a little look for jewellery for the wedding and I hope you’ll agree that this is just perfect.  Those two little birdies look so happy and content sharing their little branch that I just couldn’t resist.  The shop is here bird fans.

Exciting!

Even though I have been spinning since New Year, I haven't yet made a proper complete yarn to speak of.  Although I did spin a small sample and ply it (blogged here), that one doesn't really count.  As I've bought and made more spindles I've been starting more and more projects and ended up with loads of spindles full of singles, but no finished objects.  Given that this is the way I manage my knitting projects as well, this really shouldn't come as a surprise to me and I probably shouldn't try to fight it.  However, I have actually finished two matching singles and started to ply it last night.

I think I was so enchanted by the sparkles that I was spinning in with this that I just got on with and it will now be my first finished yarn, despite being the fourth one I started.  It's probably only about 20 grams of yarn, so just a little skein, but I already love it, my first born yarn!

A new spindle arrived yesterday, bought from this seller on eBay.  I like it a lot, it's pretty and spins nicely  for a long time.  The fibre I'm spinning on it is the lovely bright merino I got from Shunklies recently.  I've split it in half and I'm going to spin 50g as is, all the colours mixing together and for the second 50g I'm going to try and split the colours up a little and try and preserve some of the bright colourfulness of the top.  And maybe I might sneak some sparkles in there too - for motivation you understand!

Good Thing no.5

I nearly changed the title of this post because every time I look at it I get Mambo no. 5 stuck in my head (the Lou Bega version, anyone remember this?)  Anyways..moving on!  Yesterday I hinted at some luvverly new fibre I have acquired:

On the left is some super dooper brightly coloured merino top and on the right is some wonderful sparkly bits which I will be adding to everything I spin with gay abandon from now on.  Both from Shunklies Etsy shop.  This was my first foray into buying on Etsy and it was a pleasure - although I'm kinda wishing I'd never looked now because there is sooo much stuff I want on there.  I'm going to hold off on spinning the top for a little while until I can decide exactly how I want it, but I have spun some of the sparkle into this candyfloss pink.

You can't really see the sparkle in a photo, but it is there and it makes the magpie in me very happy indeed.