Winning!

I have won a few giveaways over the last few months and I've been really terrible at sharing my spoils with the blog.  I always meant to get around to it, but never seemed to do so.  I've been really lucky and got some great stuff.

iMake

First off, I won an amazing box of goodies from the iMake blog.  I have done some needle-felting and it's great fun, but I've not ever really been taught any techniques.  The book, I Felt Awesome: Tips and Tricks for 35 Needle-Poked Projects has been really helpful in giving me more ideas about what I could do with the craft.

I've had a bit of a play with some stuff and I'm working on creating a set of felt pattern weights, as I am definitely in need of a set.

All the fibre is pretty amazing too.  I have all I could possibly need for quite some time!  Thank you Moxie for the wonderful stuff!

True Brit Knits

An online crafting friend JenACKnitwear had a contest to win Knitting Masterclass: with Over 20 Technical Workshops and 15 Beautiful Patterns.  Her lovely Golden Wheat Shawl was on the cover.  She also shared another place to win the book, so I entered on True Brit Knits, which was a blog new to me.

I won the book on True Brit Knits and found a lovely new blog to read at the same time.  Belinda Boaden, one of the blog's writers, wrote one of the first patterns I ever really lusted over in a UK magazine, The Ripple Cardigan from The Knitter, Issue 3.  It was a pattern I aspired to being able to do and I know I would be able to do it now, but I've an awful feeling the yarn has been discontinued!

The book is great with lots of incredibly useful tutorials, along with patterns that illustrate the use of the skills being discussed.  It's a lovely thing as well.  It's beautifully photographed and put together.  It's a book I would recommend.

Faithfully Geeky

One of the blogs I've read for a long time, Faithfully Geeky had a contest to win Drizzle, a pattern by Mel from Single Handed Knits.  She then did a videocast, which I watched and found out I was a winner of this particular contest.

Single Handed Knits is one of the podcasts that I have started listening too recently.  Mel is a lovely person and lived on an island off Hawaii.  She often records on the beach, so the views alone make the podcast well worth a watch.  I'd seen Mel talk about her hat pattern when it was launched and I'd also seen other podcasters knit the pattern and really liked the way it looks.  I always intended to buy the hat pattern because, as you know, I'm a sucker for a good hat.

Made in Home

Nat, from Made in Home is another of my favourite bloggers.  She had a contest recently to win a hat pattern too!  Again it was a hat pattern I knew about and hat intended to buy.  Once again, I was saved some cash by winning the giveaway.  The hat pattern is Skeppe and is the first pattern released by another favourite blogger Truly Myrtle.  It's a lovely and interesting pattern and a great launch into pattern design.

I hope you check out some of the links in this post because there are some lovely blogs/podcasts mentioned here, and some great patterns.

Yummy Hand Spun

I have one FO I can share with you today.  It's my yummy hand spun yarn, made from the BFL Superwash fibre I bought from The Yarn Yard.

I love this yarn so much.  It's incredibly loosely spun, so I've gone from one extreme to another, but I think that BFL is tough enough to take it, especially once it's knit up.  It's also nice and bouncy, so I really want to find the right project for it to shine.

I have roughly counted the loops round my niddy-noddy and think I have approximately 300m of what I think is light-fingering or 3-ply, but it does have some variation in thickness.  It's not quite as bad as the last yarn I spun for that, but it is still there.

I decided that I should add a card to my yarn giving details of the fibre etc, just like I've seen proper spinners do.  I realised my business cards would be perfect.

There is quite a lot of space left on the back of these cards, so there is space for a hole to be punched, and for me to write the details.

I think it works, so I think I'll do it the next time I spin some yarn.  I have worked too hard on it to forget the important details.  Whilst at the moment I don't really have any other hand spun yarn, I hope that in a few months there will be a stack of it.  I'll need a reminder of what the yarn is then!

Next week I'll be able to share with you my secret knitting, but until then, click on the button to see other people's FOs.

What Can I Show You.......

Hmmm, this week is a bit of a tough one, because most of what I am working on is secret.  I can show you a teaser picture.

But I'm afraid that is all, until next week.

I am, however, about to cast on with these beauties.

These yarns are, from the top, moving clockwise; Posh Yarn Martha Sock in the Dreams of An Insomniac colourway, The Uncommon Thread Lush Twist in the Pontus colourway and Countess Ablaze Count Cashmerino in the Grey Skies over Manchester colourway.  These yarns are all 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon.  The bottom two have almost the exact same twist and appearance, so I think they may be the same base yarn.  The top skein is much more loosely plied and is therefore a bit more squishy.

I intend to use these skeins to make a big garter stitch stripy shawl (because we all know how much I like those).  I'll use the bottom two to stripe the main body of the shawl and the top one to knit on a border.  I'm so excited about this shawl because I know it will drape beautifully and feel gorgeous on my skin.  It's a really decadent knit, and a proper treat to myself after doing all my secret knitting.

In spinning news I am now plying up the gorgeous singles from the Superwash BFL fibre from  The Yarn Yard.  I'm using my cardboard box lazy kate.  It works pretty well!

This is going to be such pretty yarn.  I've plied this yarn much more loosely than last time, so hopefully it will have a better yardage.

The depth of the colour from this fibre is stunning.  I am really itching to knit with it, but I've got to finish plying it first.

Whilst I am plying, I have also started to spin up the BFL Silk from Picperfic.  Oh, my goodness that stuff is pure heaven.

It spins like a dream and the colour is amazing.

I'm getting the hang of the Rakestraw spinner but I would love to find a good source of information about using it properly.  I'm half inclined to get Respect The Spindle by Abby Franquemont because I've heard it is the best resource for learning to use a spindle.  I know it's a different tool, but I think a lot of the techniques could be the same.  I don't know, does anyone have any ideas or can you suggest a resource for me, because at the moment I feel like I'm working in the dark.  I'm enjoying the process but I know there is more I should be doing or learning about.

I'm afraid that is all I can show you this week, but hopefully you will forgive the secrecy when you see what I have been making, next week.

To see other works in progress, click on the button.