Countess Ablaze Fibre Spun Up

There is no secret about my love of all things Countess Ablaze. Lyndsey is one of my favourite yarn dyers and she's a lovely person. She also creates lovely hand dyed fibre.

This braid of fibre is the Baby It's Cold Outside colourway and is made up of 48% Merino, 26% Bluefaced Leicester (BFL),  12% Alpaca and 12% Bamboo. This blend of fibre is soft and warm with an interesting variation in the way the dye is taken by the bamboo.

For this spin I decided to use my new Spanish Peacock Tibetan spindle. The long shaft of the spindle means that more singles can be loaded up onto it, before they have to be wound off and stored. This meant I could do a true 3-ply construction, easily fitting a third of the fibre onto the shaft each time.

As you can see in the above photo, I did pre-draft the fibre a little, because I had the fibre in storage for six months (at the bottom of my fibre bag). It probably didn't need pre-drafting, but I find it quite satisfying anyway, so nothing was lost by doing so.

I spun the fibre worsted style and when it was plied together I got a round and bouncy DK weight yarn. I do love how a 3-ply construction evens out the variations in the singles.

There is an incredibly subtle barber-pole effect in this yarn. The colours of the fibre are so close in value and hue that from a distance there is no difference in the colours on each ply of the yarn.

The different colours will give a lovely depth to whatever is knit from this delicious yarn.  It feels soft and silky to the touch, but still has plenty of bounce. I think it would probably make an ideal hat, smooth on the skin, and warm on the head!

This skein measures 154m/168yds in length, so I'm sure most hats will be achievable with this yarn. Do you have any suggestions for a pattern, because once again, my fingers itch to cast on.

Demiluna in Handspun Yarn

I told you a few weeks ago about a project I had started, Demiluna by Lhevinne Amor. The project is finished, so I thought I'd talk a bit more about the project and why I chose it.  The shawl used the lovely yarn that I spun from Fondant Fibre rolags.

The yarn was 348m/380yds in length and 4-ply/fingering weight. It had a 2-ply construction which meant it would show lace stitches well. However, the slightly fuzzy nature of a yarn spun in a woolen style and comprising Alpaca, Bluefaced Leicester, Mohair, Shetland and Silk, meant that a complex lace pattern would probably get lost. I spent a long time looking for a pattern that would suit the yarn construction, the weight of yarn and the yardage and the Demiluna looked to be ideal, having large sections of stocking stitch to show off the subtle variegation of the yarn and enough eyelets to be interesting.

The shawl is semi-circular in shape and uses the Elizabeth Zimmerman pi-shawl formula, a little like my Lily's Slice of Pi shawl pattern, though this one is on a smaller scale. As well as the increase rows, this shawl has rows of yarn-overs followed by knitting two stitches together to create an even spread of eyelets throughout the shawl.

The edging of the shawl was the part of the project I liked the least. I don't like doing broken rib, especially when the purl stitches in the ribbing increase in number. It's very hard to work out where to purl from the wrong side of the pattern, I find. I'd much rather do the ribbing on the right side of the work and then purl straight across the wrong side. I'd forgotten about that when I started, so unless I wanted to rip back the few rows I'd already done, I was stuck with doing it the way the pattern was written. Despite my loathing of actually knitting the border, I really like the way it finishes off the shawl.

The shawl itself is shawlette size. It sits nicely around the neck and would work beautifully as an evening shawl in the Summer over a lightweight dress, as it falls just over the edge of the shoulders.

I am really pleased with this project, as it is the first shawl I have knit with my handspun yarn. It's so satisfying seeing the yarn, you created, turned into a fully fledged accessory. It's really no wonder that knitting this project really fired up my enthusiasm for spinning, even more than before!

Where I Live Craft-A-Long - STWILCAL

I was recently asked to talk about where I live on the podcast, which has inspired the next craft-a-long (CAL), that I will be running over on the Ravelry group. I thought it would be interesting to find out more about where our community lives. Essentially you need to craft something that relates to where you live and describe how it relates to your home. eg Using locally dyed yarn or knitting a pattern with a name that reminds you of a local landmark. The craft is flexible, it can be knitted, crocheted, spun or woven (basically any craft on Ravelry). All you need to do, when deciding on your project, is to be able to relate it in some way to your locale.

The Where I Live CAL will start on Saturday 28th June and will end on Sunday 31st August 2014. The project must be started AFTER the start date and be posted into the FO Thread before midnight on the end date. WIPs and UFOs cannot be used for this. You must be a member of the group and you should post a photo of your finished object and link to your project page on Ravelry. You must explain WHY and HOW your project relates to where you live.

The FO Thread will open on Ravelry on the start date, but there is already a lively chat thread where you can discuss your ideas and ask for feedback about your choices. It's already got people talking about their home town and it's fascinating. I really recommend you come and have a look. You should tag your project STWILCAL and you can use the same tag as a hashtag on Twitter and Instagram or any blog posts. You are free to double dip.

The winners will be chosen at random from the FO thread, after the closing date and we have some lovely prizes up for grabs.

To start with I have come up with a couple of prizes from my stash. I’ve chosen indie-dyers who live in the same county as I do, Leicestershire. One of the first indie dyers I discovered when I started knitting was Babylonglegs. I went to a knitting group and met one of her friends, who was knitting in this glorious coloured yarn. It seems appropriate, to me, that one her yarns be used as a prize for the Where I Live CAL. So I have a skein of Babylonglegs Merino Sock in Purples Playtime to give away. It's an 100% superwash merino 4-ply/fingering weight yarn, which is 398m/435yds in length.

The second yarn I found in my stash was created by another indie dyer in Leicestershire. I've long admired her colour sense. I will be giving away a skein of Yummy Yarns UK Titian High Twist in the Sierra colourway. It's an 80% superwash merino 20% nylon 4-ply/fingering weight yarn, which is 365m/400yds in length.  This dyer also does gorgeous looking fibre, which I've yet to try, but is incredibly tempting.

Since announcing this CAL on Episode 14 of the podcast, I've had three more offers of prizes come in. The first is from the very lovely Louise Tilbrook, who designs amazing socks. She has kindly offered a winner a choice of any of her patterns. As well as her gorgeous socks, she has several free patterns on her Ravelry Store and has recently launched her Fuss Free Baby Cardigan, which I will definitely keep in mind for the next baby I knit for.

The second prize is actually two prizes in one. The brilliant and lovely Deb of Fondant Fibre, who I think definitely deserves "friend of the blog/podcast" status by now has donated a gorgeous project bag AND a set of her fabulous rolags. Deb lives in Derbyshire and she has created a wonderful combination of 100g of rolags named Dales in a rich toffee colour made of merino and silk and a project bag that will hold a massive quantity of yarn or fibre. The fabric of the bag is adorable with the rolling fields and dales with little houses.

I adore the cute little lobster claw stitch marker attached the zip pull of the bag saying "Home, Sweet Home". This package of prizes is wonderfully put together for this CAL. I can heartily recommend both the rolags and the bags (of which I have many). The bag is interfaced and will stand up and open to make it easy to place yarn or fibre in the bag and feed out into your working hand. If you are a spindler, the spindle will easily fit in.

Now I understand that there are fewer spinners than knitters who read the blog or listen to the podcast so if the winner of this prize doesn't spin, I can offer to spin this fibre up for you. I can't promise the quality of the yarn or what weight or yardage you will get because I'm not that great of a spinner, however, I think it will probably be usable. If it isn't I'll replace it with one of my previously handspun yarns that I'm happy with. Obviously this option will delay the issue of the prize, but I want non-spinners to know the joy of knitting with handspun yarn, because there are people who sell handspun yarn on ETSY, and Deb has been known to sell some of hers in her shop too.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I have been sent an enormous bag of gorgeous yarn from an anonymous listener of the podcast. She has an amazing stash, which she has raided to send to you. This bag of yarny loveliness will be enough to provide prizes for at least another three CALs! For this CAL, which is what you are interested in at the moment, I have pulled out yarn from one of my favourite dyers, Posh Yarn. This prize will be TWO skeins of Sadie Lace in the Yes, I would Do It All Again colourway. This is a laceweight yarn made of 50% merino and 50% tencel, measuring 800m/875yds each. So, if you win this prize you will have a gigantic 1600m/1750yds of yarn, more than enough for most projects.

This is a fabulous warm neutral colour and would work well with almost any pattern. Thank you anonymous listener, you are not only incredibly generous, but you have exceedingly good taste (by which I mean my taste of course!).

So we have some incredible prizes on offer for this CAL and I would love you to take part in the discussion, over on Ravelry, about where you live and how you see it. I think it's really interesting to look at your home town and try and think about what you want other people to know about it. It makes you look at where you live with different eyes.

I still haven't decided on what I shall create for the CAL, because there is so much inspiration in Leicester. We are an amazingly multi-cultural city, with great food, art and music. The architecture is interesting and the history long. The county of Leicestershire is really beautiful and often overlooked in favour of more well-trod locations. I want to tell you about the city, I chose to become my home, in another post, maybe after the start date.

You have a little while to think about your project and two months to complete it. Please come and join us, I think you will enjoy it!

A Couple More Pairs of Socks

I really shouldn't bother posting about more vanilla striped socks. There have been so many this year. I've only managed one pair with any kind of pattern on them! But this blog was created as a way for me to document my crafting and socks seem to have become a massive portion of my crafting this year.

The first pair is made from Knitters Nightmare Boogieman Sock in the Seashore colourway. I cannot begin to describe how happy this colourway makes me. It is vibrant and really does conjure up the shore to me.

See, wouldn't they make you happy too? As with all my recent striped socks I used the opposite end of the skein to knit the heel so the stripes didn't get interrupted on the front. It's a bit annoying sometimes when the two ends get twisted up, but it's worth it to get those lovely neat stripes.

I really do love Sadie's work. Her dye has so much subtlety to it, with the very slight variegation within each stripe. It give the colour much more depth somehow. Plus this yarn is amazingly smooth and soft. I know I'll be buying from her again (when I finish my 5k of knitting anyway!)

The other socks I finished are quite ordinary in comparison to the first pair. They are knit from Regia and are from the Design Line Ombre Stripe collection. Regia is a great workhorse yarn and their design line colours are usually quite interesting, mine is in the exciting colourway name of 04480. I knit my very first pair of socks out of Regia sock yarn, and they have been machine washed every time since their construction in January 2009. They still look great, with ne'er a pill to be seen!

These socks were  a bit on an experiment. The first sock (the left) I knit using my usual two sets of fixed circular Red Lace needles from Chiaogoo. These have become my favourite method of knitting socks. I used to do knit both socks at the same time, but it is much easier to manage one sock and one skein at the same time, than doubling the things you need to manage. I am happy with that sock. However, I decided to do an experiment in my knitting tools on the right hand sock. I used double pointed needles for the first time in a very long age. Not only did I use DPNs, I used KnitPro Cubics Symphonie Rose DPNs. These pretty square needles are very different from my robust and round Chiaogoos!

The Cubics are very flexible and it was slightly disconcerting how much they bent with any kind of pressure placed on them. However, though they bent they always snapped back into shape and never broke. The DPNs were as fiddly as I remembered and very annoying at times (usually when I dropped them), but I cannot deny how neat and even the stitches look on the right hand sock. I the above photo, the socks have not been washed or blocked so you can really see the difference. I didn't really enjoy working with the DPNs, but I feel like I need to give it another go to see if I can get my head round them because the stitches really are great.

I've just noticed while examining my stitches that the stripes go in the opposite direction on the socks, oops! Never mine, the yarn is still pretty. I have another couple of skeins in the same range waiting to be knit with, but right now I'm working on a pair of socks with a pattern!!!!! Yes, I am knitting in something that isn't striped. The yarn is from FO and Dye and is merino and nylon sock yarn in the Death colourway.

I decided to do a texture stitch on these socks, to change things up a little.  It uses the stitch pattern from Show Off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell. It's a nice simple stitch pattern that is entertaining but straight forward (my favourite kind of pattern for socks). It's hard to see the texture in a flat photograph, but I can assure you in real life, it looks great.

You will be pleased to know that my sock production has slowed a little now I have 11 pairs in my drawer, but I don't think I'll ever stop!

Improving My Rolag Construction on A Blending Board

I have finally finished spinning up the first rolags I made on my birthday blending board.

These rolags were scruffy and far too dense. I made around 10 rolags out of fibre weighing 120g. Rolags really should be more light and airy. These were more like very very fat punis! Despite the messiness of my rolags I really enjoyed spinning them. The blend was lovely, using light grey baby alpaca, purple bamboo, teal merino and white kid mohair from World of Wool, and teal Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) from Sara's Texture Crafts. I have no idea of the proportions of this fibre, I just wrote down the contents! I spun it on my Enid Ashcroft compact Tibetan spindle with an ebony shaft and thuja burl. It's a very short spindle and it required singles to be wound off fairly frequently.

I plied the singles into a true 3-ply to try and even out the very wonky singles and I think it worked. Looking closely at the yarn, the thickness seems more uniform than I expected.

I got 189m/207yds of a DK/worsted weight yarn, that is fairly lofty and soft. I think it would make a pretty warm hat or set of mitts.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed spinning these rolags as they weren't very well constructed, but it wasn't a bad experience at all. I have plenty of "bits" of fibre left to play with in my "big bag o'fluff" so I know I'll be playing with it more often.

I already decided to try and practice with a single braid of dyed fibre so I could get better at layering fibre and creating rolags from it. I used 100g of Babylonglegs (who sadly no longer dyes fibre) BFL roving that had been sat around for a long time and got quite compressed. Loosening the fibre and then applying it to the board broke up any sticky bits and created nice lofty rolags.

With each pass, I only placed one layer of fibre on the board before carding it. I filled in any thin pieces and carded that in too. I made 3-4 rolags from each board I filled. I tore the long rolags in half lengthways to make it easier for storage. As you can see, I got a lot more rolags out of my 100g of fibre than I did from the 120g of the first batch I tried. I may have had to load the board more often, but I love how lofty these rolags are in comparison.

It's much less physical to draft out thinner layers of fibre, which is a plus for someone like me. It might take longer, but I will hurt less at the end of it. I think I will really enjoy spinning these rolags, and I'm itching to grab a spindle and have a go, but I already have two spinning projects on the go at the moment, so these will have to wait another week to be played with. If it works as well as I think it will, I may be employing this technique often, when I get some fibre I want to woollen spin.

A Great Big Beanbag Cover

As part of my attempt at taking part in Stash Dash 2014, which I mentioned in the latest podcast episode, I decided to explore some of my older stash. I also wanted to find a way to use up large quantities of old stash that didn't seem to be going anywhere.

These are the four yarns I found that; I thought would work well together, I had in large quantities, was fairly robust and had been hanging around far too long. Clockwise from top left, they are; Forsell Touch of Silk DK in the Light Sandstone colourway, bought in 2010, Red Heart Detroit in 00208, bought in 2011, Rowan Bamboo Tape in Rope, bought in 2010 and Stylecraft Pure Wool DK in Saffron bought in 2010 and left over from The Archer hoodie knit in 2012. As you can see, these yarns had been hanging around for a while.

The reason I wanted to have fairly robust yarns was I decided to make a cover for an old beanbag cushion I made a couple of years ago, which I never got round to covering. I wanted to use the covered beanbag as an outdoor cushion to use with a blanket, so it needed to stand up to being thrown around on the grass.  The beanbag was a decent size so I knew it would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone, make a cover for the beanbag, so it could be used, and use up lots of yarn.

To use up the largest quantity of yarn possible I wanted to use a strand of each yarn, held together on large needles. This would make a thick fabric to protect the beanbag from getting damaged in the garden. I decided that I would make the cover shaped like a pocket with a flap, so I did a swatch, in the round on 10mm needles and was happy with the results.

I measured the beanbag (loosely) and did some maths to come up with a number of stitches I wanted to cast on. I cast on 68 stitches on each needle using Judy’s Magic Cast On, to create a sealed base, like a toe up sock, and knit in the round for 23”.

To stop the top edge curling, I did 3 garter ridges on the front half of the stitches and continued in stocking stitch on the back half. After knitting one more round, I cast off the stitches done in garter stitch. I then carried on knitting in stocking stitch on the remaining stitches, back and forth until the flap measured 10”.  I knit 2 garter ridges on the right side, then made 9 buttonholes on the next round.  I knit one more garter ridge and then cast off from the right side.

To ensure that the flap lay flat and smooth I decided to fix the side edges to the body of the cover, like an envelope pillowcase.  To stop the seams being bulky I used one strand of the Red Heart Detroit to sew, using mattress stitch from where the flap attached to the body of the cover, down to the open top edge.

I measured the for the buttons I would require by pushing through the buttonhole example buttons from my button jar. I decided a 30mm button would work best and I bought 9 wooden buttons from Wool Warehouse.

I applied the buttons using the same yarn used to do the mattress stitches and made sure the buttons were far enough away from the fabric by wrapping it four times around the yarn attaching the button, between the button and the fabric it attached to, making a yarn button shank. This meant that the thick fabric of the flap would be able to lie flat, rather than being squashed.

The resulting beanbag cover is strong, and flexible enough to cope with the movement of the beans, as the cushion is moulded and squashed into shape.

The flap of the cover is neat and secure, on all sides. It should hopefully stand up to hard use without coming loose or gaping.

In total I used up 2520m/2756yds of yarn, which goes a very long way towards the total goal of 5000m for Stash Dash 2014. Of course if you listened to the latest podcast episode you will have heard about my own personal goal during Stash Dash. I declared I would go without buying yarn until I have knit 5000m from my stash, excluding the yarn I needed to buy for two birthday gifts.

Stash Dash rules allow the total counted to include metres of yarn plied up, after spinning. For the purposes of my challenge I'm going to exclude that because it actually adds to my total yarn stash, rather than using it up! If you want to join in with your own personal Stash Dash goals, come and join me on the dedicated thread on the Ravelry board.

I feel that this beanbag cover has made a big dent in my goals of shifting some old stash out of their boxes and into use, however there is still lots of this yarn left over. I'm trying to persuade my partner that all our cushions need new covers, even though this yarn combination doesn't really "go" with our lounge. He's not convinced so I'll have to find another use for it. Maybe I can crochet it into a big basket to store more stash!

Instagram Photo Update

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1oN8vv9 I've been spinning some @fondantfibre punis this morning. They are so easy to draft. They are my usual "I feel rubbish" spinning, because they practical spin themselves. #igspinners

Instagram Photo Update

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1uxg4Yl Today's challenge is to find the right project for the second skein of yarn I have ever dyed. I think it may have to be a shawl of some sort. Maybe a Hitchhiker. All suggestions for a sock yarn in a bouncy 2-ply measuring 350m are gratefully received!

Instagram Photo Update

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1h9GrkD I love this glorious yellow on my new spinning project; a lovely merino gradient from @countessablaze #craft