Ode to a Hat

Actually, I must come clean; there is no ode to follow I'm afraid to say. Just a lot of photos of my Kat hat from Kim Hargreaves lovely book, Precious, from which I also knitted Thea. Marno was having a mess around with the settings on his camera, hence the rather large number of photos of one of the smallest things it is possible to knit, but I loved how these turned out so thought I'd just go for the photo inundation. Here goes...

I'm not generally pleased with photos of myself, but I think the altered reality in these shots helps haha :)

I love how the first photo has a kind of halo around the hat, which is a pretty good representation of what Kid Classic is like - beautiful stitch definition, yet a lovely fuzzy halo over the surface. I've realised also, that if I want to spin yarns like this, its going to have to be long draw, and I don't have time to finish a huge great pile of Falkland (in the most beautiful pistashio colour) which is currently on my wheel, which I'm spinning short draw, to practise long draw. In fact, I can't remember how long ago it is now since I last sat at my wheel; a good few weeks. Very sad.

I am, however, progressing nicely with my Laar cardigan, which I'm knitting in Jillybean's Knot Another Granny Yarn in Staying Calm. I think the colour is called Staying Calm anyway - it's the colour of a calm sea in the early evening - beautiful. I bought it at Wonderwool a year and a half ago, totally on the spur of the moment; it was utterly irresistible. On the link, the top photo of it is more representative of the colour in real life.

So I am making a bit of progress with the making. Basically just trying to keep it going during these years when I can devote very little time to it. Like so many mummies out there.

Time to go and watch the Great British Bake Off!

xxx Sam

Shellseeker Numero 2

As I discovered with Thea, ten weeks post birth + breastfeeding does not equal a good figure in which to pose in a newly knitted garment. However, since I have no idea how long it will take to reclaim my post baby figure (or indeed, if I will), here are some slightly reluctantly posted photos of my finally finished Shellseeker, almost completely reknitted as I frogged the whole body but hadn't knitted the arms.

This pocket is absolute genius. When you read ahead in the patttern, you haven't a clue how it's going to work, but it all becomes so clear once you arrive there.

I wasn't sure how the neck would hang, and considered adding a ribbed collar to give it some shape and structure, but it actually works perfectly now the ends are woven in.

 It's exactly what I wanted - a jumper that is casual, cosy and warm; that can be used for outdoor activities, but has the comfort of gorgeous, soft yarn (in this case, alpaca) that you can snuggle into on a cold evening. It was fun to knit, particularly due to the many "ah-ha" moments, and the rounds went quickly because of the divisions in each one of the front, back and pocket - it felt like there were targets constantly, pushing me on to the next one.

I'd definitely recommend this knit. The original is in cotton, which may, in the long term, be the best fibre due to the drapey nature of the finished garment, but at least I'll be warm in my alpaca!

Splitting Hairs or Three Bags Full

After plying my Shetland (post to come), I was eager to start experimenting with some of the fibres I bought at Wonderwool. I purchased a load (as in, I've totally forgotten the weight!) of Falkland top, which I want to spin to a 4-ply weight to knit the Low Tide cardigan, but I don't feel I'm accomplished enough yet (a hideous understatement) to begin on such a large amount. I bought three 50g balls of combed Merino top from Wingham Woolwork, which I had been hoping to resist as I've been struggling with some Merino I purchased from them last year - my incompetence, not the quality of their products - but the colours were irresistible to me...

I had planned to use them to practise 3-ply, each colour spun separately on three bobbins and then plied together, but having purchased Judith MacKenzie's The Intentional Spinner the other week, and discovered the sock yarn project, I was inspired to be slightly more radical (yes, that is ironic) and work out some kind of colour splitting pattern to make it more interesting.

I began by splitting each length into three, as in the above photo, then splitting both the darkest and lightest tops into eighths, but one "third" at a time, so preparing one bobbin at a time. Hopefully the photos will make more sense than my description.

Then, because I wanted an undulating gradient - light to medium to dark to medium to light - but I had the same amount of each colour, I had to split the medium turquoise into 16ths. 

Quarters

Eighths

Sixteenths

Progress shots for each row...

... ending up with this...

... which became these...

... three little sandwich bags (!) full of lovely, separated fibre.

It was a really enjoyable exercise. I think the design is exceptionally simple - aside from the initial splitting into thirds due to wanting to 3-ply, the rest of the splitting was based on halving, halving and halving again - what could be simpler? Obviously, to anyone who is actually an experienced spinner, that will sound ridiculous and entirely ameteur, but everyone has to start somewhere. The first bobbin has commenced; I'm hoping to end up with sock yarn weight so I'm trying to keep my singles nice and tight to make allowance for plying, as they'll need to be hardwearing for socks, but I'm not sure the consistency is going to be fabulous. We shall see.

xxx Sam

One thing leads to another...

Hello blog! I havent forgotten aboout you, I promise. In fact, I think of you frequently and with longing, wishing I had some time to devote to you and some more love to give you, but with and two and a half year old and a nine week old, you don't figure highly in my list of priorities. C'est la vie. However, even as I'm typing, my fingers still instinctively know where the letters are on the keyboard, so all is not lost. And there was no way I could fail to record my most recent acquisition.

Back in September, the Midnight Sheep paid a visit with a new acquisition she had made. Picked up from a charity shop for £50 following a tip-off, this beautiful Haldane Shetland spinning wheel.

I haven't looked at these photos for a while actually, and looking now, I can again see why I loved this wheel so much. It has a beautiful, antiqued finish, and the wood from which it's made is solid with a lovely grain. The wheel is simple, but with strong attention to detail. I particularly love the maidens and flyer; the maidens (for the spinning uninitiated, the upright posts on either side of the bobbin in the first photo) aren't excessively turned, but have enough detail to look interesting - I think that is the beauty of this wood actually; too much turning detail would take away from that beauty. Goodness, I'm sounding like a spinning wheel critic! I'm certainly not qualified to take that position! The thing I loved best about this wheel though, to cut a long story short, was the fact that it's upright. I found the height of the flyer, in comparison to my wheel, much more comfortable and convenient. I was lucky enough to babysit this wheel overnight, as it wasn't working properly and I offered Marno's services to Helena (the Sheep) to fix it for her. This turned out to be a very simple task. She'd known it wasn't working properly, but intuition told her to go for it, and it turns out she was right. So I had the pleasure of using it that evening once it had been fixed.

Although, as is evident from my lack of blog posts, I haven't had a tremendous amount of time to produce craft of any sort, Marno had been saying he wanted to buy me a new wheel, as mine hadn't been working properly since I took it to Brecon Bible School to do a demonstration last August. It had never been able to reach it's potential anyway, but I wasn't sure this was the year to replace it. But two weeks before Wonderwool, I happened to mention to Marno that it was on, and he responded, "Aren't we going?" I had just assumed we would be unable to because of having a new baby, but weare very blessed in that Laurie is delightful, and very good. So I started to think that maybe we could go, and Marno said we could look at a new wheel. So, thenceforth, all my ideas of saving it until I'm less busy went out of the proverbial window. I became ridiculously excited at the prospect, and started trawling the Ravelry spinning group for possibilities. My prerequisites were that it should be double drive and upright, and preferably a light finish. Oh, and there was a price limit too!

It wasn't long before I came upon the Kromski make, through recommendations on Ravelry. The Minstrel sounded exactly what I was looking for, and I was able to view it on Youtube through the fantastic Tim Horschler from New Voyager Trading, who did a full, in depth, and very informative review of it. Enough for me to decide, after a little more research, that this was the wheel for me! I then looked on Ebay, and, lo and behold, there was "one left in stock". Well, stuff waiting for Wonderwool, I thought, where they may not be available to take away on the day; lets get this thing NOW! As you can see, my attitude changed somewhat!

So, two working days later, it arrived. Unfortunately I had had the MMR vaccine the week before, and was suffering a bad reaction from it - bad enough to not even open the box on the day it arrived. So it wasn't until two days later that Marno assembled it for me, with a small amount of my help, and another Tim Horschler video, this time on how to assemble a Kromski Minstrel - thanks Tim!

So, finally, here is my new wheel, already broken in with some Shetland, which I've nearly finished plying.

I love that it has a lazy kate incorporated - makes plying so easy.

As you can imagine, I left Wonderwool with a massive amount of fibre. I actually bought no yarn this year, instead I bought fibre to spin into yarn for projects I have on my Rav queue... hmmm, when I'll be wearing those items is anyone's guess!

Wonderwool stash.

Me sitting at the wheel, immersed in Judith MacKenzie's The Intentional Spinner.

Have to go, as Noah has awoken from his slumber. Funnily enough, I have been reminded of why I haven't posted for so long - it's taken me an hour to write this post, half of it one handed with a suckling baby on my lap!

So long until next time, whenever that may be... xxx

Why, what a lovely sack you are wearing!

After speeding (for me) through my lovely Shellseeker, I finally reached the end of the front and decided now would be a good time to try it on (pause for derisive laughter). I had tried it when I got past the armholes, which was quite some time ago in terms of the length of the garment, but had neglected to since then. Items turning out too short is usually my problem; I certainly didn't anticipate an item being far longer than intended...

Don't misunderstand - I had been looking at Shellseeker with a critical eye and wondering if not only the length but also the width were somewhat more than intended as I got closer and closer to the end, but I somehow managed to sweep this possible issue to the corner of my mind.  I didn't think it possible for one of my garments to be so drastically large in comparison to the schematic. I notoriously need to go up a whole mm in order to get gauge as I knit so tightly.

Well, as you may possible have inferred from this post title, miracles can happen, and my lovely, soft, alpaca Shellseeker is a lovely, soft, alpaca sack!

I don't think I need to elaborate on how unimpressed I am with this fact - my expression says it all - the front is a whole 12cm too long!

You can't really appreciate from the photos just how large, unshapely and unflattering this jumper is. Because there is no side shaping anyway, and the only shaping consists of side decreases and centre increases to form the pocket, unless the garment turns out exactly the intended size, you risk looking as if you are, indeed, wearing a sack.

On the first of these back views you can see the size of the jumper in all it's rectangular glory. On the lower photo, you can see how, when one's arms are by one's sides, the fabric forms protrusive folds on each far side around the armholes, which Marno kindly pointed out to me, due to my not being able to see the back!

I knew Shellseeker had no body shaping and relied on the pocket shaping to create interest and, well, shape, and I was fine with that, but I think this jumper can only work if its exactly the right size for the wearer. With that thought in mind, I have taken drastic action. For the first time ever, I have entirely frogged (for the knitting uninitiated, ripped out) Shellseeker. Well, not entirely, as I hadn't anticipated it taking so long and didn't have time to rip it all out during Noah's nap, so I'm about two thirds through, but make no mistake, it will all be gone and I will start again, from the very beginning, with a 1mm smaller needle (I did go up a needle size and a half)! Its funny actually, because even when I did my tension swatch I wasn't entirely happy with the looseness of the stitches, so hopefully with Shellseeker mark 2, it will be a little stiffer (though not much as its alpaca) and just hold together better.

I am entirely blown away but the pattern though, and can only say good things about it. It is sheer genius. So utterly simple yet you can't imagine how on earth something is going to work, in this case, particularly the pocket, until you get to it. Then the method, which you've read through so many times before you arrived at that point, just falls into place and uses such obvious yet subtle ways to achieve it's aim.

So I hope to have a me-sized Shellseeker very soon, although ironically it would be better at this point in time to keep the large version, as I will be expanding in the next six months to accommodate Noah's little brother or sister!!! (Pause for gasps and "ahhs"). Yes, I'm 14 weeks pregnant, and its certainly very exciting. We are so very blessed and thankful for all God has given us.

But I seem to have created a little pattern of making clothes too big for myself lately. I made a dress quite a few months ago that ended up looking like maternity wear, which I decided to keep for when I became pregnant again, so photos of that to come in a few months when I have a bump to fill it with! I also didn't pull it apart because I was actually really pleased with how it turned out, even though it is a tent.

So, all in all, not a particularly successful couple of months in the clothes making department. A sack for a jumper and a tent for a dress. Surely it can only get better from here...

xxx Sam

2 ply

I hereby proudly unveil my second ever plied yarn! With a bit of inspiration from my friend the Midnight Sheep, who was a great help in recommending which rovings to ply, I have finally produced another 2 ply yarn. I can't remember whether I ever posted about my lovely MIL's trip to the knitting and stitching show at Alexandra Palace last year, and the stash of dyed roving she brought back for me - I know I took photos with the intention of, but I may have got waylaid. Aaaanyway... I was showing said stash to Helena, who immediately saw a fantastic pairing that I just hadn't thought of. One roving was lilac with no varigation, the other was mainly green, with lights and darks, but also, as it happened, a little of the same lilac. An obvious pairing, but maybe I didn't think of it because I must admit to being far more drawn to block colours then varigated. So after many months, I can finally reveal the finished yarn, complete with progress shots just to give an idea of the individual colours.

And the finished skein...

The last one is taken in super vivid, just to emphasize the colours a little more, but actually the previous photos are quite a good representation of the true colours. If I were to name this yarn, it would have to be called Lilac Tree in Spring, as that is exactly what it reminds me of. We have a lilac tree at the bottom of our garden, but the blooms are always over so soon.

On a sadder note, and talking of the bottom of our garden which is where our rabbit's hutch is, we came back from a weeks holiday on Monday to find our previously healthy Little Bun in a state of unwellness. He had hardly touched his food or water since we'd been away, and his eyes were all red rimmed. We kept an eye on him yesterday, and he did venture outside his hutch (he isn't usually shut in so has full reign of the garden and only goes in to escape from Noah or to eat and drink) last night. But he seemed worse again this morning, so Marno took him to the vet this evening, who immediately diagnosed him as having myxomatosis, and recommended he be put down, as treatment is difficult for the rabbit and only has a 3% success rate. So Little Bun went to the vet with what I imagined to be overgrown back teeth, and didn't, in fact, come back. A very sad evening altogether. I know Noah will be very confused, as he adores Little Bun and spends many minutes standing at the patio door shouting "Bun, bun", and pointing at him, as well as trying to stroke him at every possible opportunity.

Having said all that, I don't really know how to end this post, so I'm just going to sign off I think - a cop out I'm afraid.

xxx Sam