The Highs and Lows of Knitting (and how to build up arm muscles!)

First the good stuff, I've still to tell you about the Cheshire Guild Day! We arrived at 10.30 ish, a smidge late but luckily for us they were also running late so we just managed to snag a couple of specs and grab a drink before the workshop began. We were learning Long Draw Spinning with Val Bryant, something I'd done before at the Merseyside Guild so by the end of this class, I'd just about got the hang of it, I'm a slow learner! It was so lovely to meet up with new people, some of which I'd met before at the friendship day and at Elaine's day back in August.

I really enjoyed finding out about the guild, there's a 2 day dyeing workshop this year so I signed up straight away, love it! Of course, there were other perks to being a member(aside from the wicked chocolate ring cake one of the members had baked!)....



I got to borrow these babies, Inidgo Hound Woolcombs. I've been lusting after trying them out for myself and had almost convinced myself to buy some Louet mini woolcombs to try though seeing them in the flesh I've decided I need to re-evaluate and aim towards something like these.

Essentially, when you have a long staple wool like this creamy Wensleydale (natures Rastafarian Sheep!), it's best prepared with one of the combing methods. I just happened to have a sackfu;l all washed and ready to go. You load up the carders like the pic above, often about 1/4 or 1/3 of the length of the comb tines. My experience with the length of the Wensleydale was that a lesser amount was easier to prepare, but I've yet to try lots of different fibres....

... You then start to comb out the locks from the tips to the butt, bit by bit (this is where the workout begins!)...

..Then you keep combing, the fibres transferring from one comb to the other, swapping them over when most of the fleece is on the one doing on the work and start all over again 'till you have a big fluffy mass of open fibre free from tangles and neps which you then pull off the combs in a thin roving to wind into a ball something like this...

I have spun a wee sample just to see what it looked like and though I got into a bit of a mess; I wanted to make a 2ply yarn but when I couldn't find the end in the middle, it got navajo'd until it ended up in a big tangle (not a good idea) but it still looked pretty and shiny so I'm dying to find time to comb and spin it all. You do get some waste, the short neppy fibres that are close to the combs and refuse to be pulled away but despite the effort, I do want to persevere with it. There's no clamp with this type of comb so your arms have to provide the resistance, hence the workout!

Anyway, little and often I reckon, combing one or 2 loads each day will get through the fleece eventually...I hope!

As to knitting, the highs would be getting up to date with the Secret of The Stole ii Shawl.

After completing clue 2 and recently uploading clue 3 I'm considering going with the length as written, not shortening it. I know I do not have the exact yardage but as I am using a quite smaller needle (2.75mm not 3.5mm), I'm gambling on the yarn going a bit further, here's hoping. I'm still in love with the colours which unfortunately never come out terribly accurately (and I'm no Photoshop expert!) but give you some idea of how pretty it is in the flesh. I plan to do clue 3 this weekend, part of my NEW knitting schedule!

Which this will not be part of...

...This was where I was up to earlier in the week after I completed clue 3 and began clue 4. I was blithely knitting along, had a break for a couple of days (that BP monitor on Tuesday and all through the night really threw me off my game); came back to it and got confused with what row I was up to, frogged it a couple of times, got happy with where I was at then worked out I'd got it wrong AGAIN! It was when I looked back at it and debated whether that mistake would be noticeable when I noticed something waaay further back...

...If you look on the picture above to the lozenge in the centre , move your eyes from the point at hte bogininng, you come to a bit that looks a crease in the fabric?

Yup, that's where I frogged it back to last night...with the anaesthetic of half a bottle of red, of course! I knew if I got it fixed then, I could look at it in the morning and make a rational decision to its fate...which I did.

By this morning, I decided I need to be a little kinder to myself right now. I may be in the grip of startitis but I'm not going to give in to it. I'm shelving the Spring surprise Shawl right now until the other Shawl is complete. I will put the effort into completing the Twilleys Jacket finally and then turn to my "quick" project that turned to be just as arduous. The Boa jacket will wait and in brain dead (or knitting hating) moments I will spin or prepare fibre. The fearless stuff will have to wait, once I'm on the correct medication things might change but now it's just too much.

On the jacket front, we're heading towards the last of the second front then it's just sleeves (keep telling yourself "it's just sleeves") so we're heading slowly towards the finishing post. Give it time..

In other news, the U.K. Swap matches come out this weekend! I can't wait to start collecting things for my spoilee!

Floppy doesn't really mind what I do as long as he gets his full quota of fuss every day!