Sighted over the crest of a hill....

Okay, okay, I know it's been more than a week, d'you know how long these blog pages take to write? (actually, I've kind of shot myself in the foot with this one 'cos it's looooong!).

Anyway, I last left off in the middle of a week, halfwayish thru my stack of batts which I demolished by that weekend. One thing I forgot to add, was that at my shortened afternoon knitting group that Tuesday, I got a prezzie!

(And yes, I know it's sideways, my original isn't, Blogger's having a happy half hour but at least it's happily loaded the slew of photos so count your blessings!).

It's a fab little pin from blogless Pam in the afternoon group, she knows me so well! Even though my knitting stash has been somewhat neglected of late there are changes on the horizon. Time permitting, I will continue cataloguing and ruthless pruning once the tour has finally finished (and my little side-project underway).

I also had another surprise that week (well, semi-surprise, I know it was coming but not exactly when or what it was)....

...It was my UK Spinners Swap parcel, winging its way from bonnie Scotland from sweet Janice who despite having a busy week away from home still managed to get it to me that Friday.

There are five baggies of fibrely goodness, Icelandic, Merino, a knot of soft white top, some washed, carded white Alpaca and a mysteriously (I think naturally) dyed soft fleece with the label "Artisan". Add to that a pack of fine scottish Shortbread (yum!), a lemon lavender candle, not one but four skeins of handspun and a useful trolley token plus a postcard that I omitted from the shot, sorry!

Someone else knows me well too, this fridge magnet suits me to a "T"!

I love the colours of the handspun, there;s a bit of everything in there, corriedale. merino, and some fab dyed spun fibre from the Yarn Yard, can you guess which one's called "Fruit Salad?". Thank you so much for my lovely parcel, it made my somewhat hectic day!

So, by Saturday morning, the yarn mountain was up to here...

...The coloured Portland and silk mix was all spun up, he last of it not yet skeined and I'd spent some hours drumcarding the new fibre (which I've omitted to add a picture of, bugger!). It was extremely hard work and took all of Saturday except when we had a jaunt around Liverpool (which was a relief!).

I'd heard of a Japan Day via a leaflet at the Student's Union opposite the cathederal and being quite interested (I've done a couple of years of conversational Japanese), I wanted to have a look. Unfortunately, it was extremely busy so I've no fabbo pic's to show you but then again, it would have made this post even longer so maybe that's a good thing ;-)

What I also happened upon on my travels was some of these...

...They're the Lambanana's, created to Celebrate Liverpool's capital of culture and they're spread all through the city and beyond. There is a map that can be printed off and my mini project is to take a day or afternoon each week and photograph them all before they disappear at the end of August. Aren't they fab? For those that don't know the story of the Lambanana, I'll have to tell you another day (or you could google it!).

We also happened across one end of Chinatown so I got the opportunity to show you the wonderfully decorated arch...

Oh yeah, just time to sneak in one more...


Unsurprisingly, I didn't have any time to spin last Saturday, but I made up for it by spinning on Sunday, Monday and all through the rest of the week, taking Saturday as my rest day instead of Monday.

By Wednesday, I was back up to two bobbins a day though this fleece has been incredibly challenging to spin reasonably as it's been SO neppy. Had I had time, perhaps I could have prepared it better but I've constantly amazed myself as to how much fibre I've been through so I've had one hell of a job keeping up with the prep! Lesson for next time, prep four times as much, then you can keep on going AND rest on the rest days!

By Friday, I had a mere 5 batts left... I use 2 batts per bobbinfull so it was possible but made for a very long day!

It was one hell of an achievement but by spinning these 3 bobbins, I could finally put the trials of the Bleu-du-maine fleece behind me. Don't get me wrong, I love the colours and it was a mercifully soft fleece but it got slippery, neppy and was less easy to get correct thickness with. I do love the yarn I've spun though!

So, now we're up to date and I can show you the trials of scaling the ever increasing Mount Fleece-no-more, actually it could be a volcano, I'm waiting for it to errupt!....

...The bottom layer is week one's Ryeland, the middle layer the coloured Portland/silk/angelina combinations (and the one that got away on the top) and above them is the Bleu-du-Maine. I drumcarded the majority in 3 stripes for long colour sequences but 4 batts were like bullseyes, one colour laid directly on top of another for shorter colour lengths and as it was spun first and came out thinner, maybe these 2 skeins will end up as socks. The jury's out as to what this'll be but I do have ideas....

After the rigours of the last three weeks, I gave myself a break and spun pre-prepared, namely the spinners swap fibre you saw earlier. Actually, I only had a few hours as it was our anniversary yesterday and we had lunch out and a wee jaunt to celebrate.

The top skien is Icelandic, the bottom the mysteriously named "Artisan" which I carded caarefully to preserve some of the colour sections and in the middle is a wonderful merino blend of red, bluey purple and orange that makes a fabulously flamey yarn. I made the most of the 24g and got 100m out of it so it'll get added to some sock or lace concoction.

I have started on some more dyed tops for the final day but you'll have to wait 'till next time for them.

Sooo, all this spinning, must have made a dent in the fleece mountain...

...Not really, as this is the tidy bit I can show you, there's probably double that which needs clearing away!

I DID treat myself however for all the effort I've put in...

... thanks to hubbie's help in securing a skein of Posh Yarn's Lei sock yarn in delectable "Cowgirl" shade, purrty ;-)
And to prove that I do occasionally knit, here's the back and half a front of my gifted yarn jacket. Knitting on 12mm needles means that even when you screw up the pattern so badly that you need to frog half the back not once but around 3 times, it still knits up quick!

And my last bit of news is the parcel that came through on Saturday (i.e. yesterday)...

...My Yarn Yard Fibre of the month parcel! hope I'm not spoiling it for anyone but I LOVE the colours and as it's a merino/silk blend, it'll be a dream to spin, drool!

Of course, Floppy's been overcome by the hectic pace I've put in each day...

...Don'tcha just love 'em (when they're asleep)?

Hanging on in there!

This is how much I've spun Friday-Monday, I'm shocking myself!

Of course, Tuesday was a "rest" day...for that read cram everything you've been putting off because you've been spinning, like visiting friends, 2, read it...TWO knitting groups (even if only an hour a piece) and finding the time to drumcard this lot...

...Which of course, I laid into today...

When I weighed the skeins I'd spun so far, there was 580g and there's another 260g with the stuff I'd spun today, only 8 batts to go!

Anyway, if you're a Raveler and want to show a bit of support, why not click the love button over here.

I'm post no. 3 and I'm in a comp for the biggest showing in week one of the Tour De Fleece...well, 750g of spun and hand prepped Ryeland followed by 2 skeins of coloured yarn's gotta be worht something, no? PLus, I NEVER win anything, fact! Closing date is noon (PST) Sunday so get over there and show your love! please?

Anyway, I haven't been totally on my own, Floppy's been "helping"...

.

..See y'all on the weekend!

A week in Spinning

I honestly never thought I'd be interested in watching sport, any sport...But for some reason, I'm totally hooked on watching the Tour De France!

Having joined the Tour De Fleece group, it started as something to have in the background whilst spinning and whilst coverage on freeview is scant except for weekends (and even then only a couple of hours); I found a poor quality but free live feed on the internet which helped me to watch more live stuff during the week. But what I wasn't prepared for was getting so involved, as I'm "riding" along with them, they speed up, I speed up, god forbid I stop even to go to the loo until the commercial break!

I always knew I was a reasonably fast spinner but I've surprised even myself, may I present the results of 8 days of the tour.....


There's 750g of spun Ryeland, washed, painstakingly combed and prepped by me in advance; I raced thru that lot by Thursday, and 2 skeins of coloured stuff again washed, dyed and drumcarded into fluffy batts. Unfortunately, I only managed to produce 4 before the competition began and they were eaten up on Friday so quite some hours of prep had to be found to make the rest. There's at least another 2 lots of this fleece to be prepped but it would be fab if I could spin thru it all by the end of the tour (and if I can prep the rest of the ryeland too, wahey!).

Anyway, splitting up the days a bit...

...Here's where I finished at the end of day 2, 2 more skeins to add and as they were fuller than the previous days, I'd topped my 100g by an extra 28g so I was happy BUT I wanted to do more...

...In an amazing session that lasted until 11pm on day 3, I managed 3 great skeins. Mondays are quieter and there was around 3 hours of live coverage so I was intensely pleased with my progress, especially as I couldn't give it my full attention in the days ahead.

Tuesday, I managed nearly 2 skeins as I had to break off to make time for knitting group in the evening, on Wednesday I visited a friend in the morning but still managed to make time (and watch the stage) and by 8pm Thursday, I was here...

...All my prepped fleece spun, hopefully got the measure of aran weight (there's more to do so I will have enough for a sweater once the rest is prepped). I was really pleased at finishing a day early but a bit at a loss as to what to do next, but not for long....

...This was where I stopped Thursday night. It was nice to be spinning something colourful and still fleece stash busting as it's all my own handiwork again. Friday on the other hand got stupid busy...

...spinning...
....prepping....
....more spinning....
....and dyeing! Using the ashford dyes, the colours kept leeching no matter how many times you rinsed the fleece so I gave up , spun the water out of 'em and let 'em dry. I know they're flaky so I'll attack 'em again at the yarn stage. Still disappointed though, especially as I'd added extra citric acid to stop that. And the brown needed LOADS of dye to get a reasonable colour. still, makes a change from my usual blue, green purple combos!

Floppy doesn't mind how much spinning I do so long as he gets plenty of fuss!


Well, onwards, more spinning today wrist-strap free 'cos I've picked up a rash on my wrists for some reason but the wrists are improving slowly. I'm being very protective whilst working hard, giving them gentle excercise with a powerball in the evening before bed so there is definite improvement in the left one and slow going on the right. Off to get my Diet Coke fix before I head into the race once again, see you soon!

In Memory of Linda

On the Tuesday before I was due to travel to Woolfest, I got some bad news.

Linda, one of our fellow knitters from the Tuesday evening group who had been in hospital for a few weeks had passed away the previous Sunday. She had been dogged with recurring health problems but none of them life threatening so it came as a shock to many the swiftness of her passing. At 59, she was vivacious and full of life and whilst I didn't really know her outside of the knitting group, she will still be missed there.

Linda was a prodigious knitter, she knitted exquisite 4ply sweaters on circular needles that looked as neat as machine knitted stitches, we envied her talent whilst marvelling at the amount of time and trouble knitting such a garment. She had a great sense of humour and her love of all things yarny was well known as she seemed to pick up a new pack of yarn almost every week.

What was not so obvious at the time was quite how large her stash was.....

On visiting Linda in hospital, a fellow knitter, Caroline, who lived locally to her and had popped into her flat to bring her some yarn, commented on what she thought was Linda's stash (and the thought that she'd like to have sneaked a look!) and drawn a laugh from her. In a twist of fate, it was down to this selfsame knitter to sort through and otherwise dispose of Linda's stash on her death, a far more onerous task than anyone had originally anticipated. Linda's sister, having a lifetime of her sister's "hobby" wanted nothing to do with it.

The unpicking of someone's life is never a pleasant task, I can remember my own responses to helping clear my grandmother's (dad's mum) house, she had a huge room-wide fitted wardrobe crammed floor-to-ceiling with every concievable garment, shoes, slippers, even torn sheets and towels used as rags! It was my first experience of such and the mounds of clothes that had never been worn, the '80's black dress with the white peter pan collar that would never be worn again, it was all very sad, the sum total of her life.

Linda, too was a hoarder. Instead of clothes, she fell on her crafts like a lifeline. Aside from the original visible stash, many other hiding places were found. There were piles in each room, many many WIP's, some so near to completion that they will be going to their intended recipients, sweaters expected for birthdays and Christmas, huge varieties of oddballs and many, many packs of yarn.

This plucky knitter has spent days working through the stash and finding suitable homes for it, contacting local church knitting groups to donate sacks of yarn to worthy projects, working through mounds of cross-stitch materials to donate a large parcel to Mind, a mental health charity. With the help of another knitter, Pam, Caroline sorted through the packs to produce a "gift" for each of the knitting group, something that they thought suited knitters the best. In a twist, my gift was enough yarn to knit a Pampas coat in a pattern I already had but didn't have enough yarn for and a pile of gansey 5ply, both which will be knitted up once life is a little less hectic. A great choice for me though!

Despite all of this, there is still half a room full of packs of yarn and I have been given two huge bags of Cross-stitch Aida to list on Ebay. There are hopefully 3 knitters in the group who will be listing and any proceeds will be going to the NSPCC so after all the heartache of clearing her stash, it will at least have a positive impact on many lives.

Her funeral was last Thursday and through an error (no doubt due to the emotional impact of the whole thing), we were all unfortunately given the wrong time for it, arriving to wait outside and listen to its ending which was sad. Neveretheless, five of the knitting group still arrived showing we wanted to offer our support. It has been a salutory lesson though.

As this episode closes, it pulls into sharp focus the effect of someone's stash on the person who is left to deal with it once the knitter passes on. What may be a source of variety, colour and texture may be a millstone to someone else. I know that both Pam and Caroline have been affected by the whole experience and it does make you look on your stash in a different light. Planning can no doubt help, setting out on a regular basis a number of people who you would like to gift certain yarns too (changing when the item is used, obviously!) but I'm hoping it may make me think twice about future bulk yarn buying. There's a distinct possibility that I might have a little extra destash of my own but I'm not doing that straight away, act in haste, repent at leisure!

Anyway, moving on, here are some more pic's from Woolfest, the first a view over the hills from the campsite...

...Amazing needles...

...Wooly friends...

...The poor old Wensleydales were definitely suffering from the heat by Saturday!...
...shoppers...
...more shoppers...
...and a pretty rubbish picture of ginormous knitting needles made, I was told from lengths of drainpipe!

Onto knitting and other crafterly pursuits, of the Summer of Socks, I will speak no more...for now. Being a lazy soul, I'd forgotten to clear my camera's memory, so, in order to get the piictures above, I had to clear its memory entirely, only later realizing I'd lost the picture of the Monkey socks I'd knitted and passed on, D'oh! Still, I carried on regardless with the Rivendell socks...which are now totally rewound after frogging them for the umpteenth time. First I cast on, did an inch of rib then decided I should go up a needle size so frogged and started again. Then I misread an instruction and had to frog around 3". Halfway down the foot (the first time) I realized the pattern was on the wrong part of the leg so it had to be frogged back to the leg again (that hurt!) but I bit the bullet and did it the first night I was away and got back to it again after my return. So it was the last straw when I first tried it on in order to work out where to put the toe shaping and found the beginning of my leg, despite going up a needle size, would still cut off the circulation in my leg...there was no option, it was rip, rip and rip again.

There is three weeks of solid spinning to salve the wound and I will attempt it again after that. Yes, the Tour De fleece is in full flow, I have managed to cram in a few hours spinning yesterday and hope to get a reasonable stretch in today. Here's some of my not-particularly successful stuff pre- TDF...

From the left, Alpaca navajo plied to free up a bobbin pre-Woolfest, a cobweb Gotland Navajo plied (badly) and a Merino top 2-plied (badly). The problem occurs because it takes so long to fill a bobbin with laceweight or finer, it loses its energy so it may look fine when piled but as soon as it is washed, it goes loopy! I will run both through the wheel once again to tighten up the twist and hope it doesn't over-energise them in the process.
From the top, as warm-up before Saturday, I spent Friday spinning 2 of the batts which Mel bought for me as our swap set-up. I know I haven't shown you the rest yet, have patience, it's been a frantic week! It's Sockstuff from Freyalynn, a wool/nylon blend and I've navajoed it once again to keep the stripes of colour. It looks about right thickness wise but I'm having problems working out what thickness my yarns fall into. The two white yarns are what I managed to spin yesterday, I was aiming for aran (worsted). The top one on a wraps-per-inch tool comes out at anywhere between 19 (laceweight) and 12 (aran) whereas the fatter one might be aran or bulky (and definitely more difficult to get even). I have some leeway to get this right but consistency has never been my forte so wish me luck! I could just aim for the first one consistently as it looks the best, we shall see.

So I will get back to spinning, maybe by the next time I post there'll be more new yarn to see. It's all about learning for me so three weeks will definintely see some improving, watch this space!

5 Reasons why I haven't blogged recently

1) I've been busy collecting things for not one but TWO swaps...A sucker for punishment, I collected my spinners swap parcel (or should I say box!) together in around 3 days in order to pass it over to my Swapmate at Woolfest PLUS me 'n' Woolydoodles decided it was high time we did swapsies for one another. This was part of what she presented me with on the day before the show...
...A bag, specially made for the event which says " I ravelled at Woolfest 2008", filled with a survival package for the event, namely some paper face masks (To protect me from the wool fumes..I forgot and mayhem ensued!); A big bottle of water (for Hydration, used); A Kit-Kat (to keep the blood sugar up...also used); plasters (came in handy when I broke a nail loading up the car); funky tissues; a notepad and some wet wipes for after handling raw fleece (ah, Mel, you know me well!). There's a second part to this one but as I haven't pulled my finger out and photographed it yet, you'll just have to wait.

2) In between preparations for Woolfest, we finished our first pair of socks for Summer of Socks. The slight problem is that they have been given away and although I took a photograph, I had to delete all the images on the camera and didn't have a back-up so I've lost it! D'oh. I have currently been wrestling with Rivendell, knitting, mostly frogging but hopefully we'll have one completed sock soon (and a picture!).

3)Whilst I was away, a catalogue of errors ensued where whilst no-one was actually injured (bar my wrists), one hell of a lot went wrong, including the fact that I could not hook up to the internet the whole time I was there. I tried everything I could on my laptop (which gets interesting when I get enough breathing/thinking space to go exploring menus/help options) and the only solution it came up with? Turn the wireless router off and on again! Nice idea, shame I had no idea where it was! I could have pestered the owners in case one of them was a tech head but as I'd already lost a key, found a key, broke a key, moved rooms, hassled them for hairdryers and batteries for the knackered remote control, I wasn't pushing it any further!

4) On my return on Sunday, somewhat battered from lack of sleep, I had a couple of hours before turning round and going out to a marathon family-in-law event which included picking up the in-laws, transporting them an hour away, off to a meal that started at 6pm and ended around 9pm; finally returning home about 10.30pm with a stonking headache and frantic dogs who'd been left in the dark for a while, not a good idea, any of it! If the same situation happens next year, I will arrange to have a migraine, forego the food and let them get on with it...

5) A combination of unexpected carting of luggage upstairs at 9pm+ on the first night (after aforementioned broken key issue), carting fleeces and goodies to the Wool Creche whilst at Woolfest and playing somewhat hazardously with my new woolcombs has well and truly knackered both wrists therefore reducing my typing etc. activities in the vain hope I can give them time to recover...A truly vain hope as the Tour De Fleece starts on Saturday and I am loving my new combs, even if they may fly off the table at any moment therefore impaling anything in its path (so farm, so good) and the fact that they produce much larger bumps at the price of my wrists...

Anyway, better late than never, here's a pic. from the event, many more to follow...

...And of course my stash...
The bottom layer is non-superwash Merino Bamboo sock yarn from Bluefaced.com ready for me to dye; above it is a 60% Alpaca, 20% Merino, 20% Nylon sock yarn from UK Alpaca at an incredible £1.50 a skein as it was underplied. Still suitable for a sweater though!

At the top (here's a better picture), 3 skeins of Fyberspates Faery lace, pure merino and Luurvely colours (and I got my Ravelry discount!).

This picture refuses to stay rotated sigh; never mind, my new Woolcombs from P+M with the Majacraft block that was meant to hold the clamp and keep it all stable. Unfortunately, it broke 2nd time I used it, hence the somewhat precarious situation as I have to clamp the handle directly which is not terribly satisfactory. I've got my fingers crossed for a handy hubbie somewhere who could help out by providing something more stable, so watch this space...

Also 3 Procion dyes and a pack of Citric Acid (saves me finding vinegar all the time) and a couple of Natural dyes to add to my Earthues set. And a flick carder which I can use on my pigskin apron so hopefully all my fibre preparation needs are catered for in the forseeable future.

Then there's my 2 plaits of gorgeousness (Merino tencel) hand dyed by the Yarn Yard...and yes, I cracked and signed up to the fibre club, D'oh! Also a small bag of Angora that I was 20p short on so Mel bought it for me (I DO take things to the wire!).

In addition, I picked up (somewhat unwisely), a BFL fleece (very mucky and definitely not skirted); a Teeswater (quite mucky, hopefully washed today); a gorgeously soft Bowmont fleece; a Castlemilk Moorit fleece (some spiky veg but washed okay) and a cheap but incredibly butchered Manx Loaghtan fleece. The label said 750g but I'll be lucky to get 300g out of it, lots of the fleece was shorn stupid short, like 1cm long and unusable plus the 2nd cuts were unbelievable. I also picked up 1kg of washed (cold water) teeswater 'cos I believed the blokes blarney but we'll see how much I end up with. I also got 1kg raw suri alpaca (niiice), and 500g grey raw alpaca as well as over 1kg of different coloured alpaca tops as well so I probably have around ten years od fleece preparation/spinning to do...whether this is wise or not is debatable right now...

Anyway, important lesson learnt, unroll EVERY fleece you intend to purchase, even if it's a bugger to get back, just because the butt end looks clean doesn't mean there could be hidden nasties rolled inside. And with that, I'm off to wash the Teeswater. I'm putting off the BFL 'till my wrists are a bit stronger as I know it'll be hard work (I've already discarded roughly 1/4 of it) but hope to have them all squeaky clean asap. Wish me luck!