happy new year.

I just popped into uni to grab a sock pattern of the internet for caroline who arrives at our house tomorrow! So here is the challenge, can I make a pair of socks in colinette skye in 24 hours??? I have a feeling I can!

Haven't finished the waistcoat, it was making me feel sick knitting so many squares I did however give the lady my handdyed, handspun scarf instead she loved it, the wasitcoat will be finished soon.

Mum brought me a bag of silk garden for christmas, and I can tell you I have nearly knit it all in the form of Klaralund. It is sooooooo easy!

Pictures next week when I am back in work.

Happy New year people.

Ps have done loads of dying and spinning as well.

Monday pictures.

Considering my lack of posting, I have actually been knitting more than usual, taking every opportunity to try and  get my christmas presents finished.

So here is my progress so far on my domino waistcoat:

The colours are quite delicate, and it needs good light to appreciate the domino effect, here is a close up:

 

I  am really pleased with it so far. I know you are thinking now, 'how is it ever going to be a waitcoat?' Just try and visualise. (The jagged edge is the bottom, and it is knitted a square at a time!).

I also had to get some mad collinette skye for christmas socks and here it is. The colours are wonderful, the greens are much brighter in real life. I recomend this wool for the most beautiful, scrumptious warm socks.

Our stitch n' bitch christmas party was saturday afternoon, and it was fantastic! We all had really good chats, food, cups of tea and got loads of knitting done!

Thanks Marie for hosting it!

More photo's coming soon.

I have been really, really bad about posting this week because I have been so busy, but I should have a picture this afternoon of my experimental domino project, which is due to be a christmas present. I'm very pleased with it.

I have also managed to recirut some new psychology knitters. One is coming for a lesson next week! Madness.

And Stitch n' bitch tomorrow, I can not wait!!!! I am so excited to focus on knitting for a while and forget psychology, I have had an amazing week in work, but it's quite emotional, I really have to challenge myself not to get scared about moving on in my career, I always avoid public speaking and paper writing, but it seems as if the time is coming where there is the opportunity to do it with lots of support, so either I stay where I am forever or move out of my comfort zone, and start moving forward.

I also have signed up for an intensive welsh course which runs 5 days a week 8am - 9.30 am for 25 weeks. So I should be fluent at the end!!! I love the welsh language!

Oh the way the other post was referring to Orlando Bloom.

A picture!

After writing this post many times, I'm not going to tell you who I met at the weekend. He is GEORGOUS!!!!!! But I shall stay Shtum. However if you emial me ..........

Now to knitting! I finally managed to get a picture so here is my dads scarf when it was nearly finished. It's an old photo cause it's finished now but it's better than nothing:

What do you think?

I know I'm a failure!

No pictures still. Sorry.

Started running experiments so a little extra knitting time! Lots to get done for christmas presents. Dad's Gloves. Finish Anths Noro gloves. A waistcoat which was meant for someones birthday in Feb, so I really have to make this, and a pair my special thick Colinette  skye socks for someone special. And a rustic embroidery for my mum. I don't even have a single free weekend before christmas.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Rileys and monkeys.

I have finished my dads scarf, and am just finishing off the motif of the RILEY badge by using duplicate stitch. I started using faraisle (even typepad doesn't know the spelling for this!) but it was so messy, Marie suggested duplicate stitch, and it's brilliant! the back looks really neat as well.

I am using an inferior computer today so I can't upload the pictures but I will ASAP. I am very proud of it! So now onto the glove and mitten.

Had a fab weekend, we went to visit our lovely freind Philip in London in his new house and had a brilliant time, lots of chatting and drinking wine, and knitting of course! Philip can knit, but not purl.

Non knitting now: We got home to find out that monkey cat hadn't been home all weekend, Sian (our lovely next door neighbour) had tried to hang around for him and stuff but to no avail. So when we got home we were both really upset, so we went out looking for him along the places he goes to play/hunt, and not a whisker.

I phoned my father and was telling him, and he was suggesting he could be locked in a garage somewhere, meanwhile, Anth ws trying not to show me he was crying. it was now 9.30, all of a sudden, as I was wiping the tears away, I heard a familiar 'Mew' The little *%&^)%£ was sat on the wall as if he'd only been let out 5 minutes ago. Suffice to say we were extremely relieved! Now you now why he is called monkey cat. He is so naughty!

Marie, I think he could be another Clide!

OH MY.............

I would like to begin the sermon today by turning to page 244 in the stitch and bitch book placed in front of you, and singing Marie's Praises because WE ARE IN THE STITCH N' BITCH BOOK!!!!!!!!

I received the book last night, and was trying to find us under UK knitting groups and Cardiff knitting group, and was about to give up when I looked under Welsh knitting groups, and there we were!!!! I was dancing around the Kitchen like a mad women. My mum wants a copy, and I have a feeling, my aunties might as well!!!

I'm the one on the left with the huge mop of hair!! Marie is in the middle and hannah is on the right. Gosh what a privilege to be in such a prestigious publication! I am going to take it to my social psychology discussion group this afternoon to show my professor!

I had to remove the last post incase my pop reads this one.

Secret Pal revealed and colours!

So this is my secret pal

Thanks very much I have really enjoyed your lovely packages! I am looking forward to reading about the baby progress!

I have had the odd opportunity to spin up some of my carding. The feel of the yarn is really lovely, I need to wash it and stretch it, to get rid of the springy coils. Here are some pictures:

Do you know what though? I am not sure I like the color very much. The colours seem diluted compared to what I intended. The colours change so much from when you apply the dye, mixing fibers/colour together and then spinning them. It's really hard to predict exactly what it will come out. They seem on the dull side. I am normally really good at anything to do with colour, so this is a real challenge for me.

If you haven't got one yet, get one!

So last night, feeling too sleepy to go for a run, I decided I would wind my dyed skein of wool up into balls and do some carding.  So it took me nearly 45 minuntes to wind it all up but I am so pleased, here is the result! (and to think it wash shop soiled so only cost me about £4! for 500gms ) ( it's a wool mohair mix.)

The colours are beautiful, pale pinks and greens, it was inspired by our weekend in the welsh countryside, I always think the mountains look pink with the heather!

Here is a closeup:

The I proceded to card up my wensleydale on my drum carder, it is so easy and so much fun!! If you spin but don't have a drum carder, you have to get one!!

Here is some of the wensleydale carded, I love this colour:

The colours the below photo are not true, but it is my favourite, I love moss green with delicate bits of pink and mauve in:

I'm not that fussed on this colour, so i'll be blending it with the silk:

Finally, whilst anth was cooking my breakfast this morning, I got chucked out of the kitchen for making a mess, so what is a girl to do? Have a go at mixing some wool and silk of course!

This picture unfortunately does not reflect the absolutley beauty of this bat, I am going to put it through again, but I am so excited about spinning this:

Winter hibernation.

It's so weird how winter makes you feel so sleepy, it gets to about 3.30 pm, and I have to keep slapping my face to keep me from plunging head first into my keyboard.

No pictures today because the massive skein of yarn that I dyed was still wet this morning. And I didn't get to the carder yesterday evening because Anth and I were walking home and needed  a cheer up, so we decided to go to the pub, which was just great! Then we went and had 'Chicken curry of the floor and chips'. Curious "chicken curry of the floor", I have never thought until now what that might mean, I don't think I should think about it too much. Tasty though!

Talking of food, I accidentally ate a mouthful of toast at the weekend, and had no ill effects, I used to get bad tummy aches from any wheat, now I am tempted to see if I could manage scampi, or a soft brown bread prawn mayonnaise sandwich..... Ahhh I'm drooling now. I'm going to go back and get tested again, see if my allergy has gone, how amazing would that be!!!!  Sorry, nothing to do with knitting, I know.

Sanity rules again.

Ahem! Had a lovely weekend, just walking through the most beautiful welsh country side and walking on the beach. Actually on sat we went for a 5 hour walk! It made up for not going running this weekend. We stayed in a beautiful B&B called the Tallismand, very close to the beach, they also have a pottery business there, and all the crockery is hand made, needless to say we came home with a teapot, some mugs, a milk jug, and something else which I can't disclose because it is a Christmas present.

We got home about 2.30, and I was in the mood for some dyeing. So I got out my pot's and pans and spread news paper every where here is some of the results so far:

This is some of the raw wendsleydale fleece dyed, I did scour it a little first. I have no idea what to do with this.

Secondly this is about 75 grams of silk. I am dying to card this.

This about 400grams of wendsleydale (red pink and green) and some super wash merino (orange) I intend to make a self striping yarn from these.

And finally: Dyed and carded soya silk; again I have no idea what to do with this yet.

Weekend away.

I cast on for my dads mitten, although it is looking a little large, so I asked mum to sort of find out his palm size without him knowing. I am sure my dad won't guess!

I want to knit in the motif of his vintage car into his scarf and gloves. So he can wear them when he is driving in his Riley.

Anth and I are going away for the weekend the Gower, to blow away some of the cobwebs and have a rest, and guess what? I am not even taking my knitting! I know it's shocking, but my mind is constantly racing with knitting, spinning and carding ideas, and I am getting so tired with my job and my other job, and other things, I need some time away from everything, and away from the excitment of fibery things, I know that sounds really strange, but I think obsessively about knitting all and my other crafts that my head is full all the time, and thats also the only thing I talk to Anth about, so I decided to treat him to real converstion.

Does anyone else get so excited by knitting/spinning stuff all the time so it makes them feel jittery? There isn't a mintue go by where I am not thinking about my next creation, and because I am always thinking about so many things, I find it really difficult to focus on one task. I think I'm just gone in the head.

Actually I just read that last paragraph, and I would score rather highly on a rather undesirable psychology test, with that type of thinking. However I do have insight, so I'm not totally mad.

Hmm I think a holiday is a good idea!

It's here!!

The drum carder is here!! It's absolutely fantastic! I decided to have a go last night whilst Anth was cooking our tea, before we had to go out to work. Then work phoned and cancelled, and so it was destined to be a carding and spinning evening. I carded some bats, and boy it's is amazing. I do need to practice with things like mixing silk in because it had a tendency to form neps in the wool Spinning with wool that is properly carded is amazing. its makes things much softer and airy.

Here is a picture of the drum carder, it is very blurry but you can get an idea of the size, it's massive!

I didn't take any picture of the bats because it was too dark, however I did take a picture of the experimental spinning which arose from it. I didn't quite get the hang of doing the fantastic things that you can see here: and here, but I am going to start practicing.

Here is a picture of my spinning, the cream one was a silk and wendsleydale mix, plied with a thread.

Finally I managed to get a rather large package in the post for someone this morning, after shouting at anth and telling him that I need his help to carry it to the post office. whilst I was there I picked up my parcel which contains the softest wool on the planet especially for my dads special scarf and glove set.

Here it is:

It's Debbie bliss Cashmerino aran. Prrrr prrrr.

Ruffles is finished.

Ruffles is finished, very pleased, it helped to knit into the back of the knit stitch when you knit the wrap and knit together.

Picture tomorrow.

:-)

Messy ruffles.

So here is the thing, I love my ruffles scarf and being so excited that it worked, I wasn't to bothered that it looks a little messy because the stitches are bumpy where the wraps and turns are. I have started to knit the wrapped stitches and the normal one together in the back of the loop to try and smooth these out. It does look a bit better, any one else had this problem and found a solution?

I want to make some of these for christmas presents but it needs to be neater. HELP ME!

I wish the weekend could last forever.

The Cardiff knitting show was so much fun! We chatted to people who were interested in knitting, I even managed to encourage some younger people to come to stitch n' bitch, fingers crossed.

Interestingly no one voluntarily (apart from Marie) commented on my water wrap, but it was surrounded by knitted toys and aran jumpers, so I think it was a bit lost.

I decided to knit something which would get people talking so I started my curly scarf from scarf style, this took 7 attempts before I understood the wrap and turns, and needed showing eventually, here it is:

It actually knits up really quickly. I used my Lambs pride, which is a joy to knit with.

There is a large store in Cardiff called David Morgan's. They are closing down and had some great sales on sewing machines and over-lockers so I thought about it a lot and because I need both, I got one of each. I have only managed to use the sewing machine so far because I wanted to have a go at some free hand embroidery, I brought some soluable plastic at the knitting show and you layer what ever you want between two layers of plastic and the embroider free hand over it. You then stick it in water and the plastic disolves and you are left with your fabric. I had a go by chopping up some of my hand dyed wool, and coiling some of it as well. Here is the result:

Here is a close up:

The pictures aren't too good but still, for my first try, I am really pleased.

I've got a new drum carder!

At last a spell check function on the blog! Hmm, my blog may not make sense but at least the spelling will be correct!

Dear Adrian, You would be proud of me! I have finally purchased a Louet junior drum carder. Alas, I have to wait for it in the post. I can't wait till we have postal service like the transporter in star trek, so we can beam down our yarn/lovely things instantly. Oh well, we knitters can but hope.

Secret pal, Thank you for sending me a final package, you are so kind!

So a weekend of knitting, with the Knitting and stitching at the knitting show in Cardiff on Sat, and then Sunday is a day off!!! So a 12 mile run in the morning Ugh, I feel tired at the thought.

Then knitting all afternoon!! Which will include my scarf from scarf style from my ruby lambs pride and hopefully finish off my socks and anths glove.

Stich n' Bitch

Last night was a brilliant meeting!

Here are some of us, a couple of people left before we took the photo.

It was such a vibrant meeting, we talked about knitting, politics, languages, all sorts of things. There was only one welsh member: Marie!

It was lovely to meet elizabeth who is from the US (blue jumper on the left) she found us on the web, because she came over for conference and wanted to meet up with some welsh knitters!

I love it that knitting is a passport to meeting people all over the world, I am sure there is nothing else you could do that with.

Stitch n' Bitch

So this evening is Stitch and bitch. I can't wait!!!!!! I do need something nice to start though, I can't take my socks because they are my 'taking to work project'. So I think I may have a go at making Ruffles from scarf style, using the mohair I spun a couple of weekends ago. Although it needs to be dyed first, AHHHH Dilema!

Nearly finshed my hello yarn socks, I can't wait to wear them, they are so toasty.

I will take my camera this evening and post some pictures tomorrow of our rapidly expanding Stitch n' Bitch group.

Water shawl.

Here it is, sorry about the muppet hair. It's a little too big for me, so it doesn't hang quite right in the picture, however I am thinking it will make a great christmas present for mum.

I ran out of kid silk at the end so I had to space out the tassels more than I would have liked. but I am very very happy with it.

Amazon books have arrived, love the scarf style, hate the Knitting with hand dyed yarns, hope there is some decent tips/ stuff to read in it because I'm not too keen on the designs.

Added later ( I change my mind, it's interesting!)

shawl is finished!

I completed my shawl! Although I forgot my camera, so you'll have to wait till tomorrow for pictures. The shawl has now been submitted to the Cardiff Knitting and Stitching show, Yeah!!!! Mum was so delighted, she said, "oh darling it's the start of a new career for you", what??!! My mother is so funny, she says she should have never let me do a psychology degree, she should have insisted on textiles!

I have swatched up my colintette, and am rather confused about it. The point 5 looks fabulous but the other two yarns don't work so well so I need to reswatch and have another go. I would really like to make a poncho, but actually I think a wrap would be quite good fun, I am getting a bit fond of around the shoulder wraps, it allows you to experiment with combinations of textures without having to worry about shaping as well, although I think I may try and make a jumper made from fabric from the water wrap, but I need to work out how to unreal the rayon without it tangling into a mess.

A friend is coming for a knitting lesson this afternoon at lunchtime, so we'll see how she goes.

The kid mohair is the same guage as the rowan stuff and is quite strong but I can't seem to knit it on metal needles, I am going to have to get some bamboo circulars for Karis, anyone else had this problem?

And Finally last week I ordered 4 pattern books for Noro, and I had been raving about them to Anth for ages and he didn't seem interested, however, when he saw the mens patterns he went mad, he loves them, so I told him I would treat him to the noro for which ever jumper he wants to knit.... I have to encourage him somehow. He he ;-)

Stitch n' Bitch

Last night was stitch n' bitch, it was fabulous! A couple of new members inlcuding Carmen, and a girl came up to our table and was so excited because she has wanted to join a knitting group for ages, so she is coming to our meeting next week.

Marie showed us samples of the lovely things she brough in San Francisco, and she also brought me home these:



I was very chuffed, I am going to make a hat and gloves from this, hopefull with cables.

My water shawl is on it's way, I managed a fair chunk last night, and hopefully can have a good go at it this evening.

I am going to swatch my colintette once the shawl is given in on saturday, Phew!

A great day.

I'm still on the second glove, MUST ..... KNIT..... WATER..... WRAP.....isn't it funny how when you have to do something for a deadline, it becomes slightly stressful even though you love doing it?

More excitingly I believe I have found a much cheaper substitute for kidsilk haze from Texere yarns, it hasn't got silk in it, but it is pure kid mohair and is very very fine and undyed, but that more fun for me!

I think that perhaps the silk in Kidsilk haze gives it extra strength, however I am going to experiment and am not going to use it for everyday wear.

I want to make KARIS, one for me and one for a special friend, who I can't mention because she ocasionally reads this blog. So it's on order! Oooh I can't wait.

If dyeing it comes out nice, perhaps I'll do a competition to win some.

Progress.

I had a wonderful weekend, full of crafts, parties, and exersise.

So saturday I finished my first glove, and cast on for the second, oddly I followed the instructions for a womens medium sized glove, but it ended up too big for me but perfect for Anth. I am happy with this, but I need to check the sizing a bit more next time.



Sunday was reserved for spinning, and knitting. I decided to spin some mohair singles, it's quick to spin but it seemed very difficult to get the fibres to lay flat, they seemed to stick out at every opportunity.



This is about 4 ounces.

I then decided to have a go at mixing silk and wendsleydale, I carded it together with handcarders, and when I spun it, it left tufts and looked crap. So then I tried sort of feeding them in together and here is the result. I am very pleased, it's very shiny and soft.

I need to dye it and dry it to set the twist. I will dye it with the mohair and some of the yarn I brought from London, so it is from the same dyelot, and then knit them all into a scrumtpious top.

Talking of mixing yarns, I still haven't done a swatch for my colinette.

Finally, I managed to knit a large chunk on my water wrap, I'm nearly a third of the way through, but it needs to be finished my friday, so I am going to have to get a move on.

Anth actually started to sew his jumper together, it looks great, but he is unhappy with one of his side seems and wants to do it again before he models it.]

In the afternoon, we went for a really long run because we are training for the london marathon, and went running for 1 hour and 35 minutes (about 12 miles)!!!!!! I have never run for that long before, 40 minutes was the maximum! I just feel so good, awake, and alive!

The weird thing is I am losing a little bit of weigth because of running, BUT it comes off everywhere apart from your hips and bottom, and just serves to accentuate them! AHHHHH!

Not much knitting going on, but thats about to change!

I can't carry on with my "water wrap" until I get some more beads,

no glove progress yet, because it needs a good amount of my attention because I haven't done it before, and have not started on my colinette because I'm scared and I like the idea of have such wonderful things in my stash. The solution?

Get over myself and damn well start!

Funny thing is, in the good old days, when I couldn't understand patterns I would try anything, now I have got into a rut and can't just cast on and see what happens, which is usually when the most amazing things occur. So this weekend I am not knitting anythng which requires a pattern from a book.

I will swatch up my colintette and experiment with it, I will spin some mohair and see what happens, and finish my water wrap.

Is there anything I have done? well yes a little:

I have finally finished my hello yarn sock and have cast on for the second, these are all mine and no body is having them, they are so cutchy and warm. (cutchy/cutch is the welsh slang for cuddle)

here's a picture:

I cannot wait for Marie to come back from San Francisco and show me all her goodies, I especially like the pictures on Mariko's Blog of the knitting bloggers trip out. I will hopefully see all the lovely things on monday evening at Stitch and Bitch.

Finally, this afternoon I am going to show carmen our LYS so she can get some yarn for a project and then we can go for coffee and do a bit of knitting, Yeah Baby Yeah!

So the Gloves....

Here is the glove.

I have had to redo things a couple of times in order to reduce the gaps etc. but I'm getting the hang of it.



I have nearly finished my sock which is very thick and will be very warm. then i can cast on for the second one, they knit up so quick! I am going to see a shakespear play this evening, so I am taking my sock with me just incase.....!

Second attempt.

So here goes my second attempt because I just clicked the wrong button and lost my post.

Ok so this weekend was meant to be knitting, dyeing, spinning and knitting on my knitting machine, I managed a few things but no dyeing and spinning.

I did however manage to make a rayon scarf to dye in lots of colours, on my knitting mcahine, (bottom left) and made a swatch for my linen I brought in London, I washed and blocked it, and it has the most wonderful drape, and is not rough at all, I can't wait to get started on a jumper on my knitting machine. The swatch is the top right.

I also washed and blocked a brown wool swatch, which is also lovely, I have some plans for this too.

Secondly I cast on for my water theme shawl, I used the loopy yarn I dyed (in the last post) with a strand of rayon and a strand of kidsilk haze. I also put clear beads onto the kidsilk haze and it looks like water droplets! I'm very pleased so far, but I need more beads, you can't really see them very well on this picture.

Finally I cast on for some gloves with the last of my silk garden, they are coming on very well, they are quite chunky and fit Anth perfectly, it's the first time I have ever made gloves, and they are not anywhere near as hard as I though they would be, although Anth did have to help me a little bit when I got stuck!?

Oh yes and he actually finished all the bits for his jumper yesterday, so I am hoping we are going to block it tonight so he can start stitching it together.

Madness, knitting and stitching parts 4 & 5.

Yesterday I was trying to see if I could create an animation for one of our experiments, I was having so much fun building my walking chicken, I forgot to update my blog!

So here we are with the two parts together.

I purchased a number of Addi turbo needles because Marie uses them and swears by them, so I got four pairs.



Two paris of these will be used to knit up the Lorna's lace yarn I brought:



I was drawn to these colours, they will be perfect for socks for Anth.

Secondly I brought some hemp yarn, which is good for the knitting machine, it is undyed, but I've got some special dyes which will work on them. I'm not sure whether to knit a garment first and then colour it, or colour it and then knit it.

I said I would make scarfs from the hemp, and Anth suggested I shouldn't make anymore scarfs on my knitting machine, but instead break out of my comfort zone and have a go at making a jumper instead, I coughed loudly at this suggestion but I think he's right, so I said I would, only if he helped me set up the very complicated knitting shapey sizey thing that attatches onto the machine to make patterns easy.

He agreed, but I'm sure only because we have more scarfs that a scarf shop.

Here is the hemp, hopefully the next time you see this it will be a top, or jumper, Hmm.



Once washed the hemp has a fabulous drape, and feels really quite soft.

Now its the moment you have all been waiting for; COLINETTE!

I'm really glad the colours are quite accurate on these pictures. I brought 11 skeins of yarn all in the same colour way, but different yarns.

Here are 7 skeins of point 5.



Here are 2 skeins of silky chic and 2 skeins of the cotton and rayon ribbon, the name escapes me.

I was thinking perhaps and amazing jumper with these or a poncho. my mum has expressed the desire for a poncho, but I'm not sure these colours are really you are they mum?

I think I could use the green colintette I brought although I'm not sure there is enough. Hmm.

Oh last but not least, my alpaca, mohair and wool boucle I brought from texere, and dyed tuesday evening, to go make into the wrap.

here :

London part 3, Beads, buttons and habu.

So we went to the Habu stand which was really quite odd, there was yarn but the quantities were more suitable for weaving and were mega expensive. However that didn't really make any difference! there was a knitted cardigan which was made of paper yarn and mohair, I thought this was amazing, so I got some paper yarn here is a picture:



I also found tiny bundles of yarn with fluffy bits along it, I am going to knit this on about 5mm needles and strand it with the very finely spun steel from Habu!

Here is another picture!

Ok, so I needed beads and buttons to put on the things I make so here is the first one, which is just mad! Its really really huge, but will complete a collinette cardigan I made 2 years ago.



And here is a picture of my coat which desperately needed livening up, I saw these and straight away and knew that these buttons and my coat were meant to be!



Sorry about the picture it is bad lighting, it's been raining non stop and even with the lights on it looks like I took it in the middle of the night!

Oh and nearly finally here are a few ceramic buttons which I love.

And finally yesterday evening I managed to dye one of my skeins from texere yarns, in greens and blues ready for making a special wrap I have designed, which may be exhibited at the cardiff Knit and stitch show if I'm lucky, so i'll post a picture of the yarn tomorrow along with my lorna's laces and some scrumptious hemp yarn, and another glass bead which refuses to be photographed.

London Knitting and stitching show. Part 2 : Spinning, weaving and dying.

During our look around there were a number of yarn stores with hand dyed yarns, which were really beautiful, however being the sort of person who likes to have a go at everything, I decided that for the things which I could make, I would! So we went to the texere yarn Stall and picked up a number of things to dye. I had seen alot of Mohair boucles and loopy yarns which ranged from about £12 - £20 a hank. So here is the selection I purchased from them:



Notice there are also 2 very big balls of spinning rovings. The one at the top of the picture is cotswold wool from texere, but the one in the botton is wendsleydale. This has to be the scrummiest stuff on the planet, when you spin this up it has such an amazing lustre and is so warm. This was actually from the wendsleydale sheep comany, or something similar. From this stall I also brought some wendsleydale fleece, about 2lbs, it was raw so I need to clean it but, there was a beautiful cushion made with a plane knitted square and the locks of wensleydale were sewn in to make it shaggy, it was beautiful! Thats what I am going to make!

Here is a picture of the fleece:



I saw small boxes with about 15 grams of this stuff hand dyed for about £2.30 on another stall, hmm.

I also meet my weaving teacher there, which was lovely and was inspired to get my weaving started again, and I saw a beautiful woven scarf which was so soft and delicate, so I asked the lady on the stall what it was made from and it was a very fine merino, its very expensive but I think the hanks will go far, I would certainly get a couple of woven scarfs out of one hank. I need to dye it as well, but that just adds to the fun!

here is a pictures if it:



I have this weekend off so I am going to get started on some of the spinning and dying projects, you never know I might even get my loom out!

As for knitting, on the train we managed to get quite alot of knitting done, so I decided to start on a felted bag from the noro that my secret pal gave me, I have finished the knitting, and this is a picture of it pre felted:



Thats all for now, I'll try and include the habu and my pretty buttons tomorrow!