Monday 29 November 2004

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!









Wednesday 24 November 2004

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.



Monday 22 November 2004

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: Springy_singels Stetched_singles



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.



Wednesday 17 November 2004

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.)



Wool_heaven



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:



Lovely_wool_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:



Cherry_suprisde



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:



Green_and_pink



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



Pink



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:



Carded_mass1





Tuesday 16 November 2004

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.





Monday 15 November 2004

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.


Purple_wendlseydale_fllece



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


Silks



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.


Dyed_rovings



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



Dyed_and_carded_soya_silk



Friday 12 November 2004

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!





Thursday 11 November 2004

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!



Drum_carder_blurred



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.Spinning_creations



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:Dadds_scarf



It's Debbie bliss Cashmerino aran. Prrrr prrrr.

Wednesday 10 November 2004

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.



:-)



Tuesday 9 November 2004

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!



Monday 8 November 2004

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:



Curly_scarf



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:



Ciol1_1



Here is a close up:



Coil2



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





Friday 5 November 2004

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.





Thursday 4 November 2004

Stich n' Bitch

Last night was a brilliant meeting!

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



Stitch_n_bitch



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.



Wednesday 3 November 2004

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.



Tuesday 2 November 2004

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.



Front_shawl



Back_of_shawl1



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.

Shawl_closeup



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!)







Monday 1 November 2004

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 ;-)