Monday 31 January 2005

I've got photo's!!!!!

I actually took photo's yesterday! I spent saturday spinning up my silk and mohair, and am extremely pleased with it. There is plenty of it to make a top from.



Here is a couple of pictures of it:



There is this:

Beautiful_slk_hanks



And also two of these:



Silk_ball



Remember the christmas spinning I mentioned, which I still haven't posted about?



well here is  some more self striping balls of silk wool mix.



Balss_of_stripes





And finally here is my bargain I purchased from the COOP on saturday, I can't wait to get dyeing!!



Crockpot_bargain






Friday 28 January 2005

I am alive honest.

well! Had a fabulous week, absolutely exhausted but, have worked so hard and working on experiments for internet studies. Going to have to learn flash, java, and perl! Not too much then huh?



Anyway I have managed to find time to knit and here is the resulting product, not too far to go now, still on sleeve island, which to be honest is driving me a little insane. I am really looking forward to adding a ribbed collar to it.



Stripey_jumper_nearly_finished





Tomorrow is a totally uninterupted day for me, which is very rare, so I am going to do some carding and get spinning some silk and mohair, into enough for my next adventure! This using your stash lark is proving to be very exciting. Nearly brought some cashmere to spin, but restrained myself, I think I will ask for some for my birthday.



By the way, thankyou Judith for your fantastic contribution to the experiment. It's gonna take alot of planning but you've given me some brilliant ideas! I'll be emailing the rest of your who left comments with instructions soon!







Monday 24 January 2005

I love my jumper ......

It's the first time i've knitted a jumper of my own design which actually fits correctly! The ribbed jumper made of handspun is on it's way to being finished. I have one and a half sleeves to go, so pictures soon.



Secondly, Thankyou very much secret pal 2 for my final parcel, it was a real suprise! It arrived Sat morning, I was in a filthy mood because I was so tired, and then the package arrived, with some beautiful stitch markers, a ball of pink yarn, and some delicious soaps! Thankyou so much knitting girl it really cheered me up. (PS I love the lamb rug).





Monday 17 January 2005

Shamai!

So the stash using up thing is rather fun actually! I have decided to make a lovely little ribbed v-necked jumper with the handspun jacobs wool my freind brought me a little while back. I'm knitting the body in the round, because it's more fun, and the ribbing works a treat. Here is my progress from sat afternoon and a bit yesterday:



Brown_jumper



The picture is not too good, but it looks great in real life, very natural. I never expected it to stripe either!





At christmas I dyed and carded together silk and kid mohair into lots of little balls of lovelyness, which I have to keep the cat away from because he goes mad on it.



Anyway I spun the first bit of it on saturday morning, and was very pleased with the result: Here it is:



Green_silk_1



Its so smooth! I am planning on spinning the rest up and then making a little top from it, probably something for summer, because its very light.



Friday 14 January 2005

It's friday!!

At last friday. I can take pictures tomorrow now and eek them out through next week!



Thankyou for the comments about the knitting experiment. It's great to have people to help me out! I want to start with knitting and personality types, this is not the same as the fun tests which you do on the net which give you a read out after. But will require information about knitting habits, and completing a few other psychological measures. There will be much more fun/complicated ones to come, but I need to increase my programming skills so we'll start with that.



So I need a couple more volunteers to help with the preparation, it will involve telling me about your knitting habits, it won't take long, leave a comment if you fancy it, and I'll email you with instructions.



Not only that if you have ideas about what you would like to test or there is something you would like to know about knitters/crafters/crocheters please tell me! I promise that any ideas you come up with that are used will be acknowledged.



How exciting!!





Thursday 13 January 2005

Daylight deprived.

So, why haven't I posted all week? Because I don't like posting with out photo's, and no, my camera didn't have a fatal accident involving a toilet, it is however out of work because I haven't seen daylight for days. My welsh course starts at 8am in the morning, and its still dark, I finish work about 5ish, and it's dark! So there is no light of day to take photo's, even though I have lots to show and tell.



Spun some more squiggly yarn, and added it to a scarf I am making from my hand spun. Making another pair of 2.5 hour socks, except they are taking longer because I have big feet. I have made one with the green Skye for the cuff, heel and toe, and the pink is the rest, and then the  other sock with  have a pink heel, cuff and toe, and yes they are a touch on the mad side, but I love'em.



My idea for a knitting experiment is becoming more a reality now. I have set up a website which I am developing which will be perfect for running the experiments on, I will need a few people to pilot it on first, if you are interested, let me know. Once it is up and running then we can see what we can do.



Welsh is going really well, I'm surprised I am doing just fine! For some reason I thought it would be harder to learn welsh if you are dyslexic, but it seems not, however, actually writing it down is another matter. Let me give you an example. the word for services is Gwasanaethau this is not an easy word to say even if you know the pronunciation, but the spelling......AHHHHHHH! the mixtures of au's and ae's is going to do my head.



Ffarwelio



Daylight deprived.

So, why havn't I posted all week? Becasue I don't like posting with out photo's, and no, my camera didn't have a fatal accident involving a toilet, it is however out of work because I havn't seen daylight for days. My welsh course starts at 8am in the morning, and its still dark, I finsh work about 5ish, and it's dark! So there is no light of day to take photo's, even though I have lots to show and tell.



Spun some more squiglly yarn, and added it to a scarf I am making from my hand spun. Making another pair of 2.5 hour socks, except they are taking longer because I have big feet. I have made one with the green skye for the cuff, heel and toe, and the pink is the rest, and then the  other sock with  have a pink heel, cuff and toe, and yes they are a touch on the mad side, but I love'em.



Welsh is going really well, I'm suprised I am doing just fine! For some reason i thought it wouls be harder to learn welsh if you are dyslexic, but it seems not, however, actually writing it down is another matter.



Let me give you an example. 



Friday 7 January 2005

Stitchn'bitch

The five hour socks were given to caroline yesterday evening, and she put them on straight away, now there's a compliment for me!



Last night was stitch n' bitch, and we had a great time! I wore my klaralund, and Marie wore her top down raglan, which is beautiful. there were lots of lovely projects going on. My freind Elaine came for the first time and this is what she was crocheting, it was all from her head:



Ere



(she made her hat as well!)



I had spun some curly yarn for Marie for christmas and I think it went quite nicely with her new coat, so I hope she makes a hat or something soon, I am so excited to see what she does with it.



Here is a picture of some more of my hand spun, this one is self striping, I think there is about 200gms, but I am not sure what to do with it, any ideas/suggestions?



Yellow_and_green_yarn 



Wednesday 5 January 2005

Fruitful holiday.

I have had probably the most restful holiday I have ever had, Its so nice not to have to do any extra work. I took great advantage of the time and have knitted and spun so much stuff. I will post one picture a day, to eek it out a bit.



I actually finished the socks in 24hours!! how amazing is that, in fact the socks only took about 2.5 hours each!! I couldn't believe it.



Klaralund is finished, and I haven't taken it off yet, I made the smallest size which fits great but the sewing at the back makes it too tight, so i have simply sewn the back about 4 Cm's from the joining edge for about .5Cm's, this looks great.



Here is today's picture, some orange hand spun with coils. It has taken me a while to do this type of spinning, really because my wheel is suitable for fine spinning not chunky, but I have worked out a way to do it. This is one of four skeins so far, and have some more to go.



Orange_lovlelyness



Husband and I have determined that we are going to buy a house this year, and pay off a large proportion of debts. Why is this relevant for knitting?? Well it means that we are now on a major economy drive and that means no more yarn buying!!! AHHHHHHHH! What it does mean, is that my huge stash which I have accumulated it about to be used. I have tonnes of yarn, and loads of fibre which I can spin for my own yarn, so there is no excuse at all. So I am going to start with my colinette from the show in london, and make a lovely big polarneck jumper. Then I am going make more socks and see how I get on. It's really quite exciting. In addition I am going to sew some clothes, although my sewing is not too good, so it's going to give me lots of practice.