Spinning.

As usual it's mad here, the sock yarn is selling well at Getknitted so I'm due to dye some more this evening.

At the weekend I went to a massive Art show in Oxford called 'Art in Action' It is absolutely amazing, lots of artists from all over the world showing you how they do their work. Weirdly however knitting isn't considered an art a such, there was knitting  done by knitting machine in the textiles tent but the hand knitted work was in the market tent, as opposed to the textiles tent. I'm not too sure I agree with that, so I guess it's up to me to change it!

As for spinning I have been thoroughly enjoying spinning my dyed fibres at the moment, so here is what I have been up to:

Firstly some silk I spun, this is the most successful silk I have ever spun, mainly because I think I prepared it properly first which meant spinning wasn't agonizing and was actually much quicker than I have found it in the past.

Here is is:

Secondly I blended some merino, kid mohair, and wendsleydale and spun a singles yarn, it should have in theory turned out the same as the turquoise yarn I spun a couple of posts ago, but actually it's a little different; more fluffy, however I  did add some Angelina fibres to give it a little sparkle. These bats were meant for Emma, but I couldn't help myself, they were calling me to spin them!

Here's the yarn:

Finally here is what is on my bobbin at the moment:

It's some merino from the same dye lot as above. I will ply this because it's quite quick to spin, and I'm getting lazy doing all these singles yarns.

More business news, there will be a fyberspates shop website which is currently being built, this will be concentrating on hand spun yarns and fibres for spinning. Plus the possibility of more hand painted yarns but most of those will be sold by Get knitted. I'll post the link soon when it looks a little more near completion, It is officially due to go live in Sept.

Phew!!

Holiday Knitting.

So here is what I knit whilst lounging by the pool:

I don't normally knit to patterns, but I really wanted to get my head around some more lace and how to properly inset beads into knitting. Surprisingly it's not too hard, however it does take allot of concentration, especially with an 18 month old trying to distract you! I really don't know how mothers get any knitting done!

This is a pattern from a rowan book called Classic Holiday, book three. The pattern is called 'Sundae'. This is the back piece nearly finished:

It's kitted in Cashsoft four ply, which is so soft and very nice to knit with, however it does tend to pile especially after a number of froggings!

The second thing is my one skein wonder in my hand spun featured about two posts ago, because it is a singles yarn it does tend to have a  mind of it's own, one sleeve is slightly smaller than the other so I need to crochet a small bit in to make it bigger, I am very pleased with it, one it has been washed and blocked it should be wonderful to wear on a summer evening.

Can you see the slight changes in colours all the way through?

Finally  here is a four skein wonder in Noro, I took the original design and am going to add sleeves and have made the back longer, you can't really tell from the picture though, but I'll post another picture when it is finished. I do not like the colour of this yarn, it looked totally different in the ball.

I'll add some pictures of Grenada when later.

Back.

What a odd thing to come back to. I don't really know what to say about what's happened in London, the odd thing is, for me unfortunately it felt like it was only a matter of time. I feel very sick in my stomach to think of the fear  and suffering it has caused people, but I feel very strongly that we must all remember that we all share some of the responsibility for what happens to us. No matter how far away from us it seems.

Anyway, i've done tonnes of knitting on holiday so I'll post pictures tomorrow when it's a little more appropriate.

Lets all make sure we all do something everyday which mneans that world peace is just that little bit closer.

Suprise!!!

So here is finally the suprise!!!

If you keep an eye out next week on Get Knitted you just might see Fyberspates sock yarns on the website, yes yes, its really true!! I have to be honest this is better than my degree ceremony!!!!

So today I popped with a couple of lovely friends to Get knitted and took my yarns there, and to purchase some yarn for my holiday projects; some silk garden to make a amended one skein wonder and some cashsoft to make a Jo sharp project. So i'll be sunning myself in Grenada next week, the perfect reward for my sweet with the Gold wrapper!!!

Happy happy happy.

j xx