Adventures of a Threadhead

Shawl progress

Among the Heather is my top priority project at the moment. To keep myself on track I set a target of one row every day and this would mean it would be done on 21st July. BUT I had my wisdom teeth out last week (OOOUUUUUCH!!) and there has been quite a lot of sitting around in too much discomfort to do much, so I’ve been knitting :D I’m currently on 18th June - 11 days ahead of myself :)

The shawl is made up of a few repeats of 4 different but similar stitch paterns, plus two different border patterns. I’m on the second repeat of the last main pattern which needs 3 repeats. Here is a photo showing one repeat of the current pattern.

The yarn I’m using is King Cole Mirage which is sold as DK but is quite a thin singles and has been working fine in this patern which calls for fingering weight yarn.

long overdue update!

The chalice blanket was eventually finished!

The knitting projects currently on the go are the ‘Chartwell shawl’, a test knit shawl from ravelry ‘Among the Heather’, a spider motif from one of the Barbara Walker books, and two scarves, ‘Branching Out’ and ‘Wings of Desire’ which has a gorgeous matching pair of fingerless gloves to make too!

The Chartwell is just over 50% finished! I needed to know how far along I was with it, so I made myself an excel spreadsheet! I feel very encouraged now I know how far I’ve come and how far left!

The ravelry test knit has turned out to be a bit of a disaster! I thought it would be fun to help out a designer and challenge myself to complete something to someone else’s deadline. Also I’m quite pernickety with text so thought I might be quite helpful with catching typos etc. This didn’t quite work out as the designer decided to release the pattern over 2 weeks before the deadline. I felt that this was a bit of a kick in the stomach as they had obviously decided that none of the testers who had full time jobs and had not completed the shawl way ahead of the deadline had anything useful to contribute. To be frank, I felt totally insulted! I communicated this to the designer and they had the cheek to say that if I didn’t feel I could complete the item to the deadline they would release me from the test. That was it! I will not be test knitting anything apart from my own designs for a long time! It is a pity as the shawl is quite pretty and I really enjoy knitting triangular shawls. 

I had an idea for a stitch design using twisted stitches on a purl background, so took some yarn and a BW book with me on a recent train trip. But I ended up knitting a spider motif instead as it looked so exciting! 

The moss stitch border is nice and flat but too tight, I would use garter stitch next time. This might be good as a gift in a photo frame for someone who really likes spiders! 

Wings of desire is such a pretty design, plus I had the recommended yarn, Noro cashmere island, so had to start it! It is going slowly though…

Last project is branching out, a really pretty lace scarf design which is working really well in this kidsilk aura. I started this when I went on holiday to Slovakia over the New Year as my bendy plastic knitting needles were the right size for the yarn! The journey included 5 hours on a train so I knew I would have lots of knitting time and made good progress.

More excitement!

Spinning and Estonian lace classes!

Back last summer I attended a spinning workshop at The Handweaver’s Studio in north London led by the brilliant Jennifer Midgeley. She took us through carding raw fleece,

forming it into rolags

and spindle spinning it. 

After that we were deemed ready to start on the wheel! This was the first time I had been in the same room as a spinning wheel, let alone tried making yarn with one! It took a while to get set up

but eventually I got going and was actually making yarn!

After we had made two lengths we had a go at plying.

I knitted my small amount of yarn into a tiny and insubstantial neck ‘thing’, just so I can wear it and tell people I spun the yarn and knitted it myself!

Also, last autumn I attended a class on Estonian lace at knit nation led by two lovely and very patient ladies.

Here is my attempt at nupps….and the bottom piece is the border which is knitted on round the edge in one piece. I’m looking forward to making some tiny test shawls using these new skills :)

Chalice blanket

One of the projects I’m working on at the moment is the Baby Chalice Blanket designed by Lykkefanten, which I found via Ravelry. I’m knitting it along with my friend Woollyclem! It’s for my new nephew and I’m hoping to finish it in time for present giving season. The pattern is relatively simple and before blocking gives a very 3D fabric. I think this will flatten down after blocking but Woollyclem is also making a scarf and that could look great left unblocked.

There are so many things on the go at the moment, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed! I resent all time not spent knitting….but the bills must be paid. Rotating projects seems to be the answer and this is my priority for the next couple of weeks. Here are progress pictures!

19th November:

and today - 22nd November:

I’ve got 4 balls of yarn and think that will be enough - the last photo was taken with still quite a bit left of the first ball to go, so I reckon it’ll be square when it’s finished, no problem.

I’m back!

I moved house in the summer and have not made time to blog, but I have been doing woolly stuff! Pictures will arrive after the text!

This update was written on about 11th August to a friend and fellow blogger Michael Leach who requested to know what I was doing several times!

I’ve been preparing some raw fleece which arrived in the post.

About half a fleece in the bath……

Fleece hanging on the line in laundry bags!

I’m joining in with a workshop run by the online guild of weavers, spinners and dyers in september, on shetland lace. I’m hoping to be able to create the yarn myself since the fleece is from a shetland sheep. So I have a lot of work to do! So far I’ve washed about half of it (there are two stages to washing, a cold wash which removes sweat, dust, grass, mud, poo etc and a hot wash which is optional and removes the lanolin) and am waiting for it to dry. I’m waiting for my carders to arrive - these are 2 flat brushes which are used to get all the fibres lying in the same direction and tangle free so they can be spun.

Carders

I already have spindles (to spin the yarn) and a niddy noddy(to wind it into a skein when it’s done).

A niddy noddy

I have onion skins and madder root which I may dye the yarn with if it’s ready in time. 

 
Also I’ve finished my latest two walker treasury project swatches, The Pine Tree and The Mask. These were great fun and I learned stuff I wouldn’t have known about otherwise! The nose on the Mask was particularly interesting (difficult!!).

The Pine Tree

The Mask 

I finished a shawl. This was my first try at a triangular shawl with double increases worked along the centre and an increase at each edge. The yarn was gorgeous, two ply with both strands space dyed, so there are some sublime colour combinations! 
 
Lastly I have been teaching/refreshing a couple of people at work with their knitting and crochet skills. They are both super enthusiastic and it’s so much fun teaching them! One of my new housemates is also a keen knitter and crocheter and we stayed up late last night trying to work out the first few rounds of the Chromium Star Blanket . 

Top-down jumper excitement and Other Projects!

Top-down jumper!

The top-down in-the-round jumper experiment is going quite well!

I’ve done 60 rows and I’m about an inch away from taking off the armhole stitches. BUT I couldn’t resist adding in some patterned stitches - with that huge expanse of the back and sleeves with nothing but stocking stitch, who could resist?!? So I got my Barbara Walker books and chose a lace pattern (fir cone, from the first book) for the sleeves and a cable (ribbed spindle, from the third book) for the back.

Fir cone:

Silly me, this is the only photo of the cable pattern I took:

…before I decided I’d fluffed it up too much and ripped back the whole cable section! (Warning - potentially upsetting images ahead!)

Now, I know that you can do this - I’ve read about it in a book, probably Elizabeth Zimmerman somewhere - but it was a bit nerve-wracking! I originally thought I would play it safe and just fill in the gap with stocking stitch. Then I realised that where the stitches are pulled over in the cable they would use more yarn: the only thing I could do without making a loose patch in my jumper was attempt the cable all over again. So I am….but it doesn’t look very pretty!

Walker Treasury Project

I can’t believe I haven’t gone on about this already! In case you don’t know about Barbara Walker, she is responsible for four volumes of knitting patters. Four thick volumes - including everything from cables and lace through to eyelet stitches, mosaic patterns, simple textures consisting of just knit and purl, meshes and faggoting, ribs and exciting novelty patterns like The Mask (which I’m knitting now) and a turtle, bats, an anchor - you name it, it’s probably in there somewhere!

The photos in these amazing books weren’t that great, so a group of people have helpfully set up the Walker Treasury Project. Here you can look at all the beautiful swatches that have already been knitted by those taking part, and browse the database of stitches and most excitingly claim one to knit up yourself! You do need to already have one of the books - due to copyright they can’t give you the pattern - but these book are such a treasure-trove of inspiration they’re definitely worth having. I’ve claimed 5 so far (it’s difficult not to be greedy!) and have posted my first one within the time limit (you get 3 months to knit your swatch).

It’s called Celtic Pattern:

I’ve decided to make all my swatches the same size so that I can sew them together and make a huge blanket out of them. Otherwise they’d just sit in a draw, taking up space and not being used. I’m using up the dreaded acrylic DK on these so the blanket will be practical  - easy to wash and dry. Plus the moths won’t want to eat it!

Chartwell lace shawl

This is also going quite well although I have to take breaks as it’s tiring concentrating so hard for such long rows (while watching Heroes!) Luckily I usually have between 5 and 10 projects on the go at one time so it’s not a problem to do something else for a couple of days.

And having taken that photo I notice a yo in the wrong place right in the middle! I will NOT be re-doing that…!

I’m on row 44 of about 263….I tried to do the maths and work out what percentage of the whole this was, but I really don’t have a maths brain! On the bright side, the rows get shorter by 2 stitches every other row, so it is speeding up, even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’d like to finish it for xmas so I have a few months to go….

New project

I treated myself to a skein of Handmaiden seasilk (70:30 silk:seacell) a couple of months ago…

…which is an incredibly beautiful yarn, possibly the nommiest yarn in the world….and I want to make something which does justice to the yarn. I’d like to design something myself - nothing too fancy, just a few repeats of a pretty lace pattern - but something I’ve picked myself. I found a gorgeous lace pattern in the first Barbara Walker book called shower stitch which really appeals. It’s quite difficult - you don’t get a row off and do just purl every other row, there are complicated instructions in both directions. I’ve started swatching using some shetland wool, not using up the acrylic DK for once as I want to be able to block this properly and see what happens. Once I’m confident with the stitch I’ll do a swatch in the actual yarn…can’t wait! The swatch so far:

There are stitches I’ve never done before (e.g. purling 3 tog through the back - gulp!) and I might be doing some of them wrong - hopefully any mistakes will become apparent when the sample is bigger. 

Nom!

Fibres that can be spun

Wool:

Others:

The mind boggles! I’ve got a few of these waiting to be spun - a couple of different wools including merino wool, some silk, banana fibres, ramie, ingeo… I still can’t believe you can make yarn out of milk protein!!!!!

not knitting

Spinning

About a year ago the urge to spin yarn overtook me quite forcibly! I’d been intrigued by it since seeing someone spinning on a wheel at a craft fair decades ago. Also there are passages in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Arthurian/Avalon legend series (Mists of Avalon, The Forest House etc) where she describes women working either at a loom or spinning yarn and they enter trance states due to the nature of the work. I love the idea that your hands can be occupied in something useful and you’re so well practised at it that it leaves most of your mind free to wander, untangling the events of the day, or having visions as in the stories! I have NOT become that proficient yet! There’s another thing about being able to spin yarn that excites me, which is probably due to reading too many sci-fi disaster novels as a child. We depend on machines for so much, yet if/when we are suddenly left without them many people will be unable to accomplish the simplest household tasks. Being able to spin yarn (even uneven yarn) makes me feel a bit more prepared.

Enough waffle, now some pictures!

This is the first little bit of yarn I ever spun. I bought a beginner’s kit via e-bay from a seller called forestfibres which contained a drop spindle, 4 natural colours of wool (different breeds give different shades - I’ve spun Suffolk) ready for spinning and instructions. Youtube was, as ever, my friend in learning to spin and I found the tutorials made by Abby Franquemont particularly useful. She also wrote the book ‘Respect the Spindle’ which is full of useful tips, instruction and information. 

After doing a little bit of spinning last year my enthusiasm moved to knitting. Probably because I was thinking of the logical next step after spinning yarn - making it into something. I combined the two recently and knitted up the tiny bit of yarn above into a swatch. Hopefully this will rekindle my excitement for spinning! Below are pictures of the swatch unblocked (above) and blocked (below). This was also the first time I had blocked woollen yarn and I was impressed at what a difference it made!

It really shows where the yarn is thinner and thicker. It does mean that I could make something out of my own imperfectly spun yarn (a shawl for example) and after blocking it would still look ok. I even quite like the way the unevenness looks! 

After knitting this up I could see that I twist my yarn far too much. Not being familiar with spinning and how it works, I just thought I needed to twist it as much as possible to keep it from pulling apart. Now I know this isn’t the case. It it’s too twisty it just feels like string when it’s knitted up, there’s no softness. It’s probably not very apparent in the pictures above but the right hand side of the picture is the later half of the swatch and it’s much fluffier since I spent a while untwisting the yarn before I knitted it. My tall boyfriend was very helpful in this, helping to hold it up high so it could untwist! So I’ve learned something about spinning from knitting it up; result! 

Here is some of the fibre I have waiting to be spun, I can’t wait!

Weaving

In the UK there was recently a brilliant series on TV. It was called Mastercrafts and looked at thatching, stained glass, weaving, green wood furniture construction, black smithing and stonemasonry. Very interesting and inspirational! Unfortunately, it inspired me so much I had to get a loom;

So I put my warp threads on…

and started weaving!

Nom!

Top down jumper! No seams!!

Fluffy jumpers

There’s a reason that people like to knit top down, this story illustrates that reason!

The one garment I’ve made (not counting scarves) is a cardigan in sirdar big softie:

There’s a little detail at the bottom – one purl row before the last knit row then cast off. I misread the pattern for this for the back and realised when I’d nearly finished – the largest piece! There was no way I was going to unpick the whole thing so I searched for info online – on how to unpick these 3 rows and re-knit them correctly in the opposite direction. I eventually managed it with lots of help from youtube (I wouldn’t be the knitter I am without youtube!). I’m pretty pleased with the finished garment but there are gaps where I’ve sewn it together. All that effort finding out how to knit back from the bottom, and it’s spoiled by the seams! I find the sewing together an imperfect job – it’s really tricky to know exactly which stitch you should be joining to which other stitch. Because of this I was very excited to learn about top-down, in–the-round knitting! NO SEAMS!! AND you can try it on as you go, meaning you get a perfectly fitting garment every time and don’t spend hours and hours on something only to have to give it away…..brilliant! So after a bit of research I got hold of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting without Tears, and Wendy Bernard’s Custom Knits (amazon links).

So…… I’ve just started my first ever top down, in-the-round jumper using the detailed instructions in Wendy’s book. (I’m also taking the opportunity of using up some of my huge stash of acrylic double knitting – for years I didn’t realise there was anything else….). You start with a measurement for your neck and with the help of stitch markers you increase in the same place each time, and just keep going! I’m about 2 inches down so far and very excited…….here is a close up of the sleeve increase. 

To increase I’m doing:- M1 into the front and knitting through the back to slant the stitch to the left, then one knit before the stitch marker, then a knit and M1 into the back and knitting into the front to slant the stitch to the right after the stitch marker. So that’s how there are two rows of straight knitting between the increases. I got those increase instructions and diagrams from The Knitter’s Bible.

I’ve just (10 minutes ago) cast on the stitches that join one side of the front to the other, so now I’m working in the round. (But my circular needle is a bit long, shorter one on it’s way via e-bay and expected imminently). In the picture below you can see the new neck stitches on the needle. I’m about 8 stitches into the next row here. 

I’ve put off the beautiful Lilia Tunic from Yarn Forward magazine in order to become familiar with this new construction method, and convert the pattern so I don’t have to seam! Below is a swatch I did for the Lilia tunic, using Creative Yarns Reflections yarn. Can’t wait to restart this!

New lace books

I’m in the throes of an obsession with lace at the moment and couldn’t resist the following books:

The Gossamer Webs Design Collection - Three Orenburg Shawls to Knit (amazon link), Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush (amazon link again) and Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (yet another amazon link).

I haven’t done anything more than flick through them yet but they are all full of inspiration!

The stripey mystery project!

Almost visible in the photo of the hideous acrylic nails was a recent quick project, a stripey beret from the Knitter’s Bible. There was a tutorial section on increases and decreases and the beret was the associated project so I thought I’d give it a go. Since I have a large choice of colours in acrylic double knitting (have I mentioned this before?!) which I am sick of looking at it was possible to make a great colour combination. Here it is:

A small finish

Lastly, I finished off some little wrist warmers. These have been burning a hole in my project box for about a year! Pity we just had the hottest day of the year so far, will I remember where they are when it gets cold???

Maybe I’ll find some cute buttons to sew on…

Knitting with nails

Now that I’ve worked out how to get pictures to show for everyone (not just me) thanks to the guys at the other end of the help button at the top right of the screen, I’m much more motivated to post!

Progress on Chartwell lace shawl

This is going slowly! The pattern is a bit more visible now….

but I think I’m spending about 60 - 70% of the time I work on it counting the stitches, counting on the chart, trying to check I’m in the right place.The rest of the time is divided about 3:2 between knitting and unknitting! I’ve decided it would be sensible and a good use of time to try knitting a swatch of this pattern in dk (worsted weight) before going back to it with the kidsilk haze. If I’m more familiar with the pattern it should help minimise counting time and mistakes.

Assisting Jillian

Via the Knitting and Crochet Guild page on facebook (Guild website, facebook group) I responded to a request from Jillian Carrozza, a final year student at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London. She was looking for crocheters who could help her to manifest her wonderful designs for her end of year show. I love the idea of being involved in someone else’s project for a while so jumped at the chance! So far it’s been brilliant fun, discussing the technical processes involved and the inspiration behind the designs. She was kind enough to bring her portfolio over to show me on our first meeting so I’d understand the background to the ideas. Obviously I can’t give anything away yet but watch out for her!! Her designs are original and exciting, while still being wearable and beautiful.

Stash boxes from ikea and all yarn sorted and safe from MOTHS!!!

I’m a great fan of Doctor Who and one of the things I would really like would be a stash cupboard using TARDIS technology! In the meantime though, lovely green boxes from Ikea will do!

A good friend recently reminded me about clothes moths, and how happy they’d be to munch through my wool and other assorted fibres (apparently they’ll even eat polyester if there’s nothing else) so I’ve been buying moth traps, cedar wood balls to put in the boxes, and trying to find resealable bags to keep everything in. Having just bought 6 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk I’m not about to let some moths eat it!

Knitting with acrylic nails due to sister’s wedding!

My little sister got married last month (yay!) and being a lifelong nail biter but also determined to look presentable I went and got my first ever set of acrylic nails.

It was a bit like going to the dentist as there was a bit of sanding and grinding going on, plus they have to make your real nail a bit rough so the acrylic will stick. But I thought it’s a small price to pay and I’ve proved I can’t grow them nice and neat through willpower alone (well, not with the current job related stress levels anyway!) so I would give it a go.

LUCKILY I was still able to knit with these new appendages!!!!

I asked the girl to make them quite short so I could still do things like do up buttons and type, but wasn’t able to resist her wanting to make them square.Now on the 3rd week, I’ve had them rounded and painted them a more exciting colour, let’s see how long this lasts! In that last pic I’m knitting something very stripey, find out what it is in the next update!

pictures!

I have worked out how to get pictures to show!

More soon!