You spin me round round baby right round...

...and that's it, I'm out of daft spiral / spinning related record titles. You're safe. The blanket continues to grow, it's now 24" by 27" (at the wider end). It's fascinating knitting as I keep wanting to see how the colours come will come out and what will line up where. I've broken and spliced the yarn a cuple of times, just so that I don't get a section that's blue next to blue so similar that you can't see the spiral shape, but mostly I'm happy for the kureyon to just do its thing and change colours randomly. I keep changing my mind about which section is my favourite.
Willow can sleep anywhere, at any time. Here she is on the stairs this evening, even when there were two warm beds, tonnes of wool and two laps she could have slept on all just waiting for some cat hair...

...she does love to be on the knitting whilst in progress, though. Just to be sure she's the centre of attention.

Random Saturday

Watch this ad if you love sheep (no, not like that!)

My favourite bit was the following notes on their website:

• "The advert was shot in Wellington Station, New Zealand. Why? Because sheep in the UK don't have woolly coats in the summer.
• 40 sheep spent a month training with the sheep handler from the film 'Babe', they were taught among other things how to baa on demand, step out of taxis and read newspapers.
• Sheep will do anything for a biscuit - No computer generated imagery was used to manipulate their actions. Instead they all left the commercial with full tummies (and slightly boosted egos!)"

(I am in no way endorsing any product or service, I just like the sheep).

I just love the mental image of sheep being trained to baa on demand by some nutter waving a biscuit from behind the camera! Brilliant!

thoughts from a sleepy head

Please excuse me if this makes no sense... I'm exhausted. Despite being shattered last nigt, I tossed and turned and barely slept at all. I know that at one point I must have dozed off because I dreamed that there was a snake in my duvet and I made hubby turn the lights on to check!
Willow thinks that all wool is good wool, and that it'a absurd to suggest that there is too much of it around.

I dyed some of it... and started spinning a nice, slightly thicker worsted singles that I might make a three-ply, but don't really have definite plans for. I'd like to finally spin enough of something to use it for a useful project though!

These were waiting for me when I got home today... (don't you just love ebay? Yarn with no time to visit a shop, and cheaper too!)

Good job really, as this evening I finally finished up the original 4 balls...

...without counting the bit where I've turned the corner at the bottom right, it's now 21" square.

(Trying not to think that this means I'll need 36 balls to get anywhere close to 6ft square...!)

How much wool is too much?

I have a fair bit of wool. No, more than that. I have quite a lot of wool. Well, no, masses probably covers it better. Not quite enough to use as loft insulation for the entire house, but probably half the house....

Two things opened my eyes to the enormous quantity of wool I posess. On Wednesday, I went with my Mum to a new yarn shop in Broadway. It's a lovely little shop, just opened a couple of weeks ago, and seems to have some nice wool. The Noro currently being knitted into a blanket came home with me. Now, this was a teeny tiny shop in an arcade in a small town, and the owner probably doesn't have all of the stock she's planning on getting quite yet, but I was a little alarmed on looking around and calculating to realise that I probably own as much yarn as was in her shop. Me. On my own. The only knitter in this household. All purchased in the last 10 years.

Holy smoke, Batman, I must have one hell of a lot of yarn if I have more than a yarn shop.

Then, today, I thought about spinning fibre. I went up into the loft to find some different fibre that I remembered buying a while ago. I hunted. And hunted. And hunted. There is a lot of stuff in our loft, but I wasn't having trouble finding fibre. I was having trouble sorting through all the fibre. You've seen pictures of the drawer that Willow likes to sleep in? That's where the fibre that's not in the loft lives. It's 30" x 20" x 15". The fibre in the loft could probably fill it again another 6 times over. Now, the big question (answers on a postcard, please...)

How did I end up with more wool than I could spin and knit in a lifetime, by the age of 27??

Spiralling into the abyss

Well, maybe not the abyss, but certainly some black hole around here is eating up all of my remaining holiday time (*cough* knitting *cough*) and I haven't done any of the school work I was going to do today. Whoops. Still, on the other hand, I'm on holiday, so stuff it. I've had a hard year. It isn't over yet, either: we're looking at an op that might be in around 4 weeks, but still waiting to hear a date. I got brave and watched a video of the procedure on youtube, and I'm glad it won't be me having it... it does all look quite simple and clean, though, which is a relief. I can't knit with my fingers crossed, so I've crossed my ankles instead. Hope that works as well.
The Noro spiral is even bigger than this now, but I can't be bothered to download another picture right at the moment. It's now about 21.5" x 18", and I've used about three of my four balls of Kureyon. I've sort of realised that it's going to take a fair old heap of wool to knit a 6ft square garter stitch blanket, so I'm glad that I've been planning this as a buy-a-ball and knit-as-you-go sort of project. It makes sense, really: with no need to worry about colourways or dyelots, I can just pick up a ball or two a month, whenever I'm in a wool shop, and knit it when I'm in the mood. Willow seems to love it already, so I'm thinking that by the time I've finished it, in a year or so, the middle will be well-worn and full of cat hair. C'est la vie.

I'm... spinning around....

Little Miss Needy wasn't taking no for an answer this evening, when it came to sitting on my lap and stopping me from knitting....

...but she does seem to like the tidiesd-up fibre drawer....

...and can always be counted on to sit on your knitting the instant you put it down to get a drink or to take a photo. I suppose I should take it as a compliment!

Newest WIP - ten-stitch banket (except it's 14 stitches) in various shades of Noro Kureyon. I'm going to try to find some brighter shades as well once I've knit up the four balls I indulged in yesterday.... ooops. Stash diet? What stash diet? If I knit it all up really fast it won't count as stash... will it?

Tuesday? What Tuesday?

I'm not entirely sure where today went to, or what exactly I did. I didn't sleep well, so the morning was a bit of a blur. I did do a little more long-draw spinning, but it looks just like yesterday's, so no picture. I fell asleep next to the cat after lunch for an hour or two - I didn't mean to and don't usually, but Willow made me. Honest. Hubby did take a picture, but it wasn't what you could call flattering, so I deleted it. Sorry.

Later in the afternoon, I did a little gardening, then we went to a big DIY shop to look at paving slabs. I know, I lead a thrilling life. No, no pictures of that either, sorry.

This evening, I did a little tidying and sorting of my fibre stash - chucking out old tatty bits of fibre and plaiting long lengths of dyed tops neatly. Yes, that you can have a picture of.

Isn't it fabulous? of course, that's not quite the entire story....

ooops. These bits are too small to bother plaiting, so they'll just stay as they are. It's still quite tidy, plus Willow will find it comfier to sleep on these odd bits than on the plaits. One has to consider the kitty at all times...

And I just had to show you this... my Aunt found this in a charity shop, brand new! I can't believe how much work has gone into this little handbag. Isn't it fab?

Spinning intentionally: Part two

Yesterday, after my cabling triumph, I replied to a comment from Annalea and said that I wouldn't try to do long-draw without a tutor - this morning I was in a different mood. A bad mood, to be precise. I really did get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning - there was no reason at all for it, but I was snappy and tetchy and not very nice at all to my poor darling hubby, who wisely went to the shops and left me to it for a while. Turns out that all I needed to do was conquer a spinning challenge.... Long Draw. (Drum roll please...)
Ta dah! After a few false starts, and many broken ends, I have a ball of two-ply woolen yarn, spun long-draw. Woah, is it odd to try to long-draw when you've only spun worsted. I had a bit of a read about it in the Intentional Spinner, found a video on the internet, and took a deep breath, and let go of total control of every inch of the drafting. It started out badly....

...and it's quite strange to suddenly be worse at spinning than when you first started...

...but it got a bit better by the end of the ball... this is not bad really, given that it's my very first try!

The cabled yarn sock has got right up to the ankle, but I now have no yarn left. I've been expecting this since I cast on, and in fact am quite impressed it went this far. I'll do the ribbing in something else - maybe not even a cabled yarn. It won't need to be hardwearing, after all.

I now need to go and soak in the bath, having spent most of the day gardening. I'm aching from head to foot!

Spinning intentionally: part one

I mentioned yesterday that I've just bought a copy of The Intentional Spinner, and that I'd like to start improving my spinning repertoire. With that end in mind, I had a look at my big drawer of random oddments of handspun, and came across this..... some three-ply I spun a few weeks ago, intending it for socks. The reason that this isn't socks is that, although I spun a three-ply to make it stronger than my last attempt, this wasn't a strong yarn. It's a bit underplied, and I don't think it would stand up to the kind of abrasion a sock gets every day. A perfect candidate for my first spinning experiment: a cabled yarn. I decided to simply cable the existing yarn with itself, turning a three-ply into a six-strand cable. This is thicker than I'd usually use for socks, but I wanted to experiment with some existing oddments , for speed as well as economy. I was feeling impatient, and not up to spinning miles of singles first. The first step: run the three-ply back through the wheel and add more twist, overplying it in preparation for cabling it back in the other direction.
Overplied three-ply on the bobbin...

Checking that I've got the right amount of twist to make a nice cable...

...and the finished ball of six-strand cabled yarn. It'll mess up the nice long colour runs I originally spun in this yarn, but it may make something useful out of it, which would be nice.

So far, it's a toe. It's a very firm, quite thick and stiff fabric, but beautifully smooth on both sides and I'm sure it'll be hardwearing. The trouble is now, that I'm not at all sure I've got enough yardage now that I've cabled it - I have a total of 124g, and this toe so far has taken 22g. Does that look like a third of a sock to you? I think I'll just have to be brave and keep knitting, and see how far I get. These may be the first six-strand cabled footsocks / short socks the world has ever seen...

Willow's not terribly impressed. She says any yarn's good for chasing.

Spinning thoughts

I first learned to spin about four and a half years ago, back at the beginning of 2004. I can pin it down quite accurately because I bought myself my first wheel out of my first month's pay at my first real job after leaving Uni. I had taught myself to spin using a handspindle I'd bought on a whim in Germany two years previously, some merino wool tops I had from the same date for needle-felting and Lee Raven's brilliant book, Spin It - Making Yarn from Scratch. Incidentally, I can't think of a better book to help absolute beginners learn how spinning works and to get them spinning on a spindle. It took me two whole evenings when Hubby was away on business to really get the hang of it, but by the time he came back I had spun over 150m of fairly even (by beginners' standards, at least) merino singles. I was so proud, I went out and bought my wheel the same week. A few tantrums and a lot of tangles later, I couldn't understand why it was so hard - I'd already produced yarn, what was the difference? Hubby, showing either great wisdom or simply a desire to get me out of the house, dredged up contact details for the local spinning guild from the internet and bullied me into emailing them (I get really uncomfortable phoning strangers, an odd handicap that was a pain back when I worked in an office manning the phones!) and sent me along one Wednesday morning to a freezing cold church hall (no heating, it was December) to a wonderful woman called Frances who made me understand that I hat to match the speed of my feet and the speed of my hands in order to make yarn smoothly. Obviously, this hadn't been a problem on the spindle. In about 10 minutes this patient angel in a slightly fluffy jumper that I later learned was spun from dog hair had me calmly spinning a strong yarn that held together and curled back on itself nicely when she held a loop out to see how it would ply. Then, being a traditionalist, she took away my lovely clean bright roving and make me spin fleece in the grease, combing individual locks with a dog comb. I'm sure it was a valuable skill to learn but I have to admit that it's not one I've ever gone back to. I prefer to spin clean wool, and when I've bought fleeces I always wash and card before spinning.
I went home from my lesson, splurged on lots of tops over the internet, bought some alpaca from ebay that I've still never used and have been told several times is total rubbish (it's still in the stash, though) and practised making yarn. A month or two later I was back on a Wednesday morning for a dyeing lesson, and then my house filled up with gorgeous bright chunks of merino tops in all the colours of the rainbow. Most of it is still in a huge drawer in my craft room, as I don't spin that often or that fast. Yet I love to spin: it's very relaxing. I may recently have discovered why I don't do it more often...
I don't spin useful yarn.
That's a strange realisation, since I'm a multi-crater who knits, crochets, felts, sews and has even been known to weave on a rigid heddle loom that mostly lives in the loft... why isn't my yarn useful for something? And it is... sort of.
When I began to spin, for a long time I produced a chunky two-ply, usually merino, in gorgeous bright colours that I'd kettle-dyed as tops and it was a lovely soft, bouncy wool. I made a couple of hats, a scarf, but mostly what I craved were socks. I taught myself to knit them flat on two needles with a seam up the front and went nuts. I had six or seven pairs myself, and made more for others... the sock-knitter in me now can't believe how chunky and odd they were, with a big lumpy seam up the front, but they were warm and squashy and I loved them. Still would, if the hadn't all long since fallen apart. You see, soft thick two-ply merino just isn't sock wool. Can't take the abrasion. No strength and durability. Lovely feel and good memory, but no strength. My first failure.
As time went on, I carried on spinning, but with less and less purpose. All of my dye batches were too small to make more than a ball or two of any one colour, and somehow I couldn't get the knitting mojo together to make a multicoloured striped one. I'd never knitted a jumper at this point, and starting with handspun and no pattern just seemed too daunting. So I kept spinning, aimlessly producing balls of wool that, without my noticing it, were getting finer. Now when I did notice this, I was quite pleased - I was making more even, thinner yarn - I thought I was advancing, becoming more skilled. But I wasn't - I was still only producing a basic two-ply yarn, not at all hardwearing, and I had forgotten how to spin thick yarn. I can't seem to do it any more.
With all of this (and more, but this is getting very long-winded) in mind, I just bought The Intentional Spinner, by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. It's time to start learning again. Watch this space.

Hey hey, we're the monkeys...

My very first pair of monkeys for me. I've knit this pattern four times previously, but never kept the socks - thought it was about time I had some monkey feet. The lovely bright variegated purple is... oh. Lost the label. I'll try to find it later, but I fear it may have been thrown away. Lovely soft squishy wool, anyway. I thought I was going to run short on sock one, but ended up with about 4m spare. Cutting it quite fine on a top-down sock! Although buying more wouldn't have upset me too much...
These are actually a scientific pair of socks, to further test out my new theory on reinforcement (to save on later darning). Since these socks are for me, I reinforced under the middle and ball of the foot, as that is where my socks always go in holes (I have no idea why). How is that scientific, you ask? Aha! I only reinforced one sock. Look carefully at the closeup pic below: the top sock is the control sock - no reinforcement! I decided that I'd only be able to tell if this thread increased the life of a sock by ensuring that I gave the same wear to both - very hard to ensure with two pairs of socks. Or it is if you're as disorganised as me and don't think about which socks you're wearing and when.

This time I used the same thread as before but in a rich purple, and I think it blends quite well with the sock - you can just make out the flecks of different-coloured purple in this closeup pic but you can't see it from more than a foot away, and who's going to get that close to my feet? Only Willow, who seems to like rolling and sleeping on them. And I'm pretty sure she won't mind.

The spinning wheel got a little action last night as well - twenty minutes or so of some variegated blue / green / purple merino tops I dyed a year or two ago. No, I'm not a monster fast spinner - most of this was already on there!

New hair, new hat

The school holidays seem to be the only time that I have time to get a haircut. How sad is that?
It's not at all what I asked for, but I quite like it. Has anyone ever found a hairdresser who will give you the haircut you ask for? I've never heard of one.

The hat is finished, in time, with its fleece liner sewn in around the ears to keep out the wind on the ski slopes. I can't say I really enjoyed knitting this one, but I think that's purely down to having a deadline to knit it to. I always find that sucks the joy out of knitting, which is why I don't knit too many things (or not too big things) for xmas or birthdays. Socks I can just about handle, although last xmas three pairs for gifts nearly did for me.

The really really bad bit of this evening, though, giving me recourse to chocolate, ice cream and finally vodka and lots of swearing, was mending and altering the brother's ski trousers and jacket. Fiddly, nasty sewing. Next time Mum can do it, she's got more patience!

Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, you!

All non-Eddie fans will probably not understand that reference. An alternative title for 'the Origin of Species'. In any case, it's inaccurate, as I have only one purple monkey sock here. I've knitted 4 pairs of these so far, for presents and for swaps, and never made a pair for me. Now these are my purple monkeys! They make me think of Ribena and blackcurrant jam. Yum.
What I'm really supposed to be knitting is this: a red and brown chullo hat for my brother to take out to his friend in Italy next week... better get a move on, need to take it up to bro in Blackpool on Wednesday!This is what I'm copying: I knit this blue one for the brother last year, and it's the most practical of the silly ski hats.

So I suppose I'd better stop knitting socks and get on with hatting ASAP! Good job it's the hols, I'll finish it tomorrow.

The three remaining hens seem to be getting along fine, which I was a little worried about, as Nugget and Elsie only joined the other two about a year ago, and I thought the two older gingers might bully Nugget on her own. Fortunately she's a lot bigger now and more feisty.

And they're all laying like champions, more eggs than we can possibly eat! I keep giving dozens to Mum but I may have to start baking to use them up.

The garden is all waking up and getting springlike - onions and garlic....

Rhubarb... even the spuds are just starting to poke through the soil a tiny bit.

It's really hard to blog when someone won't take no for an answer....

Bagpuss and mad puss

It's finally the holidays!!!!!!! Time to relax and recuperate from the last 12 weeks of madness, time to prepare for the next 12 weeks of madness, and above all, time to knit! These were actually finished last week, having been knit largely whilst visiting the patient in hospital. He was released on Tuesday and delivered safely home by my parents whilst I was stuck in meetings after school. Mum has been very supportive while I've been running around like a headless chicken (ooops, sorry Nugget, bad simile to use!) and I though she deserved a prezzie. Ta dah!!
Here is the little parcel I wrapped up: the pink and white striped socks, which are even more like Bagpuss up close, plus the foot scrub, foot soak and foot butter that came with this wool in my first sock parcel from Socktopus... the second one arrivede this morning, pics to follow.
Mumsie modelling her Bagpuss socks with matching Amaryllis. How clever!
Willow's contribution to the last few weeks of chaos has been to catch up on all the sleep I've missed, on my behalf. This is very kind of her, of course...... but I do sometimes wonder about her choice of sleeping arrangements....
...especially when I'm trying to do some marking.......
... I mean really, how could this possibly be comfortable? Strange kitty.....