July 2009 Archives

Today was Guild Open Day. I was there for more than half the day. I was there when they were still setting up:



I spent some time on the Guild information table, meeting quite a few people as they arrived, but also some time eyeing all the lovely fibre. Below is Helen and Glenda from Waratah Fibres. I was eyeing off Helen's drop spindle from Petlyn Alpacas.



I met up with Sharre, Camee, and Eclectic Rose and we went around all the traders and bought quite a bit between us. Below is my haul.



Merino/Kid Mohair blend from Freelance Fibres, a mini niddy noddy from Sue's House of Wool and some milk silk combed top from Wooldancer (which came with a little badge). I'm now in a dilemma as to which fibre I should spin up first - from the stash or my new purchases?

It's always a long time between finished spinning projects as I don't get as much time as I'd like to spin. I've been working with the English Leicester/Kid Mohair/Bamboo I purchased from Freelance Fibres at last year's Guild Open Day since May. Spinning just over 300 grams of fibre within about two months is much better than my average, but this fibre was a delight to spin, and I'm looking forward to knitting it into an Ishbel. The first skein was plied at the Craft and Quilt Fair but the remaining singles and three skeins were plied up last week.



There's about 800 metres all up, at about 18 WPI. So it will be a large Ishbel, unlike the small Swallowtail, since yardage is unlikely to be a problem. Completing this spinning project gives me an excuse to buy more fibre goodness this coming Saturday at the Guild's 2009 open day.

As for knitting, the latest socks are Leyburns in the DIC Smooshy 'Cloud Jungle' - an ugly grey at a distance, but really quite pretty close-up.



The 'blob', also known as "Not Calvert" or "Modified Mr Greenjeans" has descended below bust level and into the lace rib section. The rows are over 250 stitches long, so progress is slow. It still looks like a blob. I'm hopeful it will be less blobby and more cardigan-like before the week ends.

I love the speed at which I progress on things in school holidays... These have been very productive holidays, with much knitting and spinning; a rental inspection; new tyres for the car and knitting with a different group of knitters at Macquarie Centre. I've also upgraded my mobile to an iPhone and been North and visited my parents for the weekend at Port Stephens. I still have just under a week left before Term 3 kicks in (and probably kicks me repeatedly until 1 October!).

Swallowtail was completed nearly a week ago, but blocking took a further two days (too cold for anything to dry at all quickly around here. I was surprised to have 40 grams of yarn left over despite having thought I would run out of yarn based on the yardage stated as required by the pattern. It would have been desirable to have gone up a needle size, but frogging and re-knitting was ot of the question. Pre-blocking, the shawl was 90 cm across and 43 cm deep.



Here it is, blocking:



Post-blocking it measures 125 cm wide and 58 cm deep. It is meant to be a small shawl, but, like most seem to say, if I make it again, I will make it larger with more repeats of the budding lace. I had my Mother's assistance this morning for the following photos:





Tomorrow, I'll have pictures of my spinning and current knitting.

The Noro Socks were finished today. The new sock yarn worked as an incentive to get the second sock done at quite a pace - especially as the last week of term was not a great one (it had highs; it has lows; thankfully, it's over!). The two socks are definitely fraternal twins. I'm not quite sure what happened. I wound the ball into two equal balls from the same direction of the original ball, so both should have had the colour repeat progress in the same direction. I then used one from the centre and one from the outside. But the same half of the colourway came out of both balls in sock one, and the other half of the colourway in sock two. There was a knot near the outside of one ball, so perhaps that came near the centre of the original ball and the direction of the colour repeat changes there? I'm not sure. I'm happier with the colours in the second sock than the first.



I'm also happy with the jogless stripe method used. I slipped the first stitch of the second round of each new stripe, which pulls up the first stitch in the stripe. This "seam line" is not terribly obvious, and I put them on opposite sides of the two socks so they are also hidden on the inside leg.



Now I need to decide which of the new sock yarns to cast on next. I should make it the DIC Starry 'Black Pearl' since I now need to replace my black Patonyle socks. They went through a normal wash by mistake again (the black, it gets lost and unnoticed, hence the choice of Starry so I might see it!) and now are too felted to fit properly. But I haven't decided on a pattern for them, so it might have to be the DIC Smooshy 'Cloud Jungle' in Leyburns.

I've had a busy first day of my holidays (three weeks - woo hoo!). I went into the city to Morris and Sons and Haighs, and then to SSK. The visit to M&S was because of some Knit Pro interchangeable needle tips I bought the other week along with the Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn. I came to use them last Saturday evening and found one of the tips would not screw onto the cord and was defective. So I had to go in and exchange them. A bit of a pain, but M&S were great about it. The tips were needed for the Swallowtail Shawl as the 'Not Calvert' cardigan was already on my Addi Lace Turbos of the same size. Yes, as dictated by knitting law, if you are knitting two projects, they seem to invariably need the same needle size. I was using my Addi Turbos, but they just don't have the points required for lace. Before needle change over, the Swallowtail looked thus:



I finished the Noro Socks while at SSK, which was a small but enjoyable group today, and managed just one row on the Swallowtail.