Atishoo! Dying silk hankies

I thought I would give silk hankie dyeing a bash.  I had watched Spinning Luxury Fibers by Judith Mackenzie, and was inspired.  So, I set to work on a small amount of silk using Landscape Dyes.  I should have photographed each step (next time!) but here are the final results.....my first batch...might try and spin with them tonight on a spindle.  A great little tutorial on Knitty about how to spindle spin them, and how to prepare them for spinning.  Due to the fact that the silk snags to every rough bit of skin, I'm going to scrub my hands with Crabtree & Evelyn Hand Scrub (it's fab stuff), then follow up with a dollop of their Hand Cream, to get my mitts as smooth as possible (smooth as silk, one might say!)

Boys Toys? I think not!

My 5 year old trusty Sony Cyber-Shot recently gave-up-the-ghost and I was 'forced' to aquire a new camera (it's in daily use for Spun Out).  Silly really to blog about, but she's SO pretty!  I studied Photography at college and in my younger years was a photographic assistant for a couple of fashion photographers in London, before I became disillusioned with the phoney lifestyle in the fashion industry.  So, to upgrade from a compact, to a more controllable compact, was very exciting.  I like it A LOT!

Mmmmmmohair!

I bought this Kid Mohair fleece blind, in that I saw a tiny sample before I commit to 4kgs of the stuff.  When it arrived it was a bit on the smelly side and had very, very grubby tips, and I thought 'Bugger' how much work is this going to be.

BUT, I washed it several times, then dropped a couple of teaspoons of baking powder (as per a tip I came across on Ravelry) in the last rinse and WHOOOSHHHH!  Look what I have.....and if only you could touch it!  So soft you almost can't feel it on your skin.  I'm in love...sigh!

Rolag Love

Each month I receive two delicious braids of club fibre from Southern Cross Fibre.  In February's delivery I wasn't 100% sure about the mix, so I decided to have a play, and split the 3 colours ways up, and hand carded them into teeny rolags.  There is a pinky-red (the bulk of colour), an orange and a divine duck egg blue.   Some people would spin this breakdown into a striping yarn, but as there was too much red, I felt it would be better to spin each colourway separately into little hanks of usable yarn.  The fibre is Polworth and lovely and soft.

True North

I have had 4 huge hanks of Cascade Eco+ in my stash for a long time now, and so you can imagine how excited I was to come across a fantastic pattern that uses the yarn (with just a couple of stash enhancements!).  So, True North, will be my next new project.  It reminds me of the chunky Starsky & Hutch cardi, very retro.  I will team the natural with a teal and navy.  What attracts me the most about this project, is that it's knit completely in the round, and then steeked which I have used on another coat that I knit and it flashed by.  Steeking isn't as scary as you think and I went for the Crochet Steeking rather than using a machine.

Adventures in Navajo Plying!

I've been wanting to Navajo Ply for some time now.  I like the idea of keeping the colours of your spun yarn together, but it's a scary looking prospect (if you spin, you know what I mean).  So, I bit the bullet on a 100gm braid of fibre from Ixchel Bunny (my Fave!).  With the help of You Tube videos, I took the plunge and this is what I created.  Looks a bit like one of my dodgy early spins, but I guess, like anything,  it takes a bit of practice!

The fibre is Blue Faced Leicester and Silk, and was a joy to spin.  Shame it doesn't look more attractive plied, but maybe when it knits up the knotty look will be hidden?

Paper Dolls

This little knit has been languishing in a pile of WIP's for many, many months.  I was determined to get it off the needles and onto my body.  I knit Paper Dolls using Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply in Lewis Grey, Grey Mist and Rose (my favourite combo of grey and pink) and despite the yoke taking FOREVER, it was still a fun knit.  The paper dolls were a bit bumpy before blocking, as I was paranoid about leaving enough stranded yarn at the back of the work to avoid puckering.  After a good wet blocking, they settled down and now I am very happy with the results.

Yesterday was my birthday.....

...and THIS arrived in the post (along with a couple of other goodies).  I honestly don't have anything in mind for this, but I love spots and these colours drew me in.   It's a beautiful printed Linen, and the Etsy seller was lovely, and cut me several FQ packs, so I have plenty to make something spectacular.

It's So Fluffy!

When the movie 'Despicable Me' came out, we took the kids to see it.  One memorable character, Agnes, the youngest little girl, had a Unicorn that was destroyed, and her replacement was HUGE and FLUFFY!  If you've seen the movie, you know the scene that inspired me to knit this Unicorn...if not, trust me, it's a super-cute split second, just look at that face!!

So, I picked up my needles and started to knit a Unicorn for my daughter, Isobel.  The pattern is from Dream Toys by Claire Garland and I knit it in the round, using the Magic Loop method, to save on all that fiddly sewing at the end.  

The project languished for a while, but on my annual girly knitting retreat, I managed to polish it off and hand it over to one very excited 2 year old! How long it will stay white, is any ones guess, but at least it's being loved to death right now.