It's That Time Again

The first Sunday of the month means Wensley Yarn Workers creative day. Last month we made Brassington buttons. This month we made paper beads. You can see all the beads we made drying on toothpicks. The photo isn't too clear. I'll take more when I've made a necklace. So a lovely morning spent making beads. A lovely homemade lunch and then an afternoon spent spinning, knitting or whatever. I did more spinning.



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Adventures in Spinning

                                      

Remember this from my last blog post? My first attempt at spindle spinning? like I need another crafty hobby? Anyway it turned into this!

 Two hanks of spun wool. Hurray!

And then this, plied together to make a marl effect yarn and now being knitted into a cowl or a mat or whatever I can get out of it. I've really enjoyed the process even though it was a trial to see whether it would be feasable to spin my own yarn to cut down on costs for my knitting. It might be, if I can get a more even spin, maybe I need to play with a proper wheel to see if I can achieve it.

So let's see what I can do with this, I'm wondering if I can mix the fluff to make a variagated yarn or whether I spin each colour and then ply them together. We shall see. I need to so something with it by Saturday as I'm going up to Derbyshire to the monthly 'Wensley Yarn Workers' meeting on Sunday. The colours of the fluff I have chosen are to go with the April Challenge a photograph of some clematis.

I Should Be Finishing Grace!

But I got this kit (spindle, roving and instructions) in the post from Hill Top Cloud It's such fun, I've spun quite a lot already and want to do more but I know I have to finish Grace. 

I need to finish the cream and then do the brown so I can ply them together.  Then  knit something with it. It has been easier than I thought it would be, so therapeutic. I'll post when I have the completed yarn.

Progress with Grace

Horrid weather this weekend, this means I have been able to make lots of progress with my Grace cardigan. I had to use the flash for the picture which distorts the colour, it's a little darker than this. I'm looking forward to the Easter holidays so I can make the skirt that's going to go with it.

Finished Tillie Sweater

Finished, it took a month but I was slow with the colour work as it was so fiddly! Note to self, no more colour work, for a while at least. I do like it though. Ravelry details here

Finishing this now frees me up to get on with the Grace Cardigan. Which I have had to frog twice! Firstly because I didn't like the tension, the knit was too close so I've gone down a size and up a needle size. Secondly because somehow my two fronts didn't match, one sloped and the other didn't, no idea how I did that. Anyway, off I go again with it. I need to keep up as it's a knit-a-long and I don't want to get left behind and as usual I'm thinking of the next project.

Brassington Buttons

Lovely weekend with my sister in Matlock,. We spent Saturday shopping in wool shops and Sunday with the Wensley Yarn Workers. Kate showed us how to make Brassington Buttons, this one's mine, a variation on Dorset Buttons, in the morning. And in the afternoon Jane showed me how to spin. I used her table top electric spinner and then I used David's Kiwi spinnning wheel. As if I need another hobby but I loved the spinning. 

These are all the buttons that were made by the group on Sunday. The Wensley Yarn Workers use the 'Reading Room' in Wensley on the first Sunday of the month for yarn and crafty enterprises. They were all so welcoming and lovely company, Lovely hall with an open fire and a great lunch. I feel as I've made new friends. I can't wait for The first Sunday in April for the next one.

And We're Off!

Swatching for the Grace Cardigan knit a long. I've got the right tension first time. This Quince and Co Finch yarn is so soft and I love the subtle semi solid. It's going to be fun to knit with others. There is a group on ravelry but I can't work out how to link on my iPhone. Although Tillie isn't quite finished I'm still going to start tonight. There is such pleasure in starting new knitting. I'm happy!


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