Colour saturation

Not a single stitch of knitting has occurred since my last post I'm afraid. I'm halfway down the foot of a second sock and really want to get it finished, but I just can't find the inspiration or will.

When I was having a read though my regular blog roll, I came across this on the Yarn Yard Blog. I had a go, (I scored 4 incidentally in case anyone else has tried it), and it got me thinking. Of all the things that might inspire a person to knit, for me, it's colour. When I walk round Woolfest or my LYS, it's the colours that draw me to a yarn and then to a pattern.

With this in mind, I had a quick trawl through Ravelry and came up with this colourful beauty (non Rav link). Just what I need in terms of colour therapy to look forward to once the sock is done. I quickly ordered the necessary yarn - Peaches and Creme - an american cotton yarn that I've read about many times and was pleased to find available in the UK.

Now all I have to do is get the sock done and anticipate a large parcel of colour arriving in the post...

Dreaming in Colour

Knitting has not been a regular activity for me lately. I don't really know what's happened - I'm usually pretty productive, but I've been knitting the same pair of socks for the resident radiologist for the last month and I've only just turned the heel on the second sock.

I did have a good excuse for one week -



We were enjoying the sights of Paris and Normandy and no knitting accompanied us.

I can't seem to account for the rest of the time though.

Before this hiatus struck, the last thing I finished up was this Shrug by Dream in Colour.


I knitted it using Catalina Alpaca yarn, which is supposed to be aran weight, but is really closer to DK. I adjusted the pattern to allow for this by including an extra repeat of the lace pattern width-wise.


It's been really handy and matches up well with my summer wardrobe.

Socks

I've not been knitting much lately - I went away to a research conference in Oxford for a week and it disrupted my rhythm. Just before I got on the plane though, I managed to get these in the post to my little sister...

Bed socks knitted to my usual pattern on 4.5mm needles. The cuff yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in pale yellow and the body of the sock is Fyberspates BFL sock yarn in Fiesta colourway.

These should keep her toes warm at night!

The Resident Radiologist also did well on the sock front lately...

My usual heel-flap pattern knitted on 2.25mm needles with Trekking XXL yarn in a blues and greens colourway.

I have started swatching for a new largeish project so hopefully normal service should resume soon.

Can you guess what it is yet?

I've got a couple of biggish project that have stalled a little recently, but between these larger items, knitting has been occurring. So in the immortal words of Rolf Harris 'Can you tell what it is yet?'...

There is a big round bit,


And a big round bit with a stalk.


Four stumpy bits,


And a little crochet.

Yes - it's Elephante by Susan Anderson.


Knitted with the Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK scraps from my sister's mitred square blanket.


And with a little icord tail. So cute!

Woolfest 2009

This year, for me, Woolfest was all about spinning. Yes, there were the usual array of fluffy and furry fibre sources on display...

and very cute they were too.

And a little yarn was purchased...

Sock yarn for the Resident Radiologist as reward for braving Woolfest for the second year in a row.

A skein of beautiful alpaca, silk and cashmere blend laceweight for me from The Yarn Yard.

But mostly it was all about fibre...

Angora fluff from one of the bunnies on show on the day,

Superwash BFL combed top (naturals) from The Yarn Yard; Superwash merino combed top (pinks / oranges) and Falkland wool combed top (blues and greens), both from Felt Studio UK.











Merino - silk blend combed top from Wingham Wool Work that I've already spun almost half of.

I also aquired some more tools for making yarn from fluff...













A beautiful second-hand lazy kate and bobbins and an Ashford Niddy-noddy.

As always, Woolfest was a real treat for the fibre fiend in me and a fantastic prologue to a couple of days in the Lake District, walking (Place Fell and Ullswater this year) and enjoying the wonderful weather.

A Year in Yarn

About this time last year, I signed up for the Get Knitted Lorna's Laces sock yarn club. The deal was two skeins of a limited-edition colourway every two months.

The last installment arrived this month. To my eternal shame (as I'm meant to be stash-busting, not aquiring), I've not knitted any of it up yet, but I have plans...

Fandango - possibly destined for a Swirl Scarf.

Irish Jig - not sure yet - maybe socks for the Resident Radiologist?

Christmas Congo - definitely socks for the RR.

Laendler - may also be used in the Swirl Scarf.

Hula Kolili - this is the one I'm least fond of - I can't think what to do with it.

Three Drunken Maidens - socks for me.

There are several colourways here that I would have walked straight past in a shop and never have picked up myself, but they've all grown on me and each has it's own charms. In addition - as the club was from Get Knitted, they all arrived beautifully wrapped with a little extra (often edible) surprise.


Despite this blatent stash aquisition, I've actually been quite good over the last year. Any other yarn that I bought was knitted up straight away and on the whole, I've got less stash this year than last. I've also been having a clear-out so there is yarn available on my destash page on Ravelry. I may be about to make up for lost time though as the RR and I are off to the Lake District this weekend for some hill walking and a trip to Woolfest!

Caramel Alpaca

The whole recent spinning thing was instigated by a random conversation with a friend of my in-laws 18 months ago. She has five alpacas of varying colours that she keeps and I asked where she sold their fleeces onto when they were sheared. 'Nowhere' came the reply 'we just throw them away'. I was really surprised by this and explained that alpaca is a lovely fibre to knit with and that surely some small-scale spinner would use them...

...skip forward a few months and the in-laws came to visit. My FIL handed me a large sturdy carrier bag full of caramel coloured alpaca fluff. They'd been sheared and could I use some?

At that time, I didn't know how to spin and wasn't sure that I really wanted to learn (there's only so much time and another fibre-related obsession would detract from knitting time). The idea must have grown on me though, as, a couple of months later I bought a drop spindle at Woolfest, then recently I learned to use it and bought the hand carders needed to card the fleece.



I've been combing raw, unwashed fleece into these light and airy rolags...


Which spin up into a fairly fine single.


I then navajo-plied them and washed the yarn in the skein.


The finished product is a little underspun so I'm going to work on that in the next batch, but for now, I have about 100m of caramel coloured 100% alpaca yarn processed entirely from the raw fleece by hand.