Sunday 9 January 2011

Plodding onwards ......

Hello there! Have you had a good week? It's been a little less Arctic here, which has made the earlier mornings back to work a bit more bearable! I dug my llama cardigan out of the depths of the wardrobe and have been wearing it all week. It's kept me toasty warm and I've had lots of (positive) comments from colleagues too! I don't know why I haven't worn it more. I love the colour.

Salsa cardigan 001

Mr JK commented that it was a shame that I'd run out of yarn and had to make it so short! Don't you just love him!

On the knitting front, I've finished the Kirkstone hat I've been test-knitting for Lily, and it's currently blocking, so hopefully there will be some photos next time. I'm still on the yoke of Peasy, so it doesn't look a lot different to last week, just a bit longer, and my Circle socks have two pattern repeats so far! Nothing photo-worthy! I have found time to do a little spinning. I used the braid of fibre that Jean sent me just before Christmas.

Awesome swap goodies (3)

I spun it as a single, so that hopefully I have enough to make something - maybe a little scarf. I don't know how much yarn I've spun. I wonder if any of you spinners out there can tell me how I work out how much yarn I've spun. I'm still overspinning and underspinning at various points, but I shall keep practising. I'm going on a spinning weekend in 6 weeks and need to be able to spin a pretty reliable single by then!

handspun (2)

My knitting club at school is still going strong. You may remember that we started making owls last term. Progress has been slow, but steady - with 21 beginner knitters and only me to sort out dropped stitches, I'm amazed that all the children have kept at it! Anyway, we are now at the point of starting to turn our knitting into little owls. So this weekend, I've made some little bean bags to use inside the owls to give them a bit of weight, and make them more tactile, and cut out all the owly parts in a rainbow of felt.

owl production line

Belinda is modelling this week's hat - knitted with some left over Mirasol Hacho. The colours remind me of summer berries!

Innocent Smoothie hat of the week 10 (1)

I've also bought a veritable library of books with Christmas money! The new Cookie sock book, Knit. Sock. Love., and Knitting at Home by Leanne Prouse. The latter book was reviewed on Anne Hanson's blog, and looked fabulous - it is!

post Christmas reading (2)

Also two books from the One Skein Wonders series - one that uses sock yarn skeins and the other that uses luxury skeins. One look at my stash tells me I have plenty of both, so I justified the purchases as a means to stashbusting!!

post Christmas reading (1)

I'm off to start planning my first project. Have a good week! xxx

11 comments:

Lynne said...

Your cardigan is lovely, I love the colour too. I think your spinning looks great, I congratulate anybody who can do it, because I think it looks very complicated.

What a great lot of books, I wouldn't know where to start to pick a project.

Jennyff said...

Nothing nicer that re-discovering something in your wardrobe, the cardigan is great. Lots of projects in the planning I see, including the use of your very own yarn, which is gorgeous. Have a good week with some cosy evenings.

Northern Monkey said...

I have three of the four books you just bought (the Cookie A book and the 2 one skein wonder books) and think they're excellent.

Your cardigan looks great, men eh? Mr NM would probably say the same thing!

Have a good week and good luck with the owl making.

Clicky Needles said...

Alpaca - my favourite yarn!

Could I have a review on Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders please? I'm thinking of getting it too.

snoopydogknits said...

The spinning is looking good. I love the colours! Hmm those books look jolly interesting!!! I might have to purchase the sock yarn 'one skein wonders' for myself, at some point in time. Have a good week. Ros

melissa said...

i think your yarn looks squishy and gorgeous! how exciting to have a spinning getaway to look forward to!

and how exciting that your knitting club is ready to assemble their owls. i hope we'll get to see some pictures of their handiwork.

have a good week!

Unknown said...

I'm not a spinner, but a spinner friend told me that she measured a yard (or, in your case, a meter) of yarn around on her swift then made a mark on the base for where the swift was adjusted.
Then, you set up your swift to that mark and wind the yarn around on your swift. You could either keep track of your spins or you could just count the number loops you have when you take it off the swift (what I do).
Does that make sense?
There is also some tool called a nobbie or something like that, that most spinners have.

Alice Yu said...

Love the colour of your handspun. Soo pretty!!

Anonymous said...

My dad says the same about most of my cardigans.

To find out how much yarn you've got, stretch your skein out straight, measure the distance from end to end, multiply by two - that gives you the length of one loop of yarn. Then just count how many loops of yarn you've got on your skein and multiply.

And your spinning looks lovely!

knittingsandwich said...

oooh what glorious yarn you've spun! so beautiful!
i am so excited to see your knitting club's owls. how adorable!
-cmv

Anonymous said...

I can't get over the handspun. I'm so pleased I sent it to you - I would never have produced such pretty yarn. Personally I measure mine, very approximately, on the niddy-noddy. I know that each turn of the N-N is 1.2metres so I just count the turns. However, I emphasise this is approximate! I'm thinking of investing in a fishing line counter and rigging it up on a piece of wood that I can fix to the table. Oh well, I can dream can't I!?