Meet Teddy

What does the word 'teddy' conjure up for you? For me it's soft, cuddly, comforting and huggable.

Let me introduce you to Teddy, a gorgeous blend of superfine merino, baby camel and mulberry silk (60/20/20). It's a new fibre that Marianne over at Picperfic's Fluff-n-Stuff has just brought into her Etsy shop. I lent Marianne a couple of shawls to use on her stand at Fibre East recently (you can read all about her weekend at Fibre East here!) and she very kindly sent me a braid of her new fibre as a thank you when she returned the shawls to me. This is in her Lovehearts colourway.

I was itching to spin it as soon as I set eyes on it, and managed to spin it up during the Tour de Fleece. I spun it up as a single, very similar in fact to the Darling fibre that I spun up and used to knit my Citron shawl recently. It was just a delight to spin; Marianne's fibres are always so well blended and this was easy to draft. It was like spinning a cloud of marshmallows!

I fulled the yarn by immersing the skein alternately into hot and cold water, before giving it a jolly good thwack and snapping out the skein between my hands. Then it was hung up and left to dry. I ended up with a rather pretty skein of around 450 metres of light fingering weight yarn.

Next began the search for a pattern. I knew that I wanted a scarf or a cowl because of the softness of the yarn. It felt so luxurious, just perfect for something snuggly to wrap around once the weather gets a bit colder. Marianne came up with a lovely suggestion, the Botanical cowl.

It was a super quick knit, driven partly by my need to see the pretty pastel colours of the yarn emerging. The ribbing at the top and bottom stops the edges from curling in and the eyelets add some interest.

It can be worn as a longer, single loop like this ......

...... or doubled up for extra cosiness around the neck, just perfect for chilly autumn mornings.

The colours in the yarn are just so pretty.

The cowl used up less than half of the yarn, so I decided to knit a Drop Stitch scarf with the rest, as I thought it was the perfect pattern to show off the colour changes.

I've still got quite a bit of yarn left to knit, so will show you the finished scarf another time.

I bet you'd love to try some Teddy wouldn't you?! Well, one of you will be able to, because I'm having a little giveaway! One lucky reader will win a braid of Teddy fibre from Marianne's shop. Marianne is such a sweetie, she has said that the winner can choose a colourway and she will dye it up especially for you! So what you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already), take a look in Marianne's shop, (it's probably worth a look in her sold items too so you can see all the gorgeous colours she dyes!) and leave me a message telling me your favourite colourway. I'll pick a winner using a random number generator at 9pm next Monday, August 6th. It's open to anyone, anywhere! So what are you waiting for?! Good luck! xxx

Tour de Fleece - summing up

It's been a busy old Tour for me this year. I managed to spin every day, except for the day we went to Bruges. I thought I might have a 'ta-dah!' moment and share my yarns with you.

Firstly, Picperfic's Fluff'n'Stuff Twinkle fibre, N-plyed. I ended up with 210 metres, so not enough for socks (for me at least!), but perhaps a hat?

Next, my British breeds spun up for my Sheep Heid hat. In total, I have around 400 metres of lovely, sheepy 2 ply yarn. This will be my first real colourwork project - it's something I've wanted to try for some time now.

My greatest spinning efforts probably went into the Sweet Georgia Panda fibre. It's a mix of merino, bamboo and nylon. I have around 560 metres of 2 ply laceweight yarn. It drapes beautifully and I think I am going to knit Wandering Thyme with it.

Lastly, a touch of luxury with Fluff'n'Stuff's Teddy - a mix of superfine merino, baby camel and mulberry silk. I spun it as a single and have about 450 metres of light fingering weight. I'm not quite sure what it's going to become yet!

So although I didn't manage to achieve all my goals (spinning enough yardage for socks and spinning silk fibre), I am pretty pleased with what I achieved, especially with a busy end of term going on too. Now it's back to the knitting!! I have a lot of new yarn to knit up! See you soon! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 23

So here we are on the last day of the Tour. I'm quite sad it's come to an end as I have enjoyed spending time each day on my spinning. Although it has to be said that my knitting time has been severely eaten into. Today I have been spinning some rather lovely fibre - a blend of merino, camel and silk. It is gorgeous and deserves a blog post of its own another time. So for now you'll just have to make do with a photo! I hope to finish spinning it this evening. Then I'll be back tomorrow for a summary of my Tour de Fleece. xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 22

I wound my yarn onto the niddy noddy this morning and am delighted with the yardage. I have about 560 metres to play around with. I think I know what it's going to become, but I just need to check on the wpi before making a final decision. Then I'll spill the beans! The skein has been soaked and is currently hanging up to dry.

It feels really silky and I think the bamboo is going to give the yarn a gorgeous drape. Here's the skein pre-soaking.

I also got round to soaking all the little skeins for my Sheep Heid. I colour coded each skein so that I'd be able to identify them afterwards. I've printed out the pattern now and will try to match up my colours with the suggested ones. I'm keen to make a start on this once the Tour de Fleece is over. Here they all are drying in the shower room!

I have some rather lovely fibre from Picperfic that I'm going to play around with for the last day of the Tour. It feels rather delicious. Florence thinks so too! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 21

I have managed to finish plying the merino/bamboo fibre and have a satisfyingly plump bobbin to present to you! I have no idea of yardage at the moment, but my hopes are high! I'll tell you tomorrow how much there is! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 19

Not a lot of spinning for me today, as it was the end of year disco at school tonight. I carried on with some plying, still got loads more to do. It was meant to be a 'challenge yourself' day today, but it was a challenge just to be able to spin! Tomorrow will be a bit tricky too as we're going out for staff meal. I'll try to blog, assuming I have something (slightly) different to show you!! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 18

It's another rest day in the Tour today, so it's a chance for me to tell you about our day trip to Bruges on Saturday. It was a long day, with lots of time spent on the coach. Luckily I had my Citron shawl with me, and knitted loads! I'm on the last section now - the ruffle - and the rows are just never ending! Next time I blog about knitting, it ought to be finished. Delays on the Shuttle meant that we didn't get as long in Bruges as we'd hoped for, but we managed to get a flavour of the city, and know that we want to go back there sometime.

We started off by going on a boat trip around the city's rivers.

You can see from the architecture of the buildings that there is a strong Dutch influence here, with the stepped gables.

Despite the terrible weather forecast, it actually only rained once during our visit. Luckily we didn't need to borrow any umbrellas while we were on the boat! This was the starting point for our tour. I think the building used to be an old hospital.

Almost every other shop sold Belgian chocolates! Mmmmmmmmmm!

Those chocolate covered orange slices are yummy - we brought some back home with us. Talking of food, frites with mayonnaise seemed appropriate, although Mr JK preferred ketchup with his!!

And it would have been rude not to sample the waffles too, wouldn't it. We had ours with caramel sauce!

 

 

No time to search for yarn shops, but I did find this street. In Medieval times, Bruges was the centre of the wool trade, so I am guessing that this street, just off the central market square, played an important part.

There was plenty of lace though. I spotted this little window while we were on the boat trip.

A little taste of our day in Bruges. Hope you enjoyed the trip! I'll be back spinning again tomorrow! xxx