Tour de Fleece - Day 11

It's all quiet on the spinning front today, so the perfect opportunity for me to show you what I've been up to when I haven't been spinning. Firstly, another Citron shawl, this time using Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace yarn. This is a 60th birthday present for a friend. I'm on the fifth pattern repeat now and plan to do at least 6 plus the full edging. I have plenty of yarn, so have no fears of running out!

I have also crocheted a couple more squares for the Great British Wool blanket. Crocheting doesn't come naturally to me, but I hope that as I complete more squares, I'll be able to work more quickly.  It's going to be fun playing around with the different colour combinations in the centres, while keeping the outer rounds neutral.

Last week I had a stinking cold and needed some dead easy knitting. So I cast on  another pair of plain vanilla socks for one of my University friends. I found a yarn in my stash that has some cotton in it, so it feels lovely and soft. Do you notice the rather snazzy dpn protectors? I found these over at Atomic Knitting. I gave one to Snoopydog as part of her birthday present, so of course I had to have one too!! (That's how it works round here!!)

Flo has pointed out to me on more than one occasion recently that I need to get on with knitting my mink and cashmere cardigan. She has taken a liking to dragging the yarn cakes around the house, miaowing loudly as she sinks her teeth and claws into her 'trophy'!! So the yarn cakes have been put in a drawer to protect them from pussycat drool!! I think I'll have to knit her a little mouse with the leftovers, she certainly does seem very taken with this yarn!

I took part in a swap in the BareNakedKnitspot group on Ravelry recently. My swap partner was Bobbie, who lives in Alaska. We had fun getting to know each other. We decided to open our parcels at the same time, no mean feat when there are 9 hours between us! Some quick messaging on Ravelry confirmed we were both there, ready and waiting. It was almost bedtime in Alaska, while I had just eaten my breakfast the next morning!! I opened up a really lovely parcel containing two skeins of yarn (Woolen Rabbit Pearl and Sunshine yarns single ply merino), some stitch markers, a lemon and lavender soap, lip balm and lots of chocolate!! Bobbie also gifted me a Knitspot pattern, Curling,  to knit using one of the yarns. I think it'll be the pink merino, it's so soft.

I also received another parcel in the post this week. I was a runner up in a competition in the ThreeBagsFull group on Ravelry. You had to post photos of your bags 'in the wild'! This was my winning photo - sunrise over the North Sea, sailing to Holland in May.

And this was my prize - a cute little notions case with a map of the Underground on it!

So that it didn't get lonely on its journey over from the USA, I popped into Michele's shop and treated myself to a new project bag. It turned out that it was a perfect match for the two skeins that Bobbie sent me. What luck! I only need one more skein in there and it looks as though I might have a Color Affection brewing!! See you tomorrow for an update on the spinning. xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 10

Well, I went stash diving and I surprised myself with what I chose - I thought that I'd go for something totally bright and colourful after all that natural coloured fibre. Instead, I went for some rather lovely fibre from Sweet Georgia yarns. It's a mix of superwash merino, bamboo rayon and nylon called Panda. (I have that 'sock thing' calling out to me again!!) The colour is a semi-solid pinkish, reddish colourway called Pomegranate and is a really lovely mix of shades.

I have two 50g braids courtesy of my Canadian Ravelry friend,Cathy. We have been swapping yarn and fibre for several years now. She always manages to find me something lovely! The idea is to spin each braid up on a separate bobbin and then ply them together. I'm aiming for quite a high level of twist, just in case I have enough yardage for socks. Ever hopeful!! Here's how it's looking on the bobbin so far.

Tomorrow is a rest day in the Tour de Fleece, but I'll still be blogging as I have some knitting to show you. xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 9

The weather outside is miserable, so I haven't felt the slightest guilt for being sat inside spinning today! I have finished spinning all the yarns for my Sheep Heid hat! Firstly the white and Moorit Shetland that I started yesterday.

The last two fibres were North Ronaldsay - grey and brown. They were fun to spin, very easy to draft.

So here are my nine little skeins of yarn, all spun! I have to soak them all and will probably do that later today. I need to make sure I can identify them - as you can see from the photo below, they are quite similar (although they feel different!)

Starting with the white Shetland at 11 o'clock and going anticlockwise, we then have black Shetland, grey Shetland, Moorit Sheltland, brown BFL, oatmeal BFL, grey North Ronaldsay, brown North Ronaldsay and grey Jacob. I'm really excited about this spinning and can't wait to start knitting the hat now.

In the meantime, here's a sheepy fact for you. The North Ronaldsay sheep live on the island of North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Isles. They live on the beach and eat seaweed for several months of the year.

I'm off to stash dive for something colourful to spin tomorrow. Pop back then to see what I've chosen! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 8

I have to confess that there has not been a great deal of spinning in the josiekitten household today. Mainly because I was doing something else really nice!! I went into Norwich to see my good friend Snoopydog, and we had a lovely time catching up. It was Snoops' birthday this week, so of course a squishy present was in order. I managed to get my hands on a Plucky Knitter Color Affection kit. I'm sure you'll be able to read more about it over on Snoopydog's blog later this weekend. The only trouble is, I want one now!! You may remember that I bought some yarn for one when Mr JK and I were in London back in May. I must dig those skeins out and get them wound. I think it'll make the perfect beach knitting project!

Anyway, back to the spinning. I have made a start on the last two bits of Shetland fibre - white Shetland and Moorit Shetland. The Moorit is a rare breed, so I feel quite lucky to be spinning some of its fibre. I had the company of a certain little cat while I was spinning. Flo was fascinated by the moving shadows and spent ages watching the bobbin turning round (on the carpet!)

Here's the first bobbin spun up with half of each fibre on it. I shall spin the remainder tomorrow.

Now excuse me while I go and sort out Flo. She has just come downstairs, making a throaty miaow, so I know she has a 'trophy' of some sort. The  trouble is, she has good taste - it's a skein of mink and cashmere yarn wound into a yarn cake, all ready to knit! Love her!! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 7

Well, the first week of the Tour de Fleece is coming to an end. I've plied up the Jacob fleece that I spun yesterday and have around 45 metres to play with! I think I might buy the pattern this weekend so that I can start allocating my yarns to the various colours needed for the Sheep Heid hat. Here's my little skein.

This little lot arrived in the post today - three extra bobbins and a min-skein niddy noddy! They need sanding and sealing with some Danish oil before I start to use them.

I'm off to see my good friend Snoopydog tomorrow to deliver her a squishy birthday present, but I'm hoping to be able to spin later in the day. xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 6

Today was the turn of a 'new to me' fibre - Grey Jacob. It felt a little coarser than the BFL and Shetland that I've spun so far, but I'm sure that it will add to the texture of the hat. I've spun it on  two separate bobbins and will ply it tomorrow. Five fibres down and four to go! If all goes well, I ought to have all the fibre spun up by the end of the weekend!

Then I can stash dive and find something colourful to spin! xxx

Tour de Fleece - Day 5

Day 5 saw me plying the two fibres that I spun yesterday. I ended up with around 40 metres of the black Shetland and 34 metres of the grey Shetland, so there ought to be enough for the Sheep Heid pattern.

Here are the four fibres that I've spun so far - from top to bottom we have black Shetland, grey Shetland, brown Bluefaced Leicester and oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester. Tomorrow, I'll try to spin up the other two colours of Shetland wool. I'm excited to start knitting it. One of my knitting aims for the year was to do some colourwork. Colourwork in handspun will be extra special!!

I had a little play around with the silk and didn't get on very well. It's very slippy! I think I'm going to do a little research on the best technique for spinning it and perhaps try again at the weekend when I've got a little more time. xxx