December club pics

Catching up with clubs next, here are the pics for December's clubs....

Lovely lichen was this month's theme, inspired (not surprisingly), by lichens and mosses.

Now I have a confession to make - all the extras for this club sold out so quickly I only have the little sample I kept for myself and I'd already started spinning it before I realised I hadn't taken any photos! So at the top of the post is the last extra skein of December's sock yarn in 100% merino superwash yarn, which I did manage to photograph just before I posted it.

Only a little bit of the Bluefaced Leicester roving left, but here it is....


And here is the Fibre Adventure club, throwsters waste, Bluefaced Leicester roving and Shropshire x BFL fleece.


And here is the spinning so far!

I took lengths of the roving in sections to preserve the colours and stripped them lengthways. After predrafting I spun z twist for a single ply at around a fingering weight. I interspersed the roving with carded rolags of the fleece, blended with the throwsters. I cut the throwsters to give short lengths and trapped them in the yarn as I spun it. The second bobbin will be a single ply of the roving and I'm aiming for a yarn with smooth sections alternating with textured highlights.

Whirlwind January - the Big Knit!

Not quite sure what happened to January! All I know is that it's already gone and we're into February!

So, I'm now casting my mind back to where I've been and what I've been up to the last couple of weeks....

First up, The Big Knit!


This was a great day, organised by Big Issue in the North, and hosted by the Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester. The aim of the day was to knit hats, gloves and scarves for Big Issue vendors. Around 70 knitters sat and chatted, knitted (or learned to knit), ate cakes and coffee and generally had a great time. Lots of knitting later and there was a lovely line of finished items, ready to be given to vendors. I taught two lovely girls to knit. They'd only dropped in to find out about a gig, but ended up spending all afternoon learning to knit and producing a good couple of inches of scarf each! Here they are with their knitting - great work, girls!


If you have some spare time, Big Issue in the North are always happy to receive warm items for their vendors, many of whom are homeless and all of whom sell the Big Issue on our high streets in all weathers. If you need yarn or knitting needles, just get in touch with them and they'll be happy to send out a parcel so you can get knitting! And if you have yarn or needles to donate, these are always needed and can be dropped off at the Big Issue offices in Manchester.

Thank you to the Nexus Cafe and to Dante and his team for organising such a great event!

(And, for those of you in the Manchester area, the cafe runs a knitting group on Sunday afternoons, as well as various craft groups and lots of other exciting events).

January clubs are ready!

Hi!

Just a quick message to all club members. Fibre clubs were posted on Friday so these should be with you any time now. Sock clubs are slightly later this month as there was a hold-up with yarn deliveries, however, your sock parcels are ready to go first thing tomorrow by first class post, so keep an eye out for the postie : )

Gifts - part one...

I must have been a very good girl (no laughing there!) last year, as I got some beautiful hand-made gifts for Christmas, and I realise that I haven't even shared them with you.

This is a set of hand-knitted and felted yarnbowls that Julia made for me. They are such a perfect match for my living room (and even match the yarn I've been spinning for my blankie!).

I've christened them Mama, Papa & Baby Joe because they remind me of one of the books I used to read to Will when he was small and it was one of those read over and over (and over and over and...) books that he never seemed to tire of. I think it was an ex-library book as it was certainly "well-loved", so I guess Will wasn't the only one who liked it. It was kinda quirky, but then that's often what kids love (anyone else still able to recite the Dr Seuss books verbatim?).

Anyway, I digress.

And here is the close-up of one of my bowls (Papa, in case you're wondering). It has such gorgeous texture and richness of colour.


Thank you, Julia : ))

(More to follow - watch this space!)....

When your house smells like wet sheep...

...it's time to call..... "Incense Man"!

Got some more lovely nag champa incense cones for Christmas so thought I'd have a nice, meditative half hour before I hit the workshop again to tackle fleece two and dye batches two and three (and four if I can manage it). That and the fact that if anyone calls they might keel over with the niff of soggy fleece (oops). Bit of an "acquired taste" that one.

(Oh, and this is Wisp my incense dragon. The cone goes on the inside and the smoke comes out of his mouth - neat, huh?).