Five on Friday - Five Finished Yarns

I did manage to do a bit of spinning over the Summer break. I have my Ashford Traveller permanently at our beach house, so I can swap bobbins between my two Ashford Wheels.

I've finally washed the skeins and reskeined half of them, all I have to do now is photograph, measure and put them on Etsy, the least enjoyable part of the job. Anyway, here they are:

A fibre sandwich from the Harrietville weekend, plyed with purple. Have more to go!

Alpaca, with knots throughout. Not my best knots, but always give that little extra texture.

Dyed wool from Kathy's Fibres, purchased at Bendigo, navaho plied to keep those gorgeous colours alive!

Dyed yarn from Experimental Spinning, plied with fine Polwarth from Tarndwarncoot. The fine single was not scoured, so was scoured AFTER plying. The two different fibres reacted differently and I manage to get a slightly more textured two ply.....deliberately!

This is English Leicester and was spun for a non-spinning Leanne who won it at a Harrietville weekend. I think we'll be able to make a pouch for phone and keys when she goes on one of her photographic expeditions.

I've now started several more spinning projects....but I must finish the Samoyed!

Lessons learnt at Harrietville

No, this is not a tale of woe, but a celebration of the weekend away at Harrietville, in the Victorian Alps, organised by the Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria (thanks Marilla, Diane! and Dorothy for bringing the shop).

 You book in before Christmas, never seems to come, and then it's over in a flash!

This year I attended two classes, properly, and watched in another. Unusual, as I just like to sit around, drink coffee and knit or spin. Some of that did get done, as well as the catching up with friends and making new ones!

The first class I attended was the Moebius cast-on with Nicole. This is the Cat Bordhi method of cast on and what fun it was. Spun your head around a little, but once past that it's just knit.

This is my first one, in progress. I decided to go big, I mean BIG! With 8mm needles, a fine kid mohair, I cast on 150 sts and then proceeded to use ALL the yarn. Usually, I can get two decent sized cowls with this, but decided to be extravagant.

This is the result and it's gorgeous. You can see how it twists quite nicely, and there's lots of it.

I have immediately begun another. This time, same needles, same yarn, but now only fifty stitches. You can see how the needle is a double loop, as with the cast on, you cast on down the middle and work outwards on both sides. It means, somewhere in the middle the twist means that you effectively change sides. This is a little mind blowing, as you can just knit and end up with half purl and half knit ??? I think a mathematician would have a field day with that description, but, hey, I'm not a mathematician!

I'm trying for a five rows of knit and five rows of purl to give it bounce.

After this, I'm going to try another little one, but a more conventional use of yarn. An 8 ply and try and find a reversible stitch pattern.

Love Harrietville!

Back from Harrietville

The annual Handweavers and Spinners Guild weekend at Harrietville at the Mountain View Retreat, proved to be slightly different from the past few years. This year, my photographer friend, Leanne, was asked to take a class teaching us how to take photos of our work. This encouraged me to take my photography a little more seriously, so each morning I took a quick walk to get some exercise and take in the surrounds.

We also stayed on an extra night and went off to Lady Bath falls in the Mount Buffalo National Park, Leanne, to take photographs, me to sketch and Rhonda wandered further on. A lovely afternoon, that was terminated by the impending storm. Funny sitting in sunshine, listening to thunder!

I liked my photographs, you should see Leanne's, but had a frustrating weekend with my spinning. Note: DON'T drop oil on your drive band, it will slip for the rest of the weekend! It's my new wind wheel and it's still not quite right, nearly.

We drove back through Milawa where we stopped at Brown Brothers and I tasted and bought some wine for my husband. Oh, and I managed to stop at First Editions going up, to buy, and going down, to introduce my friend Rhonda to their wares!

All sorts of things happen at Harrietville!

On Friday night, after travelling to Harrietville, eating a meal at either the pub or motel, we meet in the dining room for an information session. Of course, there have been diversions to Euroa for breakfast and obtaining supplies from First Editions, lunch in Benalla, stop in Myrtleford and other pleasantries, but this marks the beginning of the official 'Harrietville weekend'.

There are sometimes surprises. A wonderful spinning machine, in the process of being built by the very capable Graham. It's based on machinery that he saw on his trip to England which uses rings to control the spinning, and, as you do, he decided to try and build one. It's not quite right yet, as it overspins and Graham says that his machine in not 'beautiful', but I would argue with that!

After all the information, we retire to do some spinning, knitting, then off to bed trying to decide what to do first!

Some of us have other plans, and, as we have done for a couple of years, we had a surprise planned for the morning. This time it was in the dining room.

They're teeny tiny hearts from the lovely Lucy in the Attic and we did lots!

There were some extra outside.

What was really nice was that there were very few left at the end of the weekend. People wore them as earings, hung them off buttonholes and took them for friends and more! We left the last with the cafe over the road, and managed to grab a souvenir for ourselves. Success! Thanks Catherine and Anne.

Off to Harrietville

If you haven't been away on a weekend with people who share your passion then I highly recommend it. Harrietville is just such a weekend with friends, old and new, organised by the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. From Friday night to Sunday lunch, it's wall to wall spinners, weavers, knitters and interested friends.

The weekend goes so quickly, so being prepared is a must! There are a number of workshops, all of the, 'drop in and out when you feel like it' type over the whole weekend. Last year I didn't do anything but sit, knit, spin and drink coffee! This year there are two workshops that are of interest: Historical dyeing and a Blending workshop using wool combs. I think I am prepared....

I have alum mordanted skeins for the historical dyeing. We're going to be doing indigo, madder and osage orange. I never miss an indigo dyebath if I can help it and I've never dyed with either Aliziran for the madder or osage orange. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to overdye some as the different dyes will be spread over three sessions.

The blending using wool combs will help me get better use out of my small combs and maybe I'll be tempted into some larger ones. I've decided to take away a bag of red and see what happens.

And finally, I have to try and finish the spinning on the wheel, so I have a bobbin ready for the colour blending.

Oh, and, of course, I have to pack clothes, camera, the rest of my spinning gear and try not to forget the toilet bag! As I'm being picked up very early in the morning, it will all be done before I go to bed......I just don't know when I'm going to bed!

On the road to Harrietville

Getting to a Harrietville weekend is as much fun as the weekend itself. It goes without saying, that good company is a highlight. The driver has to be alert, so you just have to keep talking! (and for some, knitting.....I can't knit in a car....a failing, I know) It's a wonderful way to catch up, plan and dream. However, it's a long journey, so you just have to stop along the way.....

The first stop is compulsory, as the wonderful First Editions live in a big shed at Euroa. As you can pick and choose to your hearts content, it's just good fun. We were the first arrivals, this year. Most unusual. As you see I did make purchases, and a couple are not there as they're already being transformed.

The next stop is the Wangaratta Mills of Australian Country Spinners. They've reorganised and enlarged their bargain room, though I did feel that the better organisation limited the amount of disorganised serendipity. This was an unscheduled stop this year, but we did have a new spinner and knitter on board, who hadn't been there. Suffice to say, I only bought a couple of balls for a customer order. Very restrained.

The next stop was also Wangaratta at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral. This houses the Tapestry 'Into the Light'. This was woven by the Australian Tapestry Workshop, and though it was partially covered for Palm Sunday there was still much about it to admire. A beautiful church and many of the banners were made by local embroiderers and quilters, in all sorts of techniques. Well worth a visit, and with the personal connection that made us stop there, even more special.

On the road Beechworth, where we had lunch in a lovely shaded garden, and a look at The Ardent Alpaca. The softest baby alpaca teddy bears on earth. And I don't think I exaggerate. From some fibre to yarn and clothing this is full of beautiful alpaca products. Worth a look.

The final leg of the journey involved a stop at a quilt shop, just for an experiment supply....really, and the drive through the mountains. This year, unfortunately for us, there was alot of backburning going on, so it was a little hazy. As this is an important function we just admired the view as we drove along. Arriving safe and happy, with a very tired driver and grateful passengers.

WWKIP

Yep, today is World Wide Knitting in Public day (WWKIP). There are people gathering all over the world to knit in public, be proud and have fun. Here, in Melbourne they'll be meeting at Fedish in Federation Square from 12.30pm on. I'm hoping some of them will make it onto the trams and take it to the people!

You may have noticed, so far, no 'I' in any of this, well 'I' will be at Craft Hatch in the City Library in Flinders Lane from 11-4pm.

I did manage to finish my Harrietville fibre sandwich yarn fingerless mittens. These were more of a trial than they were supposed to be, I even changed the very simple pattern and am now happy.

The pattern is a mix of moss stitch and stocking stitch. I tried a chequerboard effect and it looked a bit messy. The stocking stitch columns tamed it just enough. Don't you love the buttons I added!

I'll be wearing them today at Craft Hatch and I will be knitting.

Another fibre sandwich

For the second year in a row, the HWSG weekend in Harrietville had a group fibre sandwich. The originator of this wonderful weekend long build was unable to be there, but in her honour one was built and she will be receiving her bundle.

This was the pile that was created and duly split up into about 60 bundles.

This was mine.

As it is the school holidays we've decided to have a holiday with the boys, so I'm closing down all activities, blog, shop, etc.

However, it isn't a holiday without something to do. Even I'm not that good.

I decided that I would card the fibre sandwich and spin it on my new CD drop spindle. This sounds slow and relaxed to me.

I carded the lot in one go, which is rather more than you 'should'. So the bits that were left over were carded, separately and just laid on top. I'm going to split it up across and create a rolag rather than spin it in a worsted way. Should be fun. I'll probably ply it with purple again, when I get back.

There are a few holiday projects packed away, but more of that when I'm back.

I do however, promise to sketch......

Finally some yarn

Remember this bobbin...yes the bobbin spun from the fibre sandwich, from Harrietville, way back in March. Well, I didn't actually spin it in March, but....Anyway, remember I couldn't decide on the colour of the single to spin...black, purple??? I finally decided on purple and spun....

this. It's First Editions Merino top in their colour Merlot. I had great difficulty photographing this, but it's much darker/dirtier purple. More like the purple you can see in the first bobbin.

I spun the 100gms fairly finely and plyed them together, allowing the fibre sandwich single to wrap gently around the merlot single. Just to get a little bit more texture into the resulting yarn and to try and minimise the effect of the merlot. It's supposed to 'sit behind' the fibre sandwich, just enough to give the resulting yarn some consistency.

It worked and these are the resulting two skeins. The purple is showing alot in the picture, but I'm happy with the result.

I was going to navaho ply the remainder of the merlot, but there is far too much. This was supposed to be an exercise in cleaning up my bobbins. I think I'll now stash hunt and find some matching top and take it to Country Conference on the weekend.

Today is SnB, I'm having such fun knitting for myself....half a sleeve to go!

Computerised dyeing

The workshop at Harrietville run by Carmel and Jan was inspired by the self striping yarns created for sock knitting.

They've come up with a way to 'replicate' that process, which involves measureing out your yarn in an approximately 40ft skein and dyeing and tying with plastic. It was actually alot of fun. My skein was coloured with left over dye, so is perhaps not quite the colours I would choose.

I chose to crochet a scarf, rather than socks and to use a wave pattern. (3dc, 2htr, 2tr, 3dtr, 2tr, 2htr repeated, with a dc row in between). I quite like the effect.

I have a small ball left over, a result of not winding a tight enough ball on my ball winder...I should have been able to get the lot on, but it has given me the opportunity to make another set of cuffs....I only have to find a suitable crochet pattern to create a frilly edge.

Bridge Cosy

Ah yes Harrietville. On the return trip from Harrietville last year, after a conversation with another participant, my driver and I decided we needed to do something special, both for the weekend participants and the people of Harrietville. After much brainstorming, laughter, and 'we must be mad!', etc., we decided on making a scarf for the bridge at Harrietville.

Logistical considerations meant that we needed to enlist help and a number of people were roped in. After a minimal stash busting exercise we had more than enough to ply together and knit into a long scarf. More helpers were roped in and the length was transported to Harrietville for installation late Friday night.

Enlisting another helper at the last miniute and then trying to be as quiet as possible...how far does the sound of giggles travel...one for the scientists!...we laid it out and found we had just the right amount to cover the length of the walkway side of the bridge and bows in each end around the columns.

Immediate response was quiet as the interest built through the day, puzzling most people, and we were able to keep it secret till the Saturday night when we announced ourselves as the culprits. It was a wonderful success as an installation, but also such a wonderful process, working/playing with my wonderful friends.

At the end of the weekend all that was left were these bags!

PS. No stashes were harmed in the making of this scarf!

Harrietville 2008

This weekend was the annual Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, weekend in Harrietville. Travelling with friends was a good day in the car, punctuated with stops at First Editions and Wangaratta Woollen Mills, lots of talk and laughter, and we did manage to eat and drink along the way, as well. Purchases were made and other travellers met and greeted. The journey to Harrietville is an event in itself.

Harrietville is a relaxed Friday night to Sunday lunch. With all meals provided, workshops you can drop in and out of, beautiful surrounds and welcoming locals, the weekend passes too quickly. There is so much to talk about that I'll add for the rest of the week.

This first post Harrietville post is about the workshops I managed to attend.

Marianne Little is a wonderful artist and paper maker and I managed to make two sheets of paper. Having done a little paper making, it was just a privilege to listen to her, look at her paper and, most delightfully to look through the portfolio of her art work. Inspiring!

On Saturday afternoon, I managed to attend Carmel and Jan's dyeing workshop. Inspired by the computer dyed yarns that have been available for sock making, they have devised a very interesting way of creating our own controlled dyeing versions. Much nicer, I think. I was using left over dyes and am not quite sure of my colour choices. I've skeined it up and it's not that bad. Trying to find a suitable pattern. I think I want something wavy!

One of the other workshops was Viv's fibre sandwich. I didn't participate in this, but she decided to create a weekend long fibre sandwich, which was such fun. With willing helpers, she ended up with over 40 people contributing and 80, 50gm sandwiches to distribute. I can't wait to spin mine up, I think I'll card it first. Just love it.

More throughout the week.