Getting Ready

Tuesdays are my Stitch 'n Bitch day at Four Leaves Cafe, so armed with my now started top down jumper, courtesy of 'Knitting from the top' by Barbara Walker, I have something to do!

Then, I have to get busy and work on this lovely fleece from Sheila Kempson at Perrynook, that I've washed to get ready for the plying class that I'm giving for the Handweavers and Spinners Guild Spinning Certificate course. 

I have to fill two bobbins and then start plying!

 Any wind the rest of the yarn ready for my jumper.

Snb dyeing

Last Friday, a few of the members of our Snb group came over to my house and we did a little random dyeing, by way of introduction for them. It was alot of fun and some ordinary yarns were transformed into a myriad of colours.

The basic rule for random dyeing is to minimise, as much as possible, the amount of water in the dyepot to reduce the amount of movement the dye particles can make. Dyes are sprinkled on in varying levels of randomness. (I know, it's either random or not.....but bear with me!) You then continue dyeing as usual, with some housekeeping (read 'poking') throughout to ensure that all parts of the yarn has some dye.

I did my dyeing after they'd all left, trying to get a good red. Again, I did succeed but couldn't help adding a little green. I love the yarn and am ready to knit it up! (Apologies for the picture....I'm recharging my battery....)

I have been determined to use the travelling vine pattern. You know how something gets into your head and won't go away, well....

I've rewritten the pattern adding four more rows to the pattern to give bigger blocks of colour, and, changed needle sizes several times.....back to 4mm needles, sometimes the right size IS the right size.

I'm happy....hope I can finish this by the next market.

It's all about the socks

Just arrived back from a busy session at Snb. Isn't it amazing how you can sit around with your knitting and spend most of the time talking about knitting. We did have a little drama with one of the children, I do hope she's OK.

I managed to finish my socks last night, so I could show them off today and, more importantly, start the next pair of socks. You may notice that one foot is bigger than the other. One of the joys of knitting your own is that you can tailor them to your own unique feet!

Aren't they lovely and bright.

The new pair are in the Noro Kureyon sock yarn I bought, on special from Morris & Sons. The pattern is the Lacy Arrow-patterned socks from 'Socks' from Spin-off and Interweave Press, edited by Rita Buchanan & Deborah Robson.

I've done the swatch and the pattern works very nicely. The only weirdness, is that when I started knitting from the centre the first green is quite different from anything that can be easily seen from the outside of the ball. The Noro is supposed to wash nicely, right now it feels a bit firm. Quite alot to think about, really.

Another pair of socks

What happens when you're heading into Summer, we're all knitting socks. Well a few of us at SnB are, here are my finished socks.

They just need some ends sewn in and they'll be wearable. I learnt a new cast off, a knitted Kitchener stitch. I was a bit awkward, as it isn't designed to be used by a Continental knitter, but I'll manage. I was a bit tight, but that's the 'P' work - practice!

SnB fun

SnB was a great deal of fun, but it did start disastrously for me! The boys had a curriculum day, so it was a bit of a crowded and slow start to the day. Having finally sorted them and myself out, I went to grab my knitting to head off to SnB. I am only the raglan top of the second sleeve away from finishing this off. To my horror, after furious searching of house and car and the gradual dawning of the realisation that I had left the knitting at the beach. No problem I have some socks, which were meant to be my next project. These were found...missing one four needle...more hunting....found. Hooray! Headed off to SnB, 20 minutes (of good knitting time) late.

I could hear them as I rounded the corner. We had a bumper crowd, already well into their projects, enjoying each others' company. Terrific morning.

For those of you that are interested, our new knitter has completed 63cm of her scarf, which is looking gorgeous.

I went home and finished the socks. I like my socks, they were knitted with some bargain basement Bendigo yarn, obtained on last year's trip to Bendigo, at their shop. I need new socks and am a bit disappointed at the commercial stuff. It's either too thin...I have cold feet....or, uninteresting, so I'm going to knit my socks. There is nothing like handknitted socks. Everyone should try at least one pair, just to know what everyone is talking about. So I'm off to Woolybutt today to get some sock yarn, ready for next Tuesday.