A scarf remake

 I have a very special scarf that I spun and knit many many years ago. At a time of deep pain, it was the only thing I felt like doing. I was a new spinner and yet to embark on my textile studies. 

Now, I don't wear it, as long scarves don't really serve their purpose. So, it is time for it to be reknit and reworn. A new life. It seems to be the right time.

So, I've unpulled it all and washed the resulting skeins. 

I did a favour for a friend and as a reward she gave me the book 'Knit Fold Pleat Repeat' by Norah Gaughan. On first looking at this book, I wasn't sure if I really liked it, but as I was getting it for free, I thought I'd give it a go. Well.....I've knit the cover scarf, which is named Pinion, and am in the process of knitting one of the tops inside. And now there are a few other things on my wish list.

For this I knit my yarn trying to use as much as I could, whilst leaving enough to knit a pair of matching fingerless mittens. To make the cowl effect, I twisted it in the grafting to make a mobius scarf. Am very happy with the big bulky warm scarf. Just right for Winter at the beach.

It feels like quite an achievement to give this scarf a new life. Warming in all the right ways.

A hat and mittens for the boys partners

I like making things for other people, but I rarely have confidence that I can figure out what people would like. I make do by making bulk things for everyone and hope for the best. I love when I get requests..

So, here are the requested hat and pair of mittens, the hat for Steph and the mittens for Shannon. The hat is from the standard accessories book from Patons that I always use along with Bendigo Classic in Steph's favourite colour, it seems. The mittens are my standard pattern in Black yarn from the stash. They seem to have been well received. I hope they kept them warm this Winter. 

They were a nice quick project for the start of the first lockdown in Melbourne.

 

An ode to Petlyn wool combs

Dear Julie and Joe,

Just thought I'd drop you a line to let you know how much fun I'm having with your English wool combs that I bought from you at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo this year. I also purchased some of Coral Stewarts' dyed fleece. More of a sentimental purchase, as I don't need any more fleece, but I do love her work and have a jacket and a jumper made from her dyed yarn, which I love.

Now I know that this was not the perfect start, whilst the fleece is dyed it was still very greasy, but I thought that knowing this was not the best start would allow me to experiment to find the best way to process it. Fleece is always tricky as you tend to get a muddying effect as there are no distinct blocks of colour. Well, this fleece, anyway.

I found the best way was to load a rough colour block at a time, then take it off with the free comb, load more, take off more, and keep going till I had this:

You can sort of see the layers that were created and when I 'dizzed' it off I got

It spun up beautifully, as you would expect using wool combs, I navaho plied the resulting single to try and keep some colours. It did turn out muddy in places and I did really lose the blue, but I love the yarn so much I didn't take a photo before I knit it up into a shrug to sell in my Etsy shop.

I really love the combs and have started work on my next project, and, as convener of Experimental Spinners at the guild, we're going to have a session playing with wool combs. A couple of us have wool combs and so does the guild. We're going to try colour blending and see what happens.

Thanks again for your marvellous products and your generosity in sharing your knowledge.

Cheers, Teresa

PS Hints on blending colours on wool combs would be appreciated!