Spinning in colour

I've been spinning. Just little snatches of time, when I can. This means that my yarn is not as even as it could be, but I've been missing doing a craft just for me. I have some natural silvery Blue Faced Leicester that I've been spinning very fine for ages now, but it's made me realise that the reason I love spinning so much is colour. Colour is absolutely where it's at for me!

I bought some Merino silk top ages ago from BabylongLegs. I had just started spinning on a spindle - didn't even had a wheel at that point. The colourway was called Neptune, and the deep blue-green colours called me. I didn't spin it at the time - I felt I needed to work up to it, and I didn't have the experience to know how to make the colours sing.

I do now! I decided to spin half of it - around 50g, and to aim for a fingering/sport weight long colour change yarn to make into colourwork gloves. I was thinking of the fake fairisle effect that is often made with Noro and similar yarns. I chain plyed to preserve the colours, and with very little effort - 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there - I had spun & plyed the yarn within a week. Want to see how it turned out? Those lovely blues, greens & transitional turquoises? Here's a little collage for you:

It came out just how I wanted. 220m, 50g, clean colours. And I still have 50g left! I might do the rest as a slightly chunkier 2 ply, maybe using a fractal spin. I don't know yet. But I know I'll enjoy it!

Keeping it simple

I've been making a magazine design recently. It's the first time I've done a garment, and while it's a simple knit, getting the proportions right has been unexpectedly difficult. In fact it's been kicking my butt :(

So I needed something simple to work on for when I can't do work knitting. Knit nights, waiting during kid's music lessons - when it's not appropriate to take work knitting, or when I won't be able to concentrate properly. I've also had to sort out the shed - Mr Happymaking has a new work contract that means he can work from home more often so we need to be able to share the workspace. I realised I had somehow gained a lot of blue-grey colour yarn. Some is left over from old projects or designs,  some given to me, some sent by Rico as samples of their summer yarns. Now I've used some for swatches, but that means I have quite a few part-balls hanging around. I don't want to throw them out, but they are taking up space. So I've started a stash-busting crochet blanket.

 Simple stripes, a different colour every row. I don't know how far the yarn will go, so I don't know how big it will get. But oh, those stripes are addictive. Blues, greys, touch of black & white with little pops of orange from time to time. I'm avoiding yarns that will felt easily so this should be a really practical snuggly blanket. I am loving making it. And I have to restrict myself to only working on it when I can't work on the stuff that pays. Because honestly, at the moment, I would happily work on this and nothing else! One stitch, one colour at a time, random(ish) selection of yarns, growing easily, stripe by stripe.......it's just so addictive!

I will think of a border to cunningly secure all these ends. At least that's the plan.......

Happy making xx

Jubilant shawl pattern release - with The Natural Dye Studio

Photo ©The Natural Dye Studio

The Natural Dye Studio have remade Jubilant in their Dazzling 4ply. If you were at Wonderwool, you will have seen the sample shown above in this pretty blue, with its subtle shading. I love NDS yarns - the bases are luxury blends & the colours are beautiful. Amanda is so clever with her dying - she gets natural colours looking so intense & glowy :)

The pattern is available from NDS - they will have the paper pattern to sell at shows - or you can buy the download only at Ravelry from my shop here

I have another collaboration with Natural Dye Studio coming up - look out for it at Woolfest :)

New Pattern: Tendril socks

©Future Publishing

Another patten out this month! This time it's this lovely pair of socks in The Knitter Issue 58. They are knit in Skein Queen Blush. It' a merino cashmere blend and is a lovely fat squooshy sock yarn.

The socks are worked toe up, and I'm especially pleased with the cuff! The lace pattern is usually used as a staggered arrangement, as the stitch count varies from 1 to 11 stitches. I wanted to work out how to use it as a single pattern, and it took quite a lot of playing around with different increases, decreases, and positioning to get it working. I love the hourglass-y finished effect, and decided to keep the rest of the sock plain so the panel is the main focus. The pattern is easy to remember & as the rest of the sock is stocking stitch, they are an ideal travelling project.

The colourway name will ring bells for any of you born in the UK in the late 60's/early 70's. It's called Alberto Frog and his amazing animal band! Do you remember Bod? There was always a random mid section following the remarkably dull adventures of Alberto frog & his band. Their reward for their efforts was always a giant milkshake, and the highlight of the whole thing was guessing the flavour they would choose (Strawberry! Choose strawberry Alberto!!) Wow, we were really pleased by very little back in the day!

In case you have never come across Bod before, there's a useful page here.

Be back soon - have a lovely weekend x

New Pattern: Doilies!

This month's Knit Now magazine (issue 21) has a Tea Dance theme to some of it's patterns. It's very cute! And of course, you can't have a tea dance without doilies now, can you? Kate, the editor asked me if I could design some doilies - some knitted, some crocheted. Despite my lack of experience in the doily arena, I seem to be unable to refuse Kate, so I launched into a world where people have surfaces uncluttered enough to have to cover them with pretty lacey things!

These are made in thicker cotton than the beautiful, intricate doilies that your grandmother would have made. I don't think I can aspire to that level of detailed craftsmanship. But, despite my initial misgivings, I have to say they were so fun to design & quick to make, I can completely see why people love to make them. There are 2 knitted patterns - small & large, both of which have the same base but they both look quite different. The big knitted one - in green above - is my favourite of the lot. There are 3 crocheted doilies, 2 that are large & small versions of the same pattern and a hexagonal one that came completely out of left field when I was trying to figure out how to make the shapes I saw in a charity shop doily. 

I made up an extra one of those to check my written instructions & I found it's a perfect mug coaster for my sofa

So even if you don't think you are a doily person - why don't you give them a try? It may bring out your inner domestic goddess after all!!

I've got another couple of pattern posts coming - I'll be back with them soon xx