Its been a weekend of decorating this week so I’ve been trying to fit in bits of knitting and spinning where I can. I’m also trying to read a lot more this year which cuts into crafting time; it hard having hobbies that conflict with each other.
Anyway the man socks are coming to an end and I should wrap these up this evening. Despite having several ‘one sock projects’ on the go I am naturally casting around for my next cast on. I’m looking for ideas for some beautiful Malabrigo Mechita in Eggplant. I originally bought this for knitting Ink but I’ve struggled to get started with the cabled collar. I think rather than a cardigan I might go with an oversized sweater or tunic, something simple for slouching around in on weekends.
In spinning news I’m still making my way down my 12 Days. This is the next set of colours for days 7-12.
I’ve split the fibre so that the first set of singles is days 2–7, the second days 7-12, and the third a combination of both. The 100g of fibre from day one is split between the three. Even at a three ply I think I will probably hit a fingering weight. I’m not sure if a combo spin was the right approach but it’s an enjoyable spin and it’s going to be a surprise when it’s plied!
It’s been a while since I posted anything but the end of last year was just so busy I found it difficult to get much crafting done. I have managed to make some progress over the Christmas period:
The Man-Socks of Doom are slowly getting there. They would have been finished by Christmas but I went wrong on the heel turn and lost heart at the thought of unravelling. This is definitely one to finish for January.
I finished my corespun yarn and I will do an update for this later in the week once I’ve worked out how much I have. I’m not sure whether I like this or not, and I have absolutely no idea what to actually do with it, but I really enjoyed the process of making it.
I’m making my way through my Hilltop Coloud 12 Days of Cristmas spin. I’ve decided to spin this as a traditional 3-ply mixing and matching the fibres in a combo spin. I’m enjoying it so far. This is my progress with the first six days.
I haven’t made any crafting goals for the year ahead beyond trying to make sure I do something every week, however small. I think for now finishing up some of my WIPs will be the main focus and I certainly have plenty of those. I’d like to try and use up some stash, I know there is some beautiful purple Malabrigo there somewhere. I’m hoping Wonderwool will run this year. It’s my local yarn festival and it’s been two years since it was about to run as a physical thing. I’m going to try and keep my yarn purchasing at a minimum with the exception of that.
Non-crafting goals are to get more books read this year, I’m aiming for 75. I do include audio books otherwise I find having to choose between crafting and reading difficult. I’m also hoping it increase my running this year so my January challenge is to run at least one mile a day. The weather here is pretty atrocious at the moment so it’s a hard call as to whether I should have made it a swimming challenge!
That’s it for my quick update. Wishing you a happy 2022 and good luck with your own projects and challenges for the year ahead.
I missed a posting last week because things have been super busy on the work front. I think I’m back on top of things again now (famous last words and all that!)
This week I’ve mostly been spinning because even endless rounds of stockinette stitch socks was too much. Well to be fair, I turned the heel, messed up somehow, ripped it back and haven’t had the heart to pick it up again so spinning it is.
I’ve made a start on an art yarn gradient using fibre from the 2020 Fellview Fibres 12 Days of Christmas Calendar, you can see the original batts here on the Fellview Fibres website. I wanted to do something different to my usual ‘spin it and see what you get’ although I’m a bit sad I’ve lost the lovely lustre of the blend. I’m not quite good enough to spin a balanced singles core spun yarn so I’ve gone with making a plied core spun.
I’m spinning it around a lace weight cotton core and then plying it with some gold thread to keep that Christmassy theme. I still have to finish the yarn so I’m not sure what metreage I’ll have at the end yet but I’m hoping for enough for a knitted cowl or maybe I’ll try a woven project but I think that would need to be mixed with another yarn. I’m also not really sure how to measure the WPI with art yarn so I need to investigate that.
In other projects I’ve given my wheel a bit of a polish as she looked a bit ‘dry’. Maybe the winter heating affects her too, I’m starting to feel like the central heating is sucking all of the moisture from my body too. At this rate I’ll be a desiccated husk by December! I’ll try and remember to give her an oiling too as I don’t think I do this anywhere near enough.
As for the garden is pretty much going to ruin now. I think I’ll just close the curtains and check on it again in March!
I’ve finished up my Vanilla socks this week so it was nice to get those off my needles and on to my feet! I’ve also made some progress with the two pairs of socks I’m working on for my partner. It really is strange how large they feel in comparison to mine – I have to keep making him try them on to double check sizing.
I seem to have stalled on my spinning so I want to try and get back to that in the next few weeks. My spinner’s ‘12 Days of Christmas’ arrived from Hilltop Cloud in this cute, hand printed bag. I’m really looking forward to getting started with this. I may even start it early as I’ll be on leave for a good chunk of December but that seems wrong somehow.
Otherwise it’s been a quiet week on the projects front. I did pick up a new book which was James Rebanks’s English Pastoral. I’ve really enjoyed his other books on shepherding in the Lake District so I’m looking forward to settling down with this one, it comes highly recommended.
I’ve been in a sock mood these past few weeks, and I have finally finished up a pair. The pattern for these is Jo Torr’s Vanilla Sock with Gusset and Choice of Heel Ravelry link. The yarn is Third Vault Yarns in Librarian Sock blend which is 75% BFL 25% nylon.
What I really like about this pattern is it explains how to make a custom-fit sock, as well as explaining why the pattern asks you to do certain things. I’ve been knitting for over a decade but I’m still very reluctant to go off pattern in any way and I don’t always know why I’m doing the things I am, I just follow the pattern and hope it works out. So the little asides about measuring and working out the calculations for a perfect fit, why the heel flap increases work, and the benefits of different heel stitches were very welcome.
The pattern itself is very straightforward and adaptable. They’re toe up using Judy’s magic cast on. I used the heel stitch pattern for the heel, but I think I prefer Eye of Partridge as a stitch. I love the lack of tiny holes I tend to get at the heel of cuff-down socks. I cast off using Jenny’s Stretchy Bind-off which inserts a yarn over between cast off stitches to give it some extra stretch. I haven’t used it before and I think this has revolutionised my cast off! It’s great for getting socks over heels.
These socks are fantastic! I’ve never knitted a pair that fit this well before. I’ve already cast on a pair for my partner!
What’s the collective noun for unfinished socks? I’m thinking it should be an ‘embarrassment’. Here’s my embarrassment of socks. I just can’t stop starting socks! I was on the home straight with my plain sock until I realised I had messed up the heel turn and I had to rip it all back. I’m hoping to finish it up this week. I’m committing myself right now to completing the rest before the new year. Maybe. I mean, have you seen the size of that one for my partner amongst all my size fours? It looks like a clown sock!
Other than knitting I have been trying to get some things straight in the garden. Dry days are very few and far between here at the moment but I did manage to clear a vegetable bed yesterday and get my autumn shallots planted. I have another set to go in but I might be waiting a while for another dry day. I also harvested the last of the veggies which included a reasonable haul of courgettes, some peppers, and one single, tiny aubergine! I was super excited at that as I didn’t expect to get anything at all from the plant given the weather.
That’s it for me. I’m hoping to find time for a bit more crafting activity over the next few weeks as I think (hope) I’m through the worst of my busy period at work.
I’m having a bit of a sock thing right now and I currently have three pairs on the go. I love how this sock fits so much that I’m casting on another for my partner (since he’s going to be waiting a very long time for the Ogopogo ones). They’re perfect TV knitting. I think I’ll change the heel in the next one and maybe go with Eye of Partridge as I prefer that to the rib. It’s nice to be knitting small socks!
There’s been a new yarn purchase for said socks. I love the colour and feel of this Malabrigo yarn.
There was one other purchase this week which was a Hilltop Cloud 12 Days of Christmas fibre calendar so that’s my festive spinning sorted. Other than these I’m hoping to see the year out making my way through some stash yarn. Probably.
That’s it for this week. I’m hoping work will get a bit less frantic soon as it does tend to get in the way of crafting!
This week I’ve been enjoying an easy knit. I’m so impressed with how quickly these can knit up. I haven’t managed to find a lot of opportunities to knit this week but I’ve still managed to mostly complete one sock. Knitting for small feet is definitely much more fun! Most small sock patterns I’ve knitted have tended to be 64 stitches but I’ve found that these, at 58, are a much better fit.
I’m been feeling a bit guilty for leaving my Librarian’s Socks untouched this week but I just didn’t have the concentration. As consolation I have ordered some red sock yarn so that I can cast on simple socks for my partner while he’s waiting. He’ll probably get these before I finish the others!
It finally stopped pouring down this week so we managed to get in our logs for the winter. My autumn shallots have arrived so if it stays dry over the next week I’m going to try and sort out my vegetable beds to get those in. I’m also starting to look forward to planning next year in the garden. Once again I’m not sure if I’ve ordered one lot of seed potatoes or two but I’m sure I’ll plant (and eat) however many turn up.
It’s pretty much just socks for me this week. I’ve made progress on my Ogopogo socks for my partner or as I’m calling them Librarian Sock for Librarian’s Socks as they use Third Vault Yarns Librarian Sock blend. Given my partner’s profession it seemed an apt yarn. I’m starting to wonder why I knit socks for people with big feet. I have size four feet and I have decided I’m not knitting socks for anyone with feet bigger than mine again! Well that’s probably not true, but I’d be almost to the cuff by now if I was knitting them for me.
Size eleven socks don’t quite work on a size four sock blocker
I’ve struggled a bit this week as the heel turn seemed unusual to me and I couldn’t make sense of it. Once I stopped trying to make sense of it and just did it, it all worked out fine. I need to remember heels are mostly magic and no good comes of trying to understand why they work, just accept they will and all will be well.
I really like the pattern but they do take a bit more concentration than I really want on some evenings at the moment so I’ve also cast on a pair of simple vanilla socks for me (so short, yay!) for more mindless knitting when I’m a bit frazzled. This is most evenings right now.
I’m struggling with both reading physical books and knitting at the moment (not at the same time, I’ve always struggled with that!) I’m now at an age where my eyes don’t want to do close work without a lot of effort and I don’t think the light in my living room helps. It’s cosy and ready for winter, but I need something brighter for the darker evenings (and the darker days given that it hasn’t stopped raining here all week) so I think that’s going to be my task for this week. Oh and finding some bright red sock yarn as I’ve been asked for a pair of red socks and this is just about the only colour I don’t have in stash.
A bit of a late update from me this week as yesterday got away from a me a bit. Progress has been slow on various projects but at least it’s being made. My Ogopogo sock has reached the heel. Remind me never to cast on cable socks again. I know I said it last time but I forgot. I love the pattern but it’s slow progress for me. I think I will cast on a second, easy project to do while I’m watching television. Trying to watch the Vigil finale last night and make progress with a cabled sock was just too much!
As with previous weeks I’ve been making progress with my online spinning workshop with SweetGeorgia Yarns. I’m really enjoying this as it’s been a great opportunity to try out new things. I generally spin fibre as it comes. It would never really occur to me to try to change the preparation of a bought fibre to alter how I spin it, or to change how the colour works when spun, or even (the horror) put different coloured braids together and alter someone’s carefully thought out colour scheme.
Last week we experimented with soaking fibre in warm water and drying it before spinning. The purpose of this is to reinvigorate fibre which may have lost its crimp in processing or storage, and to make it a smoother, loftier spin. I only tried this with some undyed BFL I had (it’s not supposed to work as well with dyed fibre) but it did make quite a difference in terms of the loftiness of the finished fibre.
L-R: not soaked, unfinished; not soaked, finished; soaked, unfinished; soaked, finished
I’m not sure that you can really tell from this photo but the final sample skein was spun from pre-soaked fibre which was then soaked again after spinning to set the twist. The finished result is definitely lighter and fluffier than the non-soaked but similarly finished skein. This might be something I’d do again with older braids I’ve had crushed up in storage boxes under the bed.
I’ve also been experimenting with twist and ply. This is some of the sampling I’ve done so far. Next on the list is to try with some sock yarn techniques, I’m interested in trying out the opposing 3-ply technique where one of your singles is spun in the opposite direction before being plied with the other two.
I think what’s struck me most about the course so far is that there is genuinely a reason why yarn doesn’t want to be a particular project (I mean a reason other than I saw something I liked better a few days after casting on). I’m happy with the idea that certain yarns have drape or loft, but I’m getting a better idea now of why two, three, or four ply yarns suit certain projects better depending on whether it is lace or cables, or why high or low twist yarns might alter a project. Hopefully this will help me with deciding what commercial yarns will work better for a specific project. Or maybe I’ll just by multiple skeins anyway!
Ceulan Fibres 