wip – Page 2 – Ceulan Fibres

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Fourteen

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.

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Twelve

Only a quick update from me today as it’s been a quite week in terms of actually producing anything. I’ve finished the fourth skein in my five skeins gradient spin. This is a 3-ply sweater spin using a Hilltop Cloud Fade pack. I still need to skein and soak it.

I’ve also made progress with my homework for my spinning course. I’ve been experimenting with pre-soaking fibre before spinning. I’ve been very surprised at the impact pre-soaking fibre has, and it definitely makes for a smoother draft and loftier yarn. I’ve only tried it with BFL so far, but I have some other fibres to try. I’m also experimenting with some different ways of spinning sock yarns so hopefully there will be some updates on that shortly.

In other news I’m slowly putting the garden to bed for the winter. I plan to grow some more shallots over the winter as these were one of last year’s big successes. I’ve also got the last few courgettes to harvest. I don’t think I will go near tomatoes ever again as they just seem to be a disappointment. I do have my first, very tiny, aubergine coming on, but I’m not sure if it will grow big enough in the last few weeks of warmer weather. The flower beds were a huge disappointment so I’m giving one of those over to potatoes next year.

Hopefully there will be a bit more to report in the coming weeks. We’re heading in to my favourite season so plenty of time for knitting by the fireside as the nights start to draw in.

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Eight

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks so I didn’t get around to posting last week. I’ve been making some steady progress on my Mothed jumper and I’m now onto the final couple of inches on the body. I went with 3/4 sleeves, partly because that’s what I like but also I’m a bit worried about having enough yarn to finish the body! I’m keeping this as my TV knit this week.

Image shows jumper knitted top down with three quarter sleeves and an incomplete body. — Mothed

Despite having some WIPs still to finish up I cast on a new project this weekend because I found the yarn and had to use it. This is Third Vault Yarns in Deep Space on the Librarian Sock base. I love this colourway and it’s knitting up great with the Ogopogo sock pattern.

I also decided to try out the School of SweetGeorgia fibre craft school with two weeks access for $1 at the moment. I enjoyed Felicia Lo’s Craftsy classes on dyeing several years ago and her SweetGeorgia platform has dyeing classes as well as knitting, weaving, spinning, and more. I’ve dipped in and out of a couple of classes and watched most of the one on blending boards as that’s my next project I think. There are opportunities to attend live sessions online although I’ve not looked into how that will work out with the time difference. I can imagine I’ll dip in and out of this with a monthly subscription here and there but I don’t know whether it would be worth a subscription for a whole year.

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Five

This week I’ve been starting to try and sort through some of my knitting related stash. It’s spread all over the house meaning that when I want a certain size needle/those gold beads/a crochet hook/my favourite stitch markers/ my plying spindle I have to search several locations to try and find what I’m looking for. I’m hoping to start finding a proper home for things over the coming weeks and get some of my stash into Ravelry. I have some long weekends coming up so I’m hoping to use that to start getting to grips with where to store things like beads and notions.

In the course of sorting I came across an old project from (I think) 2018. This is some of my handspun but I have no idea what the pattern was that I was using. I’m also not happy with how this was knitting up, I think it’s a bit too thin. I never like frogging a project but I don’t think this is ever going to see the light of day as a finished item. I’m not sure what this yarn is going to be, maybe a second yarn in a held double project?

Image shows a partially knitted jumper — A sad end to some handspun

In other news I’ve been making some good progress on my shawl for the Ravellenics. I’ve realised that I have gone wrong and my stockinette sections are deeper than they should be but I’m not too bothered about that. I have no idea if this will ever be something I’ll wear, but I really like this gradient.

Shawl in Fellview Fibre gradient Witch Hazel

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Four

It’s been a difficult week with all this heat. Despite the through draft created by having all of my windows and doors replaced this week it couldn’t cool things down enough to think much about knitting.

I did make progress on the Fyne vest. Aaaand then I made a mistake again. And then I had to unravel it again. I have knitted the same fifteen rows more times than I can count now and I’m rapidly falling out of love with it.I’m giving myself one last attempt to get it right and then I’m frogging it for good (or maybe setting it on fire and casting it into the abyss).

I did make some Ravellenics progress however. I cast on Fichu Bleu with the gradient I spun during the TdF. I’m never really sure if I’m a shawl person, some people make them look chic and effortless but I think I look like a badger wrapped in a blanket. Nevertheless I think it’s a nice simple pattern for watching the games and I think it works well with the chain ply.

Image shows shawl in stockinette and broken rib in a green gradient — Fichu Bleu

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Two

It’s been slow progress this week with one thing and another. Work was hectic at the start of the week and then we had a couple of days in Hay on Wye. I love mooching bookstores and there are certainly plenty in Hay, the town of books. I was surprised at how utterly exhausted I was but I think it’s probably the most I’ve done in a single day since we went back into lockdown at the end of last year!

Anyway, being busy and away from my wheel means there isn’t a lot of progress to report this week but I have made some progress on my gradient spin. I have one more batt to spin and then some chain plying, I’m hoping to finish up that in the next day or so. My next project is this sweater spin:

I’m spinning this as a traditional 3 ply. Annoyingly I can’t remember what the base is so I’m hoping I come across the packaging soon. Keeping better records, either using Ravelry or a paper journal, is one of my goals for this year as I hardly ever remember to log them properly.

I’ve also spent some time digging around some of my WIPs:

Mothed 3/4 of body done and 3/4 of one sleeve. I think I’m going to have to start the sleeve again as I’m not too sure where I got to with the stitch decreases. This is a handspun project.
Le Facteur another handspun project that’s been on the needles for over three years. I will probably frog this.
Elizabeth Montagu socks as part of the Bluestockings knit along. I’ve fallen waaaay behind with this KAL
Piccolo Mondo Antico socks I see these have been on the go since 2017
Fyne Vest I lost heart with this a bit when I kept having to rip it back but I’m determined to finish it!
A project on the loom that I haven’t looked at in a couple of years. It’s a straightforward wrap, nothing fancy but I hand dyed the yarn to go with a dress for a friend’s wedding. I had to go out and buy a cardigan instead!

To be fair there aren’t as many as I expected, but I’m not ruling out finding some more stashed in odd places. This week I want to push on with spinning and see what I can get done in the last few days of the TdF.

The long slow run

So it’s Tour de Fleece time of year again. My job means that July and August are my somewhat quieter times of the year and so the Tour generally signifies the start of a slower pace of life and an opportunity to transfer some of the year’s pent up tension into some fibre.

Despite the calm the Tour ushers in, I always make a ridiculous amount of plans and line up way too many projects than I could ever hope to spin in the time available. ‘This year I’ll learn long draw/process a fleece from scratch/finally spin lace weight/complete a jumper’s worth just on a spindle…’, you get the idea. I just seem to try and make things complicated. And no, I don’t ever really get to any of that.

This past year I’ve started taking running a bit more seriously. I’ve come to appreciate the need for goals. I understand why just going out there and doing what feels good (or least bad) won’t help me break any records or go any further. I need structure and I need challenges. More importantly however, I’ve learned that improvement comes with rest days and slower days as much as it does with hill drills and sprints. And I’ve come to enjoy these days instead of thinking I should be doing more/faster/further. I’m thinking there is possibly something to take from this into my spinning.

So this TdF there are no big plans for me. There is no photo of the several kilos of fibre I want to get through; there are no hoops to jump through; there isn’t even a stack of books on my bedside table. What there is this year is the equivalent of that weekend longer run. I’m going to oil up my wheel, pick the next fibre project to hand, and just enjoy my time at the wheel and with the spinning community. I think the running and the fibre craft community are two of the most supportive corners of the Internet so here’s a shout out to you both and thanks for everything.

Oh, and since we’re here, this is my progress to date after Day One.

WIP Wednesday

Welcome to my first WIP Wednesday. I feel I am actually justified in classing this a work in progress as it is actually progressing, albeit slowly, rather than being a ‘work stuffed in a bag/cupboard/drawer’. There’s plenty of time for those to make an appearance in the not too distant future.

As I said, I haven’t done much knitting lately. I think extended lockdowns have affected my attention span and I just want my non-work time to just wash over me without any effort on my part. I’m trying to get back to it (and reading which has also fallen by the wayside). This is the project that is currently on my needles. It’s Marie Wallin’s Fyne Vest.

The yarn for this is a DK yarn from Rowan. DK is a weight I almost never use, but I found this yarn on sale in Booth’s Bookshop in Hay on Wye and came away with armfuls of it thinking I’d find a pattern eventually (let’s quickly gloss over going to the book capital of the UK and coming away with more yarn stash). It’s a wool/alpaca blend and I really love these colours and how they work together.

Progress so far is a bit slow and fiddly and I’ve resolved never to knit stranded work in the flat (is that an expression?) ever again. I note that a lot of others on Ravelry adapted the pattern for knitting in the round but I’m not sure I’m good enough to go off pattern so here I am. Fiddly aside, the pattern is nice and clear so far and it’s not taking too long once I actually get down to it. How’s everyone else getting on with their works in progress?