Sunday 30 June 2013

Woolfest!

Squeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Ok, this week's blog is all about the wonders of Woolfest. Now, when you compare it to some of the American fibre festivals, it could be described as on the small side, but this is Britains first fibre festival. This year sees over 150 vendors selling everything you could possibly wish for that's fibre arts related!

Is held at Mitchell's Auction Mart in Cockermouth. Woolclip take over the Livestock centre for 2 days each year. The wonderfully hardworking ladies of the Woolclip co-operative put on a great show for us. There is great folk music played live all day, all manner of fibre bearing animals interspersed with stalls selling their wears. It's great!

So let's start with Friday, Day One -


This is my first view of the mart, from the car park - note the "clart" underfoot! Clart is a technical term around these parts for mucky things! It's rained on and off for the last few days. The car park is a part time hard standing and so it's not got a permanent surface and it is a tad muddy - clarty!!

After buying my ticket and receiving my programme I made a beeline to the information stand to say hello to my good friend Marion.  Marion is one of the brains behind the joyful gorgeousness that is Woolfest, I was giving her a hand later in the day, so I just wanted to check in with here. Next was the ravelry meeting area to collect my Woolfest 2013 bag!!! Well, you do need to have something to carry you haul in!

Then was the first wander around the stalls, I'd already picked out some stands I just had to go to, but I started at the Woolclip aisle and worked my way around from there

The Woolclip Aisle

Dotted around the show are pens with many animals, if you can spin it, it was there!
llama - you've got to love those mop tops!

Hebridean sheep - gorgeous horns
Teeswater sheep - fab dreads!
Cashmere goats - These 2 were grumpy and had to be separated!

Angora bunny - I WANT ONE!!!

Wensleydale sheep - what's with the dreads?

I had specific thoughts about what I wanted to buy. I wanted a light shawl pin; I knit lots of light lacy shawls, and I wanted a pin that wouldn't pull the fabric too much.  I also wanted connectors for my Knit Picks interchangables. I knew that I didn't want to buy a lot of fibre, I've got quite enough for now, I still have some from last year's Woolfest. I wanted yarn, specifically some nice lace weight and self striping sock yarn.

I had a wonderful morning, browsing the stalls, completely absorbed in the riot of colour.  The stall holders are a wonderful breed. They are dedicated to sharing their knowledge. Their passion for their products is a joy to behold. I'd originally decided to spend half my budget on Friday and half on Saturday. Well, that went pretty rapidly out of the window as did my plan not to buy fluff!! Ah well!!

I had gift vouchers to spend from Christmas at Wingham Wool Work. I wanted a lace flyer for the kiwi and some undyed fibre. It didn't go according to plan as they had no flyers; I did buy 2 more bobbins though. I spent the rest of my vouchers on fibre.  Most of it was coloured, but I did buy some yak/merino and camel down/silk blend which is naturally coloured. My plan for shopping was mostly unfulfilled! I didn't find my connectors or the shawl pin I wanted.

One of the things I wanted to do was to buy Ben a proper spindle. He desperately wants to spin, and usually asks as I pull Whenu out to spin myself.  I wanted to get him a spindle so that he can master the art of drafting before he really cracks on with wheel spinning. I found a great starter spindle on Katie's stall, she runs Hilltop Cloud Fibre and her fibre is lovely - I resisted! Sigh, I really was tempted though!

I had some lovely salad and a veggie pastie for my lunch and had a chill session. It was lovely sat listening to the folk music while spindle spinning. I did bring Whenu with me, but it was throwing it down when I came into the show, and I was parked about halfway back in a field. I was quite convinced that I was going to fall and break my wheel. So spindling was the way forward. I had a couple of people come and ask me questions about spinning and my spindle. I was using one I'd made myself from dowelling and Fimo. I enjoyed sharing tips and techniques and talking to like minded people. It's weird to think that this time last year, it was me asking the questions as I was so new to spinning then. It just goes to show you how much you can achieve in a year.

After I'd helped my good friend Marion out (she is one of the brains behind the whole Woolfest experience) I headed over to check out the Woolycultural Show. Blow me down, I won!!!! Well, all things being equal, I was third to win! But I'm having that!!! Considering it was my first attempt at felting, I think I did quite well really!!
My yellow rosette winning spindles

Marion and I with her Miniature Garden exhibit
I left the show and headed home before my swelling head prevented me from getting out of the Auction Mart!!
I had things to do before my friends arrived later on Friday night. Beds to make, wine to chill. You know, all of the important jobs!!

We had a great night on Friday. We knitted and watched Glastonbury on the BBC. We contemplated why folk would trudge through mud to listen to music when you can do it on a sofa with your knitting needles and a cup of tea! Life doesn't get more rock and roll than that!!!!
Knitting+tea/wine+music=bliss
Saturday, Day 2 -
The weather was much improved and the drive through to Cockermouth was lovely, the views of the mountains and of Bassenthwaite were stunning.

Once we arrived, we had a brew (obviously!) and then went to a demonstration of natural dying techniques. I wanted to go on Friday, but missed the demo while I was helping Marion out. I've been contemplating dying for a while now, and while you tube is a great resource, having someone you can talk to is invaluable.
Alison from Pure Tincturia demonstrated how to use natural plant extracts to dye yarn and fibre using a microwave - I love the instant gratification! After the demo, shopping had to be done, I found the connectors thanks to a lovely lady on Woolfest's Facebook page and I also found a gorgeous bone shawl pin.

I left the girls shopping while I helped Marion out again, when we met up again, they where laden! A good hour's shopping was had!! We got some lunch and sat in the Main Ring to eat it and watch the sheep shearing demonstration. It was amazing to watch an artist at work, her mastery of technique was balletic. Her feet and hands worked seamlessly to get the sheep into the position she needed to get the fleece off. Amazing. Truly amazing!

A little more shopping later, we retired home for a slap up roast lamb dinner cooked by my wonderful mother in law. I truly don't know what I'd do with out her!!

Saturday evening was spent teaching my friend Steph (the blond) how to purl so that she could make a hat from the lovely yarn she'd bought that day. Steph is a new knitter, who so far has mostly knitted scarfs from that icky, shiney, fluffy yarn! Moving to sheep is a big step for her, and thankfully I don't think she'll go back to that man-made scarf yarn.

I'll post photo's of my haul next week! It's currently stashed about the house, so I need to gather it back together.

One of the things I crafted this week was a bag. I knitted it from the yarn left over from the roses I knit and felted for the whorls for my spindles. I'd attempted to over dye the remaining yarn with food colouring with some degree of success. I knit a French Market Bag and felted it in the washing machine. I finished the knit at about midnight on Friday. I put it in on a 30 minute wash and it felted quite nicely. Now it's dry, I think I might well put it through again, just to felt it a bit more.

I loved making this bag. I decided to make another for my mother in law. I found some naturally coloured dark brown wool on a stand and it was just £4.50 for 100g. I bought 2 balls, I thought that between these 2 balls and a skein of nasty massam I've spun which is almost identical in colour, I could dye them and use this yarn for Jean's bag.

One of my purchases was 3 pots of acid dye. Needless to say, they're shades of purple. Last night I skeined the balls of yarn and then set all three skeins to soak in cold water with some white vinegar added. This morning (Sunday) I started to dye. I think I may have a new obsession! EEEKKK I kept the yarn in their skeins and I'm loving how the colour has taken. It's drying now so I'll show you the results next time, but here is a photo of the yarn in the pot

Still hot and steamy

So then, photos of the stash to follow.

Next week's blog will be back to normal. The knitting content may suffer a tad as Tour de Fleece started yesterday, and I'm conscious of my commitment to spin an hour a day! I did manage to spin at Woolfest and I spun at home last night too.

Have a great week guys.

See you all soon x 

Sunday 23 June 2013

Weather - bleugh!

As the title of this week's blog suggests, I'm less than impressed with the weather this weekend. All week the sun has been cracking the flags and it's been gloriously warm. Now, when I'm off for the weekend, torrential rain! Big, fat, heavy rain. Where I work the only daylight comes from 2 frosted glass windows. These window are barred for security reasons. They open at the top, just enough to post a large letter through. So, all week I've put up with people coming into the pharmacy complaining about the heat, while I sweat in my pharmacy with no air, looking out through my barred letter box at the glorious weather! Now, I'm not bitter!!! MUCH !!!!!!

Still! Onto nicer, happier thoughts! This weekend saw the last Diddy League gala of the season. I'm so proud to be able to say that the Penrith Piranhas came 4th. There were 8 teams in the competition, and this was our best performance for many years.

In other matters, it dawned on me that next weekend is Woolfest. Now, that's not to say that I haven't been counting down the days for the last 4 months, because I have; but I realised that time was ticking by for me to make my entry for the Woolycultural show. So I've been wracking my brains trying to think of what I could enter. The categories are flowers, vegetables, gardens, and fruit. I'm not that inventive truth be told, I'm not an arty type. My cogs have been turning, and in the end I decided to have a go at felting.

My cunning plan started to formulate as my latest attempt at spindle making became an epic fail. I used Fimo to make the whorls. I've done this before and it's been a success, this time though, I used a pasta machine to roll out the Fimo and I think this made it just a little too thin. I've managed to break 2 of the 4 whorls I made already. Now this is a shame because I was so pleased with the stems of the spindles. I found some walnut doweling and I sanded it to a gorgeous finish and waxed it. I was so disappointed that these stems would be wasted. Hum, I thought. What if I could make a wooly whorl? So I knitted roses and felted them. I'm happy with the results. They even spin reasonably well! Don't get me wrong, they'll never make award winning yarn, but I'm really pleased with the results.

Ready for felting

I think I will felt again. As first attempts go, I'm reasonably happy. I think I washed them too long, so next time I'll be a little more cautious. 



Feeling the love this week - 

The most love has been felt by the Rejected socks. I've finished the first one, and I'm onto the second. I tried to make them match, I was happy with were in the colour repeat I started the toe, but it seems that the repeats aren't exactly the same length! So my pink bit of toe is slightly longer than on the first sock, this will impact where I put the waste yarn on the second sock. So now the heels won't match. At the moment I'm ok with that, but I'll wait and see how I feel when I get to the heel. Having said that, I don't think there's a whole lot I can do about it! Hey ho! 

I've done a couple of rows on Jean's scarf, but not enough to warrant giving you an updated photo. 

I've also been spinning. I've worked a little on the Cornflower polwarth. I'm still enjoying it but I just don't seem to want to get my teeth into it. I've done some drop spindling on one of my homemade spindles. I've shown you a picture before, it's the black and dark purple BFL from Jan&Cecelia. It's spinning really thin, and despite working on it quite a bit, the length of roving just refuses to shrink!  

I seem to have had no staying power this week, my mind won't focus on any one thing so I also prepared my Nunoco batt-dropping in the Ragged Robin colour way. It's devine. I would expect nothing less from the Nunoco girls. It's merino, mulberry silk and silk filament. The silk filament is proving problematic to me. Now may be a good time to explain that I'm fairly convinced that I have some leanings towards OCD! Now, I'm not wanting to make light of this condition, but I do think that at times my need to get things 'just so' bother me. So this filament is bothering me. When I spin, I long to get the singles perfectly thin and even. The filament refuses to play ball. Sometimes it twists beautifully into the single, sometimes it sticks out at crazy angles! I'm going to take my time with it, it's so lovely to spin. I'll keep you posted

On the horizon -
Next week, I'll still be slogging away at Jean's scarf. I'd like to be nearly finished with the rejected socks too. Spinning wise, I'd love to say I'll be done with the polwarth, but in my heart I know I'll have to set it aside for Tour de Fleece.
Next week is also Woolfest weekend!!!! So the blog may be a little different depending on what happens there. I'd love to take some photos and video and share them with you, but we'll see.

So have a great week x  








Sunday 16 June 2013

One proud mum!

You guys know that Ben swims for our local club? Yes? Well, yesterday he swam for his school too. A team of nine, 10 and 11 year olds competed against 5 other local primary schools and Yanwath won!

It was quite strange for me, I got to watch. I spent my time spectating productively, I knit and I hollered like a banshee!! It seems that screaming yourself hoarse isn't the done thing in these parts as I got a few funny looks. It was definitely that and not the brightly coloured sock I was working on!I also learnt that I knit a lot faster when I'm cheering my team on. Who knew?

Other happenings this week where few and far between. It's been an odd kind of week at work. An 'all or nothing' kind of week.  I'd much rather have a 'steady away' week! Ultimately it was uneventful and that's the most important thing.

Following on from last week's colour theme, I dyed my hair again. Once in a while it's a big job because I have to bleach the roots too. It takes a good 2 hours to do the job, so I set about it yesterday. I'm loving the results. I used 2 different colours, a purple and a red. What do you think?


It's a funny kind of red, it's called 'Vendetta Red' and it always seems to be more of a pink to me, but still, I'm happy with the results. 

All of this looking at colour has started me thinking about the whole dying process. Could dying my own yarn be the way forward?  Woolfest is only 2 weeks away now, and I know I can get everything I need there. Do I take the plunge? Should I curb my urges and spend my money on lovely indie dyed yarn like a good girl? Oh, help! I crave colours. Mmmmmm purple.......... red.................. blue!!

ANYWAY!!!!!!!  Onto the fibre based madness

Feeling the love this week - 

It's been an odd kind of week all around really. I feel I've un-knitted as much as I've knitted. I took many projects away with me last weekend. I took the rejected sock, Jean's birthday scarf, Monica's shawl and a cashmere jumper to recycle. 

So here's the state of play so far - Monica's shawl has been frogged. It seems that nupps are not my friend. At least they aren't with my knit picks needles. My interchangeables are my babies. I love them, but they just aren't pointy enough to cope with a 7 stitch nupp even when I'm using laceweight. So, until I find some sharper needles, that project is on hold. It's a shame, because until those evil nupps I was having fun! 

Recycling the jumper has been similarly frogged. The yarn was just too fragile. Whoever had had the jumper originally just hadn't taken care of it properly. I'm gutted. £10 gone forever. At least it went to a charity, who will do some good with it, the sweater? In the bin! 

Jean's scarf is going well. It's a scarf with a border and I'm enjoying the knit. I told Jean she could pick anything from the book, or I'd knit her an Evenstar (gulp) if she'd like. It's her 70th in August and she's my rock. As mother-in-law's go, I fell on my feet there! She chose this scarf, and inside I breathed a sigh of relief, I'd happily knit anything for her, but I was a bit worried about the time pressures of getting a big project done on time! It has a new construction to me, you knit the first border sideways, knitting until you have the desired width of your scarf, then you cast off and pick up the stitches along the side of your work and work up the length of the scarf. At the other end it's like an applied edging I think, to give 2 matching borders. 
I'm loving the project, the lace edge was just enough to keep my interest, and now I'm romping up the length of the scarf with a no-brainer dropped stitch pattern. I'm using the straight needles my mum bought me when I learnt to knit umpteen years ago. I've lost a few, and most are bent in some way, but I need the straights for this project. The yarn overs for the dropped stitch pattern where getting stuck on the joins on my interchangeables. Work wasn't progressing smoothly, and I was worried about wear on the yarn, so I swapped to the old way. It feels so strange using straights after so long, but I'm working much faster now. 

The last project is my rejected socks. On the way home last week I turned the heel. I continued to work up the leg but the further I got, the less happy I was with my results. Using the short row heel, gave me a sudden colour change on the front of the sock at the ankle. It bugged me, so I ripped it back, and I'm going to do an afterthought heel. I'm not a great fan of that heel because I'm not confident that my kitchener seam will stand up to the wear experienced on a heel. We'll see. 


I have been spinning too. I'm aware that Tour de Fleece is looming soon. I want to clear my wheel so that I'm ready. I finally finished the first half of the cornfield polwarth. It's been a joy to spin. This first single ended with a bang though. I was just feeding the last few fibres though, when my single snapped. As it snapped the end was buried, so I tried to find it with no success. I'll have to break the single when I start plying and hope I don't lose any of the yardage! I'm so cross! Ah well, I've started on the second single. I'll spin this half straight from the braid with no pre-drafting at all. I'm looking forward to seeing the long colour repeats. 


On the subject of Tour de Fleece, originally I'd said that I'm wanting to spin my Nunoco stash.  The more I think about it, the less happy I am. I love this fibre and I want to do it justice. Ideally I want to spin each batt as thinly as I can so that I can knit each one up into the most beautiful project I can. Do I want to race through this fibre, spinning thicker so that I can process it quickly? I'm thinking not. I'm leaning to joining the laceweight team, going for mileage rather than weight. I think this could be the way forward.

On the horizon - 

Next week I'm aiming to start the second rejected sock, to work some more on Jean's scarf and to spin my heart out on the second single. Wish me luck!

Have a great week x






Sunday 9 June 2013

One dog walk. Miriad colours

This is inspired by Mel of Singlehandedknits. These colours make me want to dye! Now I'll start by saying I'm no botanist! So if I get plant names wrong, please forgive me. It's the colours that caught my eye not the species.

 Deep saturated pink of the rhodedenron
 I love the whites and creams of this elderflower against the dark green leaves. If you look really closely the stamens are yellow at the tips
 I think the dark red russet leaves are beech. I could be wrong! But the contrast of the reds against the greens makes my soul sing
 I have no idea what these gorgeous little purple flowers are, but their deep saturated colour next to the vibrant yellow of the buttercups and the greens of the foliage is devine
 Buttercups? Love the yellow
 We're well into June and there are still bluebells. They're starting to look sorry now, but they're still here
 Their colours are bleached with time.
 I love the new green of evergreen growth
 It's such a bright new green
 Love pansies, the bright yellow centre, dark brown/red through to a bright red edge. Fabulous
 This is a hawthorn
 There are two different types on our lane. This is the white one, I love their delicate flowers
 Bob found it a bit warm in the sun, so now he's just chillin' in the shade
 It was the shapes rather than the colours here. A star burst of new leaves
The lane. White flowers, green grasses, pink hawthorn, blue sky, little white fluffy clouds 
 This is the pink version of the hawthorn. I don't know what difference there is in the bushes, but this is my favourite
 These flowers are gorgeous, I love the yellow centre, and the white and pink petals
 Even the humble dandilion caught my eye, it's delicate white seeds against the green grass
 While this is fauna based rather than flora, it winked at me! The wind was just lifting the feather making it glisten blue in the sun. Obviously this is lost in the photo, but I felt the need to put it in none the less
 Haven't got a scoobies what this plant is, but it's peach petals are great even if they are on the turn
 Now this I know, hosta! I love the shape of the leaves as well as the greens
 More contrasting shades of red, green, and blue
 This is a quince bush, I think this shade of red is great against the green of it's leaves and the brown of the fence it's growing up
 This is rosemary flowering. I love the palest lilac colour
And finally the gorgeous black and tan of one very hot dog!
 
Thanks guys.
 
Normal programming should return next week!
 
Ellen x

Friday 7 June 2013

A weekend away.

Morning! Today is Friday. I'm hoping that today is a good day. In an hour or so, I'm giving my boy away. Sob! He's going on a residential trip to London. He'll be away until Tuesday evening. He's done residentials before and thoroughly enjoyed them, but he's never been this far away. He's not been away over the weekend either. It's not seemed so bad before as I've been at work while he's been away which has taken my mind off it. This time it will be the weekend, and I'll have all my time to myself.

So to combat this, I've booked a hotel for my partner and myself on Saturday. We're going to have a trip to Bowness-on-Windermere. I can't wait

My plan for this week's blog is a diary of my trip. So I'll update this entry as we go! I may have to wait until Sunday to add photos, so bear with me!

Have a great knitty week and I'll check back in with you guys soon

Friday evening -

Well, today was an odd day; so quiet at work. I think the sunshine makes everyone feel well! I dropped Ben off at school, he was so excited. I was talking tone of his teachers, turned around to say goodbye and he'd gone! On the bus ready to go! Harrumph!

Packed and ready for the off!
Aaarrrggghhhh!!!  This is my second attemp at writing an update. Fingers crossed this time!

Saturday - 

I had a few jobs to do in town, so once they were complete I started to pack. Now, when I pack for a trip, I normally spend a few days writing a list of all the things needed. Once they're packed they get crossed off the list. I know this is a little anal, but this way nothing gets left behind. This time I didn't write a list, it just over night! What can go wrong? Erm, well I forgot Matthew's undies, his deodorant and cotton buds! Oops. But still, after dropping the dog off at Nana's we headed for Windermere via the  Kirkstone Pass. It's a stunning road to drive, if a little nerve racking in places, on a sunny day the trip was amazing. I wanted to stop to take pictures, but it seemed so did most of the tourists! 

We arrived at our hotel and checked into the room. We stayed at The Belsfield Hotel  which has stunning views over the lake. Our room did not, but at least we could keep an eye on the car! Once we had unpacked we decided to go out to find the bits and bobs I'd forgotten and get some lunch. We 
walked from the middle of Bowness to Windermere to have lunch at Lakeland. The walk took us about 
an hour and in the blistering heat up hill, it was a good walk! We had lunch in the cafe above the shop. The food is great. The shop is full of all sorts of nik-naks you  never knew you needed. I was very restrained and didn't buy anything! Get me!?

Back at the hotel, we relaxed in the pool and kicked back until it was time for dinner.  The view from the top lawn was great

Even the table decorations where lovely



After a lovely meal we had a few drinks in the bar. Matthew read his magazine and I attempted to reclaim the yarn from a cashmere sweater. It didn't go well, the yarn keeps snapping as I unravel it. I'm going to persevere, but I'm not sure now if it will cope with being washed and re-used. We'll see.  

This morning we ate breakfast. I had the best seat in the house. The view out of the window was stunning and I could people watch the whole of the restaurant. Happy days!














Sunday 2 June 2013

2352 yards for £4.95? Don't mind if I do!

Are you intrigued by this week's title? Well I'm rather proud of myself. I've just started watching Joanna in her video podcast Knit Spin Farm. She's a lovely woman, great personality and its been wonderful following her year in farming. I've just caught up to the beginning of January this year, but a few episodes ago Joanna bought a jumper from Good Will for $2. She proceeded to unpick it and reclaim the yarn. Hum.... I thought. I could do that! So yesterday I went foraging in the charity shops in Penrith. Granted the sunniest day so far this year, is perhaps not the best time to look for jumpers, but I was not disappointed. I found a jumper which was 70% silk, 18% cotton and 12% cashmere. The fabric was in great condition with few bobbles and no pulls. So it came home with me!

I was a good girl, I completed my jobs before I allowed myself the time to play with my latest acquisition. It was a lovely afternoon and I sat outside with my unpicking tool and set to work. Now, with 50:50 hindsight, next time I'll buy a jumper with fewer pieces. This one had a cowl neckline, it's what drew my eye it it to be honest, the drape of the fabric was lovely; but all these pieces meant lots of joins in the skein. As I unraveled the fabric, I wound it into a ball, knotting the yarn together as I went - don't panic, when I knit the yarn I'll join it nicely! After I finished I then wound it onto my niddy-noddy and left it over night. Next came a good soak and rinse, a spin in the washing machine, and it's out on the line drying. Hopefully some of the crinkle will relax. I'm delighted with the result and I can feel a second Evenstar in my water!



Other things happening this week? Not a lot! I've been looking for a hotel, my boy is off on a school residential trip to London next weekend, so I thought it'd be nice if my other half and I got away for a break too. We don't have time together. Ever! Fingers crossed I can find a good hotel, with a great restaurant, in a pretty place, and we can have some time away on our own. If nothing else, I'd like to be distracted from the fact my baby will be 8 hours away from me for 5 days! Gulp!

I've been a handy kind of girl this week too. Whenu, my wheel, has nasty clunks and rattles. She's always had them. I don't mind, but it drives my other half mad when he's trying to watch the TV and I'm clattering beside him. The noise is caused by the fact the bobbin is so much shorter than the flyer shaft it's mounted on. Now, it has to be shorter, else there would be friction and the bobbin wouldn't spin freely, but I spin very thin on the standard whorls which involves high speed peddling. I think that this speed means that the bobbin wobbles more and bangs on the top and bottom to the flyer shaft. I originally solved this problem with 2 small metal washers. They took up some of the slack on the flyer while still allowing free movement of the bobbin. A cunning plan I hear you say? Well, yes and no. I cured one clack and replaced with with a completely different rattle. This was because I needed 2 washers to take up the space needed. If I put them together, they jangled when I spin. If I put them at each end to the bobbin, they rattled on the edges of the flyer. Matthew's disapproving huffs and moans signaled to me that another solution must be found. A trip to the local DIY shop later and Whenu's moans are cured. I spent the princely sum of £1.28 and bought a packet of 1/2" rubber hose washers from the plumbing section. They are a similar width to my original metal washers but they don't shake, rattle and roll!

I think summer may have finally arrived in Cumbria. This afternoon, once I'd completed my jobs, Whenu and I sat outside on the swing seat and I spun for a while. The view was stunning, the birds where singing and all was right with the world.




What's felt the love -

I'd been monogamously knitting on the Walking socks until they where finished.  Now they're washed, blocked and ready to raffle. I've sold quite a few tickets, so I think I'll keep them on sale until the end of next week and then raffle them off on Friday.

I'd also done quite a bit if spinning this week, I'm now about half way through the third 1/8 of the Cornfield polwarth I'm fractally spinning. I'm so pleased with my consistency. It's coming out so thin.  I'm confident that I'll have a true laceweight when I finish. Normally my yarn will hover between lace and light fingering through the skein, but I think this could count as lace right through. Just need to keep it up! Here is the progress so far!

Once the Walking socks were done, I picked up the Rejected socks again. I'm loving this yarn! I've finally found the ball band and it's Lang Yarn's Jawoll Magic Degrade it's a gorgeous self striping yarn with the most devine colour changes! I'm addicted to knitting these socks as I can't wait to see which colour comes out of the yarn next! LOVE IT! I'm hoping that it wears well as it's a single ply sock weight yarn.

So then..... next week -

I'd love to get started on the second single of the Polwarth.  I'd love to re-kindle my mojo for the Wisteria jumper, and I'd like to see which colour comes next on the Rejected socks!

Happy days

Have a great week guys x