Yarndale 2015

After a rather knackering month of moving, this weekend was a very much needed break!  I'd booked on a coach trip to Yarndale with the fabulous Knit Nottingham and as it meant a very early start - single digits in the time and everything -  myself and Carla decided to make a weekend of it and stayed over in Nottingham the night before.  It's the first time I've been away since having Oliver (in fact it's only the second time I've been away since having kids other than when I was in hospital!) so it felt rather liberating!  After a cheeky Nando's where we were a good decade older than everyone else and an early night, we were out at 7 am to get breakfast (Starbucks for me and the beginning of my excess coffee consumption for the day) and catch the coach up to Yorkshire. 

A few hours later and we arrived.  It was all extremely exciting and I took a grand total of one photo!

The atmosphere was amazing and the five hours we were there were a whirlwind of fabulous people, yarn and fibre.  It was fantastic to meet the faces behind some of the brands and shops I have been using for years and to discover new dyers and yarns.  We bumped into a few old friends as well and it was just a fabulous experience all round!

Whilst I have no photos from the day I do have lots of my haul (albeit very badly lit as it's considerably overcast here at the moment!)  I went with only one specific skein in mind  - a dark grey sparkle sock - but came home with quite a few more.

Of course, I picked up the obligatory bag and pin but think I was quite restrained considered  I came home with half of my money still!

I wanted to pick up some fibre as I have none whatsoever in my stash at the moment.  There's 200g of the gorgeous Blue Spruce Merino/Zwartbles from the lovely John Arbon Textiles as well as 200g of Grass Green Merino (which perfectly matched my dress!), 100g of natural grey merino from Adelaide Walker and a gorgeous "Aspen Glade" Gradient Pack from Hilltop Cloud.

My yarn haul was considerably less restrained!

The gorgeous sock blank was actually a prize won at the Knit Nottingham 5th Birthday Bash dyed by the talented Truly Hooked.

Next on the bottom are two bloody AMAZING skeins from WooSheeps - I can see a huge amount of my yarn funds winging their way in the future!  The left is "Tom" in "Tequila" which is a huge 150g/600m skein of sparkle sock and the right is "Barry" in "Bubblegum" which again is a huge 150g/600m skein of SW Merino.  they just look sooooo good together!

I picked up a skein of Deeply Wicked from the ever lovely Jon at EasyKnits - "Pinky" matches my hair perfectly so it had to be done!  (Although I could not get an accurate colour representation photo at all!)  I adore solid coloured skeins so could easily have blown the budget!

Last but by no means least are a skein of Artemis 4Ply in "Anthra" from Five Moons - this was my must have skein of grey sparkle sock!  Again, I could have spent all day choosing solid coloured skeins especially the smaller 50g skeins (next year maybe hehe)

And my last purchase of the day was a "Stormy Rainbow" Sparkle Sock from Cuddlebums.

I seem to have a "thing" for sparkle sock, grey, pink and green!  If yarn storage wasn't such an issue at the moment (as in too much yarn rather than not enough storage) I would have indulged much more!  There are a few stalls I wish I'd gone back to - I really wanted some Eden Cottage Yarns and I also wanted some self striping sock but didn't find the perfect colour anywhere!  I have to say that after 5 hours I was really ready to go though - I'd had 7 shots of espresso to keep me going but I was very much exhausted!

 Yarndale 2016 is already scribbled in my diary!

A FO, a WIP and some WM!

All the initials!  In amongst the naffness of the housing and adult-type-stuff I have actually managed to do some knitting!  My mojo often gets up and leaves when I'm feeling low but I'm too stubborn to ditch my knitting at the moment as I have far too many projects planned.

First to update is a FO.  Yay!  I finally finished my Biellese Shawl a few weeks ago which, bar the forever hibernating blanket, is the WIP I've had on the go the longest.  Thankfully, being a bottom up shawl, the rows got increasingly shorter as I went on and the end result is really gorgeous - using such high contrast colours really makes the slip stitch details pop.  The lovely yarn is by West Yorkshire Spinners and is the fabulously soft and bright Bubblegum and Sour Apple from the Signature 4 Ply range.

I'm still working away on my Avalanche sweater (although with the house move and procrastination, I doubt very much it will be ready for Yarndale!) but decided a quick WIP was required, so I dug some amazing FabFunkyFibres self striping yarn out of the stash which I'd purchased with the intention of a pair of long fingerless gloves.

With this project in mind I invested in a new pair of 9" Hiya Hiya Sharp Circular needles - they are definitely up there with one of my favourite needles and I loved the prospect of not having to magic loop or use DPN's!  They do take some getting used to with regard to where you hold them and ensuring your tension is even but they really do facilitate speedy knitting of socks and gloves.

The pattern is loosely based on Gothy Gauntlets and I shall endeavour to decipher my scribbles so that I can write it up (and knit the second glove). The first glove used just 30g so I have enough left over to knit a shorter pair as well - possibly with a solid coloured cuff/thumb.

Finally, I have broken my Pre-Yarndale Yarn Diet by investing in another couple of skeins of Wollmeise Lace this month.  I've been on the look out for Fruhling in Lace for a while as it's one of my favourite WM colourways.  This WD Lace skein doesn't dissapoint and is almost a neon hi lighter shade!

I also picked up a bargain skein of Lace in Moses - whilst blue is not a colour I tend to use very often but is still very gorgeous in an understated way!

More Spinning

I am absolutely loving having my wheel set up in the summer house as it gives me much more of an opportunity to spin, whether it's a quick 5 minutes or an afternoon sat in the sun!  I've even given my wheel a light sanding and waxed it all again as a treat.

I finished some more Fondant Fibre Rolags yesterday - these were the Priscilla colour way (an 80% Merino/20% Tussah Silk blend) which is just my colours (although the skein is still a tad damp here).  I added a bit of silver Angelina...to pretty much everything in sight!  The lawn has taken on a somewhat sparkly appearance and I even found some in my undie drawer this morning.

Also finished in the last couple of weeks is some handdyed, handspun merino "Punky Liquorice"

The mini skein is a 2 ply of the pink singles in the main skein.

And a huge skein of "Raven" which is again a Merino/Tussah Silk blend that Carla gifted me for Christmas.

My spinning is definitely finer and more consistent now and I've found my feet with my drafting technique - just practice makes perfect now!  I'd love a high speed flyer as I much prefer finer yarns so that's on my wish list for Christmas.

Since I was re labelling the stash, here's a shot of all my handspun to date.

A Finished Rainbow!

After a very, very late (or early!) spot of knitting on Friday night I finally cast off my Rainbow Pop Spots. I was that tired that I probably tinked more on Friday than I have knitted all week - never a good idea to combine lace and tiredness! I've yet to wash and block (as I have no where to do block it at the moment) but it's an impressive 198cm x 10cm unblocked.

I'm so pleased with how the hand dyed colours have turned out!  In total I used 234g of yarn:

Scarlet Spots - 3g 

Orange Spots - 7g

Yellow Spots - 12g

Green Spots - 16g

Blue Spots - 27g

Plum Spots - 30g

Undyed/White - 109g 

Scarlet Border - 30g

Whilst the border seemed never ending, the lace is a great contrast to the shawl body.  I'm still debating whether I should have gone for a black background colour but as it's far too late now and I'm not knitting another (no offence to the pattern - which I thought was fabulous!) as my wish list is already faaaaaar too long!  The white is lovely and summery though so will at least add a happy injection of colour into my usual black attire!