We didn't get away for Christmas as some of you will know.  I spent a pleasant couple of hours knitting outside in the snow on Christmas day.  Yessss.  We lit a whacking great fire in the garden and I sat out there in a deck chair.  So here I am knitting hot water bottle covers, in the garden.  I not only got one finished, I got carried away and knitted four of them whilst snowed in.  Only 3 in the photo because the fourth was a present for Hubby who put it to immediate use I am delighted to say.  That is the answer, folks.  If you nearest and dearest don't exactly thank you for a hand knitted jumper knit them a hot water bottle cover.  At least they won't have to wear it in public.

 For those of you who have never tried this fire-outside-in-winter thing, it is amazing how warm you can be. 

Of course I also got warm shovelling snow so that we had somewhere to put the fire.  Took me 2 hours actually because the snow was 6 inches deep (at that point, it is a foot deep now, but the roads are better.)

I didn't even need gloves, although I did have my great big cable knit jumper on (see photo). 

The cable knit jumper is multi coloured, because when I had finished knitting, it was a really boring muddy brown colour.  So it went into the dye pot and came out multi coloured.  I have had it about 15 years - it is indestructable, and like a kind of portable comfort blanket. (Goes well over pyjamas, too).

                        

21.12.09

here I am on the last Saturday before Christmas and it feels like I am the only person who is not rushing about today.  I really should be wrapping those parcels up though.

I try not to get stressed by overambitious knitting projects for Christmas although I still have a scarf to finish and may even get that hot water bottle cover finished. And no huge projects only half done this year. 

I have one more knitting group to go in my local library so will get quite a bit done at that.  having taken stock, here is some of what I have knitted this autumn.  

A beaded mini rucsak, 3 pairs of socks, a crocheted cardigan for my grand child, 2 scarves (well almost) a fair isle shrug for me,a lace scarf in Kidsilk Haze which I they dyed, a felted bag which seems to shed fluff (!) and two thirds of a hand spun cardigan for me.  I can't remember the rest, and have been weaving scarves in the last couple of weeks which is good fun and also quicker than knitting them.  have used fancy yarns in moderation to create interest, rather than do the whole thing in them, which is a good tip for knitting and crochet too. I think they can look tacky if you use too much.  Pon Pon is a good example.  use it sparingly rather than knit whole scarves with it and the results are stunning.  I have made a felted cushion with merino wool and added a row of Pon Pon every few rows.  when I felted it in the washing machine, the merino felted and the little pom poms came to the surface and stood out wonderfully.  makes a ball of it go a long way too.  

24.9.09

I have added a picture to the gallery. it is of a crocheted wrap over cardigan I made for my grand daughter.  it was very simple to do.  with crochet you can follow the outline of an existing garment and just crochet to the same size, or can copy an item from a picture.  this is much. much easier than doing a similar thing with knitting.

Crochet is also much quicker than knitting so if you are in a time squeeze, as I was with the cardigan, crochet is the way to go. 

we have just bought a camper van and I crocheted dishcloths for it in no time at all. 

a handy tip here is to all a little crocheted tab about 4 double crochets wide and tapering to a point, with a button hole.  then add a crocheted button and you have a little tap that can be used to hang it up with.  I used the tab idea because we can then hand it over the handles without the need to add a hook.

23.8.09 I am spending the weekend washing, carding and spinning wool.  Yummy.

this is a good time of year to wash fleeces as it means they can dry outside.

due to the qualities of wool that has not been commercially scoured, even when the oil is washed out it dries really quickly.  it is quite common for a fleece to be dry after a few hours outside is Scottish sun.

As some of you will know, I spin to order, so most of the spinning I do is for other people.  That suits me fine as I could never keep up with all the spinning I want to do, and would end up with an awful lot of knitwear.  Not many people do it, but I like it.  Over the last fifteen years I have spun many things:

Cashgora (really yummy this).  I spun it for years for a woman with a spinning business in Orkney.

Musk Ox - a story here.  It is a highly sought after fibre by spinners and knitters alike.  I had 5 sacks of it to spin for someone else!  He was an arctic explorer and collected it from rocks etc over a period of time.  It was a dream to spin.  You would need to be in the arctic to be able to wear a jumper made from pure musk ox, as it is a very warm fibre.

All kinds of wool from sheep.

Mohair.  A much nicer yarn when you spin your own.  It is not fluffy and prickly like the commercial stuff, but a smooth, shiny and durable yarn which is very good for knitwear and makes great socks.  Kid mohair hand spun is suitable for even the tiniest baby.

what I have not spun - ever - is dog hair because I don't like the smell.  Sheep's wool I could (and do ) bury my face in and inhale the lovely aroma.  Washed fleece of course.  That smell is what makes many of us want to learn to spin.

 

2nd August 2009

I have been spinning some very nice Merino and Silk blended tops purchased from http://www.scottishfibres.co.uk.  this was sparked off by my spinning and weaving guild's recent retreat. 
A friend bought some Noro thick singles yarn in merino and silk.  it had several colours in it and was £9.50 per 100g. 
I decided to copy it and my own version cost just£3.50.  I am now knitting a cardigan with it using a chevron pattern, which my friend Julie provided.  It is a common pattern so you may have it, but don't you know it is just never to hand when you need it...so to save you the bother look on the 'free stuff' page and the pattern is yours.

over the last couple of months I have made:
 a wrapover cardigan in multi coloured hand spun merino super wash yarn for my 2 year old grand daughter
a pair of cotton socks, from charity shop yarn at 50p a ball in a kind of minty green which I over dyed
a knitting bag from a thick slub yarn which is dyed in dark blue shades.  It has huge bobbles on it and is lined with red satin.

lots of pairs of those knitted wire earrings that I sell on the website. I also sell these in a couple of local galleries and a craft shop. 
I currently have some items in an exhibition of Galloway Craft Guild members in Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway, in the gallery next to the library (car park at top of high street).

I have just had another batch of my booklets printed and sales are brisk. 
They are:
'Natural Dyeing' and 'spinning fancy Yarns' and it is lovely to see how well they are doing.

I am planning another one at the moment.  However the largest task at present is to spin all the fleece that people want spinning.  Yummy task though...