What I made, by Sharon

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago , my Moosie was on it's way. And now it's here: I cannot describe how beautiful it is, and my meagre photography skills certainly fail to capture it! It's 33 grams, with a tulip wood shaft. It's pin balanced, and spins so beautifully. The weight of it makes it ideal for making light fingering yarn, which is perfect for shawls. The fist project I'm working on with it is is a EGMTKs merino/seacell blend, that I bought a couple of Bendigos ago.   I'm finding I'm taking a spindle out with me where ever I go, which is not something I traditionally do, but I'm trying to minimise the knitting, in order to ensure my arms finish getting better. If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm not sure that spinning is a whole lot better than knitting, but Leon's vest is just too big to carry around. One of the few advantages of not carrying knitting around with me is that instead of carrying the big blue bag I...

My moosie spindle is on it's way! I ordered it maybe two years ago, but I had to wait, because, well, some things are worth waiting for. And it couldn't be better timing, since I have rather refound my spinning love.  So, while I wait for it to arrive, and wait to be allowed to knit and spin again (I asked the Osteo if I was allowed to spin, and he said no. Actually he said "um, what, spin? huh?" and then I explained about spinning. He said no, but I'm not sure he knew what he was talking about. That's what I get for going to a Crossfit osteo. I wonder if there are knitting osteos out there somewhere) I'm preparing some fibre. I dyed this in January 2011 and it was a bit compacted. What it needed was a thorough teasing out. Which is what I gave it. I think Leon was a bit relieved that I found something to do in from of the television, because we've barely watched anything since I paused from knitting. Nearly back to it now, and I have some ...

I made a colourwork hat to match the Wollmeise mitts I finished a couple of weeks ago: The pattern is the Cat's Eye Tam by Mary Jane Mucklestone. I changed the fairisle part to match my vagabond mitts and am very happy with how they look together. I love the crown decreases and I love the fact they worked: I knit the second half of this project on a very long work trip to Wangaratta. The train was delayed and I knew I was too tired to knit, but that didn't stop me, so I was pleased that the very clever decreases came together properly. Then yesterday I got a package in the mail: My 63 gram Bosworth Morado plying spindle. I think it's so pretty, kind of like 1960s furniture, and it spins amazingly. Despite the weight of it I can make quite a fine thread, although I suspect I will only use this one for plying, since I have my beautiful Bids Eye maple spindle for spinning singles on: Here's a gratuitous shot of the two of them together: I'm spinning for socks, and ...

Saying goodbye to Nicola was hard and sad, but the process of saying good bye to her has been a lot of fun. I even crossed the river to have drinks in Northcote. And I'm not making it up when I say that there was a cannon pointing at us when we did! And then knit night last night was really fun. The only problem was that when I went to leave, I put my key in my bike lock and it broke! Tony, who runs the café had a ladder and he stood on it, we passed him up the bike and he lifted it over the parking sign to which I had locked it. Nicola, please don't take that as your abiding memory of me. Remember me being graceful and wearing decent clothes, not having a minor drama in lycra. On the weekend I finally dyed for a project I have been planning for a long time: Blackrose socks from Knitty I've actually tried to spin these before, but on the wheel and the yarn came up short and a bit harsh. I'm going to spin this this three ply on my new Bosworth Spindl...