What I made, by Sharon

For a while now I've been doing more spinning, prioritising it in my busy days. Last year at Bendigo I bought plying bobbins, which really have been helpful, because I can easily ply 200 grams of fibre onto the one bobbin. I also really like the way I can see what I'm doing through the bobbin: After enjoying the big plying bobbin I decided to upgrade all my bobbins, and ordered 4 bobbins in different patterns and colours from  Ackerworks . .The new bobbins are all different colours and patterns and they are just lovely. Fun and pretty and practical. They come in a flatpack, which makes them very easy to ship and store. Much nicer than the Majacraft original bobbins, in this lovely baby poo brown While I was doing things to my wheel I put a new drive band on. I started spinning something new yesterday, and everything about it was a delight.  I've started spinning the contrast colour for  Humulus  by Isabell Kraemer , because I've finished the main body spin: It was an...

  I was sick on Monday and Tuesday, with some crud that was not COVID, RSV or flu. I know it for sure, since I sued the fancy tests that test for all three. Now, nobody likes their throat hurting, their head hurting and any movement being exhausting, but I was not too sick to read, knit, spin and hang out with Willow, who is a very cheering cat.  I'm still reading    At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard . It's a rip-roaring, emotional adventure, perfect for lounging on the couch and whiling the hours away. I will probably get it finished before next Wednesday, and then I think I'll read some more Kobo-Plus books before I cancel again at the end of the month - either The weight of Sound  by Peter McDade or Drama King   by Penny Reid, depending if I feel like romance or something else. I'm listening to Misdirected by Lucy Parker . it's an Audible freebie, which is good because I've been getting through the Audible credits at quite a rate this year! Al...

I kind of just wanted a really punny title, but I also wanted to show you the yarn I've just finished. I haven't shared this in progress, because I said on the 15th of January:  'I've also started a new spinning project, but sometimes it's hard to find time to spin, so there will be plenty of time to tell you about that before I get through it.' I finished it on the weekend, somewhat to my surprise. It's 100 grams of fibre, and I was aiming for a light fingering. Now, I'm notorious for spinning heavier and shorter than I'm intending, but this time I got 387 metres, which is pretty much spot on. It's so pretty. I'm going to make a little shawlette , because what else is there to make out of a small amount of pretty yarn? 

We came back from the away part of our trip with 6 days until we had to go back to work, and nothing much we had to do. It's a very luxurious feeling. We went for a couple of runs, hosted my parents for Friday night dinner, read some books, coped with the weather (38 degrees again today).  Mainly I focussed on plying the singles I've spent the last six months spinning: I've got 1368 metres for 600 grams. When I finished it I thought it was sport to dk weight, but it puffed up when I wet-finished it. I'll have to swatch to know for sure, but rather than the Traveler  hoodie I thought I was spinning for, I might make a Weekender .  I might be hesitating to try the Traveler because I'm slightly short on yarn, or because my yarn is now slightly heavier than the pattern calls for. Or I might just be quite sick of the knit / purl ridges that make up that pattern, since I have spent the break working on the Traveler Shell  which is getting to the point where I am ready to ...

  Just before we left for our long weekend away I grabbed my Turkish spindle and the oldest yarn in my stash and got spinning. Spindle spinning might be very slow (for me), but it's also very portable. I got this little turtle done over that, and the next, weekend away. I'm spinning it thin, and I'll probably three ply it, for socks or a shawl. Really, it's more about the process. In wheel spinning I am more about the product! I've just finished the second bobbin. I have two more to go, but they are actually a bit smaller than the first two. I am spinning this with an end in mind ( The Traveler pattern by Andrea Mowry ) which is sport weight. I suspect this will vary from light fingering to DK, and it feels like I'll have enough yardage, but I won't know for sure until I'm done. I was worrying about that to Leon the other day and he said "But are you having a lovely time?". Yes I am, and even if it doesn't work with this jumper, I'm mak...

 Look at the gorgeous, squishy spinning sample. It's 25 grams and 48 meters (so 192 meters for 100 grams). In other words, on the heavy side of an 8 ply not the sport weight I was aiming for.  I'm going to keep trying and spin up the 600 grams of fibre I dyed last week . - if it comes out this weight it will make a great Traveler shawl. If I can get the yardage I'm actually after I'm making the Traveler hoodie . (I just discovered that American's spell traveller with one "l" while we use two).  It very much surprised me to learn that I cannot recognise the size of yarn, and that my default yarn is a 12 ply (bulky). This is a little unfortunate, since my default yarn to knit with is a 4 to 8 ply. In other spinning news, when I was at Bendigo I decided to buy some new bobbins. I've got at least 6 of the old, ugly, plastic Majacraft ones, but they make new ones that are much nicer. It was near the end our shopping Saturday, and I was shattered, so when I...

  After last weekend's fantastic but exhausting sheenanigans, this weekend I stayed home, and had a very crafty weekend. On Friday I dyed 600 grams of Polwarth fibre, for Andrea Mowery's  Traveller  hoodie. I was not confident about dying this much fibre in one go, but I decided to give it a go and see. At the end of the oven time, I was convinced that the top was a pale muddy mess and that the bottom would be super-saturated, because it looked like this: But it actually came out beautifully.  The fibre is a bit compressed, but not at all felted, and it puffs up with just a little bit of predrafting. While I was waiting for that to dry, I plied the rainbow yarn I've been working on over the last few weeks.  I didn't have a particular goal when I spun it, I just wanted it fluffy and delicious, which I achieved.  The only problem is that it is only 130 meters for 96 grams. I want the traveller yarn to be about 250 meters (or at least more than 200) so I did ...

 On Friday we kicked off the weekend with our now traditional run down the beach - and the  I worked from home for the day. I had my parents for dinner, and since it was the Friday before my birthday I made my traditional, and favourite, meal - chicken soup, chicken mains and chocolate mouse for dessert. Yum. On Saturday I went to my last normal Pole class for the term - I'm doing some workshops in this final week before Christmas, which should be fun. Then I went to Milk the Cow (a cheese restaurant) with some of my faves: When we came home I decided to start a new spinning project, spinning up these beauties :   Sitting and spinning is one of the most relaxing things I know how to do and this is Ixche l fibre, so it's got a lot of interest and a variety of fibres. Dinner was a delicious celebration of me at Future Future  a delicious modern Japanese restaurant. I got a candle with my dessert! Sunday was my actual birthday, and also Leon's family Christmas. On...

I woke up on Saturday morning and thought "I want to spin today". This was unexpected - I don't think I've spun since July last year, when spinning was making my shoulder hurt. While I now know what I need to do with my posture to make sure I don't get sore, I never got back to it. My wheel sat in the living room with a half completed project, just waiting for me to be ready. So, on Saturday morning I picked up my wheel, moved it to the "dining room" so I would have somewhere to put my drinks and started spinning. And on spinning my second little puff of fibre I found a clump of evidence of insect life. I threw out the contaminated patch and put the fibre and the Joji Pampa bag I was storing it in, in the oven for half an hour. While that was happening I walked back past where my spinning wheel has been sitting and there were tiny white maggot on the floor. MAGGOTS. It was horrifying, but I cleaned it all up and hopefully that was the source of the moth ...

 Nat (on the right below) moved to Tasmania last year - the last time I saw her IRL was at dinner before the cancelled Bendigo show last year.  She came to Melbourne for the Coburg yarn show - which got moved to two weeks away on short notice, so we decided to go out for lunch anyway. i voted on the way there - I've never voted early, but I had a fear of geeing COVID and not being able to vote. Lunch was delightful. we were meant to be having the fourth Games Night, but Rachey got COVID, so she couldn't host. On Sunday I did some spinning, with the help of Tarragon and then Leona and I went to the movies and saw Everything Everywhere All At Once , which was multiverse madness at it's finest. We only go to the movies a couple of times a year, but it's always good when we do: at home I'm cognisant that the wall that our TV and speaker is mounted on is shared with our neighbour!  So a lovely weekend with friends, and Leon and crafts and cats.

You may have noticed I haven't talked about crotchet here since the fourth of March . I wish it was because I was quietly working away, building my blanket square by square, bu it's really not. I enjoy crochet because each stitch is slightly different and, at least for me tight now in my development, I have to pay at least some attention to what I am doing. so it is a thoroughly "stay at home" business.  But, at some point in the last six weeks I picked out a random braid of rainbow fibre and started spinning. I spin at home, so it occupies the same time a crochet would but a very different headspace. Add to that all the holidays , nightsout and weekends away we've been having and lets just say - I picked up my hook the other evening and had to remind myself which stitch is which. I'm always glad that knitting only has two stitches! Still, I might refocus. I'm probably half way to having enough squares for a blanket, and I ordered a crochet blocker from E...

I finished the spinning for Leon's Winter Set 2022 yesterday. it was quite a process, from buying fleece, washing it, carding it, sampling , spinning it and finally plying it. I twas very satisfying to get the yarn dried and finished: I spun it long drawn, and then plied it with an much air as possible. I thwacked it and fulled it and it has come out so puffy and fluffy and squishy. And clean. I had washed the fleece, but after I soaked the finished yarn it lost the yellow tinge and became this stunning bright white. It came to about 700 meters for 400 grams, so there should be the exact right amount for a hat, mitts and scarf. Hopefully. The knitting will happen later this months, until then I'm just going to squish this yarn.

I finished processing the fleece for Leon's Winter Set (2022). It felt very time consuming, and I started out with 600grams of unwashed fleece, and ended with 389 grams of batts. Will that be enough for his set? Probably, because  I did something I've never done before - I did a sample spin before starting the project. It was a very valuable exercise, both because now I know tis spins up at. If I spin consistent with my sample I should get about 800 meters of yarn, which is plenty. it's probably about a sport weight, of course I will have to swatch to see what it really is. Sampling also helped me refine the way I'm making rolags from the batts.  I'm very happy with the sample, which i finished a couple of days ago, and have been dedicating myself to spinning during this time off between Christmas and going back to work on the fourth. Even spinning this long draw, I imagine it will be a couple of months  before I have the yarn finished - dependent on how much we are...

I finished spinning the yarn for Waiting for Rain ! First I finished plying the main colour, which I paired with a commercial mohair. I hung all three skeins outside on the back of a chair to dry. At some point in the evening I I thought "I should bring those in", but I forgot.  It was a really windy night, and when I got up in the morning there was only one skein on the balcony. I thought the other two had sailed off, but I found one tangles in the leaves of a palm tree, and one at the base, resting on some birds of paradise. A couple of threads broke as I untangled it, but I have plenty of yarn, so it shouldn't be a problem. Then I plied the rainbow main colour. I thought I would quickly skein it up after dinner, and just messed it up. You know when you are skeining on a niddy noddy and you cross one of the threads the wrong way? Well, I did that, and then I tried to go back and fix it, and it ended up being such a mess. Leon helped me untangle it, and here - finally - ...