Stash Down 2011

This year I have been doing a bit of a stash down attempt. Basically I looked at my Coal bunker and thought that i should reduce the amount of items I have in it.  I have fabrics that are 20 years old sitting there waiting to do something about it.  I want to get the shelves down considerably so I am not overflowing.  Some of the stash has been shared with a local charity shop as I was honest with self that I was never going to use it at all.  Part of my stash includes fabrics stashed by my grandmother.  Nothing like inheriting stash.

So far this year everything has been knitted, sewed or crocheted from the stash. I have mainly only done minor purchases such as lining for daughter Carnaby skirt and buttons. These purchases have not ended up as stash but rather helped the stash to enter into the wonderful world of being finished projects. The one yarn purchase I have done this year was some crochet thread so I could do a surprise project for the daughter.  This project is currently on the back burner since daughter is on holidays so I can not seem to get anything done without her putting her sticky beak in.

After the tour de fleece I have a lot handspun which I will be using for projects but when I sorted out the coal bunker I noticed I still had a lot of hand spun which I had not found a use for.  So as part of the stash down I want use up my hand spun as much as possible.  The Moorlit fleece which is a now a nice yarn will need to get a decent photo before I knit it up into a cardi for hubby. This will be his Christmas pressie this year.  I still have the 500gms of BFL in a Mocha which I will have to work out what I am going to use it for.  There Shetland braid from Wonkyknitter which I had in the stash which was spun and then knitted into a Haurni shawl.  I have blocked it but I will need to re block it as I wont ask the children what happened.  We have reached August and I have not done a major yarn purchase it is amazing.  

Sock yarn wise I am almost getting to the bare cupboard situation. Currently I am knitting some socks in some King Cole Zig Zag that I had in the stash which I had regretted purchasing. The stash down attitude has helped me to use this yarn cause I had in the past gone meh, not that keen to use.  The yarn has too short of yarn colour change and I am not enamoured with it.  Additionally I don't think the yarn is particularly sympathetic to the pattern and it would have probably better knit in a plain coloured yarn. As I am knitting my H pattern in the yarn which is top down design I a suddenly hit upon a solution. Don't make the socks for me.  Make them for someone who will like the colours.  Simples! My sock foot is suddenly shorted from a size 8.5 to a tiddly 3.5.  Sanity back in check and the feeling of absolute relief when I get the first sock done.   But I still have a second sock to finish.  Must knit this second sock now to brake the chance of a large hiatus or the dreaded second sock syndrome.

An Aussie wins the Tour de France

So Cadel Evans wins the tour and I limp across the finish line of the tour de fleece with head held over the handlebars of my spinning wheel.  All my singles of the Moorlit Shetland Fleece are done. I am not fully plyed or wacked but I have singles.... and no more brown fluff, to card , pick vm out of and hold in my hot little hands.  I am over the moon about Cadel and I think I am about my effort in the Tour but I am in that exhausted phase where I dont even want to think much about anything. YKWIM.

Doing a run down of this years Tour I would definitely say it has been the year of brown where last year it was the year of purple.  Most of what I spun was Brown in some shape or form.

• 500gms of Mocha Blue Faced Liester  
• 1 kilogram of Moorlit Shetland Fleece
• 120 grams of Shetland braid.

While this year was an all British breeds tour de fleece the only break from brown tones was a contrasting blue tonal from the WonkyKnitter which I managed to spin up into a light fingering.  I was trying for lace weight but it did not happen.  In addition to the spinning, I have also been doing some knitting.  How / When?   No I have not managed to get my hands on the keys of the Tardis but I got a shawl done in that light coloured shetland from the WonkyKnitter.

Day 5 of the Tour de Fleece 2011.

There were some heart stopping moments in the Tour de Fleece shawl project - the great rip back in the shawl from 12 pairs of central leaves to 6. Dont ask for the gory details but lets just say it involved an animal or two in this household and the knitting was just collateral damage. Then there was that race to the finish line between the edging and the amount of yarn left.  It was measured at.....  wait for it...37cm.  That is like winning the time trial by a 100th of second. Currently the shawl is blocking and I am putting my feet up and icing my aching hands. Thoroughly planning to talk myself out of a major challenge next year.

On the Hill Climb of the Tour de Fleece - Day 9.

Today it was a hill climb in the Tour de France and it was also one for me in the Tour de Fleece. I have been carrying an injury on the hand and I thought the reason why I was not progressing so well was due to this injury. Nope it turns out it was probably a equipment issues which helped to contribute to the hand issues. The equipment issues was the drive band. Finally the wheel stopped turning when I was treadling and I was there wondering what happened. A bit like those riders who looked dazed after the large crash in today's stage. It turns out I had worn my drive band out on the wheel it was just shredded bits of fluff which used to be a cohesive piece of thread.

I have done five bobbins of the Moorit fleece and I plyed the first two bobbins  and it can be seen in the middle of the back row of the picture above. The upright bobbin on the right is a bit then but it is a case of the bobbin making a squeak and the family complaining about the noise.

From the close up above you can see that I am averaging 36 to 32 wpi in the singles. I am trying to get a light weight yarn so that hubby has a cardi that covers him (Gorilla size) and not too heavy as he tends to run hot.   It will be an interesting week this week spinning wise as I will have student graduation ceremonies running interruption and normal work life returning to almost full swing.

I think I can I think I can

I think I can said the little engine. At this stage of the tour de fleece I am already displaying signs of injury. I have got some sensitivity in the finger tips of my left hand. I think I have been pinching the twist to hard. While I have got one bobbin done I am not pushing for a second bobbin today as I am taking it as a slower day - that makes 3 down about 27 to go. Instead I am doing something about the pig sty which is better known as my coal bunker.

Yarn barf every where

I have let the children in there too often and as a result they have ratted around a little more than I like.  To the point I can not find anything. So today I decided was D-day to go through and get it reorganised in preparation for the new academic year. At some stage I am going to have to repaint it but that is not likely to be this summer. I made some project bags to help sort some of my yarn projects.  I sorted out some fabric to be sent off to the charity shop.  I know me putting fabric out the door is a totally strange concept but I felt that I was never going to use it and therefore it was better off in someone else's fabric stash.  I almost did some yarn but then my yarn hoarding tendencies come over myself and I held onto the yarn.  It is a box where if I dont find a use for it in the next six weeks I will send it out to someone else.

Day 6. Starting at the bottom of the hill climb

Yesterday after finishing the dyed shetland I started on the moorit shetland that I have to process for a cardigan for the dear husband. I managed to get half a bobbin but no photo yesterday. Today on day 6 of the Tour de Fleece I have managed to get a bobbin and half done.  

This amount and yesterdays half bobbin is less than 100gms.  I have a kilo of fleece to spin.  So if we say 3 bobbins for 100 grams that means I have 30 bobbins to fill and ply......  30 bobbins ok who has lost her marbles.  I think that we agree that would be Moi.

Today was the first day of Ry's summer holidays so of course she slept in.  I finally turfed her out between the thunder storms to get photos with a shawl.  We talking the English Summer here it will be wet guaranteed. 

I made the Garden of Alla shawl back in January but only got around to blocking it last night.  This shawl was designed by Suzy Crancer but I used another ravelry user's edging to what is in the pattern directions.  My Masha'allah was using up some Schoppell-Wole Zaberball Starke 6 that I had left over from making some socks.  This shawl is one, yes one skein.  While the pink to green is not really my thing as I think there is too much pink in this shawl I have another graduation present in the cupboard.

This is a big shawl we are talking over 80cm from centre back neck to bottom point.  Daughter is 6'3" and she had plenty to spare when she was doing the eagle spread of the shawl  as from tip to tip we are over 2 metres in length.  

Knit night in Pemberton Wigan

Tonight at knit night I was spinning rather than knitting.  Got quiet a few looks from the bar regulars but no questions. Since the demise of the Prescot knit night I have been going to one in Pemberton on the boarder of Orell which is considerably closer than before. It used to take an hour to get to knit night now it only takes me roughly 20 minutes. If you are in the area of Pemberton, Wigan on Tuesday between 6 and 8pm come on down to the White Swan pub and join the knitters, crocheters and spinners.

So last night since it was a tour de fleece day I took the wheel to knit night to catch up on my spinning for the day. I had finished off the last of the BFL Mocha so that is 500 grams done for the tour de fleece. I started on the 120 grams of  Shetland that Wonkyknitter aka Anne had sent me in a care package and it was finished up when I got home. The singles is a nice wpi for lace and I think I will use it for one of three shawls I have to knock out in a hurry. No I have not started on them but I must get my A in to Gear.

So I have to bite the bullet now as I dont have any other fibre in the house except the fleeces. I am now up to carding and preparing the Moorit Shetland into a fibre for hubby. Yes I am going to knit him a cardigan after I have spun this fleece up... Yes I know I am crazy and absolutely dilusional to think that I might have a chance of spinning a fleece in approximately 10 days while working, raising a family and managing a house with a dog and a cat.

Day 2 to 3 of the Tour de Fleece

I have been cruising along with the spinning on the BFL Mocha.  I have now got 400 gms it done, that leaves another 100 gms.  Additionally I also washed two shetland fleeces yesterday.  A Moorit and a white.  I am looking forward to getting them dry and then I have a lot of carding to do while I remove some to extra vegetable material out of them.  I got a lot out during the washing but there is some items that I think only carding will help me get it out.

I managed to get a rats size clump of the morrit dry and spun it up into a taster and it produces a lovely tweedy effect with the shift from light to darker brown. If J plays his cards right he might get a cardi in it for his Christmas present.   I also think I need to be right royally out of my brain to knit again for him but since yesterday was our wedding anniversary I think I might be blissed out.  It is either the love or just the latest drugs from the new pain clinic consultant who will be forever known as Saint Anesthete cause he has worked miracles in less than a week .  I could just be in a drug induced haze but I am actually considering to knit for J again gorilla arms and all that considered.

Moorit Shetland

The white fleece has some bright white sections which I hope to get some lace weight out of. There are other sections which are a creamy off white which I think will  end up dying.  I have another two fleeces to process but I don't see me doing them in the next week cause I am absolutely knackered from doing these two. The white sheepy had being playing in the heather some sand and lots of grass.

White Shetland.

On your marks

Today is the start of the Tour de Fleece which is an annual spinning event that coincides with Tour de France.  The idea is to be challenge yourself. Well I have a challenge or four thanks to  the fleeces I brought last year while at knit camp.  I have to process these four raw fleeces soon.  I can not keep putting it off to the weather gets nicer I think it is this weekend or never.

Day 1 Plyed Fingering weight

Today I was working on some BFL that I brought last year at Fibre Flurry in October. I have 500gms to get through and I have about 300gms to go.  I had done about 50 to 100gms earlier so I estimate todays spinning activity at 100gms.   So we are off and racing in the tour.  I am hoping to get some of the fleece dry tomorrow so I can  prepare it for spinning but knowing my luck it will now rain since I am trying to dry the fleece.

Spinning my little heart out

I have been spinning my little heart out over the weekend between working on the stump sock for the hubby.  So far I have spun 300gms of Blue Faced Leicestershire [BFL] and I have another 200gms to go in this lovely mocha colour. I then have to workout how I am going to work out the meterage since my scales have decided to go kaput. Working out what I can knit with this handspun has been interesting contemplation while I have been treadling away.

Example of Broomstick Lace from Romansock 2007

When I dropped daughter off at the train station this morning I noticed that mags in the news stand had a lot of broomstick lace in their pictures along with a higher ratio of crochet to knitting. It was cold in the car park and I was in the  station waiting with her and picking up the Metro paper for her Dad. Could crochet be the new knitted item for 2011? Then getting home in the ads between the news bulletins the there were more items with broomstick lace.  I have a feeling that this Spring we will be seeing a lot of broomstick lace in the shops.

Spinning around

I have been spinning like crazy this week. I am officially on my last yes my last roving. So stash wise the fibre cupboard is pretty bare.  What do you mean bare? :hubby questioning and pointing to large bulky bags: Ok, Ok so I have four fleeces in the cupboard but I have to do the preparation before I sit down to spin with this wool. After this roving I can not just jump on the wheel and start treadling to my hearts content.

The last roving is Merino / Tuseah Silk and since it has the silk component I am trying to do lace weight. It means intense concentration and the added benefit of making the roving last longer. Most spinners have default spinning weight that they do and in my case this appears to sock weight. I wont put a photo up of it just yet as I have to do a couple of Secret Santas. If my spinning turns out like planned I think I will have a nice gift for a lace knitter and I know quiet of few of those.

Fibre Flurry is tomorrow in Birmingham and I am looking forward to it. I don't think the husband is looking forward to it but hey ho.

Purple people eater

Monday night I plyed the Bramble that I had missed and I thought I had some BFL in the Fibre stash but I found another purple toned roving and went that is what I want to spin tonight. I ended up spinning some Downland which the dyer called "Crush". It has some very Berry tones. I certainly must have been on a purple jag cause I appear to have a lot of purple tonal fibre in my stash I think you can call me the purple people eater cause I certainly being flying or my little wheel has been flying. So the Crush was spun and plied.

Bramble

Tuesday night again it was a case of keeping off the knitting needles and getting into a bit of a spinning jag. So the little wheel and I went out to knit night and I think I may have kick started another spinner. I have a done another couple of singles in the Frangipani and some Sugar Plum Fairy. I plied up the Frangipani at knit night and also came away with the raffle for the second week in a row.  I now have a very nice booklet that I need to make sure that the children and in particular the green monster ala daughter does not get her beady eyes on. There are a number of items including a hat that I can see daughter going please mum for.

Berry Crush

Tonight I think once I finished plying the Sugar Plum Fairy I might be looking for something else to spin.

Spinning on Squeaky

Bramble

After the recent disasters of knitting I am putting myself on a knitting break so today after getting all the mundane chores done, the kids homework done, and the roast dinner on I settled down to spin. My squeaky wheel is not so squeaky anymore it appears it was mainly a lack of maintenance and use which had caused the squeak. My renovation of use including the oiling of all the possible moving parts as well as actually using her has probably worked the squeak out of her.

Lovely Wendy Wheel

I finished two bobbins off today which I will have to ply together another night.  I had thought that I had finished all of 4oz of Bramble but I found 1 oz in the bag that I brought back from Scotland.

If you take the high road and I take the low road ....

Yesterday was the madcap nightmare of last minute tasks that had to be done before setting off on the drive to Glasgow.  We made it to our Farm cottage this afternoon after reconnoitring the local services and getting some essentials in for our wildlife (food).  The Cottage is about 7.5 miles from UK Knit camp.  Fields surround us.  The downside is the poor Internet connectivity so I will only be on intermittently over the next couple of days.  Hey it is the family holidays.

The Dreaded Clapotis

Here is the Clapotis with daughter modelling it for me.  It was finished last Thursday and no I have not blocked it yet. You can see our cottage part of the long barn and our holiday front garden deck. We had a lovely dinner out there tonight.

 A Pipy Wendy

The plus side is I actually got some spinning done this afternoon on my new Wendy. As part of this trip I am planning to spin a little each day as a belated Tour de Fleece to ensure that I am getting some spinning practice done each day and learn the quirks of my new wheel.

50 more grams to go

50 grams of Merino with 3% Silk in Purple with gold single on a bobbin,  I have another 50 grams left to do which I hope to Navaho Ply to try and keep the colour changes.

Learning to Spin

My Grandmother has been one of my greatest influences in life including my creative endeavours.  She taught me to knit, sew, bake, preserve and weave.  She also taught me to touch type at age 6. Practical solution for the dysgraphia.

Empty bobbins waiting to be used.

She also spun but it was something I did not learn from her probably due to my visits occurring during the height of the Australian summer.  I knew she was a spinner but it never happened even though I was fascinated by her wheel.  It became a one day wish list item.  One day I would learn to spin.  I had opportunities to try and some playing with others wheels but any time I wanted to get more into spinning and actually become a spinner, life would come and get in the way.  Spinning would be put on hold again.

First yarn spun and plyed by me!

In January I was enabled..... to become a spinner. Woolydoodles and Daisybuttercup (ravnames) saw the spark in my eye and I was invited up to a guild day.  Hello by the end of the day I was driving home with a spinning wheel and I had begun to be a spinner.

ETA: Photo of Feminist Scarf knitted up with this yarn. Outside picture showing more clearly the colours and the wobbly bits in my yarn.

My first yarn knitted up into the Feminist scarf.

Starting position spinners, Un, Deux and Trois!

Today is an important day in the Kotaatok household as it is a two for one day.  By two for one - I mean we had two big events on at the same time.  Today is our wedding anniversary and we should be out on our second parole thanks to good behaviour.   We were cooing away this morning and girl child's comment was "Get a room or I will get a bucket of water".  Isn't karma a witch when she comes back to bite you on your arse.  I have said this phrase so often that I did a double take as it was my mother talking except it was out of my daughter's mouth. Since I could not be a young hip loved up person I chose to focus instead on the other event that starts today.

Today is the start of the Tour de France and in the fibre world it is also the start of the Tour de Fleece for spinners. So this morning I have carded some fibre and cleaned up a bobbin and I am about to head off to spin like mad.   I have some fibre to get spinning with so adieu as I must take my place at the start of the Tour de Fleece.

Just a little feel for France.