E-Spinning along

Planning a new knitted mat so spinning from a stored medium-weight, medium staple length fleece. I sheared ti from one of my woolly ewes some years ago and washed and kept it 'til now.
I plan to spin most of this fleece aran weight on the e-spinner and then dye it in progressively longer lengths of different colours to knit into an oval shape.

The dying will be the most fun but right now it's just comb/spin/ply repeat.

So far, 327 grams spun and plied

Combs and nests

Plying n the E-Spinner - adding another 320 gas of plied aran-weight.

Meanwhile, leaving one's car door open can invite cheeky occupants (and may bring her toy with her):

Swirly mat

Finished knitting my hand-spun yarn into a swirly mat.
it's a squishy garter stitch swirl.
The photo is not great - a bit blurred.
Must take a better one.

Star Mat Finished and Thrifty Ankle Socks

 THE STAR MAT FINISHED WITH SINGLE-CROCHET EDGE

I had a little hand-dyed merino/silk yarn left - too nice to discard. So I decided to squeeze out a pair of socks using it and some other left-over yarn from my stash.
Turned out I had enough for just two ankles and heels so I added in some cotton yarn which is of roughly the same weight for the insteps and soles.

Star crochet mat and dyed Alpaca

I ripped it!!
Twice.
I just didn't really like my previous attempt at crocheting the iCor mat.
It was not as pleasing to me as the plat-knit one I made before.

So rip, rip, think, think and start again.
This time, I changed the beginning to the piece to a magic ring commencement the stitch to full Double Crochet (DC) and the texture was much more to my liking. I also started with the lighter, warmer colour at the centre and I think this gives a much more attractive effect. I changed the number of stitches I began the loop with three times to get the one that allowed the subsequent DC's to like flat. Turns out this was 10 stitches. I worked regular increases i.e. 2 DC's every stitch, chained threes as first DC then DC in first stitch each tine and in subsequent rounds, every 2nd had 2 DC's then every 3rd etc.
As I progressed, a mind-worm surfaced saying "I want this to be star shaped or octagonal" . I could not ignore this so changed my increments to three DC's in seven "corners" - of course this meant an increase of 2 stitches every round per side. (Simple maths and counting made this fairly intuitive).

I'm glad I did since I like this iteration much more and almost as much as the knitted mat.

I'm now making a deep red solid-colour cord to crochet around the edge.

LYNDIE'S ALPACA FELLCE GOT DYED.

Lydia does not have an Alpaca but she knew a lady who did own one so some time ago she procures some of it's white fleece.
It was not all that white when it arrived. In common with any Alpaca I've obtained from lone owners, it was full of grit and grime. (Do these animals roll in the dirt all the time??).

I washed and dyed it in clumps using graduated dye from deep green through blue-green to blue white to un-dyed white/natural.
It looks and feels lovely. Now I have to make batts using the drum carder.
The decisions will mostly be whether or not to include the shorter second-cut bits. I don't want ti too fuzzy - so perhaps I'll have to be brutal about discarding theses shorter tips etc even if dyed.

These photos give a general idea of the colours - one of the interim blues is missing .

 It has a nice hand when opened out.


Must get carding.

Crochet iCord Rug progresses

Been making more cord (idiot cord?) on the knitting machine.
This chunky Knitmaster model 155 has made this a lot less tedious than knitting same on needles.

So far, I'm finding the result quite appealing - two more balls of my hand knitted chunky to cord then I've to decide on a solid colour to make an edging.

OK for now. Good luck.

A Feather and Fan Cowl

I acquired some Merino Tensil blended roving and spun it into a sport-weight balanced 2-ply yarn las November.

I've knitted it in the round into a long cowl, designed to wrap twice around the neck.

It is made from a Feather and Fan pattern between garter stitch edges

It's quite a nice thing - I need better photos though.

Washing my Rim & Button Hothead hat

I don't recall what the original patternI for this little knitted hat came from, but I liked how it came out when applied to some lightweight hand spun wool I had.
So I applied the same general idea to some more hand spun wool I had dyed with graduated colours, interspersed with some grey alpaca singles.

This post itemises how to wash and dry a finished hand knitted woollen hat.

Add some washing up liquid or shampoo to warm water in a bowl and sink the wooden down in it.



Let it sit for 30 minutes or so


Squeeze it out, refill the bowl with clean warm water and soak again



Repeat if necessary and squeeze out.
Roll up in a towel to remove excess water



After maybe 10 - 30 minutes, unroll and either lie flat to dry:

or hag in the hot press to dry:



Nice and dry now:

The grey alpaca (from Waterford as it happens) is a single spun on a drop spindle. Because of that, stocking stitches twist. I let it twist for the first band I introduced after the dyed wool yarn sectionsbut then made it straight by knitting into the back leg of the stitches in later bands of grey. 

Who knew there could be so much interest(well for me anyway) knitting up one woolly Hothead hat.