Test Knit News: the reveal + new knit

So my secret test knit is now not secret and the pattern is available in a kit by @yarntasia on instagram, the design is by sparklepunk-creations and will be available soon on her ravelry store.

The fingerless mitts can be worn up as gauntlet style mitts or folded down and buttoned to be cute steampunk style mitts. I used a cute toadstool button, coz that's kinda my style but these would look awesome with a traditional button or something like an old cog wheel attached. The texture work allows for the pattern to look good in both variegated (as I used) or a solid/semi solid yarn and still be interesting.

The mitts are designed for sport or DK weight yarn, I used DK from laal bear (sorry she's no longer dying but you may find some of her yarns in de-stashes on ravelry) in her coneflower colourway on her dale base (50% British BFL 50% masham) on 2.75mm needles for a firm fabric and a good sized set of mitts. Please note that I am a rather loose kntiter and almost always need to drop needles sizes in patterns.

So that was test knit number one finished, and I started test knit number two.
This test knit is for Joeli's kitchen and is for a childrens jumper. I swatched to check gauge, and good thing too as I needed to go down to 5mm (recommended is 5.5mm), but I tried both to be sure, measured the swatch before and after washing and then spoke with the designer before determining 5mm was definitely the right choice. Note this is a bad and wet representation of the colour lol

I'm using cascade eco + yarn in the pumpkin spice colourway, it's really nice, hand wash only (which is something I usually avoid with my son) yarn which has me a little nervous but I think it'll be ok. The colour is hard to capture, but it's a lovely red/orange/brown that is almost like rich rust, it looks better than it shows up or I make it sound lol Also note the yarn is categorised as chunky/bulky on ravelry but was sold as and knits up as aran yarn for me, I'd be happy going down to a 4.5mm needle for a plain stocking stitch item.

This design isn't secret as the designer revealed it on her instagram feed but I'm not going to show more progress till it's finished as it's a cable feature panel and I'm nervous I'm going to make a mistake lol
Hope you like the look of, or sound of both and check out the designers for more interesting knits to make for family and friends or indeed yourself :)
Happy Crafting!

New yummies & Jacob fibre blues

Ok so I got a cheeky last order in with Owl About Yarn before her coupon code expired lol but I got 2 yarns I've been after for ages and kept putting off and an awesome new fibre colour to enjoy :)
Left: sw BFL in the lantern colourway
Middle: sparkle owl (sw merino/nylon/stellina) base in the forbidden forest colourway
Right: cuddly owl (sw merino/bamboo) base in the Dowager Dutchess colourway

I also got some cute new stitch markers with my order (including a progress keeper), and they match my fibre lol :)

I got sent a magnet and didn't know who off lol turned out to be a friend I've knit quite a bit for lol

I got some stones/crystals off my friends holiday :) I struggled identifying two of them but so pretty, they are; opal (the hardest to identify as I've never seen it like this before), tigers eye, citrine and carnelian (the oddest and pinkest carnelian I've ever seen which made me question myself as it's usually rather orange).

I got new yarn...I know but I was ordering for a test knit and seemed silly to pay postage when I could buy this gorgeous stuff and get free p+p and squishy yarn too lol I love malabrigo, so soft :)

I got close to finishing the school jumper, and panicked, it wasn't going to fit...so I made a couple small tweeks...

and it fits lol a little more snug than I'd intended but hopefully it'll do him ok :)

My mum's been buying bits for work, including loom bands, which totally made me play and make the only thing I know how, a fishtail bracelet in red and lime (my son likes those colours, not that he'd wear one lol).

I started spinning some new fibre on my wheel, and boy do I wish I hadn't...this is Jacob, it's supposed to be good for beginners (and I'm still one so thought I'd try it) but it's super sheddy and a little itchy, and boy am I regretting buying it, let alone spinning it lol 

Just doing a little I get covered in loose fibres that escape and cause not just that fibre nose irritation but fibre everywhere irritation lol needless to say when I'm finished I will nto be buying more lol I'll finish it, so I can say I spun and plied it but it will not be entering my stash again lol which is a shame coz it's ok to spin, though not the best I'll admit, and my yardage is gonna be low again, but it's the shedding that frustrates me most.

Hope you're all having fun and getting ready for the new start of term if you work in or have kids at school/college etc :)
Up next, test knit news!
Happy Crafting!

Super Spinning! +

I finally plied the sw merino, and I love it :) fibre is from Felt Fusion in the sunset blvd colourway.
It looked beautiful in my fingers but started looking a little garish on the bobbin...

I need not have worried as it settled down as I wrapped it on the niddy noddy, I also realised it's fairly (though not fully) consistent, there are still over/under spun bits and thick and thin bits but I love it over all and am just super happy with it. To me if you want fully consistent hand spun, you don't realise that the fun of hand spun is that there are bits, small like this one, or large like some of my previous spins, that are thicker/thinner or over/under spun, if you want perfect yarn you might as well buy from a mill. I will admit that I'd like to increase my yardage, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop aiming for an obviously hand spun appearance and feel :)
I have to say sitting plying for that long, that late then wrapping the niddy noddy right after was a mistake lol I finished it at 10pm last night and I was wiped out, I put some pain cream on coz I'd pushed myself too far wanting to finish it and went to bed straight away.

But look at that final skein, it was worth it, I'm in spinner heaven and I got what I wanted...lots of barber polling :) I spun it in a way that I hoped it would get a lot of it and I sure did, just a few small patches were the colours line up together :)
How did I spin it...? In case any of you are new spinners and want to know what I did I'll try to explain it here. I unwrapped the braid and learned that the colour repeat happened twice down the length, I split the braid where the second repeat started so I had two the same each weighing about 50g. I split the first half (one whole colour repeat) into 4 nests and spun fairly thin singles from yellow to grey. The second half (another whole repeat) I split into 8 smaller nests and spun from grey to yellow. This meant that the colour sections for the second half should be shorter than the first half and as I spun in the opposite colour order I should get plenty of barber polling...and I did :)
The final skein is 107g of gorgeous :) I got approx 220m of a bright and beautiful 2ply :)

You may think me mad, and you'd not be entirely wrong lol but this was fun. I should have paced myself, I was aching after the plying so I should have waited till this morning to wrap the niddy noddy and calculate my yardage, but I knew that wouldn't happen coz my son would be awake, so I knew I'd not get it finished till after he went to bed tonight and I really wanted to see how my planning had turned out lol

Now to pick out the next stunning fluff form my stash to go on the wheel :) I should add spinning will continue to go a little slower while my son is home, I might get a bit more done when he goes to school :) exciting but nervous for him to be starting reception, he went to nursery three days (at the same place) last year but still a little anxious about him going full time. I'm relieved he'll be in the same class with a few staff and of course children changes but I can't help but worry. Fingers crossed for a good start, if he remembers the staff and everything it should go fairly smoothly, but he does get very attached to me when he has a lot of time off and reattached himself to me. Should be fun buying new uniforms and seeing if he realises what it means :) Yesterday was the first time I took him out walking since we got back form our holidays, he's been so ill and his energy is coming back but not fully, he takes a while to bounce back, we've only had lifts to mums for the past week and we walked to collect my parcel. He kept wanting me to pick him up, but I managed to get him home without resorting to a taxi, which I have to admit I was surprised at :) Hope you're all doing well. If you have any questions about how I spun this, if I didn't explain it well enough, please feel free to ask, I usually just spin as is, this was my first planned out spin.
Happy Crafting! 

Test knit yarn + my winnings

I've cast on the first test knit, no clues as to what it is, just showing a sample of the yarn knit up so you can see the gorgeous colours, it's actually a little brighter than showing and looking really nice :)

Quite a while ago I entered a competition on facebook with the Unplanned Peacock Studio, the prize was a skein of their 'rainbow unicorn of love' colourway on either sparkle or plain sock base, I chose sparkle. It arrived last week but has been held hostage by customs :( I went to collect it and paid my £11.84 fee (£8 of which is the handling fee the rest is VAT) and got this beauty. I have to admit I'm a little disappointed it wasn't labeled as a gift to avoid customs charges when it was a prize rather than a purchase. Something for UK residents to consider when entering as well as ordering.

Knitting news! Working on the school jumper (sleeve two has been cast on) and the test knit. I'm awaiting a second test knit pattern so I can look at buying yarn coz it appears I won't have enough in stash...ahh well.
Spinning news! the sw merino on my wheel is on the lazy kate still waiting to be plied and the spindle hasn't been touched for a couple days sadly...soon!
Side note: I've done a couple of periscope broadcasts, badly lol I get super nervous and ramble lots lol but been enjoying watching other peoples live (or replays too), all knitting ones so far lol I'm @lilangel_sg2 on there and instagram.
Happy Crafting! 

knitting fail, spinning and news

I'm a knitting fail...again! I cast on this handbrake cowl 3 times; first time- I accidentally twisted the stitches, second time- I forgot the last one I made was too big so to cast on fewer stitches, so I ripped back and cast on a third time- miss counting and cast on too few stitches lol so it's now a little snug for the way I like my cowls. I'm a little disappointed coz I really like it too, and in the best hand spun I've made to date, with about a third left too...silly me! Plus side, it looks nice and should look even better after it's been washed and the stitches settle a little :) and it's super squishy :)

I've spun the singles of my sw merino from Felt Fusion and they're sitting ready to ply from my lazy kate :)

I'm test knitting a pattern for Sparklepunk Lisa, this is the yarn I'm using, laal bear DK (before she closed shop), and that's it for spoilers. I'm a little late starting as I was away when got the pattern, then had a poorly boy, and now I'm getting a sore throat and a cold, but hopefully I'll manage ok, fingers crossed in time for her deadline, but she said she understands if not :) 

I finally took a picture of my cute, mini orchid, so pretty :) hard finding a good place for it in my cluttered house, but I'm praying I don't kill this one as fast as I did my last lol

Spinning news! The blue Polwarth/merino/bamboo is still on my spindle, though going a little slower than I'd hoped. I'm try to choose my next spins too, my stash is big enough that it's hard to decide lol
Knitting news! I may be doing a toddler test knit for Joeli's Kitchen too :) I've finished the first sleeve, and realised I made another small mistake, hoping it's not too bad and wearable when I eventually finish it lol second sleeve cast on, I'll make the same mistake on it so they match lol and then will join it all together and knit the yoke :)
In other news; we had an awesome storm last night, insane thunder and lightning, a small one today too.
Happy Crafting! 

Update: FO and spinning

Saw this awesome death star yarn bowl, it had to be shared :)

I finished the blue whale shawl with 1g of yarn to spare lol needs a good blocking after some freezer time (it came on hols with the moths) lol Not sure if I like it or not...? The section measurements are kinda a mess but should look ok after blocking...I think lol

Did a bit more spinning on my drop spindle, this one is a 1.25oz sodalite spindle from Tina's Angoras bought from Fondant Fibre. Fibre is Polwarth/merino/bamboo rolags.

I've started a new spin on my wheel, this is sw merino form Felt Fusion and is very colourful :) first half was prepped into 4 nests and spun yellow-grey.

First half of singles spun and second half was prepped into 8 nests and has been started too, spinning it grey-yellow so should hopefully get lots of barber polling.

This is by far my best hand spun to date, sw merino in the meadowsweet colourway and one of my earliest purchases, got roughly 200m of a 2ply and have cast on a handbrake cowl :) 

Done a little more work on the school jumper but needed a break form all the blue lol
Hope you're all having fun and...
Happy Crafting!

Update + flowers

My friend bought me some flowers when I got back from my holidays :) might be consolation for a poorly boy :) got a mini orchid too but strangely not taken pics yet, I love orchids :)

Been watching a few episodes with my fave Doctor in recently then saw this...so much love lol

I got a new digital scale for my hand spun skeins as I was struggling on my mini scale and my kitchen scale wasn't accurate enough.

I plied a couple of left over singles together, the yellow/green is meadowsweet sw merino and the blue is moorland merino, 25 yards to 10g

Started a new spindle spin on my new spindle, this is the 1.25oz sodalite Tina's Angoras spindle from Fondant Fibre; fibre is Polwarth/merino/bamboo blend and it keeps breaking on me :( but it looks nice, though it is rather thick and thin (on the thin side).

I've started spinning some sw merino from Felt Fusion in the sunset blvd colourway on my wheel, going slow with my little boy home lol especially while he's ill.
Knitting news! I had to tink back a couple rows of the blue whale shawl as I had the wrong stitch count for the moss stitch edging but just cheated a little so I can carry on lol
I've finished the body (to the under arms) and started the first sleeve for the school jumper for my son.
Happy Crafting!

Yummies! and mini update :)

More Owl About Yarn sw BFL fibre may have fallen into my cart, she had a few new colours and I loved them so they needed to come home lol
Top: rainbow
Middle: emperor
Bottom: pebbly beach

More Fondant Fibre goodies (including Tina's Angoras spindles) also happened to find their way to me lol

My first Guardians of the Galaxy club shipment from Penguin Soup arrived, and it's based on a very funny quote from the film, the colours aren't as rich as I'd have thought but still a nice combo :)

The Guardians club goody for this months was a super cute baby Groot key ring :) my son is not allowed near it coz he'd love to chew it lol

The 4 rolls of singles I spun on my drop spindle before I went away have been plied together into 2 skeins, each a 2 ply with a little left over, approx 140m total.

The colours aren't showing very well but they're a stunning red/brown with gold sparkle :) from Fondant Fibre again :)

Knitting news: I've re cast on the jumper body for my son after knitting it on the wrong size needles and am close to finishing the blue whale shawl, though with a long middle and short end section but should look ok :)
Happy Crafting!

Stash Dash 2015 & holiday

I made my goal of 5000m for stash dash 2015!
I knitted and spun 5467.17m (well there were a couple of WIPs included but not a lot so still happy).
It finished whilst I was on holiday and I didn't get anything finished while I was away so my total was up until 8th August before I left.
Cotton/acrylic blend 300g for £3 on a car boot, be good for baby or charity knits :) was supposed to be £3 per 50g so not a bad price :)

Thought I'd try a new to me needle, the knit pro interchangeable symfonie 3.75mm tips and 80cm cable.

I was advised that these cables aren't super flexible for magic loop etc so went in to buy the 100cm cable and came out with 4mm cubix tip and some souvenir sock yarn too lol hoping to eventually make mum some memory socks or something :) 

We had one pretty pink sunset and the view right outside our windows were stunning :) beautiful little village...but too many moths in this particular cottage lol

My son loves rock pools so we visited a few and a beach too :)

The holiday cottage was gorgeous and the views fantastic, but had a lot of moths so freezing some yarn and things just incase any eggs found themselves on my lovelies...can't freeze everything but fingers crossed I get no moth babies.
Hope you all had a fun filled week :)
Happy Crafting!

Fibre and Fail!

Lots of new things in this one and some updates too :)
I got some new yummies from Owl About Yarn.
Top left: so purple it's nearly black 100% SW BFL 4ply
Top right: hodge podge SW BFL
Bottom left: dream in purple SW BFL
Bottom right: pink overdyed Devon Zwartbles

BFL in (left) black and (right) oatmeal.

Jacob (grey) is supposed to be good for new spinners so I've got some for my friend, who I got a spindle for and got myself some to maybe try on my wheel. It's very sheddy so could be interesting, I may look like I rolled in fibre when I spin this one lol Also got her a few others but only had space for a couple in the first envelope so will send the rest soon :) my fave I've got her is still here and keeps winking at me but I have it too so will try spin mine soonish :)

Top: brown corriedale
Middle: white Romney
Bottom: mid grey Shetland

I plied my SW merino meadowsweet...still thick and thin in places and over/under spun in places but overall I'm very happy with this one :)

I had this much left on one bobbin...

I think this is really nice, 98g of a 2ply and calculated between 200-220m not sure I trust my yardage on this one but I'm hoping it's right as then it's enough to actually make something lol maybe a handbrake cowl or a hat or something...

Felt Fusion order of loveliness.
Top: rainbow minis (Falkland fine merino aran)
Middle: midnight haze (BFL aran)
Bottom: doom-pa-deedo (organic merino aran) 

I spun some fairly cheap merino up and struggled a little with consistency, colour is moorland and I got 103m of a 2ply from about 70g. Not sure if I like this one or not, the colour look a little odd plied together, thinking maybe I should have split each colour nest and plied it together and made a sort of self striping...? Got the orange/brown (spice I think) version of this for my friend :)

Yesterday and today I've spun like a fiend to finish these singles lol should be 100g of merino/Shetland/silk/gold sparkle in the Polly colourway from Fondant Fibre. I spun 3 rolags onto the spindle at a time, 4 times so I will end up with 2 smaller skeins of a 2ply once finished. They're a beautiful red/brown with gold sparkle but it's hard to capture on camera. these are a little thick and thin but on the thin side so hoping for fairly decent yardage :)

Knitting news...I'm a total fail! I cast on a school jumper for my son; finished the body and most of a sleeve and noticed something was up...checked...something was indeed not right. I'd cast on with 3.75mm needles (correct) and accidentally swapped to 4mm shorter cable instead of 3.75mm for the body (I wondered why it seemed 2" too big lol) the sleeve was on 3.75mm needle but in my sleep deprived state I ripped it back thinking it was wrong lol so now I need to start all over again from scratch and to stop any mistakes I'm using my hiya hiya interchangeable needles and have put all the cables I'll need and the grips in the project bag and I will not let any other needle or needle tips near that bag lol nearly 2 weeks of knitting wasted but ahh well...I can but learn. Knitting Fail!
The blue whale shawlette is slowly growing but still only on section 2, not sure the colour is going to work with my complexion so it may end up being gifted. I've cast on and cast off a hat for a friend for xmas, no details so she hopefully gets a surprise :) I like it but hope she does too, her head is a couple inches smaller than mine so hoping the fit is ok lol
I should really re cast on the school jumper but all the blue again is a little off putting lol
I've lots of knitting plans but seem to be going slow, though I have been spinning quite a bit lately :) I'm actually a little achey from spinning the Polly rolags so fast all at once...wish me luck :)
Happy Crafting!