Sorry it's a hefty one...

Knitting news!
I cast off the extracontrary cockleshells socks in fondant fibre (tea with miss havisham) & WYS (penny royal). I think the WYS heel matches the variegated yarn perfectly :)

I'm still working on the like a leaf on the wind shawl, I still have gauge issues though lol and I'm on the last round for the small ten stitch blanket, I think it's looking good :)

I've also cast on the wasabi whale toy pattern, it's bigger than initially planned but it'll be awesome (I hope lol) and I'm hoping to make a cal & mari squid too after the whale (which is currently stalled till I can get some white craft felt for behind the safety eyes).
Spinning news!
I plied the whitefaced woodland today, 80.7m of a 2ply. Not great yardage but I'm easing back into spinning :) and besides every little helps towards stash dash.

I spun this SW BFL from owl about yarn in the hodge podge colourway. I got 109m from 97g and it's a 2ply, I love how barber polled it is :)

I decided to try and spin a striping yarn. This is merino in the storm colourway. I spun the singles one colour at a time, then wound the two singles into cakes and plied from the cakes. There is some barber polling between the transitions as the blocks of colour didn't match up, but I'm ok with that, and I love how this turned out :) I got 125m from 103g of a 2ply. 

I made myself some more clasp markers. I'm loving these bigger clasps for tracking my stocking stitch knitting on socks, as well as being easier to attached and detach form my like a leaf of the wind shawl. These are some of my new charms and they're so cute :)

Sewing...
Can I just start by saying I hate muslin lol
OK that's out of the way, you should also probably know I'm far from a skilled sewist, also I didn't know I hated muslin when I chose it or before I started cutting lol
These are bath/scent bags for my sons teachers and TAs. They're filled with rosemary & chamomile, they smell great but I didn't realise how much muslin sheds...I won't forget lol hopefully they'll appreciate that I tried coz the finished items aren't exactly very good lol They'll get one of these and a hand made washcloth each (see previous posts or my rav page for more details on them).

I cut some cheapish cotton to attempt a Japanese knot bag...practice makes perfect right lol
This pattern was quite fiddly especially when I got to top stitching the straps. I made a few mistakes & it's far from elegant but I'm proud of myself for not giving up.

The flowery fabric was supposed to be the exterior fabric, but it creases really easily & has a few stitching issues lol so it's now the inner fabric :)

It's works and it's reversible but I hope I can improve on this :) This one is for my mum and her mini projects :)

Goodies!
I signed up to all 4 of the four seasons boxes from Mel of the yarn tree and Summer just arrived :) it contained:
100g strawberries and cream and new balls please (sparkle sock)
a sunflower stitch marker
a hand painted wine glass to go with the Spring one :)
I'm not usually that into pink but this is seriously beautiful, she's such a talented dyer :)

I didn't originally sign up to the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets box from the yarn tree as it's my least favourite book and film of the franchise..but then I saw a sneak peak and found out there was one extra going spare...so I snagged it lol though there was only a tall available not a grande so just got the main colourway not the second. The tall box contained:
100g Basilisk (sparkle sock)
clasp markers
HP sticker
badge (these varied from box to box)
and a snitch necklace
How stunning is this colourway...just saying :)

I made a fibre order with Deb of fondant fibre, I got an over dyed grey corriedale and and some subtle Polwarth. These are so pretty, as well as soft and squishy, hard to capture the colours accurately but very nice :)

I may also have an owl about yarn order on the way lol I know...mega fail in the buying less than I knit challenge lol hopefully I'll get myself back under control for a few months before Yarndale (hoping to go again) but I'm not holding my breath lol
I also have some more akerworks bobbins on the way and a fat squirrel project bag, the latter got lost in the mail so waiting for the second and hoping there are no problems. Saying that I've just had a customs card through for over £33 and one bag shouldn't have such a high charge on it and the bobbins have just left so it can't be them...I'm wondering if the lost parcel and new one have been found together...I guess I'll find out when I get to the post office...
Happy Crafting!

FO parade :)

Knitting news!
I finished crocheting together the 6 square ten stitch blanket :) it's big and squishy :) I used 2967.8m in cascade 220 quatro, and it's awesome. I've cast on a smaller single rectangular one to test it in the washing machine before this beauty goes near it lol

I cast off some vanilla socks in fondant fibre high twist, colourway is called deep and meanigful.

I finished my hitchhiker shawl in the yarn tree merino/bamboo, colourway is Hogwarts Express to Ravenclaw.

I finished a combination of the sockmatician's toe ups and the strawberries and cream frappe socks, these are too small and (all being well fit wise) will go to my niece. Yarn was jarwoll magic and I have to say I didn't enjoy knitting it for socks, far too splitty and it kept wanting to twist up on itself.

I cast on the extracontrary cockelshell socks in fonadant fibre Polwarth (with WYS penny royal heel), colourway is tea with Miss Havisham.

I cast on a new shawl, like a leaf on the wind (I've wanted to knit this since last Yarndale), in Norah George high twist, colourway is whomping willow, and is the perfect colour for this pattern in my opinion. Sadly I had some gauge issues and think it may turn out a tad smaller than planned lol but I shall see soon enough I suppose lol my first project with picots.

SPINNING!
So happy to say I have some spinning lol at long last I had a semi successful attempt at using my beautiful akerworks bobbins lol my aim is to spin approx 25g a day till the end of the week, then ply next week. It's still very thick and thin, over and under spun, it broke a lot too...but it sorta looks like yarn so I'm taking it as a win lol

No new goodies this week other than charms, though I believe some may be on the way or if not it will be soon lol

Stash dash current total is at 4604.2m and I'm aiming for 7k 

Happy Crafting! 

Update: Fos and a knitting fail or two lol

Knitting news!
I finished my modified bootstrap socks in WYS penny royal (cuff & heel) and wood pigeon. They started out matching, not sure why they stopped matching on the foot, my gauge must have changed...

I finished some more washcloths too, the first is orange and is a sandcastle design on 3.75mm needles.

A lilac seahorse washcloth on 3.75mm needles.

A blue fish on 3mm needles.

I cast off square 6 of the ten stitch blanket for my son. I've started crocheting them together but I'm not finished yet.

I would this jawoll magic (I won from cc almon of the geeky girls knit podcast), sadly there's only 86g left...

14g was lost to unsolvable yarn barf...

I'd like to knit the strawberries and cream frappe socks by CC Almon with it, but with a plain foot instead of textured. These are toe up so a tad nervous, I'm going to use the sockmaticians toe ups recipe to get a heel flap and gusset worked from the toe up.

Cast on...I can easily tell I'm not a toe up fan as they're taking a while, and I'm now further along (about an inch from the gusset increases) and worried I need to go up a needle size and will likely rip them out :( they're currently on 2mm needles and I think I need 2.25mm. (These have now been frogged!)

I cast on some cuff down socks to tide me over as a small project I can take out and about, I originally cast on 64sts on 2.25mm needles doing a 2x2 rib, but it was way too big so I frogged and cast on 60sts with a 1x1 twisted rib and it seems a much better fit for this yarn. I've just cast on sock 2 :)

I made myself some clasp makers out of shell discs and one with a shell charm on.

Goodies!
My sci-fi box arrived from the yarn tree...and it is cool :) it contained:
100g It's a small off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden sw merino/nylon/stellina sock yarn
100g X-files...beyond thunderdome sw merino/nylon
an alien keyring
alien stitch markers
Star wars balloon
Robot stationary
it was really nice and I love it as always :)

My London House Yarns pre-order also arrived and is lovely, I look forward to knitting them up :) and I have more from Norah George on the way lol
Been a bit hectic over the school holidays so a bit late and unorganized getting this posted...
Happy Crafting!