The First, But Not The Last

Cowl that is.  Still needs blocking, but it's10.24pm so that can wait.   Instead here is the appalling selfie taken in our lounge with the cellphone

Colour isn't right, it's more green and brighter; my top is actually peacock blue, not navy to give some idea of just how off it is.

It's from my handspun Fibre2Go on a base of 50% merino, 30% alpaca and 20% silk in the colourway Mediterranean.   I still have some left, but was running out of crappy beads (ranged in height from 0.5mm to 2mm, holes varied in size and the colour on the inside of the hole came off as I put the beads on), also my hands are complaining, mainly due to the fight to get some of the beads one.

This is closer to the colour and you can see the beads clearly; the real colour is more vibrant though.

It's sitting on my current reading material "Madam Will You Talk" by Mary Stewart; I'm currently resurrecting some of my old books and re-reading them.

I will definitely make another cowl, I've got some merino there that's aching to be one, but it's worsted weight and will not be beaded!    I do want to cast on my jersey too, but thinking the cowl might be more use right now when I'm feeling the cold and already have a good selection of jerseys to choose from.

On the weaving side nothing is happening yet, I've been trying to source the Cottolin I need for the next project without any luck at all.   The NZ supplier is overseas for another month, the Aussie one's website won't let me order (tried 3 browsers on this PC and 1 on Dh's PC)  and I even tried a Swedish website, but they were out of stock!   In the end I've ordered 8/2 cotton from Webs and will use that when it arrives.   I'll order Cottolin once Agnes is back in NZ.

Spinning has been temporarily on hold, I wanted to finish the cowl first, hoping to do some on Saturday though.   I did drop off a heap of fibre to be processed today though; will have to wait a couple of months, but that's no hardship with my stash!

I Am Now a Weaver!

My first ever woven project, straight off the loom!

I don't know all the lingo properly yet, but the yarn is DK set at 8 EPI, or at any rate, the reed is 8 slots per inch done in plain weave.   The ends are a knotted fringe.  I definitely want to do more!

I also finished and sent off the hot water bottle covers

All wool with lace embellishment.   I kept the one on the left as it uses some of the lace from my wedding dress and has sentimental value.

 I might have had some recent yarny purchases, they all have a reason though, so here goes.

John Q Earthwise sock yarn from the Knitworld sale; I love this stuff!

Earthwise in grey, especially for socks for Dh that he will be able to wear to work

More Earthwise in my favourite ever colour!   This is for me

This was sold as "grey", it's more of a slate blue and is a heavy laceweight merino/angora with a smooth spin.   This was my only true impulse purchase

Vintage Purls in purple, bought to make a Nightingale cardigan adapted from a sock pattern; the original one I saw was done by Jettshin on Ravelry and is stunning.   My contrast will be a lagoon blue.

I sent in a photo for a facebook yarn gradient thing and my photo was picked!   This is a worsted weight and will be a quick cowl fairly soon I think.

This is for a weaving project from Anne Field's book

and so is this one

One of my favouite sock yarns, this is Casbah by Handmaiden

more Casbah in the Sangria colourway.

Hopefully that's it for a bit on the yarn front, it's now time to use some yarn and some fabric.   I need to get some sewing done; my next weaving project if I go by Anne's book uses Cottolin and I'm not sure if I've got any of that and I can't afford any right now (see above for the reason why).   I've got something in a bag, fingers crossed it might be that.   If not I'll come up with something to make, maybe I might try making something in yardage or a table runner.

Finally Finished!

It took a while, but I've finally finished my Riverrun socks for Dh and they look really good, it's a pity his feet are so much bigger than mine really.

Ravelled here

I'll now take Dh's Scott Base socks for my travel project and I'll soon cast on a cowl with the handspun I blogged about a few posts back.   It'll beaded with lace stitches and the pattern is Abstract leaves Cowl.  In the teal it'll look amazing.   If it turns out how I imagine I'll put it in for the guild's display later this year.

Before I can start that though I have some hot water bottle covers to make from some pink wool blanketing for the Hottie Project and some lace from stash.   I'll get started on that in the next few days, probably after Ian's birthday party.   Tomorrow I might get some pinning done, but that'll be it I suspect.  I have to go out and get some gel snakes and a Cadbury Flake to make the snake cake he asked for and probably do some more baking and of course clean the bathroom area.

I'm also working on a sketch for the spinning wheel I want to order; I want either a Kea or a Morepork on it, but the Kea I like isn't mine, and I'm not comfortable with stealing someone elses work,  so I'm trying to do a Morepork from a photo using a sketch program and Paint.    My drawing skills are getting a workout, even with the computer generated sketch I'm working from.