Silk the final frontier....................

Like many spinners I started with an easy fibre - I think my first spinning was done with a Portland fibre and plied with Corriedale.  Also like most new spinners it was thick and tin and over twisted and under plied - but it was my very first yarn and I was proud of it!

Time moves on and your spinning improves, as does the variety of fibres spun - recently for the SpinDyeWeavers display board I have been helping out by spinning some British breeds and dyeing using nature's harvest.  All this has been great fun, some fleece is a joy and some you can understand why they make carpets................  but they are all different and were and still are bred for a particular purpose.  For the natural dyeing I used a Cheviot (mainly because it was the cheapest British fibre available from World of Wool) and it is rather coarse - well it is a Hill breed, with a fleece designed to keep out the wind and rain and rather more important to keep the sheep warm!

Well after all this I decided that I needed a treat and perhaps a bit of luxury, pampering in fact.  So I delved into my stash and found a 25gram samples of silk that I had dyed back in May 2011 using Procion MX Dyes.

The brown was gifted, but the turquoise I still had, and here it is spun up

What an absolute delight it was to spin - Demelza definitely a wheel for silk, a double drive and crossed on the flyer to get more twist - this is so fine I could do cross stitch with it....

This, not very good photo of the crossed yarn on the flyer, shows Lavender's Blue being spun.  Well I just had to experiment with dyeing more silk - this is Tussah silk (that's wild silk where the grub is allowed to live) which I dyed in the oven, using Landscape, Saltmarsh, Dusk and Sun Orchid....

The colours were inspired by the lavender growing in our garden which the bees love.....

A Tussah Silk Moth - isn't it beautiful, so more colourful than the Bombyx Mori?

Here's some more dyed silk, again Tussah (I like the idea that the grub gets to become a Moth!)

Which I call Mr Tangerine Man

Spinning Tussah silk is very different to spinning Mulberry Silk (or the silk from the Bombyx Mori moth where the grub is smothered before it can eat it way out of the cocoon) very smooth and soft and spins up like a dream, you hardly have to draft at all!

This I called Golden Rain, again oven dyed (at the same time as Lavender's Blue, so two for the price of one) with Landscape Broome and Dusk and spun cobweb

 

 

Another thing with silk that makes it so rewarding is you don't need vast quantities - all these are 50 grams and produced enough yarn for a shawl - so luxury at a bargain price!

Experimenting with colour the slow way..............

Wednesday May 1st - so a Woolly Wednesday and a quick update on happenings in Chez Sassy.

Besides spinning at a Model Railway Exhibition for two whole days in the main April has been a month of shawls and experiments.  Four shawls completed and a start made on my St Kida Shawl using the very expensive, but very beautiful Boreray and Soay yarn.

Two Romi's A Mysterious Shawl Kal - one in hand-spun and the other in MCN dyed by me.  The other two are designs from LindaCC - Siberian Iris and Spring Maple, both a delight to knit.

I have been experimenting with blending colours - inspired by Deb Menz's excellent book Color in Spinning which has a section on blending colours on a drum carder.  One of the things that I find really amazing is the way that black can disappear when mixed with other colours

This blend (the photo is lighter than real life) In Space...... consists of more black than the colours, but it is nearly lost once blended.  The proportions are 60grams Black (Merino and Silk) 30grams Amethyst (Merino and Silk) and 5grams of Fuchsia and 5grams of Rainbow Trilobal - so more black.... but where is it?

The second experiment is Solar Dyeing - that is using the heat of the sun to dye yarn in a sealed jar - so free energy.  As the weather forecast suggests that the temperature might actually get above freezing I thought today would be a good day to start the experiment.

First I soaked 100 grams of Merino and mordant the fibre in a solution of Alum 100 mil at 1:10 and Cream of Tartar (11/2 teaspoons).  But my Alum solution had crystallised so first I had to dissolve the crystals!

After allowing the fibre to cool a little I placed the fibre and some of the liquid into a Kilner Jar with 10 daffodil flowers, 20 mixed Peppercorns (Black, Red and Green), 1 Bay Leaf, 2 tiny strands of saffron and 1ml Botanical Colours Natural Dyes - Himalayan Rhubarb.  This last one is a but of a cheat, but at this time of the year there isn't a lot of natural stuff around so as you can see I have raided the spice cupboard.. 

This now gets left in the sun for several months........................ 

Oh, yes I did go to Wonderwool and had a fabulous time - retail therapy a real pick me up after a long winter!

Of Spinning Wheels and other things

Of Spinning Wheels

I am often asked when demonstrating about the cost of wheels and what is the best wheel for a beginner and quite honestly that is a difficult question!  For as in all things spinning wheels are individuals with character and habits unique to each particular wheel.

My advice is usually to go to an event such as Wonderwool or Fibre East and try as many wheels as are available.  But this isn't always possible - so how do you advise someone on the best wheel for them?  When there are so many variables such as single or double treadle - this may seem a simple choice, but there are pros and cons for both.

I prefer, for obvious reasons, a single treadle and many people do like a single treadle, but there are equally as many who prefer a double.  This maybe because using one leg for a long time aggravates a problem or they find it harder work - it is a matter of preference as is Double Drive or Scotch or Irish Tension (these last two depend on which is driven the bobbin or the flyer) and I would say that Scotch Tension is probably the easiest for a beginner.

So to the point of this post  - it has come to my attention that the fantastic Bishopofknit the designer of the Dodec wheel is planning to release his second wheel in June the AltDes- again it is going to be cheap to make and will kinder to the metric system than the Dodec which was cut from imperial wood sizes.  At the moment readers are being teased with hints!  But if it is anything like as good as his first wheel I shall be getting out my tool kit once again..

The news on the web reveals the introduction of a wheel that retails at just €230 (under £200) for the single treadle version and it is called The Bliss and comes with three bobbins, a built-in lazy kate, Scotch Tension and weighs 4.5kg.  If it as good as it seems then this will certainly be a realistic option for the newbie spinner.  They are also selling a drum carder for €210 - these are being made by Louët for Woolmakers in the Netherlands so no import duties payable!!

Of Other Things

It has been pretty quiet on the spinning front so far this month but I am particularly pleased with this combo in baby camel and silk - destined for Forest Pansy

But as you can see I have been busy knitting - well a girl can never have too many shawls................

Mystery Knitalongs - the good, the bad and the beautiful!

Regular readers will know that I am a sucker for a Mystery Knitalong, some are a real joy, while others test your knitting ability and others, well others are just not quite what you expected! 

Often mystery knits come with a disclaimer - that there is no refund just because you don't like the result............  I find this quite funny, as it would appear that having knitted from the pattern some people then try to claim their money back, because they aren't taken with the finished article!  Isn't that like watching a film on DVD and then asking for your money back because you didn't enjoy the film - or eating a meal and then saying you didn't like it! 

There are some mysteries, however, that exceed all your expectations and I am pleased to say that this Mysterious KAL Shawl by Romi has done just that and more.  I signed up for this one because:

1. I had never knitted one of her patterns before and
2. I had heard excellent reports/feedback.

Initially I was a little unsure, the first clue had been released in a kit several weeks early and looking at the project pages I wasn't sure that this was going to be mine kind of shawl - wrong, wrong, wrong it everything I had hoped for and it is beautiful!!! Each clue came with a verse which on the last clue revealed the name of the pattern Cactus Flower - can you see what I mean?

Here is the first shawl, yes I did say first - I was so smitten and concerned that my hand spun yarn wasn't doing justice to the pattern that I started another.............

This time using the yarn I had frogged from another KAL..............  should really have used the colours the other way round, but by the time I realised it was too late!

So then to the good KALs - and what makes a good KAL?  Well obviously a good design, well written and clear charts are crucial - error free also helps.  A realistic amount of knitting in each clue is essential - too much and the participants are always running on catch-up, too little and the fast knitters are finished too soon, so a good balance is key. 

Here I am harping back to a MKal that I knitted in 2011, Round the World in 80 Days, an absolutely super shawl, but Clue 12 was 46 rows on well over 1200 stitches, huge - took weeks and weeks (I did notice that other knitters only did the first 18 rows, while me I followed the pattern to the letter) by then of course further clues had been released and the mojo had gone.........  I did finish, but weeks after the final clue was released.

Another key, in my opinion, is method - a lot of shawls are basically two triangles with a centre spine stitch - but there are many other ways to create a shawl besides the tried and tested two triangles - square, crescent, circular, semi-circular, and heart shaped are the most common, while Shetland shawls begin with half a square and have a knit on border and so on and on.    Then there is the question where to start top or bottom - so quite a lot of choice so it helps it the KAL is a little different to the norm.

Two really good Kals  were Blooming Fuchsia

and Princess and Pea

both by Lilygo I would recommended them to anyone, in fact I am already signed up for the Fox and the Grape MKal safe in the knowledge that I won't be disappointed.

So - what makes a bad mystery - well for me anything that includes a lot of garter stitch, and or just colour changes and a definite no no is anything that doesn't flow - one stitch selection needs to change effortlessly to the next and so on!  A great example of what I consider a good design is this shawl from LindaCC - Spring Maple see how the stitch develops in perfect symmetry.

That isn't to say that such Kals are bad, nothing creative is bad, it is just that I prefer something with a bit texture that challenges my knitting knowledge, I love beads and lots of 'yarn overs and k2togs'  and I am getting to enjoy nupps now for what they can add to a design.  I do not like endless stocking or garter stitch even if there some sort of shaping I did enough of that when I was a child - dish cloths and the like..................

Finally the thing that makes a good MKal is the fact that there are many knitters all knitting the same design at the same time, sharing experiences, problems and solutions - it is a community thing, a sense of belonging, being part of a group of like minded people who will support and suggest answers - who although all knitting the same pattern produce at the end very unique and individual items, no two are ever the same...................

 

April Blues........... Colouring my year.....

Blue is the new spring green...............  Well apparently after the winter months blue is the April sky as in Irving Berlin's:

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see...............

There is a knit-a-long for April, knit anything as long as the yarn is blue............. and I happen to be knitting two shawls both with an element of blue..............................strange old world ain't it?

 

This is Siberian Iris by LindaCC  which was inspired by the Siberian Irises flowering in her garden.  I love her patterns and aspire to design shawls nearly as nice as hers

 

Well this got me thinking about colours and association with particular months - for me yellow is March, lots of dancing daffodils as Wordsworth's poem, 'A host of golden daffodils'.

 

 

January is white for the snowdrops that appear from under the ground when everything looks dead.

 

 

But what about the other months?  Pink for cherry blossom is May and Strawberry red is June, October is rusty reds and oranges from the leaves as they fall from the trees, November is grey and December Black as is February (both bad months!)

 

That leaves July, August and September all summer months - perhaps August should be purple as it is named after a Roman Emperor but I am completely baffled over July and September - nothing stands out as a striking colour that jumps into my head when I think of these two, and then I suddenly thought July is the Tour De France so multi-colours as in the jersey's of the riders - yellow for the overall leader, green for the sprinter and red polka dot for the king of the mountains, and white for the best young rider and there is the Tour de Fleece challenges on Ravelry which is always for me bright colours!

 

But what of September?  As a child September was back to school after the long summer holiday, new uniform and shoes and the inevitable essay 'What I did in the holidays' but no colour bring these memories to life.............. although last year, 2012, and the Paralympics in September, the colours were purple and orange of the Games Maker's uniform and memories of the wonderful event that I was a very small part of!

 

So April is blue for now, perhaps monitoring the thermometer which is currently standing at

 -C and the weather maps show the British Isles as ranging from dark to pale blue due we are told to the Jet Stream being to far south!  Perhaps I shall need the shawls currently on my needles to keep me warm during the summer months to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Kolourwork Krazy

Its Woolly Wednesday and I have to admit that there is a black hole in my knitting knowledge and that is colour work or as I knew years ago fairisle. 

The last time that I knitted anything that could be classed as colour work was probably back in the late 1960s when I made a sweater with a fairisle yoke.  I can remember at the time forcing myself to knit a pattern repeat a day (that was 10 rows on 300+ stitches) boy was I glad when it was finished.  The last time that I can remember wearing said sweater was on a pot holing trip down Swildon's Hole - no proper waterproof clothing required, just turn up in something old was the brief..........................

Having discovered that shawls are not and never were really the lacy creations that I had thought I found through further research that shawls were garments made for warmth and generally worn by working women.  You have to wait to the late 19th century for coats to make an appearance in the wardrobe of women, until most women wore cloaks or shawls - make sense when you consider the long skirts and petticoats.  The lacy creations popular in the early 19th century were the reserve of the upper and gentil classes - think Cranford Mitts!!!

After much searching I have decided that I love Kate Davies Designs particularly as I feel an empathy with her, having suffered a migraneous stroke in 1997. (one week to the day after the General Election) Like her I have turned by life around, but unlike her I am not an expert at fairisle knitting. But this, like the stroke, can be overcome! 

So colour work shawls............... First I thought I would dive straight in and make a colour work shawl with steek - well the works really!  Then sense prevailed and I thought practise first, shawl later!  Besides the chosen shawl - Eliza is a big project and I have two shawls on the needles already

Winter Green which is a KAL

 

 

The other is a test knit of my Strawberry Thief Shawl which I can't hibernate as I am charting the pattern for a friend who is also testing the pattern

 

 



A smaller project seemed more appropriate - so a scarf knitted in the round (which I have been told is the best way to knit fairisle as you only ever do knit stitches!)  So I purchased a ball of Kauni EFFEKT and a contrast in grey.  Its a bit of a cheat really because you only used two yarns, but get the effect of more.

Couldn't find a pattern, so turned to my Alice Starmore's Book of Fairisle Knitting and sorted out a suitable design! 

All the books on knitting with two yarns suggest using the technique of Continental knitting with one yarn and English throwing the other!  It ain't easy - and I have gone back to holding both yarns in my right hand and using both my index and middle finger - it works for me!

But I have just discovered that I twisted the first row.................................. &*&()(*^%$*)()^%$£&(*&^%$!