When I saw this Quantum Spindles Floater on eBay, I couldn’t resist it. The 3.4″ carved whorl is black walnut and the 10″ shaft is Peruvian walnut. It weighs 21g, so it is great for fine spinning and is very well balanced.

I’ve reached the border of the shawl so I hope to have a picture of it finished and blocked by next weekend, but at the moment I’m trying to finish braid samples for an exchange,

I’ve now reached the stage at which I need to decide whether to add an extra repeat of the main pattern before adding the border and edging. I decided to pin it out and measure it so I knitted half the stitches onto a second long circular needle. When I tried to stretch it out, I lost a few stitches at each end – eek!!!

I think (and hope) that I managed to get them back onto the needles correctly. Then I finished the other half of the row before slipping the stitches onto 4 blocking wires. It pinned out to 50″ by 27″ so if I don’t add the extra repeat, it will end up about 67″ by 36″. I think I will have to add that repeat, making the finished shawl about 75″ by 40″. At least I’m now confident that I have enough yarn to do that.

Anyway, I suppose some of you want to see a photo. I had to climb on a chair to get this one, so I won’t be able to get a good photo of the finished shawl being blocked.

 

I got a treat in the mail today, an abacus pendant I had ordered from my friend Tricia. Click on the image for a bigger picture …

If you don’t know how they work, they are row counters, though of course you can use them to count anything you want. You slide a “one” bead past the ‘stopper’ (an elasticated ring of beads) at the end of each row, and when you get to the 10th row, you slide the mall back and move one of the “ten” beads past the stopper instead.

Tricia makes abacus bracelets as well as the pendants, which are small enough you can pin them to your knitting instead of putting them on a neck cord if you prefer. I love the pendant and bracelet I already have, so I ordered a custom-made pendant with a different number of beads so I could use it to count rows within pattern repeats rather than 1-10 etc.

… and now it is eeasier to see how the pattern repeats. At the moment it is 27″ across the top. The selvedge tightness stops me stretching it any further, though I could (and probably will when I block the finished shawl) stretch it a bit more vertically. I had already been trying to keep the selvedge loose, but it seems I need to try harder on the knit rows as that edge is slightly tighter.

I’ve started a pattern I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. It’s Kinzel’s Springtime pattern adapted to a triangular shawl by Glenda Hunt. I’m doing it in Jaggersun Zephyr laceweight wool/silk on 3.5 mm needles. It is actually Royal Blue, but the flash has affected the colour in the photo. It was going to be for a friend, but I didn’t have the right colour yarn for her, and I do love this colour and the pattern, so …

… well, almost!

I noticed some Sirdar Denim Chunky in Atlantic Blue at my local hobby store when I was there looking for something else. I needed a hat to go with a new jacket, and I knew that colourway would be perfect, so I bought a ball. I was dithering about which pattern to use when a friend (thanks, D!) reminded me of the Quaker Ribbed Bottom Hat. I had to adapt it slightly for the thicker yarn.

Yes, I know it looks like a tea cosy or a loo roll cover, but it really does look much better when being worn. I couldn’t take a picture of it on my own head, though, and I wanted to get the blog entry done before I forgot, so this one will have to do.

I’ve been working on a gift for a friend. In case she looks at my blog before she receives the gift, I’m putting the details and pictures in the extended entry. If you think it might be for you, don’t click!!!

[... and for anyone reading this from the archives, when they are filed the main and extended entries are combined into a single entry, so you'll see it all without clicking anything.]
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… from my generous DH – a Baby Butterfly spindle from Quantum Spindles. It is in ambrosia maple, weighs 30g, has a 2.7″ diameter whorl and is 11″ long. It looks beautiful, but just as importantly, it spins very well too. Here are some pictures:

“… to finally update my blog again?” I asked myself. Since I couldn’t come up with a good answer, here I am again.

A goup of friends who meet regularly on AIM arranged a Secret Santa swap last year. an d we had so much fun we did it again this year. From my Santa, I received silk top, cashmere top, handspun yarn (lovely soft Romney/Corrie cross) and a handknit scarf:

The scarf is rather crumpled from its journey, so it would look better if I dampened it and smoothed it out, but these pictures give you the general idea. I don’t have any pictures of the yarn as the camera’s memory card was full by then.

In case you are wondering what handmade item(s) I sent my Secret Santa victim, I have to confess that although I did get her other gifts to her on time, the handmade one is still not finished. I’ll post pictures once she receives it. It is going slowly as I’m also trying to finish part of my mother’s gift. I got the first attempt done her in time for her to try it on on Christmas Day, but it was too loose, so I had to rip it. The second attempt fitted, but I still need to make it a partner:

To quote Rolf Harris, “can you see what it is yet?”

To help you, I’ll tell you that the bottom edge is closed, and the top right diagonal edge is open.

The lower part is 2×2 rib and the upper part is garter stitch.

The whole thing is about 5″ from the top ‘point’ to the base.
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Back in April, I mentioned that I’d made my first takadai braid. I had to dismantle the takadai again so I hadn’t done any more until we were lucky enough to go to a two-day takadai workshop with Jennie Parry, held at the home of a Kennet Valley Guild member, Debbie.

Between chatting, laughing, eating lunch in the garden and petting Debbie’s two labradors, we packed in a lot of braiding, but we still came home with unfinished warps. Fortunately, it is easier to re-install a warp onto a takadai than onto a shaft loom, so last week I managed to finish both of mine.

Here is a picture to give you a taster of what we did, but for information on what a takadai is and how it is used, bigger pictures of these braids and details of the individual sections, click here or on the picture.

I mentioned in the May 24th entry that I had hoped to use that yarn for the Mulitcoloured Sockies in Socks, Socks, Socks but the colour spacing was too long. Instead, I spun up some undyed superwash merino top and handpainted it, and here are the Sockies I eventually made:

After many tries, we still haven’t managed to get the colours to show correctly. The actual sockies are darker, more saturated colours, but this picture does give some idea of the effect. I wanted the ‘dashes’ of each colour, just 4 or 5 stitches, and no pooling and that is what I got.

These sockies are fun to knit. I have a lot of the yarn left over, but not quite enough for another pair. I’m going to spin and dye a bit more yarn, maybe solid dye it in a colour from the yarn, then use it to knit parts of the sock – maybe just for the soles and cuffs and to make the cord.

I also want to spin some sock yarn for myself (maybe BFL/silk or BFL/nylon) and dye it in the same way and the same colours – watch this space but don’t hold your breath. :-)

One of my guilds, Kennet Valley, has been meeting in a church hall for many years. As a gesture of thanks, it was decided to make a tapestry for the church using as many of our crafts as possible. It took us a few years, but it was finally hung in the church last month.

The main part of the tapestry is woven from Cotswold and other long wools spun by guild members (including me *grin*). The cross was inkle woven, the dove and the crown are bobbin lace (I’m not sure whether they were made with handspun thread) and so on.