Merry Christmas

Episode 16 is now up on YouTube. Today I show some finished objects, plus the needles and shawl pin from Belinda Harris-Reid. It's a short episode where I drew for the Christmas Knit All the things prize of some lovely yarn.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas, but if you're in need of company over Christmas, come join us on the Ravelry boards....

Episode 14 There but for the grace....

I've called the episode 'There but for the grace' because I feel very lucky that we have not been flooded like many folk near here, nor have I suffered from bush fires like many in Australia right now.

I'm going to try the vkn this week, and sincerely apologise for not being up to it last week after spending hours in A&E with one of my residents.

I discuss one of the projects I completed from One Skein Wonders for Babies and review 750 Knitting Stitches from www.smpcraft.com

As usual I can be found on Ravelry, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as Knatters Knits. Please do leave feedback in any of those places. see you next week.

Episode 13 Gusty Winds

firstly, please accept my apologies. The quality of the video is very glitchy. Sorry. I'm working on trying to find a solution.

I talked about some more squares, a finished scarf and some lovely new yarn from Fondant Fibre. I hope normal service will be resumed next week.

Episode 12 shownotes

It turned cold this week, and I think I am coming down with a cold too, so apologies for the sniffles.

I talked about my future direction, whilst looking back on my experience of craft fairs. Still undecided about what to do. Please add any comments you may have here, or on the Ravelry group or on YouTube. 

Finished objects included two Christmas Baubles and the Winter Wander Shawl. I showed all the beads I bought before I decided on the tight ones for the shawl. I bought them at Debbie Abrahams Beads

I mentioned the subscription present I received of a skein of fyberspates DK, plus a copy of the scrumptious collection volume 3. I specifically liked the Lerryn mittens by Rachel Coopey.

I also talked about a podcast from Louise Zass-Bangham from Inspiration Knits and the idea of taming the one skein of yarn you might have bought on an impulse.

Episode 11 The word is bleurgh.

First of  all apologies for no notes for the last episode, I'm a bad podcaster.

This week, after a tidy up of the craft room, and several trips to the city to get supplies, I have finished items to show you.

1. Cushion made for the oversized hat
2. Two bags made from some left over material, plus an idea how I can turn them into wheelchair friendly items.

I am still working on my Winter Wander Shawl by Helen Stewart, issued as part of Knitvent 2015

I reviewed the one skein knits for Babies book edited by Judith Durrant.

I talked about the Great Eccleston Show which takes place every July. I mentioned my local spinning guild, Heddles and Treadles. 

Hope you enjoyed the episode. Please do pop over to the Knatters Knits group on Ravelry for more information and chat, or even enter the Christmas knit all the things thread or comment on my Facebook page to receive an entry into the draw for some hand spun yarn! 

Podcast episode 9 - the one with the cushion...

Episode 9 of my podcast is now available on YouTube.

It's been a mixed week with weather, and with my projects! I admitted to the mess that was the hat, that's probably going to become a cushion.

I showed my completed shawl made from handspun and the fringe from Wooly Knits yarn.

I also showed my half finished colourful socksand then talked a little about where I live in North Lancashire.

Show notes for Episode 8 is Knatters knits podcast

Episode 8 - Stress and Knitting

Today I explain that this week s a momentous one for our family as it would have been my parents 57th wedding anniversary if mum had lived, and it's also been my 31sr wedding anniversary this week.

I've been off work with stress this week, and am feeling a little better, but I cancelled my space at the Burscough Fibre Festival due to the stress.

Finished objects
Wee Susan 2 - in hand spun
Handspun Cowl in fibre from Sara's Texture Crafts

Works in progress
Third time lucky hat in hand spun
Graham's socks
Socks in neon highlighter yarn from Dyeabolical Yarns

Acquisitions
Membership of Friends of The Mill,
Fibre and yarn from John Arbon Textiles (see link above)
Bags from Gothheart Creations
Square gauge measure from Twig and Horn

Planning
Jumper / dress Alpaka Tunic by Deborah Newton

You can find me as Knatters Knits all over the interwebs.

Why not visit the Knatters Knits Ravelry group and leave your comments on what you'd like to see on the podcast?

Thanks for watching and see you again next weekend!

Episode 7 knatters knits podcast show notes

Episode 7
Sunday October 18th 2015

Welcome all new and returning viewers
Introduce sheepy
Warm welcome to Niamh watching in Alphington

This is episode 7, knick named girl interrupted as its take 5

FOs another rose blossom cowl

Wips
Baby blanket using sirdar snugly colourway 228
Wee Susan dress no 2
Handspun hat and cowl

Planned socks for Graham

Yarns I'm thinking about:

Reviews
The Knitter
Knit now Christmas edition

Where I'll be with my yarns:
25 October at Burscough Fibre Festival
Isft Sat in November at Longridge craft and good fair
22nd November at Fleetwood , Top Stitch Christmas Fair.

Spinzilla

As you learn to spin, you find yourself hoping you'll speed up, that you'll become more consistent, and if you want to progress with this skill, you look for challenges. And oh boy have I found a challenge!

Spinzilla is an international annual challenge where teams of spinners see if they can spin against others to spin further, faster, and in more unusual settings. It's done to raise money for the needle arts association mentor ship programme. As well as spinning as part of a team, you can be a rogue spinner and that's what I'm doing.

I'm combining this with the remains of the fluffy fleece to try to get it finished. So, each evening after work I settle down to spin, spin, spin. I want to spin at least one mile (1760 yards) and I'm hoping for more than that. To see how I do, come back to this blog or look up the Knatters knits group on Ravelry.

Podcast Episode 4

The latest edition of the Podcast is about to be loaded. In this weeks episode, I show you my Yarndale mug, review a copy of the Bletchley Collection from Eden Cottage Yarns, and talk a little about Yarndale. This is a short episode, but I hope to have more project progress on my knitting projects next week.

Announcing the first PODCAST episode

I've bitten the bullet at last and recorded my first Knatters Podcast. I am pasting the show notes here. Podcast 1 – Show notes

Introductions

Finished items

Ursula Shawl – pattern by Anniken Allis in ‘Beaded Lace Knitting’ – without beads, made in handspun from Into the Whirled fibre – merino and superwash merino. Entered into the FOand dye podcast shawl KAL

Yowza Weight it Shawl – yarn by Miss Babs

Mitred squares – handspun x 4, Into the whirled, Dramatic Knits, Saras Texture Crafts

Works in progress

Time to come clean:

-         1 blanket – megabedspread

-         1 hoodie, currently in the freezer

-         1 mens waistcoat (acrylic   yuk)

-         1 cardigan for me – in my fondant fibre bag – Sirdar Wool Rich Aran, 100g balls 60/40 wool acrylic blend 190 metres

Stash enhancement

-         Difficult being a spinner as my stash is always increasing.

-         http://www.belindaharrisreid.co.uk/shawlpins_trinity.html Lovely shawl pin

Coming up

Yarndale – yarndale.co.uk   26^th and 27^th September 2015

Spinzilla – rogue spinner – tnna - $10 £6.56

Ideas I’m thinking of

Skein (3 skeins)   Outback colourway. Thinking of a Hitofude cardigan 85% superwash merino, 15% nylon 4 ply

Saras Texture Crafts Abalone superwash BFL 80% 20% nylon

Thanks for listening and watching -        come and chat on the Knatters Knits board on ravelry or email me or knattersknits.blogspot.co.uk 

Fluffy rides again.

Well it's taken me a while to get over the jet lag from Australia, and poor old fluff is sat waiting patiently. For those of you not in the know, Fluffy is a local sheep whose coat is sitting in my spinning room, waiting to be carded and spun and returned back to its owner.  (See previous blog posts).

As you can see, there's a lot of Fluffy still sitting waiting to be spun up! The good news though now is that at least it's washed and dried. Previously I tried hand carding but this is such a slow process, that I've enlisted the help of my drum carder which not only has sped up the process, but has produced fibre that looks more like tops. The staple length of this fibre is sooooo long, it's amazing!

A taste of Australia

So fibre lovers, where has a lot of sheep that I can visit? Well, it's true, I'm off to Australia very soon, and if you'd like, I'll take you with me by posting my adventures here on the blog. It will be wine filled, family full and with a few other things on the way, so check out this page in June to see where I'm off to, what I've seen and what adventures I have in the land down under!

Follow my antics over on my own holiday blog at http://thebikeandthesheep.blogspot.co.uk

Time is catching me out.so

So the fluffy story continues...

I've had some problems getting the yarn to be consistently white. For me this isn't usually an issue as I dye most of my fibre, and so a little lanolin staining isn't a problem. You might remember that Fluffy is going to be made into a blanket, and is au naturale so to speak, so any yellowing is very obvious and not the look I'm after.

I took a while to track down a commercial scouring product, and have now tried it out on the latest batch of fleece. Whilst it removes grease well, and the feel is great, some yellow staining persists, so it looks like there will be some of the fleece I just cannot use in spinning, unless you know of something else I could try?

On another note, I've managed to source some new to me yarn bases, so I'll be launching these at Yarndale at the end of September. I'm really excited about them, and the new colour ways that will be on them, but you'll have to wait for them. Look me up on Instagram nearer the time when I will be doing a giveaway for the new range.... And there will be new patterns to go with them too!

I also spent today at the Civic Hall in Longridge at their monthly craft fair. I have a regular slot there on the first Saturday in each month. The venue is great, and there's a wonderful cafe there too.

A few hiccups

Where to start.... Well, I'm still in the process of working on 'Fluffy' but I have had a few setbacks. My spinning wheel has had several new drive bands of late, and today is working off a temporary one. Also my large bobbin I use for plying onto came apart and would not rotate. I eventually got hubby to repair it for me and ŷarn prep started in earnest again today.

So what have I been doing with my time then? Well, there's lots of knitting, some dyeing and of course the arrival of my new ŷarn bases. They're slowly filtering their way on to my etsy shop.

I've also recently spent my spare time listening to many knitting podcasts. I love The Knitgirrrls, 90% knitting and knitting in Circles. I've been watching these for a while, but I've added a few more recently, including FOanddye, Knicks Knits, Stitched Together and Must Stash Podcast to name but a few.

Here are one of the things I've been inspired to make...

Finished pOdcast hat and kickstarter project news

First of all, the podcast hat is finished....

I'm pleased with the result, especially as I spent many hours at the Harrogate knitting and stitching show today. I'd forgotten how warm it gets in there and I dressed for the outside weather. Still, I got what I went for, extra 2.5mm double pointed needles to replace the ones I keep sitting on and breaking! I also got a pattern for a waistcoat and a cord for my interchangeable needles to hold my daughters wedding shawl. I also saw several vendors I was friendly with from previous shows, so it was nice to catch up.

NEWS - ABOUT - KICKSTARTER

I'm currently applying for kickstarter funding to set up knitting and spinning beginner groups to help those with anxiety and depression. You can find out more about it here:      

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/5565008/spinning-a-knitting-yarn

It's a very exciting time, and depending on how funding goes, I hope I will have more news soon. Watch this space...

My podcast hat.

Hi there. This week I am on holiday and suffering from a bad back. So what do you do when this coincides? Well, knit of course!

I can't spin much right now, and I'm hoping my back improves soon as I have fluffy to continue with, but I decided to knit up some fibre that I'd spun from Leading Men Fiber Arts (whose podcast I listen to) in the glacial Colourway. I had spun it up in 4 separate colours and then plied them together.

I got 240 metres of Aran weight yarn from this. I have decided to knit a hat by another favourite podcaster of mine, Laura Linneman from the Knitgirllls podcast. As you can see, the colours are all over the place, but...

It does remind me of the colours of the glacier I climbed in 1982, but that's a story for another time.

I'm in the process of having a rethink of my short and medium term plans for Knatters Knits. I've decided to launch my own yarn label for hand painted British wool. This is in its infancy right now, but watch this space. 

Another project is in the planning stages, and I'll announce that fairly soon, but it's an adjunct to the sales, and is very exciting. More on that next time. 

I've also been participating in a knit along for Woolly Wormhead's latest hat knit along. Hopefully I'll be able to show you my finished article in the next week or so. You can find more out about that project at www.http://www.ravelry.com/groups/woolly-wormheads-hats. I chose to use Titus yarn in the beautiful maroon Colourway from baa ram ewe, particularly as it's made in Yorkshire.

Fibre prep is time consuming

Continuing the preparation of the fleece named fluffy is the order of the day. This is my first day off from my paid employment in what seems like ages.

Up until now I've been carding the fleece but the staple is so long that it makes it difficult to card using carders, so I've decided to comb it instead. Combing is great because you get such airy lofty fibre, however it is sooooo labour intensive it's quite a task!

Pictured here is the latest batch in progress. On the left is the washed fleece, and in the blue tray is the combed fibre.... Doesn't it look lovely?

I hope Fluffy's owner likes the fibre, as it's taking so long to comb, but I believe the end product is worth it....

Canadian exchange

Here's the story. I belonged to a Spinners Guild that did a swap with a group of Canadians earlier this year. The idea was that we received a skein of yarn and created something with it and then returned the finished item. My yarn was sent to someone in Canada who did the same thing. This is the story of my yarn exchange journey.

I usually work with DK weight yarns. I also tend to work in colour in a big way, so when I received a very fine oatmeal coloured handspun, I was stumped as to what to do. I started making a scarf. I got part way and decided it didn't suit the yarn so I ripped it out. I then started another, and ripped it out. At this point I fell out of love with the yarn and it went in the sin bin (a basket for all projects I get frustrated with). 

I was reminded recently that the project needs to wing it's way back to Canada. The lady from Fraggletops Studio would be in the UK to collect the projects and exchange the items. So last week I set about trying to design a pattern to show off the yarn. I decided upon a shawl as you can never have enough of them, right? I wanted a pattern that would highlight the variation in colour found in the fleece. I also decided to use a gradient of needle sizes to add a little more interest. I finally finished the shawl yesterday and washed it. It is pictured below, after a little light blocking. It would probably take more blocking, but I need to find my blocking pins to do that, so I might suggest to the recipient that they try that.... What do you think? Should it be blocked more?

Part 2

Today I completed the first skein of Fluffy yarn. It's now washed and hanging to dry in the drying area. I have also started the second skein, which is almost complete. I have been a busy girl because I have started washing the second batch of fibre. It's on the second soaking. It has a fair amount of lanolin in it, so I'm thinking it will need a fair few soaks before it's good to go! 

 

The first full skein of Fluffy Yarn.

The whole process is taking me longer than I hoped as I am working full time for a large retailer as well as running this business. 

The two jobs are so very different and yet utilise a lot of the same skills, from customer service to sales promotion, planning and media work. The difference is that at Knatters Knits I get to make something, to create something from raw materials, to design knitted items and after that, when someone buys them, I get to see the delight and joy on their faces. It's this satisfaction of creating and seeing others enjoy my creations that gives that satisfaction that you can't get with any other job, I take something raw and to some people useless and turn it into yarn, fibre or something to use or wear and that's something really special, satisfying and unique. How many people can say that about their jobs?