Little Batty Muse

Back in April I mentioned that I made the journey to Wonder-wool with my mate Alison. What I didn't mention was that as well acquired Wonder-wool plunder, Alison also gifted to me some of her de-stash which, included various fibers and hand-carded batts.

Now when it comes to batts and fiber prep its hard to compare Alison to anyone so i'll try to describe her skill another way, If i was talking in Bruce lee terms Alison is the kung-foo master of the fiber world. The amount of thought and preparation that she puts into her batts really does show through not only to look at them, but when they are spun.

It's not the first time Alison has given me some of her beautiful batts, when I first learnt to spin she gave me a pretty pink batt chocked full of sparkle and silky goodness, which as of yet, I haven't spun. Every time I pick it up and go to spin it I get caught up in its sparkliness and get an idea for something else. I suppose you could call it my little batty muse!

The most recent batts that I was given were lovely natural colours, this is something that I haven't really used as yet as I'm still in my 'unless its able to be seen from space colour, then its not being spun' way of thinking.

Heres a photo of the luurvely Batts...




I love both the colours on these, so I decided to spin them all into one yarn. They remind me of the Spring and Autumn seasons. They were lovely to spin, as I was unrolling them I felt really bad as I felt as though I should have kept them to just admire them.

Here's a photo of my spinning in progress...


There was a mass of soft fiber inside of the batt, snuggled away from the outside colour, this blended nicely with both batt colours.

Here's a photo of my finished yarn...



I'm really pleased with how it came out, not only is it one of my nicest non art yarns, I'm beginning to be swayed by the idea of playing with more natural colours. I do like to tinker with dyes now and again, so I may take this further watch this space................

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

Oh I do like to be beside the sea, with my knitting in my hand, watching hubby fall on the sand, beside the seaside, beside the sea.

Ok thats the most singing you'll ever get out of me :-)

As you've probably guessed I'm at the seaside today. It's an interesting story you see because recently hubby and my big bro have decided to take up kite boarding. So this means whenever there is a sniff of nice weather me and my sister-in-law Liz get taken on a beach outing all day!!

It's not all bad spending a day at the beach, last time we decided to beach-comb for shells and do our impression of Baywatch babes running along the beach....It was very scary for the onlookers, but there's only really so much you can do, did I mention I'm as white as a bed-sheet and swim like a stone-fish? so sunbathing and swimming is a definite no no. So this time I've come prepared, that's right whilst hubby and bro are ploughing the beach with their kite flying L plates on, I'll be lurking with my knitting and my camera, poised and ready to take those d'oh moments, after-all it is my wifely duty to ensure hubby (and other various social networking sites) get to see where he's going wrong heh!

So I managed to take some photo's of hubby's and big bro's kiting adventure and even managed to capture hubby making a bid for freedom via video down the beach. But in the meantime here are some photos of them getting their butts kicked by a kite.

Big bro on butt...



Hubby admitting defeat, (either that or he's practicing the new extreme technique..... laid back kite flying).

















I think hubby put in a good effort today for his second go, although he did suffer his first battle wound....
aaahhh, bless! maybe next time he'll wear some proper shoes :-)


















Whilst all the crazy kite activities were going on I was happily say on my towel guarding all the bags, I'm working on some alligator mittens from the stitch 'n' bitch nation book and heres a piccy that hubby managed to take when he wasn't three miles down the beach :-)


















OK, so I didn't sit on my butt all the time I did get up now and then and sneak a go of liz's little learner kite. Well you can't go to the beach and not have a go can you?

By the time we packed up and got into the car, big bro was the proud owner of a buggy via Ebay. Thing is its local pick-up only. Ah well guess we're off to Birmingham next weekend!!

Corespun Crazyness!

It's just dawned on me that i've not been the best blogger this month. I've been quite busy actually, with exams, college work and of course setting up my little folksy shop.

My spinning wheel has been going non stop for the last couple of days, I've been very good! However sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day :-)

I've spun a few new yarns recently and was able to try a new spinning technique core spinning! This was mainly for the reason of trying to find a method that would secure some of my spin in's into my yarns.

Firstly I hand spun a beautiful cherry blossom inspired yarn, with turquoise and brown merino, purple and fushia coloured mohair locks, and green nubby fiber (a present from a friend). I also spun in some bronze lurex thread on the 'tree trunk' part of the yarn....Its beautiful, it's definatley one of my most favourite yarns. To top it off I also spun in some handmade Organza flowers that I made, after finding an amazing tutorial on http://teaandwhimsy.blogspot.com/2009/05/organza-flowers.html on how to make them.

Here's a Photo of Cherry Blossom.

But then disaster struck, my poor flowers could not stand the stress and strain of being wound onto my niddynoddy and having the twist set, so they started to become loose.

It's at this point that i realise that it's always a good thing to be reminded that you will never get somethings right first time, and although the flowers are coming out of the yarn I still think its fabulous. I can always knit the yarn first and then stitch in the flowers to the finished project.

So anyway I decided to try my hand at core-spinning. Now, I have always fancied having a go at this but was put off due to the over-twist that normally ends up in my yarn, but on this instance I thought why not? so after scouring you-tube for a quick reminder and tutorial on how to corespin, the best tutorial I found was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLvvW8x9mlg Which is done by Velma of Colorbomb Creations, I was then ready to rock and roll! I decided to use fluorescent pink, black merino and silver Angelina, with black organza flowers in my core-spun attempt

Here's a photo of what I've called Black Magic
For a first try there was a slight bit of overspin and I only managed to spin 25 yards of yarn, but not only is it really airy and lovely to touch, my 9 flowers are now firmly spun into the yarn with no chance of escaping..Whoop! Whoop!

I'm not quite sure about corespinning on a regular basis as I kind of feel as though I've cheated at spinning. I missed feeling the fiber between both hands and making descisions on what to do whilst spinning it. But It was nice to try something new.

However, I think that I should at least have another go before I totally rule it out of my spinning techniques. I think I may begin a love-hate relationship with this method of spinning.

Here's another photo...

















I think I may definately also retry 'Cherry Blossom' in this technique as I think it will turn out lovely, sounds like I'm hooked already!!!