Mmmmm! Fruit Salad

Its safe to say that this week has been very productive. Not only have I been trooping along with hubby's second sock, Ive managed to spin my longest skein of yarn to date and also ending up in an aching wreck thanks to the army assault course from hell!

My latest skein of yarn weighs in at 200g and is all pure merino, I've decided to call it fruit salad because it reminds me of those pre pack fruit salads you see in Asda or Tesco with a mirage of colors. Not only does it look yummy, I tried my hand at nubs and also got 42 yards for my efforts, which may not be much to some people but its quite a lot to me considering I only used to get about 20 meters.

Heres a Photo of Fruit salad



I almost don't want to put it on Etsy, thats the problem. I want to keep all my yarn, maybe it's a phase because I'm a new spinner, who knows?
To see more Fruit salad photos check out my flickr photostream

I also have some photos from my Dye-A-Thon from the bank holiday break.

Heres one of my de-gummed cocoons



And heres a few photos of the fiber that I dyed the day after the first photo is of some degummed and gummed cocoons dyed with food colourings



The next photo are BFL and cocoons that I decided to dye with kool aid



On the next photo you can kind of tell which fibers are dyed with kool aid because they seem to be brighter and the colour is consistent. I wouldn't rule out using the food colorings again as I quite liked the muted subdued colors. I especially like that the silk fibers have selectively taken up more and less dyes in each areas giving it a very random effect.





I think I may have the dyeing bug now, watch this space...

Let the De- Gumming commence!!

I don't know what it is about Bank holidays, but I always feel a need to do something completely random. In today's case because I know I have tomorrow off I decided to try my hand at de- gumming some silk co-coons that I'd recently bought on Ebay.

I've never actually done this before, but after buying some hand dyed degummed cocoons at Wonderwool I thought what the hell!

I found a really good tutorial for de-gumming cocoons on a website called pamdeluco.com so I've now set off on it and their on the hob as I type.

Here's a current up to the moment picture of what they are looking like so far..



Now according to the tutorial, it may take 30 mins to de-gum or 2 hours or even longer!! it really depends on what the species of the silk, to which I currently have no idea what mine are, oh well I didn't really have any plans for tonight anyway!!!!

Wonderwool Rocked!!!

Well the day came and went, but it was amazing. My friend Alison and I took the nice calming drive from RCT to Builth wales last Saturday to attend Wonderwool Wales. I think it was safe to say that we've been waiting for this more than last years Christmas!!
I remember when I went three years ago, at the time I was a mere knitter and did not appreciate the wonders of the 'fluff'. This year I knew what was going to happen, I knew that if I didn't have a think about what I wanted I would have ended up just standing and drooling in the doorway not knowing where to go. Lets just say I HAD a plan.....

So our journey started off on the most fabulous weather ever, and we got to roll in style as hubby just got rid of our golf in exchange for a 5yr old BMW 3 series, sweet!! armed with our cameras and lunch we set off. I decided to take my newly aquired 'Intertwined, the art of handspun yarn by Lexi Boeger' as reading material for Alison, and some of my recently new handspun for her to fondle on the way. We decided however, to take an "On the way to Wonderwool" photo on the way..

Check me out on the side of a mountain at Brecon with my wool!!

Can I just add that if I didn't realise I was standing next to what appears to be a grave, OOPS!

Anyway the drive was nice and scenic and we ended up getting to Builth around about 10.15 we got in line and waited patiently to get in. It was well worth the wait, we decided to catch up with some friends on stalls before we actually started our stash enrichment expedition.
Firstly we caught with Machelle from Chopped Tomatoes who has the most beautiful yarn I have ever clapped eyes on and Tora Aka Gypsy Dancer I fell in love with one of Tora's Yarn bowls and decided it had to come home with me. We also caught up with Eirwen from Knitwitches where I also decided that a ball of lace weight cashmere in jungle greens had to be mine. Anne our good friend and spinning teacher was also on hand helping out on Eirwen's stand.

It's safe to say that my plan went out the window and I ended up spending more than I had wanted to, but when I look at my newly acquired stash I can't help but get a warm fuzzy feeling (no pun intended). Alison was not only a fantastic navigator but she was a great shopping buddy aswell, she's opened my mind about fiber and was able to answer any of my fibery related questions when I wasn't sure about anything.

Heres a few photos from the day

Me and my silk cocoon obsession


And the Infamous Noro cardigan, that I want in Adult size



Alison tackling the Ashfords Knitters loom


To see the rest of my Wonderwool 2010 photos check out my Flickr photostream

The day was amazing and I think Alison enjoyed her first wonderwool experience, I'm counting down the days to next years event already!!

This was my first sock!

I say was, because unfortunately its been sock-napped. Yes it has honestly, now at this point I suppose I could be really creative in describing the events proceeding up to its abduction, but unfortunately I'm not really that good at creative writing so I'm just going to tell you that hubby stole it.

One minute it was being sewn up, next its disappeared! Only for me to see hubby sitting on the sofa in a gollum-esk manner talking about his "precious" (sock that is!!)

Here's a photo of hubby, "his sock" and his hairy leg:




It's not all bad I suppose, after all when you think about it how many women knit things for their partners that never see the light of day, hundreds? thousands? And then, theres the jumper curse to consider. I guess I should be lucky that he's taken an interest in wearing something that I've made, even though it was meant for me as the pattern clearly stated "Ladies sock pattern".

This is what I get for having the same size feet I guess, at least they'll be worn and appreciated. However I'd just like to point out in the unlikely event of Sauron and a Mass Horde of Orkes being summoned I'd just like to take this opportunity to say " I KNOW NOTHING!!"

I'm Deep in a goldfish bowl It's sink or swim.

Ok, I've been working on a new yarn. Since having my new Ipod for Christmas I've developed an obsession with listening to the Stereophonics so this yarn is based on one of my favorite songs "Goldfish Bowl"

The yarn itself is mainly blue and green merino wool, blended with a sliver of blue mulberry silk and green Angelina. Its then plied with a pale blue lurex thread with lots of little individual hand cut felt goldfish.

The picture here is fabulous, I must say thank you to Carwyn at Hoffi for taking the photo. "Thank yoooou!"



I'm quite pleased with this yarn, its turned out exactly as I had hoped and imagined and every time I look at it I can't help smiling. The only other problem it has is it makes me want to listen to my Ipod!!!

Thank You Debbie Jackson!!!

Ok let me give you the update so far!!!

My new flyer has arrived from Ashford, Oh yes!!! after waiting for what seems like forever due to delays in distribution it has finally arrived. So I'd like to take a moment through all the jumping around and crazyness and just thank the nice lady at Ashford in New Zealand for packing it for me, Thanks Debbie, job well done!!!

Here's a photo of my lovely new Flyer, You'll have to take my word for it but its absolutely huge.

Raiders of the lost fluff.

Today I decided to forage in my spare room, for what I hear you ask? well I've been slowly but surely increasing my fibre stash and now cometh the time to DESTASH! I know, I know nothing good can come of this, but I beg to differ on this occasion I have a really good feeling. But first, I've got to find the damn fluff!

Eventually, I managed to find a mirage of colours. Orange, Blue, Lilac, Pink, White and Grey. All merino apart from the white, which is BFL (Blue Faced Leicester).Firstly I spun two singles, and after a while of continuous stop starting plying wise, the end result is a cheerful rainbow-esk array of colours. I love the texture of the twists.


Here's a few photos of my lovely new yarn..




And here's another one..



And finally..



So to cap it off, not all destashing is a bad thing, apart from the plying part. Maybe I'll wait until I get my bigger flyer before I subject my wheel to that much art yarn again. Now comes the hard part....bringing myself to put it on Etsy!!!