Well with the current Spring (really?) weather here in the UK, there is still lots of knitting going on - we need those woollies! Complete contrast to the Easter holidays of the last two years; in fact around this time 2 years ago we were enjoying days on the beach! We have had a few nice warm days now, but could do with a lot more, and a lot more sunshine.
Ah well, we can only hope the Summer will compensate. Those wee lambs are being welcomed into the world with a bump of coldness. I wonder whether the ewe's fleeces will be affected by the extra cold, and perhaps extra stress in lambing ...
So I have finished a project I can't share pictures of just yet, so we'll just skip over that. Here is my cushion that is in progress that I forgot to photograph last time - it's not far from the right size but I haven't knitted it for a few weeks - should really push to finish and sew a zip in it. Then I can start the next ones, which are a lot smaller so I can knit them up quicker.
I knitted myself a new phone cover for my new phone, finally joining the 21st Century with a decent one. This was knitted using Judy's magic cast on - a lovely invisible cast on - and knitted in the round - just worked out how many stitches I thought it would need to be a snug fit, knitted in smaller tips for the yarn for a dense fabric.
The yarn is all sorts of blends from our Guild fibre day where Wingham Wool visit with all their goodies to sample and buy. I sampled lots of different things and chain plied it all to retain the colours and have a lovely skein of variation. Some has now been used on this and the rest is going to be used on the Guild challenge project this year I think.
Another photograph I forgot last time was the Merino I spun from fleece from Queensland, here it is, no plans yet - I may dye this now.
Other recent activity has been finally getting around to cleaning up and oiling the Westbury wheel I bought last year from a local charity shop. A little rough in places, I sanded her lightly and cleaned all the parts removing a little rustiness off the metal parts and then gave her a good drink of Danish Oil on the wood (this prompted me to give the other wheels a clean and coat of oil too). The leather bearings on the Mother of All were in a sad dry state so have had a good soaking of oil too. Now she is spinning like a dream - a little noisier than my other wheels but that just adds character! The wheel is for my daughter to learn on really, which I think will happen this year more and be much easier on this spinning wheel. The treadling is so light and responsive and as the wheel is weighted it starts straight away and stops smoothly too. She may well go out on loan briefly first, but does need some more bobbins which are hopefully in the making soon when my Dad can get to use his lathe ... when the weather is warm enough to be out in the shed!
.JPG)
Spinning this month has been a roving/tops of merino dyed in deep purples, pink, blue, green which I want to make a 3 ply yarn with a grey - so I need to spin the grey for this soon.
Other spinning has been spinning my way through lots of samples I have of different breeds, a bit of this and that from various places - Winghams, gifts, part fleeces, odds and ends from Guild, etc. I'm building up lots of mini-skein samples, and trying to record notes on breeds and samples too, kind of a spinning journal - a work in progress!
I have a long term project mentioned previously on this blog I think, using as many breeds as I can spin so these samples are perfect for that - for all the breeds I spin I am going to weave a square on my Weavette loom and they will all be sewn together for a finished project to show the variations in breeds, natural colours, etc and have it at demonstrations and open days for people to see. I previously used some of these to make this cushion.
Next Woolly Wednesday I shall have tales of my adventures to Wonderwool! I can't wait x
