March 9, 2014 · 12:12 pm

Update

Busy doing lots of knitting, carding and spinning this week, and here are the results!#

Here’s some new sets of batts that have just been put up in my Etsy shop.

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They’re a blend of black Finnish wool (it’s a lot like bfl) and merino. I’ve also got some secret batts on the go for a knitting project that should be done in a week or two.

There’s lots on the needles too. I’ve got a lacy version of my Mosely Cardigan on the go which should be finished pretty soon. I hope to have the pattern out for testing in April and released sometime in the Summer. Here’s a sneak peek! It’s in Madelintosh Merino Light which is just a joy to knit. The colour is a lot more vivid in real life, a beautiful deep pine colour. Can’t wait until it’s done!

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The neckline’s at the bottom of the picture and the two holes are armholes. Here’s a closeup of the stitch pattern:

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I’ve also got a fairisle yoked jumper on the needles. We’ve been watching the Killing and I was feeling inspired! The yarn is BC Garn dk. I’ve never used BC Garn before but they have a lovely range of colours for fairisle. It’s just the right weight for me too. A pretty light dk so you can get lots of detail into the colourwork, but not so lightweight that it would take years to knit a sweater.

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And finally finished spinning my birthday fibre! Think I’m going to use it for stripes in  a sweater, or maybe a giant smooshy scarf!

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This week I’ve also started a test knit for my latest sweater pattern, Buchanan Street Sweater for my knitting pattern line, Littletheorem Knits. If you would like to volunteer to be a tester, please head over to the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group! Here’s some pictures of it…

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February 23, 2014 · 7:25 pm

Back to work!

Had a proper fibre artist’s weekend this weekend. Seems like so long since I’ve sat down at my wheel or drumcarder! Feeling much better for it too…

So here’s some pictures. Got a new fibre order in this week, with lots of gorgeous baby camel and different coloured baby  alpaca fibres. So here’s this weekend’s offerings! Carded some baby camel, merino and silk batts:

merino, baby camel, silk batt

Some baby alpaca, merino and silk batts in colourway “Ocean”:

alpaca merino silk batts

And a pure merino gradient batt:

merino gradient batt

All of which are now available in the Caora Fibres Etsy shop.

And I finally got round to finishing off spinning the braid my Mum got me for my birthday way back in September. Here’s the singles:

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which I Navajo plied. Don’t have a great picture of the finished yarn yet, when it’s all dry next week I’ll put one up!

 

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February 2, 2014 · 6:44 pm

Chunky Fairisle Cushion

Published a new knitting pattern on my Littletheorem website today.

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The imaginatively named “Chunky Fairisle Cushion” pattern is available for free on the Littletheorem Knits website and on Ravelry.

I cheated a little to avoid a jog in the round, so this is perhaps a pattern that fairisle purists should avoid. Rather than steeking, I didn’t knot new colours to old as I knitted, but knotted them all up pretty firmly at the end to cinch it all together. I also (and this was very naughty) didn’t weave in the fifty odd loose ends, but just trimmed the knots and left them inside the cushion. Please feel free to back away from this pattern in horror, but I think it all looks ok, and for time-poor knitters it’ll certainly do the job!

Here’s some more pictures!

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January 26, 2014 · 6:07 pm

Cashmere Sweater

Finished off a sweater this weekend. It’s a pretty simple design but I’m very fond of it. It’s a longer length and nipped in a bit at the waist so it’s very flattering. There’s a textured almost lacy panel at the shoulders to add a bit of interest. The yarn is undyed cashmere from Devon Fine Fibres, and is probably the softest yarn I’ve ever worked with, like wearing a a soft, fuzzy cloud. Anyway, here’s some photos:

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Now I just need to write up the pattern!

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January 19, 2014 · 5:51 pm

Back to blogging

It’s been a long time since I lasted posted. Work got the better of me for a few months there. I also took some time off from working on my online stuff over Christmas and focussed on just knitting, which is a bit odd, never really felt the need to have a break from it all before. But I’m back now!

Been doing a bit of spinning this weekend. Got a beautiful braid for my birthday all the way back in September:

spinning fibre braid

I wound it into a ball and I’ve been pulling it apart at colour changes to try to keep them as separate as possible:spinning fibre spinning keeping colour changes separate

Impossible to keep the colours totally separate (for me at least!) but it’s looking pretty good so far:

spinning keeping colour changes separate

Here’s a close up:

spinning keeping colour changes separate

My plan at the moment is to Navajo ply it and use it for stripes in a jumper. I’m thinking maybe in a dark royal blue yarn with stripes of the handpun through it. I’ve been thinking a lot about using my handspun and just regular machine spun yarn in a project, think this would look pretty cute!

 

 

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November 10, 2013 · 4:15 pm

Christmas Knitting

It’s all systems go round here now in terms of Christmas knitting! Have a list of 8 things I want to knit as gifts and have managed to finish one (yes one) so far. Oh well.

Here’s some progress pics so far! Starting with the project that’s actually done, this Felted Lace Wrap will be going to one of my oldest and dearest friends:

felted lace wrap by littletheorem

And here’s a few feet of scarf:

double moss stitch scarf

Edges are a bit scrappy because a lot of the knitting was done overnight on a bus to Alton Towers on a school trip! Going to crochet round it. Everything will be fine.

Not much else to show in terms of gift knitting, but I do have a couple of pictures from my latest obsession: Fair Isle knitting. Here’s a cushion cover I started that is currently on hold. I’m knitting my mum a Fair Isle cowl though. More pictures of that to come soon!

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Only downside is the loose ends!

fair isle loose ends

 

aaaarrgghhh!

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October 20, 2013 · 7:25 pm

October Week

We’ve been off on holiday this week, but the weather’s been manky so don’t have many pictures to show you…. Spent the first couple of days applying for jobs, seems like there’s no time to get things like that done during term time. We had one pretty nice day on Tuesday so went and climbed Ben Vane. It’s one of those hills that looks quite small from below but actually has about ten false summits so you end up pretty grumpy by the time you do get to the top! It was a nice scramble though and we even got a bit of sunshine.

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Went up to Inveraray on Friday. We’d been up in February for our anniversary and climbed Ben Cruachan in the snow. Ben Cruachan has a hydroelectric power plant inside it (!!) and we went on the guided tour of it this time round. Very strange being right inside a mountain! Also had a look round that Castle in Inveraray, lovely grounds too but sadly it was tipping it down.

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Very Disney Castle-ish and pretty inside too. We stayed at the Brambles B&B which was really lovely, really good breakfast in the morning too! Then we climbed Beinn a’Chochuill and Beinn Eunaich the next day. Would have been a lovely walk if it hadn’t been for the rain, wind and fog! Not many pictures sadly given the weather conditions but we did catch a glimpse of two curious sheep right near the summit of Beinn Eunaich:

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And I released a new knitting pattern this week!

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Felted Lace Wrap is a quick, easy lace knit that works up fast in worsted weight yarn. The wrap is lightly felted to soften it up and give it a fuzzy, worn-in look. You can find it on Ravelry, Etsy and Craftsy.

Felted Lace Wrap pattern by Littletheorem

Yarn: Croft Wools Aran weight Gotland yarn, one 250g skein. Available by mail order from http://www.croftwools.co.uk/wool.html

Gauge: 14 sts = 4” with 6.5mm / US 10.5 needles before blocking.

Needles: One 40” 6.5mm / US 10.5 circular needle.

Extras: Two stitch markers

Dimensions: 16” x 60”

Felted Lace Wrap pattern by Littletheorem

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October 14, 2013 · 4:45 pm

New Patterns

What a week! It was the last week of term here so been busy with school  award ceremonies, plays and day-to-day mayhem, as well as getting two job applications in. For months, it seems like there’ve been no teaching jobs advertised anywhere that we could move to with D’s job (and his job’s quite incredibly flexible about where he could live!) and then three come up at once. So with a bit of luck we could be moving to Perth, Stirling or back home to Fife. Fingers crossed!

Haven’t managed to get any spinning done in what seems like weeks now, but I do have a bit of knitting to show you. I’ve just released Asphodel Shawl on Ravelry.

Asphodel Shawl Pattern by Littletheorem. lace shawl, geometric design.

I really love this shawl, it’s a pretty geometric design that goes from big diamonds to small diamonds with a pretty lace border. And it’s giant! You can totally wrap yourself up in it. I love it for reading in bed to keep my shoulders warm.

Asphodel Shawl lace knitting pattern by Littletheorem. Geometric lace design.

It’s also available on Craftsy and Etsy, in case you’re interested!

Here’s another FO to show you. This is knitted up from the Gotland yarn I bought from Croft Wools up on Applecross in the summer.

Lace scarf handknitted from Gotland yarn.

I’m hopefully going to get the pattern written up this week…. It’s lightly felted which really softened up the yarn and gives it a really pretty finish. Haven’t thought of a name for it yet either, thinking of pattern names is so hard!

er FO to show you. This is knitted up from the Gotland yarn I bought from Croft Wools up on Applecross in the summer.

Lace scarf handknitted from Gotland yarn.

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October 6, 2013 · 5:12 pm

Birthday Goodies!!

Ok, so it’s been a couple of weeks since my birthday, but I thought I’d show off the yarn and fibre I’ve got now. (The last couple of weeks I’ve had nice beach and walking pictures to share but this week’s been a bit boring!)

So, here they all are:

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The spinning fibre is from Three Waters Farm, it’s a polwarth silk blend.

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That’s from my parents, as is:

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This skein of laceweight merino from Welthase. It’s going to be a scarf with a lacy leafy kind of pattern.

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D’s parents gave me 7 (!!) balls of Jamiesons of Shetland aran weight. I’m going to knit up a fair isle cushion for the flat with that I think…

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And my little brother got me a skein of Abstract Cat yarn. It’s handdyed, sockweight bfl, not sure what I’ll knit with this but the yarn is gorgeous!

Sorry to be such a show off!

Knitting wise this week, I have finally made a start on a second project with my gradient batt yarn. I started knitting up a shawl, but was wildly overoptimistic when planning how far the yarn would go, so it’s been ripped back and is being knitted into a hat.

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You can’t see very clearly, but it’s twisted 1×1 rib split into 6 sections which will spiral round. Hopefully lots of progress will be made by next week and you’ll be able to see what I mean!

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September 30, 2013 · 7:35 pm

Glencoe

Long weekend for Glasgow schools this week, so I had Friday and today off. D managed to get time off too so we went up north for a bit of fresh air and exercise!

On Saturday we went up Buachaille Etive Beag. It’s one of my absolute favourite hills. Amazing views and a beautiful airy ridge for really not much effort at all. And the weather was gorgeous, maybe a tiny bit hazy but a perfect temperature. Great walking weather! Here’s some pics:

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We stayed in a “microlodge” at the Blackwater Hostel in Kinlochleven. They’re a bit like a cross between a shed and a barrel, but with two beds, a telly, kettle, microwave etc. All you really need and very reasonably priced.

Next day we climbed the “three Sgurrs” at Ballachulish. The weather this time was immaculate. I don’t think I’ve ever climbed a hill in better conditions. From the top we could see all the way out to Jura, to Skye, we could see munros in Torridon, and beautiful views of hills nearby. Wonderful views to the Mamores, we’re planning on doing the ring of Steall in the October holidays now.

An auspicious start to the day with a field jam-packed with sheep:

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A scramble up the spur to the first top, Sgurr Bhan:

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Then round a breathtaking ridge to the first munro top, Sgurr Dhearg:

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Here’s the panorama from the top, absolutely unbelievable! (You can click it for a better view.)

Sgorr Dherg Panarama

Down to the low point, then a bit of a scramble up to the final top:

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What a walk! Feeling pretty sore today!

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