Category Archives: Carding

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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…

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:

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

And a pure 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:

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!

Spinning Gradient Batts

Last week a carded a pretty gradient batt:

And this week I’ve been spinning it up. I spun it all into laceweight singles (somewhere between 2 and 3 ply weight), then navajo plied it to make about a dk weight yarn.

Here’s a pic of the singles:

And the plied yarn:

Really pleased with how it turned out! I’ve got about 180m of it, think I’m going to make a cabled hat. Was planning on making a lacy hat, but I’ve got a bit too much yarn for that if I want to show off all the colours in the gradient…

Two FO’s this week too:

A hat for my aunt in twisted moss stitch. The yarn is Shilasdair luxury dk. It’s dyed with woad and it’s dyed a blue line on the index finger of my right hand where the yarn runs over it. Going to write up the pattern and stick it up on Littletheorem hopefully sometime this week.

Also finished off a little external hard drive cover for Dunc. This is leftover Rowan Felted Tweed from knitting my brother a sweater for his 30th. It’s pretty cute I think!

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Filed under Batts, Carding, Cute, Knitting, Spinning

Tagged as batt, batts, carding, handknit, handspun, knit, knitting, spin, spinning, spinning fiber, Spinning Fibre, wool

August 25, 2013 · 6:13 pm

Etive Cowl

Remember the alpaca I was spinning a few weeks ago? It has metamorphosed into a chunky lace cowl for which I have just released the pattern. Whoop!

Etive cowl is a soft, cosy, lofty cowl that’s really quick to knit. The lace pattern is suitable for beginner knitters and is perfect for handspun yarn. It’s available to purchase on Ravelry here, Etsy here and Craftsy here. I knitted this up as a birthday present for a friend. She used to work in a posh knitwear shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and would always say how soft (and unaffordable) the alpaca scarves were.

I’ve just started a new spinning project which I’m pretty excited about (although I haven’t got very far with it). I’m spinning a gradient batt into colourchanging yarn, which will hopefully become a lace hat in the near future.

So far I’ve carded the batt:

Tore it into strips:

And spun about 10 grams. Why only 10 grams?? We’ve been inundated with guests! My brother, my cousin, his best friend, his girlfriend and his housemate all dropped in this afternoon. He lives in Birmingham and stopped by on his way to visit his Dad in the Highlands. And last night we were dogsitting for a friend (the same friend who now owns the Etive cowl above). So we’ve been spending a lot of time playing tug of war with a squeaky toy pig.

And generally being overwhelmed by cuteness…

Busy Week!

So the last week of the holidays has come and gone, back to school tomorrow (booo). I’m actually pretty excited, I’ve just finished my first year of teaching and I’m incredibly lucky to have a full time job for this year. Having said that, I will miss having so much time for crafting and have spent the past week crafting like a demon.

On the needles:

Pictures aren’t great, but this will be a lace wrap based on traditional Estonian lace stitch patterns. The nuppy bit is meant to look like a lily of the valley plant. It’s very pretty but nupps drive me up the wall! I’ve had to use a cocktail stick for the p7togs.

On the spinning wheel

Been spinning up some fawn alpaca to make a scarf for a friend’s birthday. So soft!! I’m thinking just a simple twisted moss stitch pattern I can knit in a zombie-like state after work…

On the drumcarder

Lots of lovely batts! Soon to be posted in my Etsy shop.

In my shopping bag…

A beautiful (and gigantic!) batt from Spin City. It’s a lovely smooshy blend of faux cashmere, merino, soysilk and firestar. I think this one might turn into a lacy cowl… And they sent a free mini batt too! Think I might ply it with some plain coloured merino and make some slippers.

Out and about

And to top it off we went up a few hills. Camped out in Glen Etive on Thursday night, which ended up being pretty horrific. The midges were as bad as I’ve ever encountered which made cooking tricky (our dinner was half burned, half raw and totally inedible), and my hipflask was jammed shut so no whisky. Had a nice wee stroll up Ben Dorain the next day though, and climbed Beinn Garbh and An Stuc the day after. Pictures above are of Beinn Garbh and An Stuc.

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Filed under Batts, Carding, Hillwalking, Knitting, Scotland, Spinning

Tagged as alpaca, an stuc, batt, beinn garbh, ben dorain, camping, carding, glen etive, handknit, handspun, highlands, hillwalking, killin, knit, knitting, lace knitting, mountains, spinning, Spinning Fibre, tourist information, wool

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Category Archives: Carding

Update

Back to work!

Spinning Gradient Batts

Etive Cowl

Busy Week!

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