Tag Archives: handspun

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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Filed under Batts, Carding, Knitting, Knitting Patterns, Spinning, Spinning Fibre, Yarn

Islay Hat

Added a new free hat pattern to my Littletheorem site today. Islay Hat is a simple, unisex hat available in two sizes. The stitch pattern is Twisted Moss Stitch, it’s become a firm favourite with me!

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The pattern’s available for free on my Littletheorem website and you can download it from Ravelry too.

I know I said last week that I was planning on making a hat from my handspun gradient yarn:

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But I think it’s going to become a shawl. Here’s the (very limited!) progress so far. You can see bits of pinky red just turning up at the edge:

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Couldn’t get a better shot of the whole thing, knitting it up on old needles and they’re very twisty!

A wee treat turned up for me in the post this week too. It’s my first year as a fully qualified teacher so I’ve had a pretty big payrise. When my first month’s pay turned up, I of course had to look into purchasing a sweater quantity of cashmere. I found a website selling the only uk grown cashmere, from a gorgeous farm in Devon. And the cashmere is amazing!! Really soft and smooshy with a beautiful halo. It’s going to be a bottom-up, raglan sweater in double moss stitch if all goes to plan.

Here’s a pic of the yarn

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And a close-up of the swatch:

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Mmmmm, fuzzy…..

 

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Filed under Hat, Knitting, Knitting Patterns, Spinning, Teaching

Spinning Gradient Batts

Last week a carded a pretty gradient batt:

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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:

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And the plied yarn:

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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.

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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

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:

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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

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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

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

In my shopping bag…

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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.

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Out and about

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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

Caora Sweater Pattern

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I’ve designed a new sweater pattern knitted up with Caora batts. The irony is that Scotland is currently experiencing a bit of a heatwave (this is very, very unusual!) but it never hurts to have a chunky sweater on hand.

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It’s a quick knit in chunky yarn, and pretty plain to show off your handspun. Chunky garter stitch edgings and cute buttons seal the deal.

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Anyway, enough chat, here’s the pdf! CaoraSweater. 

Caora batts can be purchased at Caora Fibres Etsy Shop.

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Filed under Knitting Patterns