Tag Archives: Spinning Fibre

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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Filed under Batts, Hat, Knitting, Spinning, Spinning Fibre, Yarn

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

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!

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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:

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Tore it into strips:

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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.

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And generally being overwhelmed by cuteness…

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Filed under Batts, Carding, Cute, Knitting, Knitting Patterns, 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