SpinIn

It may have taken me over a week to get round to posting about the SpinIn, but that is by no means a reflection of the awesomeness that was that weekend.

Having been a relative newbie to camping, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it.  Being out in a field with such clear skies.  I can't remember the last time I was under such a clear stary sky.  I've missed that experience.  I may be an utter city girl, but there's certain things like a star filled sky that just make my heart sing and provoke such primal feelings in me.  I could just stare for eons, completely lost in it, even if I can barely point out two constellations.  Just shear beauty.  And I love being cosy around a campfire, cider/wine/gingerbeer in hand, and good, even if a little abstract and random, conversation flowing. It kind of goes with the primal thing. It's definitely a reason to do it again.

However, those lovely clear skies which lead to me getting sunburnt during the days, and such beautiful sights at night, lead to very chilly temperatures at night.  I was really glad to have my snuggly Ryeland handspun shawl to wrap around my nose.  The first morning greeted us with a thick fog, which was certainly atmospheric before it burnt off.

I participated in several workshops, so there was plenty of fun shared experiences and chances to learn.  I was pretty tired following an eleven day stretch at work, including a week of long days on call, so I also really enjoyed just sitting back and soaking in the atmosphere.  I didn't get to take my wheel as there just wasn't enough room in the car, so I spindled a bit on my new club spindle, with my new club fibre, which is just the yummiest neutral stoney shades.

 And a dabbling dyer's dream - getting to play with a professional's palette:

This was the product of the the dying session.  It was so much fun and utterly fascinating to be around some many varied expressions of creativity and to see how differently people approached it.  We all got to do three things - mine were a random choice of "ooh, they look like pretty colours" on BFL, an experiment in gradient dying on Falkland, and a fun crazy rainbow attempt on some silk hankies.

There were trips to see the sheep:

And times of just admiring the scenery:

And just plan ol' sitting in a circle of crafting:

It was so much fun and such utter temptation!  My bags came back over flowing with goodies, so much fibre, I think I've pretty much replaced what I spun up during the Tour this year, which is a nice thought... now if only I had the time to actually use some of it up!

It's that time of the year again.

It's the Tour de Fleece, which means, for the first time in ages, I have something worthwhile (well, in my opinion at least!) to blog about.  Actually, there's been lots of things, here and there to blog about, but I've never quite got round to it.  Can you tell the difference between GP land (where I had no on calls or weekend work) which ended at the start of December and being back as a hospital doctor where I've suddenly got no time, and work week long periods of nights, and all sorts of crazy weekend stuff too.  Yup, my last post was at the end of November.  It makes a lot of difference to my time.

So day one of the Tour, and my contributions look a little like this (making the most of the weekend, I splurged!).  Singles of some rainbow gradient dyed BFL, which I will n-ply once I get round to it.  I've never been entirely satisfied with my n-plying on the wheel, so I'm determined to get in some practice with the Tour.

And two out of three batts in Mystique colourway - think sparkly blackcurrent juice and you've nearly got it!  They're from HilltopCloud and contain merino, shetland, tussah silk, yak down and some sparkle).  I picked them up, along with a dusky pink set at Wonderwool this year.  Katie does some amazing stuff, and oh so pretty!  And oh so difficult to resist - see:

The day's collection (rubbish colours as taken last thing at night, and the camera didn't know what to do with itself!):

I also found a bit of time for some knitting today too, finishing off the first of two cushions to be done in natural dyed aran from a recent dye session.  Just had a rinse and is now drying, ready to be sewn up tomorrow, if dried.

I just need to decide how to do the other cushion.  I have plenty of all the colours left, but not as proportionally as much purple.  So I was thinking of strips of some kind, either just plain old stripes of different heights, with perhaps some garter ridges thrown in to break up the stocking stitch - it would look pretty retro, and hopefully cool!  Or something a little more adventurous (and requiring more maths!) like the lizard ridge blanket stitch pattern.

My other knitting project on the go is an aran-style set of baby dungarees, because the pattern is too cute to resist.  They've grown since this photo - they're now just over three completed diamonds high.  The pattern is from the Fyberspates baby collection and is just adorable!

TGCC (The Grand Christmas Challenge) update 1

I've finally finished the pieces of the biggest project of my TGCC.  I looked through my stash, decided which yarn I had the most of, and picked this to knit Jenna's cardigan.  It was a sock weight yarn from Fyberspates which I had got over a year and a half ago in a sale.  It was in the sale as it was unlabelled, and Jeni (the owner/creater/seller of Fyberspates) couldn't remember what it was or meterage etc.  It's got some alpaca content, and that's about all we know!  I've had some problems with it, it's been staining my hands blue!  I'm not sure if it's excess blue dye or just poorly fixed.  I know from having done dying myself, the blue dye is trickier to fix and takes lots of rinsing. 

So in soaking it today for blocking, the water turned a horrible colour.  I'll need to knit on button bands as finishing, so I've had to soak some of the yarn to balance it out so that they match the main body of the knitting.  It'll also be a good opportunity to see if it still stains my hands.  If it does, I will probably try heat fixing the finished garment in a vinegar solution.

And whilst that dries, I have swatched and made a start on the next biggest project - Morgan's cardigan.  Looking through the yarns at hand, the next biggest quantity was some "double knit" SW merino which I had dyed.  However, this yarn, as lovely and soft as it is, it's horribly thin for a DK.  I generally don't bother swatching (yeah, I know, I'm a lazy knitter!), but I wanted to see what it was like knitted up on 4mm needles as called for by the pattern I had picked.  It looked okay.... I suppose, but looked much better and even on the 3.5mm needles.  So I had to do some lateral thinking and maths about the sizing, but I've cast on and done the first couple of centimeters.

 On the 4mm needles, and a close up:

 And on the 3.5mm needles, a denser, firmer fabric, with much neater and more even stitches - see up close:

 

 The two swatches side by side, pinned out, but not stretched/blocked.  They are both the same number of stitches across, which goes to show the difference that a half millimeter makes!

And finally, a parting shot of the start made today.  It's a different skein of the batch, and has fewer pale areas and the colours are much richer.  Clearly this was the skein on the top of the pile in the dying pot.  I'll use the middle one next, and only use the bottom one (from which I did my swatches) if I have to.  I really like how the darker skeins look, and it's a shame that the bottom one is so different and pale in comparison.

So nearly there!

With the wool fleece all but finished (and now all in my freezer - apparently there's a risk of nasty little bugs that eat wool, and since my stash has become increasingly valuable, I've taken preventative action), I've moved onto the only other thing I had in my flat to spin.  The silk hanky I made on the dye your own workshop back in February.  It did look a little something like this before I got my grubby spindling hands on it!

It is now going through the most beautiful transformation, which is leaving me wishing that I had more as it's so pretty when spun.  I have to carefully peel away the layers to get a single stretched out cocoon at a time, predrafting (necessary here, rather than a beginner's cheat!) and spinning.  *sigh*

It's working out so beautifully and so much the colours that I love in life.  It's also coming out very fine and quite even.  Can you tell that I'm so in love with this!?  I've left it in Bristol as I returned to Weston today.  There's just about five more cocoons to do.  It's going to be such a short length, especially if I ply it.  So am tempted to leave it as an ultra fine single.

So back in Weston.  I was fairly good today in terms of doing revison and going into the hospital.  So I rewarded myself with a long stroll around my favourite haunts and some new ones, armed with my camera.  I took loads of photos, so many of which I've very impressed with, and somewhat proud.  I don't think I could really put them all up here, but I have uploaded my album here, on google albums, if anyone wants to check them out.  I had a short list of 24, which I decicided I had to wittle down to just (!) these:

The bluebells are the inspiration for my blog title, they're teasing me with how close they are to blanketing the field!

The sun was almost directly behind this tree, giving it the most gorgeous halo effect on the photos!  Pretty.

Spot the cat (?maybe a dog, not sure, was too far away to see!)

Then I decided to get some interesting perspective shots of the back end of The Hill, and show different views of the church.  The shear rock face is stunning and makes for a really interesting positioning of the church, which I don't think my previous posts have got across.

I love the humour of this photo.  The boats all lined up in the dry(ish) docks.  Clearly their owner's pride and joy.  All neatly lined up in their slots.  And then there's this tiny little row boat in the line.  A serious case of mine's bigger than yours going on!

I only noticed when I got home that this shot, of trying to get perspective on the cliff, managed to capture a bird of some sort, soaring high above me!  Very cool!

Trying to capture the bird on the branch, sitting next to the bird in the nest. But bird number one decided to give me an action shot instead, which was also pretty darn cool.

All in all, a lovely stroll out in the sunshine.  Still full of so much promise of things to come, ready to brighten up my revision dreary days.