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!

A flying visit

Sitting, back in Yeovil, after a nice few days away.  It has to be said, I was feeling pretty knackered and somewhat lacking in my usual drive and energy to see everyone - so sorry for that my dear Derby friends.

But I did still manage to catch up with my parents, have a lovely steak dinner for my dad's birthday, see Emma's new house (yay!), spend some quality chilling and knitting time at Sarah's, wonder round town with Sarah, have a nice lunch out with Lorri (how I've missed her!) and go Christmas shopping with her, go to a baby bump blessing, go out for a drink with friends and catch up on some episodes of House which my mum has been recording on Sky+.  I suppose that's not too bad going for 4days.

And finally, a few photos, because I'm still tired and couldn't be bothered so much with the words.

 Because handspun toddlers are just so darned cute!

 The girls getting henna

 Henna on my shoulder (above) courtesy of Lorri, and on my right leg (below) courtesy of Sarah.  My other leg got doodled on by SamSam, Jenna and Morgan.  I love walking around knowing discretely tucked under my clothes are lovely works of art and creativity from my friends.

 The focus, of course was Sarah's bump, and most people got stuck in, including Sarah herself, from her upside down view.  She was highly decorated by the end!

 And a fun first for me, batik silk painting (using child friendly PVA glue).  I can't wait to see the finished, dried, washed silks.

 

And finally, some shots of my drinks out with Sam, Kev and Lorri.

 

TGCC update 4

So after my deliberations of last night, I have decided against using the multicoloured handspun, and against a cardigan/jacket - I've just made a Tomten for this little guy, it'd be too similar in concept.  I have instead decided to improvise a very simple raglan, knitted in the round with some fair isle attempts, using some of my other handspun as the contrast - a lovely marled effect yarn made from a humbug top.  It's a little closer in weight to the Welsh Black Mountain, and provides a lovely rustic grey next to the black, and is very effective.   And it's all completely natural, straight off the sheep colour, which I love the idea of! I guess the yarns to be around an aran-chunky kind of weight, so I've decided to go for size 5mm needles, to get a fairly dense fabric, which really balances out the lofty, bounciness of the yarn, and also, as the WBM was one of the first things I spun, it's a little uneven, and a tighter gauge helps with that too.  It's knitting up really fast in comparison to the fingering weight 3.5mm needle stuff I have been doing, so that's just great!  I may be finished it tomorrow... but more likely Friday.  Here's a shot from a little earlier:

TGCC 2011 - Update 3 a.k.a. - I forgot what a pain in the behind sewing together a cardi is!

Jenna's cardigan is finished.  And it's really reminded me why I like knitting in the round or knitting in as much of a single piece as possible!  It's a real pain sewing it all together at the end, and I'm not 100% happy with one of the sleeves - I think the needle I used was too chunky, and it looks neater on the other side where I used a finer needle... but maybe I'm being a little fussy.

And I've put Morgan's cardigan on the blocking wires.  Hopefully give it a good chance to get rid of that annoying stocking stitch curling under.

And now I'm on to deciding what to tackle next.  I really an torn between wanting to get the cardigans/sweaters out the way and being dreadfully bored of stocking stitch and bigger projects.  I'm also toying with the idea of making a hand-spun, fair isle, lined and hooded cardigan for Conner, but I have no pattern besides some ideas in my head, and no experience lining something I've knitted... but I have a really cool idea of combining this black/dark brown yarn with the splash of colour that would come with the second yarn, which was from a scrap swap.  I'm really not sure what to do and whether it's a good idea or not.  They're both two plies and bouncy(ish) yarns, but the Welsh Black is much courser and slightly thicker than the coloured stuff, and I've never done colour work... Mmmm.... will need to think about it a little more me thinks...

(It would be the two skeins on the right, well, actually, half of the middle one and all of the red/orange/blue one on the right)