Yarn Party

The purple handspun has turned out as a real party yarn, with lots of sparkle, the kind of colour changes I just can't get my camera to capture, and the slight wonkiness that comes of being an inexperienced spinner but gives gorgeous textures when knitted up. I can't wait to knit this. I was about to cast on yet another scarf, but someone at Stitch 'n' Bitch suggested a wee short shrug, which would be much more appropriately festive.

Carders!

I got my first carders a couple of weeks ago, and the possibilities for experimentation have been keeping me very busy. I'm using a purple merino, mixing some with mohair locks in navy, purple, pink and white, some with alpaca in blue or charcoal, and sprinkling some of all these mixtures with various sorts of angelina. I'm aiming for a 3-ply, to mix the colours up some more, and I've only got one single left to spin. The variation in fibres is keeping my fingers on their toes.

Flickr hates me

I finally got a digital camera to replace the one that was burgled in the autumn, so I've been photographing like mad to update my notebook on Ravelry. Flickr, however, has decided it doesn't recognise any of the email addresses I'm aware I have, and since passwords and usernames can be resent or changed, but the tech support people are not going to send out an email address, I have no idea why. Without access to my Flickr account I can't get any pictures on Ravelry, so I'm sticking them on here instead.

I knitted from an actual pattern for once! For the first time since the Broad Street Mittens, in fact. I made the Urchin cap from Knitty, using some wonky old handspun and some gorgeous Colinette mohair. I noticed that all the different colours in these two yarns shaded into each other beautifully, so I held the mohair alongside the handspun during the short row bumpy sections of the hat and used the handspun on its own for the rest of it, including the border. With the pinks and reds it looks more like a sea anemone than a sea urchin, I reckon.


The hat from above and below, and me laughing at the friend I roped in to play photographer. It's hard to explain to a non-knitter why the hat is the focus of the photo, not the person.

Brrrr

After a lot of experimentation, it became clear that the Christmas yarn wanted to be a round, bouncy 3-ply. This was a change from the rather stringy, worsted-ish 2-ply that I'd got used to spinning, and I'm pleased with the result, whose colours, as usual, don't really show in the photos. The fibre is a custom blend of 5 colours (greens and blues) of merino with a shot of white tencel, from Wingham Wool Work. It's begging to be knitted but I've no idea what to make, as the colour is a wee bit too harsh for me to wear near my face without looking both anaemic and jaundiced, which rules out a scarf or hat, at least for myself.

I also rustled up a hot water bottle cover while I was at home for Christmas. This has got plenty of use since, as we're having complicated problems with our oil tank, the simple upshot of which is that it's freezing in the house.