Cop Out

I want to post again today, but I don't have much to share.
The chickens are all well (we think) and we're still waiting for our first egg.
I've frogged the Nerd Wars tank top, and I'll be reknitting that (probably in round 2 of Nerd Wars!) and I've also frogged the cowl I started and I've cast on a new one with the same yarn.

I have made a wordle of the last month of posts on my blog, here it is.


(clicky linky to see bigger)

Chickens!

A few days ago I posted about our new chicken run which we assembled in the garden.

On Friday we visited a nice couple who had quite a lot of chickens. They had quite a few breeds there, and they were all interested, perky and generally fun.
I wanted to have three chickens (the house could probably take four large hens, but I don't want to test that right now!) so we were considering which three breeds to go for.

The most friendly and docile chickens were the Gingernut Rangers. These are a cross breed of chicken, the product of a Rhode Island Red and a Light Sussex. They're chickens which look like chickens. The one we picked - well, she picked us. She was scratching around and pecking my wellies, and hubby picked her up easily.



We've called her Buffy, she seems to be in charge (even though she's the smaller of the three - she is also the oldest)

A close second were the light Sussex hens. They were a bit more wary of us, but the owners were able to pick up our favourite quite quickly.



This one is Willow. She's a bit nervous of the camera noise that my iPhone was making! She settled into the run quite quickly. She doesn't seem to be the brightest of the three chickens though!

Finally we were originally thinking about getting an amber star. However, while we were there I fell in love with the Maran X that they had. We think they were Maran x Rhode Island, so she should be a similar temperament to Buffy, but maybe a bit more flightly. She's a beautiful colour, grey-blue, with a black hood.



And the perfect name for this one: Faith.
I'm sorry about the picture quality of Faith, she wasn't keen on having her photo taken, and so she's a bit blurry. She's also so dark coloured that the iPhone couldn't cope with her in those light levels!

We had put fresh newspaper and sawdust down for them on Friday, which we found they had made a right mess of, so we put fresh bedding down for them today. I think this is probably because they've been cooped up (quite literally) in the coop. Now that they have the run to wander in, they shouldn't mess the coop up quite so much.

While hubby was making lunch, I took them the end and innards from the pepper we had. They went absolutely mad for it! They also loved the mealworms we gave them to encourage them out of the coop!

I'm really excited to have chickens. It's been a dream of mine for a while. Hopefully when we get a bit more used to them we might be able to consider getting some rescue hens.
First things first though, we need to build them an extra run.

Voyager Tank - Complete!

So, I submitted my Voyager Tank Top (well, sleeveless cardigan) for team unity in Nerd Wars! Yey!



Pattern: “Uffington” from the Scrumptious Collection Volume 1
Yarn: RYC Cashmerino Chunky
Needles: 6mm and 5mm (I didn’t have any 5.5mm circs)
Modifications: None!
Verdict: The pattern itself is well written, and the garment came out to the size it should have. I got the correct gauge with the yarn I was using. Everything went as it should, with just one problem:
The tank top and I are not the same shape.

It’s hard to see from these pictures, but I’ll try to explain…



The shoulders of the top are the right shape and size for me, I’m happy with the proportions here. But there is a bit of looseness on the back below the arm shaping.
I chose to knit the 12-14 size, on account of my bust (in a bra) being 37 inches – which is in the pattern’s range for that size. However, I think that rather more of the 37 inches are on the front of me than the back. I should have considered that when knitting this one, and maybe made a smaller size on the back and a larger size on the front.

The waist shaping isn’t right, but I’ll come to that in a moment…



I didn’t do such a good job of picking up for the front button bands. This means that the neckline isn’t properly square. I’m not totally sure how I would rectify it, probably needed to pick up another stitch at the top there, or leave one hanging from the rib or something.

Also, the button band and buttonhole band are pulling in way more than I would like. I think I should have picked up more stitches than I did, especially considering that I was using a needle which is 0.5mm smaller than recommended.

The next two issues are really the same issue combined. I have quite a long torso, and my natural waist is quite low. You can imagine how much fun this makes buying clothes in regular shops. Anyway, I digress.
I knitted the top as written. What I should have done is lengthened the body by between 2 and 4 inches (see where the pale orange top comes on the pic of the back, that’s really my minimum top length) and moved the waist shaping accordingly. Of course, had I done that then the circumference of the bottom ribbing might not have been several inches too wide either.

Anyway, I’m not comfortable with the top, so I will not be wearing it. This means that I have two options:
1. Find someone who is the same shape as the top and give it to them.
2. Frog the whole top (sewn in buttons, woven in ends, seams and button bands and all) and re-knit.
I’m currently thinking about re-knitting it. As a tank top rather than a cardigan!
You see, I love the square neck, the pattern up the back, the shape of the shoulders. I just don’t love the fit around the bottom part, and I’m pretty sure I can modify it in such a way that this will work.
I think that the problems I’ve had with the fit are entirely down to the shape of me, which is a shame!

Of course, having read Ysolda’s book, I should have seen this coming.

Still, knitting the whole thing only took me about three weeks which is much quicker than any of my other sweaters. I think I can reknit it in the same sort of timescales. Especially if I do a sweater version, because that will mean no button/buttonhole bands!

I can also learn from the other mistake I made while knitting this garment: slipped stitches on the edge do not help if you will be picking up stitches for a button band. On socks it’s a real help, I don’t know why it’s different for a sweater, but I found that the slipped stitches made me want to pick up a lot less stitches. Not good. But they did help with the sides which needed seaming. (That said, I might take the controversial approach of knitting it in the round, if my cable is long enough! Save on seams!)

Completed, submitted, going to be frogged.

Chicken Run!

At the weekend we built the chicken run.
It's from Steve Fisher Woodworking near Selby. Not the most communicative, but great quality as far as I can see!



I've ordered feeders, drinkers, food, grit, treats and the like.
It's all very exciting.

We're going to view some chickens on Friday, all being well. Also near Selby. (Who knew that Selby would be the Chicken Capital of the East Riding!?) We're hoping to get three different breeds because being able to tell the difference in the eggs means we'll know if one of them is not pulling her weight unwell. I've got an idea for names for them too, but I'll share that when I'm sure that they look like their names.

-o0o-

On the knitting front, the buttons arrived and I finished all the knitting. I just have to weave in the ends and then sew on the buttons. Last night I didn't fancy weaving in the ends...



so I left it for this evening.
I'm not sure it's going to help.
But I can't wear it without weaving in the ends. And I can't submit it for Nerd Wars either.

Slack

Yes, I’ve been a slack blogger lately. This is largely because I’ve been concentrating on knitting for Nerd Wars, and this weekend, sorting out the chicken run!

What have I been knitting for Nerd Wars? Well, while the front and back of my “tank top” were blocking



I quickly knit a little wash cloth. It’s turned out rather smaller than I would have hoped, but it looks rather good.



Pattern: Baby Trekkie Wash Cloth from Wilderness Witch Knits
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton (white)
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: Pretty cool, and perfect for Nerd Wars! I don’t think this cotton is very good for wash cloths, it’s quite thin for Aran weight. It is really soft though, and would be fab for baby garments I think!

I’m anticipating finishing the “tank top” any time now, I have the two arm cuffs to knit and buttons to add and it will be done. I’ve ordered some buttons online; they should be on their way soon I hope. I’m excited to be able to wear it!
It would have been finished this weekend, but I got distracted with the chicken run, with felting some slippers for hubby, with cooking and generally faffing around!
I could use a long sleeved t-shirt to wear underneath it though. Maybe I’ll have to go shopping!

Feelin’ hot hot hot!

Well, this weekend just gone was lovely, weather wise! It’s very odd that it’s October, and in the north of England we decided to have a barbecue.

Now, if you’d told me back in September (which was both chilly and rainy) that we’d be barbecuing on the 1st October, I would have laughed at you.

But there we were.



I had a lovely morning sitting outside in the sun knitting (No, I’m not preggers, that dress just isn’t very flattering)




And what was I knitting?



My first Nerd Wars project, of course! This is going to be cool! (Well, actually I expect it to be warm, it’s knit in RYC cashsoft chunky. I love this yarn so much!)

Sadly, this means that I’ve pretty much stopped work on my other projects. I think I’ll easily get it finished in the time, so I can work on other things. I plan to do so tonight at knitting group when I will knit on super-secret-gift-for-hubby.
Of course, while hubby is around, I don’t knit on that, so it’s not progressing as quickly as I would like.

Go Team!

I have my team assignment for Nerd Wars!

Woo!

I’m quite excited about it. In three days I will know what the possible challenges are, and then I can get crafting!

I’m over half way through the singles of the Vampire Rock merino, so it’s unlikely that it will be spun and plied by the 1st, but you never know! I’ll keep working on it.

I’m looking forward to seeing the ravatars of other Nerd Wars competitors too; there have been some really creative ones in the forums so far.

X all the Y

I have been enjoying the meme known as X all the Y.

The original can be seen at hyperbole and a half

It’s really struck home with me, this simple but effective way of communicating how you feel about performing a task. Break it down into an easily repeated message.

I didn’t realise that it had become a “snowclone” (I had to look that up!) until I was kindly linked to this meme about Star Wars , and then I was hooked.

I’ve been finding many things fit into the X all the Y! and X all the Y? templates.

And so, I proudly present, my first meme snowclone.

-o0o-

When I started my new job, as a business analyst, this is how I felt

But sometimes, when it’s all getting too much and I’d rather go home and knit, I feel more like

Excited!

Three days ago I received a PM in my Ravelry inbox.
The PM was from one of the moderators of a group on Ravelry called Nerd Wars (Rav Link).

The concept is pretty simple; knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers from Ravelry join teams representing their favourite nerdy topic (ranging from Star Wars to Books to Board Games!) and then these teams compete by crafting along to challenges for points.

Points can be earned for projects which meet the brief, and bonus points are available for projects which meet the brief in a way that reflects ones chosen nerd-dom. On top of that there are even more bonus points for projects which meet a challenge set by the team.

It’s been a while since I took part in any group crafting, and I think I’ve really only joined in with swaps in the past. This will be my first real craft-along!

I’m quite excited about it, and even though I won’t know for sure which team I will be on for this round (I’ve joined in time for tournament 3) until next week, I’ve been designing a new Ravatar for my first choice team: Team Enterprise. I’ll show it here if I do join that team. (The team is Star Trek, in case you couldn’t guess)
My other options are Rogue Squadron (Star Wars) and the Unseen University (Discworld).

There will be a challenge for each month, so I’m working to get my spinning wheel free (I’m about a third of the way through spinning my Vampire Rock fibre from a Little Bit Sheepish.



I also have the super secret Christmas gift for hubby on the needles, that’s not going to be done before the 1st October! The Lava cowl might be done by then if I concentrate on it for a bit. It’s quite a fast knit as it is heavy DK and on nice big needles!

And then there’s the two swallowtails. I’ve ripped the pink one back to just prior to the second-to-last lace section, but I still need to pick up the stitches from the lifeline and then re-knit the edge. I’m almost at the end of the budding lace on the blue one, though it would go quicker if I stopped making mistakes on it!
Depending on what else I decide to do on Monday and Tuesday next week (when I have two days off work) I might get one of the WIPs finished.

I have a week until round 1 of tournament 3 begins!

Having a Wrest in the sunshine

At the weekend hubby and I visited Wrest Park. It’s a really pretty place, and the weather was amazing.



We strolled through the gardens



And saw beautiful buildings



And a gorgeous library



It was a lovely day out, I’d recommend it to anyone who likes old buildings, beautiful scenery and that sort of thing!

I did have a sad moment this weekend though.

My Swallowtail, which I’ve been wearing as a scarf for a while now, had a mysterious hole in it.



On closer inspection, there were a couple of holes, so I decided to rip out the final section and re-knit it.

While I was ripping back, I ended up with about 12 different short-ish lengths of yarn. I don’t think that any of them were unrelated to the holes I already knew about, but it did make me nervous about that fiendish creature; the moth larvae. I have checked all of my knitted garments for holes, and I’m looking into storage options which are breathable but mothproof.

At least I have plenty of the yarn left.

And in the meantime, I’m knitting another swallowtail anyway! It’s only small again, but will be pretty when finished. This one is in the same yarn as my wedding shawl (you know, the one I didn’t wear on the day!)

Ghoughpteighbteau

If I’d named this post ghoti, you’d know what I was talking about.
Or would you?

I’m talking about phonetics. It was a discussion on the news this morning.
I did a little reading on the web, and came across a wiki article about phonics that made me realise that when I was at school, we certainly did synthetic phonics as a way of learning to read. I remember the flash cards with OO, EE and TH on them.

I also remember, and believe that most people my age will remember, the videos we used to watch about spelling – specifically magic e and Francis Drake (the duck) and the O-O sound (I wish I could find a clip for that!)

So, I bet you’re still wondering about the title of this post? Perhaps you’ve figured it out?

P as in hiccough (pronounced hic-cup)
O as in though (tho-)
T as in ptomaine (toe-main)
A as in neigh (nay)
T as in debt (det)
O as in bureau (byu-row)

Potato (Gh)(ough)(pt)(eigh)(bt)(eau)

Isn’t English amazing?

Speaking of which, I hear there’s an alternative to the Police Phonetic alphabet too (foxtrot, Charlie) where the idea is that the word does begin with that letter, but doesn’t sound like it does (k for knife) and one where the word sounds like it begins with a letter that it doesn’t (q for cucumber)

Since my online name (Tsuki) is often misread and mispronounced (Tusky being a favourite) here’s a phonetic breakdown of my name:

TS (as in Tsunami)
U (as in rude)
K (as in pick)
I (as in la-di-da) (sorry, I can’t think of a word where “i” makes the ee sound!)

So, there you have it.

My thought for the day
wouldn’t English be a lot harder to learn if we spelled potato as ghoughpteighbteau?

and a lot less interesting if we didn't know that we could spell it that way!

Crafty is as Crafty does

I'm plotting some more crafty adventures.

last week I picked 450g of elderberries. My Mum has also picked me about a pound, so if I pick just two more pounds of elderberries, I can make wine to my Dad's recipe. He's bringing me some demi-johns for doing that with. I also hope to make some plum wine, as the neighbours gave us a bucket full of plums!

Well, as you can imagine, there are more plums than I need for the wine. I'm also going to make some jam. The trouble is that I don't have any jam jars!
I do have about 600g of raspberries which are also lined up to be jam, but I've frozen those. I bet I can pick another punnet of them tonight too.
So, I think I'll need to buy myself some jam jars. (Though my Mother-in-Law has offered that I could have some of hers, which might be a cheaper solution!)

So, wine, jam - how cool! Anyway, we also identified that the tree/bush behind the shed is not, in fact, a blackthorn bush. Therefore it doesn't have sloes on it. It's a damson tree, and so I have also picked 450g (about a pound) of damsons. I'm going to make damson gin with some of them, and I might make damson rum with the other half if I can find a small (35cl) bottle of cheap white rum.

We're also making a scarecrow for the Bugthorpe Scarecrow trail. I'll post pictures once he's up. We're starting tonight by making a papier-mâché head.

On the fibre craft front, I am still working on the hoody, but I confess it's not really appealing to me at the moment. I just need to get to the top of the arms and it will be interesting again! I guess it's all down to my orangutan-like proportions - or so it seems! I've rarely met a jumper (hand knit or bought) which has sleeves the right length. Most often they are too short - the cuff leaves my wrist bone exposed, or in some cases they look like 3/4 sleeves even if they're not meant to be! Sometimes they are silly long though, but that's less of a problem!


I did cast on something new, a cowl. The pattern is Lava Flow Cowl (Rav Link) although I have made some amendments because of my yarn choice.



The yarn is actually much lighter than in that picture, it's the Llama yarn that my parents brought back from America when they went.

This arrived in the post this morning



It's greener than that (the joy of taking photos when it's rainy and miserable!) but really nice. It's 30% cashmere 70% merino from Colourmart. It's going to be something for Hubby for Christmas. He has seen the yarn (I had to check when it arrived, I was a bit worried about the green-ness) but that's all he's going to know about it! It's lovely stuff, I've already skeined it and I plan to wash it tonight. This is because Colourmart yarn is usually weaving or machine knitting yarn and as such is usually oiled. I want to make the most of the 150g I have, so I'm going to want to pick the most appropriate needle, and not have to make a swatch. (That and I hate swatching)
Then I want to re-skein and wash the bargain red yarn from the British Wool Weekend because it smells a bit fusty. Trouble is that it's probably twice as heavy as the Colourmart yarn, and it's laceweight. So re-skeining that could be a bit of a nightmare! I may have to do it into 100g skeins! That's going to have to be a project for when I'm a bit less busy. This week in my evenings I have to:

1. help with the scarecrow
2. pick elderberries
3. pick courgette
4. pick raspberries
5. pack for visiting my sister (and travel there on Friday)
6. organise present for upcoming birthday
7. go to Slimming World

I think that's all. But that's a lot to fit in to the next three evenings! I guess it's better than vegetating in front of the telly though, right?

Well That Didn't Last Long...

Indeed. Finishitupitis ended almost as soon as I typed the last blog post. Boo.

I was still working only on the hoody, but then we went to the British Wool Weekend in Harrogate yesterday.
I find events like that incredibly inspirational! This was the first one of these weekends, but the stalls were fabulous. There was plenty to look at for spinning and knitting, and some lush buttons! It was pretty calm in there too, not the mad scrum that usually occurs at the Knitting and Stitching show.

One of the exhibits in the hall was giant knitting.


I think that the "needle" might be made out of a drain pipe! It was certainly very cool. It took six of us to move the knitting round once a row had been completed! (I wish I had asked someone to video that!)

So, I was pretty restrained on the buying front, though I couldn't resist some laceweight yarns



They're both from Oliver Twist, and they're both very similar colours!



There were also some great button stands, one of whom gave me the idea to make some button broaches. (It turns out I don't have any broach backs, so I'll have to make do with one for now!)


I'm really pleased with it though.


I'm looking forward to making some more!
Also, I found this bargain yarn



It's "Cashwool". The lady asked for £5 for it. I don't know what the yardage is, but I think it's 100% merino, there might be some cashmere in it but I don't know. It's really soft. though.

Oddly...

I heard, back in Jauary, that there was such a thing as “finishitupitis”. It’s the opposite of “startitis”, something which I have contracted more than once. Normally this occurs just after I bought yarn, or when a new issue of knitty comes out. Sometimes the arrival of a magazine or even spotting something in a shop can trigger a case of startitis.

Well, it seems that I may have contracted finishitupitis this time. All I’ve been able to think about over the past week is how I want to finish the projects I’m currently working on.

I looked at, and even knit a little bit with the Fyberspates Scrumptious which is going to be Tirrold from the Scrumptious Collection. Then I put it back in it’s little ziplock bag and put it in my craft room.

I thought about how my recent handspun would make a nice scarflette or similar.

I thought about a secret idea that I’ve had for a Christmas gift (I know he doesn’t read the blog, but it’s always best to be safe).

I decided what pattern (monkey) I was going to knit with some of the yarn my parents brought me back from Nevada. (I can’t believe I didn’t blog about it, so here are two teaser pictures, the sock yarn is on the left)

And I made a mental note of it.
Then I picked up the baby cardigan I have been working on.
I knit on the remaining arm for a bit. Garter stitch in the round is not a lot of fun! Then I picked up and knit both button bands, sewed on the buttons and voilà:



Pattern: Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Ecobaby Fairtrade, just more than 2 balls (3rd ball was just for the button bands) in the pale green colour
Needles: 3.5mm circular
Modifications: None really. I chose the garter stich button band option which I think looks lovely. I might consider working button bands as part of the fronts if I were to make it again.
Verdict: It’s a really cute baby cardigan, and simple to knit too. While this one lingered longer than it really aught, that was mostly because this was the second cardigan of this pattern that I have knit in succession. So, if you’re making 2 I’d recommend getting a really long circular and doing them two-at-a-time!



Moving on, I picked up my “Fangirl Socks”, which were inspired by the Yarn Harlot as I briefly mentioned when I started them over a year ago! I’ve finally finished them.



Pattern: Basic Vanilla sock recipe, plus simple rib sides and only short length
Yarn: Zwerger Garn Opal – Regenwald (Rainforest). Colour 2675 “Isabella die Meeresbiologin” (Isabella the Marine Biologist) – about half the skein
Needles: 2.25mm 80cm circular needles for two-at-a-time magic loop
Modifications: I used a standard heel flap rather than Yarn Harlot’s short row heel.
Verdict: They’re great! The Opal yarns are good value and pretty hard wearing (my other pairs made with Opal yarns have stood up, both in colour and texture, to numerous machine washes in my front loader (on a wool setting, of course!). The sock pattern is just a vanilla sock, but the ribs down the side make it interesting enough to not be boring.
They're only short, which is great for a summer sock. If we get any more summer this year I'll let you know how they go on. Failing that, they are still good socks!



That just leaves my woven bag and my Après Surf Hoodie to be finished. While the bag is going to take the least time (it just needs sewing together, lining and a strap) the hoodie will be a challenge. I usually don’t like to have only one thing on the go at once, but perhaps this bout of finishitupitis will last long enough to get me at least on to the hood!

Continuous weave?

I read an article in Yarn Maker recently about something called Continuous Weave. This is a type of weaving where the warp and the weft are made from the same strand of yarn at the same time. There’s a pretty good website here about it. , as well as this one about making a tube with a circular (or square) bottom.

Well, I was inspired, and as it said that I could do this with any symmetrical shape I decided to give it a go with a rectangle. It seems, though, that by any they didn’t really mean any in the literal sense of the word – or perhaps it’s symmetrical I should be defining better here.

As far as I can tell, it can be done on: triangles, squares, circles, hexagons (with sides of equal length) should work too. Rectangles? Not so much. You see, I believe that you need the same number of warp “pegs” and weft “pegs” to make the weave work. On a rectangle this isn’t the case.

By the time I realised this, however, I already had a lovely rectangular frame (made by my husband) and as he put a lot of work into it, I decided to have a go at weaving in a slightly more conventional manner (well, sort of).

I “warped” the frame by wrapping the yarn on the diagonal across the whole frame, and then using the principle of weaving a “loop” of yarn that is used in continuous weave, I began weaving on the frame.



What I ended up with is actually quite pretty, I think. This is noro sock yarn held double. It’s possible to “cast off” the edges to keep the fabric from unravelling once you’re finished too.
I’m pleased with the edges as shown in this pic, but I did a crochet chain along one edge which I’m less pleased with. I might have to pull that back and re-do it properly.



Then all I need to do is fold it over and make it into a bag. When it was on the frame I thought I might need to line it, but it’s spring together quite nicely as a fabric now. I might still decide to line it though, I think it will feel more finished if I do.



This was a practice run, and I’ve learnt a lot in doing it. I’m going to have a go at a square and do it properly. I think I’ll use some thick card to do that, save poor hubby’s woodworking skills for when I need them!

Make do.

Make do: to use what you have rather than buying new.

Hubby and I have been talking about our next holiday. We’d love to go away somewhere sunny in February. But, looking at the finances at the moment, I’m not sure we can afford to this year.

In an effort to save us some money, I’ve decided to make a commitment. Initially it was going to be yarn based, but I think I might have to extend it to include fibre.

I’m going to commit not to buy any new yarn or fibre for the next 6 months. I will work entirely from stash.

I think that should be quite straight forward, as I have 39 different lots of fibre (including over 2kg of alpaca) and 125 different yarns (over 200 balls/skeins) in my stash (not including handspun).

I am going to make one exception for Hethe, a laceweight cardigan which would be knit from Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace. I love the Scrumptious, but it’s £15.99 per skein, and I’d need two skeins. That’s £31.98 – which isn’t bad for a sweater, I know.

Using some maths, I can work out approximately the yardage for my size (rather than going for the full 2 skeins, which it might not be.)
The pattern comes in 6 sizes: 6, 8-10, 12-14, 16-18, 20-22, 24-26.
The actual bust sizes for these are: 34, 38, 42, 45, 50, 54 inches.
(I guess that this means that it’s got a bit of positive ease, because I’m not really an 8-10 but my bust size lies in that range, this is something to consider because I don’t like my clothes to be baggy.)
Anyway, the pattern also states that for these sizes you need 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3 skeins of yarn.
Now, since I want to make something between the 8-10 and 12-14 size, I’m not going to need the full 2 skeins, as that would make the 16-18 size too.
I can either do the maths on just the three sizes which require 2 skeins, or on all sizes.

To be honest, I like to do both.

If the 6 needs 1 skein (1000m) and the 16-18 needs 2 skeins (2000m) then:

6	8-10	12-14	16-18
1000m	=1000 + ((2000 – 1000) / 3) =1000 + (1000 / 3) =1000 + 333.33 =1333 m	=1333 + ((2000 – 1000) / 3) =1333.33 + (1000 / 3) =1333.33 + 333.33 =1666m	2000

To extend that across all sizes:

6	8-10	12-14	16-18	20-22	24-26
1000	1400	1800	2200	2600	3000

So, my least amount of yarn likely is 1333 (if I make the 8-10 and my lower estimate is right) and the most is 1800 (if I make the 12-14 and my higher estimate is right)

I’m currently thinking about getting the yarn from colourmart, as they have some nice extra fine merino, which isn’t quite the same as merino silk, but it is lovely. They sent me a sample of their cashmere (seen in the swatch below as the grey) which was heavenly. Sadly, that probably wouldn’t be cheaper than the Scrumptious! They also kindly sent me small samples of some other yarns I was interested, and I made this swatch to see how they knitted either on their own or plied up:



Anyway, after that, I’m knitting only from stash.

Other than to save money, I think it’s important to prove to myself that I can knit from stash.

To aid myself (and my sanity!) I’ve been going through my stash and my queue on Ravelry and pairing up yarn with patterns I want to make.

Yarn	Pattern
Tsuki - Hand Dyed Lace I dyed this yarn myself with some Kool Aid. It's realy bright and summery!	Aeolian (shawl)
Violet Green Bourette Silk 4ply	Amiga (cardi) The name of this pattern appeals to my inner geek
Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran	Angostura
Abstract Cat Merino/silk laceweight This is what's left from my wedding shawl, I hope I can squeeze another shawlette out of it! If not, the edging might have to be another colour.	Annis (shawlette)
Noro Kureyon Sock	Brandywine Shawl
Debbie Bliss Stella	Climbing Vines Pullover
Noro Sekku	Etherial (shawl)
Violet Green Gloriana Bluefaced Leicester 4ply Sock Yarn	Gail (shawl)
Rowan Summer Tweed	Hey Teach I'll have to rename this "Hey Business Solution Designer" - or perhaps "Hey Code Monkey"
Violet Green Stellar	Lace Capelet
Fyberspates Nef Lace	Laminaria (shawl)
RYC Cashsoft Chunky	Little Blue Sweater
Louisa Harding Kimono Angora	Moebius Cowl
Sublime Yarns Organic Merino Wool DK	Poet's Pullover
Sublime Yarns Angora Merino	Selene Pullover
K1 Yarns Laceweight Linen/Cotton	Summer Affair (cardi)
Violet Green Mulberry Merino 2ply Lace	swallowtail (shawl) (make big!) My last swallowtail is more of a scarf, I'd love to make a much bigger one, but I don't think it would look as nice in 4ply.
Noro Kureyon	Tempting
Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace	Tirrold (tank)
Fyberspates Sparkle Cashmere	Whisper (cardi)

But, for the time being I still need to work on my 3 WIPs; the hoody (Still on the sleeves), the baby cardigan (also on the sleeves!), and the socks which are on the foot.

I have also cast on for a moebius from some yarn a friend gave me (on the condition I knit something for her from it) but it’s not going well. Partly because it’s mohair, which isn’t a lot of fun to do this pattern with (hence the angora in the queue to be a moebius. I might send that to the frog pond and think about something else with that yarn. Something a bit simpler, perhaps. I’m not sure that my friend would wear a shawl, so that’s out of the question. Hmm…

Fibre East, Ysolda and such like

Well, the last few weekends have been amazing! I've done lots of crafty things and now I'm finally getting around to sharing them with you...

So, lets start with some knitting. After I finished the tam, I decided that I needed to do something with all the yarn I still had. After a false start on a feather and fan pattern I was trying to make up, I created these simple mittens. I've done a raglan thumb for ease of knitting.



There is even still a little yarn left! I'm thinking about making some flowers or something with it. Any ideas?



Well, my dear mum saw the hat I made and she liked it so much that she asked me to make her one! So, I took some yarn I dyed myself (with natural plant dyes, no less) and set about making another one.



and here it is:



I made it exactly like the hand-spun version, same mods and everything. :)

Well, that's about all the knitting I've done lately. Well - that's finished anyway!

The weekend before last was very wet, but that didn't stop us from visiting the Bishop Wilton Show. There were some lovely exhibits in the craft part of the show, though not many - I think people were put off by the weather. However, we'll go again next year!
The Sunday saw the Malton show, an altogether larger event. The exhibits at this show were also of a very high standard. (I'm thinking about entering something myself next year!) I especially enjoyed walking around the chicken, duck and rabbit section. While we were wandering round, I cam across a man who makes crochet hooks, and I couldn't resist this one



It's in excess of 10mm, and will be great for some rugs I want to crochet out of old fabric scraps.


Last weekend was Fibre East. It's a small festival in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire. I love fibre festivals! This was on the smaller side, but no less exciting. We knew it was going to be a good day when we started with a very nice cuppa and Hubby had a bacon butty. I wandered around for a while and oogled lots of nice things. I did pick up a long cable for moebius and some 3mm tips for the Fyberspates Lace.

I also bought this lovely thick 4ply Shetland. It's so soft and yet sturdy. Love the colour too! The chap said it would take dye well, but I think it's nice as it is.



I stopped by Woodland Turnery and picked up this rather nice inch gauge (that's for working out the WPI or Wraps Per Inch of a yarn)



And this mini niddy noddy, which is shown here with my standard sized Ashford niddy noddy.



I ummed and aahed about my last purchase, mostly because I already have over 1000g of alpaca fibre which is to be spun.
But the colour was so nice! It's rose-grey, which is a kind of pinkish tinged grey, though I have a bit of brown and a bit of white in the bag too...



Now all I have to do is spin it, and make it into something nice!

Well, last but not least...
On Friday Ysolda Teague visited York.
I went along to try on some of the samples from her new book Little Red in the City and to get my own signed copy. (woot!)

I even managed to get a photo with her, which was nice!



Ysolda was really lovely, just as you'd expect from reading her blog.
I almost bought a sweater-worth of yarn too, but it turned out that there were only 4 balls of the colour I fancied. Shame, but probably for the best. I'll have to use some of the yarn I already have!