Today was another grey day – until about 3pm when the sun finally started to make an appearance. I thought, as we were visiting the local botanic gardens, that I would take advantage of the good light levels in the greenhouse and take pictures of the finished skein!
I’m progressing on spinning the singles (not quite complete yet). Photo of progress as promised:
I was knitting this over a year ago. It was abandoned at the stage I should have added the buttons (I can’t remember why – I think I just wasn’t happy with it). I found it over the weekend and rescued it, adding buttons and lengthening the sleeves (making nice deep cuffs that mirror the yoke). It now makes a perfect jumper that fits a treat.
I’ve just come across a brilliant adaption to the February baby sweater pattern from Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Details here (including free pattern).
I’ve been spinning my hand-dyed tops today. I was at a local spinning meeting and received some compliments on the colours. I’m pleased with how the singles are coming out. I’ve split the tops lengthways so that the colours will blend from one to the next. I’ll see how successful I’ve been when I ply them together.
The slight felting that the wool suffered when I dyed it has resulted in a few noils. I try and pick these out when I get to them. I’m trying worsted style spinning for a change.
I’ve also been using my new sliding hook flyer for the Ashford traditional wheel today. I’ve applied three coats of finishing oil to the wood to seal it. So far I like it. It’s resolved the rattle that my wheel had and is easy to use. The bobbin is also an impressive size (apparently 30% larger than the standard bobbin).
I’ll post a picture of a bobbin of singles and the sliding hook flyer tomorrow (when I have daylight).
I’ve been oiling all the key parts of my Haldane since she arrived. However, today is the first chance I’ve had to do any spinning on her.
I found a few bobbin ends of singles (all Jacob) I’ve spun on my Ashford Traditional and decided to ply them together and empty all the bobbins. I had fun while trying the Andean plying technique to use up the last bobbin – I lost one of the ends (I had images of a birds nest of unusable singles). Fortunately I found it and was able to use up all the singles. Here is the result:
