Spinning

I recently acquired a spinning wheel from a lady - curiously through taking to a stranger in a pub. It was in a state of slight neglect, but after a few squirts of Mr Sheen and a smartening up with an Ashford maintenance kit, I am now the owner of a dark-stained Ashford Traditional. I confess, I'm not sure whether this spinning lark is my cup of tea, but I'm willing to give it a fair try, so today the wheel and I joined a couple of friends and trekked along the A59 to Gisburn to a spinning guild friendship day.




Once we finally found the village hall, we were greeted by lovely ladies and had tea and biscuits pressed upon us. Moving into the main hall, I was amazed at the number of people - men and women - who were sitting in companiable chaos amongst an amazing collection of spinning wheels and spindles. I finally learned the basics of spinning, and now have a small length of Corriedale spun onto a bobbin. To be honest, it probably ranges in thickness from laceweight to aran and back again, and in some parts looks like a coiled spring, but the point is that I did it myself.




I am proud!





Despite remaining unconvinced that spinning is for me, I splashed out on some merino fleece dyed a lovely teal colour, for practicing with, and came home with a sense of achievement. Apparently my local spinning guild meets every month, so maybe I'll make it along there on Saturday, and see whether I'm in it for the long haul or not.

Evening Star

Well, I've finally managed to finish my Evening Star bolero/cardigan (call it what you will). I think I like it, but to say its supposed to be a size 10-12 it's quite roomy. I'm not too sure about one of the shoulders - it's all knit in one piece, so you start at one wrist and work up the arm, along the back and across the front, putting waste yarn in to fit the second sleeve later, and it's this sleeve that doesn't seem quite right. However, it does look a tad Per Una-esque, which can't always be such a bad thing, and given that the pattern wasn't already listed on ravelry, there can't be that many people wearing one!




I used Sirdar Medici in a beige/blue colourway, which I have to say is rather nice. It took about 4.5 balls to complete.



My next challenge is to finish something else that's already on needles rather than succumbing to the lure of the lovely new yarn and casting on something completely new. I'm trying to be diligent and work on the Francie socks (Rebekkah Kerner) but the lovely fluffy stuff from the Natural Dye studio keeps calling to me. I've already managed to start a new (extremely long term) project by knitting one tiny fish that will eventually become a blanket of tessellated fish made from my sock yarn leftovers. I tell myself that this doesn't count as a new project as it's really using up the leftovers from other projects.



I think I need help.............