It's Crochet, Knit & Natter 9: So Many Projects, So Little Time. (Oh well - I almost made it rhyme!)

[Fairislefandango]

A thread for woolly crafters of all types and levels.
Previous thread here

I’m making a few blankets at the minute and got a few more in the queue that need making. My wish list is bloody massive. Blankets take forever. I really, really don’t need another blanket project.

But I stumbled across the King Cole 2022 CAL, postcards with love… And I want it! I’m not ordering it but I am tempted to put it on my Christmas list 😬not that I expect I’ll have time to ever complete it.

We could have got away with crafting if it wasn’t for those pesky kids @Fairislefandango and @mumsie8 😉 DS2 refused to sleep and then I needed to spider rescue DS1 and chat to him because there was a parade and a helicopter over our house so it was 9.30 by the time I managed to get downstairs and spin. My plans to tire them out did not work 😄 However, I like what I’ve done!

Glad you’re enjoying the Jacob fairisle it’s such a joy when it just flows! That’s so lovely about your primary pupils😊

@InTheNightWeWillWish ooh, I like that! I would love to do that if I had the attention span for blankets! Christmas sounds like a great idea though.

Oh my goodness @InTheNightWeWillWish I love that!! 😩

That's a very cute-looking CAL blanket, @InTheNightWeWillWish !

I'm obviously going to be focussing on the spinning a lot until the Tour finishes on 24th, but I definitely need a new knitting project too. I think I'll take stock of my stash this weekend and pick something!

I sincerely hope you get your spinning time this weekend @Fairislefandango @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound . Children are so annoying with their unreasonable demands like eating three times a day.

Lovely dress @StillNiceCardigan . It fits you so well

Fab pattern @InTheNightWeWillWish . Go on!

Thank you for your good wishes for DS. He's not been too bad and birthday yesterday helped.

I'll be on my blanket for a while. Here's an update pic. I like it and it's very easy because you can mark off the repeats which makes stitch counting manageable. I abandoned the Umaro blanket because you can't do this so every time you want to count you have to count 200 odd. Which then means unpicking that many or more if there is a mistake. With this one, I automatically check every 19 stitches. Easy.

Yesterday's and today's efforts with the Jacob fleece - it actually kind of looks like yarn

I had a nice time at the yarn festival. I had no particular intention of buying anything, but did end up getting 100g of carded Blue-Faced Leicester fleece and a skein of hand-spun alpaca yarn, to give me some idea of what my alpaca might look like if I get around to washing it and processing it!

Exactly @MerylSqueak 😄 I love your blanket pattern. Counting 200 sts frequently would drive anyone mad I reckon so good choice! Your poor DS having chickenpox on his birthday though, as if the last couple of years haven’t been bad enough with lockdowns and missed parties!

That looks brilliant @Fairislefandango! Really even and consistent 😀Btw, did you know you can use toilet roll inners as storage bobbins? They’re not exactly the easiest to ply from but you tape the toilet roll inner to your ball winder then wind the yarn off the bobbin onto it. I really like the idea of buying a good handspun skein to compare too…

Toilet roll holders? There's an idea!

I'm on bobbin 2 now. It's a bit less overspun, I think - I can't see any curly bits! I'm also changing hooks a bit more often in order to fill the bobbin more evenly.

That looks great @Fairislefandango I'm impressed!

The cal blanket looks really nice @InTheNightWeWillWish but I agree that you need plenty of energy to commit to making blankets (I'm definitely short on energy at the moment)

I like your blanket @MerylSqueak I’ll do anything to avoid counting!

Lovely blanket Meryl

I’m hoping to see my friend next week so I’m trying to finish the unicorn blanket for her daughter. I meant to add the flowers side by side but I’ve sewn it on wrong. Can’t work out if it’s easier to unpick and sew on again or just make a third flower to go in the gap. It’s as broad as it is long! I’ve still got some curly bits to do in pink and blue, add some other coloured flowers and some flowers to the pockets. It’s so much sewing! Also one of the ears I need to see the back a bit as it’s not standing up right. So hopefully I can find some time this week to finish it off.

Lovely blankets @MerylSqueak and @InTheNightWeWillWish !

Right, I've got two bobbins full of grey Jacob singles. Tomorrow is plying day! My second bobbin is still a bit over-twisted, but less than the other, so I wonder what effect the disparity will have on the finished yarn... Hey ho, it's all a learning curve!

That’s brilliant @InTheNightWeWillWish I like the flowers offset, it looks great!

@Fairislefandango If you fancied trying it, you could take a bit of each in turn and make an Andean plying bracelet to ply them to themselves so you could compare one skein with higher twist and ply to the other.

I’m onto spindles now, we’re away for a couple of days and my wheel was not going to fit in the car

Yes I like the offset flowers too, @InTheNightWeWillWish !

I hope you have a good trip, @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound - yes, fitting the wheel in might have been a challenge!

I've just plied my singles. It was really hard, because they were sooo twisty that I was having to pull my hands apart quite hard in order to uncorkscrew the yarn! I've still got quite a bit of one of the singles left on one bobbin - not sure what to do about that!

You could put the bobbin onto the lazy Kate and put it back though your wheel spinning in the opposite direction to take some twist out to make it easier to manage, then either put it onto your hall winder and ply both ends together or keep it to ply with something else for a barber pole effect?

The yarn I plied was the same, I’d changed the ratio and put loads more twist into one single than the other, it seems to have worked out ok though once I did what you did and pulled to untwist it as I plied. I haven’t soaked it yet so we’ll see!

Mine's been soaked and has been drying overnight, so I guess we'll see! I've got some of the grey Jacob batt left still (it was massive!) so I'm trying to decide what to spin next - I have the white Jacob and my colourful Corriedale. Also still need to work out what to do with my as-yet-unwashed alpaca fluff!

All the spinning sounds very absorbing. Interesting to hear about it.

I, meanwhile, have finally got my first bout of COVID and so has DS. The week after his chicken pox so I don't think school are going to be delighted with either of us. We both feel really lousy. I've got my knitting next to me but nary a stitch so far.

Oh no, poor you and your ds, @MerylSqueak ! It's crap isn't it? There are so many cases around atm - dd says loads of her friends and/or their families have it.

The spinning is definitely absorbing! I think I'm going to have a go with some coloured stuff today!

I hope you and your DS feel better quickly @MerylSqueak COVID sucks!

Oh no @MerylSqueak! Poor you and poor DS! It’s not fair at all!
DH was at an event and he found out afterwards someone was telling people to stand back from her because she had Covid 😱 luckily he wasn’t near her but but really!! It’s supposed to be really high here again, no wonder if people are that idiotic.

That sounds fun @Fairislefandango, I’m spinning a braid of BFL and ramie at the moment, its lovely to spin. It’s going to be darker when it’s all spun up than I was expecting when I bought it but I think it’ll still go with what I was planning to use it with.

Oh no @MerylSqueak hope you and DS are feeling better very soon!

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound have you 'spun' that all by hand? Sorry I don't have a clue about spinning termination but I remember you saying you're not using your spinning wheel at the moment? That's stunning! And really clever, yours too @Fairislefandango I bet it feels so nice to learn something new!

@sophs29 you got the right terminology 😀Thanks! Yes, it’s basically the same as spinning on a wheel but you have to flick the spindle by hand to get it to spin and stop and wind the thread onto it every so often. It doesn’t actually work out that much slower for me really since you can do it walking around.

Wow @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound that sounds rewarding! Does it work out cheaper to buy the fibre and spin it yourself or?

Well, it does and it doesn’t @sophs29 i suppose in the same way as knitting and crocheting. My first spindle was about £5 and I started with fibre that was £2/100g. It’s about £5/100g for my favourite fibre which is about £16/100g buy it already spun. But then I wanted a wheel and I’d have to do lot of knitting with handspun to pay it off😂If you work with fleeces I think it works out really cheaply but you’ve got to do all the preparation yourself.

I can spin silk thread and use it for sewing and weaving and I couldn’t justify buying it if I hadn’t spun it. In thread weight you get so much from 25 or 50g so it’s good value.