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

@Fairislefandango Look on the up side, with all the TLC you’re giving it, it’ll last forever 😄 I used wax too but don’t do what I did and absentmindedly polish the ends of the niddy niddy that slot into the holes on the top and bottom, unless you want to experience a helicopter like effect as you wind it 🤣

DS2 has his nursery school ‘graduation’ party today and then the summer holidays start next week! DS1 has to wait until the end of next week but I can’t believe it’s summer already 😮

It’s funny FairIsle how you’ve always been quite restrained with your stash, not letting it take over the whole house and keeping your WIPs to a minimum but now you’ve got the spinning wheel it seems you need a whole section of the house to store and maintain it!

Happy nursery graduation to DS2 SpinMeRightRound.

Hi @MerylSqueak and everyone else of course.

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound I'm not sure how I feel. In some ways I feel like the old me, before the illness and meds (probably because I haven't bothered to take them for ages). But otoh I feel on edge and teary all the time.
So I'm not sure how much the meds were stopping me being me and how much they were helping. I'm back to weekly migraines as well so need to restart the propranolol at least. I guess a drs appointment would help. If I could get one!

Anyway. In happier more positive news I've done a very small amount of crochet which is good. And DS2 has been to school everyday this week. I actually think it's the first week this academic year that he has . Well I say school, he had 2 days work experience (in a book shop) and 3 days in school. He was so anxious about work but he went both days, I had good feedback from his boss and he wrote a book review which will be published in the local paper! He also has a bf which I'm hoping will get him into school more so they can see each other.

DS2 has his nursery school ‘graduation’ party today.

Awww - hope he has a wonderful time!

Glad you've managed some crochet, @CrochetBug ! Things sound tough though. I know nothing about those kinds of meds, but it must be hard to untangle what's just your state of mind and what's the effect of the meds. Hope you find some equilibrium somehow.

@InTheNightWeWillWish I am laughing at the idea of my stash being restrained . It's currently bursting out of the couple of areas where it's supposed to live! And that was before I started adding spinning equipment...

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound I actually wondered that very thing about the ends of the niddy noddy, so thanks for confirming!

I have no time right now to do a lot crochet really, a load of amigurumi toys with no home, many amigurumi books, loads of WIPs but I'm still really tempted by this.

www.amigurumi.com/books/Aquatic-Amigurumi/

Damn those Instagram algorithms for trying to lead me astray!

That looks fab, @tizwozliz ! I don't think amigurumi is going to be my thing, but some if it certainly lovely!

Apologies for dominating the thread with spinning again, but...

Ummm... @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound .... have you ever spun alpaca? <asking for a friend>. Not really - asking for me . Dh went walking with llamas and alpacas this afternoon, as you do (work team-building / wellbeing thing, apparently). He mentioned to the alpaca people that his wife had a spinning wheel, and they got quite excited and just gave him this...

It looks as though it's been combed/brushed off the animals rather than shorn. It's not washed, but surprisingly clean (though smelly, in a wholesome animal way, not a filthy grim way) and incredibly soft. I have no carders, and wasn't necessarily planning on getting any, but I've just watched a video about hand-picking alpaca fibre and 'spinning from the cloud' and wondering how doable that would be for a beginner.

All the bags of fibre have the name of the individual animal it came from!

@Fairislefandango wow! That’s amazing! I’ve only spun it in blends of fibre, not by itself. I think you are supposed to rinse the shorn fleeces because the alpacas dust bathe and spinning it unwashed is bad for your lungs but I don’t know if brushed fibre would be the same. I suppose you’ll be able to tell by touch maybe?

You could comb it with dog brushes instead of carding if that works for you?

@tizwozliz that looks brilliant! I love instagram adverts 😁

I've just plied my first two bobbins of singles to make yarn! It's sitting soaking in warm water to set the twist. It's absolutely crap - made of two singles of random colours and even more random thickness and twist! But it was just a practice to help me remember how to do it, as it's been a while since my courses!

Hanging up to dry. Oh dear - it's very untwisty in places

@Fairislefandango That looks good! In varying thickness the twist will naturally run to the thinner sections so don’t worry too much about lack of twist in the thicker ones, it’ll even out as your hands get the muscle memory for drafting! I’m trying to do the opposite now to learn how to do thick and thin art yarns!

@CrochetBug That sounds really difficult, I hope you manage to get though to the Dr’s It sounds like your DS is thriving in the book shop! That would have been my perfect job when I was a teen but my customer service would have been terrible if I had to take my nose out of a book

Thanjs@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound ! When it had dried, I knitted it into a little swatch just to see what it would be like to knit with. I've never knitted with art yarn before, so it was a bit odd dealing with the thick and thin bits but it was fine and looked better than I expected, given that it's random colours that don't really go with each other!

@MerylSqueak it was @sophs29 who has the patterns. Hopefully she’s seen your request.

I still feel ill but not as bad as last weekend - just a lingering feeling of being under the weather. I’ve had to work all week (the downside of being self employed) and it’s been a struggle.

Ugh... sorry you're not fully back to normal yet,@StillNiceCardigan. Dh and I took nearly a month to feel fully better after our last bout. And I hear you on the work front. Unlike proper salaried teachers, if I'm ill and don't go in, I don't get paid! It's rubbish having to drag yourself in when you're not really up to it.

I've got one more week of invigilation (I agreed to do it for the year 10 exams now that the public ones are over) and then I'll only be working about 3 hours a week until the summer holidays start! I've decided to have a big declutter, including sorting out my knitting and spinning stuff!

In my job I need to write a detailed reasoned argument of why I am putting forward a particular outcome. I think the ones I wrote last week will come back to bite me as my thinking was so woolly! I had the rage at DH too who was snoozing in the garden while I was working.

The only crafting I've managed this week is my temperature blanket and I managed to do that wrong too and had to redo it.

Thanks @StillNiceCardigan! Sorry to hear you're still not quite yourself!

@MerylSqueak once I've tackled the mountain of ironing from our holiday washing, I will take a photo of all the patterns and you can see if anything takes your fancy ☺️

Thank you @sophs29

As you can see, I am not keeping up with anything yarn related very well. I have knitted two rows this week!

There's one that's slightly kimono like @MerylSqueak NEWLOOK K6397 but let me know if any tickle your pickle and send me your address via pm (I use the app but should be able to log in via a browser) and I'll send them along to you!

Also if anyone else is interested in any let me know and I'll send them. They've just been sitting in a bag in the corner of my room 😊

Would help if I attached the photos 😂

Oo I would like that one, thank you @sophs29 . I would also like the one in the bottom right hand corner of the same photo please. I can't read the number because Mumsnet "s little arrow is in the way but it's New Look with a jacket and skirts. I'lPM you.l

For some reason I can't. I'll try after work on the big computer.

Ok, no worries at all ☺️

Posted for you this morning @MerylSqueak ☺️

Thank you very much. It's really kind of you
💐

Oooo @sophs29 could I have a couple of patterns please? K6871 from the first photo and the Freja dress from the second? I've got some fabric I think would be perfect for that top!

Crap. Got so excited I forgot to name change. Ho hum. Its CrochetBug