Alberta and Etsy

I've been putting off making this post because I really wanted to get something finished before posting...

Yes, one more down on the giant 2017 WIP-Down!  Alberta is finished!

Isn't it beautiful?!? (The shawl, not the carefully managed jungle hedgehog sanctuary that is our garden).

There are many reasons why people knit; because store-bought stuff never fits properly, because friends or family ask for something, because we enjoy the process, or in this case to demonstrate just what we can do when we make the effort.  There were 9 different lace charts in this pattern.  2 of those charts were 3 parters.  Even without the fact that I put this away and had a massive break in the middle of making it, this was a long and time consuming project.  It took me 2 hours just to cast off, during which my thumb dislocated twice.  I had to take a 2 day break from knitting after due to the pain in my fingers.  It was absolutely worth it!  When I'm wearing it, and someone asks "Where did you get that shawl?" I'll be able to proudly say "I made it myself." Until the day I finally make a Shetland cobweb lace wedding-ring shawl, this is likely to be the pinnacle of my technical achievement in knitting.  

I'll add a bit more about Alberta in the FO's section, but first I need to tell you about Spindles, and Etsy, and Facebook.

Making a business

It's been roughly 2 years since I set up my Etsy store, but after the events of February 2016 my confidence has been at rock bottom.  I could use my own health, or that of my family as an excuse for leaving everything to languish, but really it was just that I didn't feel I was capable of keeping track of the minutiae of running a business, even a tiny and non-profitable one.

My dad has helped me to change that.  His work is beautiful, and it deserves to be appreciated.  I already have a platform capable of bringing his work to the public.  It's only logical that we team up and give it a go.

I still need to get my head around deciphering the incomprehensible mind-scramble that is the Government Gateway, and registering my business to be legal for tax purposes.  But as I'm currently running at a loss financially speaking, I'm not too worried.  I want everything to be above board as it were, but the fact still is, this is a hobby business at present.  Something to keep my dad and myself from going crazy in a world where being disabled makes you the lowest of the low, a filthy scrounger off the state, and thoroughly unworthy.

Yes, I know that as a business woman I'm not supposed to say all of that stuff.  No matter how small, I should treat this as a professional enterprise.  Well, yes, I do.  When it comes to the quality of our products, and the efficiency of our service.  But it doesn't change the fact that no matter how professional I may be, running a profitable business in the current financial climate is exceptionally difficult.  Starting a profitable business is nigh on impossible.  If I had the energy, and physical capability to do that, I'd be working, and not sat at home trying to find a purpose to my existence. So.  You get the bare-faced truth, regardless of how unprofessional it is.

Anyway, that's a lot of writing and stress, so how about the good bit?

These beauties are now mostly available here: Knitting & Penguins

I say mostly, because one or 2 have already found new homes, but there's unlikely to be a shortage any time soon, as dad will happily make more.

In my efforts to make more of the Knitting & Penguins brand (am I a brand?) I've also set up a Facebook page, which acts as a sort of one-stop portal to all things Knitting & Penguins.

FOs

OK!  So time for the regulars!  What have I been up to recently?

The last time I went to Ringarosie's Barbara slipped a little mini-skein into my bag.  I was feeling the need for some instant gratification about then, so I pretty much immediately cast on this little pouch that I'm using for storing the button stash I've managed to collect while staying with dad.  I didn't have a pattern to follow, so I made it up as I went along.  Starting with a pin-hole cast on, working until I had a circle about 12cm in diameter, then a twisted rib for about 15cm, an eyelet section to thread the ribbon through, and a garter stitch finish.

This is another project from the WIP-down that I'm very pleased to have finished.  A sweater for me, that still fits, despite having been hibernating for about 3 years!

The pattern is Tubey, by Cassie Rovitti, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, in the colourways Burgundy, and Maroon.

I had a moment of massive self-doubt, which meant I had to make this.  The pattern is I've Never Been to Greece, and I wrote it.  I received a number of confused Ravelry messages from a customer who was struggling with the pattern.  I offered what advice I could, but became convinced that I had made an error in the pattern.  So I downloaded the live version, checked the maths, which all seemed to be fine, and then followed the pattern exactly.  I had no problems, so I'm pretty sure that the pattern itself is fine.  However, I know how easy it is to lose count in the middle of a lace repeat, and this gave me the opportunity to update and clarify a few details.

I didn't have enough of the turquoise coloured yarn left to do the contrasting picot bind-off that's in the pattern, and I didn't need to do that to check that the lace chart was correct, so I finished with a standard Russian bind-off in the purple instead.

The yarns used for this are DMC Creative World Woolly, in colourway 074, and Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino Wool DK, in the colourway Black Cherry.

I was in Hobbycraft.  They had kits for making needle-felted penguins.  What else do you do while binge-watching Orphan Black with your dad?

Dad loved the last pair of socks that I made for him, so I've made him some more :)

As usual, no pattern as such, just a standard heel-flap construction based around the numbers that work for dad's feet.  The yarn is Shoppel-wolle Crazy Zauberball in the fantastically named colourway "Jacke wie hose".

There is a terribly sad story behind these 2 tiny little hats.  A couple of weeks ago I received a message from Gemma, her cousin had unexpectedly just given birth to twin boys at just 23 weeks.  Being so tiny, even premature items were too big for them.  She asked if I could make them some hats.  I found the perfect yarn in my stash, got my needles ready, and was literally just about to cast on when I got the message telling me that I only needed to make one hat each, as both boys lost their brief fight for life that afternoon.  Gemma wanted to be able to give them something that had been their very own to wear for their funeral.

I didn't use a pattern for these, just advice from a friend who sadly found herself in a very similar situation 15 years ago.  I used 3mm needles, and cast on 40 stitches, 5 rows of 1&1 ribbing, 12 rows of stockinette, decrease for the crown.  The yarn is Ella Rae Cozy Soft Prints, in colourway 05.

You've already seen this, but it didn't look quite like this.  I want to show you the miracle that is blocking!

This is what Alberta looked like immediately after it came off the needles.  In order to open out the lace and better show the pattern, the next step is to block your knitting.  That means to soak it, then lay it out flat, pin it into the shape you want it to be, and let it dry.  Not all yarns will block well, but anything with a high wool content will stretch into shape fairly well. I find that those giant foam jigsaw pieces meant for children are perfect for pinning your work out:

It usually takes 1-2 days of treading carefully around the multitude of pins spread out on the dining room floor for it to dry, but it's absolutely worth it:

The yarn used for this is Fyberspates Gleem Lace, in the colourway Peacock.

WIPs

I've now got 2 full bobbins of singles in my hand-combed Jacob. I think I'll do one more to  be sure I've got enough, then ply them.

I started this at the August Travelling Spinners meet up in Blyth.  I hadn't prepared enough Jacob to keep me going all afternoon, so I took this fibre along to keep me busy.  

The fibre is a custom blend of blue-faced leicester, tussah silk, and rainbow firestar by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "Speed of his feet".

Originally this was going to be just a couple of squares to be sewn into a community blanket project at Shetland Wool Week 2016.  Then I couldn't go, and didn't get a response as to the possibility of sending my squares, so instead I'm very slowly making up a blanket from random squares on my own.  Eventually it'll be sent to charity, although I haven't decided which one yet.  The original charity was From Shetland With Love, helping orphans in South Africa, but I may send mine to a childrens or animal charity closer to home.

There is no pattern to this, just random squares in a variety of different stitch patterns, all roughly 7 inches across, all made in random DK.

I'm still working on the crochet squares, to be used either for yarn bombing, or to be part of a giant blanket of yarny memories.  This particular square was made while cooking sausages over a campfire at Plankey Mill with my dad, and the yarn is Lily Sugar 'n' Cream, in the colourway Batik.

This one was just cast on today.  I made pram blankets for both of my nieces, but I also made a larger blanket for the older of the 2 when she was ready to transition from cot to bed.  I'm pretty sure that my youngest niece has already moved into her own bed, but I'd like to have this ready for her 2nd birthday at the latest.  It took me a few attempts to come up with an arrangement of different sized squares that I'm happy with, but now that I have, this will be a brilliant relaxing project.

No pattern, just an arrangement of basket weave type squares in different sizes and colours.  The yarn is Rico Design Baby So Soft, in colourways 001, 007,and 015.

Stash Acquisition

Strangely when I wanted to make socks for dad, none of my sock yarn seemed to be appropriate, so I had to go to Ringarosies.  The 3 green/blue yarns are all intended for dad.  The one with additional purple is for me.  The mini-skein was added by Barbara. The buttons are for charity preemie knits.

I have wonderful friends.  One of those friends is called Pieter, and he lives in the Netherlands.  I visited him a few years ago, and dragged him to Dol Op Wol.  Just before my birthday, this package arrived, including some of my favourite teas, stroopwafels, and yarn!  I'm assured however that this is NOT a birthday present!  It's just a care-package because he thought I might like it!

Tangled Yarn had a sale, and I had the opportunity to buy cashmere lace at an affordable price.  So I did.  Just one skin of Sweet Georgia Yarns Cashsilk Lace, in the colourway Deep Cove, and 2 skeins of Louisa Harding Amitola, colourway 124, that were in the clearance.

As I've mentioned, I had a birthday.  Not just any birthday.  I turned 40 in July.  I figure that turning 40 means I'm definitely allowed to buy birthday presents for myself.  This was one of them.  This is a 2 skein birthstone box by Homespun Wonders.  I'm sure that the July birthstone selection doesn't usually come with a penguin, but as I also said, I have wonderful friends.  One of them is Katie, half of the mother-daughter team that runs Homespun Wonders, and Yorkshire Dales Yarns.  She spotted my order, and added this little extra for me :)

Another birthday present to myself.  This is sparkle merino sock yarn in the colourway Poppies, and silk 4-ply in the colourway Water Colour, both by Yarny Love.

More of those wonderful friends I have!  Simon was visiting Iceland, and happened to spot this lovely package of yarn and hat pattern.  The yarn is Icelandic wool and silk, and is a beautiful silvery grey colour. I hardly ever even see Simon these days, but still he thought of me and brought this back for me!  I'm just so touched!

The last of my yarn purchases that I can technically get away with calling a selfish birthday present.  These are all by Mothy and the Squid, who updated their instagram while on their summer holidays showing the top colourway - Firefly Squid - in the process of being knitted up.  I had to wait until they got back before I could order though!  While there I also bought the middle skein - Summer Meadow on 4-ply Donegal - and the final skein is Lungwort on sock weight, which I've been lusting after for a while, but managed to resist until the Firefly Squid tempted me in!

Penguins

Penguin on Heather Rose Gin - another wonderful present from a wonderful friend.  Liz knows she'll get to help me drink it mind ;) 

Despite his arrival very close to my birthday, I'm assured that he is in fact a Christmas present, it's just that Tony kept forgetting to bring him whenever we met up!  Now he has no excuse, as he moved in next door in June!  I can't bring myself to take this fellow out of his box, because it makes him hold his wings in the air like he's asking for a hug, and it's just too cute!

I have an inexplicable mild fetish for post-it notes.  Post-it notes that are also penguins are a thing of almost carnal joy for me.  And squishy penguin stickers!  They're squishy!!!

I just don't even know where to start with this!  Meet Para-Penguin - the disabled pink penguin paperweight!  Rachel brought him for me from a glass-blowing workshop that she did, although she assures me that she didn't make him herself.  He's a little unsteady, rather like me, and one of his wings is in totally the wrong place, but I love him!

Dominey gave me this and told me that it was to make a boring job more interesting.  I was genuinely confused for a while, until I realised that normal people use tea-towels to dry dishes, not to protect their lap from escapee fibre fluff when spinning!

Finally, I feel so guilty about this penguin!  I was out for dinner last week to celebrate the 40th birthday of my friend Chris, but I was too disorganised to even remember his birthday card.  Then he gave ME a present!  Apparently he'd had it for about 2 years, but in all that time we'd never met up in a fashion planned in advance, so he'd never had it with him when we saw each other!  Look!  He's knitted and everything!

OK, that's all for now, back again soon!  Take care my dears!

Hobbies: New and Old

Yet again I've let almost a month elapse before I've found the time to write an update!  Even now it's stolen time really, as I'm writing while sat on the train that is taking me back up north to Newcastle.  Normally I'd be knitting, but I thought I'd make use of the time to do an update that I've been meaning to write for weeks instead.

It's not a regular update.  There won't be any progress reports on my WIPs, or proud displays of finished objects, no yarn porn in the form of my latest acquisitions, and sadly, no penguins either.  Instead this update will be all about some new fibre craft skills I've been learning, and a little bit about saying goodbye to a much loved hobby too.

Goodbye Running Shoes

Let's start with the sad part: this year I've been forced to finally admit that I can't keep running.  I've spent the better part of the last 2 years recovering from a variety of minor injuries, and most especially from a particularly nasty bout of flu last February.  Every time I recovered enough to get back out there training, I'd find myself in too much pain, or too exhausted to do anything much at all, within a fortnight. It's not a fitness thing either, even after some of the longer breaks in my training it was never my muscles, or my breathing, or my heart-rate that were a problem, it was always a joint that went out, or a build up of pain in my hips, or pure fatigue.  After the stress and grief of this last winter, I found that I was struggling sometimes more than my dad when we went for our little Sunday afternoon stroll with Yaz and her little pug.  If I can't keep up with a 69 year old man who has chronic spondylosis, terminal pancreatic cancer, and is going through triple chemotherapy, then I pretty much have to admit that I'm not well enough to be running.

In April this year I finally got to see a physiotherapist with experience of working with EDS.  He gave me crutches and wrist-braces, with the instructions to use them when I need them, but not when I don't.  I can cause myself to weaken prematurely if I rely on them too much, but on the other hand why struggle on in pain, or stop going for walks, when I can regain some of my speed and endurance just by using a couple of basic disability aids?

Having something to help me at least walk the longer distances again means that in a way I haven't had to completely give up. 3 days before my 40th birthday I completed the Newcastle Race For Life, with the help of my crutches.  It took me an hour and 20 minutes to hobble around the course.  I met another lovely lady also using crutches, she'd recently had surgery on her foot, and would need surgery on the other at some point too.  She is a cancer survivor, but sadly not all of her family have been so lucky, it seems likely that there is a genetic predisposition in her family, so as far as she was concerned it really didn't matter that she would struggle with her crutches and her foot in a cast, it was more important to her that she do something to raise money to help her children, and potential grandchildren, avoid what she'd been through.

Together we showed that anyone can do their bit, and at the same time we showed ourselves that we can be capable of great things if we are willing to pay the price.

For me the price was you all getting to see this photo of me looking truly shocking, as well as several days of increased pain and fatigue, and me finally admitting to myself that I couldn't have walked it without the crutches, never mind run it, but it was worth it for the money I raised, and the sense of achievement.  I'll keep on hobbling and limping my way around one Race For Life each year for as long as I can, because what's a few days of suffering for me when balanced against the lives that could be saved, or improved?

Incidentally, if you wish to be a part of saving and improving the lives of people with cancer, then do feel free to donate on my Just Giving page ;)

Natural Dyeing

Everybody in the knitting world is dyeing their own yarn these days.  I must follow at least dozen different independent yarn dyers on Instagram.  The kind of dyeing that they all do doesn't really interest me though.  I know what modern technology and dyes can achieve, and I can't imagine for a moment that I'd have the skill or artistic talent to create anything more exciting than what is already available without me having to make a mess of my kitchen.  

What interests me is how it all started.  When people first decided that the sheep they were making their clothing from didn't come in enough different colours, how did they go about making more interesting colours for themselves?  What did they do to make the colour last?  Can I do the same just with what I have in the garden?

I started by reading up on the subject, in particular I've found The Craft of Natural Dyeing, by Jenny Dean to be very useful.  I learned about mordents, preparing the dyestuff, and some popular plants that have been used as dyestuff for millennia.  I learned that if you follow a book then at some point it's going to recommend that you buy some ingredient for the process ready-made.  In this case it's the most popular mordent - alum.  I don't want to do that.  I want to be able to do the whole process without weights and measures, without using anything processed, entirely as it might have been done thousands of years ago.  Well, with the exception of using modern pans and a stove top.  I know that I can build and light a fire if I need to, so I'll accept the aid of modernity on that one!

So here's what I did:

Soaking - The wool needs to be wet before you start.  Usual rules on no sudden temperature changes, or excessive agitation of the yarn in order to avoid felting apply.

Mordanting - Wanting an effective mordant that would have been easily available throughout history I chose to use iron water.  I didn't go hunting down rivers with rusty red deposits in them, but the mordant was made by leaving flakes of iron (from dad's grindstone) in a bucket of water until it all went a rusty sort of colour.  This means it was basically impossible to determine how much mordant I was using, and in hindsight I suspect it was WAY too much!

Preparing a dye bath - Having read that nettles produce a nice yellowy-greeny sort of colour, and because nettles are abundantly available in dad's wildflower patch, I chose them as my dyestuff.  This stage smelled a lot like I was making spinach soup.

Maintaining the correct temperature is a difficult thing to judge when you're deliberately not using a thermometer.  I went for not quite simmering, then left the whole lot in the pan until it was cool afterwards.

Now I know that using iron as a mordant does cause the colours to be darker and more muted, but this is significantly more brown than I was hoping for.  In the right light you can see hints of green and yellow, but I think excessive iron might have been the problem here. Still, it can't be denied that I changed the colour of this yarn! More experimentation is needed!

Preparing raw fleece

At the start of June it was my sister's birthday.  To celebrate she and her family went camping with our friend Gemma and her family.  Perfect trip for 4 young kids, they all get to have adventures and get dirty, perfect trip for 4 adults, they all get time away from computers and wine around the campfire.  The place they stayed is called Brockwell Woods, and they invited us to visit them for an afternoon.  When we did we discovered that the land owners also keep Jacob sheep, but that they can't sell the fleece because there's no profit in it.  Instead they store it and use most of it for insulation in the barn!  I asked if I could buy some, and I was told that if I made a small donation to their tree planting fund then I could take as much as I wanted.  

Now I've spun from raw fleece before, back when I very first learned to spin I did a workshop at Brough Lee Farm, and they provided me with a bag of washed fleece.  We were taught how to flick card, just to get the worst of the vegetable matter and guard hairs out, then spin woolen style from that.  I much prefer to spin worsted though, now that I'm more experienced, so using dad's new-found YouTube skills we spent a good length of time watching videos on fleece preparation on his TV.  I learned that carding isn't what I need to be doing in order to prepare fleece for worsted spinning.  I need to comb the fleece instead.  So I invested in a simple set of combs, and set about preparing the fleece I'd bought.

First you need to "skirt" the fleece, that is pick out all the bits that are matted, felted, or made of poo.  Sheep don't wash, they don't wipe their arses, and they scratch their butts by rubbing up against drystone walls, there WILL be bits that are not salvageable! Then you wash it.  There are several schools of thought on this.  Some people say use hot water, some say use lukewarm water.  I've always been lead to believe that sudden changes of temperature are bad for wool, so I went for the lukewarm option.  GENTLE agitation with a little woolite.  Several times.  The water will gross you out when you see how filthy it gets! Then rinse several times.  Then let it dry. 

Washing is removing dirt and grease, because sheeps wool is full of the natural grease lanolin.  Washing won't remove all the bits of grass and seeds and stuff!

That's partly what these are for.  These are very basic wool combs.  Normal people might clamp them to the edge of a table, but I can neither stand for long enough to use that method, nor sit on a dining chair for long enough, or at least not without passing out or incredible pain, or both.  So mine are clamped to the edge of one of the large wooden stools that usually live in dad's summer house, hence the few spiderwebs still clinging to the underside, despite my efforts to brush them off!

This is the fleece once it's been washed, dried, and 'picked'.  Picked just means sort of lightly fluffing it out.  You can get fancy devices to make the picking process less laborious, but in my case dad just pulled it apart with his hands.  I didn't make him do this part by the way!  I think he was impatient to see the combing process, so when I arrived here last time he'd already done this in preparation.

Now you load your comb, or 'lash on'.  Depending on the type of fleece you have, and how much the natural structure has been disrupted by the washing and picking process, you might be able to see which direction the majority of the fibres are aligned in.  On most of the YouTube videos we watched the fibres seemed to start off far better aligned than these, but I don't know if that's because the people making the videos deliberately chose types of fleece that would make the concept easier to describe.  I worried that perhaps this wouldn't work for me because my fleece seemed so much messier to start with, but actually it didn't turn out to be a problem at all. 

You start combing at the tips, and gradually work closer and closer to the loaded comb, working with the combs at right angles to each other.  As you work, the fibre will slowly transfer from one comb to the other, and the little bits of vegetable matter mixed in with it will fall out onto the floor, or get stuck behind the tines of the first comb.  Once most of the fibre has transferred to the second comb, you swap them over, remove any raggedy neps and knots still attached to the first comb, and repeat the process several times.

As you can see, even though I started off with a big unruly mess, this created lovely neat, straight, aligned fibres.  You can also see here what the waste material full of neps and grass and stuff looks like.

Now you carefully pull the fibre off the comb, in much the same way that you would draft to spin.  Pull an inch or so, then move your grip forward and pull another inch, etc.

You'll end up with a rough sliver like this, and a tiny bit of wastage on the comb.

Wind the sliver into a loose 'nest', and put it aside while you load up the combs with more fleece and repeat the whole process another 3 or 4 times.

Unwind the 3 or 4 slivers that you've made to make a sort of loose batt...

Then load up your combs again from the batt.  Several of the videos I watched recommended combing your fibre twice in this way.  If you're using a particularly fine fibre, then you might even switch to a finer comb at this point.  The phrase that sticks in my head from one video in particular is "Combing it twice, makes everything nice!" so that's what I did, and it did remove a small number of little stubborn neps and tiny particles of vegetable matter that the first combing had missed.  I did the same transferring back and forth between combs procedure as I did the first time, although it didn't take nearly as long the second time around before I was happy with how it looked.

This time instead of hand-drafting a sliver, I used a diz (carved by dad, of course!).  A diz is basically a smooth, slightly curved, flattish object with a small hole (very small hole!) in it.  I even saw a video where a woman used a standard yale key as a diz.  You hook a little bit of fibre through the diz, then push the diz towards the comb until it starts to stick.  Then you pull more fibre through, and push the diz forward again, etc.  It allows you to create a thicker ribbon of fibre than the hand drafting method, which is more robust for storage until use.  Although it does take a bit of practice to get the technique right!

If you have bigger combs, then you might be able to produce long enough ribbons of tops to braid, but my combs are pretty small, so I just wound them up into little bumps.  This was the result of my first afternoon of preparing washed raw fleece for worsted spinning, and I'm pretty pleased with it!

This was the tea towel that I'd had laid on the floor underneath my combs.  Bearing in mind that a lot of the knots and neps end up left on the back of the comb, then pulled off and thrown away, you can see just how much crap came out of the little bit of fibre I prepared that day!

Of course the next logical thing to do was to spin with some of this fibre!  First I spun up some on one of the drop spindles that dad has made. I even chain-plied it and made finished, usable yarn!

I think this is one of the proudest things I've done in my fibre-craft career!  There's not much of it, just about 13m, less than 4g, because I was only doing this to try it out.  It's roughly sport-weight, and definitely quite 'rustic', but that's to be expected with Jacob.  Even the commercially prepared Jacob that I've spun before turned out much the same.

So now I've started spinning a larger amount on my Haldane wheel.  The farmer who I bought the fleece off made an off-hand comment about always needing warm hats for looking after the sheep in winter.  I'm sure he didn't intend me to, but I think that my first full project with this fibre will be to knit a hat and give it to him as a thank you.  I can't imagine that he had any idea how much enjoyment I would get out of those 2 bags of "useless" fleece!

Now it's bed time for me, and quite possibly more fibre combing tomorrow!