Procrastination

Singlet 2 is growing, but I'm currently procrastinating on undoing the front to make it better. It needs to happen, I just want it to magically fix itself...

And as successful procrastination goes, the purple corriedale is nearly spun. I'm hoping to finish the second half tonight and ply tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some photos soon.

Singlet, Spinning, and (thankfully) No Moths

I finished the singlet prototype last weekend, shown here (18m size). This has a couple of inches added to the length of what I theoretically worked out, because The Monkey is long and thin.



Wool is Baby 4 ply from The Wool Company in Utiku, this singlet ate 83g. It should be nice and warm for winter though!

I have started work on a 0-3 month one now, after tweaking a few things in the pattern. The neckline will be slightly different, and the construction should (hopefully) be improved. I have calculated that I should need 36g of yarn, and the leftover I have found to use is 35g. This could be interesting!

I have theoretically acquired a new spinning wheel, although I'll wait until I managed to get it off my mother to celebrate. (Bought on Trademe, she picked it up and has been playing with it since. I won't get a chance at it until next week, by which stage I don't know if I'll be allowed to have it!).

This has given me the push I needed to finish up the spinning that was sitting around nearly half done for a while. I dragged the wheel out the other day and have now finished the first half of a 100g pack of Passionfruit Corriedale from The Little Wool Company. I have done the first half as is, and have just started the second half with the colours stripped apart. I have no idea how it will come out, or what it will be, but it will be good to get it finished.

In the process of finishing the first half, I found a few insect casings in a bit of the fibre. My first thought was moths, but a bit of reading online helped me decide that actually it was just fly/maggot casings. Still unpleasant, but I'm pretty sure I know how and when that would have happened. Every now and then the cat leaves us special presents, and at certain times of year if we don't see them then they go unnoticed (they dry out before they start smelling). A while ago I discovered one under an armchair, with a few of said casings around, and I guess I must have had the wheel and fibre out in the lounge nearby at that point. So, no moth crisis, just a brief panic!

Half a singlet!

The top half is done, here's hoping that the bottom half works and it all comes together how I am imagining it. With any luck the first version will be finished by the end of the weekend (and then I can work out what needs to change for the second incarnation). I guess we might have a warm little boy this winter after all, and no belly hanging out of his singlets.

Achievements!

In the last week or so I have finished a baby blanket. Wool is Utiku Corriedale in Cream, Avocado, Amethyst, Aqua, Raspberry and Gems. Pattern is Dream Catcher Baby Blanket by Susan B. Anderson.


I have also moved onto page 2 of The Stocking.


I have also started working on a pattern for a knitted baby singlet, since I couldn't find anything that looked like what I wanted. Always so fussy!

Hemigraphis

After a while in hibernation, I have finally worked out the pattern for the smaller size of this shawl. It used two colours of Vintage Purls sock yarn (85g of The Oceanographer, and 65g of Soho Backstreet). I bought the variegated yarn because I love the colours in it, but (like many people) I have difficulty finding something to make with highly variegated yarns because they tend to hide patterns. I think this shawl tames it down a bit, while still showing off all the gorgeous colours.



The pattern is mostly written (for both sizes), and just needs a few more tweaks. I am hoping to have it ready for testing by the end of the weekend. (If you're interested in testing, let me know!)

While I also love how this one sits I think I preferred the larger size, so I may have to remake one for me to keep at some point. Of course, that means I'll have to work out what colours I want...

Not so many finishes this week

I don't think I've finished anything since the last post, and I definitely don't have any new photos. The stocking embroidery continues slowly, I've nearly finished the first of three pattern pages, there will be a photo when I reach that milestone.

I am now half way through the shawl I'm currently knitting, I will be very pleased when it is done. I could take a photo, but at the moment it just looks like a crumpled heap of blue, pink and brown.

I have been very slack about hemming napkins (ugh, hemming), and I really should just get them out of the way. Mostly by the time I get the chance to sit down with them I just want something more mindless, and less tedious to work on though.

It is definitely autumn now, plenty of rain over the last little while and the temperatures are definitely dropping now. We haven't started up the fire yet (still need to move a few things off the top of the fireplace), but the heat pump has been on a few times.

Productive!

Firstly, an old finish that I never posted here. The Monkey now fits into his Christmas jumper, just in time for the weather to cool down a bit. I had kind of hoped that the timing would work out, but you never can tell with these things.



This weekend I have managed to finish making a rain jacket.


And make a pair of trousers, which are only marginally too long at the moment. Pattern for both pattern and pants is Burda Kids 9828. Jacket is 12 months, plus a bit of extra length (for a skinny boy), pants are 2 years and are slightly too long at 19 months.


And I finished sewing up a blanket, but it still needs edging. Not quite sure what I will do there, probably something with crochet.


The stocking progress also continues slowly. I haven't got too much more to go until I can move on to the next page of the pattern though!

Radler

And here's something I have been working on for far too long:

Radler - a lace shawl



This is a top down knitted shawl pattern, that can be worked to any size. There are optional beads at the centre and edging.

Pattern available for sale here

I got the first draft of the pattern written up a year and a half ago, and then went and had a baby. It has taken me until now to actually get it finished and ready to publish! I'm hoping the next one will be a little quicker, although I'm not counting on it.

Name Change

I've been thinking about changing the name of this blog for a while, and now that I've pretty much committed to putting more time into other crafts and less into weaving for a while I'm going to make the leap. Originally I was stuck in the mindset of creating a new blog, but recently realised that was unnecessary. So the URL is the same, just a new title (which I think encompasses more of the fibre arts than the old one).

So without further ado, introducing the blog of StringHerder! (It may eventually get a makeover too).

A sadly familiar sight

My current craft room just isn't really big enough for the loom and everything else, and it wasn't realistic that I was going to get much weaving done over the next year or so anyway. So it has been dismantled again. With any luck we'll have a new house to put it in before I miss it too terribly, in the meantime I have a table loom anyway. (And plenty of other crafty stuff to keep busy with).