April Handmaiden Spinning Fibre Club
Hello friends,
Up until a few months ago, I got into a spinning rut. I didn't really have anything fun to spin, and so my yarn spinning fell by the wayside. After hearing about Handmaiden NZ's monthly fibre club, I decided to sign up for a couple of months, to see if it would help me get back into spinning. Every month Handmaiden, Amy Hughes, dyes a 100 gram braid of yarn in a new colour, and with a new fibre blend to try.
Eager to get back into spinning, I signed up for the fibre club and waited impatiently for it to arrive.
When April's fibre club showed up, and it was a soft and fluffy 100% merino braid, in pretty shades of white, green, blue, and purple, and it came with a small candle from the Bluebird Candle Company, in the scent Beautiful. The candle scent was very floral and pretty, and not too overpowering. Very excited about getting into spinning, I got to work. I unraveled the braid and split it lengthwise down the middle so I could make a two ply. In an experimental mood, I chose to spin each half braid from different ends. This would make the colours overlap in the middle.
I decided to spin the braid on my trusty Majacraft Suzie Pro, with the spinning wheel set up on the middle whorls, and aimed to spin at my default width, which would end up with approximately DK yarn once plied. It didn't take very long at all to spin up both singles and then ply them.
Once plied and rested, I set the yarn by washing it with wool wash. Unfortunately the wool wash we have at the moment has been making dye run, so the wash and rinse water was in shades of blue.
With the yarn fulled and washed, it was left to dry. I ended up with a total of 175 m of DK knit weight yarn at the end of spinning and processing. I don't know what I will do with it, but for now I'm just happy to squish it and enjoy the pretty colours. Have you been spinning anything pretty recently?
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Autumnal Knitting - My Days to Come Blanket Is Still a Work In Progress
Hello friends,
Happy
Autumn to those of you living in the Southern Hemisphere. It's been a
long and hot summer here in Dunedin, but over the last few weeks the
sunlight has been dimming little by little, and the neighborhood
deciduous trees have ever so slowly begun changing color. We have a big
Japanese maple tree in our backyard, and the edges of some of the leaves
have already started turning red.
At
this time of the year I start to ponder the wonderfulness of autumn. I
think of beautiful falling leaves, bright orange pumpkins, cool rainy
days, the first hot chocolate of the season, and warm knitted things.
And when it comes to thinking of knitting, my thoughts always settle on
the unfinished blanket stored in my craft room.
Back
in September 2021 I'd just finished knitting a thick woolen jersey, and
wanted to
knit something a little easier, a blanket that would keep me cozy and
warm over the
autumn and winter seasons to come. Down here in Dunedin where we live,
we usually get around 40 frost days, and usually if we're lucky, a
couple of snow days as well. And when we don't have frosts or snow in
autumn and winter, it is pretty much always just cold.
I've always admired Fifty Four Ten Studio's blankets on Instagram, and so after perusing their website, I chose their The Days to Come Blanket. I love the simplicity of its modern geometric design, and the fact that the blanket would be double-sided, and the pattern was simple enough that I wouldn't need to refer to the pattern as I knitted it in front of the TV.
The pattern calls for an aran/worsted weight yarn, but I had on hand a 3 kg cone of double knit salmon pink possum/merino yarn from a Woolyarns sale. After knitting a test swatch with a slightly smaller needle to account for the yarn (yes, you should always knit a test swatch, and wash it afterward too), I was ready to make a start on knitting my blanket.
I, of course, chose the largest size version of the blanket, which was an XXL measuring 46.5" wide by 54" long, because if you're going to knit a blanket to keep you warm, you should make it as big and cozy as possible. So therefore, I cast on 214 stitches...
The bottom border was next, it was pretty easy knitting, as it was all plain stitches, but I noticed it was taking around 20 minutes a row, and once I got to the pattern itself, the realization dawned on me. Each pattern row was taking around half an hour to knit. The knitting itself was easy, but it was taking ages, every night I worked on it I could only manage a couple of rows...
So ever since September 2021 I've been slowly working on my The Days to Come Blanket. I've been knitting it more in Autumn, Winter, and Spring, and hardly ever in Summer. The possum/merino yarn is very warm and cozy, it's just too hot to work on the project in the middle of summer, especially now that it's big enough to sit on my lap while I'm knitting. And I only work on it for about an hour a night when I do pull it out of its project bag, so that's not helping either.
My blanket is currently measuring 44" wide by 29" long, which makes me just over halfway done, I need to knit around another 25". Once I get to the expected number of pattern repeats, I'll have a better idea of how much more I need to do to get the right size once the blanket will be blocked.
I mentioned recently to hubby that I hoped to get it finished by this winter, but that's only three months away. I have been pulling it out to knit every couple of days over the past month, but at only two rows a night, there hasn't been much progress.
In
order to remedy this, I have now brought my Days To Come blanket
knitting project downstairs, and my aim is to get at least an hour done
each night while watching the Chase on TV. Hopefully this will mean I
reach my goal before the first of June...
Have a wonderful day,
Julie-Ann
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