Colour Inspiration

My new Blue Face Leicester, 4ply wool was customer dyed by Becky King. I love the gorgeous, jewel colours and can't wait to start knitting with them.

Becky is a joy to work with. Having only two photos to work with she's done an amazing job. I can't tell you the technical side of things but our inspiration for the colour combinations came from Design Seeds. The first is refreshing hues.

The second is tropical birds.

My photos don't do justice to the colours but it's murky and wet outside. Just the right weather to get out my pins and decide what to make with them.

Thanks Becky!

Deep, hot water

Five shades of Wendy Merino 4 ply and 3mm knitting needles  - a story of unravelling disintegration.
or
What started as an experiment in adding texture to knitting nearly ended in plagiarism.

I wanted a way to add pleats or folds. Slip stitches that pulled up the starting row seemed the way to go. It was intended to look like rolling waves and it worked.

After writing up the pattern I came across a video on YouTube for rolling pleats. It's for a stitch pattern published in the May 2008 issue of Simply knitting and yes, it was almost the same as mine. So it was back to the drawing board.

One thing you might not know about me is that I listen to The Cure while I work. It's appropriate that I found my inspiration while listening to Disintegration.

I stripped it back to the bare stitches. What's the point of slipping stitches on every row when you don't need them? Got rid of them and bring them back when you actually want to work them.

The result was a crisper, sharper fold and much easier to write up. It's original and now I'm not in The Same Deep Water as Robert Smith.

Happy Saturday

My blogging has been sparse since the whole Blogger update. For that I'm truly sorry. As a way of making it up to you I give you a little vid.

The first film made me smile when I saw it on Fondant Fibre. Thanks for sharing, Deborah.

It's the story of sustainable wool production. Here's the final cut from Wools of New Zealand. 

Wonderwool 2012

Yarn fanatics brought a huge crowd to Builth Wells last month for the annual Wonderwool.  The best part of it for me is an insight of the process from animal to garment. This year we had Blue Texels, alpacas and Shetlands. There were beautiful angora bunnies too but I stayed away from them for fear of wheezing. It's not a good look to be hugging on an inhaler. Not a good advert for them either.

I'm very focused when I go to these events. My only purchase was an Aran weight, organic wool and alpaca from Uppingham Yarns. It will make a great cowl for next winter. Although the way the weather has been I might start making it now.

The reason for this year's visit was to try my hand at dyeing. It's great fun getting messing but I'm sure that was not intended. We had plenty of time and space to try out different methods.

The final stages were carried out at home with a microwave. These wrapped up like a sausage hanks had to be cooked, then rinsed and put out to dry.

All the wools are organic. The pink and purple nearest are 4 ply Wensleydale. I love the way they shimmer and can't wait to knit them up. Any suggestions for one skein patterns?

I leave you with the real stars. In no particular order; Shetlands, alpaca (who look perpetually bored) and the lovely Blue Texel. Ahww!

Wonderwool

On Saturday I went to Llanelwedd for the annual Wonderwool. It's a great showcase for wool of all descriptions whether on the hoof or finished articles made with amazing skill. There was so much yarn on display that I had to go all the way round before concentrating on the stalls that really took my eye.

It's also a place to catch up socially. It was great to meet one of my old friends who was busy buying from Snowdon Angoras. Being a spinner she has been nagging the same organic farmer as I have to keep some specialty sheep especially for the fleeces. Most of his flock are Welsh Mountain, ubiquitous but not good for spinning. We both agreed that we might be better off with rabbits!

The one good thing about this show is that you can get up close to the star turns.

The Manx posed beautifully on the Manx Loaghtan Sheep Breeders' stall but the Wensleydale from  West Yoe Farm was having none of it. This is the best I could do.

Around the corner the Shetlands were posing for everyone.

From my previous blogs you might have gathered that I'm not the best at calculating how much yarn I need. Determined not be be caught again making that mistake I went back around to look for some hand dyed organics. True to form every colour I really liked was in limited quantities.

A chance conversation took me to a demonstration of dyeing given by Helen Deighan. Having talked to Helen and bought her book, Dye One Knit One,  I think this might be the way forward. Of course it also helps that Helen's friend and colleague Linda De Ruiter also stocks a range of organic wool at Tall Yarns just screaming out to be dyed. I will have a go - one day.

Uppingham Yarns also did a good range of organics. If I had sat down during the show and read Helen's book I would probably have bought some but they gave me a flyer and said to phone when I know what I want.

Stalls that took my eye, well apart from the sheep. I was really taken with Excelana It's a collaboration between knitwear designer Susan Crawford and John Arbon of Fibre Harvest here. They've produced a range of 100% British wools in vintage inspired shades to complement Susan's designs