I have moved!

I have moved this blog in it's entirety to

http://thedroppedspindle.wordpress.com

It's now on wordpress which allows me to customise it a bit more, so it's prettier.
The photos are thumbnails, click to get a larger image.

Flowers, fibre and yarn

I have spent most of the day tweaking the forum and loading photos on and off photobucket which is a very slow process when there are a lot of them.
Yesterday we had the most enormous thunderstorm, real thunder and lightning for ages, and the water butt is now almost full. My in-laws came for tea, and brought me this.













The colours are amazing, I must look out for some roving like this... or maybe I could dye my own?













This is the latest off the wheel. The pencil roving is lovely, you can knit with it and felt it, unspun, but I wanted yarn, so it got spun.













And this is the result, not as bright as the prespun roving, and I'm concerned it will turn into mud when it's knitted, so I'm considering plying what's on the bobbin with some of the green or blue sock yarn I got on freecycle.

A new forum for spinners

When I was starting to get interested in spinning I looked for a forum for spinners on the web, but although I found a lot of very useful websites and inspiration in the form of blogs, I couldn't find anywhere to talk to other spinners, both new and experienced. There are yahoo groups which seemed unwieldy, and there are knitters forums with very small spinning sections. So with a bit of time on my hands, I have created a forum.
Please drop in and visit.
You'll find it here.
Because it's free, it has google ads on it, the ads are based on the words in the posts, so at the moment they vary from ads for fishing line spinning to others for engineering products! The more yarny the posts become the more appropriate the google ads will get. I don't mind them. I was on another forum where someone posted about a hoilday in Uzbekistan and the google ads bot found hotels to stay at in Uzbekistan!

In the pink

My mum, who is thrumpety thrump years old (suffice to say retired), heard at the weekend that the University examiners have done their marking, and not only is she going to be awarded her MA Honours in History of Art this week, but she got a FIRST.
I would just like everyone to know that I am so proud of her, and wild horses will not stop me getting to her graduation on Thursday.

On a lesser note, this is stage one of the pink sock project.

Dancing shoe and socks

This is my new dancing shoe. It's the result of walking down my fairly steep garden ten days ago while carrying some pottery and falling over. As I fell I realised that the crack I heard wasn't a breaking pot, it was my left ankle.
The orthopod today said no weight bearing for another week, then VERY gently and gradually over the next 5 weeks as long as it's not too painful.













So to keep myself busy I have been knitting socks. There are actually two of each even though I can only wear one at a time!
The bottom ones in the photo are done in Regia wool. They were good fun to knit because the pattern changes every two rows and there's no chance of getting bored.
The top pair are knitted in Opal. I expected to like this yarn as it's so popular, but in fact the Regia was more enjoyable to knit.



















These were knitted to a different pattern. I used a K3 P1 rib from the top to the ankle, and then in a K3 P1 rib on the top of the sock and stocking stitch (all knit) on the bottom. I wanted to make socks which hugged my leg more and were less likely to roll down under a pair on wellies. I am pleased with them, but they took a lot longer to knit.













Three more pairs of socks, honest.
The blue is for my husband and as he wants them for under wellies, I expect they'll be a 3:1 rib pair.
The purpley green ball will knit up into a shaded sock, and the girly pink will knit up into broad stripes. I don't wear pink at all, but I couldn't resist the yarn.













And this isn't yarn at all yet.
It's merino roving. Gorgeously soft, and one of the first things I want to do on the Kiwi. If I want it for socks I'll need to blend it with something hardwearing or I'll spend my life darning.
I'm wondering about blending it with a recycled bottle fibre which should give it strength, but I need to do more research first.
On the other hand maybe I'll make gloves or something else entirely.
People keep asking if I'm going to get bored.
Can't see it myself!

Here's one I made earlier!

This is the hardware which goes with the wooden parts of the spinning wheel in an earlier photo.
When you add the two together, you get this.


















I thought a coloured wheel would look good, and painted it blue.... and then a different blue.... and then bitter chocolate brown, and finally black.



















And then I got some silver paint and painted calligraphy around it.
When it spins the silver becomes a solid whirl, which shimmers as it spins.

Well travelled bag!

At Easter we were in Japan, and at Tokyo airpost we saw this sign for a Soup takeaway we had been in several times. The bag is my knitting bag, but by this time it was also full of other goodies too.
It says
"high in fibre, low in calories, and very good for the soul!"

Potted history

It all started with a visit to a friend in Fife one weekend at the wet and windy end of last year. On my way home she took me to visit Twistfibrecraft in Newburgh. I was fascinated and bought yarn to knit a hedgehog bag, designed by Laura (who you can see in the photo on the shop website).












I used Rowan Bigwool and Sirdar Foxy for the spiky bit. When you knit it up it's twice the size and then you wash it at 60 degrees in the machine so the Bigwool felts, but the synthetic hairy yarn doesn't. I made several for gifts using various spiky yarns including Funky Fur and a longer glittery one, but the Foxy is definitely the best.












Of course I had to go back to the shop and this time Peter taught me to drop spindle, which I've been doing ever since. This is three itty bitty hanks of plain Corriedale, blended (carded) Corriedale, and Corriedale with turquoise Angelina blended in.














Then someone showed me how to use a wheel... well several people actually, at the Edinburgh Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild who also loaned me the Guild wheel, an Ashford Traveller ST. My main difficulty was that I have tiled floors at home so as soon as I got up any momentum with the treadling it became a game of follow my wheel as the traveller inched across the kitchen floor. I eventually managed to wedge it against a kitchen cupboard, but spinning facing a cupboard when the rest of the family are behind you isn't the most sociable of activities.
Of course by now I had to have a wheel, and after trying every wheel in the shop, found that I could make yarn on all of them.... so I bought the Ashford Kiwi.

1) It's a simple clean design (I hate twiddly-bits).
2) I like the solid MDF wheel. Ideal for painting.
3) It's a double treadle.
4) It was the least expensive, which means more £££ to spend on fibre and experimenting.
It is now painted, varnished and assembly is almost complete.
I also got a non slip under carpet thing to go under it from IKEA which I hope will stop the chase me around the room game this time.












I was back up in Newburgh this weekend for a Dye Walk, and picked up some dyed pencil roving which is for some socks for my other half, though I think I will do the heels and toes in proper sock yarn or I forsee many evenings of winter darning and reknitting this winter.