Wheat Field, crannog, 2 skeins

And

Cup cake, crannog, 2 skeins.

Other colours are here.

More next week, I promise.
n

I used a random number generator thing, but forgot the screenshot. Anyway, there is a skein of Crannog in need of some colour, so I await instructions from the winner.

I absolutely loved reading all the stories. As a thank you, I’m also awarding a 20% off voucher to five other people selected at random, which can be used in September.

Sometimes the nicest surprises are to be found in unexpected places. As you know, we have chickens, and as well as being fed layers pellets they also get flung a handful or two of mixed bird seed. Unsurprisingly, flinging birdseed in the bleary hours of the morning can result in it ending up in the wrong place, and last week, this appeared in the bottom of the adjacent vegetable patch.

It’s not a full sized Blue Peter Challenge type of sunflower, it’s more like the kind you would see in a florist.

And there’s only one, which makes it all the more delightful.

I had a lovely birthday, with Sherbet Fountains, knitting, a trip to Glasgow and a peaceful evening. It was great.

The knitting is the errant biasing Leaning Tower of Sock, and I am afraid I gave up and frogged it. Could be worse, I have been known to chop misbehaving knitting into little pieces with great satisfaction.

This is the Mellow colourway from last week’s update, and I love how the colour is working as fabric.

As you can see I’m not the most even of knitters, but this is my travelling sock and it will be going on my feet under wellies, so it’s not too precious.

And you’ll also notice that the massive leaning-ness has had some excavation and underpinning and is now vertical (or nearly so).

I’m just about at the heel so I need to decide whether a heel flap and gusset  is in order, or a PGR heel. I suspect the former since it’’s probably a boot-sock, but there are 64 stitches and it’s 3×1 rib so some arithmetic may be required.

I thought we could have another blog comment competition, what do you think?

The Yarn Yard is now quite grown up, and I am wondering if we should have a virtual party this week. Tell me (in the comments) who you would bring as your guest, and what you would wear, tell me about the party games and the food.

I’ll select a winner next weekend, and that person will receive a Yarn Yard party bag with a skein of yarn and appropriate kid stuff of the kind you get in a 4 year old’s party bag.

Have fun!

n

PS I forgot, the other winners are Bronagh, Shirley, Hadenmaiden, Charlie and Patti. Emails will be off to them very soon.

Tomorrow I will use the Random Number Generator to choose a winner for the skein of Crannog in a colour of your choice. There are a few hours left to enter.

I’ll also be announcing a new comment give-away, with a birthday theme, so don’t forget to check back over the weekend and join in the fun.

n

PS  The frogging worked!

It’s K1 P1 twisted rib, and then K3 tbl P1 leg.

I love the strong line of the twisted stitches, but the leg is biasing (if that’s a word).

My friend Jane is here this weekend, and is an knitter of distinction, and the best we can come up with is that all the twisting is unbalancing the fabric.

Any ideas? Or solutions? Please don’t tell me to twist the purls as well!

n

There are photos on flickr of yarn so far.

n

Five things to entertain, amuse and inform.

1.  All Mallard ducks are actually wearing dog masks. Be warned. You will never be able to look at a duck in the same way again.

2.  Sockupied.

A new downloadable sock magazine from Interweave Press. It has patterns, embedded videos of cast on techniques, a review of DPNs and an interview with CookieA.

I think it’s pretty good. There are different download options for Windows users, and different instructions and download page for Mac users. It does take about 20 minutes to download, and I would download and read the downloading instructions before you download the actual magazine. (If you are like me, the sort of person who tries to use appliances before reading the manual, that is.)

3.  Penne pasta.

I am completely unable to eat this stuff without thinking of …

Makes me chuckle every time. (Language warning for kids.)

4.  Take a look at this.

Make it full screen and follow the instructions. Keep watching. Don’t look away from the screen. Instructions appear in red eventually.

5.  Advertising for Love is a collection of Lonely Hearts adverts from the USA in the nineteenth century. Read the one called “Boo”. How poignant, I do hope he found the woman of his dreams.

So, where did you meet your partner/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend? At school, at work, in the park, on holiday, on the internet?

Tell me how and where you met in the comments and I’ll do a draw for someone to win a skein of Crannog in the colour of their choice!

n

This year the Gathering was a little quieter than last year but that just meant there was more room for wheels and spindles and fleeces. Isabella, aka Spinning Fishwife was there, and my friend Wren was in Edinburgh for the weekend so I dragged her along as well. She spun on her tiny Jenkins Turkish spindle and entranced everyone with how neat it is, imagine a spindle about as big as a mobile phone and you have an idea of the size of it. It was a beautiful sunny day with the threat of a shower which never materialised.

This is the third year I’ve been, and in each of the last two years I have bought a fleece. The first one is washed and partially spun, the second is (shamefully) awaiting attention) so this year I was determined I wouldn’t buy fleece.

And I didn’t.

I managed to avoid looking at them and touching them… until the last half hour when I made the mistake of walking past them, and the rest, as they say, was history. I was extremely restrained. I resisted the prizewinning, skirted, competition winning Polwarth, (with not inconsiderable difficulty) and chose what must have been the smallest fleece in the display.

It’s a Shetland, just 650g, so quite manageable.

I sought advice from fellow fleece fiends on Twitter and Ravelry, and the received wisdom seemed to be hot water and detergent, and No Swishing to speed the process up unless you want a felted mess.

So I filled the bath with hot water and ecover washing up liquid, and divided the fleece into four to make manageable portions because a wet fleece is kind of unwieldy.

And I left it alone. Aren’t I good?

Just in case anyone is under any illusion that spinning fleece “in the grease” is a fairly clean, if smelly activity, I give you Exhibit One.

This is the “bathwater” after just ten minutes of soaking.

I think this is going to be the China Project while Gavin is away. 650g of greasy fleece might give me about 400g of washed fibre, lanolin is weighty stuff. It was never going to spin into a garment sized quantity of yarn, but I am thinking it might make a nice dog-walking hat.

What do you think? Any pattern suggestions?

n

Crannog, suggested by Hilary who lives in Fort William.

A Crannog is an ancient dwelling found in Scotland, where it’s known as a Crannog, and Ireland where it’s pronounced Cran-owwg.

(Photos from L Grove’s photostream under Creative Commons Licence.)

This reconstructed Crannog is to be found on Loch Tay in Perthshire.

I love the sturdy timbers which support it, not lacy at all, but when they are reflected in the water they have a delicate other-worldly look. Crannog is likewise a laceweight, but not really a flyaway wispy etheral yarn. It’s a “working” lace yarn. The sort of weight you can use for shawls, or a lightweight cardigan, and not have to worry that it’s going to be too fragile to tuck under a winter coat.

Each skein has a generous 150g and 750m of 100% superwash merino.

One skein for a long and exuberant shawl, two for a fine cardigan.

And at just £15 a skein, the possibilities are limitless.

This is Beetroot.

You can see it knitted up on AsaTricosa’s blog. She used just one skein for the Alceste shawl, and it’s just fabulous, wrapping twice round for snugglyness or once for elegance. The pattern is available from a link on her website.

And this is an olive/saffron/forest blend (which is actually VERY Tricosa).

My camera battery is flat so there will be more photos on Monday.

I’ll be at the Broughton Gathering tomorrow with lots of yarn, so if you’re a south of Scotland spinner, I might see you there. If not, have a lovely weekend.

n

PS I’m hoping to get this in the shop over the weekend but I don’t think it will be tonight, sadly.

PPS It dyes like a dream. This is a selection of the colours I took to Stirling, 70 skeins. (All gone!)

I need to tell you about a new yarn base (which sold out at the event, to my astonishment and delight), and a new pattern for it which will be available very soon.

But today, I am having a day (more-or-less) off. A few weeks ago I was digging the veg patch and jiggered my right arm. After a visit to the physio, it seems I have Tennis Elbow, and while I am perfectly capable of Doing Stuff, I need to break up my working day so that I don’t have long stretches doing dyeing or twisting skeins, and have rest periods. I even have a splint thing to wear!

Today I have Antipodean visitors, and I have made Oatie Biscuits (recipe in the Food section).

This variant has coconut, peanut butter and sunflower seeds added, in no particular quantity, just until it looked right.

And after that, I have a wee untangling project.

Two skeins, actually. Far too nice to throw away.

Untangling is a bit hit and miss. I have to be in the mood otherwise the temptation to chop it all into tiny bits can be overwhelming, but as a meditative kind of activity in a quiet house, it’s very calming.

Sometimes.

n

Arranged to stay with my friend Jane, bought train tickets, booked a class, threw clean T shirts into a bag and just WENT.

I had a fantastic time. and learned a lot. I met lots of people, I laughed with them, knitted with them and just had an all-round wonderful adventure.

More about the class and the people another time, but I just have to show you some Needle P*rn.

Can you guess?

They are pretty, and I love them.

Strawberries for tea.

View across Scotland this evening.

6 inch, 2.75mm, strawberry red, Signature needles.

Mmmmmm….

n