Saturday 5 April 2014

Pausing ...

Taking a break from blogging, sorry won't be blogging Woolly Wednesday this month, and for the forseeable future. Enjoy your spinning, crafting, gardening and living life ... that's where I will be too, oh and Instagram too. Dawn xx

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Woolly Wednesday March 2014

Welcome to the Woolly Wednesday gathering for March 2014.
I am again not sure if I will continue with the WW gathering, finding the time is difficult and the last few months have been quiet with link-ups so I'm not sure it is worth my time, even though a few crafting bloggers said they would like to see it continue (?). I shall keep up with blog reading when I can and continue to post pictures and projects. I'll review it again soon, but find the quickness of posting pictures and seeing other fibre crafters pictures on Instagram easier to find the time for.

Whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month, or plans for the month(s) ahead. All crafts and inspiration welcome. I look forward to regularly sharing this space with you here.

 Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!. 

 Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Woolly Wednesday, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://raisingseedlings.blogspot.co.uk/) and the image will link to here.



Join in with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, I look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join in when you can.



Wednesday 5 February 2014

Lots of knitting, not so much spinning ... yet!

I haven't done much spinning in 2014 so far, my days have been filled with other aspects of life and a lot of decorating of my daughters new bedroom. Hmmm that's something I could blog about soon, but it's not for a woolly Wednesday post!

I am spinning a dye fibre braid I have had a while, blues and greens and other colours thrown in. I like the spun singles, but there is just something about it plied that doesn't quite grab me. It's still on the bobbin so I'm hoping when I wind it off onto the niddy noddy I will see it in a better light.

I have been knitting. The biggest accomplishment was knitting with the green yarn I shared a picture of last month. This was spun with a project in mind - lots of shades of green for a Sheep Heid hat for my husband for his birthday, that was just after Christmas. But he knew it was going to be a little late. I cast it on and really got into the swing of knitting it and it was finished about 5 days later. I love it. He loves it. Many people have commented how lovely it is. I like it more than my own Sheep Heid knitted last year in natural shades, typical eh!


Me modelling the hat
and the recipient wearing his new hat

I also knitted a pair of socks from some handspun yarn. The yarn is Jacobs that was a gift in batts with the different colours separated. I had navajo plied it to keep the colours separate and stored it awaiting inspiration. I wanted some warm socks and knowing this was a 3 ply yarn I thought it was perfect.


 Lovely cosy handspun socks

I have also knitted myself another hat. A quick knit, this Hurricane Hat is knitted in Masham handspun and is lovely and cosy. Started on a bus ride, knitted at a knitting night, finished next morning.

 Knitting on the bus
 Knitting night 
wearing my new hat with my rainbow scarf

I'm currently putting together some crochet bunting for my daughters room, and have cast on a new hat for her too, a bit of a surprise one too!

 Knitted bunting and new hat (both acrylic yarns, cotton i-cord)


February Woolly Wednesday!

Welcome to the Woolly Wednesday gathering for February 2014.

Whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month, or plans for the month(s) ahead. All crafts and inspiration welcome. I look forward to regularly sharing this space with you here.

 Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!. 

 Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Woolly Wednesday, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://raisingseedlings.blogspot.co.uk/) and the image will link to here.

Join in with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, I look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join in when you can.

Wednesday 1 January 2014

Happy New Year and Woolly Wednesday too!

Ah, the calendar nearly caught me out! Between Christmas and New Year I always lose track of what day it is, so on Monday I was thinking when is the first Wednesday of January only to look up at the calendar and realise it was the 1st. So it's a very Happy New Year Woolly Wednesday today. I wish everyone a wonderful year full of woolly inspiration and adventures.

So since my last WW post I was knitting some little Harry Potter character dolls for my daughter for Christmas and am pleased to show you the finished dolls which were my aim - Harry, Ron and Hermione. I have since Christmas cast on for Hagrid, and Dumbledore is planned, Dobby ... you get the picture - I could be knitting these on and off for a while!

 


I finished these around the 19th/20th December so was looking for something else to knit. Recently I've found on cold days that my hands get a little cold when knitting or crocheting so I had an idea brewing about some fingerless mitts to wear when knitting. I have worn handwarmers before but they slip and move and made the palms of my hand too warm. So I pondered and even got a pencil and paper out to sketch an idea.

So the idea was to knit some very close fitting fingerless mitts, with a short finger bit for the base of my fingers, a gusset for my thumb and casting off to have a "hole" on the palm of my hand.

I cast on from the cuff, and tried them on as I went along to check they were close fitting so they wouldn't move about too much whilst knitting. Knit in the round until the gusset for the thumb, rejoined in the round and then cast off a number of stitches for the palm. Re-joined in the round for the base of the fingers and then seperated the stitches and knit each finger bit in the round.


Sound weird? Probably look a bit odd too, but they absolutely fitted the inspiration! They fit perfectly, don't slip around and keep the parts of my hand that were cold warmer but without the palm of my hand getting too hot and potentially sweaty. Having the majority of the finger still uncovered and the palm uncovered means I can feel the yarn, the needles and the work in progress. Perfect!


These kept me busy to Christmas with everything else going on. I finished the 2nd one just after Christmas as I had a sudden urge to knit something else on Christmas Eve!

So Christmas Eve, no wrapping to be done, just time to sit and relax with a glass of mulled wine, I grabbed my project bag (which had the mitts in it) and decided I wanted to start something new. So I picked out my Rainbow yarn that I spun a few months ago - 1 ply of Masham rainbow dyed fibre, 1 ply of Tussah Silk rainbow dyed fibre. I totally love this yarn and have been desperate to knit with it. So I looked through some patterns I had saved and cast on a reasonably plain shawl/scarf with it - didn't want to go for anything with a pattern as it would have got lost in all the colour runs. Knitted on and off for a few days and here is the result.



It needs blocking which will fan out the sections, however I am contemplating just blocking the body and leaving the edges wavy as I like how they look. We shall see how it goes.

After a gap not spinning, and oh how I missed it, I have been spinning various shades of green that I started a while ago. These are for a Sheep Heid hat for my husband for Christmas. Yes I know it's late but he got an IOU wrapped up and knew it wasn't going to be ready. Something to look forward to . I have plied and wound some of the shades ready to cast on, it may even have been cast on by the time I click publish.

Other bits of spinning have been going on too, and more this week. These skeins I spun a little before Christmas, and they are now giftwrapped for a friends birthday today!





Lots more spinning and knitting for 2014. No resolutions as I don't make any, but I will say I shall be having fun with my wheels, needles, hooks and weaving tools over the next 12 months and look forward to sharing this space with you.

Have a wonderful 2014 x


Woolly Wednesday January 2014 - Happy New Year

Welcome to the Woolly Wednesday gathering for January 2014. Happy New Year to everyone. So what are your plans for 2014? Any new things to try? Any resolutions (if you make them)?

Whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month, or plans for the month(s) ahead. All crafts and inspiration welcome. I look forward to regularly sharing this space with you here.

 Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!. 

 Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Woolly Wednesday, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://raisingseedlings.blogspot.co.uk/) and the image will link to here.

Join in with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, I look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join in when you can.