A theme

Over the last few days, I've been noticing a bit of a color theme in my surroundings...

There is purple and green absolutely everywhere! Various types of lavender in various stages of blooming, clematis erupting in my back garden, extraordinarily tall stalks with bundles of periwinkle blooms at the top. It's very striking and also maybe a bit creepy...is everything purple these days?

Thankfully no. There's pink and yellow and orange and brown and blue and turquoise as well. These photos are for next week's update (Wednesday 27th June at noon, BST).

This is going to be the last update until mid- or late August: we're moving house in the second half of July, so all the fibery bits and pieces will be unavailable for a bit. But the good news is that the new house has bigger dye space (hooray!), so I'll be back to throwing color on wool before you know it.

Happy spinning!
Rachel

Double whammy

So, there are a couple of big events coming up in the wooly world, and I'm trying to come up with a plan of attack/list of goals that will not result in me either A) spending copious nighttime hours spinning and/or knitting or B) having a nervous breakdown as I try to spin and knit and move house right in the middle of it all.

Up first is my favoritest wool-along ever, the Tour de Fleece. It combines spinning of the fiber variety with spinning of the cycling variety. Spinners set themselves a challenge, i.e. to spin four miles of laceweight cashemere on a Country Craftsman (!), and spend the duration of the Tour de France (30 June - 22 July) trying to meet that challenge. Last year, I spun up 2425 yds/51.3 oz of fiber. In 2012, I spun up 2420 yds/39.4 oz*. You can perhaps see the trend in the weights? So initially (that would be back in August of last year), I thought I'd aim for continuing that trend - could I spin up 60 oz in 3 weeks?

The second event is, of course, the Ravelympics. Knitters choose a challenging project, cast on during the Opening Ceremonies (27 July) and try to finish before the Closing Ceremonies (12 August). The first time I tried this was in 2006, when it was run by the Yarn Harlot from her blog, and called the Knitting Olympics. My challenge was Adamas, my first ever real lace project. Didn't manage to finish. The second time around (2008) it was the Summer Games, and somehow that didn't quite work for me (oh yeah, summertime in Houston = no knitting! Too damn hot!) In 2010, I boldly ventured into Ivy League Vest territory, and yet again managed to not finish within the allotted time.

Given that 1) we moving in July, and Himself and I are bailing out for a week to go chase some guys in spandex through the mountains, 2) I have a tendency to FAIL at the whole Knitting Olympics thingie anyway, 3) I will actually be going to Olympic events (hooray!) and 4) did I mention we're moving? By which I mean some lovely gents will come, pack up all our stuff, drive it three miles and unpack it, leaving us me to sort everything right again, it's safe to say that I will not be spinning 60 oz of anything. I also will not be knitting any lace shawls or steeked colorwork masterpieces. I do, however, have a plan.

To celebrate our three years in the UK/the Diamond Jubilee/London 2012/going to play in West Wales in October with cool knitting people, here are my combined Tour de Fleece/Ravelympics plans (which were actually first voiced in March...).

1. Spin up my Gotland and organic Hebridean fleece goodies into approximately 1200 yds and 200 yds respectively of 2-ply fingering weight yarn. 
2. Knit up said yarn into the Stasis Pullover. Which will then be my offering for Today's Sweater at P3.

That's it. Of course, since what I currently have is about 1.5 kilos of unwashed, unprocessed fleece, there is some serious prep work to be done. But I think this is challenging enough to be worth trying, but not so out of reach that I'm going to be sobbing into my knitting late some dark evening around 10th August.

Do you have goals for the Tour de Fleece or Ravelympics? What are they? Are you doing any prep beforehand? Or just jumping in on the first day, guns ablazing? Post a comment with your challenges for either or both events, and we'll see what everyone's coming up with. Good luck!

PS - between 15th-20 July, while I'm brutalizing myself in the Pyrenees, I will hopefully manage to do some spindling of some of the masses of Hello Yarn fiber I've got lying around, just so I can post something on the team thread. If I can make it through 4 oz, I'll be pleased. And if I finish off all the natural fleece, I'll start on a sweater lot of HYFC I've got lying around. But I'm making no promises on that score...

* I have only just noticed that I spun almost the exact same yardage both years. It's those damn laceweight singles from 2010 bumping up that statistic...

Quelle disaster!

Over the Easter holidays, we took a lovely long weekend trip over to Paris, via the ever-fabulous Eurostar. On our previous trip to Gay Paree, the girls were three years younger, and it was the end of July (which means the end of Le Tour!), so the city was hot and mobbed. It's a much nicer and calmer place to visit in late April (with a 5 and 7 year old vs. a 2 and 4 year old), and spring was everywhere.

Devil had so much energy that she managed to get caught on some ironwork outside of Notre Dame, and tore a hole in her Sprout Tappan Zee that her Mummy so lovingly knit for her last summer. Argh!


She managed to not only put a hole in it, but also to snag and snap the bind off in several different places...


We came home and the sweater sat on the shelf in my wardrobe for about five weeks - I just couldn't face it. Then, last week, on the eve of a trip to chilly, rainy Somerset for part of the half-term holiday, I decided to get on with it already and fix the damn thing.

First step: remove wee hedgehog button and insert a circular needle through a row of stitches above the hole (note appropriate beverage companion).

Second step: unravel the bottom edge, picking out the little scraps of unusable yarn, and spit-splicing (with appropriate beverage) the rest.


Third step: pause and admire your handiwork (conveniently not documenting how off you were in the row of stitches you picked up).

Fourth step: reknit the bottom two inches of cardigan. Don't forget button hole. Reblock, and then pack still damp sweater in the back of the car to finish drying on the way southwest.

Wiktory! I had a big ball of yarn left over that I had ready to draft into the bind off if needed, but I think I ended up knitting a couple of rows less this time around, so I had plenty for the bind off.

Dev still seems enamored of the sweater, and Boo is looking longingly for another cardigan, made of softer yarn. Must sort through handspun stash and see what would work for her.

Question: does this count as an FO post? Methinks so...

Wool + 28 degrees = never mind

After loads of grey, wet weather, the sun finally burst on to the scene here in southeast England, bringing with it steamy temperatures and vast fields of newly exposed pale skin. The weather also made working with wool something of a trial, so my crafty energies have been redirected for the moment. After a trip to Dorney Lake in the sweltering sun, I decided that the girls needed new hats for the summer. Enter a bunch of cotton scraps and a lovely free hat pattern (link will download the pdf).

I managed to whip up a couple of these, including the cutting (which I hate with the firey passion of Mount Doom) in an evening. They were so quick and easy, that I've cut out pieces for three more, two for friends of the girls, and one for an impending baby addition to our circle.

Getting photos was a bit tough. First, the bad nighttime shots (I love that these are reversible, and that frog fabric gets me every time).

Then, the unwilling children shot.

And finally, a few candid shots.

Of course, having finished these, the past four days have been grey clouds interspersed with pouring rain. Just the thing for new sun hats and the half-term holiday!

Jubilee!

The bunting is hung, the flags are out, and everything (except the weather forecast!) is lined up for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration this weekend. It's an amazing time to be in London, particularly as someone who grew up in the royal-obsessed States. I've come up with my own celebratory knit for the event:

Introducing the Jubilee Mitts, a quick-to-knit lacy fingerless glove, perfect for the "changeable" summer weather here in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter). The pattern includes three sizes (small [medium, large], approximately 6 [7, 8] inches in circumference, unstretched) and requires 160 yds/146 m of sport-weight yarn.

The pair above are worked in The Fiber Company Canopy Sport (now called Fingering), which is an absolutely divine alpaca/merino/bamboo blend. The lace pattern is an easily memorized 6 stitch/6 row repeat; thumb gussets are worked in stockinette. All hems are worked in garter stitch for a clean finish.

Many thanks to Knitosphere, WoolyTanis, knitsign and PixieEars in the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group for their test knitting and excellent suggestions.

As a special offer, from now until midnight BST on 5th June, 2012, buy the Jubilee Mitts for only £0.60! After that, the pattern will be available for $5.00*.


* Because life is more interesting in multiple currencies...