Spinning

So on Saturday, I went to my local spinning guild.  I was the youngest there which felt a bit odd, but it was good to go and meet other people who spin.

I was a bit worried about going and couldn't figure out why.  I realised that it was because I'm beginning to get to a place where I'm proud of my spinning.  I had spun 100g of an alpaca and silk blend that I got sent as part of a swap and I najavo plied it and it's come out as a 4ply! It's pretty even and it's really beautiful stuff.  I can't decide what to make with it yet, but I'm thinking a hat.  I did have a Wooly Wormhead pattern in mind, but I realised that the stitch pattern wouldn't really show in the resulting yarn, so I don't feel that I'd be doing the yarn or the pattern justice.

I was worried, that my burgeoning pride in something that I've made is in that risky, fragile stage where I'm worried about what other people would make of it and I was worried that I'd get shot down for my spinning.  Then I realised how daft I was being.  It doesn't really matter how I got here or the path that I'll take in the future.  It's more important to enjoy what I've made now and enjoy my talent as it is now. 

I'm really enjoying spinning for projects in mind.  I have the yarn spun up for my Celestarium, but I have another shawl on the needles that I want to finish that I've been trying to knit for the last 3 years.  It's been frogged multiple times, but I'm now on the home straight!  I have about half a pattern repeat and the border to knit and then I'm done with the knitting.  It's just the blocking and photographs to do now. 

In the meantime, I am spinning for a pair of socks, as once I realised that I could spin fairly consistent 4ply yarn, if I triple ply it, then I thought I could knit a pair of socks.  I have some Easy Knits fibre that I bought at Pendle Stitches, that has some tencel in it.  It's yellow, reds and purples and I figured that if I maintained the colours when spinning and plying, I could have stripy socks! 

I'm really excited :)

Funny how time flies...

I can't believe that it's April.  April!!!

I've not had a huge amount of time for knitting and spinning recently, because I am spending about 12 hours a day out of the house 4 days a week, and 8 hours out of the house 2 days a week.  Add college work into the mix and a bit of housework and I'm stressing.

It's not been easy lately; the fella is out of work so the pressure is on me to bring enough in to pay the bills.  He was a student nurse, but had to give up the course because of money issues and he was struggling to do the actual course.  He's had 6 job interviews in 6 months, which is pretty good.  Especially when there were 1700 applications for 8 jobs in a new branch of Costa just up the road from me.

I really hate my flat.  It's small and messy.  We have been struggling to heat the flat because of money so when the boiler packed in at Easter, it was annoying.  Yesterday, the guy from the boiler repair place came out and condemned the boiler as the flue is leaking exhaust gases into the flat, which means there was carbon monoxide leaking into the flat.  Fuck!  Luckily, I don't think the boiler itself was hugely faulty when it was actually lit, we just couldn't get it lit.  As the flat is damp, our windows are open a teeny bit to allow the air to circulate (we think it's condensation more than anything), so thankfully, neither of us has any symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I saw my family on the weekend as it was my nephew's 21st birthday party. It was great to see the family and I got to dress up in rockabilly style clothes as it was a rock and roll theme. I felt rough though so didn't feel up to much and was a bit anti social :s

On the way back, I persuaded the fella to take a diversion to The Threshing Barn and I got some really nice yarn and fibre. First up was some 70/20/5 merino/nylon/sparkle hand dyed yarn

Then 100g of Corriedale in purple, green and red. To match the Corriedale, I got 100g purple merino to ply with it.

That was gonna be it but then I saw a 500g bump of a blend of alpaca, llama and merino for £25! All natural colours. Yay!

I've not spun with alpaca or llama before. This should be entertaining!

I'm really looking forward to getting involved with that, but I've just started spinning for my celestarium so it'll have to wait. I have no idea what I want to do with any of it, other than the yarn, might do some socks with that. I can never have enough socks :)

I'm also working through a bit of old stash to make room for new. I'm also working on wips as well, seeing as though I have 2 blankets, 1 sweater, 1 shawl, 1 pair of socks and a hat on the go. I would like to get 1 old project finished for every new project that I start. Having said that, my blankets are a long term project so I'm not worried about rushing to get those finished. Perhaps I could spend a couple of weeks working on one of them for every new project I start :)

I have finished the sock pattern I've been wittering on about for ages, but it probably only makes sense to me. I am not brilliant at writing sock patterns it seems, mostly because I can knit a sock from memory, so when writing out a pattern I leave out the really important stuff that's obvious to me that wouldn't be for a newbie sock knitter and I feel a bit uncomfortable about releasing a pattern that's going to annoy some people. We shall see :)

Back to the knitting methinks :)

Ground control...

Doing this earworm tracking thing is interesting.  It seems that my earworms are nowhere near as random as I think they are.  It seems that songs from adverts and / or documentaries are getting into my head and staying there.

It's all good though, at least I'm not getting any really annoying stuff in my head.  June's earworm playlist is here if you fancy a listen.

I successfully managed to avoid yarn buying today.  I am doing what the Knitmores call stash cultivation, which means that you build a beautiful stash.  My current stash is lovely, but I must remind myself not to buy yarn because it's on sale or because it's cheap.  I have plenty of yarn at the moment that I'd like to work through.  2 sweaters worth, 2 blankets worth, several pairs of socks worth, and several shawls worth.  I would like to spin for a sweater though, but would just like to improve on my spinning first though.  Having said that, it's getting so much better than what it used to look like.

By the way, here is my Vortex shawl project page (so you can see the link to the pattern), with pictures as promised.  I love the way the colour variations in the handspun yarn swirls with the pattern.  It sort of looks like what I imagine a vortex to look like.

I am really happy with it, naturally! I really think that the yarn suits the pattern and vice versa.

The 10 stitch blanket is still ongoing and I'm happy with the way it's going.  I'm aiming for random colours and something that's a bit shabby but lovely.  Not that I think my work is shabby, but I want random.

Ooops

Well, it's been a while. Sorry about that. Ugh, I need to clean my keyboard. Most of my key need a good bash in order to work, so apologies in advance for my spelling

What's new with me? Quite a lot.

I'm in a new relationship. I took a long time chatting to this one compared to my last one. Online dating does work, but it can be soul destroying. There's a whole new blog in that subject, I think. I dipped in and out of online dating for 2 years, talking to different guys along the way. Talked to some nice guys, some not so nice guys and received a lot of weird messages. I think the one thing I've learned is to be clear about what you want from a relationship, be realistic and figure out what's important and what's negotiable. Not an easy task at the best of times.

New guy is a fellow Welsh person, who is also living in the Midlands. Which is cool. We Welsh have a peculiar sense of humour and it's nice to be able to share that with someone. Things are going great.

I also did an intensive course in counselling. I did a course about 18 months ago over 10 weeks and although I got a qualification, it wasn't the right kind to go on with if I wanted to take it up as a career. My ex put me off doing the course, but after we split up, I took some time out to figure out what I really wanted to do (at the same time as I was thinking about what I wanted from a relationship), so decided that I wanted to become a counsellor.

I now have a place (conditional upon a reference from work, but that's a formality) at Uni on counselling course - Certificate in Higher Education in Counselling. It's a part time course over 2 years. If I pass, I can apply for another course, which is a Diploma which is another 2 years. The course starts in January Yay!!

I have designed a sock pattern, but I've yet to finish writing it up. I don't really like writing sock patterns (on the basis of this one pattern!). I think it's because I really enjoy knitting socks and can knock up a pair of stocking stitch / ribbed socks quite easily from memory. It's tricky to have to think about the steps involved when I do them automatically. I will try and get the pattern written up soon, but I can't promise it'll be any good or comprehensive though. I'm crap at following sock patterns as well, because although there are some amazing sock patterns out there, it means I have to deviate from what I like doing. Which is probably quite good for me actually :)

I am somewhat addicted to spinning lately as well. I really want to become a better spinner. For some reason I'm convinced I'm not as good as I could be so I've been trying to practise. There are spinners guilds locally, but they tend to be on far off little nooks of Leicestershire, or meet on a Saturday (and I work on a Saturday). I am spinning somewhere between laceweight and 4ply (the yarn gets thicker and thinner) and my yarn is still slightly slubby. Although it is getting more even as I practise. I notice it's dependent on which fibre I spin with too. BFL comes out lovely and smooth, while the Shetland and silk blend I spun with is more slubby (lumps of silk, usually) and fuzzy (that would be the Shetland then).

Think I need to check out some videos on youtube or something. Not now though as it's 1:30 am and my bed is calling me :)