allstitchedup: A journal.
Did I tell you I'm selling batts on Folksy? Similar to etsy but in £ rather than $
My shop is here http://www.folksy.com/shops/jammam, come over and see if there's anything you fancy ;) I'm happy to do custom orders too.
Over on the Posh Knitter's Group on Ravelry we're knitting for the Macmillan cancer trust. Dee received the following message and it's taken hold and this is the first square to arrive, thank you Michaela :)
Squares are to be 20cm square (!) and garter stitch knit on the bias.
Pattern
cast on 3 stitches
knit all rows increasing by knit front and back into the first stitch of every row.
when the side measures 20cm decrease every row, k2tog tbl at the start of every row.
please sew the ends in if you can as we'll assemble at our Macmillan coffee morning by crocheting all the squares together, Oh and it's aran weight please, nice and quick.
leave me a comment if you want to join in and I'll send my snail mail addy when you've got some squares to send
Here's the Macmillan message
Macmillan Comfort Blanket – The Knitter Campaign 2009
The Knitter magazine needs your help. As you may know, Macmillan Cancer Support is their charity of the year. They do an amazing job for people who are living with cancer and many of our families (including my own) will have been helped by their services. So important is this charity to the team at The Knitter that they are launching a Nationwide campaign called the Macmillan Comfort Blanket in association with the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on 25th September and supported by Rowan.
They are asking knitters all over the UK to knit squares – 20cm x 20cm squares to be precise. In fact they would like knitters to host a Coffee Morning for their knitting group, friends and family and knit 40 squares to make a Comfort Blanket, 8 squares long by 5 squares wide. Each Comfort Blanket we make will be given to somebody who is living with cancer, so the more blankets we knit, the more people we benefit.
The Knitter have asked designers from around the world to create lots of square patterns especially for the campaign. Based on Rowan’s Pure Wool DK there are patterns for squares by Debbie Bliss, Alice Starmore, Meg Swansen, Kaffe Fassett, Marie Wallin, Kim Hargreaves…. the list is endless. These can be downloaded at www.macmillan.org.uk/theknitter
So here is what knitters need to do to take part in the Macmillan Comfort Blanket:
* Download patterns from www.macmillan.org.uk/theknitter
* Register for a coffee morning or donate online www.macmillan.org.uk/coffee or call 0845 602 1246 quoting NA3
* Knit squares with your knitting group
* Take 40 beautiful squares and sew together into a Comfort Blanket
* Send you Comfort Blanket to: The Knitter Macmillan Comfort Blanket, Future Publishing Ltd, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW or drop it off at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace.
The target is 100 blankets, that’s 4,000 squares, and you can keep updated with news of the campaign on The Knitter Ravelry group, and the Macmillan and Rowan websites.
Sadly some of us will get cancer. Think how much it would mean to you – the gift of a Comfort Blanket – knowing there are people out there you have never met who stand by your side lending you strength.
Thank you from everyone at The Knitter and Macmillan.
Why join a sock club if you don't often knit socks? Why! So you can make a scarf of course. :)
Posh Yarn Sock club June, Daisy, 100g, makes a plain tabby (?) weave scarf 8" x 70". Shows of the colour changes beautifully and much faster than knitting.
I need to work on my selvedges, a lot, must practice more.
Fabirc made of this yarn drapes beautifully.
Meanwhile Tour spinning continues, finished my Wildcraft Bluebell rovings last night, plied up in to a 3 ply, still drying. 300g of fibre to start with made up to 216yds of 3 ply and 19 yds of 2 ply as the SW BFL spun up to a little more yardage. Very please with how even this came out and in matching the yardages so closely :)
I'll go check if it's dry. Oh and do a wpi measurement, roughly DK by eye.
Fibre Club June 09
Shetland
spindle spun ply on the fly, lots to learn about consistency LOL got thicker and thicker as I went because I thought I was getting thinner and thinner so kept increasing the thickness to 'stay the same'. Started the second 50gm and it's going well but spindling takes a long time compared to wheel spinning.
Rejoined the spunky club today too :)
Last night spun up more than 100g of my Wildcraft Bluebells fibre, 2 plies of SW BFL already done, finish off the bfl/silk tonight and then make a traditional 3 ply, Using a control card so hopefully relatively consistent, fingers crossed.
Spinning every day as part of the Tour de Fleece. Loving it so far and enjoying the race too.
Started weaving on my Cricket again with some Posh Yarn Sock Club yarn - will photograph properly later :)
The problem with not blogging for ages is knowing where to start when you come back to it.
Firstly I have an etsy shop selling Batts, roving and handspun yarn and I've just added a few new batts. The rest of the batch were sold to the ladies at the Stitch 'n' Bitch last night.
It's lovely to spend a couple of hours once a fortnight with like minded/obsessed folk. Very lovely and a real tonic.
A short while ago (mid June) I had my second pattern published in Yarn Forward magazine. There have been some changes over at YF including a new editor and going monthly. Hurray for a UK based knitting magazine with some serious patterns in. Interweave Knits is still great bt all that yarn subbing is hard work and it's a great feature of YF that they suggest 2 yarn possibilities for each pattern.
Meanwhile the last baby we looked after has moved on amidst many tears and fond farewells and a new baby is here and he's a peach. I love him to bits already. Sadly once again I am not allowed to show you a photograph :( but he's gorgeous and chubby and reminds me of DS2 when he was little. I found out today he'll be here until at least February next year and he's on the verge of walking so will be into everything by then, keeps me out of mischief. I'd like to thank Andrew for his continued support and enthusiasm and for the whole hearted commitment he shows to the babies. Every child should have someone who looks at them with love and affection and 'our' babies do - in spades.
I'm sure there are many other things that have happened between then and now and that most of the significant ones for me have been spinning related. I got a new wheel, I went to Woolfest again and I continue to be filled with bliss as I sit at my wheel. If you haven't tried it yet, what's stopping you?
I also test knit a beautiful shawl for Posh Yarn designed by Laura at FiberDreams, there are a few kits on sale in this weeks Posh update and we're hosting sa KAL over on Posh Knitters on ravelry.
OK back to my knitting as the end of term approaches and I think teach would like an Ishbel, don't you?
