Tour de Fleece Begins: 2013

It's Saturday the 29th June 2013, which means only one thing! ... Well two things actually ...

1. It's the start of the annual Tour de Fleece event. The (yarn) spinning event for worldwide lovers of fiber, making yarn whilst watching Wimbledon, drinking copious amounts of tea, and steaming through the ample stash in the hopes of creating space for yet more fluff.


2. Also the start of the annual Tour de France event. The (cycling) spinning event for worldwide lovers of hard physical graft, hill climbs, heavy bouts of sweating, and tight lycra outfits.

Needless to say, I will only be participating in one of these events.

As usual, I called upon my lovely Instagram friends to join me in what will be my Rookie year for the event.

I've been a TdF lurker/stalker for a couple of years, but felt that this was the year to get stuck in and get involved.

Having recently set up my own Ravelry Group for all things 'true love yarn' related, I decided it would be fun to have a team for this spinning event. This is especially exciting for me this year, as a number of the participants will be joining me using one (or more) of my handmade drop spindles.

Lovely friends on IG and Ravelry have been eager to get involved with me.

I will be taking part with my three spinning tools ...

• My beloved Ashford Joy D/T Spinning Wheel


• My Enid Ashcroft Midi Turkish Drop Spindle


• My handmade Top Whorl Rainbow Drop Spindle

It really doesn't matter what tools you own, as long as you try to spin some yarn every day that the Tour de France cycles (29th June to the 21st July), rest when they rest (8th & 15th July), and challenge yourself on the 18th July when the cyclists have to do the Alpe d'Huez twice!

What I love about this event is that it is a wonderful opportunity to improve your technique, learn from others and be inspired/encouraged by the event which sees over 6,000 people taking part over the world.

I couldn't set up a team of my own without some benefits to participants, so this year I'm really happy to announce that members will receive 10% discount on fiber from the awe inspiring A Stash Addict shop.

Also, there will be a random giveaway at the end of the event for one lucky group member who will get to have a custom 'true love yarn' drop spindle made especially for them.

I am going to attempt to spin all of this yummy fibery goodness! The two at the bottom were hand-dyed by me, and then above are my hand-carded punis/rolags, then we have a 200g bag of 'Alpaca Supreme' and a 200g bag of undyed Organic Merino from John Arbon Textiles, and the gorgeous colourful fiber at the back is from Danielle of A Stash Addict.

Such a feast for the eyes.

I can't wait to see what everyone creates.

I really will be in seventh heaven for the next month.

Please get involved if you feel inspired by reading this article. It would be amazing to have you along for the ride :)

My Hand-Dyed and Hand-Knit Great Divide Shawl FO

I took part in a fun KAL recently, and just have to share the results.

The pattern was the Great Divide Shawl by 'kisskisskiddo' on Ravelry, and I must say that it's my favourite shawl knit to date. It was fun, easy to memorize and quickly knit up with DK weight yarn.

Loving the creative freedom of dyeing my own yarn, I decided to take on a self-made challenge and dye with a specific project in mind for the first time.

As a relative dyeing noob, I'm still messing about with Kool Aid, but am constantly amazed by the richness and contrast of colours that can be achieved from what is essentially a powdered drink for children!

So, with my undyed 100% merino yarn, I set to work in the kitchen with the kettle dye method. I started with two contrasting colours, and here is what I came up with:

I called the one on the left 'Bluebell' as it features the beautiful range of purples, lilacs and blues found in the flowers of the same name. The one on the right is 'Earth Mother' as it reminds me of the earthy colours found so frequently on our planet; oranges, browns, rusts and greens.

I couldn't wait for this yarn to dry so I could cast on.

I just love the cast on for shawls, when the rows are short and you make fast progress.

With this pattern, I was excited to be able to use my contrasting colour very soon after starting the project. It is always a thrill to see how the colours you have chosen work together in the flesh, rather than in the imagination.

Being a sucker for texture as well as colour, I was in seventh heaven with this pattern ... as you can see, the stitches form a gorgeous repeating striping pattern with a great tactile design.

Being DK weight with a frequent set of increases, the main bulk of the shawl was knit up in no time, and I began to think on what I wanted to do about the bottom border. Initially, I was just going to knit the bottom edge with the remainder of the Bluebell coloured yarn, but as the shawl progressed, I started to visualise a third colour, so I set to work with the dye pots again.

I wanted a nice Spring-fresh green that would complement the other seasonal colours, and was really pleased with the results of my third skein of yarn.

Green is my favourite colour, and I usually like a slightly earthier shade, but I was really happy with the tonality I achieved in the bright limey-yellowy green pictured above, and it was exactly what I wanted to ofset the other bright colours featured in my shawl.

I am really happy with the three colours I chose, and even more so that I dyed them myself.

The finished shawl is my quintessential Spring and Summer Shawl for chilly British weather ... so bright and cheerful.

I am one very happy dyer / knitter indeed.

If you are on Instagram, please use hashtag #greatdividekal to see all the other wonderful knitters who took part in the KAL.

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Taking part in Tami's Amis and Other Creations FO Friday. Please go along and see all the other wonderful FOs :)

Making Self-Striping Yarn

I thought I'd share the fun and show you how I made some self-striping yarn recently.

For this project you will need some undyed yarn (any weight you like). I bought 100g of Zitron Trekking Undyed 4-ply Sock Yarn, which is 75% wool and 25% nylon ... perfect for socks as it has the nylon for extra strength and is machine washable at 40 degrees.

I put two kitchen chairs as far apart as I could, across the length of my kitchen and hallway. Any long length will work. You then proceed to wind your undyed skein around the backs of the chairs so creating a long loop of yarn.

Once all of the skein has been wrapped around the chair backs, you will need to secure it by tying as shown below in at least four places, spaced out evenly around the entire length of yarn. This is an important step as it will help to prevent your yarn from tangling up into a huge knot.

I use white acrylic yarn to tie off the sections so that I can clearly and easily see these ties after the dyeing process is finished. This is because acrylic yarn doesn't take the dye like natural wool yarn, and it will stay pale ... invaluable in preventing you accidently cutting the wrong threads later on!

Place your dry yarn in a luke-warm water bath for at least half an hour whilst you prepare your dyes ...

Take four or more empty and clean jam jars. Put 300ml of hot water in each and add one to two packets of Kool Aid dye to each. Choose a different colour for each of the jam jars.

Stand the jam jars in a large saucepan and carefully add enough water to the saucepan (in bain marie style) so that the water comes to about a third of the way up the jars.

As you can see in the photo below, I've used a range of different reds for my self-striping yarn.

So begin by turning the hob on underneath the saucepan, on a low to medium heat at first.

Then, after gently squeezing all of the excess water out of your yarn, you can start to add it to the jars. I added a length to the first of the jars until no more would fit, and then I began to fill the next jar with yarn and so on until all the yarn had been covered in dye.

To achieve this, I ended up needing four jars full ...

Where the yarn stretches between the jars, make sure you dunk the undyed yarn under the dye solutions to ensure that you don't leave gaps of white between the different containers.

I used my fingers for this and later realised that it would have been much better to wear some rubber gloves!

Monitor the heat setting on your hob so that you bring the water in the saucepan up to a fast simmer.

And as if by magic you will see the water in the jam jars turn clear (and sometimes a little milky).

Try not to prod and poke the yarn too much.

I left my yarn on the heat for between 20 mins to half an hour, double checked that all the dye had been taken up by the yarn and then turned the hob off.

The temptation here is to want to see it straight away, but the key is to leave it cool without touching it.

The rule is to leave natural wool until it's completely cool before rinsing, and superwash wool until the water is cool enough to touch.

Try to use water that is a similar temperature to the water you've just taken the yarn from to do your rinse, so that you don't shock the fibers and felt them. Add a little drop of detergent and let soak for a little while. Try not to agitate the yarn, but use a gentle action.

Squeeze (don't wring) the water away from the yarn. Roll it up in a dry towel, stand on it, using your body weight to press out any extra water.

Then hand your new yarn somewhere warm, but away from direct sunshine, to dry fully.

Once dry, you need to place your yarn back over the chair backs at as far away it takes to achieve taughtness in the yarn lengths. By eye, untwist the loop of yarn so that the strands are as parallel as you can get. Then carefully cut away the ties you made with acrylic yarn, which should still be a white colour and easy to see.

Then by hand, wind the yarn into a ball, untangling where necessary as you go.

Once you have a hand-wound ball, you can use a yarn winder to make a centre-pull ball, or a yarn swift (or niddy noddy) to make a skein.

And here's my finished self-striping yarn, re-skeined and pictured next to the inspiration for the colourway ...

I've called this my Ephipany yarn. It is named after the Epiphany Chapel in the Winchester Cathedral where this stained glass window is located. It was designed by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement in 1910 ... my favourite era in British art.

Beautiful Springtime

After a long grey winter, I am in raptures over the sudden (but late) emergence of colour outside in the fields and woods at the moment.

I can't hold on to this beauty just for myself, so I thought it would be nice to share the colour/nature love with a selection of some of the photos I've taken on walks with my son and dog over the last few weeks ...

A FEAST FOR THE EYES ... and soul <3

Tweaking a Pattern: My Vite Headband FO

I enjoyed knitting my Vite Cowl so much that I knew I wanted to make another, and when I started wearing it more as a headband than as a cowl, I began to hatch an ingenious plan!

I had just the right amount of Rainbow Chunky (BFL) handspun yarn for the project.

For the headband version, I decided that I wanted to take some of the width away from the cowl pattern so it was a little more suitable for head wear.

I am really pleased with the result (please excuse my early morning/before caffeine photo) ...

So if you would like to re-create this, you will need to download Kristi Johnson's free Vite Cowl pattern from Ravelry HERE.

Then you omit the last YO and K2tog on the odd rows, and omit the first P2 stitches on the even rows.

Carry on in the pattern in this way until your knitting is long enough to reach around your head.

Cast off and then seam both ends of your headband together.

And then wear your modified Vite Cowl on your head with pride :)

Happa Handspun and Handknit Hat FO

My trip to Unravel Fiber Festival earlier this year was very fruitful ... I came away from it with lots of goodies ... Well, it would have been rude not to!

One of these purchases was 100g of merino fiber from Skeins in the Pale Jungle colourway.

I was itching to spin it up and so this happened >>>

This was such an enjoyable spin, as these are some of my very favourite colours, plus of course being 100% merino ... Yum!

It all fit onto one bobbin, so I wound the singles on to a yarn winder to create a center-pull-ball.

And after the plying, I had a lovely squashy 2-ply yarn ready and waiting to be used.

I began looking through Ravelry or a suitable pattern for the correct yarn weight and meterage. I kept on thinking that I wanted to make a cowl, but then I asked for the advice of my Instagram friends, who instantly suggested that a hat would work well.

And so the 1 of 6 Hat KAL was born.

With very short notice, as this was all so spur of the moment, I simply couldn't wait any longer and cast on the Happa Hat within days of organising the KAL. There was no urgency or rush for others to follow suit, and they participated when they had the yarn and tools to hand.

And there it is ... the beginnings of my hat. I had learnt a new stitch too (I love an educational knit) ... the twisted 1x1 rib stitch, which I couldn't quite work out at first because I thought that my hat looked way too small for an adult head, but once I was further into the pattern I discovered (with great relief) that this rib stitch is uber-stretchy.

And on to the lace pattern, which is always so thrilling to see as it starts to take form. I just love the leaves effect of this design.

Being worsted weight yarn, it knitted up nice and quickly. In between a busy lifestyle it took a few evenings over the course of about two weeks to complete.

There's nothing quite like knitting with your very own handspun yarn. Truly satisfying to the MAX.

And here it is ... with some daytime FO photos :)

And a cheeky selfie of one happy spinner/knitter ...

Crochet Squares 4 Charity

I was recently alerted to the presence of a wonderful charity and of an amazing way for yarn crafters to do their bit and help a good cause.

Zoe Horsefield of THETEDDYBEARSHOP on Instagram put a call out on her IG feed for any knitters and crocheters to see who could help a charity close to her heart.

The charity is GRWE or Greyhound Rescue West of England and they do a fabulous and much needed job rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing abused and abandoned Greyhounds and Lurchers.

As the owner of a lurcher myself, this is a charity that immediately pulls at my heart strings. I love all dogs but absolutely adore all of the Sight Hound breeds whose gentle, sensitive and kind nature make living without one of these special animals unthinkable. The fact that these beautiful creatures are being rescued from abusive, debilitating (and worse) situations breaks my heart.

I immediately felt like I wanted to be involved in any way that I could.

Zoe is looking for people to either knit or crochet 4x4" squares in DK (or similar) yarn and send them to her so she can join them together to make blankets for the dogs. Anyone with a knowledge of these somewhat skinny creatures will know that they feel the cold very easily and like nothing more than a snuggle with their owner or being wrapped up in a cosy blanket. The blankets will go toward helping these dogs feel warm, cosy and at home whilst they are being treated for any ailment caused by cruelty or abandonment, and to help them feel warm and loved. These blankets will then stay with each respective dog so that when they are rehomed they will have something that is special and smells familiar to them.

Fortunately the response to Zoe's call out has been good so far, so much so that she has started a blog. You can follow all the efforts of those involved HERE.

If this blog post speaks to you, and you would like to help, please don't hesitate to get in touch with Zoe at the following email address:

squares4charity@gmail.com

Here are my additions to the squares collaboration (several of the one pictured below), crocheted in handspun yarn:

Nice and bright and cheerful (the photo doesn't do it justice ... I do find it difficult to capture pinks and reds with my camera).

I will hunting around for more yarn scraps so I can add to the collection.

Maybe you have some odds and ends that could be put to good use for the GRWE charity?

Daybreak Hand Knit Shawl FO

It's only taken me six months to be able to say this, but ... I've finished my Daybreak Shawl ... Yay :)

I had a serious case of inertia with this project, and had to put it down on several occasions, but I did really enjoy this knit and am thrilled with the result ... I just got a little distracted with other projects along the way.

It all started with the idea to do a knit-along with some Instagram buddies.

I had been admiring this pattern on Ravelry for quite some time, and felt like I was ready to tackle it.

Being Autumn when I started the project, I decided on a sympathetic colourway with Ochre (a mustardy-yellow) and Cordovan (a rich dark chocolate) Malabrigo Sock Yarn.

And so I cast on ...

As with all shawls, I do love how the first handful of rows knit up really quickly, and then with frequent increases, they begin to lengthen ... especially with sock weight yarn. And so with this pattern I eagerly looked forward to being able to add my second colour.

It was really exciting to begin the stripes as I could then see the pattern start to take shape.

I became side-tracked quite a bit by other faster projects with bigger needles and chunkier yarn. Inertia sometimes happens when I'm faced with a project that doesn't grow quite quickly enough.

Picking it up and putting it back down again over the next few months, I made one last concerted effort to finish and gave myself a stint of a good few nights in a row ... and here it is, freshly off the needles and awaiting its first bath ...

And on to some VERY satisfying blocking ...

And then the utterly gratifying first trying on session, where all the blood sweat and tears were forgotten (okay, okay, I'm exaggerating a bit now).

And I must say I'm over the moon with my new hand-knitted shawl. It is a beautiful and striking pattern and I'm really pleased with my yarn and colour choice. I missed the boat to make the shawl in time for Autumn 2012, but will be wearing it with pride when the colder weather returns in September 2013.

Dyeing to Have a Go!

I've been stalking various dyeing forums, YouTube and other websites for some time and have been gradually building up a theoretical knowledgebase. Procrastination is an issue of mine, but I recently decided to throw caution to the wind and get stuck in.

I was food shopping and in the baking isle when I spotted Dr. Oetker Gel Food Colourings in small tubes. The colours looked gorgeous so I just had to throw a few in the basket. At this point I was really in a state of pure experimentation (or madness) because not one of the websites I'd studied on this subject had ever shown results from using this brand, but I thought it would be fun to see what would happen.

I had some Citric Acid powder in my cupboards at home, left over from my last batch of Elderflower Cordial, and I found about 450-500g of cheap 56's English (which is a blend of white English sheep fleeces) fiber in my stash, so I had all I needed.

One cold and rainy Sunday I set my mind to giving kettle dyeing a go.

I got out my largest pan and ran some luke-warm water, to which I added citric acid, stirred to allow it to dissolve, and then I carefully placed about 150g of fiber in to soak for half and hour.

Then I switched the hob on to a moderate heat to warm the fiber up gently. When it was gently steaming without boiling, I began to add my colour.

I'd already prepared the colour by adding the contents of one tube of gel colouring to a jam jar filled with hot water. I had four in total ... green, blue, pink and purple.

With turkey baster in hand, I excitedly began to add the colour to the roving. Not really knowing the best way to proceed with this, I decided that I would do four equal sections of colour to try to prevent a muddy mess.

I used the tip of the baster to inject colour through the top layers of fiber to try to ensure an even distribution of dye, and then the waiting began.

Keeping an eye on the water temperature was not a chore at all. I just loved looking at the beautiful bright colours in the pan.

However, after about an hour on the hob (which was already longer than I had envisioned it taking), I was discouraged to see that the dye bath had not yet run clear. It appeared that it was the green dye that was at fault here, as the water had mostly run clear for all the other sections, but was a strong yellow colour around the green.

I quickly put word out to my dyeing friends on Instagram to see if anyone could tell me what I needed to do next.

One kind IG friend quickly responded saying that they add more fiber when this happens, in an attempt to soak up any excess dye. As I had plenty of fiber left, I thought it was worth a go. I took about 50g of fiber and added it to the dye bath, on top of the green section. I was delighted to see that it instantly turned a beautiful mellow yellow colour.

And within a short space of time, the dye bath was running much clearer.

Conscious that by this time the first lot of fiber had been in the pan for quite some time, and with a real concern that it might have felted, I moved it away from the hob to let it cool down.

An agonising wait ensued ... which was only allayed by the fact that it was lunch time for me and my toddler, which kept my mind off things for a while.

A short while after lunch the water was touch-comfortable and I simply couldn't wait any longer. In to the sink it went. The water coming away from the fiber was initially a very pale yellow. Here is a picture of the roving before rinsing.

The rinsing process proved to be disappointing. I watched with dismay as most of the pink and purple fell out of the fiber and went off down the plug hole.

I was delighted to see that the blue and green remained true. The green had also split to reveal shades of green, teal and yellow.

It took quite a few rinses before the water ran clear, and I was a little concerned to keep going for fear of the pinks and purples coming away completely, so with a gentle roll inside an old towel I took it to the clothes drier.

I was also really pleased with the 50g of fiber that I had used to pick up any excess dye, which was a beautiful blend of pale pastel shades.

Having been bitten by the bug in a BIG way, I looked at my left over undyed roving and citric acid and my mind wandered.

Yes I thought, I'm going back to the shops for more dye! Having fallen in love with the green dye I decided to use the remaining supplies I had left to do a plain green roving. With time against me, I decided to let the fiber soak whilst I went to the shops so I would be ready to get straight into dyeing upon my return.

This time I had about 250-300g of fiber which was a bit of a tight squeeze in the pan, but I wound it into a spiral and placed it into the citric acid water.

After a trip to the shops I had two tubes of the green dye in hand and was all set to go.

Again I was just in awe of the divine green colour of the fiber in the pan. A beautiful range of greens and yellows.

After about an hour on the hob, I decided that was enough time, even though there was still some excess yellow in the surrounding water.

After the cooling, to the sink it went and to my surprise this fiber had a completely different effect than the first lot. It was dyed dark teal/green in small sections with the rest of the roving being a yellowy-green colour. I certainly wasn't disappointed. I loved how something in the way I hadn't been so accurate with my fiber to water to citric acid ratio, and even my inexact timings had resulted in this unexpected colourway.

The following morning, the fiber was dry and I was so proud to be able to braid up my first ever hand-dyed rovings.

Unfortunately the first lot that I dyed was slightly felted, as I'd suspected. I think it had been on the hob a little too long, and I may have agitated it a little too much checking to see if the water had run clear. However, after some slightly challenging pre-drafting I checked that it was still useable, and created this mini yarn.

So all in all, not a bad first attempt. The main thing is that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and can hand on heart say that this is something I'll do again.

I really want to try all the methods to see which I prefer, so I'll probably use the microwave next time, and I may well try to dye ready made yarn, which I envision as being slightly less prone to felting. I also want to try Kool Aid dyeing as I'm looking forward to the range of beautiful bright colours, as well as filling the house with delicious fruit smells.

It really is exciting to try something new at the same time playing with one of my favourite things ... WOOL :)