Another First

At the weekend I finished knitting this triangular shawl. It is my first completed project having spun the yarn on a drop spindle.
I have been drop spindling on and off for years but have never attempted, let alone completed, a project before.
Inspired by my friend Martina, also a member of Bedfordshire Guild Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, who carries her drop spindle almost everywhere and uses her spinning wheel rarely, I decided that I must complete something.
I began last autumn. I dyed 200g of wool tops with acid dyes and began to spin with the beautiful drop spindle bought at Fibre East last summer. Well, you can't spend over £30 on such a tool and just admire its beauty! It's so much more satisfying to make use of it.
The skeins above are the result. I was a little frustrated by the weight of plied yarn I could get on my spindle but next time I will follow Martina's advice and use a larger spindle on which to ply the singles.
The pattern is a free one from Ravelry 'Azzu's Shawl' published by Emma Fassio. Thank you Emma. I increased the number of rows, and therefore the width of the shawl, to use as much of my yarn as possible

Socks again

          Frustration has set in because I am unable to get on with spinning and weaving since I hurt my back during the Christmas holidays. I probably have plenty of projects to get on with, but which one inspires me to start?
          Having bought a quantity of sock yarn at Alli Pally last autumn I have decided to make use of it and try something which comes a a result of my dyeing some self striping yarn for cushions last February, self striping, hopefully, sock yarn. Again I have used the knitting machine to knit up 100g of the 4ply Bluefaced Leiscester and Nylon sock yarn. First I wound 2 balls of 50g each. Then knitted them together using alternate needles on the machine. This time I mastered the cast on and nearly a neat cast off.
         After thoroughly wetting the yarn overnight I used acid dyes to colour it, put it to set in a steamer kept for dyeing and when thoroughly cooled, rinsed and hung it to dry.
I wonder how many machine needles wide it needs to be to make one hand-knitted row? I know 30cms is needed to handknit one row but I will need to experiment to get it right on the knitting machine. At least I can have a colourful time trying.

I wonder if I could sell such things on Ebay or an Etsy shop?

Time Flies

Is this really my first post for this year?
I know we have had internet connection problems but have often thought of 'things' to post about and I hadn't realised that I'd not written anything yet in 2011.

A few weeks before Christmas I had an idea that I'd like to dye some self stripping silk yarn. I had seen some in a yarn shop when shopping with a friend but thought I'd like to have my own colour combinations. How could I achieve this? I had run a workshop with Beds WSD guild when we had dyed some sock yarn so that when knitted it would give self striping socks, but this had meant making several small, joined skeins on a peg frame, tyeing each one so that it didn't get tangled and dyeing in the microwave. It worked well but I want subtle graduations of colour in yarn that could be used in weaving and/or knitting.
One day the idea came to me that a knitting machine would be useful in this project. Where to get one? I needed to find a kind friend with one or acquire one cheeply, as this was just an experiment.
Next day, at a craft fair, I was talking to a couple who had admired my weaving and inconversation I told them of my idea. Surprise, surprise!!! The lady had a knitting machine to dispose of. Even more surprise, when she said she didn't want anything for it, she was decluttering and had another anyway.
On the third day we were all free and so I was able to collect the knitting machine.
This seemed to be a good omen!
After replacing some warn parts and cleaning the machine, another friend came to show me how to use it. I only needed the very basic information.
I got on and knitted some 'blanks', knitted rectangles of 100g of silk yarn. These were soaked overnight to make sure the yarn was thoroughly wetted through and would take the dye, which I applied across the knitting in stripes, encouraging each colour to mingle a little with the next, so there were no definite lines. Once the dye was set and the knitted piece washed, rinsed and dried, I pulled out the knitting, wound the yarn into a skein and steamed out the kinks from knitting. The silk yarn was ready to knit, but into what?
I weave scarves and shawls and have knitted a few recently, so, on seeing that one of my cushion covers was showing signs of wear, decided to replace it, the cushion at the bottom of the picture is the result.
The top square cushion is worked with a finer yarn, 50/50 wool and silk, in a pattern called moss stitch chevron. They have both been admired and I am pleased with the result so, now - more yarn to be machine knitted and dyed. Maybe some of it would be great for a scarf weft. A change from my usual habit of space dying the warp.

Not at a loss for things to do.

I have knitted the above items in the last couple of months, mostly from wool tops that I have dyed. The mauve stole was from carded fleece bought in Australia ten years ago. The last is the initial tension trial for a cable knit cowl. I have finished the cowl it was intended for but I will post that later as I've not yet taken a photograph.
Cables seem to feature large in fashion knitwear at the moment and I used to dislike cable patterns, stopping to pick up the cable needle frustrated my urge to get on with the project. Now that I can see the varied options I am more enthusiastic about the possibilities.
Having recently tried on a number of knit-wear items, from a very popular high street store, finding them to have a knitting fault in prominent places, I have decided that I should spin sufficient yarn to knit one myself. How long will it take? I have to get the fibre first, dye and then spin it. Shall I go more chunky than I usually do? The knitting would take less time, especially if I want to wear it while it is still fashionable. Something soft and snuggly is my aim!
I have embarked on a project/investigation, of my own, into the ways of using and combining, spaced dyed tops, hand and drum carded fibres and the results achieved.
The cowl mentioned above is part of this.