Ringbearer Shawl

I have to admit, this was not a planned project. But Patricia of Yummy Yarns UK had spun some beautiful yarn from some fibre she was given in her Ravelry group's secret santa. And she didn't know what to do with it. What she wanted to so was turn it into a pretty wrap for her shoulders, BUT she doesn't knit lace. I have knitted yarn up for Patricia before, and she spins such lovely yarn. So I offered to do so for her. Extremely soon after, her lovely cat Ella went missing, which only made me more determined to knit it for her, in the hope it would provide comfort.

We discussed patterns and she sent me the yarn:

Which is prettier in real life and has sparkle in it, but its one of those colours that is hard to photograph. So I got knitting. The pattern she chose was Ringbearer, which made my geek tendencies happy. It was originally a mystery knit along, and each 'clue' (or section of pattern) represented something from Frodo Baggins journey in Lord of the Rings. They were all lovely lace patterns, though clue six was slow going (its very hard to 'read' your knitting as you go in this one) and the feather and fan edging predictably tripped me up once or twice. While a simple lace pattern, feather and fan is an old nemesis that always gets me a couple of times in the knitting.

Shortly before I finished Ella was found and returned home a little thin, but otherwise well after almost two weeks away from home. So glad that ended well, and I got to show Patricia pictures of her finished shawl.

I am exceedingly happy with it and it came out to such a lovely size. I think I need one for myself so you shall probably see this pattern come up again! It will be winging its way to Patricia soon, as soon as my miss is a little bit better from her chicken pox!

So that's what I have been up to recently. The next couple of weeks I am participating in the Tour de Fleece (all shall be explained in my next post) so watch out for spinning round ups in the coming weeks!

Till next time:

Thank You Project Complete

Goodness I have been quiet in my little corner of blogland. I had intended to post last week, as I have been very busy, but my smallest has been unwell, so that took priority. And I am now about to go on holiday for a week. So I had best fort my act out.

Anyway, as per my previous post, I had the ambitious idea to knit 6 thank you scarves for my son's teachers for the end of the year. I have just blocked and woven in the ends on the last one, and here they are.

Hand spun lace weight yarn from a Batt Dropping from Nunoco

Hand dyed lace weight yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns

Hand dyed lace weight yarn from KnitPicks (discontinued)

Hand spun fingering yarn from fibre from World of Wool

Hand spun fingering yarn from batts from Nunoco

Hand spun fingering yarn from batts from Nunoco

I am really very pleased with them all, and am looking forward to the time when it comes to wrap them and have the boy write out a thank you card for all they have done for him this year. They definitely deserve to have it written from him.

So there we are, a quick FO post to show you what I have been up to. More to come soon as long as I can get busy before we go on holiday!

Till next time!

Thank You

So the unthinkable has happened. Not only has my son grown so much to be a preschooler, but Friday will be his last day. There is the leavers concert on the following Monday, but he is finishing preschool for good. I have a pile of school uniform to add name labels to, and make sure in the pile of identical uniform, his can get back to him. We've just bought him a new pair of smart black shoes. He's going to big school. 

This has been a very big deal. Because over the course of him being at preschool, its come out that he has social communication difficulties. So him being remotely ready for school has been a worry. The cause of his problems is as yet unclear, whether it is severe social shyness, stemming from anxiety in large groups, or whether he has some mild version os an autistic spectrum disorder. He is currently being assessed for both. But just getting to have him assessed has been a long journey, one that has been made possibly because of his preschool. 

I have to say that his preschool are the very best preschool I have ever come across for dealing with special needs. Not saying that he has special needs, but he does require more attention than average. He is however attending with children who do have special needs, and the care at his preschool really is top notch. Every child has a key worker, and Patrick's key worker spotted his issues early on. Thanks to her we had early intervention with speech therapy (as it was initially thought this could be the problem), educational psychology, and this led to his referral to paediatric assessment. Both his key worker, and the head of the preschool who is the special educational needs coordinator have worked tirelessly with Patrick to give him the support he needs. And in their care he has positively blossomed and flown. 

He is still socially awkward, and uncomfortable in very busy and very noisy places, with a few marked exceptions like the swimming pool, but he has friends now, plays with other children, is accessing the activities within preschool and come on so, so much. We have even had his future school teachers involved with him before he goes to school, and his teacher is the school's special educational needs coordinator. He is in incredibly good hands. And I can't tell you how happy that Katy will attend the same preschool when she gets to the right age.

So I wanted to thank these wonderful, wonderful ladies who have done so much for our son with a personal gift, and not just a box of chocolates. I wanted to put my time and effort into something for them, show them that we have appreciated everything they have done. 

So I made a pair of scarves. 

The pattern is Queen Anne's Lace, and they scarves are crocheted with James C Brett Marble Chunky in two colourways (obviously). Both are 45 motifs long, which equates to about 1.7m each. Nice and long. The yarn was chosen because its a lovely soft acrylic that will machine wash and dry, because I know these ladies most certainly do not have enough time to hand wash. They put in so very many extra hours of their own time after preschool is finished, and at weekends and holidays too. So easy care was a must, but slow colour repeats suit this pattern so well. I hope that they express the gratitude we feel in our hearts for all they have done. And keep them warm as they watch over the children playing out side in any and all weathers come the winter!

Though of course, we couldn't forget the rest of the staff! So got a nice wrapped gift for all to share!

Till next time.

Kat xxx

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What's Going On?

So I am back, after a sabbatical to have my daughter, Miss Katy Niamh. My little cute and recipient of an awful lot of my crafting efforts. Well if you ask me you can;t find a decent wool cardigan for a little girl for love nor money these days, so mummy has to make them doesn't she? But since I have had a sabbatical, just what am I up to currently craft wise. Too much is probably the answer. 

I have three crochet projects actually on the go, and two long term knitting projects. Not to mention I have spinning on the wheel. I AM trying to streamline but we shall see. 

First and highest priority is the second of two Queen Anne's Lace scarves. Priority because they are thank you presents for two of the staff at my son's preschool. He has his last day a week today! So I better get cracking. 

Second, I have picked up my In Dreams shawl. I don't have a picture of where I am in the pattern right now, but I really am not too far at all from here:

I am doing a small handful of rows every day that I actually get some quiet time, so its actually growing and going at a snail's pace towards finishing. 

Third, I have already begun the project to follow the priority scarves because I had a case of startitis, Impossible to not start something new! The pattern is Dragon Master. This is being crocheted in a lovely handspun yarn that was given to me as a gift through a magic yarn ball swap:

Beautiful yarn. The swap had a theme, and my swapee chose to focus on my love of Tolkein. This yarn is so reminiscent of Smaug from The Hobbit that these are becoming my Smaug hide Mitts. Yes, I know its July, but doing my winter things now ahead of time. I think its working up nicely so far!

Fourth, I have started a blanket project for Katy. I knitted her brother blanket, so she needs to have a blanket, though this time its crochet. I have used Barbara Smith's African Flower Square Tutorial as the base for this, but have made some changes of my own. I will feature the changes and link to my Ravelry project for my notes when I focus on the progress of this project another day. But this is early progress:

Lastly, and no picture for this one, I am still working on my version of Shelly Kang's sock yarn blankie. I say working on, but its sat in hibernation really. I want to streamline down my other projects, and then much like my In Dreams shawl, I want to give it some time every day so it grows slow time alongside something else I am doing. 

Spinning wise, this is my latest spinning project:

Its what's lovingly known as a Batt Dropping from Nunoco. Basically carding batts results in left overs. The two lovely ladies in Wales then card those together to give their customers surprise batts! To go with this lovely bobbin, I am attempting to learn how to work with my wheel to spin a superfine single to ply with, so hopefully I end up with a lot of yardage from not a lot of fibre. My bobbins are dinky by the way. They only hold 60g of fibre really, but I will introduce you to the wheel another day!

Lastly, what have I been creating. My most recent FO is a shawl for my best friend. My friend chose the pattern (Photosynthesis by Emily Wessel) and the yarn (Wollmeise in Golden Pear - boy is she lucky enough I love her enough to splurge on Wollmeise!), and I aimed to have it ready for her birthday on August 2nd. I think I did pretty well there. Just shy of a full skein (143g of 150g) produced this lovely shawl:

And that's my catch up. Hope everyone in crafty blog land is doing well and watch this space for the next post. A lot sooner than my last craft post!

Kat xx

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @sticks_n_string

Capey Cape

Okay, okay, I know I have been quiet, far too quiet on this blog, but I have been busy, honest I have! Mainly on that beast you see there. That be Capey Cape as it is affectionately known. The story behind the name is a very long one, but its new owner knows why.

This is basically an oversized shawl. Its the Revontuli pattern on Ravelry, and I simply kept going in pattern until it was big enough. Its been knit in Knit Picks gloss fingering, and I got mine from Great British Yarns, though the red and gold are from DyeForYarn on Etsy. At a total of 2430m of yarn and after having the stink blocked out of it, it is huge. The only way I could get a picture of it laid out in all its glory was to hang it on  the line because even folded in half it was the width of the king sized bed.

It is of course intended to be worn as a cape with a shawl pin and I am sure my dearest friend will look fabulous wearing it. Her intention is to bead it some first, to add to the shine from the silk in the blend of yarn. I am going to miss this keeping my lap warm! Now onto other projects, and try to not cast on baby things for a few more weeks yet... trying hard.

We also have potatoes chitting in the utility room, and tomatoes sprouting on the windowsill. Hopefully the chilies will take too, they did last yea. For now I am working on a lovely shrug, which I will probably use a lot once I get to living in only vest tops again like I did last pregnancy. Just the second cuff and the collar to go.

So here we are a properly big picture of the beastie!





Till next time!

Deep Sea Bird of Paradise

It seems I am doing a fair bit of knitting for other people at the moment, people who need a cheer up. In this case for a Ravelry member who was given very bad news about her sight. Basically she had an awful lot of very lovely yarn and patterns she'd love to knit with it, but she was never going to be able to. So a call for knitting volunteers went round, and yours truly did indeed volunteer to knit the Bird of Paradise pattern. Lovely bottom up shawlette or scarf.

So I am sent the yarn and pattern and it came through and I am thrilled to find its an easyknits.co.uk Sushi Sock Roll. I can confess I have wanted to knit one of these ever since I heard of their existence. Long graduated colours hand painted up a pair of 50g sock blanks for a unique effect in whatever you knit. Obviously, socks are one use. But I have been interested in this kind of preparation of yarn and was over the moon to get the chance to knit with some, and see how they knit for myself.

They arrive looking like this:



Much as the name suggests, a lovely roll of knitted fabric made from scrummy BFL yarn. This is the Deep Sea colour way (see why the title now?). All squishy and fun. And then you undress it to this:



Now its possible to knit straight from the fabric, unravelling as you go, but I wanted to knit from dark to light, as this pattern is knit from the bottom up, and they didn't want to unravel that way, so they got balled up for knitting purposes. And doing that was rather fun, as my toddler son was fascinated by the kinks in the frogged yarn. He says its 'bumpity bump', as his favourite TV character says.

I did do some pattern tweaking. The pattern is written for a minimum of 300m of lace weight and this of course is sock weight yarn, and on the very edge of the yardage requirement, so I opted to shave off a couple of the pattern repeats, because going down a needle size for comfort wasn't something I wanted to do with an already thicker yarn than called for.

I have to say, by the time I reached the end of the lace section of the pattern I was utterly in love with the colours and the colour changes. And the colours are wonderfully vivid and luminous to say the least! And the adjustments I made to the pattern have made the colour changes fall so beautifully. Its been such an enjoyable process, knitting such a beautiful match between yarn and pattern. I can't even take the credit for the choice of yarn and pattern together. But its knitted up into a piece that I am truly proud of.



So that's another project done, now onto my more longer term projects and given them a good push for a bit. Till next post!

A Little Hug

I wanted to start this blog with something a little special. I am sure we have all had those moments when crafting, when you look through your materials, and you suddenly know exactly what the thing you have in your hand should be. Inspiration truly hits.

This last weekend, it happened to me. I was going through my spinning fibre, and had this fibre sample in my hand, and it hit me like a tonne of bricks, no kidding. I knew it was meant for a friend of mine. A friend who has been going through some incredibly tough times lately. Someone who could do with a hug, but someone I could only hug virtually through the internet. Unless....

I knew this sample was not going to make much yarn. So I was going to have to get very creative. It was this lovely length of pink with white silk running through it, and gold firestar. Most people who know me will know pink is NOT my colour, but I could appreciate how pretty this bit of fluff was. I got out my tiny lace weight spindle and spent what time I could spare around the usual chaos that is a weekend, spinning singles. As I spun, I thought of my friend, wished her well, and put all of the good vibes into my spinning as I possibly could. I plied and set the twist Sunday morning. Then, plan made, I cast on Sunday night.

It was going to be an Annis. Now I only had 92m of this pink yarn when I was done, but in my handspun drawer, I had a mini skein of 130m of cappuccino alpaca lace weight yarn I spun during my first Tour de Fleece last year, which had been quietly niggling at me to make something with it. And I cannot think of much nicer round your neck than soft alpaca. Still, it was less yarn than the pattern calls for, so time for some maths.

Annis is a very open little thing, laceweight yarn on very big needles, so I instantly dropped needle size, and then the number of lace repeats. Its knit from the bottom up, and I wanted the pink to run out after the lace. Well it quickly became clear as I was knitting Monday that I was not going to be able to knit the nupps in the pattern and have the pink go far enough. So what on earth was I going to do? Well bead was the obvious answer, but did I have 150 beads of anything in the house? It just so happened that I did. What's more, I had rose quartz chips, perfect for with the pink.

So to the fiddly job I went. One tiny crochet hook in hand, I spent most of the day beading. And the pink ran out just after the lace. Perfect. Joined in the alpaca, and Tuesday was spent finishing it. I also added a row of eyelets at the neck since I had enough of the alpaca to do it, because it is a design that can roll, and it just helps that.

There was this lovely moment in the evening, when the knitting was done, cast off and downed tools, that my husband got curious. So much so he picked it up and started to look carefully at this curly bit of fluff.

"How on earth did you get those on there?" He says to me, pointing to the beading.

I grin, reach for my 0.6mm crochet hook, tiny little thing, and hand it to him.

"I don't get it," he says.

Even a brief demonstration of the how doesn't seem to make it any clearer, but in any case he is somewhat impressed.

So Wednesday is blocking day, and being made of very open laceweight stitches, its pinned at midday and dry by my son's bedtime. So ends to weave, and all I have left now is to wrap it up with a note and send it off to its recipient. I hope the hug is just what she needs to make her smile. She most certainly deserves it.