Advancing skills?

At last all the children, including my sister's children, are in full-time school. Instead of using the extra time this frees up for housework I have, of course, been doing more spinning and knitting! It really is addictive, and I am well and truly hooked! Especially as during the last week I have been doing new things - styles and techniques I've never or rarely tried before.

First off I finished the Quidditch yarn - 300g of BFL spun to 'worsted' weight (roughly aran). I got 350 yards, and was reasonably happy with the results as I have rarely spun such thick yarn before. It turned out more consistent than I thought it would be. An unexpected element was added when I discovered that bonus points were available for metallic looking metal colours. How is Hufflepuff black a metallic colour? Well, apparently black is associated with iron in heraldry. Going with this I felt there was grounds for a hint of gold in the yarn, as 'fools gold' is really iron pyrites, so I plied the singles with some gold filament thread I have. It looked great. especially after dyeing the yarn black - the metallic thread didn't take the dye, so the gold glints really stand out. First picture is before dyeing:

In order to free up bobbin space for the Hufflepuff yarn I also plyed the singles I spun at Alston Hall from some dyed roving I bought from Freyalyn - her Wisteria colourway. I decided to Navajo ply because I wanted to maintain lengths of solid colour. This felt very brave because my last go at Navajo plying was very bumpy!! However, this time the yarn does not have bumps where each chain meets - those points are barely discernable. I thought I had overplyed as the skeins twisted so much when I took them off the niddynoddy, but after an intersesting discussion with Penny Leonard at Guild on Saturday I found that the yarn did indeed relax so much after washing that the skeins no longer self-twist. Perhaps my last Navajo-plyed yarn was so bumpy because it was underplyed?

Here is a section of the skeins as they hang to dry, and a full shot of them (sadly the colours don't show well - they are much more vibrant in real life):

And finally, my new knitting craze - I have been learning double-knitting. This is not in this case a yarn thickness, but a knitting technique that creates double-sided knits. I first came across the technique when I saw an article about double-knitted socks which solved the mystery from 'Knitting in the Nordic Tradition' about how the nurse in War and Peace knitted two socks in one. Then a friend of mine knitted a two-colour double-knitted bag, and I realised the possibilities double-knitting affords for colourwork. I wondered if this would resolve my problem with Aidan's scarf, knitted as a fairisle tube, which was turning out far too thick. So, I researched the technique and cast on. It works!! I am knitting a scarf that has a design on both sides, yet only uses two strands of yarn, and is a perfect thickness. The biggest win was getting the name (this one is for my middle son, Tom) to read properly on both sides. The scarf so far:

Clever eh?

Made it!

Ok - I'm a fast knitter! I am regularly accused of this in Ravelry due to the rate at which I add finished projects. This week I managed to knit a whole jumper in just five days! Before you faint with exhaustion at the thought I'd better add that it was for a child - it started life on my needles as a jumper for my middle son, and came off the needles a better fit for my youngest, who now owns it. What I'm proud of is that I've finally mastered my Mum's skill of knitting while watching T.V. (or in my case, while reading the computer screen!) - I feel like I have 'made it' as a knitter!

The well-read among you will immediately recognise that this is a Weasley jumper. Indeed I knitted it as my Transfiguration 'homework' for the 'Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup'. We had to do something that would be a good learning process - something we hadn't done before, and were supposed to do a Potter-themed pattern to boot. I went for the sweater because I have rarely knitted them - mostly due to hating seaming. Hence this is a seamless, top-down sweater! I love the technique and think I will be doing many more, and learning more about sizing in the process.



My youngest son will also be the beneficiary of a glove design I am currently working on. I charted the pattern a year ago, intending to knit it to go with the Nordic earflap hats I made for my boys and my nephew and niece last Christmas. Fortunately for this design there is an astronomy class in the House Cup for which we have to do a star-themed knit, and that supported me to actually get on and knit these. They are a combination of Nordic and Yorkshire design, patterned, fingered gloves with names on being a traditional knit in Yorkshire in times gone by. I need to tweak the pattern a little, then I will publish it. At the moment the index finger is disproportionately long:





As well as all this 'homework' I also have Quidditch practice to do because I'm a Beater in the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. The game consists of creating a knitted or crocheted item as a team effort, with the 'Seeker' doing the design work, two 'Beaters' spinning the yarn, three 'Chasers' knitting/crocheting it, and a Keeper doing the finishing! My job is to spin 300 yards of aran-weight wool, then dye it black. Tough call, as I have rarely spun anything thicker than sock-weight! Anyhow, I've spun the singles - perhaps a little overspun - spot the snarls! Tomorrow I shall ply.




And finally, here is the promised picture of the cardigan I knitted for Poppy. The pattern is one I found in Ravelry, based on one Lucy wears in the first Narnia film:

Resolution!

This is it - from now on I will post here at least once a week!! As this is the 'website' I have given to Lark Books to go with my profile I really need to start using it properly again, instead of focusing solely on my Potter blog (which I love!). So - I'm going to tidy up: Re-organise the buttons. Put some links to my online pattern sales. Give details of new designs I am working on. And I will ramble on about the events in the life a a small-town housewife from Yorkshire! Some posts may be brief, some may be very long - I make no resolutions there. Most will include pictures and/or links for added interest.

Without further ado I will introduce the designs I have published this summer. Links to purchase coming soon in the sidebar:

Luna's Moonlight Socks:



The Fleur Tote:



Chaussettes de Beauxbatons:



I've also been doing some other stuff, some my own designs to publish, and a little baby knitting for my new niece, Poppy, born last week! I'll tell more of that in my next post. Meantime I must fly - have to go and pick up my eldest from the railway station. TTYS!!

'Tagged'

A couple of folk in The Swap have 'tagged' me with this questionnaire now, so I guess I ought to do it. Must be quick though - I have socks to knit!!

1) What were you doing 10 years ago?
Teaching in a secondary school in Oldham (near Manchester - the 'wrong' side of the Pennines!)

2) name 5 things on you TO-DO list for today?
Knit another motif repeat on first Pink Passion sock
Knit another motif repeat on second Pink Passion sock
Lift clean laundry from floor onto spare bed
Replace black print cartridge
Book train ticket to Cockermouth for Woolfest next Friday (yippee!! - + no guilt cos I have 8 hours knitting time on train!)

3) snacks that you enjoy?
apple crisps
oranges
sherbet lemons(fruity eh?)

4) what would you do if you were a billionaire?
Fund social projects for young people in the UK
Have Mum and Dad's home gutted and swanked up for them (don't think they'd want to move after nearly fifty years there!)
Buy a super-eco car (fuel cells?)
Go to S.O.A.R.
Buy a country property for eco-renovation and have the renovation done for the Wigworthy clan to inhabit

5) Name places you have lived.
Huddersfield
York
Easingwold (tiny market town 15 miles north of York)near Raskelf ('middle of nowhere'!)Ulverston (Market town next to the English Lakes)
Lindal- in- Furness (village near Ulverston)
Brighouse (small textile town in south Pennines)

6) what jobs have you held?
Cafe dogsbody
Specialist nurse (learning disabilities)
Teacher (religious education)
Lecturer (theology/religious studies)
Freelance writer for AOL

7) Who are you tagging?
Lily Clearwater

Felting

Gosh - a whole month since I posted! I do seem to be on a slippery slide with frequency of posting here. Let's see if I can improve the numbers in June!

I do have quite a few things to report, including a lovely holiday in the North York Moors last week. The highlight was the pirate day at Whitby Abbey, where Tom and Toby got to fire cannons, properly drilled by a lovely old sailor. There were some 'infantry' (re-enactment) there firing real cannons (not the toy ones the boys were drilled with) - the noise was incredible.

On the craft front there has, of course, been a lot of activity. My biggest project has been creating a bag for a design competition that the headmistress at Hogwarts instigated. My entry was my first ever felting project. It's rather cute, and I love the felting. There are some far more stylish and aesthetically effective designs that others have done though, so I don't know how much chance it has. She's planning to select four or five winners. I did mine with very reasonably priced British yarn that I found out about in Ravelry, from New Lanark Mills. Since I finished it my darling twin-sister has claimed it for her own!!
So photos of said project:

The latin roughly translates as 'Never Needle a Magical Knitter' (latin scholars - please don't flame me for the grammar!)

There are several other works in progress, including the Gryffindor Pride socks which I have now almost finished, and should be publishing the pattern in a day or so. Today yarn arrived (from New Lanark!) for some baby stuff for my sister-in-law's baby - she's expecting a girl in August. I'm planning to knit and felt some booties, and knit a fairisle cardigan, and design and knit a skirt (cos I can't find a decent pattern for baby skirts!)

I've been posting a few of my patterns in Ravelry, and when I have time (Hah!!) I plan to create a section in this blog to link them. My other big news is that I have just submitted a pattern to Lark Books for posssible publication in a book they're planning for autumn next year! Watch this space...

New Term at Hogwarts

Just a quick post to let any readers who might be interested know that the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap, of which my recent posts have been very full, is starting a new term. Information about the swap may be found at the new website which also has a link to the swap blog where folk can sign up. The button in my sidebar here will take you to the main site.

Socks and sock kit.

It is with great shame that I note I have neglected this blog so much that as yet I haven't even posted pictures of the kit I received last week from my 'spoiler' in the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap. Running two blogs has proved rather challenging, and I admit that I have prioritised the blog I set up for the sock kit swap. It is a 'character blog' in which I post about events in my life as Emma Wigworthy, a knitting and spinning housewitch from Ottery St. Catchpole (mysteriously relocated to somewhere in Pennine Yorkshire!!). If you want to visit and read some of these magical ramblings you are most welcome to. The blog is called 'Yarns fromOttery St. Catchpole', and a lot more exciting than this muggle version of my life! Since the swap is over, and the next swap (starting at the beginning of May) is not to be secret, I can now connect together these two existences. Pictures of the kit I received last week appear at this other blog.

The current knitting news is that I have finished the Hufflepuff socks and published the pattern in my new Ravelry Pattern Store and at my Etsy shop: