Here I go, inspired by blogs I have read, and wanting to share in the fun, I'm writing my first blog, and already experiencing writer's block! I hope to bring my readers (if I get any) fun and inspiring titbits from my life, and to share a record of my progress with the many projects I have underway or planned. They are mostly craft related (spinning, knitting, crochet, sewing, tatting, painting), or to do with the mammoth homemaking challenge I face in our Edwardian mess.
This morning's project was a few rounds of knitting a vesty kind of thing that I have painstakingly planned to make from my handspun blue faced leicester. I got the fibre (8oz of 'honor') from http://www.lazykate.net/ and spun it and plied it double-fold into a fine yarn of approximately 26 wraps per inch - roughly four-ply weight. Needless to say its going to take a long time to knit such fine wool into a garment I can wear. I'm currently knitting it to a guage of nine stitches per inch, and rather scared its going to end up like many of my homeknits before it - a lot of work for something that doesn't look anything like as gorgeous as the picture in my head. Because I'm still waiting for my 2mm circular needle from P & M Woolcraft I'm knitting on double-point sock needles, and keep dropping stitches because really they're not plentiful enough or long enough for the job. Its fun anyway - I've used a 'provisional' cast-on so I can add a lace edge later. So I'm learning new techniques. I was very excited the other day when I found printable proportional (asymmetric) graph paper on the web to plan the neckline and armholes to the right guage. Got the link from the resources list in the Twisted Sisters Sweater book - www.incompetech.com/graphpaper Fantastic stuff.
Finally today we (my Wonderful Man and I) did a little sorting out on the top landing where I am now typing this because this is our study area. Let me paint a picture, perhaps depressingly familiar to you if you too have taken on a renovation project that you are fitting around work and family life:
The landing has some brown patterned carpet eating light from the very dirty skylight and small third floor front window that the window cleaner can't reach. The beams are painted grey, and the bits of wall and sloping ceiling that still have paper sticking to them are clearly meant to be 'pure brilliant white'. Dirt, dilapidation, and the horrible starkness of that paint scheme (so popular in the seventies and eighties when this was provbably painted) instead impart a general dingyness, made much worse by all the DIY clutter and household office clutter that has also accumulated here.
My WM is now communicating (with regular reports about the time) that I should go and cook tea (carrot and leek pie). He grows lots of veggies at our allotment, and its my job to do something exciting with them. When will I post again? Wait and see...
This morning's project was a few rounds of knitting a vesty kind of thing that I have painstakingly planned to make from my handspun blue faced leicester. I got the fibre (8oz of 'honor') from http://www.lazykate.net/ and spun it and plied it double-fold into a fine yarn of approximately 26 wraps per inch - roughly four-ply weight. Needless to say its going to take a long time to knit such fine wool into a garment I can wear. I'm currently knitting it to a guage of nine stitches per inch, and rather scared its going to end up like many of my homeknits before it - a lot of work for something that doesn't look anything like as gorgeous as the picture in my head. Because I'm still waiting for my 2mm circular needle from P & M Woolcraft I'm knitting on double-point sock needles, and keep dropping stitches because really they're not plentiful enough or long enough for the job. Its fun anyway - I've used a 'provisional' cast-on so I can add a lace edge later. So I'm learning new techniques. I was very excited the other day when I found printable proportional (asymmetric) graph paper on the web to plan the neckline and armholes to the right guage. Got the link from the resources list in the Twisted Sisters Sweater book - www.incompetech.com/graphpaper Fantastic stuff.
Finally today we (my Wonderful Man and I) did a little sorting out on the top landing where I am now typing this because this is our study area. Let me paint a picture, perhaps depressingly familiar to you if you too have taken on a renovation project that you are fitting around work and family life:
The landing has some brown patterned carpet eating light from the very dirty skylight and small third floor front window that the window cleaner can't reach. The beams are painted grey, and the bits of wall and sloping ceiling that still have paper sticking to them are clearly meant to be 'pure brilliant white'. Dirt, dilapidation, and the horrible starkness of that paint scheme (so popular in the seventies and eighties when this was provbably painted) instead impart a general dingyness, made much worse by all the DIY clutter and household office clutter that has also accumulated here.
My WM is now communicating (with regular reports about the time) that I should go and cook tea (carrot and leek pie). He grows lots of veggies at our allotment, and its my job to do something exciting with them. When will I post again? Wait and see...
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