Textile Thursday - L. Hogan Batt #5

Textile Thursday - have a peek at the fibre I'm using this week....  

L. Hogan Batt

Today's post is going to be a little different in that I want to share with you my experience with L. Hogan's  No Rhyme No Reason Batt #5. I am fairly new to spinning and I have been encouraged by a large number of knitters and spinners here in Dublin to learn. Most of all during Laura's visits to the spinning groups and the shop, I was entranced by her colorways in her rovings, but lets start at the beginning. 

Ashford Roving

I knit a lot and was toying with the idea of rovings to learn how to spin. I started with the Ashford silk and merino roving  which  was smooth and the silk content allowed me to learn how to draft  quite easily. You can read more about my experience here. 

Corridale Homespun. 

I moved on to some Corridale I also got at This is Knit while I was suppose to be tidying skeins, the blue colours in the roving started to beg me to take them home. You know that kind of begging where it looks at you from its nestling place on the shelf and no matter where you go, you can feel it looking at you. By the time my shift was over it was almost screaming "I'll never find a good home if you don't take me...." So I said "fine in my bag you go then" (with more than a little encouragement form Lisa) and off I went.  I got home and before I had dinner I was spinning this fibre, I spun all 50 grams in one night and I was hooked. 

Merino Roving by FiberArtemis

I started looking at some hand dyed roving on Etsy and I found some beautiful options like Waterlily and the Merino Roving as you can see here but I wanted to support Irish craft and on Etsy that leaves very little choice. 

Waterlily by NalaniYarns  

As soon as I clicked the option, I was kicking myself for not remembering the Spin in Sundays. I have seen jumpers / accessories knit out of Laura's spun roving and all of them have been mesmerising. I had a browse through her shop and found that she had some batts up for sale. This was great, I don't have a huge amount of experience and I didn't want to jump into buying a huge amount of roving so the batt was a good choice. I ordered it and it was in my hand the next day (which is amazing because it was Good Friday) so I was up to a great Easter start. 

L. Hogan Batt

Laura's roving has some amazing colours and with some Angelina thrown in for an added sparkle. I thought I was going to have a challenge as these batts Laura carded herself are called No Rhyme No Reason for the sheer randomness of fiber and colour in each batt. As it was detailed on Etsy, each batt is unique and some batts could be very textural due to Wensleydale locks that she dyed and threw in. However spinning this batt was fun, I loved watching the colour ways form before my eyes and depending on how you separate the batt you could even get some colour repeats spun too. I loved working with this so much I even have some of Laura's Blue Faced Leicester in my stash now too (along with a huge amount of her sock yarn, yes I have a problem)

If you are interested, check out her shop on etsy here and I'm going to tempt you with some roving just because I can. :) Have a great weekend. 

Batt No. 6

Batt No. 4

Wensleydale

Where's your head at?

I have been feeling very apathetic of late, I have lots of different things on needles, hooks, and spindle along with 'work' knitting that needs a few finishing tweeks to patterns etc so I was thinking what if I put it all together in a blog post and try to figure out where my head is at with the help of you lovely people. 

On the needles:

Paulie Cardigan

This is Paulie by Isabell Kraemer which I am knitting in Malabrigo Violetta Africana and Laura Hogan's sock yarn in Jewell. The idea of this project was put in my head by Jewelandarlin' in TIK. I personally prefer not to work on small needles but this project is amazing. I think it's the combination of Addi metal needles (I usually use wood/acrylic), yarn choices and a relaxing pattern that has hundreds of projects on Ravelry.  These two yarns ended up sitting together in my special sock yarn drawer and I loved them together, but I just could not find a pattern I liked enough to knit. Enter Jewelandarlin' and a very impressive Ravelry list and I decided that Paulie was worth the effort. 

It's a perfect TV project and after the raglan increases this just really knits itself. The combination of the Malabrigo and L. Hogan yarns make me feel like I am knitting a rainbow into a cardigan. I'm loving everything about this knit. First of all the small size actually fits me, usually I have some math and alterations to do before I can knit but this project was a breeze and complete 'switched off' knitting. The pattern is written very clearly and you can just keep knitting until you have a garment as long as you like. Most of all this is a free pattern on Ravelry by Isabell and I have to respect anyone who puts up a garment pattern as well written and sized as this for free. For those of you interested I bought the Malabrigo yarn at This is Knit and I was lucky enough to get Jewel during one of Laura's Sock Club's. If you havnt joined one of these sock clubs it is well worth it and I can't recommend it enough so head on over to her Etsy shop for more info on up and coming clubs (convo her) and yarns for sale.

Fit Well Socks

Next on the needles are fit well socks by Amanda Cathleen Morgan.  For those of you who know me personally from knitting groups, work and out and about, you will know I hate knitting socks. I made the mistake recently asking John what he would like knitted for him and well, yip he chose socks. So I said the usually 'OK' and put it on the long finger. Next came a phone call from my nana asking if I had gotten some Eskimo yarn for her so off to the constant knitter I went. I spent a bit of time here playing with yarn and I came across some Lang Jawoll superwash. It really didn't take a lot of encouragement to give this a try.It comes with reinforcement yarn for the heel and toes and is super soft to touch. 

I love how this yarn is knitting up, the plying of a light and dark singles allow me to just use a simple knit stitch and it looks amazing. The knitting pattern by Amanda Morgan is simple easy to follow and is a great introduction to cuff down socks. These in fact are my first cuff down sock (I have made 3 pairs of socks total in my knitting life) and I found this blissfully easy to follow. The only problem is that I chose to knit on a 3 mm needle.The gauge on the yarn suggests 2.5 - 3.5mm and I really don't agree. I think this yarn is best suited to the 2 - 2.5 mm needle and I'm using clover dpns which are not as pointy as I would like for this project they keep snagging in the yarn. If I had thought about this before casting on I would go back and knit on a smaller needle. The sock however is coming along nicely and I like the yarn and how its all coming together. Now lets just see if I stick with it......

On the hook......... 

 Treble Cross Crochet Blanket

On my crochet hook at the moment is the treble cross crochet blanket by Bernat Design Studio. I only learned to crochet this year and I was looking for a project to practice my tension and some crochet stitches. After trawling through Ravelry, I found this blanket. I rummaged through my stash and found some huge balls of Robin Aran that you find at the knitting and stitching show or Hickey's on Henry street. Perfect for practice, its not too expensive and its soft enough for an aran weight to use as a blanket. This is my break project. I use it when I just can't knit any more. I imagine this will be the project that carries me through to winter but I don't mind.

On the spindle......

Corridale Homespun

Ok so on, well ok off the spindle I have some Corridale homespun which is just gorgeous. I am so proud of this! I spun this all in one evening on my drop spindle. Its pretty evenly spun (for me) and I love the sheen of the fiber. I tried to ply this yarn but I much preferred this as a single, on plying this yarn it took away from the beautiful dying and I know plying adds strength but I am going to knit this quite tight. It will grow up to be a hat for J  but I havn't found a pattern I want to knit for him so I will have to get my graph paper out and I just don't have the time at the moment to design and knit him one. I set the twist and this little skein is going into my stash for just a little while.

L. Hogan Batt

And finally on my spindle at the moment is a batt from Laura called no rhyme no reason (mine was batt no. 5). I love this roving, though I'm not an expert with roving I just know what I like the feel / look of. The Angelina adds some sparkle to the fibre and so far I'm spinning a very 'bespoke' yarn that is going to have a very special project all of its own. Laura still has some batts left in her shop here  and these would be great for a wheel or for felting. I am however waiting on a loom that will be my 30th birthday present (I can't hold in the excitement eeeeeeeeeeeeek) so I think this may be a woven scarf for ME!!!!!!!!!!!

All of these projects are active while I'm working on patterns of my own. I find I need the break to let my head sit or wind down from the thought process. At the moment I'm just a little bit run down from knitting and life in general. We are between looking for a new home which means relocating AGAIN and we only just settled in or sorting out buying (pipe dream really) on top of J just getting over his operation and getting back to work and of course working for me (though to be honest I just play a lot with the yarn :) ) I guess at the moment I'm just tired of saying everything will be ok and carrying on regardless of what life has thrown my way. It's time for a coffee, bunny cuddles and some strategic woolly contemplations. Feel free to add links to what your up to at the moment in the comments section. I could use the cheering up :)

To spin, or not to spin..... (spin post 2)

I have been slowly working on my spin 5 everyday, some days I even get blocks of 30 minutes and it has all added up. Yesterday my drop spindle was heavy and off balance so I scratched my head wondering how on earth I got this fiber off my spindle (bear in mind I didn't know how to even take a break and put the spindle down about 2 weeks ago). I tweeted the question using the #spin5 as I know their are lovely ladies with huge amounts of knowledge out there working on their #spin5 everyday but low and behold yes it was St. Patricks day so very few where about on twitter.

Next up came internet searches. Here I found some wonderful information on spinning and I have to say one of the most informative I found was the joy of hand spinning website. It has loads of information on wheels and spindles but again I did get engrossed but I still had my little problem (which I still thought was a problem). I moved on to www.spinningdaily.com and they have a wonderful ebook to download for free on spinning.

About an hour or so later, I looked at my spindle, grabbed the chair I was sitting on and started to wind my fiber around the back of my chair until the spindle was empty (yip not the sharpest pencil in the box am I) and using the 2 ends tied it to my chair. I then secured it in place using waste yarn and this is what I have now:

Yes parts of it are over spun, but hey its my first shot, I'm proud that its as even as it is. To relax the fiber, I let this soak in warm water for about fifteen minutes and placed it back on an open chair to stretch it out to dry. It's beautiful and I love the colour but now I'm not sure what to do next. I was thinking of knitting this as a single ply, then I was thinking of plying it together but its already around a worsted weight. So I pose a question to ye "What would you do next and why?"

Updates

Well it has been a frantic month over here with all things medical now under control, I think it is about time for a blog post.

First things first - cowls....cowls.....cowls.

I have not forgotten my pledge for posting 2 cowls a month but with everything taking me by surprise over the last few weeks, this blog has been left on the wayside. I will be uploading a few patterns to Ravelry over the next few weeks none of which are ready to post so on that note I'm sorry guys :(

Second things second - Spinning!!!

To take my mind off things, I started to spin with Ashford Merino and Silk roving that has been taunting me in TIK for some time now. Lots of help was giving to me by Sheknitupthatball to start me off and after many questions (many, many questions) and shared techniques later I was spinning away and surprisingly I love it. I think this has a lot to do with the roving, its easy to spin and it is my favourite colour. When I am at home I still take out the spindle and for me that is amazing. I often get something into my head and loose interest quickly but spinning has finally gripped me. I'm trying to spin for at least 5 minutes a day and it really is starting to build up nicely. I find it really relaxing and it is starting to become my guilty pleasure. Now if only I can figure out how to stop spinning and finish a piece....that's my next goal.

And last things last - Stitch markers

I have been waiting on a delivery for AGES, it finally came at the end of Feburary but by then everything else was falling to pieces and I had no time to make anything let alone knit. So I sat down over the last ten days, finished some knitting and finally finished some markers. You can find these guys in my Etsy shop. I hope you like them.

And yes as its Monday - Happy Bunday everyone and here is a gratuitous picture of my bun buns.