Robots in the Freezer - Design F213

Following on from the success of my last shawl I decided to make another one using another sock yarn, again Superwash Sock 80/20 from Spun Right Round, this time in shade "Robots in the Freezer" and its 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon.

I couldn't wait to wind this yarn to see how colourful it was and if there were any particularly large splodges of colour.  I was very happy to discover that this skein was one of the paler ones that I have seen in this colourway.  Choosing the beads was quite easy this time and I settled on Toho size 6 in shade 181 Rainbow Crystal Tanzanite, which are dark blue with a rainbow shine to the surface of the glass.

These knit up quite quickly, about 4 or 5 days, depending on how many hours you can spend knitting but I knit whilst the kids are in school so I do have limited hours as I don't knit once they are home.

Hopefully my photos are showing off the colour of the beads.

My eldest daughter is modelling for me again.

Available to purchase from my Etsy store until someone snaps it up as its another one-of-a-kind.

October's Fibre has arrived - Iron Age

I was excited to receive this one, its gorgeous whilst being unusual.  Really soft with a slight sheep smell.  I do miss the sheep smell that you get with raw natural fleece straight from the animal and I've not bought any for a while, other than the Llanwenog.  After reading the letter with the hints I was right about it having some greeny-blue!

The fibre content is 58.5% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk and 4% Stellina and its called "Bronze".

I love this one and it looked familiar so I got out my bag of samples from the recently purchased goody bag and it matches perfectly with 4 small samples that weigh 24g so I now have 124g to spin, bonus!

Octobers Fibre Club Letter

Its that time of the month again when the e-mail lands in my inbox with the details of the next theme for the Fibre Club.  Sometimes it feels like the e-mail is long awaited and other times I am just so busy that its a nice surprise that its here already.

The letter reads:

The Bronze Age represents a period of history characterised by the use of bronze. Prior to this tools were either stone, or made from pure Copper. Bronze is harder and much more durable so is much more efficient for making tools. 

The use of bronze requires a technological innovation and a series of production techniques. Bronze took the copper smelting and processing techniques and refined them by adding tin. This combination of metals is what makes the bronze alloy. Tin is relatively rare and only found in a small number of sites that were accessible to ancient miners. Therefore extensive trading networks became established with tin being transported vast distances around Europe. 

In terms of dates, the Bronze Age, defined as the period when Bronze is used as the primary metal, varies depending on geographical location. The beginning of the Bronze Age began in around 3300BC in the hotbed of civilisation in ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Turkey, Syria and Iraq). From there the technology spread across the rest of Europe but didn’t arrive in Asia and China until around 2000BC. 

Bronze was used for a huge number of items, not just tools and weapons. The Bronze Age craftsman was highly skilled and made sculptures, jewellery, and any number of decorative items. 

The Bronze Age was eventually replaced by the Iron Age. This isn’t the point at which iron is being processed, but rather the point at which steel is being manufactured, because iron is not a superior material then bronze for many purposes. One of the reasons why steel production had to develop was due to the population disruption in the Mediterranean area in 1200-1100 BC. Tin became harder to obtain. Bronze production never stopped however, because for many things it is a better material. It carried on being used for cannon production right up until the modern period. 

For your fibre this month I’ve chosen to go for the colour of the ancient objects, rather than the bright yellow colours of newly cast objects.

Oooh, this one sounds interesting and I've Googled "ancient bronze objects" and looked at images so I'm thinking it may have some kind of greeny-blue in it.  Last months was nice but a bit dull and plain, but that may look completely different once spun up as there are a few colours in it.  This months spoiler she says she has gone for a "neutral" and that there is a high percentage of high drape and long stapled fibres in this months along with silk.  I can't wait for this one to arrive.

Living in a Bubble - Design F213

Every now and again I see people selling off yarn and I try my best to resist as I have so much already but on the rare occasion I give in, I can't help it, it calls to me.  So I've recently bought an amount of yarn that is designated as "sock yarn".  It is perfect for making socks as it contains an amount of nylon to make it more hard wearing but the beauty of it is is that you don't have to make socks with it, you can make other things with it.  I thought I would make some smallish shawls, the kind that you can wear as a scarf, a large neckerchief kind of thing.

I have made this design before way back in 2013.

The yarn is Superwash Sock 80/20 by Spun Right Round and is 80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon.

Its a top down shawl, so the beaded edge is worked last.  I was thinking about using some dark blue beads but in the end I settled on some Toho size 6 beads in shade 507 Higher Metallic Iris Green, which aren't actually green but more of a rainbow bead with an overall green tone.  They are difficult to describe but as you can see from the photos, the multi-colours of the beads really work with the multi-colours in the yarn, which isn't as blue as it looks in some of the photos that were taken with my phone.

The photos below are more true to colour, these were taken with my actual camera, not with my phone, which tends to distort the colours somewhat.  I've decided that if I make any more of these, which I am bound to do, then I will add an extra bead to the centre point as it only calls for 4 in the pattern and I think it would look better if it had 5 so that it is closer in looks to those either side of it.

My eldest daughter agreed to model the shawl for me, she's just turned 15 and becoming a young woman and is the same height as me now.

As ever, you will find this in my Etsy store until someone buys it and then it will be gone as it is one-of-a-kind.

Pink Fizzy Sparkles

Last month I had a play with my new blending hackle and one of the fibres I blended was some pink and white plant based fibres.  I wasn't happy with the result but is that because of the disappointment with the fibres or more to do with my dislike of the colour pink.  Hmmmm, maybe both.

I have finally spun up the fibre that I made, not happy with this either but its done now.

I've called it Pink Fizzy Sparkles, its very heavy and dense, definitely not something I would do again.  I worked out the final fibre content, based on what I put in to begin with and its 45% Egyptian Cotton, 22% Bamboo, 22% Soy Bean Silk, 7% Linen, 4% Angelina.  Its a sport weight at 90g/182m.

Individual baubles - all done

Way back in early 2012 I was playing with making fine crochet lace covers for Christmas baubles and decorating them with ribbon roses to create an olde worlde / Victorian style Christmas decoration.  I kept it all quiet and hush hush because at the time I had a couple of other makers that seemed to be copying everything that I did and undercutting my prices so much that they clearly weren't making any profit on them whatsoever and I didn't want them copying this idea.

I put this idea to the side for a few years and all of a sudden fast forward 5 and a half years and I have been making more of these baubles on and off over the past year but again keeping it all quiet.

I have made three different styles of baubles.  One is a bauble that is completely covered in fine crochet lace of different designs, usually made in two halves and joined to each other around the middle and then decorated with ribbon roses and the second is a crochet lace cover that only covers part of the bauble, all of the designs are the same but in all sorts of colours and decorated with ribbon roses and beads hanging off the points of the crochet lace. The third type was very simple, using Twilleys Goldfingering like I did for the boxes of 6 baubles, and I made just two of them to finish up the baubles.

Trying to enclose a bauble in crochet lace is not easy, trying to keep the bauble inside the partially joined pieces whilst crocheting the pieces together is tricky, not to mention trying to crochet around a solid object without the free space that you would normally have to work in is awkward too.  There was no need to glue the cover to the bauble on these designs as the crochet cover is stretched over the bauble and stitched to itself.  The covers with the hanging beads were easy to create but then I had to attach the beads.  At first I was using special beading wire, which is actually like a thick nylon thread but this was problematical for me and quite stiff and then I changed to dental floss, which gave the same strength but was more flexible.  Don't worry, it was a brand new one that I bought from the Chemists specifically for the purpose and no teeth or dentists were hurt in the making of them.  These half-covers are actually glued to the bauble to keep them in place.