Black Shetland Beaded Lace Shawl - Design L7

I enjoyed knitting with my own hand-spun wool so much that I am keen to do it again but this time I want something a little more challenging.  I can't wait to start knitting with some Black Shetland wool that I have spun up and I do have quite a few skeins of it.  I've chosen a design that has a lot of beads and have ordered the beads to go with the yarn.  The beads I am going to use are Size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 83 metallic brown iris.

I started making this on 15th April and with this design you have to thread a given number of beads into the yarn to make the beaded tassel as you cast on.  You then work the first part of the pattern and put to one side and repeat a further 6 times until you have 7 scallops.  They are joined together as you knit across all of them and continue making the design.  All beads other than the tassels were added painstakingly one-at-a-time over the individual stitches which means that they cannot move out of position by sliding along the yarn and into wrong place over a period of time.  There are 5,083 beads on this shawl.  Well I did say I wanted something more challenging!

It was all crumpled up when it came off the needles.

A good soak and block soon sorted it out and those are the same scissors in the first of the above before and the below after photographs to give some idea of what a difference finishing off a shawl properly makes to the final garment.

I finished knitting this on 5th July 2013.  I love this design as the shaping around the neck line helps to keep it in place and makes it sit where it should.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Black Shetland Fleece

Alpaca and Shetland Wool, together in harmony

I do love a nice Shetland fleece, I don't know what it is about them but I love touching them, so soft and bouncy and light to the touch.  I was so impressed with the Black Shetland fleece when it arrived that I went back to the same farmer in Morval, Cornwall and bought some more Shetland fleece from her.  500g of "light fawn to cream" that was also sheared in June 2012.

I washed this fleece when it arrived last year but have only just gotten around to doing anything more with it.  It was pretty dirty and after washing I was left with only 340g and after being combed that went down further still to just 186g of lovely soft combed top ready to spin in whole range of colours, with one particularly dark nest standing out from the crowd.

I had also bought some lovely cream Huacaya Alpaca last year too from Abacus Alpacas in South Cerney, Gloucestershire from one of their lovely Alpaca's called Dakota, so pretty!

1000g of main body fleece, once washed and combed left me with approx 671g of lovely combed alpaca top to spin in similar shades as the Shetland fleece.  I decided to blend equal amounts of both the Alpaca and the Shetland together and then to spin the left over Alpaca on its own.  The first picture below shows the same weight of Shetland (left) and Alpaca (right).

I only lost about 3g during the blending process and I managed to get 3 skeins of lovely soft 50% Shetland Wool/50% Alpaca yarn in double knit weight: 64g/161m, 141g/330m and 167g/338m.

From the Alpaca being spun on its own I managed to get 4 good sized skeins of yarn.

They weighed in at: 117g/200m, 117g/200m (yeah, WOW, two exactly the same, not an easy feat),

120g/220m

and 131g/288m

Buying a Job Lot of Jacob Fleece

I had so much fun with my first Jacob fleece that I decided to get some more and looked on Ebay to see what was available.  Low and behold, 7 Jacob fleece available at a low price just around the corner from my home at a farm that I never even realised was there as it is situated behind a couple of cottages on the Birmingham Road, Water Orton, about one-third of a mile as the crow flies across parkland, the A452, the M6 and a farmers field but seeing as I cannot fly I had to take the 5 minute drive as its 1.9 miles away by road.

Stuart and Katie had only moved in towards the end of last year and were busy doing the place up and turning it into a rural training centre for a range of vulnerable people.  Here is a link to their website Hillcrescent Farm to read more about what they do.

Back to the fleece, and I had no real idea as to what I was going to get other than that they were Jacob fleece and there were 7 of them.  I took large black bags with me, just in case they weren't bagged, good job I did.  I had a quick look at a couple of them before I handed over the cash, they seemed OK, not cotted or rotten, not overly coarse and for the price that was good enough for me.  This was the first time the sheep had been sheared since being in the ownership of Stuart and Katie and they had no idea of what a handspinner expects of and looks for in a fleece.  I provided them with copies of some useful information sheets that I had about preparing fleece to sell etc

When I got home I examined them all properly and I had to skirt them myself, removing as much daggings and the poor quality fleece from around the edges, along with any large pieces of vegetable matter (VM).  The weights underneath each fleece are the skirted weights.  I didn't bother to weigh them before I skirted them.  They are all photographed in the same place in my kitchen.  I nearly fell over a couple of times due to the lanolin making the floor slippery, which required a good mopping with hot water and disinfectant after I had finished.

Fleece No.1 - 1.5kg

Fleece No.2 - 1.6kg

Fleece No.3 - 1.05kg

Fleece No.4 - 1.4kg

Fleece No.5 - 1.1kg

Fleece No.6 - 0.79kg

Fleece No.7 - 1.35kg

A good mix of colours on the fleece, some mostly black, most 50/50 and various qualities between fleece too.  I'm going to have some fun with this little lot.  I guess you would like to see some photos of the young ladies who produced these fleece?

Ok, here you go.  All of these photos of the sheep are copyright to Hillcrescent Farm.

(c) Hillcrescent Farm

(c) Hillcrescent Farm

(c) Hillcrescent Farm

Merino/Silk Blend in Peacock

I got this from Sara's Texture Crafts, 200g of Merino/Silk which is 80% Merino and 20% Silk.

I spun it up as a worsted weight 2ply yarn giving me 203g/370m.

I eventually made a simple shawl with beaded lace leaf edging.

The Long And Short of It - Part Two

This is further to my post of 19th October 2012, which you may want to read before you read this post.

I made a sacrifice two weeks ago, a big sacrifice.

At the end of September last year, I made a decision about what I wanted to do to mark the occasion of my 40th birthday in March.  I didn't want a party and I wasn't particularly interested in presents either, its just more "stuff" to clutter up the house, and I need that like I need a hole in the head.  I decided to grow my hair even longer than usual over the Winter and then donate some of it to Little Princess Trust a charity that makes real-hair wigs for kids with Cancer.

After choosing the original style that I liked and blogging about it, I found another one that I liked more.  It was even shorter but I loved it so much more than the other one and so this is THE ONE that I chose.

I was fundraising all over Winter, even donating 25% of the item price of all items sold from my online shops between October and up to and including 31st March 2013.  I put these donations through my Just Giving Page on behalf of, and in the name of, the customers who made purchases.

I had a little problem with my usual hairdressing salon in December.  My stylist had not managed to get into work that day and so the salon owner was to cut my hair that day.  I told him that all I wanted was a 1/2 inch trim to keep it healthy as I was growing it longer than usual so I could have it cut and donate it to charity.  He told me how he didn't agree with people donating their hair to be made into wigs when there are perfectly good synthetic wigs available and he was quite nasty about it and his attitude really upset me.  He cut my hair and I left the salon with a bad taste in my mouth.  It was not the usual enjoyable, relaxing, pampering experience that I am used to.  It was only when I got home and saw myself in the long mirror that I discovered he had cut about 3 inches off the length of my hair!!!  The air turned blue, as you can imagine, because it was now very doubtful that I would be able to donate the 12" or more that I should have been able to donate.  I vowed there and then never to patronise his salon ever again, even though I had been going there for 15 years!

I put the word out that I was looking for a new regular hairdresser and I found one in the form of hubbies long term family friend, Pauline Babbington, who kindly offered to cut my hair and re-style it free of charge seeing as it for was Charity.  I decided that I wanted my husband and my two girls with me at the salon when I had my hair cut off, not only for moral support but also so that I wouldn't have to go through all that nervous anxiety on the way home of having to make a big entrance with my new look.  I set the date of the cut as 7th April 2013, as this was the first date after my 40th birthday that we could all get together.

So, this is how long my hair was the day before the cut.  It should have been touching my belt!!!

And this is the shorter style I chose to have my hair cut into after the donation. 

And now the photos of the event.

Getting it brushed out

Getting pony-tailed up into 3 pony-tails - ooohhh eeeeerrr its finally happening!

Here it goes, its getting cut off - ooooh eck! No turning back now

Before I knew it all 3 pony-tails were cut off, I was treated to a lovely relaxing wash and was being re-styled

All done!

The back.  It's short for the first time ever and look how soft and shiny it is!  

Hubby sat there whilst I had it cut with pretty much that same look on his face the whole time.

I got 2 x 8-9" pony-tails and 1 x 12" pony-tail to send off to Little Princess Trust.

That 12" pony-tail could well have been at least 14" if I hadn't had "hairdresser" problems in December.

I intend to now keep my hair short and I have been having fun drying and styling it in different ways.  I am still fundraising for them, even though I have smashed through my initial fundraising target and donations can be made via my  Just Giving Page  or by texting LOCK52 £(amount greater than £2) to 70070

If anyone is inspired by my story but is worried about going from long hair to short hair, please don't be worried about it, it's the best thing I have done in ages and I feel so good in myself and about myself.  Not only does it make you feel good doing something amazing for someone less fortunate but having all that physical and emotional weight cut off and getting a fab new modern look does wonders for your self-esteem and although my hair was healthy already, I can't believe how soft and silky it feels now.

Anemone gradient Wensleydale shawl - Design F213

Seeing as we are now in Spring/Summer I wanted to make a small, lightweight shawl that is just perfect for the season.  I found a sweet little pattern and decided to make one using my own hand-spun yarn.  It is a top-down shawl so I decided that I wanted the lightest colour at the top and so made sure that I began knitting with the lightest end of the yarn.  I also chose to use the same colour beads as on the Victorian lace shawl that took me almost 2 years to knit as the colour went perfect with this as well and they are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 1076 Magenta lined grey.

I began knitting on 2nd April and finished on 4th April 2013.  Its pretty much a stocking stitch knit, with a few rows of garter stitch to add interest with "lines" or "ridges" throughout and finished off with a lace edge to which I added my beads.  I used 244 beads in total which added a little bit of much needed weight.

It was so crumpled up when it came off the needles but soaking and blocking soon sorted that out.

I am so proud of this shawl as it the first one I have made with my own hand-spun yarn.  I have made hats and things like that with my own hand-spun but this is the first shawl.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Wensleydale Gradient Yarn

Apricot Smoothie - Romney Fleece & Dyeing with Food Colouring

Wanting to try another breed of sheep I purchased a small amount of Romney Fleece from Philippa of Kingston Manor Farm in Canterbury.  Her flock has won awards for their fleece.  I bought approx 500g of Romney wether fleece (a wether is a castrated male) that has 15cm long staples with good crimp and a soft handle.  Romney Sheep are part of the Longwool family.

Really, really nice fleece, very soft with lots of lustre, a little yellowed in places, but not too bad.

I washed the fleece first and when dried it weighed 500g, so she must have given me quite a bit more than 500g of fleece to begin with.  I got to work combing it and was left with 375g of lovely combed nests ready to spin but I noticed that some of them were "dark cream" so I decided that I would try dyeing it at the point.  I have been reading some interesting information about dyeing fleece and fibre so I thought I would start with food dyes as I am too scared to try proper full on acid dyes yet.

I went to the local Morrisons Supermarket and purchased some natural food dyes in a range of colours, they don't have a large range but red, blue, pink, green etc, the basics.  I chose pink for this wool and dyed it in two halves.  The dye pigment in the pink food colouring is Beetroot.

I soaked the wool in 1 litre of water containing 1 tablespoon of white vinegar for about 20 minutes.  In the meantime I filled a heat resistant glass bowl about half full with warm water and added a splash of white vinegar and half a bottle of the food colouring.  I carefully lifted the wool out of its bath and gently squeezed most of the water out and then added it to the prepared bowl of dye.

The next bit is to cover the bowl and heat it in the microwave on full power for 6 minutes then you have to let it stand for 5 minuted and then heat again for a further 6 minutes and Ding!, it's done.  Remove the bowl from the microwave and leave it alone now to cool down.  Once it is cool you can remove the wool from its dye bath and squeeze out any excess fluid.  Rinse the wool in warm plain water until no dye bleeds from it.  Obviously I went through this process twice due to the amount that I was dyeing.  Leave it to dry.

I got lemons, oranges and coral pinks.  Reminds me of the sweets as a kid that were called "fruit salad".

I had to re-comb it all once it was dry as I had inadvertently felted some of it and I wanted to blend the colours.  I ended up with 336g which I spun as a sport-weight single yarn with 804m.