Red socks

Well another very quick finish off the needles was a pair of red tweeded socks for Lance in 8ply.
Another pair with the Fish Lips heel and I can now do it without having to look at each individual photo of the twinned stitches pages lol.  Can even do it with the tv on lol.  It is a great heel for toe up socks but I still love the traditional one with gusset etc.

Started on the 18th and finished on the 24th!  It is 8ply cleckheaton country naturals 85% Australian wool, 10% acrylic and 5% viscose.  It was lovingly made by the people at the Wangaratta Woollen Mills then later states it is made in China lol.  Was lovely to knit with though.

First photo is a little bright and the second is a little dark so please just imagine something in between lol.

I also started to spin some brown suri alpaca last night while I had the house to myself and as Lance is working and Grace is still at her friends I will be continuing on it while watching dvds today.  Have never spun suri before but am loving the softness and silkiness of it.  So hopefully after lunch I will start plying up the last couple of unfinished objects in my spinning box!  Then to get back to work on spinning up my jumper lots.

Hope everyone else is having a productive week too.

FNSI Results

Well Friday Night Stitch In was a day long affair for me with some boring mending completed that needed doing and also finished off and started another childs hat from my handspun that I spun up a couple of years ago.  It is such a pleasure to knit with and I really love it.  I also fitted in some spinning too.  Plus there is a pic of some lovely stitch markers which arrived that I ordered some time ago from Teggle Tots on facebook.  The lady is a member of the fibre group that I joined on there.  They are beautiful.  One set is heading off to Mum for Mother's Day but she doesn't read my blog so all is good lol.

Attached are some pics of what I got up to that I loaded up at the end of the night so that I could have it ready to share before I headed off for the day.  I decided I would schedule the post because it is disappointing when you sit down to visit with everyone else that sign up and most of their recent posts are from like weeks ago lol and the fact that I know I will be very busy on Saturday too.  That's why I like to visit on Sundays now to allow for those from OS to join in too.

Spinning finishes and FNSI

Last weekend I finished off two singles and managed to get a lot plyed off and washed!  Really pleased with that as I haven't had much time to actually spin for quite some time.  Below are some pics of the finished yarns.

Hand dyed 18 mic merino blue and orange.  Leftovers on bobbins.

Solar dyed 18 mic merino navaho plied.

Ixchel Club Samhain plyed with hand dyed pale blue merino

I also had the pleasure to win a spindle.  So managed a quick play on it too.  I think I will always prefer to use my wheel but it will be fun learning how to use it and they do say that some fibres spin differently on different wheels and spindles too.  I also received a pack of mixed coloured corriedale as well.  So I will do some reading on spindling and have a bit more of a go at it.

On Saturday I am heading off to Wangaratta for a fibre event so I will be back on Sunday with the results of FNSI.  I believe it is hosted by a local spinning group and there are a few people I know that will also have things for sale there.  I am on the look out for Mothers Day presents and that will be a suitable shopping place for them lol.  Plus it will be a lovely day to join others.

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Cup Cosy Swap

Here is the parcel that I made for my partner NBloomy on Ravelry in the LittleBobbins group.

I really enjoyed making both of these cosies and they used some firsts too.  The black handspun by me English Leicester with my overdyed Bendigo Mohair Farm 3 ply is my first stranded colour work piece and I worked out the design too.  It was fun to knit.  The second one is crocheted from my first lumpy, bumpy but balanced spin!  It is Border Leicester.

Well parcel is heading out today being the 8 April so I had better schedule this post to appear later so I don't spoil the surprise.

Now that it has been received I can now share it and show what I have received from NBloomy on ravelry.

What a wonderful swap and I am now off to share the pics on ravelry and see what others have swapped too.

Finished item! and the Wool Museum

I have just finished up another pair of work socks for Lance.  This time I used the fish lips heel pattern which is by the Sox Therapist and is available for $1 on ravelry.  I used some merino/nylon and the shropshire roving that I spun up.  The brown was done as a 2ply but the shropshire I navaho plied so it is a nice thick 3 ply which should wear quite well inside the boots.  Well that is what I am hoping.  They are about an 8ply weight sock.  Another pair will hit the needles soon as I am wanting to use up some yarn so stripy work socks it will be.  

They are not blocked in the photo but they haven't had a chance to be blocked because they were straight on the feet the next morning lol.  

I have also been to the National Wool Museum in Geelong yesterday and taken lots of photos which I will share below.  I was looking for something to do after dropping our eldest back at University after the Easter break and thought this would be a perfect way to break the journey as nearly 8 hrs in the car for a round trip is a little too much at times.  

The displays featured machinery that takes you from the scour to finished yarn and then on to weaving and rug making.  I was a little disappointed that there was only one spinning wheel on display in the wool growing to shearing section but thats ok as there was more than enough fleece and machinery to keep me occupied lol.

I will now just dump a whole heap of photos so that those who are interested can have a look.  There was also a special section of Women in war or similar and that also featured loads of poppies.  It was an amazing display.