FNSI results and an OPAM

Last night was FNSI and yesterday I started at 10am with these unfinished knitting projects. 

So while watching a DVD I finished off Lance's socks and then started work on Grace's red scarf which by 8pm last night was well underway and almost finished one ball.   Lance likes his socks so there will be another pair on the needles when I finish my green ones.

Off out to walk the doogie and hopefully not get too wet! lol  Then I intend to finish the scarf and have a go at a beret style crochet hat Grace also liked.  So by tomorrow morning I might have 2 more OPAMers finished.

Stitching

Now just to prove I have been stitching too lol.  I have these two items completely finished for the Santa Sack Swap over at Cheryll's.  I also have another two items prepped completely ready for stitching and then they should be finished for the end of the month.  There will be a few 'secret projects' listed for OPAM this month lol.

I don't think they will give anything away.  So now I have four things finished.  Two are of the non sewing variety but one is still handmade and no it is not woolly lol.  How am I going to wait until the 1st of December to send them off!  lol. 

Now on the sock front I do have Lance's second sock on the home run.  The heel is completely turned and I am working on the foot.  Might go between some spinning and some sock knitting today as it is cold and foggy looking outside.

Looking forward to FNSI on this Friday as I will have the house to myself until about 3.30pm!  Might make that a secret sewing day!

Gorgeous Alpaca!

A couple of weeks ago I won 1kg of white alpaca on eBay.  Bit of a risk buying fleece on eBay but at a total of $20 including postage it wasn't going to be a big risk really lol.  It was dirty and a little smelly like an alpaca would smell so it needed to be shaken out and washed!  I don't bother to comb out seeds or burrs until I prep for spinning so it still has a few areas of grass seed to be removed later.  Now here it is washed and bagged.

Prepped for spinning.

No Merlin it is not another you lol! But definitely feels just as soft after carding.

This is a bit that I started spinning after plying off the last of the sock wool for Lance.  The thickness is equal to about 2 strands of embroidery floss!  So will make some lovely socks or delicate lace scarf! 

I was left with one area of about 60gms that was still a little tainted smell wise after the first wash so last night I set to and washed it twice and decided that there was nothing to loose so tried some red food dye to change its colour.  Hopefully it has taken as I'm not all that sure it would work for alpaca as it has for sheep.  But if it hasn't worked it was going to the bin anyway.  Will see when it is dry later in the week!

NOTE TO SELF:  Do not use a cheap brand of vinegar.  It does not work!  Use a good white vinegar like Cornwall's brand for dying fleece and fiber.  After this was rinsed I still had orange water so while thinking it didn't work very well I decided to try soaking it in warm water and Cornwall's vinegar and microwaved it again and let it cool.  Success.  No more orange water lol.  Mind you I have a suspicion that I might have felted it but won't know until it is dry.  The extra time in the microwave will have been the culprit.

This week I have ...

finished one sock for Lance and started on the second.

Skeined up a ball of white 5 ply wool like I used for the first pair of crochet socks and played around with blue and pink food colourings.  I used a similar techinque to the jelly dying and soaked the skein for a couple of hours in 2lts warm water and 1/2c vinegar.  Then I mixed up some food colourings at different strengths with water and a splash of vinegar and splodged it over the damp skein of wool.  Next I put it into an old casserole dish and microwaved it for 2 mins then allowed a 2 min rest and repeated this 6 times.  Then washed it out and let it it dry. 

This is what I have ended up with.

I have almost finished some sewing too.  But its all a secret lol.

FNWF or more like SNWF

Well after having people over for tea on Friday night I decided it would be a Saturday with Friends for me lol. 

Sarah wanted to go driving to Bendigo in the morning to get her hours up so that was ok and we were back home by 1pm.  Also gave me a chance to drop into the Bendigo Woollen Mills to have a look at their spinning tops/roving.  Found a few different smaller bags so grabbed them to have a try with.  Pics later in the week.  Yes more fibre pics lol.  I did head over to Mum and Dad's to share out what I bought too and to show Mum how it spun up. 

So eventually I decided that merino/bamboo mix I had been spinning for some socks for Lance was calling me.  Out came the swift to wind them into balls and then I cast on and got this far before thinking they were looking a bit big but because I didn't have a model to try them on I stopped and worked some more on my other socks. 

This morning I decided to transfer over to a circular needle to try them on and have now decided to start the size smaller and see which will be better.  I  have a sneaking suspicion that the smaller size will be the correct size.  I should have measured Lance's foot before he headed off to work lol.
Its a quick pattern to work anyway as it is sportsweight or 5ply and has a simple skip stitch and rib in it.  Not that you can see the pattern clearly.  I am very pleased with the wool I spun up as it is just so soft and warm to work with.  SO here we are starting again lol.  Trial and error!

SO it was a very different FNWF's and I am enjoying popping over to see what everyone else is doing too.

Another OPAM finish!

I have only just finished my energised scarf and have it blocked onto my ironing board.  It didn't really take that long to knit but I have been busy working on other things too.

 

I have also just finished combing out my collection of 'fairy floss' lol.  This is with the rest of the matching fleece which is a border leicester cross.  Hopefully in October I will be able to purchase another of these fleeces at shearing time.

Now I took Mum back over to Tongala so she could get some things and I wanted some black merino to go with the fibre I am spinning for Lance's socks.  So when her new carder comes we will be able to turn that lovely box of fairy floss into some mixed batts for spinning.  I also decided to buy us a kilo each of English Leicester.  It has such a beautiful lustre when washed.

Here it is prewashed.

and all washed and one piece prepped.

The staple length is about 8" long when prepped for spinning.

Also to arrive was some beautiful kid mohair that I stumbled across on eBay of all places.  The lovely lady in S.A. used to raise these goats on a farm and it is so soft and beautiful.  I am looking forward to blending some into the jelly sock batts.

Apart from some secret sewing I have made a few more cards to top up the box.  I had another sympathy card to make which I forgot to photograph before sending it off.

There has also been some more knitting on my alpaca blue scarf and some spinning but as it is nothing new I wont worry about boring you all with more photos of the same things lol.  Well off for a bit of a catch up on bloglovin and then some more secret sewing and spinning I think.

Weird things happening ...

in the kitchen.  There was an article in the latest 'yarn' magazine that was all about dying wool with jelly!  Yes jelly.  So with the heater being too smart and cutting out on me yesterday I decided to scour clumps of fleece and have a play.  Plenty of hot water to keep the hands warm and thankfully someone came to reset the heating unit in the afternoon.  This morning I thought I could do lots more so set to again.  Now there is a pile of wet fleece that still smells slightly like sweet jelly hanging over the bath.  This includes some more grey merino to go with the blue tops.

This is where we started.  After scouring dirty brown looking Border Leicester Cross fleece in 50g lots it was well drained and then put into a microwave safe container to which 500ml hot water into which a packet of aeroplane original jelly crystals were mixed, 450ml cold water and about 25/30ml of Cornwall's white vinegar.   This is then chucked in my 1000watt microwave for 5 mins.  Then you let it cool in the mixture until the wool looks like it has taken all the colour of the jelly and the water left looks like there is either little or no colour left in it.  Then you give it a warm rinse and dry it somewhere shady.

Now the cheap no name jelly crystals do not work.  I did one packet of these yesterday and redyed it this morning as it was meant to be green but was a lovely soft lemon.  I have not tried the natural colours and flavours one but am going to assume it wouldn't take either.  

Just to prove it here's some pictures.

In this pic we have the portwine, lime and orange flavours

and here is the grape, bubblegum, raspberry and lemon flavours  with some lovely white  border leicester cross.  The white was already pre-combed and de-seeded.  The three colours from yesterday were still in their uncombed state but will comb or card up beautifully.

Well they just look like fairy floss according to Grace. 

This last pic is what the blue, pink, yellow and green come up plied with a white.  Very pretty and no where near as strong looking.