Tour de Fleece

Week 2 of the Tour saw me spin my first 4ply yarn. It was fun! The fibre is Shetland from Southern Cross Fibre in 'Koala'. It's about DK-ish weight, 105g and 174m.

Next up on the wheel is some more SCF this time Polwarth in 'Adelaide'. My home town brilliantly brought to life with fibre and dye!

Tour De Fleece

Yes, it's that time of year again. Men in tight lycra are touring France and I am spinning for the Tour de Fleece.

I started really well yesterday and spun and plied 4oz of Spunky Eclectic May 09 club fibre - Romney in 'Pansy'.

Today I have hardly spun at all... I started some Southern Cross Fibre Shetland in 'Koala'. The fibre demanded to be next in the spinning list by leaping off the stash pile and attacking me.

It's great to be spinning again, it's been a looooong time...

My New Idea

I've decided to do some occasional posts about my commute to my new job in Oxford and my explorations of Oxford itself. It's such a fascinating place!

Where better to start than with my view each morning...

Will the train ever come? ;-)

Finished!

Hard to believe I know, but I have two finished items this week!

First up is the Lace Mist Scarf. I completed this on my journey in to work on Tuesday and then had nothing to knit on the way home. Bad project management or what? This was knit from one 25gm ball of Crystal Palace Kid Merino 'Blueberries-Grapes' on 3.75mm needles. It was a quick knit with an easily memorised pattern.

Details on Ravelry.

Second is a pair of plain socks. My usual non-pattern of 68 stitches on 2.25mm dpns with the toe knit on 2mm dpns. I knit about a third of the leg of the second sock, turned the heel and knit the foot down to the toe in just two days worth of commuting.

Details on Ravelry.

Scarves And Commutes

A quick update this week. Not much has been done because I've been really tired when I've got home each day from my new job. (I love it, by the way!)

One thing I have discovered is that hour long train commutes are very good for knitting progress!

My commute project at the moment in the Mist Lace Scarf. It was 15 inches long last weekend and is now 34 inches long! I can get three repeats of the lace pattern done comfortably on the journey. I could do more but it would mean stopping partway through a repeat and my aged brain has trouble remembering where I stopped. ;-)

Happy Birthday To Me!

And Mother Nature has put on a perfect display. With sunshine!

Well, Lookie Here...

Well, I have been remiss haven't I? I didn't intend to stop blogging but I just lost the 'umpf' to do it. I haven't really knit or spun much this year either but hopefully that will change now!

I'm changing jobs again. I've got a new job at a university I've always wanted to work for so I'm really happy! It will involve a daily 2.5 hour train commute so I should have plenty of knitting time. I'm on annual leave for my old job at the moment and start the new one on 15th June. Can't wait! :-)

Since I last updated, Flyte has been frogged. I just wasn't feeling the love and hadn't knit a stitch of it since January. I have four projects on the needles at the moment, scarf, sock, cardigan and shawl, so let's have a bit of a WIP around.

Scarf:


The pattern is Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino 'Mist' Lace Scarf and I'm knitting it with Crystal Palace Kid Merino in colour #435 'Blueberries-Grapes' on 3.75mm needles. The yarn is nice to knit with and the pattern is easy to memorise. The yarn and pattern were a leaving gift from my former colleagues along with a skein of Zen Yarn Garden Sea Sock yarn in colour 'Irish Spring' and a voucher from Amazon (oh and a lovely bouquet of flowers).

Sock:


I'm on the second sock of this pair. The yarn is Regia Color 4ply in colour #05025 and I'm knitting it on 2.25mm dpns with the toes knit on 2mm dpns. I love the soft muted colours in this yarn.

Cardigan:


This pattern is 'Morning Echo' from issue 14 of Yarn Forward. I actually had enough Rowan Calmer in stash to knit it so, for once, I'm actually knitting something in the yarn it was designed for. The colour is #474 'Khaki', a sage green, although it looks grey in my craptastic photo.

Shawl:


Icarus by Mimknits. Knit on 3.25mm needles in Posh Yarn Eva 2ply in 'Pewter', a beautiful, very subtle semi-solid colour. I've done a bit more than this now but haven't taken a new photo yet.

That's it for this post. I'm going to try to be a better blogger and at least do weekly posts... try to anyway!