I'm Connected

As a disabled crafter who usually has issues walking to her local corner shop, getting out into the big world and meeting people is a challenge. Over the years I have had so many of my friends drift off as I have to cancel yet another thing with them or had to stop whatever it was that was the foundation of our friendship. It is due to these issues that I LOVE Ravelry and adored the EYF so much (yes I could not get to the corner shop for a week after the sunday, but it was worth it).

On Thursday, I met up with the two friends, both made through Rav, specifically the HPKCHC (Harry Potter Knitting and Crocheting House Cup, aka The Cup), that I met at EYF. We met at my LYS (Gingertwist Studios) and spent a while chatting to Jess (the awesome dyer and owner of Gingertwist)  buying yarn (my yarn is on the top - BFL sock rock in Hocus pocus, pic. thanks to SadieLou) and then went to a local pub for a drink and more nattering while we sat and knitted. It was cool. Well, as I sat in the sunny seat at the pub maybe it was HOT.

If it wasn't for Rav and for The Cup, I would not have met two cool people and made friends with them and others. It really helps make the world a more connected place. Thank you Rav.

The Cup is part of my crafting journey. Every month I try to make smaller projects alongside the one or two epic things I have on needles. I spent from the middle of February and through March learning to crochet so I could give a small gift (Hogwarts Rosettes) to the Cuppers I was going to meet at EYF.

On my way to the rosettes I had to learn how to do things with a hook, my 1st attempt at crochet was a single crochet square. Which was the first time I ever understood how it worked. My poor great Aunt tried to teach me to crochet and all I ever made was knots.

 

The second thing made was a circular double crochet with a magic ring start. I also learned how to make a circle grow which is awesome.

 

Having conquered the seas of blue, I now needed to work out how you change colours in crochet. The pattern for the rosettes was for single colours and I wanted all the house colours for each flower.

So I made spirals. I think these have a lot of potential to be tessalated so expect some more in the future.

With those skills I managed to make my originally planned items, the Rosettes and start what may be a tradition for me when meeting Cuppers. I wonder if the Hogwarts rosettes will grow and become a thing for others.

So once more, Thanks for helping me connect, being a place to make friends (local and world wide) and for being a place which inspires me to craft and discover more things. Thanks Ravelry.

Oh and HPKCHC rocks (especially JaneJetsons stash club, Slytherin and my uber awesome Copperhead Nesties).

This post is inspired by the Love your blog challenge. Occasionally I need a kick to remember to blog and this helped.

How are you making yarn with that?

I was originally considering calling this post a yarn fest. virgins weekend, but I realised that could apply to many people. Instead I used a question I was asked more than once in various forms, including a direct quote from one enquirer, 'How are you making yarn with that?'

I have only recently picked up the needles, spindle and hook so going to a yarn festival was a big thing. I budgeted and saved since October and managed to go with a good amount of pennies. I also made a decision that as I am still a newbie to most yarn things I would not go to a class. After all, I don't know what I need to learn yet with professional guidance as I've theoretically still got almost everything to learn. So, with a suitcase to carry things home in and a packed lunch I headed off to Edinburgh Yarn Festival (EYF). I had arranged to meet two people from an on-line competitive knitting group I am a member of and was buzzing with excitement for the event for weeks.

Did it live up to expectations? YES, Oh yes. Arriving before 10am, the queues were huge. Out the door and round the side of the venue, the Edinburgh Corn Exhange. However, once the doors opened it did not take long before I was inside and thinking of the places to hit first.

On my way into the main hall I spotted La Maison Tricotee. They had a beautiful stall just inside the main hall filled with rare in the UK brands. I had a glance and parted with my first pennies that day on two skeins (green and central grey) of yummy yarn from Riverside studios (Canada).


Having started with the purchasing I knew I had to beware, so much yummy stuff everywhere. I knew I wanted to buy more fibre, more yarn and was still on the look out for dyes so I made a beeline to one of the vendors I HAD to go to, John Arbon. By the time I had finished with John and basically said give me one of everything (fibre not yarn), I had my suitcase full of fibre and had some yarn as well. His 2-3ply Alpaca (black) was just too yummy to not take one home.

Straight opposite Johns stall was another must visit, Adelaide Walker. This lady stocks lots of breed specific fibres. I was able to buy a nice selection to continue my spinning education on the day and there is more I could get next time. A few things I grabbed included white Jacob (I hand dyed my last lot and needed some to go with that hand dye and my grey), Gotland, Herdwick (both I have heard interesting things about) and Manx Loughtan.

Having filled up on fibre I went and hunted down my local yarn shop as it was in the seating area next to that stall I was meeting my friends. We ended up moving to the Podcast lounge to squish British wools with KnitBritish and show each other our purchases so far. We also did some knitting.

Photo thanks to Knitbritish (Louise) - I am stood at the back squishing with my friends.

Proof of suitcase of doom. :) The fibres in this were squished to compare them to the ones Louise had for us.

Having chilled we split up again to grab lunch and meet later. I stayed in the big hall with my packed lunch and met two ladies from Norway. A general theme for every meeting was 'What have you brought?' This was always followed by ooohs and ahhh's and quite often - which stall. OK I'm off to get some. Never underestimate the power of large seating areas on sales. Many sales come from the sat down squishing sessions and chats which we all had.
As people were knitting and crocheting I pulled out my mayan spinner and set about spinning some of my hand dyed (home dyed) jacob fibre. This was where I started fielding enquiries. The Mayan spinner is rare and gets a lot off attention. I was asked time upon time how it worked and had to demonstrate, it was an interesting reaction. The best one was when I was asked 'How are you making yarn with that?' by a lady who's spindling friends at another table had been puzzled. I think next year I may take some along to sell and see what happens. I may even have my own fibres and yarn for sale by then.

My hand dyed fibre caught the eye of one of the event photographers.

Which meant I also caught the attention of the event photographer and ended up with an action shot of me with my spinner spinning.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon happily chatting and spinning. Then the wait for the evening event began.

Not everyone had brought tickets for the event, it would have been impossible with the numbers of people at the day time to have all sat down together without us using a stadium. However, a significant number of the people I had chatted to that day had, including the 'How?' lady and her spindling friends and the two ladies from Norway. That evening we all ended up together on a table for the Ca-baa-rette. A night of sheepy and yarn filled entertainment and a pub quiz which included making a sheep out of given materials in a specific time. Our table called ourselves '10 points to stitcherin' and we managed to make a very passable sheep which made Clara Parkes go 'Awwwww'.

The morning afterwards I wondered if I would make it back to the venue. I was crackered. However, I had lost my camera case the day before - note not the camera, that was around my neck, so I foreced myself to move.
On the Sunday I tried to focus on buying yarn as I already had lots of fibre. I picked up some Shilasdair green and some Rainbow-Heirloom (I also have two skeins on order with those guys).

I also picked up some new black dyes and a grey dye, a blocking matt set and T-pins. Giant balls of yarn with giant needles..
Oh and fibre (four lots only though). I left with my taxi money and 50p spare.

I had a wonderful time and are so happy to see they are looking for vendors for next year already. I have included myself on the list in the hope I am up and running and can make my second festival my first to sell at. Either way I'm sure my spinner and I will have a lot of attention again.

Everyone needs a hat.

I treated myself to some awesome art yarn - without any idea of what to turn it into. Being art yarn, it has varying thickness and add ons (green beads and silver snakes). It was beautiful and only took a few months before it called to be made into something special.

Now, I rarely wear a hat. In fact I don't have a head for hats - so I decided to make a hat from the art yarn as it would get worn occasionally and look super special when I did. So here it is, the pattern is a News Girl Cap by Vicki Finster, and the yarn was Weird&Twisted's Whispers in the Dark.

Sheep on the ceiling (origins)

I promised a  couple of posts ago I'd explain where the name of my dyeing and zazzle business comes from - Sheep on the ceiling.

It was when I was younger and running my parents gift shop in Conwy (North Wales). They had daft fleece covered plastic sheep for sale and tiny pencil topper packs of plastic figures which kids loved to buy. For a laugh we stuck some to the ceiling in the shop. Over the spring we phoned up the local radio for a song request and they asked us what was special about our gift shop - answer 'We're the only shop with sheep on the ceiling!' That got us a laugh and a full mention  along with a request from the radio guy for people to go check it out and let him know what was found, rather than just a customary mention. Next thing that happened, we had people coming in and asking if we were the shop with sheep on the ceiling and if it was OK to take photos. Hell yeah. Sales of sheep went up as well. We popped a sign in the window as we headed for the summer as people were coming in more frequently and for a while we were famous in a pre-internet way as word of mouth spread about the shop with sheep on the ceiling and people made it a part of there visit to Conwy.

Now of course there are photo's out there but as someone busy putting sheep on the ceiling rather than being a visitor I don't think I ever took any myself. Maybe someone out there will have photos in their collection from the 1990's of the shop with sheep on the ceiling in Conwy. If so, I'd love a copy. I'd also love to get a set of sheep and one of the fleece covered ones again - my last one was lost due to moth munching after many years of travel from flat to flat just over a year ago.

Dye experiment 1 (Kool aid (don't drink it, dye it).

Ok as a Brit, I have never had the experience of drinking kool aid, and I have never wanted too. The label does have the awkward link to the Jonestown/Jim Jones thing which we have heard of this side of the pond, and is rarely/never seen in shops so we sort of associate it with chemical death drink. However, I learned it was a perfect way to dye yarn - especially wool. So today I will be playing with Kool aid - just not drinking it. :)

Add in the way every time I mention dyeing around my partner he now says ''Nooooo, I love you' in a joking yet touching way the whole Kool aid experiment seems the logical first step.

Welcome to my dye kit,

(brought with my wee sister-in-laws (slaw) Christmas monies) from Rosiesmoments on Etsy.

First thing first was researching the types of colours I would get with my mixes. I ended up asking on Ravelry for the green apple as that is a new flavour.  Otherwise, the main colours can be found on this awesome resource if you are interested in food colouring dyeing.

So now I know what sorts of things are possible. My notepad for this states :

Black cherry (BC) - deeper blood red
Cherry (C) - deep red
Orange (O) - vibrant tangerine
Grape (G) - dark purple (as close to black as kool aid gets)
Lemonade (L) - light yellow
Green Apple (GA) - vibrant green

So what do I do with over 400 meters of wool. I start a plan of action.

1. Re-skein it to get 6 smaller skeins of solid colour and 1 of mixed colour.
2. Dye the wool.
3. Celebrate.

Of course it's never that easy.
Lesson 1 : NEVER re-skein without making a ball as the intermediate step! It creates a 400 meter knot for you to patiently recover which in turn looses an entire day of crafting. :( 

Lesson 2: Not all mini-skeins are equal. I managed to get nice equally long skeins for the 6 solids, then did another one of the same length. I started thinking I'd maybe attempt a pair of socks with the yarn after so the mixed section would be awesome for the toes and heel. So lets make a second mixed section.  Oh and what happens if I Braid a set of the skeins and then spot dye using small amounts of the dry powder.

So I now have 7 skeins each of 50 yards of wool (six for solid shades and 1 for a rainbow gradient), and a spare of 90 yards which I will braid for the spotty part. I'm still thinking of socks, but maybe it will be spotty toes and heels with a gradient for the cuff. Lets finish the dyeing first.

Dyeing with Kool aid :

1: Wash yarn with small amount of wool safe soap and leave to soak in clean water while you prep everything else. Q? Do I plait the braid 1st? A. Yes, to prevent yarn felting.

2: Mix up solutions for the solid/gradients reserving some powder for the braid or powder braid first.

3. Put wet and plaited braid flat in shallow microwaveable dish with enough water to just cover. Scatter the dry powder over the yarn. Then cover with clingfilm and nuke for 2 minutes, check/stand and repeat until all dye taken up by yarn. If you don't want to nuke you can steam. I chose to nuke mine as I wanted to try that method.

4. Paint a small amount of the solutions onto rainbow gradient skein and wrap in cling film.  Nuke/steam in dish with water as you did for the spotty braid.

4. Add remaining solutions 1 colour to each of three jars for slowcooker add skeins and use enough water to cover skeins. Add hot water around the jars and cook in slow cooker until water is clear/colourless. Repeat with remaining colours.

Hang wool to dry and CELEBRATE.  Take lots of Photo's. Oh and one day knit it into something cool.

Yarn Dyer Periodic Table

What do you get a yarn dyer or nut who loves the sciences too?

I hunted high and low for an apron for when I start dyeing yarn in the new year with a periodic table design - in the end I designed my own. So as a fund raising method for my hopeful new business which I will be preparing for next year I decided to launch the design on Zazzle.

Yarn dyer periodic table apron

I also have a tote bag and a couple of T-shirts with the same design. Hopefully someone out there will love them other than me.

Oh and there is an interesting story behind my business name - Sheep on the ceiling. Maybe I'll tell you in the next post.

Secret Serpent Tablet Cosy

My home spun yarn became a snug tablet cosy for my Hudl.

Got to keep it safe when it goes out and about with me. I used a cool little snake fastening I brought recently from Etsy for it, though it could be fastened with a button or toggle if you don't like snakes.

So, the pattern for the snug was knit on the fly, but being nice I can share what I did.

Requirements :- Needles 4.5mm straight, yarn homespun worsted/Aran 77 yards. 

C/O enough stitches to go comfortably round your tablet including the front, back and sides (total number must be divisible by 4). Hudl size was 52 stitches. 

Cuff section - 10 rows of K4, *P4, K4.... repeat from * to end of row.


K all other rows to cover length of tablet excluding the 10 row cuff.

B/O.

Carefully stitch the base and side to fit around your tablet - test fit at regular intervals. Should be snug.

Cuff should have a little give - sew fastening inside of cuff so it is hidden when cuff is up.

Easy, cool way to use home spun yarn - though you can cheat with shop brought it you want.