New Blog

I have decided to move this blog to wordpress and am so far very impressed with the results - you can find me at http://soozknits.wordpress.com

Hopefully I will see some of you there :-)

Spinning!

Well, I have been trying my hand at spinning my own wool over the past week, and so I thought I would share the results with you! I bought myself a kit off ebay which included a drop spindle, and 4 different coloured rovings. I found the spinning quite difficult at first, but i soon got into the swing of it (still a very slow process for me, I have to keep stopping the spindle all the time). It was quite good fun though, and this is the end process...

I decided to mix up all the colours quite a lot, and i can't wait to see how it looks when I knit it up! There isn't much there however so I'm a bit unsure what to knit it into!

Circular Shrug

So - I finally finished a project! And here it is...

and a view of the back...

I originally bought this yarn to knit a shrug to go with a lovely dress I have, and was going to wear it to a wedding. However, I felt that the circular shrug was a bit chunky for the dress... having seen it on though, I think it might go afterall - what do you think??

What I'm up to...

I am currently getting excited by a number of different projects that I hope to try soon - and I will photograph each of them when I can, and if I ever start/finish them, but in the spirit of keeping this blog going (just in case anyone is looking at it!) then I thought I should write something! The projects are as follows:

1. My current WIP - I decided to try knitting the circular shrug (the pattern can be found on various blogs - but also here - http://www.geocities.com/julsey723/circular_shrug.pdf its such a simple pattern, and measured to fit! I hope it works out well. I am knitting it on the magenta cotton which is pictured in an earlier post, and have doubled it up so that it knits quickly. I'm knitting on 5mm circular needles - which I am really enjoying and seeing the benefits of with bigger projects! I hope to post a picture of this very soon - both halfway through and when finished!

2. I am expecting some wool to be delivered soon, which is for another shrug. This time crocheted. Its the pattern taken from Simply Knitting Magazine, and it looks really delicate and lovely. The wool I have ordered is in a lovely dusky pink colour, and the wool has sparkly bits in it to make it that little bit extra special.

3. I'm getting quite excited about the idea of a) spinning my own wool and b) dyeing my own wool. I think I will probably try dyeing my own wool first - this can apprently be done through the soft drink which is known as Kool-Aid (I think it is american). A quick google of this will tell you all you need to know about the process. I am really quite looking forward to it! I must try it and take lots of pictures to put on here.

4. I have signed up on the waiting list for ravelry - the knitting and crochet community site. It looks really good - apparently, when it is finished you will be able to look up a type of wool, and then gather inspiration from pieces that other people have made! Sounds wonderful to me - I hope that it works.

Anyway - thats about all I have to say for today! Bye bye knit-wits!