£10 Projects and a rare stroke of genius (maybe)

I've been doing quite well with my sub-£10 projects. I made the Mei-mei jacket, designed by Doris Chan from Paton's Washed Haze Aran (total project cost £4.14). I found the instructions a bit confusing because you have to jump back and forth constantly. Luckily this yarn appeared to be indestructible and I was able to rip it back multiple times. In the end I messed up the front shaping and ended up with a shrug that fits like some kind of weird frontless bra:

I also made a Top-down Round Yoke Cardigan from a big ball of £6.50 acrylic/wool blend (in reality this is a blue-green heathery colour, not grey. Grey is a practical colour, but not all of my clothes are grey. Also, this is pre-washing, and teh sides are the same length):

Although it's not very flattering and the sleeves a little lumpy (my fault, not a pattern problem) it is really comfy and I wear it a lot. As soon as I finished it I decided I wanted to make another in a 'nicer' yarn.

I also have several other £10 Project Projects in the pipeline. Various online discount wool shops have been doing well out of me. Well, I really need some new jumpers.

A rare stroke of genius (or maybe merely sheer foolishness...)

I love the Northern Dreams pullover in the current issue of Interweave Crochet. However it's way out of my price range unless I use cheap yarn. I also like this Cardigan/top ensemble from Marks and Spencer, although I think it would look better with a round yoke rather than raglan shaping. As I said, I also wanted to make another Top Down Round Yoke Cardigan... TA-DA!!! A plan is hatched! I hope this flash of inspiration doesn't turn out to be a moment of utter stupidity... Watch this space...

Yarn labelling fail

I think they meant approximately (~) 1350m, not plus or minus (±) 1350m:

Although it would be excellent for the yarn diet, I'd be pretty ticked off if it turned out that I'd received -1350m of yarn and the corresponding amount of yarn had vanished from my stash.

It's 100% extra fine merino Lane Borgosesia Baruffa Cashwool, a bargainous £8.95 from Pavi Yarns, and therefore part if the £10 Project Project. It's going to be a shawl when it grows up.

Also arriving in the post today was some Mama Ocllo Alpaca Lace from Knit n Caboodle. My two skeins cost a total of £6.90, so also part of £10PP. It's going to be a scarf:


And that's my yarn binge for this week.

Recently finished, The £10 Project Project and a decision

Yay, more completed items:

Luna Lovegood scarf by Pinkleo, done in Artesano Alpaca 100% Alpaca DK:

Seduction scarf by Chickenbetty, done in Fyberspates BFL Aran. I made this scatf longer and narrower due to the yarn being so thick. I'm definitely going to do more of these, but maybe in DK weight yarn.




Crocus Bud Shawl done in Kauni Effektgarn 8/2 in colour EF. This yarn is gorgeous but scratchy, and didn't soften much after two washes. I think I need to buy some Eucalan.




I think I have a major case of startitis at the moment, but it would be quite nice if I finished some of the projects that have been sitting in my project pile for the last few weeks/months.

I've also been trying my hand at broomstick crochet, and am currently making two scarves. This one is using The Yarn Yard Lochan in Froglet:

I love the yarn, I love the pattern, but just now I'm not sure about the two together. We'll see how it turns out.

The £10 Project Project

Since my 'yarn diet' hasn't being going swimmingly I am embarking on a new scheme to control my yarn buying. I am currently aiming to crochet from stash, and not spend more than £10 on each project (unless it's something very special). For the sake of simplicity, I will have a $20 limit on Etsy purchases (I know that $20 is currently more than £10, but I want to keep it simple). However, this means it's retty much goodbye Etsy, hello Kemp's. Admittedly, now that some big expenses are out of the way, I've ordered yarn for several sub-£10 projects (including laceweight which is going to send that yarn diet number soaring upwards)... I'm admittedly a yarn snob, although there are many reasons why I dislike acrylic. Anyway, here is the first £10 project:

A string bag, made from Stylecraft Kon-Tiki - £5.97 spent on materials, but only about £4.18 actually used.

Although I don't know if we'll be celebrating Christmas this year, I do have a couple of ideas - two presents can be made from stash, and another with about £9 of yarn.

A Decision

A while ago I did some dyeing. I dyed this sock yarn:

Now I want to do something with it and am undecided. I'm not sure how much there actually is (somewhere between 400m and 800m, probably between 600m and 800m) so it needs to be a fairly open ended project, must be crochet and must have a simple stitch pattern or else the colours will just kill it. I'm thinking maybe an Eva's Shawl... I have already warned my partner that he is going to help me wind the yarn into a ball as he is more patient with knots and tangles than I am, and this yarn has many knots and tangles!

Abandonblog

I will return with a proper post soon. To be honest I haven't done much spinning or crocheting recently, though I'm starting to get back into crocheting now - I think it must be that autumnal feeling in the air.

In the meantime, the photos of our 25 mile cycle ride can be found here.

I'm also skint (it's the time of year when a heap of expenses come in - TV license, insurance, course fees etc.) so I've mostly been crocheting from stash, which might make that number on the top right go down a little. I also joined a bookswapping website - Read it Swap it which has amplified my love of reading as well as the amount of money I give the Post Office.

To finish, a couple of projects I've finished over the summer:

This is the Spring Ripple Scarf by Angela Best, crocheted in Noro Kureyon Sock. That stuff is gorgeous but feels like string. It softened up a bit after washing but I'm not sure if it's next-to-skin-soft. I love self-striping yarn - I like watching the colours change.

This is the Sweet Pea Shawl by Amie Hirtes, from The Happy Hooker, done in Rowan All Seasons Cotton. I originally started using this yarn for a top, but it's basically expensive dishcloth cotton and it just wasn't working, plus I didn't have enough of it. I think it works far better in this shawl.

A post with no craft content at all

Yesterday we went for our longest cycle ride so far, a 15 mile round trip on the Hillend Loch Cycle Path. We set out late so we didn't do the whole thing. Review from The Guardian here. I really hope we get good weather this weekend so we can do the Bathgate to Caldercruix (and back) ride. It's too bad this path will be closing next month for the reconstruction of the railway.

Sculpture Trail part 1

Clicky for bigger versions...

Bzz bzz Bee on a creeping thistle:

Through the keyhole...

This is one of the sculptures on the NCN route 75 Hillend Loch Cycle Path, and is by Jeremy Cunningham. It's representative of the gateway between the urban and rural areas.

Tower by Paul Matosic

Another sculpture on NCN 75. It's based on the Fibionacci Sequence.

Marsh thistle

This was very spiky!

Glacial deposits

There were lots of these along one section. We suspect they'd been found nearby and moved out of the fields so they formed 'scenery'

Glacial foxgloves?

We saw this huge foxglove growing around these glacial boulders.

And close up:


Bamboo

This was a surprise. Rampant bamboo, or bamboo-like woody grass. Bamboo, a well-known native plant of West Lothian.

Common spotted orchids:


and closer


Bog cotton:


Wildflowers:


Reclaimed...

This was next to a former colliery. It's a coal bing covered in new growth. West Lothian has a lot of dead mining industry, and there are coal and oil shale bings everywhere. The oil shale bings tend to remain stubbornly bright red and vegetation-free, but the only obvious evidence that this was no random hillock were the worn bits with coal remains.

Bothie by Stefanie Bourne

Oh dear, this sculpture hasn't aged well, in fact there's not much left of it.

Bay Willowherb


This is close to where we live. Can you guess what it is yet...?


Does this help?


Still not got it?

It's the Bathgate Face by Lumir Soukup and lots of local schoolchildren. The measurements of the faces of over a thousand local schoolchildren were taken and the averages used. Apparently it's the largest communal portait in Europe. You can read about the project here.

We also saw lots of butterflies. The path was really busy with cyclists, walkers and dog-walkers. It's just unfortunate that some of the dog walkers think it's okay to let their dogs runs around uncontrolled on a cycle path and then look confused when cyclists try to get past, giving the dog(s) a wide berth. On the way out it was mostly flat with a very gentle uphill, so on the way back we had lots of easy cycling and frewheeling. OH got to test out the very high gears on his bike, and has thanked me for making him get a bike as he's really enjoying it now. Hopefully we'll get to do the rest of the Sculpture trail next weekend or the weekend after, before it's all torn up for the railway.

Where has summer gone...

It's been so gloomy the last day or two I can hardly stay awake. If it's like this tomorrow I'll need to plug in my light box. I hope it's nice at the weekend as I really want to get out on my bike.

I've been carding the fleece I bought at Woolfest:

I'm going very slowly - I had to look up videos on Youtube before I properly 'got it' but Susan MacNiven's video was excellent:

Carding's definitely not a TV watching activity; the gentle brushing noise is too distracting.

I have also been designing, and made a cafetiere cosy out of Pencil Roving from The Yarn Yard:

That's a standard 8-cup/1 litre Bodum, and the cosy used a bit less than one 100g skein of pencil roving (I had enough left over for a matching mug mat). I'll post the pattern once I've got it figured out properly. I'm having a bit of a problem with the wording of how to attach the buttons and button loops. A diagram might be better.

I have been continuing my decluttering of life efforts. On Saturday I will be taking about 60 books and 15 CDs to the Help the Aged shop. I've had most of the books on Green Metropolis but some of them had been on there for over a year without selling, so it's time for them to go. I'm almost but not quite past the keeping certain books because they make me look well-read problem, and only keeping the enjoyable/useful books. Unfortunately, deep in my brain is a thought process that tells me that decluttering isn't simplifying or downsizing, it's just making room for more stuff and therefore it's okay to go straight onto Green Metropolis or Amazon Marketplace (or trawl the charity shops for that matter). In my head I'm also constantly mentally rearranging the furniture to see how we could fit more bookcases in, and yarn stash storage.

Woolfest (and blissful weekend)

On Friday, OH and I got up very early (5.30am - I don't do early mornings) to make our way to Cockermouth for Woolfest. On the way we saw... wind turbines!

I've always had a fascination for wind turbines. I think they look graceful and hypnotic. I might feel differently if I lived near one that gave off a lot of flicker, of course.

We also saw a giant sheep!



Once inside we saw lots of useful fibre-producing animals. We especially liked a rather determined angora goat that wasn't sure what to make of the very leggy, long-necked not-a-sheep in the neighbouring pen (it was an alpaca). I intended to take photos but between general overwhelmedness and shyness about asking stallholders if I could do so, I didn't. I met a couple of Ravellers, saw plenty more but was too chicken to speak to them, and I also met Natalie from The Yarn Yard and Mr Yarn Yard, and Amanda from The Natural Dye Studio. I was really pleased about this as Natalie lives not far from me, and desite several half-formed plans to meet up, it had never happened. And I'd missed Amanda at Wonderwool and spoke to Mr Dye Studio instead. Also I participated in this:



94 of the squares with circles inside were made by me.

OH and I sampled ewe's milk ice cream (delicious), attended a sheep-shearing demonstration (fascinating) and looked at lots and lots of yarn and fibre (tiring).

I spent... rather a lot of money, but didn't buy anything I hadn't intended to (so no 'what was I thinking' moments). My purchases in full:



In this photograph are the following items:

• Unofficial 'I Ravelled at Woolfest 2008' bag


• guanaco fibre


• angora (rabbit) fibre


• sheepy fibres - Hebridean, Shetland, BFL, Wensleydale, Gotland, North Ronaldsay (when little bags/bundles of fibre are £1.50-£2.50 each it's very easy to go in to pick 'n' mix mode)


• fibre, a batt and some 'Lochan' (merino and tencel) yarn from The Yarn Yard (plus Natalie kindly gave me a book on crocheted socks that she didn't need)


• self-striping yarn from Fyberspates


• various 4-ply and DK yarns from The Natural Dye Studio


• a raw BFL fleece (the smallest one I could find as I had to carry it home on the train)


• a pair of small handcarders from Hedgehog Equipment


• an Ethan Jakob Greensleeves Spindle

Last photos - (some of) my BFL fleece and my new spindle, which is indeed a thing of beauty (and wonderful to spin with - so much better than my cute but chunky spindle I bought at Wonderwool):





The things I regret not buying are alpaca fleece/roving, more from The Yarn Yard - the stall was really busy, recycled sari silk, hemp yarn (I got confused by the types of yarn not being marked on the yarn)... If I had another £50 and another hour of time (actually I could have had another 20 minutes if I hadn't misread the bus timetable and we ended up munching on a Gregg's pastry and getting very wet at the bus stop in Cockermouth). We were both shattered and after dinner at the Carlisle Pizza Express we were tucked up in bed and asleep by 10.30pm. We got home early on Saturday afternoon, and again had an earlyish night.

I've sorted and washed about a third of the fleece - the rest requires further sorting before I wash it. The cats love the smell of lanolin/sheep as they both spent a lot of time in the bathroom yesterday when I was soaking the fleece.

Yesterday we were starting to feel a bit less tired so went out for a ride on our new bikes - yes the last week has been expensive but we don't do 'holidays' as such so bikes and Woolfest were our summer treats. As it was our first proper bike ride and I haven't ridden a bike for about ten years we went for a shortish ride of about seven miles. We would have gone further but it started raining hard, and not wiching to overdo it or get soaked we came home. Of course it had stopped raining and was drying up rapidly by the time we got home.

After such a fab weekend it was a total downer that my anxiety kicked in with a vengeance last night.

My yarn, let me show you it...

(AKA The Okay, The Bad and The Ugly)

Made from merino roving I bought at Wonderwool. It varies between DK and super bulky I'd say. Hmmm.... art yarn, 15 metres of it. Oh well, my spinning abilities can only get better.

A kind Raveller sent me some raw Suffolk fleece in a Karma swap. Florrie cat is obsessed with it and both cats have decided it smells very interesting and sheepy. Before and after washing:

I've combed the half that I've washed and started spinning it - very slowly. It's so much harder than using pre-prepared roving.

Woolfest on Friday... I've got to look up all the logistics of getting to Carlisle bus station fro the railway station, getting from Cockermouth Main Street to Woolfest (I know there's a shuttle bus but it depends how it ties in with our bus from Carlisle), where our hotel in Carlisle is etc. I'm trying to mke a list for Woolfest so I don't get overwhelmed and buy too much, or buy the wrong things.

Oh well, since everyone else seems to be doing it...

You Are An ISTJ

The Duty Fulfiller You are responsible, reliable, and hardworking - you get the job done. You prefer productive hobbies, like woodworking or knittings. Quiet and serious, you are well prepared for whatever life hands you. Conservative and down-to-earth, you hardly ever do anything crazy. In love, you are loyal and honest. If you commit yourself to someone, then you're fully committed. For you, love is something that happens naturally. And you don't need romantic gestures to feel loved. At work, you remember details well and are happy to take on any responsibility. You would make a great business executive, accountant, or lawyer. How you see yourself: Decisive, stable, and dependable When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, conservative, and egotistical

What's Your Personality Type?

Actually I tend to vary between different types depending on my mood. I always get the I though... redoing the quiz and changing the answers for the questions I dithered over I get:

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. In love, you express your emotions through actions. Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well! At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

Absent Without Leave

A long overdue update. I won't bore you with all the details, but there has been...

dyeing:

The little rose that was a bud for a day and a flower for eight hours:

and then the whole thing died - it hadn't rooted and had obviously used every last scrap of energy to make that tiny (1 inch across) rose.

Overtwisted and tentative attempts at spinning:


A delicious cheese fondue:



A bargainous pile of books thanks to the Christian Aid Book Sale:

(That little lot cost the grand total of £10.50.

More secondhand books (from Oxfam this time) and yarn (that's Fyberspates Faery Wool on top):

Those books were all brand new both in the sense of unread and very recently published. I wonder if there's a bookshop giving that shop a weekly donation or something.

I also love the Virago Modern Classics limited editions with their designer (and very feminine covers. I already have some of them in paperback, but I acquired these two (Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield), and A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark is next on my radar:


A secondhand oriental bag (from Armstrong's Vintage Emporium:


which makes a wonderful crochet hook roll:


Actual crocheting has been mostly for a blanket project for Amanda at The Natural Dye Studio which has a time limit so I haven't been doing much of my own stuff. I have frogged my Garden Party Wrap (designed by Kim Guzman) as I was using Aurora from The Yarn Yard and although the pattern is great and the yarn is great, the result was somewhat... fussy to say the least. I think a plainer yarn (I wish I had the hard-to-find Noro laceweight that the original design is done in) for the pattern, and a plainer pattern for the yarn.

Here ends the overlong and overdue update.