Puppets In Progress

 

 I've booked a table at a market on Saturday. I sold four puppets last week, so my puppet basket is rather empty and I need to whizz some up this week. 

Knitting

 

It's sensible to finish all the spinning before starting knitting, but I wanted something to do at yesterday's knit and natter session, so I started knitting a scarf before the spinning is done. I visualised a lacy scarf, so I started with this pattern from The Sweater Book, edited by Amy Carroll. I chose it because it's reversible - I think a scarf should be completely reversible. But the result is too muddled. It doesn't show the pattern or the yarn to best advantage. I unravelled it and started again in mistake rib - that's knit 2, purl 2 rib over an uneven number of stitches. I think it shows the colour variations better. 

Plying

 

Mmm, yes, the plain thread is too light a shade. The 'barber pole effect' detracts from the multicolour effect. No matter, I'll finish this batch and do the next one differently. 

Spinning

 I've spun a bit over half of the carded wool and this is how it looks

While I was carding, I dithered (pondered?) over how to complete my yarn. The options won't mean anything to non-spinners, so suffice it to say, I decided to dye some more wool in a purply colour, to ply with the multicoloured thread. It should probably have been a darker shade, but I'll settle for this:

I'm now spinning it, and will combine it with the other thread - I spin with the wheel moving clockwise and will ply with the wheel moving anticlockwise. 

Carded

 

I've finished mixing wool colours on my drum carder.  I've even made a start on the spinning, but I'll show that when I've made a bit more progress. 

Tulle

 Our craft group was given a box of tulle, or net. Oh good, we thought, we can use it to make food covers. But when I took a closer look, I found that most of the pieces are much too small for food covers, and long narrow shapes that don't lend themselves to joining. Hmm. How about using the small pieces to make flowers to decorate food covers? I trawled through Pinterest, followed some links, did some experiments and ended up with some flowers that I think will work:

Here's a link to one of the tutorials.   I'll make templates that the group can use to make their own flowers.

I did manage to find some pieces of net big enough for small covers. I've edged them with pretty ribbon. The cutting mat was a great help in getting the covers (fairly) square. 

Variation Three

 I've been trying out different ways of combining wool dyed before spinning. First of all I mulicoloured the roving itself, as you can see here. Then I dyed separate colours and spun them in turn, to make a self-striping yarn, see here. This time I'm combining the colours on my drum carder. In 1995, we went on holiday to England, and my brother took us on a tour around Yorkshire. Somewhere in Yorkshire, we went into a spinning and yarn shop, where I saw amazing multicoloured handspun wool. How did you do that? I asked. By mixing the dyed fibres on a drum carder was the answer.

Skirt

 

I've finished my skirt. The tatting is pattern number 80 on page 63 of the Tatted Artistry of Teiko Fujito. Thread Milford 20. I like the look of a narrow skirt, but I don't like the way it prevents me taking a full stride, so I put a kicker pleat in the back:

Fabric

 

A friend gave me three metres of this blue fabric. I said I'd make a skirt for me and one for Jeanette. The fabric is good quality, but rather boring - not to look a gift horse in the mouth of course! Especially as it forms the perfect canvas for my Teiko lace:

Lavender Pattern

 I've finished off the other five lavender 'bunches' for the order. It's very much free style tatting and I made all sorts of variations along the way. I started by encapsulating three threads, then hid one thread in the first bud, to make a slimmer stalk. I sometimes encapsulated using sets of 4-4 and sometimes used a spiral stitch. I tried out various methods for the leaf. I'm going to write down here the method I finished up with, so that I don't have to relearn it all when I make more. 

Materials

Two shuttles, shuttle 1 with purple thread and shuttle 2 with green, preferably a more grey green than I used here. A safety pin. 

Abbreviations

JK, josephine knot, made by making 10 second half stitches in a ring. ds double stitch

Set Up

Tie the threads together so that there is a short length of purple thread and about 35cm of green thread, tie a safety pin to the end of the green thread:

Method

Using shuttle 1, make a JK, hiding the purple end inside. 

Using shuttle 2, encapsulate the purple thread and the green end, working 18 second half stitches in spiral stitch. 

Work another JK with shuttle 1. Then another 18 second half with shuttle 2. Then work 3 JKs together :

Work 24 second half encapsulating stitches and then another 3 JKs, trying to position them on the other side of the stalk. Work 24 half stitches and then the leaf. 

For the leaf, use shuttle 2 as the 'ball thread' and the safety pin as the working thread. Work 4 ds and then 7 graduated picots, separated by 3 ds, followed by 2 ds:

Work one unflipped stitch and then position the chain on your left and work back, joining the picots with the same number of ds between"

Work 4 ds at the end and then join to the stem. Then work 2 or 3 cm more in spiral stitch, encapsulating. Cut the shuttle 2 thread and secure it:

Then cut the two centre threads. 

I've mostly put this here for my own benefit, but of course I'm happy if anyone else wants to make it. Shout if there's anything puzzling. 

Where Did The Week Go?

 The week seems to have whizzed by. I finished the beanie, made progress on my Teiko lace, embroidered faces on some more teddies, made a sample for Friday's craft group meeting:

We've finished with cat toys for now, we have nice bunch to give to a local animal shelter. 

More Cricket Knitting

 

We went to watch cricket again yesterday and of course I took knitting along. I think I managed to escape the cameras this time, mainly because it was a much bigger crowd. I'm knitting a beanie for a man who needs one. I'm using acrylic yarn because he lives in an institution and I don't think their laundry is equipped for dealing with real wool! It was a perfect project for a day out, round and round on a circular needle. I'll finish it off now. 

Sri Lanka won again, so they are definitely through to the main cricket world cup, later in the year. 

I was a bit disappointed with the market on Saturday. It was a pleasant morning and there seemed to be a good crowd, but I didn't make many sales. That's how it goes.