Month: April 2023

Finished

Gill finished her Dayspring Sweater by Ainur Berkimbayeva, from the Spring 2021 issue of Pom Pom Magazine. The yarns are from Louie and Lola Yarns in Tasmania, Australia. It was blocking while we were podcasting so she’ll have to wear it next time!

Gill also finished her fabulous woven blanket! The project is Big Blanket, Little Loom from Ashford (blog link). Most of it is her handspun, and it looks fantastic!

Kylie hasn’t finished any knitting but she made a cross-stitch bookmark using a Michael Powell kit from Ribbon Rose.

WIPs

Kylie has cast on the first of the Stephen West Pup Sweaters – the Striped Pup Sweater (ravelry link). Yarn is by Squiggle Yarn Co in South Australia and Otaki Dye House (now Moonrise Yarn Co)

Gill has cast a few things on. The Way Out West Bandana Cowl by Tiffany Morse using (ravelry link) Yeah Yeah Yarn in the Moscow Mule colourway.

Kylie has been continuing with her Sockhead Slouch Hat (ravelry link, also available on her blog but it doesn’t include all the sizes) as her handbag knitting. The yarn is from Knot n Tie (a lovely local Auckland dyer) on her Twistie Toes base – a fun zebra type yarn and it’s giving a lovely pooling effect.

Gill also cast on the Warp Vest by Sara Ottosson (Ravelry links) using Holst Garn. The woven effect is achieved by holding colours together and it looks awesome!

Kylie has cast on a baby blanket using her handspun. The pattern is inspired by this dishcloth recipe (ravelry link).

Gill has started some of the cutest little granny square socks! Inspired by an upcoming pattern that she just couldn’t wait for! The yarn is from Cruellas in Nelson – Lang Twin Sock.

Kylie’s done some work on the Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown (free on ravelry) she’s had hanging out for a while. This is a charity knit, and also a stashbuster – the yarn was too fabulous to not use!!

The last square of Kylie’s Tolkien crochet blanket has been finished! Just 4 more squares to add, and then a border! Yarn is from Giddy Yarns in Scotland, and there are 5 x 10g minis for each month of the yar in 2022, Q1 inspired by The Hobbit and Q2-4 inspired by each Lord of the Rings book.

Aquisitions

Kylie recieved the first of the Glaux Yarn Vivaldi Club which is the 4 seasons throughout 2023! The club came with a full skein of 4ply plus a collection of 5 matching mini’s. She’s already subscribed to the winter club as well!!

Gill got some Chaska Alpaca Sock Yarn from Ribbon Rose. It’s still on half price if you’d like to grab some too!

#KiwiSummerWIP

Please join us in finishing some of your WIP’s started before 2023! We have at least one prize to giveaway – a skein donated from Purple Sprouting. Thanks Paula!! To enter, dig out a WIP started before 2023 and finish it; then snap a shot and post it on Instagram with #kiwisummerwip in the description. If you don’t have access to Instagram, please drop us an email via the link in this blog.

We are extending the WIP along until the end of April since the year has gotten away from us!

Finished!

Gill finished her Rib Lace Raglan (Ravelry Link) by James Watt. The yarn is BC Garn Bio Balance GOTS (wool/cotton blend) purchased from Loopine Wool. She’s decided she doesn’t like it – it doesn’t go ith anything in her wardrobe and the style just isn’t her, so it will get frogged.

Kylie finished her first dog sweater, “Pupography”. This isn’t a pattern, more of a recipe which Stephen West made for his pups during the “Shawlography” MKAL in 2021. So this was made using the leftovers from Kylie’s Shawlography shawl to match!

Gill participated in an instagram challenge to knit a pair of socks in a week, and she succeeded!! She’s knit a gorgeous pair of vanilla socks in some Opal Dragon sock yarn (with 1 strand of black through the yarn). Sock knit toe up with a fleegle heel.

Kylie has been very brave with her knitting machine and knit a huge pair of man socks for her husband – a full 90g of yarn with fully ribbed cuffs. The best part is that they match perfectly!! The yarn is also the Opal Dragon sock yarn in a different colourway to what Gill used.

WIP’s

Kylie has been continuing with her Sockhead Slouch Hat (ravelry link, also available on her blog but it doesn’t include all the sizes) as her handbag knitting. The yarn is from Knot n Tie (a lovely local Auckland dyer) on her Twistie Toes base – a fun zebra type yarn and it’s giving a lovely pooling effect.

Gill hasmade good progress on her Dayspring Sweater by Ainur Berkimbayeva, from the Spring 2021 issue of Pom Pom Magazine. The yarns are from Louie and Lola Yarns in Tasmania, Australia.

Kylie has been continuing with the DRK March to May KAL challenge with the Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry started a while ago in the original Hedgehog Fibres fade colours in their Skinny Singles base. Now up to the 5th colourway of 7.

Gillian has been working on her Around the Bend shawl by Nim Teasdale (ravelry link) using the 2022 advent mini’s from Purple Sprouting.

Spinning

Kylie’s done lots of spinning, thanks to all the inspiration she got from the Majacraft Camp last fortnight.

The first spinning project Kylie finished was a +200g worsted weight yarn. The first ply is a hedgehog fibres club tweed mix spun from the fold. The second ply is some Gotland gradient fibre from Heavenly Wools purchased at New Plymoth Creative Fibre event last year.

The second spinning project Kylie finished was some sock yarn made on her Electric Eel Nano wheel using BFL/nylon/stellina fibre from Cat & Sparrow Fibre in Melbourne, Australia.

Weaving

Gill has started a weaving project using her handspun yarn. The project is Big Blanket, Little Loom from Ashford (blog link). It will be interesting to see how this ends up!!

Majacraft Camp

Kylie had an amazing time at Majacraft camp and talked about the 4 classes she attended. The first class was spinning linen from flax which was easier than Kylie had anticipated and super fun!

The second class was spinning tweed yarn using hand cards to make puni’s/rolags with wool layered with sari silk and neps. The puni’s look like hundred’s and thousands! Kylie’s super inspired to make tweed yarn with some plain fleece.

Spinning to the crimp was the third class taught by Pat Old which was more technical and involved a lot of sampling and a little bit of thought and planning. Kylie learnt a lot about her wheel and how to use the ratio’s to make the wheel work for you to get the yarn you want, and the yarn which suits the fleece best.

The last class was a very technical class by Janet Day (“My Spin on Things”) – how to make a large lot of cohesive yarn out of multiple fibre sources using the drumcarder to make identical batts. It also involved some spinning technique to try and get a different yarn finish from the same batt.

Aquisitions

Gill purchased a fabulous leather handbag from Joji & Co which will be a great weekend/project bag!

Kylie got some gorgeous batt’s from Twisted Zisters when she was at the Majacraft Camp, as well as a skein of yarn from Fibre2Go and some cotton fibre to have a go at spinning!

Kylie also recieved her Birds of the World shipment from Purple Sprouting. This shipment was “Kea” which is a native NZ Parrot. She also got a skein of Suri Could on sale. The last yarn ball she bought was a ball of Tootsies yarn from Michele Ann in Pukekohe, Auckland.

#KiwiSummerWIP

Please join us in finishing some of your WIP’s started before 2023! We have at least one prize to giveaway – a skein donated from Purple Sprouting. Thanks Paula!! To enter, dig out a WIP started before 2023 and finish it; then snap a shot and post it on Instagram with #kiwisummerwip in the description. If you don’t have access to Instagram, please drop us an email via the link in this blog.

We are extending the WIP along until the end of April since the year has gotten away from us!