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!
Cup of Tea and a Yarn 