A little Bit of Eye Candy

I know, I know, I'm terribly unreliable at posting. I'll try to get better. Thank you for your responses to my dilemma with my handspun in the last post. That project is on the back burner at the moment, I'm letting the ideas percolate. I had one vote for a vest, one for the Emerald Cardigan , and also another suggestion for a pattern, the "Jawbreaker Cardigan" from a back issue of Interweave Knits. I like them all, so I'm just letting it sit for the moment.

In the meantime, I have not been idle. I had a gift certificate to my LYS and I picked up this scrumptious yarn with it....

Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, a fingering/4 ply weight blend of Alpaca, Merino and Silk. I am designing a cardigan for my husband and if it turns out I will submit it so unfortunately I can't show you any pictures of the work in progress...

Eye candy...couldn't resist this gorgeous fleece from the shop at my spinning group. I really enjoyed working with the other fleece and I can't wait to start on this one. I've recently acquired some Majacraft Mini Combs, so I think I'll prepare it with the combs for worsted spinning.

And lastly, more eye candy. We recently celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. A very dear family friend is a gifted quilter and sent us this beautiful work of art made of batik fabrics. Thank you Jackie, it's keeping us warm and cosy during our subtropical "cold snap" (night time lows of 3-5 C, days of 20 C).

More photos and FOs once we get the other computer back from the repair shop.

Survey Says...

My bulky handspun

Thank you for the hugs, I am slowly getting over my harrowing spinning tragedy. I have accepted that it was a learning experience and boy, have I learnt from it. In response to a few who have asked if I could just make a smaller size, I am reluctant to do this for a few reasons. First, and most importantly, I just don't want a bulky jacket. Although I am making it primarily for the winter trip home to Canada, it would be nice to be able to wear the finished product once or twice during our winter here in Brisbane and it just doesn't get cold enough for bulky jackets here. Second, I really like the hemmed facings in the pattern and they would be really unwieldy in a bulky yarn. Plus, since row gauge plays a bigger than usual part in the construction and finished size of this pattern, resizing could be more problematic than usual. Mostly, I just think it would alter the drape and character of the pattern too much. The difference in gauge is too drastic.

However, I really like the yarn, and I'm pleased with how nice and even I managed to get the 2 ply. I love the natural colour variations and I can't wait to use it in a project. Here's another closeup.

So, I'd like to request some help from you fine folks. I've been scouring Ravelry for pattern ideas and I've found a few that might work. The links are listed below, I'd love to hear which one you'd vote for. Please leave a comment and tell me which one you'd pick/why you think it would be the best choice. I'll be publishing results in an upcoming post. Feel free to pass the link along to anybody else you feel might be interested.

1.http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTemerald.html
2. http://shop.interweave.com/Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Pullover-P348C40.aspx
3. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTboogie.html
4. http://shop.interweave.com/store/Streakers-Shrug-P272C48.aspx?AFID=12

5. None of the above... I have also thought about designing my own pattern for a men's vest with this yarn. Finished product would go to hubby but if the pattern turned out well I might submit it to Knitty as they take handspun projects. Of course, that would mean I couldn't blog about it...

As for the Sunrise Circle Jacket, it's still number one on my list of things to knit. Before the lovely Joey left for Canberra she most kindly gifted me with a bag full of dark fleece that had been washed and carded with purple and green mohair. It hadn't spun up the way she was envisioning, but I loved it. I've spun a sample which I Navajo plied and it works out perfectly to gauge. Aren't the little bits of purple and green delicious?

Here it is knit up. I've christened the colourway Deep Woods as it looks dark and mysterious. Now all that's left is to spin enough for a cardigan. Again. Sigh.

Tragic Spinning Accident...

...or sort of accident. I had a feeling this might happen, but I ignored it. I ignored it the whole time I was spinning my 1.2 kg of fleece in the most beautiful natural colours. I ignored it while my apprehensions started screaming " there's something terribly wrong!" during the plying process. I ignored it whilst washing my finished handspun yarn, all 975 grams of it. I ignored it until I sat down with my newly finished yarn, Sunrise Circle Jacket pattern and knitting needles and cast on a swatch...and after knitting 2 rows finally admitted that I'd spun the stuff too thickly to have any hope at all of making the pattern work with the yarn I'd created. Hangs head in shame for omitting to swatch again after the first attempt was too thin. What was I thinking saying "oh, I'll just spin the singles a little bit thicker, that'll work, I'm sure I won't overcompensate."

I'm going to go cry for a little while, then scour Ravelry for patterns in the gauge it's knitting up to (bulky- 14 sts/20 rows to 10 cms on 6 mm needles). I guess all is not lost, I now have 720m of beautiful bulky yarn. If anyone has ideas for a pattern let me know....

Spinning for a Sweater

I am newly in love with spinning (again). So soothing and mesmerizing to watch the fibre slip through your fingers. I love the fleece I'm working with. The natural colours range from silver to caramel to darker brown/grey. Isn't it lovely? Just a flick at either end and the staples are ready to spin. I love having a basket next to my chair, just waiting until I have a few moments to spin.



I am spinning this whole fleece to make the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert. It's going to be a 2 ply. The sample which I plied and washed was a little too thin, so I'm aiming a for a bit more thickness in my singles which means I should be able to get gauge and a nice firm-ish jacket fabric without too much messing around. Optimistic, aren't I?

Here are my first 2 bobbins, numbered so I can remember to ply the first with the last. I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction just looking at them. Another gratuitous close up of the singles.

Now, my only problem is I did not account for wastage when embarking on this project. I started with a 1.2 kg fleece. As someone who has never spun greasy fleece before, or spun for this large a project, I blithely thought that would be enough. Hmmmm, maybe not. Some of the weight is in the grease (duh!) which will be washed out and then you lose some fibre during preparation, short bits, matted locks, and swatching. I'm getting in the neighbourhood of 200 g spun fibre on each bobbin and originally thought I'd end up with 6 bobbins but as of today that estimate has come down to 5 bobbins. I'm starting to get a little feeling of panic. The yarn indicated in the pattern is put up in 50g balls, they have about 100 metres in each. The size I'll make calls for 10 balls. So, I need to end up with about 1000 metres of finished yarn, say 1200 to be safe. As the yarn in the pattern only comes out to 500g maybe I'll be okay, but it's very softly spun, and I think my yarn is going to be heavier per metre. Oh well, I guess I'll find out eventually. Stay tuned!

Having a bit of a whinge

It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted. Other things just seem to get in the way. This is what I was afraid of when I started this blog. I feel guilty if I don’t keep it up to date, but I also I feel guilty if I spend time blogging instead of cleaning the house, cooking nutritious meals, trying to keep up the correspondence with all my friends and family overseas, actually knitting, etc. How come others just seem to be able to do it all and make it seem easy? Ok, finished whining now.

Also impacting on the blog has been the fact that I spent most of April designing and knitting a large shawl, which I am going to submit for publication (hopefully), so it’s not bloggable. I am very pleased with how it’s turned out and it’s torture not being able to brag about it, but anyway…

Now that I’m done with that, projects have just sort of sprouted up like mushrooms after the rain. I am normally a monogamous knitter, I get anxious if I have more than one project on the needles, so I tend to knit one thing until it’s done, then move on to something else. Imagine my surprise then, when I looked yesterday and found that I had not one, not two but 4 projects on the needles! 4?! Here is the photo inventory:

The Neverending Socks
As I have mentioned before, I loathed working with this yarn. That’s why these just seem to have taken FOREVER, but they are finally done! Ok, so I guess they don't quite count as a WIP, but I'm still recovering from them.




Handspun Cropped Short Sleeve Jacket
Based on the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet by Julia Allen. Adding a bit of length in the body. I’m loving knitting with my first Navajo plied handspun.



Brown Jacket
I’ve been meaning to make the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert for ages. I’ve just started spinning from my 1.2 kg of brown/grey corridale fleece to swatch for gauge and needle size. I was hoping to spin a 2 ply but I might end up Navajo plying given the success I had with my lovely multi-coloured merino. Here is some 2 ply I spun and washed to swatch, but it has turned out about 2 stitches too much for the required gauge, so it's back to the drawingboard.



Cabled Socks
These are back out of hibernation, about 1/3 of the leg done on the second sock. Managed to sneak them on to the airplane during the trip to Sydney as they are on 2 short circular bamboo needles and nobody seemed to pay any attention to them.

Additional Project, Patons "Shadow Tweed Lace Jacket". Pattern booklet was a birthday gift from husband, and he picked this jacket as the one he'd like me to knit from it.

Mental Note to Self: must start making and stockpiling gifts soon for Christmas trip.

Closet Confession: I’ve been a bad girl…couldn’t resist sale on sock yarn…and some Rowan Summer Tweed…and a knitting bag…and some needles…all 50% off, what’s a girl to do? Photos up as soon as I get a chance…

Name change

I goofed up. I thought I had a cute and original name for my blog, but I should have known it was too good to be true. Turns out there is a website out there, "woolflowers" and the author has published some patterns and has an online presence that precedes mine by a number of years. So, it would be incredibly rude of me to continue under the name "woolflower", methinks. I've sent her an email on Ravelry to apologise, so I hope she realises I did not intentionally mean to snake her name. Since I mean to start offering patterns of my own I now need a new name though... I've temporarily changed the blog name, as you can see, so let me know if you like it. I'm waiting until I get the new name sorted out before I figure out how to set up a designer page on Ravelry and post the sock pattern for free download! The fabulous Ellen has knit one sock from my pattern and I can't thank her enough. She gave wonderful feedback, and I'm just messing around with a few things and getting a final proofread.

Any thoughts, suggestions or other comments on the name?
By the way, if you've done me the honour of linking to this blog on yours, I think the link will have to be updated, don't think it adjusts automatically. Sorry :(

Just a bit of spinning eye candy...

my treasure chest, a basket full of predrafted roving



a gratuitous close up of the spun singles. Can't wait try navajo plying to keep the colours intact

Pattern Written

I posted the pics of the finished socks on Ravelry a few days ago, and was flattered to have 2 hearts by the end of the first day, and also an offer by the lovely Jamie12 to test knit the pattern for me, even though it's written top down! I'm blushing. Once it's veted I'll work on getting my "designer" page set up on Ravelry and put it in as a free download.

I've also been doing a little bit of spinning. This has been in the stash for a few months, and I couldn't resist it's siren's call anymore. The colours....be still my racing heart! I'm spinning fine, hoping to navaho ply to keep nice blocks of solid colour. The first photo shows the blues and pinks the best and the second one gives a good idea of the green in reality.



Now I've just got to predraft the rest of the fibre...

computers suck

Well, I managed, mostly, by Sunday night, to get the instructions written down for the sock pattern. Even slightly formatted so I thought it might look ok. I celebrated by cooking a big pot of black bean and kangaroo chilli which we ate along with a nice bottle of red wine. Well, I ended up drinking most of the red wine because it's not S's favorite. We sat companionably in the living room and I did a little messing around with the formatting, corrected some grammar etc, secure in the fact that after each little change I dutifully saved my work. Now, I don't know if it was the red wine gremlins or the computer gremlins but after going to bed satisfied with a full weenend's work well done, I got up Monday morning and tried to email a copy to myself at work so I could show off when asked the inevitable Monday question "What did you do this weekend?". You can imagine my horror when I open up the file to discover that HALF of my pattern instructions were gone! GONE! ARRRRRRGH!

So, I spend Monday night rewriting the pattern (grumbling and grouchy) after trying to open up the file at least half a dozen different times just to make sure I wasn't having a horrible hallucination.

Today, Tuesday, I received a call at work from S to say he'd tried to open a new document on the computer, and what popped up? Yup, you guessed it. Probably could have saved myself some work if knew enough about computers to know where to look.

I think the socks might need to called Recovered .

I have never paid enough money for a knitting pattern

My brain is doing a slow simmer, sort of wheezing and groaning like water just off the boil, and I'm going just a little cross-eyed. What have I been doing you ask? Trying to write down my simple sock pattern, that's what! I've been at it all day, neglecting the housework that I normally get done on the weekends, and I've only just started... I guess it must get easier and quicker with practice (please tell me it gets easier with practice) but I swear knitting pattern designers must be the most underpaid people on the planet. If I hadn't liked designing and knitting this pattern so much I think I might have quit already. Here is the finished item:

Pretty, isn't it? These are the Man-size version, I am writing an average woman's foot size as well so I'll be looking for test knitters once I get the pattern down in readable format. This could take some time! They are so nice that I might have to knit a pair for myself too.

I just love how the twisted stitches create texture and how the ribs at the top flow into the pattern with only some minor wrestling to make them see the light and choose the right path.

Oh yes, and the cabled sock...I had a request for a clearer photo let me see if I can oblige...

It's not an updated photo but just for you "I Hate Toast" you bossy yankee you! Actually, I brought this on Wednesday night to get an opinion from Joey, the frog queen, and contrary to what I thought she might say she concluded that while perhaps not the optimal pairing of yarn and pattern, it was a nice subtle combo and should not hit the frog pond. I have the go ahead for the second sock so these will be coming out of hibernation just as soon as I get the blasted sock pattern written. I'm doing this for fun, right?

Socks, socks, socks

Thought I'd share a few work-in-progress photos with you. As per the stated aim of this blog, I am designing a pattern, and if it turns out I will attempt to write it down and share it with the world. I figured that socks might be a good starting point, and since I did promise my husband 3 pairs of socks for Christmas, and have only delivered 1 so far, they seemed a perfect choice.


So, first step to peruse the stitch dictionary. At the moment I am borrowing the Barbara Walker from the QSW&FA library. I originally was thinking of a cabled sock, but these lovely patterns with rows of single travelling stitches caught my eye and I decided to swatch.

I really liked the ribbed cable with twisted stitches. The hourglass pattern I liked as well, but I decided to use twisted stitches for it as well, to get more definition. The stitches really stand up and almost tilt to one side. The little coin cable at either side of the swatch is deeply textured as well. I will definitely use it somewhere, but after measuring both the recipient's foot and the swatch I decided on the centre pattern (which is 2 pattern repeats of the hourglass pattern) bordered by a single row of twisted stitches with a single ribbed cable at either side. I am going to split the ribbed cables when I reach the heel and continue a twisted smaller cable down each side of the heel and either side of the top of the foot. I am figuring on a small amount of negative ease so that the cable pattern will stretch a little bit.

I cast on the 86 stitches needed and started with twisted ribbing (seemed appropriate and it looks great). Haven't had much time to knit on it yet, so the pattern hasn't taken shape, but that's the project for this week.

I figure if it works out the pattern will be easily altered for a smaller size by taking out either 1 or 1/2 of the centre hourglass pattern.

In other sock news, I am also knitting plain socks for Scott. These are handy public transit knitting as they are plain as plain can be. It's my first go at knitting both socks at once and I'm very glad I tried it on this pair because I loath this yarn. It sticks to itself like Velcro. I had to take out and discard the centre of both balls after trying to find the ends and use them as centre pull balls as they were so badly tangled. I think I would have given up after the first sock if I weren't doing them together. Saying that though, I don't mind how the pattern is working up and I did manage to make the colour repeats match exactly.

My last sock is hibernating at the moment.

(PS I can't figure out how to rotate photos in my blog posts. This photo was rotated the right way when saved on my computer but it reverted when I uploaded it here and I don't know what to do. Any ideas?)

I've made one and I can't decide if it's worth it to make the next. Not sure I like the pattern/yarn combo. It definitely doesn't show up the cable pattern to the fullest. However, I might be able to live with it.

To frog or knit the second sock?

Fibre Diet

Ok, so I've never felt the need to diet before... I don't have a huge stash (at least I don't think so, I managed to photograph it and load it up to the Ravelry website in one day so it can't be that big) but it is most definately more than I can knit and spin in a year ( or maybe two). However, there are some great gaping holes in it. A selection of beautiful, rich, basic colours of wool fingering weight for fairisle swatching...some really kickass sock yarn in multis and solid "I'm-a-man-and-I-want handknitted-work-socks" colours... lace weight (I love lace weight!)...different blends of fibres to play with...and so forth ad nauseum. I really need this stuff. I do.

Now, I know this stuff is out there. I've seen it, I've felt it, but it doesn't live in my local yarn store. Actually, here in Brisbane we have a local craft chain store and a very expensive LYS. Having lived in Canada and worked/travelled in the US I know the sort of prices and value you can expect there and I just can't bring myself to pay the prices here, plus they don't stock the basic range of basics I'm craving at the moment.

So, this brings me to the point of this whole ramble. Talking with my Mum on the weekend, we decided that it would be too hard for her to take time off work this Christmas to visit us in Australia, and instead we will go to visit her. Yeehaw! I now get to troll the online bargin stores that only ship to North America (hello Knit Picks and Elann) and best of all I get to spend hours in my hometown LYS, Beehive Yarn Shop in Victoria (which is huge, has been in business ofr over 100 years and is literally stacked from floor to ceiling with amazing yarn) picking out colours and fondling the candy. OH Bliss! However this means that if I want to spend to my heart's content in December I must go on the aforementioned Fibre Diet.

I hearby resolve that I will reduce my stash of yarn and fibre by spinning and knitting at least half of my current stash before we head to Canada in December and not buying any more during this time...unless it's really on sale like the eco yarns fibre I got last month...or the Patons "Jet" that was so ridiculously on sale that it couldn't be passed up last weekend...

Hopefully this resolution will be aided by the fact that I will have many people to gift to in Canada. I can knit away on small stash busting projects like hats and scarves (to give to people who live in a climate where they will actually use them) without having an intended recipient in mind and just bring a whole suitcase of finished objects to give, then voila!, empty suitcase for the shopping spree. Makes sense, no?

Let's see how well it works in real life.

Thanks to Janette for the kudos and my very first blog comment! I never really thought anyone would look at my blog. It's a brave new world out here in cyberspace.

I'm terribly excited as I've just received my belated Christmas package from my Mum and it contained a ball winder and yarn swift. Can't wait to use them with the gorgeous yarn I picked up for my mother in law's shawl when we were in Tasmania last week, hard to tell from the photo, but it's a beautiful natural fawn colour and very soft

Can't wait to cast on but I haven't decided on the pattern yet.

Also finished the first of 3 pairs of socks for my hubby, and I'm thrilled with the completely serendipitous colour pooling effects on them

Well, I guess I've done it now. I have never quite understood the compulsion which drives the blogging phenomena, but here I am nevertheless, creating my own. I have no idea if this will continue or perish a natural death due to apathy and disuse but I've resolved to give it a go. Mostly this stems from my New Year's resolution to start looking into publishing some knitting design patterns as a creative outlet to counter my sometimes lacklustre job of office management. So, with this in mind, the overall aims of this blog are to chronicle my knitting and spinning projects and share the process of working on designs to publish (be it for free on this blog or otherwise). I hope it's of some remote interest to someone somewhere...............