One down, 4,592 to go

Et voila!

This post could also be titled: Reason #1 to worship crochet and the ground it walks on - it's freakin' fast!

I purchased 2 balls of Noro Obi on Monday, cast on a loooooong crochet chain Monday night, was done with ball 1 on Tuesday, and ball 2 on Wednesday. Easy peasy lemon squeezy,  as my children would say.


Pattern: inspired by Ruth's Ravensprings Cowl (also pictured, and also done in Noro Obi, from the RK Retreat)
Hook: US L/8.0 mm
Gauge: 2.5 hdc wide x 2 hdc tall = 1"
Comments: I took Ruth's simple but perfect-for-Noro pattern of casting on and working hdc until you run out of yarn, but did it on a much longer scale, and worked back and forth instead of in the round. I have no idea how many were in my base chain - I basically kept chaining until it wrapped twice around my neck and hung down an appropriate amount.

I originally intended this for my Dad, but Noro is tricky (hello surprise purple! And gold!), and it ended up being not as neutral as he would be comfortable with. Not to worry - there are a number of people on my list who this would be suitable for, so that's one more item done. Hooray!

Next up tonight: warping the loom. For something!

Planning

Because it's always a good plan to start your holiday crafting plans on 18th November, right? Here we go:

We'll start with the fastest first - weaving
one table runner
three wash clothes
set of dish towels
four scarves

Next fastest - crochet
2 scarves
1 cowl

Slowest - knitting
one pair of adult socks
one adult hat
four child hats
one child mittens
one child fingerless mitts
two baby sweaters -- already DONE

Oh dear...

Botticelli's Girl

Now that the November edition of the Phat Fiber box has gone on sale, I can share my newest available colourway - Botticelli's Girl.

This colourway was inspired by "Portrait of a Young Woman", circa 1480, by Sandro Botticelli. I chose this painting because I was very drawn to the combination of auburn, russet and brown with the contrast of the blue sky through the window.

The colourway is handpainted in the same colour progress as in the paining, working from top left to bottom right - blue, peach, auburn, red and brown. 

I was so taken with the colours on the test version that I barely gave myself time to take photographs before I spun up a couple of samples and knit some swatches.

From L to R: 2-ply, both samples, chain-ply

The colours in the 2-ply blended together pretty well, even with a bit of marling. To spin this sample, I split the top into about 4 pieces lengthwise, spun them end to end, and plied from both ends using an Andean plying bracelet. So no attempt was made to line up the colours at all. You can see that the warmer colours play very nicely together, with the blue giving a bit of contrast, even though it's been softened a bit by the plying with a warmer colour family.

The chain ply was so squishy and soft that I carried the skein around with my like a pet for a little while. The colours are much purer, and I think they would be great in a pair of socks for someone of the male persuasion, or as a great stocking cap kind of hat, with a tassel at the top. 

I didn't do a true 3-ply sample, but I imagine it would blend the colours even more then the 2-ply. I'll have to try it out and see if it makes a good sweater yarn.

The BFL is, as always, a true delight to spin, and makes a fantastically soft and bouncy yarn for just about any project. If you're interested in this colourway and it's sold out when you look under the BFL listing in the shop, please do contact me and let me know that you'd like some. I'm going to be dyeing this up repeatedly over the next month, so there should be minimal delay in getting your fibre out to you.

Happy spinning everyone!

R xx

Rocking Kitchen Retreat: a stash-enhancement photo essay

So this past weekend, I headed up to West Yorkshire to spend some quality time with fellow knitwear designers at the first ever Rocking Kitchen Retreat, run by Joeli of Joeli's Kitchen, and Ruth of rock+purl. It was a great opportunity to meet a bunch of other UK designers, and swap ideas and tips and stories in a vast house for two days.

Ruth has been teasing us all on Twitter with 140 character hints about what was going to be in the goody bags, and the most recent vast box of yarn that had arrived at her studio. On Friday, we finally got to see the goods, as it were.

All of this yarn was crammed into a not-very-large bag. Along with the shade cards,

(that's not all of them), and a couple of books, and some needles and notions and OMG it was totally wicked!!!!

That was only the beginning. On Saturday, our hostesses pulled out a vast box of other yarn for people to dive into, plus some totally glorious taster skeins that were available for swatching. So, I swatched:

Yarns from Cascade, Lorna's Laces, Blacker Yarns and The Island Wool Company.

This is the final haul I brought home, after all was said and done. I'd like to be able to give you an actual yardage count, but I haven't yet found time to sit down and figure it out - it's gonna be a big number though! It was a fantastic weekend with a great group of people, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some fellow designers! You can sign up for the Rocking Kitchen newsletter here, and that will keep you in the loop on any future goings on.

Without any further ado, here is the great and grand list of sponsors for the weekend - many thanks to all of them for their generosity and excitement about working with independent designers!

Space Cadet Creations

Terri Shea (spinningwheel.net) 
West Yorkshire Spinners
Chiaogoo
Kettle Yarn Co
Cashmered UK
Millamia
Manos
Cascade Yarns
Dirty Water Dye Works
Malabrigo Yarn
Artesano Yarns
Wooly Knit
Hiya Hiya
Island Wool Company
Lorna's Laces
Little Giddings Farm
Blacker Yarns
Designer Yarns
TB Ramsden

Shop update tomorrow - 7 pm London time

Just a quick heads up that there will be a shop update tomorrow night at 7:00 pm London time, including BFL, Wensleydale, and Suffolk, including three new colorways: Snow Shadows, London Fog and Botticelli's Girl.