I've been doing some bits and pieces of knitting over the last few weeks, but have to admit that Spring is getting to me and I'm spending more time sowing seeds and making garden plans!
I hope you'll enjoy a little look at what I've been making, and a peek into the chaos that is the studio as I'm very slowly trying to organise it.
My current knitting projects, spinning project plans, books I've been reading and a quick tour of my studio.
Hello hello! It feels like I'm starting to get back into the flow of things. Baby is less new, which helps, at least. Now that spring is here, I'm getting excited about being outside and have been spending time doing garden things, which has been distracting me from textile things. Here's a quick run-through of what I've been up to, but the full video update is available to Patreon and YouTube members only.
If you’d like to stay up to date with all my craft projects and generally see what I'm doing whilst I'm on maternity leave, Patreon is the best place to be. I'll be sharing regular video updates when I have time around the baby, and I also have a big back catalogue of previous videos there, so you can catch up on past crafty endeavours whilst you wait for the next.
So yeah - if you're not, but would like to join me on Patreon, you can do so just here.
I'm wearing my lapidarium sweater
I put on my Lapidarium sweater to record this video. It's a unisex circular yoke jumper with stranded colourwork inspired by the geometry of gems and cut stones. It's knit in my Mendip DK yarn, which is still available in a selection of colours.
I made an alpaca hoody for the baby
I love this little hoody so much. It's a simple raglan cardigan with nice little cables down the hood and down the back. It's a very fuzzy alpaca/Bluefaced Leicester yarn, very kindly gifted by Wild Alpacaway, and I finished it with some black buttons I got as a gift from Tom Dyson a little while ago.
This knitting project was very much improvised using the cable pattern from my Beechmast Jumper. I have been asked quite a few times if there is a knitting pattern for this baby cardigan - there is not. However, I did take very good notes whilst knitting it up, so it may be turned into a pattern when I am back at work in the autumn. We shall see!
I'm knitting the brown cardigan in my Zwartbles yarn
You were all very helpful in persuading me to just go for it and knit the dark brown cardigan I wanted for my handmade wardrobe with my chocolatey brown Zwartbles DK yarn. I've wanted to knit with it ever since I got this yarn and I cast on almost immediately after I'd asked for your opinions last time.
It's a very plain cardigan, with numbers taken from my Quickbeam design, but that's where the similarities end. I have some plans for how I want the finished cardigan to look, so watch the video to hear all of that.
I have plans for an interim spinning project
My spinning progress is much the same as the last time I spoke to you, and I'm still slowly working on my fleece/flax blend. I've spoken at length about this long-standing craft project and have been documenting the whole process in a series on YouTube, which is a fun watch if you want to catch up.
My friend Lorna gave me a very lovely braid of plant-dyed spinning fibre. It's a pretty blend of Shetland, blue-faced Leicester and Cheviot, which she had blended up at Wingham Wool Work, who are super local to her. I feel like this could be a very nice palette cleanser spinning project to break up The Big Spin.
There is lots of undyed spinning fibre in stock
Speaking of Wingham Wool Work, I have just had a delivery of a whole load of undyed fibre for spinning, which means there's been a big restock of all my undyed fibre blends, including the undyed fibre sample boxes.
I've been reading some gardening books
I don't talk about books much, but I've been doing some reading. Mostly dorky gardening books, but I've also made my way through a book on anglo saxon textiles. I've shared some titles I recommend and things I've learned in the update.
I hem stitched my sample weaving project
My floor loom is now in the studio, with my sampler project attached and ready for the next colour. I'm changing the weft colour to a lovely tealy green.
Finally, I've been making plans for the studio
The studio still needs a lot of work. It's not yet set up as a space where I actually work so there's still lots of bits to set up to make it the way I want it, but i'm enjoying being in here and it's going to be such a cosy space when it's done. Do tune in for a quick studio tour and hear all about my plans. Studio chat starts at around 21 minutes and the tour starts at 25 minutes. Still lots to sort, but getting there.
If you're in the northern hemisphere I hope that you are enjoying spring coming and if you're in the southern hemisphere, I hope you're having an awesome autumn and looking forward to wearing all the cosy knits.
That's all from me for now. I shall see you next time, whenever that may be. If you'd love to hang out in the meantime, you'll be able to find me on our Discord channel that's available to all Patreon members. If you haven't joined the server yet, it’s easy to get started - you can find all the info on how to join just here.
Bye bye for now!
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