Spun silk

The product of my silk cap preparation spun up on the bobbin.

Alongside the complementary merino I'll be plying it with.


Should be cheerful enough, and good to display in amongst the more subtle tones of natural coloured wools. I think the skein will be around 60g at a guess and a DK on the fine side.

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This weekend will be the last relatively clear one before the Festival season begins in earnest on the Island.

Last night I volunteered to demonstrate at the County Show, locally known as the Ag Show, on the 11th August. This is the show to visit if you like seeing animals. A new experience for me will be spinning in a tent alongside some real live sheep. Baaaaaa!

The weekend prior to that is Chale Show on the 4th & 5th August. This has become one of the major tent-events on the Island. Lots to see and do, including helicopter rides out over the English Channel, steam traction engines, kids rides and an assortment of stalls and craftspeople.

Last year I came home with a huge bag of sweetcorn cobs that the traders were selling off at the end. Delicious!

Local celebrity, Geoff Hughes - 'Twiggy' in The Royle Family is always quite close to us at the Shows promoting his timber products business.

He's a very friendly chap and always seems willing to pose for photos with the holidaymakers.

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Preparing a Silk Cap for Spinning

Last night I got to work on the silk cap I bought at the Rare Breeds Show. So I thought I'd do a bit of a tutorial on preparing a silk cap for spinning.

The cap is made by soaking the silk cocoon in water and then teasing it out and stretching it over a bamboo hoop. The cap contains many layers. Usually they're white, but the ones I buy from P&M Woolcraft have been rainbow dyed.

Here is the silk cap in its entirety:

At the lower edge of the cap is a thicker crinkly edge which you can see forms the layers:


Start to work around the cap, separating a thin layer from the rest of the cap by peeling it away:


Not all layers come away cleanly, and they may look a bit holey, but this doesn't matter.

Once you've worked your way around the cap, you can pull the layer away:


Each layer will be very filmy. The thinner it is, the easier it will be to draft and less hard on your hands. Silk is tough stuff!


Keep peeling away the layers of the cap until you have a pile of shimmering jewel-like jellyfish. This cap yield was 32 layers.


Place your hands inside each cap layer, and at the crown, work a hole in it with your fingers:


With both hands begin to firmly pull and tease the silk filaments into a loop:


I prepare all of the cap layers this way initially:


It's then up to you how finely you want to draft the roving. I go quite fine, as I usually ply the silk with another fibre like merino. Firmly pull and tug the loop, holding about 6 inches of length between your hands at a time, until the roving is at the desired thickness. Work around the loop until it's nice and even.

NOTE: Watch your hands, as the silk can cut into your fingers if you get a particularly resistant bit. I find that if this happens and you move your hands further apart and tug a little, the fibres will release:


Snap the loop, so that you have one long length:


Through trial and error, I've found the best way to sort the roving is to make a butterfly, winding a figure-of-eight around your thumb and little finger. This minimises the silk's tendency to cling back together again:


And VOILA! A pile of roving ready to spin:





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My latest Spinning

Last night I finished the first skein coming off my new Kromski Sonata.

This was some peacock blue silk/merino blend I bought from Scottish Fibres at Woolfest.

Although I still currently prefer my Ashford Traveller to spin on - an advantage of the Sonata is the incredible smooth quality of the bobbins.

So often the Ashford bobbins snag when I'm plying and it can be SO bloody annoying frustrating. The Kromski bobbins are as smooth as a baby's bottom.

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Progress on the Scalloped Jacket in Twilleys Freedom continues and I'm now knitting up both sleeves at once. I'm thinking that if I do have extra yarn due to ditching the patch pockets and the back trim, I may have some frogging to do on the body pieces so I can get a few extra rows in as the length looks a bit short, at least on the model in the pattern.

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I'm attending my first committee meeting of the Guild this week.

We're discussing the 2008 programme, and I've been racking my brains to try and think of something I could suggest - either a speaker or a fibre-related workshop. Trouble is - most of the Guild have been around since the year dot - so they've seen it, done it, and bought the tee-shirt!

If anyone knows of any good UK speakers out there that my colleagues might not have encountered, then please let me know.



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Rare Breeds Show - Singleton

So, the weather held for the Weald & Downland Show on Sunday. Some UK residents haven't been so lucky with the floods spreading , and the television flood shots from Gloucestershire have been really shocking. It makes me thankful that I live near the top of a hill, nowhere near a river at times like this.


I arrived early, so was in time to see some of the judging in the Sheep section.



There was so much bleating that it was like being trapped in an episode of Shaun the Sheep... very funny!

These cattle were magnificent. Look how short they are. Like a folk art painting.



I managed to take a couple of shots of the Alpaca on display - looking a little less cute than usual as they'd all been shorn.


Love the hairdo on this little chap!



My haul was discreet from this show. Not as much for the spinner as there was last year, and even P&M Woolcraft's stall was a little depleted. I bought another silk cap [I'm addicted] and some toning merino to ply with. A small 20g ball of dyed bamboo to play around with from the High Weald Fibre Factory and a miniature niddy noddy from an independent woodturner which will come in handy when I'm making up finer or smaller skeins for the dyepot.







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Oh blogger!

I was just thinking yesterday that Blogger had been extraordinarily well behaved lately.

Now changes to my Template don't appear on the blog, but they're there on the template. Comment counts are showing zero when there are comments to the post.

Hopefully it'll sort itself out soon. STOP PRESS.: Yay! It's fixed.

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Not sure if I mentioned previously, but I've acquired a new wheel thanks to an unexpected mini-windfall of cash from work.

Weary of humping around my super little workhorse, the Ashford Trav, plus chair, plus basket & bags from the car to the middle of fields on demonstration days; I resolved to buy myself a proper folding wheel.

Ladies at my Guild have an assortment of folding wheels - Ashford Joy - Louet - Lendrum. The Ashford Joy is way too low for the way I work, and the other wheels just didn't appeal somehow - looks or price-wise. I wanted something with an orifice at a comfortable height.

The Kromski Sonata spec looked like it might fit the bill, the price was very reasonable and the rucksack was free. So I'm now a novice owner after buying one from Winghams.

The wheel is pretty straight forward to set up, but I'm having to get used to one of those stretchy plastic drive bands and double treadle which seem a bit weird at first. I haven't spun anything up on it as yet, despite it being taken up North and back in the boot of the car [blame the crochet]. It's all ready to go now, and I really need to get to grips with it as I'll be using it at our next demo which is at the beginning of August at Chale Show.

The thing I'm liking especially about it is the rucksack - both hands free - and the capacity of the bobbins. They'll hold more than the regular Ashford size, so that'll be good for getting a better length skein when I'm spinning laceweight.

I picked up some chestnut Shetland at Wonderwool and I want to spin some of that up to go with my cream, grey and chocolate. I then plan to attempt a 4-coloured lace shawl in the natural shades.

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Singleton Rare Breeds Show is this Sunday at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. I wasn't sure whether I'd be free to go or not, so if I do, it won't be with the rest of the Guild who've hired a coach, but on public transport. I've discovered a bargain combined ticket on Stagecoach from Portsmouth which includes all day bus travel and entrance to the site.

Despite winning my class in the spinning competition last year and bagging a rosette for my Novice skein, I'll now be up against all of the more established spinners. Far too daunting a prospect this time around, so I've not entered anything.

The weather forecast looks promising, but I'll make up my mind for sure when I see the sky on Sunday. It's an outdoor event with marquees, and would be pretty miserable traipsing around in the rain.

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Singers, Salty Sea Dogs and Sailing Ships

On my last trip to the mainland, Queen Mary 2 was in port.

Cruising holds no appeal for me - but the huge liners that come into port are very impressive.

Previously I took this photo of Sea Princess, berthed in Southampton, looking across from the West Quay shopping centre.

QM2 is even better looking than the QE2 in my opinion. It has a more classic line. I still miss the sight of the Royal Yacht Britannia and the accompanying Royal Navy battleship berthed off Cowes during Cowes Week.

It got me thinking about how lucky I am to live so near to the sea. Sometimes living on an island can get me down a bit. Even though I've lived most of my life here, I still like to escape and spread my wings in the wide open spaces of the mainland. Even then it's hard to stray far from the coast.

I had a trawl through some of my archived pics. Here's a couple of Weymouth - around the old harbour area - looking to all intents and purposes as if a tall ship from The Onedin Line is just off shot, about to sail into port. [Aside from the 21st century people walking about of course.] The actual location for the TV series was Bayards Quay in Dartmouth. A bit far west for my daily meanderings.

As a very small child, this cult ocean going TV series of the 1970's had me totally enthralled and 'in lurve' with Peter Gilmore as Captain James Onedin - [must have been those mutton-chop sideburns] He completely rivalled french singer Sacha Distel as my One True Love. There's no figuring out the individual nature of attraction when one is so young and impressionable.



















The memorable theme tune to The Onedin Line was Spartacus Suite No. 2: Adagio of Spartacus & Phrygia by Khachaturian. A really great stirring piece of music.

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As July races through its final weeks, the preparations for Skandia Cowes Week build, and Cowes fills up with yachty types down for the sailing, spilling out of the pubs onto the pavement, emptying the cashtills and filling the streets with people clad in crew clothing, deck shoes and waterproofs.

When my family first moved over here we begged to be taken to Cowes, but as it was off-season, you could have safely fired a cannon down the High Street and gathered no casualties. Let's just say we were seriously underwhelmed!

Now things are more year-round, and sailing seems to be even more popular. Cramming onto the Parade for the Friday night fireworks is still the big Cowes Week tradition. Not to be missed if you're over for a visit during early August.

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Scallop Trim Jacket - Progress

I've completed the back and am now onto the left front of the jacket.

The yarn is a bit tricky as it's two distinct singles plied up, and the twist in each single is very loose. Split stitches stand out like a sore thumb, so I can't fly along in stocking stitch like I would normally.

I'm liking the random striping of the yarn so far, and the fabric is nice and firm and should be warm to wear.

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I missed my regular spinning group again this month due to a diary clash, so instead I thought I'd check out the Southampton Stitch and Bitch group that meet in Borders. I wonder where they were??? I lurked in the Starbucks area for quite a time, but gave up in the end.

I've toyed with the idea of trying to get a knitting group going on the Island, but don't know how many takers I'd get, or if I could find a suitable venue. I should look into this a bit more......




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Flowers from an Admirer?

Yesterday I received a message at work to pop down to main Reception. When I arrived, there was a small bouquet of flowers waiting.

Be still my beating heart?

No...... they were from some of the team I work for, thanking me for the complicated event I organised before I went on leave.

Here they are inexpertly crammed into the only tall vase I own. The poor things were fighting for space all evening as I heard rustling sounds from time to time as I sat knitting.

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I completed my tension square for the Freedom Spirit Jacket last evening, and it was almost spot on. Result! it seems ages since I knitted with needles as small as 3.25 and 4mm - such is the popularity of chunky wool.



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Latest Knitting

One of the easier projects I have underway at the moment is what I'm calling a Scrap Stole.

This is made from random yarns in complementary shades and knitted lengthways on a circular needle in garter stitch. I don't have enough yarn to make a fringe from each different ball - so I'll be making that from a fresh one to blend in.

It had a good reception at the last Guild meeting, so it must have looked OK.... there was much debate as to whether a fringe was required and the concensus was 'yes'. That'll be the final stage.

Next to go on the needles is a jacket in Twilleys Freedom Spirit.



Oh that I was that thin, and that young again! :o)

Not sure about the patch pockets on the front - I'd rather add that extra yarn to the length of the jacket, but I like the picot-style edged trim around the shawl collar. This is also across the back of the jacket to make a yoke - not sure about that either! But I love the way the striping yarn is mismatched and contrasts on the lacy edges.

I've chosen shade 508, the Bliss colourway. It's pure wool and only £2.90 a ball. Not bad.

I'll definitely have to do a tension square for this (I'm naughty and usually don't bother.) It's been a while since I've knitted something that's produced such a stable fabric - it will really make a difference if I'm not matching the stated tension.

Hopefully it won't get consigned to my On The Needles 'percentage bar limbo' that all the other jackets have ended up in.

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Chantel complete - woo hoo! ......and WOOLFEST 2007

There's been silence on the blog for some time now. This has been due to pressure of work in the Day Job [damned inconvenient!]

There was so much to do on the run up to my 7 days off work, plus I was valiantly trying to finish Chantel for my Mum's birthday. It was designed by my favourite of Rowan's designers, Kim Hargreaves. This is unusually colourful for Kim, as she tends to favour the decorative element of her designs to come from the stitch pattern. She's also an advocate of moss-stich (seed-stitch) which I adore.

Chantel takes 10 assorted balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I built up my stash by cannily buying KSH up in the Sales.

Every spare minute I was whipping out the crochet hook and getting on with another of the 100 granny squares that make up the stole. On the ferry, on the bus, on the train, in my lunch break, in Starbucks........

This is my first crochet project, and allowing for a slow start [45 mins work per square, which got faster to 30 mins per square when more competent] a very conservative estimate for the time spent on this project was 110 hours of work. My Mum rightly called it a 'labour of love'. It's certainly what you'd call an heirloom piece.

I had to confess to Mum that I was working on it when I arrived for my 'holiday' as I needed every spare minute of my visit to work on it [including car journeys and during a sit-down at Woolfest], and didn't actually finish it until the day after her birthday, when I woke at 05:30 to finish the fringing in time for her to take it away on holiday with her.

Some squares 'in the raw' - complete with wildly differing tension!

The completed garment.

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While I was up North I went to Wonderwool in Cockermouth, Cumbria. I chose to go on the Friday again this year, and weatherwise, it turned out to be a good decision as it stayed dry while I was there. Even so, the skies were ever-threatening:

It was equally as enjoyable as last year, with a good variety of stalls to suit all interests, crochet, knitting, spinning and weaving. A show like this is ideal if you're thinking of investing in a new wheel or loom and aren't sure what to go for. There was a lot of knitting yarn, and plenty of inspiring exhibits. I was fascinated by the antique sock machines on display, like a tiny circular knitting machine.

My haul from this year's show was miniscule compared to last year, but I'm almost complete in the spinning equipment area now after 12 months of working out what I needed, so I just bought a few things that caught my eye and a couple of Wishlist items.

Clockwise from the top left: Stahman's Shawls & Scarves by Myrna Stahman (wishlist no. 1), some kingfisher Silk and Merino Blend from Scottish Fibres, some red, navy and gold Baby Camel and Silk Blend, some cream and pink Cashmere yarn; one green and one sky-blue silk cap from P&M Woolcraft, a supported spindle (only previously glimpsed in US ads in Spin-Off - wishlist no. 2) and a lucet with detachable bobbin. Finally, after seeing a lovely moebius scarf made up in Alpaca at the Lewes Needlework Festival earlier in the year, the Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bhordi ended up in the pile too. I also bought some reduced price odd shades of Merino fibre from Winghams to add to my felting stash.

So far I've been working on the green silk cap, turning it into skinny roving ready to spin, and have cut my little finger up at the joint - ouch! - that silk is STRONG. I also made a centre-pull ball of the cream cashmere on my noste'.


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