Less spinning, but more knitting

As our packing progresses, I find that I have less and less spinning stash yet more and more knitting stash. I have packed my favourite fibres and been spinning up my I'll-get-round-to-that-someday fibres. They are turning into very nice yarn, but maybe not quite as nice as the stuff I put on my Etsy shop. But they're great for personal stash.

So I've been looking at a slowly growing pile of personal stash and wondering what to do with it.

I've got the 2009 knitting-pattern-a-day calendar, which I love, and it's on my desk here at work. I think I'll take it home and run through some of the patterns from this year...I'm sure there are some in there that will occupy me and my stash during the next few months while we wait for the house to sell!

I've nearly finished my Chain Cable Aran Scarf - it would have been finished ages ago but I keep adding yarn to it! I've decided to use some matching glow in the dark yarn to finish it off, so it will have the softness of Corriedale throughout and then one end will be a fun glow-in-the-dark-Corriedale end!

A spider amongst the dye pots!

I got a start this morning when I went to set the next batch of Shetland dyeing. In the plastic bucket that I keep my dye jars in there was a big spider! *shudder* I hate spiders, and the resident spider catcher was away on a trip, so I forced myself to deal with it...I'd rather deal with it now than come back in the afternoon and find it had run off to some unknown destination.

I managed to take a picture before removing the dye pots and putting the spider out the window, but even looking at the picture gives the the creeps! if you want to see it, Google for UK "House Spider" and you'll find a picture. If you REALLY want to see my pic let me know and I'll send it to you without looking...

And fear not - all my dyed rovings are 100% Spider Free!

A Marathon of Dyeing

Whew, this has been a busy weekend for dyeing. It'll continue through the week, day job permitting, as on Saturday my dyeing equipment goes bye-bye in preparation for the move. No sense in taking it with me when the electrical systems will be different there!

This weekend I have dyed about 400g of Norwegian top, 200g of Jacob fleece and one skein of sock yarn. Most of that is now on my Etsy shop. Here's a peek of some of the Norwegian!


This is the yellow and teal batch of Norwegian wool top. This wool seemed to take the dye very lightly so I ended up with more pastels than I expected. It's a nice change though, as I don't do pastels that often. I still have a short length of this left to dye, so I'll likely be doing it tonight.

I also dyed some commercially spun Merino, chunky weight. Most of it is yellow with one end of black. I don't know what I'll make with it yet, but it will be bumblebee themed!

Pop over to the Fibreholics Blog for a peek of the samples I have sent in for September!

Blueberry muffins anyone?

This was a fun photo to take!