My new toy

I have a new plaything.

Can you guess what it is?



10 points to anyone who said 'book charkha - short fibres, for the spinning of'. Charkas are usually used to spin cotton but can also spin short-staple fine wools,silk, cashmere & quiviut - not that I'm likely to ever afford the latter.

It arrived today from loopfrogs, a fellow raveller & I had to have a wee play, despite there being dishes in the sink, laundry in the machine & who-knows-what all over the carpet.

I suck :0D

My long-draw skillz are non-existent anyway & between that & the fact that I've never spun anything other than wool . . .

Anyway here are pics -



& a close-up of my lol-worthy spinning (see what I mean about the carpet?) -



Still, like the song said things can only get better (or the charkha might get lobbed in the Forth but hopefully it won't come to that).

New pattern

I wanted to make Mhara a shrug to keep her covered up at nursery since they're not allowed to play outside in the sun with bare shoulders. I had very definite ideas of how I wanted it to look - just covering the shoulders & with flared cuffs - & it turned out exactly as I pictured it. I was so chuffed I did a few sums & wrote it up for 3 different sizes, 2-4, 5-7 & 8-10 & it's now up for sale on ravelry & through my etsy shop.



& here's Mhara modelling her shrug -



Tour de Fleece day 8

Not a lot to report today - hopefully tomorrow's scraps will be a bit more colourful :0D

Tour de Fleece Week 1

That's week 1 gone already!

The spindle was getting heavy enough to break the yarn last night so this morning I wound off onto a spare bobbin (I intend to ply from the kate so will need the yarn on bobbins anyway for that). There was a lot more than I thought; tho' I've no idea what the yardage may be it took ages to wind off.

I decided to break out the mosaic-maker again for my end-of-week photo so without further ado, here it is.



This isn't all the crafting I've been doing today but it is all I can show - for now ;0)

Tour de Fleece day 5

Back to muted colours. I'm missing the zingy citrus colours but I do have 700g of superwash merino fibre & lots of koolaid so I may be having a play with those once the tour is done :0D

No other crafting today, just lots of tidying. I do plan to head off to bed shortly with a cuppa & a crochet hook however . . .

Tour de Fleece day 4

Just a quickie update on the progress of the spindled scraps -



Surprisingly enough, I'm still enjoying this. I guess the constant changing of the colours is helping keep it fresh. It's also fabulously easy to pick up whenever I have a spare few minutes.

Shop update

I've been busy. This morning on etsy I listed this headband -



& this afternoon I made not one but five orifice hooks, ready to be listed tomorrow once I get decent pics taken -



I also set up a Folksy shop, YarnJunkie. There's not much in it yet but I'll see what I can get together over the next few weeks.

Stringalong

Mhara got a bead box at the pound shop this morning & Rowan was going to get one too ‘til he spotted a pack of wee cars. Sure enough, by mid-afternoon he'd decided he should’ve got the beads after all so I trawled my bead box for all the chunky plastic ones I could find. To start with he had a hairy fit every time a bead wouldn’t go on the string 1st time but after unearthing some plastic cord he was off & running.



This kept my usually hyper wee boy quiet for over an hour & he went back to it after his tea. I’ve promised them more beads next time we go up town :0D

Tour de Fleece days 2 & 3

Not a huge amount done but here's day 2's effort -



& day 3 (without all the pretty fluff as a backdrop 'cos it's upstairs & I'm too idle to go get it)-



I’ve gotten through 4 different scraps so far & am finding it a huge challenge to switch between different breeds but it’s all good, if slow :0D