This is just so Kool!

When I first got back into knitting & crocheting I had zero interest in spinning my own yarn; I now have a spinning wheel, a handmade (by me) drop spindle & a turkish spindle. I also had no interest in dyeing yarn but now . . .

I've been playing with KoolAid.

This stuff is fabulous! All I need is some KoolAid sachets, cling film, medicine syringes (borrowed from the wee ones' Calpol) & the old steam sterliser & I can do stuff like this -



These are all English wool tops which started out a creamy white & I used just 4 flavours to get all these different shades.









The bottom one is called Strawberry Toffos (anybody remember those?) but the rest are all nameless as I have no imagination for stuff like that :0S

I can't wait to see how these spin up!

In a spin

I've been taking part in the second Spinners Swap on ravelry. I had been really miffed at missing out on the first one (too many commitments at the time to guarantee it the attention it needed) so I was really chuffed when vampy decided to do another so soon.

I've been dyeing, spinning, washing & whacking like mad for the last couple of weeks but I can't post any of the stuff for my partner Claire yet as I still haven't mailed off her package (who would have thought yarn would take so long to dry inside - this miserable weather's getting right up my nostrils). I can however post pics of the parcel I received from Gina aka Norfolkknitter. Take a look at this . . .



There was a gorgeous skein of superwash BFL handspun yarn - if I ever manage to spin like this I'll be over the moon -



BFL/silk in 'Blackberries' -



A wool/kid mohair/silk batt from Wildcraft made with wool from Buffy (I love being able to see who the wool came from - that's brilliant!) -



And a silk hankie (just *look* at the colour of that!), a bag of luscious silk fibre, a wee lavender bag & scrummy lavender & rosemary soaps -



I've been totally spoilt & I'm so, so happy with my goodies - Gina was wondering if she may have gone a little overboard on the silk but I'm not sure that's possible.Mhara & Rowan helped me unwrap the parcel (they insist on squishing every bit of fibre that comes into the house) & now they keep raiding my basket for the bag of silk so they can fondle it :0D

Thank you again Gina - it was a wonderful gift :0)

I'm (almost) published!!!!!

Back in February/March I took part in a fingerless glove swap on ravelry. I wanted to knit gloves for my partner rather than my usual crochet but couldn't find any patterns that had a little bit of WOW! but were easy enough for a knitting numpty like me to work up.

So I designed my own.

Once they were done I was so chuffed with them that I posted pics in my projects. Which prompted a message from another raveller who said that her friend was putting together a whole book on fingerless gloves & would I be interested in publishing my pattern.

Would I? Hell, yes! And if you take a look at the cover of Off The Cuff you'll see that Signs of Spring are not only in the book but ON THE COVER! Sorry for shouting there but Gordon Bennet - my glove is on the COVER of a book (it's the yellow one on the bottom right in case anyone was wondering). And not only that but the lovely lady got me to design another 2 variations of the pattern too!

So if anyone is interested in fingerless gloves I urge you to check this book out. It's a how to design your own gloves book with a generous helping of ready to make patterns too & they are gorgeous - just head on over to the site & scroll down for pics of some of the gloves. I'm already mentally cataloguing my stash to see which yarns I can use for my favourites.