art equals happy.

To ply or not 2ply- that is the question! :: Wool on the Wheel.

Hello! This is a blend I made- originally to be half of a yarn that would be used in my first jumper- but now that it is all spun up it's almost too pretty to combine with the turqouise below...What do you think? I wanted it to be playful and vibrant (as this will be the only handspun in my jumper, and the rest of the colours are browns, creams and mossy greens)- which is why I added in lots of touches of other colours. In the 'Apricot & Mustard' blend, I added bits of orange, yellow, grey and a teensy bit of red. And in the 'Turqouise', there are hints of apricot, mustard, jade(mohair!), grey and a pale lavendar.No idea if I'll ply them together or not. It was really really fun to design, card and spin so no doubt I'll make some more in the future... or something similar at least! Kimxo

p.s. Wool is so soft. <3 

Mesmerising Spinning. :: Spinning & Video & B.A.

Here is something to get you relaxed for your sunday afternoon.

This was just shot quickly (well, it took me 3 hrs to spin it!) to illustrate an idea for college. It's sort of the first step in a long process I'm involved in at college right now. Thought you'd enjoy it.
Have a good day. kxo 

I love my carder. :: Wool on the Wheel.

Having the carder has made spinning a whole lot more interesting and fun! I've been playing with mixing colours more and stripes and things. This was done in the same method as Mum's xmas gift- but I did the gradient (from pinks to yellows) in each batt- so the stripes repeat themselves about 6 times!I added liberal amounts of white to this, to keep it bright and airy. Spun it up as chunky and them plyed with thin cotton thread. I love how you really get to see the mix of colours. So tactile and soft!See more spinning here.

Q: Barnicles wanted to know if the method of spinning is the same when you are plying it with cotton.
A: When you spin the fleece- it's exactly the same. When you ply it with the cotton, you've got to sort of hold the cotton a bit tighter to get that 'crimping' effect. [: I hope that's what you meant. I feel like you can be looser when spinning the fleece, because the cotton is going to give it strength.

This might just be my favourite skein I've done so far! Not that I play favourites... hehe!

Heather's xmas gift. :: Wool on the Wheel.

Yay! This christmas I made a special blend for my dear friend Heather. She spoke to me about wanting to make some leg warmers- and I know how much she appreciates handmade and skillful crafts (being rather talented herself). Here is the (pretty fat!) skein I spun up especially for her. It's 2ply and a chunky weight.The base colours- a reddish brown and an oatmeal grey, I blended them twice on the carder, to get a more even colour. The brown is mostly acyrillic (so she can wash them!) and the grey is pure BFL wool. It made quite a nice earthy tone when blended. I made this a little more funky by making it a 'tweed'. I added in tons of other colours here and there. It was a great way to use up all that bits I had laying around.I thnk it's going to knit up beautifully! It really reflects on Heather. She's grounded and down to earth- but with tons of hidden moments of happiness and joy and pure brilliance. Not to mention soft and cuddly.Some silly photos of us after she opened her gift. [:Love you!
See more Wool on the Wheel posts here. 

Mum's Xmas gift. :: Wool on the Wheel.

To kick off this cool new feature called 'Wool on the Wheel'- I've got some pictures of a blend I made up for my Mum's Christmas present. [: I think you'll like it.This was something different for me- a bit more experimental. I wanted to create something uneven and fun- something Mum wouldn't buy for herself usually. Also, I knew I wanted to ply it up with a thin cotton- so this meant I could play with the colours of the fleece more.

For those interested below is what it looked like before and after carding (I added White fleece as well).This is fun, because it will knit up in a very long stripe-like a gradient. From pinks to purples!!! It spun up really quickly & was super satisfying to make!Luckily, she liked it too. Here she is on Christmas morning:It's made up of mostly 100% wool. A few of the colours had some Acyrillic in them. Plyed with Cotton thread. All British. Spun in December 2011.

Carding and Spinning :: Knitting & My Life

It was my 21st birthday at the end of October, and Mum and Dad surprised me big time! We visited a Spinning/Weaving show in Lewes and my very own Drum Carder was waiting for me. I really couldn't believe it. It's been on my list for a while now- and it's going to save me so much time and energy. I can card, like, 20 times the amount of wool in the same time & I'm not totally exhausted. I think my Mum was really pleased about that- she always worries that I work too hard.I bought myself some beautiful natural fibres and did my first blend that day! (As seen at top, Oatmeal BFL and some pink curly handdyed bits.)(hehe, the batts always look like clouds or cotton candy when they come off!)
I took these photos below today, because I finished spinning it recently!Some people were asking for more sock weight yarns, so this was my attempt at skinny spinning and then plying.Obviously, it's still got that beautiful handspun feel with some bits thicker or thinner than others. And I'm super pleased at how the pink just peeks out here and there. I spun some like this, but with a darker blue & it's knits up super nicely!

What do you think? Should I make a fun neutral range with splashes of colour in them?