July

Now my main holiday is over (and the need for sleeves), I have been sitting knitting other things. Rogue has benefited from this – am almost up to the shoulders on the back. It’s not that Rogue is difficult or time consuming to knit, it just gets interrupted by other knitting, and my Petal bag from some French/Dutch magazine with the Noro Mo my SP9 sent me is looking good (just need to knit the base and make two cords).

I’m having a tidying up blitz. Because of this warping mill, which I was given to make long skeins for self-patterning yarn - it has to live somewhere.

I know it is only a passing phase. So far it has involved dismantling some of the shelving in my craft room (a room for the storage of craft stuff rather than the doing of) so I can get more boxes piled up on top of each other rather than on shelves. I am sending much paper to be recycled and getting rid of the shelving on Freecycle. And I finally spun up the Bowmont which I drum carded months ago. Bowmont is a cross between merino and Shetland – there was an article in the Journal of Weavers Spinners and Dyers last year and I bought a small bag of it at Woolfest 2006. It’s a short fibre so I tried out long draw on it, after learning the technique at that Woolfest. The resulting yarn is a bit slubby for me, and probably not as elastic as it ought to be but it’s nice enough for a first try.
I also made this bag for the International Tote Bag Exchange and sent it off to Lia. It’s about 10”x8” and lined with a lilaccy material. I still have no idea whether it has reached its destination but I hope so. The yarn was a slightly slubby wool mix bought in Madrid and knitted in a shadow cable pattern which I will use again. I haven't received a bag yet to show off but I can still hope.

June

I was mainly knitting a pair of sleeves. No there was no jumper needed to attach them. The reason? - 16th century kirtles (dresses) do not have knitted sleeves attached. They should possibly have been tied on with points, but as I don’t have the requisite holes in the top of my kirtle, they were safety pinned on… Noone could see the safety pins as I was wearing a short sleeved gown over. The sleeves were widely admired, which is always gratifying and I found them more comfy than the cloth ones I have previously worn. In effect they’re like shaped socks only without the foot. There are no known contemporary pictures of knitted sleeves but they are widely mentioned in accounts, whether bought or sold or even stolen! The yarn is my handspun BFL dyed with madder root.


Well it appears to be the end of SP10 (I didn’t participate this time), but I never did receive a parcel from my SP9 spoiler or angel. Ah me.

Have been slowly putting things on Ravelry. My name is Jael if you want to look, but my photographic skills are almost non-existent and I don’t have a lovely garden in which to artistically display items!

Made it to the Birmingham knitters who gather at the Shakespeare on the last Tuesday of the month. We were a select group but it was a most enjoyable evening.