Wednesday 12 October 2016

Variation on a theme

Hi all!

I've been quite busy over the last week. Not only bunny-chasing around the house, but as usual I have been spinning. Last weekend, I was part of a spinning demonstration at the National herd dog championships in Lier, Norway. Friday was just exhausting, as we had mostly pre-school kids coming in to watch us. They were just too small to understand what was going on, and were mostly just interested in sticking their fingers into the wheel... sigh. I almost made a little boy cry, when I told him he couldn't try the wheel. My spinning wheel was taller than him, and he was wearing rubber boots and it was just not going to happen.... Can't please them all, heh?

Saturday was better, lots of nice people coming in and we all had a great time. Wool was provided for us to spin, but the quality was horrible. I was a bit frustrated by this, as the whole point of us being there was part of an ongoing project to promote Norwegian wool. The fibre was supplied by one of the leading wool mills in Norway, but I think it's bad press to give us such crummy goods. Oh well.
At least we spun something, but I would much prefer to have brought my own fibre to spin.

As I was stuck at my wheel both days, I didn't get to have a look around. But there were herding competitions with live sheep, lots of sheep breeds on display, and all kinds of sheep related stuff.

On another note I have been knitting a bit. I found a great FREE pattern on Ravelry, and it was so easy and quick, that I made three pairs!



(It is very hard to photograph ones own hands!)



The main pattern is bamboo stitch, basically just ribbing (2k,2p) and on every fourth round you make a yarn over before the 2 knit stitches, and slip it over the knit stitches as you go. Easy peasy!

They are finished with a nice ruffled edge, making them a bit feminine. If the recipient is male, just skip the ruffles, and they are just straigth tubes. 

For my first two pairs I used self spun yarns, in rather funky colours. This easy pattern is great for multicolours, as the pattern itself don't compete with the yarn too much.


Self dyed and self spun yarn, 100% white Norwegian lambs wool.
2ply yarn.




Self dyed and self spun 50% Norwegian white and 50% Norwegian
fur sheep wool. 2 ply yarn.




This last pair is knit with some left over commercial yarn, an Alpaca and Peruvian wool blend. The pattern don't require a whole lot of yarn, I knit these on 3.5mm needles, and one pair weighs just 35 grams.






Have you been knitting anything lately?




2 comments:

  1. Oh, you have certainly been busy, those wrist warmers are great! I especially like the darker colourway of the second pair. Thanks for providing a link to the pattern, I could actually use some myself to wear with my 60s swing coat that has elegant but not very practical 3/4 length sleeves. But first I will need to finish a sweater for my daughter, I am almost there!

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  2. I have been wanting to make wrist warmers for my cold office in the winter. I just am not very good at knitting...

    These are so very pretty and will be useful.

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