More coils...

Thermograph, originally uploaded by Bright Side.

I think I might be slightly obsessed with coils. After spinning lots of fine yarns in the past few months I'm really enjoying the practically instant gratification of a coiled yarn. This lot is made from Spunky Eclectic bfl in "Thermograph", as well as a silver viscose/metallic thread as the core. I'm going to be experimenting with other core threads soon. Anyway, this lot of coils is going to be a trial run for a slouchy mobius cowl, which I'll hopefully then be making with my "Thrive" coils. I've bought 15mm ends for my denise needles and a huge circular extension so that I can make the mobius strip using Cat Bordhi's excellent cast on technique.

Ishbel in progress

Ishbel in progress, originally uploaded by Bright Side.

After finishing my teddy bear for the baby, I thought I'd take a break from baby knitting and knit something for me. I've wanted my own small scarf/shawl for a while, so the Ishbel pattern by Ysolda Teague looked perfect. I'm struggling a little with the YO between the purl and 3 knit stitches, as when I come back to that section on the next row it all seems to have tumbled out of place, and so there are a couple of places where I've knit the wrong bit. I've checked that I'm doing the YO correctly, so I'm not quite sure what the problem is. I'm going to muddle along and see how it turns out in a few more rows.

The shawl is knit in my own 2 ply handspun, spun from Spindlefrog hand dyed falkland fibre in "Rockpool". The mix of greens, yellow and grey is just right for me.

Spinning again

Thrive Coils, originally uploaded by Bright Side.

I know that this blog has been very quiet while the crafting mojo was squished by my morning sickness- apologies. Now that the morning sickness has just about worn off, I'm finally back to knitting and spinning again. Here's something fun I've been working on for our guild Artsweek competition. It's Hello Yarn corriedale in "Thrive", which has made these wonderful squishy coils. I've been doing a bit of experimenting with coils and I think a squishy fibre like corriedale or BFL is what I like best. I've just made some in some "wool top" which although has turned out well, isn't quite as bouncy as the corriedale. I think I'll experiment a bit more with some other fibres and see what happens.