Friday 28 March 2014

One of those years

There is a bumper crop of babies expected this year. Seems like I can't turn around for the announcements! Consequently, there will be periodic digressions into the small and obscenely cute. Case in point:



These will be winging their way to Canada in the near future to warm the wee toes of a long-awaited small person. Now I just need to decide on a hat or more booties for the next project...

Wednesday 19 March 2014

What's this?

Is that...?

It can't be.

Can that really be handspun?



Good lord. I believe it is.

Yes, my kittens, I have finally finished a spinning project in 2014. This is my most recent "spin on a spindle while at SCA events" project. I was definitely working on it at Raglan last summer, and I'm pretty sure I started it well before that. Let's say I've been working on it, on and off, for the best part of a year. High time it was finished, in other words.

As is my usual practice with event spinning, I divided a braid of fiber into rough thirds, spun each of them on a spindle, wound off onto a wheel bobbin, and then 3-plied until one of the bobbins ran out. The smaller skein is the chain-plied leftovers from the two fuller bobbins. Given that the smaller skein is also a full quarter of the fiber, I'm thinking I should start dividing with the aid of my scales instead of eyeballing it.

Monday 17 March 2014

A trio of finished projects

My sister-in-law made it onto the knitworthy list a while back, so when she asked me to make her a red hat to go with the mitts I made her for Christmas a couple of years ago, I was more than happy to oblige. Especially since it meant I didn't then need to figure out what to give her for her birthday!



After that, it was time to finish a couple of gifts for some SCA friends. The first was this pair of socks for a friend who looked after me at an event last summer.



Finally, we spent the weekend visiting friends. I made these as a hostess gift. A little unusual, perhaps, but she liked them!


Tuesday 4 March 2014

Keeping warm


Back when I was an undergraduate, I spent a lot of time hanging out with goths. (Not Goths.) My mother, awesome person that she is, made me a floor-length black wool hooded cloak, complete with lavender satin lining. It was the Coolest Thing Ever.

Fast forward mumblety-mumble years and I'm still wearing that cloak to SCA events despite the lining, because hey, it's warm, and you mostly can't see the lining if it's wrapped around me properly. Replacing it with something a little more appropriate has been on the agenda for a while now, but there have always been other projects that took priority.

Last weekend I was tidying up my stash, because fiber falling on one's head is annoying if not actually dangerous. In the process I found some fur. Rabbit fur, to be precise, sewn together to look like vair. And as it happens, there are three blankets of the stuff. I'd been toying with the idea of turning them into a fur-lined cloak, but never gotten around to buying fabric.

Then I had a brainwave. I could disassemble the Coolest Cloak Ever and repurpose the wool into a new, improved, Even Cooler Cloak, No Really It Is. Goodness knows there's enough wool there. I could even sew up the wee holes from bonfire sparks and moths. It'll go well with the apron-dress, and perhaps it'll keep me from freezing at a future tournament!

Now, where did I put that seam ripper...