Lots of crafting

I guess in part because I missed last week, but it feels like I have a lot of crafting goodness to share with you this week.

On the needles:

For Christmas I received a copy of Knitting Wizardry, the UK version of the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits magazine. Lots of lovely patterns in there, I had been coveting it for a while.

My first cast on from it was the Cap full of caps by Kendra Nitta.

Sock yarn leftovers are combined with short rows to make a single hat that looks like a pile of five hats on top of each other.

A clever pattern but the sizing comes out huge. I fiddled with the stitch counts to get a size I am happy with. Currently stalled as I have stolen the needle for my next cast on and I need to decide if I want to include the colourwork stripe.

From the same book I have the Owl cardigan by Mari Chiba on the go.

I needed the 3.5mm needle from the hat for the ribbing.

The yarn is a gorgeous teal that is not coming out well on the screen, it has a mix of blue and green fibres, giving a multi-tonal effect.

I am toying with the idea of switching to working in the round once I get past the ribbing and steeking the cardigan. I am not a huge fan of purling as I find it slower than the knit stitch. Sewing machine is currently out of action and I don't entirely trust a crochet steek so still weighing up the options here.

I have also has my long neglected sock yarn blanket out of hibernation and added six squares to it. Need to do this more regularly or it will actually never be completed!

Off the needles:

Just one off the needles. My somewhat edited version of the Elementary Watson Socks by Sherry Menton is done.  

I altered the cables and had to adjust the heel to make the numbers work.

Yarn is a standard Regia 4-ply sock yarn.

Designer business:

The pre-release publicity for the Yarn in the City's Crafty Guide to London has begun. You can read my interview and see the sock pattern I designed for the book on their blog.

In a spin:

A lot of my crafty activity has been spinning, it has just grabbed my attention this week.

I started with plying the drop spindle singles I had made at shows over the past year or so. A navy plied with a blue/grey mix. The leftover navy singles were navajo plied to give a three ply yarn. 

Once that was done I started the green fibre that I bought at Fibre East last year. I think it is merino but forgot to write it down.

Having done the first bobbin (fibre split into three for a three ply yarn) I realised I was out of bobbins. I needed to skein up my plied yarn to free some up. 

Since I was on a plying/bobbin clearing mission I made the decision to ply the linen/merino and alpaca singles that I was unsure about too. The end of the alpaca was handy plied to give a two ply yarn.

Really pleased with the alpaca linen/merino yarn in the end. It is pretty chunky and textural. Suspect it may become a single skein cowl.

A complete set of free bobbins meant I could motor on with the green fibre. Trying to spin a little faster and thicker without too much compromise on evenness. All three singles are now done (this morning) and are resting in preparation for plying.

These will most likely be plied tomorrow as I have a big pile of fluffy alpaca fibre that I am keen to start spinning up.

I have also had an old drop spindle project out, this was most likely also a demo piece, but it was so long ago I don't remember. There is just a little fibre left to spin so I will try to get it finished up this week.

I had forgotten how HUGE this spindle is. It is the Ashford one I started with.