And? Any resolutions???

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Happy New Year everyone! I hope yous survived the festive season without too much trouble and are looking forward to filling the pages of this New Year!

We had a great last few weeks, fun and busy, which explains the silence on the blogside of things... Add a few deadlines, a bit of Noro, kids at home... and you have a busy mommy who still does lots of crafting, but doesn't really have the time and energy to blog about it!

I started with a day at Midwinterwol, where I manned the stand for the National Spinning Group with Hetty and Titia. We gained a few more members and I had great fun spinning and carding all day. Good thing we wrapped up warm, because it was quite chilly in the riding school where the event was held.

Hetty with her spindle
Titia behind her lovely Country wheel
We all brought lots of homespun yarn and roving to show what you can do with wool
The batts I carded at Midwinterwol. All little packages of soft goodness
Of course, I didn't just stand there all day carding away, I had a look at all the lovely stuff on offer as well and did some shopping. First, I bought some sock wool, as I desperately need some socks, and it would be cool to have some properly homespun socks...
I fell for the mocca-red-purple mix by Jeanet Koek. It's a merino/cheviot/mohair mix, and it was fun spinning this up... It only took me 3 days (2 evenings spinning, 1 plying) to turn this...
Sock mix roving
into this...
The spun yarn (3-ply, merino/cheviot/mohair)
And then a few more days to knit these... They are lovely and warm! I've no problem with itching when it comes to mohair, they just feel soft and comfy to me! Very happy!
And spun into socks, 60 stitch, coffee bean pattern
The second buy of the day at Winterwol was this lovely little spindle... It had been calling me for a while on the Internet, and once I saw it in real life, it just started shouting... So this little Kolibrie came home with me...

Kolibri spindle by Wol Uniek
I'm still working on the sample wool that came with it, but as soon as I'm finished with that, I want to spin up the 5 colours of roving I got in Shetland.

Look how thin I can spin!
I took this spindle with me to Stitch 'n Bitch, and after touching it and giving it a try, Monique fell for the little cuties and ordered one herself too. See, I 'made' another spinner!

I not only bought roving, I also got a lovely bag of baby camel from Sandra, who came along to Midwinterwol with me. It's just the softest stuff ever! I'm still debating on whether I'm going to dye it first before spinning, after spinning or not at all... Any suggestions?

Baby camel from De Spinners
And that wasn't it, haha... Noooo... I did a bit of shopping at Dutch Wool Diva too... Some more sock yarn, lace and Donegal nep yarn. Lovely stuff!!!

The sock yarn I'm knitting with now...
It was actually quite hard to justify all these purchases, because see what I got myself for Christmas?

The Exploding WOW bag, before exploding...
Again, the Internet was to blame here... A friend from Ravelry had purchased a pound of miscellaneous roving at World of Wool, and after seeing what she got, I was sold... So I bought 2 pound myself, which, after some reorganizing, came out as a nice rainbow of colours...

Lots of pinks and dark colours, plus plenty of natural colours and even some camel/silk. Spoilt!
I also bought some smaller mixed bags, and some throwster's waste. All lovely stuff, some of which made its way into the little batts from earlier in this post!

There was more knitting too... This year, I wore new Xmas socks - not red and white like last year, but pink and turquoise, really kick-ass!

No finished photo yet, and they're in the wash now...
I also received some yarn in my Xmas hamper, and that was quickly turned into a lovely hat...

Purple baby merino and colourful Noro yarn
My head is buzzing with lots of new ideas for the new year, and I will try and keep you updated on it all...

There will definitely be a fun post about our first Spin-in in Leeuwarden, at my house, on January 11. Looking forward to it!

Comments

MoniqueB. said…
Yes, my resolution? To learn from you how to spin that thin like you! I'm on my way but could do with a lesson or 2 more.

The socks rock! fierce colours. And the WOW bag is indeed wow.

Still, after all these years, amazed how quick you are with crafting.
January 18, 2013 at 8:36 AM
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