I just completed probably my best ever spinning. It started life as Fyberspates Sparkle Fibre dyed top, a luxurious blend of merino, silk and glittery stelina, in ‘grey and mauve’. It’s pretty, evenly spun, evenly plied, bouncy and soft, but… I’m not overjoyed with it. First of all, I seem incapable to skinning two skeins [...]
You could be forgiven for thinking that not much knitting has been happening at Sparkle Towers, but this is not the case. I have a new pattern in development (more about that soon) and a couple of pairs of socks to share with you. A recent a bout of illness left me unable to do [...]
A little project from earlier in the year I thought I’d share… Knitting blankets in 4 ply yarn is slow going, but when that yarn is Kureyon Sock it’s so worth it. This one took me about six weeks, but I didn’t notice the hours as it was so enjoyable to make. The method was [...]
A while ago, Jessica, one of my partners in craft, mentioned that she wanted some drapey, lace-weight yarn in a bright, light green for a summer shawl. I happened to have a bargain cone of bouclé cashmere and silk lace-weight without a purpose so I offered to dye some for Jessica. With unusually poor judgement [...]
If 2010′s stash down attempt was evaluated in a school report, it would read ‘must try harder’. I do try, honestly. I created another pretty heat-map of my stash yarn (if you’re using an RSS reader, visit the to see it): Yarn in stash 2 ply / lace 4 ply 5 ply / sport DK [...]
I’m having a new year stash clear out. I’ve got lots of yarn that I don’t think I’m going to use, but maybe you will? There are 5 skeins that I’ve dyed myself in semi-solid colours (mostly natural dyes), some Colinette, Debbie Bliss and Rowan. The images above link to my stash items on Ravelry. [...]
Happy 2011 to you! I did a spot of dyeing in the final days on 2010. The sock yarn was created by dipping sections in royal blue and yellow, then over-dyeing with pink or turquoise (all using Procion MX and citric acid). The self striping yarn was dyed in a 3 m hank I made [...]
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s the importance of at all times having a stash of fine quality, hand-dyed sock yarn. When I noticed that Cocoon had a few skeins of my favourite sock yarns; Fyberspates Sheila’s Sock and British Merino Dream Sock, at a discounted price, how could I resist?
Mooncalf has declared 1 April official Flash Your Stash Day, so here are my highlights:
It seems like many of my favourite yarns are now discontinued; Jaeger Extra Fine Merino, Rowan 4 Ply Soft and Noro Cash Iroha to name a few, not to mention the RYC line being shelved. It’s about time there was some good news from the yarn world, and there is, yay! Colinette have introduced a [...]
I love fine gauge yarns, but it’s always nice to see the instant results that you get knitting super-chunky yarn on big needles. Chunky yarn gives you the freedom to experiment, knowing that you can re-knit in no time if it doesn’t work out. There are some lovely patterns around for Rowan Big Wool, but [...]
If you’ve seen my patterns you’ll know that I’m quite fond of mohair. However, I’m banishing it from my stash, maybe forever!
I have often looked longingly at pictures of neatly wound yarn on Ravelry after spending hours standing over an upturned table, fending off two cats while hand-winding metre after metre. The thought of hand-winding 900 m of Colinette Jitterbug was actually deterring me from using it, so it was time to invest in a ball [...]
