Lately, I’ve had many things on the go and they’ve all been taking longer than planned to complete. Rather than rushing them to finish them off to show them here, I’ve decided to show you some photos of the work in progress.
First, some resin casting, with some birdy whorls soon to be drilled on my brand new press drill to become top whorl spindles:
Magpie whorls in 6 and 7 cm diametres, weight ranging from 27g to 38g.
In terms of spinning, I’ve been spinning tussah silk on my Russian spindle Annia for the last couple of months, and loving it. I’m aiming for a 2-ply laceweigt, which I’ll probably leave undyed and plan to knit into a stole. I didn’t do a sample and I’ve just been spinning without much control, as I was still getting to know Annia, so I’ve no idea of the yardage I’m going to have when I’m done:
Tussah silk: Fibers, one cop spun, another in progress on my Russian spindle Annia.
Also on the spindles: I’ve got quite a bit of Blue Faced Leicester in yummy browns spun on my little Grace and on Jarod, destined to be a 4-ply. I’ve done one Turkishful and almost twice as much on Jarod, which I’m going to make into an Andean bracelet to ply once it’s exactly double the weight of the first cop. For the last of the singles for the 4-ply, I’m currently spinning a second Turkishful:
Blue Faced Leicester, including knit swatch.
On the knitting side of things, I was waiting on some T-pins I ordered to get the Echo Flower shawl a second blocking. They finally arrived this morning, so I gave my shawl a soak of Eucalyptus Eucalan bought at Unravel, and it is now blocking again.
I suddenly realised last night that I needed an instant gratification project. So I decided to take some merino I spun a little while back as an attempt to spin thickish, and I cast on an improvised cafetiere cosy. When Eddie comes round and the expresso machine is just not right for the amount of coffee we drink, but the cafetiere always goes cold before we’ve had the time to drink it all… This, I hope, will be of help. And in the meantime I’m having fun with braids and making things up… Here is last night’s progress, I think it’s already half way there:
There are always a few more projects on the needles and the spindles in the background, but those are my main points of focus at the moment.
How about you? Are you quite monogamous in your projects or a bit of a philanderer like me?
The ways of the whorl 
March 10th, 2011 at 09:45
The echo flower shawl looks gorgeous and I’m secretely jealous of your spinning mojo, I wish some of that would stick to me !
I’m generaly loyal to and in love with two projects at anytime…but the eyes keep looking and searching about ..x
March 10th, 2011 at 11:14
Thanks Ilana! I’m eagerly waiting for the shawl to dry, but I have decided to leave it pinned for 48 hours, because I suspect my impatience was partly to blame for the ever-shrinking first blocking.
I think you should give spinning another try. When I come back to the Thursday evening group (sometime in April I think), I’ll bring a nicer spindle and if you want you can have another go. If you’re going to have alpacas it would be a shame not to learn to spin…
Two projects at a time seems like a nice balance, not quite as scatterbrains as my approach, yet you still have the possibility of having both something simple and something more challenging on the go…
March 15th, 2011 at 07:52
I’ve usually got my knitty fingers in several pies, but curiously at the moment they’re mostly just in my head. I’ve had an uncharacteristic fit of willpower that has prevented me from spinning anything since before Christmas until I got all the gift IOUs out of the way and made headway with the Bloomin’ Marvellous stuff. Now I am putting the finishing touches to the shooting star and beginning to think I can relax and start dabbling again. My contract at the city council finishes in 2 weeks time with little prospect of anything else, so I’ll have all the project time in the world… Next up some of your stars! If I can drag myself away from all the fibre i’ve got calling to me. Oh yes and I’ve got some hand dyed Lambswool/silk very fine laceweight waiting to become a shawl, so there might be an Echo in me too. Hope to see you soon, C!
March 23rd, 2011 at 07:27
Those whorls are beautiful. Are you going to sell the spindles? If so, where? I might need one.
March 23rd, 2011 at 22:08
Thank you, sent you an email