Fauxlags and Masterchef

Lazy, rainy and cold Sunday. I'm watching Uk Masterchef and making 'fauxlags'. They are like rolags that you make with hand cards. but these are made with a commercial combed top.

I have used HF Polwarth fibre, a club colourway.

Why would one make these you ask? Well, I did it mainly for colour management. I'm looking for a mottled gradient of colours. Also, it gives you an opportunity to practice long-draw woolen spinning technique. I have made a little picture tutorial on how I made my fauxlags. Click for a bigger picture. (and excuse the chipped nail polish!) Pre-draft your fibre first, it needs to be light and fluffy before you start rolling it onto a pencil or something similar.

 As you spin these little cocoons  the air get's trapped in the spiral-like unwinding of the fibre. In theory, resulting in a lofty, woolen spun single, but without the lengthy process of hand-carding. I will put this to the test, I'm very curious, if the spun yarn will be any squishier.

Here they are, arranged by colour. 

I enjoyed making the fauxlags a lot,  it's just something different to do with your combed top.

I think Floyd wants to steal one... But he is forgiven today, as he's undergoing a massive surgery tomorrow - his hip is dislocated. Fingers crossed for him tomorrow, hope everything goes well. 

another one bites the dust

My handspun crocheted granny square blanket is finished and I couldn't be more excited. It's so pretty and colourful. I've spun all of the yarn as fulled singles, I've described the process here.

I've tried to colour-coordinate the yarns a bit, in fact I've spun probably enough for 2 blankets, but not all of the yarns made the cut. I've left out the more green toned yarns, I thought it would make the blanket too rainbow-like.

I'm pretty sure all of the fibres I ended up using are Hedgehog Fibres, some club, some non-club colours. The Polwarth is probably my favourite for this project. Not baby's bum soft but not scratchy. I think the kitten soft merino squares will probably wear much quicker than the Polwarth or the Corriedale.

 These giant squares were such a pleasure to make. Quick enough, only two ends to weave in for every square. There are 9 squares in total. I've used a single crochet to put the blanket together and there's one round of single crochet edging.

(...psst, if you'd like to start a similar project, there are few more spinning memberships left in the shop)

Maybe I should go start another one with all of the greeny yarns that didn't make the cut :)

clubs!

New memberships are available in the shop. We have our famous Sock club and also Twist and Spinning clubs, equally as awesome :)

If you'd like to see examples of what we do for the clubs, check out this thread on Ravelry (Warning, spoilers!)

I will just leave you with pretty pictures of our previous club colourways now...

Hot water bottle cozy

  This has been my saviour for the past few days. When the sun goes down and there's no more heating in the house (...it's spring for f***'s sake...), it gets pretty cold. Nothing beats coming out of the shower into a toasty bed. Nothing, I say!

Super easy and only few hours to knit up. I used Noro Taiyo scraps and some HF Merino Aran in Ghost. I casted on like for a toe up sock, 68 stitches on 4mm needles and knitted up a straight tube. Decreased a little on the top and then knitted a few rounds of ribbing. Yes, you can remove the cover, the ribbing really pulls in and it's really stretchy. So happy with my new snuggly hot water bottle!

hello!

It finally feels like spring today! The monsters are saying hello!

Have a lovely weekend!