Last weekend, right before I returned to work for the new year, I did a Summer School class at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Vic. I haven’t been back to the guild since I completed my Spinning certificate early in 2023, so undertaking Janet Day’s Sensational Singles class was a super nice way to visit.
Now I’m normally not a fan of singles yarn, but Janet has made me a bit of a convert… or at least I’m prepared to include spinning singles as an option for making yarn in the future. The class was over 2 days, which was a luxurious amount of time to take in all the knowledge that Janet so generously shares with her students. If you ever have an opportunity to take a class with Janet, I would highly recommend it. I’ve left the class feeling inspired and also with a new spinning project on the wheel.
As predicted, with my return to work this week, my knitting and crafting has slowed somewhat. But I have now completed the colourwork part of my yoke on my Paul Klee sweater. I’ve got a few more increase rows to go and then I’m almost at the part to divide for my sleeves/body. I’m looking forward to the plain part of the project, as it will make for easy TV knitting, whilst I still get to enjoy looking at the colours dancing around the yoke. I think I’m on track to finish this jumper in January, yippee!
I’ve begun my Paul Klee sweater by Midori Hirose this week, and the yoke is flying along, I’m obsessed. Just one more colour, just one more chip. (I don’t even like potato chips all that much)
Whilst I am working from the limitations of the 24 colour palette of Kate Davies, Milarrochy Tweed (compared to the hundreds of colours in the Jamieson & Smith range) I think I’m still achieving a lovely rainbow of colour, and there’s still 2–3 rows of colour to go.
Alas, my holiday is almost at it’s end. I am not able to work so intensely on the yoke over the next 2 days, as I’m off doing something fun, but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in the final 2.5 colour rows before I return to work on Tuesday.
Happy New Year! I love a fresh new year, planning and goal setting are my favourite things to do as a maker; and it makes perfect sense to do that on the first day of the year.
But before I go ahead, I wanted to share the completed hedgehog ornament with CA and you all. It’s even cuter with a face!
I also completed a small spinning project this week, embarrassingly it’s the first one since I completed my Certificate of Spinning early in 2023.
I am thrilled with it. The fibre is from a Southern Cross Fibre Club, it’s organic merino and the colour name is Tokyo. It is worsted spun, in a fractal spin, it’s come out to a light fingering weight yarn. Perhaps I’ll make a hat with it.
This sudden burst of crafting before the end of the year is due to time off from work. And with just one more week to go before I return to work, I am loving this productivity during staycation, when can I give up work?
In 2024, I hope to read more, be healthier, and to make more in general, but also more specifically I hope to knit more jumpers/sweaters this year. In 2023, my Amina sweater was the only jumper I completed; my wardrobe is crying out for new knits and I intend to fulfil my knitting dreams this year. I have a rough goal of casting on for a new sweater every month, want to join me for the ride?
Starting with the Paul Klee sweater by Midori Hirose. Whilst I thought had my colour sequence sorted, yesterday when I started colouring-in my planning sheet, I discovered I needed 11 rows / 22 colours for my size. I originally had mistakenly thought I only needed 9 rows / 18 colours, because I had just referred to the pattern photograph. Luckily, I was able to come up with the additional colours and sequence from the 24 ball Kate Davies advent calendar. Although I discovered, blue might be her favourite colour, and she is missing a light purple to complete the colour spectrum.
In 2024, I also hope to spin a lot more for pleasure, and to practise the craft, because let’s face it, I don’t want to forget everything I’ve just learned. Becoming a better spinner is not just about the education, I need to do it more often. So with that, I’d love to spin for a jumper, perhaps Andrea Mowry’s Weekender? I do have a lot of beautiful fibre in my stash, so purchasing some fibre for it is not necessary. I’m interested in doing a combo spin perhaps for it, Andrea’s been talking about this on her podcast. I have lots of 100gm lots of different coloured hand-dyed top, which would be fun to combine, or if I can hack it (the boredom), I also have beautifully prepared natural coloured Polwarth top from Tarndie in a jumpers worth of fibre, purchased eons ago.
That’s about all for now, I NEED to pick back up my Nimue crochet blanket, and swatch for Paul Klee. I also have a pile of socks to darn… the list goes on.
Sonia Knits 