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Monday 20 January 2014

Elephant-itis

WOW - almost 2 weeks since I last posted.  But I haven't been idle.  Eric's first grandson is due to arrive on the planet at the end of January (not long now), so I've been busy making his blanket.  I wasn't planning to post photos on here until it was ready as I didn't want to spoil the surprise.  I don't think they look on my blog very often though, and anyway I wanted to show you how I was getting on.

The spinning is taking me some time because I'm spinning fairly fine and then Navajo plying (3-ply), so everything I've spun reduces to a third when I ply it.  I wanted to do it this way because you finish up with a more "rounded" yarn than a simple 2-ply would be.

The fleece I'm using is from Maco Merinos and looks like this before processing :-


I'm spinning this without washing it first because, unlike a lot of spinners nowadays, I actually like spinning "in the grease", i.e. the lanolin is still present.  I'm separating this fleece into it's individual locks and flick carding the ends so it looks like this :-


How fluffy is that, eh?

Then I'm making rolags from that (sorry, no photos, but I'm sure you've seen them before on here!).

Spinning in progress :-


and finally, the knitting . . .


The knitting is only a quarter of the way through, so I need to get my skates on.  So far I've used one complete ball of the white, and then I ran out.  I've almost finished spinning the second ball, but estimate that I'll need at least another two after that.  Somehow, I don't think this is going to be finished in time for the birth, unless she crosses her legs!

One of my Christmas presents arrived just in time to start this blanket.  I've been hankering after some new knitting needles for quite a while, but held off because they are quite expensive.  Then I received two Amazon vouchers from two of the wicked stepsons (Thanks Dan and Matthew) and thought, what better way to use them than this, especially as the blanket is for Matthew's child.


Ta da!!

So, that's it for now.  I'll keep you informed with progress, but I'm unlikely to be doing any other projects until this is finished.

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