My fibre fluff challenge #1

Hi, for those who haven't met me, I'm the one who spins and a consequence of that is that I knit with hand spun rather than commercial yarns. Now I know that this sounds a little strange when I co-own a knitting shop but it is the knitting and the process that interest me.

So I've set myself a little challenge, to use items/materials from the shop to create something other than knitting or crochet, I will allow the use of some hand spun and some embellishments, beads etc and embroidery threads. But really I am looking to try and use the yarns and fibres that can be readily purchased from Knit Nottingham.

Am I being a bit crazy here, what do you think? or should I just knuckle down and knit a shawl with some riot? and come to that, have you seen the new colours!!!

Anyway I have dug out a useful piece of kit, some remnants of Mirage and some spinning fibres.

 For the uninitiated, this is an embellisher, looks like a sewing machine but has 5 felting needles which go up and down. These needles are barbed so they mesh the fibres together to form a felted cloth. You can buy felting needles and use them in a wooden needle holder to achieve the same effect, this is just a lot faster.

Before I go any further, here is a video that shows how the machine works and if you look very carefully you will also see that it is also easy to break the needles!! If you know me, you may notice that most of this if filmed using my left hand and this is the reason that I tend to spin left handed, you will see that when my right hand appears it is in plaster!! yes, the moral of the story is don't go ice skating, you may end up as a knitting shop owner.

My fibre fluff challenge #2 to follow shortly

Guzzisue