Inkle loom weaving

Hi , I've had a few people ask about the inkle loom so I thought I would put together a few interesting links that may explain it a little further and update you on my latest band weaving.


To start with I am using 100% acrylic from the shop which is turning out to be a little stretchy and sticky but adequate for practising with, I will move onto wool mixes, maybe hand spun and mercerised cotton once I find a reasonable supply for a decent price.


There are some excellent tutorials on the net which explain how to warp up the loom and start with the basics.

Earth Guild
Ispindle
and this is a good video although it uses a schacht inkle loom the instructions are good and useful



things like the tension device can be different but the general idea is the same.

If you fancy making an Inkle loom then patterns can be found here and other places on the net

So here is the finished length, would make a good belt :-)



Ta for now, Sue x

Free For All

Because we love you all, we got the fabulous TricklingAmbrosia to design a pattern for you. She used the King Cole Cotton Bamboo DK and came up with this lovely washcloth pattern. Although it looks complicated, there are only four pattern rows, which are then repeated in different orders. We already have a larger version in the shop which is fantastic for either washing out mugs, or, when dry, for drying our hands on.

Chevron Dishcloth

Materials: 100g cotton DK, which will be enough to make two, or possibly even three!

One pair 4mm needles

Tension doesn’t matter

Abbreviations: K = knit, P = purl

Start

Cast on 49 stitches

Row 1 – (K7, P7) Repeat to last 7 stitches, K7

Row 2 – K1, (P7, K7) Repeat to last 6 stitches, P6

Row 3 – K5, (P7, K7) Repeat to last 2 stitches, P2

Row 4 – K3, (P7, K7) Repeat to last 4 stitches, P 4

Row 5 – As Row 4

Row 6 – As Row 3

Row 7 – As Row 2

Row 8 – As Row 1

Row 9 – As Row 2

Row 10 – As Row 3

Row 11 – As Row 4

Row 12 – As Row 4

Row 13 – As Row 3

Row 14 – As Row 2

Repeat rows 1-14 four more times. Cast off.

Holiday Knits Again

Now comes the question of what to knit whilst I'm actually there. This is a difficult decision, fraught with emotion. Knitting is still my hobby but now it's my business too I guess I'm going on holiday to 'have a break'. The minute I booked the holiday I went checking for LYSs in the area and came up with a stitch and bitch group that I could easily walk to on my last day. I was dead excited and posted it on facebook and June came back with the rather dry, 'busman's holiday then?'. Hmm. I see what she means.

Thing is, if I don't knit on my holidays, then I literally never knit for me. And the reason I own a bloody yarn shop is because I love knitting and I love wearing my knits! So I've been thinking, since I booked, about projects that are exciting and a 'break'. I've come to describe 'break' as something different from what I usually do (essentially, that'll just mean knitting that I really enjoy). So, here's my first decision:

Oranje by Weaverknits

This has got to be at least the 50th time I've mentioned this bloody pattern here so I won't go on and on. I think you all know that I'll be using the Fortissima in the orange and I'll weigh whether I have enough cream/white and black 4ply in the stash for the other bits and bobs. Otherwise it'll be a case for the truly lovely Truly Wool Rich 4ply. That's that. That's a definite!

Now, the second project (because, blimey, I've got at least 12 hours worth of journeys and three days in between!) is still up in the air. The first thought was this:

Ropery by Michaela Moores

It's a bit of an odd shape isn't it? But I have two tops I bought from Primark about seven or so years ago (I stopped buying from them soon after). Both of the tops are in a bit of a tatty state -I'm not complaining, they lasted a million times longer than they should have done. But I know that the shape suits me, and that I wear it. I also have this:

Which is the yarn that I spun for the Tour De Fleece last year (that I never updated you about - smack my hand...).

It knits up like this:

which I love - but the pattern just wasn't doing anything for me... I think the yarn will work, it's somewhere between laceweight and 4ply (got thicker as it went along...) which is really perfect. But I don't know if I will be a bit, well, bored? The Ropery pattern is pretty much stocking stitch (though by the sounds of it there's a lot of short rowing which I need to concentrate for, not one of those techniques that just slips into my brain, if you know what I mean) and until you get to the interesting bit, the Oranje is just stocking stitch. I don't want to get stuck in a foreign land (well, Bournemouth) with two boring projects.

So, my next thought was a big shawl. A proper shawl. I only have one, my Golden Laminaria which I ad-ad-ad-ad-ORE! But it's again, looking a bit tatty now. So I thought, something slightly more substantial but still light-weight - enter: the Truly Wool Rich 4ply and if you've ever asked me about it in the shop you'll know how much I heart the dove grey colourway (and I seem to have over-ordered so we have tonnes in stock).

Here's my list of options for the shawl but I think I'm pretty stuck on either:

My Heaven by Patusha

or:

Mermaid Shawl by Yo-El

What do you think?!!?

Love Eleanor. :)

Holiday Knits!!!!!

If you've been into the shop over the past week or so you will know that I am going on holiday. I am joining the grannies and going on a coach tour to Bournemouth in early May! I am over-the-moon-hippy-hoppy-happy-knock-me-down-with-a-feather-and-call-me-Wilbert-excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't been anywhere but Nottingham for at least four years (I don't think... at least, I can't remember) so excuse me while I do a little happy dance. It's all down to June of course, who needs massive, humongous, big, cuddly, scrumptious love for allowing me to get some downtime without the bloody nephew.

This is the hotel and I can't work out whether to be worried about the reviews or not. I think as long as there are no stains on the bedsheets I'm happy really. Doesn't it look wonderfully dilapidated!?!? I'm hoping that the whole thing is going to be a lot like this which is one of my favourite programmes. Ever.

So, dead excited. But naturally, before I'd even booked the thing I was wondering what I might need to knit before I get there and what project I could take for while I'm there.

Obvs, I have a mind-queue as long as the phone book even if I'm not so good at getting that on rav but there's one project that popped into my mind the very day we opened. That's the 4th of September 2010. That's 552 days. 13248 hours. 794880 minutes. 47692800 seconds. Give or take... And it still makes my heart skip a beat with excitement about how fabby-dabby-spiffy-wiffy-delicious it's going to be!! (What's with all the ridiculous words today? I'll try to stop...).

BEHOLD THE MYTHOS!

Isn't it a stunner!? I've knitted it before in some scrumptious 4ply Noro in greens with a hint of grey and pink and I love it, it's my go-to summer evening cardigan even though it's getting on for four or five years old... I gave you the back view because I would like to be her right there: sun, green, lovely cardi, bike! What more could you ask for?!

This time, I'm going to make it in the Riot DK in the 'Bling' colourway (boy, oh boy, I hate the names they've given those colourways...). It's golds and oranges with a hint of camel here and there. Sounds pretty vile ey? But it isn't and I love it!

I can't even remotely get the colours to look as bright and vivid as they do in real life but what I'm thinking is, and don't tell me if I'm mad, won't that colourway look fab with a deep navy blue!? Oh ho ho yes! Which almost leads me on to what I'm also going to make before I go away, but forgive me, I forgot that I'm wearing the bloody cardi today! Maybe I should reword the above bit so I can look like less of a tit but I won't, you already know the truth...



What a photo ey! I really will write a blog complaining about o2 and Three explaining why I don't even have a bloody phone to take a photo on before this month is out. Let me get the so-angry-I-want-to-rip-someone's-arm-off out of my system first though...






So. Navy. I've told you before how much I love the Navy in the Bamboo Cotton. Oh me, oh my!!! But I don't think I've told you how much I love this pattern - King Cole, 3491,well, really, any of the new summer patterns, but that one in particular:

Terrible picture - I know, I know - damn you o2 and Three in combination!

It's a t-shirt shape with stocking stitch on the bottom and a simplish lace pattern on the top. I haven't actually ready the pattern but it looks to be a six row repeat so I'm sure it won't blow my mind.

That. In navy. Oh yes! Brilliant little summer top ey? And even better in combination with my orange stripy Mythos!

I'm going to write another blog about what I'm going to knit when I'm there because there are three options and I might need your input so I'll explain my thoughts fully and for now, I've got a bloody greyhound to crochet...

(Actually the greyhound is finished now - lots of stuff just got in the way before I posted this...).

Love,

Eleanor. :)

International Women's Day

Today is the day we celebrate the achievements of all women, great and small, as well as reflecting on how far some women have still to go in order to have equal rights.

There's lots of things going on in Nottingham, including this event at Nottingham Women's Centre.

In addition, there are other events over the next week all around the city. Details of these can be found here.

We hope you can find something of interest and, if not, at spend at least part of the day thinking about women worldwide.

June. xx

Hello Spring!

I know it's not Spring but I got a bit excited when I finished the last (bloody) greyhound and we had an order in from King Cole so I decided to spend the last two days moving the shop around! The DK is now (mostly) by the door. I couldn't quite squeeze the Heritage in. The 4ply and the patterns are across from the window:

 and the aran,  chunky and superchunky are all behind me. 

 Look at all those wintery colours - bye bye winter!

I think it all makes sense now anyway.

Also - look what two of my best friends did: 

Don't those little bits and bobs look sweet a-hanging there?? One of my missions over the next few weeks is to get a good few more baby/kids bits knitted up for the shop. When I get ten minutes ey?

Also - the red, white and blue yarn at the top left is an exciting prospect and I will tell you more soon. All in good time folks, all in good time.

Love Eleanor. :)

P.s. I promise a big ranty post some time before the end of this week. :)

Guzzisue felting not spinning ????

Hi guys,

From time to time we have natural coloured roving in the shop to use with drop spindles. It always amazes me the range of shades that you can obtain from different sheep and I try to include greys and browns when putting together one of our spindle bags for the workshops.
As you can imagine, my stash at home is less yarn and more fibre and I will post photos soon that demonstrate that point. My OH is getting used to seeing a sheeps fleece sharing the clothes dryer at this time of year!!
This leads me into a few more posts about using fibres for things about knitting, If you are an ardent knitting fan than this may not be for you but it you are a bit of a crafter, embroider a bit, like to play with things....the read on :-)

So we start with some felted bowls.......yes, those are balloons inside the felt




Pop the balloon, tidy up the edges




the red one works well,



the three grey natural ones look fantastic when placed inside each other.




So, does any one want any further info on how to do this? Just ask and I will sort out a tutorial.

Sue x

A Mediterranean Orchard

I have hated this past winter, it seemed to go on forever and, despite the lack of snow, has been mighty cold. So, to cheer myself up, I've planted a Mediterranean orchard. Even though I don't have a garden.

On my living room window sill I now have a lemon tree

an olive tree

and a fig tree.

These are making me very happy, as will the avocado (if I manage to sprout the stone!)

I'm really looking forward to drinking a G&T with a slice of homegrown lemon, while nibbling on homegrown figs and olives, and knitting. I think the avocado may take some time...

colour surprise part two

So how do I get the colour onto the fibre in the first place?? here's a quick photo guide, the fibre is wonderful organic merino ( which I must stock up on at Wonderwool) and I'm using acid dyes. All apparatus is kept for DYE use only and it is recommended to wear a mask when the dyes are in powder form. Gloves should be worn although I have been known to go to the day job with purple/blue nails.

 so now its ready to spin or maybe felt......more about felting later Sue xx

colour surprise

 Hi, so you buy some of that lovely coloured fibre to spin on a wheel or spindle, the surprise is always how it turns out :-)

 

see, it's magic, innit !!

Sue xx