Kent Guild of Spinners Dyers and Weavers

Our Guild now has it's own website www.kgsdw.bt.ik.com at the Kent County Show in July we won the Silver Cup, which has given us all a great sense of achievement.

Little Oliver

Another teddy - Oliver - from Sandra Polleys book, very good patterns with clear instructions. I made Oliver in some Rowan cotton with waistcoat in Jaeger Aqua.
I think he is rather cute.

Adult Surprise Jacket

Now a finished object and I am entranced by all the colour combinations and angles that I prefer to look at it rather than wear it!

EZ Surprise Jacket

Some progress on the Adult Surprise Jacket, I am really enjoying seeing how the colours in my handspun come out, if anyone else is intending to knit this there are some missing details in the pattern in "The Opinionated Knitter" but corrections are available on the Schoolhouse Press website, www.schoolhousepress.com

Items for Hazel's Charity Craft Fair

Bracelets, Curley Wurleys and Papers Chains, fun knitting up some small items for Hazel's charity craft fair, the bracelets are very quick to make with oddments of lurex yarn, and I couldn't resist playing with the crochet paper chains.

EZ Adult Surprise Jacket

I have now dyed and spun enough (I hope!) Wensleydale fleece to start knitting the adult surprise jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermans book, The Opinionated Knitter, and I am really enjoying the knitting, although I know there is a long way to go yet.

Handspun Wensleydale

Some more hand spun and dyed Wensleydale fleece, this takes time and effort to prepare but the fleece is soft with a good sheen and takes dye very well. I want the skeins to be various merges of lilac, blue, mauve, pink etc. When I have enough I intend to knit the adult surprise jacket from EZ's book, but I may have other ideas for it by then.

Much travelled EZ Fairisle Pattern

Gosh, this has taken me ages to knit, its been picked up and put down more times than my glass of wine and is much travelled, having been all over the country in the camper van, however it's nearly there now, provided I don't undo the sleeves again which is a strong possibility. The main garment was knitted in Elizabeth Zimmerman's 3 plus 1 fairisle pattern and knitted in the round from the bottom up, then divided at the underarm for the sleeves. Knitted in various brands of DK cotton. The sleeves were picked up and knitted from the top down.

Travels to Charmouth

Have just returned from spending a few days at Charmouth, great site to stay on a few hundred yards from the Jurassic coast, we went fossil hunting, with daughter and grandaughter, the Saturday was warm and sunny and the fossil hunters were out in force. Daughter and grandaughter found some small ones, I found none but as we were strolling along the beach I saw a stone I think may be a fossil and I like the shape for a paperweight. As it was such a relaxing site I caught up with some knitting and have made progress on the zip front jacket I am knitting in Debbie Bliss DK cotton, a pleasant blueish green, or possibly greenish blue!

Spinning the Jacob Fleece

The first two skeins of jacob fleece roving, it's so easy to spin from a roving and its amazing how quickly it goes along, I'm not sure what I will want to knit with this yet, but I think it could look good as a fairisle - perhaps with some dark red, white and black in fairly traditional pattern, it would make a warm jumper for the my husband, who has never complained about the sewing, knitting, spinning etc taking over the home, and who apart from mending the equipment also made me an inkle loom!

Dyeing with Dylon Cold Water Dye

Have had time to play with some more yarn dyeing and this time I used Dylon cold water dyes, dyeing ramie, bamboo and tussah silk. The colour was called sea green and gave different effect on each fibre. Very easy to use just mix the powder, add the sachet of fix and salt and then leave to soak. I just carried on using until the colour was exhausted. This could be a good method of overdyeing any yarn that you did not like. The cold water dye only works on natural fibres. In the picture the top is the tussah silk, on the left is the ramie and the bamboo on the right. Approximately 200 grams of each was dyed.

Travels Interrupted

We were having a great time, touring around in the motorhome, the weather in Scotland had been wonderful and the sunsets at the site at North Ledaig were spectacular. Going gently along the A82, someone left a hotel exit and forgot which country he was driving in, so drove straight into the side of us. Lots of damage to be repaired but he did admit full liability to us and the police and at least no one was hurt. So lots more time for knitting and spinning then!

We certainly saw some wonderful places, and at Scoon we had a tame pheasant who called early in the morning for his breakfast!



This is the view at North Ledaig, great walks along the sea shore in both directions.

Yarn Dyeing

Had fun dyeing two skeins of yarn spun from a kent fleece, semi worsted spun. One was painted in patches and the other in a blended effect. The skeins were wrapped in clingfilm and steamed on a rack in an old electric frypan for 30 mins. I think I prefer the heather blend to the patches one, but this may change after swatching. The skeins weigh just over 60 grms each.

Marshall and Snelgrove Pattern

Spinning and Dyeing

Now that the bathroom is finished, huge sigh of relief, I have been able to work on the border leicester fleece that I bought several months ago, It was very greasy but after several soaks is looking, feeling and smelling a whole lot better. I found our old electric cooking pan in the loft and as we no longer need it for the caravan I am using it for yarn dyeing, very portable as its on legs and can plug in anywhere. These are my first test batches, the skein is from some of the same yarn dyed by another member of the Kent Guild. This is a beautiful soft and lustrous yarn and lovely to spin and knit with.

Vinopolis

A great trip to Vinopolis on Friday, I went with some very good friends as part of my ongoing 60th Birthday celebrations! Vinopolis is just behind Borough Market, which is now very colourful and full of delicious food goodies, lots of cheese, meat, fish, veg etc lots of organics and cooked food which smelt so appetising in the cold. Vinopolis is built under the huge brick arches of the station and is very attractive, as you would guess from the name it's all about wine, there are wines from all over the world, a short talk on how to taste wine and then lots of wines to taste! It's a very attractive setting you can stroll around at leisure to the different tasting tables, very relaxed, lots of places to sit and sip, and water coolers to refresh the taste buds. Afterwards we had a meal at an Italian Restaurant in Villiers Street, adjacent to Charing Cross Station, and of course managed a little more wine with dinner!

Daughters Pullover in Emu Shetland Boucle

My daughter found some of this yarn in a charity shop and asked me to knit her a warm loose jumper, we looked at the patterns on www.garnstudio.com and found a jumper she liked, this is it with added stripes as we had two shades of yarn, coffee and cream. I find the garnstudio site really useful, patterns can be searched by type but also by stitch tension, and they cover a generous range of sizes. I don't know how old the Emu yarn is but it's certainly very warm, it was keeping me cosy whilst I knitted with it.

Noro Silk Garden Reknitted

I have finished reknitting the Noro silk garden that I made as a cardigan earlier this year, I was never happy with the effect of the colour spread so before Christmas I gave it the kermit treatment and have now reknitted it as a jumper, I much prefer it as a jumper and I personally like the effect of using four balls of yarn to create panels of colour. The sleeves were knitted with three balls of yarn. Photos are of the cardigan before and front and back of the new jumper.