Secret Smorgling Challenge, the start

For this challenge you have to use all the fibres of a "Secret Smorgling" box in one project! the Smorgling is a box with 160g random fibres sold by Nunoco on Etsy.

So.... a box filled with surprises... a spinning challenge... and a designing challenge? I'm in :)

This is the contents of my Smorgling:

Batts:

- 25g Bilberryzest

- 25g batt dropping

Blended tops:

- 10g Antique Rose 

- 10g White Rabbit

- 10g Cobweb

- 10g Goosebumps

- 10g March Hare

- 10g Beryl

Mixed roving packs:

- 25g Rockpool

- 25g Robin Hood

the Blueberryzest Batt, so lovely, will make a fine gradient yarn...

Batt-dropping, looking forward to spinning this :)

I like the combination of fibres, the colors are mostly light and natural. It looks like a forest-theme to me... 

I had a few ideas for a project in mind, but after looking at this fibres, I think I know what this Smorgling wants to be...I'll have to make a few different yarns, so starting the spinning yeah....

Mystery yarn finished

I plied and washed the singles from the mystery fibre (blogged here), it made 271m/108g, I think DK-weight yarn.

It feels soft, probably because of the rolag-preparation and semi-woolen spinning. The colors have a nice variation of blues and browns in it. Don't know what to make whit this yet....so it goes in my yarn-stash for now...

One sketch a day, Restarting the drawing habit: Day 1

Yesterday I went book-hunting on our yearly book "festival" in Belgium: "De Boekenbeurs".  One of the books I brought home is this little "One sketch a day" notebook. It could be just what I need to start drawing reguraly again...

You can see that the drawing space is small, 7 x 12 cm for each day. (about the size of a playing card)
I'm really looking forward to drawing something small each day. We'll see if I can keep up with it for a whole year....

For my first drawing I looked up a photo of an owl.... don't really know why, I just like them :)
I found this picture on Pinterest: wildlifenh.com
And this is my first drawing:

I used graphite pencils, charcoal pencils, a very fine Micron pen and a white Signo uni-ball marker.
So much fun to draw again :)

Mystery yarn

I think almost every spinner has some 'mystery fibres' or wool waste lying around. It's time to spin some of that up.
First I selected the blues and some natural colors, for a total weight of 111g.

There's some silk in it, Merino and I think Corriedale, but all te rest is unknown...

Wool waste 111g

I carded the fibre with my hand carders and made little rolags. I randomly took a bit of every fibre to put on the carders. So every rolag is different :)

Hand carded rolags

I decided to make a regular 3 ply so made 3 groups of rolags, each 37g and started spinning my singles.
I use a half - woolen methode of spinning, supporting the thread (and controlling the twist) with my left hand and holding the fiber (moving backwards) with my right.

These are the 3 singles on my Lazy Kate:

Ready to ply :) I'm looking forward to seeing the yarn, I've no idea what it will look like...

Shetland/Corriedale socks

I've been dyeing some wool this summer. Two of those fibres were 65g shetland and 40g corriedale wool.      I decided to use them together and knit some nice warm socks...

But first the spinning...

65g shetland dyed in blue/green/purple and pink

The singles on my wheel

This fibre was divided in 4 strips and spun end- to end.
The singles were N-plied to make 190m self-striping yarn.

Finished yarn

I also had 40g light blue corriedale fibre, and overdyed it with blues.

corriedale

I spun a fine 2 ply yarn, 222m.

The two yarns are used together to knit these socks. They are not super-soft but it's ok for my feet.

I started the toes with the shetland and then added blue stripes, with double yarn.                                      The sock pattern is very simple but effective:
I cast on at the toe, make toe increases and continue until a height of 13 cm. Then I increase for the heel gusset. I put the sock on and decide to stop the gusset when I'm almost at the end of the heel. Then I knit a small heel-turn with short rows over the middle of the heel stitches.  The heel flap is knitted back and forth, knitting the side stitches together with the gusset until there are no more gusset sts left. I often use slip-stitches in the heel flap for strenght. The leg can then be knitted until you run out of yarn :)

shetland-corriedale socks

These are very warm socks :) The striping worked well and I will use it more in future sock-projects.

Spinning with a Turkish spindle

I love spinning on my spinning wheel (a Ladybug from Schacht), but some time ago I discovered the Turkish spindles. They are beautiful wooden spinning tools and make spinning portable.

Two little "turks" at work:

Right: Medium Capar   Left: IST-craft spindle

I have a few more of them....I promise to make a group-photo later ;)

The fibre that I'm spinning here is a batt named "Snow Glow" from Nunoco. They make soooo nice batts! Spinning them is a dream. 

This fibre has: 50% Merino, 40% faux cashmere and 10% Firestar.

I just love the pastel gradient, and it sparkles just a little bit....

I spun each batt (50g) as a gradient single, then plied them together on my wheel:

 "Snow Glow", 495m/100g

This will make a beautiful shawl some day!

Handspun Socks "De Luxe"

These are my first handspun socks knitted on fine (2mm) needles and with a 2ply yarn. Also the first handspun socks that have a pattern. (I like plain knitting for socks)

This is how I started:

The fibre:

I found this beautiful handdyed braid, a mix of 75% Bluefaced Leicester (BFL), 12% firestar and 12% Silk. (I bought this from Dutchwooldiva)
The firestar (= nylon) and silk should make this a strong yarn.

Spinning:

The braid was divided in 2 lengthwise, each half spun in a fine single, then plied together:

It made 320m/100g of this yarn:

The colors are mostly blended and less strong then in the fibre. The yarn feels very soft, but it's very strong, I have to pull hard to brake the strand. (the silk and Nylon are working!)

Knitting:

I started the socks "two at a time" on 1 circular needle. After finishing the toe I started searching for a pattern on Ravelry. I liked "Kalajoki" because it has a small pattern with a lot of plain stockinette. I changed the pattern a bit: added 1 extra rib, a slip stitch heel, and the movement of the stripes is made up. I also decided to make the two socks the same. (the pattern has socks with mirrored waves)

Here's how they look:

And that's my knitting needle on the left, with the left-overs. Yep, I really like toe up socks because you can use up all of the yarn.

The colors don't match in the socks but thats just how I wanted them (yarn was in a ball wound on my yarn-winder and I knitted one sock with the outside end, the other with the inside end...)

They fit great and are a lot "thinner" then the socks I make with store-bought yarn and a stranded pattern.

Here's a close-up of the knitting:

I really love how the colors blend, it's like a painting!

I hope these socks last a long time!

Hello again,

It has been some time... (2 years ? really ?)

And I think this is the right moment to pick up blogging again...

You'll notice that I'm not drawing and painting at the moment, I (re)started knitting, then spinning and weaving. So there'll be more fibre on this blog from now on :)

Fantasy sketchbook, latest pages

Was not posting much I know, but I've been painting a lot...

Working in my journal again...

A quick page with gesso, collage, markers and stamps.

Drawing with ballpoint

I'm a big fan of Andrea Joseph's artwork. She uses ballpoints and colored pencils, often in Moleskine Sketchbooks. I had not a lot of time to draw today and attempted a little sketch with ballpoint. The combination of these materials work well on the Moleskine paper, and no mess with paints :)
Drawing like this is relaxing, but I have to practice more I think....

My subject: silver nailpolish :) and the materials used (forgot the white pencil)

1 : just a sketch to "feel" the shape

2: Blue "BIC" 

3: Black "BIC"

I used colored pencils on top, and accents with white gelpen.

Andrea Joseph's work is really amazing, see her blog here.

Fantasy sketchbook: new pages

I had some fun with stencils, and created these pages:

 Flower stencil: crafters workshop flower template

cosmic Swirl template