Shades of grey & gray

I mentioned in a previous post that I used to visit yarn shops with no plans, and usually managed to get out with just a skein or two of lace or 4-ply yarn. I have to admit, these days I still buy the single skeins, in addition to sweater volumes. And my new preferred colour for single skeins is... grey*.

Those of you who know me and my wardrobe might be surprised by this. I am not one to wear neutral colours. Admittedly I quite like khaki shades for hot weather (they somehow feel more cooling), but six years in Glasgow really turned me off black (why oh why will pale people living in the dreary north insist on wearing so much black??). And grey is a bit too close to black for comfort.

But over time as my knit collection has become riotously colourful, I've decided it's ok to knit neutral occasionally. Also, I took up weaving (well, I had good intentions to take up weaving), and the advantage of grey is no matter what shade you get, they usually match. So I thought it would be useful to have a supply of grey skeins for weaving shawls.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten very far with the weaving. I'm going to blame my cat and her obsession with string. If I ever get a craft room I'm sure I'll make more progress. Here is my first attempt:

This is supposed to end up as very useful hemp place mats... if I ever finish.

In the meantime, my little grey collection is growing nicely. My most recent addition was a skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious wool/silk lace I picked up at Woolfest.

fibres include linen, steel, silk, cashmere, camel, angora and tencel

And while the loom is occupied with the place mats, I thought I might as well go ahead and start knitting a linen scarf.

I was inspired by Six and a Half Stitches to do a modified version of the Cobweb lace stole by Michele Rose Orne. The original pattern involves a complicated series of different lace motifs.

© Interweave Knits

I think all those different kinds of lace on one stole is too busy, but the bell pattern on the border interspersed by rows of dropped stitches creates a really lovely airy effect.

swatch in linen fonty Calin and Habu linen/steel

I can only hope I achieve something as ethereal as Six and a Half Stitches.

© sixandahalfst

* A note on the spelling of grey/gray. Gray has become more common in America, grey in the rest of the English-speaking world, but I like to use both to distinguish between shades. Grey seems darker to me, and gray is more silvery. Here's an interesting post from the Grammarist charting changes in spelling over time.

Woolfest - meet the sheep

A wet and wooly weekend

I went up to Woolfest, the celebration of natural fibres that takes place every year in Cockermouth, for my first time this year. First time at Woolfest, and only my second time in the Lake District. Woolfest did not disappoint, and the Lake District lived up to its reputation as well - I've never see so much concentrated rainfall in my life!

But never mind, there was plenty of wool at the festival to keep us warm. I stocked up on yarn and discovered some new fibre suppliers, but the highlight of the festival was definitely the animals. Now that I have met some fibre sheep (and friends), I have a renewed interest in knitting with wool, particularly wool from British rare breeds. And I guess it doesn't hurt that this summer continues to offer plenty of wool-wearing opportunities.

And now for the animals...

coquettish Alpaca

noble Manx

classic sheepy pose from the Shropshire

long-haired Wensleydale

devilish Hebridean

I'm looking forward to finding out more about the fibre properties of the British rare breeds, but I already know that in terms of colour, the bitter chocolate Hebrideans are my definite favourite.

• A selection of Hebridean wool products are available from the Hebridean Woolhouse.
• More information on some of the British rare breeds can be found at the Nude Ewe website.

And to give you a final impression of the weather we endured, I'll leave you with this image.

boats pulled up out of the lake to protect them from the flooding

Stash-busting

(destashing with a little help from Ravelry)

I've been buying way too much yarn lately. I used to visit yarn shops with no plans, and would only pick up a couple skeins of lace weight or 4-ply. but lately I've been going with specific projects in mind, and have accumulated several sweater's worth of DK yarn.

All this yarn can't be knit up immediately, so I need to store it somewhere. My stash, as we knitters like to call our yarn collection, has burgeoned from one plastic box to three (not counting my three cardboard boxes of half-used yarn balls). The largest box contains laceweight and 4-ply, the second box is for heavier weight yarns, and the third is exclusively Habu.

My Habu stash - the pride and joy of my collection

I was running out of room in the heavier yarn box, and instead of resigning myself to the inevitable and buying yet another box, I decided some destashing was in order. I like to have lots of lace weight and 4-ply yarn on hand, because just one skein can be used for so many purposes, and I never know when I'll need another pair of fingerless mitts or lace shawl. Also it doesn't take up that much space. But heavier yarn is another story.

I dug out three heavier weight summer yarns that have been sitting around in my stash for far too long, all purchased five or more years ago, some now discontinued, some partially used on other projects, some frogged from projects that didn't work out.

I couldn't possibly throw it away, so I just had to figure out what to do with it, with the help of Ravelry's advanced pattern browser. You plug in what style of garment you want, yarn weight, yarn amount and any other qualities you are looking for, and Ravelry pulls up all the matching options from its massive pattern database. You can also choose if you want to only search among the patterns you own, or are free, or available for purchase online. Here are the yarns and what I'm going to knit (unless I find better options).

Rowan Cotton Jeans

I already knit up this yarn (now discontinued) into two projects, one of which turned out too small, the other of which stretched out too much after washing. Never again will I buy worsted cotton - I find it too stiff and bulky for garments. So instead I'm going to use it to knit my first blanket using the Randig pattern by Orianna Eklund, which is a continuous blanket knit in the round starting in the middle.

image by by nasseknits

I picked this pattern because I didn't want to have to sew pieces together at the end. Also, I have two colours of yarn which will work well in stripes, and I wanted to use up every last bit of the yarn. With this pattern I can just keep knitting until I run out.

Stripey blanket - a nice, soothing, mindless knit

So far I'm quite happy with how it is turning out. I'm not sure if I'll have enough for a decent size blanket, but maybe it will be large enough to use as a picnic cloth.

Rowan Damask

I randomly picked up four balls of Rowan Damask (now discontinued) on sale because I liked the colour and it was cheap. It is a DK weight variegated yarn in rayon, linen and acrylic. I've gone off variegated yarns for garments - too often you'll be knitting along producing a nice random pattern, and suddenly you'll find one of the colours pooling into a jagged unsightly splotch, creating a 'homemade' look (in the worst possible sense of the word). I've learned to resist sale yarns, but to reinforce the lesson I'm forcing myself to use the stuff up.

Borrowed image from lenarowltd on ebay

To find a good project I trawled through all the projects others had made out of this specific yarn, and came upon the Leaf Kimono Top by Sarah Barbour, knit by Heather (who kindly allowed me to link to her project). This loose-fitting top is knit with an open lace pattern, and it looks from Heather's lovely version that this helped to break up any pooling tendency.

I don't really have enough yarn, but I might get away with a cropped version with narrower sleeves. It's worth a chance, because I really can't envision this yarn as anything else!

La Droguerie Lin

I bought this DK weight linen at La Drougerie's old-fashioned yarn and craft shop in Paris. I couldn't resist the shiny jewel-toned skeins of linen yarn hanging on the walls. Too late I discovered that La Drougerie only sells their patterns along with yarn - since I had already bought the yarn, I couldn't go back and pick out a pattern. I used up some of one of the two colours I bought on a very successful simple short sleeve summer cardigan, but I have enough left over for a striped sleeveless top (I'm considering Bonne Marie Burns' Chickami - a great, basic tank pattern). I'm still a bit unsure whether the colours will work together.

I swatched to see how the stripes look. I think I might just get away with it - what do you think?