More stash and some whoooooooooorls

I was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the weekend. I was thrilled to see an Oxfam Superstore - in this version of Oxfam everything is a set, cheap, price. There used to be one in Manchester and it was great, but has sadly changed into an overpriced Oxfam Emporium. Sadly, the Oxfam Superstore in Newcastle was not great. I was hoping for lots of great jumpers to frog, but there were none! No knitwear at all. I began to worry that maybe now it is April the charity shops are putting their knitwear away for most of the year.

So today I went round the charity shops near me:


From the top:

• Navy bloke's jumper; thick gauge; 55% ramie, 45% cotton (I don't actually know what ramie is); £3. (I think this may well become my brewing idea - I had planned it to be 100% cotton and black, but that sort of jumper is thin on the grounds right now).
  
• White bloke's jumper; thin gauge; 100% cotton; £1.99. Hopefully might be suitable for using to dye with.
  
• Long-sleeved, roll neck, burgundy/ plum, size 14 top; very very fine gauge; 100% silk; £2.75. Maybe suitable for lace - I didn't realise how shiny silk was! There was a black top as well, from the same company. Once I'd left the shop I thought I could've got it and spun the two colours together, but it was an extra pound (£ not lb) with short sleeves and a regular round neck. I'll look out for something else.
  
• Black size 16 chunky cardie; chunky gauge; 70% acrylic and 30% wool but so snugly!; £4.50. Quite pricey but I need some black yarn ;) Plus it's got great giant press-studs and looks hardly worn.

Other than the Oxfam disappointment, Newcastle was fun. We went on a trip to Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall, and I took a photo of the spindle whorls they had in the museum.



They're tiny! Teeny teeny tiny. Kinda brought home just how thin the thread they would spin was - I'd fill one of those spindles in about 5 minutes ;)

Anyway. I've been knitting slowly - Hug is over half done now. I've done a little more on Tempting as well. At the moment I'm getting ready to go away for a little holiday and I need to decide what knitting to take. Maybe all my UFOs!

I just can't help myself

I really am trying to have my cake and eat it! Today I bought this:



The picture just doesn't do the colour justice: it is bright magenta and really vibrant. It's 100% wool, so so soft, and was only £1. It's also huge - apparently a men's jumper as it has a KENZO HOMME label in it. I don't like dividing colours into gender specific groups, but I do not know any man who would wear this jumper - which I guess is why it was on the £1 rack ;) It is a really really fine gauge - perfect for knitting lace! (I have mentioned lace before right? I am particularly obsessed with the Peacock Feathers Shawl and also like the Flower Petal Shawl). The jumper weighs 1.5lbs (c. 680g), so provided it unravels nicely I may well have enough for a shawl...

Still on the look out for the perfect black froggable, but sadly still no cigar. I saw a perfect specimen - but it was red (were I not severely suffering with RSI I'd have bought the red one too, but it was £4.99, and I don't want to waste a fiver if it turns out I can never knit again). However, I'm sure one will turn up soon.

I'm considering not knitting - and keeping other hand movements to a minimum - until after my Latin exam at the end of May. I can't have severe RSI for that. We'll see how I go...

Current froggable stash

Day two of the ban is OK. Hug looks miserable, sitting there barely started, but it will have to deal. It looks like it's going to be lovely though - tighter than I expected though I do have stitch gauge. I spent today reading See Eunny Knit; I'd read a chapter of a work book, then a page of the site's archives. It was nice to alternate the horror of the witch craze (people hurting and killing people for imaginary reasons :( ) with the beauty of the knitted lace on the website. Yes: I want to knit lace now ;)

But I shall hold off for at least a week.

Today I went back to the charity shop with the needle box again, this time with my needle inventory along with my gauge, to fill in any gaps in both my straights and DPNs. So now I have lots of thin needles - just the right thing for lace knitting ;)

Anyhoo. Pics of the needlecases to come soon - hopefully tomorrow. For now here's a picture of my current stash of charity shop jumpers to be frogged:



From the top:

• Green, 100% cotton jumper; the cotton is stranded and not really spun - it's a bit like a thicker strand of embroidery thread. This originally cost £3.50, and is partially frogged and going to become the Corset Pullover


• Lilac wool/acrylic mix jumper - this looks like handspun yarn - my handspun yarn at least ;) It has thick slubs in it, but I'm sure was machine spun. Cost £1.99


• White, 100% acrylic jumper but so so so soft; I may keep this as a jumper as it is, maybe... Cost £2.99


• Varigated cream and blue (and yellow - but that only shows up when wet!) jumper, made from a thin ribbon-esque (i.e., not ribbony ;) ) yarn! I'll probably try and dye it, but it was such a bargain for the type of yarn used. Cost £2.99


• Navy, 100% cotton jumper (stranded I think like the green, but chunkier); cost £2.99


• Pale blue, 85% lambswool jumper; cost £2.49


• Dark turquoise wool/acrylic mix shrug shot through with blue sparkles!; originally cost £4. Partially frogged and in the process of becoming Hug

No black to be found ;) I have a bit of a thing against knitting in black, since I feel it won't show stitch definition well. However, most of Friday's handthing is black 2x2 rib, and obviously that looks just fine (as do all my black machine knit store bought jumpers). I probably wouldn't do excessive cabling in black, but a simple knit should be fine. I am sort of planning a top that I'd like to knit - so now I want a black jumper made of the same sort of cotton as the green jumper above to provide the yarn for it! Now I know how lovely the green is to knit I'm half regretting not buying the blue one I'd seen a while ago, but it was £3.99, not black, and lots of jumpers made of that sort of cotton appear to be common in charity shops. I just have to keep looking before it warms up too much and they stop selling knitwear!

Kneedle-case Happy!

I did go back to the charity shop with my gauge and rifle through their knitting needle box. I managed to get a couple of sets of DPNs by mixing and matching - the lady serving thought I was a bit strange buying random needles, but I got 14 for £3.50.

When I got home I decided that now I needed a needle case, rather than keeping them all mixed up in a bag. So I made one from a lovely turquoise fleece. Then I realised that if my DPNs had a case, my regular needles should get one too ;) Now I have two beautiful cases - pics to follow soon!

All I need to do now is get a permanent marker and write the size of the needles on them (the needles, not the cases). I was thinking of embroidering the sizes onto the cases, but I'd rather have some flexibility in moving them around. Plus this way I won't be completely paranoid and recheck every needle when I come to use it!

I'm also planning to make a small inventory list of what needles I have, and go back to the charity shop to fill in any gaps!

Plying Away

On Tuesday evening a friend came over to use my overlocker, so I decided to do some spinning. I used my new jewel green merino fibre, and spun fairly evenly and thinly - but still totally overtwisted. So... I decided to ply it.

As I only have one bobbin (though I'm pondering making a Lazy Kate with some toilet rolls and a towel rack) I used the Andean Plying method to make 2-ply yarn. I had been dubious of plying with overspun stuff, as I didn't think it would untwist it enough. However, it did! It plyed beautifully, felt lovely coming off the bobbin and was perfectly balanced!



I have since set the twist of what I spun that night - still have quite a bit of fibre to go.

Obviously the problem with plying is that it cuts my yardage in half! I have a project in mind, and can always order more of the same colour, but I'm hoping 150g will be enough.

I let my friend have a go at spinning. She had a try with the cheapy wool, but it's so horrid to work with I gave her some of the leftover ultramarine merino. I also spun the wheel by hand for her so she could get the hand of drafting - I don't know why I've never seen that advice on a how-to website before! It makes so much sense!!!

Then yesterday we went charity shop shopping. I'd had a quick look a few days earlier and bought two froggable jumpers, and then yesterday I got a further one (I'll take pics'n'post with details later). I also got a really cool bag that I'm using as a knitting bag. And the awesomest jumper which I actually put back on the rack because it wasn't froggable and was £5.99 - then my friend pointed out that it was an amazing, beautiful, elf jumper with pointy sleeves and a pointed cowl! I love it so much :) Plus I may use it as inspiration ;)

There's a weird charity shop in this town, run by bonkers old ladies who are surprised when people want to buy things. They had a dirty box of knitting needles labelled 'crochet needles 50p knitting 50p' (each or a pair? Dunno). The frustrating thing was that most were DPNs which had been taped into pairs, and half had been sold! None had sizes on them, and there didn't appear to be any complete sets. However, as I'll be in town tomorrow I'm thinking of going back with my needle gauge to see whether I can get at least 4 needles of the same size. They did have some thick ones, and I could do with some larger DPNs.

Knitting wise I've worked a little more on the Alien scarf, and today made one little handwarmer/glove thing as my March Stashbust and a gift for my brother Friday. I had to go to a Colloquium for all postgrads in my department today, and knit throughout the lectures; don't worry - I was still listening ;) I also think I have an idea for my PhD too :D

Anyway, I'm tempted to go unravel a charity shop jumper now...

Oops I bought a stash...

At the weekend Mr Bee and I went back to Manchester to visit our families, as we each had sisters with birthdays.

I was planning to go to the fabric shop I always used to frequent (to buy fabric) to check out whether they had any yarn on sale. They mainly sell balls of novelty yarn, but they had one huge unit full of packs of regular yarn, and it was cheap - plus I got a student discount!

So, from top to bottom:

• 10 balls of Sirdar Nova (50% wool, 50% acrylic) in Navy - £1 per ball
• 10 balls of Sirdar Nova (50% wool, 50% acrylic) in Hot Pink - £1 per ball
• 10 balls of 'mixed fibres' (looks a bit like mohair, but probably mainly acrylic) in a magenta shade - 58p per ball

Yes, admittedly I did have to buy a lot to make the savings, but I think it is worth it, given that they worked out to less than a ball of acrylic would be. They did have a pack of beautiful bottle green 'mixed fibres', but it was a lot thicker and way scratchier than the magenta. The Nova stuff is chunky as well, which I like as it means a quick knit!

I don't have any plans for them yet, except I'm thinking of the Spider-Web Capelet from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation for the magenta.

I also went to the charity shops in the suburb between my parents' house and Mr Bee's parents' house. Found some cool jumpers to frog as well...

From the top:

• Pale blue jumper, high lambswool content, size 12-14 and not-me enough for me to definitely frog it: £2.49
• Smokey electric blue shrug (a bit like Blackberry, but sooooooo wrong), mainly acrylic with sparkles, size 12-14 so so so bad in it's current state it's definitely being taken apart: £4
• White jumper, 100% acrylic (yet still handwash only!), size 10-ish. I haven't tried it on yet, but I do like it. I might be tempted to keep it as a jumper unless I can find something nicer for it: £2.99

I think the shrug is going to become Hug from Magknits - that's by the same designer as Blackberry as well (I should email her and tell her she's fab!). I haven't made a decision about the others, but thought I should get them as they were cheap. Both blue items were originally from Primark, so they probably didn't cost much more to begin with. I'm surprised that they have a wool content and proper sleeves to be honest, but then I imagine Primark uses sweat-shop labour :( Ah well, this way I'm supporting charity shops, not horrid companies. I think if reknitting charity shop jumpers works I will try and get all my yarn from there.

I also found a cool knitting book for £2.99. The patterns in it are mostly awful (it's late seventies early eighties), but the best part is the first half is basically a stitch directory! Can't wait to try them out.

One thing I didn't buy was what would have been the best stash-bag. It was a large red hemp 'toy bag', with snail or a caterpillar on one side and a bee on the other! It also had two inside pockets, but sadly no covering flap. Unfortunately it was £12.99 - it was in a charity shop, but as a new product. I decided not to get it, but to think it over and potentially go back. I thought about it, decided I did want it, but when we went back the shop had closed. Sigh. Other branches will possibly have it, but there isn't one in this town. There is one in the next town where we sometimes go to the cinema, so maybe I'll try there. However, after having looked at my bank balance today, maybe I don't need it after all (even if it did have a bee)!

And today my order from Wingham Wool Work arrived - now I can finish my Ultramarine project! I've also bought 150g of Petrol (a beautiful deep jewel green) merino, and 300g of their cheapest sheepy stuff to continue practising with. I'll probably spin up the rest of the Ultramarine tonight - it'll be nice to actually have a completed project!

I did work on Tempting over the weekend - I've attached the sleeves and am about an inch into the yoke. The 2x2 rib is hard going though, and I did have wrist pain issues. It's being done slowly but surely though! I also finished one blue'n'pink slipper and am quite a way into the next. I need to finish those before I can get started on anything else (and I want to swatch for the Corset Pullover! I unravelled a sleeve to make yarn for it on Sunday). The good thing about my Denise kit is that I can't have too many Ws-i-P: I don't have enough connecting cords! Admittedly Tempting is using up 3, but still I need to keep my Ws-i-P down, and this is as good a reason as any.

WANT IT NOW!

The other day I came across this gorgeous creature: Interweave Knit's Corset Pullover. It is bee-youtiful. Admittedly not very corset-y, but lovely in a mediaeval way. I spent a lot of yesterday searching blogs about it, to see if I could pick up any hints and tips, especially about which yarn to use. Well, I dicovered that the actual pattern yarn is for sale on a US website - it's really cheap too (for 'proper' yarn)! Until you factor in postage... Also, as the yarn is discontinued, the remaining colours are pretty bleh.

So the question was: do I want to buy the proper yarn from America, but have it in a colour I don't really like, or do I try and find a substitute? Well, duh! So, I went back to all the blogs to see who made it in what. I noticed that Rowan's Calmer was mentioned: Rowan is British, I am in Britain. Aha! I searched online, the average price is £6 a ball, and I'd need about 6 balls. £36... it's still a lot. It's a lot when you have no income and usually buy your clothes in charity shops! If I normally shopped in TopShop then £36 would be great, but I don't.

However, it is a beautiful pattern. Hmmm.

I had a chiro appointment this morning, so I headed into town. I decided to support my LYS and see if they had the Rowan (you know, just to see. *Twitch*), and to pick up some cheapy acrylic to finish off the Alien Illusion. Now there are 3 places that sell yarn in this town. Two are general craft shops, and one is a regular yarn-only place. None of them sell any Rowan at all! It's all Sirdar and Wendy.

I did get more yarn for the scarf though - I can't match the green so I'm switching to a vibrant purple, and continuing with white. I got two small 25g balls for 49p each. I was worried I'd have to get huge 100g balls that would last for ever! I think the 25g ones will be fine.

So anyway, no Rowan. I don't seem overly upset do I? That's because I had a trawl round the charity shops, ostensibly looking for balls of yarn (ever hopeful I'll find a 10 pack of some amazing wool for 50p or something ;) Never going to happen...), when I realised I could look for jumpers.

Ta daa!!!



It's huge, a size 16, so there should certainly be enough. It's 100% cotton, like the original yarn, and the gauge it currently has (I got my tape measure out in the shop) is 21 stitches and 28 rows - not far off! It's a nice olive green as well, which will suit the pattern. It's from Marks and Spencers, so it should be good quality (there's a small amount of pilling going on, but should be fine), and it's wrong enough that I won't be tempted to wear it rather than frog it ;) Oh, and it was £3.50 :D

Of course, it may be completely impractical. I'd like to undo part of one sleeve first to swatch with, as I could always knit it back and give it back to the charity shop if necessary. First I need to wash it though...

Well, FIRST, I need to finish Tempting. That is the goal. And I can't continue with Tempting until I have finished the slipper-presents, so we're talking next week at the earliest.

I hope it works out! :)