Dustballs

The sun has been shining for the past couple of days. In a way it's been lovely, I've actually been able to dry some fibre outside for the first time this year. However, it's also revealing the state of the house after several months of winter...

When you rely on wood as your source of heat you're continually bringing the outside in to your house, add in all the fibre from the business and all my personal crafting and the floor is awash with mini tumbleweeds... When you only ever see the floor in half daylight you tend not to notice them, but when sunlight blazes in through the windows... ooh boy. We won't even mention that the windows themselves are now revealed to be utterly filthy.

No point in getting too concerned though, there's at least 2 more month of proper winter living, and everything will only get covered in dust again if I clean it now.

Instead there was a compromise, a quick whizz round with the hoover to pick up the worst of the grime, and a tidy up of all the stuff that gets scattered around the place.

Basket of fibre being a case in point... I swear it's breeding in there. I've definitely spun and knitted up more than I've purchased in the last year, yet somehow it still takes up the same amount of space if not more. Of course, in my head, the braids of fibre that I dye myself and end up keeping don't really count. Spares from the fibre clubs are the worst culprits. They're club colourways, and while I've never said that club colours are exclusive to the club, I always feel guilty about selling the spares... so instead I keep them, particularly if it's a colour or base fibre I'm in love with.

However, a bit of forceful stuffing in to boxes, and things are no longer looking quite so untidy. I just about managed to avoid getting distracted by the other contents of the boxes as well. It doesn't help that every project I'm working on right now is tending towards the epic scale. All started months ago, and all so close to being finished, but not quite there.

Case in point, I started this cardigan before Christmas. It's Kate Davies Northmavine Hoody, in handspun Hannui, some hand dyed, but mostly in natural colours. It's a beautiful pattern, but is in fingering yarn on 2.5mm needles, which means it's not exactly a speedy project!

The sleeve has had me stalling for weeks now, it doesn't help that there are 5 balls of yarn to wrangle, and you're changing colour 6 times in the space of 10 rows. However, I just got a present that should make yarn wrangling easier. 

My very own posh project bag made by Mum. The fabric is one I've long adored, but it's eyewateringly expensive, and we've been trying to find it as fabric by the metre instead of pre-made in to cushions for years. I also got a matching homemade cushion, but there are leftovers of the fabric, so I think Mum is making more bags like this one.

The smaller 100g balls fit in to the outside pockets so I can use them as centre pull balls without having to constantly untangle the yarn rolling around on the floor. The big 200g ball of grey fits in the inside yarn pocket, and the cardigan body now fits in the bottom of the bag, instead of being shoved under the chair waiting for me to finish the arms.

Another big project is combing a Merino/Wensleydale fleece, again, it's so nearly done, but combing is such hard physical work that I don't feel like doing it after a big day dyeing. It's coming up beautifully though so I can't wait to spin it.

Of course, first I need to finish yet another big spinning project. An entire fleece destined for a Blank Canvas jumper. This got put in to time out this autumn as I'd failed to get the first couple of bobbins to match the sample. Closer examination, and the passing of several months, makes me think I wasn't as far out as I thought, and it will probably be close enough. Only 2 more large batts to go to get this one done... Though there's already another spinning project on my Hansen mini spinner, and of course, that's equally large...

The current weaving project is the most epic of the lot. I've been weaving this since the summer. So far there are 2 lengths done, and only one short piece left to go. In total it will be enough for a floor length pinafore dress, which is a huge amount of fabric to weave on a rigid heddle, there's 7m so far.

The next piece will be much smaller as I'm nearly finished with the coloured yarn I'm using. In fact, the quickest way to get this finished is to get the final warp on the loom, so enough talking about it, and time to get it done, I'm off to do battle with the warping peg!