Farewell February

So as I mentioned in the last post, February has been stupidly busy. Partly because I've tried to fit a 31 day month in to 28 days... February is just plain sneaky like that. You get to the 25th, think you have loads of time left to get your monthly jobs done, and before you know it March is arriving!

However, I have actually finished off quite a few of my personal projects. The mountain of grey yarn (nearly 1kg)  is now spun, and will be next on the needles... well once I finish the cardigan it will, though the end is in sight, there are two sleeves that are joined to the body.

The combing is also finished, and is now on the wheel being spun as a lace weight. In fact, that's nearly finished, a lovely combination of well prepared fibre and having a fast ratio is making it a quick spin.

There must be something in the air regarding white lace as the results for the Longest Thread competition were released overnight. For a first attempt I'm pretty pleased. Fifth best for a wool thread spun on a wheel is pretty good for a first attempt, particularly on a wheel that's fundamentally unsuited to this sort of spinning. I love my old Matchless, but for spinning a very fine thread you need lightweight bobbins, and mine weigh nearly 100g. I blogged about spinning for the contest here.


Another finished thing is my weaving, it's off the loom and has been fulled. Woven wool cloth for clothing needs to be fulled, or felted. It makes the cloth better structurally by sticking the wool together. It will mean it wears better and won't go baggy.

Now I am a naughty weaver and don't sample...

So this, which was lovely, but not suitable for clothing as it was still see-through,and very mobile, became this...

Still recognisably the same cloth, but it shrank rather more than I was planning... that floor length pinafore dress, is now going to be a shift dress. Sometimes you just go with the flow!



As for my other unfinished tasks, I have a whole weekend with no other distractions planned. A group of us are taking over a Youth Hostel, where I plan on doing little else other than spinning and eating.