Wednesday ...

...and I have a cold, didn't stop me from joining the knit gang and heading of on a pre-holiday mini road trip to the Milton Mill. I took a days leave, we car pooled .. and headed out with a knitters day out of mill rummaging, knitting, talking, and lunch. It was good, and surprisingly light on the pocket, for I returned with only 3 things ... $3.50 of fibre from the rummage bags at the back and 2 balls of yarn. My head cold was fought off temporarily with a decongestant and panadol - athough I did keep sniffing. One day I promise I'll photograph the Mill factory shop .. I planned to today, I took the camera, but forgot. At first glance its not that spectacular .. but there are bins of skeins, and shelves of cones, and cubbyholes of balls of yarn ... and out the back the 'sale table', with scraps or what they call mill-ends aka cones of singles and yarn, and mill-laps, aka scraps from the carding process, perfect for spinning. Which brings me to today's post, new yarn, some spinning done, a new project to tuck away for latter, and some knitting progress ... no not the tea cosy, its almost done. I just have the top-knot to work, but I feel it needs its first outing at the KSG 2009 tea-party .. next Saturday.

Up first, new yarn, is new for the mill, a possum, merino silk blend in a sport weight, we'd call it a 4-ply here in NZ. They only had two colours but perfect for colour work on a hat or a pair of girley mittens. As usual the Mill band is basic, with no indication of what the fibre blend is ... they really could do with some marketing help, without the cardboard tag above the cubby we never would have spotted the luxury details of the blend. The spin fibre .. well I can't show you as some is destined for my NZFW 3.0 swap .. so its secret for now. But I did bring the scrap home and hacked it ready for spinning.


I've been spinning recently, well plying, I finished the 4th bobbin of dark beautiful Polwarth fibre from FFF, and spent last night plying it. I love this fibre, it is soft and bouncy and light as a feather. I've got 100+g and 218m more or less. Its not quite dry ... so its hard to say. I do have to say the more plies .. the more even the resultant yarn - I'm a convert to plying up. I've got an equal amount of this fibre in off white and while I had planned to try and spin the white into a finer yarn, now I think it might make a fantastic shawl, with a pale centre and darker edge.

This week it has been mail box days, in that the contents of the mail box were interesting and fun. Yesterday the latest Spinoff and the IW Knits arrived which went with me to Milton and were shared as we ate. I'm not sure I'll renew my IWK subscription .. there is a whole lot of unflattering projects featured ... and this issue is no different. Its hard to justify the price just for the technical info which, lets be frank, a lot of that can be found on line, or in books. Magazines have a cycle, I've noticed it in photography and sewing and other craft magazines. They cycle through a lot of the same content, how to for beginners, techniques and inspiration .. through to content for more experienced practitioners, and after a few years you see the same info represented in a new way. Spin off is a whole different story .. either there is more development and innovation in the spin world, or I'm still such a newbie that its all still interesting. Then Bear arrived home just now with a copy of Filati which looks like it is a European elegant knitting magazine. Oh there are a few long knit coats but there looks to be some interesting ideas in side the covers - I've not delved to deep so don't rush off and buy one on my brief review. Any way .. in today's mail box was a pattern for EZ's Green Sweater! Yes I spurged and bought the pattern.

Lastly ...sock knitting, with all the tripping, magazine reading and plying not much socking has been going on. Today Poppy's afterthoughts travelled with me in the back seat where I knit, and they joined me at lunch where I knit. I've continued the slip stitch pattern around the whole leg, eventually the pattern will start just above the heel. The waste yarn row of stitches is perhaps clearer here - the green.

That is my half week to date. Tonight I'll either sort out the next spin project or knit more on the afterthought sock ...I've got 3 more work days, full back to back of planning meetings, before I'm on leave and that leave sounds sooooooo goooood right now.

take care
na stella