Unwound

Wow, last weekend was the 2013 Unwind fibre retreat, and it was amazing, bigger and better and just the same as 2012. I know that can't make sense, to be better and the same, but there was the same kinds of people, many of them the same people, and the same kind of amazing fibre love and sharing as before - just more of it.

  Little cub was part of all of it, even to manning the swap shop table. Here she is waiting for the first customers. Swap shop was popular, this was the table mid way through the trade in day ..... one the huge pile of stuff had been mostly cleared away by impatient swappers. Josie wanted to arrange the table by colour gradient - and I must admit while it was a wee bit of extra work, it did look good once done.

 Unwind swap shop has its own currency, Swap dollars, which are earned by trading in unwanted stash yarn. I thought I had high standards for my own stash, with it mostly restricted to natural fibres in lovely colours - but some people traded in baby lama and cashmere, and Indie-dyers yarn. I'm told little cub was a stickler for the rules, and insisted that only baby alpaca was worth two swap dollars for 50grams, ordinary alpaca was only worth one.

 I attended the class by Frances Stachl aka Sourkraut called colour control which was all about planned use of those amazing dyed rovings that many spinners collect. We explored various methods and approaches to not spinning them as they present, instead dividing the rovings into colour groups and thinking about the shape of the shawl or whatever was being spun for. Several kinds of manipulation were explored faux-rolags, dizing to blend, and drum carding. Bear was amazing - and delivered a Drum Carder mid class following one of those 'would you be a dear(bear)' phone calls.

Even though I had attended a class that covered creating ones own colour gradient from a dyed roving - and in theory I could make one myself - I had to bring this lovely roving home, 160 grams of fibre love. Bright sunny daffy yellow fading to deep purple - from Spinning a Yarn, what a magic combination.

The best thing about a traders hall is the variety, all sorts of thing jump out and catch ones eye. This is another example of a fibre that just had to come home, dyed by Maude and Me .... just one of several amazing bundles on her trade stall.

Of course when one is at a three day retreat one goes around and around the trade hall and each time something new is noticed. I was a tad slow on this one - The Grey Scale - mini skeins by Spinning a yarn.  All friday people stopped me and asked if I had seen Jessica's Mini-skeins. Oh yes I said, thinking of some small skeins I had noticed on her stall. Then at the colour control class Frances pulled out a tidy package of mini skeins to show how clever some indie dyers were in planning a colour way that would produce even stripes on an ever widening shawl. I finally understood the potential of The Mini Skeins and more than that - I realized there were only a few and they were in one of the nicest ranges of grey I had ever seen. I was lucky in that Jessica had one left and when asked happily put it aside for me - even though I wasn't free to  buy it until the next day. I am so looking forward to using this.

This was my wee score, the swap shop had what I would consider a few real vintage treasures on it. One was 10 oz of soft ballet pink 3 ply yarn, marked in pre-decimal currency so sold before 1967. I told little cub if the pink was there when I looked then it was meant to be ours, another local had a similar idea and I'm happy to say the ballet pink is in a queue to become a ballet cardigan sometime soon in Dunedin. Another treasure was a bag of deep forest blue green vintage yarn from the same era, and a third was this - a 'separates pack' by Munrospun. I wasn't quick enough to get the green - but did score the Munrospun - (with a little help from M of Vintage Purls).

The separates pack consists of a enough beautiful soft tweedy singles yarn to knit a cardigan or sweater, complete with fabric label and buttons. I love how the instructions suggest that the skirt be made using  'Vouge' or other well known pattern house, whilst the yarn be knit into a stylish garment using one of the many Munro knitting leaflets. The fabric and knitting yarn are beautifully matched, and everything is clearly labled 'made in Scotland'. The colour way is Morning Haze.

A previous owner had started to knit something, but only got half way up the back. I do like their choice of cabled rib - and might have to do something like that myself. Half the yarn has been wound into balls - and half is still skeins with those amazing pure wool made in Scotland Munrospun labels. I'm not the only blogger who now has one in stash, and it came in a beautiful bold blue (here),  - spot another here, and read about memories of one here. the yarn even has entries on Ravelry (here), and with 12 projects linked to it (none are coordinating separates - sadly) and 30 instances of it in peoples stashes ... how wonderful! I feel inspired and obligated to do something clever with it or pass it on to someone who will.

The box is every bit as amazing as the yarn, made from a thick textured card, imprinted with a woven linen pattern and printed with all sorts of ruins. I admit some seem more Greek than Scottish but given how the Greek and roman ruins were often shipped to the UK or copies made to decorate gardens I guess the places depicted could be Scottish. I have 10 ozs of yarn and 1 yard of 54 inch fabric - enough for plenty of options. If only I could decide. I am slightly worried this will be just added to the stash and become too-good-too-use, but knowing that I will try and plan something that uses it.

Yoyo was only slightly interested, but much improved and looking more like her perky self. When we arrive home she fair gallops and bounces along almost tripping us up and racing up the stairs to be first. I like that our cat has her bounce back -  that is a good sign.

Post unwind there are all the events of iD Fashion week here, so it seems like it will be next week before things even begin to return to something normal.
Take care
Stella

The post with gloves, sewing and a new ukelele

Things have been busy here, Unwind is next weekend which means a slight panic all round. Not a mad panic, but a slow ordered got-to-make-sure-that-things-are-in-order kind of controlled panic. Now I'm not organizing Unwind, I am unwinding, and along with smallest cub,  teaching two classes, and taking one. That means getting organized for three classes, so I've been sorting and stacking, things for this class, things for that class, and things for the other class in yet another pile. I've also been volunteering as a general helper if and when needed - so there have a few chores as part of that. Today I've got an update on the Sanquhar gloves, which are coming along nicely and quicker than anticipated, a new sock club installment which came with my new favorite knit tool, I'll show you my volunteer project for Unwind, and there is a new ukelele and with it a new word - purfling. All in all a busy weekend.

My Sanquhar gloves are growing surprisingly quickly, for something knit in colour work and at a fine gauge. Around 10:30 last night I reached the point of dividing up for the fingers and decided that was a task best left for another day. The wrist fits beautifully, but the palm seems loose. That may be the result of the straight dpns/needles distorting the fabric, or it maybe the stitch count being reliant on multiples of 13. I'm holding off making any decisions on this, but know that given it is pink and grey Bear is unlikely to welcome them even if his paws are larger than mine.

This kit arrived during the week, the latest installment of the Vintage Purls 2012 Summer club, I've not done the purple justice, its richer and purpler than this. Truly this is one of those purples that even those who don't really get purple like  - I lost count of the number of comments along the lines of 'well I don't really do purple, but this purple is the kind I can do'. 

 I have a new toy, the wee special treat in the last Vintage Purls sock club,with it I can highlight the line of chart I am knitting.

And when I've knit that line I can move the tape to another line - easily.

This is my new favorite knit tool, highlighter tape. I guess that most of you already know about this stuff, but I'm still underlining in pencil and occasionally using yellow highlighter pen or a 3M sticky post it. The best bit is that the tape isn't even sticky - it seems to be that clever cling plastic rather than traditional sticky tape so there is not sticky residue left behind and it stays clingy. I am indebted to Morag for discovering this in Julia's knit kit and sourcing enough to supply knit-clubbers.

One of my volunteer roles at Unwind is helping the the swap shop, a table where one can trade the  yarn one owns but no longer loves for credits that can then be used to 'purchase' yarn traded in by others. The Swap-shop needed a sign and this is it, a quilted banner to drape across the front of the table, the fabric is a remnant of a Liberty Print, Melbury in colour way D. Finishing this let me tick of another thing on my to-do list.

Lastly there is a new Uke in the house, little cub has been playing Ukelele for 3 years, all the time on the same pink cheap lacquered soprano ukelele. Initial cost was $20, and while we had invested in a tuner and a custom bag, it remained a little cheap uke. Elder cub has returned to his guitar and so we are shopping around for a guitar to fit his five foot ten inch frame, his last one was bought when he was 9, and much shorter.  As we toured the music shops of Dunedin I became aware that there was more to the Ukelele world than cheap toy versions, and that little cub who has plucked away under her own steam for three years could also do with an upgrade. We are still negotiating with the elder cub the  details of the guitar,  so far no pick up, steel or nylon strings as yet undecided, Bear wants one made in Canada or Spain, Cub wants a cutaway body ..... its a whole new world to me, and a whole new set of terms. In the meanwhile we have splurged on a new uke for little cub, a Lanikai Flame Maple Tenor with real abalone purfling. Sounds much more mellow and full than the wee pink soprano uke it replaces. We figure this kind of spending replaces the large game station that we will never buy for them.

Purfling - now that is a word that I could use to describe my knitting, in some dictionaries its a ruffled or curved ornamental band - in others an ornamental border or edging. Now I think I'm  looking for a project to purf ...... I'm sure Morag just finished a cardigan with a Purfled band ..... Purfling is nice in the right places.

take care
na Stella