Woolly Chit Chat

 Feeling inspired to catch up with a few wooly makes today. Especially as me, my daughters and my mum went to Wonderwool Wales last month. I had it in my head that I should use up any wool from last years purchases in order to enjoy buying some more.

This was one of my usual mash up knits where I used the Bardini vest pattern as a base and made it work for the materials I had. I sized up as this is 3ply yarn and the pattern is for 4ply yarn.

I had a go at fading. I wasn't so successful on the first fade from green to the flecked blue but then I learnt, as I went along, how much yarn to leave from the old ball to fade in. You switch in the new colourway every other row until the last one runs out. The back and rib is made with a 4ply cream yarn from Drops which works well because you can see the fade on the side seam.

My last bit of stash knitting before our visit to Wonderwool was to knit all of my sock yarn scraps that would not be useful in an actual pair of socks into a cowl for skiing. We were lucky with the weather this year when we went skiing; it was sunny and there was not any driving snow. I had in mind when I knit this that it would hug my neck and be supper warm. 

I really don't like cowls that fold in on themselves into a useless ring around your neck. Harsh words I know. Without a pattern, I cast on the sock yarn on 3mm needles. Starting with the finest wool and then kept changing up a needle increment with wool thickness as I continued. It meant that with a stretchy cast off, it was wider at one end than the other and sits really well. The 3xrib was perfect and easy to do while watching a bit of TV. Functionality wise it is a 10 out of 10.

OK, back to the shopping. Yarn wise I had quite a haul. I always go to a guy at Wonderwool who looks like a market trader and if I am honest is a bit miserable. He has huge cardboard boxes with hanks of yarn with barely any details. Signs might simply say '4ply £5 hank' I am guessing it is deadstock but I like the jeopardy of buying something both unknown in quantity and composition. So many of the traders at the show sell expensive hand dyed artisan yarn that I would say it is hard to buy anything 'normal' so I think he has a good USP. 

I went for really harmonious choices. Everything is 4ply. I had ideas of what I wanted to buy wool for and then also I had in mind what I could use the left overs for. The pink, ran double, works well for any of the knits in my Ready Set raglan book so there is plenty of scope there. I then thought about a fair isle knit with the left over pink and chose some ivory and green to mix in with the left overs. The ball on the top is genius - it is a sock yarn split into two yarn runs so you can have matching ombre socks!!

Megan spotted this cotton in a sale basket, 5 balls for £10, and alerted me to it so I snapped it up and started a summer crochet top when I got home. This is my current sit-outside-to crochet project.

My girls always like the show day out...mostly because I promise them a crepe and there are always some lovely Angora rabbits, crazy looking goats or sheep with amazing fleeces to ogle.

I must admit to struggling with blogging at the moment. With a job that involves social media content it is hard to muster the motivation to write again here but I like to keep in touch with family and friends. I love reading blogs but can't always write my own. That said, I will definitely continue with my three word gardening posts, my ing posts and of course any ta dah! moments. 

Always happy to see you here. Love Jo xxxx