It has been so hot! Too hot for me to knit without feeling like I’m overheating. So instead I have been spending time outdoors for the past few weeks.
It’s hard not to go outside when this is the view from a local walk near my home. This is Godrevy and you can see seals at one point along the walk.
And this is Gwithian beach just next to Godrevy. The parking is tricky on weekends due to the tourists descending on Cornwall but there’s always a space during the week.
It started raining on Tuesday and it was just cool enough to knit in the evenings. I’ve made a little progress on the Pinwheel blanket from the pink stitch marker:
I have also started a new project – a baby gansey for my cousins little boy. The pattern is the Baby Gansey Sweater by Susan Rainey (link here).
I’m using King Cole Baby DK as it’s easy to wash – much nicer for new parents!
I went to my second meeting on Saturday for the Cornwall Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (WSD). The Saturday meetings are held in Chacewater, a little village a short drive from Truro.
I spotted at least 10 people on my way into the village with volunteer tabards, tidying the main road, planting flowers and working on the community garden. There is a definite sense of community here (hopefully not in the Hot Fuzz way though!).
The Guild meeting here is held in what is grandly called the Women’s Institute Hall. In reality it is the green building above, built during the Second World War for a reason I have yet to ascertain.
Inside it is small but large enough for a group with a few spinning wheels and table looms. I took my knitting with me as I don’t know how to spin and my Rigid Heddle loom is a bit big for taking to meetings. But I did bring my neglected wheel.
Well. The knitting didn’t get further than another row because one of the lovely members saw my spinning wheel and decided to help me learn!
She had a look at the wheel and made a few adjustments. She also taught me what each bit does and how this affects the wheel when trying to spin.
After getting used to treadling for a bit, we practiced set up, feeding, controlling and moving the fiber through and staying in control where possible of the speed of the wheel.
And here is my first bit of spinning:
It’s thick and thin and a bit lumpy but I’m so happy I made it. I was even shown how to ply from two bobbins which was a lot easier than creating the initial single ply.
It’s not a pretty sight! This is my craft room after coming back from holiday. Cat bed shoved out the way, open suitcase left unpacked as I headed straight back to work the day after coming home.
Unsurprisingly not much creativity happened while the room was like this. Somehow inspiration evaporated (a bit like the floor space!). The annoyance of wading through stuff to find a knitting needle or bit of kit stifled any progress. I was trying to find various items for a watercolour class on Tuesday and realised it was time for a Tidy with a capital T!
Aaah much better! There is now desk space and floor space! And space in my mind now to think about projects and creativity. Is that an empty loom I hear you ask? It is and it means there is a finished project – I will post about it soon x
I moved to Cornwall last October from Hampshire due to a change in job location. It’s not somewhere I ever expected to live but the change in surroundings has been very welcome. I have loved exploring a new part of the UK and being surrounded by a multitude of beautiful beaches and countryside has certainly helped!
I will be moving again in October (and every October for the next couple of years) but while I’m here I decided to join the local Cornwall Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (WSD). I finally made it to one of the Guild meetings last week and received an incredibly warm welcome by everyone there.
I didn’t know what to bring for the meeting and luckily there was a mini workshop being held alongside a mini market for books and an area for those wishing to weave and spin. The workshop was based on the incredible work of Kaffe Fassett. His use of colour and design is incredible. We worked on small knitting samples based on his Persian Poppy design:
The idea is to gather lots of different coloured yarns and divide them into light and dark piles. Then take an arms width of each light colour and make a continuous ball of yarn out of these. Then do the same for the dark yarns. I think that makes sense?
We then used the newly made light and dark balls of yarn to follow the Persian Poppy pattern. Here are a few of our samples:
It was a lovely morning and I will definitely be joining for the next meeting in May.
Two of the Guild members have also kindly offered to teach me the basics of spinning at the next meeting with my spinning wheel. I am so glad I joined such a welcoming group of people.
Now that I’m getting back into the swing of crafting I decided to get my pre-existing WIPs out of their hiding places and see what I’ve got left to do.
I have 6 in total: 2 weaving, 1 sewing and 3 knitted projects.
1. Flax Light
My oldest WIP, started in April 2018 is a Flax Light by Tin Can Knits. I am using alternating skeins of Dusted Dreams in the colourway Purple Berry Tart from Easy Knits and Companion Sole in the colourway Delirium from Third Vault Yarns.
This is a simple top down raglan jumper and I have finished the body and most of the first sleeve. I haven’t found an way to knit sleeves comfortably without it feeling like an effort to finish them. So far I have tried DPNs, on tiny circular needles and the magic loop technique. Magic loop seems to be the easiest of the three so far so hopefully this will push me to finish the jumper this year. Fingers crossed it’s still the right size!
2. Balanced weave green blanket
Next is my second oldest project started in April 2021. Maybe April is a bad month for starting projects?!
I have an 80 inch Ashford rigid heddle loom which I’m keen to start using more. I previously wove a beautiful blue gradient shawl on this which I loved but unfortunately the mohair yarn used for the weft shed everywhere! However, this was excellent learning for me on the importance of the quality of the yarn being used. Everyday is a learning day 🙂
This weaving project is a balanced weave using leftover Stylecraft DK acrylic yarn in varying shades of brown and green. I think it could make some very effective camouflage. The weaving aspect is complete and now I need to remove the waste yarn, complete the twists at each end, wash it and finish it.
3. Blue Wavy Blanket
Started in October 2021, again using Stylecraft DK from an abandoned crochet attempt, this time in shades of blue and purple. The pattern is the Pastel Rainbow Baby Blanket by Stitchy Linda on Ravelry.
4. Pinwheel Blanket
Started in June 2024 (less than a year old!), this blanket will be a birthday present for my Mum. The pattern is the Reversible Pinwheels Blanket by Yarn Sonata using Morris & Sons 8 ply in the colourway Burnish. Morris & Sons is an Australian yarn producer and Burnish reminds me of the changing colour of the red dirt of the Outback at sunset near where I grew up.
5. Morse Code Scarf
My most recent weaving project started in January of this year. My loom has sat empty after removing the green blanket mentioned above and it was time to try a new project. I bought a mystery yarn cone pack from Woolyknit just before Christmas as an early Christmas present to myself. The pack contained three cones of 4ply merino yarn with varying amounts of yarn left on each. I chose the purple and deep yellow as nice contrasting colours and the Morse Code scarf draft from Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell. I have woven 40 inches of the 70 inches required for the project.
6. Pyjamas!
In October last year I moved to Cornwall and my new local town has an incredible yarn and fabric shop. After chatting to the lovely people running the shop, I was persuaded to add a sewing pattern to my list of projects to try. The Jaimie PJs from Tilly and the Buttons is designed with beginners in mind. I have washed the fabric ready to start. Now to take the plunge and open the pattern and figure out how to cut it out properly!
I am officially two months into my six months off from work and it has been amazing. Not for the things I was expecting, but more for the catch up sleep, time to cook proper meals and seeing people outside of work. What surprised me is that in two months I haven’t touched a single skein of wool, or fluff or a pencil to attempt some (very bad) art. Despite having all these things in my house I haven’t even looked at any of them until now. I came to the realisation that I was officially burnt out and it has taken that long for my brain to breathe and expand into creativity again.
And I am so excited to start again!
I have seven WIPs, 6 from last year and a new one as of two days ago. I’m looking forward to making progress with these and exploring my stash for new ideas.
My new WIP is a DK hat using a pattern called Tied Knots by Justyna Lorkowska. The yarn is a gorgeous mustard colour in Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Sport from stash.
The yarn is lovely and squishy and a pleasure to work with while catching up with TV and knitting podcasts on YouTube. This hat will be for my Mum for her birthday in September (I’m pretending to be organised about gifts this year…)
So I have enough crafting things really. I have a rigid heddle loom, a sewing machine, various knitting needles, yarn, felt, a screen printing kit and a soap kit stashed away on various parts of the house. I don’t need anymore things….
So, of course, I bought a spinning wheel.
I like browsing Facebook marketplace and EBay more out of curiosity than anything else. Two weeks ago I spotted a wheel for sale on Facebook for £175. It looked in good condition and was the closest wheel to me I had seen so far. Most have been a minimum of a four hour drive away. So I hopped in the car and went for a beautiful drive to the Dorset border to have a look. It’s a beautiful part of the world and there were plenty of spring lambs frolicking in the fields as I drove past. A sure sign that this was a good idea right?
On arrival, I found out the wheel belonged to the sellers mother who sadly has Dementia and can no longer remember how to spin despite doing so for years. The seller wanted it to go to someone who would continue to use it rather than it sitting in her garage for the next few years. I promised I would try to use it as often as possible.
So here it is! It needed a bit of love and care. It has a new drive belt and brake band and has been oiled according to the video on the Ashford YouTube channel. This has allowed to run a lot smoother which is great.
I took it for a spin (haha) last night and it is a lot more difficult than it looks on the instructional videos! I can treadle smoothly when not doing anything else but struggled to get the fiber to attach to the leader yarn. After a few unsuccessful tries, I had a gin and tonic instead which went very smoothly.
I’m not sure the flyer is spinning as easily as it should but I have no idea – any suggestions? Will definitely be having another practice this evening or tomorrow!
Easter weekend was full of sun and even felt warm when sat in various people’s gardens. Walks along the canal saw paddleboarders, canoes and kayaks all drifting along together including a few new paddlers that were close to ending up in the water. Nothing like a group of passers by cheering when you stay on the board!
Then came Monday and what can only be described as wet sleety, haily snowy stuff!
This was followed by two very chilly days and then back to brilliant sunshine yesterday. And time in the garden with the best cat – Harvey.
The house and garden are slowly coming together. Only one box left! The garden is tidier with the removal of the random mini hedges. A man is going to remove all the remaining stumps and then it will be time to put the raised beds in.
And now that we have more space in the house, I made a little purchase – more on that tomorrow!
The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur! I have been on night shifts which means starting at 8pm and finishing at 8.30am for a few weeks closely followed by long days. The positives of night shifts during winter is that dark, rainy weather is perfect for sleeping and you don’t feel that you’re missing out on amazing weather. Thankfully I don’t have any more nights for a few weeks, so I can enjoy the improving weather we’re having in the south coast of the UK.
All my spare time has been spent packing to move house and then gradually unpacking. The new house is only 5 minutes from where we were living but it’s got an extra bedroom and a garden. We were living in a 4th floor flat, which we have loved, but we have really missed having a garden. We need to buy a whole load of furniture so a lot of things are staying in boxes until there are places for them. This makes it a little hard to settle in but the main bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room have enough in them to feel cosy already.
So to creativity. Unsurprisingly this has been on the back burner (see above paragraphs!), and I’m looking forward to restarting. The yarn boxes have been unpacked and everything is back in the yarn cupboard.
One project I did start is a knitted blanket formed of individually knit squares. However the thought of stitching all the squares together made me give up quite rapidly. I need a mindless project while sorting house admin. The yarn for the project was originally bought for an Attic24 crochet blanket a few years ago now. I quickly discovered crochet wasn’t for me and I have been looking for other ideas to use the yarn.
This morning I saw an Instagram post by @ Josiekitten using similar yarn to make a habitation shawl. Perfect! This covers two of my projects plans – a blanket and the habitation shawl.
I have also added a few inches to my Summer Flax Light jumper sleeve.
And chosen one of my socks to complete that have been in the needles for ages.
Fingers crossed I’ll have some more time in the next week or so to work on these. How is your week going? I’ll leave you with a photo or two of my local beach – now just two streets away!
Local starling
This post is part of the Year of Projects Group based on Ravelry. A wonderful group of people encouraging each other with their crafts. If you are interested in joining, you can find the group through the link here (Ravelry link).
Charlotte’s Makery 