I'm a Spinner, Not a Spinster.

I can't believe it's been a over a fortnight since I last posted in my blog. I've been so busy these last few weeks with uni work and personal dramas that I haven't had the time to think of anything but New Wave French cinema and Gaelic bilingualism in Highland schools... 

So where to start? 

I guess the first big news is that my labels and business cards have finally arrived! I feel like a real grown up now! As I am fundraising for charity they are the cheapest that Vistaprint have to offer - free design and three weeks to ship - but I'm hoping that they shall help advertise the cause over the next few months... 

Purple? With Butterflies? GIMME!!! 

I couldn't resist when I saw the wee spinning wheel! 

The only problem with the labels is my hatred for sewing but I figure that they give a more professional edge to anything that I sell and again, publicity is key! 

I went to my Childreach Inaugural meeting last Tuesday where I was introduced to the rest of my team for Machu Picchu and we received our fundraising buckets and t-shirts etc. They all seem really friendly and it made everything seem really real again, only seven months to go so I have a lot of fundraising to do in the meantime! 

I've managed to complete several of my projects over the last wee while, despite various deadlines, and I now have half a dozen pairs of earrings to put on the stall after a trip to the bead shop in town. I had a brain wave this morning and if anyone has an earring stand that I can borrow for my craft stall please get in contact with me as it'd come in really useful for presenting them!

Thankfully I have finally finished the Under the Sea scarf for Jamie and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with it. In total - from blending the wool to sewing on the label - I worked out that it took me roughly twelve hours to complete, I just hope that Jamie's mum likes it and appreciates the hard work that I put into it. 

It's very difficult to show the true blend colours on a photo
but here is the best of many attempts! 

I want to thank my friend Milos for helping me to take a few photos of the scarf at the beach on Friday evening. We were lucky enough to get a couple of nice photos with the beautiful pink sunset as a background before the light started to disappear just after three o'clock in the afternoon, what is wrong with you, Aberdeen?!? Milos, I owe you a pint as thanks, I really appreciate it! 

The beautiful sunset over Aberdeen Beach on Friday evening.

I was actually surprised at how warm the scarf was 

Cutest puppy in Scotland came to give me a hand

You're sooo vain... 

Later that evening the Celtic Society hosted our second event of the semester, our first of many Celtic Themed Nights, this one focussing on our beloved Scotland. I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you on behalf of the Society to Marsaili for her brilliant speech and to everyone who came along, also thanks again to Nat for organising the fantastic music. Our fridge is still full of the haggis that we liberated at the end of the night, it will probably take us till Burns Night to finish it all! 

And on to a brief summary of my latest fundraising venture! I am very glad to say that my first charity collecting pub crawl was a success, we haven't counted the money yet as we're a little unsure of the regulations but Leonie and I worked well as a team and will be sharing our gains between us. 

There were just four of us on the crawl, Leonie and myself going to Machu Picchu and a couple of girls climbing to Everest base camp, we were all pretty nervous when we met up outside Paramount so we decided to go around in pairs taking half of the bar each. I was a little bit sceptical about shaking my bucket around and thoroughly expected to be told where to stick it but I was genuinely impressed by the generosity of the people of Aberdeen. The first donation I received was a five pound note from a gentleman who didn't even ask what I was collecting for! 

Ceitidh Seal: Licence to Chug...

A few donations and donators stick out in my memory, the first being an unsober oil rig worker who shoved a £20 note into my bucket when he couldn't find any change... 

The next nearly broke my heart: just as we were passing the corner of Union Street and Belmont a homeless man shouted after us to wait. We were all a little confused and explained that we don't have any cash on us other than the charity buckets, he then took out a handful of change from his pocket and thrust his hand towards us. Naturally we said that we couldn't accept it as it's all that he had but his response was 'No, love, they need it more than I do'. Leonie and I nearly wept. 

It was a really fun way to fundraise and you meet a lot of people in the process - I will definitely consider organising another crawl in the future to help boost my MyDonate page! My boyfriend has already promised to help me organise a wee pub crawl around Edinburgh when I'm up for Hogmanay. 

And lastly I'd like to wish Carleigh good luck with her presentation on knitting and spinning for which I was interviewed yesterday prevening. I hope that my ramblings came in useful and that you enjoyed playing with my spinning wheel! 

And so onto another long week of uni and knitting... 


Current Total: £153.55 + Bucket of Uncounted Change

At What Point Does Art Become Mess?

How is it the weekend already? Life is going past so quickly these days and I have so much to do, both for uni and for Childreach... I sometimes wish that Bernard's Watch really existed.

I've finally started knitting the Under the Sea scarf after finding a pattern to adapt on Ravelry. As the name suggests, I want the scarf to look like it's just washed up on the shore which is the complete opposite of perfect and store-bought - surprisingly difficult as I shall now try and explain. 

When I started experimenting with the freshly-spun yarn last week I tried knitting plain garter stitch on big needles (20mm) but although it was quick to knit I couldn't get the effect I wanted and it looked lazy and boring. For several days I was stuck, then thanks to a brainwave from my friend, Ele, I started looking for wave-shaped patterns to try out, both online and in my library of knitting books. 

Unfortunately many of the patterns that I found were too tight-knit and wouldn't have suited hand-spun yarn but eventually I stumbled across the perfect design incorporating everything that I had pictured in my mind's eye. For copyright reasons I had to extrapolate and adapt the pattern a little but I loved the idea of using drop stitches to create a running wave through the scarf and it's a novel way of highlighting the slubbiness of the yarn itself and the blend of colours used. 

Not long after starting the project, however, I had a bit of a crisis of confidence which resulted in yet more knitter's block... What if people think it's just messy and that I'm utterly useless at both spinning and knitting? What if Jamie's mum doesn't understand or appreciate the design? 

At what point does art become mess and vice versa? 

I don't tend to panic about this sort of thing with my other, more conventional, projects - those that follow a strict pattern and are made using the perfect size needle gauge for the yarn. A dropped stitch usually invokes a panicked five minutes with a crochet needle and a skipped heart beat yet in this case I am expected to drop multiple stitches every half a dozen or so rows then ladder the scarf on purpose. It goes against everything I have ever made before and it's a difficult mindset to get into. 

But I love it! 
I love the randomness of the rows
I love the curliness of the over-spun yarn between the loose ribbing
I love the way the silk, corriedale and merino create different textures throughout the piece 
I love its uniqueness and knowing that there is no scarf in the world exactly like this one
Though most of all I love that it has been created by me, myself and I - from scratch. 

When I realised that I am beginning to think of this scarf as my own offspring the panic subsided and I remembered why I became a spinner in the first place. The first thing I ever spun myself was on a drop spindle a few summers back... it was terrible, utterly terrible; at the beginning I had no idea how I was meant to draft the wool and spin at the same time and by the time it clicked in I had nearly finished. One half of the yarn was chunky and the other half was practically lace-weight, I dip dyed it badly and ended up with a garter stitched purple and pink mess with one end twice the width of the other. When I took it to show my Grandma her friends looked at me with pity and smiled and nodded slowly when I said that I'd made it all by myself. Nevertheless I adore that scarf and it's my symbol of defiance and determination. 

'Never let them tell you that something is too difficult or impossible' - Douglas Bader 

The photo doesn't do the colours or length any justice
but here is a sneak preview of my first custom-ordered scarf:
 Under the Sea

And so I am going to keep on knitting with a clear conscience and although I very much hope that the recipient loves the scarf as much as I do, I have to learn to trust in myself and not worry so much about other people's opinions and criticisms. 

In the meantime I'm still working on my potential stall so I am knitting another Highland Heather Hat and I'm going to see if I can get any matching gloves made to go with them as a set but I still haven't got any 6.5mm dpns so that will have to wait a few more days. It's reading week at uni so I'm completely bogged down with French essays and reading for Gaelic but I'm hoping to have a few nights of knitting and jewellery making etc... 

Second attempt at the Highland Heather Hat
- I'm aiming to have five for sale by next month...

And finally: I had a very productive evening this Wednesday and made my first batch of Felted Soaps. I found a tutorial by the brilliantly talented Neauveau Fibre Arts on youtube whilst procrastinating earlier this week and decided to give it a go myself. It's such an awesome and brilliantly simple idea that I can't believe it's only just beginning to take off! Essentially you wrap wool round a bar of soap and wet and agitate it until it felts: in short it's a bar of soap with an attached wash cloth! 

My first felted soaps using a variety of popular brands
- will be on sale at my Xmas stall next month

There are some genuinely good reasons for using and buying/making felted soap: 
When you leave a normal bar of soap in the shower or on the side of the bathtub it develops a horrible scud on the outer layer which is usually rubbed off when you next use it and gets washed down the drain. It also bugs me how you rarely get to the end of the bar, I usually bin mine when it gets to the cracked and dried out stage because it then breaks up into tiny pieces and and gets all yucky (scientific term). All of this is incredibly wasteful, particularly if you're a student and would rather spend your money at the pub than in superdrug or tescos on yet MORE soap! 

Not only does the wool cover prevent this scuddy layer from forming, it's also a minor exfoliator and wash cloth - they also lather up really quickly and feels lovely and soft. You also don't have to worry about those last little yucky bits as they are all contained within the woollen pouch - no more waste! If you are really into your recycling you can re-use the felt on another bar of soap or do a quick google search for ideas on how to turn it into another useful and pretty household item. 

I have ten ready made to put on my Christmas stall and they'd make a novel and cheap stocking filler for friends and family!

Current Total: £142

Round and Round in the Circle Game...

I think it's safe to say that it's been a busy and productive weekend! 

A couple of posts ago I mentioned dabbling with the 'dreaded circular needles'... I would hereby like to retract that statement - I have since fallen in love with knitting in the round and have even bought two more pairs of beautiful (and slightly pricey) Knit-Pro Symphonie Interchangeables for further projects. If I wasn't a poor student I would have the complete set of symphonie needles, hooks and any other accessories that I can get my hands on but sadly I can't justify it... one day maybe...

So as I say, busy weekend. I started knitting my first hat in the round early last week and finally finished it on Friday night, I have named it 'Raspberry Swirl' and I am reserving it for my Christmas stall next month along with everything else I've done these last few days. 

I realised on Saturday that I was actually running low on commercial wool for knitting with (something that I never thought would happen) and so I went for a wander with my friend Ty down to the wonderful local wool shop in Aberdeen, Wool for Ewe on Rosemount. I was a bit worried about him getting bored but other than telling me to stop asking his advice about needle sizes he was actually pretty enthusiastic, particularly when he noticed the buttons - anything shiny eh, Ty? 

Despite falling desperately in love with every beautiful yarn I came across and having buttons that I just HAD to have thrust upon me I managed to remain slightly under-budget so we then headed down to Bead Crazy to spend the change on more sparkly things! 

I came home with lots of goodies to play with and immediately set about knitting a hat with the beautiful multicoloured chunky yarn I bought. I decided to wing it and didn't follow any pattern (a little headstrong for my second circular piece) but I am proud of the result I achieved. Because of the many colours I decided early on that there was no point in knitting anything too complicated as cables and lace would be too fancy and would possibly become an eyesore so I kept to a slightly slouchy beanie shape using just rib and stocking stitch: 

I'm blaming the bags under my eyes on
 my inability to put this yarn down...

The colours are slightly different to this in real life
 but I like the almost self-striping effect.

I've named the hat 'Highland Heather' because of the beautiful mix of greens, blues, browns and purples and my only resentment is that I didn't spin the yarn myself. This blend is now on my spinning to-do list! 

In addition to all of this I have at last made some progress on my other projects - Kez's fox hat now has two slightly squinty ears and I have finally purchased some eyes even though I have yet to attach them. Also, I have hopefully decided on a pattern for Jamie's Under the Sea Scarf after getting knitters block earlier this week... At my friend Ele's suggestion I have found a lovely loose wave-shaped pattern on Ravelry and will be adjusting and extrapolating it to suit my project. Fingers crossed it will work! 

This evening, once I had finished sewing the buttons to my latest knitted creation, I got the sewing-box out and started making a few sets of stitch markers with the beads that I bought yesterday. For anyone who doesn't knit, stitch markers are used to highlight areas where the pattern changes or to show the beginning of the round when using circular needles. They come in very handy, particularly with larger projects and I've been meaning to get the pliers out for weeks now. I have to admit that I'm not very impressed with my current crimp tubes as the silver plating falls off as soon as you touch them but I will buy some more for future sets. 

Set 1 - Suitable for small to medium-sized needles up to 6.5mm

Set 2 - Better with thinner needles due to their light weight
- up to 4 or 5mm

Set 3 - Designed for big needles and chunky wool
- shown on 10mm needles

I have also come across half a dozen pairs of unfinished earrings that I started making before going on my year abroad, once I find some decent crimps I'll finish them all and could maybe make some more - in colours other than purple! - to put on the Christmas stall... 

It's amazing what you find when you go rummaging through your sewing box...

I'd also like to thank everyone who has donated over the last few days, I still have a long way to go to reach the fundraising target of £2450 but the support I have received so far has been overwhelming and I really appreciate it! 


Current Total: £142

Samhain, Spinning and Strip the Willow

Happy Hallowe'en everyone, I hope you all had a good night. Mine was downright fantastic from the word go! It helps that my antibodies were temporarily winning the battle against the plague so for one day at least I didn't speak like the horrible aunts from the Simpsons... sadly today the tables have turned but it was good while it lasted. 

So last night was eventful to say the least. I managed to crowbar in a little bit of fundraising before heading out on the town thanks to a suggestion by a friend who completed the Great Wall of China trek for Childreach last year; thanks for the tip, Sean! 

The activity was simple but ingenious and so while my housemates were still eating their dinner and watching the mentalist I threw on my costume (Fraulein Maria in the dirndl I bought in a second hand shop in Austria this summer), fished the bowl of sweeties out the cupboard and printed off a copy of my registration letter before heading out to beg spare change from the neighbours - a kind of charity trick or treat if you will... 

I'm not going to lie, I hate knocking on doors asking for money and I spent many hours during my youth collecting for the RAFA Wings Appeal so I know already that I stutter and mumble and shake whenever someone actually answers. Nevertheless I gave it my best shot and thanks to a little dutch courage (donated by flat C) I managed to make it around three blocks of the student accommodation where I currently reside. 

The response was decidedly mixed, on the whole those who answered were very friendly and generous and I forgive anyone who didn't have any change on them (my own purse back home being completely empty too). One flat who were quite obviously preparing for a night of heavy drinking opened the door after a couple of knocks and I found myself face to face with a young man painted head to toe in red and a neanderthal, both of whom were very enthusiastic about the sweeties and donated a decent handful of change each. On a similar thread I may have insulted a young female neighbour who tentatively inched the door open wearing a face mask and I asked her (jokingly) if she was already dressed for the evening. 

Overall I would describe it as a fruitful endeavour and I made a total of £22.65 which is a lot more than I had anticipated and I am very grateful to all those who donated!

Following my charity collecting we headed into town for the Monster Ball Ceilidh, organised by our good friend Adam, dressed as a hat-less witch, an Austrian nanny and jail-bait... The ceilidh was absolutely fantastic and I have the bruises to prove it (not as bad as Imoan's but hers are just insane) and it was so good to be back hanging out with the people I love and being flung around the room in every direction but the right one... 

A massive congratulations and thanks is in order for Adam for organising the event and I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did!

Current Total: £82