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I've spent a few days recently on my spinning wheel. Here are my latest yarn-like creations: Remember this? It was some of the Wensleydale/Silk roving I dyed recently - blogged here It's changed into a 2 ply, 15 w.p.i., 157m/100g - sport weight. I finished the Faux Cashmere I mentioned last week. It's 18 w.p.i., 268m/100g. I've finished the mate to the Teal Shetland - so it's all ready for some fair isle mittens. It's a very pale green, BFL, 161m, 17 w.p.i. Not identical to it's mate but close enough for the mittens. I've also made a couple of mini skeins. The sparkle will hopefully become a Christmas tree decoration;  and the other two are the start of a larger lot of yarns for another fair isle project. The original idea was for some Bandelier socks, so the colours I have are similar but think I might use the same pattern and improvise something else. Don't think I really want make a pair of socks I have to handwash at the moment!

Among lots of other things, I've managed to fit in a little time for spinning. Happened to drive past Wingham Woolworks a little while back (it was a 50 mile detour really!). Bought a few bits and on the way to the counter saw this gorgeous shiny fluff and it went into the basket. It's 50% yak, 50% silk and it really shines. It changed from this to this... It's  a 2ply, 178m, 12 w.p.i. DK. It's going to become a "Yak Hat"! This is Shetland from Wheeldale and there's only 50g, 175m, 2ply and 18 w.p.i. So it's on the edge of being a fingering weight. I have another 50g in a light green in BFL to go with it and once that's spun, it'll be some handspun stranded mittens. This is my first attempt at corespinning and I loved it. 141m, 10 w.p.i., Worsted Weight. Fibre mix: merino, BFL, sari silk, bamboo, baby alpaca and sparkle. My thinking at the moment it would make a lovely drawstring bag but don't really need one of those so not sure what to ...

I got a little sidetracked recently. I've participated in my first KAL (knit-a-long). Ysolda Teague has recently self published Orchid Thief shawl - it was originally available in Brave New Knits. To celebrate this, a KAL has been organised.  I ummed and ahhed over doing it and suddenly remembered I had the perfect handspun for the project and it sort of tipped the balance. So off I trotted and bought the pattern and found my needles and wool. It transformed from this...... to this.... And finally to this..... I've included a few beads that I had in the edging and used a crochet cast off edge.

Mr. and I spent a day at The Basket Case recently and had a great time. We made a willow basket each from scratch. This is the only photo I managed while we were making the baskets 8 hours and many scratches and broken nails later; we had a willow basket each. Mr.'s Mine Mr. very kindly made his so that it stacked with mine (just a happy coincidence)- makes storing them at home a lot easier. The woman who taught us was a very good teacher and it was a nice relaxing day. They grow their own willow for weaving and we got to see it growing too.