Sleeveless turtleneck jumper

Hilary’s sleeveless turtleneck jumper was a show stealer. It was the colour for a start. Alexis , in our group, had dyed the wool and it’s called periwinkle. It’s a beautiful colour. The cable pattern centre front looks like the jumper is ruched so it’s not just an ordinary cable effect. Because it is sleeveless it means you can wear different tops underneath and create different looks when you wear it. Hilary spun the wool and knitted it so it is quite a big project which has had a very happy ending.

There’s a  free pattern for a sleeveless turtleneck  on knitting patterns galore. There are also some good turtleneck patterns on knitting-bee. We like the trapeze pullover with the turtleneck.

Resistance is useless

We have been spinning all right and we cannot resist. It’s the colours, the fibres, the wheels, the feel of fleece , tops and roving. It’s the fact we can create beautiful things from lumps of beautiful fibres. We can comb them, card them, make wool batts, dye them. It’s a visual and tactile adventure. Every week we bring along our wheels and we can spin whatever we want to spin. We can see what other people are doing and just have all this colour and fibre input. We can see the process. We can enjoy looking at and feeling the fibre. Then we can do what Marjorie has done : turn out some lovely, colourful socks or a classic style Tunisian crochet jacket. We can’t help spinning, nor do we want to.

Dyed wool

Marjorie brought along some dyed wool. Things do not always go according to plan when you are dyeing. The dark blue of the bottom skein was supposed to be purple. The skein itself looks good with the dark blue , orange and green. Marjorie is an experienced wool dyer. She just could not get the purple colour. In the end she got a lovely amethyst colour which is at the top. The was extra green so she dyed the green skein and that is very vibrant. These were Landscape dyes. It will be interesting to see how Marjorie spins these colours and what she makes with them. Sometimes when things don’t go as planned it will challenge you to think differently or create differently. We are certain Marjorie will use her skeins of wool to good effect.

Show and tell

It was so cold this week . It was cheering to see all these beautiful things.

Alexis brought along some dyed plaits , some of which had been especially requested. She explained how she got the colours.

Alexis shared a pink silk felted jacket which she had purchased at the craft fair at Port Noarlunga. It was a made by a lady called Jill from Victor Harbour. It is silk on the outside , hot pink on the inside and really very attractive.

Alexis also brought along an emerald green cape she had made from wool which had silk through it because we had been talking about how to use silk last week. The buttons on it she had purchased .

Pam shared a pair of pink mittens made from commercial wool which actually had the look at feel of homespun wool.

So much colour therapy this week.