Such a lovely, sunny day outside but a bit cool inside…not that we noticed. We had so much fibre and colour to feast our eyes on and then all the projects which had been completed or were being completed. Plenty to share and plenty to talk about. Hilary shared the red , felted scarf which she won as a prize at the Victor Harbour spinning group visit. Beautiful work.
Show & Tell
Alexis :a basket full of carder fleece which has been dyed with cold water dyes, 5 carded
rolags pink, pale mauve, lemon & brown with extra colours carded into the fibres
Marina :a sleeveless jacket knitted in mohair with cream flecks plied with white cotton, brown/white.
Jan(1): a child’s hat in aqua with purple stripes with an icord top knot, also 9 colourful skeins of spun wool/silk ready for the Gallery.
Maria: 3 Beanies, 1 in forest greens with a fluffy tassel, 1 cream with fair isle design, 1
cream with vertical brown coloured stripes.
Sheila: a pair of man size mittens in natural brown wool
Jan (3): a pair of mittens in cream alpaca with a very intricate cuff which looks plaited
Cathy :2 lots of dyed English Leicester fleece 1 dyed with green tea & sage, the other dyed with black beans giving it a brown tone.
John: a beautiful woven scarf in various colours of mauve & pinks with aqua in between finished with a red silk fringe, a woven bag in the process of being put together.
Jan (2): brought in a sample of OPTIM™ which is some white wool fibres which are very soft and looks like silk with a great sheen to it processed by CSIRO. She brought the fact sheet to explain the process they use.
Instagram has a hashtag #fairislefriday where you can see everyone’s Fair Isle knits. It is something we like. Cathy made this little Fair Isle hat for her granddaughter. The butterscotch is avocado dyed wool. The pink is mohair and the yellows and creams are merino. The other wool is Border Leicester. Fair Isle knitting can be very satisfying because you can make patterns and contrast colours . With a hat it is important to mark the beginning of a row and then to make sure your pattern will work across the number of stitches you have.
We have a few people in the club who are good at fair isle and who remind us of how good it can look. Margaret’s beanie was a real eye catcher this week but it is also beautifully made. It’s the colours which make it a stand out.
She has spun very fine wool and plied it so it knits roughly as a three ply . It makes a difference to the finish to have this finely spun wool. One of the things which worries people about fair isle is the carrying of the wool at the back and the fact they get it too tight or get holes . The video shows you how to correct that and the main thing is not to pull the yarn. Just knit the colours in naturally. The other problem you can get is your pattern can be disrupted as you make the decreases for the top of the beanie. Either use a pattern which someone else has worked out , use a pattern which won’t matter if you decrease or use your brains as you do the decreases to set the pattern logically. It’s all part of the fun!
Margaret brought along these knitted mittens which she had entered in a country show a while back. They are so inspiring and impressive. The wool she spun for them is about a millimetre wide for the single ply and then she had plied two together and said it knitted up as a four ply wool. The colours give her mittens a bit of a medieval look and so they are very striking. The skills involved in these mittens are inspirational and we are so glad Margaret brought these along to share at our meeting. The wind was very cold today so her hands were stylishly warm!
