Masham Sheep Fair

This afternoon the husband and I stepped out in our raingear, drove about 15 miles down a dales country road, and spent a lovely few hours at the annual Masham Sheep Fair, in Masham, North Yorkshire.  There were sheep entered for judging:

There was Morris dancing:

And there was yarn and spinning supplies for sale. Here is my purchase - a skein of handdyed Teeswater:

There were also competitions for spinning and knitting handspun, which were lovely but I didn't want to photograph them, as I wasn't sure if the contestants would like that.  My goal?  To enter my own handspun/handspun article next year, AND then buy a little fold-up Ashford spinning wheel!

One Skein Accessories from America

Although I have not posted for a few weeks - I mostly post at weekends, and we have had guests for the past two - I have been quite productive, knitting up my American skeins into one-skein accessory projects.

First, I completed the Cable and Rib Quartet Gaiter, from Leigh Radford's One Skein, in Road to China:

I modified the cables, more by accident than design, but it worked and also meant I used up the whole skein.  It is a beautiful colour and super-soft.  I will be wearing this as a cowl this winter.

I then moved onto a skein of Romney handspun, bought at a farmer's market in New England (I loved the fact I could buy yarn at farmer's markets through most of the American states I visited!). I wound it and turned it into a beret:

This is the Star Cross'd Beret, by Natalie Larson, a free pattern on Ravelry.  It is designed for chunky yarn, and I was using what is really a heavy aran, so it came out a little snugger than the pattern suggests, but it will be super-warm in winter.  My cables wandered around a bit, but I like how it came out.

I had yarn left, so used the rest combined with some odd ball chunky in my stash to make Yuko Nakamora's Non-Felted Slippers (free on Ravelry) for the husband:

These are real stash-busters, as the Romney ran out just before I completed the second one, and I had to substitute some more or less matching grey yarn!  It's not easy to tell though, thank goodness.  I will buy some stick-on slipper soles for these and attach.  I followed the pattern, and they are a good size for a man, so would need to downsize for myself.

After these three very quick projects, I decided I was ready to commit to something more - so yesterday cast on for the Northampton Neckerchief, from New England Knits, with some vintage yarn of unkown origin I bought at an antique dealers in Athens, Georgia last year - 3 large skeins (very tangled!) in bright spring green, orange and purple. I considered a Colour Affection shawl for these three skeins, but I have been hankering after a Northampton Neckercheif since I first saw it in the book, so decided to go with that instead. I started with the green:

It is brighter than appears in the photo, and is knitting up at about a light dk weight - heavier than the yarn called for, so I have gone up to a 4.5 mm needle. I don't actually know the yarn content, but I would guess pure wool from it's feel and stickiness. I plan to use some beads from my stash, and will switch to orange next, leaving the purple for the lace border.

Rib and Cable Gaiter, Stash Blanket, and a Foyle's War Project

The completion of Apple Strudel and the Magic Loop socks this week left me with nothing active on the needles.  So I commenced a long-planned project - the knitting up of the many single skeins I bought while in America last year. The Magic Loops socks started this, as they were made from handspun from a New England farmer's market, and so I decided to continue and wound up a single skein of Road to China, a beautiful cashmere, silk and fine wool blend in a berry shade perfect for autumn - it will become a cowl:

The pattern is the Rib and Cable Quarter Gaiter from Leigh Radford's One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet and is perfect for slipping into my work bag for a bit of commute knitting.  The skein was bought at the delighfully named Knit and Stitch Equals Bliss, Bethesda, Maryland, just a short metro ride from where I lived in Washington DC.  Bethesda is a pleasant neighbourhood, so nice for a wander around, and when there my attention was caught by the pioneer statue Madonna of the Trail, as this sophisticated shopping area was a departure point for many wagon trains heading west back in the day, and the beginning (or continuation), of many hard lives for women:

Back at home, I cast on from my scrap bag for the Yarn Harlot's Stash Afghan, which she describes in one of her earlier books - simply cast on however many stitches you want, in whatever needle size kind of fits the majority of your yarn, and knit garter stitch rows, cutting the yarn at the end of each row to form a fringe and using a new yarn each row. This project will also cut down my single skeins, although I am not using any American ones for this - just a bag of older remnants.  I started this last night while watching an episode of Foyle's War, where I saw this cardigan:

The cardigan, from the episode A Lesson in Murder, is knitted in a natural or beige colourway, with flowers duplicate stitched (I think) on top, and a very pretty striped border added all round. It's fastened with a pin at the neck. I think I can put something together resembling this, so will dig throught the stash today for enough natural yarn to do the cardigan itself.  Surfing for a picture was easy - there is clearly a big fanbase for Foyle's War and the clothes from it - in fact there is even a Rav group (which I have now joined!)

Magic Loop Socks - Complete

I made heavy weather of these, but glad I stuck it out now. The yarn is handspun, from a farmer's market in New England and I dyed it myself using turmeric and tea.

Finished Objects and a Return to Spinning

This past weekend saw one completely finished object - the Apple Strudel Cardigan:

Not the greatest pic in the world - I will take a better one when I wear it for the first time - but it is all done and warm and snuggly for those autumn weekends ahead.

I also managed to finish the first Magic Loop sock:

The second is OTK, with the leg complete and the heel turned. One long evening of TV watching (maybe tonight) will finish it off. And I will be relieved - these have been a slog, not because of the technique, but because I always seem to knit them when I'm feeling tired and hence I've made tons of mistakes and had to rip a few times.

I also returned to spinning at the weekend, in my new "spinning studio" - really just our summerhouse, cleared out a bit - and this hank of pure wool, from the raw fleece given to me by our neighbours - is drying out today after a soak in some cold water, ready to be balled up.

This is the first step in my plan to drop spindle and knit enough yarn for the Rocky Coast Cardigan from Coastal Knits. I have swatched up a small square, and the light, lofty yarn this fleece is spinning up as should be perfect. I hope my spinning will improve as I go - it is still very slubby, and I haven't decided what I'll do about plying yet.
But readers - if I achieve this goal, I will reward myself witha wheel!