Saturday, December 26, 2009

Clearly, someone thinks I was good this year.

A few great books from Santa this year...


Alice Starmore's seminal book on Fair Isle knitting. If only so I can help Mum with her sweater... It's been out of print for a long time, very glad to see it back. This will be widly relevant in the very near future - I have a couple of colourwork designs cooking - one for socks, naturally, the other a garment.

Another fab obscure book on lace knitting, Gladys Amedro's "Shetland Lace".

The rather absurd and marvelous "Knitted Cakes". Next year's Christmas cake may well be knitted...

And of course, every girl needs a sheep spotting guide.... "Know Your Sheep" by Jack Byard.

This is particularly useful since Denny tells me that 2010 is the year I learn to spin. She is insisting.

I've acquired a spindle... here we go....


I may not yet know how to use the damn thing, but at least I know what a Bluefaced Leicester looks like.

3 comments:

Kirsten N. said...

Caveat - I have never spun, and never even tried!

But I have been to the Carding Mill in Barrington, Nova Scotia, and your spindle is identical to mine, and the ones used in the machines there.

So, I *think* this is a spindle for machines only, and that because of the lack of a weight to help it spin, it's not much good for hand spinning. However, Denny is the expert, and if it turns out my spindle can be used for hand spinning, I may be in trouble from a time management point of view!

Kirsten N. said...

Oops, meant to give you this link! The picture from the spinning mill is about half-way down.

http://ourmaritimeadventure.blogspot.com/2009/08/day-9-monday-august-10-2009.html

V said...

Knit cakes do have their positive sides: fat-free, high in fiber, doesn't spoil easily.... However, inedibility is a downside that cannot be denied.