The Bliss socks (lacy baby alpaca) are finished. No, there’s no photos of them yet, because I’ve been too busy to get the camera out, but I am looking forward to a cool autumn weekend afternoon, and putting them on and curling up with a good book… of course, I have no idea when I’ll be able to stop long enough for that to happen!

Maybe after our groups’ Open Day and Grand Opening on Saturday. Arrangements are coming along well and I hope it will be a good afternoon.

How many superfine gray merino fleeces does one spinner need?

In the case of this spinner, who rarely gets time to spin, ‘three’ is not the correct answer. However, that’s how many I have in my stash. Plus an old white merino fleece. And a large black crossbred fleece. And a kilo of Shetland tops. And a kilo of lovely crossbred tops. And a gazillion boxes and bags of other assorted fibres.

Then there’s the weaving and knitting yarns. And the fabric stash.

I spent a little time yesterday clearing some space in the cupboard that houses (some of) my hoard. I didn’t do a full clean-out – I don’t have a week to spare! – but I did turf out some stuff, sort out and re-stash a few other things, and moved some things from the overflow outside the cupboard into it.

Nope, it’s nowhere near tidy, but look! There’s still some spare space!!

1. A pair of socks for my Dad, using the Opal mockfairisle dyed yarn, in blues and grays. I use a basic Patons sock pattern, and knit the heels and toes in a plain coloured Patons 5-ply yarn for some additional strength – plus the plain contrasting heel keeps the ‘fairisle’ pattern even before and after the heel. I’m currently knitting the foot of the second sock – should have them finished by Wednesday, so I can post them off to him when I go into town then.

2. A pair of blue lacy socks for me. This is the first pair of the many I’ve knitted that doesn’t use the basic Patons pattern – instead I’m using the Latvian Socks pattern from Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks. I’ve so far done about an inch and a half on the first sock – but it’s looking good, and I’m enjoying it!

3. On the loom is the remainder of the two-scarf rainbow warp I painted a while back. I’ve woven the first scarf and cut it off, now I just have to tie up the warp again and weave the second one. I’m going to aim to do that before the end of the year – which gives me about 6 days to do it in!

4. Current spinning is a merino sliver which I’m spinning very fine, for a lace scarf.

Next projects planned:

– A baby blanket for my friend’s daughter. I’ve finally bought the yarn (mauve, yellow and white 5-ply from Bendigo); now I just have to decide whether to weave it on my 4-shaft loom, in basic twill, or to use the long-idle big loom and weave 8-shaft twill blocks. I’m leaning towards the latter.

– Some fingerless gloves for assorted members of the family. I have some angora and merino fibre I could spin up and dye, which will be cosy warm. My mother knitted me a pair from a commercial wool/angora yarn many, many years ago, and they live in my coat pockets and have kept my hands warm on many a wintry morning.

– I have two lengths of handwoven fabric to make up into jackets. I finally got hold of some black silk lining fabric for one of them a month or two back – now I just have to decide on a pattern, make a prototype from commercial fabric, and then make the handwoven one. For the other, I need to weave some plain-weave fabric in a plain blue to use for cuffs, collar, trimming, etc, as the overshot pattern would otherwise be a bit overpowering.

I thought I’d start a blog to chronicle my not-frequent-enough fibre activities.