Getting the hang of winding skeins

My Christmas present from MOH was a wooden wool winder and swift which took longer than predicted to arrive, which stressed him out more than it should have, and more than I wanted it to too. We knew it was hit and miss as to whether it would arrive in time for Christmas (it didn’t - but it was on its way), but MOH was keen for me to have a present to open, and his backup present cut it fine too.

When it arrived it was beautiful, and needed assembling. With no instructions to follow I got most of the way there, and between us we got there. The wool winder is the darker wood and the swift - for holding skeins - is in the lighter wood.

Spoiler: I haven’t masted the swift just yet.

Once again this year I’d bought the Yarn Advent calendar by Vicki Brown Designs, and I was hanging on to this for it to be my first ‘wound’ wool. And here’s day 1 wound.

With life getting in the way until this weekend, the yarn and the winder had been left to one side. But after a slower weekend and with MOH out on a long cycle, I picked it up again - and cracked winding the skeins. The tension on this wound peach wool is much more tightly wound than I’d previously managed. This was achieved simply by increasing the tension (or holding!) the wool as it went through the guide.

And then there was no stopping me - sort of. The swift is going to take a little bit more time and as you know I’m inpatient. But I’m making progress with over half of the Yarn Advent wound - I’ve even rewound some of them so they’re more tightly tensioned. Once they’re wound I know I’ll be keen to get started on my next project - I should finish my last project first though, but the new project call is strong - and making up projects is not my favourite task.

Each skein is tied in three places with a small length of the same yarn, and I can’t quite bring myself to throw this away. I’ve been knotting these together and winding these onto a wooden cotton reel along with smallish remnants from other projects. I’ve no real plan for how I’ll use these but at some point - and I think that won’t be far off - I think I’ll be adding these to my hook.

I’m pretty sure I know how I want to use the Yarn Advent skeins, and before I share more on that I’ll show you the outcome of the previous years’ project.

Post Comment Love 28-30 January

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

This week has been one of the greyest weeks I think I can remember, and it really does affect your mood doesn’t it? Even MOH didn’t manage to make it out on his bike because it was just “too grey” - he’s hoping to make up for that with sun today. It’s been a week of getting things done, deliveries received and I think our post might be returning to more normal levels. I’m still waiting on delivery that I ordered over Christmas, and I’m hoping it’ll arrive soon. We went out for Sunday lunch in our local pub, and while it was busier than we expected, it was ok. It was good to be out if I’m honest, and a roast dinner cooked by someone else is always good.

My work hours are becoming the most sensible they have been for a while, and I hope I’m not tempting fate by saying that! It’s meant that evenings have felt more relaxed than they have been, and I’ve spent some of that time editing old photos. And I’ve found some gems, like this one from our trip to Portugal back in 2019. I’ll share more shortly but this was part-way through a day’s walk, where we looked around what was a monastery. Well we looked around the grounds and admired the tiling, I remember there were two large dogs at one point, which weren’t really the friendly sort. But it was worth it for the tiles, and thankfully MOH fancied himself as a bit of a dog whisperer, so I was able to sneak back past.

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Love This #95: Suzy Watson's detailed designs

Today I’m sharing some of the most fabulous embroidery I think I’ve ever seen, and even looking at them now I can’t help but be amazed. These pictures are clearly taken through glass, but even so it’s clear to see the detail.

These all formed part of the exhibition by Suzy Watson at the 2021 Knitting & Stitching Show held at Alexandra Palace. The exhibition was titled Birds of Paradise, and it represents Suzy’s study of colour and how she views it.

For each piece of art, because let’s be frank that’s what they are, Suzy uses more than 200 threads to create the picture building up the layers from dark to light, and she aims to create “a series of work that feels real and comes to life”.

Tick.

She’s done that for me, each piece is incredible, isn’t it?

I could have quite easily left with any of the pieces I’m sharing here today, and these bugs held an unexpected and special appeal - which I’ve still yet to fully explain to myself, so there’s no chance of explaining myself in writing.

And then I spotted the glass display case of embroidery hoops, which I spent a fair time admiring and managing to capture even more of the detail by laying my phone directly on the glass.

Just look at the work involved, and the detail.

Now tell me they’re not art.

The cactus paintings were equally as charming, discovering the work of Suzy Watson at this show was pure delight.