What's new off the wheel

 



It was so beautiful this afternoon I had to go out and grab a few minutes in the garden to spin. I have been given the most beautiful braid by my friend Elena Nodel (or Anadiomena as you may know from Ravelry) This beautiful Colour Adventures fiber known as Dreamer is a gorgeous mix of Super wash Merino and silk. It is like a soft airy cloud to spin.

 



 

 

 

 

I split the braid in half lengthwise and then split one of these halves in two.

These were spun end to end on the first bobbin giving longer bands of colour repeat.

The second half of the braid was then split into four and on the second bobbin each strip is spun end to end in the same colour order. I'm aiming for heavy fingering weight yarn, which will have some subtle striping.

 

 

 

Coming up: plying the yarn....

 

 

 

 

An Introduction

 

My beautiful Schacht Matchless Spinning wheel
Spinning in my garden - my favourite place to while away the time

 

 A single ply skein of hand spun Polwarth fibre - ready to be worked into a self striping project

 

Welcome to my first ever blog. I'm just going to sit and write about the things that make me tick and hope that you will be interested enough to read on...

Firstly to introduce myself, my name is Maria (more about why the Suzy Parker Yarns name in a later post....)
I am a fibre obsessive, spinning, dyeing, knitter, and general wannabe maker of lovely things. I don't think there is a craft that I haven't tried, much to my husbands dismay as we give up more precious space in our home to make way for my ever growing stash! My family are now used to sharing their space with balls of wool and mounds of fleece and the odd wheel or two, in fact I think they'd find it weird not to....

I live in a small coastal town of Kent and enjoy the nearby countryside and sea air. We live in a character house needing a bit of TLC (what you call a house with great potential) ;), but of course this all takes time and money so is a slow burner. We have a very busy household with three children, and a stubborn Bassett Hound that will show up regularly here because I adore him. Of course I adore the kids too but they tend to not be quite so keen to be in every camera shot. 

Despite the chores, the dog walking, part time job and taxi service to clubs there is always time to knit and spin! These are my passions and a day is not complete unless I turn to the needles and yarn. I will knit pretty much anywhere, even whilst walking my dog, much to the amusement of fellow walkers, but I am a great believer in multi-tasking. I guess that's why I'm quite productive. I have a small shop on Etsy here where I like to keep a few of my hand dyed , hand spun yarns for sale and the odd little knitted gift.

I also am a massive fan of Ravelry and you can find me as Suzy Parker Yarns I cannot keep track of the endless patterns I have queued there are not enough hours in the day to make all that I want. I have been so inspired from the wonderful knitters, spinners and dyers from around the world and I have met some amazing people.

That's probably enough twittering on about me, I should really get down to the reason we are here! To talk about the colourful world of wool and knitting :)

Here's one of my latest spins using a fabulous soft merino. It is designed to knit into stripes and I'm picturing a funky chevron cowl or pair of socks maybe?

 

Chain plied Super Wash Merino - hand dyed fiber by Nest Fiber Studios - one of my all time favourite US dyers