I Ply With My Little Eye

Something beginning with ‘W’. And here it is, my very first ball of plied wool! In some places I think it looks great, in others I’m cringing but overall I’m happy with it. The cream/pale pink was a dream to work with as it was all in one long length but the purple (merino) was a short fat piece that I had to keep joining together because it broke frequently.  It turned out a lot chunkier than I would have liked so I’m not sure what I’ll be making with this, there’s not really a lot of it! But I’m sure I’ll think of something. I can’t wait to practise some more : )

In A Spin

If you read my post from a few days ago, you’ll know that I was going to have a bash as spinning my own yarn. I promised that I would show my first attempt, good or bad, so here it is! Well that’s not entirely accurate, my very first attempt didn’t even result in yarn being spun because I wasn’t holding the roving properly so it kept coming apart and the spindle would just drop to the floor.  I put it away in frustration but the next day I started over again and this is the result.

I’m really happy with my first go, it was so much fun and I’m chuffed to have something that I’ll actually be able to knit or crochet with. While it looks fairly neat on the surface, there’s a lot of very thick and very thin areas further back and I’m pretty sure I’ve overtwisted most of it! But then I never expected it to be perfect ; )

Featured Shop – Hilltop Cloud

Lately I’ve been just a little bit obsessed with the idea of spinning my own yarn. It all started when I was making a treasury on Etsy and came across a ball of handspun yarn in Katie’s shop Hilltop Cloud which was just the right colour for the collection I was putting together (my treasury was featured the next day on the front UK page of Etsy, very exciting!). I thought of the bags of merino roving I’ve got stashed away (bought for making felt beads with) and wondered if I too could spin my own yarn. After watching a whole load of videos on YouTube I decided it was no good, I was going to have to dive in and buy myself a spindle! Remembering Katie’s shop, I added one to my basket and then had a look at what else she had on offer.

Based in rural mid-Wales, Hilltop Cloud is run by Katie Weston. One of the things I really like is that Katie sources all her fibres from British suppliers and even better, many of those fibres are from UK sheep.

She has a wonderful selection of handblended roving, batts and of course her lovely range of  handspun yarn. Here’s the Stormy Weather yarn that sparked my interest…

I adore the colour of this moutwatering Orange batt…

Always a sucker for turquoise and teal, this Still Waters roving is just beautiful…

And Pretty In I could just eat…

In the end I went for one of the roving samplers because I just couldn’t choose and besides, I love a surprise. My order arrived yesterday and the selection I received was absolutely gorgeous! I can’t wait to have a go and if it’s not a complete disaster I’ll post the results here. Hell, if it is a disaster I’ll probably post it anyway!