Some things we leave behind when we move and many are coming along. Sometimes what stays is surprising. I had planned to leave the craft market circuit behind to concentrate more on knitting items that challenge me and explore projects that would be planned from the purposely spun fiber to the final accessory or garment. But I learned quickly that just spinning and knitting to enhance my knowledge for myself seems to be not purposeful enough. Two weeks into our arrival to Abu Dhabi I explored the first craft market at the Eastern Mangroves hotel and run by LaLoupe. It was a fun event with a big bouncy castle and activities for smaller children, so the parents could go and shop in the ballroom.
The afternoon latte and tiramisu in the Mangroves Lounge upstairs were fabulous and a great treat after the market exploration. In the following weeks I had the opportunity to visit a few more craft fairs or markets, half of them were showing off items made elsewhere in the world and sold by vendors who often had “brick-and-mortar” outlets somewhere in town or in Dubai. Those were not the events I felt my knitting and crocheting would fit in. My current favourite craft market is the one at the Abu Dhabi golf club next to the Westin hotel. It is well organized, shows lots of vendors with handmade crafts from jewellery to body care to hand-sewn bags and clothes. Another one I want to scout out later is the one in front of Waitrose supermarket in Al Zeina which may be suspended for the summer until September..
In preparation to apply I have started to knit and design a line of baby accessories and toys and am thinking to add some lace scarves for women as well. It all depends on my current supply of lace yarns since I have not found a store which sells any, yet. The cottons used for the baby items are sourced through Green Branch Trading crafts in downtown Abu Dhabi and Magrudy’s book store in Al Wahda mall.
In the meantime the Parisian Night Channa sweater in Katia linen has been finished and fits beautifully. I have made only two small adjustments to the pattern to increase the length and to decrease the neck opening which I describe on my Ravelry page.
The yarn caused a little bias to the finished product which can be seen when the sweater is hanging: on he right hand bottom the back with the plain stockinette is showing when there should be only the “ribbed” front. This potential issue was already visible when I swatched and noticed that the swatch pulled a bit to one side. Still, it turned out great and fits nicely with a longer back and fitted sleeves. I hope to post a picture of me wearing it soon.
While knitting I am a huge fan of watching knitting and spinning podcasts or reading spinning blogs. My favourite spinning blogger is Rachel of welfordpurls with her variety of topics and very regular blogs. She writes about spinning, the process she uses to get to a finished yarn and garment and about other interesting spinners out there. The most motivation to stop knitting and sit down to spin a for a change comes from her detailed description on how the process works and her many photos. Looking at them makes me want to spin a little more and so I did this week when I finally pulled out my recently acquired Turkish spindle. After a spinning class at Fibreswest in March I stashed it with my other lace spindle and moved it our new home over Easter. So, I only had access to it again for the past month and my urge to try it and create some colourful turtles overcame my worries that I may not like spinning with it. I LOVED spinning with it and finally managed some clockwise-spun (Z) 100% merino singles that by themselves are lace-weight and may still fall into that category after plying them into a 2-ply.
Success! The easy part about using a Turkish spindle is the fact that the staff with the pointed bottom pulls out of the arms and then the arms can be pulled out of the yarn = the turtle, without having to unwind it. Each one weighs about 5-6 grams and can be plied right from this after they have sat for about a day to settle down the twist. It fascinated me so much that I plan to take the spindle and some charcoal dyed merino with me to play with while on vacation next week.
My last “work-in-progress” is knit with a Caterpillargreen- yarn from my stash I bought last August at a Fibrefest in Victoria, Vancouver Island. This Vancouver Island artisan hand-dying company creates self-striping yarns for socks, shawls and brioche cowls in amazing colour combinations. They are so popular that any new inventory in their online store sells out within hours of being posted. Finding a table of this company by surprise and with lots of stock made me swoon and at least one of their skeins had to come with me. My friend recommended the Skyline colourway and the bigger skein for a better size. I had oogled it in my stash often and planned to knit the scarf many a time just to be pushed aside by a more “urgent” project.
But now the time is right and it knits up quickly with a very simple pattern of stockinette knit and the occasional purl row – just a backside row knit instead of purled – to frame the stripes. Pretty much a modification of the Boneyard shawl by Stephen West. Thank you, for reading!
Maike
beecosydesign 