I’m trying to clear some of my knitting projects so I can begin in some things for that winter festival thingy.

so one of the recent finishes is this merino scarf for himself.  We bought the rovings, and  he spun it, and I knitted it up using a Moebius pattern.  I’m assured its very snuggly.

I have to confess we bought the wool without really thinking it through, and I am not entirely sure of its origin.  Since then I made the connection between merino and mulesing.  Merino is not produced in the UK, most of it comes from New Zealand and Australia.  New Zealand have largely phased the practice out, but Australia actually went back on their promise – they had said the practice would be phased out by 2010 – but this year decided they wouldn’t do that after all.

We do dock our lambs’ tails – and not everyone agrees to that.  However, using the rubber rings really does not seem to cause them any pain.  The lambs bound away unconcerned. We do it as a prevention against flystrike, which is the reason given for mulesing.  However that is a particularly nasty and painful thing to do to a lamb, it takes them up to four weeks to heal, and if there was any doubt, one quick look at the gory pictures available is enough to convince.. and it is certainly not worth doing for a nice yarn.

Given that it is possible to produce merino from countries not practicing mulesing, it does not seem necessary.

So I have decided,  (wool stash aside) I am no longer going to buy merino, or any yarn, unless I am fairly sure it did not come from sheep that might have had to suffer this mutilation.  This won’t be easy.. for example, China buys a lot of wool from Australia, and they export it as yarn to other countries. But really, we should be buying locally anyway, so this will only be the occasional treat purchase.

I’m also going to extend this to any bought clothes that might contain wool  – though many stores are taking their own action

So.. stepping away from the soapbox..

Currently I am knitting:

1. a noro jumper (yes I doubt its ethical.. but  have the yarn now..)
2. jumper from recycled yarn (how good am I)
3. multicoloured jumper (ok its been on the needles for years, but all scraps of yarn.. so good me)
4. yellow socks (bought sock yarn.. must pay more attention when I buy more)
5. secret can’t tell you ( no sheep were hurt in the making of this secret)

and I am crocheting

1. granny square throw (stash yarn)
2. scrumble something (coldharbour mill scrap yarns  – so that’s local and recycling!)

We were proper grockles today and went on a day trip out, to go on the horse drawn barge on the Grand Western Canal.

As it was fairly close, we also popped into coldharbour mill and ‘accidentally’ bought four more bags of thrums (lengths of scrap yarn). oops

The barge trip itself was really nice; relaxing and interesting,  and fairly quiet.  There was some touristy aspects to it, naturally, and I could not help thinking that although all very quaint that the people were wearing olde worlde clothes.. horse drawn barges might be the way of the future.. what with peak oil etc.

Despite sitting for the journey – we are all very tired now.  Came home, picked cabbage, mountains of peas, and a fair few tomatoes., did the animal checks and other chores, had a nice comfort food dinner of sausage and egg pie (childhood favourite food of himself’s – basically cooked sausages, boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, all cut up, smothered in cheese sauce) with heaps of peas – (own sausages, eggs spuds and peas !), I’ve worked my little part time job,

and now.. a little chilling with yarn. I seem to have even more of it … somehow…

So, having first brandished a crochet hook only a week ago, and since learnt the heady ambitions of chain, slip and treble stitch, I guess it is time to move on to scrumbles.  A scrumble is, (among other things if you look it up!), a freeform combination of knitting and crocheting.  And this is why I have gone to the effort of learning to crochet, because since I saw the first examples, I want to scrumble.  I mean, how hard can it be (!!)

Seriously though, and maybe I’m kidding myself, but I think scrumbling might be a really good way to learn various stitching  and motifs.

Also I have this lovely yarn. this came from cold harbour mill and was a bag of scrap yarn,  called ‘thrums’.  Thrums, are waste lengths of yarn or warp left over from weaving on a loom.  They sell bags of this stuff, all different colours, very cheap.. irresistible.  The other bags I have are balls of yarn, but this one is relatively short lengths. Ideal for scrumbling.  They are hanging up outside as I have washed them ready for using.

I’m really very bad at following other peoples instructions.  I always have to tweak recipes, and I really don’t see the point in knitting something someone else might have! So freeform is right up my street. And these thrums are so nice and in my favourite autumnal colours. and I know I am only limiting myself to five knitting projects and now have added crochet too.. but really I’m sure I can find just a little bit of time for some scrumbling..