Having a Wheel of a time!!

Well it's Tour de Fleece time again and yet again I'm joining in with 'Team Raw Power' on Ravelry to encourage myself to spin up some of my fleece mountain with a challenge of preparing and spinning 1lb of fibre or just under 500g to us in the UK!

So far the fleece I've spun this first week has included alpaca (with added angora rabbit), Icelandic, batts of random dyed fleece including Suffolk shearling and Wensleydale. this last lot has been in the form of extra lock dyed locks that I've been tail-spinning which I'm thoroughly enjoying - so much so that I just had to film the process... not a sensible 'how-to' film but a 'watch that fluff whizz round' silly kind of film :)

Not sure if this will work but it amused me at the time!

YarnBombing etc.

Not only was June 11th Worldwide Knit in Public day it was also International Yarn bombing day. Yarn bombing? A search online brings up loads of pages on the subject and Ravelry and Facebook has it's fair share of items too so it seems to be on the rise. The author of the book "Yarnbombing" Leanne Prane says:

"We consider it positive graffiti, it's not there to be ill-intentioned, or to give anyone a bad day, It is supposed to be a force of positivity in the world."

Who could argue with that? I'm sure that there are people out there who see it a blatant vandalism but hopefully most will see it as it's intended. So in an attempt to add a bit of fun to the world certain people might have joined in!

I did see it getting some interested looks from passers by and so far it's still there. It does brighten up a dull corner of some railings and at least it's making the culprits happy if on-one else!

Lots has happened since I last wrote including rather a lot of knitting. Which is good as my knitting mojo hadn't been good for a while. My mission to knit 11 pairs of socks in 2011 is progressing well - I'm now up to pair number 8 thanks to a couple of socks for my mini-me which take next to no time to knit up especially if you're stuck in the car for 4 hours driving down to Devon! As a passenger of course :) I've also finished off some of my numerous WIP's including finishing off my Haruni shawl which took a surprisingly small amount of time to finish and not as much effort as I'd thought and as a result really made me wonder why it took me so long to pick it back up again.

Wonder Wool Wales was the usual fun day out but the major change for us this year was that rather than stay for the whole weekend and visit both days we only visited one day of the show and travelled back that same day exhausted by it all. I don't feel this was a bad thing - Mum and I were both out of money by then and we'd seen pretty much everything we'd wanted to. I came home with exactly what I wanted which was one of IST's Turkish spindle so I can still spin while I'm camping - while it's not really a flashy fancy wood I love it to bits as it's gleaming black Bog Oak that's thousands of years old and spins like a dream.

I suppose I should finish with a picture of my dress that was occupying so much of my time the last time I wrote - it's not the best one but here you go!

Stop and Look

There are many reasons to 'Stop and Look' the main one I'd say is when crossing the road as part of our hectic lifestyles. Sometimes the world around us has plenty to offer when we simply stop and look.

It's taking the time to stop and pay attention to what's going on around you. I'm not sure if you've ever done the same but on more than one occasion I've jumped in the car going somewhere or another and been half way down the road before I've realised that my 'Autopilot' has kicked in and I'm busily headed off to work or school when I was supposed to be going to somewhere else in completely the opposite direction.

My time lately has been taken up with an awful lot of sewing and very little knitting at all. The main culprit has been this:

Butterick Retro pattern B6582 - the really full skirted option and not the 'wiggle' dress. I've not disliked the experience - on the whole I've really been enjoying it all and have got the sewing bug again. But my life seems to have been swallowed up whole by this and my brothers upcoming wedding (10 days to go now!!) and as such I've noticed very little else.

Until today when I was out in the garden and low and behold the huge Lime trees that back on to our garden have the beginnings of leaves on them. Not buds but fresh spring green leaves shooting out and lots of them too. Now when did that happen?! I see then everyday from my lounge windows and have only just noticed. Either Spring moves at light speed or really I'm seeing without seeing if you catch my drift.

So I made the time today to Stop and Look and saw with fresh eyes how everything has developed and that the buds on my lilac tree, which I think will have a wonderful display this year, look about set to flower.... right over the weekend of Wonder Wool Wales. Hmmm... I hope there'll be something left for me to enjoy once I get home on the Sunday.

Anyway - if any of you get to Builth Wells this weekend for a good old dose of Wool Fumes like I intend doing, I hope you all have fun. If not then I shall tell you all about it next time!!

I'd best be off now - the other thing I spotted when I stopped and looked was that I need to hover and dust the place!!

Spring is in the Air

And doesn't it make a difference? As the weather gets nicer I've been spending more and more time in the garden which has been a bit neglected of late. Gradually it's getting a good seeing too but first off it's a good old hack back of all those died back plants and such. We had a lovely shrub at the end of the yarn which gave a lovely splash of colour to see from the lounge window but this extreme winter seems to have been too much for it. One day it was full of leaves then next they'd all fallen off - it left such a gap as well as such a huge pile of leaves. Out came the rake and once they were gone there was plenty of other emerging plants revealed. With the addition of some new plants relocated from elsewhere in the garden such as bluebells, cowslips and chocolate foxgloves I can at least be promised some colour and interest later on.

Gardening may be hard work but oh how it seems to lift my spirits - seeing all the plants coming up and buds beginning to form is all so full of the promise of Spring and Summer. And the birds seem to think so too. There's a pair of Blue Tit's looking to nest in next door's bird box (conveniently easy for me to see as well) and the trees backing on to our gardens are full of life from fluffy tailed squirrels (grey) to Long Tailed Tits which are so sweet.

We have a flock of them that go from tree to tree searching for insects to eat and I could watch them for hours (if they'd stay still long enough!). Today there was one lonely one along with a Greenfinch hopping about. Still it's enough to entertain me and make me get my slippers dirty for!

My urge to go out and garden may be one reason why my latest knitting project is progressing so slowly. This is pair number 5 of my planned 11 in 2011 - the first 4 seemed to fly by but this one is p l o d d i n g along. I think also I'm just trying to make myself do too much right now. The list is huge and a bit overwhelming. This weekend though Mum is coming up to try and help me out with one item on the list - a pair of flower girl dresses for my brother's wedding. The bride-to-be was going to be coming to help but we managed to pick the weekend of her Hen Party/Weekend so it'll just be the two of us sitting in amongst piles of very pink tuille. Not too complex a dress to make, just time consuming. The complex one on the list of things to do is mine which is a reprint of a 1960's dress which I've some bronze/gold silk for. It's mostly cut out and ready to sew but I'm a bit worried that I've bitten off more than I can chew. Still I've a back-up dress so no real worries!! And I've a month to make it in.... plenty of time?!

I should also add my Thanks to you all for the welcome back to blogging you've given me. It really is nice to be back and to be back reading all yours in return :)

And finally finally I've just got to make some of these - don't you agree?!

Doesn't Time Fly?

Life seems to whizz by.

I don't know if having a small child in the house makes it go quicker but it seems as if the weeks disappear as soon as they arrive. I was going to say before you know it it'll will be March.... oh dear! Proof that I am loosing my grip on the awareness of the passage of time if ever I had it!

Of course I do know it was St Davids day yesterday. I'm Welsh therefore how could I not know! Yesterday was also the first time that spring seemed to be marching closer to us (no pun

intended). Seemingly everywhere I went yesterday there were fields being mown, or mowed which ever is right, the smell of cut grass was in the air and the sun was warm on your back.

Shame I can't say the same today, the wind is biting so it'd not quite time to put any mittens into hibernation yet!

This Winter, despite saying that time flies by, seems to have dragged. Now I like Winter, to a certain degree, because as a knitter it is a season that seems to justify the purpose of being a knitter. I will not be cold - I will be wrapped in as many layers of hand-knit woolliness as I can manage for I am a knitter! But after a while the novelty wears off and I've missed those fresh new leaf greens which are only now just starting to show themselves. Still, we're not going to have one of those Narnian Winters that last for hundreds of years, Spring is coming so I shall keep my eyes peeled!

Spring as we know is a time of new life and new beginnings. As I type I'm currently having new glass put in our windows - a new era for our little old house! No more rotten frames! And I've been embracing new ideas and joining Mum in trying out some Art Yarns - no pictures today but really good fun to play with.

My lovely knitting friends have also been dragged into this era of newness with a little bit of dying as Birthday treats. Both recently had Birthdays and a hand-dyed present seemed a novel idea and something they were excited to try. So last Sunday we invaded Nadine's kitchen and got the dyes out...

The results are lovely and each of them are happy with their efforts (I dyed one as a demo and then let them dye their own) and rightly so. I think there may be some people buying dyes at Wonder Wool later this Spring :)

And the new skill learning didn't stop there. Last night Jude tried out spinning with a spindle after having tried, and not enjoyed, spinning with a wheel. And she went for it!! The concentration was immense and before long she'd nearly filled the spindle. I think there might be a new spinner out there now!

The only thing we could do with now is more practice, both in spinning and in skein winding....

I'd like to say that Tilly the cat helped but I can't! Still it looks lovely wound into a cake and is now ready to knit which is all that matters.

On a final note I'll go back to it being St Davids day yesterday. One of the items in our Etsy shop was featured in a St Davids day treasury which is a lovely compliment and I love how it looks in amongst all the other lovely green Welsh themed items.

So to my Welsh readers (if there are any other than my Mum!) I wish you all a belated Happy St Davids day and to everyone else Happy Spring watching!

Been Busy.... Naturally!!

What a weekend!! Mum and I have been doing some natural dying and have managed to dye huge amounts and achieving a wealth of colours. The dye pots have now been exhausted... and so have we!!!

We started on day one with vats of Logwood (soaked in water for a few days previously), Cochineal (bashed before soaking) Alkanet (again soaked for a few days in water), Madder and Weld. We didn't really give the weld enough time to develop a good colour and got impatient so in went the (ordinary) onion skins with the weld! By the time the yarn went in we realised our mistake - next time the dye stuff really should be in old pairs of tights!! So many bits to pick off later!

Logwood is fantastic - beautiful purples! Cochineal gave good pink results, alkanet not so good greys (want to try again with the addition of vinegar), Madder gave good orange shades and the onions gave beautiful golden yellows as always.

Day 2 - The cochineal and alkanet were exhausted by now having had yarn in over night. The logwood had more dyestuff added (in a stocking) to recharge the pot and today we added a pinch of tin to brighten the colour. New dyes today were Brazilwood and Chamomile. We did try Purple Elder leaves which had been soaked in water for a few days and looked a promising colour which gave only a dull beige to the yarn. Also given a try was Golden hops (stems and leaves used fresh) which gave a wishy washy yellow to which the chamomile was added resulting in a far better yellow. Late on we added a pinch of tin to this and the Brazilwood which had been giving orange colours before but afterwards gave a lovely red shade. The madder was slowing down by now despite its added powder so it had a pinch of iron which gave us nice browns. Oh and how could I forget our red onions which have yet again given us a lovely green shade and after having a pinch of tin gave yet more rich tones of greeny yellow.

After all this were we done? Not at all!! Out came the indigo vat and in went what seemed like tonnes of fibre and yarns all coming out a beautiful blue. It really was magical watching the yarns which came out yellowy slowly turn blue - true alchemy! Still it dyed things blue and we got to the stage where we were tempted to throw our clothes in too but resisted mostly - Mum found a white top she wasn't keen on and we did a little tie-dyeing the results of which are still to be seen as it's still sitting in the vat with us too tired to do anything about it!!

Footnote - Must wear waterproof shoes next time and not cloggies!!

Don't Panic but...

I'm posting again!! That's twice in one month! It is amid a post-WoolFest excitement that I'm posting but never mind! We had some fantastic weather all weekend and the Thursday night on the campsite there were some lovely clouds and the sunset was truly lovely and kept us all entertained for ages - at one stage it seemed streaked with almost fluorescent pink. And there were shapes in the clouds for us to try and identify too - top left below I sure is a footballer leaping to head the ball!

We started off well with a large group gathering without organisation on an empty pitch next to Mums camper van and this photo shows the evening off well! It was lovely to meet up again with so many familiar faces especially Kath, Becky and Carrie Anne who I'd not seen for 2 years - we will definitely have to do better next time and meet up sooner! The last ones finally called it a night around 11pm - wonder who they were? ;)

And of course we were all excited and woke up early the next day ready to hit the show!

Clockwise from top left: Tony learns Long Draw spinning,

Skye in the van, sheep shearing, the Happy Weaver,

Nadine learns hand-carding, spinning on a Great Wheel, Nadine spins on a Lendrum.

As always there were a load of animals to see and I finally managed to see the sheep shearing which was worth the wait. The lady doing it had a pen full of Rough Fell sheep (the ones with the speckled faces and horns in the feeding trough pictured below) four of which were Hogs (one year olds) and the fifth a large ram with huge spiraling horns who unsurprisingly she left until last! She really did seem to wrestle with the sheep and managed to give a full commentary with all of them other than the ram - definitely a tough job to do. There was also a lady from Denmark doing a workshop on 'Knitting directly from Spelsau fleece' who was fascinating. Pity we couldn't get on her course but we did end up leaving with a bag of raw Spelsau fleece ready to be knitted up at the next Knitting evening - I can't imagine the reaction with myself, Chris and Nadine all sat knitting from bags of fleece but it'll be fun!

Top row, left to right: Angora Rabbits, Rough Fell sheep, Katmoget

Shetland sheep, Herdwick sheep;

Centre Row, left to right: Manx Loughton sheep, Gotland sheep, Hebridean sheep;

Bottom Row, left to right: Angora Rabbit, sheared Alpacas, more Gotland sheep.

The stalls as always were a riot of colour with plenty to inspire and temp you with as always. 'Oliver Twists' were there and after seeing them at WonderWool I knew exactly what I wanted and got it - a sumptuous dyed silk brick in toasty burnt reds on oranges, yummy! I was pretty restrained with my spending coming home with only 1 fleece, some more dyes, a shetland batt, some dyed merino for some felting projects and the softest grey Alpaca/BFL lace weight from 'UK Alpaca's bargain bin - at 70p and 80p per hank I couldn't say no! The only downside to the day was the heat (I was stupidly pig-headed and insisted on wearing my hand spun Green Gable - it was not the day to wear wool!) and the crowds. The aisles do seem narrower than at WonderWool which seems to make the difference in being able to get around the show with ease but at least I wasn't hampered with tonnes of shopping - see being frugal has it's good points!

Clockwise from top left : Wensledale lock Wedding dress,

WoolFest anniversary cake, Freyalyns handspun exhibit,

Shetland 'chocolates' and 'cake', weaving, FeltStudioUK, handknit waistcoat, Oliver Twists,

WoolFest 'shed', handspun yarns.

Nadine and Chris were there from the New Brighton Knitters and I ended up going back to the show on the Saturday with Nadine before picking Chris up from her course. Its was fun going round the show with a 'novice' spinner (she is improving daily!) and seeing her face light up with it all and pointing out all the bargains and stopping her unintentionally shop lifting in Winghams although it was pointed out that most people would try to steal cashmere rather than light grey herdwick!

But for me the bits of the weekend which were most fun were spent sat at the camp site knitting and spinning with like minded people and making new crafty friends even if it did involve late nights!

All in all a really fun weekend which I'd happily do all over again as long as the temperature was turned down a bit! There has been more knitting completed and started but I'll not go into details with those now, after all that could be the basis on my next post!

In a Rut

There are times when I feel as if I'm in a bit of a rut - whether it be lifestyle-wise chasing round ad infinitum after a lively four year old or creatively. I've certainly had Cast-On Fever or Startitis lately and right now I've more WIP's than I care to think about and some of them are so silly.

Why for instance haven't I finished DD's little aran waistcoat? All that needs doing is picking up stitches for the collar, I'd converted the pattern to knitting in the round so it's not like there's much sewing up to do. I did start picking up stitches but got all in a tangle when going to answer the phone and managed to rip out all the stitches I'd picked up. It was put away in a sulk I'll admit but why I haven't finished it off which is no more than a days work I could not tell you.

And there's another jumper for DD languishing in the WIP pile due to lack of concentration - I went wrong trying to knit this at knitting group and decided to start again but again little has happened with it since. Small jumper, big wool and needles - quick project (theoretically) so what's stopping me?

Poor 'Laminaria' was started last year to take with me on holiday - fat chance that it will be ready for this years holiday in 5 weeks time. It's lovely soft Posh Yarns Cashmere which isn't exactly a hardship so if someone could lend me a brain to work with (Clarabelle shawl queen might be the one!!) then maybe this could get finished. I think this has been sat there because I'm too lazy to start thinking once little Miss has gone to bed.




And I'm half way through another pair of 'Monkeys' and my heart is not in it. I'm on the heel flap for the second sock and I just can't bring myself to knit it. Even though I know I could make short work of it once the heel is done.

Yet I've have managed to spin a small mountain of handspun, much of it Alpaca (there does seem to be a theme!) which is thanks to this new wheel which is a real production wheel - new yarn seems to just fly off it! I did volunteer to represent my guild at North Wales's 'WoodFest' which was great fun and a whole day (10am til 5pm) virtually continually spinning as well as explaining how wool was made to all the kids and answering technical questions from the men. Out of all the people we saw that day (dozens and dozens) only four correctly guessed my spinning fluff as alpaca, one little girl thought the fluff came from 'carpets'. And I'm eagerly waiting to see Winghams stock another suggestion 2 other children had: 'fox'!

I've managed to knit, and finish (until I decided I'd changed my mind and wanted it longer) a handspun version of 'Green Gable' as well as a birthday surprise for a friend, who may or may not read this hence no photos. And I did knit myself a new jumper which I'm happy with as the yarn has been sat there for ages and the project lurking on my Ravelry queue for ages - so some progress with destashing (partially as there's lots left on the cone) and working through my queue.


So right now I think my creative spirit exists for the new items I knit and not the old but soon enough I'm going to really have to bully myself into finishing things off, especially if the worse comes to the worst and I can't get to WoolFest next weekend and the Tour de Fleece looms so these lamented WIP's are really doomed!

Feeling Glum

We had to have our cat put down on Wednesday at the ripe old age of 13 and I'm being a right old misery guts without him. Silly though it may be he was always a comfort when I was feeling sad - a good old cuddle with him always lifted the spirits.

Still my latest knitting - some hand spun alpaca plied with fine mohair - is black which is showing up his lingering white hairs beautifully and I'm resiting the urge to pull them all out.

I shall return with more details and other stuff when I'm in a better mood.

Wonderful Wonder Wool!

Well I've not been terribly successful at keeping up with my blog lately - too many other bits to be getting on with I suppose!What better way to get back in the flow of things by giving a review of the wonderful weekend that's just finished namely Wonder Wool Wales down in Builth Wells. And it really was great fun - so much to see, so much to buy and so many people to catch up with and meet! As always we didn't mange to meet everyone, some like 'Remote Knitter' we've been trying to meet with for years now and still failing miserably - must try harder I think!!

It was a real riot of colour which always gets me excited and inspired - 'Oliver Twists' stand was like shopping in a rainbow and was just so stunning it made you want to buy it all! The fantastic Prudence Mapstone was there again and as well as being so lovely her work makes me want to grab a crochet hook and yarn right away and start freeforming something!

I could go on all day telling you about all the lovely things there were on show and the stands too - highlights included 'Artists Palette's stall which was a wonderful show of colour with her fibres and yarns (including some stunning silk yarn which I'd have loved to rehome!) and also

 Spindlefrog's stand which as well as being a blaze of colour had the lovely Helix who I was so pleased to catch up with as she's so nice!

There were so many people I bumped into, some old friends, some new and I'll try my best to remember names! First off was No1AliCat, followed by Wye Sue, AmberMoggie (and Mr Mog of course!!), Laal Bear,the lovely Freyalyn and Sarah (YarnSpider), bloggless lurker Katie (who was surrounded at one point by three of her bloggers she was looking for without realising it!), CraftyMandy, the aforementioned Helix, Toffees Mum, Bluefaced Andy and Fybrespates Jenny as well as members of my spinning guild and Mum's spinning guild. I could go on and I'm afraid my brain is failing me - I knew I should have written down who I'd met! Sorry if I haven't mentioned anyones name it really is down to my shoddy memory!

There were some livestock on show as well which is always lovely to see but not as much as in WoolFest, mind you more sheep will have been shorn by then and I'm sure that would make the animals more comfortable in the show - the Wenselydale and Teeswater all looked rather warm! Compared with last years purchases I have come home with less but this year it's quality rather than quantity - plus they were more expensive buys! Main buy was a fantastic new Majacraft Suzi Pro which I am loving every second of and in no way regretting buying! And of course to go with it I needed a new (competition!) lazy kate and 2 more bobbins. That blew most of my budget so the rest didn't last long after buying a Corriedale/Ryland cross fleece from Olwen Veevers called 'Polka' (lovely knowing the name of the sheep your fleece came from!), some alpaca rovings from UK Alpaca (chocolate, coffee and white!) and some dyed kid mohair from Freyalyn. Feels like there should be more with the amount I spent but there you go! No pictures of my goodies - I'll sort that out later!

As with last year I'd run out of money by the time I got to the MidWales Mouthful section which is a real shame as there was some great looking food on show including some highly tempting Scotch eggs! And I had to take a picture of Dr Who's 'house' (as DD says) on top of the BBC Cymru building to amuse DD.

All in all it's a long weekend with all the driving but the atmosphere, colour and most importantly the people more than make up for being stuck in traffic getting there! Plus I'm going to have to keep an eye open for when Google Street Map updates as I was caught on the road between Newtown and Llandridnod Wells - permanent proof of my drive to Wonder Wool Wales! Maybe I'll have to get a screen shot of it (even if I do know what my car looks like!)

I'll be back (hopefully with less of a gap than before) with an update of all my knitting, spinning, etc as soon as I can stop playing with my new wheel!!

Update - some of you may ahve seen someone elses pictures instead of my Wonderwool ones - not sure what happened there but I've now replaced them with ones that shouldn't dissapear!

Just a quick post for now in between getting ready for Christmas. Take a moment to have a look at CherryRed's blog where she's having a prize draw to raise funds in memory of her Mother who passed away recently due to Cancer.

It's a really worthy cause and is something that touches many lives and in this seasonal time of giving is something worth a little of anyones time to give a little. Not nagging or anything but thought it would be nice to have a little pause for thought in amongst al thoughts of turkeys and presents.

Will be back soon with a proper post soon!

And Baby Came Too!

I'm ashamed to say that I've forgotten to tell you something that I've been really excited about but somehow seem to manage by the time it comes to blogging. I know I really should do this whilst I'm wide awake and not when I'm half asleep and that way I'd not forget the exciting bits and inflict you with a load of waffle instead. Well, I'm awake now so you'll have the news (as well as some waffle!).

A month or so ago I took part in a Spinners Swap on Ravelry, my first ever swap and I had a whale of a time picking out goodies and dyeing stuff up for my swap partner and after sending out my parcel I almost forgot about that fact that someone else would be sending me a parcel in return! And when I got my parcel I was thrilled with the goodies inside which 'Manicgirl'
from Sweden sent.

As well as some beautiful hand dyed merino and some luscious hand dyed silk hankies were some beautiful hand spun yarns which I'll have to find something special to use in. The middle item in the photo is the one I'm most impressed with as it's so beautiful it's almost a shame to use it! It's some flax tied in the traditional Swedish way which really does look fantastic and the smell is wonderful - my Grandad would have been interested in this I'm sure as he was from Belfast where a lot of linen is produced.

I've decided to dedicate this post to my spinning as there's been a fair bit going on lately as well as all the dyeing I've been churning out for the shop. This first yarn was from some Fybrespates fibre, I can't remember what it is as it didn't have a label on but it's lovely and soft and has a lovely sheen. I plied the singles with some rayon thread in a toning shade and there's enough yarn here to make myself another Forest Canopy shawl!

This one is a blend of Alpaca, Mohair and Wool from the lovely 'Wool For Brains' etsy shop and it was a lovely fibre to spin and there's just possibly enough for a pair of socks by I'm going to spin something complimentary for the heels and toes I think to make the yarn go farther. The colours in this are really lovey and don't really show well here.

There is more hand spun to show but I've not take any pictures of them - one of which I'm really happy with is a three ply Alpaca/Nylon blend yarn which is destined to become socks - and there's plenty of yarn for them!

Recently Emily has been getting involved with spinning too. Firstly I took her to the Frodsham Friendship Day which was help by one of the Cheshire Spinning Guilds. She was really excited when we walked in to the main hall which was full of loads of spinners and their wheels and asked if she could start spinning there and then! She even decided which wheel she wanted and virtually claimed someones Louet wheel! We met up with the lovely Jackie and her girls, who Emily loved, and I was surprised that Emily didn't protest and let me stay nearly all afternoon!

By the time we left she was very tired and upset that I'd left 'her' wheel and her new friends behind!

After such a successful day out with her I tried her out again with a trip to the Abergele Guilds spinning afternoons which again she was most impressed with. Even after packing some snacks (bribes really!), jigsaws and colouring bits I didn't see myself being able to do much in the way of spinning but to my amazement she let me get on with it. I can't say that she let one of the other ladies do much spinning, Lynne became a temporary childminder and seemed to enjoy herself being taken on riverside walks and walks on 'squelchy' fields. And the final vote of approval from Emily came when she saw our tea-time cakes - I think I'll be allowed to go again with her and the other members didn't seem to mind her at all either!

So now Emily wants me to teach her to spin, we've a spindle all ready for her but I think I'm more likely to get eyes poked out rather than yarn spun so far! I think Emily really wants to have a go soon - she's been sitting on my lap and 'helping spinning'. I don't think she's quite ready yet but she thinks she is!

I'll leave you with a shot of yet another small person who's been 'helping' me to spin - not sure if he's ready to learn or not either!

Playing Around

It's funny what you can find on peoples blogs which are a great way to kill time with! I was reading GoldfishGirl's blog and found this from Wordle and it's a fun thing to do with your blog and interesting what words it pick up on!

One Hundred Posts Old Today!!

Maybe it's just the time of year but I've kind of fallen under a spell of the blues and as a result I've kind of been hiding from society (OK - it may be online but it's still a society of sorts!).
Only some lovely kind words from a certain Sarah made me realise how slow I've been at updating lately and that I needed to get out and post something!

The thing is it's not as if there aren't any FO's to show you - I've been knitting and spinning like mad (that's the hiding from society bit!) and have a fair old pile of stuff on the finished pile. I should also add that there's still a pile of stuff on the WIP pile too but then who doesn't have these on going projects?!

I decided a montage shot would be less bother to post rather than inflict a load of photos on you and was surprised how many things have been done since I last posted - five finished objects and another new one on the go! Well I'm impressed at least but I suppose it is cheating of sorts as they're all small projects really.

As the days have been growing colder and darker (and then warmer again - silly weather!) my thoughts have been on making warming layers for DD. It's not that I don't want anything for myself (I don't think I'll even attempt to start a list we could be here all night but I might just mutter 'Wisteria' under my breath!) but I keep thinking she ought to be wrapped up against the cold (when it gets here for good!) so there are slipovers and tunics galore on the 'to knit' list ready for Winter. Most of the following have been made for her - OK all bar one! Hubby is still grumbling that his project isn't finished yet but that hasn't been photographed and I'm making the pattern up as I go and can't find my notes (I blame him for tidying!)

I suppose I should start with the current WIP which is a Sirdar pattern (details are on Rav - I don't do details well, that's what Rav is there to remember for me!) for Miss Emily knit in some Sirdar Sunggly Aran (which is as the name suggests!). Even though it's a simple waistcoat with very little sewing up to do I'm reducing the sewing further by converting it to (I was going to say in the round) a one piece job. The cables are really lovely looking and make for a nice think fabric but it's not the challenge for the grey cells I was wanting - the cable pattern was learnt before I'd finished the first repeat. Still it's working quite quickly (when I actually knit it) as I can get away with doing some of the cables sans cable needle! Does it look like I'm content with doing the pattern the traditional way (blind following)? The urge to 'tweak' is strong!

The Rainbow Beret (can you guess which one that is in the montage? Do you need a clue?!) was another pattern I wasn't content to follow blindly. The initial try was too pointy for my liking and more elf hat than beret. So it was ripped back and I made it up, increasing stitches like a mad thing - nothing written down of course so I'm doomed if I want to recreate it! Plus the pattern (again details on Rav - can't remember where I found it other than through Rav!) was for a 2 year old so I played and guessed whilst DD was in school and cast off with no head to double check on. As a result there's no real need to know what I did with this as there's plenty of room for growing here! As part of the developing trend the yarn for this (Colinette Cadenza - I do remember some things!) was lovely and soft to knit with and is nice and snuggly too!

Before the beret came the BSJ - do you need details or do those three little letters tell you all you need know about the pattern?! OK, for all that Elizabeth Zimmermann wanted people to not follow patterns blindly I did with this. The maths and the whole construction of this little beauty of a pattern still befuddles me even after knitting this second one - I really couldn't conceive of thinking one of these up from scratch! If you haven't tried this pattern out yet I urge you to try just for the fun of trying to work it out and then once you've figured out how it goes together making others try to figure it out themselves! Hours of Fun!! Anyway this was for a friend baby who technically is still not due but who in reality arrived on the 3rd of October (Mum's Birthday too!) seven weeks early and coincidentally my Baby Surprise was finished the day before - I know Mum has said about being Welsh Witches but really?! Expect to see more mini knits with this same yarn (Fabel from Garn Studio - lovely yarn and great colours!) as this only took just (and I mean just - half of the last row and casting off done with the second 50g ball!) over 50g to knit and no girl is fully dressed without matching booties and hat now are they?!

Bored yet? Nevermind! Still on the list is a Sirdar aran jumper (strangely enough also knitted in Sirdar yarn - not a usual trend having the 'right' yarn for the pattern!) again converted into being knitted in the round and a baby Kimono from Lion Brand done in Mad fluffy slubby wool which was an insanely quick knit. Well, as this is turning into a huge essay I'll keep it brief on these two and move on to one of my favorite FO's and a first for me - a Crocheted FO!! I don't expect many of you to have heard of it but the little white beastie is a Totoro from the Japanese animated film called 'My Neighbour Totoro' a really lovely film for little ones (and handily dubbed in English). Totoros are woodland spirits fond of gathering acorns and disappearing when they want to hide away and this one is a 500 year old 'baby' one. Seriously this film is worth looking out for for those with little ones to amuse, it is a bit bizarre (I'll just say 'Cat Bus' and leave it to your imagination) but is a lovely gentle film, not a lot happens but DD adores it and many others from the same makers 'Studio Ghibli' Japans equivalent to Disney. Anyway this is the first ever crocheted creation I've done, other than a little freestyle dabbling, and it was only by the time I'd nearly finished and was doing the tail that I figured out how to count crochet stitches and how to follow a crochet pattern properly. The stitches are wonkey and not necessarily what the pattern wanted (or where it wanted them!) but it look like what it's supposed to and I love it as does Miss Emily! And that's what matters!

I was going to show you some hand spun I'd done but my back is aching sitting at this computer and I think I've inflicted enough waffle for one night for you. Plus it gives me something to start my next hundred posts with doesn't it?! Will try and touch base with you all and gradually rejoin society - see you out there!

Oh I do Love to be beside the Capital of Culture!

Whilst I wouldn't want to actually live in Liverpool (being too much of a country girl at heart!) it has been great being on the doorstep of this City during this year of Capital of Culture. There have been so many wonderful events that have been wonderful to watch and feel part of. My favorites have to have been the Tall Ships Race, photos of which can be found here and the 'Go Superlambananas' sculpture trail which involved over 120 Superlambanana sculptures dotted around the City (as well as Runcorn, Euston and Moel Fammau in Wales). What fun we had chasing all over the place finding them all (not sure if our feet agreed with all the walking but still!) and since we couldn't make it to Euston demands were made by Hubby to his company (who sponsored the Euston Lamb) to bring her back home to Liverpool, a fact he is mightily pleased about (even if his middle name in work is now 'Lambanana'!). And Emily has really enjoyed hunting them down too - that's her at the bottom hugging one of them!

A Selection of my favorite SuperLambananas!

And now, after the SuperLambananas have left the city a new creature has emerged, disturbed by all the renovation work Liverpool is undergoing - 'La Princesse' has arrived courtesy of 'La Machine'!!

Boy she is big! 37 tonnes and 50 foot high - so big my arachnophobia said 'Get real!' and didn't engage. DD and I spent the morning watching as she was craned down from the building where I used to work (which actually I'm glad I wasn't in as a Giant Spider crept past the window!) and on to a lorry taking her down to Albert Dock ready for this weekends excitement.

Exactly what 'La Princesse' will do is unknown, maybe she'll spin us a tale! It's all being kept secret but it will be a great extravaganza and we shall enjoy as much as we can! I will leave you with one more shot - that on the police bike that was genuinely part of her escort... co-incidence or not?! LOL!

Please can we have more hours in the Day?

Doesn't time seem to fly by relentlessly? There are so many things I'd love to be getting done but they just don't seem to happen! We've had a busy old time of it here lately - last week has been spent comforting Emily which has taken so much time.
She'd been ill early Saturday morning and seemed better on the Sunday so we went out to watch the motor racing with my Dad at Oulton Park in Cheshire. By the time we got there Emily wasn't well again and managed to sleep through a noisy race which our friend was driving in. So we decided to head home and pop in to Borders on the way to see if the latest Interweave Knits was out yet.
After a successful trip clutching IK for Mum we returned to the car only to see a familiar face parked next to us! Well, I recognised the yarn in her cardi before I noticed it was none other than WyeSue up in the area for the weekend - and a lovely surprise it was too! Anyway the point being that it made me realise that I haven't managed to keep up with any ones blogs for ages and feel quite out of touch with everything.
Now Ravelry is one big black hole that does seem to consume huge chunks of the day and Emily is the other, especially this week. Take Bank Holiday Monday for instance - were we passing the time of day doing something fun for her? Not at all, what should have been a quick trip to the out of hour doctors ended up as nearly six hours in the Children's A&E next door. Now there was nothing seriously wrong, other than a Urine Infection (which is bad enough), but having to wait for four hours for a sample was torture - no knitting, nothing to read (other than kids books - I'm talking of course of the brand new IK sitting at home!) and a child who doesn't want to drink her orange juice and wants to know why the hospital doesn't have apple juice? Argh!

Thankfully she is now loads better and is back to her energetic self and I'm dedicating more time to knitting again and trying to get round some blogs (bear with me - every time I tune out a little every ones blogs seem to grow by dozens of posts!). There is even a new FO to show, when I sew the button on and DD sits still long enough for a photo! Plus my Laminaria, long neglected, is finally growing again and is nearing the end of the Transition chart.

I haven't even had time to dye more bits for the shop or the Spinners Swap I'm taking part in over on Ravelry and there are lovely bits of hand spun for that that can't be shown yet without spoiling the surprise! Still Mum has uploaded some natural dyed rovings to the shop so I'll leave you with a picture of some pretty roving so it's not too boring a post!

Wowee!! Does this mean we're famous?!!

I take one little break from the dye pot and what do I find?
Only a sooper dooper mention on Lime&Violets' 'The Daily Chum'!! Seeing as we haven't been going that long I am so touched and thrilled to have been listed here - it's a good thing I'm on my own in the house today as I squeeled good style when I saw the post!

And Mum's away on her holidays - typical! I'm now heading back to the dyepot to restock the shop with more fibres and there she is with a house full of dyed up beauties ready to list. Talking of which, have you checked out her blog to get a sneek peek? Don't you just love them all? I know I do and would sorely love them all, especially those natural dyed ones - heaven!! And I think Mum will find it hard going putting those up for sale too!

NEWS FLASH!!!

We're finally open for business!!!

Find us here!

All I want is a Tall Ship...

... And a star to steer her by.

As you may or may not know Liverpool recently played host to the Tall Ships Race which was absolutely fantastic and stirred my soul making me want to run away to sea again. Last time they were up was in 1992 and I did run away to sea as it were by signing up to sail with the Sail Training Association that August and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think maybe the family history of sailing and working at sea helps the appeal but I don't think there could have been many people who'd fail to be impressed with the ships that were berthed in Liverpool this last weekend. And there certainly were loads there to see them all too!

Anyway enough of the Capital of Culture report for now and back to our usual topic! There has been knitting, spinning and dyeing activity a plenty over the past few weeks, as the blue fingers and blue smudges over the computer keyboard will vouch for! And little Emily has been the lucky recipient for a lot of it. For her birthday this year she had a toy kitchen but she's hadn't got a lot of food to go with it so I decided to fix that by knitting her some more food and I've had a load of fun doing them too as most of them could be churned out in just one evening or less and the huge smiles on her face has been encouragement enough plus they're good little stash busters! So far she has a slice of Battenburg cake, an iced bun, an ice-cream cone, two cupcakes, a cheese sandwich and a chocolate biscuit. I must admit that my favorite is the ice-cream which is really cool, even if it's blue - which Emily chose and who am I to argue!

I almost forgot that Emily also had some new socks ready for Winter using Gilraens Micro Monkey pattern and some Garnstudio Fabel which has lovely bright colours for little feet and is reasonably priced too. A nice simple pattern to knit, the only work is making up the heel and toe numbers to fit as you go. So that's one pair down ready for Winter and more stashbusting socks to go as these only took 28g of wool and I'm sure I've plenty of leftovers for more!

Also for Miss Emily on the knitting front is a really easy knit (again busting that stash!) using just 100g (with leftovers!) of James Brett's Kool Kotton cotton blend DK yarn and a pattern I found on Ravelry here but I modified it slightly to get the ruffled edge which is really cute and girly. It was a quick knit as well and only took 8 days to finish.


Next on the needles will be for Emily as well and is a cable jumper pattern from Sirdar, can't remember which one right now so will give the details later! As for the dyeing they'll all be uploaded shortly to our etsy shop 'Mam a Mi' and boy do I wish I could keep them all!! And, if you hadn't have guessed already, one has got some luscious blues in it!!

The Sorry Tale of SABLE

A friend of mine from our knitting group died this week quite suddenly which obviously upset us all but it did much more than that. This loss has made us all start to really think about our stashes and how SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) comes into the picture.
You see our friend 'L' left behind her a house full of wool. Now I know lots of us say we've a house full of wool but with 'L' I really mean it. Now I'm not directly involved with helping to clear this stash our but my close friend is and I can see how hard a job she's faced with. How best to dispose of bag upon bag of knitting needles; hank upon hank of cross-stitch threads (we're talking huge full carrier bags worth) before you even get round to the yarn itself which seems to have virtually filled rooms.
All in all it's left me feeling sad for the loss of a friend and the realisation that we barely knew her in some ways - we only ever saw her knit with acrylic yarns and yet her house was full of lovely yarns such as Rowan, Yaeger and Debbie Bliss which will probably have been there for years untouched. It's so sad to think of her sat all alone surrounded by all that wool. We will never know what drove her to gather all this wool together but I'm sure we've all been left with the huge lesson of knitting what we've got.

My stash seems to have changed over night from a growing thing to something to be used and enjoyed but with the emphasis on Used. The thought of buying new yarn is strangely unappealing as I know I've certainly enough yarn for a dozen or so socks (not including stash busting left over socks!), probably a dozen jumpers or cardigans in varying weights and half a dozen shawls. Surely that will be enough to keep me busy for the foreseeable future? And of course I'm spinning new yarns as well so the stash does grow...

So I ask you - How do we know when we've reached SABLE or at least when to stop feeding the stash? For me I think I'm there and have no intentions of adding to the pile. Now I'm sure I will fall of the wagon at times, don't we all!! But I'm certainly going to make a definate effort to knit what I've got and try to ignore the siren call of unpurchased yarns.

And on a lighter note I will leave you with the first of the great stashbusting projects - a stashbusting memorial flower garden for 'L' which we will keep in 'Made' in Wallasey, where the New Brighton Knitters meet so that 'L' will always be there with us for our knitting evenings. And quite probably some of her stash will also make it into the garden as well.

I will post again soon about our lovely holiday and try and remember to take photos of the flowers (which are really fun to knit!) but I'm not really feeling up to jollyness right now. The photos in this post were taken in 'The National Botanic Gardens of Wales' which are lovely and well worth a visit and will be the only holiday photos for now.