Home sweet home

We went up to the Wirral over the weekend in the van to visit family and deliver gifts etc . It was great to see everyone but boy we were so glad to get back home on Saturday evening . Thankfully the Crimea Pass gets gritted regularly and was okay when we went over but I gather that later on it was a bit hairy. We foolishly hadn't taken the snow chains in our hurry to leave so it would have meant staying put somewhere until we could get over .



Sunday it snowed all day and it was so dark for most of the day . Not that we minded ; we were home in our warm cosy cottage and were busy putting our Christmas deccies up.

Yet more snow yesterday and this morning it all looked gorgeous in the sunshine but its lethal underfoot as it froze heavily last night. This photo was taken on Sunday and the snow is much thicker now.



This time of year is always one for reflection for me on the ones we have lost , or who are ill and suffering and when we worked at the homeless centre in Liverpool it was much more apparent who were the haves and have not's. Of course I am not talking about the material things, which it seems Christmas has turned into these days but the more important things in life like the basics of having a roof over your head,good health and a supportive family. We used to work all over the Christmas period , nights as well and it was very busy ; I wonder if the centres are even busier this year with fiances being how they are !!
So I give thanks for what we have, a warm cosy cottage and a loving relationship , they are the most precious gifts I could want for Christmas.

I wish you all the very warmest blessings for the festive season and for 2010

A yen to knit laceweight ?

I haven't knitted any proper laceweight for quite some time now but I have so loved spinning this silk I bought from Oliver Twist at Wonderwool this year. Their silk has to be the softest silk I have ever bought and spun and I don't know what they rinse it in but it also smells divine It took quite some time to spin this and practically one day to ply it. I also messed up on the Andean plying for what was left on one bobbin so I lost another 9 gms of it :( but I am sure I will use it when I do some more felting.


There are 936yds to play with and I am thinking maybe the Aeolian shawl. There are so many lovely shawls to choose from these days but personally I don't like the ones that seem to have every stitch pattern thrown at them and in my opinion they look too fussy . I am aiming to get this knitted up before the next Wonderwool so that I can justify buying more ;)
I have been busy spinning some fibre purchases I made at the Trefriw Christmas Market we went to last weekend ; they too are destined for a shawl but a simple mindless one. The 'Faraway so Close' one and I am thinking of using up different plum/purple/pink colours of handspun that I have accumulated .

I also had a lovely parcel from my Secret Santa on UK Fleece Group on Ravelry and I just couldn't resist opening it ; well I had to have treat as this head cold is driving me insane atm :(
It has inspired me to order more grey shetland and some grey alpaca/silk to dye up so that I can make a garment with it all . Thank you Secret Santa ;)




On my Louet I am still spinning the Teeswater x Jacob for this vest I am knitting. I fear that I may not have enough fleece to finish it :( I bought this at Woolfest and on reflection it was a mistake. It was already washed and it looked lovely and indeed parts of it are beautiful but there is so much VM in it plus its been felted in the washing so there is huge wastage. Never again will I buy pre washed fleece ; my excuse is I had a migraine at the time of buying it and I was seduced by the lovely colour. X fingers I will have enough to finish it and the patience to card it all up !!!
Thank you all for your lovely comments, its so lovely that even after such a long abscenece folks still care enough to post. Thank you :)

Stop, Pause ........Re-wind

I can't believe its over three months since I have updated my blog and all I can say is that I have been busy . So very busy , what with a summer with lots of visitors , a fab holiday in Yorkshire of which Masham Sheep fair was such a highlight .

I have been dyeing up a storm for craft fairs etc and even done a workshop in a local primary school on felting .I had forgotten how much I enjoyed teaching and the children created a wonderful wall hanging at the end of the morning and it now hangs in the schools main foyer. I was so pleased to have such great feedback from the head and staff.

We also had a Ravelry meet up at Harlech which was fantastic and we met up with some lovely people and I was asked to take some of my dyed yarns there too and did very well ;)
I so appreciate it when folks love my colours and there were one or two new combos I have come up with which flew out . The only downside to all this rushing about is that it wears me out but we did our last craft fair the other week until April and now I can do things for meeeeee:) We have been asked if we are having a stall in Wonderwool and the answer is a defo NO . I really can't afford to push myself to do more than I am able;it is so very tempting to try though especially as we have been doing so well. I have learnt the hard way that for me it won't work and also I would end up not having the time to do the things I want to do. I never wanted my hobbies to turn into a business but if I was younger and healthier then oh boy I would have thrown myself into it but at this stage in my life I shall be content to do the odd craft fair here and there .

I haven't taken any photos of work I have done and a lot has now sold too which is nice and I used handspun yarns for all my knitted stuff too.
So I shall now re-wind & show some pics of our hols and the fantastic Masham Sheep fair which will now be part of our annual holiday I think.

Lots of sheep :) and it was lovely to see so many different breeds there too

This one was definitely the cute one

and this one won the best fleece

This one was most certainly not the cutest



There were brass bands,Morris dancers but these were the dancers I loved and if I lived nearer I would join them ;)They certainly did seem to be enjoying themselves



I had forgotten what a pain Blogger is for loading pics :( So I will leave you with a shot of our stall at the last craft fair just to prove that I have been doing something during my absence .


So now will you stop bulling me to update my blog ? you know who you are ;)
I'm back and I will try and not leave it too long before I update again.

A few FO

I have given up waiting to get photos of me wearing some FO before they get worn out !! so here they are on the hanger .
A Kimono jacket ,pattern by Liz Lovick , yarn Colourmart wool & silk. I think I will get a lot of wear out of this one when the weather gets colder.



Beaded waistcoat ,yarn and pattern from House of Hemp. I was initially pleased with this but it has dropped a lot so I am thinking of undoing a bit ;also I wished I had done it on smaller needles than the pattern said.


I wanted an orangey cardi 'like yesterday' to go with something and this was the only yarn in my stash that was remotely near. Its vintage Sirdar Nocturne with naff 70's 'bits'in it . I made the sleeves shorter and its okay . Love the style/pattern though so will make another in better yarn next time . Oh and the pattern is 'Liesel'by Ysolda Teague .

I think there might a couple of other knitty FO but I can't remember, did I do a shawl ? !! on the needles atm I am knitting another Elsewhere in blue .

Here are some weaving pics :
First is a scarf .The warp is commercial cashmere laceweight and the weft is hand dyed , hand spun cashmere , alpaca, silk. This has a lovely drape to it and 'might' end up as a Christmas gift !!


Lastly is a WIP as I haven't fulled this as yet as I am making another strip in the same yarns to turn into cushion covers for the kitchen chairs.
These are all hand spun yarns and are the ones I dyed in the indigo vat the other week(which by the way is still going !!)

Off to Pembroke this week which I am so looking forward to even if it will be hectic .

All work no play

This post is photo heavy and silly Blogger has got them all over the place too? Do hope its legible !!

Tony has been working 12 hour shifts flat out since Woolfest which is good news in one way as it means that at least in some areas the economy is picking up and they have now taken on more staff this last week. But it was a relief to get away in the van last week albeit for only a couple of nights and we headed for Anglesey again .
The weather was on the whole kind to us and we did rest up as well as doing some walking.



I loved how the lichen drapes these trees and in the evening light they were quite spooky

.
We had a walk down at Porth Swtan or as the English call it, Church Bay

On a hot sunny day this beach would be packed with holiday makers but as we just had heavy showers of rain we had it all to ourselves.

These rocks are some of the oldest in this country apparently, a fact I hadn't realized until I read the notice board. I just noticed that they were all colours and looked great wet !!

There were plenty of sea anenomes in the rock pools and I love the structures of this kelp seaweed ; it reminds me of freeform crochet










I had never been to Parys Mountain before and as we were passing we thought we would go and see it. It is an old copper mine that dates back to the Bronze Age. I know that there is a lot of controvesy about the health issues re this mine and that it is still causing pollutants but I was overcome by the whole beauty of the place. It looked out of this world in its bareness and all the colours of the waste , stones etc. I hadn't realized how big it was either and I can only begin to imagine what a hellish place it would have been to work in with the fumes and the noise.

Wind power
Old :


and new:


The most important thing for us in these trips is to chill out together and we found this wonderful meadow which was perfect and again not a soul in sight .

I was able to play with my new Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle which had arrived the day we were leaving and I had brought Babylonglegs 'Clover' roving along ; very fitting for the occassion I thought.



I am now fully converted to Turkish spindles and will be getting a larger one but I do love this dinky little one which nearly fits in the palm of your hand .

So its back to normal and Tony is back to work for now but our next trip is back down to Pembroke to catch up with some very dear friends .

Tour de Fleece

I don't know what I imagined Tour de Fleece would be about and as I have no interest at all in the Tour de France then I do wonder why I joined it !!
Still as I spin every day I thought I might as well. I did start as I meant to go on with fleece but after seeing such beautiful pictures on Ravelry of all the coloured yarns that folks were doing I succumbed to doing dyed rovings.
I am also playing on the new wheel so it was good to see what I could turn out on it, plus I have a new drum carder too to try out , a Louet Junior
So here as requested and promised is a photo of the Louet S15 and on the reverse is the metal hologram disc which weights the wheel and which has picked up colour from the flash on the camera




So what have I created on it this week ?
First of all I started on a gorgeous fleece I bought at Woolfest, its a Teeswater X Jacob and it so silky and lustrous. I have spun this in aran weight for a waistcoat

Then I had a play and did a navajo plyed fine single and then a thick and thin one with the same roving .

As I said I have a new drum carder as well. Am I happy with it ? well yes and no. I can see that it does blend better than the Barnett I have but I reckon the Barnett is better for fleece . Yet again not all fleece though as I tried this very fine cria alpaca fleece I had and the Louet was far better in prepping it.I was going to get rid of one but it seems I need them both , well for now any way !!
I guess overall I still think the Barnett is better , until I do find another ;)Wish we had the choices folks in the US have ; would love to try a Pat Green or the Straunch .

Right back to reality .....here is a small skein of the alpaca and again I have spun it in various thickness laceweight
a) to see if the wheel can do it and b) to see how the softness of the alpaca holds out . It held up really well even spun super fine and the only problem I had was in washing it as I nearly felted the skein. I didn't pre wash this fleece ,dirty though it was as I feared it would felt . So I will just have to cope with really dirty hands when I spin the rest;)


On the wheel now are some drum carded batts which have been chucked on lumps, bumps and all to use in weaving and will be plyed tonight .
I feel I have given this wheel a good test run this week and I still love it and I am still surprised at how a very simple wheel is so versatile .

I can't forget my Suzie though and this week I plyed the laceweight yarn I spun from Freyalyn'srovings bought at Wonderwool Wales. The biggest skein comprises of two rovings, one is finest English wool and its plyed with a kid mohair roving . I didn't spin the mohair as fine so had a lot of the other left !! 576yds on the large skein and 364 yds on the smaller.

I have realized that I have too many blue yarns and garments and that this rich plummy pinky shade actually suits me so I am going to do more in this shade and feel the urge to get the dyepots out soon .

I have also since Woolfest spun over a kilo of Alpaca roving from the lovely John Arbon at UK Alpaca to make a jumper and its about the only photo I posted on the Tour de Fleece group before getting bored with the whole event . Guess I am just not competitive any more ;)
I also haven't got out of TdF I was hoping for ie get a whole fleece spun so I am now going to get on with that instead but at least I have tested a new wheel and done good samples for future projects

My new Louet Love

I have always hankered after a Louet S10 so when I was given the chance to buy an S15 , which I have to say I didn't know of until I read about them and found they are basically the same as the S10, I leapt at it . Now I own a Suzie Pro and a Lendrum (which DH has now claimed but I still use at times) and I have also owned an Ashford Traveller in the past , so I reckon I know a little about using different wheels. I had heard how good the S10 was and my spinning instructor who herself owns 6 wheels always says if she could only have one wheel then that would be her choice . So in a way I was expecting good things but in reality what I wanted in this wheel was a 'spin in the grease,chuck it on thick n thin ' yarn for textured weaving, plus I could take it to spinning demos and let kids play on it.
I thought it would probably be a clunky , noisy spin but that would be okay as I wouldn't be using it that much.So imagaine my surprise when after cleaning this dirt covered wheel which hadn't been used in a very,very long time to have a noiseless spin apart from the whirring bobbin and this baby loves spinning laceweight with no effort but can just as easily spin chunky too. To say I love this wheel is an understatement and I rate it as highly as my very expensive Suzie Pro . I love its simplicity ,its low maintenance (no oiling at all !!)and its versatility. I can more easily take this to guild with me without worrying about getting it dented and its far lighter than the Suzie.The only thing I have bought for it is a new stretchy band and I can't see the need for anything else; it came with three single speed bobbins and one smaller one (is that the standard one ?)
I bought this wheel at an auction for peanuts and the yarn on the bobbins indicated that it was once owned by a talented spinner . It has a lovely Celtic design painted on the front but on the back is a metal disc that I wasn't that impressed with & I was about to take it off until I realized it was there for a purpose, to weight the wheel :)
Call me sentimental but I always wonder about objects bought second hand and about the person who owned them and I wonder who or where this person is and why they got rid of this wonderful wheel but I am so glad I have come by it .
So it just goes to prove you don't need to spend much for a great wheel , it doesn't need to be complicated and you can produce any yarn you need ,you just need to be patient and keep your eyes peeled for a bargain, they are out there :)
I will post a picture just as soon as I find my camera !!