Spinning to dye

First of all many thanks for all your lovely replies to my last post it was a great welcome home read and also for all that posted whilst I was away, I am hoping I have replied to all, if not forgive me as I am trying to catch up with all that I have missed and boy some of you have been busy :)
I really don't know how I would keep myself motivated if it wasn't for my online friends , more about that later :)
I don't think I am as yet recovered from our trip away and I still have some ironing to do and catching up with friends and family at home. I haven't been too great either as, as usual I overdo when I get home plus I didn't get great news when I went for another bone density scan on Wednesday . This blog was never meant to dwell on my ailments but to divert me so I won't go into details but suffice to say I was upset for a few days,then got angry and I am now throwing what energy I have into getting the drum carder out and spending my days sitting down listening to relaxing music and carding loads of fluffy white clouds of Llanwenog fleece, which is far more therapeutic that tidying the house etc . The reason for all this pile of clouds? On Thursday we are having a natural dyeing day with the Meirionedd Guild and we are doing blue and yellow this year.
Remember I said ,I met at Woolfest, Jean who is Frankie's MIL, well she is in the Lleyn Guild and when I was looking to join a guild I was in between minds as to which guild to join as both are equi-distance from me but decided against the Lleyn as they met in the evening and I don't enjoy driving at night especially in winter ; well they have changed to day meetings:) So I am going to join them as well, as you can join as many as you like , and guess what they are doing the following Thursday ? yep natural dyeing, done by Jean herself. So as you see I need rather a lot of undyed yarn which I need to mordant before I go. So I am spinning as much as I can, a little a day ; its playing havoc with my joints but I'm determined to do it. Funny enough I spun most days when we were on holiday with no real pain so I don't know if it the constant rain we have had since we have been home or the posture I was spinning in the van. Kath says I should go in the van to spin from now on LOL. I have a spinning chair but maybe its not giving me enough support !!


So here is the yarn I spun whilst on holiday and I love it. I am still going to knit the 'Morning Glory Shawl ' with it but it would be perfect for a garment to wear next to the skin as its so soft. I have over 1,000 yds of it so more than enough and I did buy the yarn from Eva to make the cardigan to go with it, so it has its destiny planned.


Here are the three pairs of socks I knitted whilst we were away .
The first pair is for Tony and I had started the first cuff before we went away .I got the yarn off E-bay and it's an angora mix.I have made myself a pair in the same yarn but different colour and yes they are soft but mine need darning already :( The pattern is off Sock Madness .


Next is the 'Victorian Lace ' socks from SSK which as I had done the shawl should have been easy but trying to navigate and take in the scenery they took me longer than I anticipated and I didn't even try the printed toe instruction given in the pattern as I was too busy to read it !!


I used Natural Dye Studios alpaca and silk for these and was disappointed when there were parts which the dye hadn't taken and as I hadn't worn them then,I thought I would show them to NSD as they were at Woolfest. They were most apologetic and gave me two hanks of yarn as a replacement which I thought was most decent of them. Again lovely to wear but even after one wear and wash they are felting a tad !!

The last pair , again from SSK are the Horcrux socks and as they were short in the leg I used a skein which I had already taken some out to do the stripped socks in Sock Madness so was gambling that there would be enough . I could have done them longer which I would prefer and indeed have still loads of the yarn left; its Opal and the shade was Summer Nights as I remember. I will do these socks again as they are a mindless quick knit but I do not like the heel at all so will change that next time.



On the needles now I have nearly finished the 'Waterlily Top' from Spring 2006 Interweave knits and I just know its going to be too big :( I thought I would do the third size as I am a 36 bust but is huge and I am in two minds whether to frog it and make it smaller or carry on. I also know that Giotto drops like mad after a while; don't you just hate knitting when your gut feelings tell you it isn't right ? The weather is hardly inspiring to knit a sleeveless top either but I don't want an UFO. I frogged 'Bluebell' from Fitted Knits as that was too big as well . I am losing weight gradually now that I am off the steroids so its a dilemma as to what size to knit at the moment !!

Well on Tuesday its my 1st year Blogiversary and I had been thinking of doing something different instead of a straight give away but I'm afraid time and lack of energy means I haven't so if you would like to post a comment, I will make a draw on Saturday and post the winners name next Sunday , no idea what the prize will be as yet , guess it will be something woolly :) or Welsh maybe ? ( and no not a leg of Welsh lamb LOL )
As I said in the beginning of this post I started this blog with the help of Katherine my lovely daughter with the sole idea of it being a way of keeping a record of the things I was knitting .I had over the last few years due to my ill health given up all of my crafts and had no motivation to do any and it was only when Kath was expecting Emily that I grudgingly thought I had better knit something and did a little before starting my blog but without much enthusiasm. Little did I know what I would get up to in this last year but much, much more importantly for me is that I have made on line friends and even met up with a few which is brilliant and learnt so much about knitting, spinning etc and its all POSITIVE and has brought me from a very dark place. So again a very BIG thank you to all who read and all who post on my blog , I truly appreciate it .