A very woolly day out

 Do you remember the 6 inch rings that we had to create something woolly with for the Guild Exhibition?  Well, yesterday was our trip down to the exhibition at the Weald and Down Museum in Hampshire.  We went by coach shared with a few other guilds from the midlands.  I do apologise in advance for  the onslaught of pictures that follows, it was very difficult to choose which pictures to show, as there was so many wonderful exhibits.  The rings themselves were exhibited on a three sided display.  So many different ones all from the same ring, amazing!  There were a few that really stood out to me.

 I had fun spotting the rings created by friends.  Here's Dawn's (who I happened to bump into at the same spot, lovely to meet you Dawn, hope your voice is on the mend)

 Lucy's from InTheSky.

 and Lucy's mum's that I had seen Lucy blog about.

 And then there was mine.  I was, if I am honest, a bit disappointed with how the 3-D ones were displayed.  They were too high, and even holding my camera above my head, you could not see the robin sat on it's nest. 

 Not only were there the 6 inch rings, but also lots of entrants in the exhibition for various categories.  So many gorgeous things.  I dread to think how many years worth of work was represented in the hall.  This coat was amazing, all handspun, and the pattern created by the person herself.

 Such delicate weaving in this mandarin styled top.  Three layers of weaving in one.

 Sculptural art, inspired by a forest.

 Wall hangings using natural dyes, and appliqued plants of which dye used for each panel.

 A most beautiful cloak

 The texture on this woven wall hanging/floor covering (not sure I'd want to put it on the floor!) was just stunning.





This woven scarf was so fine, and so silky soft.  I loved the zig zag effect woven into the scarf.





 The beautiful exhibits,  were both inspiring, but also a little disheartening, thinking I could never produce such beautiful things and place them under the critical eye of the judges and the public.  But I certainly left in awe of the people who had created such things.

After the exhibit, was the rare breeds show.  There were stunning rams.

The cutest baby alpaca (cria)

 A Leicestershire Longwool.  Oh, how I felt for this sheep.  She had won her class, and was in the final for best in show.  I was admiring her stunning locks, but very relieved that she was going to be shorn the next day, as it was very hot!

 There were some amazing tudor buildings which we just about had time to have a quick look around.

 It was a fantastic day.  My first day out by myself without children or husband for about 8 years (I think), and I missed them all terribly, but I was able to indulge my love for all things woolly!  9 hours sat on a coach meant I was able to tackle some knitting that I would never have been able to do with the constant interruption from children.

 I simply couldn't resist this wonderful blend of merino, silk and black bamboo for £5/100g.  Ethan has already asked me to make him something to cuddle with it as it is so amazingly soft and squishy!

And my bent coat hanger of a niddy noddy is able to retire now, as I have treated myself to a proper wooden one, where I can do proper skeins.

I must admit to being very glad to be home though, as I really missed everyone, and what a surprise I had!  Stuart has been working so hard all day, and tackled many areas of the house that had been neglected.  Now I have to try not to undo all that hard work!!



Another catch up!!

 I'm getting very slack with my blogging of late.  But to be honest, not much has been going on, just the usual routine of school, food, sleep, school, food, sleep!  Oh and rain! 

We had Father's Day the other weekend, and one of the gifts for Stuart (besides beer and chocolate) was this handprint forest from the children.  Each tree trunk has the child's name by the side of it, and each child was supposed to put their hand in the paint, and make a handprint.  All going well, until we got to Sophie!  She refused point blank to co-operate, so we ended up drawing around her hand on a seperate piece of paper, painting it and cutting it out to stick on the canvas.    Well, it is a true representation of Sophie!  But can you imagine my despair, when she came home from pre-school that following week, having been hand and foot painting!  Argh!!!

I managed to finish off the commissioned bag for a friend.  I have named it the Hibiscus bag, and you can read more about it here.

 A blog post this week would not be accurate if it didn't talk about the rain!  We had the biggest thunder storm I have ever witnessed, with torrential rain, well torrential isn't really a big enough word to describe it, mad, crazy, ridiculous amounts of rain is more like it!  Living on a hill we don't tend to suffer from flooding, but we had a veritable river racing passed our house.  I'm not sure this picture shows it very well, but the water was flowing over ourr garden and through the flower bed.  Next door had things swept  up in the water and deposited around the corner of their house!  I know, given some of the pictures out there, this seems really mild, but it was certainly a talking point!!

 And this week, I got introduced, by Sharon, to "The Old Needle Works" which is a fantastic collection of vintage shops, craft shops and cafe.  There are courses run there, and it is just amazing!  There is a wool shop which is exactly how I have dreamed of having my wool shop, with workshops, fleece, and everything you ever need for all things woolly.  In the cafe, you pick your own cup and saucer from a collection of vintage cups and saucers on the dresser, and settlle down with some crafty mags at one of the tables with beautiful tablecloths on.  One of the vintage shops had teddy bears having a picnic around a fire, and I managed to pick up a glass jelly mould too! 

This bag is the result of my visit to the wool shop, I had decided I wanted to do some Nuno felting.  I had chosen the fabric I wanted to use, so picked up some merino fibres to match, and set too that evening!  They also had bags of dyed Wensleydale locks, which I just had to incorporate into the bag! 

We were supposed to have sports days and schools, but they have been postponed because of the weather.  Sophie has an introduction to her new class next week, and I might have to pop down to the allotment in between all the rain!  So that's about that for now! Hope you have been able to make something of this mad weather, and have a good week ahead.

A lovely little accident

 I decided I wanted to knit a cover for a notebook.  And as I like moss stitch so much, and was inspired by this cushion cover I made a start.  Unfortunately I hadn't accounted for the amount of give in the knitting, and I soon realised that my idea was not going to work, as the cover would end up too baggy.  However, I had this knitting that I was really falling in love with, and it would have been a real tragdy to have to rip it all back.  Then another idea came to me, and I carried on knitting.  Another of those projects that kind of grows organically, not knowing the final result until you have reached what feels like the end.  So, here we are, a little pouch style shoulder bag.  A little hippy in style with all that fringe.

I love how through weaving the ends in on the flap, it has given a slightly different texture to the underside of the flap.  And finished off with a little bead from my collection to fasten it with.

If I hadn't told myself I was making this to sell, I would have kept it, as I really do love it so.  It's also a great little project to use up those left over yarn scraps.

It is now for sale in my etsy shop.

Very Woolly Thursday

Ok, so it should be Woolly Wednesday, but I was rather busy yesterday! But despite the delay, this month has seen lots of woolly projects going on, especially with the weather being so awful! So here's my contribution to Spinspiration for this month.

Remember me wondering how to dye a green with woad and weld?  Well, I eventually gave up on trying to get my head around it, and as time was of the essence, I got the colour below with some...

...Kool-Aid!!  How anyone would ever actually drink this stuff is beyond me, it is just full of chemicals, but it does make a wonderful dye stuff, and I will save the woad and weld for some future projects.

     

 My first attempt at dyeing my own wool, it was rather nerve wracking putting my wool into this, and then heating it!  But it was also very intriguing!

It seemed like magic, when the time was up and the wool was dyed and the water was fairly clear.  I was amazed at how vivid the colour was, and all from a dubious drink!!

 

 So the leaves have been crocheted, and sewn onto the framework of wire and wool that I created.  Robin is sitting patiently on her eggs, and all I have to do is sew a few more leaves on, and I reckon a few crocheted flowers would look rather sweet too.

It's really difficult to get a good picture ofit all, as the angles are a bit strange.  But you can just see the eggs that mama bird is sitting on. Sophie is adamant that they are going to hatch into little birds.  It would be wonderful if my needle felting skills were up to creating a little baby robin, just so I could give Sophie the satisfaction of them hatching, but I really think that might be a step too far!!

 

 Other wooll-i-ness has been going on with my commissioned bag.  A friend saw the bag I made for the guild competition, and asked me to make her one.  This is as far as I have got, as the wool I had spun was spun much finer, and I've had to double up the yarn.  I am now waiting for the weather to give me a break long enough to wash some more zwartble/suffolk fleece that Dawn kindly sent me.  I reckon a nice bright pink floral lining would finish it off perfectly, along with a nice silver button for the closing, but I have yet to source those.

 In the meantime I am really rather chuffed with my stitch markers.  I've never had stitch markers, and as a result my knitting has possibly had extra stitches or rows in some places, and perhaps be missing some in other places.  So these are going to be put to good use.  A wonderful shop on Etsy supplied me with them.  I thought little Buddha's were perfect, as I do see knitting as a form of meditation and seeing the whole process from the farmer and the fields, to the sheep and the shearer, all the way through to the spinner and knitter. 

Off to see what other projects have been worked on by other Spinspiration members.  And for all you spinners out there, why not come and join us?

Flitting

 I haven't been able to settle to anything much this week, flitting from one project to another.  This is more than likely due to there being lots of projects needing to be done at a similar time (when is that never the case with me!)  So, there has been lots of crocheted leaves ready for my 6 inch ring I am doing for the Guild exhibition.  I have to get it done by the beginning of May, and there is still some more spinning to do too before that is finished. 

At Christmas time a friend saw the bag I made, and asked if I could make one for her.  After explaining that I had lots of things on, and if she didn't mind waiting I could do her one in the grey Zwartble I had, she agreed.  So I eventually turned my attentions to this this week, only to find I had spun the wool too fine to use for this project, so am doubling up the balls, and will have to spin some more wool to finish it.

 I haave also been dragged into the 21st century with, not only a mobile phone, but a smart phone that does all kinds of things as well as making phone calls!  So before I was happy to take it out anywhere I had to make a case for it to prevent the screen from getting scratched.  I was going to use some handspun wool on that too, but it seemed a little rough, and was again too fine!  So I raided the conservatory (where all the wool scraps are kept) and came across some self patterning "Crofter" by Sirdar.  So combined with a dark grey for the collar, my new phone cosy was created. 

As for reading, just a bit of Radical Homemakers before bed.  Still enjoying it, but not finding much time to settle down and read.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to in Ginny's Yarn Along

A distracted yarn along

It's Wednesday, that must mean it is yarn along time. 

Well, this week has definitely been one for bits and bobs, and getting easily distracted by other woolly projects!  I knitted up the billy goats gruff for another story bag order.  And am currently doing the parts of the troll, ready to assemble and await the arrival of the book from that big bookstore on line!  But my distractions have been to finish off spinning/plying some beautiful purple wool.  Just have to think what to do with it now!  And a little needle felted bunny rabbit, which is my first attempt at needle felting a three dimensional object, ready to send off for a birthday present!

In amidst all my distracted crafting I have started to read "Car Sick", a book I found at the library whilst searching for something completely different, I'm only one chapter in, but is already has me thinking about our car use, and how, when I get some wheels back, I will be far less ready to jump behind the wheel to do a short journey.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to, hopefully they have been sticking to the tasks at hand a little better than me!

Seven Days

Joining Jacqui aka "The Barefoot Crofter" with a review of the last seven days.  Because even when you think nothing special is happening, if you look closely enough you find it! 

After last week was very much an out of the house kind of week, this week has been more home based.  Monday whilst getting very cold walking back from the shops I stopped to put Sophie's gloves on her for the umpteenth time, and happened to stop outside a friend of my Mum's house.  She saw us and invited us in to warm up.  Sophie got to play with her grandson, and we had a lovely impromptu chat.  This happened again on Tuesday, calling in to a friend, just to check her daughter was ok, after seeing her daughter very distressed earlier, and another cup of coffee and a lovely chat.  It really made my week.

Other lovliness that has been happening...

...finishing off the bag for the three little pigs

...catching Sophie making shadow puppets whilst eating her lunch... 

 ...having the time (and ingredients) to be able to make Sophie's demand for chocolate cake a reality...

 ...whilst I was at Guild, Sophie had popcorn, I do hope she shared it!

 A big package of woolly goodness (if a little dirty) arriving in the post, with the promise of endless amounts of dyeing and spinning.  Thank you Dawn!

 And more little knitted animals, this time the Billy Goats Gruff. Awaiting the arrival of the troll, and a bag, so that they too can make their way to their new home.

Looking forward to the week ahead, which I think will  be a good mix of home and out and about. But I guess we will just have to wait and see what it brings.

Granny Stripe strife

 You know the Granny Stripe blanket I am working on?  Well, I hit a snag!  When I did the foundation chain I didn't think to measure it against the bed!!  So, 16 stripes in I thoughts Id better make sure it was ok, as it seemed a bit big.  Our bed is a king size bed, and just look how much I overestimated the length!!  So I am now faced with the idea of either starting again (which would be heartbreaking) or trying to salvage this one by cutting it, and retying the ends.  I am sure it won't be as easy as it sounds!  I was wondering of any of you more experienced crochet-ers (better than hookers!) could advise me the best way to do this

Some other stuff I've been up to this week is knitting a hat for Sophie for the winter. A rainbow hat, which actually ended up fitting me, but is nice and baggy on Sophie, which is how she likes things.  (Please excuse the state of her face, she had been refusing to wear it, and when Grandad threatened to wear the hat she plonked it on her head, so I quickly snapped a photo, before she changed her mind, if I'd had more time I would have cleaned her face!!)

 Can just about see the green and blue on the top of the hat.

Unfortunately there hasn't been much time for reading, too much produce to try and process from the allotment!!

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things and her lovely yarn along.