A week of sun and fun

 How wonderful to have had a week of sun, and even better that it should coincide with the first week of the summer holidays.  I've been able to get out in the garden, and just look at Sophie, holding a snail!  The little girl who was afraid of all things small and crawly.  She even converted some older girls (they turned up when Sophie was holding a worm in her hand, and their first reaction was to squeal.  But when they realised they were being shown up by a three year old, they too wanted to join in, and so began an hour long bug hunt, with Sophie declaring "let me show you about nature!"

One of the yearly traditions now is to make dens when I 've given the garden it's yearly trim.  So this years den incorporated the slide as structure!

 And there was a little pretend campfire too!  No, Alec is not trying to sit on the rhubarb, he's crouching by the fire!

 Then, after the novelty of the den wore off (the following day) the boys were complaining they were bored (along with next doors boys)  I gave them some wool, and scissors and said "see what you can make with that".  I had visions of them binding twigs together to make different things, but zipwires for action men seemed far more exciting, and it kept them entertained the whole day!

 And by the end of the day the garden looked like it had been attacked by a giant spider!  They were also using the wool to make an assault course!

 As for me, it would have been lovely if it had been all sat in the sun carding and spinning, in reality this picture was about 5 minutes worth of my week.  I have been doing some heavy duty gardening, some SERIOUS cleaning and tidying of the house (not before time too) and re-roofing the playhouse, as it was missing part of the felt since the winter, and this was the first dry opportunity to get it done!

Definitely taking things a bit easier today, and mightt fit in a bit more of the carding and spinning.

Excited about Jacob

So, I got the phone call to say that the fleece was all bagged up and ready for collection. Stuart very kindly picked it up for me on his way home from work.  I was curious.  What did 10kg of fleece look like?  I didn't have to wait long.  Look, this is what it looks like!  Filling the back of out large 7 seater car's boot! 

 Yesterday was wet, so it had to stay in the car. The first glimpse of blue skies today, and I was out trying to skirt the fleece. I laid it out to the best of my ability, but it was all tangled up. Anyhow, I set too, sorting the brown from the white, and removing the REALLY dirty bits and the second cuts.  Looks like there are two fleeces per big bag, and possibly one in the smaller feed bags.  That's alot of fleece.

 It is so gorgeous!  The white is so creamy, although I think it will wash to more of a white than cream.

 The brown is beautiful, such subtle changes of colour in it, I can't wait to experiment with it all, blending and spinning it.  It is virtually dripping in lanolin, and you can imagine my disappointment when another shower of rain hit us, and I had to quickly pack it all away!

I'm going to have to be a little more patient.  I have the weather to contend with to start with, plus I have to finish spinning the merino/alpaca yarn to free up the bobbins, and then I have to spin some more of the grey zwartble cross for a couple of commisioned iPad covers!  Patience will really be a virtue!

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?

Woolly Wednesday

 Another month already, wow!  Well, in January there have been various woolly projects on the go.  I managed to finish spinning the beautiful purple wool from Sarah.  And then plyed it.  It was such a delight to ply, seeing how the changing colours mingled with each other.  It is like a collection of purple gems. I have been known to just look at it and admire it!!  I don't know what to make with it yet, but I'm looking forward to see how it knits or crochets up. 

I have now moved back to the alpaca, but for the life of me cannot spin it thick.  I don't know if it is just my technique, or because the alpaca has little natural crimp it won't hold very well if I take too much.  So I think my plans for the chunky knit dress may have to be put on hold, either that or it will end up as a 10ply or something ridiculous like that!!

 I had a little play about with needle felting too.  Making my first three dimensional needle felting as a gift for my niece.  I am rather fond of this little bunny, even if he does have a bit of a crazed expression! 

And I am already making plans for this lovely Portland fleece from Dawn.  Just got to wait for the weather to improve a little. Some of it will be going towards my Guild ring for the National Exhibition after a bit of dying, spinning and knitting!  I've already made a start on one of the rings, but not much to show for it at the moment, hopefully by next month something will be taking shape.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is up to this month.

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!

Woolly Wednesday

 Back last spring I got this lovely surprise bundle of wool from Sarah.  She had hand dyed it and sent it to me, and I have been itching to start spinning it up, but there has always been some other projects with a deadline attached, so it has stayed on the shelf, until now.  I had spun a small amount of it prior to Christmas, but once all the guests were gone, one of the first things I did was set about on the wool!  It was so lovely getting reaquainted with my wheel, which had sat collecting dust in the corner for far too long for my liking! 

This is about half of it, nearly finished the other half, and am looking forward to plying it, and seeing how the subtle changes in the colours contrast with each other. I have no idea what I am going to make with it yet, but it has been an utter pleasure working with it. 

Other woolly goodness was a needle felting set for Christmas.  I made a heart garland as a wedding present for some friends who got married just after Christmas, and as usual, with these last minute presents I forgot to take a photo!  Great fun though, and initiated my nieces into needle felting too!!

Oh, and that bag I made for the competition.  Another friend has tentatively asked Stuart if I could make her one!  Not sure if she wants handspun wool, but I hope she is patient!!

Good to be back in the land of wool!  Happy New Year to you all.

Alpaca for my Mum

 My Mum is a knitter, so what better present for her birthday than a skein of homespun alpaca wool?  It was lovely that Ethan wanted to help, and he is getting rather good at carding, which is wonderful, as that is the part that I really don't particularly enjoy doing!

 So this last month I have been spinning, and spinning, trying to get as much done as I could in time for Mum's birthday this week.  It was a close call, and it had just about dried in time to give it to her!

It was lovely as the realisation hit her as to what it was.  The alapaca fleece from the farm shop, carded by Ethan, spun by me, and looks like it will be knitted into a scarf by my Mum.  If she ever needs anymore, she knows where to come!!

Happy Birthday Mum. xx

A good day!

 When the phone rings whilst you are still in bed, and the person on  the other end informs you that you have won a hamper in a raffle you entered (entered because it was in a wicker basket, and I had been hankering after one of those for a while!), you get a feeling it might just be a good day!

I went to the farm shop to pick up the basket (and a few more things!), it did look prettier than in the photo too, it just got opened for the goodies as soon as I got home!  Whilst I was there they had a stall where you just put in a donation and took whatever you fancied.  So I found a beautiful embroidered folder that will be home to my knitting and crocheting patterns, some fairy wings that have been secreted away, and some material I have had my eye on for a while too! 

 I also managed to fit in a bit of this...

 ...and this (apple butter, never made it before, and rather worried that it says it has to be eaten in 3 weeks!! Hmmm, if anyone local wants to try some, let me know!)

 Some family painting time...

 Added to the mix, a naked toddler running around most of the afternoon (everyone else secretly jealous they couldn't do the same, it was rather warm!), along with Alec and Ethan barely being seen all day, and if they did turn up it was either with neighbourhood children in tow, or they needed a drink or some food!  And Stuart being exceptionally brave and attempting to sort out the attic space so we can try to get straight upstairs, it really was very much like a sauna!

And then to top it off, sat in the conseratory this evening, I hear a roaring noise, and then voices from on high!  Before I could gather my thoughts Sophie (sat naked on the trampoline) points up and shouts "BALLOON"  Sure enough, the lowest I have ever seen a hot air balloon over houses, they were desperately trying to get it to rise, with the heat on virtually constantly!! Sophie was very upset she couldn't get to have a go in it!  The photo doesn't do it justice, it was further away by the time I got my act together and grabbed the camera!

All in all, a wonderful day, making the most of the unusual weather.  Still makes me smile when I am breaking into a sweat just being in the sun, whilst the warm breeze blows through the trees and the leaves all fall off!!

Bobbins and dyeing

 I have spent this last month trying to free up bobbins.  I have four bobbins, and am coming to the conclusion that this simply is not enough!  I had some zwartble on one bobbin, so needed to spin another to ply it with, which therefore needed another bobbin to ply it onto, but I really wanted to start spinning the alpaca as well!  So patience has had to be the order of the day, finish one job before I can start another.  Perhaps it's a good thing I only have four bobbins, otherwise I'd be tempted to start so many projects, and knowing me, never get to finish them!

So really out of curiosity I was wondering how many bobbins other people had. 

I also went along to a Guild day at a members house.  I could not stay for long as it was during the holidays, and I had two of the children with me.  They were doing all about dyeing, both natural and chemical.  It was definitely worthwhile going as it made me realise how little you actually need to do natural dyeing, as I had always had visions of needing piles of onion skins, for example, to get any colour. 

Hoping to get alot more spinning done in the next few weeks, so I have some alpaca to work with, and hopefully a skein to give to my Mum for either her birthday or Christmas.

Questions, questions, questions!

 I'll start with my successes!  I have finished spinning that gold coloured wool for the guild competition, even if I have changed my mind over the pattern I am going to use, as I don't think there will be enough yarn there.  Which leads me to my first question regarding this.  How do you work out if you have enough wool to cover a project?  How do you determine whether it is DK or Aran weight?  How do you determine yardage?  And finally, how the heck do you get it into those nice neat balls I see around?  I asked at the Guild about equipment, and whether ball-winders were a good buy, and the answer I got was basically they use a broom handle!  Fine, but how do you use a broom handle? 

Next project... Alpaca wool.  I have started to card the alpace fleece I have, and it is very rewarding, to create these bundles of barely discernable softness, but my goodness, it is time consuming!  I have some hand carders, and I am thinking it may take me all year just to card it all, let alone spin it and make something!

 Just look at all this I have to get through...

 ...and this!

So is there a technique to speed up this process, or do I just need to invest in a drum carder?  Answers on a postcard please! ;)

The Guild Competition

Do you remember this wool? I had earmarked it to make myself a cable bag, but then at last months Guild meeting they announced they were going to run a competition to make a bag which had to be using at least one of the processes within their name ie Spinning, Weaving or Dyeing.  I could have continued with my idea for a cable bag, but as the meeting was a show and tell meeting, I had taken this skein along, and lots of people seemed to comment that it would be good for felting.  So this then got me thinking, and after a bit of browsing on ravelry I have found a lovely pattern for a felted satchel.

I have a year to get this done.  It will be a great experiment, and steep learning curve I feel, seeing whether I have enough yarn etc!  I suppose the good thing with bags, is it really doesn't matter how big they are.  The competition will be a bit of fun for me, there is no way I could compete with the talented women there, some who have been spinning etc longer than I have been drawing breath!  I will post progress as and when it happens!

Keeping busy

 Keeping busy has been the order of the week, and to that effect, there are not many photos!  I have just finished my first attempt at a sock monkey, in readiness for a friends little boys birthday tomorrow.  And as ever, I now have orders for 3 more, for the boys in this family!!

A trip to the farm shop resulted in the usual hefty food bill, topped off with a whole alpaca fleece!!  I enquired the last time I was there, and in the meantime they have been shorn, and I am the lucky owner of this fluffiness, that is so soft you can barely touch it.  Unfortunately I've been too busy to get as far as processing it!

Much time has been spent down the allotment, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting.  At last, most of the seedlings are in the ground, and things are looking ok (as long as you ignore the big wild patch in the middle!!).  I am hoping that the day of rain we are experiencing today will go some way to repleneshing the water butts.  We are possibly facing a hosepipe ban, and whilst I don't use the tap water at the allotment, it is a useful back up if the waterbutts do run dry, but it would be a long trek with a watering can to the tap and back each time!! 

Sophie is in her element down there.  I am managing a good couple of hours now before she gets fed up, but of course it is made better with the distraction of strawberries and raspberries!!

I also have been tending our garden here, which is seriously neglected at the moment.  Trying  to introduce splashes of colour into the farm yard (sorry, I mean back garden!)

I have also come up with an idea for something to sell.  I am working on the prototype this next week, so will hopefully do a big reveal next weekend.

That's all for now.  Planning another busy week next week, but I will try to remember to take more photos!!

This week

 I've been meaning to blog all week, but just never really got around to it, so here's an amalgamation of all the different things I was going to post about!! 

Do you remember around this time last year, Luke suffered a real disappointment with his swimming, they didn't think kis swimming was up to scratch, and whilst trying to get his 2000m badge they asked him to stop? Well, he has been working hard, his teacher has been working on his style, and last Saturday (at a silly time of 9.15am (that doesnt usually exist at the weekends, well not in terms of being out the house!) Luke got into the pool and started the first of his 100 lengths.  An hour and a half later, he got out the pool with a beaming face, as he had achieved his goal. 

In the meantime, Alec was going for his 100m badge, but did not stop swimming!  In the end he ended up swimming 400m!!  And Ethan was attempting his 10m, and swam 20m!  So a very successful morning all round.  Well done lads!

Over the autumn we put up a bird box in some "dead space" at the back of the shed.  We had been wanting to put in a camera, as the tv was only the other side of the wall, but we didn't get around to it.  Wish we had now, as we have a family of blue tits in residence!  Can you see it sticking it's head out the bird box? This is the closest we can get, which I suppose is perfect for the birds, but I would love to be able to have a closer peek!

 I love this patch of the garden at the moment, so colourful, and it always brings a smile to my face.  I also love the fact that at other times of the year, the interesting areas are in different parts of the garden. 

 I was doing a bit more spinning the other evening, when Sophie wanted a turn.  I slipped the drive band off, so she wasn't pulling the wool through, but felt like she was spinning by pushing it with her hand.  I was impressed with her technique though, she's obviously been watching, as she was treadling, and holding the fleece and yarn correctly, she was also trying to get the yarn to feed through.  I guess soon enough she'll have to have her own bobbin to spin on to!

 And finally, we had so many downpours yesterday there was no hope in staying dry when picking the boys up from school.  No problem though, we embraced the wetness, and set off early for some puddle jumping.  By the time we were back home, we were truly sodden, but it didn't seem to put Sophie off doing a tad more puddle jumping!!

So there we are.  Random glimpses of the week.  I would have hoped to have shown you all the plants I have transplanted down the allotment, but the weather keeps putting pay to that at the moment.  Got so much to still get planted, but we'll get there, slowly but surely!!

Woolly Wednesday- Getting underway

My first knitted project with own spun wool!  It is spun merino tops that was the first attempt I made at spinning.  My technique was awful, but it did actually turn out to be a lovely single ply fancy wool to knit with.  There was only just enough to make this knitted coaster, which still needs to be felted.  But I will look forward to putting my drinks (very carefully) down on my first lot of spinning!!

My second lot of spinning was some lovely brown and white wool that came in a bag of waste wool from World of Wool.  I have no idea what it is, but it is lovely and soft!  Anyhow, whilst spinning this my spinning improved tremendously, and I became far more consistent, so I have another fancy wool, I plied two bobbins together, and I have some bits that are thick plied with thin, or thin plied with thin.  Will have to think what to do with it! Plying it raised a few questions for me.  What do you do when one bobbin runs out, and you still have some wool left on the other?  Is there any way of splitting the remaining wool between two bobbins, so you can ply the rest of it?  Or do you just have to keep it as single ply? 

Another thing that has become apparent, as I am loving spinning, but keep wondering what to do with all the yarn I am creating.  Do you spin with a project in mind?  Or just spin to process the fleece, and hope a project comes to you at some point! 

And just look what came in the post the other day!  A complete surprise from the wonderful Sarah.  She has been busy dyeing and thought I would appreciate some lovely wool to practice with.  Thank you, I will look forward to spinning this, and hope to do it justice!