Coming over all Crochet

I've been looking at Attic24 as DD1 wants a blanket to take away to Uni with her. I showed her the options there and she chose the granny stripes one. Meanwhile, not much to show there yet as those are 'l.o.n.g.' rows, I have been crocheting a cushion cover with some stash yarn acquired from Ring-a-Rosie. A nice portable project which I took with me to DD2's swimming club tonight. An hours uninterrupted hooking! Yay! Loving this and the blanket too.

This yarn is a Sirdar discontinued yarn, Sublime Yarns Organic Merino Wool DK. Lovely squooshy yarn. This project is making me want to knit the 20 balls in my stash into something gorgeous to wear to work this winter.

But the sun is still shining now so I'm happy to press on with the crochet blanket and cushion. I think there may be many more to come :) One lovely fringe benefit of crochet is that whilst my mum taught me to knit she does not crochet and this craft is my link to my grandma who crochets but does not knit - perfectly balanced family heritage lol

Talking of the sun, today was a funny day at work in my LYS. Very warm, sweltering, and lots of people buying chunky yarns to knit big jumpers to keep them warm this winter! Either they are going somewhere very cold or this is very good forward planning! Remember how cold it was last year? Walking back from putting my car in the garage I realised the nights are starting to draw in :(

Still a little summer to go and I'll crochet faster if it helps keep the sun here for longer but those snowy days could be just around the corner and I have so many plans for projects I didn't even cast on last year. Let us not mention the ones I did cast on and not finish! I'll have a WiP effort in Ocrober I think. August/September is reserved for knitting handspun to coincide with La Vuelta (spanich Bike race) - I really didn't get much spinning done during the Tour de France, I was working on a secret project I'll tell you about asap, but I have plenty of handspun to work with.


Another lovely thing happened at work today - new seasons yarns have started to arrive, but I can't tell you about that yet either, shhhhh, it's a secret!

What a Wonderful Day at the Fair

How much fun can you have in a tent? Well, whilst I wouldn't recommend sleeping in one - you don't get much sleep - going to a fibre festival held in one (or two) is definitely a good idea :D




Setting up didn't take long, I've done this a few times now :D First time for DD1 and DS2 though, but they seem to have enjoyed themselves.Everything laid out on Friday night ready for the customers on Saturday morning - and here's a closer look at the things on offer.This was the first ever Fibre East but I am sure it wont be the last. We all enjoyed it and everyone else seemed to be having a good time too :D

I took 10 minutes on Sunday to have a look around and visited the 'Sheep to Sweater' tent where everyone was working hard. It took 6 minutes to carefully clip Sally the sheep so that there were no second cuts in the fleece, then it was over to the spinners. Once the first bobbins were full the knitting began and within 4 hours the child's size sweater was ready.
I don't think I'd like spinning in the grease, although the lanolin left after scouring a fleece does make your hands feel wonderful. This fleece was exceptionally clean and gorgeous looking. Sally has an ear tag so she can be found again for next year's full scale challenge.
One of the huge beneftis of heading south for a show is being able to have my teenagers with me. As I said this was their first show and now they know what it is that Mum does. They were great and having them there was a joy :)
DD1 even learnt how to spindle, and made a good job of it too, her preffered spindle was a Turkish mini - great work!

Another good thing about going to Bedford was visiting with my family, we're scattered around the country but for once we were all together (apart from my eldest) and it was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my Mum who has recently been diagnosed with dementia. Not an easy visit but a very worthwhile one and here's a picture I will treasure from our evening out together. My Mum and my little sister share a joke, ahhhhh!

Drive by Blogging

Just a quick drive by posting to give you a great link to a video on using Russian Spindles - I have some beauties to add to the shop tomorrow and here's how you use them :) Fleegle's Blog is a brilliant resource for those who like to knit lace and just lately I've been feeling the need to do just that. Whether I will have the time to do it is a different thing :)

I'm getting ready for Fibre East - here's a sneaky look at some of the Corriedale Tops I've been dyeing for the show