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

Sock on a hill

Friday was a glorious day and we went to Simonside parking the car at Tosson Tower. Anyone wanting to expolore the area is spoilt for choice with some beautiful cottages available to rent as holiday bases.

Our walk takes us past an ancient hill fort for those who like to explore earth works :)

We're heading for Simonside itself - that's 1 1/4 miles straight up!

Worth the walk even though it was a little too hot for comfort. On this occasion rather than head for the top we rounded the main hill and headed for a cave where we stopped for lunch.

I stayed at the cave for some quiet knitting :) DH and DD2 headed off to see Selby's Cove. I'm outside the cave on the hillside behind Katy's hat as she examines the cotton grass :)

DD2 was impressed!
Her favourite things of the day were all the dead trees,

and the many creatures living inside them!

As the shadows lengthen it's time to head down again back into the trees.

Of course there were many sheep with lambs and many rabbits too :)

Heading homeward and leaving the views behind.

Through the kissing gate.

Back to the tower

and finally the journey home, tired and happy.

And then there was knitting

Often my spinning produces yarn that goes happily into my yarn stash but gets no further. I have however, decided to turn over a new leaf so I knit those singles (see previous post) straight away and made a Revontuli shawl. This pattern has been in my queue on Ravelry for ages but I never seemed to have the 'right' yarn, the Shetland singles were just right!

I'm very pleased with how this one turned out so I imagine there will be more. Happy with how the singles knit up and spurred on to try more I thought I'd get some preparation in for the Tour de Fleece spinning to come next month. For the duration of the Tour de France bike race we'll be spinning every day and I've decided to try art yarns so I made some thick and thin singles in Finn dyed in Acadia colourway by Amy at Spunky Eclectic.


If you'd like to join the Spinning a Yarn, Tour de Fleece Team and spin with us then post over on the Ravelry group - the more the merrier :)

Finally some spinning.

Shetland singles spun on my newest wheel a Pipy Poly I really like this wheel's low ratios and hope to start spinning some 'art yarns' as soon as I have time to experiment :) Meanwhile I am knitting this yarn into a Revontuli I got around 520yds from 100gm and the fibre is from Wildcraft Fibre Club :)

Keeping a blog in two places is not always easy :(

There are a few posts you may have missed if you only read this blog here so may I gently suggest you pop over to my shop blog until I get time to add those posts here, thank you :)

Catching up on our goings out.

Last weekend was the Birtley Model Railway Show. One of the good things about having a DH with an obsession, er, I mean interest, of his own is that he can't criticise mine! Well he can and he does, but he hasn't a leg to stand on!

Another good thing about it is that it chimes nicely with a past interest of my own, Dolls Houses. These models are in another league from anything I ever made and I really enjoy looking at the exquisite detail in some of these exhibits.

Essential equipment is 'the step'.

These events are always attended by the nicest people, the same people often that you meet at preserved railways. Good people.

It just wouldn't be the same if she couldn't drive some engines too.
This Thomas the Tank layout is always popular.

On the way home from Birtley we pass The Angel Of The North and as we've never stopped to have a proper look we did so this time.
The size is really something you need to stand up next to to believe.

So she did and it was!

Luckily it was nice and sunny.

There were also some rather good clouds.

This fabulous blanket arrived on Saturday morning just before I left for work. The wonderful Posh Yarn Ravelry group members made it for me! I am overwhelmed and much as it is beautiful to look at it is so much more gorgeous to feel. All that loveliness... for me?!? Amazing. I shall treasure it forever and 'thank you' is not big enough to begin to express my gratitude.

Today the sun shone again. Maybe it's the spring equinox or maybe it's the love of the Posh Posse, whichever it is the gloom is lifting and we're heading in to spring. Hurrah!
We went to Tynemouth and built a sandcastle.

It was good, and the day was warm enough (until the sun went down) not to be bundled up too much. Looking forward to the year ahead now.

There's a fibre update next Saturday 26th March at 8.30pm GMT. There'll be a preview before then so you can see what will be included. Meanwhile, I'm starting the sleeves on my Fair Isle jumper as the body is done up to the yoke shaping.

Happy knitting and spinning, enjoy your sunshine whenever and wherever it comes and be kind to each other there really isn't much else. :)