fair exchange? and charity bargains again

 Hi,

 Firstly, my Scottish charity shop haul.

The fabric all came from the same shop on sky and will be so useful especially as I hope to volunteer again to work with young people doing crafts once things settle down again. The two books came from a shop in Moffat. I have now made a spreadsheet for all my fabrics to save me having to rummage through each time to check sizes.

I also had a call from a friend who wanted to know if I would like her grandmothers tapestry bits and pieces and I agreed on the condition that she exchanged them for my mothers card making equipment and papers ( my friend also makes cards )

In spite of being told that there was a box of threads, I was quite unprepared for what appeared on my doorstep !!

and a bag of threads, possibly enough to do most of these pictures ! These pictures are huge and there are a few yards on the bigger roll of canvas.

To be honest, I may make some of these up into kits and pass them on.

Anyway, I'm off back to my knitting as I've had a request for hats and gloves, hats I have been able to supply but I need to knit a few pairs of gloves in the next few days x

fresh off the sheep

 Hi

(Wednesday)

I had noticed whilst browsing Facebook that our local inner city farm ( stonebridgecityfarm.com) was having a shearing day today. They only have half a dozen or so sheep so its a primarily a demo for the children.

Since I am now a lady of leisure 😀 I hoped on a bus, did a couple of small errands and headed up to the farm. It was easy to find the shearing, just follow the sound of the sheep!

As I reached the pen they had just finished shearing the first sheep, a nice Jacob with a lovely big fleece. Good length locks, no felting and although there was some straw in the fleece I couldn't see any grass seeds.

I stopped to watch the next shearing and got chatting to the shearer who turned out to also be a spinner. Unsurprisingly I had a drop spindle and spun samples in my bag, one of which was a skein of Jacob which I passed to her so she had something to demonstrate as a possible end product.

Now, remember that first fleece? somehow it jumped into my rucksack and came home with me 😁😁😁

 We have exchanged email adds etc and may hook up next year to do a shear and spin demo.

The fleece is now in 6 mesh bags ready to wash tomorrow and two black bin-liners to be sorted at the weekend.

Thursday,

Not even 8am and 4 bags of fleece on the line, another two in hot soapy water. Hopefully the fleece will get dry today and I will be able to prep tomorrow, not sure whether to comb or card. I love combed fleece but it does take some time to prep and the wastage can be quite high.

Friday

Nearly 100gm ready to spin, still have a full pillow case and will wash some more next week.

I think that I may be gaining a reputation for weirdness, I decided that the best use of my time during a zoom meeting last night was to comb some fibre. This caused some interest from some of the archeology fans haha.

Have a great day xx

Tour de Fleece 2021

 Hi

Just a quick update to say that I am taking part in Tour de fleece 2021 ( start date 26 June ), I have joined in pretty much every year for the last 10 or so challenges.

This year I'm keeping it simple again, spin everyday, spin down the stash and restock the yarn stash.

The next couple of weeks will see me up to my neck in bits of fleece whilst I try and prep a kilo or so ready to spin. 

BTW, on 26 May I posted about how cold it was here, today the expected temp is 26c so its been a quick hunt for summer clothes :-)

Catching up with more friends

Day 3

Monday found us camped up at Edinbane on a camping and caravan site by the side of Loch Greshornish, we have used this site before mainly because its next door to Island at the Edge  owned by the lovely Yasmin and Trevor.

The croft offers everything woolly ,croft tours, knitted items, yarn from their own sheep (black cheviot and Hebridean), hand spun yarn and other sheepy related products.

A croft tour was in progress and , as Trevor also had a job to do, I found myself looking after the shop whilst Ian went for a ride round on his bike. As visitors are still a rare commodity ( restrictions on international travelers etc ) I spent some of the time spinning on Yasmins wheel.

I may have acquired a couple of fleeces, Ian found space beside the spare wheel for them !

More to come ( if you are interested ) x

Crafty interlude

 We have been back for four days ( more Scotland photos in next post) and so far it feels like winter !! I've even got my thick leggings on.

I've made good progress on the hat, just started the decreases and realized that it nearly matches my new skirt.

I've spun 120gm of random fleece ( From isle of Skye 2019, breed unknown even by the crofter ! )

I had a couple of fleeces delivered to the campsite this year, I hope to photo at the weekend as I've not had chance to look at them yet.

The Island charity shops did us proud again, Ian acquired quite a pile of cds as well.

Monday was spent organizing my cross stitch stash and listing all the fabric that I've been fortunate to pick up recently. I also listed all the kits I have waiting to be done..... I suspect that some will still be around in 10 years time especially as some are already 25 years old.

I spun some cheviot whilst away, windy but glorious view from the wheel.

and even got to add a few stitches to the big red stitch

My next project is to comb the bag of Jacob sat next to my desk ready for the start of this years Tour de Fleece, it looks like I will be camping for 2 out of the 3 weeks covered by this years dates so I'm hoping that the weather seriously improves.

That's about it craftwise for now, speak soon xx

Over the sea ( bridge) to Skye

 Day two.

Fortunately the rain stopped sometime over night and we set off the next morning in the dry, the sun was trying to break through the clouds and the loch was still.

We headed out towards Fort William to stock up on food ( for two days, very small fridge but no nearby shops at the next campsite ) and onwards towards Skye.

Passed a few curious locals on the way.

After an hour or two we spotted the bridge. We have made this journey many times over the last 30 years and remember queuing for the ferry and seeing the bridge being built.

We stopped off to visit with friends before heading to the campsite , once again we were reminded how much we love this island.

Then this happened....

Weird request today from a long haired, bearded biker. Would I be able to spin the bit of fleece that he found on a bush for him. I did (only a foot or so, mixed in a little Cheviot that I was working on ) and was paid with a duck egg and a pin badge off his leather jacket !!strangest exchange so far.

Yep, I was sat spinning and found myself the proud owner of a duck egg and a badge. !!

As sunset is currently at 9.45, we just managed to stay awake to see if we would get an interesting display over the loch.

We weren't too disappointed.😀😀😀😀

back on the road again :-)

 

First road trip of the year !! our last trip out was October  2020 to Cromer on the east coast. This time we have headed north and are currently parked up on a campsite in Scotland on our way up to visit friends on Skye.

The journey here was uneventful, just under 400 miles, the last 50 mile or so taking us up to and through Glen Coe where the mountains still had the last of the winter snow on them.

We are by the side of Loch Leven, clean and tidy campsite, £29 per night so more than we would sometimes pay but the location is worth it.. We managed to have a stroll down to the local garage where we bought ice-creams and passed the time of day with the lovely lady working there. We were chatting for so long that she actually replace our uneaten ice creams ( masked up in the shop, magnum ice creams purchased) with fresh ones as she was worried that they had melted ! It really wasn't hot enough but lovely gesture.

The local craft shop was closed but we admired the weather vane.

I had hoped to get the spinning wheel out but the weather was against me so I’m going to curl up with my cross stitch for an hour before dinner.

More photos to follow in the next few posts x

what to pack?

Hi,

I don't know about you but I like to keep busy on long journeys so, in spite of my knitting mojo being at a very low ebb , I have dyed some yarn to knit a hat. This is mainly yarn from a hat that I frogged due to it being far to large and a single mitt together with the corresponding balls left over. I will have a few knots to contend with but no big problem. 

It's worsted weight, mixed British breed fleece ( basically oddments of everything carded into a large batt) and I've knit the first inch of rib to make it easier. Basic pattern, 4 inch rib, 4-5 inch knit then reduce. This time the rib is k1p1 but I do vary this from hat to hat. If I finish this one then I have a spare ball for another one.

After shopping today I had a scout round the charity shops, hoping to find some jeans but sadly out of luck. However I did pick up a couple of craft packs.

The first pack was three small cross stitch kits and almost a square yard of 14 count aida (30x36 inch) Cost £1.99

Another piece of aida, same size, a small kit, a good yard or so of hearts fabric and some Christmas quilting fabric. Cost £2.49

All now squirrelled away for future use as I should have some fabric dyes somewhere around and will have a play with them.

A little progress on the small sampler, I now have pumpkins on it.

That's about it for now, knitting and stitching packed along with warm waterproof clothes.

Speak soon x

bobbin along

 Hi

Its been a quiet week, cold and wet most days so I've been slowly sorting through things and starting to pack for the next road trip, our first since last October.

I did get chance to finish dyeing my yarns and label them all up. Ended up with a nice selection which will find their way to a new home next week.

A spur of the moment purchase for £5 brought these beauties to my door, two still need beads but they will all be added to my collection.

I've had the chance to stitch a little more on my monochrome embroidery.

I'm looking forward to seeing friends again, hopefully later in the year we will be able to stay with friends in Cornwall and before then we hope to catch up with others who live in Scotland. The UK is beginning to feel like its opening up a bit more, more people out and about although I still can't go and sit inside a coffee shop and its too cold to sit outside ! However, more restrictions will be lifted next week.

That's about it for now, speak soon x