They've painted the town red............and blue and green

 Hi

I had to go into town at the beginning of the week for as eye test, yep new glasses are needed. On the way down I noticed that the paint pots have been out down Bridlesmith gate.

I'm guessing that they are trying to rejuvenate the area now that the shopping centre has been demolished, I hope that it comes back to life and the opportunity will be there to sit and have a coffee.

Other than that, I've been knitting a hat, mits and spun some ShetlandxDorset.

and I am still up to date with the cross stitch weekly patterns

Thats about it for this week, hopefully some coastal photos next week xx

some woolly goodness but a lot of coughing.

 Hi

We are slowly recovering, Ian has returned to work but is exhausted when he gets home, and I've found that my cold has just left me feeling blaaah during the daytime.

However, I did left the house and visited my favourite cafe on Tuesday to meet up with some other knitters to put the world to rights.

Knitting this week has been headbands, three of them in assorted hand spun yarn. The dark brown is wensleydale / zwarbles and I love the feel of it.

I finished the Shetland / Dorset and a small skein of unknown white.

A pressing problem is the mounting number of small balls of yarn left over from projects. The larger ones will make mitts but the smaller ones need a project.

If you ignore the embroidery cotton, there sre almost 2 kilos of yarn here, I'm thinking maybe small squares for a lap blanket? maybe 8 inch and 4 inch depending on how much yarn is in the ball. I've had a play and may sort the yarn out later today into mitt knitting amounts or smaller.

I'm now on week six of the stitch along and I've even started square number 6 which is unusual as I normally don't touch it until Friday.

We cancelled our trip to Yorkshire for new motorcycle boots and instead had a couple of hours wandering round a local town.

If anyone has any other ideas for the very small amount of yarn, please let me know xx

Speak soon.

I'm back but not firing on all cylinders

 Hi,

I'm back, survived the heavy cold, survived living with a covid suffer (just) and currently still feeling a little under the weather and moody.

I eventually picked up the knitting needles and added a hat and mitts to the pile of knitting. Does anyone else save up their sewing in of ends until they have a bag full? I do this and then take them to the coffee shop and spend a morning chatting, exchanging gossip and finishing items off.

My plan is to do this tomorrow as we have a couple of nice days forecast so I can get things washed and blocked.

I've been washing my spinning as I go, and I am slowly building up stock to knit with over winter. I have plenty of washed fleece to process still so it looks like I will be busy. White skeins may be dyed at a late date, I'm leaving my options open at the moment.

(these skeins are colour coded with waste yarn, so I know what they are)

Confession about the two stitch alongs, the cross stich one is up to date, I'm just about to start week five which is the current week.

The blackwork one needs some love or putting on the back burner, I've yet to decide which.

Having cancelled my last two trips (fibre festival and return to the framework knitters) we are taking a day trip to Yorkshire soon to sort out some new bike boots and hopefully a weekend away sometime next month.

Thats about it for now as life is just a bit quiet but we are starting to plan a couple of road trips for next year so it will get more interesting x

Speak soon xx

Quick update

 Hi, normal service will resume shortly but I've been ill with a bad cold for the last week and missed the Bakewell Wool Gathering ( not covid, tested negative) and Ian went away to a bike rally rally the same weekend and has today tested positive. 

Totally a plague house at the moment, little knitting has taken place along with some stitching but to be honest I just haven't had the energy to do much.

I leave you with week 3 of the tiles SAL almost complete, week 4 dropped earlier today so that may be todays project.

Speak soon xx

Autumn is here

 The leaves are changing colour and its definitely getting cooler. The heating is not yet on but we have switched from salads for most meals to cooked meals and the kettle is definitely getting more use.

I finally finished the holiday washing, all bedding and towels etc repacked ready for the next trip out.

Evenings have been spent knitting and spinning so most of the holiday fibres have now been plyed and washed ready for labelling and a further 200gm or so prepped and spun.

 The wensleydale x zwartbles is interesting, quite a few short cuts unfortunately and the sun bleach tips break off easily, so care is taken whilst combing. A lot of waste but this is mainly down to me being quite particular about what I like as a spinning fibre. These two are ready for a wash and soak once I've finished my coffee.

The grey hat is finished, washed and will be on its way to a new home soon. Another hat is on the needles and sat by the armchair ready for a few more stitches later tonight.

sorry, not a brilliant photo

On the cross-stitch front, I have completed the first week on both SAL and will start the second squares later today.

Thats really been about it for this week, take care, speak soonx

back to the craft(yness)

Hi

Welcome back to the workroom for a quick crafty update 😀

Firstly some knitting. As you may expect, I took some knitting on our recent trip, especially for the long drive up which enabled me to get a good start on the first hat.

As usual, hand spun, hand-dyed and unfortunately I do not have a photo of the finished item as the hat stayed on the Isle of Skye.

On the journey back and over the last week I carried on with the knitting bug and now have items in my 'to be finished and washed' bag.

Yes, one of these patterns is now well and truly embedded in my memory, no more looking at the chart.

Currently I have another hat on the needles, managing a row or six between chores.

Whilst on Skye, I was gifted a knitting belt to help with my wrist problems and a trip round the charity shops in Callender supplied me with a variety of different length dps to practise with.

The spinning wheel also travelled with me but unfortunately, I only took two bobbins instead of the usual three, so I had to wind singles into balls to ply once home. I also found that the foot pedal was no long working so I now have a replacement which makes life much easier.

The Jacob was ready to ply.

One bobbin of Aberville was spun so I spun another one earlier today.

I was then left with a ball of Texel and the bobbin of Lleyn that I spun whilst minding the shop in the middle of the holiday ( Its always nice to spin on something different, in this case an Ashford Joy) is still sat on the wheel in the shop. I suspect that it will be plyed and used for something.

A small bag of fleece arrived during the week, extremely well picked and skirted and now washed awaiting combing. Another bag has just arrived as I'm typing so will be investigated tomorrow.

I've fallen back down the rabbit hole again after checking Facebook and learning about tow SAL (stitch a long) starting this weekend. One blackwork and one cross stitch, both running for 36 weeks.

I've kitted them up using mainly thread and material from my stash.

Back north of the border

 Hi

First I must say sorry for not posting in the last four weeks, I was busy packing before our trip and seem to have been washing and knitting eversince we got back. More about the knit and spin side of things in the next post ( promise !! )

So we went back up to Scotland on a sort of mini tour. 9 campsites in 15 days but not a huge number of photo as we have visited some of these places before as well as simply enjoying being away..

We started just a walk away from the Falkirk wheel, basic campsite but with the added bonus of the chance to have a cart ride through the forest accompanied by a young pup.

We then walked across the fields and down to the canal, through the tunnel and out along the top of the wheel mechanism. 

This you-tube video explains how it works, my camera battery had died at this point..

.We had coffee in the visitor centre and then retraced our steps back through the tunnel to the site.

the next stop was Pitlochry (nice bridge)

Followed by a campsite near Aviemore where the heavens opened and we spent most of the time watching old war films. But there were red squirrels and lots of birds.

I also spotted that I wasn't the only spinner on site although we didn't get to meet.

Rose Markie on the Black Isle has long been a favourite place to stop off whether on bike, in car or in the van. There is a friendly community cafe at the end of the beach and plenty for Ian to wander off and explore. Temporary membership at the golf club ensured a couple of evenings in the pleasant company of the friendly bar manager.

We had some rain but all was forgiven after sighting the Rainbow hugging the coastline.

Next stop was a bit like going home for us, we have spent quite a bit of time on Skye so we took the opportunity to visit friends made over the years. Two campsites this time, Portree and Edinbane.

Confession, by the time we left Skye, two Hebridean fleeces were neatly packed the shower, more about that in a later post.

Bunree campsite near Fort William gave us some traditional views of Scotland.

We stayed over at another couple of campsites on the way back (Callender and Penrith) but no more photos. This may feel like a whistle stop tour but many of the site were only an hours drive from each other and we spent a lot of time walking, relaxing and generally recharging our batteries,

We hope to be back up in the area early next year, hopefully for an extended stay.

Next post will be the usual crafty nonsense :-)

Take care xx