2022 Craftyness: update, stash, plans

 I've finally managed to sit down and think about fibre plans for 2022. I've not set any real goals although an American spinner has invited me to join the 365 spin challenge which is to spin 10 min a day. As the challenge started at the beginning of the year I'm about 3 hours behind haha. I may  join in , not sure yet but maybe 10 min a day on a drop spindle would be interesting ? easily portable, always ready and I have a rather nice fine Shetland fleece that would be perfect for this apart from the fact that it needs washing.

This fleece was gifted to me by a close friend and a note in the box revealed that it is from the Derwent flock so fingers crossed that it washes up well.

I'm thinking maybe 10 min a day on my lightest spindle, what do you think ?

Now on to knitting, since the beginning of the year I've knitted a couple of headbands and a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves.

The top pair of mitts are the same length, just need blocking as they curled inwards slightly, These are now in my coffee shop bag. When the bag is full I find a coffee shop and sit weaving the ends in whilst I watch the world go by.

My scraps stash is still a little on the large side and my full skein stash ( ones less than 100gm, have a knot in them or are finer spun than usual) is healthy but I think I need to dye some as its mostly white yarn.

Going forward, more hats, mitts over winter then spin up a couple of fleeces for a friend.

I have actually snatched a few mins to process fibre over the last couple of weeks so this bag is waiting for me to get one of the spinning wheels out.

Cross stitch, yep still stitching although I do seem to have mislaid a project. Hopefully I will find it later today as I sort out the workroom.

First, the big red thing. I have put in a few more stitches and hope to finish it sometime this year. I've popped a six inch ruler in the photo to give some idea of the scale of this project.

The Quaker sampler is coming along slowly, again a ruler to show the difference in scale.

This is really more colourful in real life and on white aida, the camera makes it look a little dull.

This is a quick project that I took to the coast with us, its about 75% complete and will be finished into a small pillow to go with two that I stitched last year. All by Sub Rosa and offered for free on the blog.

The missing project hasn't resurfaced yet, it may be in the van or just hiding well in the workroom !

Anyway, that's it for today, speak soon  xx

We were starting to miss the sea !

 We have just returned from a long weekend back on the East Yorkshire coast. This time we left the van at home and booked into the Premier Inn on the seafront at Bridlington as we needed to have the car ( and the room was cheap )

The weather was mixed, dull and wet on the way there, cold and clear later that night.

Later, well wrapped up , we had a walk down to the town, round the harbour and back before settling down in front of the TV for the night. TV in a hotel room is a treat for us as we don't have one at home but as usual I was surprised about how few watchable programmers were on so many different channels.

                                                               light projection on sea front

Sunday dawned, clear sky, minus temperatures so we decided on a quick trip up the coast to Scarborough.

Looking at the amount of sand on the road at Scarborough I suspect its ether been a bit stormy or very high tide recently.

The day slowly warmed up as we wandered round taking in the sights as either of us had been here for many years.

The beach was busy with day tripper and dog walkers, the amusement arcades noisy and it was too cold for ice creams. We decided to leave walking up to the castle for another day and we quite content ambling around, popping in and out of the shops.

This street amused us, not only for its history but also the different door knockers !

We had a couple of appointments to keep in Bridlington on Monday so we just had a lazy day after that, grabbed a coffee at the Spa cafe,  caught up with a bit of knitting and stitching and sleep.

Tueasday was dull, cold so before leaving the hotel for home we headed down to the Harbour cafe for breakfast.

there were four Cobles moored up in the harbour, We had seen one of them in sail last time we were here.

There is always something to catch the eye whilst walking around from tidal springs ...

to a big conection with wool......

and cats, is there a connection with cats? or just coincidence.

That's it for now, I'll be back very soon with a crafty update.

Speak soon x

Quick crafty update

 Hi

Just a quick craft update before the New Year arrives, the craft destash finally amounted to 7 carrier bags full which will be donated to a playgroup/afterschool club.

I finished the hat which I was knitting whilst away in the van, using my most recently spun yarn. My mannequin head is a bit small especially as she doesn't have any hair and this is really a mans hat.

A couple of months ago I purchased some 20 count gridded Aida (20stitches to the inch) as I had never used it before and was a little curious about it.

I wasn't too sure about it but the instructions said that wash at 60 degrees and the lines disappear, so I did just that.

Please excuse the bad lighting, the lines did disappear and the fabric became a lot whiter and denser. I'm now stitching a small design just to experiment with plus I'm feeling like I need to stitch in something other than black or red for a while. Each square is 10 stitches so 1/2 inch.

As for new year plans ? I've not really got many, just trying to spin down as much of my fleece stash as possible. Obviously we will try and get away as often as work allows and continue to destash the house.

Do you have any plans for 2022?

speak soon xx

Cold, wet and windy !

 That just about sums up our short break, super windy Christmas Eve with gusts in excess of 30mph made sleeping interesting with the van rocking slightly. Nowhere near as bad as the storm on the Outer Hebrides a few years ago when we had to keep moving the van because of the wind hitting with so much force that it felt like it would tip !!

Breakfast as usual, no pressies to open etc due to not celebrating but a wonderful chance to take our time and actually have chance to chat without other things pressing on our time. This has been one of the biggest bonus's of  getting away so often, simply giving ourselves the time to chill.

Beds made, pots washed and we had a stroll into Cromer. Like an idiot, I just picked up my camera without bothering to check the settings so by the time I noticed, I only had a few reasonable shots. Our original plan was to head back down town on Boxing day and  challenge ourselves as to who could find the most interesting subject to capture but I think the weather may stop us.

camera on wrong setting

Slightly better.

We spent the evening watching warehouse 13 which is currently our van dvd  binge set.

Boxing day dawned, wet , breezy and decidedly cold so we were reluctant to put a foot or even an arm out of our sleeping bags but eventually someone was brave enough to venture out of the warmth to put the heating on,

My current position as I have 4g on my phone for the first time since we got here and I'm making the most of it to catch up on vlogs etc, still raining outside but I have some knitting to get on with.

Later

We decided to brave the drizzle but postponed the photo challenge until next time. we played the penny falls in the arcade and I won three keyrings one of which I gave to a small boy who had been watching me all the time I was pushing the 2pz in ( his mum spotted me and said thanks )

We were surprised to see how many places were open and judging by the crowds heading to the pier I guess that there was a show on in the theatre ( I checked later and it looks like the Pier Christmas show was on )

Cromer also currently has a selection of pictures of classic artworks scattered around the own, we spotted maybe four of them before the weather defeated us.

The record fair seemed a sensible place to shelter from the rain at a cost of 2 dvds and a box set. We headed back to the sea front and slowly back to the campsite, didn't spot any of the famous Cromer goats so I guess that they we tucked up somewhere nice and warm for the winter,

The day was rounded off with a pint ( coffee for me) in the campsite bar watching Nottingham Forest being beaten by Middlesbrough ( I sat with my knitting)

In spite of the weather we had a good few days, the water leak has not reappeared, the new batteries work a treat so its just the floor springs that need sorting now,

I now have a week of fibre prep planned after sorting through the gear from the weekend. I left the fridge/freezer to defrost whilst we were away as it had bee freezing up so its fingered crossed that it does the job,

speak soon xx