a little fibre content

Hi, I hope you all had a good, festive holiday and don't have to to back to work too soon.
Some of you may know that we don't really do the Christmas thing in our house but that doesn't stop us from having the occasional presents and sometimes we will treat ourselves. In the past this has included gifts to each other of earplugs ( to wear under crash helmets) thermal clothing ( again for motorcycling) and this year....shares in a fridge freezer. Yes, the old one stopped working just before Christmas so we welcomed the snow and freezing temperatures so we could keep the milk etc fresh.
We now have a brand spanking new fridge freezer..........and the washing machine is playing up and Ian's computer is on the blink. In fact, if you read Biker Ted Diaries there will be a bit of a lull in posts until everything is up and running again.

Anyway, the scarf is finished athough the colours totally confused my camera so a photo of the finished article will have to be in your imagination :-)

I received a lovely parcel from Bettina of Woolly Bits, containing my first ever stitch markers, some lovely bits to add to my embroidery and some teeswater tops for spinning.



A secret Santa at the Spinners, dyers, weavers meeting gave me a needle felting kit.



And I gave myself a book.


Hot off the drop spindle, a mini skein of merino and 'silk' machine embroidery thread.



Many thanks for dropping by, I now need to do some housework :-(

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings from a chilly Nottingham to all of you, thank you for all your support and encouragement in 2009.

playing soldiers

Whilst we were camping in Cornwall the other week, we learnt a couple of new games:-

Save the Jelly Babies...drown a jelly baby in your pint then save it with a straw



Stupid things to do with balloons.



Soldiers...........everyone has a toy soldier either green or brown



On the first whistle assume the same position as your toy soldier.



On two whistle blasts rally your troops, fortunately for me the green troops rallied at the bar!

Santa wasn't quite sure what to make of all this :-)



However all our mess was cleared up before the cleaners arrived thanks to Phyl and the team who mucked in inspite of hangovers.



By the way, it's a little cold and frosty camping in Cornwall in December!

Dodgems and Switchbacks

Just over a week ago we were back in Cornwall for a camping weekend with friends. Now we have made this trip at least once a year for the last 12 years and each time we pass the usual landmarks, variable speed limits on the motorway near Birmingham, the willow man which is the largest willow sculpture in the UK, camels (Humphrey and Boo)by the side of the road on the M5 ( just keep your eyes open and you will see them stood in the corner watching the traffic with a big grin on their faces) and a large brown tourist sign for Dingles Steam Village near Launceston. This time we set out to track down the attraction and this is what we found.






We were the only visitors there and got to play on the slot machines and the pinball, clamber round the rides and enjoy the company of the volunteers working there. If you like fairgrounds and are ever in that part of the country then pay them a visit. They are preserving the fairground heritage for future generations and long may they continue to do so.

just checking in

I know I've been quiet this week but work has been a bit hectic and we also had a domestic disaster so I've only just got round to sorting out some photos from last weekend.
So....here is a quick piccie to make you smile and keep things going until I get more time.



who could resist the hall of mirrors?

all things bright and colourful (knitted)

and a bit more dyeing and spinning







Have a great weekend and thanks for you comments and jokes about the Durex Knitting needles :-)

acid dye experiment spun up

just need to wash, dry then knit.

Did they really make knitting needles?

I was merrily practising my knitting (trying out drop stitch scarf pattern) when I noticed the name on the knitting needles.




Is it just me who find this, er, unusual?

Acid dyeing with steam

Hi, I can't take any credit for this method as I followed instructions from the following links.
I must say though, if you use a steamer do keep an eye on the water level as excess water in the fleece will drip down and may cause it to overflow and do not use the steamer for any food preparation.

Video instruction

useful sites jaynee.co.uk

I hope you found these as useful as I did.

We spent this morning being jostled by large crowds at Lincoln Christmas Market, far too many people ignored the one way walk round directions and we gave up once we had bought the three presents that were on our list and retired to the local bike shop for a cup of hot chocolate!!

all things bright and colourful

Many thanks for all your barefoot comments:-)

heres a quick round up of my experiment on Sunday

Take this



Add this (not used for food)



Add some colour



And get this!!