Spinning

I think I may have mastered the e-spinner and the one foot technique on my manual wheel, just need to master walking a bit more :-)

I've just carefully reskeined, measured and labelled this lot, still lots more to spin but this reduced the fleece stash slightly!

back to the fluffy stuff

Hi
Today it's back to a fibre update. I've been sitting on my hands recently to prevent me buying more fleece, I keep telling myself that there will be plenty at the fibre shows later in the year but it's so, so difficult to resist the temptation. My credit card has been in use recently as I seem to be back in a book buying phase, just trying to see what traditions other countries have and some history of knitting etc.
I must admit to having a growing desire to knit Shetland lace or even Orenburg but I can't see me having the patience to spin all the yarn needed.

Anyway, spinning update !! Here we have 2 x Bond (colour should be a little more red) Ryland, Jacob, Ryland/zwarbles.

This gives a better indication of the Bond colour.

I'm currently finishing up the Jacob/texel fleece that I bought last year, just the oddments to sort through and spin up.

I'm mainly trying to reduce the fleece stash by spinning some for use in my hats and some that will be sold. There has been some fleece which will go straight in the stuffing bag and passed on to another crafter.

As you can see, I've got the Sonata out and I've found a way of resting my bad foot across the treadle to it doesn't move but it stops the footman from knocking. So good to get back to a manual wheel after using the e spinner.

I started knitting a headband but its turning into a hat!! nice pattern though :-)

On the weather front, we have once again had snow. I'm beginning to think that the weather is completely bonkers as it went from 11c to two inch of snow in 24 hours.

In other news, I have another return to work day for just after Easter so fingers crossed that all goes well.

Speak soon, xx

It always rains !!

We have come to the conclusion that the weather is controlled by our camper van! every time we take it out, it RAINS !!

See what I mean? Friday was a quiet night in, I started some knitting whilst the man himself got the ukulele out for some practise.

 We spotted this small table which doubles as a camping stool in our local camp shop ( the top comes off to reveal a seat) packs away neatly into its own bag and takes up far less space than the table that is supplied with the van.

Fortunately the clouds started to clear the next day and we walked round the corner to the Nene Valley Railway and waited for a train to appear. Lovely little station to hang around on.

The plan was to have a ride on the train, explore the other stations and end up in Peterborough for a couple of hours.

More unusual engines awaited us at the next stop including this beauty from Switzerland.

and, of course, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Future projects included the restoration of this building which will require a serious amount of funding.

 Peterborough itself really requires more investigation, we didn't get time to see inside the cathedral or find the museum.

We did, however find a couple of interesting buildings, this is the Guildhall dated 1671 with a beautiful clock.

and this one, not so old (1911) although I would swear that old Henry is checking his phone.

I can be a bit of a railway nerd, its how I was brought up. as I hobbled into Peterborough I spotted a rather nice bridge and checked it out on the way back.

One last surprising item was the tracked Hovercraft train, I had never heard of it before but tracked down some footage on you tube. This example is in very poor condition and I suspect will never be restored.

speak soon, next time will be a knitting/spinning update as usual. xx

mitts

The blues of the last week or so vanished after I was able to get out of the house, ok I only made it into my work place to check in with my manager but the next day I felt so much better. Yes I'm still limping round on crutches but we've booked a campsite for a couple of days away so life is good !

Anyway, back to the mitts. I found a pattern on ravelry, some yarn of the right gauge ( ryeland and Jacob) and set to on the first one. Whilst I enjoyed the knitting I'm not happy with the result.
The corrugated rib is loose, the garter stitch at the fingers doesn't really work.

They also have a line separating front and back which really doesn't sit right on my hand.

So I tried knitting a plain mitt from another pattern with one or two adaptations. his time its a blend of Shetland and hebridean and white cheviot for the pattern. I'm not sure if this is any better.

I may just go back to knitting hats!!

On the spinning front, I have a bobbin and a half of bond spun up so far and I've started to wash some of the big ryland fleece.

This may take some time as it needed several rinses as its dirty/sandy. I may pop it in a cold water rinse overnight and see if that helps.

speak soon, xx

snow day

Hi

First things first, I sort of fell out with knitting the shawl. I haven't ripped it back but it is sat in a bag looking rather forlorn. I'm not sure why but I'm just not gelling with it.

So back to the spinning. I had a dig around and found a bag of Bond that I bought maybe 6 years ago? I looked on my blog but couldn't find a post about it. The fleece was imported from Australia and it goes against my objective of spinning only British breeds but its a nice colour and starting to get compacted so its out and on the table being combed.

see, pretty colour :-) I'm going to spin it up and maybe use it for something special. At least if its spun up I'll be more likely to use it and it's better than finding a big felted ball of brown fibre at some point in the future.

The snow came on Thursday, not as bad as many parts of the country and its starting to disappear a bit now as the winds are so strong that its just getting blown away into the nooks and crannies.

So, for now I will sit and spin, and bake biscuits and read magazines .

Speak soon xx