days merge together....

Hi,

I've just spent the last 30 min fighting with my phone, trying to upload photos to my desktop to put into this post. Sometimes I really wonder why I bother.

This week has been pretty much the same, the number of people  I've spoken to since the end of March ( in person) is now six as a friend dropped off another fleece this morning which will probably feature in next weeks post.

Lace - I'm on the last row so will finish it tomorrow and post a photo next time.

knitting - not a stitch !

spinning- two skeins, one Jacob and one balwen/texel which is actually dyed grey/blue.

I did think that I was having problems with my dyes but this time a popped it in the slowcooker. The skein was bound in four places with a commercial 100% wool yarn which took the colour a lot better than the handspun. I've come to the conclusion that this particular fleece is simply not good at taking colour.

The bfl/swaledale is currently on the line so again I will update next week.

Sewing - as we are hoping that the campsites will open up in July I've decided to make some masks. These are just incase the advice changes or we encounter a shop etc that insists on them. I have quite a stash of cotton fabric so I've sewn three so far, simple double layers so they can be thrown into the wash when they have been used.

I've also started to tidy my work room, yep, I can now see the desk! and I took a photo to send to my mum to prove that I'm surviving lockdown :-)

I plan to have more to blog by next weekend (fingers crossed)  so will speak soon xx

Maybe I'm older than I thought I was?

I mean, I'm not old enough to retire, am I?

NO, I'm young enough to explore my options and talents :-) seriously, first day of official  retirement from my job and thanks to the current situation I've already been off work for 8 weeks or so. 

I've lost nearly a stone, feel loads better, moving easier and also found that that things that are important to me don't actually cost much .

The final festival that we have booked for this year was cancelled last night, we have a campsite booked in August which we are hopeful about as its attached to a large country park so plenty of space to walk around.

So, last week, what did I do ?

Lace making.

I'm very nearly at the bottom of the bookmark, I've not been working on this much as I had a fleece delivery that needed my attention.

Spinning.

I know I said that I had to use what I had but another 4 black bags arrived and after sorting very strictly I was left with these. Ian kindly picked them up fresh from the farm costing £2 each ! I don't like buying without seeing but it was worth taking a chance for this price.

Blue face Leicester x swaledale

Balwen x texel

2 x balwen

The two white ones are really nice, the brown ones are iffy but I will get something from them hopefully. Really not bad for the money !

Last weeks spun yarn.

two more ryeland, the coloured one is the balwen/texel

Each skein is 115-120 gm

Baking

scones, Scottish oatcakes

Ginger cake, very similar to Lyons in taste and definitely improves after a day or two. Sticky fingers :-)

 !

Flowers

this is two bunches of flowers, one from my workplace and one from my  manager who retired herself last year, I only have one vase !

Warmer Weather

Hi,

The much wished for warmer weather arrives and stayed for 3 days, so the buckets were out and I managed to wash the rest of the Ryeland, the remainder of the Portland ( not on last weeks list as it was hiding) half the Cheviot and a sample of one of the unknown white fleeces.

This is going to keep me busy for a while, as these are all white fleeces I will probably dye the yarn and knit basic hats from it and maybe some mitts.

This weeks spinning was 3 skeins of Ryeland.

To be honest, that's about that. I maybe made around 1/2 inch of lace, started to read a book, baked some biscuits and cake, and a little housework.

I'll try and find something more interesting for next week :-)

ticking off the jobs

Hi

How are you? we are still in lockdown although there is talk of starting to lift it which really won't change things much for me as I'm supposed to stay in etc for 12 weeks.

This last week has been the usual mix of housework and hobbies but the weather has not been so good, a few cold days or maybe its just me. We had some really warm weather a couple of weeks ago and I hope it returns soon.

I now have a tick list of chores that need to be done daily/weekly etc , it also includes spinning, mandolin practise etc simply to I can see that its not all work.

I did manage to wash some fleece, a lovely Ryeland Shearling that I had forgotten about and I have around 300gm ready to spin and more to wash this week ( the forecast is better)

I spun up just over 100gm of Shetland (need washing), spinning is getting faster using the e Spinner.

I checked outside and I have 10 bags of fleece waiting to be washed, all full/part fleeces that have been collecting over the last few years. I suspect some may end up in the bin but at the moment the list is Hebridean x Southdown, unknown white, black Cheviot, brown Shetland, white Ryeland, Kerry Hill, white cheviot, Jacob, galway?, and brown unknown that could be a heb cross.

I've made some progress on the lace which I am really enjoying playing with again.

On the more practical side, my favorite crop trousers have decided to give up and pull apart so I've patched them, these are the most comfortable ones that I have and when we were touring round a couple of years ago, these were pretty much all I wore !

That's about it, life really doesn't change much at the moment but we have booked a campsite for a weekend in August, fingers crossed that they reopen by then, so we can check out everything in the van still works ok. Its really strange not to be going away this month, we always go back to the Isle of Skye in May for my birthday and we will miss it big time this year.

Speak soon xx