a bit of this and that :-)

Hi,

Its turning out to be a crafty week, a bit of sewing, a bit of lace, hopefully a bit of spinning at some point. Plus I have men working in the garden which is weird, unfortunately it puts me on edge slightly. Even though they are all very nice and doing a really good job, the fact that they are there has disrupted my routine somewhat.

The good thing is that even though there are five of them, all but one drink tea with one sugar so drink making isn't too complicated.

On the sewing side, I've been making simple drawstring bags for keeping things together and also decided to come up with a solution to my DPN collection ! I said last week that I needed to organize things, here's the result. the inside pockets are a very high count, close weave linen that been hanging around for a few years. I have tested it with the needles and they do not work there way through. The outer is a thick cotton which again was rescued from my stash.

I will make another for larger needles in due course.

I have also found a mask pattern on the internet that includes a nose wire and filter pocket. The nose wire being the most important feature as we both have issues with masks slipping and glasses fogging up.

They plan is to make several and I'm using ties cut from an old stretch fabric dress which is way too big for me. This got me thinking about the masks I wore in 2016 when the doctors were trying to work out what causes my cough.

and here is the 2020 version

I'm also maybe 2 stone lighter !!

.

On the knitting front I've finished some wristies in BFL/Swaledale and started to find out how to knit cables.

I've also got my lace pillow out, two reasons, I wanted to get a photo of my new bobbins in use and I'm practicing ready for next week when I will be picking up my new glasses !! I am so looking forward to being able to see some of the finer patterns.

It may be strange but when I was studying C&G in embroidery etc, it was making the samples that I really enjoyed so I'm just going to have a strip of lace on the go from time to time and change it for a new one every so often :-)

and finally, a small amount of spinning...

so have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine today in the UK or whatever the weather may be where you are ( Friday 31 July) and I'll post again next week xx

Tour de Fleece Eve

Its Friday morning and the heat in the bedroom woke me up rather early, I even caught the remnants of sunrise.

It looks like another hot day today (UK based, we don't have air con ) but thunderstorms are forecast for most of tomorrow so no outdoor spinning to start Tour de Fleece this year.

So, a quick catch up on the week and a brief look forward to TDF.

The weather has been excellent, a little too hot but good for drying both fleece and clothes, I mean, everyones line looks like this. Doesn't it ?

This is some mystery fleece from the Isle of Skye. I bought it back last year because I quite like the colours. I'm not really sure what it is, its not soft but not Herdwick coarse and rather reminds me of a Jacob? Since my friends on the croft had no idea either, I'm just going to see how it spins.

When I'm not washing , I've been carding , combing and generally prodding the fleece into submission ready for Saturday.

The other Manx has now been washed, doesn't look too bad so I'll see how the ends comb with the dog comb and maybe pop it through the drum carder.

As you may recall, I retired in May. Called it a day after working for nearly forty two years for the same company. Tuesday evening there is a virtual knock at the door and a work colleague is on the doorstep with my leaving presents. I know its been a month but these items were specially ordered, as you can see.

The spindle is from  IST crafts and weighs in at 17gm, there are small weights in the arms to help it spin faster and longer. The bobbins are from Chris Parsons I already have several of his bobbins and these will make a lovely addition to my dark bobbin collection. I wanted something to remind me of my time there but not the usual watch type thing so these fit the bill perfectly.

I'm still knitting the BFL/Swaledale, so far we have the mitts ( see previous blog) a hat and I've started on another mitts pattern.

Just incase you are wondering about the photo quality these days, I'm tending to use my phone as my camera isn't keen on speaking to the computer at the moment !!

                                             TDF news ...

I haven't yet decided what to spin tomorrow, maybe something easy? I have around 450gm of Balwen/Texel carded ready, its white so not an exciting spin plus it doesn't seem to like dyes very much but it will be good as hats with a simple pattern on them. I also have Cheviot, Romney, Portland, Jacob, Shetland and Zwartbles prepped and plenty of empty bobbins for all of the wheels.

The new spindle will probably get its first outing during TDF as I have a skein of Merino/baby camel that has been suiting around for years, hand dyed by Felt Studio UK its just begging to be spun fine. It will be a long term, ongoing project.

                                    

Take care, speak soon, watch out for the daily (hopefully) TDF blogs starting tomorrow.

xx

did I say no more fleece?

Hi, I had decided that I had enough fleece fot the time being but fate had other ideas. Firstly my mate Pete popped round with a Kent Romney that he had been storing for himself but has now decided that he won't get round to spinning it due to having so many other good fleeces. Then I won £25 in fleece vouchers from my usual supplier so I'm waiting for a nice coloured ryeland to be shorn and finally I spotted manx Loughton fleece for sale and couldn't resist the colour :-)

Whilst I'm waiting on the Manx, I've made a start on the Romney. It really doesn't look very promising in the bag, blue marker on it, needs a bit more skirting and the lanolin looks like it may have set. I will post washed pics once it's out of the bucket.

Edited to add post wash pic

certainly an improvement.

I've finished the Shetland, about 60 gm or so, it's on the line at the moment having had a soak earlier.

                         edit, now washed and dry, also in pic is BFL/Swaledale.

Going through the fleece stash, I found a bag of Shetland x Romney which has been hanging around for a while. Nice fleece but the natural rise means that you have to pull off the last inch or so of each lock which makes processing a fiddly job. However, I had a play with one of my spindles and it does spin up nicely so I may keep it as a spindle project to chip away at over the summer.

That's about it for this week, housework and baking took up the rest of my time :-) Next week looks like it will be mask making, we have some disposable ones but I will make a few more washable ones so we have a good supply as it looks like they will be needed more over the next few months especially as we now need them on public transport etc. It would be good to have a few extra just in case anyone gets desperate for one.

Take care, safe soon, more chat next weekend xx

Tuesday/Wednesday..the end is in sight

The days are starting to merge into one, at least as far as the spinning is concerned ! Tuesday morning gave me chance to spin at the wheel and again this morning so I am nearly at the end of the 1st bag of Jacob /Texel.

 Earlier today I had to travel to a nearby town for an appointment so I took the spindle and managed a bit more between answering questions as to what I was doing.

I also found time to skein up the three bobbins from the first week ( when I was on leave) and will give these a soak tomorrow morning. The top two are Jacob, the bottom is Ryland although very similar in colour.

and that's about it from me for today, I'm thinking that an early night would be in order plus I'm back at work again tomorrow. I can't really spin on the wheel at night because it has a rattle and I'm not really sure where its coming from but I suspect it may just be a noisy bobbin.

Oh, I managed to get filmed at the weekend! a full 2 second or so of me spinning appears at the beginning of the Yewstock 2018 video but it does appear to only be available on Facebook.

post festival blues

..and a good night was had by all, especially the van near us !

Packing, getting home, emptying the van as it has a service and hab check due next month meant that by the time we got back,drink , food and sleep was the order of the day.

I managed about 5gm on the spindle, didn't photo it and crashed out :-)

I now can't get to my wheel as its surrounded by sleeping bags, cables, hoses, chairs and all the stuff that is normally kept in the van full time.

So Monday evening was spindle spinning, good practice for me and its now looking pretty :-)

I think this is all I had strength for anyway, a trying day at work and on the way home a car crashed into the bus and managed to get wedged there! we had to all get off and wait for the next bus which was now stuck behind this one unable to move. No one was hurt but I think the car driver felt a little foolish for trying to nip round the bus.

TDF day 7,8,9

Hi

I always knew that this would be a minimal spinning weekend as we had arranged to take the van over to a campsite near Leyburn, Yorkshire Dales so we could meet up with some friends who were attending a motorcycle rally there.

I will start with a photo of the amount I spun over the three days....

Now this is the first time that I've really got to grips with this little Turkish spindle and I think I may take it on holiday later in the year as I found that I can spin on it whilst travelling in the van.

Anyway, back to the trip. We booked a couple of nights on the campsite and walked from there up into leyburn on Friday night for a pint. I still have problems with my foot/ankle /leg so the 3 mile round trip was a challenge but I made it although I was pretty sore by the time we got back.

I had a rude awakening at around 4am by what sounded like a peacock!! well I really thought I had dreamt it until a young girl walked past later waving a peacock feather around.

Started the day with some spinning, breakfast and a look round the site.

The site itself is located in a former quarry, a little bit weird as you have to go up a hill to get in then slowly work your way down the different levels looking for a pitch. We ended up at the bottom alongside the Wensleydale railway which, unfortunately, wasn't running steam this weekend.

There is still evidence of the limestone quarry as the remains of the kilns are still standing.

This campsite also has more wildlife that any other visited so far, ducks, moorhens, bats , rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs and YES the peacock!

It was back into leyburn later on the Saturday ( on crutches this time) to catch up with the gossip after a brief stop off at the railway.

and before we left this morning, Ian found a present from the peacock.

All together it was a really good weekend, a little warm but we shouldn't really complain about that ! Just a little sad that we had to head back home so soon.