Disaster !

 My favourite winter mitts, these have kept my hands warm for the last 2/3 winters but today I realised that I had caught them on something sharp over the weekend.

Out with the magnifying glass, needle and an oddment of similar yarn I set out to try and mend them, Not too bad a result and hopefully I won't have to knit replacements just yet.

Holiday knitting round-up

 I usually knit quite a lot when we are away in the van but this year the never ending cross stitch sampler has been taking up quite a lot of my time.

 You can see from my previous post on Soed Idee Jubileum that I am working on part 40 so only ten more parts to be sent to me. However, I will probably add two more to take it up to the end of the tear if I have enough space on the fabric. You can catch up with the previous stitching here if you are new to this blog.

I did find time to pick up the needles can cast on this shawl to wear with my fishermans smock, this is an ongoing project until I run out of yarn.

A couple of Petes fibre studio braids found their way onto the wheel.

and three hats found their way off the needles.

Tour de Fleece day one, 2026

Well, here we are again, I'm thinking about spinning natural coloured fleece that I have prepped myself on the Ashford 3, The World of wool dyed 50gm packs on the Louet Victoria, the dyed fibre from Petes Fibre Studio on the Argonaut and if I happen to need to take a spindle anywhere I will have some Shetland to hand.

I may reassess at some point but I have plenty of bobbins for the Argonaut and the Ashford so I will be able to swap around if needed.

quick update, builders turning up on Monday so replace kitchen ceiling so it looks like I won't be spinning in public quite as much as anticipated!

Also my senior !! bus pass has turned up, not sure if I have to wait until actual retirement date to use it but will try on the bus on Saturday, fingers crossed. Update... it works :-)

Day one

 New T-shirts and empty bobbins, let the games commence.

I was awake early so I had a little practise and spun 100gm Texel quite thick but tested out new brake band etc.

My plan for today was to head into town, grab a coffee then catch a bus over to Wollaton Hall and Deer park as they are holding an open weekend in the walled garden which isn't often open to the public.

Coffee done, off to the garden. I arrived a little early so wandered round with my camera for a few minutes.

There are a few old tree stumps scattered around, the decaying remains revealing interesting patterns.

Once inside the walls I explored the gardens and grabbed a few pics of the flowers before buying a cup of tea and getting my wheel out.

However, once my wheel was out on the table, I had a steady stream of people wanting to ask about it and the spinning, my brief tea break lasted for two hours !

As I made my way from the park I spotted a squirrel and he obviously saw me, ran up the tree and froze. Not a flicker until I passed by,

I'm home now, trying to decide whether to stitch or spin tonight, whichever it is will be revealed in the next post.

First Fleece wash of the year

 I ordered this fleece a couple of weeks ago but its been sitting in the kitchen untouched due to a minor domestic disaster involving water and a ceiling!

Today, the forecast isn't too bad and in fact next week is looking even better so I thought that I had better get my finger out and wash it. Also, having had to remove the raw fleece stash from its hiding place ( the disused outside loo) it has become apparent to both of us how much I actually have.

This is a Shetland fleece, just over a kilo in weight. It looks pretty clean and open so hopefully it will be an easy spin. 

sorry if the photos aren't brilliant but I had to use my phone as the battery had run out on my camera.

It washed up pretty clean and very soft.

In the meantime I found another box, this one dated July  2025 containing a black cheviot shearling so guess what I'm doing tomorrow.

The needles are out.

 Last year I started to try and knit up the oddments of yarn that I have handing around, I had a bag full of odd balls left over from hat and mitt knitting, some of these have gone into more hats and I'm now knitting headbands with the ones that are left. I think I started off with between 1-2kg but I'm not sure where I am now.

This last week I've finished one band and started on another, I'm planning on a few of these to take up to Scotland so it's keeping the fingers busy.

this one is a bit subtle Jacob and Ryeland

This one is Ryeland and an unknown possiby lincoln cross? it has a shine to it.

and a slight accident last week means that I have had to replace the plastic box that I've used as a yarn bowl for many years so I now have an actual bowl ( I think that it may have been my grandmothers)

I may have dyed a rainbow, sort of :-)

 Two days dyeing resulted in this.

Thank goodness for a couple of sunny days. This is mainly texel x bfl, border leics cross unknown and an odd skein of lleyn. I still have plenty more to spin but this has made a small dent in the pile. Each skein is just over 100gm.

lace, wool and stitch

 Today my lace has been getting some of my attention

200 gm of yarn has been plyed

and we have started row six on the blackwork sampler

Crafty update

 I finished the grey mitts and also knitted up some of the random oddments into another pair. I still have quite a few very small balls of yarn so may just make a pair of stripy mitts as well.

I've also turned my attention back to the blackwork band sampler that has been hanging around for a while.

You may have noticed that I'm often in town, this is mainly because all busses around Nottingham run to the city centre meaning that I will often end up catching four busses in one day. Yesterday I realised that I could get yet another different view of the market!!