Spin down the stash or at least get some washed... Day one

So, just over two years ago I handed my manager a letter asking for retirement. I'd looked at the figures and decided that I could just about get through the 6 years or so before I'm eligible for state pension on my small company pension.

This is my happy face, this is how I now spend my time, no customers complaining, no uniform to wear and very little stress.

Ok, my glasses are wonky as usual haha but its sunny, cold but possibly a bit breezy so the plan of action is to attack one of the bags of fleece.

This bag of grey ryeland was included as an extra with a brown ryeland fleece that I had ordered on line last year.

I must admit that at first glance I welcomed the gesture but a little dismayed when I found that at least a third of it was covered in coloured spray or raddle which I've found doesn't wash out. Green I can live with if its just a slight stain after washing but PINK !!

I did spin one skein of this fleece earlier in the year and it does spin up really nicely so I divided it into marked and unmarked and chucked it in the bucket of very hot, soapy water. A couple of rinses later it was on the line.

I generally try and get out a couple of days during the week at least so today it was down to the post office, some quick shopping and grab a coffee whilst casting on some knitting.

Coffee shop for today was 200 degrees in the centre on Nottingham.

and breakfast was a very unhealthy coffee and almond croissant ! delicious x

Unfortunately I cut my knitting time short as a young mother who came and sat at the next table had a child with her ( possibly school age) who was constantly coughing which I found distracting when try to count stitches etc even with my headphones on. ( I'm afraid covid fear lingers on )

As I know that the castle cafe usually opens at 10 and tends to be really quiet I headed off there.

In Nottingham we have a castle that isn't a castle, there was one here many years ago but now we just have a few ruins and a stately  home but the new café in the visitor centre does a mean coffee and not a bad pot of tea.

Success, the mitt was cast on whilst I listened to an x-files audio book.

The afternoon was spent at home emptying all my bobbins ready for the stash spin down.

Two more skeins for the wash bag, one of Jacob and one Hebridean.

Ryeland fleece update to follow in next blog, its drying off near the radiator and I'm going to settle down with some stitching for the night.

Speak soon xx

Time for a fibre stock take

Its nearly the end of February and hopefully we will get some warmer, drier weather soon. With this in mind I decided to take a quick stock take of my raw fleece waiting to be washed. Some of this fleece has been hanging around for a while and its quite possible that it will not all make it as far as the spinning wheel,

Raw fleece (whole) 1 of each.

white highlander

hebridian

shetland

ryeland 

unknown white

Raw fleece small amounts ( at least 500gm)

black cheviot

unknown white x 4

brown/grey ryeland

light grey ryeland

mystery fleece ( possibly very sun bleached black cheviot )

white cheviot

jacob .

The plan is to wash and hopefully spin all of these by the end of the year. Its quite possible that I may acquire some more but I do need to clear the back log. Some of the small bags are simply oddments that may not actually worth spinning so I will sort these as I go.

I have been prepping and spinning this week and the wash bag now contains over 1 kilo of spun yarn ready for a nice sunny day.

I have two bags of yarn for my personal use, a few bags of clean fleece ready to process and a bag of knitted items waiting to be washed and blocked.

Latest knitting has been fingerless mitts ( again)

In other news, I have found the missing cross stitch project and put in a few more stitches and I am also working on the big red thing again as it is stitched on 28 count so easier on the eyes when stitching in the evenings,

As I had to make some repairs to someones work trousers 😀😂 I took the opportunity to quickly turn the crows gather cross stitch into a small 'pillow' to go with the others. I'm slowly filling a basket with them.

That's about it for now, I'm going to try and get some spinning in later today and wash the grey ryeland fleece tomorrow if it looks like the weather will stay dry.

Speak soon xx

'

'B-utiful' stitch along band sampler

 I've been playing catch up with this stitch as I only found out about it about two weeks ago !

So far I have completed the January band and will start on the February one this week. The aim is to be on track by the beginning of April. Its rather pretty and different to what I usually stitch so it will be interesting to see what's in store for March ( February is butterflies ) I'm hoping that the mix of blackwork and cross stitch will hold my interest.

Back in the real world, we have had three winter storms in the last five days with possibly one more at the end of this week. Fortunately the only damage so far is six fence panels, four of which are our neighbours responsibility and two from the bottom of the garden where its looking like the whole fence needs to be replaced as the fence posts are rotting from the bottom.

I have been knitting ( photos next blog), and I've also managed to get my hair cut for the first time since covid started so its no longer long and straggly :-)

We have also started booking campsites for this year, nine sorted so far ( we don't stay long on each one ) with three or four more and a festival to book this week

Thats about it for now ( short and sweet) speak soon xx

Still having a fluffy time

 When I spin, the resulting skeins are generally around 110gm as I prefer to be on the generous side for yardage .As a result I often have combed fibres left over, just 20 or 30 gram, which go into a bag until I get the drumcarder out.

I then blend these together to make batts, the mix of breeds varies each time but this ensures that I get the most from my fleece.

These are spun up as a fairly rustic yarn.

The resulting skeins will have to wait for a dry day when I can wash and then dye them ready for knitting.

Anyway back to my knitting, will update again in a few days xx

It's still Winter ,,,,

 Hi,

I know that it hasn't been the coldest or snowiest of winters here in the Midlands but I'm feeling ready for some proper sun, the chance to leave the washing out and all the windows open.

I have managed to wash some fleece, letting it dry a little on the line then huddle up near the radiator to finish off  and as a consequence I have two more skeins spun and four bobbins waiting to be plied into another couple of skeins.

 there is 60gm on each bobbin, they are large bobbins 😀

All of this means I've been knitting headbands between working on other things and, after car load of boxes was delivered last Friday to the charity shop, my workroom is beginning to look a lot more organised.

The cross stitch started during our stay in Bridlington has been finished and is waiting to be turned into another small pillow and the Quaker ABC has been getting some attention and is coming along nicely. Since the beginning of the new year I have been watching people stitch on an assortment of SALs ( stitch a longs ) where you have a section released to you each month.

I've not been able to make up my mind whether to take part in one of these, at least not until a few days ago when I found one that really caught my eye. Its a free download from one point mind as long as you sign up by February 22.

I'll keep you posted on this as I will be playing catch up as the first two parts have been released. It's a band sampler and so far seems to be a mixture of blackwork and cross stitch.

That really is about all for now, speak soon xx

What's in the box (s) ??

 As some of you may know, I am trying to seriously destash the house and hopefully cut the contents by at least a third.  The pile of boxes for the charity shop is getting large again and we had another trip to the recycle centre at the weekend.

I'm trying to rationalize my craft stash and even offered a large amount of items for free on a local facebook page. In spite of several organizations replying and saying they wanted them, none have actually replied to any of my messages or posts when I have said they could have them !!

Today I decided to throw out what I thought were two empty boxes that have been in my cupboard for many years except for the fact that they rattled when I took them down from the shelf.

So I opened them....

First, the blue one which turned out to have my Honiton bobbins in, along with an assortment of vintage bobbins collected over the years.

The bottom photo is a small collection of old travel bobbins which are shorter than the ones I usually use. Most of the others are very old, picked up from antique and second hand shops on our travels, others have been passed on to me once people find out that I have an interest in lace making.

The second box contained a number of old crochet hooks, quite a few lace making accessories including some old pins for dividing up the threads and yet more bobbins !

A little wooden sewing set, the inside of the spool is hollow for your needles. I think I bought this off a market in France on one of our road trips.

And this looks like a spool holder?

As we travelled around by motorcycle, bobbins were a good size to collect on our travels and some of these are from Belgium, Italy and I think that there are some from the Czech Republic.

Others are from different parts of the UK.

I think that I would like to make a proper display of these sometime.

Speak soon x

short and sweet

 Hi, just checking in. Not a lot to show this week as I've been busy with the house destash again.

This weekend we are heading over to a nearby furnishing place that specialize in motorhomes and campervans. As our van is now a good few years old, the cushions that we sleep on are past their best so we thought that we would simply have all the furnishings replaced. This first visit is to look at the materials and hopefully work out a date for them to do the work.

Craft wise its been a bit of spinning.

Dark gray = jacob, mid gray = cheviot,  light gray = ryeland all now in the wash bag waiting for a good day to pop on the line.

The lace pillow has been out however less successful than hoped due to misreading the pattern. I think that I need to return to basics of bucks point yet again !

Other than  a small amount of knitting, that really is it for now.

Speak soon xx

2022 Craftyness: update, stash, plans

 I've finally managed to sit down and think about fibre plans for 2022. I've not set any real goals although an American spinner has invited me to join the 365 spin challenge which is to spin 10 min a day. As the challenge started at the beginning of the year I'm about 3 hours behind haha. I may  join in , not sure yet but maybe 10 min a day on a drop spindle would be interesting ? easily portable, always ready and I have a rather nice fine Shetland fleece that would be perfect for this apart from the fact that it needs washing.

This fleece was gifted to me by a close friend and a note in the box revealed that it is from the Derwent flock so fingers crossed that it washes up well.

I'm thinking maybe 10 min a day on my lightest spindle, what do you think ?

Now on to knitting, since the beginning of the year I've knitted a couple of headbands and a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves.

The top pair of mitts are the same length, just need blocking as they curled inwards slightly, These are now in my coffee shop bag. When the bag is full I find a coffee shop and sit weaving the ends in whilst I watch the world go by.

My scraps stash is still a little on the large side and my full skein stash ( ones less than 100gm, have a knot in them or are finer spun than usual) is healthy but I think I need to dye some as its mostly white yarn.

Going forward, more hats, mitts over winter then spin up a couple of fleeces for a friend.

I have actually snatched a few mins to process fibre over the last couple of weeks so this bag is waiting for me to get one of the spinning wheels out.

Cross stitch, yep still stitching although I do seem to have mislaid a project. Hopefully I will find it later today as I sort out the workroom.

First, the big red thing. I have put in a few more stitches and hope to finish it sometime this year. I've popped a six inch ruler in the photo to give some idea of the scale of this project.

The Quaker sampler is coming along slowly, again a ruler to show the difference in scale.

This is really more colourful in real life and on white aida, the camera makes it look a little dull.

This is a quick project that I took to the coast with us, its about 75% complete and will be finished into a small pillow to go with two that I stitched last year. All by Sub Rosa and offered for free on the blog.

The missing project hasn't resurfaced yet, it may be in the van or just hiding well in the workroom !

Anyway, that's it for today, speak soon  xx