Where have we been for the last four weeks?

 Hi,

We have spent the last few weeks touring around the south of England, from Winchester to Cornwall. I'm not going to bore you with too many pics, just a flavour of our time away.

new lace project inspired by charity shop find

 Hi,

As you may have guessed, we have been away on our travels and one of our stops was at Dunster in Somerset. More about the Castle in a future post ( Interesting cross stitch) but we did call into the doll museum for a quick look round there second hand books and bric a brac on the way back to the bus stop.

That was where I spotted this little lady looking sad and unwanted with a price tag of £1.00, how could I leave her on the shelf? so she came back to the van with us and I think that it would be an interesting project to replace all the machine lace with bobbin lace. What do you think? shouldn't be too big a job and I do have a book of miniature lace patterns sat on the shelf at home,

The dress bodice is glued to the doll as is the cap but I think that I can get around that,

The chair and stand need a good sand down and maybe a coat of something. I have all the threads that I may need and it gives me an excuse to keep a lace pillow handy over the next few weeks,

BTW She is standing up due to not having knees and the complexity of the lace produced by just four bobbins is astounding.

Not missing, just chillin,

 normal service will resume shortly.

have a great week xx

Nottingham Puppet Festival

 Every so often something a bit different comes to town. As you know, I'm always up for a day out  so I packed my spinning wheel and toddled off.

There were big puppets to watch , fighting each other, in one of the squares.

Followed by dragons and animals in the main square

I wound the day up with a coffee and spin before heading home.

Speak soon xx

what happened to the mitten and Shetland fleece update.

 Hi,

First, the mitten/gloves. As I wasn't able to find a giant to wear them or make them into fingerless easily they are awaiting unravelling.

Final conclusion s are 

1 I didn't spin fine enough

2 wartime yarn was super fine

3 the cast on number of stitches seems at odds with other patterns for the same thing

Next steps...

I've ordered a pattern for the gloves from the Scottish Women's Institute for comparison and will have another go, probably knitting them as gloves even though the thought of knitting fingers sends me into a frenzy.

Shetland fleece

I've processed some ready for spinning and I'm currently knitting a pair of mitts to replace the ones I have been wearing for the last four years.

I have a four week plan to work solely on the Shetland, use my nano as much as possible  to spin fine and knit a couple more pairs of the fingerless mitts.

So this didn't work...mitten analysis

 I have a pattern for a mans Sanquhar glove which I wanted to make as mitts, I spun the yarn, found the needles and all was well until I got up near to  the fingers.

They were too big on me ( as expected) but when I tried them on Ian who has quite wide hands they still didn't fit right, far too baggy at the top of the palm.

I sat and scratched my head and decided to rip them back as far as the thumb hole. My usual mitten pattern sees me cast off 20 stitches for the thumb and pick up 4 on the next row. This pattern has me place 22 stitches on a holder and cast on 11 before continuing the next row

This means I have one extra pattern repeat in the body of the hand.

My plan now is to miss out the cast on stitches and add in just add in maybe two on the next row to keep the pattern correct. That way the stitch count for the cuff remains correct as that fits as expected.

or maybe  knit another with one less pattern repeat to see how that works, needle indicates how it would look. I'm looking to find something that works for me so I can slot in different patterns.

I know I could look at ravelry etc to find another pattern but I like the challenge in making something more 'mine'

Did I say that I wouldn't buy any more spinning wheels? ( Travels with Nano part one)

 Hi,

I thought that I had mentioned buying some more fleece? but checking back it looks like I totally forgot to mention any details about it.

I had a message from Ann in Scotland asking if I wanted any Shetland fleece. I purchased some from her last year and it was gorgeous, well skirted, very little dirt, spun like a dream so how could I saw no?

A long conversation followed with many photograph and I settled with a selection of 4 fleeces in different shades from white to very dark grey/black.

I have washed one of the grey fleece and part of the white one which turned out to have a grey streak down the back. The forecast is good for the weekend so I'll pop the rest of the white and the black one into soak overnight.

In the meantime I decided to treat myself to a new toy. I've been thinking about buying a Nano wheel for a year or so but couldn't really justify it with already having an Ashford 3 e-spinner but I finally succumbed, partly due to how fine the Shetland is and my plans for it and partly down to the size which means that even if I have my sticks with me, it will do in my backpack.

My biggest concern over the Nano had been the size of the bobbins however my first spin has proved that I can get 54gm on one when spinning for a light 4 ply weight. the only drawback seems to be that take up onto the bobbin gets problematical once the bobbin is about 3/4 full. This has resulted in some over spun lengths :-(

( its just the pic that makes the bobbin look wonky, Ashford bobbins hold 200gm, Nano just 50gm)

On the plus size, it has proved to be perfect for taking out and about so I'm thinking  that I might try spinning 25/30 gm to each bobbin then plying on the Ashford. The next thing to try will be plying from my Ashford lazy kate to save taking both sets away with me. If this approach works then I will order a few more bobbins before we hit the road again as the Nano is running very well on my phone charger and doesn't appear to be taking much power at all.

speak soon xx

Monogamous crafting, is it even a thing ?

 A few years ago I watched a short you-tube video about a lady who had no crafting stash whatsoever. She simply bought all she needed to make an item, made the item and disposed of any oddments that were left. 

Is this really a thing? do people do this? 

After all, life would be a lot simpler, no storage issues for multiple crafts, no storage issues for even one craft although having the right equipment would still be a thing.

I've been thinking about this since I bought another lace pillow from a local charity shop. The new pillow fills a gap in my collection as it has a wider roller than my other pillows, has a built in stand and looks like it will be easier to use when making sample strips which I spend most of my time working on.

If lace making was my only hobby, you would think that storage would be easy but looking round my room from where I am sitting I can see six lace pillow of various sizes and types !! plus two boxes of bobbins, and threads, two shelves of books and files of patterns. I'm already in the realms of needing a cupboard for just one hobby.

This is the same for every craft that I do, cross stitch materials fill a large box and I have several ongoing projects.

Spinning wheels , I have three at the moment but countless fleeces both raw and washed waiting to be spun all the equipment to prep the fleece and countless spindles etc.. Inkle looms numbered four at the last count along with small looms and a Kromski rigid heddle that has sat in a bag since before covid.

Yarn, knitting needles, tatting shuttles , you name it and I have it and not to forget the four or five sewing machines lurking in the next room.

Sketch books, paints, books on assorted crafts and techniques that survived last years cull now fill shelves and cupboards.

Back to the question, does anyone only do one craft, only have one project on the go or do we all flit from one thing to the other? My current ongoing projects are a bobbin lace strip, two knitting projects, narrow band on the inkle loom for bracelets and a couple of cross stitch and embroidery pieces. Ooh and two latch hook cushion on the go.

All this leads to another question, when do hobbies split into two, for example, is collecting cross stitch patterns almost a separate hobby to stitching them?

And, dare I say it, when does it switch from hobby stash to hoarding?

Any thoughts on this?

Ona lighter note, the robins are nesting just outside the kitchen window :-)

I'm trying to craft but the pull of the road is too strong.

 

Our home for the week, converted corn mill on the Isle of Skye, beautiful location next to a stream, fields of sheep. What more do you need as a base to explore Skye?

Unfortunately a cracked windscreen put an end to our explorations, every pothole made the crack travel further but I still managed a few photos which I will leave you with, before I start to tidy up my workroom and get on with some crafting before we go away again.

Just to prove that I am tidying the workroom ready for the next project.....

speak soon xx

Not quite Skeggy

 Yep, not quite Skegness, just the other side of the golf course on Skegness Sands Caravan Park. The touring part of the site is affiliated to the caravan club and £23.00 per night at this time of year is a tempting deal.

Part of the site is open and a smaller area is laid out with traditional pitches, we have camped in both, I prefer the pitches with the strips of grass to separate the vans.

Turning right from the camp you have a spar shop and a general small bits and bobs store ( during the season) turning left you have a couple of cafes and an amusement arcade (  open weekends and during the season) and that is it apart from the surrounding houses and the large Derbyshire Miners Convalescence Home which is currently closed awaiting redevelopment.

I may have spent time in the cafe :-)

and walking down the beach.

Last time we stayed on this site, we heard the foghorn but couldn't work out where it was coming from. This time I grabbed a coffee and walked down to the front. This confirmed that my fog horn is actually out to sea on the wind farm ( which on that morning I couldn't see at all)

Skegness has a small museum, Church Farm museum, and this time we managed to visit (previous attempt sabotaged by a covid outbreak amongst the volunteers)

I spotted three spinning wheels although only grabbed photos of two.

The bobbins were in disarray  as usual and a local volunteer makes rag rugs to sell at the museum.

The wooden frame of this cottage was discovered inside another one on demolition, saved , then moved to the museum and restored.

Out buildings contained old farm implements, vintage vehicles, smithy and much, much more. One shed contained a display of corn dollies and a model railway.

We ended our visit with tea and biscuits in the cafe whilst talking to the volunteers.

This sign was spotted outside a bar about half a mile from the campsite, I 'm not sure whether to be worried ??

Anyway, that's about it for now, we are back home booking campsite for the next trip.

Speak soon. x