Busy Busy busy

It's been a busy time chez moi. I have finished my lacy scarf and after blocking it does look lovely. I am pleased that the rather uneven nature of the yarn doesn't show up too badly!

The quilt to be donated to Project Linus has also been finished and handed over. In the end, I was pleased with it and I learned a lot from making it. Mitred corners, double binding and above all, that fancy stitches and a walking foot do not go together. Anyway, I am sure that it will be loved and will give comfort to the child who gets it.

All the onions, potatoes, peas and beans are in the ground on the allotment. Carrots, radish and lettuce have been sown.

The website we are building for the Bradford Guild is taking shape and will soon be uploaded onto the web.

I will shortly have finished spinning the yarn for the secret woolly hat for the DH's birthday and will have to find a way to take it away with me without his knowing!

So off to sunny Cornwall next week, to draw, paint, walk on the cliffs and above all get this darned hat finished!

Is it a plane?

Picked the DGD up from school on Friday afternoon and brought her home to give the DD a rest and a chance to recover from her sore throat. We're all dropping like flies at the moment with whatever this horrible bug is that's doing the rounds.

As the afternoon was so warm and sunny, we spent it outside in the garden and when our interest in horticulture flagged, we enlisted GD in making a see-saw out of old bits of wood and this then morphed into an areoplane! See below, for the inflight photos!



We would have loved her to have stayed a bit longer, but as it was Bradford Guild on Saturday and the DH had lots to do, we had to take her back home to Mum. She is becoming a lovely little girl and is a real pleasure to have around. Her imagination seems to have no bounds and I hope we can encourage her to use it to the full.

So to the guild meeting where I discovered that I am not very good at AGM issues and due to all that and a committee meeting, I didn't get to spin. I did get some lovely fibre from Freyalyn. http://freyalyn.blogspot.com/ Camel and silk in her poppy and murex colourway; merino and silk in murex and some lovely Bluefaced Leicester in a mixed colourway. The latter is destined to be the happy birthday surprise hat for the DH's big 60 in May! I have spun the first bobbins worth and am very pleased with the result. The only question is, have I bought enough to finish the job, or will I be forced to buy more fibre!

Then to mother's day and a visit from the DD and the DGD with a card and a lovely group hug which included GD and that made his day too. Then sinking into the sofa, with a glass or two of wine to watch England beat Scotland at Rugby.
Perfect!

It's official

The cough is back, but the Doc is on the case! The DG, that one child germ factory, has been passing on her surplus to us since before Christmas and finally I have been to see the Doc who has looked in my throat, looked quickly away and sent me off with antibiotics. So, although I am feeling wrecked, I am hoping that this time health will return!

In the meantime, yesterday and today have been lovely and sunny here and it is beginning to look as if Spring is on the way. Unlike Devon, where BS tells me that winter has returned with 12 feet of snow!

And in the garden..........

a flock of Redpolls with possibly some Siskins have been visiting our feeders morning and evening so I couldn't resist a photo. As it was taken through the window it's not very clear but you get the gist! We have been having lots of visitors lately. A male Blackcap, all the Tits, Mr and Mrs Bullfinch and the Jay. It now seems that Red Kites have moved into Roundhay and Horsforth, but not yet to Chapel Allerton.

Despite the poor state of health, fibre related activities have been ongoing. I have actually used my sink to dye some cotton fabric using Procion dyes. I did rather pack the fabric in so the colours are a bit pale. I think wishy washy is more appropriate than pastel, but there will be enough to make the quilt for the Linus project at Night Owls tomorrow.

The socks for the DG have also been completed. The fact that they are about four sizes too big is a bit of a nuisance, but she will grow into them!

And, best of all my newly acquired Timbertops spinning wheel has been fettled and polished and is spinning like a dream! Isn't it lovely!

So I am now off to cut a significant number of strips, squares and triangles in various colours from my dyed fabric in readiness for tomorrow. Then, it may be back to the sofa for a snooze this afternoon!

New yarn

I have finished spinning the Blue Faced Leicester roving I dyed last summer. It has spun up into a very soft yarn, not too thin and there will probably be enough for a surprise birthday hat for DH. The colours are lovely and subtle and are reminiscent of the colours of sand and sea on the west coast of the Isle of Harris. So, I have decided to call the yarn Strond and of course if I had actually written down what I did, I could have repeated it! The photos, see above, don't show the true colours which are much greener, but it is very pretty.

So I have no excuse now for not going back to my cotton. Oh but wait, I still have to finish my fluffy mohair and my boucle. I also have a lot more BFL and Corriedale tops in my stash that are just begging to be dyed in the new sink! How can I disappoint them? Phew!!!

Let the dyeing commence

Yes the sink and cupboard are now finished and I can use it! We had a small leak that proved to be nothing more than a loose waste pipe. This has been seen to and we are now watertight!

So now all I have to do is to get my dyestuffs into the cupboards and off I go.

Last Saturday's visit to Helmshore Mill has got me into a spinning mood, and I have not forgotten the cotton sliver lurking in the bottom of my basket. I am putting of the final plying of the boucle yarn because I was finding it so difficult, but once that is finished, I won't have any excuse!

It's always so heartening to see young people starting to spin and knit. We have recently had a number of young people visiting our Wednesday group at the Armley Mills Museum. They are learning to spin and so I took my old Ashford Traditional along for them to try. This week Lizzie had a go and first off couldn't get the treadling or the drafting, but then all of a sudden she cracked it and she was off! Spinning an acceptable yarn after only an hour or so! The look on her face was just magical and it gave us all a big lift on a very cold grey day.

So Thursday, with snow forecast and temperatures dropping, we picked up the dear GD from school and brought her home. Imagine our surprise when she sat at my Lendrum wheel and tried to treadle it. As her legs aren't quite long enough for her to reach when she's sitting on a chair, she sat on my little stool and away she went, treadling like a natural. Of course, I took the precaution of disengaging the flyer, so no actual spinning was harmed in the process, but it was just lovely to see her so busy and happy! So having failed to get the DD at all interested in anything textile, it seems I will soon have a GD who can spin! Not bad for a 3 1/2 year old!

And finally, a trip to the Quilt Museum in York on Tuesday resulted in a visit to Sheepish and the purchase of some essential sock yarn. The gloves are almost finished, so now it's on with the socks! Who said retirement was relaxing!

Its snowing and I need gloves

So this arrived this morning by e mail from the DD and the children were out in it straight after breakfast and are still out putting the finishing touches to the snowman.




I think the little person is about to amuse her brother by wanging a snowball, but I could be wrong. He's a patient lad and does his best even though she is inclined to wind him up unmercifally!!



So, I decided I needed a pair of gloves and a few days ago I got knitting. I have been knitting for a long long time, but have never knitted gloves or socks. One thing the Ravelry site has taght me is that you have not arrived in the knitting world until you have knitted socks at the very least. How hard can it be to knit a few fingers! Well it's very hard and fiddly, but I invested in some lovely birch DPNs and raided the handspun stash for the yarn. The pattern I am using is in this month's edition of Yarn Forward magazine under the title of "Fern" the pattern is very pretty and although it looks complicated, it's not difficult to follow and I have only ripped it back once!

My yarn is Blue Faced Leicester dyed by me with Landscape dyes in pretty pastel colours and spun very fine. I thought the yarn would not be robust enough to use this way, but it is easy to knit, doesn't shred and will look lovely after blocking. I may even have enough left to knit a small scarf!

So far so good, but I think it's unlikely that I will get them finished in time for tomorrow and I doubt I'll be able to use them for building snowmen, gardening or anything but light ladylike duties! Back to the grind stone, as DH has reminded me that I'm helping him make a leek and bacon flan for tea and so the remaining fingers will have to wait!

Another new toy!

But I can't use it yet! Apparently, the silicon goo won't be set for another 48 hours! As you can see, the DH has started on the woodwork surround, but that has to be finished. Still, as soon as it's water tight, let the dyeing commence!

I visited Texere Yarns last week, just looking for some knitting needles, but ended up with some silk yarn which is calling out to be dyed in shades of blue to weave into a scarf, and some ready dyed silk to use to ply with my boucle yarn spun from this! It is a merino and silk blend and the colours are anything but subtle. Why did I buy it?

Well it was a bit of an impulse buy from Whingham Wools, regretted and pondered over until I remembered that there is more than one way to spin from a roving! How many of us just spilt it long ways, which is fine, but with something as unsubtle as this, the yarn would probably not be very pretty. However, I remembered that I had learned how to spin from the fold on the spinning course last summer so that's what I did. So from this

rather out of focus single, we get this

Not very good photos, but the yarn is much more subtle than I had expected and I am going to use it to make a scarf.

I will continue with the fluffy mohair as soon as we have been able to get the Kromski wheel to hang properly, and this is also destined for a scarf in due course.

It's all go !!!

A chair is a piece of furniture

So, apparently it's official and I have been duly elected (alternatively given no choice) to be the Chairman of the Bradford Guild for the coming year. There has always been a huge controversy about this title due to some members being PC mad, but I am not a chair, so I am reverting to Chairman for my term of office! Anyway, do I mind being it? Well I'm not sure I am a suitable candidate, or that I know enough about what is going on to make my mark, but here goes!!! Everyone seems to be impressed by the programme I've put together for the coming year, so lets hope it comes up to expectations! As for the AGM itself, it was heartening to see lots of young and new members who weren't totally put off by some of the nit picking and I hope that we can continue to grow and prosper.

The best thing about the AGM is the lunch. Even though noone knows what anyone else is bringing, there always seems to be a wide range of dishes both savoury and sweet. I think I detected a little less quiche and slightly more rice this year. I was so full after the first course, that I couldn't face the puddings.

My fluffy mohair yarn is progressing, but I'm not sure what to ply it with. I fancy a very fine silk thread, but will have to take advice when I've got to the end of it.

As the Kromski wheel is proving hard to get adjusted correctly, I've finally bitten the bullet and bought Tina's Timbertops wheel. I know it only has one treadle and one of the uprights is broken, but now that Timbertops have sold their business on and the wheels are going to be made again, I thought I would be able to get it sorted. The DH has offered to try to mend it, so it would be good if he can.

The plumber will be calling to plumb in the belfast sink later this week, so I will now be able to shut myself in the work room and get some dyeing done.

Picking the child up from school tomorrow, so will probably be ready for bed at 7pm!

Ice skating with the ducks

Much as we love having Isobel to stay overnight, it's always a bit of a lottery as to whether she actually goes to sleep without a lot of fuss!!! Friday night went well and for a change there was no last minute tearful request to go home. All was quiet until 5 am when she decided she'd had enough sleep!! There was a full moon and at that stage, too dark to see the hard frost!

Later in the day we visited Golden Acre Park to feed the ducks. The large lake was frozen and Isobel was thrilled to see the ducks trying to get a foothold on the ice and skidding all over the place. The Black headed gulls are really adept at catching the pieces of bread in the air and Isobel loves trying to throw her bread high enough for them to catch. But oh, it was so cold. We did not linger and set off for home as soon as the bread had gone!

So having taken Isobel home, and done our shopping, we came home and collapsed! A lovely heart warming meal of belly pork roasted with potatoes and pears and baked red cabbage perked us up no end!

The knitted hat has been handed over to the DD and she was pleased with it! So only the scarf and gloves to go now and she has the full set!!! I still have the pink swallowtail shawl on the needles but am leaving it alone for the time.

The next task is to spin the mohair tops I bought from Freyalyn. I am going to try to make a fine fluffy yarn by following Mable Ross's instructions, but my poor fingers are not finding it easy!! Still, practice is the answer and I will crack it!!!

There's a lot of chat on Ravelry and on various blogs about spinning fancy yarns, but very little mention of Mabel Ross. Mabel was a scientist herself, and so it is not really surprising that she took such a mathmatical approach to spinning! Even though this was a criticism I hear of her from time to time, she did have a great sense of humour and for all the precision of her instructions, in reality she had a very intuitive approach to the craft. Her books are out of print now, but Wingham Wools were hoping to republish them on line. I hope they do it, although the books may need to be revised to make them more acceptable to the modern audience!

No photos for the present as I am trying to concentrate to getting things done!

Long time no blog

Where does the time go? It doesn't seem five minutes ago that I was worried about not getting my Christmas cards written and posted, getting presents bought and wrapped and getting ready for the trip to Cornwall. Now it's all over and January is marching along and I don't seem to have achieved much.

Well the cards did get written and posted, family was duly visited and presents exchanged. We did not over eat or drink too much and apart from getting whatever virus is doing the rounds, were fairly well.

Our journeys to and from Cornwall were pretty uneventful and traffic was light both ways. Lunch at the Anchor in Olbury on Severn was excellent as usual and apart from a very grey Christmas day, the sun shone for us. Although it was very cold we managed to get out for some walks by the sea and DH was able to indulge his hobby of impromptu cairn building! Thus.......

So what has been happening on the fibre front? The camel and silk blend has been spun and plied and is ready to knit up into a scarf. The silk yarn given to me for my birthday has made a nice scarf and just waiting for the finishing touches. The hat for DD is on the needles.

Spinning at Armley starts again tomorrow so the wheel is due for an overhaul and I will have to decide what to spin. Try the mohair perhaps?