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!