It's all been a little bit too busy at the moment, we had a survey this morning which was supposed to be between 9 and 12 and at five to nine the man was at the door!  If only fridges arrived like that.  Of course we weren't properly ready but I'm hoping that if he chooses to put comments like 'socks left on radiator' it won't put the buyers off.

This tealy/blue yarn that I've been spinning madly I can now say is for the revised edition of 'A Stitch in Time' by Jane Waller.  Jinny spent the morning carding for me and I've been ignoring the ironing (again, I know, any excuse) and spinning since Mimi went to school this morning.  My back is killing me and I'm having a break before I go and pick her up again.





I'm really pleased with the colour, it's nice and 'springy'.  I'd carded quite a lot of it with hand carders but it's so much easier to spin from a drum carder.  I had borrowed one from the guild but had to return it, now I've borrowed another from friends which is speeding up the whole process.    I've mentioned the book on a few occasions and have spun three different dye lots to try and get the best one.  I really like the colour of this one, I could keep trying different colours till the cows come home so the deadline having come is probably a blessing in disguise.

Are you watching Masterchef?  I think James is a cert for the winner but my personal favourite is Emily.  She's an inspiration, her attitude is fantastic and she's destined for wonderful things I'm sure.

Thursday night was very exciting in our house, as it was half term, my daughter Mimi was able to come to the knitting club and the ladies (& gent) were very kind to have a small child gatecrash their evening.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, she is lefthanded and it's been a little bit hit and miss with teaching her as I am right handed. ( We had a 'Should left handed people be forced to do things in a right handed way? debate for many weeks which resulted in a big fat nothing done).  Anyway, a lovely lady called Dorothy kindly and patiently helped her through (in a right handed way) and she loved it so much that she tried to knit all the way home in the car in the dark.  Thank you Dorothy - I do believe a star has been born! (I'm the mother, I'm allowed to think that).

We dyed on Friday, with some new friends who are barge dwellers.  I taught them to dye and they are letting me borrow their drum carder!  Fabulous and Free!  So Sarah and Fuschia who are mum and daughter each did a dye lot each and both turned out beautifully. The dye worked it's magic and their choices of dyes were something I will be stealing shortly.

Looking decidedly murky in the pan.  Smelling strongly of vinegar and keeping husbands and children away - not all bad then.

Look at the way the gold and chestnut run into each other and imagine spinning it up - I was having to sit on my hands not to keep the thing for myself!  I hope that when it has been spun I'll be able to get hold of a photo to show you how it's turned out.

I've been spinning some new yarn lately.  I want to get 600g of usable yarn to knit a substantial garment, a jumper or something like that.  I'd dyed two pots of yarn with the exact same amount of dye but you know how it is and no two dye lots  are the same. One of them was slightly darker than the other. So I've ended up with 6 lengths of  fibre, three dark and three light and I've carded a dark and light one together (all experimental you know).  I'm hoping that when it's spun I can use it for a larger garment than we've been doing up to now.  This is what it looked like on the bobbin.




And the first 50g skein looks like this.  I'm really pleased with the delicate shading of it and I'm desperately keeping my fingers crossed that they all turn out the same and are usable.



I've been watching the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice.  I watched the Kiera Knightley version about two weeks ago and LOVED it but was told that it was nothing in comparison.  I LOVE THAT ONE TOO!  How did the prissy Victorians not object to bosoms falling out left right and centre?  It's a complete mystery to me.  I'm just thankful they were all 32a because of poor nutrition.  Imagine now with our 36D's and E's, if not lives lost, definatley eyes would be!

I've put some new fibres on the website,  the one I particularly like is called Ellery.  It's very delicate, in blues, lilacs and silver grey.  I have to say even with the super camera the colours have come out a bit harsher than they really are.  There is just 100g of this one but now it's come out so nice I think I'll do some more!  It's very easy with acid dyes to over do it, the colours can be quite strong so a steady hand and plenty of restraint is often in order.





have a look at www.lazykate.net

We have a rental property lined up for when we move which is great because of having the dog, lots of places understandably don't want dogs but we have friends who have just moved to France and are looking for tennants so it's all worked out really well.



Isn't this hat and scarf set just lovely?  It's  from Dreamwoven, she has an etsy shop but is also on ravelry.  She has the most beautiful knitted head gear.  It just shows how the right embellishment can make all the difference as well, the brooch at the side is perfect for the hat.  Very inspiring!

I can't believe it!  We've sold our house!! After eighteen months of keeping the house tidier than tidy, viewings at all hours, carrying copious amounts of washing and ironing in my car, it has finally sold.  Obviously nothing is guaranteed until we sign on the dotted line, but I have a feeling about this....

Of course I had to eat humble pie, I swore this couple would not buy our house so we decided on Saturday to stay put and took all our boxes that we'd saved down to the dump.  Ah well.

I've been laying off all things woolly for a few days which is completely driving me round the bend.  I have an allergy that I'm trying to find the cause of and I've got RSI so I've had to give things a rest.  I'm relieved that it doesn't look like it's wool that I'm allergic to.

So tomorrow I'm back to it and will be busy on the wheel - tonight we're having a celebratory meal and meeting the couple who are buying our house to shake on it!  Wide beam barge here we come!!!!!

I'm keeping up with spinning and knitting the Beatrice wool for the cushion.  It's very frustrating because knitting gives me RSI, it doesn't seem to matter how little or much I do, my wrists ache.  I'm sure that there's loads of knitters with the same problem and I'd love to hear any suggestions.  I know that it is a pain to leave a comment (nigh on impossible) on this site because people have told me.  So I may post something on Ravelry and see what is suggested.

Another problem with this blogware is that I used to be able to cut and paste pictures from other sites and since the problems with Fasthosts, that facility seems to have gone.  So I will just post this for you to have a look at.  www.nickythomson.co.uk  It's a beautiful site full of knitted textiles, clothing, flowers, scarves.  Her designs are ultra feminine, exude class but are quirky too.  I love them.

The new camera arrived!  I'm still getting to grips with it but it looks like it's going to be great already.

Jinny came round yesterday and we did a new dye lot to go with some beads she has in turquoise and gold.  I tried to be a bit easier with the dye, just a tiny sprinkle and when it was done it looked like this, which is much lighter than I normally do, even so, I think we could have done even less and got a totally different look. 





This is also a work in progress that I will be putting on Ravelry.  The wool is dyed with a touch of chocolate brown and cream.  It's a little bit darker than the Beatrice dye lot but it's the same colours.  I've spun it quite chunky, aran weight and I thought it would make a nice cushion with some beads.  I'm pleased with how it's going so far. 



I've also spun some green yarn for a friend to knit while she's away for two weeks.  It's soooo thin but I've loved spinning it.  Once I got into eeeking the fibres out I could spin pretty fast but going back to the Beatrice aran weight is going to be tricky!  You know what it's like, once you've got into being thin you can't go back to fat.  If only life was like that.....