I've been away for a week or so because after over 18 months of too-ing and fro-ing we have finally moved house.  I thought I would be very organised and cleaned up by the time a gang of friends arrived to help us move with the promise of unending bacon butties but in true me- style I was totally underprepared.  I don't know what we would have done without the people power (probably have still been there now actually).

Anyway, we are deposited in our little rented place which is lovely and will do us very well until we have to do it all again in six months.  I feel a bit sick just thinking about it in all honesty.

We're trying to make an appointment for Friday with the boat people so that we can get a slot for our boat to start being built, but here is a link to what we hope it will look like once its done. www.metrofloat.co.uk

On the spinning and knitting front, from my perspective as you can imagine it's been a little bit quiet, I've finished my column for the new issue of www.knitonthenet.com which will be out any time soon but Jinny is busy designing flowers for new projects.

She had been working on the silk cami and I have to report that it hasn't worked out and has been frogged!!  The pattern was awful and it didn't fit properly on our model.  Well, you live and learn and now the spun silk can be reincarnated as something even more wonderful.  That's what we're saying anyway.

A little diversion from the usual blog today, but first here is a picture of the wool that I am STILL spinning.  I have to look at it constantly and I think you should too.  It just doesn't seem to get any less!



Anyway, if all goes well we are moving house next Friday which is Good Friday.  Luckily we get the keys to our rented house this Thursday so we can start moving things in in dribs and drab which will make life a whole lot easier. It also means I can clean under couches and on top of cupboards in order to give the impression of a domestic goddess by the time our friends turn up on Friday to help.

I've been listening to Woman's Hour this week, you know I love frightening the men who work with me, and have been following the blog of Karen Cannard who is trying to reduce her waste to nothing.  If we're going to live on a barge, reducing our waste is vital.  So we can get a composter for our veg peelings, paper, teabags etc, a wormery for pasta, rice and bread and a Bokashi bin for meat, fish and dairy products.  This bin uses a special bran which starts to cause the leftovers to ferment and after two weeks the waste can be put into your normal composter.  I've done a little bit of research and the cheapest Bokashi bin is thirty pounds from www.evergreener.com. 

But before we even get to the stage where the food is wasted, there is another fantastic website, www.lovefoodhatewaste.com where there are meal planners, help with portion sizes and recipes for leftovers. I can hardly wait to get started. 

Unfortunately, I have to be honest and say that with moving and all the palaver that goes with it that I can imagine us frequenting the local chip shop.  I think there will be no food wasted then and I promise I will compost the paper!

This is a camisole that Jinny has been knitting from spun silk.  It's driven her round the bend as anyone who has spun silk will know - it gets EVERYWHERE! 



This pattern was saved from donkeys years ago from a magazine possibly Woman (from late 70’s).  It's strange to think of Woman magazine having knitting patterns in it, in comparison to the 'I gave birth to my own dog' stories that are in there now. So it's all finished and ready to be photographed on Saturday.  The flower shown here is the Lydia flower, I'm going to spin some from these fibres to go on a ribbon round the model's neck.  The ribbon around the middle of the camisole is pink too - I think it's going to look lovely.  V. excited.



The survey on the house when ahead without a hitch and we have a meeting tomorrow with our buyers, hopefully to discuss a moving date.  Then it's all systems go.  There are two exciting things about the house we are renting - it has raised beds(!) and A UTILITY ROOM!!  I may never want to leave. This means only one thing.  I can hide more ironing than I've ever been able to before. 

First things first, I received an enquiry about sock yarn to the site on Monday but have not been able to reply for unknown reasons - I've sent it about ten times and have had it returned each and every one, so for you Sandra, the sock yarn is 400m and 437 yards long.  I hope that helps and sorry for the delay.

Do we all get the same idea at the same time?  I've been banging on for a little while now about the definitive square necked knitted top.  For a million reasons I haven't been able to get it down on paper and begin but since then I've seen the exact thing I've been talking about.  It's on www.blueskyalpaca.com website.  Unfortunately I can't copy the picture due to the restrictions on the site but please have a look, it's called Fitted Evening Top and it's lovely.  It's quite low though, you might have a problem keeping everything from escaping but it would be easy enough to shorted the straps.

So what's the deal?  Are our ideas just not original enough or is the zeitgeist just hitting us all at the same time?  Does that make us unoriginal or mean our finger is on the button?

I don't know. Obviously.  If you work it out, email me and let me know.

Did you do the personality quiz from yesterday's blog.  Are you a little freaked out. Mmmm.

I'm spinning and knitting like mad at the moment, hoping to try and meet deadlines.  If I'm honest I'm failing.  Not particularly miserably because spinning plates is what makes the world go round!  N'est pas (as Poirot would say).

I've taken part in Violet Green's knitting personality quiz and found it fascinating.  Have a go and see deep into your knitting psyche.  www.violetgreen.co.uk .  Some of it might be nice - some of it a little bit nasty.  Isn't there a little bit nasty in us all though?

Also, if any of you have seen the Interweave Knits magazine for Spring you will have seen the Aleita Shell.  I love it.  With a long floaty on the bias skirt and some heeled Mary Janes it would look fantastic. 

The colours in the magazine in general, apart from this one of course in grey are bright and summery, oranges and lemons mainly and it heralds the arrival of spring.  It's well worth a look, if you're after summer inspiration!