Busy Busy and Broken down

Well, I have spent the best part of the last 3 weeks housebound. Our old, tired and irritating hunk of junk car played up for 3 weeks. We were paying for one trip into town with 2 days at the mechanic (who is very kind to us thankfully) we were repeatedly towed, rescued and picked up by various members of my family, until last friday when we decided it might be time to make a huge sacrifice and buy another car. No sooner had we decided this, than the car actually just gave up. So while the old car settled down for a long rest on the driveway, my sister picked us up to go look at some used cars. We finally settled with a VW Golf, diesel engine as it's more economical. We couldn't really afford it, but we also can't afford not to have a car as we live in a village and transport is crucial, including for my getting to work. So, we are very excited about it all, if not considerably poorer.

Frustrated days at home meant I could catch up on some things I had to get done, as well as having a little time left for knitting.

I finished my wee one's 'dress' but it looks like it will be a better top for a one year old than a dress for a 6 month old baby, so that's probably what it will be. The wool worked out beautifully for it, so pretty.




I have also been spinning....but not for myself. I have an order to spin 1000 yards of wool for someone on etsy. The shetland moorit tops are absolutely delicious...


This is the yarn spun and navajo plied (as per request)



It's really lovely, my hubby is jealous I am not knitting him a soft jumper (sweater for those of you picturing my husband in a dress).

My first nappy (diaper) order went down well, my client received them and was happy with them, which I am glad about. I have another little idea in the works that I am hoping to start selling soon.... will keep you posted.

So, that's pretty much it from this wee corner of the world for the time being. It's snowy still and cold so we can't start work on our garden yet but that's going to be a priority soon too. Rafaela is learning to crawl, she can get onto all fours, but she seems to start moving backwards when she does. She's still blowing her raspberries and has also progressed to sticking her tongue out too... which is embarassing in the quiet intervals at church.

Spinning, snow and snoozing

Well, I finally managed to get some pics of my latest spinning adventure. I won this lovely fiber in a giveaway on Phatfiber before christmas.

which has spun lovely colours

I was looking through my piles of pics and I thought I would post this...



One of my baby pics... followed by one of Rafaela


My wee girlie... she's much older than I was in my pic... in fact, I can hardly believe she is almost 5 months old now.I took this one of her last night while she snoozed on her daddy's arm... it amazes me how much she has grown.... she's so long!


And her favourite pastime is eating her fists...


We've had freezing fog, which is beautiful, but impossible to photgraph and then its started snowing again yesterday and hasn't stopped yet, but thankfully it's not been as cold and the pipes have not frozen again like they did before christmas.

Yikes.... it's New Year!

Well.... Happy new year, I hope 2010 brings new opportunities and lots of joy your way. Hopefully this one wont go by as quickly as 2009 did.

Lets catch up shall we....

The week and a half leading up to christmas saw us snowed in with temperatures of -19 C ....which is pretty cold. Outside looked like this



And driving looked like this....




.... yes that is ice on the inside of the window..... so we avoided going out unless it was absolutely necessary. This meant that I had a little time to do this....



Yes, you are looking at the finished nativity...."what nativity?" you may ask... well... when I started this blog, I shortly thereafter started a knitted nativity, which has been unfinished since. So, after 3 years and much nagging on my hubby's part, I have finished it, and we had it set up over christmas.

I also got some more gifts made....


heat bags for my grandmother



A fun little outing bag packed with goodies for Yasmina (fostered little sister who is 3)



And a patchwork tablecloth for my mum (sorry about hopeless upsidedown photo).

And we set up the christmas tree




We spent Christmas day with my folks and stayed there for a while. We got Rafaela a baby walked for her christmas.... she absolultely loves it, though she doesn't look impressed in the Photo

Finally, I'll share the joy I have over what my lovely Husband gave me for christmas. He says it's combined christmas and birthday (he hadnt given me anything for my birthday this year)

yup.... it's a .....


Spinning wheel...can you believe it? isn't it beautiful... I'm thrilled and I am also getting the hang of it now.... look...



close up....



that's my first spun and plied lot off the wheel... it's about 67m of thick yummy yarn.... it's so exciting. I have ordered 2 fleeces to prepare and spin.... I'm really enjoying myself.

So.... that's us all caught up, I do apologise for the silence but I am sure you all had enough to do with christmas and new year hope you all had as great a christmas as we did.

Some finished objects...and more chicks

Well, I didn't get much done yesterday what with the chickies popping out of their eggs. We have 5 now, 2 of which I collected at 3 in the morning.... crazy huh? I set and alarm to get up and go check for chicks at 3am, I dont want them to be hurt by the other chickens or to get cold, as they aren't in a broody coop. Here's the entourage in full force



OK, so back to finished items.... Some socks I knitted. I love them. The wool is Yarntopia Treasures SW Merino Sock, colourway 'Brownstone'.

I would have modeled them on my feet, however, my ankles are pregnant lady ankles and the socks are not going to go on... lovely huh?


This sorry excuse for a finished object is a sweater vest knitted for my friends wee boy, same recipient as the spiral blanket. I am not fantastically happy with it, for numerous reasons, but I figure that the spiral blanket makes up for it.


And lastly, I have been doing a little spinning, and have managed to produce this...

...which at the moment is just an undyed wool blend, but we'll see what colour to make it later, when I finish spinning it all.

Pop Larkin and the Handspun yarn

Remember the 'hairy' norwegian sliver?



I actually finished this skein of handspun last week but didnt get round to posting about it. I love how it turned out and hopefully it will be a pair of sock for my man... when I start to knit them (ha)

Yesterday, this arrived in the post

The Pop Larkin Chronicles, by H.E. Bates (written in 1958). You might know it as 'The darling buds of may', the TV programme they made from it. Its a hilarious look at country life in the late 50's, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a light, lovely book to read. As Pop would say 'Perfick'

Knitting is at a standstill, I have one last exam on friday after which I fully intend to knit and sew my little heart out for a week.

We love the post office

This is what we call a good day in our wee house.


This is what arrived this morning (as if the post office doesnt think I am odd enough ordering spindles) It actually came in sack.... ha ha...

This is my valentines wool ....

Its BFL from fyberspates, i have 5 glorious skeins , so of course I had to cast on my february socks...

which let me test my new 30cm (12") sock needles... so much fun, feels like knitting with toy needles they are so small. Though, it means I am not always loosing my spare needles. Someone is going to have to teach me to knit socks on 2 circulars.

Next up is 500g of Norweigan grey sliver. Roving with 2 lengths of fiber to make 'hairy' wool...

and of course I tested just a tiny bit...

Perfect! I love it.

Lastly There is some falkland top (200g)..... so soft and absolutely beautiful (i'm saving the spinning till I have time to really enjoy it)

If you want a wide choice roving at great prices check out Wingham wool works ... I'm really pleased with them.

Anniversary...

Today my man and I celebrate our anniversary. Like last year we will spend tonight in our favourite restaurant and smiling a lot. We've had a great year and the one that's coming for us will be even better. Neither of us could be happier.



However, until we go to the restaurant I will do some more of this...

Lost in translation, progressing nicely, in about 6 cm I will start the neck shaping. The one thing I will say is you need strong yarn and strong fingers for the cables. (Rani, the wool is some hand painted i bought from someone online no name. I thought since the pattern reminded me of foliage, I would use the wool that reminded me of foliage. I am using 2 strands)

In other news.... my new love ....

We affectionately call this one.... ball number one. (hand dyed, hand spun, plied)


It got better as I went on.... still my own dyed stuff... there is a better consistency in width

And this one is the last one from that batch of roving. I really loved learning to spin with it.


But this is what we love..... batch number 2, which I saved till I had done my practice roving.


The dark brown and the pale cream are natural colours, the caramel brandy in the middle is my natural dye experiment.... I first spun it this time, then I dyed the skein with onion skins. very easy, very nice colour, very cheap dye.

You may notice that the wool looks a bit more consistent and looks like something you could knit with. I think i am getting the hang of it.

My next step is from scratch, fleece, wash, card, dye, spin. I think it may take longer.

Exam went ok yesterday, results next week

Patterns and translations

Well, I am not really doing much knitting or anything at the moment as I have major exams hanging over my head and it's pretty stressful. I am not doing them in English either for the first time so there is double stress present.

However, as I was a little too stressed and a little unwell today, I cast on for this....
Which I love, however, the pattern is translated from Norwegian (i think) and its not so relaxing when you knit knit knit and get to the end of a rather long row only to discover that you are not at the end of your stitches, but have 10 left over.... oh dear. I have had to start it over 3 times now. I am going to unravel it once more as I have finally sussed what is going on. Ugggghhh...

In other news, I love spinning. More on that later.

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

Ok .... we're back

It's been ages since I posted. Anyway, Christmas and new year were as lovely as it gets in terms of being out of the city. I hope everyone else enjoyed Christmas and that you had a good time welcoming in the new year.

I did my back in between christmas and new year and I got a the whole drops jacket done. I finished it off in the new year and stitched up back at our place.

While I was away, a package arrived for me..... a dying and spinning kit that I ordered before christmas.



So....



I got started....


And it was great fun...

This is officially the first little piece of my very own hand dyed, hand spun and hand knitted wool...


A little rough, but we'll get there

It's a fun way to start the year. Will be back to posting more regularly now.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a good one