Swaps and spring

Well, its been a while hasn't it! I started back at work which clearly just throws life upside down, meaning no knitting, no crafting, no time whatsoever till now. Also doesn't help that I have misplaced my camera.... oops! So I took pics with a different camera for this post.

Let me just tell you about the the Seven days of Special swap that I took part in. My swap partner was in New Zealand and managed to get her swap together quicker than I did (take a look at her gorgeous blog, puts me to shame!)... as if that would be hard! It arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't get a chance to blog about it, so here we go.... the packages were individually wrapped in these cute little packages made out of a craft magazine, which was gorgeous, with little stamped numbers for the day i was supposed to open them.

Here's a little overall view (minus the edible chocolate pineapples)



A close up of Millie the mouse, made for Rafaela.... her head is made from a 'birds of australia' tea towel...so sweet.


A lovely card of vintage buttons from her own collection


And a gorgeous vintage copy of Villette by Charlotte Bronte....



I really enjoyed taking part in the swap, I hope that she will enjoy my parcel as much as I have enjoyed hers!

It's spring here now and while we had a cold dip into the minus again this weekend, it is in general getting warmer and brighter. We have loads of work to do around our land if we are to accomplish what we hope this year so it's busy busy busy here.

Proper Pics

A photographer friend of ours recently came for a short visit to us in Romania. She took incredible photo's of the work my folks do and their day center and so we begged her to take a couple of pics of us too.

This is just a little post mainly for the benifit of friends and family who would like to see more pics of our growing little monster...

My girlie and her auntie

Checking out her toes...
Obsessed with the camera flash. She kept looking straight at it with this stunned look on her face.

Having a good giggle at mummy tickling her tummy


That's it for pics just now, though I added one on the side bar. She has bother her bottom teeth now and they are really sharp, I hope she doesn't work out how to bite me, though I think I am being a little over - optimistic.

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.

National Raspberry Day

I thought I would brighten up your day with a little glimpse of what our girlie did all day long yesterday


Yup....all day long

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.

The little girl and the lamb

Well, no further on the Baktus... so, sadly no knitting pics today. I should have some spinning pics but I got lazy and didnt get round to it.

However, this is not to say we havn't been busy. We butchered a lamb today.... we turned this....



into these ...


...manageable portions of lovely fresh lamb. We also made haggis, i miss haggis an awful lot and the only way to get it here really is to make it for yourself, so we did.

mixed meat and spice

and toasted oatmeal

which we then put into portion sized sausage links (rather than in the traditional sheep's stomach). I think that the mini-haggis dont look bad for an amateur.



My little girl was hitched in her little walker to keep her occupied while we worked. At one point I thought she seemed particularly quiet....



Yup.... she was sound asleep, with the musical keyboard and flashing lights going off... she just slept on....



I got video footage of her too, it made me laugh so much to see her.

Wool washing

Well, the fleece finally arrived and i got to work washing it...


After a few baths it looked like this


Amazing isnt it... just dishwashing soap makes such a huge difference. So now i am carding my way through it and starting to spin it bit by bit, its lovely.

The other thing that arrived was this...

An exceptionally kind gift from Rani... she even put in some Reeses christmas bells... they only just made it into the picture. I feel utterly spoiled. It's really hard to even get woolen yarn here and we dont get any handpainted....at all... its lovely and I'm really excited about what i can knit with it. These skeins however....

Are destined to become a little dress for Rafaela. I think I will do the 'liitle sister dress' with it.
I can't wait to cast on... but my 3mm needles are still busy with this....

I hope to have it finished over the weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend!