I has been Knittin'

This is good two posts in two days . I've been doing a jot of knitting of late so i thought I would share my projects with you .I wanted some short Summer ankle socks to wear with sandals on chilly days and couldn't find a pattern I liked , as usual . So i chose 3 ,50grm hanks of Merino / Tencel from the shop stock and cast on 60 sts and this is the result .
I got the butterfly stitch out of my Vogue Stitchionary and invented the rest .

With the yarn that was left I cast on 60 sts again and got these .

I got this stitch from the sweater DH has made out of his Son of Stitch and Bitch book and it's worked really well . I like the cool feel of the yarn and there is another pair on the needles as I write .

I knit this using my HUUUUge stash of Patons Jet yarn . It knits like butter and is lovely and warm.

The pin is made by my tame Woodturner Kevin . It really compliments the jacket. I have another jacket on the needles in this fab yarn . Pics soon .

And my fabulous shawl. The yarn is my own hand dyed , hand spun Shetland with a border of combined FeltstudioUK and Wildfirefibres fibre.

It is my pride and joy as this is the finest I have spun to date . I had it pinned up at Wonderwool and it got quite a few comments .

I'm having a good catching up week , this week . Doing all the jobs that have got queued whilst I have been busy dyeing . I have updated my projects on Ravelry and I have updated the show dates in the side bar , so you all know where to find me this Summer .

I'm off to do some long awaited spinning on my new wheel .

Wonderwool and a touch of Phlebitis

A rather belated posting about Wonderwool . I'm afraid it's slightly bereft of pics because every time I went for a wander I forgot my camera.

We set of bright and early Friday morning and had an uneventful journey . I was quite relaxed driving down this year as I new the road and what to expect . Last year I was rather nervous cos if you look on the map and see the A483 you'll see it gets rather twisty and bendy the further south you get . Thankfully the hills aren't to big . It took three hours and twenty five minutes , which wasn't bad as there was rather a lot of roadworks . People who came down later had got stuck in queues of standing traffic. we got the caravan set up and had some lunch then went to set the stall up. It's layed out differently to Woolfest , the stalls are bays with high white walls giving it a more corporate feel than the cattle mart at Cockermouth.After deciding where to have the tables we began the task of unloading and turning this into.......
This . We had an area of 9 square metres to work with and it all went in well .

Loads of sock blockers . I wasn't sure how to display these . Then Papa Bear came up with the idea of using one of the coat stands I'd taken for my wool which I couldn't use because I'd forgotten the folding compartment thingys to put the wool in . (see next pic )

It worked brilliantly and we are going to do it again for Woolfest.

This is what the coat stand should have looked like :0)

The only other pic I took was of the Alpacas . They are so cute.

We had a good show and met loads of Ravellers . It was good putting faces to Ravatars . Plus of course the " Gang " Ambermoggie , Mr Mog , Artis Anne and her other half Tony , who I've christened The Hobbit , no offence meant ;) He's the only man I've ever been eye to eye with as it were . And Krafty Kath , Annie and Tony's daughter.

I didn't buy much because to tell you the truth nothing really caught my eye except these . A huge bump of Deep Purple Organic Merino from John Arbon of Coldharbour Mill and two skeins of Wool and Silk sock yarn for my Summer socks .
We came home Sunday night as soon as we'd packed up , to avoid traffic . I drove none stop for three and half hours and that's where the Phlebitis comes in. Because I'd been on my feet all weekend and then the drive home without stretching my legs and my history of thrombosis I've developed Phlebitis on the inside of my right thigh. A trip to the docs this morning ended with a telling off , antibiotics and told that in future when I am working I MUST wear support tights :0(

On a brighter note readers of this blog will know about my struggle with my weight . If you look in the side bar the weight loss had ground to a big halt .Weeeell I've got a confession it not only ground to a halt I put half a stone back on .BUT last week I took myself in hand and rejoined Weightwatchers . Yesterday I went for my first weigh in and I've lost 4 lbs . Yeh !

It's five weeks to the hols so I'm hoping I'll be able to get into all my Summer clothes by then .

Paps Bear has joined me as well and he's lost 3lbs . It will be better for my leg if I get this weight off so that in itself is motivation . Wish me luck :0)

Recipe for dyeing a whole lot of Yarn

I've been a tad busy as you will see . After bidding a fond farewell to my son and family I rose early on Saturday morning and commenced the big dyeing job . Here is the " Recipe ".You take a whole pile of undyed yarn and fibre .

Several bottles of dye , which you mixed previously when everyone was out last week .

You splosh it all over said fibre and yarn ( forgot to take a pic of this bit )

Then you put it in the steamer to set the dye .

Then having chosen the sunniest weekend of the year you dry it outside . This BFL and Trekkin sock wool .

This is Merino / Tencel .

Then ,as the weather is still nice and you don't want to miss it you get your DH to put a table out in the garden and reskein all the dried yarn . Not forgetting the radio so that you can listen to The Archers while you wind :0)

When it's all rewound you gaze on it with relief that it didn't take as long as you thought it would . Everything is now ready for Wonderwool this weekend just a bit of labeling to do and load it all into the car .

See you all there .

Visitors from the South.

It's been rather hectic this week as we were invaded from the South by No 1 son and his boys and then No2 son's boy came to stay on Thursday . When you're used to being just two of you it's a bit of a shock when they come . We had a good time though . It was gorgeous yesterday afternoon so I treated them all to the Railway Walk .There were loads of butterflies about but I only managed to capture this Orange Tip .
Beautiful Wild Violets

Not sure what this tree is but it was absolutely covered in blossom.

No 1 son and No 's 1,2, and 3 Grandsons . Look how green everything is turning . It was only a few weeks ago there was no leaves at all .

The next generation .

I have never seen as many Cowslips as I have this year . All the way along the walk there are huge clumps .

And the gorgeous Meg sat amongst them .

More unknown blossom. I think it maybe crab apple but I'm not sure .

It was a lovely walk and the boys enjoyed running up and down in the fresh air . It was a nice end to their visit. The house was very quiet last night when they'd all gone .

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn to start my Dyeathon ready for Wonderwool . The results will be posted soon . I have done half and tomorrow I will hopefully finish it all off . I'm so glad the weather is with me as it all dries in no time .

I have just had a hot bath and now I have an appointment with a bottle of Rose . TTFN .
P.S Don't know if you've noticed I've taken the music off so you can read the blog in peace . Half the songs had starngely dissapeared anyway :0)

The Wanderers return .

We got back from Cumbria early Tuesday morning after a good weekend .We had to come home early as we had got family coming up to stay .The Gods were kind to us and sent us four days of sunshine and most importantly NO wind. It was ,however, blowing a Hooley when we got to the caravan site last Wednesday and we had quite a few heavy showers but at the time i didn't care we were back on the road again . I love being out in the caravan and both Papa Bear and I sleep like babies whenever we are away in it .

On the Thursday we went over to Johnby to see our friend Cae , who we haven't seen since we seen since last October. We caught up on all the gossip over a coffee . We then headed off to see the new Woolclip shop at Caldbeck.The had only moved across the courtyard but what an amazing difference .
This is the old mill workings , which is now a feature in the shop .

It's twice the size as the other . This pic was taken from not quite the back and you can see how far away DH was . Note the comfy settees to sit and knit if you want . And for the first time ever I did not buy anything . I'm saving my pennies for Woolfest . Aren't I good ????

On Friday we set up the stall for the four day fair . The new stands worked great and everything went up double quick time. We had visits from friends , Amber and Mr Mog came on Friday , Angeldust , from Ravelry came on Saturday and Tessaknits also from Ravelry came on Monday .

All the wools and fibres. We had some good sales and we ended the weekend in profit. I think we'll go back next year , if it's still on . Mal and Janet did a great job organising the fair at such short notice and we will support them as much as we can .

Now just a few random pics of Cumbria.

This is Silloth promenade taken Sunday morning.

A lovely pastoral scene . This was the field next to the caravan site . How blue is that sky . The pic was taken about 5-30pm .

A lamb having it's tea.

I will leave you with the sun setting over the Solway.

I have got a huge work load ahead of me over the next week . Loads of yarn and fibre to dye . I've managed to tie all the yarn and all the dyes are mixed so as soon as the visitors have gone tomorrow it will be nose to the grindstone so to speak .

Ready , Steady , Go!!!

I don't how I've done it but I have , everything is ready . The car's loaded , the caravan 's loaded and every thing finished.Apart from a few bits to put in and do the fresh food shopping we're all ready to go . Unfortunately the weather forecast isn't brilliant and talking to Papa Bear last night this may be our last Easter Craft Fair outside . The weather is just to unpredictable . Last year because Easter was so early we nearly died from hypothermia and the marquee all but blew down . It is a little warmer but Silloth is renowned for the wind . I've finished my shawl and I am so pleased with it . I am proud to say it is hand dyed , hand spun and hand knitted. The body of the shawl is Shetland , which was a dream to spin and the purple border was the batt I got for Christmas from the Secret Santa at S'N'B .
It started off as a Swallowtail Shawl but I realised the pattern was only for a capelet so I just carried on and did my own thing . This is a close up of the coloured.

I also managed to get some batts made yesterday for Wonderwool , so that's one job less to do when I get back . TTFN and I will post about Easter when we get back .

Don't panic ,Captain Mainwaring !!!!!

Don't Panic !! The words often shouted to Captain Mainwaring by Corporal Jones on Dad's Army . Well I am, panicking that is .This has been one heck of a week trying to get things finished for Easter at Silloth Craft Fair . Going to collect the caravan from caravan hospital ( don't ask ) Going to see if we could find a new one . Cleaning and sorting said van out and doing all the shopping to restock it to go away .Luckily the weather has been fine to get it done . Yesterday was spent printing new price labels for everything and putting said labels on stuff . This morning has been spent loading the car . The weather forecast has given rain for tomorrow and as we have new stands and new boxes it needed time to decide what went where . Anyway it all seems to have gone in OK . I've now just got to remember what goes where :0)

Now the real panic is I haven't got enough yarn dyed for Wonderwool yet , there's still 5kilos to do . Which I knew about and had planned to set to when we got back buuuuut we are being invaded from the South . Number 1 son has decided to come up on the Tuesday with the Boys . He will stay Tues night go up to the Lakes Weds and back to stay with us Thurs . I couldn't say no as we haven't seen them since October . On top of that we have another Grandson coming to stay Thurs and Fri . Wonderwool is the following weekend but we will leave here on the Friday .

So I am going to PANIC big time !!!!!!!!!!!

On a lighter note look what the postie brought on Wednesday , my new baby .

Everybody seems to be naming their wheels lately so meet "Wilbury " so called because he's a Traveller . ( Traveling Wilburys ... Super Group .... Bob Dylan .. Roy Orbison et al )
Well I thought it was good anyway :0)

I 'm quite pleased with myself about getting this wheel . I didn't do my usual of I want I get on the plastic . I liquidated some of my assets that haven't been used or read for ages so beating the credit crunch.

Right I'm off to finish getting ready for next week , Oh and I've got to make some Batts for Wonderwool as well . It's never ending