Andeans , Navajos and Woolworths .

We had an At Home Day yesterday . Artis-Anne and her DH were up from Wales and staying with the Moggs , so they all came round yesterday for lunch . Unfortunately Amber wasn't feeling very well and after lunch headed home . Annie and DH stayed a while longer.

I learnt two new skills yesterday as well .Annie showed me how to use the Andean Plyer Papa Bear had bought me for Christmas .The spinners amongst you will know what it is . For non spinners , this is a nifty little gadget that enables you to make use of all the singles spun onto a bobbin , instead of wasting several metres of yarn , which usually happens once you finish plying.
After lunch , when the boys had taken the dogs out , Annie showed me how to Navajo ply . The pic above is the end result and I am so pleased with it . Navajo plying enables you to ply using one bobbin of single spun yarn, instead of plying two singles together .
It was lovely spending the day with like minded people and was a great pity Amber was feeling poorly .

This is some Falkland Island roving which Annie dyed for me for Christmas .

Unfortunately my stupid camera doesn't do the colour justice . Hopefully once I've spun it the pics will show the colours better .

Well that's the Andeans and the Navajos taken care of i want to talk about Woolworths.

Today me and DH went to town to browse round the sales and we found that our local Woolworths was one that closed down yesterday. This shop has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Saturday morning trips up town with my Mum and sister always included a visit to Woolworths for an orange drink and very occasionally we would be treated to a small toy off the sixpenny toy counter.

These two little characters were purchased for Christmas in 1956 and cost the said sixpence each . Every year my Mum got them out and they stood on the mantlepiece during the festive season. When she died , ten years ago , I rescued them from the cupboard when her house was being cleared and they now have pride of place in my home at Christmas .
It's a great pity that institutions like Woolworths have been beaten by all these out of town retail parks and have gone the way of all the little local shops .

Secret Santas

Last night was Secret Santa Night at Preston Stitch'n ' Bitch..and as Papa Bear is the only male member he was nominated Santa and gave out all the pressies .
By a strange coincidence I got Black Purl in the draw and she got me . Spooky.
Here she is wearing the mitts I made for her .

And this what she got me . A lovely coil of hand dyed Merino . It's more purple than the pic shows . I don't think my camera likes purple cos every time I take a pic in this colour it comes out more blue than purple .

We had a lovely night , lots of laughs. It was our last meeting ,for now, as we have shows to do before Christmas but we are looking forward to the New Year and having loads of laughs .

I have been very remiss not posting this pic sooner . I did a swap with Artis Anne
for one of my Box Bags and this is what I got in return . Isn't it gorgeous ( i do use that word rather a lot ) isn't it scrumptious , yummy , fabulous , whatever ,take your pick . I LOVE IT .

It is my favourite fibre , Blue Faced Leicester and I'm saving it to spin over Christmas .
Anne is coming up in between Christmas and New Year and is going to teach me the secrets of Navajo plying so I'm hoping to get it spun into singles by then :0))) Watch this space .

What a busy week :-))

I have had rather a busy week . Apart from the little bit I put on here on Sunday i haven't had time to blog. I've finished all the felt Christmas decs for the stall , 300 all together . Just a few bits to do and that's it . if I sell out , I sell out.

I've not just been busy making stuff though . We were out Thursday night at Preston S'N'B . Then we got invited out Friday night , to Ambermoggie's .

Artis-Anne and her other half were up from the wilds of Wales , so the 6 of us had really good evening , chatting and knitting and generally putting the knitting world to rights .

We don't usually go out in the evening and both these events wouldn't have happened if I hadn't joined Ravelry , an online knitting community . We've met so many new people since joining. This is a log basket :-) what do you put in a log basket . Logs ???
Nooo. Knitting . Lots of it .

And if you've got two , you fill the other with rovings for spinning.
The first one was a damn bargain at the local Dunhelmn , £9-99. The other was brought back from Somerset. They're great and keep everything together.
Now for some busy pictures.

This is what I've been making . Handy project bags and needle holders for knitters.

I've got lots of gorgeous fabrics to make some more.

I've knit these. I'm using Blue Faced Leicester DK and it's like knitting butter.

and I've knit these , using Jacob's wool in an Aran weight.

I've also knit two more pairs of socks but forgot to take pics before I took them to the farm shop . Not a bad weeks work . Amber says it's because the moon is waxing that I'm so productive. We'll see what happens next week when it's on the wain.

I've had the results from the Xray, I had two weeks ago , on my poorly shoulder. Everything is fine . There is no Arthritis , thank God , it's just muscular. The doc offered me a Cortisone injection :-(( which i declined . Me and needles don't go together ,unless they have knitting on them :-))) So he suggested Physio , to which i agreed :-). But when I went to the reception to book it , i was told there was a waiting list of about 13 weeks :-( . I said it would probably be better by then . So last night I had a session with the hot wheat bag and DH rubbed it with muscular rub aaand this morning it felt much better :-))) . So as it's nothing to do with my bones ,I'm going to carry on with that .