I've been a BAD blogger...

...In more ways than one! Apologies for the delay in posting, it's been a hectic week (and weekend) and I needed a bit of a break from typing. In typical fashion, my dedication to my crafts has resulted in injury, namely a ganglion in my right wrist whach has somewhat cramped my style for most of this week but more about that later.

Anyway, onto other naughtiness!
I may have spent a few of my Birthday pennies...

(Well, it was a deal too good to miss!). Fifteen balls of Wendy fusion in Allspice (I think!) for the pinwheel sweater and five each of saffron and the browny one to add to yarn I already have, one for the pattern shown, another for a future project. I love this yarn and have knitted 3 swaeters in it so far.

In knitting news, I completed my Mystic Light Shawl last week...


...after blocking, it grew, and grew and grew (a bit scary for a sock yarn)! Still, I am pleased with the finished effect, this is the yarn I dyed myself with Kool-aid some while back.

I do like the way the "flames" turned out, and even though there's four different colours in the yarn, it doesn't detract from the pattern so I'm pleased with the overall look...even if I can't fit it all in on a camera lens!
I didn't let wrist pain stop me from doing this though, washing a ginormous fleece (which was filthy by the way) and then 6 seperate stockpots of dye over the space of 2 days produced this colourful mass. Quite when I'll get around to preparing it is another matter, but it'll no doubt be another self-striping masterpiece when it finally gets on the wheel.

This was one of the culprits (the other being the transportation of 5 clear boxes with lids home from the local shops)..

...The result of weeks of woolcombing. It produces lovely yarn but it is rather wasteful, there's roughly 400g there from about 750g of washed fleece. Still, I do have 1 1/2 of these prizewinning Ryeland fleeces so there will be plenty for a sweater by the time I'm finished. The thing is that my mini combs are wrist intensive and it can take around half-an-hour to produce one of those little bumps so a target of 10 of these each day was a little optimistic!

I've reduced both my knitting and woolcombing time considerably to give my wrist a break, use a wrist support at certain times of the day and because it puts a fair bit of pressure on the wrist it has actually reduced the lump somewhat so it is more bearable now.

After I completed the Mystic Light Shawl, I wanted to cast on something for summer...

...it's Sirdar Calico, a cotton/acrylic yarn which is nice to knit with but unfortunately, I got about 4" in and totally went off knitting it! I'm in a bit of a DK rut at the moment and considering how many pairs of socks I've churned out recently am looking for a quicker knit.

That plus the fact that whenever I knit with cooler materials like cotton, the weather takes a turn for the worse means it might take longer than it could if I gave it my full attention. Still, it'll be ready for the cooler weather! I'm back to wool and socks from tomorrow as Summer of Socks begins in the hope that we get good weather for Woolfest (wool knitting + hot weather = uncomfortable!) which is less than a week away now. I'll be travelling down on the Thursday which will be another adventure but it'll be great to meet up with so many other crafters.

Maybe by Sunday I'll have a sock to show you. The first on the list will be The Monkey sock I was knitting for a friend. Yes, I started that a few weeks ago BUT...I've had to frog my one nearly finished sock right back to the yarn again! Too many mistakes, too many corrections, loadsa frustration. I want it finished and off the needles ASAP (or as least as fast as my wrist will let me!) so I can knit lots of other lovely patterns. 'Till then it'll be some more lovely cotton, yum ;(

Suffering for my Art (or blog to be precise...)

Considering quite how much I got through yesterday, I was lucky to get away with a stonking headache and stiff legs but these things must be borne in order to bring a little something special to the blog...namely the 5th International Kite Festival held nearby at New Brighton.

Bizarrely, it would have past me by but for a chance comment from my Mum when we visited them on Saturday. It had been my birthday 2 days previously (and a grand time was had by both, a meal and a movie made a fab day) and I was catching up and sharing a chinese meal with them. The previous year, we'd nipped over to the festival on the Sunday morning which was wet and windy and basically miserable but as the weather was very nice yesterday, I persuaded hub to drop me there on the way to his mates. Arriving early meant I could avoid the mad crowds that arrived in their droves later on and could get unrestricted photos just for you all...


...There were the static kites tethered and fluttering in the breeze, some wild 'n' wacky shapes...

...Some pretty stained-glass kites from a designer in Tasmania...

...and these colourful numbers looked like patchwork or woven crafts...

...There were stunt kites making amazing shapes in the air...

...And moored crazy shaped twirly things wheeling in the wind...

Over in the next area were some huge kites...



And I even managed to stay for the 60 second sprint where the kite highest in the air at the exact 60th second is the winner. This one didn't win, but what amazing workmanship!


After a pleasant hour covering the event for your delectation, there followed the hour-long walk home which, while relaxing to trundle along the side of the river, bacame a little arduous as the sun rose ever higher, I got a massive thirst and in typical forgetting my sunglasses a thumper of a headache...

...Not like I let that stop me whan I got home though...further fleece washing and the culmination of a rather early dyeing episode.

In some bizarre fashion I'd woke earlier than usual and raring to go so I was applying dye to these previously wetted skeins whilst hubbie was walking the dogs and they were merrily steaming away in the electric steamer whilst I went on my adventures. Taking advantage of the good weather, they dried outside shich meant that by this morning they were almost there. I had to try a more artistic showing this time!



Unusually for me, this is my first venture into more pastelly shades, I had a specific project in mind, namely the Rivendell sock pattern so was looking for a more semi-solid effect which would not drown out cable patterns. The yarns on the left and right are Knitpicks Gloss, a silk-and-wool yarn whilst the one in the middle is a luxury alpaca nylon number from Fyberspates. The left hand one will become Rivendell, a mixture of turquoise and 2 green dyes whilst the others will find their place in time.

It's been a bit of a motif of the week, actually as I got a wee bit of dyeing in on my birthday too...



...This is four skeins of Fyberspates merino-tencel yarn kettle dyed for Mystic Meadows shawl. There are slight variations within the skeins but nothing that would muddy any pattern. It's been an interesting yarn to dye as the tencel has not really absorbed the dye in the same way so it has a shimmering quality to it which is difficult to capture the true colours of on a photograph. This one's not bad though!

As I type, the kilo of raw Bleu-du-maine yarn that was washed yesterday has been split into 3 and is being kettle dyed in my stockpot. There will be 3 shades, turquoise, deep purple and possibly pink for a future self-striping yarn. Fingers crossed it doesn't felt into an unusable mass!



As we haven't had a poochie pic in a while, I thought I'd give you a little variation, a friend's brood, all Papillons, all trouble and unique personalities. Guess what they're waiting for?

Sunday Stash Special

In between a double fleece washing session today, I finally got around to photographing the holiday stash...I must be feeling better! The reason for taking so long was that in my post-holiday energy, I'd actually ferreted it all away in heavy boxes placed up high and the idea of retrieving them without doing myself a mischief took a while to get my head around. Anyway, no worse the wear, here they are...
...First, from Grassington itself, a teensy shop crammed with more cross-stitch and embroidery kits than I've seen in many a year...and some pretty yarn too! This is Brigantia pure wool DK, I was just hooked on the colour and it's nice and soft too, there should be enough for a sweater somewhere along the lines, however it is knitted, I'm sure it'll make something special...
...From Wednesday's adventure (Coldspring Mill to be precise); more red and purple mix 4ply wool sock yarn. There's also the same amount of a blue mix but it was such a ratty skein, it annoyed me so I wound it up and can't remember where I stored it!
3 Hanks of a fab blue mix pure wool Aran...I can't wait to find the right pattern for this one, there's a kilo of yarn though so plenty for whatever I choose.....
...More of that lovely blue (much nicer in the flesh) Cash Iroha and that Ganpi Abaka that I told you about, still haven't a clue what to do with it as it feels quite rough but cheap Noro is still cheap Noro!...

...And the Freedom Wool unbanded packs, It so happens I already have a smaller pack of the purple so around 1 kilo in weight total, again plenty for a sweater. One day I will drown in sweaters!

And from the Skep...

2 x 500g hanks of a fab chunky wool some of which just had to be balled straight away...
...And all these colours of 4ply sock wool.

Remember my cryptic reference to cows?

I saw the Super cow in the window of a shop in Grassington on the day we arrived...I'd never seen cow parade figurines before and I'd have never said they'd be something of interest to me...but being fond of the old comic books, it sort of had a link for me. There was also a blue? cow with a big pop-art style speech bubble on its side; instead of "KAPOW" is said " PA-KOW!".

There was a sign in the window saying there were reductions on them but the Super Cow had a price tag of £50 so I mulled it over all holiday. On Friday after the walk I went in and asked about the price on the Super Cow, it was half price!!! So, as I'd considered spending it's full price, I picked up a couple more...the meditating cow (he'll go well with the buddhas) and a guard cow...dog references etc.

Since I've been home, I've looked them up on ebay a few times but as I have neother the room or the wish to clog up the house with yet more stuff that's not yarn and therefore has potential use, they'll only be bought on birthdays/christmas etc. to keep the numbers down. There's a Chocoholic cow that seriously speaks to me but is nowhere to be found , Alphadite, goddess of shopping ;-) a London Bus painted cow and a few others...I just love the humour and the fact that there's so many there'll always be something you can relate to!

Even though the weather was lousy, we went out for a wee trundle this afternoon to Brimstage; the Country Mouse for a fabled scone (plain) with jam and cream and Meringue with cream and Butterscotch sauce for him, followed by a mooch around Voirrey and picking up reduced books (Jaeger Fur and Rowan Classic Alpaca); a few reduced patterns and Noro Designer Mini Knits, a pleasant hour or so for all.

There is knitting on the horizon but you'll have to wait 'till next time for that one!