Wooly stuff

Warning; This post was written ages ago and has been slumbering in the draft box, waiting for the photos to be uploaded, so beware, there will be another post coming soon!!

I've finally taken some photos of my Forest Canopy shawl, that I finished early September. It was a really easy pattern but as the number of stitches increased, knitting even one row became a bit of a marathon! I was keen to finish it as I used my own handspun merino and silk yarn in a bright, zingy, orangey, tomatoey colour, and so for me it was finished pretty quickly!!

I'm quite pleased with the result and I do feel a sense of achievement making something from a bag of fluff. But I must spin more evenly! When knitting the shawl, the wool thickness varied from lace weight to super chunky in the space of 10 stitches, so I need some practice!!

I also was at In Stitches, Beckys knitting cafe, on Friday, where Carrie kindly guided me through a crochet pattern, with much (needed) patience may I add, thanks Carrie!! And when the knitting cafe finished, Becky,Bev,Carrie and I found a local cafe for a coffee, bacon sarnie and, as you can imagine, just a little talking!! All in all, a lovely day!

And I must post this picture of Alfie, who managed to climb to the highest point in the dog basket, that is on top of Paddy, to lie in the sunshine!

Brass bands and belly dancers!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being around all things sheepy! And I don't include Carrie and Becky in that description!!
It was the weekend of Masham sheep fair and the weather was glorious for late September. Carrie and I met up with Becky and her girls and spent the whole day oooing and aaahing over various breeds of sheep, fleeces and fibres.
We watched the sheep race, (or should I say we watched a man running with a bucket of food in front of four sheep and three men behind them trying to stop them from running back to the pen, not always successfully) sheepdogs rounding up ducks and geese, brass bands and bellydancers and even found time to have a fab picnic in the autumn sunshine.
I was so pleased that we met up with the wonderful Artis-Anne and Tony, ( many thanks to Amber for passing on the S. O. S.!!) it was so nice to see them again and as usual, I could have spent all day chatting to them. Daniela from FeltStudioUK was spinning her wonderful art yarns and I just couldn't resist some of her gorgeous fibres. And I just HAD to buy a 'Know your sheep ' book after puzzling over the many and varied breeds on show!
The day was rounded off with a lip lickingly scrummy ice cream with a special low calorie flake! (Gone off on a chocoholic tangent now, low calorie flakes, mmmm! wish there were such things, apart from in my imagination!!)
So all in all, it was a brill day, with good company, good food, good weather and when I got home exhausted, it was Goodnight!!

Out Of Quarantine!

I'm now officially swine flu free and to celebrate the fact, we took off on a last minute camping trip to Ullswater! Yes I did say camping, not the luxury of the caravan or even a tent that you could sit up in but a tent about the size of a coffin! It was supposedly a 2 man size tent but I'm thinking of sueing them under the Trade Descriptions Act!! It was very cosy, cramped, snug and any other euphamisms for too bloody little!! We were like sardines in a tin but with not as much space! But it was so funny! My highlight of the trip was lying in the tent, watching Ian as he tried to take his shoes off and get in without a) kicking me b) rupturing a disc c) putting his head through the tent or d) waking the campsite with loudly expressed expletives!! It took me 10 minutes to stop crying with laughter. Luckily the weather was glorious and while Ian and the dogs went walking, I sat and knitted!

Late evening on Ullswater

I'm still on with the Forest Canopy shawl that I'm knitting using my handspun merino/silk yarn. I'm pleased with it so far but the yarn is more 'rustic' than I would have liked!! I'll hopefully get it finished while we are in Cornwall, which is very soon, this Friday in fact. We are going in the caravan( luxury!) for two weeks, staying near Perranporth , so fingers crossed for good weather!

I'm off now to start the mammoth list writing that precedes any of our holidays! I'll leave you with a pic of Ian, Paddy and Alfie after their Helvellyn expedition last weekend! Maybe the tent should be recategorised, 1 man, 2 dog size!!

Surprise!!

Yes it is me! Honest!
I can't believe where the time has gone since I last blogged! But I just had to say what a fantastic time I had at Woolfest, along with Carrie, Becky, ArtisAnne, Krafty Kath,Bev and several hundred others!! I spun, knitted and talked to lots of fellow fibre freaks, laughed till I cried, buggered up Ians sock cos I couldn't concentrate and generally fondled lots of fleeces!! And that was before we even got to Woolfest!!
Woolfest was fab, as always but the greatest pleasure of Woolfest for me, is meeting up with friends, new and old, listening to and sharing experience and laughing till my face ached!
So thank you to all those I shared my Woolfest experience with, long may it continue!!