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!

Emptier Nest!

:( One of my chicks has left the nest, and flown all the way to Ayr in Scotland.
Well when I say flown, Ian didn't drive that fast, probably because we were so laden with 'essential stuff'' he couldn't have even tried! It was a miracle it all fitted in! All those years of going camping and trying to fit everything including the kitchen sink into a small car, obviously paid off! Anyway, Tom's settled in and is looking forward to his course in countryside management, but the house seems so empty, especially as Kate is never in! Speaking of Kate, she finally got an interview for an admin post after hundreds of applications, and she got the job! Its only for a few months, but its a start.

Amongst all the mayhem ,I somehow got the string bag finished last week. I really enjoyed knitting it, it's so simple you don't have to think, which suits my brain at the moment!

It stretches loads, the picture shows it with a BIG box of cornflakes in and there was still lots of space. Have a look at Queen Of The Froggers version in the bright orangy yarn, it looks fab!

I've decided to start pressie knitting for Christmas too. I'm in the process of knitting an item using some Posh Yarn Lucia for one project, but can't reveal what or for whom! And today, my order from Dragon Yarns came with the Dalegarn Halk, so now I'm ready to start a hat for my brother.

I'm going to attempt They Call Em Pirates! I've never tried fairisle before, but I'm looking forward to trying it. Any tips gratefully received!!

My Pomatomus sock was coming along fine too UNTIL I tried it on!

I'd rounded the heel and thought the foot was looking a bit tight, so carefully tried to put it on and found they were TOO SMALL!!! AARRRRGGGG!! My big fat size sevens just wouldn't squeeze in no matter how I wiggled the DPN's and in disgust I pulled them off the needles and sent it to the big frog pond in the sky!! I've decided I like sock knitting best when I don't have to think about it, so I'm going to do some ordinary and boring plain ones! It probably won't last, especially as I love Kaths log cabin socks!

I finished spinning the Gotland I bought at Woolfest but I'm really disappointed with my spinning. I seem to naturally spin a very fine yarn and find it hard to spin thicker stuff, I start off OK but as my concentration wavers, I seem to have a thin yarn default!! I feel the Gotland is spun way too thin and doesn't show the variation in colours like I had hoped. I also think I over twisted it when I plied it, so all in all I'm not a happy bunny!!

So I'm going to have to practise spinning thicker yarn. I wonder if it's because I find carding hard work and sub-consciously I'm trying to eek out the rolag?! I've just got drum carder envy I think!!
The garden is coming to the end of it's growing season now. At the weekend, we picked the last of the tomatoes and lettuce. The frost will get the green beans soon and there aren't too many courgettes left growing. But saying that, the Brussel sprouts are fattening up nicely and the leeks are getting bigger, so maybe it's not all over yet!