Mellow Autumn

What an incredibly varied year we have had.  Autumn is proving no exception.  Mellow and glorious.

My consultant was reassuring.  Apparently I am not waiting to get worse, but making the most of not getting worse.  Mixed feelings.  I certainly am focused on living and staying as fit and healthy as I possibly can.  I am young enough and fit enough to be put forward for a bone marrow transplant when the time comes.  This can extend time for quite a while once you have got over the treatment.  Encouraging.

In the mean time I felt I just had to get away to breathe.  So down to Dorset for a day.  Wonderful.

I came back with renewed energy and positivity.  Healing.

I have been busy making these notion pouches.  Using up lots of bits and giving me a purpose and focus.  I have a Christmas Fair booked at the end of November, so I am hoping that these will make good gifts.

 

 

Busy Easter

This has been a gorgeous Easter!  Apart from Easter day when the rain fell earnestly, it has been gorgeous!  I have been very busy.  I had a long awaited clear out.  I had to clear out a lot of things which were still damp from the flooding.  I had to tidy up and sort things out.  One of my daughters helped me which is such a supportive thing to do!  Clearing out can be emotional and very tiring.  We worked all day and had an enormous bonfire which was very cleansing in an odd sort of way. 

The dogs decided that all this busyness was infectious and they decided to start improving the garden.  So they got together and decided that what the garden really needed was a pond.

So they dug one.  This has the advantage of doubling up as a useful hole or a pond when it rains!!  Result!

Then 2 of them thought they could plant something in the hole, but they could not decide which way up it should go.  This took some time and resulted in many little options!!  The ‘pond’ is now big enough to place the terrier in without being noticed.  Work in progress..

I have been dying.  LOTS!!  Now I am trying to dry!  The cottage is FULL of wet wool in various forms!  The smell is not as good as the appearance!

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Wonderwool next weekend!

Emerging….

Post Unravel bug post.

O my!  What a bug!  Full frontal attack.  Still hopelessly weak and disorientated.  I thought it was just a really nasty cold and tried to work through it as you do!  BUT I was beaten and laid flat.  Central nervous system attacked and I am only just out of crawling position.  Hence the lack of puppy up dates!

First things first though!  LOOK at this:

Ascalon by Christelle Nihoul (Ravelry) in a semi solid and handpainted from my new spins.  LOVE it!!

Also had MORE new spin back which is ANOTHER stunning yarn!

PLUS this is also finished:

Marion by Andi Satterlund.  In one of the new aran weight spins, and it only took 3 skeins!!  And I have some left over! Size 36″.  Great to knit, really quick and easy without being boring, even in this semi-solid ink colour! (Also on Ravelry).

Now off to take pics of puppies to finish this post and let you see what you all want to see!!

This boy has stolen my heart TOTALLY UTTERLY and shamelessly.  HOW did I not see him coming???

These girls have been selected and reserved.  Lurcher people always come back for more when they loose their friends,  Once you have had a lurcher, you always have a lurcher shaped space in your life which only a lurcher can fill!  There is something about the breed which is totally addictive.  Lurchers tend to be one of 2 things flat out or flat out!!

This lot are lively and opinionated now and becoming full time work!  Good job they make me laugh so much!!

Progress….

Yesterday there were blue skies!!

And spring is on it’s way….

 I was infatuated with the combination of colours, so had the urge to fit in the last day to dye before UNRAVEL next weekend.

I finished the yarn I spun

Blocked a sample

And watched the dogs enjoy the sun!

And I just made you read to this point before showing you the most important progress of all!!

 

Cheerful Spin

As promised I have some pics of the plied spin of my new dyed rovings.  This particular one is Blue Faced Leicester.  I plied it this morning and think that the colours have worked really well.  I chose 2 different rovings which were based around similar colour palettes.  They have differences which are enough to make some colours suddenly ‘pop’ out, while keeping the same feel to the overall local colour.

I am pleased (but it does not take alot these days!)  Basically no wet does it for me!!  This cheers me up!

Not sure what I am going to do with it?  Knit?  Crochet?  Or just squish for a while…

 

 

 

 

Pups and Spins

First things first!  Just look at what arrived this morning after a very long night…..

 

9.  Yes NINE!!! 

 

SO proud and pleased

 

At the beginning of the week I spent a long long day (until midnight) dying some roving.  I am pleased with the results.

 

 

So please in fact that I want to spin it all!!  So allowed myself 2 lots of BFL.

 

When my new bobbins arrive I will ply them and show you the results.

 

This all makes the year so far not so bad.  To date the barn is broken as is the dog (not the mum), the microwave, the washing machine, the spin dryer, the tumble dryer and the car (impressively all by Feb 4th).  We are flooded YET AGAIN and the roof leaks.  But now we have 9 perfect puppies and all seems well!

Recent work

Look at what using my bits turned out to be!

The pattern was found on Ravelry and it by Helene Rush.  It is called Taking Flight.  And this is indeed what it feels like!  I LOVE it!  But now I want to use ALL my bits up to see how the colours work into each other!!

 

AND NOW FOR THE BIG BIG BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!  This is earth shattering as far as i am concerned! 

Drum rooooooooollllllllllllllllllll…………………………………………………

I have completed my 2nd crochet project!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

This has been undone and cried over more times than I care to remember.  BUT I persevered and now its here!!!  Just a few ends to sew in and its really really here!!  I can hold it!  I finished it!  I made this!!!

Amanda Perkins Lorna Doone shawl.  Natural Dye Studio.  Genius!  I used Jamiesons spindrift in different colours for each motif so that I could see where I was (my first attempt went hopelessly wrong cos i got so confused!).  And this worked!

Insignificant news to those of you who find crochet easy but to me this is monumental!  Probably out there with the 2013 achievement lists!  I for one shall be leaving 2013 with a great big silly smile on my face!

There is one more thing which I will write for the record as it made my long hot smelly summer SO worth while!  All the fleece I cleaned via the fermenting method has turned out better than anything I have ever done before.  The fleece is SOFT SOFT SOFT and the yeild was significantly up scouring this way.  So although no one else in the world probably cares much at all, in my life it counts and i am very pleased!!

 

Early Autumn Inspirations!

What a glorious start to autumn this year! I feel optimistic and inspired which may not be a good thing for my family! The colours in early turn are gorgeous and they have inspired lots of action on the knitting front.

Here are some new designs and new colourways and inspirations ………

I also recovered from my single crochet attempt which turned into a bathmat. The bathmat is successful since it lies beautifully flat if you stand on it! Result!!

Now I am on to new pastures. I saw the Lorna Doone shawl from Natural Dye Studio and I love it. Being a mostly wild child at heart, everything appeals about this design including the name. So for my second attempt I am trying this. As a ‘ps’ I think possibly one should have crocheted a bit more before attempting this! I have reduced the time on a motif from one and a half days to 4 hours now! And have completed in my fashion 8!! This may be my life times work since there are a lot of motifs in the shawl! BUT I still want it and so will plod on…………..

Some summer.

This morning I dressed for winter.

The skies were overcast, and rain was drizzling down, unrelenting. It was as if the weather had no regard for the fact that it is mid-August, and thus, on all counts, the middle of summer.

Alas, I pulled on jeans and a jumper and ambled off to work.

The day passed, and I gave no more thought to Britain’s cruel and taunting weather systems. I stepped out of work none the wiser, but ho, BLUE SKIES were there to meet me.

I dashed back out to our rural abode, and we did what we always do, and took the pack out for a walk.

 

The only interruption to the tranquillity of the Somerset countryside was the determined parping of my mother’s wellies. With every second step, the most almighty farting noise would escape from what she claimed were her aged rain boots.

Birds were singing, grasses rustling, and lo, the trump of rubber on rubber.

 

The perfect way to unwind from work, no?

How green is green?

My walk this evening with the dogs. I love green. Is it any wonder? To me it is obvious why I hand paint yarn! Nothing in nature is a flat single colour. These are my surroundings, just out of my back gate. These beautiful myriad of colours change every day and every season all of the time. This is my influence. This is my visual inspiration. These are the colours I choose, sometimes in the details, sometimes in the shadows, sometimes in the full sun and sometimes just because they are there.

   

Dad and pup off exploring in the stream. Pup and mum walk home. Pup has adventures in the long grass. All the dogs enjoying the cooler evening, beautiful light and long cool grasses.

Perfect way to spend an evening.