Spinning, chatting and relaxing

Saturday was my first visit to our spinners, weavers and dyers guild meeting since last October. What a relaxing day! We were learning to do longdraw spinning which I don't find very easy but it was so therapeutic - picking up a handful of raw fibre, carding it into beautiful cloudy rolags and watching them turn into yarn - just like magic. There's a tranquility about spinning that you can't get from anything else (and I'm not even very good at it!).

A woman's work is never done

Hold the last post - bathroom cleaning detail calls. I'm sure Debbie Stoller doesn't have to interrupt her stitch 'n' bitching to don Marigolds and climb in the bath barefoot to scrub the tiles! Maybe one day I shall employ a "woman what does" (no, actually, I think I shall have a "man what does" - equal opps and all that).

Sock-a-holic!

Have just signed up to tutor a study day/workshop for the Knitting & Crochet Guild on (yes, you guessed it), sock knitting! The hardest thing was finding a venue, but I've booked a lovely little church with a very nice comfy lounge, so it looks like we're all systems go for 19th April. Updated details should be on the Knitting & Crochet Guild site soon http://www.knitting-and-crochet-guild.org.uk/education/study_days.html. Everyone will be getting a skein of hand-dyed alpaca sock yarn to take home so I now have the perfect excuse to try out some more new hand-dyed shades. Workshop here I come.....

Kool Aid, hand-dyed, toe-up alpaca sock

And just the one, rather lonely, toe-up sock (needs a bit of work, so doesn't have a mate yet - hence its rather pigeon-toed, naked partner). It's our hand-dyed alpaca/nylon sock, dyed with Kool Aid and I can't resist dyeing it! I won't have any undyed left for our sock kit at this rate! (But I will have toastie feet).

New shades - Hand-dyed Bluefaced Leicester aran

Busy moving furniture out of the living room in anticipation of new carpet, so just a quick snap of the hand-dyed shades which I've picked for the Bluefaced Leicester aran...

Simply Knitting

My copy of Simply Knitting arrived yesterday and it dawned on me why I was so busy last month. I'm so excited as I have two patterns, an article and a yarn featured in the magazine! Yippee! Seeing my work in print makes all those nights knitting away into the wee small hours completely worthwhile. Pete has, of course, summarised it much more eloquently than I ever could, so if you are curious to find out more, check out his news story back at the shop http://www.dtcrafts.co.uk/news/archive/2008/2008-01-01.html

As a treat, I rewarded myself with a full day dyeing yesterday (no, not a typo, actually getting out my yarn and dyes and putting colour to skein!). It was bliss! My latest project is toe-up socks so I was cooking up some new shades to show off a couple of new designs I've got whizzing around my head. Will post a couple of mini-pics later (if I can find the camera).

Christmas and New Year

After a frantic spell in the run-up to Christmas with orders still coming in on Christmas Eve, I was all set to put my feet up until New Year. It was a lovely surprise, therefore, to be straight back in the thick of it come Boxing Day and it was back out with the packing tape, staples and catalogues ready for the post office re-opening on 28th! No rest for the wicked!

Christmas was lovely, being back in our own home and enjoying our creature comforts (even if we did have to hide huge piles of unpacked boxes under large sheets when visitors came!). Our new blinds arrived just in time so we didn't have to bring in the New Year with newspapers stuck up at the windows. Our own bedroom even has curtains now (ok, so they are recycled curtains rescued from the dust-sheet pile but the colour was such a good match it seemed a shame not to use them!). The downstairs loo even has blinds so it's all starting to look very civilised. Crossing my fingers now for the new carpet due on 7th and then we can start on the living room.....

Santa delivered some lovely new books so I must have been a good girl last year - indigo dyeing, fabric decoration and felting, so heaps of inspiration (just need to find the time now - wish you could buy that on ebay). Lots of yummy treats from the Lush shop (the best smelling shop in the world) will see me spending (even more) time in the bathroom - good job we now have two! I'll need them too if my "do more exercise" resolution pans out (sorry, probably a bit too much information there). As I re-visit this one every year, I don't hold out much hope but who knows....?