and.sew.to.knit

The 2 x 2 ribbing of Juno is coming along, I really want to wear this cardi when I go home in a weeks time, so far I have done the fronts and back and about 1/4 of a sleeve, think I will make it?

I do of course want it to match a skirt and t-shirt that are not yet made, the skirt in fact is still a little idea bouncing around in my head and am not sure how I will go about it. Of course this is not really a problem is it??

I am enjoying being away from home, except for the lack of sewing machines and bits and bobs, like a ruler and a niddy-noddy, well I can’t pack everything, I only have a little car and it was full of boys and dog!

The dog who lives in the house has abandonment issues, so I have been trying not to leave her for too long, so far she has eaten a plant and sicked it up on the doormat. Emptied the bin as I stupidly forgot the child lock on the cupboard one night AND stole and ate 1lb of cheddar that a boy left on the table……cheddar is a rarity and a much loved treat, so she was in the bad books that day.
Not sure if she shared it with Jonah or not, he wasn’t telling, apparently she had cheese breath and he didn’t but I wasn’t getting that close.

I don’t have any photos of current wips, I have washed and dried my december Party Dress fibre and boy is it bright, next up some lovely green batts for someones birthday.

I will leave you with some photos of parcels that arrived recently, this came from Amelia in exchange for a skein of yarn the same as the one she lost.
Gorgeous stuff, the lip gloss is particularly yummy and the bath thing smells divine.

This is from Jacqueline in exchange for swapping dye lots of some other yarn,

this was my thank you and its just my colour, there was also a box of amazing truffles but they didn’t make it into the photo as I had to hide them, they were of the non-sharing variety! Thank you both very much.
I’m off to get back to the dogs and the knitting, more soon……

It is indeed the february “ski” holiday, two whole weeks of children home from school.
We are currently hiding out at a friends house, a few kilometres up “the hill”, it has a fab view over the city and is very calm and peaceful. This is in part due to the fact its a big sprawly kind of house and when the kids disappear, you can’t hear a thing, bliss. So I have been spinning, knitting and catching up with some british telly. Now considering I haven’t seen UK soaps since 2002, what on earth is going on in Emmerdale?
It is the house where the dogs think the sofa belongs to them, so yesterday I did spend quite a bit of time sandwiched between a Rhodesian Ridgeback and a Labrador, it was a bit chilly, so I think they were just trying to keep me warm. Of course as soon as I moved they just spread out a bit, cheeky dogs….
I finally started knitting Juno from Rowan 40, I bought the yarn for this, Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran in a lovely blue colour, on a shopping trip at Libertys with Yvonne. It is knitting up pretty fast, though the yarn is a bit hard on my hands, I am hoping it will be better when washed.
I finished spinning up my december fibre from Amy, it is very bright and will make some more very loud socks. No pics though. More soon……

Alpaca

This little piece of fibre was sent along with my order from Jeni, it spun up soo, sooo soft.

I am running way behind with everything, I spent the last week sick, with this horrible gastro virus. I have not been that ill for a very long time. The only good thing to come out of it was the little bit of weight that I lost…..

So the panto costumes are coming along with lots of help from Jamie, his new machine is pretty cool, I am a little jealous.

I did manage a little bit of knitting, I started these, with this handspun

and they are looking lovely, pics soon.

Christmas was a very quiet affair, New Year in Scotland was great, I got to meet up with some lovely people and spend some time doing things I love.
Like taking this mucky faced girl to the beach!

This is Nelly, she is Jonah’s little sister and belongs to my Mum, she is a very sweet girl. This is Jonah sulking as he didn’t like his xmas bow too much…..

We came back home with some horrible bugs so have spent the last week with 4 sick guys, I am avoiding everyone, as I am determined not to catch the various lurgies they are all carrying. I am not a very good nurse, I just want them to die quietly in their rooms, take the meds and get better soon.

We are in full panto mode, learning lines, oh no, you aren’t, oh yes, you are, at least I am learning lines, not sure if Jordans are sticking in his head though.
We have done the undergarments for the costume, so far we have used a foam football and a foam rugby ball, you can use your imagination till I get pictures!

I finally finished the Christmas knitting, only a little late!

I haven’t finished Jims birthday jumper though, I did show him all the parts so he now knows about it, so no more secret knitting, phew.

I am going to organise my wips and sort out what I am going to knit for me, very soon. And I have a couple of sewing projects to do once all the panto stuff is out the way, more soon.

Way before Christmas I signed up for the Pay it Forward on Heathers blog.
Here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift (probably not knitting) to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I will do this within the next 6 months.

And finally, a little spinning, this was my reward for doing all the laundry, a little spinning in between loads, well I had to have something, I hate holiday laundry. This is the bfl I dyed with the ladies from the french spinning forum, I have about 200m 2ply, drying, I think I will knit something for my friends birthday as it is very bright, pictures soon.

I have no idea where the last few weeks have gone, things here have been nuts, people sick, people off work, working stupid shifts etc, etc, my normal routine is all to pot.
So very little knitting going on, as I overdid both the knitting and the wirework when I was beading and as a result have a bit of tendonitis.
I am currently knitting just a little at a time as it still hurts, though not as much.
I am so behind with xmas shopping and really am not in the christmas spirit at all.
I have nothing for no3 son, poor boy and the knitted monkee he asked for still only has one leg!
I did manage to find this for no1 son, yes it is his, though I have had a little play with it and I think I might just love it.
It is very old and was a complete ebay bargain from an extremely old lady, who was very sad to see it go but happy that someone younger was going to love it.
Jamie not me ;0)

And I finally went out wearing my coat at the same time as someone else was home to take photos, he is of course the worst photographer in the house and this is really the best one out of about 30 photos.
I have been wearing my coat loads as it is freezing here but no snow.
I do need a hat though.

Hope you are all finished your gift knitting, I will be by the time I leave on the 29Th, I am sure.
I now have to go and plan food, I asked the boys to help, so they used up a whole pad of post-it notes in about 7 different books and it looks like I am supposed to make 29 different kinds of cake!
I’m off to have a little catch up with you all, tchao…..

At this time of year the boys are always playing some mad online game, usually involving snowballs and elves, this year we have everyone hooked on this
and for a bit of light entertainment, which appeals to the boys, you could try out this one.

So apart from playing silly online games there has been some knitting, Juliet no3 is coming along, I sized this down for my niece who is 7 and it is looking okay.

Part of a christmas sock.

A little spinning, the second half of my October fibre, so in total I have about 115m.

Next up is the fibre I dyed with the Forum de Filage ladies, I want this to be for socks.

And lastly Novembers fibre arrived and it will have to wait, probably till after Christmas.

Today I am fighting the shopping crowds to do some glasses shopping with no2 son who needs reading glasses, that should be a fun outing!

The big sewing project was indeed a coat, which I have been wearing, just not when there was someone to take a photo, maybe later I can persuade one of the boys to take one, I love it, it is soooo cosy. I do need a hat to wear with it though, that means one more project, well, whats one more onto the list!

This is the very bizarre sky from the beginning of the week, someone said it looks like something from an episode of star trek.

The shawl all blocking and pretty.

Today’s wip, not sure how far I am going to go with it, I usually stop before things go over the top, I think this time I will go with more is good, rather than less.

This weeks dog entry, you might be fooled into thinking that he just wanted to be close to me, when in reality, I was resting my wheel on an Ikea bathmat, Jonahs mat of choice! I must buy a couple more…..

Have a good weekend….tchao

Well, Saturday was fun, I dragged my overlocker and machine to the boys old primary school to sew some fleece hats and scarves for their christmas fair. They are fundraising for a trip. It was a good laugh and I met some very nice women. I did come home with my head spinning as the language switched from french to english all morning till I didn’t know which way was up. I find it very hard to listen and multi-task in two different languages.

Sunday was all french, all spinning and dyeing, so all new vocabulary. I met up with 6 french spinners through this forum.
We spent a lovely day dyeing some roving,

and checking out all the different types of wheel and fibres that they all had.

I had to leave the house at 6.45am, had to listen and speak french all day and caught the train home at 5.20pm, I was so exhausted I could hardly talk when I got home but it was so worth it.
This is my part of the roving all dry.

With my few hours on the train I managed to finish this shawl that has been hanging about as a WIP since about february I think.

Its the Forest Canopy shawl in Plassard Alpaga, 1.5 skeins on 5mm needles. It is blocking now, picture when its dry.

Still chugging along on the christmas knitting, nothing exciting or finished.
Today I have to buy more black wool for another skull hat and finish up Octobers fibre before Novembers arrives.
I also have to do some Jean shopping for a child whose legs have grown a few inches, do you think it is possible for only legs to grow?
More soon….tchao

and kinda drowning in knitting.
I am feeling a little stressed by the xmas knitting and really needed to get it in hand.
I finished up Juliet for my oldest niece, here it is all ready to be blocked and to find nice buttons for it.

I also finished up another boy hat, this was taken by the birthday boy, so no strike off the xmas list!

I managed a tiny bit of spinning, this is months fibre club, called goblins eyes.

I spun it as fine as I could and it is 108m of navajo plied.
Not sure what I will do with it but I kinda like it.

And finally I sewed together the baby jumper

With sparkly buttons

Saturday I am off to the boys old school to help with their sewing for a fundraiser, we are making fleecy hats and scarves.

I am off on Sunday to spin with a couple of french spinners, I think we are going to do some dyeing too, so am looking forward to that, you will see the results next week.
Have a good weekend….tchao

My baby is 18 years old today, here he is doing his best babysitting job a week ago with his new cousin.

The boys were busy making a cake a la Yarnstorm, unfortunately it took a turn for the worse and it turned into a fort(chocolate fingers) guarding the king(jaffa cakes) with guards(bounty bars) and dogs(sweets), not at all photogenic but apparently very yummy!! Oh, and fun….what more can I ask……