and.sew.to.knit

A pink flower to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month, I have been doing my bit, gently prodding all my friends to double check, book mammograms etc. So go on, do it today…

More pink, these feet are wearing anklets, handknit by me, in one of my first handspun yarns,

this fluff

became these.

Please excuse the terrible blurry photos, the weather was awful, I am sick with a horrible head cold and terrible sinus pain, so bending over was very painful.

Being sick did mean some knitting time, Juliet is finished, no photo as I have decided to give it as a xmas gift. I am now deciding if I want to knit smaller versions for my nieces for xmas, it is very cute.
We are on a serious gift budget this year as we are taking an unplanned trip to Scotland to visit family.
Jim’s dad is halfway through his chemo for cancer of the esophagus, it is very hard to deal with something like this, when so far away, especially as the decision to visit is a financial one, if only money was no object…….

I do have 3 nephews to give gifts to, not sure if they would appreciate anything knitted, any ideas anyone? They range in age from 15 to 8.

Off to drink tea and knit……

Well this is the sock yarn drawer.

and it holds 27 pairs of adult socks worth of yarn plus the 4 that are on the needles is 31, not too shabby, think I might need to knit socks a bit faster.
Though maybe not if the other guesses are anything to go by, it will take me a little while to get up to 70!!!

So we will have 2 winners, poshyarns and spinningfishwife, thank you all for entering and for sending me birthday wishes, they were much appreciated.
Hope you all have a good weekend, off to sort out prizes as the sock yarn is stuck in the postal strike, if its not La Poste, its Royal Mail, they take turns at keeping my parcels!

So today is the 2nd October that is the day after my birthday, hands up who remembered it was my birthday?
That is in the people who are supposed to remember?
Okay, there are only 4 of you and not one of my guys remembered to leave me a card, make me a card, goodness knows there are enough supplies for card making lying around, nothing, nada, zero, zilch, you guys are rubbish!

So instead of me getting cards, you, the blog readers, get to have a competition instead, this is a non 41st birthday,almost 1 year blog birthday contest, also I am interested to see how any lurkers there are.

So, at the minute sock yarn is my thing, the contest is how many pairs of socks could I knit without buying any more yarn?

Now, you could cheat and look on ravelry but I have to admit to being really slack at loading stash on there.

So leave me a comment before saturday 6th october and we will see who is closest to the winning number, the winner receives sock yarn of course.

So other than sulking abut the non-birthday event I did some spinning this weekend.

This is some merino tencel from Amy, which I did find really hard to work with but my reason behind joining Amy’s fibre club was to be pushed to try new things.

I am a very beginner spinner but I am not going to keep new fibre until I am a better spinner, I will only be a better spinner if I try new and harder things. This worked out not too bad as far as I can tell. I have about 85m of 3 ply very soft, shiny yarn, in a colour that is SO not me but which taught me a lot. Perfect!

I did start my Juliet and have just started the lace part, I did just start the lace part about 4 times,
something to do with the not able to read
or count to 3..
or 4… made it all too difficult.
I think I have it now, but am sure I could have been almost finished it, if I had only stopped and read the pattern through,
1 more time!!!

Today I am taking part in a fundraiser for Macmillan Cancer Care, so I am hosting a tea/coffee afternoon as part of this.

There are choc chip cookies, scones, gingerbread, fig and plum cake, oatmeal cookies and cranberry shortbread, I’ll let you know how much money I raise tomorrow…
tchao

Jonah decided the other day when there was a storm coming, that the safest place to be was on the sofa!!

Problem was, I was already on the sofa, so he reckoned if he didn’t look at anyone then we wouldn’t tell him off, silly dog.

This is another example of not being on the sofa, apparently in this case he was technically on top of the boy who was on the chair, rules in this house are for breaking, pushing, stretching, sheesh!!!!

Looks pretty comfy and relaxed though!!
Knitting tomorrow…..

This week I got a yummy box of fiber from Jen and decided I needed to have a play around with some, so this, which reminds me of Fruit Salad sweeties,

became this

spin and add some beads when plying to get this

unfortunately that is as far as the creativity has taken me, I have no idea what it wants to become, any ideas?

I am knitting like crazy to finish up a pair of socks for my neighbour he hunts and has a house in the country somewhere, so for the past couple of weeks I have been receiving lots of lovely stuff, pears, plums, fig and walnut jam, very yummy, pumpkin and a huge piece of Boar. I have never cooked Boar before and it was fabulous. He didn’t know I knitted socks till he popped over with some stuff, his wife then told me he had been considering buying a pair of hand-knitted socks as he was feeling the cold. So they will make the perfect thank you gift and I know he will really appreciate them, always a plus!!

This is Poppy, she is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, she belongs to my friend and Jonah loves her a lot.
This is her favourite sleeping place and she must be very sad as my friends recently got rid of this sofa….poor dog!!

Here he is my baby, though its not his first time appearing on the blog, he has appeared here and here (scroll down to the 4Th December).
This is Jonah wearing his “well are you going to throw that ball” expression.

Fetching a ball is his all time favourite activity, his other favourite activity at the moment is searching out the bathmat to sleep on, I tried giving him one of his own but for some reason he prefers the one we use, stepping on to a white bathmat with black dog hair attached is lovely!!!!

Thank you all for the good wishes for my back/neck, I do need to go back and see the doctor again and organise some physio. I do also need to do more exercise/stretching, that starts tomorrow.

I have managed a little spinning, a little knitting, xmas things I will post on Ravelry, my ID is yveca, stop by and say hi.
No sewing though and the weather has turned decidedly autumnal, too cold for a pretty dress, though I will try and sew it before my coat or it might never get done.

This is the first full week of school and as always rentree brings a bundle of paperwork, every year we have been here, we have been swamped and every year I vow to have it all organised and have nothing to rush around for.
You know, its never going to happen, every single time something comes back to bite me.
Jake forgot to hand his papers into school before the end of term, I discovered them when emptying his schoolbag, that was rush no1.
The school was moving building, not finished, no-one there till the day before school started, that was panic no1.

Jordan lost his wallet the 2nd day of school, it contained everything, bus card, bankcards for here and the UK, more paperwork, more photos, more photocopies.
To re-issue a bus card, I can understand the need for new photos but if a child already has one and their details are on the computer why do I need to renew the paperwork and have his birth certificate?

Rentree should be up there with moving house as the no1 most stressful thing to happen to you………..I need a holiday now to recover!

Knitting and spinning photos tomorrow….tchao

So, Jonah wasn’t playing ball this morning, well he was playing ball cause he would never refuse that but as far as having a photo taken he was having none of it. He turned away every single time.

So instead this is Marvin, who is my cousins very cute but absolutely off his head, nutty boxer.

There has been no sewing, knitting, spinning going on here, I have hurt my back/neck so doing everything hurts, also my house is still full of boys, roll on Monday!!

I am making this dress, the spotty one, in this fabric,

though the weather has become decidedly autumnal and I am hoping that I will still have a chance to wear it.
I did make a little boo-boo when cutting it and had to cut one more skirt piece as the stripes didn’t match how I wanted them, luckily I had bought enough fabric …phew!

I am plodding along on a few knitting projects and nothing is grabbing my attention. No spinning as I am waiting for some fibre to arrive, the post is awful right now.

Boys are home tomorrow and my baby is a teenager, 3 teenage boys in the house should be fun………right?

So, is it possible to learn to spin with either leg? to treadle? means you have to sit a little awkwardly but boy do I have one sore leg, it does happen to be the one with the already dodgy knee, which doesn’t help matters. Not that it is going to stop me at this point, whats a little pain!

So the two bobbins became this

which looks like this, all washed and pretty

and which knits up to look like this, and is all soft and fluffy, 5.5st and 7 rows per inch on 3.75mm.

So all I need now is a niddy noddy and more fibre…

I was going to sew today, my dress is all cut and ready but have been invited to lunch instead, choices, choices, I am off to lunch….