Float'n'purl

I'm a Bad SP!

It's funny but my spoilee in the OSSP exchange had the same post title a few weeks ago, so this time its my turn to be apologetic to my SP and say I'm sorry its taken me so long to post about my lovely goodies!

She's obviously read some of my old posts and found me struggling to complete my first pair of socks (I'm getting there but slowly.....very......very slowly), so a skein of Mountain Colors Hand Painted sock yarn in Lupine colourway is now mine together with two mini-circular needles, a handy pattern for knitting socks on 2 circulars and a lovely note book which I can use to keep track of rows. Thank you so much SP:) I promise that I WILL KNIT SOCKS with this lovely yarn - who can resist it!

It's also so nice to have something hand painted which brings me onto my current activity - dying yarn. I'm currently soaking some sock yarn, roving and silk caps to dye later. I thought I'd send my SP some hand-dyed sock yarn from my own fair hand. Last weekend I went to a dying workshop at our Guild where I met fellow blogger Celeste for the first time ("hi Celste - it was really nice to meet you and look forward to seeing you again!"). We had a great day despite the heat but as yet I haven't downloaded my pictures although Celeste has some on her site of her great results.

Still busy as always, trying to cope with being in different places at different times and visitors. My sister and brother-in-law came a couple of weeks ago with my nephews; Ciarnan (9yrs old) and Jamie (5 but nearly 6yrs old) and look what happened: they both learned to knit. Jamie french knitting with a dolly and Ciaran with pointy sticks - at their own request. I didn't have to force them into anything. Infact Ciaran even had a go on my spinning wheel assisted my Jamie and picked it up first time! That's ma boys!!

Woolfest Update (at last)

I've just got time to quickly show you my haul before my sister and her family arrive for the weekend!

Yarn including recycled sari silk (can't remember who I bought this from but the price was pretty good). 2no. 50g skeins of hemp from House of Hemp in a grey/ silver colourway, and something without a name but looks like a ladder?

• The coloured fibre including merino/ silk roving, natural shetland, rainbow wool roving with Angelina Fibre, dyed Angora (from goat), dyed Wensleydale..........and the neutrals including: bamboo fibre, silk cocoon strippings (for paper making), silk rods, throwsters waste silk, angora, tussa silk and my old favourite - Bluefaced Leicester. Obviously I'm going to by doing a lot of spinning and dyeing so it's just as well that I also bought a starter's dye kit from Debbie (a member of our Guild). She's doing a dyeing workshop at our Guild on 22nd of July so I'll hopefully get some tips!

But my favourite purchase so far was this: my inklet from Scottish Fibres. The book is borrowed from Averil but I've already put it on my Amazon Wishlist as its so useful! I've also cheated by buying the cotton crochet yarn on ebay so I've already broken my "no more yarn purchases" pledge! And here it is warped up and in action! I've also manged to spin my merino/ silk blend tops into a slightly over spun 100g of singles. It seems that I'm a bit out of spinning practice!!

In the words of Victor Meldrew "I do not believe it!"

I've just tried to download my "Woolfest" photos from my camera phone and it has deleted them (or I have by pressing the wrong button)! Typical! Oh well, at least the others have some which I can copy some time. Instead I'll have to take a picture of my stash. This Saturday Averil and the girls are coming over for a "show and tell" (or show and shame) as we didn't get a chance to see what everyone bought at the show.

In the meantime here are some photos of us at the Guild a week a go when we had a cobweb felting workshop. Firstly we have Averil in full flow. Then Ali Turner about to start on a purse (yes it does get confusing having two Ali's together). My tartan sample pre-felting and everyone's work from the day on the table. I also made a scarf but the photo hasn't come out too well. In fact the strip lighting seemed to have an effect on most of the images.

It was really good fun - especially leaving at the end of the day with a finished item! I'd like to do some more felting when I get the time........

Oh and just in case I forgot to mention, I got my master's results a few weeks ago. After handing my thesis in on January I'd almost forgotten about the results but I'm pleased to report that I've passed with distinction. It seems like a bit of an anti-climax but I'm glad its over - especially as I got my new job partly on the strength of doing the course.

Food and Woolfests

What a weekend! The weather as anyone living in the UK will know has been hot, hot, hot! Ok, so it's not that hot by the standards of most of the rest of the world but 30 degree temperatures are not normal in our moderate climate. Although just to let you know - I'm not complaining as it made our weekend in the Lakes very enjoyable indeed even if I'm suffering indoors on the computer today!

We (being the Turner sisters and our spinning teacher and friend Averil) spent the weekend in Keswick which was lovely. Woolfest was even better than I'd imagined althoughly a little smaller than I'd expected but this wasn't a bad thing as my head was spinning with choice as it was - and I did manage to stick to my budget by only taking cash (but I'm not revealing what the budget was due to shame)!

Sorry no pictures yet as we got home late last night and I now have to do the weekly shop but I hope since I'm working at home all week I'll get some pictures posted in a day or two.