Float'n'purl

Do not adjust your set!

Yes........mmmm.........the colours are a bit BRIGHT! I had a little dying session recently using plain colours of Procion MX dyes at 1% solution. Actually I think the purple is about 0.5% now as I added some water a while ago.

As for the yarns/ fiber - the purple is MILK PROTEIN, yes that's right fiber from milk! Now I can understand how you make fiber from plants like bamboo, soya etc but milk I can't understand. I bought it at the Wingham Wool travelling shop at the Cheshire Spinners Weavers and Dyers Guild in Frodsham a few weeks ago. Its naturally white (duh, sort of milky white) and as soft as cashmere but a fraction of the price!

The greens are viscose twisted floss from Texere Yarns which I hope to use for braiding sometime.

De-stashing!

Just listed three items on ebay! I've been meaning to do this for ages but somehow just didn't get round to listing. You'll notice that my "Swan" cardigan in Colinette Tagliatelli has not only made it to the frog pond but (hopefully) will be gone forever soon.

Its not that I don't like Colinette yarns but this one was too stretchy and the pattern too loose so it would have looked like a sack on me and now I hate the colour way too (Lagoon). Oh well, better to have realised the mistake than carry on and have a FO lying in my wardrobe never to see the light of day again!

Wool, Cake and More Wool!

What are the ingredients for a great weekend? What about wool, cake and wonderful company (oh and great venue plus studding scenery!). Yes, I don't ask for much but I had everything on this list and more this weekend in the Lakes with Averil and the Turner sisters.

We stayed here where Averil and her husband have a Time Ownership for two weeks every year. It really was as stunning as the pictures on the website even though the weather was terrible on Saturday.

(Shirley and Ali Turner)

Averil had kindly invited us girls up for a wooly weekend of relaxation. On Friday we met up at the Alpaca Centre for - coffee and cake (of course, and yes it was the best coffee in the Lakes) and a brouse though their wares although nobody bought anything significant. Then on Saturday we went to a wonderful independent bookshop in Penrith (the name of which I've fogotten) which had big comfy sofas and we had - coffee and muffins (can you see a pattern developing). Then it was onto the yarn shop Indigo (sorry no website) where we all had to indulge. Its a fabulous little treasure of a shop with natural dyed sock yarn and lovely crochet and knitting kits designed by the owner Carolyn Webb. I treated myself to Herdwick crochet bag kit..........yes I know I'm on a yarn diet but a kit is something different, isn't it? Well what else could you buy in the Lakes?

On Saturday night we indulged in the swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna before having a drink in the complex bar, then it was back home for more weaving/ knitting.

(Janet and Averil)

On Sunday we went to the Arts and Crafts house Blackwell. This was my second visit this year (I went on my Birthday in April) but it was lovely to go back and see it with fresh eyes. There was a glass and ceramic exhibition on, some of which was really awful but some very inspiring. All together a strange mixture.

Then the weekend was finished off with lunch here. I've also been to the Drunken Duck, one of the sister pubs/ hotels and I have to say the food is wonderful. If you look at the websites take a minute to look at the rooms - simply devine!

Thank you again Averil for a wonderful weekend!

Oh, and nearly forgot, my mum recently found this weblog so if your reading it again sometime "hello mum".

Hooked (on the dark side)

Before a general update I have to start with a few words of "thanks" for some lovely gifts I've received recently.

Firstly, I have to say a big "thanks" to Karin for the lovely scarf she sent me (which I won in her recent competition). The colours are absolutely wonderful.

My second "thank you" goes to Carrie Anne of Britknit podcast who very kindly sent me this cool Britknit badge as thanks for my (very small) donation I made to the running of the podcast. If you haven't listened to it yet where have you been? Carrie Anne does a fantastic job of putting together a great show full of information on all sorts of different fiber arts. I'll wear my badge with pride!

So what have I been doing that's got me hooked - crochet of course (not a very original blog title I know but that's what you get when I'm lacking inspiration). Yes, after the recent success of learning to crochet around the edge of My Greek Pullover, I'm now nearing completion on a curly whirly scarf. Yes, I've moved over to the dark side! Now that I've started to crochet I've wondered why I was so reluctant to give it a go before. Its great for projects on the go and since I don't always have time to knit a whole row its great to be able to just pick up and hook a few stitches. Its thanks to Janet and Shirley (and their patience) that I've got thus far.

Off the needles: well this FO is a bit of a cheat. You see I started this bag to knit for LAST CHRISTMAS and got bored.....well maybe not bored but stuck. It started life as "Clementine", a bag from Emma King's book "25 Bags to Knit" but I just couldn't get the button hole to work without a huge hole at one end. Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided that the button hole handle wouldn't work so I adpated the pattern to take two oval handles and voila a new bag is born (and Christmas gift finished) and its the FIRST time I've made up (part) of a pattern. I also lined it with some silk coutesy of Janet with my new sewing machine! Yes, anyone who knows me, also knows that "I hate sewing". I don't know why but I have a fear of sewing machines but when I saw this one on ebay I thought I would get one to sew bag lining and other small items, and here it is "in action"! Who knows what this might lead to!!!