Wow, it's been ages since I posted. In some ways loads of stuff has happened, but in other ways it feels like nothing's happened - ya know?

My friend Debs came over for the day as were attending a talk at Shanklin Theatre by Chris Packham - remember him? He's the cute one from The Really Wild Show! He's much cuter in real life!

Debs & I headed back to Southampton after as the following day we were going to Unravel in Farnham Maltings! Unravel is a craft fair, dyers and sellers of yarn and fibre attend to sell their stuff.

I bought some gorgeous fibre - unfortunately, I found out later the stuff reeks of lavendar and lavendar gives me migraines. I'm avoiding it at the moment in the hopes the smell wears off! Once my new fancy shower bath is fitted and I get my craft room back (the bath was stored in the craft room!) then I'll open the batt and unplait the roving to air it out properly!

I really wish dyers wouldn't add scent to their stuff!

I also ordered a large project bag from The Bothered Owl.

I bought some more 70% Alpaca/30% Merino - another 500g - this time in black! It's absolutely scrummy and spins better on a Double Drive wheel than it does on a Scotch Tension one!

Look at this if you don't believe me!

Unfortunately, just after that; I found Daniela's stall. The woman is pure evil! She makes the most gorgeous, colourful, sparkly batts and I wanted them all! I had only recently received 2 in the post and ended up buying six more at Unravel!

The best bit about the whole day though was spending it with old friends - Debs and Helen - and meeting friends face to face finally; I finally got to meet Claire! We had our photo taken and you can see it in Claire's Flickr Stream.

The following day was Alex's 15th birthday - although to look at him you'd think he was a lot older. He's currently standing at 6ft 5in and has quite a heavy moustache!

We went to the cinema and then for a KFC afterwards and the following Saturday he had a party here at home while I went clubbing.

Apparently he was quite sick LOL!

I bought a new bath at the beginning of the year, one of those fancy curved baths so that you can put a shower in one end. Unfortunately, after buying it; I couldn't afford to fit it so it's been sat in my craft room. Kyle finally took pity on me and is paying for the plumber to fit it! I have to pay for an electrician to come and hook up the jacuzzi part of it though!

A few months ago I received an e-mail from a woman called Heather asking where our craft group meets, I sent her the e-mail along with my mobile number and thought nothing more of it. A couple of weeks later, we'd just arrived at The Chequers Inn and my old midwife walked through the door!

I said Hi, gave her a hug and asked what she was doing in that neck of the woods - turns out she's the Heather that had e-mailed me!

She's recently expressed an interest in learning to spin, so she came over this week and I taught her as best I could. I've let her borrow Trinity to practice on.

She's also taken my unused 18 month old sewing machine away to give it a service and has promised to give me sewing lessons in return for the spinning lesson!

In a few short weeks, we'll be in Italy! I can't believe it's come around so quickly! Mum and I got talking about it in Norway and decided we'd go this April. The ferry off the Island and the Eurotunnel have all been booked, we've just got to pack the van and get going! We'll be gone most of the month!

I've got a new chair! It's gorgeous!! Italian leather in cream, a recliner but it's all squishy and firm and soooo comfortable. As an added bonus, after it was finally delivered; I discovered it's the perfect height for spinning!

I can't wait until the bath is completely fitted, all the bits and pieces are out of my craft room so I can get in there, have a really good clean up and move my chair into the room!

I'm ploughing on with the sock challenge and have, so far, managed to finish one pair by the cast on date of the next pair! Unfortunately, I have managed no other knitting whatsoever; if I'm not knitting socks, I'm spinning Alpaca/Merino! I'm not sure how well I'll stay on track once we go away - I can't knit in the car as I don't travel well so I'll probably do most of the driving anyway and by evening I'm just too damn tired to do more than eat and sit! We'll see!

I have mastered knitting without looking now, this is excellent as I've really missed reading since I got back into my knitting. I did manage it while making Kyle's scarf, but that was just garter stitch in chunky yarn. I can now knit while knitting with sock yarn (as long as the pattern isn't too complicated) so I might have a go at knitting while in the van as a passenger!

Sounds like the plumber has finished moving the sink so I best go off and investigate his handiwork!

Speak soon and keep knitting, spinning, crocheting, dyeing, whatever it is that you do ☺

Socks, spinning, Unravel & a milestone

So, let's see.

I finished my D socks, I did the Double Basket Socks from Little Box of Socks in some really bright yarn that came from Natalie (aka The Yarn Yard).

I really like them (even though I don't normally go for orange); they're bright and I smile whenever I look at them!

I've also had a massive plying session! I've finished both Still Waters and the pink tencel/merino I was spinning.

This colourway is called Madder Lake, I had 100g of it and I 2 plied the singles. I ended up with a whopping 948.7 m/1037.5 y.

Jess has claimed the yarn and I think I'll make her a Clapotis.

Then we have Still Waters, a 'Glitterball' from BabyLongLegs (who, incidentally, I got Sherry The Cherry from). Gorgeous colours and it has sterling silver in it too!

I Navajo plied this yarn to preserve the colours and ended up with 661.4 m/723.3 y.

Today....well, yesterday now as it's 2.15am....was Unravel at Farnham Maltings. I went with Debs in her car and met up with Helen and Claire when we got there. There was more there than I was expecting to see, but not as much fibre as I hoped for.

I did buy some gorgeous humbug stuff, black Alpaca and merino. I bought 500g of it and I started it this evening. It's so soft and luscious!

I also spent loads of money with Daniela from The Felt Studio UK - I think I might as well just give that woman the password to my paypal account. Have you seen the batts she cards? If not, go and visit for her etsy shop, just make sure someone is there to restrain you!

Now today is Sunday and it is also my daughter's 16th birthday.

I'm astonished when I look at her; she's a young lady now! When the hell did that happen? I love who she is (most of the time), but I miss that cute little girl that she used to be with ringlet hair and a cheeky giggle. Now she's a gorgeous young woman who wears revealing clothes and makeup!

Shocking!

;-)

Hmmmm, I've been quite quiet lately, I haven't posted since the 12th.

OK, so since then I have celebrated my 35th birthday, remembered my dad who died 3 years ago on the same day - it was doubly hard this year as my birthday was also father's day.

I also did a lot of discount in my shop that day and much to my disappointment I only sold one braid of fibre - shame, I've recently started stocking merino/bamboo fibre and SW merino yarn - both are really fluffy and soft!

I've had an ongoing battle with my squeaky wheel - the squeak was awful and I just couldn't get rid of it. Majacraft were adamant it was the treadle hinges, I was just as adamant that it wasn't. Sometimes the creak would completely disappear, but within minutes it would be back. It got louder and louder and the creaks were longer and longer.

In the end - just to shut them up - I followed Majacraft's advice and disassembled my wheel. I took off the foot plate - no difference. Then I removed the crank assembly from the drive wheel - no difference. I put talc on the green sponge things that attach the rods to the treadle - no difference. I took the treadle hinges off, cleaned them and put them back on - no difference. The noise was definitely coming from somewhere around the crank assembly!

I removed the nut that holds the drive wheel in place (I've had trouble keeping that sucker on too - it has a bad habit of coming undone while I'm spinning!) - it still squeaked, I removed the crank assembly (again!) - I turned the wheel by hand and it still squeaked, I took my little felted bag off the knob on the front and removed the wooden knob on the front - the squeak stopped!

I triple checked and then got Alex to listen, there was definitely no squeak. I put the wooden knob back on, rehung the bag, put the nut back on, reattached crank assembly and still no squeak.

Yay me, I thought then decided to spin some of the corriedale fleece I've been carding lately. It spun absolutely fine then the drive band popped off. I got up to check and - sure enough - the nut was undoing itself and the wheel was coming apart as I was spinning. I tightened the nut up and started spinning again and the squeak was back!

I've loosened the nut very slightly, I shall have to test it to find that spot where the nut doesn't undo but the wheel doesn't squeak when in use!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Late last night - well, 2am this morning actually, I went on one of my mad cleaning binges and blitzed the kitchen because the mess was doing my head in again. It was spotless when I went to bed and I was very pleased with myself. This morning, I got up, dyed some yarn for Kerry and decided to have a shower while that was cooking.

Naturally the shower was clogged - it's always clogged! I went at it with a plunger, cleared it as much as possible then had a shower myself.

I came back downstairs to get dressed and get on with the day. I was sitting here in my chair listening to the drain outside and moaning to Alex about the amount of time it takes the shower to drain (personally I think there may be a kink in the waste pipe, but the plumber disagrees!).

I went out to turn the steamer off to find a flood in my kitchen! There was water literally pouring through the kitchen ceiling, it was all over the floor and the breakfast bar. I ran straight back upstairs thinking that my enthusiasm with the plunger had somehow caused the waste water pipe to disconnect, but the shower was empty. There was also the sound of running water coming from behind the shower!

I panicked, I've never had to deal with anything like this before! I ran next door and woke mum up (she works nights) and we ran round the house trying to find out which stopcock would shut off the torrent. In the end I went outside to turn the supply to the entire house.

I couldn't turn the tap and ran to the pub to drag a man back to do it for me in the end LOL.

We had called Graham, but he wasn't around although we were assured he would be told immediately on his return home.

I surveyed the damage; my lovely clean tidy kitchen was absolutely swimming and I had no dry towels! I had washed some the night before and had another load in the machine, we found what little we had, raided mum's house too and mopped up as best we could.

I suppose it's really a good job I blitzed it last night - imagine how bad it would've been if there'd been stuff all over the breakfast bar like there normally is!

* * * * * * * * * *

Alex and I walked the dogs tonight and we saw these strange lights in the sky, there was no discernable sound of a motor and they were really shifting. Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone but I did try to record them!

What do you think? Are we being invaded?

A Landmark in History, A Handspun Clapotis & New Lace!

On Friday, my son turned 18!

Wow!

18 years old - that's incredible! I'm now the mother of an adult!

It's actually a very scary thing, being the parent of an adult. You don't stop worrying, they're still your baby and your life still revolves around them. Nothing really changes, except he's now legally old enough to buy cigarettes and beer and I have to get his permission to discuss personal matters with someone else!

This is what he woke too:

For his birthday he got some New Rock boots.

A new mobile phone

And - the biggest surprise - 25 years of Wrestlemania!

He was really pleased with his presents.

Mum and I took him out for lunch and that night we ordered a Chinese takeaway!

In other news.......I ran out of handspun on my Clapotis! Now I've got to make the decision to either frog and reknit, or to just order more fibre, spin it up and then knit that! *Sigh*

I have just joined the Seasons of Lace though. I have decided to knit the Sampler Stole from Victorian Lace Today and in true 'me' fashion, I'm knitting the biggest one and I'm knitting it in purple!

In other news...

So, as you all know it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago. You didn't know? Is that why you didn't send me a card?

Tut!

Well, people on Ravelry came to my rescue, look at all the stuff I received!

I also placed an order with Alison for some teeny tiny 4" DPN's, some Wendy's Happy Yarn (it's gorgeous stuff, 75% Bamboo and 25% Nylon; sooooooooooooo soft!) and a chart holder.

Alison is the person that Kerry bought my KnitPicks needles from for my birthday last year and look what Alison did this year!

Remember WWKiPD? Well we were in the local paper!

I've also received my first installment of Knitting Goddess Sock Club yarn and it's gorgeous!

I can't wait to find a gorgeous pattern for that one!

I met up with (what felt like) half the knitting group last night to do some spinning. We had great fun, I'm still struggling a little bit, but I'm slowly getting there! I let Jake and Rachael have a play on the wheel too - they both loved it!

I think Joy was right to begin with; I think an Ashford Traditional is too heavy to me - maybe it's the single treadle, not sure. But I shall be on the lookout for a new wheel at iKnit!

A Day in London

As you can see from my Bittersweet post, yesterday was my birthday.

As a birthday present, my mum took me to London to see The War of The Worlds musical at The o2 arena.

We got up early and caught the 9am ferry to Portsmouth, we drove to London. I missed the turning for teh M25 and ended up having to go through London!

What should've been a 2 and a half hour drive ended up being 4 hours!

We had also booked shows at the Planetarium, so we caught a bus to the observatory.

Here are some pics of the observatory, the view from the observatory and the o2 arena.

Here are some other pictures of the GMT stuff, the telescope enclosure and a REALLY old meteorite.

We had lunch there then we saw a couple of shows down in the planetarium. One was about the night sky and we were shown all the constellations and then we saw one about the life of stars. It was all very interesting and I'd love to go and spend the day nosing around there. I think the kids might enjoy it too!

Then we headed back to the arena to see The War of the Worlds.

It was great! I'd never listened to the album all the way through before and I really enjoyed this. They had done a CGI representation of Richard Burton and shown it as a hologram on a film screen. The whole performance was an almagamation of cinema screen and live performance, but what they showed in the middle was fabulous!

It's a fighting machine and it blew smoke and sparks over the audience in front of the stage!

It was a very long day though and we didn't get home until 2am this morning, I'm shattered.

I wonder if I'll get around to spinning today; can you believe I haven't actually managed to spin on it yet?!?!

Bittersweet

Yesterday - June 20^th - was my birthday. I turned 34.

It's also the anniversary of my father's death.

He died in 2007 from pancreas cancer and I miss him greatly.

Sweet Sixteen

Today my second son, Matt, turned 16.

I can't believe I now have two children who are technically old enough to leave home!

Very mixed feelings about this.

Have a look at this:

It's a height chart, I started doing it a few years ago as the boys starting shooting up in height leaving Jess and me far behind. I measured Alex today, he's 13 and is just half an inch under 6ft!!!

This week

Hmmmmmmm, this is probably going to be quite a long post, so be warned!

Phantom of the Opera - loved it! It was amazing! The young man who played the Phantom was Nic Greensheilds and his performance was so inspiring, I was in absolute floods of tears!

On the way to London we stopped at Drummonds, it's one of those places that strips the insides of houses before the houses get knocked down and then sells off all the bits and pieces. *whispers* Just in case you didn't know; they're famous LOL.

Mum has always muttered about going in there, so this time we did. They had soooooo much stuff! How would you like some of this in your house? A MARBLE toilet, sink & bath?

We also found this lounge bath - Mum was in hysterics because she said it looked like something you'd dip your backside in!

After we'd nosed around there, I took Mum into the Devil's Punchbowl Hotel for a cooked breakfast. I assumed we'd get a humongous meal being as it's a well known hotel. What we got was one sausage, two rashers of bacon, one fried egg, a spoonful of mushrooms, half a tomato and a bowl of beans.

The bacon was worryingly pink, the egg yolk very dark orange, the beans looked like they'd been reheated and the sausage HAD been reheated so many times; the middle had gone rock hard.

I called the waitress over and told her it was totally unacceptable and we got up and left without paying for the tea and coffee we had drunk. I was so upset, I'd taken Mum in there for a birthday breakfast and they served complete crap!

We decided to get back in the car, get to London and then find somewhere to eat.

We arrived with an hour and a half to spare before the performance, found a quiet little pub and had a pub lunch which was totally delicious!

Then we had an ice cream at the foot of the statue in Piccadilly Circus (is it Eros, it's not, is it?).

We wandered around like the gentry as we were both dressed up. Mum was wearing her birthday shawl - which she adored and I was wearing MD/AN.

We were sat in the second row of the Royal Circle - ideal seats except for the Italian students that were EVERYWHERE!

Twice we asked them to stop chatting and fidgeting throughout the first half and during the intermission, I complained to one of the theatre staff that the teens were unsupervised and spoiling the performance for everyone else. Just before the second half of the performance, a man came over and babbled at them angrily in Italian for about ten minutes then sat glaring at them for the rest of the show LOL!

Happy Birthday Alex

Today my baby, Alex, turned 13.

Where has all the time gone? Omigosh, what a clichéd saying LOL

Here's a pic of Alex - all 5ft 9ins of him wearing the boots he wanted for his birthday, a close up of the boots - yes, they're New Rocks! There's also a pic of the chocky cake I made mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm