Blending Challenge

I finished the blending challenge last night. I had to borrow a Niddy Noddy as Joy took back her skein winder on Monday

Rachael kindly loaned me her niddy today.

So, I started off with this:

This is a wool mix blend from Karen who I bought Edward from. The blue is called Midnight and the pink is called Starlet.

I used my carders to blend the two colours together, I played with adding more blue then more pink and I turned them into rolags:

They were all so individual!

Next I started spinning. I spun most of it but I must admit; I knew I wasn't going to use the yarn for anything and I quickly got bored! After I'd spun a sufficient amount...

...I thought about plying. At first I thought I'd Navajo ply, but the yarn was quite overspun and it snapped easily so I 2 plied it.

Now to get started on the Christmas challenge...

Blending

The Isle of Wight Fibre Crafts has a few challenges going. One is to spin and then knit something for Christmas, it can be anything but it has to be Christmassy and sparkly. I have all the materials, I just need to get started on that one.

The other challenge is to do some blending.

The perfect opportunity to try out carding. I have two sets of carders, the first are curved and came with my wheel. They're rough and awfully hard to use. The second are flat and a mini pair and I can use them much more easily!

I did a few yesterday, but today I went at it with a vengeance. I'm carding a wool mix, one pink and one blue.

I'm amazed at the difference I got with each blend but I had to stop because my hands were aching LOL.

Once I've done this, I've got a whole fleece that was recently sent to me. I've cleaned it and now I've got to card it - but I think I'll buy some larger carders

Operation Craft Room - The beginning

As you may remember, Jess agreed to move out of my bedroom so that I could have it back and turn it into my craft room!

Well, today was the first step - she has moved her bed stuff upstairs and all the games consoles out of the boxroom.

I've decided to keep a diary of the journey of the room from shared bedroom/dumping room to my Craft Room - complete with photos.

Here are the first lot - you basically have an all round view of the room here.

Isn't that just awful? Look at the state of the room! First of all, I need to get the rest of Jessica's stuff out of there - all her clothes, stuffed animals and....................stuff! She has a lot of stuff...I think it breeds!

Once she's out completely, then the bed will go upstairs - probably to Kyle. That will be an all day job because it will have to be totally dismantled to get it upstairs. That's a day of screaming at each other and lots of swearing probably.

After that I need to sort out my desk - Alex wants that!

You see all that stuff under the window? I have a confession, that's my stuff, not Jessica's - it's all my books. I decided ages ago to get rid of all my books as I had bought an e-book reader. I made loads of money and could afford to take the kids on holiday to Scotland last year. Oh hey, if I sell a load more, I'll be able to afford a new WooLee Winder for Edward!

Then my mum is going to seal the room as we have a problem with slugs getting in there.

After that, I shall paint it - I think I'll go with white and display some of my finer shawls on the wall!

This is not going to be a quick project, but I'll keep you updated!

WWSiPD

Yesterday was World Wide Spin in Public Day!

Joy, Su and I met at Osbourne House at 10am. Su had to leave at lunchtime, but Jane and Rachael joined us in her place.

I took Eric along so that I could finish the Yarn Yard BFL I was working on and I'm still getting used to the Sonata - although a day of spinning on it would've done the trick!

We had a great day, beautiful weather and lots of interest! It didn't matter their age, most people stopped and had a look, quite a few asked questions and some even took pictures!

Unfortunately our local paper couldn't make it to the event, but have asked Joy to send them a photograph. She took this one:

We even got a chance to go into the house where we could view a painting of Queen Victoria knitting and we saw her own spinning wheel and skein winder. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to take photos inside the house, so I can't show you!

On a side note, my Kromski Sonata has told me it's name - he is Edward and his sheep is Esmerelda!

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, it's the computer's fault!

I bought a swanky keyboard to go with my new Mac, it had an inbuilt trackball and lots of programmable buttons and it looked great. When it arrived it turned out that although it worked....kinda....it wasn't actually compatible with OS X and I couldn't programme a lot of the buttons :(

Then after a couple of days of owning it, the bloody trackball stopped working! I nearly threw the whole lot out of the window in frustration! I e-mailed the eBay seller I got it from and he said to return it for a full refund and I bought a new keyboard in Maplin's and ordered a Logitech Trackman from Amazon.

It all finally arrived today so that I could get on and post.

Last weekend I went to iKnit, it wasn't as big as I was expecting but there was a bit of choice. I bought 200g of black Wensleydale, 2 zauberballs and 500g of Alpaca/Merino!

On the way home, I stopped at Gunwharf Keys to meet up with Karen and bought her Kromski Sonata from her.

Today we collected the camper - it's soooooo exciting! We're going to go to Brightstone Forest with the dogs tomorrow to give it a good run and to see if we can figure out how to use all the stuff inside LOL.

Next month we're hoping to spend a couple of nights in the New Forest.

I'd also like to visit some people too, so if you're in the UK and you fancy a visit - lemme know!

RAK Recipient

I don't know if you remember the little baby jacket I made ages ago as a RAK gift for a fellow Ravaler?

She finally got around to sending me a picture of her beautiful daughter, Natalia, wearing the jacket!

Here I come, ready or not!

Mum and I went for a wander around town yesterday.

Eventually, we ended up at the campervan dealership - we end up there a lot!

We found the most adorable camper! It's only a 2 berth, but it has a shower & toilet, a fridge and a cooker! Which is all we really need because if we're going camping, the children and I will be better off in the tent anyway!

So, today Mum and I went to the bank and said "Can we borrow £16000 please?"

They said "Yes!"

OMIGOD!!!

They transferred the money right away and we went and bought it!

It's still at the dealership at the moment as it has to have a service and be made road legal, but we should be able to pick it up within the next week.

So if I know where you live - look out, I might just visit!

My new Mac arrived!!

I'm still learning how everything works and I was a bit upset to discover when I visited my blog that all my fancy fonts were missing - Old English and Occidental don't exist on the Mac obviously!

So I'm reverting back to an old favourite - Papyrus (which I know exists on Windows because I used to use it)

I'm also trying to get used to the fact that the fancy new (non Apple) keyboard I bought to use, doesn't work completely - I'm a bit pissed because the ebay seller I bought it from, neglected to say that it only works with Windows!

Even though it knows there's a keyboard, it's swapped my @ and " keys around - @ is now shift+2 and " is shift+' *sigh*

All the fancy buttons down the side don't work either (well, they're not doing anything when I press them!) but it's working.......sort of!

Apple did send me Snow Leopard free of charge though - bonus!

If anyone knows how to get this thing to read English English and not American English, I'd be much obliged if you'd let me in on the secret! :D

Right, what happens if I press this?

My son, the writer

I've just received this letter (slightly edited for privacy and copyright):

"Dear Parent/Guardian,

Recently Alex's school submitted some of their pupils' work for Young Writers' Mini Sagas 2009 competition. In the exciting competition, children were asked to write an imaginative mini saga on a theme that inspired them, with the added challenge of using 50 words or less.

Mini Sagas is Young Writers' nineteenth annual creative writing competition and we have received in excess of 30, 000 stories from all over the UK and overseas. Work has been selected for publication based on perception, imagination, expression and creative use of language. I am therefore delighted to let you know that Alex's story, The Jar Of Pickles, has been chosen for publication in Mini Sagas 2009 From The UK. A copy of the book will be kept at the British Library and further libraries across the UK and Republic of Ireland, providing a lasting record of your child's achievement. Information has been sent to the school giving details of Alex's success, and enclosed is a bookmark and certificate to mark Alex's achievement.

Books in this series are attractively laid out A5 softbacks with a glossy, full colour cover, giving children a real sense of pride in their achievement as well as an engaging book to browse and read. They also make a great keepsake for other family members, capturing a snapshot of Alex's work at this age in a format that will last for years to come. Mini Sagas 2009 From The UK is scheduled for publication on 30^th November 2009. Family members are entitled to order before publication at a reduced price.

I'd like to close by congratulating Alex, and hope that this achievement will encourage confident participation in future creative writing. If there is anything you would like to discuss, or you would like further information, please get in touch.

Best Wishes

Angela Fairbrace, Editor"

OH................MY.............................GOD!

Alex had absolutely NO idea that his school was going to do this and I'm over the moon that his work has been chosen for this publication.

If you wish to congratulate Alex (and please do so) you can either leave a comment here or send him a message through his twitter page.

If you want to know more about Young Writers, please click here.

Some handspun

I finished some more handspun last night.

Here's some BFL that I got from Natalie, the colours are 981 and 982. I spun each plait into a single then blended the 2 singles together. They were quite similar in colour, but with subtle differences.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I also finished spinning and plying the last of my purple and black yarn and I now have a total of 750m and I've decided to make a Clapotis with it!

My dream...

I decided some time ago that when my children are older and decide it's time for them to move out that I would console myself by turning a bedroom into a craft room.

At the moment my house is set out like this: downstairs there's the lounge, my bedroom (mine as in it's where all my clothes and stuff live, but Jessica's as in she sleeps there, I sleep in the lounge) and the kitchen. Upstairs is the bathroom, WC, 2 double bedrooms (occupied by Alex and Kyle) a single bedroom (occupied by Matt) and the box room (which houses all the games consoles and a fold out sofabed).

There simply wasn't space for me to have a craft room so I knew it was going to be several years before I got one!

Then I cancelled Sky TV. Now we rarely watch TV at all (even though we have a humongous TV in the lounge).

Recently Alex and I decided to play on one of the games consoles and because I find the sofabed uncomfortable, we bought the PlayStation downstairs to the lounge.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Now, bit by bit, the games room is merging into my lounge!

Today, I had an epiphany! Move the games consoles down to the lounge, move Jess up to the box room and turn the downstairs bedroom into my craft room!

Nah, Jess'll never go for it!

BUT, just on the off-chance, I mentioned it to her this evening. The conversation went like this:

"Jess, how do you feel about moving into the box room?"

"Ummmm, ok. Where are the games consoles going to go?"

"The lounge."

"Oh, ok. As long as I can have a TV up there!"

OMIGOD! OMIGOD!! OMIGOD!!!

Jess has agreed to move back upstairs and THAT, Ladies & Gentlemen, means............

I'M GONNA HAVE A CRAFT ROOM!!!

Obviously, it won't be immediately. I'm going to have to buy Jess a bed and some stuff for her room, then I want to decorate the downstairs room and carpet it. It also needs sealing (we have a slug problem at night). But it shouldn't take more than a couple of months.

Wonder if I can be in there before Christmas?

Samples

I'm very pleased to see that my Spinning Journal and Knitting Journal are both being downloaded!

I have something else for you. I'm a new spinner and I'm still trying to learn what stuff feels like so I decided a Samples Dictionary would be a good idea.

My idea for using it is this: spin your yarn and then ply it back on itself in the manner you usually use then just stick it in the dictionary, write down the name, grade it's softness and any other notes (what plying method did you use, did you like spinning it, did it break, etc).

The Samples Dictionary is available to download here

Alex has socks!

I started a pair of socks for Alex absolutely ages ago.

I made one sock...........and it didn't fit!

So I started another one, slightly larger and worked the sock from the top down rather than toe up.................that didn't fit either!

In my despair I had a chat with Joy; the problem seemed to be Alex's heels. The kid has major skinny legs, wide feet and almost abnormal heels, I tell ya!

So we decided I would work a top down sock with a stretchier top, garter stitch short row heel and a 2x2 rib.

Here is the pattern for anyone else with abnormal heels!

Cast on 99 stitches.

Work one round: *k3, p2, k2, p2, rep from * to end

Work next round: *k2tog, p2, k2, p2, rep from * to end. 88 sts.

Work in 2x2 rib until desired length.

Work a short row garter stitch heel.

Work foot of sock with st-st on sole and 2x2 rib on top. Work preferred toe.

Here are the socks!

Pattern: 2x2 ribbed socks
Yarn: KG Egg A La Scullybunbun Sock
Time: 15-07-09 - 2-09-09 (with other projects!)

Knitting Journal

Inspired by making my own Spinning Journal, I went on and modified a Knitting Journal that I downloaded from here to suit me a bit better.

This is nothing against Kathryn Ivy - it's just that there were a few bits that I didn't use (like gauge lol) so I changed it slightly.

My Knitting Journal is available here.

Spinning Journal

I keep a knitted journal and everyone has been telling me I should keep a spinning journal too. I couldn't find one that was available for download so decided to create one myself and as I'm so nice, I'm making it available for all of you too!

You can download it from here.

Please give me some feedback and let me know what you think.

Matt passed!

Matt was told that to get into college he needed at least 3 E level GCSE's.

I'm so very proud of him because he not only got the 3 E's, but he also got 3 D's, a C and a B!

Now he's going to go on and do catering at college!

Ethel & Eric

On Saturday we were discussing whether we could fit a sheep or an alpaca in the car. I then said we'd need two so that they would breed and have lots of little baby sheeps or alapacas.

We were in quite a silly mood by this point and Su asked what we would call our pair and I promptly said "Ethel and Eric" which for some reason had us wheezing with laughter (I smile even now when thinking of it!).

That has been stuck in my brain ever since and I have now put those names to good use.

The sheep on my wheel is now Ethel and the wheel itself is Eric!

Here is Ethel sporting her new earring!

FIBREFEST!

Today was Fibrefest!

My alarm went off at 5.30am this morning. I'd only been asleep two hours - I can never sleep if I've got to get up early the next day!

I drove to Newport to pick up Su and Joy so that we could catch the 7.30am ferry.

The drive there was uneventful except for a brief rain spurt which reduced visibility to almost nothing and slowed our speed to about 40mph!

Fibrefest was held at Cold Harbour Mill in Devon and there was loads there! I meant to take loads of pictures, but only got these ones of the mill (sorry, can't tell you what half this stuff is LOL):

This one when I walked into the first tent.

Here's Su enjoying a flapjack and coffee.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh, do you know who that is? That's P/Hop Pete!

Sheep!

They even had an air raid shelter with lots of cool stuff inside (even a Mathematics book!)

But here's what you really want to see.................FIBRE!

Because a sheep is essential to the smooth operation of a spinning wheel:

I also picked up this little stash bag made by The Laal Bear.

I'd seen her around on Ravelry and was gobsmacked when she asked if my week had improved and admitted she reads my blog!!!

I also met up with Marianne, Helen, Gemma (KraftyKoala), Just Julie, Sarah, Anni, Fleegle and loads more people said "Hi" to me and I'm really sorry that I can't remember who everyone was LOL.

Am I Being Haunted?

Remember that DAB radio I told you I'd bought that developed a problem and refused to work.

I had to return it for a replacement.

Within a week of receiving the replacement, that stopped working too! I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my third one!

I ordered my Mac Mini a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited although I went through hell to finally get it as I told you here.

Well the adapter finally arrived today and I got it all set up and plugged in...................and the Mini is dead! There is no power going into it at all.

I phoned Apple, almost in tears, he asked me to unplug it all, plug it back in, try a different wall socket. Then declared it DOA and put me through to the refunds department.

I was not offered a replacement power cord or an exchange unit, just "return it for a refund"

They said the refund would only take a couple of days (maybe by Saturday? That would sweeten my mood!) but then I got the e-mail with my return number.

The e-mail says:

"Our carrier will contact you within 2 business days to arrange collection. The item(s) will take 3-4 business days to reach the Apple Centre. Once receipt is confirmed, your refund will be processed. Please allow 5-10 days for the refund to reach your account. "

Erm..........but the man on the phone said in a couple of days!!

I have to wait for that money to be credited back onto my debit card before I can order a replacement as I can't afford to just order another one! If I'm lucky, the money won't get eaten by a bill!

You know when you watch a movie where one guy is kicking the crap out of another guy (stay with me here, there is a point!). He well and truly kicks the crap out of someone and you think "blimey!"

That's how I feel! I want to kick the crap out of someone!

24 hours of hell

Last night was our usual knit night. I went along and all was going well until about 10pm when Jess sent me a text to say that they'd all probably be at their Nan's when I got back.

I called to find out why as my mother only lives next door and Alex told me that Kyle had completely flipped out, grabbed Jess around the throat and shoved her. He said that Kyle had then left the house.

I told him to get Nan around until I could get home and I left knit night.

When I got home, everyone except Kyle was sitting in the lounge. Jess said her shoulder hurt where he'd shoved her; I had a look but it looked ok to me. Mum went home and I sat with the others and we told jokes and chatted to pass the time until Kyle got home.

After about an hour Mum buzzed through on the phone and said that he was there so I went next door. I tried to talk calmly to him, but he was well past that by then. He was screaming at me and crying.

Then he got right in my face. I raised my hand up and told him to step back as I was still sitting in the chair and he slapped my hand away.

I had to leave. I knew my being there wasn't helping at all and even though I was being as calm as I could, my presence was winding him up.

I sat in my lounge for about half an hour and cried, more from shock than anything, then went back next door.

Kyle was sobbing at this point and it was then that I made the decision to contact the Mental Health team. They couldn't send anyone out but said they would get someone to call me the next day. They also said that if he kicked off again then I should call the police for our own safety and that it wasn't a punishment. I told him that I couldn't do that because Kyle would see it as a punishment! He said "Well we'll deal with that at a later date." I couldn't believe it, as far as Kyle is concerned; bad people go to jail and that's it, police don't take good people away and if I called the police on him then he would believe he was no good for the rest of his life!

I ended up giving him a couple of Alex's bio-melatonin just to help knock him out. He'd calmed down by this point and was quite happy to take them, have a hot shower then go off to bed. Everyone else went to bed shortly after.

Well, except for me...I sat here shell shocked until around 5am!

The following day I was woken by Graham the builder who is replacing the fascia boards under the bit of roof that sticks out around the house and is painting everything else. The kids all slept for another couple of hours and when they got up, everything was ok.

Mental Health called me around 10am this morning. He was astonished that Kyle was never offered anything like counselling or support after he was diagnosed with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and recommended I make a start by visiting our GP.

I phoned the doctors surgery and at first they wanted to give us a sit and wait appointment because, apparently, there was nothing else available. Until I told them that MH had told us to get an appointment, then we were miraculously squeezed in for a double appointment at 4pm.

I stayed at home today; I was actually waiting for a converter plug so that I can plug my Mac into my new monitor (which never arrived!).

I heard a bang at one point and thought Graham had fallen off his ladder, I went into the hallway, but I could see the ladder through the glass door propped against the house so I didn't investigate further.

About ten minutes later, Mum rushed through saying that there might be "big problems" outside. I went out to discover that the string on the paint pot had broken. The paint pot (quite full, no lid) fell to the ground and white paint went everywhere! Even over the wall and onto a passing black car!

Thankfully, there was no accident and once we'd hosed the guys car off he was so nice about it he wouldn't even accept money to take the car to the car wash!

Graham has cleaned the garden up as best he can, but I think it'll be a whitewash the next few times it rains!

I took Kyle to the GP, not one I had seen before, he talked to Kyle a bit, asked me some questions, informed me that Kyle's diagnosis hadn't been recorded in his notes (our wonderful NHS at work!) and then said he'd refer Kyle to CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service) and I should hear from them in the next few days!

I'm absolutely shattered, obviously I didn't sleep much. After getting home from the doctors surgery, all I've wanted to do is sleep.

I did some spinning in the garden, the sun was shining and it was lovely. I think it's helped calm me down slightly too!

I raided my money box yesterday. I was initially saving this for iKnit, but I don't really need any yarn after Ravelry Day and I would like some more fibre so I'm taking it with me this Saturday to Fibrefest!

I have £150!!

Fibrefest! Here I come!

The past week or so

I've been finishing a lot of stuff off. As of this morning I only have Wimbledon Wetland (which only needs a hood, the GAAA and Alex's socks on the needles!

I have done some more spinning this week; I spun the remainder of the purple and black up. I'm getting better at plying; the second lot is much better balanced, but then the spinning isn't as slubby either. I might make something similar to Ishbel - half stocking stitch with a lacy edging to it then I can use the loose slubby stuff on the stocking stitch and the nice finer balanced stuff on the lace. I have already contacted the manufacturers and asked if they can do me another 100g in the same (or near as possible) dye lot and they have agreed.

I'm so excited by all this that my head has been exploding with various mixtures of colours I can do, I'm going to try blending at the wheel too to see what that looks like!

Unfortunately, I have been restricted in the amount that I could spin as I woke on Monday morning with a sore shoulder. I must've slept funny and I assumed it would sort itself in a day or two. Well it's still causing me grief and I think I've got a trapped nerve so it's going to be a while yet, but this is seriously cutting into knitting and spinning time *grumble grumble*

Yesterday was very bad; but playing taxi for 40 odd miles for the kids didn't help. After dropping mum off at work last night, I came home and had a very hot shower. Then just before bed I took a dihydrocodiene.

I had a very strange dream that I was at a World Knitting Weekend - people from all over the world were there - it was great! But for some reason it was decided that I wasn't allowed to stay and they all told me I was banished. I actually woke in tears - physically crying to match the crying in my dreams. Weird!

I'm going out tonight; first night out in aaaaaaaaaaages! It was Mel's birthday on Wednesday so we're going on a pub crawl!

Definitely no medication tonight LOL

I bought a Mac!

I decided last week I would buy one, especially as Microsoft have just announced the release of Windows 7; this totally pissed me off because Windows Vista is still such a piece of crap!

So, Jess and I decided to visit the Apple store in Southampton.

Of course, I completely forgot that last week was Cowes Week!

I got to Cowes and there was NOWHERE to park! It was full. Cowes is a very strange place. No road parking unless you have a residential permit. There only seems to be one big car park and it's a fair distance from the passenger ferry (which doesn't offer any parking at all). The other two car parks are very small, one belongs to the Co-Op and the other is short stay only. Someone suggested I try the overspill car parks (these are opened purely for events). I drove around and was told I would have to pay £5 for the privilege of parking in a field! I informed the lady that I had a blue badge (disability badge which entitles me to park in the car park next door for free!) and she said I still had to pay £5. I got a bit annoyed at this point and said that I was an Islander, I had absolutely no interest in a stupid boat race; I just wanted to go to Southampton to do a bit of shopping!

She just sort of gave me a shrug and held her hand out for the money, I told her to forget it and that I'd leave. She then told me I'd have to drive right around the overspill "car park" because there wasn't turning room.

I drove forward to the end of a line of cars with the intention of turning around there (there was room, no one was in danger and I certainly wasn't driving around their car park!) and another woman had a go at me telling me to slow down.

I must admit I lost it at this point. I told her to mind her own business, to teach her grandmother to suck eggs and I barrelled out of that car park at top speed!

I drove around but all the other places were either full or you had to pay an outrageous amount. The only other place to park was Cowes High School, but that's far too far away from the ferry for me to walk.

Then I drove to the park and ride thinking we could park up and bus back to the ferry. That car park was also full and the fare for busing back into town was £2.50.

After that I decided I'd buy it online but I'd get the peripherals locally at least so I popped into Newport to buy the monitor and a trackball mouse. I went to PC World and stood waiting for a member of staff to appear for about five minutes. Then I shouted out "Is anyone working today?" before leaving and going into Curry's next door.

Unfortunately they didn't have the monitor I wanted and it seems like trackballs are going out of fashion or something because they didn't have any!

Then I went down to Staples. They didn't have any trackballs either but they did have the monitor I was after. I asked the rather scared looking (Well, Jess and I were in full goth gear) CSR if I could have one, only to be told they were out of stock. He nearly died when I looked (OK, glared!) at him. So I asked in an ultra-polite voice if I could buy the display one. He did a huge swallow and said very quietly that he wasn't allowed to sell it to me that because they were expecting more stock in.

Then I asked him about trackballs (I had to explain what a trackball explorer was first) and he said they didn't sell those anymore. To his credit, he then asked if I wanted anything they did have! I said I was going home to bed and that I totally gave up on the day!

I was ready to bite things at this point! So I drove home. All I had to show for my big shopping trip was a pack of 2 DVD-RW discs that I bought in Staples.

I ended up ordering a Mac Mini from Apple and I actually got a reconditioned one for slightly more money, but it has slightly better specs so I reckoned it was a good deal.

I went into Newport on Monday to get a monitor thinking Staples would have them in stock by this point. The new stock hadn't arrived!

I explained - very patiently - to the manager that I wanted THAT monitor and that I was told more would be in this week. I think he realised I was ready to kill and they sold me the display model with 10% off.

Over the weekend I also purchased a keyboard with an inbuilt trackball from eBay.

By Tuesday, everything was here and on Thursday I started to get it set up.

Of course, it just wasn't going to go that easily!

The monitor only has a VGA port and the Mac Mini has a mini display port or a mini DVI port. I have been to every shop in Newport and no one does the adapter (not even PC World and they sell Apple products) so I've had to order that from Apple too. That will hopefully arrive on Tuesday!

This bloody computer better be worth it!

I name this wheel...

My wheel needs a name! I really don't know what to call it. I'm not even sure if it's male or female yet. Most people seem to feminise their wheel, mine behaves most of the time...but every now and then my yarn will snap as if my wheel is being a stubborn man and trying to remind me who's boss LOL

So.............got any ideas for a good name?

More Finished Stuff

I finished a couple more things today.

First off here is the Aurantium Shawl; this shawl was done as a KnitALong (KAL) on twitter and created by Socktopus.

Pattern: Aurantium Blossom

Source: twitter

Yarn: Flutterby Creations BFL Sock in Brigit Colourway

Time: 21-07-09 - 10-08-09

Here is a scarf made with Rico Design Pompon yarn too

Pattern: Garter Stitch Scarf

Source: Ball Band around yarn

Yarn: Rico Design Pompon

Time: 22-07-09 - 10-08-09

Lacy Baktus

I finished my Lacy Baktus today. Mum was so impressed that she immediately went stash diving and requested I make her one too *sigh*

Pattern: Lacy Baktus

Source: Terhimon's Flickr

Yarn: Knitting Goddess July 2009 Sock Club

Time: 6-08-09 - 8-08-09

My First Handspun

Finally! I have some finished and plied handspun yarn to show you.

I'm so proud of it!

I wish there were more of me so that I could knit everything I want to knit and now to spin as well!

Anyway, photo time!

Clicken to embiggen!

The shawl with no name

Anni was looking for volunteers to knit up a pattern of hers in time for fiberfest. I volunteered and everything arrived at the beginning of the week. It was a very easy pattern and I finished it this evening.

Here is a picture of it unblocked; Anni is going to block it herself which meant I could just squish it into the package!

Anniversary Mystery Shawl

I started the Anniversary Mystery Shawl several weeks ago and worked on it sporadically.

It was actually getting to the point where I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but I battled on to see what it would be like after blocking.

Here it is.

It's shorter than I would usually go for, but will probably be ideal to wear with some of my gothic skirts in the summertime.

Pattern: Victorian Romance

Source: goddessknits.com

Yarn: Knitting Goddess 100% Cashmere in Semi Solid Plum

Time: 3-06-09 –- 2-08-09 (while worked with other projects)

Friendship

I've been neglecting my friends lately.

I post often on twitter and Tweetdeck posts my tweets automatically to my facebook account. I'd posted about our visit to Southampton General this week so that Matt could have a cardiac MRI and Mel left a comment that pointedly started with "Hello Stranger!"

I sat and thought about it wondering what her problem was and then realised it's probably been about a month since I saw her last. Longer than that for anyone else except the knitting and spinning groups.

I used to hate sitting at home on my own and wondered how some people could do it. I started to tell myself it was because the weather has been so lousy, but yesterday the sun appeared and I raced outside in my bikini and sat spinning and knitting in the garden........it never occurred to me to go and visit someone!

I've been sat wondering why. Am I consciously avoiding the few friends that I've got? No.

To be perfectly honest, I'm just enjoying my own company at the moment.

Life feels so....................samey!

You phone people on a weekly basis and say "Hey, how's it going? What you been up to? What's the gossip? How are you? How are the kids/boyfriend/husband/parents/siblings/cousins/nieces/nephews/theguyyoumetatthepapershop..........."

Truth is; nothing much changes with me. I have pretty much the same routine from day to day and week to week and I started to notice after a while that everyone else does too. The only thing that changes is whatever we want to bitch about and that doesn't change often enough that I want to listen to the same complaints over and over again.

I've done that for people and got sweet FA in return. People that have told me their deepest darkest secrets, come to me and cried on my shoulder and told me their fears. But then those same people move on with their lives, find new people to spend their time with and forget that I'm still here being the faithful friend.

I get so fed up with that and so I've chosen to just not bother with it all for now. I know this means I miss out on other stuff, those friends from the paragraph before move home, find new partners, get married, catch swine flu & recover, have kids...big momentous occasions and I don't get to hear about it unless they happen to post it to facebook and haven't yet removed me as a friend!

Oh well!

I'm not consciously avoiding anyone, I just honestly don't have anything to say! I would hope that my friends, my TRUE friends, would still contact me if they needed me. After all, I haven't moved house, found a partner, got married, caught swine flu OR had (any more) kids LOL.

But I'm not avoiding you because you've pissed me off. I just don't have anything to chat about and I'm getting fed up with replying "Nothing." Whenever you ask what I've been up to; it reminds me of when I was at school. I know you guys aren't really interested in my crafting, so I'm not going to talk your ears off about it. But other than my knitting/spinning/crochet, being a mum and bathing/walking/feeding Isis.....nothing's happened!