Well, being off work is apparently not conducive to posting daily on my blog. I wonder why that could be?
Thursday evening I did a little bit of spinning on the alpaca, but I didn’t have long to spin so not a lot got done.
Spinning alpaca from the cloud (with no prep) is pretty dirty work, but it’s spinning up nicely!
Friday I did less spinning than I had hoped, as I spent the morning doing chores and then we went strawberry picking in the afternoon. I really enjoyed the fruit picking and might even go again before the season is over. I did manage to take the wheel outside for a little while though, which was nice.
And the bobbin started to fill up nicely while I was out in the sunshine
Day 8 was Saturday, and we went to the exhibit about the Mallard speed record at the National Railway Museum in York. It was a lot of fun!
It did mean that I didn’t get much spinning done though, in fact the day 8 bobbin looks quite similar to the day 7 one above!
On Sunday there was a tennis match on the TV (that would be the historic Wimbledon men’s final where Andy Murray finally triumphed!) and I spun during the whole match. This ended up being quite a lot of spinning!
The slightly blurry picture on the right is my second bobbin of the alpaca; the one on the left is the first finished bobbin.
Today (Monday) is a rest day for the Tour de France cyclists, and so I won’t be doing any spinning today. This is fine by me, as we’re experimenting with a new transport option for my knitting group: I’m going to get the bus back to the nearest village tonight, and then hubby will collect me from there once his ceramics class is finished.
Wow, I've had a really jam-packed weekend! Hubby and I took off from work on Thursday afternoon and headed off to Cumbria. We stayed overnight near Cockermouth, ready for Woolfest 2013.
It was a great day, though I failed to take any photos of the event. (Hubby got a few of the sheep demo) All the stands were amazing. I was especially interested in Lakeland Valley Goats who are a new startup supplying cashmere fiber. Lovely. I actually ended up buying a lot of fiber this time, rather than yarn. Must be the spinning jag I'm on, but more on that in a moment...
here's my haul from Woolfest. (I will "flash the stash" of fiber and handspun sometime soon)
The pink/black merino (number 10) is gorgeous. That and number 9 were from Felt Studio UK, and might upset my original spinning plan for the TdF. More on that soon.
So, Saturday I had agreed to take part in the Bugthorpe Open Studios event, so hubby and I took our stuff to the village hall and I demonstrated spinning while he did some drawing.
(That's one of hubby's works in the background)
It was a really nice day, and the kids seemed really interested in the wheel. I let some of the little ones have a go at pedalling, so some of my yarn is a little overspun, but not to worry.
The added bonus for me was a whole day of spinning, even if it wasn't uninterrupted spinning. I've signed up for the Tour de Fleece, which is a spin-along timed to coincide with the Tour de France. Saturday was day 1, and I spun this single:
Then, on Sunday (day 2) I spun the second single
Since I divided the fiber lengthways, it wasn't entirely evenly split. That meant that I had to do a little Andean plying at the end to get one skein out of it. However, here is a nice 2ply yarn. (sorry it's a bit dark, it was about 11pm when I took this photo!)
I've brought the bobbin and a niddy noddy with me so that I can skein it tonight at knitting group, and all being well I'll make a start on my alpaca tonight.
I bought that at Woolfest 2 years ago! It's about 500g of uncarded chocolate brown alpaca fleece. I'm excited to spin some of it, though I'm not sure how much I will spin. It's a shame I didn't think to buy some more bobbins. Broadly, my plan is to spin 50g onto each bobbin and then ply it into 100g skeins. I might end up putting one (or more) singles onto loo-roll tubes in order to maximise my effort.
I might invest in some painkillers too, as all this spinning is making me ache!
I'm also pleased to say that all this spinning will count for Nerd Wars, and Elise has modified the rules for R2 so that spinning started for the Tour can be included in the R2 challenges - so my skein can be submitted to any of the challenges, if I can figure out which one!
At the weekend hubby and I visited Wrest Park. It’s a really pretty place, and the weather was amazing.
We strolled through the gardens
And saw beautiful buildings
And a gorgeous library
It was a lovely day out, I’d recommend it to anyone who likes old buildings, beautiful scenery and that sort of thing!
I did have a sad moment this weekend though.
My Swallowtail, which I’ve been wearing as a scarf for a while now, had a mysterious hole in it.
On closer inspection, there were a couple of holes, so I decided to rip out the final section and re-knit it.
While I was ripping back, I ended up with about 12 different short-ish lengths of yarn. I don’t think that any of them were unrelated to the holes I already knew about, but it did make me nervous about that fiendish creature; the moth larvae. I have checked all of my knitted garments for holes, and I’m looking into storage options which are breathable but mothproof.
At least I have plenty of the yarn left.
And in the meantime, I’m knitting another swallowtail anyway! It’s only small again, but will be pretty when finished. This one is in the same yarn as my wedding shawl (you know, the one I didn’t wear on the day!)
Two years ago we spent a week of glorious sunshine in Cumbria, and attended Woolfest as part of our holiday.
We were moving house last year, so I couldn’t go.
This year, we decided to take a long weekend, so we headed off to Cockermouth on Thursday 23rd to stay in Rose Cottage B&B for three nights.
On the way we stopped off at somewhere called the Alpaca Centre. They had alpaca jumpers, gloves, hats, alpaca rugs, a stuffed cria; the works! They also had some real live alpaca in their field.
After a much needed cup of tea, we arrived in Cockermouth at about lunchtime. As the B&B wasn’t yet open for arrivals, we headed into town for some lunch and a wander. There were some interesting craft shops, and Hubby spent some time in the music shop there.
Friday was Woolfest. It usually runs on the Friday and Saturday, and I like to go on the Friday. We didn’t spend too long queueing, which was nice, and then we had a wander around. I like to do one loop where I don’t buy anything, and then re-visit everywhere I want to buy from.
I came back with quite a haul!
Here’s a bit of a breakdown
The black "sheep" item is a limited edition bag. It says "It's all about the sheep" and is very cool.
This is a plying tool. After my disastrous attempts at Andean plying (big tangled mess) I’m quite excited to find this tool. I can’t for the life of me remember who I bought it from…
Because I know I will never get around to making myself one, this is a roll for my crochet hooks to live in. rather than the tatty plastic cases they live in right now.
Sock yarn, made from Teeswater sheep (though not from Teeside). Each skein is unique, and this was such a pretty colour. Also the Teeswater is very lustrous. I don’t know if it will be socks or something else. The little bag it’s sitting on is a hand-made gingham bag; lovely!
Fyberspates Lace weight Scrumptious (buy it here) yarn. It really is that pretty shade of blue. It’s amazing. I also bought the Scrumptious Collection book, which Jeni signed for me! I’m already planning to make one of the tops in the book with the yarn I picked up! I have to finish my Après Surf Hoodie first though.
Manx/Wensleydale Organic Laceweight. It’s lovely and soft and pretty and naturally that colour. What more could you ask for? It’s amazing.
500g of “caramel” coloured alpaca fleece, ready to spin. Lovely. It’s a shopping bag full, and when it’s spun I have a bag I can shop with (though it will be a bit hairy for a while!)
I stopped off at Felt Studio UK’s stand and watched Daniella spin for a (very short) time, before buying some lovely Jacob hand-dyed top. It’s a nice fat squishy braid too!
I bought a 100g bag of Hebridean fibre to spin with too. It looks pretty hairy, but it doesn’t feel rough to touch. I’m hopeful that if it is a bit rough I might be able to felt something from it.
Angora Bunny fur from Skyrack Angoras. This is a lovely greyish colour. I had a lovely chat with the lady about how to spin this. She recommended blending it with something else. I think that I’d like to get it to be about 50% angora, but I don’t know yet what I want to blend it with. And I only have some small hand cards. I might need to get on Ravelry in the UK Spinners forum and ask them what they recommend.
I stopped off at the Winghams stand and selected these bargains. 50g balls of merino silk for £3.50. Lush colours too. And now I’ve seen it in person, I’ll be reasonably happy to pick some more up online. Well, when I’ve spun more of my spinning stash anyway.
Manx Loughton fibre, carded (there were also rollags available!) ready for spinning. As you might have gathered, I’m keen to try spinning as many different breeds of fibre (including non-sheep) as possible!
All the colours on Freyalyn’s stand were amazing. I was determined to buy some as the sample I got (that I killed by trying to Andean ply it) from the fiberholics box was really nice colours. This isn’t merino though, it’s BFL and silk. (I went a bit gooey for silk blends this woolfest!)
We also went to Trotter’s World of Animals which was good fun! They had a nice selection of animals there, the meercats were cute, but my favourite were the gibbons! So I’ll leave you with this video of a gibbon running away. Brilliant!
Terry Wogan was funny this morning. We’ve had a little bit of snow and ice this weekend, it’s caused a few problems. He sang thus (approximately):
Good King Wenceslas looked out
Two weeks after Easter
Traffic stuck on roundabouts
Every hill a pist-e
It didn’t bother Northerners
They didn’t care in Pres-ton
In Newcastle the men went out
With only shorts and ve-ests on
Also, I had fun this weekend on This Site finding out whether I am a geek, a nerd or a dork.
Your Score: Pure Geek (I was so right!)
43 % Nerd
65% Geek
34% Dork
You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek.
It’s not that you’re a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don’t really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren’t quite mainstream. Perhaps it’s anime, perhaps it’s computers, perhaps it’s bottlecaps, perhaps it’s all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don’t quite consider yourself “of that crowd.” Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal.
Which, you are.
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 25% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 90% on geekosity
You scored higher than 61% on dork points
Don't try to access it at work, as it's on OKCupid, which is blocked.
The dress, which the material in the last post is for, is now finished except for the hem on the open ends of the belt (it’ll take about two minutes to do that bit) but the light was so poor by the time I was finished that I couldn’t take photos. I have not decided whether to take the photos of it on my mannequin (yey – no me in the pic!) or whether to put it on and venture outside. Since it’s very thin, I’m thinking I’ll go for the mannequin option. I’m really quite pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s a good length, it floats nicely. The stripes look funky and the floral trim works much better than I thought it might! It’s all because of the teeny tiny felted tote which is my bag for the wedding.
I did some more bay-parking today. It took a bit of getting used to, but I managed 5 sucessful bay-parks out of 5. (I had to do some pretty major corrections though!)
I did find out today, though, that my instructor (who has been very good, and patient!) is going off travelling round America. Starting in 6 days. For three months. I wish her lots of luck and fun - I'd love to do that! Trouble is having the whole job thing is a drag. And not much money - except for my savings which are taking Leon and I to Florida for my Dad's 50th.
So, I'll be waiting to hear from another instructor, and in the meantime getting put onto the insurance for the Escort - volunteers to be taken to Tesco or for random weekend driving welcome. Though I suspect that the volunteers will be fewer than for Leon, people assume that I'll be equally scary behind the wheel (and I might be - who am I to know?) and also Leon's a nicer person to be stuck in a small metal box for hours driving around York. :) I know my limits and I'm not a glass-half-full kind of person. If I expect the worst then I'm rarely dissapointed but often pleasantly surprised.
Anyway, it's late. Leon's playing GTA San Andreas (my game...but he's enjoying himself so much) and I'm off to bed so that I can try not to be any more grumpy about work.
Chip will be glad to hear that his "replacement" has sent me some rubbish to look at that I'm not sure is any more wrong than usual, just they've noticed it now. Fab. :) Though it was suggested I could stay at work until the evening in order to call Chip in his new office...
So Christmas is gone again. It’s been a good one for me. My sister and her boyfriend and my parents all came to my house for Christmas day. Everyone received thoughtful gifts which they should enjoy (or in the case of Dad’s chocolates, already have enjoyed) and we had an entertaining day!
Highlights (in roughly chronological order)
A quiet half-hour before breakfast with Leon
Duran Duran!
Gayle’s impatience while Leon took ages getting dressed
Leon’s face when he opened his new bass amp
Guitar Hero!
The Turkey! (Well done Leon)
“It must be Norman Lamont or Mike Tyson!”
Wearing new pyjamas to bed
Anyway, we went on to my parents’ house on Boxing Day for a nice Boxing Day tea. We watched Over the Hedge which was quite entertaining, but not a patch on Monsters Inc. We also played cards and watched the docu-drama United 93 which was quite interesting, but a little on the long side considering that they don’t really know what happened up there.
Then on the day after Boxing Day we all trekked off to the sales in Lincoln. This was actually a last-minute decision, but turned out to be an entertaining day. I like shopping. I got bargains in Top Shop (half price boob-tube) and New Look (boots, tops, shirts and the jacket I’ve been after for ages which Leon got me as an early birthday prezzie). Then we hit Primark. They don’t have a sale on, but it’s almost the same with their prices! I mostly got underwear. Leon got some fab new t-shirts and a new hoodie.
Of course that will not stop me from hitting the New Look sale in York too – at some point. Probably on a lunchtime since I’m working the weekend this weekend coming up.
This weekend was a good one. I got lots done!
I suppose the weekend really started with the department Christmas lunch, which was at a local hotel. The food was good, there was wine, and it was all free! Woo! After this we moved on to a dodgy club for two more free drinks, and then (as I was drunk) I offered a friend a lift home. Leon picked us up and we went across town for a while. We had tasty pizza and chips and had a nosey at our friends' extension. (For the pedants among you, I have correctly used the apostrophe, as by this point I am referring to two friends.)
We had quite an early night and I was almost ready for the world by the following morning! My parents arrived quite early, but this was planned so I was dressed and everything! Anyway, we got ourselves organised and went to a farmers' market (I forget where exactly) which was very exciting! We bought a variety of vegetables (parsnip, Swede, Brussels on a big stick-thing, streaky bacon for the turkey and some posh sausages for Christmas Breakfast, and a jar of honey-peanut butter [I tried the garlic, but that was not to my taste!]) Once we'd done browsing and buying we decided to stop in the café area for lunch. We originally expected this to be pork-in-a-bun or similar, but we ended up with a massive plate of meat and vegetables! Though the man did want us to have mashed potatoes and chips!
Then while Leon and Dad finished insulating the loft, Mum and I went into town. We were going to Beer-Ritz (as I mentioned previously) but it's gone! It’s been turned into a trendy wine bar – no shadow of a lie! Rubbish! So, that was not a success.
I did manage to book a table for my birthday (though I'll probably call to confirm that before the event).
We also ordered a turkey. I have since discovered that it is probably twice the size we actually need but hey – it’s Christmas! So, we’ve got a 12lb turkey for the 6 of us. It’s going to take about 6.5 hours to cook (25-30 mins per pound at 170 degrees, plus 25 mins) though – so Leon's getting up early to pre-heat the oven. I'll make sure that it is prepped and ready though.
I got some chocolate coins for the stockings too, more on stockings later.
Then, in the evening, JJ and his fiancée came round. This was mostly because of the Muppet issues of last weekend. Leon showed them the bathroom (now almost complete – only a few minor bits to go!) and we played with the hamsters for ages. JJ's fiancée would like to get a pet but JJ is not so keen. It is a big commitment, even with something as small as hamsters!
Then Sunday Leon went out to the shops, so once I'd had a bath and made myself feel human (I got to exfoliate for the first time in ages!) I set to work making some Christmas stockings for both of us. I had some left over pink-and-black striped fur (from the two-face costume) and some black velour, so I decided to use that. I got fluff everywhere, but we now have some not-very-festive-but-very-pink stockings! Yey! So I put the stocking filler prezzies I have so far in there. I only have three for Leon, and a handful for my sister and her fella, but I am hoping to pick up some other bits – I can't say what yet because my sister reads this blog too!
Yes, last night I slept much more than I have been doing. There may be many reasons for this, here's what I did differently:
Leon wasn't here, so I spent a couple of hours asleep in front of the telly waiting for the dryer to finish.
The dryer failed to dry my clean bedding, so I slept in a minimally bedded bed.
I drank lots of water, resulting in me getting up to pee, not to itch.
I ordered a half-and-half hot chick and pepperoni pizza, which I ate half of.
I ordered ice cream too, which I forgot to eat.
I smothered myself in moisturising jelly stuff (don't ask) twice before bed.
I drank some tea (OK, I normally do this)
I took non-non-drowsy anti-histamine, paracetamol and ibuprofen.
But which of those is applicable... I think the less-is-more style bed may be the answer. I was blinking frozen all night, thus the rash didn't get hotter.
I did still wake up twice, but that's not bad in the scheme of an 8 hour sleep. And I've slept for a lot of today too. The only trouble is that the bit of rash on my face has turned out to also react badly to the super-jelly-moisturiser. So I look like I did ten rounds with Mike Tyson. Not just my eye anymore, but my whole face is swollen up on one side. The ibuprofen has had some effect, as have the cold compresses and the copious amounts of water I have drunk (compared to normal, when I don't drink water if I can avoid it!)
So I am feeling a bit better.
I've also watched an episode of Star Trek (TOS) and two of Star Trek: TNG. Fantastic!
I had forgotten how much I love those shows. I know it's supposedly sad, boring or whatever but I don't care. I love it. I love the movies - I cried at the end of several of them, most recently at the end of the last one when Data dies. It was even a pretty good episode of TOS (that's The Original Series for you non-Trekkies) where a child version of a being a bit like Q from TNG (The Next Generation) kept provoking them. And the scenery wasn't too cardboardy. Also, Captain Kirk didn't get his shirt ripped off in the fight!!
Another great thing about the more recent Star Treks (TNG, DS9, Voyager) have been the totty! Voyager had the luscious Paris (male) and the brooding Chakotay. DS9 had the lovely Bashir and TNG had Picard (oddly sexy) Riker and Worf. Okay, so Worf isn't really that attractive, but his actor, Michael Dorn, is. :)
