Innerwick 2011.

Today I am packing to go on a local spinning/knitting/dyeing weekend retreat in the evening. It’s the same one as I went on last year when the Big Snows started, at Innerwick along by Dunbar. Ten of us from the Haddington Spinners are going as residential girls for two nights and more are coming along tomorrow to join in for the day. We are going to be dyeing sock blanks and sock yarn…this is us being the guinea pigs for a class on acid dyeing running at the Guild next year, actually, but we don’t mind at all. We’ll have the chance to dye our own yarns and fibres too.

We’re also doing some Nuno felting and if the weather holds we’re going for an expedition to a local beach to gather “interesting things” to learn to make mood boards. A brave OH is coming along with drills and woodworking expertise to help us make interesting things out the interesting things…I’m not quite sure what this will entail, but it should be interesting, no? Last year we made hedgerow spindles and spun wool fibre we’d collected from sheep fences which was dyed using local plants. It was fun too and showed you don’t have to have money to make fibre.

Margie from Moondance is coming up to join us for a bit and bringing things to sell, plus we’re having a bring and buy table on Saturday. And there’s the usual cake, wine, knitting, spinning and chatting.

55 Christmas Balls.....

            Absolutely compulsive book. You have been warned!

Singer Lotus 66k

I went out on Saturday with the intention of having a good look round the charity shops (it's a hobby!) and if I saw any sewing machines, so much the better. Lad volunteers at a local very large charity shop on Saturday mornings and has strict instructions to text me if they've got any sewing machines in. No texts, no sewing machines, so I decided to go out to the local junk yard. I've bought two spinning wheels there in the past and it's always interesting there. Lots of interesting things but no sewing machines, unless you count an utterly wrecked Singer cabinet that's not even worth salvaging for spares, it's so rusty.

Then I spotted IT under a table. A Lotus!! There are so many old Singers availible round here in central Scotland that really, you've got to be selective but I've always had a hankering for a Lotus.

Anyway, no sliding bobbin cover plate, no top of case, bit worn on the base, electrics looked a bit ropey. I prepared myself to haggle a bit. I don't like haggling but I do like a bargain! However I didn't have to, the junkyard owner asked for £10 straight off. What's that...about $17? Oh yes, I'll have it, thanks.

Then he asked me if I was interested in a treadle machine that was on the lorry atm. The thought of my Hubby's face if I turned up with two sewing machines? Anyway, the car was full. I'll go back and look at it on Monday.......

So. I now have my old Lotus. it's a 66k, there is a manual with it and I did check the archive pictures to make sure. The serial no is F7629593 which gives me a date of 1917 and I'm assuming it comes from Kilbowie given we're only 30-40 miles away from it. It's 94 years old, which means it was made seven years before my late mum was born. My gran probably used a machine like this and she was born in 1890! I'm absolutely amazed that you can go out and buy a piece of living history like this for £10, honestly. You'd think it should be in a museum. But given that it came from a batch of 75,000 66ks made in 1917, it's not exactly rare. There were more 66ks made than any other sewing machine ever, though the lotus details were discontinued in the late 20's, apparently.

 The big decal on the bed is very worn and scratched which is a pity and there's some rubbing on the front edge but the rest of the decals are good. The metal end plate (no idea of name) has a matching Lotus engraving. I never knew this existed before this weekend. It's absolutely lovely.

The sliding plate to cover the bobbin race is missing but I know a UK spares shop where I can buy one from. It came with the darning plate, a old pack of Singer needles, a tube of Singer motor grease and a pile of evil plastic bobbins. No other accessories. It has a back clamp foot and I've been reading that this means it was one of the first versions of the 66k made.

It's been electrified..the motor is a BUK one,, the same as my 99k, so I'm wildly guessing at late 50's for that? I'm assuming that it was originally a hand crank because there's no slots in the wooden base for a treadle belt. The base, btw, is very, very scruffy. No top.

Oh yes. Does she work? Well, of course. Even before I excavated the half pound of lint from the base and oiled her, she worked. I plugged her at arm's length (Crocs and thick insulated gloves) and she just whirred into action like the old pro she undoubtably is, judging from all that wear. Now she's been cleand and oiled, she's smooth as silk.

  Anyway, I am thrilled. I know 66ks are extremely common and you're probably all laughing at my enthusiasm for a machine you've probably all seen hundreds of times but still, it's one I wanted and I'm happy to have it. Don't much care for peeling old electrics though so I was thinking of turning it back to hand crank or treadle. I do like treadles given that my first ever sewing machine was a treadle.

Catching up.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I think I just got tired of blogging. Nothing wrong Chez Fishwife, I just didn't feel like doing it and then I started to feel guilty about not doing it. Which is silly when you think about it. Who needs self imposed pressure like that? So I gave myself permission to worrying about it and let things drift. Lately though I've found myself thinking about blogging again and considered starting a new blog. New slate? Then I decided that this was also silly because I've a perfectly good blog already and anyway, I like the name.

So a quick run through the last ten months.

Family.
We're all in good health apart from me. My degenerating lumbar disc has been causing problems with my balance and gait so my GP sent me in for an MRI to see what was going on. Didn't much like the MRI, I must admit, but it was useful. The DD has brought on early osteoarthritis of the spine ie excessive wear and tear. This is not good and can't continue at this rate so my GP has sent me away with strict instructions to start losing some weight pronto. We can't do much about the disc (it's not so bad atm that it needs surgery) but I can help reduce some of the mechanical impact on the spine by lightening the general load. I've been overweight to a greater or lesser degree most of my life and yes, I've read the usual warnings about how this can cause excessive wear and tear on joints but somehow, the two ends haven't connected in my brain. Oh well, they have now. I still want to be able to walk in ten years so I'm motivated to lose the weight, put it that way!Five pounds down alread, one heck of a lot more to go.

Apart from that Princess is now 10 and almost as tall as me, Lad is towering over me, turning into a fantastic rugby prop and is currently sitting his SQA Standard Grade prelims. Biology today! Hubby had a brief scare with two positive FOBt (this is the bowel cancer screening program), went in for a colonoscopy and had a polyp taken out which showed signs of pre-cancerous cells. Hubby is now fine now it's out, don't worry, but he has joined the happy band of folk who have been spared from the onset of bowel cancer, just by doing the very simple screening tests. (Note from us both...DO IT WHEN YOU GET SENT ONE, okay?)



Allotment.
It was a good year this year, not because of the weird weather but because we didn't go away for a long holiday. The kids had too many other things on so we settled for a very nice couple of weeks camping in Yorkshire. At the moment I am putting the allotment to bed for the winter. More about that another day.

Crafting.
Literally hundreds of things to report, far too many in fact. Highlights were a crafting trip to York, spinning in a Back to Back at the Royal Highland Show, buying a second hand Joy spinning wheel (lightweight, folding, portable, totally necessary for people with back problems) and also spinning in a Sheep to Shawl at the Scottish National Sheepdog Trials. This last not only had great scones, it also got me back into weaving. The shawl was a woven one and I was so taken with it I bought a 24" rigid heddle loom. I've not done a lot yet but I'm learning.

What else? Oh, I also went to the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Summer School. Given that I can see the venue from my attic window it would have been rude not to! I was a little disappointed not to have got onto my first choice, Spinning Exotic Fibres with Sue Macniven, but I took a great class in Knitting with Handspun run by Di Gilpin. Great event, highly recommended.

General.
So, atm we're settling in for the winter. I'm off to a spinning/knitting/dyeing retreat the weekend after next. This is the same event I was atending when the big snows started last year. I'm hoping for better weather this time round. We've got the usual over-commercial run up to Christmas to endure and then come January I'm off to York again. Apart from that, no plans as such. Except I will try to blog a little more, I promise.

Allotment: January.

I went to the allotment for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. First time this year. First time since just before the snows started, actually, so that makes it seven or eight weeks since I last went. That's okay though. It's down time for allotmenting just now. The soil is too cold and wet to work without damaging it, especially if you use raised beds like me. I know that traditional allotmenteers dig over their patches in early winter and allow the wind and rain to break down the clods but that can also be viewed as damaging the soil structure (unnecessary digging and weathering) and the rain leaches out soil nutrients.

I prefer to prepare the beds as they come clear at the autumn harvest. I let then stand empty for a couple of weeks for the birds to pick out any bugs they may want, then I weed the bed, especially for perennial weeds, add a layer of mulch or compost plus fertilizer and lime as required then cover with black plastic or tough weed membrane with a layer of newspaper underneath. or even old carpet if that's all I've got. This keeps the soil structure of the bed protected and the covering means that rain won't leach out the nutrients. The soil under the beds keeps warmer too and the worms and micro-organisms work away at the mulch and drag everything down into the soil. In spring all I have to do is remove the cover and plant into the bed. No hard digging work required! The warming effect of the cover means the beds are ready to go earlier than bare soil too. All in all it's a system that works very well for me.

Anyway, the allotment looked okay for the start of January, all things considered. A bit of wind and snow weight damage to the nets and supports but most of it is tucked tight and snug under the layers of plastic and mulch. The paths and pond were frozen solid but the earth under the coverings was still soft enough to poke a finger into.
The cloches over the winter spinach etc were covered in snow so not much growth in there due to low light levels. But everything is still alive, despite the -15'C temperatures we had last December. The garlic has survived, all the Savoy cabbages and kale and sprouting broccoli plants and swedes and parsnips are fine under their nets. Any brassica that wasn't netted had been pecked to death by the pigeons of course. The only crops that survive winter without the protection of at least a net are the leeks, garlic and the Jerusalem artichokes. The Jerusalem artichokes would survive the next Ice Age though, I suspect. Tough little buggers.

The other tough bugger on the allotment is the willow. Despite me trying to kill my willow stand a couple of seasons ago three stumps have survived and thrown up a really quite promising crop of basket weight willow shoots. I may take an afternoon and try to revive my rusty basket weaving skills. I love the few baskets I've woven myself. They are special, and much cherished. I've also found a couple of old battered picnic hampers in charity shops last year that need some repairs done. So the unexpected willow is not unwelcome.

There's wildlife too. The fabric gardening gloves I left in the shed have been daintily nibbled round the cuffs so I expect there's a family of babies somewhere in the shed with a cosy nest made of gardening fleece and red floral glove fabric. There are fox tracks everywhere, up and down the paths and over the beds. We used to have a vixen that lived on the allotment and every year she had a family of cubs in a den under the old railway guard van that served as the communal shed back then. It was a treat to see the baby foxes and as they kept the vermin down most effectively it was worth suffering the odd squashed lettuce. The vixen vanished a couple of years ago..dead or moved on, not sure...so it would be nice to see another fox family this year. It's a good safe place for cubs. There are certainly enough tracks at the moment.

The pond is frozen solid, despite the old ball in it to keep a hole free. And the tanks. I must take some water up for the birds on my next trip. There were lots of bird tracks in the snow but I don't know enough about them to identify tracks. Pigeons for definite, given the condition of some of the neighbours' brassicas! And I saw a robin fly into a space between the wooden pallets that surround the compost heap. Nesting? There are always lots of robins on the allotment.

Did I do any work? Yes of course. There's always something to do on the allotment, in any season. I pruned the gooseberry and other soft fruit bushes. It's a good time to do it as you can easily see the branches and what to take out. My gooseberries are feral and get out of control very easily so need a good hard prune every year. I still get more goosegogs and berries than I know what to do with. The other thing I did was to put an old dustbin over one of the rhubarb crowns. I was shocked to see forced rhubarb in the shops at £5 per kilo at the moment. £5!!! For rhubarb!

So a pleasant start to the gardening year. I hope it's the sign of a good season for us all. :)

New Year.

Wow, one week into the New Year already? How time flies. I really must apologise for having fallen off the blogging wagon so precipitously in November. It's not that I had nothing to blog about, quite the contrary. Far too much happening, including battling The Snows. We really did have some astonishingly bad weather here in the east of Scotland from the end of November, right up till Christmas and beyond. The Fishwife family live in a decent sized town with almost everything within walking distance so we were fine for food and general supplies but I did nearly get stuck at the spinning retreat I was attending, an hours drive away up in a tiny village in the hills, when the snow first started. And the schools were closed quite a lot and Hubby was working from home mostly and really, the entire routine of life went to hell in a handcart.

It was quite fun in some ways though and certainly made for a less stressful Christmas, given that shopping was not regarded as a good enough reason to dig the car out yet again! Presents and visiting and general obligations to run around attending things got cut back quite a lot but we didn't find this made Christmas less enjoyable. Quite the opposite, actually. We did the important things and they were quite enough.

I also got an amazing amount of crafting done. I've been concentrating on smaller projects recently which means actually getting some FOs for a change. And once I'd actually got the bobbins cleared on the wheels I felt much more inspired to tackle some more unusual projects. I've done a bit of test spinning for a indie dyer called Dyeing for Yarn, who is about to start selling hand painted fibres in her Etsy shop. At the spinning retreat we did a big natural dyeing project, which deserves an entire post to itself soon, and I've started a Spinning Challenge 2011 thread on The Yarn Yard forum on Ravelry, where the idea is to challenge yourself to spin regularly every month for the next twelve months. I don't need much encouragement to be honest, but it's nice to be able to encourage other folk to do the same.

My spinning groups start back next week, actually, on Tuesday and Saturday, then I've got The Sheddite Gathering at the end of the month in York (three days of knitting, spinning and socialising in a convent in York, yeah!) and two spinning workshops in Feburary. A busy couple of months and I'm really looking forwards to them. :)

Finally, a couple of Cat Pictures. I made two felted Kitty Pi-s as Christmas presents for The Boyz. First one was for Ollie...





Then, after due reflection on sizing.......



A somewhat larger Pi for Paws...



Which was still a bit snug, but he likes it anyway.




Happy belated New Year to you all!

Paws for Thought.

A cute cat shaped blog post tonight because I'm too tired to think of anything to say.

Ever wondered why Paws is called Paws?



And by way of comparison, Ollie's dainty little ballerina mitts...



Normal spinning services will resume here tomorrow, because it's Guild day.

Dinosaur Skull.

In response to Paraknit's question... it's a dinosaur skull.



One of two, actually, that sit on the lower shelf facing each other. They came from a part work magazine that came out a few months ago, called Build a Dinosaur or some such. With each issue you got one part of your eventual dinosaur, the first part being the upper section of the skull. Like all these magazines the first one cost a paltry 99p or something, has the most exciting looking part and it's only after your kids have pestered you into buying the first three or four parts that you realise there's another ninety-six issues to go and they now cost £4.95 per issue. No, I have never succumbed to buying any of these rip-off items. But Hubby thought this section of the skull would make a great bit of war games scenery so he bought two. And there they sit. To the best of my knowledge they've never seen a game yet and I have no idea why they live on my spinning equipment shelves but they do look good and they're funny, so they can stay.

Yes I am a bit odd at times. And your point is.....?

Running on Empty.

A picture to make any spinner's heart beat faster.....



Twenty-nine empty bobbins! Yup, count them, twenty-nine. Isn't that a beautiful sight? And I've got another three Louet ones carrying WIPs, two Ashford ones ditto and five more empty bobbins sitting on various other wheels that I didn't want to bother taking off just for a picture. Oh, and three on the Hatbox which is up in the attic. Forty-two bobbins in total, eek. I've never actually bothered counting them all before. I've always, like any other spinner, thought I never had enough bobbins. Now I realise I've never had enough bobbins because they've always been full of something that I've not finished making.

I've cleared this lot though, and the two Ashford ones will be plied today. I have been doing a lot of plying lately. I estimate it as at least one if not two kilometres worth, actually, which is a lot of treadling. It's a sunny day so there will even be pictures to come of the finished yarns over the next few days. But in the meantime today's picture is for the spinners among you. Lovely sight, isn't it?

Oops.

Oops, I missed a day. Never mind, it's not like I get chucked out from NaBloPoMo after all.

I got this today, for my new-to-me Ashford Traditional.




Fourteen inches of hardened steel tapering to a point. It would make a fine weapon in a tight corner. This, if you don't realise, is a quill spindle, the part of a spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on. Modern flyer wheels don't usually have them but Ashford make one to fit the Traditional. Normally these are only found on spindle wheels like a Great Wheel. I would dearly like a Great Wheel but space and finances dictate otherwise, sadly! In the meanwhile, this will do just fine and will be a talking point(!) at demos.

Off to play....

Winter is coming.

This morning I went to watch Lad play rugby. Beautiful day with blazing sunshine but goodness knows what the temperature was. I was wearing camisole, long sleeved thick t-shirt, fleece body warmer, winter weight fleece and big winter cagoule jacket on. I was just comfortable and that was in the sunshine. Goodness knows how cold it was in the shade. Winter is definately here.




The cats knew this weeks ago. They have been seeking out the warmest places in the house and bracing themselves for the freezing weather.

Saturday.

It's still monsoon season here. I haven't seen rain like this since....ohh, our 2008 camping holiday where about 100 slugs came to live in our tent every night. Think I'm not serious? We were overrun with slugs.

Today was an interesting day. I bought some yarn from The Yarn Yard, who had a stall at the Morningside Makers Market, I had a most productive trawl round the posh charity shops in Morningside but most unusual of all, Hubby and I went out to a party. Without kids. And...? I hear you all say? Well, this time we did not get a babysitter. We left the kids home alone. We decided that if Lad was old enough and sensible enough to take Princess on bus rides, to swimming pools, shopping and just generally gad about all over the place then he was old enough to look after her in the house for a couple of hours. So we took our phones, put a neighbouring mum on stand bye just in case he needed speedy assistance or advice and toddled off, leaving them with a mountain of snack food and Addams Family Values on DVD. And they were just fine.

I feel like I've turned a corner childcare wise. Freedom beckons! I knew technically that there had to be some sort of progression between them being born and them leaving home but it's always surprising when something like this happens and you realise that yes, they're becoming more competent at looking after themselves. It's great, really it is.

I can recommend the Morningside Makers Market btw. I've been to quite a few craft fairs in my time but the standard of the items for sale at this one was really quite superior. And if The Yarn Yard gets a permenant stall there we can all go and buy world class yarn there every month. What's not to like?

Bonfire Night.

It's the Fifth of November, Bonfire Night. We don't say Guy Fawkes Night so much here in Scotland, we say Bonfire Night. I wonder if it's because of some old forgotten pagan fire festival at this time of year, one that I don't know about? I must Google for this one day.

Anyway, we're not actually doing anything special tonight. It is tipping it down with rain, absolute stair rods bouncing off the pavement. I know this because Hubby left the car lights on and I had to trail up the road to where it was parked and turn them off, after a neighbour phoned to tell me. Hubby is down at the pub, the cats are asleep in the warmest parts of the house and Princess and I are watching the fireworks out the window. One advantage of Chez Fishwife is that it's built on top of a hill and on three floors, so we can see lots of fireworks. From the attic we can see clear to Edinburgh and the big city centre displays, from the front we can see our own local Council display (not at all bad, really, and on a clear night we can hear the sound track too) and then up in the hills we can see the higher rockets from the smaller village displays. Given the monsoon weather it's the best seat in town, nearly, and we have home made pizza and soup to boot.

Oh, where's Lad? Out with his mates down at the fireworks? Well I'm sure he'd like to be but the poor soul has rugby training tonight. They have one of the most important matches of the season coming up on Sunday and they have to show commitment, you know. Ye Gawds. Rugby training on Bonfire Night? That's cruel!

Spinning backlog Pt1.

I started working on clearing the spinning backlog today. I have several bobbins of long forgotten orphan singles, a few skeins of yarn needing some remedial attention (I used to badly under ply my yarns)and some singles that were just patiently waiting their turn in the plying queue. And a few bobbins of almost finished singles, just needing the last 20 or 30g of fibre spun.

This is some of it. Note the dust on the bobbins....




So today I got out the skein winder, ball winder, lazy kate and my best plying wheel, my old S10. If I've got a lot of winding to do I like to be able to half watch the telly while I'm doing it, so I set up a sort of winding station in front of the sofa. The various clamps don't fit our coffee table so I use this.



Sharp eyed people will detect that this is one of these wooden stepping stools you can buy for £10 or so from Ikea. Very useful item around the house but I doubt even the Ikea designers thought of doing this with it. Ideal though, perfect height for the sofa, you can re spin straight off the skein into the wheel and you can move the whole assembly round to wherever you want it. The little Lazy Kate is a Haldane one btw. It's untensioned but it can take any of my huge assortment of bobbins and it's very compact and stable.

I decided to start with the under spun skeins, as these don't take long to make good if you can unwind the skein straight to the orifice of the wheel and onto the bobbin, adding that crucial extra bit of twist as you go. ???? Well, here's a really bad photo but it shows what I mean.



On the right is the under plied yarn. You can see the plying is loose but more importantly the fibres of the singles are not in alignment along the length of the yarn. This yarn has been washed btw, so it's not going to get any better than this on its own. On the left is the same yarn after a tiny bit more twist has been added. You can see the fibres now run straight along the length of the yarn. This is what you want. I had four under plied skeins I wanted to add a little more twist to so I did this, but they're still on the bobbins awaiting skeining so not worth photographing just yet.

Then I made a tactical error and started plying some camel/silk singles I had been carefully ignoring for a year or so. You can see them on the ball winder above. They are skinny so there is a lot of yardage in that one centre pull ball and I decided to ply both ends of the ball together. Yes, of course this works....it's a neat trick to know and as long as you put your thumb into the centre of the ball as it comes off the ball winder the ball doesn't collapse and tangle. But of course, you can't take your thumb out while you're plying, nope. You're stuck. You can't go to the loo or answer the door or anything. You've just got to keep plying til you finish. All 1200 yards of it. It takes a loooong time to ply 1200 yards of yarn, did you know?

More tomorrow.

UFO Sightings.

I might as well use NaBloPoMo to do something useful, so as I've been sorting out the spinning and knitting supplies I also decided to round up all my UFOs and put up the (bi)annual Knitting List of Shame. Some of these articles have been in the UFO pile for a year or two so I expect you'll have seen some of them before, sigh. I'm sure you understand how it can happen though.

I dredged my most recent past list up from November 6th 2008.

1)Plain vanilla socks in Regia Kaffe Fassett . 95% finished, will complete this week. Finished long ago.

2) Viveka in Rowan Soft Lux Amythyst. 25% done but really like this one so WIP. No change here.

3) Brigitta in Rowan Soft Tweed Twig. 35% complete. Not sure about this one. It may be working out small but I can't tell untill I get to the armholes. Horrible. Frogged it. Yarn now being used in entirely different UFO.

4) Cold Weather Corset in Noro Iro. 80% done and intend to finish it. Eventually.

5) Tahoe in purple DB Cathay. Hate this and it's heading for the frog pond. The Cathay is meant to be knitted at a looser than usual gauge then blocked to size. To me it just looks cheap and skanky, as if my gauge was off or I used the wrong yarn. Frogged.

6) Kismet from Rowan mag No (???) , in khaki Linen Drape. I've finished 60% of this, as in the back and front but have laid it aside as it's a summer sweater. I'll definately finish this one. Linen Drape is gorgeous. I have to finish it anyway...it's not listed on Ravelry yet, so this is my chance to be the lead link picture, lol. Finished, sewn up, just needs the ends darned in and blocked. It's been like that for a few months now.

7) Forest Canopy in a heavy blue silk 2ply I bought at Woolfest from Knitwitches .



I like this and it was my holiday knitting (until I got the wheel) but I was having real trouble with it in the poor light of an evening campsite and rather put myself off it. It's looking lovely though and I'll get going again with it. No change. Can't bear to frog it though.

8) Silk Tweed Sweater in dark raspberry Summer Tweed. 60% done, as in the body is done up to the front neckline. I hate the neckline though and have reknitted it three times and it's still not right. I want a Summer Tweed sweater though and most of the rest of this is okay so I feel it's worth at least one more shot. Finished the knitting, just needs sewn up.

9) A single sock in something I really can't remember, except it was by The Natural Dye Studio. This is nice and I'll make a point of putting the other one in the car to knit on in these five minute slots when I'm waiting around for kids. When I've found the other ball of the yarn, of course..... Long gone. I think I lost the first sock eventually, then found the yarn. I p/hopped the yarn just to put an end to the misery.


What else has appeared since then? Well, I've actually knitted and finished quite a lot of items but not gained many UFOs, which is a relief. I've got a pair of socks on the needles at the moment but they're my car knitting so don't really count as a UFO. Similarly I'm knitting a blanket but as it's progressing at a slow but steady rate of a 12" square per week that's not really a UFO either, is it? So really, I've only got one new item in the UFO pile.

10)Mr Greenjeans from Knitty, Fall 2007.



I've almost finished the first sleeve of this and as it's knitted top down aand all in one, that means only one sleeve and the front bands to knit, really. And no painful sewing up to do. It's cardigan weather now too so I am motivated. I have pulled it's basket out and placed it firmly on the sofa. I'm intending to finish it before I cast on anything else. Honestly!

The rest of the UFOs have been gathered together in another basket so at least I don't have the excuse of not being able to find them any more. Really though given that two of them only need some sewing up and blocking it is pretty shameful. But I can't find it in myself to think further than Mr Greenjeans and something new to cast on.

Tomorrow (or soon) I'll give you the Spinning List of Shame, or what's on the bobbins and has been for months. And I have a lot of bobbins, oops.

Spinning Group.

Tuesday is Spinning Group Day. I've been a member of the Haddington Spinners for some years now, ever since I went along to one of their Open Days a few years ago out of curiosity, just to have a wee look. Really, that day was a watershed day in my life. I had never seen a spinning wheel close up, I'd never seen anyone spin, I had no clue at all about how it worked or how yarn was made or fibre types or anything. I went for an hour, just for something to do that would get me out the house and away from the kids on a rainy Saturday. They practically had to sweep me out with the rubbish five hours later. Actually, I've never really left.

That day I bought a spindle, fibre and a book. Two weeks later, after a Google powered crash course in spinning wheels, I bought my first wheel off Ebay, an elderly Louet S10 with dodgy painted artwork and a skeinwinder. Truly the Spinning Gods smiled on me that day because it was a fabulous old wheel, ideal for a beginner and in perfect working order. I told my Hubby that it made sense to buy a second hand wheel as if I didn't take to spinning then I could resell it for not much of a loss. He agreed, but told me much later he'd privately known the wheel would never leave because spinning was so obviously "one of my things". He was right. I've still got the Louet and it's been joined by several other wheels. I think the highest number of wheels I've had in this house at any one time was eleven, but to be fair only seven of them actually belonged to me!

So yes, that Open Day had quite a profound effect on me. If people ask what hobbies I have I don't say "I spin." I say "I am a spinner." I don't just spin, I'm interested in the science both of the wheels and the way spinning works, the history of it all, the fibres, the techniques, the ways you can work with colours when spinning. There is an awful lot more to it that just doing the spinning bit and I'm interested in it all. And the more I learn, the more I realise what a vast topic it really is. I've been doing this for years now and really, I hardly know anything compared to how much more there is out there. And I used to think I was a "not bad" spinner but over the last year or so I've begun to realise I've barely begun. That isn't to say I'm bad, just that there's so much more.

Oh well, it's not like it's something I'll get too old to do, unless my hands cease to function. I just wish I'd started earlier, you know? But...and this is what prompted this blog post....someone asked me today how long I'd been spinning and I had to confess I can't remember now when that Open Day actually was. Six years ago? Seven? Eight? There is nothing else I can match the date up to in my memory. I only know there was a half forgotten and distant time without spinning, then the Open Day and after that I was A Spinner. Just like that.

Blogging for November.

I've been awol for a while now, haven't I? Sorry. Been busy. As in really busy. Since I started on these new drugs I've been getting at least halfway back into my old groove again and getting so much more done than say this last year. More things done means more to blog about but also means less time to do the blogging, no? Oh well.

However it's November and that means it's NaBloPoMo.I've done this before so it seems like a perfect opportunity for me to do some catch up blogging, as I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear. What have I been up to? Well, a lot of spinning and knitting, astonishingly, lots of work down the allotment, three birthdays and even some home improvements, though I must admit my back isn't up to shinning up and down ladders any more so not quite as much DIY as I would have liked. Oh yes, and there is the saga of the apples too.

First off though, I bought a new spinning wheel. Yes, another one. I can hear you all laughing from here, ho ho. Get Away. It was a deliberate planned purchase, not like some of the others. I decided that I really needed to own an Ashford Traditional, both for doing some basic teaching and also for when I'm taking a class myself. Despite all the wheels I own I don't really have one good simple workhorse that can do a good range of types of spinning. You can't go far wrong with a Traditional so I decided to keep my eyes open for a good bargain second hand one. At the same time I was due to spin at a local Scottish Day event and was dithering about which wheel I owned that would look most Scottish, which most of them don't. So when I saw this wheel on Ebay, I thought it looked ideal for a Scottish Day, despite coming from New Zealand.






(Pictures from the Ebay auction, but it's MY wheel now. I don't think the seller will mind.)

I fell in love with it instantly. I bid (quite a bit more than I would for a basic Traddy, must admit) and I won, at a remarkably fair price and a lot lower than I was prepared to pay. It arrived, I put it together, I spun on it. And loved it. Old Ashfords go on forever but this one is a particularly sweet spinner. And I just loved the painting on it, with the clever Celtic twirls that fit the wheel perfectly and the affectionately drawn fibre animals. (There is a camel, a goat, an alpaca and a cotton boll on one side, two sleepy sheep and two crazed rabbits on the other.) My favourites are the rabbits, hurtling at top speed round the rear of the drive wheel. Lovely, and full of character. I've bought it a four speed sliding hook flyer for taking classes and really, it's become my favourite wheel.

But it gets better.Today I got a PM from a spinner on Ravelry. She'd read a description of my 70's painted Tradtional and it sounded familiar. Could it be the same wheel that she had owned some years previously, and which she'd painted? I linked her to a picture and waited with bated breath. I love wheels with character and history and I must admit I'd wondered about the spinner who'd owned this wheel before me. She must have loved it very much to lavish so much attention on it after all. It is an old wheel, dating from the mid 70's, thus 35 years or so old. It was entirely possible that the owner had died, even, given the Ebay seller appeared to be some sort of curio dealer.

But no. Step forwards the previous owner but one, Skyskeiner, who had indeed painted her/my wheel. She had bought it second hand about 14 years ago, then later sold it to a spinner in Cornwall. Skyskeiner is "into gardening, fruit growing, spinning and spinning wheels", lol. It say so on her blog. I've read her blog in the past! She's read mine! And she told me all about how she'd painted the wheel, and what had inspired the lovely paintings of animals.

I'm really pleased she found me and told me more about our lovely old Traddy. She's pleased to see it again, and to know it's found a good home where it's loved and cherished. Isn't the world a small place? Really, it's made my day.

Ikea Cats.

This advert went live on UK TV this past weekend....(it's better if you click twice on these to go to YouTube and get the full screen effect.)



And there is a companion "Making of..." video.



The makers reckon it's going to make the Top Ten YouTube hits of whenever and also sweep through Blogland. They could well be right!

"What I Did on my Holidays."

First day of term and the kids have gone back to school. Yeah!!!!

Traditionally in UK schools the teachers always set a "What I Did on my Holidays" essay when the kids go back to school. I'm not going to write this, but I'd like to show you all a video of one of the things we have to do regularly on our camping holidays which is to set up our big Conway Camargue trailer tent. This video surfaced on a tape we thought we'd lost so it's about four years old. The kids you can see (occasionally) helping are Lad and Princess. The reason that there are cars crossing in front of the camcorder is because we had to set it up on the opposite side of one of the campsite roads. Sorry.

The whole process usually takes a good hour or so, normally. But at least it wasn't raining!

Knit Camp Marketplace.

I went to the Marketplace at Stirling Knit Camp on Friday. There had been a lot of talk on Ravelry and elsewhere about the shambolic disorganisation that was the hall mark of this event but I decided that I was going to go to support the vendors of the Marketplace anyway.

I have to say at this point I did encounter several small examples of the general disorganisation myself. I had pre ordered my Marketplace two day ticket back in April but had never been sent a confirmation...got that one sorted out online in the end though. There was practically no signage to the event on Stirling Campus..if it hadn't been for the fact my OH works in the Pathfoot Building I'd have had no idea where to go on campus. There were no Goody Bags when I arrived...I did go back and get one later but really, it was barely worth the effort given that it contained mostly advertising literature and Stirling University pens, plus two small and not very interesting balls of yarn. The two areas of the Marketplace were several corridors and a steep flight of steps apart with no direction signs between them.....though I belive some of the vendors made their own signs and pinned then up. No Hall of Fame either.

Worst bit though was just after I arrived I was talking to one of the vendors I know and Jo herself came up with some piece of paperwork. I'm a friendly soul and she looked a bit grey round the edges so I smiled and said hello. She looked me up and down then turned on her heel and walked away without so much as a nod or a word. Was I annoyed? Yes. Was it my Ravelry badge that pissed her off? Who knows. I will say however it was bloody rude of her and totaly unprofessional behaviour by an event organiser. You just don't blow off the paying punters like that. At the very least you fix a plastic smile on your face and say "Nice to see you...hope you enjoy yourself!" two or three hundred times over the course of a day until your teeth ache. No?

Anyway, that's my moan. Nuff said. Lets get on with the rest of the day. The Marketplace was GREAT. There were lots of stalls with some totally fabulous things to buy, belive me. Yes, I did buy one or two things!

70% Baby Alpaca 30% Silk laceweight, from Abstract Cat. This was her first big show and I think she's a seller to watch in the future. Lovely stuff.



Superwash Blue Faced Leicester, from Artist's Palette Yarns.



Hand dyed Kid Mohair tops, from Freyalyn's Fibres. I've not spun mohair from tops before so am looking forwards to this.



I don't normally go to wool shows with "honey stirrer, pastry brush & wooden spoon" at the top of my shopping list but you know...when you see such things complete with pictures of cute sheep, you've just got to have them. From Fire & Fibre.



A giant ball of orange fibre, from Woolfish. She very kindly donated this to me to use when I'm teaching and demonstrating. I go through a lot of fibre doing this so it's a very welcome gift. The next Woolfish/St Abbs Festival is on Monday 30th August at St Abbs btw. Small but perfectly formed. I must try to get down there for a couple of hours.



Dido shawl pattern by Asa Tricosa, from the p/hop stand.



Miscellaneous items. Clockwise from top left...

Long cords for my Denise Interchangables from Jamie Possum. They're the new UK dealers for Denise needles and you can get all sorts of spares from them.

Stitch markers from Wibbo's Works, given to me by my friend Liz.

Sheep stitch marker from Atomic Knitting.

Washable ceramic buttons by Incomparable Buttons.

Silver ball earrings from Northern Lace Too.

Shawl pin and wooden buttons from Textile Garden. This last was an absolutely fabulous stand, with a vast selection of treasures on sale. Some people were getting really carried away with the credit cards here!






A copy of Issue One of the new UK spinning magazine Yarn Maker. This was literally hot off the press...it had only been printed in the last couple of days and the first copies were either sent out to advance subscribers or to the Northern Lace Too stand at the Marketplace. If you're a spinner in the UK I do urge you to buy and support this magazine. It's well written and beautifully laid out, full of interesting articles.



Finally, I didn't buy this but would like to mention it. This is a flyer from a very old Haldane Orkney that belongs to my spinning group, the Haddington Spinners. The flyer was completely knackered and the bobbin in bits and we really thought that the old wheel was only good for spares...then we decided as a last resort to show the flyer to the woodworking geniuses at Woodland Turnery. I handed it in at Woolfest and picked it up from them on Friday. Result....the mended flyer is as good as new and can you tell which is the new bobbin which was made by them? No, thought not. So the old Haldane is back in business and all for the very modest sum of £15.95. I was so pleased by this I promptly gave them the drive wheel of another damaged wheel to mend lol. I can set up and adjust wheels and even do some basic repairs but for expert help, go to Joan & Clive.



Finally I'll say again, I really enjoyed my day at the Marketplace. The shopping was excellent (far too excellent!) and I had the chance too meet up and chat with a lot of old friends including The Yarn Yard, Woolly Wormhead and Knitting on the Green. The chat and gossip is the best part of these events, really!


Da Boyz spent their day at home, in a sunbeam. Priorities...