Reflections.....

Well, today is the day:) The 40th birthday has arrived and nope, I don't feel any different;)) Not that I expected to, lol! Today though has been lovely. I've managed to talk to all my family and friends, received lots of lovely thoughtful gifts and messages and pretty much gone through today on a bit of high:) My balloon is bobbing around in the living room making me smile when I look up at it and as it's helium, it will be around for a while yet as a happy reminder.

But although I didn't intend to, you do start to take stock and think just what have I been doing in those 40 years? 40 years, blimey! When did it creep up to that?? I'd like to think I'm focusing on enjoying life in the now so I wasn't counting:)) But there do seem to be bits that just flew by as chunks of years!

All this introspection has made me hunt out old photographs. I'm not very good at keeping a photographic record of myself as I don't think I photograph well most days but as I've been looking back I realise I really should have been documenting those younger days - when I looked my best!!! But then, when I'm about 80, I'll probably wish I took some photos of me at 40 so I could see me when I was 'young':)) So everything in perspective. Also, I find it interesting to see my parents and their old photographs so I really should be keeping a record for posterity myself.

Me at 21, (on the right) celebrating in the pub at art school

So, a yearly birthday photo? Mmmm, wait till I wash my hair, and slap some make-up on:) I was also thinking how I wish I had written thoughts down at the time - what was that girl of 21 thinking in that photo? Was she happy? Was she excited, nervous, confident? Funny how  you can look more relaxed when it's someone you feel comfortable with taking the photo. The facial expressions look more genuine and less forced. OR maybe that's just the drink:)) Don't let the orange juice fool you, I'm sure there was vodka involved somewhere!!

I was never one for diaries or journals when I was young - "woke up, got dressed,  had breakfast, ....." same old, same old:) Although I am aware of the irony now I keep a blog which is essentially a journal. Although I do usually stick to creative endeavours in it but that's probably because I don't want to bore you with the trivia of my day - unless its eye candy trivia like lovely cakes or yummy new yarn:)

But because I don't write it here either, then there is no history to these photos, no context to put them in other than the year and names on the back, and my faulty memory. I don't necessarily want to save everything to posterity but maybe a little background detail should be written: where was I, was it a good day, what age was I, what dreams or aspirations did I have? - as by the time I'm 80, I probably won't remember anything except the names of everyone I went to school with when I was 4:))) Sounds pretty much like a personal diary to me. Maybe I've finally grown into diary writing  - as long as I don't have to write it every day - still suck at that as you probably know already:)

So, in the spirit of recording EVENTS, here is some lovely birthday cake eye candy for you to keep you going till I wash my hair and take 40 million photos till I get one I like:)

Thank you everyone for all my lovely birthday wishes and presents - now I'm off to have a piece of cake;))

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas......

I'm sure something happens in December - normal time must get compressed  because I just don't seem to have as much knitting time in December compared to every other month:-)) I plan, I knit, I even work out 'realistically' just how long each item will take to make, faint, revise list, repeat....... until I have a manageable list, of sorts.

But this year, I actually put less on my making list and I foolishly considered myself ahead of the game this year - ha, ha, ha. The fates do have a way of coming back to bite you when you think these things:-)

I've even noticed how much faster I get at knitting in December. Last year I was churning out mittens, gloves and hats at a scary speed. ( I also wondered why there were very little knitting projects for the next fortnight and remembered the knitting cramp I got in my hands every time I even thought about picking up a pair of needles;-))

But this year, things have just gone pear shaped. I don't really know why. What should have been a few simple knits have somehow become huge never ending projects. Jinxed, every one!  Stitches slip off and run back, simple maths won't add up, patterns knit up super tight and not to gauge - sigh! The knitting fates have a few more spanners up there waiting, I'm sure, and being tired and out of love with knitting right now, I've decided to take heed and throw in the making towel this christmas.

But instead of feeling the accustomed guilt, I just feel relief! Whew! I didn't realise I was getting quite so stressed about the whole thing. And if I'm not happy then the knitting becomes a chore and these are gifts that should be made with love, not lots of curse words:-))

So, although I have actually got a few finished things, like this new pink 'turn a square' hat and even a half finished pair of matching mittens, I think either I can keep them for birthdays or if I'm really smart, get a head start on christmas for next year!! But just don't tell the fates quite yet ..........:-)

Black coffee

Not the kind you drink but the kind you spin! Yes, some more spinning is going on - at last! I managed to pull myself away from the knitting to indulge in a bit of spinning. Motivation? Some spun roving as a christmas present - for a certain someone who loves colour and free hand spun yarn:-) But as they are unlikely to read my blog then it's safe to post my progress for you to see.

The roving may be familiar to some of you from a fibre purchase I made earlier this year - february to be exact! I couldn't believe that when I checked my earlier post on this but, yup, that long ago. The colour is 'Black coffee' and the fibre is by Fibreoptic - also where I got the lovely pinky/purple roving 'jelly jelly' that I spun up recently and now use for my blog banner. That skein has been gifted but I still have half of the roving left to be spun.

I learned a lot from that spinning session - like I split the roving too thin and my single was way too thin in places and not even enough thoughout. So,  more spinning practice is needed:-) This time I've not made the slivers quite so thin so I can practice whether I want to draw some fleece out as I go to get a more even yarn.

I know I should probably start with thicker yarns but I just seem to gravitate to thinner threads. Well, as long as its even, I can ply to get a heavier yarn - for now. The perfectionist in me will insist on mastering this yarn thickness issue sometime soon in the future, but for now, I'll settle for a smooth, even yarn. I've read up so much about tension, ratios and the right bobbins for my wheel that I'll be dreaming of it!! Now to the spinning where I hope some of that research has paid off!

This is the roving single using half of the fleece. I think it is a bit more even than before and seemed to spin up quicker this time but still a thin thread:-) I do like the colours and how they merge together. The light has been so poor that each photo made the yarn look a different colour palette! So I've include a couple of images to give you a better idea overall.

I've also been thinking a lot about how to use the roving - particularly how to get the best from the colours.  If I split the roving into lots of little slivers, it won't draw out much longer than the staple length so the colour sections will spin up pretty much to the length shown on the sliver. If I don't make slivers at all and spin straight from the full roving, I will be able to tease a lot of fibre from each section of colour before moving on to the next section. This will produce a completely different yarn with much longer colour gradations.

As I want to learn as well as produce lovely yarns:-), I've decided to try out both techniques. I had already slivered my first 4oz of roving (yes, I got two as it was so scrummy!) and had started spinning before this idea about colour occurred to me so I have to make a decision about how to proceed. I could start the second roving and ply the first sliver single with a full roving colourway single to get a play of short and long colourways meeting when they are plied together - nice - or I could have one skein of two short colourways together and one skein of two long colourways together to show the more obvious colour contrasts in technique.

Maybe I'll do a little more reading before making the final decision but I can't take too long as christmas won't wait for me!

Awesomely gorgeous!

About a month ago, I answered Sonnetofthemoon's wish for a wool winder. I had a spare collecting dust so I thought it would be much better being used and for once, I could help someone out! As you do in crafty circles, you put a few extra nicey's in there as don't we all like presents? Especially when it's a surprise? Well, imagine my surprise this morning when this big box came to the door as a thank you. To say that I was speechless was an understatement! (and if you know me that's quite a feat!!) Really the generosity, the awesomeness of these gifts has stunned me. So the rest of my blog today will be to show you all the yummy loveliness in my parcel. Lots and lots of photos of gorgeousness.

Unwrapped and opening box - a definite pink tinge peeking through...... Do you think Crystal knows I like pink?!

Wow! Pink city! How yummy is that? A full box of fabric loveliness:-) The box is full of table linen - a long runner, 6 double sided napkins and drinks coasters, 2 hot plate mats - all quilted in the most gorgeous matching fabrics. The amount of time this must have taken to make!

In my excitement, I rushed upstairs straight away and fetched my camera to take pictures to show you everything. The set of drinks coasters...

Look at the stitch detail - how straight are those lines? That takes a lot of sewing practice;-))

And the hot plates mats - these are just so yummy close-up. There is patchwork detailing on one side and lovely solid pattern on the other.

Patchwork and quilting close-up for you....

And everything is bound and hand stitched down - what time and effort! What perfect little stitches:-)

The napkins were all perfectly presented ready to go on the table. And I suddenly thought 'Why not lay them out on the table?' But our room is quite dull inside so I used the table outside in the bright sunshine and I think it looks brilliant. I so want an outside party with these!! All we need is some wine glasses:-)

Close-ups of the double sided napkins......

But there is more! The most beautiful long double sided patchwork runner as a centrepiece. All these fabrics are so lovely and work really well together. The white strips really sets them off well, don't you think?

Detail of the fabrics on the runner......

Look at the straightness of these lines:-))

And it's double sided with a completely different visual feel on the reverse. The patchwork detail matches the plate mats perfectly. So much attention to detail and in the balance of the design. As well as pure unadulterated yumminess:-)

Thank you so much Crystal. I can't tell you how much I love these. I keep looking over and seeing the lovely fabrics and colours, and I'm overwhelmed again by your kindness and the amount of time and effort you have spent making these for me.

It has been such a wonderful day getting such a lovely present and it has really inspired me to get going and start being creative with my sewing machine again. Thank you. Watch this space;-)))

mittens galore!

Well, that was a longer holiday break from blogging than I intended. Once I get out of the routine, all those everyday things suddenly shout for my attention and my good blogging intentions go totally out the window. Christmas knitting took a large chunk out of blogging time last month but when the clock is ticking then a girl has to do what a girl has to do.... Sit down, watch lots of tv and exclusively knit - with a genuine excuse!

Then there is the recovery period when you can't knit as your hand hasn't quite recovered from the last push and cramps at the thought of holding another knitting needle. Then we move into the withdrawal phase where you find your hands twitching as you get progressively bored without something to do when you are sitting down.

So that is just about where I am now, thinking about what projects I could start next. No more mittens though - unless they are very special.... I do wish I had had more time to try out more complex patterns for the gloves and mittens but time kind of prevented that. I'll either have to start now for next Christmas or limit myself to who would really want something made and choose very special patterns.

The christmas distractions from knitting, blogging and generally doing anything crafty wasn't wild parties and living the high life I'm afraid. It was much more mundane things like painting, decorating, DIY and fixing leaky toilets, having your fridge die a death when you're skint, newly painted walls peeling - let's not go there. Just seal it all into a small box, tape it up thoroughly and kick it to touch and call it a bad week! Moving swiftly on and back to knitting!!

Some of these mittens are using subtly variegated dyed yarns so if you're thinking those dark green mittens look different at the top, you're right, they're meant to be like that. I must admit I was a bit rushed to take photos before posting so some have suffered from poor light. And some things I completely forgot to take photos of at all. Three pairs of mens chunky gloves and some stripey scarves all gone without any record of them ever existing. Ah well.

But I do intend to finish another pair as I adapted the pattern myself as I couldn't find anything online. So if you are looking for a chunky gloves pattern for men or a larger womans hand then hopefully I'll get around to posting it for you. I would like to put it into a PDF and list it on Ravelry but I haven't got the foggiest how to even start yet - if anyone has any helpful tips, I'd be grateful!

Soon, the rest of the christmas knits - some more star berets and a crocheted stripey scarf (knitted while watching 'white christmas', aaah). But on the new knit list? I feel a pair of Evangeline fingerless mitts coming on and possibly another Gretel beret. I've suddenly fallen in love with how it looks on all over again so I think I need another one. Maybe in something a little more subtle than the previous pink though. A nice subtle hand spun would be lovely.

Mmmm. Where's the spinning wheel and the fleece?! Time to get going!

A maker's nature

At last I've got round to uploading my photos of heather verity. For once the weather wasn't to blame! The decision to change workrooms was only meant to take a small time and resulted in redecorating, waiting for paint to dry - all the while my computer was disconnected........

But the re-occuring problem I always have is how to fit it all in? Too much stuff and not enough space. Ahh, the perfect workroom, with pigeonholes of co-ordinated yarn and fleece, space for all the threads, fabric, buttons, ribbon, lace..... but in all honestly, I'd probably need a huge warehouse and the more room I have the more I will fill it! I don't think the notion of thinning out is compatible with my hoarder's nature!

But back to the verity. Although it has felted a little, it does have a lovely feel to it. I think the YO's have lost a bit of their crispness which is a shame but overall it's good - and it fits! The colour of this is really difficult to match as you can see - each picture has a slightly different tone. I feel the last picture is the closest but hey, it changes colour in the different light so all of the above!
It is proving difficult to match a button for this - grey is too dull, purple too strong, a pinky one could work or a wooden one.... Somehow none look just right. Oh dear, I may have to add to my button collection!

And this is why I have no room for anything and have spent DAYS organising and reorganising all my 'stuff' - buttons, threads, yarn, more yarn, fabric, books, more books.... Sometimes I wish I just concentrated on one discipline - my partner devoutly wishes I HAVE ONE DISCIPLINE!! - but I can't help finding all textiles interesting - melting plastic (stored plastic bags and tyvek), collage (boxes and drawers of papers, lace, letraset, image transfer paper....), drawing with stitch, printing, machine and hand knit, felting, weaving, spinning, dyeing, - the list goes on.

So have I finished? The loft is a little fuller and everything has a home of sorts for now - except for those annoying little 'bits' that are sitting cluttering up the floor looking accusingly at me when I think of doing some knitting rather than tidying up:-) And I want to get back to my new hat in the rose red pattern by Ysolda! I'm calling it 'snow white' - as it's white coloured this time. (Anyone else remember the ladybird book 'Snow White and Rose Red''?)

How does your garden grow?

Isn't it lovely when you get a surprise parcel in the post? It can change your whole outlook for the day and if you were remotely down, gives you a nice lift - a comfortable loved feel to know someone is thinking of you.

These lovely pressies arrived yesterday from my sister, all thoughtfully considered for what they would mean for me. My gran used to have red hot pokers in her garden and now, so can I. It's funny how you realise that your family or siblings are the only ones who truly 'get' who you are and know what old music, films, sweets, colours are intrinsically you. Today, I fully value just what I do have and how lucky I am to have someone caring and supportive looking out for me.

So now I have all these lovely bulbs and seeds to plant - but where?

Now the weather is moving onwards through Spring, I felt it was time to tackle the garden. When we moved last October, there seemed so many other very important things to do, that had to be done before the garden. So, no trimming, weeding or cutting back ever got done. Now everything is sprouting with a vengance and it all seems a bit chaotic. So the last few weeks of my Easter holiday has been trying to develop order from the chaos.

The main efforts we have been slogging over are building walls and steps, trying to keep the cottage garden feel without killing any plants. These green fingers aren't tried and tested yet!

The circle we have inherited and it is well and truly cemented down. I'm not sure about it but I can live with it for a while. I think softening the edges might help or a large round table for summer. (Now I've seen the price of these tables, I'm thinking a few flowers around the edge!) The huge effort has been turning over the earth - stones, boulders, cement.... Can't we just get onto the planting?

I have planted my first seeds but nothing to show there yet - I can show you what is already flowering in the garden....

This has just come into bloom - isn't it lovely? With the surprise snow and frost over the last few days, it has been incredibly hardy considering. Just as well my little seedings have been well protected. When they sprout, then we can have some progress. This is the first time I have had my own garden to plan and organise and I am finding a lovely sense of calmness and peace in doing so. I can understand why so many people love this - it could be addictive!

I also didn't think I would be so protective of my seeds! I am impatient for even a tiny flash of green shoot! But its only two or three days for the earliest ones - still a ways to go.

Some more flowers in the wall at the front getting some afternoon sunshine....

The front wall with lots of space for little surprises. Once my trailing lobelia have sprouted I can get more colour and detail over the edges.

Patience....(sigh)