Treasure trove

I am the happiest bunny in the world today. i walked into a local shop yesterday and came out with this amazing antique wool winder. what a find!

it was just sitting there, asking to be taken home and used. I've already wound a skein on it, and i cant believe how fast it went, it just ate the yarn. i recon i could easily fit a 200g skein on it, with room to spare.

my other lucky score this week was this amazing vintage knitting bag to hold my bigger projects in. the fabric is very 60's and totally sycodelic, to the point where you almost need sunglasses to look at it.

I did take some photos of my latest yarn, but the camera and i are having  a disagreement again and it has stubbornly decided to eat them, much to my dismay. ah well, you'll just have to wait till next time for that.

Suprise!!

yes, i know. you didn't expect another blog entry quite so soon. well I just had to share the good news, I've finally got my head in gear and photographed some of my freeform finger crochet hats, which also means everyone gets to have a look at what I've been up to for the past month. Enjoy!

Dyeing days

Wow, its been ages since I've done one of these. Just to let you all know, I haven't actually fallen off the planet (so far anyway). January has just been, in keeping with national average, a very slow month for me. but now its February and though the weather is still pretty bleak its betting warmer  the first signs that spring is actually coming after all are appearing and  life is finally starting to get back to some sort of normal rhythm.

The finger Crochet is going well, sadly still no pictures though I'm hoping to get something up on the shop in the near future so keep your eyes peeled. But the big news of the week is that I have finally fallen off the wagon and brought a spinning wheel. Ive never used one before (its all been spindles up till now) so needless to say I'm pretty intimidated by it and everything I've managed to produce on it looks like its been mangled by a dog. but I'll get there in the end (just don't expect any photos of anything I've made on it for quite a while).

Last week A group of friends and I got together and had a weekend dyeing party, needless to say we all ended up with hands of one colour or another even though we were wearing gloves. sadly i have very few photos of this as the camera decided to play up and ate most of them, for reasons that are , as usual, beyond my comprehension. those that follow are the best of what I managed to salvage from the camera.

 we must have dyed some where around 3kg of fiber over the course of 2 days. this is my stash, 300g of Falkland top and about the same of a mix of Mohair, Romney and Texel X fleece. which is now picked and waiting to be carded into awesome textured batts with a whole stash of other goodies.

After Shock

Christmas is now over and we're into the new year, soon all the decorations will be taken down and (apart from those who still have allot of snow) the world will be back to normal. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling very washed out after this Christmas, maybe its the cold, or it could be the bout of flu that's been going round but now seems like a good time to sit down and heave a big sigh of relief. time to have a bit of a rest after all the merry making a little holiday before the norm is quite reinstated. time to look forward to the new year before we have to get on with everything again. I don't know about you lot, but after my very successful fibre diet, what little space i have has once more been swamped by batts and beautiful dyed top. a good sorting is definitely needed, but that can wait for now. I also have a lovely new toy to play with, a Fleece picker from Kaydessas. great gadget, really takes the strain out of picking fibre when i want to put fleece through the drum carder without shredding the teeth. now all i have to do is get dyeing!

Sleigh Bells

I don't know if its the cold making me sluggish, but all i want to do at the moment is curl up with my crochet/spinning in front of the fire. It snowed again in the night, and the garden is dusted white with it, looks like we may get a white Christmas! I've put all the decorations up in my room and am feeling really christmassy, I may even spin a Christmas yarn to celebrate (I'm thinking something along the lines of "sleigh bells")

I finished the Hat/Scarf (still haven't come up with a better name for it though), and I'm so happy with it. its really comfortable to wear and really really warm. just what the doctor ordered in this cold weather. I sewed some lovely vintage buttons on it and also left some of the ends on as little tassels, which i think gives a really nice effect.

I had my birthday at the beginning of the month, so have a lovely new pile of fibre (and some books) to add to my stash. right now I'm half way through Debbie Stoller's "Happy hooker" crochet guide ( i thought i  might as well see what I'm actually supposed to be doing as up 'till now all I've had is an A4 sheet with the basic stitches on it and a couple of very nice ladies who taught me the basics), I'm really enjoying it and have even bought one of her other totals "Stitch and bitch, the knitters hand book" to see if i cant get a hang of this knitting lark.
I must have made about 10 hats by now the scarf/hat is number 6 or something (I'll take some photos next week of some of the others), some I've given away, but I'll have to start doing something with them very soon, before they take over my what little space i have left that isn't full of wool, yarn or fibre equipment







.

A Crocheter at Heart.

the snow has been coming down in sheets..well sheets for round here anyway. we've had at least 2-3", and its bitterly cold. everything is frozen, even the doors and hand brake on the car were frozen yesterday, and my father had a rather nasty moment with the brakes as well. thankfully I'm keeping myself warm with hot drinks, copious amounts of clothing and the toasty cat sitting on my lap. I've also been finger knitting neck warmers and hats to keep myself busy. I'm halfway through making a hat with a scarf attached (I know, not the catchiest name in the world. I'll come up with something better eventually).

me in my finger crochet hat from last week and my snazzy new neck warmer which is super toasty, now if only i could work out how to make gloves with fingers and id be set.

my half done scarf/hat thing. its the first hat I've crochet from the top down, rather than from the bottom up, and i think i definitely prefer this technique. you get a hat that fits much better.

the bag i knitted ages ago, but neglected to photograph till now

I feel like I've really hit my stride with finger crochet. its funny, it never really clicked for me when i was using a hook. I suppose i just work better when i get hands on. with knitting, I found I'm doing it for the end object, with finger crochet, I'm doing it to enjoy the process of making something. Ive heard people say that your either a knitter or a crocheter (a saying i always thought couldn't be right, why couldn't you be good at both), I just suppose I'm a crocheter at heart.

Camera Troubles

I have just spent the last 4 hours in an epic battle of wills with my brothers new camera, in an attempt to get at my photos. But I've finally succeeded and here are the fruits of my labors, photos of some of my newly spun yarn.

I've been very busy, it seems to be the trend this winter, making things, spinning yarn and getting organised. I even discovered a new craft to fall in love with...Finger Crochet, which is great as crochet has never really clicked for me before and I'm now hooked on making crochet hats. As Ive finally got the camera to talk to my computer I'll have to take some photos so everyone can have a look. As I seem to have finally reached a lull point in all the busyness, hopefully I will be able to update the blog on a more regular basis.

                                                

Just couldn't resist this batt

Autumn Chrysanthemums, hand dyed by me, I'm very happy with the colours I maneged to get 

Love those neps, such a bright colour