bad blogger

I have no idea where the last few weeks have gone, things here have been nuts, people sick, people off work, working stupid shifts etc, etc, my normal routine is all to pot.
So very little knitting going on, as I overdid both the knitting and the wirework when I was beading and as a result have a bit of tendonitis.
I am currently knitting just a little at a time as it still hurts, though not as much.
I am so behind with xmas shopping and really am not in the christmas spirit at all.
I have nothing for no3 son, poor boy and the knitted monkee he asked for still only has one leg!
I did manage to find this for no1 son, yes it is his, though I have had a little play with it and I think I might just love it.
It is very old and was a complete ebay bargain from an extremely old lady, who was very sad to see it go but happy that someone younger was going to love it.
Jamie not me ;0)




And I finally went out wearing my coat at the same time as someone else was home to take photos, he is of course the worst photographer in the house and this is really the best one out of about 30 photos.
I have been wearing my coat loads as it is freezing here but no snow.
I do need a hat though.



Hope you are all finished your gift knitting, I will be by the time I leave on the 29Th, I am sure.
I now have to go and plan food, I asked the boys to help, so they used up a whole pad of post-it notes in about 7 different books and it looks like I am supposed to make 29 different kinds of cake!
I'm off to have a little catch up with you all, tchao.....

Games

At this time of year the boys are always playing some mad online game, usually involving snowballs and elves, this year we have everyone hooked on this
and for a bit of light entertainment, which appeals to the boys, you could try out this one.

So apart from playing silly online games there has been some knitting, Juliet no3 is coming along, I sized this down for my niece who is 7 and it is looking okay.


Part of a christmas sock.


A little spinning, the second half of my October fibre, so in total I have about 115m.

Next up is the fibre I dyed with the Forum de Filage ladies, I want this to be for socks.



And lastly Novembers fibre arrived and it will have to wait, probably till after Christmas.



Today I am fighting the shopping crowds to do some glasses shopping with no2 son who needs reading glasses, that should be a fun outing!

The big sewing project was indeed a coat, which I have been wearing, just not when there was someone to take a photo, maybe later I can persuade one of the boys to take one, I love it, it is soooo cosy. I do need a hat to wear with it though, that means one more project, well, whats one more onto the list!

Sky

This is the very bizarre sky from the beginning of the week, someone said it looks like something from an episode of star trek.

The shawl all blocking and pretty.



Today's wip, not sure how far I am going to go with it, I usually stop before things go over the top, I think this time I will go with more is good, rather than less.



This weeks dog entry, you might be fooled into thinking that he just wanted to be close to me, when in reality, I was resting my wheel on an Ikea bathmat, Jonahs mat of choice! I must buy a couple more.....


Have a good weekend....tchao

weekend

Well, Saturday was fun, I dragged my overlocker and machine to the boys old primary school to sew some fleece hats and scarves for their christmas fair. They are fundraising for a trip. It was a good laugh and I met some very nice women. I did come home with my head spinning as the language switched from french to english all morning till I didn't know which way was up. I find it very hard to listen and multi-task in two different languages.

Sunday was all french, all spinning and dyeing, so all new vocabulary. I met up with 6 french spinners through this forum.
We spent a lovely day dyeing some roving,



and checking out all the different types of wheel and fibres that they all had.



I had to leave the house at 6.45am, had to listen and speak french all day and caught the train home at 5.20pm, I was so exhausted I could hardly talk when I got home but it was so worth it.
This is my part of the roving all dry.



With my few hours on the train I managed to finish this shawl that has been hanging about as a WIP since about february I think.



Its the Forest Canopy shawl in Plassard Alpaga, 1.5 skeins on 5mm needles. It is blocking now, picture when its dry.

Still chugging along on the christmas knitting, nothing exciting or finished.
Today I have to buy more black wool for another skull hat and finish up Octobers fibre before Novembers arrives.
I also have to do some Jean shopping for a child whose legs have grown a few inches, do you think it is possible for only legs to grow?
More soon....tchao

Not Blogging But Knitting

and kinda drowning in knitting.
I am feeling a little stressed by the xmas knitting and really needed to get it in hand.
I finished up Juliet for my oldest niece, here it is all ready to be blocked and to find nice buttons for it.



I also finished up another boy hat, this was taken by the birthday boy, so no strike off the xmas list!




I managed a tiny bit of spinning, this is months fibre club, called goblins eyes.



I spun it as fine as I could and it is 108m of navajo plied.
Not sure what I will do with it but I kinda like it.


And finally I sewed together the baby jumper

With sparkly buttons



Saturday I am off to the boys old school to help with their sewing for a fundraiser, we are making fleecy hats and scarves.

I am off on Sunday to spin with a couple of french spinners, I think we are going to do some dyeing too, so am looking forward to that, you will see the results next week.
Have a good weekend....tchao

Happy Birthday Baby

My baby is 18 years old today, here he is doing his best babysitting job a week ago with his new cousin.



The boys were busy making a cake a la Yarnstorm, unfortunately it took a turn for the worse and it turned into a fort(chocolate fingers) guarding the king(jaffa cakes) with guards(bounty bars) and dogs(sweets), not at all photogenic but apparently very yummy!! Oh, and fun....what more can I ask......

The first snow

We have snow, isn't it pretty.



The sun coming up this morning.


There has been a little more sewing, though not enough, so its still not finished, its getting there veeerrry slowly.
Can you tell what it is yet?




What about now?



The colour is much more purple than than the photo looks. I hope I like it when I am finished!

Knitting, just a little on some xmas projects, socks etc.
I quit knitting the boring baby blanket because the baby girl we were expecting was a lovely baby boy called Zachary and I am sure he wouldn't like to have a pink blanket.
Jamie got to see his new little cousin before he came home on Sunday, he is completely smitten with how tiny and gorgeous he is. He was very pleased with himself because he managed to get the baby to sleep on his chest and still carry on playing a game on the x-box! Boys!

Have they gone yet?

Yeah, the boys went back to school and I get to breathe, relax.
I love my boys but after almost 2 weeks of school holidays I am glad to get back to some kind of routine.
While they were home I knitted on some xmas knitting, like this and this.
Don't click the link if you think it might be your xmas present.



I also recently added to my fibre stash, which is really small, so now I have this too, isn't it all lovely.



I have to finish up some stuff before I have time to spin, maybe at the weekend.

I am working on a big sewing project for me, now its been a long time since I sewed anything for me that takes more than a few hours. In fact its been a long time since I sewed anything, so now I have something that looks like this, scary, huh!

Can you tell what it is yet??

Walk with colour

One of the places I walk Jonah regularly, is a wild bit of the local park, you walk through some gates and instead of the neat trimmed grass and flower beds you have swampy pond with bull rushes and all sorts of things growing wildly and very interesting smells for this lab to investigate.
This week it was full of colour, take a look.






The seeded Bull rushes look a bit like fibre, or maybe I have been spinning too much lately!


Excuse the blurry dog pic, he was moving too fast and having too much fun to stop and yes that is a big bit of slobber on his face, hmmm nice.....



this is my belated Dogs on Thursday, as I forgot it was Thursday yesterday, that is what happens in the school holidays, you have sooo much fun that you forget what day it is, have a fun weekend.....
more photos on flickr here

New wool

Thank you for all your anniversary wishes, we still haven't found somewhere to visit that is dog friendly so I think we will stay here and visit some places that we haven't been to before.

Last night, before the champagne, which incidentally one bottle is not enough if you let the children try some, I finished up this roving from this etsy seller,




and it became this about 200m, 100g, I am very pleased with it, it needs a pretty project, just have to find one. I do need another project like a hole in the head but hey, whats one more!



I started a hat for one nephew using the skull chart form helloyarn, I think it will be cute when finished, pics next time.

Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary, 20 years! Wow, that is a looonnng time!
To celebrate I am trying to find us somewhere to visit for the weekend, with 2 teenagers and dog of course, not too easy.
So if any of you know anywhere exciting to visit, not toooo far away with somewhere that takes well behaved labradors and mostly well behaved boys, please let me know. Searching the internet has given me a severe twitch in one eye, so am off to knit and plan a yummy dinner, tchao

Good morning, good morning

The sun is shining, hoorah, hoorah, its the holidays.
We are very excited its the school holidays, the last couple of weeks of school seriously kicked our butts,
I for one, am so glad its over and I don't even have to go to school.
Well except when summoned but lets not talk about that.

So the thing is, did you know that stress makes you start lots of new projects and not finish any, seriously it does.
So where to start, lets see, so this gorgeous roving from Natalie



became this.

and its finished, yeah for FO's, problem is he thinks its a girls hat and a bit tight, thats okay one of the boys loves it, my DH definitely doesn't deserve knitting, woolly things are TOO warm and here was me thought that was the whole point!!

The gorgeous roving from Maylin became this


and this



which wants to become these, soonish as its getting a little chilly here.

If I am knitting you a xmas present don't look here, or here.

I am boring myself to death knitting the boringest ever baby blanket, here.



Some silk from Jen became this



some alpaca and beads became this, so soft and squishy, thanks Jen.


There are also a couple of things that have been started and frogged and a couple with no pictures, I am hoping to get more organised in the holidays, well as organised as I ever get.

I am glad to say my parcels to Isabella and Rebecca made it safely, though the Royal Mail strike has eaten one of mine AND it had sock yarn in it and there is a little space in the drawer, just for it!

I think I have to start my xmas list, I MUST have this, so am searching for the perfect thistle yarn, problem is, I think I need to see the yarn in person, so if you see perfect thistle yarn, let me know, okay, thanks, tchao.

Dog

Jonah was in serious need of a bath, he loves to be washed outside with a hose. He hates getting in the bath, I think the photo proves how much he loves it!




It takes 2 people to stop him from jumping out all soapy and shaking everywhere, all in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon. Luckily the sun was shining so he got to dry off while running around outside because there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog, even clean wet dog.

I am getting all organised for a day of being a taxi, there is a strike here. The teachers are not allowed to tell the kids they are on strike, so they have to go to school at normal time, there are buses early in the morning, then the bus drivers go out. The kids are then stranded at school with half of their teachers not there, so need ferried around, the traffic will be horrendous, so something to look forward to later.

Finally finished

Yes, I do have at last a FO that is not a pair of socks,
it seems like this shawl has been on the needles for the longest time.
I was thoroughly sick of it by the end.
I love the pattern and the yarn but none of the needles I had were working with the mohair and the slipperiness on my addi, drove me insane!
I did need the needle for something else so, it had to be finished.



It has been added to the xmas present pile. (which is still very small!)

The other day a package arrived from Maylin and it contained this loveliness.



The colours of the one on the right are sooooo pretty when spun, so it became this,




and this.


I love it, thank you Maylin.
You can see more of Maylins stuff here


The thick and thin I want to knit ysoldas urchin beret with but not sure if it is thick enough, it really wanted to be thin yarn, so the other half became thin singles that I don't know what I am doing with yet. Something pretty.
This afternoons choice of activity is ironing or some spinning of purple roving, choices, choices!!

This part is really not knitting related so you can skip it if you want.
All weekend there has been a discussion going on in Ravelry which did start out as a discuss the hooha caused by Jane's lovely book and the term pinny porn which was used to describe it.
Having listened to the interview on Womens Hour, I was interested to see what everyone else thought.
Well, this discussion went way, way off topic, starting with someone saying that boys knitting made her cringe!
Also that as women our jobs were to look after the men and boys shouldn't be encouraged to do girly things!!!
As at the time of reading the comments were already in the 200+, I didn't get involved, but at dinner the boys were asking what I had been reading, it did take me a while to read it all.
So I explained what it was, this was of course while eating dinner, which for the most part my husband had cooked, while no2 son made muffins.
Anyway after explaining everything no 3 teenage son said, "So, does she just think that women should be slaves then?"
No2 said "Why as an adult would I expect anyone else to do things for me, that I am perfectly capable of doing myself!"
So I am very proud of my boys who knit, sew, do laundry, etc etc, I have to say the rest of the dinner conversation included football, rugby, cars, a physics test, and the Nobel prize winners, just in case you were worried we only talked knitting chez moi!!