A quiet night out.....

You can tell we don't get out much coz when we do we overdress..............
Does anyone remember the delectable Dawn French's fabulous skit of Shakespeare's Sister? It was an homage, what can I say? Luckily you can't see the nether regions. Well luckily you can't see mine really, Bri's nether regions were just fine! :-) I was wearing a tattered black "fairy" skirt over a net petticoat with holey fishnets and DM's. The saddest thing is that I would happily dress like this even if the invite didn't say "Fancy Dress"!!! What doesn't show is that Bri's quiff was about a foot long - wicked and a great chance for the old slap-head to have hair. Been a long time. Thank God bald men are so sexy, eh darling? :-)
Quick, get back to wool :-) This is a scarf I had to do for an order. Don't get me wrong I'm happy to have orders but I have a festie in 10 days and NO FRIGGIN' STOCK - AAAGHHH!!! So anyway (deep breaths, deep breaths.....) the scarf is in shades of pink, looks odd but very pretty on. Today I've done a pair of pink pixie slippers for a friend's daughter. Added some angelina fibres to the last layer and they look pretty - pics when they are dry. The slouch socks: First one cast off. That is not as good a thing as it sounds because it is too short in the foot. F*^k! This is a stupid pointless mistake as I had my feet with me when I cast the sodding thing off so how come? I blame Brian. Apart from the fact that he doesn't read the blog it really is his fault. As are most things if I think hard enough. Bless. Anyway we were screaming down the motorway last Saturday with me knitting and the kids squashed in the back in that kind of stupor that you pray for as a parent coz they aren't fighting. I managed to get my foot onto the dash board to try on the sock as it was obviously nearing completion. This was not a pretty sight, by the way, and if you happened to be on the same bit of motorway as us I can only apologise. And hope your eyesight returns OK. Apparently though it was also dangerous as the back window was full of pillows and the wing mirror was obscured by my thunder thigh ample presence. I was informed of this in no uncertain terms so I crammed the sock on and off again in the time it takes Brian to yell "I've£^%&'in told you once, don't get in front of the £*&('in wing mirror!!!" (The "once" refers to the fact that he asked me to read the map and then threw a wobbler coz I picked it up to read it - you guessed it, obscuring the wing mirror. Putting the "fun" in dysFUNctional. ) Sooooo I didn't really try the sock on properly and it is a bit short but, hey, worse things happen. I'll frog back and add a few rows but it'll have to wait a while as I'd already cast on the second sock - to keep me occupied and stop me obscuring the mirrors :-)

Plying , dyeing and sighing!

Seem to have done a huge amount of plying lately. I must, obviously, have done a double huge amount of spinning in order to ply it all but it's the plying I've noticed. Probably as I'm less happy with it. Today tried plying on my new wheel - wow, wow, double wow! Took a bit of getting used to on the spinning side but plying? A dream. When it came it had a whole full bobbin (on a Louet this is a lot of yarn) spun, I presume by the lady who sold it. Plus a bit on a second bobbin and a bag of roving in a pleasant moorit colour (a muggle(:-)) will ask - a dull, reddish brown. Sheep come this colour.) So today I decided It Was Time. (To try the new wheel.) I was pretty terrified at first as I am used to Ladylike Elizabeth gently hinting that you may like to feed in some yarm "but only if you're ready, I'm happy to wait." as she's a sweet thing and not at all pushy. The new wheel - Lou-Lou (well what the hell else did you expect??!) is a bit of a bint by comparison. Possibly a girl of negotiable affection. The yarn is hauled unceremoniously out of your protesting hands. She takes no prisoners. Sooo after a bit of breath holding and a lot of swearing it's OK. Lou-Lou and I have fought out a truce and a bit of mutual respect.
Back to plying, she's a star, all my plying will be done on her from now on. I've a HUGE hank of yarn to show off once it's set and dried. HUGE Those bobbins, gotta love 'em. All this hanging to dry is the result of this frantic plying I've been banging on about. Impressed? I am! Sevenish skeins of the blue stuff I bought back from Winghams to be my first 'spin and knit a garment' project. The light brown is a crappy beginner's skein that I dyed this morning with Walnut husks. Bri likes the colour so it must be OK. Better than it looks here anyway. It won't photograph but it's golden rich brown. The darker brown is wet, mentioned before. Close up of the blue, of which I am very proud. Can't see here but there are red bits, orange bits, green..... you get the idea, I'm proud. Also dyed some fleece with Logwood chips. This greyish stuff is the result. Was hoping for purplish, bluish. Grey. Weird stuff. The soaking liquid went brown in the pan and it said to add soda ash till it went purple, which it did. (It was ace - like Alchemy, just woosh - purple. Wonderful:-)) Dyed the fleece in purple liquid and got grey. Mordanted with alum if anyone reading this knows more than I do, which wouldn't be at all hard.... It is a very lovely grey actually which I'll use. Finished all the farting around - soak overnight, boil for one hour etc etc then saw "logwood is an extremely fugitive dye" oh big, hairy bum! As an eco-zealot I really want to get to grips with natural dyeing but I've a way to go :-( (In case anyone is concentrating this is the "sighing" in the title. See, I'm trying to tie it all in.....:-))
This oddity is my new sock! I think it looks like a giant clam :-) It's a pattern from "Socks, socks, socks" and is a slouch sock. I never pull up my socks so it'll suit me well but isn't it weird the way it folds up? Hmmn, I can forsee a folded "Giant clam" bag on the horizon!!!

Lucky Billy Boy.

This is what happens if you have the luck of the Devil and your big brother hurls a splintered piece of garden cane at you. What happens if the luck is not with you doesn't bear thinking about....................

Calling all Fibreholics - so that's you, right?

Just a quick plug for y'all. Go here. Look at the sheep! Look at these spindles (love "The Keep"!) It was Wormhead who originally blogged about Liz' fibres (thanks Ruth:-)) which are gorgeous. I unreservedly endorse Liz as she is a lovely lady. She is extremely helpful and knowledgable and passionate about keeping spinning alive. I've no affiliation other than being a most satisfied customer of her ebay shop. Nice to know that in this age of shopping with a click it still all comes down to nice folk :-)))