Well today I’ve been able to get my camera out and take some photos of the yarns I’ve dyed this week. Hope you like them. I’ll be adding them to the Folksy shop later today.
Mara @ Fantasiamusings and ramblings on crafting and life… |
It’s been a strange week…..
and I’m very glad to have reached the weekend. Some weeks you slide through smoothly and can gaze out the bus window at all the wonderful things passing by. Other weeks you have to fasten your seat belt and hold on tight while praying you don’t loose your dinner. I’m sure you can guess which type of week this one has been.
However if all you do is dwell on the rocky bits you’re going to turn into a pretty miserable so-and-so, so lets not do that but look for some nice things instead.
Nice thing number 1)
My yarn delivery arrived. This is a combination of Blue Faced Leicester and Alpaca sock weight yarns. I’ve had the BFL before but this is the first time I’ve tried the alpaca. I’ve cooked up a few skeins of the BFL but wanted to keep the alpaca for the weekend when I’ve had a bit more sleep. Besides I keep fondling it in it’s bag in the lounge.
2 Skeins of dyed yarn rinsing in the sink
Nice thing number 2)
Jakes leg appears to be healing well and with luck the vets are going to try him without the splint this weekend and see how he goes. Taking him in twice a week for treatment has been a drain financially but also emotionally / time wise. Each visit takes an hour out of the day and when all you want to do is curl up and ignore the world for a while……
Jake lying on the floor beside my chair while I type. Note his leg all bandaged up.
Nice thing number 3)
Ok I’ll admit it, I’m a bit stuck for something to write here. I could go on about how lucky I am to have a job, nice home, friends blah blah….. and don’t get me wrong I am well aware of how lucky I am compared to some people. But if I’m just talking about things for this week and you rule out things like – ‘Well I didn’t fall over yesterday’ I’m struggling…. That said I’m sure things will start looking up as soon as I get some sleep and the sun starts shining (so I can play with my camera)…. Hmm maybe that can be nice thing number 3….. Looking forward to a couple of days off.
Rest in Peace Richard –Wherever you are…
Just a short, sad little post today….. My friend Richard has committed suicide. I don’t know why or many details yet.
I suppose that means a funeral in the coming weeks. Why is it that I only ever seem to see people at funerals these days?
Richard – I don’t know where (or even if) you are, but rest in peace…..
Winter Wonderland
Right now I have two dogs. One is a very happy dog…. the other isn’t.
This is Pebbles. Pebbles is a happy dog. Why? Well she’s just been for a run down the woods in the snow. This as far as Pebbles is concerned is wonderful. She gets to run and snow plough and bound about like a puppy. Mummy is there and she even remembered her camera.
Jake on the other hand had to stay at home because of his leg. This means Jake is not a happy dog. There is snow out there and he should be outside playing in it. Life just isn’t fair when you’re a doggie with a poorly leg…..
It was a beautiful day down the woods, even if the walk had to be cut short because I was freezing. I had lots of layers on but still I could feel myself getting colder and colder. I love the cold but it just doesn’t seem to love me. It never ceases to amaze me how such a familiar landscape can be transformed by a dusting of frozen water.
While we were out I spotted these pine cones with snow on them. How very seasonal. I also saw some holly with snow on it but couldn’t really stop that since it would have meant holding up the traffic going into Tesco’s car park. I didn’t really think that would go down well.
But the main object of desire for my camera was my beautiful Pebbles.
I took loads of shots of her bounding about and simply looking happy in the snow. There are few things I love more than to be out and about with my dogs and my camera. This last one of her has got to be one of the funniest shots of her I’ve ever taken. 
I have lots of shots of her with her ears bouncing up and down like pigtails on a little girl but having the tongue out as well really cracks me up.
Anyway now we are back in the warm, safe and sound with several large sacks of doggie food stacked behind the sofa to make sure we don’t run short. Time to snuggle up and get out the knitting…. and maybe a cuppa tea 
Winter finally arrives…
Well after hearing stories on the news about how the weather has brought other parts of the country to chaos, the snow has finally reached East Anglia.
It’s still no where near as bad as other parts of the country and don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining or doing the ‘oh it’s horrific – the end of the world is nigh’ routine that some people are doing. That said I am glad I have a snow day today. It’s my first ever!
Yes you heard me right….. My first EVER snow day. This is the view on the patio at the back of the cottage. Now I know this doesn’t look very impressive but you have to remember how rarely we get snow. To me this is a strange sight and it’s pretty much all from snowfall overnight as well.
Last year was a bad winter for us down here and the snow didn’t come till much later on. Part of me is wondering if that means I will have huge heating bills again……? But then I remember that last year my boiler broke and I was without heating or hot water for 3 weeks during the worst of the snow. Sparkly new boiler is much more efficient and also under warrantee…. Breathes a sigh of relief….
I also go caught out in the snow last year coming home from knitting one night. What should have been a 20 minute drive turned into a 15 and a half hour epic saga. It must have been a strange sight, some mad woman stranded in her car on a duel carriageway knitting by the light of the street lights at 3 am as the snow continued to pile up. My car now has heat pads and a blanket in it permanently.
So it’s curl up on the sofa with the dogs and get out my knitting time. I found a pattern for a beautiful shawl the other night on Ravelry and decided to cast on with some lace weight I bought this summer. I’m not a fast lace knitter, the shawl I knit recently for my mother took me 5 weeks! But the results are oh so pretty…..
Hmm…. I’m off to pop the kettle on and get out those pointy sticks 
Little Blue Sheep….
Yesterday I went to the Frating Village Hall for a day of yarn, spinning and knitting. This is a wonderful day which happens about 4 times a year and is organised by one of the local groups.
There is always a friendly atmosphere and cake and cheese scones and cake and did I mention the cheese scones? Hmmmm the cake and cheese scones…… dribble!
It’s also a chance to catch up with friends and be inspired by their latest projects. Enter the little blue sheep!
These fabulous stitch markers we made by Julie and what is not to love about them. Some are little balls of yarn and some are little sheep made out of little balls of yarn. How CUTE!
These photos don’t do them justice but they really are so adorable I just had to share them with you.
I also took along some of my hand dyed yarn which I have been playing with. I’ve been experimenting with natural dyes but I’m dyeing much more than I can knit. So after some encouragement from some friends I took some along to see if anyone else liked it. After all this would help buy more yarn to play with! This is something that I’ve been wondering about for a little while, just hadn’t done it. Anyway on the back of this I’ve opened a Folksy shop. If you’d like to visit it then you can find it here.
Autumn has left and Winter has arrived…..
Well the autumnal leaves have left the trees and Jack Frost has come to play every morning. Pebbles and Jake woke me early this morning as they haven’t yet got the hang of weekends. As a struggled my coat on over the top of my jimjams I looked out of the lounge window to be greeted by frost and mist. I knew that there was no way that Jake would wait while I got my camera so I stuffed my mobile in my pocket and off we went out into the cold.
The scene as I stood there was beautiful but given the limitations of my camera phone and that I was attached to a dog by a lead I only managed a quick shot of some of the frost covered leaves on the grass near the cottage.
The cold has been an on going feature of life in this beautiful part of England this week. Many of my friends work in schools so the subject of possible snow days has never been far away. For me the cold means something else….. time to look for ways to keep warm! This week that involved using the cooker to do some dyeing in the kitchen. I love this….. I love the magic of watching the colours change, even though I know it’s really chemistry.
This beautiful purple has been named ‘Libby’ and has already been nabbed by a friend.
This particular colour was a pig to photograph. The colours just kept overpowering the image. (grump grump)
Right then off to play with my yarn hehe…..
A plea to the blog-o-sphere……
Ok what’s going on? It appears that some of my photos are not showing up in the blog. If you click on them then a larger version pops up…. but why aren’t they working in the smaller sizes in the posts?
Anyone know?
Help needed on this……
Anyway since I have little else to write about (still recovering from that illness I had this week) here are some more photos. I’m experimenting with the format I put them in before uploading. These are all shots from my meanderings with my camera this summer. Fingers crossed they all work.
This is a model frog I found in a garden I visited with my mother. I like visiting gardens and spending time in other peoples little personal plant based paradise.
I’m not 100% certain which garden this was found in but I do know it was in the village of Langham in Essex.
As a village about 15 gardens all opened up on the same two days to raise money for charity. The weather wasn’t very nice but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.
This is Loch Faskally by Pitlochry in Perthshire. Jake and I walked around it during our holiday this summer.
Now what would a trip to Scotland be without a stag. Actually I have visited this wonderful country many times but this is the first time I’ve actually managed to get a shot of a stag. Something always seems to go wrong.
In fact it nearly went wrong this time as well. My camera locked up and refused to work. I couldn’t believe it! I mean What The ****! It’s a good camera although it is getting a little old now. But I mean really, of all the times to lock up!!!!! Swearing was involved…. But I did get this shot
This was taken on another garden visit. There was a sculptural seat above these stones. I suspect that the owners hadn’t spotted the little seedling poking it’s head up through the stones…. But I thought it was a lovely image. Nature showing us that she’s still there no matter what we do….
Just a little quickie….
Well I’ve been busy or ill most of this week so not a lot of time for any sort of crafting. I did however get the time to have a go at a stash busting project I’ve been thinking about for a while.
On the coach trip to Ally Pally my friend Irene was crocheting a beautiful bag. I’m not always taken with knitted or crocheted bags but this one was lovely. She explained the idea of how to do it (couldn’t believe how simple it was) and so I decided to have a go.
Unfortunately when I was part way up the sides I decided that the base was a bit big for the bag I have in my head. So I decided to make it into a basket / toiletry tidy. It’s three strands of yarn from my stash worked together. A cream DK (not sure where is came from) and two balls of Noro Sock for the colour. I’m rather pleased with the results. Simple, easy and most importantly stops Salem the cat from playing football with the stuff on top of my chest of draws.
I liked it so much I’m making another one….
Remember that blue hat I made? The one I photographed down the woods with the help of Pebbles the dog… Well I liked it so much I’m making another one.
Yesterday we had a road trip to Woodbridge in Suffolk. A new yarn shop has opened up and naturally we wanted a peek…. Well wouldn’t you? Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no shots of yarn shops for you to oggle at (I know I’m always oggling at photos of yarn shops on peoples blogs) but I can give you a link to their website. It’s called Twist and we enjoyed looking at all the lovely yarn there. They’ve only been open a week so I was a little disappointed as a lot of their stock such as Manos del Uruguay hasn’t arrived yet.
However we did get a peek at the room which is being kitted out for workshops at the back and given it’s not to far away I’m going to be keeping an eye open to see if there will be anything of interest going on. I understand that there will be courses in the new year so hopefully not to long to wait.
We also visited a more established shop called Anjays which sold yarn and fabric. It was a much smaller shop but one of those you can mooch about in (provided you can find the room). I do love a good mooch….
So anyway I came home with two balls of Tapestry yarn by Rowan. I’ve knit with this before and it’s a nice double knit. I have mixed feelings about Rowan as so many of the balls I’ve had in the past have contained knots. I know some knots are going to happen but with Rowan I find a lot more than I think I should.
Anyway those two balls are being knit together into another Weekender hat by Woolly Wormhead.
If this hat works as well as the last one then I’ll be a happy little knitter!
Unfortunately The weather cut short our trip to the woods today. Once again I forgot my camera so it’s just piccys from my phone I’m afraid. The scarf is made from yarn I bought at The Yarn Gallery a few weeks back. I love the colours and I’m hoping that the new Weekender hat will work with it.
Pebbles ran and ran and ran and ran around in circles. I did take some video on my phone but as yet I’ve been unable to work out how to transfer it to my computer. Maybe I’ll get it uploaded during the week……
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