On a Whim and a Wheel

So here it is revealed at last, my new wheel. I decided on a whim after a whole year of spinning that my traditional wheel, although perfectly functional. was taking up too much room. What I really needed was a small wheel, like my little 'Joy', but also a wheel that could be fitted with a Jumbo Flyer for bulky spinning.

I've always liked the custom paint job on Natalie's little Kiwi, and after a couple of enquiries, the decision was made, here she is:

kiwi pukapuka

(noun) little spotted kiwi, Apteryx owenii - smallest kiwi with brownish grey finely mottled or banded horizontally with white and now found only at Karori Sanctuary and a few predator free islands such as Kapiti and Tiritiri Mātangi

I've been giving her a test run with some merino silk mix that I bought at Woolfest, and to be honest I absolutely love her, I love the double treadle, the simplicity of the design and obviously there's the small detail of the paint job!

So excited...

I'm so excited because you will find these...

among other recent yarns, for sale here

I'm also pretty excited because I have a new spinning wheel, and it's almost ready, after several coats of varnish, for me to put it together.

I'm also very excited about Bigsock, I've almost finished bits of the blog and my nearest and dearest has been getting the website ready...at the moment Bigsock is here and we found these great photos here look how big and colourful it's getting!

This is the project that has been taking up alot of time out in the garden, it actually looks a bit darker than this at the moment, as we finished putting the roof on yesterday, although I can't take much credit for all this work, I'm really just the builders mate!



It will be a store room, office and shared studio space when it's completed.






I actually got the button stitched on last night, now I just need to get it into the post. The pattern itself is Sirdar, the yarn is Rooster baby alpaca and merino. I'm on the sleeves of the largest of these at the moment and then I've got one more to knit.

A while ago Marianne awarded me a rockin girl blogger, along with a fabulous roll call of more than 25 other bloggers, she's a star, of course, and more recently Angie has awarded me a second Rockin' Girl Blogger award, so whilst basking in the glory of such a prestigious award, I must remember to thank all of you for making it possible, there are so many people I would like to give awards to, a part of me doesn't want to start singling people out, so I'm not going to, but then I got to thinking it feels nice when someone gives you an award, so it's not fair for me not to pass this on, but well it is stressing me a bit which is silly, it is only a bit of fun isn't it, so here goes

Kerrie I don't know how she does it all!

Woolywormhead For work above and beyond the call of duty!

Fiber Café Best Supporting Actress

Florence Knitingale Best Comedy

Seahorse For being a culinary goddess, I imagine her to be an elegant knitting Nigella with quirky taste!

Finis!

What a relief it is to finally be able to show you my finished Vogue cardigan! While I was quietly painlessly, sewing the button on Friday morning I felt a bit silly for letting something so simple stop me in my tracks. The superslim sleeve tops? yes they are a bit snug for my liking, but there's not much I can do to rectify it, apart from knitting 2 new slightly wider sleeves, and considering how long it's taken me to actually complete, the knitting itself was finished Easter, and I've just checked my blog archive to see I actually blocked it May 9th...ok here it is August 6th, perfect timing for cooler Summer evenings!

Ok so the first baby cardigan...is just waiting for a button, just maybe ready and posted by the end of the week!

Still plenty to be cheerful about, look at the abundance of kind words and lovely blog friends I've made, thankyou all for your lovely comments on that last post!

Reasons To Be Cheerful, part 1

Sometimes it's good to stop and smell the roses, and I've been rushing around of late trying to fit everything in.

Yesterday Peri was counting her blessings, she spoke about the book Simple Abundance and about making note of 5 good things in your life or that happen everyday, now this is not a new thing, I do recall having to do something similar in one of the tasks of the Finding Water book, but it's something that gets buried by a busy life.



When I read Peri's blog post I was all fired up to atleast try and find five things everyday for a week, to be cheerful about, only 35 things in total, didn't seem too difficult, but looking wearily back on my day today maybe I need to keep notes as I'm sat here racking my brains to come up with 5 things.



1. I finished the work of art for the exhibition, and got them handed in on time.

2. I managed to escape for a cup of tea with a friend today.

3. It wasn't too hot.

4. I got to watch the 3rd episode of Heroes last night...nevermind about episode one and two!

5. Fillet steak for tea!



If I'm actually going to keep this up for a week, it could get even worse, I might have to keep my cheerfulness private, either that or just eat my own words.

The above picture is a work in process of the work of art which I submitted for a group exhibition that opens Saturday, Keith took some photos of the finished piece this morning and they are on his camera.

This is 200g of Blufaced Leicester Superwash, I really wish I had a before picture of this fibre as the colours were quite scary, until I started spinning.

Finished yarn, always a reason to be cheerful!