And now for something completely different......

So this could be my last post of 2014, I have disappointed myself by blogging 3 times (ok this is 4) this year.

But I don't want to give my blog up! I want to blog, I'm sure I can find things to blog about, so really all I need to do is make time! My second failing in 2014 was I wanted to sew more, I made one dress, there is a second dress cut out, this has been cut out since April and stored carefully in a shoe box, there is also a growing fabric stash! My 3rd, I might aswell make it a hat trick fail, I was going to sign up to do my Certificate of Achievement in Dyeing. I did start a notebook and dyed some samples.

I don't really think of any of these things as fails really,  I have achieved an awful lot this year.

So....something completely different, I went out to Tescos earlier to buy a dvd player, this is the second time I've been to Tescos to buy a dvd player and come away without one, simply because I am unable to make a decision once I get there, faced with the choices on offer. Do I want upscaling, will I notice the difference, etc.

Anyway I didn't quite come home empty handed, I purchased this:

I flicked through it and it made me smile, it was released in October.....it wasn't overly expensive. If you want to buy a knitter or crocheter a last minute stocking filler I would suggest you GET THIS BOOK!

There is a website from where the book has originated from, even better halfway down the page on the website is a picture of a friends husband in an Elvis wig she knitted him (6 degrees of separation and all that)

My only bugbear in this book is this:

Why does Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo offend.....oh it's not the poo.....it is the words 'handy knitted version......,IT IS CROCHET!

I don't mind the book containing crochet, but if it is crochet PLEASE don't refer to it as knitting!

So a book review, I may even find more books to review in 2015. There will hopefully be more sewing, more knitting, more weaving, more dyeing, more spinning and MORE BLOG POSTS about it all.

It's Been A While

It's been so long I am sat here wondering where the time goes. It goes anyway and I was busy for a while working on my PTLLS (Preparing To Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector). Which I completed and passed in July!

I haven't been entirely idle either. There has been spinning going on.....mainly on a Tuesday. I simply decided that I didn't spin enough and I missed it so I set aside Tuesday nights just for spinning! Before too long a few friends joined me and now we have a very open and friendly facebook group of spinners. Come and find us, it's called the Tuesday Night Spin In!

Alot of what I have been spinning is just rejects and things that have been sat in my stash for ages, but it's been great having regular spinning time.

I did spend a few months stitching this for a very special couple:

Its off being framed at the moment!

50 Shades (types) of Green is off the loom and patiently waiting for me to make it into something for the Guild competition in November.

I've just finished 2 scarves with some (now discontinued) Noro Sekku. The first one is all Sekku, the second was done with Habu stainless steel silk as weft. It's the first time I've used the Habu, but I have more in my stash to experiment in as time allows! Ok not adding photos of the scarves just yet as they are portrait and blogger is turning them back to landscape, annoying but I will try and rectify the problem and show them off soon!added all the photos of my scarves to flickr

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Well it's been a funny few months, and about time I did a little update! Knitting has been slower than slow, I see why so many of my friends have more than one knitting project. I got bored with the mittens I was knitting which slowed things down, any normal knitter might start something new, but I'm not a 'normal' knitter! I have actually cast the mittens off but they need ends sewing in and one has a hem to sew too. 

I did manage to get a dress cut and sewn. I tried the sample on in the Merchant & Mills store and liked it so much I bought the pattern. Just had a new sewing machine for my birthday so there are plenty more Merchant & Mills dresses in my future, infact I have cut another one of these out but have stopped sewing to get on with a bit of weaving and spinning!

It was about time I got something on the loom, it WAS April after all, I couldn't really leave my loom standing empty any longer and since I had help to get the warp on the loom for once that's what I did. The Guild have a bi-annual competition and the theme this year is 50 Shades of Green, I'm hoping for 50 types of green, I have no idea what it will be when it comes off the loom but I have till November to think of something! I don't even like green!

Weaving stopped for a few days as I also decided I missed spinning and the only way to fit spinning into my life is to allocate a 'Spinning Night'. I started this 'imperfect rainbow' last week. (It's imperfect because the red was too dark, the blue was too blue and I have too many colours between red and yellow) I created this as a sample for a workshop on mixing from the primary colours. Anyway Tuesday night spinning turned into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday spinning, I became a bit obsessed once I started it and yesterday morning after another Tuesday night spin, I finished the chain plying. Photos of the finished yarn soon but I have a few of yarn on the bobbin.

I love watching the colours from underneath mixing in with the colours from above, it may turn into warp at some point and this gives me ideas for mixing the colours around a little! 

In other news I am now on a 10 week college course (PTTLS- Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) so that takes precedence over all other work but finishing those mittens, a bear and a throw are also on the list too.

Happy New Year!

The plan was to upload all my 2013 projects to flickr so I could make a nice mosaic around now with lots of pretty pictures of the things I had made last year. Unfortunately they are almost all on ravelry, but somewhere along the line I stopped uploading them to flickr so I'll give up on the idea for last year and try and do it this year instead!

This is the list of completed items for 2013 as it stands, 10 neck cosies, 16 scarves, 2 pieces of woven yardage, around 20 lavender bags, 4 woven notebook covers, 2 knitted baby cardigans, 1 pair of handwarmers, 400g handspun yarn, 1 handspun cardigan and a pair of Latvian mittens. I also knitted and stuffed a very small bear back in April who is STILL waiting for eyes and embroidery. I must finish him soon, it's not even for me, it's for my sister! Here he is:

So goodbye 2013, I finished the last thumb on my Latvian mitten kit on Christmas Day while watching Gone With The Wind (lets hope that never happens). I've enjoyed them so much I have ordered myself one of the few Latvian Mitten books that is still available for a reasonable price. I've cast on a free Latvian style mitten pattern for now just to have something on the needles.

I had set myself the goal of sewing something from my handspun in 2013 and so I have failed, there is a recycled skirt I was working on which has been abandoned in a pile of things that need sorting.  My goals for 2014 will just be to get to the end of the year without shouting too much, to try and finish some of the abandoned little things that need doing and to sew more, watch this space!