Christmas Surprise

I have always believed that it is more important to give than to receive, and at Christmas time this is more important than ever. I spend months carefully planning what gifts I will give to my family and close friends, with no thought to what I would like.

This year I was in for a real surprise.

I love everything I received, all the gifts above were surprises, and as for the skein of yarn....

This beautiful Alpaca has been sitting at my local yarn shop (Create and Knit) for some weeks. Every visit I make to the shop I couldn't resist admiring this skein, picking it up and stroking it, but it was out of my price range.

A couple of weeks ago they skein disappeared. Catherine told me she had sold it to a lady in the week, so I resigned myself to having to admire the artesano and manos yarns in the shop instead.

That was until this morning.

Whilst the children were bouncing about over all their presents, Mick handed me an "extra little present". I could not believe my eyes when I opened it and found the skein I had been admiring for so long.

I can't put it down now, I keep hugging it, just to make sure I'm not dreaming.

I think the rest of my family now think I am completely mad, but anyone who is into knitting, crochet or spinning, will know how I feel.

Knit Pick Options Storage Case

I recently bought the Deluxe Nickel Plated Options set from Knit Picks. I love these needles, but find the case they come supplied in a little too long for my normal projects bag, so it was time to get my sewing machine out.

First I sat and measured all the various items I needed to store and the space I wanted to be able to fit them into. Sometime later after many drawings, calculations and crossings out, I sat down at my cutting board and sewing machine.

Eight hours later, I had finished my first prototype. It still needs some tweaking, but I'm leaving that to a friend who is a far more talented seamstress.

Here are some pictures of the insides:

Two Pockets for the cables and accessories.

Five slots for needles tips with sizes embroidered on each slot.

In the centre are six wider slots to take either the larger needle tips or any other accessories such as crochet hooks.

Finally, there are another set of labeled slots and a series of pockets for fixed circular needles.

Computer Repair

This evening was spent replacing the motherboard in my boys computer. I had help from Joseph (11), his hands are smaller and more supple than mine.

Seating Heat sink and moving RAM

Taking out cards and case fan.

Out comes old motherboard

Order is restored.

Upon booting up I had to set the date and time in the BIOS before windows would boot. Windows then decided it needed re-activating, due to the change in hardware. It would not activate over the Internet, it insisted I do it by telephone, but as it was past 10pm by then, there was no-one to answer the phone. I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Homespun Alpaca

I have been learning to spin for about 6 months and have already discovered that some wool is not as easy to spin as others.

When a friend on Ravelry happened to mention she knew someone with Alpacas I instantly asked her if I could have a go at spinning some of their fleece. So on Thursday she turned up at our knitting meeting with a big potato bag full of fleece which two of us shared between us.

I was so excited I wanted to get all the fleece out there and then to start sorting it, but I don't thing the owners or customers of the cafe we were in would have been very impressed. I managed to restrain myself until I got home.

The fleece is a lovely creamy white and is so soft. The fibres are really fine and tend to float about and attach themselves to my clothes.

I used my flick carder to tease the locks open and remove most of the vm, then passed the fibre through my drum carder (which Mick made for me).

The resulting batts were really soft and fluffy. I used my Kromski Mazurka which I had from Wingham Wool Work for Mothers Day.

I then plied 2 singles together before winding into skeins ready to set the twist.

Producing these skeins had hardly made a dent in the bag of fleece, so I have plenty of work to keep me going. I am finding it really relaxing and the fibre feels so wonderful as it slides through my fingers.
When it is all done, I will wind the skeins into balls to return to my friend, she is planning on knitting something for the owner of the alpacas from the yarn.

New Shawl Pins

Mick has been able to get into his workshop this weekend. For once I didn't have a list of chores I needed doing. He spent quite a bit of Saturday experimenting with various different shapes for the shawl rings. Then Sunday was spent at his lathe making the pins.

These two images show the start and end result of a shawl pin, using a piece of oak.

These are some of the unusual shapes, made from Oak, Birch and Beech

Slightly more conventional shapes in Oak and Walnut.

This one was an experiment, it is made from Beech which has a speckled effect within the wood. I rather like this one and am considering making a shawl for my mother to go with it for her birthday in November.

Keeping the Animals Cool

The weather has been so hot lately, it has been difficult to keep cool for all of us.
We don't have enough room in our garden for a decent size pool, but I decided the dogs could really do with one to help them to cool off after their walks.
I bought a cheap baby paddling pool and set it up in the shade of a small birch tree, whilst the boys were out with the dogs.
When they got back Joe got straight in and used treat to encourage Sheba in.

Jessica came over to have a look at what was going on, but got out too quickly for me to get a photo

Bubbles had a quick paddle too, as you can see only her paws got wet.

The main players seem to be Matt, Joe and Sheba, who somehow all managed to get into the pool at once. (Matt even managed to fall over and get soaked, but I had put the camera away by then)

Tunisian Crochet

I spotted the Tunisian Crochet La Mer Scarf in Interweave Crochet (Summer 08) and decided it would be a great project for learning Tunisian Crochet.
I decided to use Colinette Lasso in Sea Breeze, which I purchased from a LYS called Tangent Treasures in Willington, Derbyshire.

I bought 2 skeins and once completed I had used all of the first skein and a few meters of the second skein.

I generally try to use natural fibres, but the softness and glittery sheen of this yarn won me over.

The next thing I need to find was a 6 mm hook suitable for this style of crochet.
Husband to the rescue, I showed him what I wanted, he disappeared into his workshop and half an hour later, this was the result.

Time to start.

I found the pattern and how to instruction really easy to follow. Once I had got the hang of the pattern rows I was able to keep going without having to refer back to the instructions repeatedly. The scarf grew quite quickly.

I managed to get all the main length of the scarf done with the first skein and part way round the SC border before I needed to start the new skein.

I then had to search through the beads I have stashed to find ones that co-ordinated with the the scarf had large enough holes to thread onto the yarn. I found I did not have as many suitable beads as specified in the pattern, so I adapted the beaded fringe using the beads I had. This resulted in only two rows of beaded loops, but I am happy with the results.

Out on a walk

The fields look so colourful at this time of year. I've always loved seeing the poppies growing through the crops.

This morning Beth and I took the girls out along the footpaths by this field. It was Bubbles's first big walk and she had lots to explore.

New Addition To Family

Today we collect a new member for our family. She is a chocolate coloured Toy Poodle called Bubbles.

She has a bouncy step and loves to play, even if the ball the kids threw for her was almost as big as her head. She has taken to the kids really well, especially Beth and loves to sit on everyone's lap.

She makes a welcome addition to our existing dogs Jessica and Sheba.