Fun at the Dog Show

We decided to enter Sheba and Tia into an open class at Hathern Dog Rescue Centre's Annual Dog Show.

We had a fun day and the dogs behaved really well once they got over their initial excitement.

This was the first time Sheba has been to a dog show and I was really pleased with her manners. She was friendly to every dog and person that she met and walked nicely with me without getting distracted by everything going on around her.

Cherie and I had fun in the show ring. There were lots of entries for the open class, so we knew we would not get placed, but it was a new experience and the dogs enjoyed being centre of attention.

Here are some photos of Sheba and Tia in the show ring. There are more photos on my Facebook page.

The following are video clips of Sheba walking for the judge, then Tia walking for the judge.

Cousins come to play

May half term, my niece, great nephew and their GSD came to stay for a few days. The boys spent most of their time playing computer games and target practice with BB guns.My niece and I had a great week taking the four dogs out. The following pictures show the dogs having fun.

These were taken in the car on the way home afterwards.

Umbrella Yarn Swift

I have begun to notice that the higher end yarns tend to be sold in skeins and I am also spinning more of my own yarns too. I decided it was time to get a yarn swift.

I told my husband that I wanted a yarn swift and showed him a basic umbrella swift that I had seen for sale on EBay, hoping he might buy it me for a birthday or Christmas.

A few weeks later, he was sitting in his workshop with strips of wood, nuts and bolts, string and elastic cord. The pictures are the result:

I am really pleased with my handmade umbrella swift, it keeps a nice even tension on the yarn as I wind it off and because it opens by sliding the upper ring down, it does not need and form or clamp or lock to stay open. The skein will prevent it opening too much and once all the sides are closed, it just seems to stay closed until I need it again.

I had a flat base rather than a clamp, as I usually place it on the floor when winding my yarn.

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.