Friday 30 November 2012

Christmas is coming

Cold and frosty days really remind you that the inescapable fact that Christmas is coming!

My lovely daughter, a very talented lady in her own right, called me yesterday to borrow a mix of threads, it is so handy being closer again few minutes driving and voilĂ , sure beats hours of driving!!!









The thread was to finish off Eloise's Santa sack...Santa will find them at my house on the night :D *yippeee*



Mean while I made my first crocheted  woolly hat, which Em also took a liking too, (I have since made a second one). I am still working out this knitting lark and have a pattern I would like to do one day, but need to spin the wool for yet, mean while I'm just doing a simple scarf....



The scarf I am knitting, is being done with this, with a little inspiration from something I saw on a shopping trip to York....its got more Alpaca in it so spun up finer and really lovely, if I do say so myself.





One skein of which I sent to some very good friends......;)

Friday 23 November 2012

Celebrity

Goodness me it was may 2011 when we had our last trip to Embsay Mill, Nr Skipton  , the shop as always was wonderfully supplied with some very wantable fabrics. If you can't find what you want there you probably cant find it anywhere. They cover almost every crafty hobby you might want to try, with gorgeous yarns, quilting fabrics, even paper crafts (though that was one dept we didn't visit). And of course they also have a nice section for light lunches and a good cup of tea. A frequent supply good cup of tea is of course essential when out with Caroline, and poor girl was suffering terribly with a cold so even more in need!



That's what happens when you are a media star/celebrity, and Caroline is certainly fast becoming a celebrity! Since she had been filming with  ITV no less on the vexed question of the Synod Vote which failed to vote in women Bishops. On the way down to Ebsay, Kate and I were teasing her that there would be folk looking for her autograph. As it happened we were not far off!! Having finished a nice bowl of soup and fortified our selves for shopping Suddenly there was a great cry of

"OHHH you were on the telly last night!"

Seems the eagle eyed shop assistant not only remembered Caroline from the ITV News Item but having seen it the previous night remembered that she was a customer. Oh well Kate and I shall just have to be celebrity groupies ..~snickers~




Wednesday 21 November 2012

playtime

Temporary hiatus while my daughter and family decanted from the south and came back oop North.

I did a spot of baby sitting while they did a lot of packing (its good to be grandma)now that everything is calmer I might get back into routine. The babies and I would slope off to Ickworth and play, they have such wonderful old toys in warm sunny corners,that are just perfect for passing the time of day.  Ickworth is a National Trust property and with Em's membership card in hand, visits were well worth it.

I'd get a card myself if I lived close enough to Nat Trust properties.



"MMM Grandma is it sweety time yet?"


"Just evict these plastic horses and make room for my car"


That said I have been wasting a lot of time diligently washing Alpaca fleece, ryeland fleece and fluffing and spinning, so not too much sewing has taken place :( Didn't you know I was a serial obsessive?

Extravagantly I have ordered a drum carder from Classic Carders and excitedly await its arrival. It will be here on Friday ..Yippeeee..


Meanwhile even the hand carding lark is going quite well, I combed alpaca locks and mixed with some of my Ryeland and its spinning beautifully.




Phew its all so exhausting:)


I do love seeing my quilts put to good use.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

A little Wensleydale

Not a lot of sleeping went on in my house last night..a few hours and the sound of a police helicopter woke me... they were obviously hunting someone, in fact the whole business was noisy and disturbing as their great light shone all over the garden and neighbours for almost an hour. blue lights and red every where.

Seems some ner do well had been stealing quad bikes and this time the police got their men. As for me I couldn't get back to sleep, I lay for an hour before giving up even trying. what better way to relax again than spinning? It was thinking of spinning that had stopped me returning to sleep so I got up and set too on some Wensleydale long wool I'd bought off the bay of E (I'm stealing that term off a girl on the accidentalsmallholder forums).

The long staple made it tricky for me, a new bump on my learning curve I managed a bit, a mix of getting enough spin in it and not having it fall apart and not over spun which I think I have a tendency to do,mind you once I have put it through fulling it looks pretty relaxed to me.

This morning after a nap (finally) I crocheted it up, since it was just a little sample I wanted to use it before it got lost, easy to do round here, I didnt ply it, since Id read that Wensleydale was worth a try for those wanting to have a go with singles, it didnt go too wild and tbh I was pleasantly surprised and a little proud of myself.

 for the stat lovers..I never measured it in yards ..LOL oops sorry.
WPI = 26 which sounds pretty thin to me so it did well to hold up I guess?

Tuesday 6 November 2012

mad pink

Sublime to the ridiculous I have gone from this................




To this................



Naturally there were quite a few steps in between but I just had to show you the mad pink!!! it makes me laugh like a loon..

My sister who can knit and is as daft creative as I am made this!!!!
He is Clifford the hill farming pigeon and she used my wool!!! plus extras ..I love him he is so darn cute.

Monday 5 November 2012

Etsy

Well I finally did it, I opened a little Etsy shop, Quiltycats naturally, what else would I call it?

I remain to be convinced that it really is viable but on a "might as well try" basis....I might as well try.

Pricing is a nightmare, not something that I am comfortable with.

we shall see.


Friday 2 November 2012

clowning around

You know how I like playing with ideas...sometimes I wake up and have this idea whirring round my head and until I have tried it out it just wont go away..

well it started with this........




and then a bit of this.......







and of course then I had to do a bit of this.......







eventually ending up with



 this and this
 



and then this






Of course it was all just clowning around






Thursday 1 November 2012

The Colours of my life

Simple but effective






That red stripe zings. I only wish I had more of that one fabric,but I think it was from America. Oh well Im sure one day I will spot something I like just as well.







which way up?




I think the quilting will be very plain and simple lines on this one.









I'm sure none of those colours are really brown..no no bronze maybe but not brown!