Question Time

Just a quick post to answer some questions in the comments yesterday!

Badger : Yes I will dye it - I have some natural dyes which I've been waiting to try, not sure how they will come out but I may try them on a bit of fleece I've got first - or just wade in there in my usual "no time to wait" manner! I have a huge burco boiler for such things which I hope will work as the element is covered and you can regulate the temperature - I should test with fleece first as I need to check the temperatures so that I don't felt it - that would be tragic!

Piglottie: It was easy to spin, but I'm only a beginner myself, and had huge tension troubles to begin with, as it turned out after a lot of faffing, the trouble was mostly that the wheel needed oiling after a long summer of not being used, then the tension was much easier to sort. It's not as soft as I'd have liked to make it - I need to learn to spin different textures, but I think when I ply it it will untwist a bit and that should soften it. I'm having to draw it quite short, only an inch or so at a time - not sure if that's the alpaca or me. I've only been spinning since last November and haven't done any since it got too hot - did quite a few bits for Christmas presents (and my dear parents actually wear their hand-spun, hand-knitted scarves, how about that for dedication!) So I haven't learnt to be consistent yet - but I will with practise and who need consistency anyway!

Sue: - Welcome to my blog! - I've looked at your handspun and I now have something to aspire to! -- It's looks so soft and loose - how do you do that without it breaking???!!!! (I think the answer will be practise!)

To everyone who admired Spot - he is a she (!) and a proper Laydeee at that!! (really if there was ever a dog which you could tell was male/female then this is she - even down to mood swings!) - which makes it all the funnier!

A lovely easy Saturday

Ooops tried to blog this straight from photo-bucket but methinks photos are a bit on the large size! - Oh well hope you like them!!! (let me know if you can't see them 'cos I think photobucket is a bit temperamental, but just wanted to give this a go.)

A Cloud of alpaca

Alpaca fibre

Spun alpaca

Spun Alpaca

My poor garden in the drought - where'd all the grass go????

Have you ever seen anything more silly???? - Spot takes it easy

I am so lucky!

I have bee totally spoilt by my lovely secret summer santa, who just happened to be Helen. As it happens Helen has been reading my blog for a while, so she knows I love jaffa cakes!!! The toher items are Hipknits Silk (oooh it's so lovely I keep touching it!) and Lornas Shepherd sock yarn - so more scrummy socks for me! The pre-carded alpaca fibre will become something quite soon I think, I need to test my natural dyes on some fleece I have, which will never be carded into anything as I'm fed up with it - but will do nicely for a dye test-run! But as soon as the weather breaks just a little then I will be spinning that, it feels soft like a cloud!

The stuff has finally arrived for my spoilee, not sure if they're going to like it, but here's hoping!!

Right, the home-made bread is just about to "ping" and tell me it's ready, and OH is on his way, so it must be time for lunch!!!!

I scream, You scream, We all scream, Ice Cream!

(It's a jazz song............. I haven't flipped!)

Especially for Helen, here in all it's half eaten glory is my rum and raisin ice cream!!

It's really good!!! And was a lovely way to finish another day that had got into the 30's!! (By the way I am less than 10 miles from the place that officially recorded the hottest July temperature on record this week - 36.5 deg C at Wisley!!! - that's hot!!)

I'm excited today as there are forecasts of rain and storms. So my intention is to walk into town then take the dog for a well deserved walk - hope they've got it right, 'cos I love a good storm!!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Nothing much to report

The weekend was really special though - we had a ball! My DN is the sunniest little lad, a real pleasure to be with - keeping everyone on their toes and trying to make sure we all get a chance to play! - I had the dubious honour of being "got" by the water pistol (so did his mum but hers didn't work so well, I got soaked, she got a few drips!) but for me the best bit was he and I dancing on our bums (Well OK just wriggling really, but we called it dancing!) to Ray Charles "I gotta woman" - DN even managed to get the Oh Yeah's in the right place and he's only 2 1/2!!! Special!

Since then not much has been happening. I am crafting a few little bits, but can't write about that as my spoilee may read my blog. Other than that it is really too hot to do too much. The house is a bit of a mess even by my lax standards , and the garden is just a shame - all the grass is dead, the flowerbeds dry and empty (except for weeds which even seem to survive this weather) and even the dog is pretty quiet! It did rain for about a minute and a half last night - I got all excited and ran out and stood in the garden in it! - but it didn't last, and today is as hot as ever. We are expecting a break in it today I think, so hopefully I will later be walking the dog in the rain! I am also hoping to make some rum and raisin ice cream this afternoon for my OH as it's his favourite and he deserves spoiling - raisins are soaking in rum as we speak!!!

Auntie Noo for the weekend!

My dear sister and beloved nephew are down from Scotland visiting my parents for the weekend and I'm off to join them, dog in tow!

Can't wait as I haven't seen them since my visit there at the end of April - which all of a sudden feels like ages ago!

Hopefully dog will be better behaved than she was at the beach on Wednesday, when she ran off and wouldn't come back to any whistle commands, calls, bribes (I had crisps!), or anything!! - I think once she knew she'd been bad it was a better bet not to come near us! - OH finally trapped her in a bush - and politely told her she must do as she's told (!) - She spent the rest of the day on a lead!!!! It was a shame because she is normally a good girl - she knows full well what the whistle means - and when I walk her in the woods near me, stops, turns, and comes to the whistle almost before I have finished blowing it! - She just was having a bad day I think! (Typical woman!)

So that's me for now - have to go and get some stuff together to take (I swear taking a dog is more trouble than taking a toddler - Sister probably wouldn't agree!)

Oooh secret summer spoilee's present arrived today (well part of it anyway) and it looks scrummy - hope they like it as much as I do.

Have a nice weekend all. . .. .

Beach day

It's hot again - thought maybe the english summer was over - but Oh No! - It's back again! So me and pooch are off to paddle the waters of Hayling Island in the hope that we will find some breeze. . . . . . . . .

I'm a stalker!

. . . . and I'm enjoying it!!

My lovely knitting forum friends have arranged a Secret Summer Santa, and we were all given the names of our spoilees last night. Trouble is, I am having so much fun stalking mine that I had actually forgotten I was supposed to be thinking of something to spoil them with!!! It is amazing what you can learn about someone with a bit of cunning internet surfing!!!

On another note - well, still knitting related. Badger's post last night was about colour, and she made some interesting points. It got me thinking. . . . as I commented on her blog, what influences your colour preferences. My influences I would say are nature. I love seasonal changes in colour, and the fact that no two colours clash in the natural world. I have recently been getting into some brighter colourways - May be my age (can't get away with black any more that's for sure!), or the fact that now that I am knitting more I get so much pleasure out of the intensity of the colours. Having said that my colours would usually have an earthy bias - I can't really see myself in Neon Pink!!

OH and I took the dog for a lovely walk in the rain yesterday - about half way round it stopped raining and as I had been wearing my Drizabone I took it off and we used it as a blanket while we stopped and admired the scenery. We were on a small grassy path, slightly uphill, with thick flowering brambles (blackberry) one side edging a wood, and bracken and brambles the other. As we were sitting there watching the butterflies chase each other (I have never noticed them do that before - birds, yes, but not butterflies) we looked at the grass that we were sitting on. - It wasn't grass!!! It was the most amazing collection of tiny, tiny, wild flowers, plants and grasses. Some deep buttercup yellow ones, some stunning bright purple ones that were almost alight with colour, and a few little pale blue ones. All amongst shades of green and brown clover, and little tiny ferns, and other things which I will never be able to identify. There was even a little beetley thing that was the most intense bronze - it had a real metallic sheen -he was a very handsome fellow.! I think the colours were all even better because of the rain, it had really brought a depth to them. We spent ages looking and oooohing and ahhhing!! - so much so that we nearly lost the dog... who got bored and went off to try to find something to chase! So there is my influence on colour!!

(Sorry about the quality of the photo, but only had my phone, and a photoless blog is boring!)

Kiri

My Kiri shawl is finished!!

The photo doesn't really do it justice, the colour is a lovely deep wine colour, and it's alpaca so it's sooo soft and lovely - not too hot, but cosy!!

There is a mistake at the top somewhere, but I wasn't going to tink 300 stitches! so where-ever it is it's going to stay!!

The new PC is still working, which is nothing short of a miracle. Over the weekend I will add all the old hard drives, and CD and DVD burners and see if it still works!!!

Whooo _hooooo I'm a genius

Here I am sitting at my new PC - connected to the internet and everything!

It's a miracle!!

Now I haven't loaded any software or anything yet, other than Windoze, so no piccies, but if you could only see the floor around me - I have gutted two PC's to cobble this thing together - I have two PSU's, 4 old CD or DVD drives (2 of which I will re-use), another empty PC case, 2 motherboards, and countless PCI cards which I have no idea of the identity of. Empty boxes, celephane wrappers - more screws than Michael Douglas, and mountains of dust.. . . . . ..

But it's working and that's all I care about!!


YAY!!!!!

I may be gone some time.. . . . .

Last week the motherboard on my PC blew up - it was probably fed up with the hot weather, and the fact that I had been making it work!!! - Don't blame it really!

So, today I have purchased a new motherboard - an AMD 64 bit processor (about 63 bits more than me then!) and a new Power Supply cos mine was only little and I wouldn't want this lot to get all hot and bothered and got a video card thrown in 'cos this motherboard has something called pci express (wonder if that's like the gatwick express??). I will use my existing hard drive, memory, and cd/dvd drives. Have never built a PC from motherboard state before, but have done loads of repairs, and as I'm using bits of my old machine - I'm just thinking of this as a big repair - Hopefully that will calm the nerves. The nice man in the shop gave me a few pointers, so fingers crossed. Luckily I still have my laptop, so can get help off the internet too if I need it.

So this afternoon i'm going to get the books out and make sure I'm familiar with all the bits and pieces, then tomorrow I'm going to settle down in a dark, cool room and have a go. If you don't hear from me again, then assume something went wrong!!!!

Sorry but it's just tooooo hot!

I'm definitely not a "hot" person!!! - It's 30 deg and although there is thankfully a breeze today, I am fed up with being hot and sweaty (well it's just not feminine is it ;) ) Even the poor dog doesn't know what to do with herself. We have a hosepipe ban, so no paddling pool or sprinklers to run under - and it's too hot to knit!!

Roll on winter!!