Fluff.

I finally got around to fixing my spinning wheel. Now the autumn is here my crafting thoughts re most definitely returning to yarn based crafts! 

I haven't spun for ages and totally regret selling my nice wheel. I now have 2 that are 2nd hand finds but neither of them 'fit'. I am now saving for a new wheel!

Anyway, I really want to start spinning again, so snuck onto etsy and managed to find some little 20g batts to start me off

These are from Spin Jones, (I will admit to having a bit of a fluff crush on spin Jones), the cost £4 each and I love them.

First up was the gorgeous ditsy batt

 what a mess! totally over spun, tension very wrong..

gave it a soak and a weighted dry and its sort of usable, for what I don't know..

Next up we tried sea breeze

slightly better, but still not quite right.

Then finally onto the last little batt

Much better, still a bit crinkly but for a single its ok.

Then when the little batts were gone, what was I to do but grab some more, this is where my crush comes in.. back to spin Jones. I have to say her batts are gorgeous, almost so beautiful to spin.

This is what I bought 2nd time around.

  3 large sets and 2 more little batts.

Oh My

can you see why I am in love?

The pics don't really do them justice.

I couldn't wait and grabbed 'Paradise Gardens to go straight on the wheel

how beautiful are those colours. I am aiming to do a 2 ply fingering/ DK weight and then knit up a cute little hat for the cold season. Sadly after 2 days back at work my back was screaming at me, so yesterday was a sofa reading day. Hoping today I may get a little spinning in.

FO Friday.

Finally I have cast something off, what a relief.

This has been on the needles since our holiday at the end of August.

Yes, this is how I plan my holidays, always a book and a project, just so happened it all matched !

I really like the blue but not with the grey & yellow.

It started off as another Free your fade shawl bit I changed my mind after moving onto the yellow section. I didn't like the 3rd colour with it and feel out of love with the whole thing. It got stuffed into the project bag and left. Picked it back up and decided to just get the thing off the needles, quite like the whole grey/ yellow thing, so tried to cast it off with some sort of shape, went a bit wonky !

So here is what I now call  'My wonky Grellow' !

Knit with Norah George sock yarn ' where these a wand there's a way ( the yellow) and Stranded Dyeworks paradise sock yarn in ' mettlesome'. Both pulled from the sock stash box!

I quite like it as it is, warm snug, don't think I will block this one.

Sock yarn additions.

As a knitter you can never have too much yarn, which is a good thing as I keep getting tempted. This does worry me slightly as when I downsize I need to insure that I still have a monthly yarn budget,

First up I bought this funky set

actually it was 2 separate purchases as I bought the orange in addition, to do contrasting heels/toes.

This is a self striping yarn, 2 x 50g skeins from Fab Funky Fibres. I have been lusting after a set of these yarns as just love self striping yarn. They are pricy, £31.50 for the set, so a very rare treat, bought from my pay rise back pay [thanks NHS]. The little mini pop was £4. This pair of socks will be for me.. who would appreciate hand dyed socks in a gorgeous wool as much as me?

Next up was this cute set

From Little French Meadow, part of her strictly colour ways. This one is called 'its a disaster darling', It cost £14.00 Absolutely love this and this is destined as a pair of little ankle type socks, again for me..

And the last addition to my sock yarn family is this little beauty,

Stranded dyeworks Christmas colourway ' Naughty List'. This was £20 , if I remember correctly.

This skein is planned for my Christmas eve cast on. I have yet to find the pattern .

I love my new additions but did go over my yarn budget, think I need to review the budget and stick to just 1 skein a month, on the understanding that I have knit up at least one skein from my stash !

My argument is that when we do downsize, crafting goodies may have to go by the wayside for a while, so at least if I have a large stash I wont be without yarns. Pretty good argument I think. Stock up whilst I can. 

WIP wednesday.

As with most knitters I have a few projects on the go. Trouble is I'm not really feeling any of them.

I seem to be a bit stuck with them all and need to get some finished  to clear the way.

From memory, I really don't want to open the WIP box, I have 2 sweaters, 2 cardigans, 2 blankets, 2 pairs of socks and 1 shawl left to finish. I did actually manage to get one project off of  the needles last night (which I will share later in the week). I'm pretty sure there are some really old WIPS hidden away too.

This week I am going to focus on finishing 1 more project, The 2 that I have chosen for this week are:

This started off as a Patronus shawl, but then I decided I didn't want the lace sections and I didn't want it as big, These are really snug to wear and a great pattern to follow, you only need 2 skeins of contrasting fingering weight yarn, I have used a couple of band less skeins from stash, no idea what they are or where they came from. The deep red definitely has silk in it. I will back track old blog to see if I ever blogged about them. They are gorgeous and definitely came from an indi dyer somewhere ! Each skein would probably have cost  on average £15-£17, but there will be left overs to use for something else. I am a sucker for pretty yarns. A yarnoholic you could say.

Here's one of the 2 I knit  previously so you can get an idea of what it should look like. Mine most definitely will be a variation of this !

the one above was bought as a kit from Norah George Yarns, one of my favourite indi dyers, if you like lovely hand dyed yarn, go check her out.

Then I am determined to get a pair of socks off of the needles. My goal for today, as I'm still on sick leave (creaky back)(back to work tomorrow), is to get the first sock off of the needles and the 2nd one on. The chosen socks are

a pair of basic vanilla socks, I have knit loads of pairs of socks so pretty much know how to knit them for my feet. This is a Regia yarn, a great staple sock yarn  70% wool and 30 % polyamide. They usually retail about £10 pr 100g ball. This is one of the Kaffe Fassett colourways, colour 03772, Sugared Almonds.   If the weather men are right, then this is going to be a cold winter so I'm going to need snug wool socks on my feet.

7 days, 2 projects, how much am I going to get done? I will stick a marker on so that I can review next Wednesday, hopefully at least one will make it off the needles.

This weeks WIPS.

The days are getting shorter and greyer, so I've had the urge to knit.

I'm still not quite into jumper knitting, so thought Id start with getting a few of the smaller WIPS cleared, I have a few.

First up was this gorgeous WIP project bag

 

From the lovely busypottering, I have a few of Annies bags and I can highly recommend them.

and the project?

Another shawl type thing. This started off as a Patronus Shawl,  but I decided I didn't want the lace sections and didn't want it as wide, so I am sort of playing it by sight now. I have no idea what yarn it is as I have lost the bands! Loving the Autumn colours and cant wait to get this snuggled around my neck ! I have stuck a little gold marker in where I started this week so can review how much I manage to get done over the next week.

Next up, and will be an ongoing WIP probably for the whole winter is hidden in this bag

The gorgeous Christmas fairy project bag is from Elmtree yarns, I bought this last year as had a mini skein advent calendar which is where this blanket started. Its not perfect my centre lines aren't all going the same way , but its such a great little knit. Its getting to the point where the blanket now sits in a basket and the minis stay in the bag. This is a great project to use up leftovers! 

The last project I pulled out was this one

Another gorgeous project bag, this time from Picperfic, I have a few of hers and she has the most beautiful fabrics. And inside this bag?

Why a pair of socks of course!

Always a blanket and a pair of socks for winter knitting.

A basic vanilla pattern, simple and no fuss. The yarn is Regia , always a great staple sock yarn in my stash.

So lets see what I can get accomplished this week. I would love to have these socks finished by next weekend, but I know I am going to get waylaid by the shawl and might just have to knit a square or 2

Its that time of year.

when my thoughts turn to cosy nights in by the fire, snuggled under a blanket knitting project in hand.

I may just have had to buy a few things to help me get set up for the coming months.

First up I managed to snag an offer of 5 magazines for £5 for this little beauty

I haven't bought a knitting mag for ages so this is a real treat.

I have been hankering after a Fringe supply bag, but just couldn't get myself to pay the price of them , so after a bit of surfing on etsy I bought this one, I obviously need another project bag, I don't have this colourway,one day I will post a pic of my project bag collection !

Its pretty big so will be able to get a reasonably large project in it. The bag is from The Tudor Rose Craft studio, you can pick the colours you want and there are different sizes. I paid £27 which is a big saving against the Fringe bag. Its really well made and I love it.

 I do have a problem with this though, I see all these knitters with their pin badges on their bags, I have a few, not a collection, yet!

But, the backs are inside the bag so your yarn is going to get snagged? Not sold on the pins on yarn bag thing, may just leave them on my shelf looking pretty.

Then I fell in love with this yarn

Fab Funky Fibres,  self striping sock yarn, this is the electric mermaid colourway.I have been lusting after some of this for ages so just as I haven't bought sock yarn for a while splashed out and got the orange for the heels/toes, really excited about this.

Now all I have to do is sort through  the WIPS, pick one and start getting some finished.

Phew.

What a summer.
(Warning, this is a long post with lots of pics)

I can't recall ever having done so much in such a short space of time.

We have been away every weekend and squeezed an 8 day holiday to Brittany into our summer. Knackered is an understatement. I think I gave up trying to keep up with myself on the blog so you'll just have to believe me when I said we all had a fab time.

Yep, traditional English summer in Cornwall!

No 2 son has just turned 18 !

what, how the heck did that happen.

We had a lovely family meal out ' down town' and then went for a couple of drinks on the harbour side, not that no 2 son drinks !

And now, here I am, the first weekend that I have at home with no plans since way back in July.

I plan on do lots of faffing about, and getting back into the swing of life.

This time of year is always feels more a fresh start than new years to me, years of living by the academic calendar, its the time we knuckle down and make plans for the coming year, and boy what plans do we have

This is no 2 sons very last year at school as next year he will be heading off to uni Sadly for him he was a September baby so missed a whole school year by a few days. He's currently deciding which uni's he wants to apply for and has narrowed down the course he wants to do.
I'm quite glad he's a September baby as it means I have him at home for a whole other year.
I have introduced him to the joys of public transport rather than mums taxi service which is making life a lot simpler for me.

This morning we dropped no 1 son at work as he had an early start, then no 2 son and I went for breakfast before we hit the mall, he wanted to spend some of his birthday money and who I am to refuse a shopping trip with my baby !

First up I hit WH Smiths, I had an urge for a new diary and notebook, yep, sadly a stationary lover.

I am trying to cut down the weight in my commute back pack, currently I use large hardback notebooks so am trying a lighter weight paper backed notebook. we will see , not sold on it but it is pretty,( underneath the diary). The diary is great, I like to have the days of the week down the left page and a blank page on the right so I can get my lists done, its also got sections for yearly planning and notes alongside the usual calendars and contact sheets. I would really love to be one of these creative artistic Bujo journaler's, but I just don't have the time, so its basic lists for me. Works just fine.

Then I Waterstones, now I am a public transport commuter I have the luxury of reading twice per day, undisturbed.

I am really enjoying going back into a book store and buying real books, for some reason I don't like reading from the kindle on the bus? I do pick up from charity stores if I can see some, but the ones near me don't seem to have so many any more. Maybe because more people are reading on line?

And then I went into the Disney store and bought this

yep, another notebook, but I really needed this to plan for our next holiday

can you guess where we are going?

Its a biggy, a joint 18th & 21st birthday treat for the boys and a last family holiday before they start to leave our nest, ( no 1 son is already doing his own holiday thing with his mates)

I've booked to go to DISNEY WORLD (and universal of course)(staying off site with car),

I am so excited, I have put this off for so long saying its to expensive, but I finally broke, and now I am being a great big kid!

Right, I am now going to go grab a coffee and do some blog reading catching up !

Have a fabulous weekend what ever you are doing.