A New Decade!

W00t! Here's planning for it to be exceptionally awesome.

I'm not making resolutions, so don't expect a list :-) Instead I thought I'd play catch-up and tie up the last of 2009. Lots of pictures! I've also realised I need to reorganise my Flickr account again :-)

Spinning
I've been doing some carding and some spinning - I've run out of bobbins so I'm waiting for a delivery of some more and a Lazy Kate.



That's a Rockpool Candy batt that has been marinating in the stash for rather a long time. Really fun spin, lots of sparkly bits, silk, threads, fabric, you name it.



Some of the Jacob that came with Caroline.



This is some of the fibre that I got in a huge bag from World of Wool (one of their "stuff that fell off the carder" selections) - I carded several different colours together, with some snippings of alpaca yarn, some sparkly thread and sewing cotton. It is really hard to find anyone in the UK (apart from Rockpool Candy, who is currently in the USA I think) making these sorts of crazy blended batts. I like the sort of thing that Jazzturtle makes, with lots of weird additions and mixtures. I've just ordered some from New Zealand off Etsy, from this shop. Don't get me wrong, there are people out there in the UK making blended batts, but they're not nutty enough for my liking! Maybe I should get myself a drum carder. Maybe I should get a job first, huh? :-)

Knitting
I joined Jane Thornley's Inspired Knitters Club! I love Jane's work and her attitude to creativity and, well, life generally, so this wasn't a hard choice by any means! The Ravelry group are such a great bunch of people too, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they all create. Also I totally want to steal Jane's stash. I must try to convince her to put it on Ravelry so that I can slobber over it.

I dug out my Feather and Fan Club pattern, (scroll down a bit) and decided to make a Ripenings Shrug. (Rav link.)



There's the two fronts and the back, having had a light steaming with the iron. First time I ever steamed anything, and it worked a treat. I've sewn it together, and I'm working the sleeves downwards in an attempt to actually get them the right length :-) I'm running out of a couple of colours of yarn though, so I've either got to be inventive or buy some more.

I'm still pressing on with the Must-Have Cardi - I got a chunk more of one of the fronts completed. I am still struggling with finding my muse for this one :-) We recorded Hamlet over Xmas, so I'm thinking, light the fire in the lounge, snuggle up under a blankie and watch all three hours of that whilst working on this. At least, as it's recorded, I can pause it for working out the pattern continuity at the armhole shaping...

Xmas
Quiet, and pretty successful:



Dad's hat fits him, well it will as soon as he works out he needs to fold up the brim :-) His scarf is on his knee there too, I wove it with New Lanark in Cobalt as warp and Manx Loaghtan as weft. He likes anything Isle of Man-related. Note - he's wearing his sweater! However he has it on back to front. Sigh. He didn't complain about being cold once though!

Mum liked her alpaca scarf - Inca Alpaca 4-ply warp, and New Lanark weft:



Don't tell her I put her picture on the Interwebs!!! This is her examining how it's made.

Also the socks! They fit!



Just! You can see how much they had to stretch to fit around her poor swelly ankles. Now, really don't tell her I posted her ankles on the internet. She would kill me. Then resurrect me just so she could kill me again.

And Buster got a turkey for his Christmas. A squeaky one!



Which he promptly left under the dining table so we went home without it, and also without his doggy bag of dinner leftovers. Oops.

Going for a wander
A very cold walk in Derbyshire, near Foremarke School, and also Buster being very unimpressed with the highly amusing plastic lobster we brought back from the flea market.



You might need to click to embiggen that one. There are some photos of Anchor Church there, which is a rock hermitage sort of thing down by the Trent. Nice and peaceful, but I bet it was a bugger to keep warm in the winter!

And I think that's it! I'm off to fix up some lunch, haul in some logs that I cut this morning, and maybe do some weaving. Or work on my shrug. The ironing is getting out of hand, or there's those socks for me need finishing...

~*~