Marley

I've not posted sooner as one of the kittens(the grey one) Marley has developed inhalation pneumonia. We noticed that he wasn't growing at the same rate as the other two..they're real fatties now! So we started to hand feed him. I was able to leave work early on Monday and had a family outing to the vets...with Bella, Maisie and 3 kitts!! Liz, the vet, agreed that it was pneumonia. Marleys chest was pretty noisy and he's also fitting as well! She also said we had done the right thing intervening and hand feeding him. So he now has to have 1 drop of antibiotics a day he's that tiny.

George had exactly the same problem. We nursed and fed him for a week until he could see properly and was strong enough in himself. So we are hoping Marley will be the same. Either way we are going to keep him. He's such a sweetie and appears to be getting a tiny bit stronger every day.

As for piccies.....The top two skeins are light coloured Ryeland, the next is darker coloured Ryeland(I separated 1 batch of fleece). All three weigh about 60g and are about 150yd each, so consistency is def improving. The bottom skein is my 1st Koolaid dye attempt, I really pleased with the colours and strength of them.

The Luna moth shawl is finished! I haven't blocked it yet...G has offered her house for this so I don't get all the cats trying to walk/pad/sleep/scratch it!!!!

We are Mummies again!

This morning Bella gave birth to 3 beautiful kittens!
We have one a smokey grey, one tabby and one tabby and white...whenever she's had kitts before they've been all black or black and white. (sorry bout the blurred photo)
Mother and babies are doing great. Maisie and Izzy have assigned themselves chief protectors of Bella and the kitts!
I went back to work this week and it was really busy! One of my friends there has been having a clear out and gave me 2 knitting books....one of which is Rowan no.7!!!!!!
I also had a really good bargain on Thursday....I went to town to get Sirdar Early Arrivals no.1 as I've misplaced my copy and I've got 2 unfinished cardis that need to be done. Anyway, my LYS didn't have a copy in stock but they did remind me that I still had some Rowan Plaid put away(from a previous sale). So I decided to get some of it. Well, originally it was 3.95 in the sale but when it was rang through the till it came up at 1.95!!!! OMG a Rowan cardi for less than 20 quid!!!!!!!
I've started a mitred square blanket using my hand spun. I thought it would be a good way to use all the odds and sods esp. since my earlier stuff is spun too tightly. The bottom layer is done and I thought I'm going to have to keep a steady stream of yarn coming. So I plied up a bobbin this morning and then had a play with some of my newly acquired Kool aid(from Woolfest). I'm soooooooo impressed....I used grape as a base and then sprinkled strawberry over the top...it's come out better than I hoped! A lovely deep plummy colour with patches of purple...pics to follow........(its drying at the mo)
Well not much shawl has been done and I've realised that I have to make a felted bag for my sisters mate...both have to be done before August!
I think I'd better get knitting.......

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a..........Psychedelic Cat??

Meet Fuzzy..our latest feline addition (although Bella is due to give birth any time).
Chris emailed me Friday evening to ask if I would like to do some needle felting at the guild meeting on Saturday. So J was a darling and offered to take me and pick me up...driving thro' Liverpool is not a nice experience due to the amount of traffic and roadworks. I met up with Chris about 10.25 and had a fab day. It was great to see her and give her her Woolfest goodies(minus a fleece from a sheep called Spot!) and birthday pressies.
I was so pleased she was happy with her haul...I felt pretty good as I'd managed to get her the only 72'' niddy noddy that I saw in the whole show!!!!!

Chris in return gave me some turquoise Jitterbug that I'd asked her to get me from Colinette...and she gave me some pinky/maroon as well to say thanks for getting the things on her shopping list at Woolfest...AND some Ryeland/Shetland fleece (I love spinning Ryeland as its not to coarse and not too soft but can be worn next to the skin).

THANK YOU SO MUCH CHRIS FOR A LOVELY DAY AND BEING A GOOD MATE X

This is the 1st repeat of the shawl I've started for mum's birthday pressie. It's the Lunar moth pattern done in Fyberspates Scrumptious(which lives up to its name!). As you all know I am a very tight knitter so after doing a tension square instead of using the 5.5mm needles required I am using 8mm!!!!

Yesterday we went to St Helens festival. Now J and I always make a bee line for the craft tent, which to be honest is usually people selling stuff that they've bought rather than made themselves...so you can imagine how excited I was to find 2 stalls that had made their own stuff from scratch. The first was a 'knitting and badge' shop. They had made crocheted brooches, badges, buttons etc. The second was a handmade soap stall. I have made my own soap before and love it but I've lost my Melinda Coss book somewhere :( so haven't done any for years.

I also saw a Girl Guiding stall and had a chat to the lady there. My mum (she has been in guiding since before she married my dad!) has been trying to get me to help with a brownie pack for years. So she was over the moon when I rang her to let her know I've volunteered to be a unit helper! ...I've explained I can't commit to weekly meets due to health but I thought how good would it be to encourage children to do crafts(my mum's brownies love it!) plus I love camping and pack holidays!

So all in all I've had a really good weekend although I'm shattered now!

Here is George. He tried his hardest to get in the other photos so he just had to have his own taken!

Woolfest Anyone???

This is what we were greeted with last Thursday when we reached our campsite(not our tent).
The rain and the wind were dreadful to say the least...we didn't think we were going to survive the night!!!
I even started to knit some gloves it was that cold!

But the Friday brought blue skies and sun! We had already decided to go to Woolfest that day instead of Saturday. Look what we found...two beautiful alpacas...this photo reminds me of the 'push me pull me' from Doctor Doolittle!!!!
Our first port of call was the fleece sale. This is me having a good nosey round. I ended up with a coloured Ryeland/Shetland cross and a Mainland Blue.
While I was spending to my hearts content J went off and photoed sheep.......

There were lots more but blogger won't let me put them on :(

We decided to go and have a rest and a drink about half way round...and who did we bump into but Artis-Anne and Kath!!! It was so strange as we had never seen them before and just took a stab at asking them were they them!!!

This is my haul:-

dye kit and 2 skeins of sock yarn from DT craft and design

Alpaca, Gotland, Mulberry silk and green tie dyed felting yarn from Bev at knitting for fun

Sock stuff from Freyallyn

Blue, green, purple and orange fibre, sock yarn and 'scrumptious' from Jeni at Fyberspates

Alpaca/merino dk from the Natural Dye Studio

Wensleydale fibre an also some angora from a rabbit called Zorin

They are some more bits and pieces but they can't be photoed as they're for pressies!

We left a very wet Lake District on Sunday and headed to Llanrug in North Wales.
Yesterday we did our 'rescue' bit. A lamb had been parted from its mother onto a road. So we herded it to safety(and its mother) only to find on our way back the same lamb was on the road again!!!
We came back today and I'm now off work until next Wednesday...I need it to recover...a nice hot bath is definitely in order!!!