Whoops!

OMG! I forgot my password!!!! That's the genuine reason I haven't posted.
Sunday I met up with Chris, Susan, Debs(blogless) and Nadine(who Ive been meaning to meet for aagggggges) at the Liverpool's Catholic cathedral cafe. We all took our knitting and had a lovely relaxing time talking, laughing and knitting. I was reminded while I was there that I hadn't posted on here since July! plus I still haven't put any photos on my Rav acct! Slapped wrists for me I think lol.
I was very brave this morning and went to town to get Jak's Xmas pressies. She drove me in and then met up with me later. We were only in town for about 2 hrs and most of that was taken up with having a cup of tea and a toasted teacake! I was very pleased with myself that I managed to do it esp after Friday I almost ran(well half hobbled) out of a shop and Saturday I abandoned poor Jak in Morrisons with the trolley as I just couldn't cope :(
Today tho', I treated myself to a mooch in the LYS and discovered they have all weights of RYC Cashsoft in their sale starting on Monday......guess where I'm going with my Xmas money on Tuesday?! I'm working my normal days all over the festive period apart from Bank Hols of course!
Have a lovely Xmas everyone....that's if there are still people that click here once in a while! I'll see you all soon x

New things.....

Well, I did it.....I bought a Louet Julia. J and I spent a lovely day at the Threshing Barn visiting Janet. I had a good play on the weel and decided once and for all that she was the wheel for me. So I came away with my new toy plus an Ashford drum carder and some shetland fibre. Since then I've been playing with 'Julia'...she needs a new name I think....I have spun some much finer yarn than I've ever done as well as some really chunky...just to check her limitations. I've got to say tho' she can go very chunky as well as very fine. She really is a gorgeous wheel to spin on and I've used all her ratios including the the highest one!
Woolfest was the order of last weekend. J and I drove up on the Thursday to pitch our tent(with help from Chris) in very strong wind before coming back home as I had work on Friday morning....I've already booked time off well in advance for next year! So we went back to the Lakes on Friday afternoon. Our site, Graysonside, was lovely(again I've provisionally booked for next year). There were quite a few ravellers camping there too.....Minder and her daughter Lily, Babylonglegs, Miffyrabbit and Lottie, Eluned and her lovely hubby and dogs as well as Chris in the B+B well away from the wind and rain!!!! There were lots of other people there too but I didn't get to chat to many :( as I wasn't feeling too good when the knit group met on the Friday evening.
We went to Woolfest on Saturday and as usual it was breathtaking. J had a genuine case of wool fumes and needed to go outside every so often. It was so lovely meeting up with old friends and new. The whole event is such a social occasion, even non crafters can enjoy it...J had a great time even when I gave her 1200g of gorgeous raw alpaca fleece to carry lol
I came away with quite a haul. I tried to concentrate on undyed fibres but I gave in when I saw Freyalyn, Yarn Yard and Jeni's dyed spinning stuff. Apart from that I ended up with lots of things to blend on my new drumcarder, a flick carder and dyes. I also did a bit of a swap with Chris and she gave me a BFL fleece(which I washed on Tuesday) a drop spindle and lots of other things.
A lot of people went home on the Sunday but J and I were staying 'til Monday. So we went to a zoo type thing. It turned out a really good place to go and J had the life scared out of her when a Lima decided to use her back as a spring board!! After all the excitement and energy use from the weekend I ended up with the migraine from hell Sunday afternoon which lasted 'til Monday morning. We got back to our house Monday afternoon which was still in one piece! Ad proved me wrong (for once) and apart from a few dishes needing doing the house was tidy with no evidence of shaving foam fights etc like previous times when he has been left!!!!!
Photos next time x

At Last!

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for all your lovely comments, it really is appreciated!
I had 2 surprises last week...
1. The washer man turned up out of the blue. So I now have a working washing machine, thank goodness.
2. I got my very long awaited back pay!
So I've been having a bit of a spending spree. A has had some new clothes, J a new phone and clothes and the cats have all had brand new collars....it's very loud in our house due to all the jingling! Even George is wearing a collar now, which is something I thought I'd never see as his eczema can be really bad around his neck area, he looks really posh and is very happy with it!
My big treat will come later in the week as I'm off to the Threshing barn to try a new Louet Julia wheel. I've been eyeing up a folding wheel for a while now, and after seeing the specs for the Julia I feel it might just be what I'm looking for :)
Hopefully pics of any haul next time.......

....and here's the yarn!

This is just some of the yarn, now complete. The swatch was an absolute dream to knit...I'm really excited about knitting with this yarn!

Ooooo I've been a naughty blogger

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted!
Here are some finished projects to show what I've been up to.....
First is my Mystic Light shawl modelled by J. It is knit in Posh Yarn Lei.
Above is Mr Greenjeans from Knitty. I used Sublime Angora/merino for this....reminder to self, angora does not like to be frogged! I used the yarn I had got for Viveka as I thought I would probably wear this more often. It's really snuggly and warm. I may knit this again as this was my first top down cardigan and couldn't believe how simple it was! With the added bonus of no sewing :)

Here is some BFL I dyed esp to spin for Mystic Meadows. The spec for it is 960yd of fingering weight yarn. I finished plying all but 100g of it on Saturday and after skeining up I realised I was 66yd short!!!! Anyway another 50g has been spun and I now have a total of 1050yd, so that should be enough...I still have 60g unspun just in case. Below is the same fibre as I predrafted it. I dyed it using Ashford dyes, purple and hot pink.....very potent dyes(first time I've used this brand). I'll have to post the swatch and yarn another time as I'm having trouble with the connection between the camera and pc atm.

I have also swatched for the Apres Surf Hoody from Interweave knits but can't wash it as I will the garment as my washing machine is bust! It broke a few weeks ago now and the engineer has been out a few times(on the insurance) and now just waiting for him to come back tomorrow with the final part. I've been herding washing out left right and centre, all our mates have been stars.

I did have some bad news last month....the DWP have decided in their infinite wisdom not to let me have DLA....aaaggghhhhh. Basically every reason they have come up with to say why I can't have it is the total opposite to the reality of living with this bloody illness. So I had a trip to my local Citizens Advice Bureau and they are helping with my appeal. I even showed my GP the letter I had and he couldn't believe what was written. So while I'm waiting for the appeal process I'm just hoping that my (very)long overdue back pay comes in sooner rather than later....esp with Woolfest on the near horizon..................

Ooooo a social life at last!

I managed to book yesterday off work as holiday so I could go to knitting at Borders at Cheshire Oaks on Tuesday evening. It was lovely, lots of space and like minded people. I finally got to meet Donna, who I feel as tho' I've known for ages, which was really nice. Needless to say I was shattered yesterday, which was my own fault as I got carried away chatting the night before so didn't get in until 10pm!!!!!
Thank you to everyone who has asked about Captain. He has perked up a little(still not his usual grumpy but very loving self quite yet) and I took him back to the vets. The vet tried to express some urine from him as we hadn't been able to get a sample ourselves...well bless him, Captain then couldn't stop weeing!!!! So the vet was pleased he had a full bladder(I suppose it showed his kidneys are working) and wants to see him again next week.
I'm now a third of the way thro' my 3rd clue of Mystic Light so the craft drought has hopefully gone! I'd better get some more knitting done.......

Captain

I wanted to do a separate post for this as Captain is a very special man to me. He was my first ever cat.
Yesterday, we took him to the vets as we had noticed he couldn't 'wee'.
It turns out he has a feline urinary syndrome. He has had all his bloods tested and a small amount of urine too. His kidneys don't appear to be in great shape and he is showing a small sign of infection. We came away from the vets with plastic granular litter to try and get a urine sample from him(very difficult as 1. he cant wee and 2. he prefers going outside), syringes to get liquid down him, antibiotics and Feliaway(a pheromone that's supposed to chill cats out).
Last night he came over for a big cuddle and we have been feeding him wet food (as opposed to his usual dry)and cat milk to get some liquid in him.
He seems a little happier today.
Got to go back to the vets on Tuesday.....thank god for insurance!