Agghhh

Well guess who's been diagnosed with 'flu?!
I spoke to my GP this morning and that's exactly what he told me...full blown influenza...typical!
I even had a 'flu jab booked for Thursday(which has now been cancelled as there's no point). I am relieved tho' that at least I'm going to recover from this awful pain and yuckiness that I've been feeling and that it's not my usual complaints relapsing!.
Anyway that's the whinge over. I have on the other hand, although I had to make myself as my hands are still very sore, done some knitting. I've made a 3 pointed hat from Woolywormhead's blog....I did knit a rib on it tho' ...in my bluey/greeny hand spun. I've also done about 15 rows of Viveka and finished spinning 'curry' which is ready wound up into centre pull balls for Forest Canopy shawl!
So fingers crossed(ouch that hurts!) I can catch up on the knitting I missed!

Apologies

First of all I apologise for taking so long to post. I think I can sum it up very easily...I've felt absolutely crap to say the least.
I think I've finally managed to catch up on my emails. So thank you to you all for contacting me and sending your best wishes it really means a lot.
Well, as you can imagine not much knitting has been taking place. I'm well and truly in a muddle with my MW......I tried frogging and still haven't got the correct st count so need to go back further aagghhh....brain fog has def got in the way!...so it's been put to one side for the time being.
I have started Viveka at a trip to my parents last Saturday(when I thought I was just going to sleep all afternoon), so the rib for the back has been done and not much else!
I have finished spinning 'curry' and just waiting for it to dry from setting the twist. I really want to do something to get my teeth into rather than reams of st st, so after an inspiring email from Chris I thought it would be perfect to use for Forest Canopy as the pattern has got a bit of umph to it.
While I'm on the subject of Chris, thank you so much for the lovely 'cheer me up' parcel I received today......beautiful turquoise/blue Collinette yarn(I love the colour so much), dark orange chocolate and some heat pads for the horrible pain I've been experiencing. I was soooooo touched, thank you again.
Fingers crossed 'curry' will be dry soon so I can wind it up and cast on....

I love my Secret Pal!

Look what my SP sent me this week!
There is 3 (yes 3!) bags of merino roving...oranges, greens and reds.
A cable sock pattern....very me!
2 notebooks and a diary,
some humbug sweets..yummy!...already eaten.
and some fab cat shaped highlighter pens....which arrived at exactly the right time as I've started the Mystic waters(MW) shawl this week!
My SP is fab, Thank you so much. I'm now looking forward to finding out exactly who you are !

This is the 1st clue for the MW shawl. My new yarn arrived early in the week and I got as far as this by Wed night. I'm about a quarter of my way thro' clue 2 now but pics of that when I've done it ! This yarn is much easier to see the pattern...and I get to use my lovely new bamboo circulars too! Donna.....notice the 'sheepies' are coming in very handy?

Last weekend was fab. I ended up staying at my parents house on Sun. My sister and I waited 'til my Dad went to bed(which wasn't as early as usual as they were still recovering from a flight back from the Caribbean which they made Friday). We then managed to decorate both his and Mum's cars, the house and the fence posts. Poppy woke me up next morning as she could hear him moving around(I was shattered as you can imagine). We went for lunch and took his cake. I really think he enjoyed his day.

I took my Fiesta('Feeps') in for her welding on Tuesday and a very sweet AA man took pity on me at the garage and drove me home so I wasn't struggling...walking and talking was very hard on Tuesday...but it was worth it for Dad to have a good birthday.

J has picked the car up and Feeps has now passed her MOT and has her tax disc for another 6 months. So I'm mobile again! ...watch out Chris, you will have a visitor when I'm up to it!

Oh nearly forgot, I managed to get some Sublime angora/merino at half price!!! I'm thinking of knitting Viveka from knitty with it, just got to make sure I've got tension with it first.

FO alert! the Denmarks are finished but J wouldn't let me block them as she wanted to wear them straight away for work!!! Pics as soon as I can.

Right I'm going to grab a cup of coffee and have a rest! Enjoy your weekend.

Hands up, who wants to live here?

Here?
Here?
or here?

There is a house for sale in spinners drive if anyone is interested!

I discovered these roads when I took my Fiesta to a friend of a friend to look over prior to the MOT. Unfortunately my car failed so it needs quite a bit of welding doing which is only to be expected on an 11 yr old car!

This week has been awful health wise. It is the wrong time of the month and my ME/fybro is always worse then. So luckily work let me take Friday off as holiday as I really needed the rest. Tomorrow is my Dad's 60th birthday and I'd already booked it off. So in effect I've got nearly a week off. My sis, Mum, Grandad and I are going to take my Dad out for lunch tomorrow...he's not a party person. I've still got to decorate his cake!!!

Below is a pic I forgot to put on my last post of the yarn that I've spun.

Starting bottom left is the red/purple/blue BFL I'd dyed, it's a sock weight. Then above that is the green/blue/yellow BFL again I'd dyed and that is aran/chunky weight. Next to that is 2 skeins of Wensleydale in Heathery and blue self stripes(again I dyed), this is a DK/aran weight.

Under that is the green tweedy mix, a DK weight and then next is 2 skeins of pastel wool/nylon mix again in a DK weight.

This week I've started the 2nd Denmark sock and got to the gusset on those. I may even finish those tonight. I've also spun and plied the first lot of curry roving. It's just sitting on the bobbin until I have the energy to skein it up.

Here is the start of the Mystical waters shawl. I tried it in the lace weight I'd dyed. I loved the colour but had probs as it was extremely fine and difficult to see what I was knitting and to frog. So I bit the bullet and bought some slightly heavier lace weight (more to the weight of the original done by the designer). My only prob is I'm only going to have 1200yds not 1200m like the pattern requires but I'm sure I'll be able to do something to sort it out. Just waiting on the post for that now as well as some undyed lace weight, foot lasts(for my felted slippers) and also a parcel from my SP. I just can't understand our post as it comes via Crewe not Liverpool(where there are still backlogs). So I think I'm just going to have to be patient!

Photos at last!!!

J was a darling and found the camera software and installed it for me so I could give you these photos as promised!

This is my first parcel from my SP...minus the Green and Blacks choc which has long gone! I think with the weather becoming increasingly colder(hovering around the minus figures)...which we need after the summer that never was.....I'm going to have to knit a scarf with the squishy alpaca. Thank you again SP.

This is my sisters cat Yogi. He is George's brother from the same litter. He's such a cuddle man and I had to physically move him each night, while I looked after them, so I could get into bed! He did curl up in my back to help when i was in a lot of pain. He's a sweetie. He also lives up to his name as he 'yogles'(yodles) a lot when talking to you!
This is Button, Yogis sister(same father different mother... I own both their mothers). She is a very pretty girly girl that loves having her tummy tickled! She's such a cutie.....and a pig as she never stops eating!!!!
Saturday Chris and I went to the Friendship day at the Frodsham branch of the spinners and weavers guild. We had a lovely day(if not very tiring) and this was my haul. 2x100g blue rainbow merino(something for J I think) and 2x100 'curry'(as Chris called it) rainbow merino ...only one in the pic as I've started spinning the other(see pic below)...all for me! There's also some alpaca/silk and merino/silk as well as some 4.5mm bamboo(at last!) circulars to knit my Mystic waters shawl.....I had to cut my horrible metals as my sts wouldn't budge on them!

Talking of the shawl, this is the lace weight I have dyed for it. I also threw in some Shetland fibre that I picked up on Sat in the dye pot too. I didn't stir the mixture as I wanted a semi ish solid variation...(it is slightly darker than the pic) I'm still in 2 minds as to add some blue or green over the lighter parts...I don't know really?
I'll leave you with the cutie pics I promised ages ago just before the kitts went to their new home. George(notice the similarity to Yogi?...he's just a black version of George) with his baby sister Lily in Poppy's bed.
And here's Squeeze looking gorgeous cuddled on Lily's blanket!

I've killed Chris?!

This weekend has been taken up knitting for sockwars. Unfortunately for Chris she was my target. So after knitting solidly on Saturday then blocking the socks J and myself drove over to the Wirral and 'killed' her. I knitted the socks from some pure wool in blue/purple random that I thought she would like. To soften the blow I did give her some chocolate ands fresh cream choccy eclairs(well you wouldn't be able to put those in the post would you!?). Sorry Chris!
She had already completed her 1st sock for her target so I have now made its mate. They should be in the post today(when they are dry).
In the meantime Donna is my assassin! she has knitted me a gorgeous pair of socks(I've only seen pics of them). The post has been and gone so it'll be tomorrow when I die!!!!!!
I've now just got to complete my secret knitting for my SP and then I can look to doing something else....namely the Mystic waters mystery shawl....I've got the yarn and just need to dye it up in appropriate colours, teals/blues/greens I think.
Oh talking of my SP she got her 1st parcel and loves it!!!! I'm so pleased esp as she wanted to learn to spin so I put 'rare breeds' roving and a spindle in for her...she is really happy with it!
Thanks to everyone for adding me on Ravelry. I've still not had energy and photo to start building my notebook up!

It's October already!!!

I can't believe it's October already...where has this year gone??
I managed to get back to work this week. Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes regarding my health. I really feel that 'something' is doing the rounds and I managed to catch it early on. I went to Occy health at work this week and was told they should have flu jabs in next week so I'm going to be first in line I think!
On the crafting front, big thanks go to Chris. We are both creating the same item for our SPs and I got rather stuck as the pattern didn't 'add' up! So luckily Chris sorted it out(she's done lots of this type of pattern so understands the construction better than I do) and I'm now on the home straight......I'm hoping to get as much as poss done before the weekend when SOCKWARS starts. Talking of which I still haven't checked my gauge. Yarn Monkey states it's 25stx34rows or something like that so I'll either dig in my DK stash or maybe some hand spun????
I actually did some spinning this week. I've spun up some Wensleydale that I'd dyed in blue/pink/heather and that's come out a heavy DK weight and also self striping...my first attempt at dyeing to knit it up that way! I also spun some green and brown of unknown type of wool fibre that I bought just before or as I got Audrey off Ebay. It looks horrible carded but it has spun up lovely. A kind of tweedy effect!!! Another pair of socks I think and if that doesn't work out it can be used on my mitred square camping blanket. Again a DK weight.
Oh, I'm now on Ravelry! My name on there is 'woolydoodles' naturally!!!