Stuck in Traffic and Secret Pals

I live in the middle of nowhere, we dont have street lights, and to get anywhere I have to travel on country lanes.
Sometimes I meet tractors, sometimes race horses being taken for a walk, sometimes strawberry pickers walking to and from the poly tunnels.

Yesterday was a bit different....



Yes I was stuck behind a cider dray.
This was taken from inside the car. For the visitors there are rides on the dray during the summer, I usually see it on it's return to the factory but yesterday I was early, so didn't really mind waiting to join the main road !


I know there are at least one person out there that would love to be near all that cider but after several bad experiences I wont touch the stuff...




And now for my Secret Pal reveal. I have had my final parcel for a while and the lovely Katherine was sending to me. In her last parcel she sent me the most wonderful chocolates, they look like they are hand painted, really too pretty to eat, so they are being saved for a very special day (and probably not next Friday !!). Many thanks again Katherine for all the goodies you sent to me, the handspun and scottish reminders.

I was sending to Jerra go and pop by her blog and wish her luck for learning to walk again.

And now I must get back to study. I picked up my books again on Tuesday and seem to be doing the course a lot quicker than I should be, hoping that I can get most of genetics done by the end of next week, if my head doesn't explode in the meantime !

More Sheep

I did say there was more.....

Found in Tesco some Golden Black Sheep - should have bought some to try, was so excited by finding some different sheep beer forgot - doh !!





Then a picture of sheep on Dartmoor I bought when I was living down in Devon on the edge of the moor.
Sorry about the state of the photo, light is not good...



Some explaining here.... when I left Devon I had a pudding party - dont do the normal expected things !!
One of my friends embroiders sheep, her poor Doris getting into all sorts of troubles, and can often be seen wearing her pretty hat... so she made me this picture :-)

Click on the picture to read caption....







Sorry about the state of the body, I was trying not to laugh but it was difficult....










And if you have even driven through Craven Arms there is this sculpture by the side of the A49.
I've seen it many times but never managed to stop.

So last week just after eight in the morning I did stop - Ruth will be pleased to know I got hooted at whilst taking pictures, dont know whether it was the act of photography, the time or the fact I was wearing the Sheepish T shirt above !!!







And this is a close up of the sheep walking in the sky.

I've no idea why they have sheep, there was no one around to ask...

Party Time

On Saturday I had some friends to stay and here is some of the clear floor - Chivi is still confused far too much floor available to lie on, Dundee is even more confused as he has taken to lying on top of a display cabinet....

We walked down to the nearest pub to sample their beer festival. Lots of comments of are we there yet and I've never been to a village before from cousin Mike... It is only just over a mile walk, past strawberry fields, an old church, and lots of other farmy sights.
Well we decided to have 20 tasters of beer between us - they were smallish glasses. Some were really nice and others were not, and then we had a half of our favourite.
Now when I left home I remembered to pick up some torches, got a bit of a confused look at the time... On the way back they realised why we needed them, there wasn't much moon and if you are used to street lights it can be very dark !! Unfortuatley we didn't see any bats or owls ...


When we got back we had birthday cake for three combined ages of 135, and champagne - greater love for friends that I even let David watch the football results !!

The three of us then opened our presents - cards are to be kept for the right days...


And this is the throw I made for them.
Ab Fab from Colinette.
It was a really quick knit, most of the stuff I've been doing recently has either been sock wool or thin mohair....
There were then lots of discussions as to which room it was going to go into... they've just moved house and have far too many rooms to choose from !!

And on the other knitting front I've managed to do nearly five repeats on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, not enjoying doing it at all, going to get to eight and then stop.
I'm also just over half way on the Mullberry shawl/wrap for Colinette.
I did some of my James Brett Marble jumper on Sunday morning - stupidly the rest of my knitting was in with sleeping people - see clearing up is bad !!

Set myself a challenge of not casting anything else on until I finish one of the shawls, so the ball of wool of the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave will have to sit there a little bit longer, and now I know about the stitch miscount on the lily of the valley charts it should be a quick knit !!!

Saturday Skys

As usual I cant decide....

There was a wedding in the village today.....



And they had a bubble machine ....

It is very difficult to get pictures of bubbles and sky especially when the wind is blowing...

So this is the church tower...
With a few bubbles....







And this is a bit of the war memorial,


A camera, and lots more bubbles...









And just look at the wedding car !!!

Wicked :-)











I've managed to clear up as best I can, there is a choice of chairs to sit on, more carpet than I can remember, and a sparkling bathroom... I do have to be really careful in the en suite, it has reverted to a box room again, lots of health & safety issues ;-)
Think I've got an hour's knitting before they arrive.. and then we shall have some cake.... and then maybe a beer or two or three or four (talking halves these days !!)

Sorry.....

... for yesterday's post....

After talking to several friends today I think it's all to do with Birthday's past......

Yvonne will be pleased to know that her bathroom suggestions are going to be used in mid Wales, I think I might store my tops for spinning in my en suite bath (it did use to be a store room before it was converted) and I do have the advantage of not fixing the wood cladding for the panels yet....

Shed is filling up nicely, when the rain allows. The rest of is going to be piled up somewheres, I do hope I don't have too many avalanches.... Once when I asked a friend if they slept well, the answer was yes, but there was an avalanche in the night.....so now I know that stuff needs a while to settle so there is no subsidence....

I've found some more sheeps for Ruth, Golden Black Sheep beer... will post photos soon, too much thunder about at the moment...

I'm off to eat cake at Colinette tomorrow, and I might pick up some wool from the bargain bin for someone if he is a good boy ;-)

Thanks again for all your comments, and if any of you do come round to my house, dont worry I wont clear up too much, just enough chairs to sit on... after all what would be the point of clearing all the woolly things away just to get them out again......

And I will be managing to go to the beer festival several times over the weekend, what more can a girl ask for, beer, cake and good company (if only I would be allowed to KIP that would be perfect!! - wrong type of visitors ...)

Why...

Why do I feel like I'm going to burst into tears ?

I've been feeling in a weird mood for a few days, reasons have been going round in my head, the main ones so far are:

9 years ago this week I found out the truth about my x and threw him out of the house, I lost a lot of money, and I still dont know what he spent it on - All I remember is that I felt so used and abused. (he even got my Dad to sell some of my Mum's jewellery so that he could spend the money...). There was talk about going to court but I couldn't do it, my solicitor said to a colleague that he had 'bled me dry'.. I now know that you can not pay your council tax for two years before they get really nasty...
I last saw him a few days before princess Di's funeral, which is how I always know dates....

And talking about funerals, since posting comments earlier I've been thinking, my count is 10 family (Mum, Dad, 2 grandmothers, 1 grandfather, 2 uncles, 1 aunt, 1 cousin, 1 second cousin), and at least 12 friends, neighbours and family friends....
Most of them were reasonable, some of them were very lighthearted, others very religious (mainly the ones at crems, when there wasn't a church service...) There is only one that I was a complete wreck at, but the one that I did most of the orgainising for and that I was expected to be all over the place for I was fine, probably because I knew what was going to be said...

It is also coming up to my birthday, not that I mind getting older, I still think I'm in my twenties, one of these days my body will tell me I'm my real age...(my hair is already giving hints!!)
I'm having the first birthday party this weekend, sharing with friends - we are going to be 135!!

I hate being untidy, even though I've known for weeks friends were coming to stay getting round to clearing up is taking ages, I'm finding every excuse known to woman for not clearing up. It wouldn't be so bad if one of them was not allergic to cats...
Problem is that I keep finding lost(misplaced) treasures that have to be looked at, so taking up more time... I just look forward to the beers I can have once the house is clean and tidy - local beer festival, (a mile walk home, uphill...no street lights... Oh the joys of living in the country!! but I wouldn't be anywhere else !!)

I feel a lot better for getting that off my chest, think FB was getting to me (F = fat B = you can guess) I just think of all the wasted time, and hasle I went through, makes me feel so stupid and used. It is only recently that I have thought that I might be ready to meet someone else - I have major problems trusting anyone (not surprisingly) I didn't have that much support from my family at the time or since, a quote from CIL - 'he did love you lots' ... sometimes I just wish I could meet someone crafty loving who would help me clean the house ;-)

And please dont feel sorry for me, I must have been very bad in a past life - sometimes I think I should do regression to see, but that frightens me too much...

And on the knitting front, I managed to sew on the cardi buttons this morning, it took less than 30 minutes and has been waiting to do for ages....
I also finished the throw, will photo tomorrow...
And I've decided not to enter anything in the Monmouth show in a week and a half, sometimes sensible head kicks in and I listen ;-)

Right I'm off to do some more clearing, or rather hiding stuff in boxes (needs must !!!)

Sunday Sheeps.

There's a woman I know who has a thing for hats....
She also has a thing for sheep.....
And set a challenge for photos of sheep...
Now I hate to say it but these are the ones lurky round my house - dont you just love the things you find when you are clearing up !!!
And the worse thing is that I know there's more... I also do cats, pigs and the occasional cow....



Bought sheep - the bag from an earlier post with a baby purse (equally frightened !)

A tray. Two baby sheep from NEC earlier this year, ornaments covered in wool type material.

A sheep from Getknitted

A mug that has seen better days

And some material that might end up as a needle roll....




Sewing patterns.

One part of Storybook farm quilt by McKenna Ryan. One day (month/year) I intend to make the whole quilt...

Grazing Sheep pattern - I just had to buy it from the quilt show in Malvern a few years ago.

And from the same show Woolly Sheep from Critter Patterns. They do alsorts of applique animal designs and if you see them at quilt shows they have offers (and you know me and bargains!!)


A bag from Waitrose - he hasn't come out very well...

And knitting patterns.

Shawn the sheep

Counting sheep throw

Felted sheep from Fibretrends
Got the pattern from US as no one over here stocks it... and I shouldn't have looked on their main site - they have one for Alpacas....
how cute are these ?






And here is one I made earlier...

Or rather quite a long time ago, a blind cushion (not sure if I ran out of time to put the eyes on or couldn't be bothered..)

And some notelets that jumped me last week.....



As I said I'm sure there are lots more sheep hiding around here, when they decided to show themselves I show you's the ewes ;-)

Saturday Skies

Decision problems again....

Pretty Sky ....




And, guess what..... same view a bit later ...

It rained again today !!!

My pond is now overflowing... I just hope that the weeds dont suddenly start growing

I am complete

Look what arrived today....

More presents from Rhonna, stitchmarkers in their own little cat bag :-)

Rhonna you are too kind, I hope that you get lots of goodies from your spoiler !!






And as promised some knitting !!!

First a cardi in Parisienne, colour unknown - it was one of the misdyes.....

I've got the buttons to sew on - managed one this morning before the postman arrived and excitement and photos took over....

I *will* sew the rest on today, promise !!!






And then a throw for some friends, I got this last weekend, and it needs to be finished by next weekend... It is a Ab Fab kit from Colinette in Antique colourway, one of the last they had....

I'm over half way and have mastered knitting in the ends so should only have two ends to sew in when I finish !!

I have also got a wrap to finish by Thursday, when I go on a day trip to you know where... And I can get rid of the box of pears....

Right back to the great clear up... I wish I wasn't soooo untidy, but trying to put things away properly is taking rather a long time, problem is I get easily distracted and find things I'd forgotten about .... and I seem to have more sheep than I thought - tomorrow might be a Sunday Sheep post....
Saturday Sky later, looks very wishy washy out there at the moment....

The right kind of mail...

When the postman delivered the mail this morning I thanked him for 'nice post' little did I realise what was in the two packages......


Firstly from my Secret Pal, Katherine.

Some more handspun in Scotland wool. I'm going to have to find something interesting to make from it that compliments the lovely earthy colours.

And some fudge from Orkney, might have to be my reward for clearing up ;-)

And a very pretty box of chocolates, not investigated further or the box would be empty !

Thank you Katherine for all your parcels, the pin cushion that is too good to use is hanging on my fire surround :-)




And then there was this parcel from Norway... I did try and take photos as I was opening it but got too excited :-)
This is my lace swap from Rhonna.

Where to start.. lots of Alpaca lace weight, Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl pattern from Sivia Harding, some chocolate covered coffee beans (my favourite !!) and some more chocolate. A shawl pin with a rose design - reminds me of the Rose of Lancashire (and I was born in Lancashire, when Liverpool was in the correct county!!) and then there are some hand turned needles from here that come in their own holder - very posh !! And there are a couple of balls of purple mohair 'just for the fun of it' that wanted to go home with Rhonna... Rhonna also tells me that there is something else on it's way to me... so more excitement :-)
And I cant believe that it only took 2 days to get here....


And if Rhonna was worried about the colour of the Alpaca

Here is what she sent me on the left and some DK that I bought from NEC on the right...

Think the future is going to be purple ;-)







And you know how brown the countryside has been, well it might be turning green again...

These are some of the black clouds that were overhead for a lot of yesterday afternoon.

These are the ones that got me wet when I went to the post with my final SP8 and laceswap parcels - I hope the recipients have as much fun opening them as I did this morning :-)

Now I dont mind the rain I just wish the thunder would stay away...


And more potato answers - yes I have/am growing Pink Fir Apple (and if it wasn't raining so much would go and harvest them !) I dont peel them, I know where they have been growing and just tend to wash them first before cooking.
Just normal compost used for potting up, I'd put the bags on growbag tray to catch the water if you haven't got any soil to stand the bags on...In the greenhouse,I have all plants in pots (or black polythene bags) on trays, easier for watering and makes for stronger plants....

Tomorrow there might be pictures of knitting - realised that I haven't done a knitting post in a while ;-)

Answers

I thought I would try and answer some comments....

First the way I grow potatoes.

I got the seed potatoes from a Potato Day in Cheltenham - over 100 varieties to choose from.

This is how I chit them, in seed type trays usually placed in my downstairs loo room - cool and not much light...

The last two years I've tried to plant out at Easter.




And these are last years crop planted up.

One tuber per bag, and three in the large buckets. I got the bags from here

I have a friend who has a thing about spuds (probably best not to ask!) but I had to label all the bags and I kept notes on which ones gave the best crops...



Frankie, I do have a spinning wheel, it's a Louet 20 and Diane liked it so much I've been given the task of trying to find a Louet wheel for her - Spinning Fishwife should be proud of me for spreading the word.... Think it will be a while before I become a 'real' spinner though - more of someone who cant resist a bargain !!

Diane's husband is going to make pear wine form the 10kg (!!!) of pears that came off my tree.
I'm going to take them up to her next week when I visit her at work.

And if you are interested in where she works you can see what I'm meant to be knitting now (Mulberry) and what I have actually knit (Willow wide scarf - long than I am tall !!, Willow striped wristwarmers, two cherries all from the arboretum book - my beaded beret and frilly bag didn't make it !!)
I also did the Topaz waistcoat in the Treasure Trove book - And helped by the loveliness of the silk I cast on Thursday night and it was back in the post Monday afternoon.... Oh to knit to a deadline ;-)

There is another book in the pipeline....


The old books came from London in a very heavy box - I had warned the postman a few days before but he doesn't understand. He left them for me to collect from a neighbour's outside loo, he did tell her not to try and lift the box... Just realised that's the second mention of strange things being kept in toilets.... must be something to do with living in the countryside .....


Oh and I'm a Virgo - meant to be very tidy and orgainised - Think I was born at the wrong time of year, and I'm in the middle of the sign .... And I'm one of the most untidy people I know... I've got friends coming to stay next weekend and I need to do some major clearing but knitting is more interesting... and I know I will feel lots better when it is done especially if I mange to get some stuff for a charity carboot on Sunday.....



And for Woollywormhead :-)
When I went into local Countrywide farmers shop last week for some bitumen paint I came out with this instead....

I will try and find some more sheeps for you, but someone has already snapped all that Sainsburys have.... will have to go back to Countrywide and see what logos they have on the food bags (as long as that is not cheating!!)

Books and self pruning

These were in a box waiting for me when I came home on Saturday.







These are mainly from the 1940's, some wonderful patterns.

And the average price of the books, including postage £2.75 !!!

Good job I've got my new bookcases, and they are no where near full.








But this is the only one that had pictures on the front.

I love the boy'sswimmingg trunks with loops for leather belt....

Picture in the bottom middle...






This is the top of my pear tree.

I have thought it looked a bit top heavy for a while, but the weight was too much for it today...
think so far I've lost four branches - the evidence is at the top of the picture, tomorrow it will have a bit more of a hair cut to clean up the breaks, totally the wrong time of year, but needs must.



And these are the pears I rescued.

So what do I do with a box of unripe pears ?

Spinning

Sorry there are a lot of photos, if you are not interested in spinning look away now...

The Montgomeryshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers had a friendship day yesterday.
I've never seen so many wheels of different sizes, and they were all able to travel... some had come from North Wales others from Cheshire....




Some knew what they were doing - the speed of the spinning was amazing - and some weren't even watching what they were doing !

The lovely Rita had the only other Louet wheel in the room, and she showed me how to use mine.
Together with help from Diane and Mary I managed to produce my first skein of spun and plyed wool.



Before being washed, it came from a 'very dirty' fleece...


And look at the difference some washing up liquid and warm water makes...

It is now dripping in the conservatory, too windy to even think about putting it outside....


This is how it started out, the dirty fleece, and some rolags ready to be spun.
One good turn deserves another and Diane gave me this and another bag of fleece - currently hiding in the cupboard under the stairs away from the cats !
She had run out of money when I spotted a bin linner with a jacobs fleece washed and made into a batt and they only wanted £2.50 for it .... so I paid for it quickly


This is some of my purchases, a SW&D bag for £2, a small amount of Wensleydale curls, and I got two bags of Mid Brown Ryeland, as recommended by Mary - previously I had been trying with washed, dyed tops not good for the beginner I was told...
I did also get a book on Lace knitting, that will be in a future booky post...

Bargain of the day ......
And they had a sale table where members were selling things for themselves.
By the table were three bin bags, and in the bags were Alpaca trimmings. We split a golden brown and chocolate brown between the two of us and the other Dian had the other one....It was cut by an amateur and there is quite a bit of straw in it but it's relatively clean.....

And the price...

All this for £5, I think there is about three kilos..

Saturday Sky

This is where I've been today.
I came home with my first skein of spun and plyed wool.
I'm a very happy, very tired girl.

Dont you love signs in two languages ?

And there weren't many tractors going Araf on the way home...


And I had lots of parcels waiting for me when I got back.
A wonderful pair of wooden needles from my Laceswap lady.
A Jade Starmore book that jumped me a few days ago...
A huge, very heavy box of very old books...

Hopefully tomorrow (if blogger behaves) I will share photos.
Off to get some sleep...

Guess what I saw today...

Red Squirrels :-)))

They were so happy little things, rushing round like things possessed...

I'm amazed that I managed to get one in the middle of the frame...






And lots of owls... this one was out in the open and adults were allowed to stroke them...

Sorry I dont know what sort he is but he was splendid.

I went with nextdoor and her grand daughter.

A good way of amusing a ten year old, even if the goats started sucking our clothing while we were still wearing it !!






If you want a good day out looking at lots of goats, donkeys, sheep, alpacas, ducks, rodenty things,small horses, owls and red squirrels you need to go here. There is even a cow called Delores (my camera batteries had had enough by then, over 100 photos.....)

WIP's

Shelby asked to see our WIP's... Oh the shame of it....
Just to show I'm easy distracted, most of these have been on the needles for ages... and before anyone asks the WRS isn't on the needles any more, it is back on the cone waiting for the 'right moment'....



Diamond Fantasy Shawl

Been on the needles less than a week...













Another sock jumper, or it might be a cardi...
It's got a while to decide what it wants to be when it grows up...

Pattern from Web of Wool.











I cant remember how long this has been on the needles, really nice acrylic and subtle stripes....

















Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style.

Boucle from Colinette, bought ages ago and I thought this would grow quickly but it has been in this state since the beginning of the year....









And to prove I can finish something, this is a Pomatomus sock that I finished a few days ago...even though I measured it before starting the toe it is too long.. so will be redo at some point.... yarn is Silkwood sock.




And the reason there is no picture of kid mohair cardi.... it just needs it's buttons sewing on....so what shall I finish next.... or shall I celebrate by casting something else on ???