Unravel 2014 (A little late!)

It's been so long since I posted there's little point trying to summarise the last 4 or 5 months. There's been good and bad, ups and downs, giggles and tears. But rather than dwell on that I want to tell you about Unravel 2014 (Which was in *ahem* Febuary!) at the Farnham Maltings.

I go every year to this wonderful wool and fibre festival. And this year it was a bit special as I decided (with a couple of friends) to make a weekend of it and stay in the Travelodge at Aldershot and take a weekend away from caring for Mum.

Unravel is my favourite festival. It's pretty local to me when i'm at my house, and even from Mum n Dad's it's not too far (although it's very very close to the Aldershot Travelodge! just saying')  It's full of indie dyers and shops.

I was fairly restrained:

 I failed completely on Saturday - it was very crowded and I just couldn't settle to look at anything (yes the small hangover may have contributed slightly to that)  So the only things I got on the Saturday were are the spindle bag (far right in the picture above and from Hill Top Cloud to protect the spindle I bought from there last year) and the T pins which I needed more of. 

However we went back on the Sunday, and altho some stock was quite depleted, it was so much easier to look and concentrate and I saw loads that I just hadn't seen the day before, consequently: 
BFL from Jilly bean to try to understand the concept of dividing colours and making spun yarn that doesn't look like a muddy puddle - well that's the idea - but luckily i like muddy puddles anyway so either way it's a win.: 

 

Sparkly fluff in a batt just because it's pretty: 

 

Fyberspates faery wings - which is more expensive than i would normally treat myself to - but it's to knit the infinity scarf song of the sea that I think we all bought (?) and i love the colours: 
 

And altogether with Rachel's book and the spindle bag and t pins from yesterday: 

 


It was a fabulous weekend. I laughed so much I hurt and my friends made sure that I enjoyed every minute of our time away.  

i Knit too!

I wonder if you all even remember that i knit?  I'm not sure that I do ;)  Well I thought i'd show you a few things i have made during these past months.  Some with a little story to tell and others just to pass the time.

These socks for example:

These were knit from sock yarn that  a friend sent when they first knew mum was ill and i had no yarn with me.  I made them for Mum, and they were knit during the hours/days/weeks she was in a coma and we were waiting. One of the first times she moved her hands properly was to feel this ball of yarn.  (If I remember it was merino - it'd make me move out of a coma too :D)

The next thing I made was a colour affection. made for Mum for mother's day. I bought Holst Garn Supersoft for this as I wanted to try their yarn.  I loved knitting with it (and it had that lovely sheepy smell that all knitters love) It's washed up lovely and soft (for a pure wool, it's not merino soft!!) and generally i'm really happy.  The only thing I would change is that i think the two shades of green are too similar. (in fact in the photo you can't even really tell there are two shades of green)  i'd make the shawl again.:


Then there was a Cinnamon Toast shawl made from Sparkleduck galaxy (Which does actually have a little bit of sparkle in it *squeeeee*).  Now this is my favourite make of recent months.  The ruffly edge gives it a real swish factor (you know like the good looking blond bombshell with the hair flick - well this is the equivalent in shawls!) and some weight which made it feel good to wear (and also alerts you to when it was falling off, which  I have found to be an issue with others (maybe I fidget too much?).  My row gauge seems a bit out, I did a full extra repeat on top of the full shawl depth, and still i feel it could have been deeper.  But then i'm very long from shoulders to waist so maybe it's just me.  I really love it though, one of my favourite ever knits.

I also made a second one in ice yarns merino viscose. This was a quick make for a weekend jazz festival. I knitted it on 5mm needles and i do actually have some yarn left so may at some point undo the ruffle and add an extra body repeat:

Finally I have a commission knit on the needles now. I needed to wait until life was more settled and I could concentrate a little, and also until the evening temperatures had eased off a little...... I've only done the back and one front so far but i do love knitting an aran. No photos yet - next on the agenda!

It's beginning to look a lot like .......sssssshhhhhhhhhhhh!

Ohmygoodness, I've been so busy with knitting and the Crafters' Barn and normal work and trying to keep the house clean. - Did you miss me?  The Barn has of course got quite busy as we near Christmas, and I am trying to share one product a day on our Facebook page to encourage people to move outside of their normal sellers, it's been good fun tho' perusing through the sellers directory or searching for strange things in the search box to try to find items that are a bit different.

So, just a really quick summary of how the last couple of weeks have been:

I've been playing with the knitting machine (excuse the bathroom mirror photo!) - it's a reversible hat with a contrasting brim, so you can wear it with a folded up brim, in all red stripes:

 Or inside out with an unfolded brim, in blue with red

 and of course both other options inside out and right side in, brim up or down.  The idea worked well, but the finished article is HUUUUUUUUGE, so i need to re-calculate the tension as this would have fit Shrek :D

In Spot-dog news, we went out and bought her a new bed this week. She needed one anyway but I saw this one which has a thermally reflective inside, so it's great for dogs with arthritis or other joint issues as they benefit from their own body warmth as it's reflected back to them. The bed was thin and rectangular around 3ft x 2ft with a brown fleece top and a sort of mesh/polyester bottom.



Or






It's just a screwed up pile of stuff:

Really, you have to wonder why you bother don't you?  And just look at the look on her face *rolls eyes*  

She's also had a bath this week - that was fun (not) although to be fair she didn't move a muscle whilst in the bath....... too petrified i think? LOL

Right, I'm off now to try to make the brim for a Camden Cap that i'm making in Alpaca. Although I can be very technical in my approach to crafting (i have to be as artistic skills are somewhat lacking in my repetoire, so technicality is all I have) but i'm just not envisaging this very well. So i'm just going to bite the bullet and have a go - what could possibly go wrong?!

T'il soon ♥

Steptoe's Yard

(I typed Steptoe's YarN then - freudian slip! LOL)

So it's again been busy Chez Noo, so here is a little roundup of what's been happening:

Someone who doesn't have internet access has asked me to sell her jewellery in The Crafters' barn - I have realised I am not very good at the photography bit though ;) - Her items are made from beautiful Swarovski, Murano, Mother of Pearl and freshwater pearl pieces, and I don't think i'm quite showing the quality....... C for effort, could do better!

As ever, I have been knitting, This is the Ivy pattern from Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns

 .... which became a Merino Cowl

A new client asked me if I would make her some Cowls from her own Alpaca yarn, which has been spun from her pet Alpacas (she may as well have said she would pay me to eat cake!) - Best Job EVAH!

We got a new shed which is bigger than the old one and will house my new chest freezer,

 While I went out and got a haircut, the new big shed appeared to have a baby made from some of the old small shed - a little "lawnmower lean-to" to help with space inside:

But the garden may never be the same again (2 days later and I'm still finding "bits" in the lawn LOL) For information, the kitchen looks this way if he cooks too!!

I am beginning to wonder how we ever got what we did in the little shed - already filled the big one, and i haven't put the freezer in there yet!

And finally I went to Ally Pally to the Knitting and Stitching show and bought a few little treasures to play with :

A fabric art embroidery kit which I will do one evening:

 Some embroidery threads - because you often think "if only i had".... well now I have ;)

 A bargain storage box, that is full of little beads and sequins:

 Plus 4 balls of regia sock, an embroidery hoop and a multi-coloured quilting thread to try.

So that according to my camera roll is what I have been up to for the past couple of weeks. There have of course been dog walks, both sunny and rainy. And growing chicks, and another broody hen, and housework, book-keeping,  the bare minimum in chores!

*Phew*    T'il soon ♥

p.s. I have turned OFF word verification AGAIN! blogger seems to keep re-instating it despite my intense hatred of it and the fact that i think it's THE most difficult captcha to read.  So do please leave a comment, and if you ever notice it back on again, let me know :D

Autumn and business is booming!

Well finally I have ousted Spot from the blog and am here to tell you how life is and what I've been up to.

I've been a bit slack on the blog since the Crafters' Barn website went live. It's been a big task and I'd like to publicly thank KMS Web Solutions for all the hard work in getting my somewhat half baked idea up and running and knowing what I was thinking even tho' i often couldn't articulate it.

The Crafters' Barn was a really important project to me for a lot of reasons. As a few of my regular readers know, I lost a good friend to cancer last year and needed a project to keep me focussed and working in a creative way. (Strangely, book-keeping didn't really fit the bill?! - who knew?)  I had originally thought that I would just sell my knitting, probably on Etsy or somewhere like that. But the more I looked into it and worked out the commission rates, the more I realised that it was a pretty complicated calculation to work out how I could make money selling that way, and the longer I thought about it, the more I thought I couldn't be the only one that found it hard.

The Crafters' Barn therefore became a passion of mine. To provide a site for crafters to sell where once they had paid their monthly fees there were no more surprises (well other than paypal fees but we can't help that) Margins, overheads, profit markups...... whatever you want to call it could easily be worked out based on getting stuff on a site to sell rather than a differing amount depending on whether you did sell.

The fee structure was worked out to be approximately equal to listing 10 items in a month on the other main selling sites (which roughly charge 20p per item to list) and that is that. No more fees. *phew*

The site would be easy to use, and safe and secure. It is aimed at all crafters, but particularly those that maybe sell via facebook but are finding that increasingly difficult to administrate and small businesses that are just testing the water in online selling.  I aim to be a springboard to allow people to venture into the virtual world and build themselves a market, and then when they're all grown up, to watch them maybe go off and set up their own site when they are comfortable and have a good base clientèle.

 The Junior and Senior school of online craft selling if you will?

The shops have a few customisable functions. Email contact, logo, and facebook and twitter ID's can all be added to superimpose the banner on each shop. So shops can begin to market themselves and gain interest with their own branding.  Items can be put "on sale" at discounted prices, for ever, or for set periods of time to clear stocks.  And whenever I can I put little guides on to help people sell their items. For example I have a guide about SEO and using metatags, which many sellers don't know about.

All products are submitted to google, and we are already doing quite well in the search rankings for some items, but the more sellers we get who use their titles and descriptions well, the better we will do - my aim is to be first page for many handmade items.

Sellers can also register their own domain and have it point straight to their shop bypassing the Crafters' barn homepage.  http://noosknits.co.uk is an example (a little self plugging there!) So, if they are wanting to start building a business model they can do this, then move their domain off to their own website when they are ready.

The look of the site is young and vibrant. i love its quirkiness. Very different to most of the other craft sites, but fun for its uniqueness.  That doesn't mean we are not working all the time to improve the look, usability and functionality. That will probably be a never ending task.

So all in all that's why i've been a bit lax here with my posting. We have around 70 shops now, of which I think 50 odd currently have stock in them.  I am trying to fit in knitting too, I have finished a few items for sale in the barn, but they're not photographed yet. Plus I have a childs school cardigan on commission and a couple of cushion covers. The orders are racking up now for the chillier months. It's great.

In other news Chez Noo, there are five red silkie chicks that hatched last week - wanna see?????

The little one up top needed a couple of hours down my bra when it hatched as Mum let it get cold :(   But it perked up and now I can't tell which it was as they all look the same size and nice and healthy. So fingers crossed. 5 hatched out of 6 eggs - my best hatch rate ever.

Right, I need to be off to cook my tea

T'il soon ♥

Missing a party (or 6)

...... a lot of my family are on the Isle of Bute at the annual jazz festival. For numerous reasons I'm not there.  I have (hopefully) chicks hatching on Monday (although in truth I'm not expecting much)  I have a new website which is supposed to be Beta testing from today - although apparently I'm supposed to be able to retrieve the details of where it's held and how to get into it by psychic ability as I haven't heard from my webguy since 2pm when he told me he was uploading it? I'm also being taken away for two nights in a couple of weeks for my birthday (oooooh yes!) and we are going to Dove Holes jazz festival instead anyway. So I shouldn't complain really (and I'm not exactly.....sort of...... much)

But all of that doesn't make me feel a bit like i'm missing a party (oh hell yeah, I AM missing a party - in fact 3 a day and one or two all nighters probably)  So I am planning a weekend of crafting to make up for it. (Assuming I don't  attain the web beta login details by some form of  supernatural/clairvoyant brain surge).  I had ordered yarn to try to make this on the machine, but it hasn't arrived (I left it late, I knew it was unlikely - this is down to me mostly not having known what day it has been for much of the week).  But I am already handknitting Laika as I showed the other day, and I've done the body and 3/4 of one sleeve, so I reckon it's totally possible to finish at least the lace work over the long weekend, 1 1/4 sleeves and a hood, how hard can it be? (in 4 ply!). Especially now I have my yarn bras so don't have to chase 2 balls of yarn all over the place. (Have I told you how flippin' awesome they are? - no?  well that's all you need to know, they're flippin awesome!), or pick dog hair off them (you really don't want to know!)

So that's me for the weekend. A new audible audiobook will be chosen with great care (as much for length as for content as it has to last 3 non working days!), and I will settle in my newtome chair: (which has been cleaned since I got it and took this photo) and I will knit and watch the birds in the garden and cuddle spot and probably put a little TJ Johnson on the Ipod and whilst my family are there jiving away to the real McCoy, I'll be swinging my own little party here.... and loving every minute!

New Knitting - for meeeeee!

I bought yarn last year at Knitnation, to make Laika, and never quite got round to it.  Finally I have found time to get it under way, and I love it!  The yarn is Yarn Yard Twistle  (From TheYarnYard)

That's not a great photo because it's raining epically today, and this is the best my little phone camera could do given the lack of light - It's going to be wonderful though, and I love it already

Ipad apps for Knitters, Sewers, Crafters and generally just good ones!

So I have noticed that a good few people seem to have acquired Ipads in the past few months in my crafting circle of friends.  I've had mine since Feb I think, there or thereabouts anyway, and one thing I've noticed is that finding apps isn't really as easy as you'd like it to be..... I mean there are hundreds of thousands, but how do you find the "one"  That one that is brilliant, the one that turns your ipad from an internet surfing gadget to an awesome and irreplaceable tool........ Well, to my mind the best way with these things is always to share information. So I'm going to write here the few apps that I couldn't be without, and hopefully other pad users will add their favourites in the comments, or will blog and add a link to their blog posts in the comments - either/or! ;)

Right, my first crafting love is knitting and yarn craft. I am a little fickle and do love plenty of other crafts but generally knitting and crochet are what I always have on the go.


KnitCompanion:

My favourite app of the moment is definitely KnitCompanion.  <<That link is to the website, if you want to go straight to the app it's here   The full version isn't free, in fact it's quite pricey as apps go (GBP 10.99), BUT there is a free version complete with 5 patterns included which you can use and knit to learn the app and see if you like it.  If you then want to use it to use other PDF patterns you need to buy the full version.  This is a brilliant idea because it's quite a complex app, and I don't think I would ever have bothered buying it..... but I knitted Haruni from it and was sold.  I have to say I don't think it would be for everyone. You need to set up your patterns, and there's a bit of faffing which you don't have if you just print the darn thing out.... but oh! it's so graceful to be able to pluck out your Ipad with your latest project pdf on it and know exactly what row of what chart you are on.  Knitcompanion recognises charts (well you tell it where they are) and you can then use row counters and stitchcounters..... it's all just so effortless to keep up.

I used to use Goodreader (another very good app) which opens PDF's and allows you to annotate them, so I'd open a pattern and draw lines across the chart as I completed each row.... but it's cumbersome and a little bit of a nuisance, and because of that you get complacent and don't always mark off your rows, and there my friend, is where disaster lurks (believe me!)

Knit companion just has a click button which advances up the rows on the chart and highlights the one you are on...... so easy. The most you have to do is turn off the auto lock feature! ;-o

If you are considering getting Knitcompanion, don't wade straight in and buy it, download the app from the website and knit one of the included projects - even if you don't want one! Only then will you know if this app is for you. It's expensive for apps, but is still less than most skeins of sock yarn (and we all have plenty of those don't we ?) and if it suits your geek style, it will be worth every penny!

Goodreader:

Goodreader is mostly a PDF opening type app! But it's cleverer than that in that you can make an "annotated copy" of your PDF's and scrawl all over them! There's a toolbar which includes icons for lines, text, bubbles, footnotes and all other manner of making far too many notes on a pattern! You can open your patterns from Dropbox, and link directly to your Ravelry library (see the iphone group on Rav for details - the post is stickied here) .  Good reader has some great abilities and can't be beaten for PDF's of garments where you want to ring sizes and note how many rows got you from A to B etc..... but I found it unwieldy for charts.

Above is just a bit of nonsense i scribbled over for the fun of it!  It certainly has it's uses, but I don't think it's a one app fits all kind of scenario (but then I probably don't really with Knitcompanion either) In a perfect world - you'd have both!  One thing I have noticed is that in a non-crafting world (I know it - it rarely exists, but what can I say - once in a while.........) I do almost always use Goodreader as my go-to Open-with app when I'm looking at PDF's in safari on the pad.

DropBox:
Where would us knitters be without Dropbox? 2GB of free space to store all your knitting patterns in the cloud so that when you're out and about and happen across a yarn store, you have you pattern and requirements to hand (assuming some form of signal)  Yes, you could surf to Ravelry on the net, and sometimes i do..... but i love Dropbox for having everything i really need just where I really need it (i.e. everywhere!) Yes, I did orginally sign up for it for work, but heck...... kniting pattern storage is just so much more important. And, as well as easy access....... they're safe from hard drive failures and all sorts of other natural tech disasters.  Dropbox has an app of it's own, but more importantly so many of the other file access apps have built in Dropbox support. - Can't beat it!

KnitCounter Lite:
Simple row counter - free - touch the screen and it incrememnts the row number. Easy! You can set it to remind you for increases/decreases etc too which is clever. There is a paid version, but for a good old row counter for plain and simple things like vanilla socks, you can't beat this.

Zite:
Zite is a sort of personalised magazine. Not particularly crafty in essence, but once you tell it to find you articles on Knitting, Sewing, Crafts, Crochet....... well then it becomes obsessive a very useful inspirational tool (if anyone has any other good categories that work - comment away!)

Safari:
nope not an app, just a good old fashioned internet browser that comes on the Pad, and you know what? - It's great. Fast, easy, reliable. Sometimes we get hung up on wanting apps for everything (did I hear you ask for a Ravelry app? - no, there isn't one!) but why? OK if they have added functionality, then great, but often all the info we need is sitting right there on the web, and on the Ipad it's easy to see and read, even for my poor old eyesight. Surfing is as good on the pad as it is on anything else, and sometimes even better!


______________
I do have some quilting apps, but to be honest they're not hugely worth the mention, nothing overly amazing. I don't have any other sewing (non-quilting) apps, and I don't seem to have any specifically crochet apps, although all the above would apply to all crafts really.  In non-crafting terms, I like flipboard for reading blogs when i haven't got around to them on my laptop. - It imports them from google reader so no need to set them up again.

For twitter content I use Echofon, just because it's simple and does exactly what I need it to do, and I'm used to it now!! I hate the facebook app, and usually just surf there in safari. The app hasn't updated to use timelines so half the information is missing, and it doesn't seem to auto refresh. Just rubbish really!!

I use a sweet little app call Signature to put a nice signature on my outgoing emails (instead of that awful "sent from my Ipad" )

Noo's Knits Bespoke handknitting service

In my signature these are all clickable buttons to follow me or find me in their respective platforms. (Strangely i can't find that app to link to?, but there are loads of others which I am sure are just as good) ** well look at that they're clickable in this post too - how clever!

TBH, those are the most often used apps. Well plus eBay of course, and a paypal calculator that tells you how much to sell something for if you want to make sure you receive a particular amount. and a Royal mail calculator which I hope will be updated with the new rates when the time comes. 

And finally there's words with friends - which I only play with my sister cos it interrupts knitting time! ;)

Right, I have just seen the time and nearly had a fit, i've been here 2 hours and the dog's not even fed yet. So this will have to do for now. Feel free to tell me your favourites below, or maybe do a similar post and link to it in the comments? It's always fun to hear what others are using

New Silkie hens and a few finished objects

So last time i spoke to you I was entrenched in an instruction manual. Well this is the result so far.

Möbius cowl Machine Knit in pure Alpaca with a basic tuck stitch. It will be available for sale in Noo's Knits in  the Crafters' Barn when I get around to uploading it there ! :)

My Finished Items page (see link at the top under Spots photo) has been updated with a few of my latest knits too for those that don't want to trawl through all my rambling posts (and I can't blame you!)

In other news:  Noo's House is now complete again after last year's fox attack.  It's been hard getting Silkies but finally we found some, although I'm not quite sure how one lost White Silkie hen has been replaced with 2 hens and a cockerel! You'd have to ask MrNoo how that happened.  They're gorgeous tho' and settling already.  I'll leave you with these few photos, I'm off for a dog walk ! :

Me, and instruction book and a LOT of coffee

Oopsey over a week since i posted. Time does fly doesn't it?

I have had dreadful toothache this week so feeling a little below par. Luckily dentist has found a broken tooth and I'm booked in for filling it next Wednesday morning. So the end is in sight for that particular problem.

The grass has had the first cut of the year (and lovely it looks too) and the hens are all beginning to lay. I am getting 2 or 3 a day now out of 6 hens, so either all of them are doing it some of the time, or some of them are doing it all of the time.  Whichever the case, they clearly think it's spring!

Knitting is, as always keeping me sane. I'm making a jumper for a client. No pics because I've only taken a couple on my phone and they don't look as good as they should. But it's coming along nicely and the body is just about done. Bottom up raglan (was going to be top down, but I couldn't place the motifs properly - clearly one stage too far for my brain!)

And in somewhat related news, yesterday I bought a knitting machine.  A brother KH836 and accompanying ribber.  It is 2nd hand but from a dealer so has been thoroughly serviced and is guaranteed.  It's a punchcard machine so has a little "growing" room for me, but was recommended as a good beginners machine.  The ribber and other accessories that I might will get will all fit more advanced brother models so all is good. Brother don't actually make machines any more, but there are plenty in the market place and I was assured that even if parts become scarce there are enough old non-working machines to strip and "cannibalise" so it shouldn't be a problem in the nearish future.

So, I've been scouring ravelry and the internet for information and patterns. I used to use a machine in my teen years, and was pretty adept at it. But now, of course, there is just sooo much more information out there to be read. It's wonderful.

So today, my plan is to run around with the hoover, dust a little in the middle (not round the edges!) and then sit with the instruction book, a notebook and a big mug of coffee

At least I can put snow and frost on my blog.......

I love winter. There I've said it, I love cold weather that makes your hands hurt, and frost with sunlight glinting on it, and snow....... I love wrapping up in my blankets, throws and handknit jumpers and snuggling in front of an open fire. I love walking the dog and hearing the ground crunch beneath my feet and seeing her camouflaged in snowy bracken, and coming home to a treat of hot chocolate steaming in a mug.

However, this year's winter has been a little disappointing so far (I know there is plenty of time yet). We had 12 degrees on Christmas day, and really apart from a good dose of bad wind (I guess even mother nature gets affected by Christmas dinner?) our weather has been very unentertaining. We're averaging around 10 - 13 deg C, and the sky seems to be grey more often than not. (There have been some beautiful blue sky days but just not many of them)

So, in celebration of my love of winter, I have slightly redecorated my blog in anticipation of just a few decent weeks of winter weather.

In other news the crochet blanket is going well. I have to wait for some more wool now as two of the colours were out of stock, and I've done all I can in what I have. 

I've also resurrected the wii fit, to try to lose the somewhat shocking 4 lbs I put on in just one week over Christmas! ooopsey! So that's what I'm off to do now

Have a great week everyone xx


Dec 2010, I am smiling in there - really! ;)

Just one photo for now

It's dull here today, grey, blustery and not very exciting at all. This has made it particularly difficult to photograph my latest finished object!! (yep, ladies and gentlemen, the blanket is finished)

So in the interests of not keeping you waiting here is a not very artistic shot of it.  Hopefully I will manage to get some nicer ones before it's all parcelled up.  There are a few ends that need sewing in tonight, but other than that it's good to go!

I've totally loved making this, the pattern is easy but not as boring as stocking stitch! I am somewhat disappointed in Rowan's technical editing though. The pattern had more mistakes than I would consider acceptable. Made worse by the fact that the mistakes were in the second and third panels which were obviously then copied and pasted down for the other panel instructions.  At one point the pattern said to repeat the last 8 rows when it meant the last 12, and at another point it said to knit rows 46-48 of pattern B, but pattern B finishes on row 40! it's not rocket science and whilst I appreciate that errata are totally understandable in something that doesn't actually make sense unless you knit it, I really think a company the size of Rowan should be able to do a bit better than this. It was an incredibly simple pattern so there shouldn't really have been any errors.

Anyway details as folllows
Pattern: Tweed Throw from Rowan Purelife Home book.
Yarn: Rowan Renew
Colours as pattern.

Knit on 6mm Knitpro interchangeable circs (longest cord I had!)
No mods made to pattern other than where it needed correcting!

Hopefully some more arty shots but this little beauty needs to be parcelled up and sent on her way.

D, I really hope you have cold winters where you are, my heating bill is likely to go up considerably now I've finished knitting this! ;)

Been over a week since I posted?! Gosh lots has happened.

Time can fly by so quickly can't it.

Firstly an update on the gorgeous blanket. It's now big enough to keep my knees warm as I knit it, always a good thing.

It's also now big enough to drape over my rocking chair (and it looks very nice there I must say! LOL)

So that has been consuming a lot of my time. Other than that I've had a bit of a week with Spot who needed the emergency vet on Saturday as she couldn't stand up, and has since been on anti-inflammatories and bed rest - she's not impressed!  Huge improvement though and seems ok again now, although the vet has today said there is definitely impaired mobility around her spine/hind legs, but seemingly no pain, so difficult to locate the exact problem.  We don't know what happened and are now going to get her off the meds to see if it happens again or what the situation is.  Trouble with Spot is she only has two speeds:- Asleep and 100mph! there's nothing in the middle for her.  We're trying to learn the command "steady" but I'm not having a lot of success .  She's 9 years old, so not ancient by any stretch but also it could just be the beginnng of old age arthritis.  I kind of hope it is rather than a nerve problem........ Oh well best just not to think about the possibilities until we know more.

So, there's been that to keep me busy (I've insisted on lots of spaniel cuddles!), a quick trip to London to see TJ Johnson and The Fallen Heroes  on Sunday (that was fun :D) and a bit of house tidying as I have 11 knitters, spinners and sewers round on Saturday for a craft day. (Sewers as in with a sewing machine, not sewers as in underground pipework!)  Not that the house tidying has got very far - I keep getting waylaid by dog cuddling. Oh well, I'm afraid I'm very much a "Take as you find" kind of girl, if none of them turn up to the next one I'll know the state of the house was a step too far! (it's not really that bad, just winter with a dog on house arrest and piles of yarn and fabric all over the place)

Right well it's getting dark here, so time to pull the curtains and get the knitting out........ 'Til soon xx