Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat . . .

. . . I love you.  Yes I do.   Well, enough of Tom Jones.

In October I received 3 boxes of kitty-cat fluff from my 2 grand-kitties, Hugo and Maks. This is Hugo's fluff.

I started off quite well and got the carding done pretty quickly, but then Christmas started to rear its head and I knew I wouldn't get much further for a while, at least until I'd finished all my presents.

It never looked this tidy on the cats!

I spun Hugo's without incident and thought the rest would be a breeze.  However, I'd forgotten I had a dodgy bobbin that needed to be glued back together, and sure enough it fell apart half way through Maks' first box.  I wasn't too upset when this happened, after all it was my own fault for not getting it glued when it happened the first time, but did it really have to knot up so badly when I was transferring it to a new bobbin?

The only other thing that stopped me spinning every evening was Jak, my big 17 year old bundle of fun (cat, to you!!) who sleeps all day and wants to cuddle all night!  Got there in the end though.

These three only took 3 months to finish!!  Not my fastest spinning by a long way, but at last they're packed up and on their way to sunny Scotland where our daughter-in-law lives. I'm not sure what she's planning to do with this - maybe she'll save it with the rest I've spun for her until there's enough for something more substantial than kitty socks!

Last but not least, here are the dynamic duo :-

Hugo

Maks

Spinzilla 2018

Well, who would've thought a year could go so fast.  October 1st was the start of the Spinzilla marathon spinning event - a whole week of spinning as much yardage as possible.

There was a lot of controversy last year over the way this event was run and quite a lot of people vowed they wouldn't do it again.  Especially as they were paying $15 each for the privilege and there was no proof of where this money was going (it was supposed to be a charity event).  I ummed and aahed a fair bit about whether I should join in this year or not, but finally decided to sign up again.  The team I spun with (DM Fibers Old School Spinners) were putting a team together again and, to be quite honest, I didn't want to be left out!

My little Spinzilla mascot after he'd had his head in the yoghourt pot!

Last year I managed to spin just over 4 miles which was far more than I imagined I could spin in a week.  I'm not a fast spinner!  My goal this year was to at least reach that amount, but hopefully exceed it.  Then, a few weeks before the event, friends in the UK phoned to say they were going to be in France and could they visit for a few days - slap bang in the middle of Spinzilla!  Well, what can you do?  We enjoy having friends come to stay so I thought I could just work through it.  Unfortunately, when you factor in essential preparations for their visit, it didn't quite work out that way!

My first project was 500g of Falkland Super Wash from Wingham Wool Work in the UK. This is for yet another baby blanket - there's another grand-daughter arriving mid-December so I'd better get busy!

This took 4.5 days, I think, to complete, giving a total singles yardage of 4,395.

Next, I had some batts I'd made using the leftovers from a prize I made during the Tour de Fleece.

TdF prize

I didn't have all the colours to make more exactly like the ones above, but I added in a few different colours and it turned out fairly similar.  These were going to be spun as one ply and I needed to find something to complement it for the other ply.

I thought these colours would go quite well, and roughly blended them on my combs, before starting to spin.

Unfortunately, the main colour was quite a strange texture - it was a World of Wool Woolly Wednesday special offer and I have no clue what it was, except it was cheap!!

The staple length was so short that when I was spinning it I could only draft about half an inch at a time.  This was obviously no use during a speed spinning competition, so I had to abandon it and choose something else.  I had managed 29 yards though, so that counts in the final calculations.

To be honest, this felt like spinning combing waste - the short fibres that are left stuck in the tines after removing the good fibres and I do wonder if that's what it is.  Floor sweepings for sure!

So, I picked out some black and red fibres to go with the other bobbin.  I would have preferred the grey, but this actually went quite well anyway.

The finished skein was not too bad at all - `I like the pops of colour here and there.  I showed this to Eric and asked him what he thought I should call it.  "Black pudding" he immediately replied.  "But it's not black" I answered.  Final retort : "Neither is black pudding".  I couldn't argue with that, so Black Pudding it is!

By now we'd reached day 7 and I needed a quick spin to finish off the week.  About a week before Spinzilla started I cleaned out my larder - this is a small room rather than a cupboard and it had become rather "disorganised" to say the least.  When I got to one of the top shelves, there was an unidentified box sitting there, in full view, which I just hadn't noticed before.

This is what I found when I opened it.  I bought this in February 2015, so goodness knows how long it's been sitting on that shelf.  It's a Build a Batt Box from Barber Black Sheep in Wales and I'd completely forgotten I'd ordered it.  Please don't ask what it was doing on a shelf in my larder for 3 years, because I have no clue!  The embarrassing thing is, I obviously haven't spring cleaned my shelves for quite a long time!!

I picked out a 100g bag of merino dyed in a gradient, started at one end, blended the colours a bit in between, and finished with the deep pink on the left.

This was a real pleasure to spin, I enjoyed every moment.  Most of this was spun in the afternoon, then the visitors arrived back from a few days away and took us out for a meal in the evening.  We had a really nice evening with lots of nice food and wine, getting home at about 10:30 p.m.  Back to spinning!  I quickly finished the spinning and then started to ply.  All my yarns so far have been 2 ply (apart from the Floor Sweepings which were left as a single), but to keep the colour gradient, I n-plied this one (making a 3-ply).  I think this is my favourite spin of the week - the colours are yummy, and it's squishably soft.

So, here are the final skeins :-

And the final calculations?  This lot amounted to 6,208.752yards . . . 3.53 miles!  I didn't reach last year's total, but it's actually not bad considering the interruptions I had this week.

Oh, and before I go - don't forget that BritSpin starts on the 11th October.  This is a brand new 4 day event which I would dearly have loved to join in with, but unfortunately (well, fortunately for us) we're going to be away I the camper van from tomorrow on a little trip to the west (Atlantic) coast here in southern France.  

TdF Week 1

Well that's the end of the first week as far as my spinning goes.  I've managed to complete three challenges in the DIY and Dye Group on Ravelry.  The first was the tweed I showed you last week.  Here it is finished :-

The next challenge I chose was "spin your pet" and Jak (my cat) was happy to oblige!  I'd been saving his fur for a little while and, although there wasn't a huge amount, it would make a little sample.

I used my cotton carders for this and made "punis" which are like skinny rolags, rolled around a dowel.  The fibres were very short, but probably no shorter than cotton, so I thought it would probably work OK.

It was not like spinning cotton, it was much more difficult, but I got there in the end.

This was the yarn spun, but not plied.  I made it into a centre pull ball and plied from each end.  The result :-

Not even enough to make a sock for one paw, but never mind!!

The third challenge was mohair dyed in the team colours : teal, purple and grey.  I didn't have purple but the violet that I used works quite well.  This is super-kid mohair that I bought last summer at Le Lot et La Laine festival here in France and it's absolutely gorgeous.  Really soft, easy to card and easy to spin - dream fibre!!

I dyed the whole lot in one pot, just poured on each dye separately and hoped for the best.

I was in a bit of a quandary as to how to spin these.  Either a gradient, or just mix the colours up.  In the end I worked from one colour to the next, spinning one rolag each time and then plied from each end of a centre pull ball again.  I didn't want to Navajo ply it because I wasn't sure how this would poof up as a 3-ply, so 2-ply it was.

This still needs to be washed, but you'll see the finished yarn at the end of TdF when I summarize everything I've done.  I really love the way this has turned out and think I may just have to dye some more in these colours to spin after the Tour de Fleece has finished for this year.

So, now to go find out what week 2's challenges are!

Absent

You may have noticed I've not been around for a while!  No excuses, BUT . . . over the last three months we have been rather busy - not too busy to blog, just too busy to do anything to blog about!  We finished odd bits and pieces in our new kitchen, the old kitchen was completely knocked out (all the units and cupboards were concrete block), had the old kitchen/sitting room replastered, painted the whole lot, stained all wood, put in a new floor in the new dining area (old kitchen), cleaned and polished the old tiled floor in the sitting area, put a new shower into the guest's toilet room, removed an old shower from the guest bedroom, and made two complete new bedrooms (new floors, paint, etc). You get the picture?  Well, all this had to be finished by 2nd May, and was - just!

So, what happened on 2nd May?  Eric and I had a huge party to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (which was actually 5th May, but that was a Tuesday, and who wants a party on a Tuesday?).  We had guests coming out of our ears!  Three of Eric's sons arrived with wives/partners - unfortunately Matthew and Rona couldn't come with Brody (grandson) - a friend arrived from Germany (he had to sleep in the camper van as there was no room in the house), my sister slept in the lounge, another friend that we hadn't seen for 23 years came from Holland (he was farmed out to our neighbours), as were Eric's brother and sister-in-law, his nephew and girlfriend.  More friends filled the local b + b.  On the day of the party we had over 70 people, and a friend came and made a huge paella. Fabulous day.  I've included a few photos for you to see - note the size of the paella pan!

Tents being erected in the garden

Paella man arrives

Patrick and his Paella

Easier exit from bedroom than stairs!

Little inserted note : you see that room with the balcony - that's going to be my new craft room!  Can't wait to get that up and running!

Of course there was music :-

and kilts :-

The girls :-

and, of course, there's always one who has one too many!

So, that's probably the biggest party we'll have until our 40th (if we live that long!) - good job too, we were completely exhausted at the end of it.

Now we're having a bit of time off from working, which means more time for hobbies! Spinning wheels await!

Bailey, Brody, Cotton and Laziness

It's so long since I blogged, you probably thought I'd disappeared off the planet!  I've either been ultra-busy, lazy, or just had nothing to say for myself.  Well, probably a little bit of those with quite a lot of laziness thrown in.

We went for a short holiday to the Costa Brava in northern Spain earlier in the month and managed to not take any interesting photos.  I can show you a little update on my cotton plants though which have been growing like weeds since I put them in the greenhouse.  I have bolls - yes, that is spelled right!

I have three green cotton plants and they're all about this size :-

which probably doesn't mean much, but that's actually quite a large pot.  I've had loads of flowers on these and new ones are opening every day.  I don't expect all the bolls to burst open and provide cotton, but some of the larger ones should have a chance.  It's still around 30 deg C in the greenhouse each day, so I think there just may be enough time for these to mature.

On another note, look who came to stay :-

Brody wearing his kilt in Switzerland last month

Wee Brody came to see his Grandpops and Nanny Chris!

He's been swimming in the pool,

eats all his meals outside,

visited Bailey,

and loves al fresco bathing in his posh new bathtub!!

Jak's really impressed with his new sleeping quarters too!

And, how could I end this post without a few photos of Bailey (who says I'm totally besotted?)

This is one of my favourites, taken with the sun behind him in the early evening.

Ooh, what's that?

Are you quite SURE there are no more carrots?

Hope and Bailey inspecting a strange object in their field.

And finally, I can never get away without Cerise (Bailey's Mum) poking her nose in :-

Cheeeeeeeeeese!