Things are looking very spring-like around here now. We have apple blossom…

And forget-me-nots…

And the drifts of bluebells in our copse are just coming into flower…

All of which has prompted me into doing some gardening. I’m a somewhat intermittant gardener, only taking action when I’m feeling thoroughly enthused about it, or when I can’t delay any longer, usually because I’m at risk of disappearing like Sleeping Beauty under a thicket of brambles.

My ‘flower’ border is a case in point. I gave up my fight against the bramble plants last year and just let them grow where they wanted to. It looked a mess, but the crop of blackberries was fantastic! Consequently, this year, I’ve come to view the bramble plants as over-enthusiastic companions to the plants that I want to grow. Rather than digging up all the bramble roots, which I hate doing, I’ve simply cut the tops back to ground level wherever I could, leaving some stems to scramble where they want to, which I shall cut back again if they get too exuberant. It seems a much happier partnership this way, I think the brambles and I may actually become friends. And I’ve been able to clear some spaces for some other plants. Like this blackcurrant bush.

I’ve also ordered some raspberry plants and a redurrant bush to accompany it. Along with the blackberries I should have some very tasty fruits for summer puddings in the future.

I’ve also been working on some plans to repair and repopulate our old and currently uninhabited chicken shed…

We used to keep a flock of free range bantams, but one year a particularly fierce fox caught most of them and we didn’t have the heart to restock. The foxes seem to be keeping their distance lately, ever since my sister started bringing her dog with her to visit, I think the scent is keeping them away.

Although the shed looks a bit sad at the moment (the day that my dad accidentally hit it with the JCB was a sad one), it shouldn’t take much work to fix. The chickens I shall keep in it will eventually be completely free range, but to start with I want to keep them penned, just until they know where home is. So I’ll need to construct a wire pen too.

As for the chickens themselves, I’m thinking I’d like to hatch some chicks, probably bantams. I need to invest in an incubator and make a brooder for the chicks when they hatch, but I think it’ll be an exciting project. Little chicks are so cute, and if I start with them this season, we should have fresh eggs by next spring.

Eek, it’s been a while since I last posted here! Did you miss me?!

Rather than go through everything I’ve done lately in detail, here’s a photo montage that shows some of the highlights.

As you can see, there were lambs involved.

Click through to see more details.

Or just enjoy the pictures. I’ll write more soon.

Yes, the Ravelympics are here again. After the fun of the 2008 Olympic knitalong, I just had to take part in this one. I’m not usually a winter sports fan (the last time I went ice skating was painful to both my ego and my body), but I love watching them on tv. This is largely due to there being lots of pretty snow to see (we must be one of the few parts of the UK that’s escaped with only a few snowy showers thus winter, which is a shame, because I love the stuff), and plenty of lovely Lycra clad sportsmen…

Anyway, onto the crafty ravelympics goodness! As was the case for the 2008 Olympic event, Ravelry has organized a knitalong that covers the duration of the Olympics. I stayed up to watch the Vancouver opening ceremony on the opening night, and cast on for my Ravelympics project while I watched.

I’ve chosen to take part in just one event, the “Sweaterboard Cross”, which basically means I’ll be attempting to knit an entire sweater. In just two weeks. I’m probably crazy to try this, given that my fastest sweater project to date had taken over a month to complete, but i think I’ll enjoy the challenge.

The pattern I’ve chosen is called “Ingenue”, which is from Wendy Bernard’s fantastic book “Custom Knits“. It’s a top down design, knitted in one piece, with a wide stand-up collar and three quarter length sleeves. The yarn I’m using is handspun, made from the Wildcraft fibre club wool (BFL in a colourway called “Bird Seed”) that I had left over after the club shipment went out (I always dye more than I need, just in case of posting disasters). This time there were no fibre posting disasters, so I had a sweater’s worth if fibre left over, for a small person, I.e. me.

In January I spun up 400g of the fibre to make a two ply yarn, approx Aran weight. And then I had to sit on my hands for several weeks to prevent myself from casting on before the ravelympics started.

Casting on was therefore a treat. The yarn is squishy and comfy to knit with, and I’m loving the subtle brown colours.

I’ve knitted a fair bit so far, although now that I’m nearing the end of the raglan armhole increases the rows are really long (and boring), so my progress has slowed. However, thanks to the support of my friends at Team Woollies, the official Wildcraft team, I’m resolved to complete as much of this sweater as I can before the end of the event.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

In other news, this year’s lambs will be making their appearances very soon! Buffy has the first due date, which is this coming Friday (26th), and she’ll be followed in quick succession by Truffle, then Cordelia. The other three ewes, Chocolate, Willow and Coffee are all a week or so later. I’m hoping they’ll keep to their due dates as they did last year, it helps to keep the sleepless nights to a minimum. I’ll be posting sheepy updates on Twitter (with a tag of #wildcraftsheep), so you can keep a watch on their progress there.

Yesterday’s sunset…

Today’s FO, my Fluffy the Vampire Sweater.
Yarn: Sirdar Blur (fluffy mohair, impossible to frog)
Pattern: Birgitte Lace Pullover
Ravelry project link.

Tomorrow’s (and Sunday’s) Knitting WIP:
Pattern: Central Park Hoodie
Yarn: Sirdar Click (yeah, it’s acrylic, but it’s cushy and cheap, and machine washable!)
Ravelled.

It was a dull grey Saturday here today, so I took my camera for a walk, taking photos of things that make me happy. Despite the dim light, I found plenty to photograph - so many that this is a photo-heavy post, sorry if that makes it slow to load…

First of all there’s my bowl of hyacinths, which have just started to flower.

And my iPod touch, which I got this Christmas (now with spinning and knitting aps installed on it)

My current spinning project, this is Wildcraft superwash BFL in ‘Cornfield’.

The braids of Wildcraft club fibre that I managed to keep for myself this month…

My newest handspun, handknitted socks. (Ravelled here.)

The latest batch of Wildcraft fibre, dyed in preparation for next weeks’ shop update.

The fluffy purple jumper that I’m knitting, which now has sleeves attached, at last!

The Rodrigo y Gabriela album that I bought last week (amazing guitar sounds).

The expectant faces of my sheep, looking forward to their dinner.

And the contented munching sound they make when eating it…

Finding a piece of fallen lichen in the woods (I can use this for a resin spindle whorl).

My little grey cat, Fili, on her favourite outdoor perch.

Inara’s nose, which is very soft.

Finding that the connection on the horses’ water trough made it through the recent cold spell without leaking.

And finally, discovering the first snowdrops of the season.

I guess it was a good day after all!

I hope you all had a lovely festive holiday. We’ve had a wintry few days here in the UK, only ice and rain here on the farm so far, but the snowy weather looks to be turning our way this week, so I’m hoping for at least some by new year. I do love snow.

This Christmas I treated myself to an iPod touch. It’s very shiny and lovely and I can write blog posts on it as well as surf ravelry, check my email and listen to my favorite podcasts.

My inner geek is very happy

I’ve written part of this post on my new toy, although the picture editing side was done on my laptop as I’m still figuring out how to drive the iPod…

This is a photo of one of several knitted Christmas gifts I made this year.

It’s a set of ten mismatched mittens that I made for my brother from leftover scraps of yarn. He likes wearing mitts for typing on the computer, but he’s always losing them. So I decided to make a set that wouldn’t be spoiled if he lost one or two. But to prevent the mislaid mitts scenario in the first place I also made a ‘mitten dispenser’ to store them in.

It’s like one of those dispenser bags you can get for recycling supermarket carriers, only designed specially for errant mitts. I’m delighted to report that my brother loved his gift!

This week, as well as doing crazy Christmas knitting that I can’t post photos of yet, I finished spinning some yarn.

It’s made from some Falkland wool tops that I bought at Wonderwool Wales in 2008, so it’s been marinating in my stash for a while. The yarn’s a three ply, around 12wpi/250m - plenty for a hat for me (ideal for a post Christmas knitting treat for myself!).

I was surprised by how different the colours looked in the finished yarn compared with the tops. Here’s how it started out…

I like the colours of the finished yarn much more than in the tops, and I’m thinking I’ll be making more three ply in the future, despite the fact that it takes forever to spin compared with 2ply…

Oh and also this week, I’ve been having some fun playing with the editing tools on Flickr. Result - a grumpy Christmas sheep. Bah humbug to all from Truffle!

p.s. she wasn’t looking nearly this grumpy today, as I gave them all extra hay and sheep nuts rations on account of it being so cold

Ever since I started Wildcraft I’ve wanted to have another go at natural dyeing. I did some natural dye experiments way back when I first learned to spin, with mixed success. This time, I have a proper dye studio to work with, and considerably more understanding of how not to felt wool!

Natural dyeing is a much slower process than chemical dyeing: dye materials need to be soaked, fibre mordanted and yarn/fibre gets left in dye baths for longer to ensure that they’ve taken up the colours properly. It’s a very interesting change from my everyday chemical dyes, I needed to put away my ‘put colour on now’ attitude and take a more chilled approach. For my recent experiments I decided to start out with some dye materials that I’d bought, rather than raiding the back garden. The garden raiding will happen when I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

So a few days ago, I mordanted some fibre and some yarn with alum. This took about a day in total as I left everything to cool down completely after cooking, to make sure I didn’t felt the fibre.

Then I heated up a solution of brazilwood chips in water to extract their red dye, and after an hour’s simmering allowed it to cool completely.

I used this to dip dye some fibre, and some yarn. Here’s the fibre, it was BFL/seacell.

The colour wasn’t as bright as I’d hoped, but it’s a pretty coral shade, and the fibre remains soft, fluffy and not in the least bit felted.

The yarn I overdyed with logwood, which I’d made into a dyebath in the same manner as the brazilwood, except I used only 20% by weight of the logwood chips (logwood contains a lot of colour). This came out rather darker than I expected, it’s almost black in places, not the mid purple I was expecting - and that made it really hard to photograph accurately. I love it though…

I’m expecting this deep colour to fade a bit in sunlight, as logwood isn’t particularly light fast. It should make some pretty socks though.

So, I’m counting these first experiments as a success, and am now planning all manner of garden and woodland raids, as well as some other natural colour experiments. And really looking forward to spinning up that BFL/seacell fibre!

OK, so I can now personally vouch for the reports that flu is not a good thing to have. I’m getting over it now, but a few days disappeared in a haze of paracetamol and too much TV (I got through a whole series of Gilmore Girls in two days, but please don’t ask me to recount any of it, I simply don’t remember).

It was however fantastic for my knitting UFO list, and a heap of them have now transformed into FO’s. Amongst the things I finished were two cropped cardigans (which were already knitted up so I just had to sew in the yarn ends), a hat and a pair of socks.

I also made good progress on a lace shawl, knit the body and legs of an elephant (only a small one), started the body of a mohair jumper for me, and cast on for my first ever pair of Monkey Socks.

Like the TV viewing, I don’t have much memory of knitting these things. Unlike the TV however, I do have evidence that they have been done, in the form of a pile of finished knitting and several new projects with needles in them.

Oh and I got a great new book in the post last week - The Knitter’s Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes.

This is the book that had the original pattern for the pair of Maine Morning Mitts that I made and had featured in Spin Off magazine this spring. I’ve had this book on my wishlist for ages, but hadn’t seen it in person so dithered over buying a copy. But I’m so glad I did buy it, it really is an excellent reference. It’s a mine of technical info on yarn construction and use, and the knitting patterns in it look great too, a few have joined my Ravelry queue already. Clara has another yarn book due out any day now (I think it’s already on the shelves in the US, but we have to wait a little longer here in the UK). The sequel’s called The Knitter’s Book of Wool, and needless to say I’ve already preordered a copy.

I’ve come over all bashful… and excited, as I’ve just seen that my first wholesale batch of resin spindles are now listed at The Spinning Loft.

I took a couple of photos before they left here…

But do head over to Beth’s site and take a look, especially if you’re in the US, as she’s there too - so posting should be much easier!

p.s. I hear the chilli ones have already gone to new homes - one of them to Abby Franquemont. So um, yes, I’m very pleased about this new venture into the wholesale market!