breispace

All around me people seem to be procreating lately, and it was time to supply the soon-to-be demand for baby garments. First there was the hat (from a free Drops pattern) for baby Fay, Maldwyn and Elizabeth’s v cute offspring.

Not in the traditional pink for  two reasons:

1. no cliche should be used without irony;
2. so she can support her daddy’s rugby team this winter.

Next were the caps for no less than four babies of colleagues and college classmates. I needed something fast, and so I decided to make simple umbilical cord caps from the first Stitch ‘n Bitch book, knitted with a double string of leftover sock yarn. Only 64 stitches in the round, rolled brim, finished off with i-cord. I had them all finished in ten days.

Another hat I had started on at last year’s winter banquet in Archeon will now be finished for the next one. I trimmed it with bear fur (or dog fur, I have no idea) from a muff I got from my dad’s girlfriend. It looks and feels quite spectacular, if I say so myself.

It’s going to be a toasty winter.

Seven weeks of glorious summer vacation. The gods know I needed it. This year I went to England and Wales with Kees for ten days. We had reservations for a car at John Lennon airport (great slogan) and got upgraded to a brand new VW Jetta Turbo Diesel because ours wasn’t ready.

The first days we went to Chester, Snowdonia (which was absolutely beautiful) and Portmeirion (which was a bit unreal because nobody actually really lives there). At the end of the third day Kees’ friend Geoff and his lovely wife Sarah put us up for a night and took us to dinner at a v nice pub.

We skipped Devon and Cornwall because the weather was going to be bad there. Instead we headed for London, visiting the White Horse of Uffington on the way. Within a mile after leaving the horse’s parking lot our gearbox blew up, and we were eventually towed back to Bristol Airport. This took the best part of the day, the upside of which was that I got a lot of knitting done.

London was excellent, and so was the weather. I indulged in some retail therapy at the British Museum, and bought a miniature Lewis chessmen set and a cookbook. We had excellent sushi (much cheaper than in A’dam) and other healthy foods. We enjoyed the splendid hospitality of Bryan,  Helma and Freki for three days, after which it was time to move on because “Guests and fish stay fresh for three days only”.

We stayed in Cambridge for one night (lovely free archeological/anthropological museum), and in York for two (scored some hand-painted Araucania sock yarn ((not to be confused with Araucana)) at “Sheepish”, yay!) and wallowed in  culture, history and Beef-and Stilton pasties.

After that we were quite close to Manchester, our final stop, where my friend Steve had arranged a room for us. We took the long route via the (again, beautiful) Yorkshire Dales and stopped for some Wensleydale in Hawes. I had a Yorkshire rarebit for lunch, also made with the local cheese of course. After settling in at the hotel we had a Balti dinner and a few pints with Steve and did some catching up. Good craic.

Our last day was a Sunday and our flight wasn’t until the evening, so we went to the Peak district for some more stunning landscapes. In Bakewell we had their famous pudding and visited a craft fair in aid of the local Scouts, and I spent my last pounds on various embroidery paraphernalia at a big car boot sale. Kees looked around for old cameras and militaria but didn’t find anything he liked. The flight home was uneventful and I was back home around midnight, welcomed by purring pookies.

I just found this great initiative through a blog on softies (i.e. handmade soft toys) I follow; check out the Toy Society! I’m going to release Sheldon somewhere, and hope he finds a good and worthy home.

I had had my eye on this one for a while, especially since buying that scrumptious BFL roving at the craft fair last month (see previous post). My old wheel was getting further beyond repair with every spinning session, and the time had come when “learning the craft on an old bike” had to be replaced by “time to get some decent tools”. A hefty tax assessment prevented me from indulging however, until Saint Nick came through in the shape of my dad.

With  what was left after paying the Nation burning a hole in my bank account, I set off for Den Haag to see a man woman about a horse foldable spinning wheel. Space being at a premium at my house, this seemed the ideal wheel for me. So I tried and tested, and here she is:

The pedals can be folded up, and the whole thing carried in a big shoulder bag. It weighs about six kilos, but it felt like ten when I carried it home on my Buzbike. It came with 100 complementary grams of purple merino & silk blend roving which, after some practice with a bit of old, mothy brown fleece, I  spun into two bobbins of this:

I then plied these into a skein of “art yarn”, which is now begging me to be knitted into a nice little neckwarmer. It’s still a bit bumpy in some places and overspun in others, but I’m starting to get the hang of tweaking this wheel to suit my limited spinning skills.

The Joy spins like a dream. No creaking, no wobbly bits, smooth action, lovely. Another serious competitor for the rare luxury that is my spare time. Excellent. And with a couple of lessons I’m sure I’ll get the bumps out of my yarn too. Next target: homespun pullover (after I finish my eight current UFOs).