OOPS !

We've been busy. Here's Oliver 'weeding' with his new grabber thingy. He's very keen on deadheading, which is rather alarming ! Diane, he'll be ten in August ! One day the physicists will tell us that time does, indeed, speed up as we get older.
I've been bone crushingly [ha,ha !] tired of late. Keep falling asleep instead of writing blog entries. Sorry about that.
I have uploaded a pile of knitting photos though. An update is brewing. Thank you to everyone who wrote to me to ask if we are o.k. You're so kind.

Anyone want to come over and weed ? We have a bit of a couch grass problem !

ETA : I meant COOCH grass, obviously.

ETA, again : Colour me confused ! It is called COUCH grass as well!

SPRING BUDS AND BLOSSOM.

Most of the blossom has gone now. Knocked off the trees by high winds and lashing rain. There I was, getting excited about sitting out in spring breezes ! Outdoor knitting is the best.

I finished the 'Spring Buds' cashmere mitts, made from Skein Queen's Opulent.

The link to the Sweetheart Glovelets pattern is here.
I have a few more of these planned. They're such fun to knit and really quick to make, which is good. The resulting mitts, after a quick wash, are so luscious it feels like a soft, warm kiss on your hands. There's definately a place for cashmere in most people's lives ! I plan my own mitts and a scarf for next winter's cold.
I'm also knitting La Novia with that in mind. it started with the incredibly soft, British grown, merino yarn from Fybrespates. The shades of purple are so beautiful, and almost as intense as my new purple flowered plant. Allan saw it, thought that it was really 'my' colour, bought it, then threw away the label ! He may garden, under duress, but he isn't a gardener ! Beautiful flowers though, that really glow at dusk, and beautiful yarn.

My camera struggles in low light to capture the true colours.
I took a photo with the flash, mainly to show the structure of the lace more clearly.

I am normally able to learn a lace pattern really quickly, but feel that I'll need the chart for this one. it is, in itself, an easy pattern, but you pattern every row. It doesn't feel very intuitive to knit. Maybe if I spend a longer session on the knitting of it the pattern will embed in my brain !
I haven't ditched it in disgust. The pattern looks lovely, and makes a lovely, squishy fabric. I've put things aside for some super secret knitting.
To distract you from that, here's the yarn I was spinning plied up into a fingering/ 4ply weight yarn. Nice and bouncy. I think it will be a shoulder shawl.

I don't aim for perfection in my spinning. More for a lofty, soft, knitters' yarn. I loosely count treadles when plying, but tend to just spin by eye. iIthink it's possible to get too caught up in the production of a 'perfect' looking yarn. Those don't always make the best knitted fabric.

The new fluff on the bobbin is a cashmere/ silk blend from Lime Green Jelly. She dyes such incredibly deep, intense colours. Really lovely. All the rovings are named after songs, which is fun.

This isn't possible to spin in my usual, somewhat laid back, longdraw'ish style. The very short and fine cashmere fibres mixed with much longer, smooth silk fibres mean that spinning short draw, from the fold, seems to work best. I'm still splitting the roving lengthwise, then taking off sections to spin from the fold, mainly to mix the colours up a bit. I can only hope that my yarn does the beautiful fibre justice.

Here's hoping the spring returns. Our hearts could do with a lift.

ONE FALSE MOVE AND THE BUNNY GETS IT ! ...

This was an organic white chocolate Monster Bunny from Montezumas. They make lovely chocolate. I'm partial to their lime and vanilla Dainty Dollops.
It's been a quiet two weeks for Oliver. Probably what he needed, to chill out a bit. Hard work, as ever, for me, but still fun to have him around. I always miss him when he goes back to school.

I got about a third of a heart mitten out of what was left of the skein. So, that's three and a third mittens out of 50gms. I'll be able to get another pair from my second skein.

They are even softer once washed. Divine to wear. I'm going to have to make myself a pair so that my poor finger joints can benefit from the whisper light warmth. i took them outside to see if I could get a better representation of the colour. This isn't too bad, but still a bit bleached out. Red is such a hard colour to photograph.

I'm now making a pale green pair. This is Skein Queen's Opulent, which is the same base yarn as the Lotus Cashmere. The exact same yardage per 50gms, and knits to the same tension. It feels slightly sifter to knit with, and bit more loosely plied. I think this is because hand dyed yarns are treated a lot more gently than commercially dyed ones, where they throw them into vats of boiling dye ! Pretty much !

Anyway, this colour is called Spring buds. It really is the same colour as the buds bursting open on the trees around year. Despite the really cold weather yasterday and today. it was like the beginning of february. Cold, damp with a thck fog rolling in off the sea. My poor joints are not happy. I've been having to wear my Handeze Gloves in order to knit.
Roll on summer ! At least the buds are evidence of the, inevitable, turning of the year.