I like Holidays

I like holidays because you can get to see places like this:

And this

And I got to knit at5,500ft on mount Rigi

This is the most stunning colour of Lake Lucerne .I shall dye some silk in honour of this glorious lake colour

And here I am in a beautiful 18th century wooden guest house restaurant with my knitting out, waiting for what turned out to be the most amazing meal of home cooked rosti and eggs, yummy yummy.

Just the loveliest week of chilling and mountains and lakes and knitting, just perfect.I meant to have got this out last week but I had problems with sizing the photos and it slipped my mind. Thanks Anne for giving me a gentle nag about this today.I adored Switzerland and would love to spend some more hols there.

And now here I am back in reality. My new electric skein winder has arrived and I love it, no more hurting my shoulders on winding on the old one. I am winding like mad and then it will be all sytems are go, ready for Iknit and the Ally Pally

Add comment July 24th, 2008

Woolfest and holidays

I never did get to take any photos at Woolfest, we were just so busy and I forgot that I had the camera with me.We had a great show and each show I do I get to remember all over again just how absolutley wonderful yarn folk are, so a big thank you to all the lovely people I met both old and new who just made each day special for me.

My favourite comment of the show, was Christina from Viginia in the US who told me that she’d like to roll naked in my cashmere and silk. Just brill, maybe I should lay that on as an optional extra ( seriously only kidding!).My cousin Christine helped me at the show and she was great, she just loved all the yarns and fibres, and I have taught her the basics of lace knitting. A complete addiction to beautiful yarns and fibres and a love of lace is a pre-requisite for helping out on my stand at shows.

It was such a long drive home when we were already tired, but we stopped at the wonderful Westmoreland deli at the services on the M6 and stocked up on goodies, and I staggered through my front door on sunday afternoon and went wurble wurble and collapsed in a heap.But I just loved every minute of it.

I’ve spent the week sorting things out, and been busy, and as a special reward for being good, we are off to Switzerland and Lake Lucerne on Saturday morning for a well earned holiday, we have a hotel right on the lake shore and will be able to eat our breakfast, looking out over the Lake with the mountains behind us.I have my holiday knitting set up, something not too exacting , but enough to keep me interested, in magenta silk.Richard is looking forward to Swiss chocolate among other things. We will be back on the 13th hopefully refreshed and invigorated. See you then

Add comment July 3rd, 2008

Funny stuff on You Tube

I was going to write something completely different for the blog this week, but Anne told me about this site and it’s just great.This is the Melin Tregwynt Woollen Mill site, on it they have a section entitled “Weird and Woolly” which consists of little shorts from You Tube, just fab, please check out these 3 on the site, make sure you have the sound turned up. These are the little films in the order you should watch them,

1.Ball of wool

2.The last knit

3.Graham Norton discovers woollen underwear

You really do need to watch them in this order, talk about the sublime to the ridiculous.The first 2 are just lovely, and if you can watch the Graham Norton one without being ill laughing, then you’ve better self control than me, the thing to remember about the Norton one is that everything on it is hand knitted! My word it’s a funny old world isn’t it? I don’t see me using any of the patterns here for Knitwitches you’ll be very pleased to hear.

Cheers Anne for telling me about this site, and here it is.Have fun everyone and enjoy.

http://www.melintregwynt.co.uk/weird-and-woolly/

Add comment June 5th, 2008

Bank Holiday Rain and Baby Robins

Why does it rain on bank holidays in this country? Today not only is the rain torrential, but the wind is howling a gale and whistling all round the house, and for crying out loud I have just braved the elements and been down the garden centre to buy some bedding plants, and the temp showing on the car was 8C. That’s winter temps, is this what we have to look forward to for our summer? Probably. But on the bright side less gardening opportunities means more knitting ones, every cloud has a silver lining.Now there’s a good name for a colourway “Silver Lining” hmmmmm! Silk I think.

Yesterday I finally made it to clear out the greenhouse, which was a tip, with a few panes of glass out and full of weeds and rubbish, and found in an old watering can underneath the work bench, a nest of robins, they must be close to flying as they were fully feathered, and scuttled away and hid when I found them. I came out and shut the the door and phoned a wildlife sanctuary to ask for advice. A lovely lady told me what to do, so I went back in, found the babies(4 of them), so small and all huddled and not moving, and one by one put them back in the watering can and came out and shut the door. Hopefully they will fly soon, they must be close to it, and then I can get back into the greenhouse in the next few days and get my tomatoes planted.So yet another excuse not to do the garden/greenhouse etc.

I’m currently knitting the Lunar Moth shawl from Elann, such a nice pattern, nice and easyish, I’m doing it a very pale apple green cash/silk. The cardigan is still in embryo, I’ve done the swatches and know what I want to do, stitches design etc. I was going to do pictures, but then the new computer went dodgy, but Richard has now installed the new hard drive on the computer, so perhaps I can work out how to do it on this machine now. I freely admit to being technoligically challenged.In the mean time the the rain is slapping into the windows, the wind is howling, the central heating is on, it is a public holiday, so I shall head for the sofa, put a movie on and knit. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Add comment May 26th, 2008

A cardigan for me

I realised that I didn’t write a post last week, and here I am at the end of another week and I’ve just remembered to do it. My mind is all caught up with trying to design a cardigan.I have this image in my head of what I want to do and it just won’t go away. I want to use one of the new Seriously Gorgeous range of yarns that I have, and am busy knitting swatches in the yarn which is the silk and kid mohair, this is 1 strand of silk, twisted round with one strand of very fine kid silk. A totally stunning yarn, but mainly silk(80%) so it has a lovely sheen and drape with the lovely soft halo of kid.This cardigan is for me, and why not, I usually knit for Knitwitches, and this time decided to do it for me.

I also want to this for those of us who are not skin lizzies, I am rather full in the frontal dept and come in at a UK 16, so I will knit this for me and will then size up the pattern so that it will go up to a UK 22. This way I get to wear the samples(not stupid me), as when designing patterns you have to start with the smallest size, and I can’t remember the last time I was a size 10, so can’t wear the usual pattern samples.I would so like to see really nice patterns for the bigger sizes.

I was going to put some pictures of the swatches on this post, but I got a new computer a week ago and it’s playing up big time, there is apparently a glitch in the hard drive, it’s doing weird things and making funny noises.A new hard drive is on it’s way and then all will be well, she said hopefully. But meantime I do not want to do anything that will upset it, so am not going to attempt to put pictures on here.

Add comment May 16th, 2008

Wonderwool

What a lovely show and so different from last year, so much bigger, with the food show as well, our stand was right next to the start of the food stands. We met and chatted to so many lovely people, out stand was just so big that at first I was worried about how it would work, but of course it all looked fab once it was done. I always worry about things, and they always turn out fine, but still I worry, it must be in my genes, I want my yarn to look just perfect. The Show organisers had however been very considerate to us and had put a chocolate stand opposite ours, the stall holder made the fatal mistake of through the day(Sat) putting out chocolate samples (and for those of you who are chocoholics, we are talking serious hand made stuff here).Did we help ourselves at regular intervals?What do you think. He had however got wise to us by sunday and there were no samples available. Possibly the headache I had yesterday was linked to my chocolate consumption.

We had a great show and sold loads of yarn,and met loads of new people, and whenever we could, we would take it in turns to race off for 10minutes to suss out the other stalls, to see if there was anything we couldn’t live without. I discovered that I couldn’t live without a leather knitting bag in tan,and some super soft lace weight baby alpaca/silk/cashmere, which will go into the alpaca box of my stash until such time as it tells me what it wants to be.

On Sunday 2 of my favourite people came to the stand, Craig and Gerard, who are of course IKnit London,Gerard had come in a short sleeved shirt and was freezing to death. I offered to loan him the only spare warm garment I had with me which was my handspun alpaca Icelandic shawl, which he wore for the entire show with great style and flair and which more to the point kept him warm.

Here’s the pictures with Craig on the left, me Gerard plus shawl, and Wye Sue, and of course in the seconf picture Craig, Gerard and Sue.

Sunday was so quiet compared to Sunday, it’s funny how different days at shows can have such different dynamics, we arrived home Sunday night in a state of complete knackerdom(tiredness for anyone not British reading this), the yarn boxes all need tidying, and now its all needs to gear up for the next show, which will be the Embroiders Guild one at Tavistock at the end of May, and then Woolfest at the end of June.

Finally I’m now going to do an Oscar type speech. To all my wonderful and deeply supportitive friends who helped me with the show, Anne, Jane, Sue, Christine and Jen, to me you are all stars. Thank you, for all your encouragement and support.

1 comment April 29th, 2008

An unusual end to an evening at the ballet

Yesterday evening, Ruth and I and Jane and Cheryl went to see a Chinese ballet at the Opera House in Cardiff, Ruth and I got back home around 10.30, we were all tired so went to bed before 11. Now you have to realise that we live in a very tiny village, really just a hamlet, at 800 foot on top of the mountain above Pontypridd, we have a road running through the village that can in the daytime be a busy shortcut thro for traffic. On one side of us is an old 18th century stone farmhouse, where our neighbours Sean and Julie and their daughter Taylah live.I had just drifted off to sleep, probably about11.15 when the doorbell rang, the dogs started barking and then the bell kept ringing insistently, I grabbed my dressing down, as did Ruth(Richard was a bit behind us as he had been in a coma when the bell rang) and we ran down the stairs to find a policeman, Julie in her dressing gown and slippers, plus her 11 year old daughter Taylah, shaking like a leaf and very upset and in shock.Their house was on fire with flames pouring from the roof.We got Julie and Taylah indoors and wrapped then in blankets and then found out what had happened.The police car had been driving up the hill and had seen flames pouring from the roof,one policeman called the fire brigade and closed the rod, while the other one hammered on the doors and windows to get their attention, and got all 3 of them out of the house, poor Taylah had been fast asleep in her bed and was woken by a policeman yelling “wake up grab your dressing gown get out”, no wonder the poor kid was shaking like a leaf when she came thro the door of our house.Richard mean time had got dressed and gone to be with Sean.The fire brigade was there within 10 minutes and got the fire under control and put out. The noise was terrible, with the slates on the roof exploding, our dogs went and hid with all the noise.So in our tiny sleepy little village with our narrow country road we had 2 fire engines with full crews, 2 police cars, plus all the ladders fire hoses, flashing lights, the road closed to traffic etc. Once we had got Taylah calmed down, Ruth and me, and Taylah and Julie stood on our porch and watched what was happening. Taylah by now had realised the street cred she would get for this at school and was taking copious mental notes on what was going on,to make sure she got maximum imapct and attention at school

And the good news , and there is good news, the fire was confined to the roof space, there is no damage to the interior of the house, apart from some water damage. The fire was caused by a spark from the log burner in the lounge going through a samll gap in the chimney and setting alight stuff stored in the loft.They were so lucky, lucky that the poice car went through the village in the right direction and saw the flames before they engulfed the house, lucky that there were no high winds last night. They had fire alarms, but because the fire was in the roof the house alarms did not detect the fire. The have a huge gaping hole in their roof, now covered by a tarp, and a lot of the roof will need replacing, but there is no damage to the inside of the house, not even a smell of smoke.They were able to back into their house when the firemen had cleaned up.

Some guardian angel was watching over that family last night, if the police car hadn’t gone past when it did, if there had been a high wind(as we often get up here), then who knows what awfullness might have happened.So thank you to whatever guardian angels were hovering above Penycoedcae last night, you did a great job. Bricks and mortar and things can be replaced, that’s what insurance is for, I’m rather fond of my next door neighbours, and it could so easily have been much worse.

When we finally got to bed I couldn’t sleep, we all feel wrecked this morning. But hey the sun is shining, I have dyeing to do and it’s Wonderwool on Saturday !!!!!!!!!!

Come say hello if you’re going………….See you all there.

1 comment April 23rd, 2008

Holidays ,birthdays and back to work

We had such a lovely peaceful break in Dorset, and while cold , it was sunny all the week, apart that is to waking up at 7am on sunday morning to find a howling blizzard outside, I thought ooh goodie I’ll light the log fire and hibernate with my knitting for the day, but it was all gone and the sun shining by 11am. It was frosty every morning and Richard took the dogs out over the fields early, everymorning and took this amazing picture of a dandelion covered in frost.

I don’t know which leaf this one is but I just liked the picture. Last Thursday was my birthday, another year older(sigh) mentally I feel about 25, it’s a shame about the rest of me!Ruth bless her, organised cards to be sent to me at the cottage, and then at 10am, there was a knock on the door and this huge bouquet of roses was handed to me

They were from Ruth, it quite made my day, (and for anyone who’s interested they were from M&S Online).Being me I managed to find yarn related stuff everywhere we went. I found the yarn shops in Crewkerne, Honiton, and a lovely little shop on a craft centre site in a little village called Broadwindsor, where the owner, Tanya, who was a textiles lecturer in a previous life, runs workshops on felting, and makes kits of the most lovely and original scarves, using fleece as well as some very funky and beautiful coloured yarns. On the way home we called in at Cold Harbour Mill and I aquired some beautiful worsted spun organic merino yarn. Richard didn’t mind as the restaurant there had great food.Cold Harbour is well worth a visit if you are in the area, it’s just off Junction 27 of the M5. And now I’m back home and have re entered reality and am rushing around dyeing etc getting stuff ready for Wonderwool which is going to be ace and most excellent. I am so looking forward to it.And now I must to the dyeing and get loads more done before Builth.

Add comment April 15th, 2008

Spring is Sprung

It finally feels as though Spring is here, we are off to Dorset for a week’s holiday today, just me and Richard and the dogs, peace perfect peace, she said hopefully. The problem with working from home is that you never relax.The weather has been just so nice, I have been able to get the yarns out in the garden to dry, I took some(what I thought) were lovely shots of the Orenburg lace drying in the sunshine, only to find that I had got them out of focus. So here are some pictures that Richard took when walking in the woods last sunday instead, and yes, I do know that this in no way resembles handspun orenburg lace yarn, I just thought that they were lovely, the dogs that you can vaguely see the backs of in the one shot are the Knitwitches dogs.

The next one is special, which is why I put it in, Richard is really quite good at this

I just love the touches of moss on the tips of fur cone petals(not the right word but you know what I mean).Yesterday I dyed some more of the cashmere and silk, and the one that I dyed in the palest of apple greens with the faintest hint of lavender, is sitting on the drying rack in the hall and it’s singing to me and it’s saying ” You know you want me, think what a beautiful shawl you could make with me, think how much you will love knitting with me, knowing how soft I am, think what I will look like in a delicate beautiful lace shawl wrapped round your shoulders, how much I, as the shawl, will be admired” Aaaaargh somebody help me please, I think I need a holiday .

I keep telling myself that I only have just over 4 kilos of this to sell till June and the new order coming in, and that I need it all for Wonderwool. I shall be strong, I shall resist, keep telling yourself this Eirwen.You already have your knitting planned for Dorset. Just think a whole week to knit with no distractions.

And it’s my birthday next Thursday.Just think a year ago I had never heard of or become addicted to Ravelry. Shock horror.Icouldn’t imagine being with out it now.

Happy Holidays!

1 comment April 4th, 2008

Orenburg Lace

Last week I received some samples of Orenburg Lace yarn from the Ukraine. I always love it when something comes to me without me having to go looking for it. So I have dyed it and taken a photo of it, and here it is. Absolutley gorgeous.

This is handspun kid mohair and silk, aprox 80% kid mohair/20%silk, a true lace weight and very fine with approx 550metres per 50gm skein. It is very soft, as you would expect from kid mohair and has a lovely sheen from the silk.Have I ordered any fro Knitwitches you ask, well yeah of course I have. 5 kilos is on it’s way to me as I write, I’m looking forward to getting this and will try to get this on the website fairly quickly. I haven’t decided on the price for this yet, it will depend on how much duty I have to pay on it. It will probably be no more than £14/15 per skein though, which is quite reasonable for hand spun, hand dyed lace yarn . I have a book about the Orenburg Lace Shawls, they are famous in Russia and become family heirlooms. This yarn will be just lovely to knit lace with.

If I get offered anymore stunningly lovely yarns from anywhere in the world, whatever they are, I have two options open to me I either say no, or I remortgage the house to pay for them. I really have to get a grip on my yarn addicition. This house is wall to wall yarn.

My shoulder is greatly improved from last week. I went to see a lovely therapist in Cardiff, who is a sports masseuse and acupuncturist. She pummeled me and needled me, and it really helped, I’m still a bit stiff an achey today but at least I am able to work again. I have another session due with the lovely lady on Saturday.

It’s bank holiday and of course true to form the weather has turned wet and miserable, so for me it will be a part holiday part working weekend.It would be so nice to get some warm weather sigh!

Add comment March 20th, 2008

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