Daughter's visit

Had a very busy day today. My Daughter, Son-in-Law and Grandaughter came to visit. Granddaughter was very excited to come to Nanny's house as I usually visit them. She wanted to see the bunnies, all the cats and the quail. I had to get lots of the bunnies out for her to look at, and one of the quail. We had roast dinner and then took their dog for a walk round the local footpaths.

Sewing machines and Morsbags

I started repairing the case on the Singer 28 I am restoring. I had it on the breakfast bar glued and clamped. then Kesira jumped up and knocked the lot off. The whole case came apart so I had to start again. I had cut the new case top and stained it and was hoping to glue and pin that on tonight. Alas, it was not to be. I will have to finish it tomorrow as Sarah wants to take it back to the Workshop to replace the Jones Unique machine.

I went to our local Morsbag meeting (LITbags pod). There were only Rosie, Sue and myself there. I actually made 2 bags tonight and brought home some more cut out fabric to make extra bags.

Soap/baby sweater

I made teatree/clay and rose soap today. Then I started a sweater for Riley in blue fleck DK. I'm doing it in plain stocking stitch as the yarn is flecked with pink and white. I might male a little hat as well. Did some more to my cable sweater last night. Tomorrow I am going to do some more spinning.

New baby

Went to see our friend Cheryl today. She has just given birth to a little boy (not so little - 9lb 5oz) by caesarian. He is called Riley. Now I know she has a boy I can crochet a shawl and make a patchwork cot quilt in the right colours.

I finished off the bed covers I made last week on the treadle. I had to sew on velcro, thread the elastic on the fitted sheet corners and press it all. It looks really good. Now I have to make the other set. I have learned from the mistakes I made on this set.

I am going to make some patchwork cushions from the leftover fabric from the bed covers (pale burgundy and pale green).

Leicester Longwool sheep

Today I went and saw Lilly, the sheep whose fleece I am spinning. Sue, the owner has about 30 sheep including Leicester Longwool, Shetland and Hebridean. Lilly's fleece is lovely and soft, it's the first time she has been sheared. I have booked some of the fleece from the lambs Sue bred this year and the white Ram lamb they bought to start a white flock. She is putting 2 Shetland ewes to the Leicester Longwool ram as she has been told that particular cross makes a good spinning fleece.

I spun a little more of the L Longwool fleece and took it with me for Sue to see. She was over the moon to see some of the fleece from her own sheep actually spun. She loved the random black, grey and white colouring. I intend to spin a lot of the fleece and make bodywarmers for us all for Christmas on the chunky Brother knitting machine. I have done some more to Casie's scarf and it is beginning to look good.

We stopped off at the allotment on the way home from Sue's and picked the sweetcorn and beans. They are finished now. This week we will be rotavating it and tidying up for the Winter and netting the brassicas.

Carding

Got a phone call at 7.15 this morning from one of the new Fishing syndicate members. They got their van stuck down the lake. We had to go and get Dave and his Land Rover to pull them out. Fortunately it didn't take long.

I carded some of the Leicester Longwool this afternoon and tried making into roving. It didn't work too badly. I have started spinning the fleece to show Sue tomorrow when we go to see her sheep.

I have been knitting Casie's scarf and this evening the ribbing on my sweater.

Leicester Longwool Fleece

I spent the day teasing out the cleaned Leicester Longwool fleece. It's beautiful, colours from cream to rust, grey and black, soft and lustrous. It comes from Lilly a yearling ewe.

I rang the phone number on the label that came with the fleece and spoke to Sue who owns Lilly. She only lives about 2 miles down the road which is very strange as I expected her to live miles away. I got the fleece from the Rare Breeds Show at Melton Mowbray and it's nearly come back home. I wanted a picture of Lilly, so I have arranged to go and see Sue's flock of 30 sheep on Sunday and I'll take my own pictures.

I want to spin some of the fleece before Sunday to show Sue as she's not seen it spun up. I'm also going to take the crochet Jacobs Fleece scarf to show her. She has just bought a spinning wheel and wanted to know how I cleaned fleeces so I explained the method I use.

I also washed the remainder of the Cotswold fleece which I will tease out tomorrow. My hands ache too much to knit tonight.

Busy, busy

So much for regular posts. Lately I have been restoring vintage hand crank and treadle sewing machines for an eco sewing weekend at the Sally Bourne Interiors Workshop in Crouch End, North London. That's taken up the last 5 weeks pretty much.

It was a really good weekend. We taught about 8 children to hand crank starting from about 21/2 years old (sitting on Mummy's lap). They were amazingly creative. One little girl about 6 or 7 years old, made (with our help) a dress, a pair of sandals and a carry bag for her fluffy bunny. We taught a couple of teenagers and several adults to treadle and sold 2 machines and possibly another 3. My daughter got a few bookings for her quilting and sewing classes. I found my Jones CB treadle will free motion quilt quite well, I just need to practice. You don't need a feed dog cover as the stitch length lever can be put in neutral.

A few weeks ago I did a swap, one of my treadles which I repainted and repolished for a needle felting machine from Rosie who makes Morsbags. We are both happy with the swap. I intend to make some wall art for the lounge for when we decorate.

We went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace 2 weeks ago. I bought some purple, deep red and cream prefelt, red silk fibres (for felting) and a pack of alpaca mix yarn in autumn shades. There was much more wool and yarn this year, plus a lot of felting supplies.

I have started 2 knitting projects, a long scarf for Casie my son-in-law with huge cables. That's in grey Rowan big wool. The other project is a heavily cabled sweater for me in a blue fleck aran wool and acrylic mix.

Today I brushed some of the Angora bunnies, cleaned some Leicester Longwool fleece to be carded and spun some Portland fllece which I will dye with vegetable dyes later on.