Groby and other things

I've been busy helping out over at my neighbours' alpaca farm (Pine Tree Alpacas). I went over there a while ago and helped sort some of their fleeces. Sunday and Monday I went over there again and we sorted all the white fleeces, cleaned the worst of the vegetable matter off and trimmed about 6 inches all round each fleece. It was educational to see the difference between each fleece. Some had crimp from butt to tip, others not so much crimp, but a fine micron count. Some were very dense and soft, others quite thin in comparison.

Nick and Lisa had given me a whole fleece from Whiskey (a lovely white boy), a few weeks ago. I have spun some of it and Navajo plyed it just to see what it looked like. I took the spun samples, washed fibre and carded fibre the last time I went over there. Lisa took pictures for their blog to show the progression from fleece to yarn. I also came home with a white commercial fleece from one of Nick's 2 sheep, reared from cade lambs. It looks quite big, so another one to clean and wash.

This time I took home some of the skirted fibre on Sunday which is a rich dark chocolate colour, gorgeous! I have washed and dried it and now need to card it and see how it spins, being the rejects. But, I just adore the colour. Monday I came home with fawn remnants, still not washed, but due for cleaning tomorrow (Sunday).

Today was Guild Spinning Day and we were meeting at Groby to try the hall out. We have 48 members now and Botcheston where we normally meet is beginning to bulge at the seams, especially when we have workshops. The new hall was a bit bigger, but the kitchen is tiny so we couldn't have the food set out in there. The kitchen is too narrow for 2 way traffic. Because of this, we had 2 tables set up in the hall which took up quite a bit of room. I don't think overall, that it made a lot of difference and parking is worse. Next month we're back at Botcheston anyway. I spun some more of the alpaca and did a continental knitting workshop. I've got the hang of knit stitches, just struggling with purl, partly due to the arthritis in my fingers. I will persevere.

I've just finished a crochet lovey blanket for Sarah's friend Kellie's new daughter. Just have to sew it all together. Almost done one for Cammie, and a tube scarf/cowl for Rowan. They should all be finished this week. Pictures to follow.

New Year

I spent New Year's Eve and the following week with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters down in Devon. we didn't do a lot, we ended up playing Monopoly and watching Delia through the decades on TV. We barely made it to 12 before we went to bed.

Since then, we collected 3 Suffolk fleeces from a friend of my daughter's, we were offered 10 but didn't have the time or room to process them at the moment. They are rather large. One was fine, I just skirted it (took all the dirty fleece off round the edges) and packed it in a vacuum bag to bring home. The second was unfortunately badly felted along the back, it was rather damp as were the other two. I had to put that into the junk pile for lining hanging baskets and making fertiliser. The third one was very orange and smelt rather smelly, so not sure if it was a ram fleece. I washed that as well, but in addition poured fabric softener in the rinse water to make it smell better. It did do that. I spread the damp fleece on sheets in the studio which has under floor heating. Should dry very quickly.

We went to the Eden Project last Sunday. I really enjoyed it. In the rain forest biome, we went right up into the roof on a metal walkway which swayed as you walked up. Fantastic view from the top.

                                                             

Christmas catchup

It's Christmas Day, or evening. We had a good day at our friends, ate a lovely meal and watched their little boy play with all his new toys. I have been and still am feverishly making Christmas presents for my family. A wrap for Sarah, a jacket for Rowan, dress and hat for Cammie and wrist warmers for Casie.

Hopefully they will all be finished before I go down to Devon next week.

Last week I went over to see our neighbours Pine Tree Alpacas. Nick and Lisa kindly gave me one of their white alpaca fleeces to spin a few weeks ago and thought I might like to go over and see their current fleeces. It was enjoyable and educational to see a selection of fleeces one after the other and be able to grade them for crimp and fineness (micron count). I met some of the mother alpacas with their crias who were very cute. I loved the fawn and dark brown colours. I'll be using some of the remnants (sorted fleece which is not usable from around the edges) to try wet felting and also to experiment with other techniques.

They also asked me to help them with their open day next year and help Lisa start up a craft group in the village hall. Exciting stuff.

Speaking of craft groups, Caroline and I are going to one on Thursdays at Burbage in the Acorn Cafe on the Common. Most of the ladies belong to Spinning guilds I belong to and go along for a couple of hours to knit, crochet and gossip. Very pleasant. 

There is a new group starting in Ashby Magna village hall in January, Sylvia Winn from the Braiding Society is setting up a monthly group making braids. It's not something I've ever done, but as it is right on my doorstep, I'll be going long to try my hand. I might attempt to make an inkle loom. More about that another time. 

That's all for today, Happy New Year to you all.

Spinning (mostly)

This Saturday was my Spinners Guild meeting, always an enjoyable event. We all take food and it is all set out as a buffet, with savouries and desserts, including Debbie's fantastic chocolate cake, which always comes with 2 tins of cherry pie filling and 2 pots of cream.

We had a gentleman come to talk about natural dyes, he was very interesting, a scientist, not a spinner or weaver. He has been trying out different plants for 25 years and does it all very scientifically, with different mordants and acid, neutral and alkaline mediums. I asked him if he knew why my onion skin dyeing made the wool harsh and he said I needed to use 1/4 by weight of cream of tartar to the mordant to stop this. I'll have to try that out.

I spent more time helping new members who were having trouble with fleeces or their wheels. One lady (Mags) had a wheel which her friend had copied from a wheel she borrowed. It looked like a Louet to me. I have taken pictures just in case I want to make another wheel, but I think it will be quicker to make a new foot pedal and footman for the Louet S10 I have. She was having problems with the wheel going too fast. She was better when I gave her some carded Shetland to try, but the spool/flyer needed to be slowed down. After some discussion we decided she needed a strip of leather across the orifice tube.

I am spinning caramel coloured shetland at the moment, Lynn the Guild Secretary wanted some more of the Shetland I took in a couple of months ago, so I took in 2 more washed fleeces, a paler caramel which Lynn took and the darker one was raided by about 3 people. I'm hoping when I have enough Shetland spun, to knit or crochet a sweater for the winter. I have about 50 grams spun, so might do some tension squares and look for a pattern. I am continuing with the corner to corner crochet baby blanket and trying to start some socks for me in a brown/grey/cream random sock yarn, but trying at night with dark brown wool wasn't very successful, so I shall have to start again tomorrow.

Today I've been cutting plywood to make a chicken shed (from the remains of 6 rabbit hutches). I hope to be able to put that together tomorrow as we need a new one because we are infested with red mite in at least one shed and need to strip it right down and burn them out. When that shed is sterilised and rebuilt, we can transfer another lot into that shed and sterilise that one and so on until all 5 are done. What with this job and trying to redesign the garden to grow veggies, I am worn out most of the time. Two days ago, I took out 5 feet of bay tree and holly tree to let some light back into the garden for the future veg beds. Amazing what a difference it makes. I think it will be 2 months hard work to get all the garden tidy and the beds dug.

Crafts

I've been doing crochet and knitting recently but not much else in the way of crafts. Now suddenly, I want to get into all sorts of crafts I haven't touched in ages. I've been spinning some Caramel Shetland, very nice and soft and a blend of pale brown Merino and white silk I got from Maggie Stearn. I've also started foundation piecing an overnight bag, the pattern is for a laptop bag, but my crafting friend Caroline and myself wanted to make something for her Daughter. It's done in herringbone panels and I'm thoroughly enjoying it as I have never done this type of quilting before. In fact, my quilting experience is minimal, only hand quilting shortly after I left school at evening classes. I have repaired my Featherweight so I can take it to Busy Fingers, the craft group we run at Lutterworth church (St Marys). I have cut out some more fabric do make a foundation pieced panel to cover my little Singer Featherweight extension bed when it's in its box.

The shawl for Sarah's baby (due in September) is nearly finished and I will be sending that down to Devon in a parcel along with loom band bracelets for Rowan (bought a loom a couple of weeks ago). 

 Also some dragons as she has started collecting them. I'm making a crochet baby blanket for Sarah's friend Kellie who is due 8 weeks after Sarah. Trying corner to corner crochet. It looks very pretty. White, lavender, yellow and green.

Made some loom bands to practice.More on the way when I have time.

Spent half the day fishing (yes me who hasn't fished since I was 11) at a charity fishing match on behalf of Ben Jones Leukemia. The weather couldn't have been worse. Thanks Hurricane Bertha. Torrential rain right until 30 minutes before the end. We were both soaked, even though I had waterproof jacket and trousers on. the trousers are old and now need reproofing. Water was running down the back of my chair and under my trousers. Sitting in water is not a good idea. Best thing, getting back and taking a very hot shower to stave off hypothermia. Shan't be fishing again any time soon.

On the spinning front, I have been spinning caramel coloured Shetland. It's very soft and lovely to spin. I also recently finished spinning the second of 2 blended batts I bought from Maggie Stearn a couple of years ago. This was botany wool and Tussah silk, brown (mink shade) and cream. I must soak the cocoons I have and see how much thread there is there. I have some we dyed at a workshop at the Spinners Guild. It needs spinning up. It is very colourful, so needs careful thought on what to blend it with.

That's All for now, folks.

What a long time since I posted

It's 5 months since I last posted, I've been so busy with loads of different things. We've been through another car, the Renault Laguna had the cam belt go. It was going to cost at least £400 to fix as all the valves would need to be reground. That was if we did it ourselves. As we only paid £40 for it, we decided it just wasn't worth it, especially as we would have had to send the parts away to be reground which meant we would be without a car for at least 2 weeks.

I had recently bought a job lot of knitting machines at a local auction, 3 machines, each with a ribber, plus a cabinet and an old Knitmaster with ribber. I had sold all of these for quite a decent profit, just thought I might have some money to buy a garter carriage for my Brother electronic machine. Then this happened. Fortunately, we managed to get a small Vauxhall Corsa for £350, which was quite cheap. We had to tax it at the time, then later, replace two sections of the exhaust ((£38) and get some new tyres (£65). It now does much more to the gallon. It's going down to Devon and back on Sunday as I'm going down for 10 days while Phil will come back Sunday night on his own, and look after the menagerie.

I lost 4 Angora rabbits within 10 days, all in the same shed. The first one Topaz started snuffling and wheezing. I put Eucalyptus oil in his hutch and he seemed to get better. Then 3 days later he started again, but much worse. I took him to the vet and she said it was probably Pasteurella and there was nothing they could do except euthanase him. We had that done, then a week later Garnet went limp one morning, wouldn't eat or drink or move around. No other symptoms, then he just died. Onyx went the same way a day later. Jasper and Laurel were the only 2 left. I thought it was strange that the eldest, Father of Onyx and Topaz had survived, then another few days later he also just died with no other symptoms. I can only assume that they all had Pasteurella, which is apparently quite common with Angoras. 6 weeks later, I came home from Lutterworth, went out to check the bunnies and found Thistle laying on her side, hardly breathing. I picked her up and cuddled her and she died a few minutes later. It was almost as if she had waited for me to come home. I checked and Angoras seem to live only for 5 or 6 years, and these were exactly that, so obviously geriatric in Angora terms.

I now have only 1 Angora left, Amber. the one with the best wool, but very grumpy. I scrubbed Thistle's cage out and moved Laurel in as he was the only rabbit left in the other shed. the last remaining Quail hen died a few months ago and we got some new girls for Mario as he just kept calling and calling when he was on his own. We got 3 girls but lost one a few weeks later. The other 2 seem to be OK. We got them as sexed chicks and had to keep them separated from Mario until they were 6 weeks old and mature. They lay an egg each nearly every day, more than the chickens. We have lost 2 more hens, Lobelia the penultimate ex-batt and one of the hybrids we got from the chap in the village. We had 8 of those 2 years ago and now down to one who is the scrawniest, scraggiest bird you can imagine. This left Rodney one of the Araucana cockerels on his own, so we put him in with the oldest Araucana hen and the silky crosses. They seem quite happy together now.

We went to the Steam rally at Ashby Magna this year. We have lived here 15 years and it is the first time we have gone. We got in free as I was demonstrating spinning for the Guild with one of the other ladies, Alison. Phil enjoyed looking round while I was spinning and I walked round a couple of times to stretch my legs. It was enjoyable, lots of tractors, classic cars, dogs, craft stalls, lots of stalls selling tractor type parts, nuts, bolts etc. There were even some Alpacas there.

Our local auction where i buy most of my sewing machines to sell on, was closing down, so I bought everything I could to keep me going until I can find another source. I think I have enough now to keep me going for about 6 months, after which time I might be able to have at least one bedroom back.

I think that's about enough for one night's catch up.

Such a lot has happened

Well, what a lot has happened since I last blogged. Our Peugeot which we've had for a year had yet more problems (it's had nothing but problems), the turbo went. Phil could have fixed it quite cheaply, but apparently with turbo diesels you have to flush out all the oil pipes other wise you're throwing your money away. As we couldn't do that with the engine running, it meant taking out every oil pipe and cleaning them out manually, virtually taking the whole engine apart. It also needed at least 2 new tyres at £80 each. Phil had had enough and I agreed. We had looked for used turbos online, and one of the scrap yards rung us to say they had one for £150. We said we were scrapping it. He said why as it was a good car, we said we'd had enough. He said they would buy it from us for £500 and come down from Rochdale to collect it, we said we'de think about it and checked the local scrapyards who only offered us £130. We agreed to sell it to the yard in Rochdale and they came to collect it 2 days later. We had to wait for the cheque to clear, but it gave us time to look for another car. We went at looked at several and found one in our local free magazine for £450. It was older than the Peugeot, but was a Renault Lagune which Phil likes. Slightly smaller engine, but a smaller car and a hatchback. It had only a mont's tax and MOT, but it was a clean car and had hardly been used since it's last MOT. We offered them £450 and they accepted it. We duly paid the car tax and put it in for it's MOT on Wednesday just gone, wondering what it would fail on as it is 14 years old. Miracle!! it passed. Several advisories, mostly to do with corrosion underneath which needed wire brushing and repainting. So this time, we got a bargain. No more stupid computer error messages, what a relief.

I fell up the steps at the local tip, landing on both knees and one elbow on a metal grid. on examination, one bruised knee, one cut knee and an arm with the lines of the grid just below the elbow. It was so sore the next day I went to the Doctors and she sent me down to have it x-rayed. Fortunaely, after a 3 hour wait, it wasn't broken. Two days later all the bruises came out and my elbow was black and purple. That was 3 weeks ago, the bruises have faded but the elbow is still tender and the scab is still on my knee as it was quite deep. Phil has been knocking himself about, he walked into the apple tree outside his workshop and got a cut and a big bump. The next week while fishing a match, he speared his finger with a fine float, in one knuckle and out the next. then 3 days ago he walked into a kitchen wall cupboard door and knocked it right off its hinges and another bump. I also had terrible hay fever last week which I don't normally suffer from. One of my friends said all the grass and flowers had dropped their pollen at the same time because the weather had been so cold the Spring was delayed and absolutely rushed in with a vengeance. I was incapacitated for 4 days as I had to take extra strong anti-histamines which knocked me right out.

I am recovered now but have had a very busy week. 4 sewing machines to pack up and send off. One to Scotland, one to Wales, one to Surrey and one to Italy. After packing a machine every day, which takes about 2 hours of cutting bubble wrap, polystyrene and heavy duty cardboard, I'm worn out. Two have been delivered, one should be delivered on Monday and the last went off to Italy at lunchtime.

Aside from all this, I have been crocheting an Aran jacket in mid blue, with lattice work on the yoke. I am getting to the boring bit, the bands but I must get it done this week as I need new jumpers. All mine are wearing out. I am going to make an Aran sweater on the chunky Singer knitting machine, that is pale blue, I seem to have a lot of blue yarn at the moment.

I haven't done any spinning since the last Guild meeting, I have had so much to do on eBay and getting machines on Sarah's website that I just haven't had the time. Maybe next week. I also need to do some sewing, I need some new trousers for the Summer.

Spring update

Well, I have been very lax in posting to my blog. We have been very busy since January. Went to Diseworth on the Derby/Leicester border to watch pedigree Jacob lambs being shorn, and born. We selected which lamb we wanted, I chose one called Evoke because she had a lot of brown on her. The fleece is beautifullhy soft, shearling fleeces are the best that particular sheep will ever have. Terrific amount of lanolin in the fleece. I haven't been very particular preparing fleeces for spinning up until now, but it is a learning curve. This time I laid the fleece on a tarpaulin on the lawn to prepare it. I took off the 'skirts', the dirty bits all round the edges of the fleece.

Then I started splitting the fleece into sections of brown and white as I had plans! I used a dog brush to brush off the second cuts on the side nearest the skin (second cuts are where the clippers have gone through the fleece twice, and cause lumps in the yarn when you spin it.), then went on to brush the outside to remove hay and straw, etc. Where the two colours joined, I took the mixed brown and white and put that in a separate bag from the brown and white. I ended up with 4 bags, brown, white, mixed and dirty. I have never fancied spinning in the grease before, but I am tempted with this fleece as I was brushing separate locks out at times. We shall see.

What I plan to do with this fleece is to spin the two colours (I have more brown than white), use the brown as the base colour of a sweater and work Fair Isle bands round the bottom above the ribbing on the back, front and sleeves. I might work the ribbing in white as well, although I'm not sure about that yet. I could work in brown up to where I want the Fair Isle, then change to white and work the Fair Isle in brown, then more white before reverting to brown for the rest of that piece.

I was planning on using a white shetlan/Texel fleece to spin some yarn and dye it, but I had already washed it last year, and when I spun with it, there were so many second cuts it was a very lumpy yarn. I persevered to no avail, so gave up and started spinning it thick. I will ply it and end up with a rug yarn thickness, then dye it red with Madder and crochet a rug for the front room. I'm getting to the stage where the fleece tells me what it is suitable for.

At the beginning of February, Jenni Stewart and I went to the Guild of Long Draw Spinners at Stoke Albany. They had commissioned a great wheel from David Bryant and wanted to mark the first use of the wheel with a small event. They sent an invitation to our Guild at Botcheston in Leicestershire. Erica who is the Treasurer of our Guild is a member of GOLDS, so she was there as well. It was very odd, the hall was similar, the food was similar, the atmosphere was the same, just different faces. We settled down, with the usual chatting. There were some differences, like no looms as it is just a Spinners Guild, and a lot of members knitting their hand spun yarn. We admired the lovely great wheel in the corner. A table was set up in the middle of the hall, and Magge Stearn was there with lots of gorgeous rovings in different colour and fibre combinations. I succumbed to tempation and bought one in midnight blue, black, white and angelina, this was Merino, silk and angelina. The other one I bought was in caramel colours and white, botany wool and Tussah silk (I have started spinning the blue). There were also knitted items on display on the table, made by the members. We spun for a while, and looked at what the other ladies were doing.

Then the great wheel was set up and we went up in groups of 3 to learn to make the perfect rolag. Once we had our rolag which was made from some quite ropey white wool, we went and spun it on the great wheel while Janet the chairlady instructed us. It wasn't easy to walk backward while spinning, and there was a problem with keeping momentum up on the wheel. Janet thought this was because the belt was slightly too tight. The belt was crocheted from fine cotton crochet type thread. We each got a badge when we'd finished our turn on the wheel. I wanted to try it out as Sarah has a great wheel on loan and we want to get it up and running. We had lunch which was very nice, but no chocolate cake. At the end of an enjoyable day, we packed up and promised to return  as we had a good time. Some of the members there go to 5 or 6 different Guilds!

We have both had bad Conjunctivitis in both eyes. I was on my way to Devon on the coach when mine started. Phil had had his a week before me. We caught this from our friends' little boy, and then his Mum. It was very nasty anyway. When I got to Sarah's we looked up natural remedies as my eyes were streaming. Unpasteurised honey came up, and Sarah had some from students who attended a business soap making course in order to use their bee honey and wax. It worked astoundingly well. Within 2 hours the weeping had virtually stopped. I had my own towels, and a towel over my pillow, lots of hand washing during the week, but it was nearly gone within 2 days, whereas Phil's lasted 10 days.

While down at Sarah's, we went to Bude to deliver soap, went to the beach at Bude with Rowan so she could run around, went to Bideford to get rosebuds from the 'Apothecary', then on to the Soap Kitchen at  Torrington as they didn't have any. We went to Saunton Sands with Rowan and Holly who both ran around like loonies. I took lots down to do while I was there, but did very little as I couldn't see very well due to the conjunctivitis. I spun a little of the midnight blue roving and did a little crocheting on a blue jacket I was making in a blue marl Aran yarn.

Since coming back from Devon, I have been catching up on everything and trying deperately to get some sewing machines on eBay and Rowan Tree Studio's website. We haven't had a lot of machines come in since Christmas, they are just starting to trickle through.

New Year

Sitting here with thick snow outside, the first of the Winter. We did our grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't have to go out today. No snow last night so the roads are clear. Spinners Guild was cancelled, craft group yesterday was cancelled.

New Year Resolution - brush my bunnies more often, good for them as they won't get knotty and for me as not so much wool will be wasted. I have been spinning with Thistle angora (pale chinchilla grey), mixed with dark grey and black alpaca. The resulting Aran weight yarn I have used to knit 2 cable hats, one for Phil when he's fishing, the other went down to Devon. Sarah said it kept sliding off and Casie thought it was too girly as it was fluffy. Rowan likes it though and Sarah's friend Nicola who crochets, also likes it. I will be sending Nicola some of that yarn when I have spun some more. Also some odds and ends of Jacobs left over from my jacket.

New Year Resolution - Do more spinning/knitting/crochet, I have plans to spin some Leicester Longwool (Sue Bailey's Duke) to make Sarah a jacket as I have used all the Jacobs and I can't find anymore, although I should be getting a new shearling Jacob at the end of January. Rowan wants some new multicolour jumpers, just waiting for measurements to start those. Also making her a poncho in multicolour DK and blue eyelash yarn.

New Year Resolution - restore all my old sewing machines which have been sitting there for years. These are the ones which need a lot of work to either machine or case/base, mostly the woodwork, although I am running out of hand cranks now. I don't intend to buy any more electric machines as hand cranks are expensive to buy on eBay. I will be looking to import some from the US, from Cindy Peters. I did buy a machine in a table, Singer 15 electric with Sphinx decals. I actually only wanted the table to put my Singer 306 in so I can have access to it anytime. I need to sell 3 Singer 201 treadles, starting with one this week. That will make room in the big sewing room, the knitting room and the dining room. The extra room in the sewing room will be taken by the table I bought this week.

The Alpacas are in the field directly opposite which is nice. I love to watch them when I'm working up in the sewing room.

Alpacas

About 4 weeks ago, we had Alpacas move in in the field opposite our house. we know the owner quite well after 15 years of chatting when he works on the land, so we went over to have a look. They have 20 Alpacas, male, female and 3 x 3 month old Crias (babies). Mostly white, but about 3 of varying brown shades, including a male called Cadbury. They will be breeding them, in fact several of the females are pregnant again and should produce next June. They will also be keeping pigs, chickens and opening up the lakes for fishing. Nice little enterprise.

Toft Alpacas will be taking their fleeces, I have been wanting to go over there for ages, so this gave me an extra incentive now we have the car back on the road (such a relief). We went Tuesday, it was raining when we got there so we browsed round the shop looking at all the lovely yarns, carded fleece and sample garments, They mainly deal in kits, supplying the yarn and pattern, also needles if you need those. Very expensive, but beautiful. They also supply raw fleece, although the majority is sent to Banbury to be spun. Harriet, the young lady who has just started working there, was on her own, so as she had to get some orders labelled for the courier, we went for a walk and looked at all the Alpacas, taking some photos. They have 250 animals. Harriet then took us over to the barn so I could look at the fleece. Uncarded it is £15 for 500 gms, so I had 500 of black and grey respectively. As it is so light, there is a surprising amount of fleece there. I plan to blend these and spin singles to ply with the North Ronaldsay wool which I am spinning at the moment. This should make a lovely soft, warm grey/black yarn. Not sure what I'll be doing with it, sweater maybe.

Toft also run workshops, they have one on dyeing in February which I might treat myself to.

Spinning Guild

Todau was Spinning Guild day, I didn't think I would be able to go as we are still waiting for a part for the car, but lovely Sue Bailey gave me a lift.

A great day as usual, we had a lady demonstrating silk painting which was very interesting and I would love to be able to do the fantastic work she does on silk scarves, but I have far too many other things to do.

I hadn't got much Portland carded, so I grabbed the North Ronaldsay carded batts which I hadn't for some reason been able to spin up until now. Today it worked straightaway and I was spinning a lovely two tone cream and black yarn. The North Ronaldsay fibre had black guard hairs which aren't really noticable in the batts, but spun it comes up quite a bit darker. I will take some pictures and post later.

I bought Sarah some embroidery thread from Sue. She had several bags with what looked like samples threaded onto cards, along with some embroidery fabric. They should be suitable for Sarah to make embroidered cards or embroidery on pictures,  Advent Calendars, etc.

I have decided I need to spend more time spinning so need to sort out the little bedroom and make room for spinning wheels again. I also need to sort out some of the knitting machines, repair a couple so I can use them. I sold my Brother KH260 as I haven't used it in 4 years. I tried to use it the other day and after spending several hours doing tension squares and not getting very far as I couldn't match it up to the pattern I wanted to use, I decided to sell it. I still have a Singer chunky and a Knitmaster Zippy 90 which needs the carriage repaired. My spinning is getting sufficiently thin and non lumpy that I might be able to use handspun on those machines as long as I wax the wool first.

We got a planning application letter from Harborough District Council last week, apparently we have Alpacas coming to live in the fields opposite as they want to put up a hay barn, an agricultural storage shed and a temporary agricultural workers dwelling. This is very exciting, I wonder if they will need any help in exchange for fleeces.

New washing machine and car starting

Good day today, the new washing machine arrived. I haven't had a brand new washing machine for over 15 years, so it is a real treat to have a shiny new one which is really quiet and has a time delay on it, no more timers. I have put the first load of hot wash stuff in to see how it comes out.

Better still, today we got the car started. It wouldn't start after Phil replaced the clutch so I posted a message on the Peugeot Forum asking for ideas. We got one, saying to check the engine speed sensor on the gearbox in case it was damaged or we forgot to put it back. We found the hole and bolt where it was supposed to be, no sensor. So Phil crawled underneath and had a look for it. It's a sensor so had to have wires on it. He found it, he had bolted it to another bracket because he couldn't remember where it went. After he replaced it, he turned the car over and it fired straight away. Then it came off power save mode and the windows work. Only one problem, the battery needs recharging as it is flat from him keep trying to start it over the last few days. We should have a car next week, as it will take some time for Phil to put everything back together, plus we need money for the Car Tax which should come from the knitting machine.

The knitting machine and ribber I put on eBay yesterday have a lot of watchers already, and I have had people asking for 'Buy It Now' prices and shipping costs to Denmark and Singapore, also Russia.

Clovelly in North Devon, near where Sarah lives has been flooded with water pouring down the cobbled streets on its way to the harbour. The sea is stained with all the mud from the run off.

Off to feed us and bunnies now, then sit and do some knitting. Heating is on as it is really cold here. Also need to check the washing from the new machine.

Car problems, WI and more

We are having terrible trouble with our Peugeot 607. After getting it through it's MOT which cost £440 mainly because we had to get a brand new headlight at £200 because someone had bodged the old one and it wasn't adjustable any more, in fact fell apart when Phil took it out to look at it. $ weeks after the MOT, the clutch went. Garage quotes varied from £450 to £160, but we weren't sure of the garage in Coventry, even though it was the brother of one of our friends. Phil decided he would do it, even though it was a huge job.

He has been doing it for 5 weeks now, not every day, gaps in between. Lots of problems as everything underneath the car had to be removed to drop the gearbox. He managed eventually to get it all apart with lots of help from the service manual we bought online. Then, putting it back together he managed to push the steering rod through the pipes for the heating and when he filled the water up, it poured out into the foot well. To get to that, he had to remove the dashboard, another 4 day job with wiring looms everywhere. He has started putting it back together and it doesn't leak any more, but in the meantime, the car won't start and it is in power save mode (because the battery has been off). To get it out of power save mode you need to start it, vicious circle!

We have asked on the Peugeot Forum and they have suggested several things, but most of them seem to end up with 'get it diagnosed'. Problem! We can't take it anywhere to get it diagnosed. So, we have bitten the bullet and bought the hardware from eBay for £85 which has cleared out my Paypal account. That should arrive next week and we can plug it in and find out what is wrong with the car. Phil found several bodge jobs while he was taking it apart, so I don't think it was very well looked after. It is a very nice car, and hopefully with the software we can get it sorted out.

Once we know we can use the software, we can be put on the Peugeot Planet map on the forum and charge people to diagnose their cars. Most members who have these kits say they pay for themselves in a few weeks. We have several people waiting for us to ge this software so we can do their cars.

On to better things, went to the Peatling Parva WI last night for a talk by Sue Taylor on her Manx Loaghtan and Soay sheep. She lives on the edge of the village. Sue sends her fleeces and some of her friends to the mill in Launceston for spinning up. She then knits the wool into teddy bears, sheep, lap throws, jacket and all sort of lovely knitted articles. It was an interesting talk, I felt very tempted to buy a kit from her for a Louisa bear, but at £40 I can't justify that. I wish I had the time to develop my spinning and be able to make and sell things, but I need the money now and restoring sewing machines is a lot quicker.

I have decided to sell my Brother KH260 chunky knitting machine and ribber, it a lovely very expensive machine, but I have had it for about 4 years and never made anything on it. I cleaned it up, replaced the sponge bar and tested it. I found the punch card mechanism wasn't working, so dismantled the card reader, cleaned and oiled it, replaced it and it works fine now. When I have made chunky jumpers, I have used the Singer hobby chunky machine, which needs 3 of the flow combs repaired with plastic, but it makes good jumpers and I just have to fiddle round the flow comb thingy. I also have a Zippy 90 which needs the carriage repaired, also plastic to be replaced. I have the plastic repair kit, just haven't managed to get around to using it.

I have just bought a very old Knitmaster Super 4500 from our local auction for £12. I found instructions online for it, and also directions for stripping it down. It was very dirty! The bed is in sections like the Bond knitting machine, but maroon bakelite, it has that burnt smell which takes me back many years. It comes with a ribber, but the tension mast and yarn holder are missing. It seems as if they are extras as the instructions show it used like the Bond, just laying the yarn across the needles. I have stripped it right down, scrubbed the plastic sections, the metal strips which go across the bed and the retaining bar. The needles have been soaked in white spirit and washed. I'll oil them before I put them back by wiping them with an oily cloth.
This is the machine, courtesy of Susy Ranner at wordpress.com

 

Hopefully I should be able to re-assemble it tomorrow after I have packed a sewing machine to go to Ireland and cleaned out some of the rabbits.

Dyeing handspun yarn

I spun some Portland (cream) fleece a few months ago, about 160gms, about Aran weight. I was intending to dye it with onion skins but didn't get around to it until last week, mainly due to the length of time it takes to do the whole process, from making the dye, mordanting the yarn and then dyeing it.

So, last week, finally having a few hours to spare (doesn't happen often) I decided to go for it. I weighed the onion skins, about 100gms, which wasn't really enough. According to my dyeing book. I should have the same weight of onion skins as yarn. So, I thought oh well, it will come out a paler yellow. I set the onion skins in a large pan with plenty of water to cover them, brought it to the boil and left it to simmer on a timer (60 minutes). Once boiled it has to cool down in the pan.

Boiling onion skins

  Then I had to mordant the yarn, I was using Alum and needed 3% with 2% cream of tartar which fixes the dye better. You have to dissolve the mordant and cream of tartar in a little warm water, then add plenty of cold so the wool woukld have room to move as it simmered. The whole pan had to be brought to the boil over one hour, then simmered for 40 minutes and left to cool in the pan. Once cool, it has to be rinsed well to remove any excess mordant.

Wool mordanting

 By the time I had done the dye and the mordanting, I decided I should leave the actual dyeing process until the following day. You can leave the mordanted wool in a plastic bag for up to three days. Apparently it is difficult to wet once it has dried.

The next day I drained the liquid from the onion skins.

Drained onion skins

Then added enough warm water to enable the yarn to move freely in the dye bath. This time it had to be brought to the boil over 30 minutes.

Wool in dye bath

Then it had to be simmered for 30-45 minutes. As I thought it would be weak, I simmered it for 45 minutes. The resulting yarn had to be rinsed well and air dried.

Dyed wool being rinsed

Rinsed wool

I was surprised at the depth of colour, it was a lovely golden brown.

Wool being air dried

It dried out to this colour -

Balls of dyed yarn

I was so pleased with it. It is such a feeling of satisfaction to make your own knitting yarn. I was going to make something for the WI competition for next month's speaker (Sue Taylor on her rare breed Soay and Manx Loagthan sheep), which was a small knitted item. I was going to knit a cat, but it would have been quite big, so I decided to knit a pair of wrist warmers to the pattern we used a lot last year. This is a cable pattern, free from Ravelry.

So far I have knitted one wrist warmer. Hopefully I should have enough yarn to make a hat as well.

Wristwarmer before sewing up

Update

Well, I haven't posted for 3 months, been very busy, so now for an update.

We had to have Mollie put to sleep as she was having difficulty getting in the litter tray and wasn't eating very much, losing weight again, so we took her to the vet in Lutterworth. She said her time had definitely come, so I stayed with her. The vet put a cannula in and then the drug. She was gone instantly, obviously clinging onto life by a very thin thread. A shame, but we gave her an extra 18 months after her owner died, and although in the first few months she didn't seem to be really interested in whether she lived or died, she gradually settled in. After 6 months, she was part of the family, and was a stubborn old lady, very determined. We were sorry to lose her, but she was ready to go. Down to 8 cats now, very strange.

Eddie has been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease due to chronic diarrhoea. He has been with the PDSA for the last 3 months and they gave him 3 different antibiotics, steroids, worm tablets and said put him on chicken and fish. Nothing made any difference, so they eventually put him on a stronger dose of steroids. After a week on these, he was much better so they are keeping him on the steroids, just trying to get him onto as low a dose as possible.

We have been selling quite a few sewing machines through Sarah's website which is very good. Lots of hits from Google so we have to keep up the number of machines on the site. I did a Google search on vintage sewing machines for sale and Rowan Tree Studio came up third, which was very pleasing.

We put the Peugeot through it's MOT and it failed on a few monor things and we thought we got away with £220 including the cost of the MOT, but then we had to buy a headlight which was £190. Now last Saturday the clutch release bearing went. For a garage to do it would be about £450 which we don't have, so we got a brand new clutch kit from eBay for £60 and Phil is trying to fit it. It's a big job as the sub frame has to be dropped, the drive shafts come out and the gearbox dropped. I'm sure he can do it, but it is a worry as he has never done such a complicated job before. We have been calling in a few favours from friends for transport to Claybrooke Animal Feeds. We don'r need anything now for a couple of weeks, we can order from Tesco on Saturday or go in to Lutterworth on the Post Bus to get urgent food.

On a lighter note, we have both been going to the craft group at St. Mary's Church in Lutterworth. Phil has learnt to use a knitting loom and made Rowan a scarf, He has also learnt to crochet, which I would never have thought possible. I have just started using one of the knitting looms to make myself a scarf in a nice red pure wool which I bought to do some felted slippes and never made them.

We went down to Devon in August as Rowan was Carnival Princess in Hartland Carnival. I ended up having to dress her as Sarah was stewarding and Casie got caught up in the Carnival traffic and couldn't reach the house where we were waiting. She looked gorgeous in her long white dress and tiara.

Life!

Haven't posted lately, been too busy with all the glitches life has thrown at us. I have had yet another chest infection, which makes 3 since December. So I have had a chest X-ray and need to have blood tests. I am taking pro-biotics to counteract the anti-biotics the Doctor prescribed, and Echinacea to try and boost my immune system. It seems to be down to the atrocious weather we have had this year, so changeable the body doesn't know what is going on. Sarah has had several bouts of tonsilitis along with Rowan who brings back delightful germs from pre-school and playgroup.

Minnie our 3 legged cat deteriorated and we took her back to the vet where we saw a different vet. She said she thought the problem was a tumour in the leg which was pressing on the main nerve to the foot causing the weakness and loss of feeling. She was of the opinion that she would only get worse and that she was suffering now and should be euthanased. I was on my own as Phil stayed at home because we were waiting for couriers to collect parcels, so I had to decide myself. There was really no decision, it had to be done. The vet couldn't get a vein in Minnie's front leg due to the problem, so she had to inject the drug into the abdomen. She said it would take longer, so I sat with Minnie in one of the treatment rooms. It took forever, she gradually slipped into a coma, but was still breathing. After about 30 minutes the vet came back in and was surprised she was still alive. She gave her another injection straight into her kidney as she said she was so far gone she wouldn't feel it now. She went quickly after that. I cried all the way home and Phil did too when I got home. We both knew she wasn't going to come home alive. I buried her in the front garden under the willow tree as the back garden is getting a bit full up, what with  poisoned cats, rabbits and chickens. Minnie is the first of our older cats we have lost in a long time. The last ones were the poisoned ones, Dermie, Hamish and Tio. I suppose we can expect it now as most of them are over 10. Connor is much better now his teeth have been sorted out. He is eating like a horse and his fur looks much better as he is grooming himself again. He is 16 and Mollie is 17. Small is only 6 months younger.

The last problem has only just been sorted. The accelerator on the Peugeot 607 jammed on when we were coming back from the vet on Saturday with one of the chickens which had a twisted neck. Phil took it apart and found the reason why the accelerator was so stiff, which it had been from new (to us). the cable was frayed into a bird's nest where it went through the bulkhead to the pedal. When he tried to pull the cable through it snapped. He found it was only held by abut 6 strands of wire. We were so lucky it didn't go on the motorway down to Devon. We hadn't even done our shopping as we had to go to the vet first. Luckily out new neighbour Ray was going to the tip on sunday and dropped us at Morrisons to get the basics. We had to get the part which was £49. We asked Boots, our mechanic neighbour to get a price for us, but he said £54, so we got it from Lutterworth Ford. We had to go in on the Post Bus to get the part and it was a kit, you had to put it all together yourself. Trouble was, it was different to what was on there originally. Fortunately, after some time and probably lots of swearing, Phil managed to fix it. He says it doesn't feel the same and there isn't much acceleration, but I imagine it will feel different after a new accelerator being fitted.

Back to brighter things. I have started going to a drop in knit and crochet group at the church in Lutterworth. It is run by one of our friends. This Friday I am taking in a hand crank sewing machine and my spinning wheel to give a demonstration. Saturday is the Spinner's Guild meeting. I missed the last one because I had the chest infection then. I want to spin some white wool so I can start dyeing wth natural dyes. I need this for Sarah's course in September.

Talking of Sarah, I went down to Devon on the Jubilee weekend to the Garden Festival at Coombe Trenchard Gardens. It is a lovely place, beautiful old Arts and Crafts house. There were so many lovely plants and beautiful furniture, wrough iron slatted furniture with Gothic arched back chairs. We were doing bunting making workshops in the Gardens Illustrated marquee. We took about 4 hand cranks along to demonstrate. We didn't make much money, only sold some bunting and a few rosettes, but the object was advertising the Studio and craft workshops. We got friendly with the editors of Gardens Illustrated and Homes and Antiques, the magazine Sarah was in. There were so many nice people there and we had a lovely time. Even the weath stayed good until Saturday afternoon when we were packing up.

The only down side was the clutch went on Sarah's Audi and we were stuck about 6 miles from the venue. Fortunately Casie, David and Rowan were on their way over to go to the Garden Festival, so we had to wait for them to turn up. We sat on the grass verge on a picnic blanket and made rosettes until they arrived. They took us to the Gardens, had a look round ant then they went and towed the car home. David took Casie to work and then came to collect us. We stopped at the Pizza Ape on the way home for food. It's always good there. Very eventful day

Spinning and birthdays

I haven't had much chance to do any spinning in the last 2 weeks, been very busy cleaning and servicing sewing and knitting machines. Rowan was 4 yesterday, doesn't seem possible, time has really flown.

Our 3 legged cat Minnie has managed to damage her remaining front leg. We have no idea how, but she suddenly started shuffling along the floor on her forearm, and was unable to bear any weight on her wrist. We took her to a vet we don't actually like because we couldn't get her in to see our normal vet. The vet thinks she has wrenched her shoulder and there may be some nerve damage in her wrist. She said to give her 2 weeks and if there was no improvement she would need to be euthanased as she wouldn't be able to cope with no usable front leg.

We have taken her to our normal vet and she agrees there is nerve damage and no sensation in Minnies foot. She has given her a reprieve and anti-inflammatories for another week as she had a dog who recovered some movement after 4 weeks. Unfortunately she is constipated and we are trying to sort that out now. That seems to be causing her a lot of pain.

Looms, wheels and spinning

We managed to get to Ely to collect the rug loom from Jenny. I was also given 4 bags of rug wool to practice with and a Singer 28 sewing machine in good condition. The case had been restored at some time and it was very well done.

I now have a small childs' loom, a Spears loom which is slightly larger, a frame loom, also with a quantity of wool, a Weavemaster from the Big Sheep and the rug loom from Jenny which is also a Weavemaster. In fact it is a larger version of the one from the Big Sheep, so I can see what parts I need to make to get it going. I am going to start weaving with the childs loom as I can start off very small and simple. At the moment it's all a bit of a mystery to me.

I have started carding some Shetland from Sue Bailey's Beatrice. It is very dark, but I have found there are a lot of very small second cuts which is making the spun wool a bit lumpy. I will carry on spinning a couple of bobbins and see how it plys and knits.

North Devon and Rug loom

I am writing this from Sarah's 'Green Valley' in Higher Clovelly. I am down here for a week, part holiday, part working to restore the 9 sewing machines Sarah bought last week at her local auction. Yesterday shortly after we got here, I did a 2 1/2  hour one2one class for a lady also called Sarah, teaching her to care for her vintage sewing machine and also to sew on it. My Sarah couldn't do the class as Rowan is very poorly, with a high temperature. Sarah enjoyed her lesson very much. The sewing machine was a Singer 128 which was her Grandmother's, so she was very pleased to be able to use it. She made a shopping bag and went home very happy with a clean serviced machine. Tomorrow I will start servicing the machines to go on Sarah's website.

I hope to be able to go to the Big Sheep while I'm down here so we can see if there are any bits Casie missed when he collected the spinning wheels and loom. The loom is missing one of the metal shafts and some wooden bits and pieces. We can make the wooden parts, but a metal frame might be more difficult.

Jenny on our online Spinners and Weavers group offered a rug loom for free and I was lucky enough to be the first to reply to her. After some hassle due to emails not getting through, I will be collecting the rug loom after I get back from Devon. It comes with a lot of rug thrums, so I should be able to get into making a sample straight away.

I brought some carded fleece down with me, North Ronaldsay for me and some Jacobs for Sarah to try out. I forgot the Ashford traditional had a spring missing from the bobbin tensioner, also the nylon line is too short, so I might not be able to do much spinning unless we can get some more fishing line.

Update on fleeces

I have washed 1 Castlemilk Moorit, 1 Portland, the caramel Shetland and the Boreray. I still have 1 Castlemilk to wash, the others are being sold to Spinner's Guild members. I will take them along to the next meeting.

The weather has been very warm for late February, early March, I have been out in the front garden tidying up and pruning. This year I mean to make an effort out the front as the back garden is now a chicken yard. I will grow some herbs and dye plants out there, also all the little shrubs down the side of the greenhouse will go along the fence between us and Henry's old house. Which is now wrong as we have new neighbours, Ray and Jill who are moving in today, well, they have been moving stuff in since last week. They are pretty much between me and Phil in age, with grown up children and grandchildren. It's very strange hearing people next door after nearly 9 months. Henry and Carl never made much noise anyway.

I have carded some more Jacob's fleece to finish my jacket, I hae only the sleeves left to do now, in fact I am 1/4 of the way up the first sleeve. It's quite exciting to have an actual garment nearly finished, my first with my own handspun wool. I can't wait to get to the caramel Shetland as it is gorgeous, different shades of brown and cream on the tips.

I have been clearing out various cupboards in an attempt to clear the house. I have cleared out my fabric cupboard and have a lot of fabric to go on eBay. The wardrobe in the corner is now half empty so I will fill that up with fleeces. This will make the whole room a lot tidier.

Washed the other Portland fleece today and it was part felted before I washed it. It was very difficult to pull the locks apart. I may have to dump some of it which is a shame, but I have a lot more, far too many in fact.

We dropped in to see Sue and Jeff Bailey on our way home from Hoar Park Farm the other afternoon. They have had a tragedy, Maddie, their very expensive white Leicester Longwool ewe (1 year old) had to be destroyed after giving birth to a ewe lamb. She had a really bad prolapse. Jeff said she'd never been right and was much smaller than she should have been. There wsas no membrane round the lamb either. Jeff said it was as if everything inside the ewe had disintegrated. They think it may be down to inbreeding.

They are both understandably very cut up about it, especially as Jeff had to shoot her. What a terrble thing to happen. Apparently rare breed sheep have much more difficulty lambing than commercial sheep. At least the ewe  lamb has survived, Sue is bottle feeding her. she is really sweet. They have 9 lambs so far, including 2 sets of twins.

I had Maddie's shearling fleece last year, so I will spin some finer wool and crochet Sue a scarf in Maddie's memory.