A bit of a clue

This is a clue to my secret project as I was asked about it today. It isn't much of a clue, but there again I don't want to give it away.


Here's a picture of my apple tree. The wind blew just as I clicked the shutter.
This is the tree moments later when the wind had died down a bit. Don't they look lush? Unfortunately they look a lot better than they taste.

Isn't that just life all over?

The Swallow Shawl is going well and I've nearly finished the fourteen repeats and will be starting the next chart later tonight. Think that's the border.

Swallowtail Shawl

The secret project is at a hiatus. I've finished the knitting and most of the finishing, but have decided it needs the addition of something else which I have yet to buy. This being the case I have started the Swallowtail Shawl from the fall issue of Interweave Knits.

This is the progress so far. Actually I've done more since I took the photo, I'm just about to start the seventh repeat of fourteen of the second chart. I'm not too sure what the yarn is that I'm using; it's something I got off ebay a while back and it's on a cone, so it's not a very portable project. Mainly I just wanted to try a proper lace project, something a bit more than just socks. (Suppose that the "I Do shrug" counts).

In the stash I have some laceweight merino and if this works out okay I may try the Icarus Shawl from the summer issue in that.

I've also been VERY BAD this week, more news on this to follow.

The secret project

continues, but alas not apace. I did take it with me on my run but was too tired to do any knitting last night, just managed to eat, speak to Ro on the 'phone and go to sleep. Tonight though I intend to get some more of it done.

I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out and will show it when it's finished (hope you're not all too disappointed!).

In the meantime I'm going to show you some pics of my new baby (no it isn't a spinning wheel, I was outbid on the one I wanted on ebay. If the person who bought the Frank Herring wheel is out there I hope you give it a good home!)

No, this is my new baby:-



aint she purty? She arrived last week new from the suppliers and I took her out for the first time this week. Took her (amongst other places) to Cheltenham racecourse to do a delivery to Nuts Cafe for the Greenbelt Festival, so have a good weekend all you Greenbelters out there, hope the weather stays (?stays?) fine for you.

I've been listening to the latest Knitting Newscast and Rhonda Bell's been talking about the new Vogue Knitting magazine. There's a section in the magazine called "Modern English".

I quote "Modern English includes highland themed sweaters with a modern appeal" Well that'll please the Scots then!!!!!

Haven't done a vast amount of knitting this weekend as I've been down at Ro's house. I've done a bit of work on my secret project but it's a slow business, involving as it does a large amount of stocking stitch.

I HAVE however been Spinning!!!! (goodness what fun). I don't know if anyone recalls that I bought a drop spindle and some roving in a kit at Woolfest and had a go at spinning with it which was a total disaster. I don't know about anyone else but I just don't feel that two hands are adequate for using a drop spindle. Every time I got the damned thing going round enough and started to draft the roving it would spin back the other way and the wool would unravel. When Ro came up she showed me how to do it properly but I still couldn't get the hang of it. The other problem that we both had was that the yarn kept breaking. Ro suggested I may find it easier to spin raw wool as it sticks together better.

So this Saturday we got out some of the raw fleece that she has living in her garage, two pairs of carders and her spinning wheel and carded up some rollags of fleece and she taught me to spin on her wheel. Now it may sound daft but it was so much easier than that bloody spindle. I will not claim that what I spun was particularly brilliant, but at least it happened and Ro thought that it wasn't half bad for a beginner! (or so she said). So now I'm a bit keen on getting a wheel (watch this space).

The rest of the weekend was spent watching rugby, almost getting struck by lightening and haring off across the county on a wild goose chase. Ro is interested in getting a Timbertops wheel. These are made in Leicestershire so we looked up the place they're from and decided to take drive over. Of course when we got to our destination it was just somebody's house not a shop , so we just drove on. On the way however we'd taken the scenic route and going along a gated road between two villages we came across this sign next to the road.

Dunno if you can read the sign but it says "Match in progress. Please wait for signal at end of over."

The road went straight through the middle of the cricket pitch.

Only in England eh?

After failing to find any spinning wheels we went into Melton Mowbray and had a late lunch at the Cafe Italia in Church Street which was delicious. Unfortunately we didn't make it to Dickinson & Morris' Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe before it shut (best pork pies in the world) so we will have to go back.

secret project

I'm sort of working on a secret project at the moment which I can't unveil so you'll have to bear with me.

I can tell you however that when Ro came up last weekend we went to Coldspring Mill in Cullingworth. I bought some secret yarn for my secret project as well as some cotton and a skein of what looks like Maya in shades of green. Ro bought shedloads of Noro of various varieties and some scrummy dark red mohair.

I've been strangely drawn to the idea of knitting dishcloths recently (don't ask me why, I don't use them much!), I'm intrigued by their popularity in the US. I thought they'd make good gifts as facecloths if combined with some nice smelly type stuff like SUMA handmade soaps and such.

I'd been trying to get hold of the cotton for knitting them "Sugar and cream" but it only seems to be available in the US. I was quite pleased then to see the five balls of variegated 100% cotton at Coldspring so I snapped them up and knitted my first facecloth on Saturday afternoon. It's called Grandmother's favourite dishcloth and the pattern is from the Dishcloths Boutique.

On Sunday we went for a walk round Scammonden Reservoir . I downloaded a description and map of the Walk from the Yorkshire Water website. It said that the walk was 4 miles which seemed a reasonable distance for the congenitally unfit. It also said that it was fairly flat, which when you consider that we started on the ridge above the reservoir on the far side on the first picture walked along the waterside and then ended up where the picture was taken from is just downright rubbish!!!!

Still it was a pleasant walk if a little more adventurous than I would have expected. The path sort of petered out about two thirds of the way round, there was a path but the directions led us away from it so we ended up climbing over a wall into a church yard then skidding down a hill on our bums (this isn't the hill we slid down, this is Scammonden Dam).

Good fun was had by all though and we were rewarded on our return to the carpark by the sight of an ice cream van.

(Not an ice cream van!)

Cheeky

So I managed to catch a couple of pictures of this cheeky chap who has taken a fancy to the apples on my apple tree.

He's been back most afternoons for a meal (always a different apple) along with his shyer friend who stays on the ornamental crab out of the line of sight of my living room window.

Ro and Gracie came up for the weekend and Gracie wasn't at all impressed with his forwardness.

Earrings

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Peacock. Left over from my Jaywalkers.














Waddya think?

bye the way this is my second post today, don't miss the earlier one which is longer and has more pictures.

My day

At the weekend I finished the second side of my Fake-a-gamo and also the twiddly bits that hang off the bottom. Now all I have to do is make the handles, line it and put it together, which shouldn't take long.

Watch this space..........

In the meantime I thought I'd show you one of our customers.

This is the Living Green Centre at Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds. I do a delivery here most weeks, which is nice as if I can manage to get there on Tuesday Bourton is a great place to park up. I didn't manage it yesterday as I had a few extra deliveries in Bristol so couldn't get back up there in time, so I was there about eight o'clock this morning.
I arrived before the Centre opened so had a bit of a stroll round the green and took some pics. It's very scenic as you can see, a very popular tourist spot, but nice and quiet at that time in the morning.
I met a rather cute little chap, who consented to have his picture taken and let me make a fuss of him. I wanted to catnap him but he drew the line at that. SHAME!

When the Centre opened I did the delivery then took a few pics of their garden which is a demonstration of how to develop a sustainable and eco friendly organic garden. When they've finished developing the place the whole building will be an example of how the same can be done with an existing building. This is quite unusual (and useful) as most eco friendly houses are new builds, but most of the housing stock isn't.

They have a shop too (which is my reason for being there) and they sell all sorts of eco gizmos, local produce and organic and fair trade stuff.

If you're in the area it's well worth a visit.