Handspun mittens and Prairie Boots

Last weekend I made these mittens. The pattern is Fern by Anniken Allis from the March issue of Yarn Forward.

The yarn I used was some that I'd spun myself on my drop spindle. It was some Jacob cross that I'd carded together with a little red and a little violet commercially dyed merino.

I'm really pleased with the way that they turned out and they're toasty warm.

The other knitting I've been on recently (well actually I finished them a few weeks ago) are these Prairie Boots. They were knitted from some Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed that I've had in my stash for some time (I love stashbusting). They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Despite using smaller needles that specified in the pattern in order to get the tension right they still seem a bit loose (and I made the smallest size). On the other hand they do the job that they're intended to do very well indeed. I made them because I was getting cold ankles from the howling gale that was blowing across my living room floor and they are brilliant at keeping my legs and feet from frostbite.

The buttons are some that I made myself from left over yarn. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the idea from.

Short and sweet (?)

I'm not going to post a whole lot of stuff this week because it hasn't been one of my best weeks. I had a bit of a rubbish time on my run this week which involved;

• leaving my sack trolley behind at my first customer so it wasn't available for the delivery where I can't park near the shop and have to take the order (three quarters of a ton) by hand off the truck and along the road into the shop;
• having an argument with a driver who just as I was about to leave said drop reversed right up to the front of the truck so I hadn't got room to pull round her car and when I tried to draw her attention to it just walked off and ignored me!!!! (I was quite rude to her);
• and to top it all when I stopped at the services on the way home because I was literally falling asleep at the wheel my truck got clamped because I'd inadvertently parked in a caravan bay rather than a truck bay (recently reallocated space, I hadn't noticed). It cost £250 to get un-clamped and I was raging as I'd been in the building less than ten minutes (toilet and a take out coffee) and it just seems so sneaky, they must watch out for it and pounce as soon as your back's turned.

Needless to say I was pleased to get home this week but there's talk of a "snow incident" later this week so that should be fun too. :(

I've been doing a little bit of fibrey stuff this weekend. I'm working on my longdraw technique using some Torwen that was given to me by a fellow Raveler and some stuff that came free with my Orkney when I bought it. This, together with a chunk of Herdwick which I won in the raffle at a guild meeting last year is going to be woven into a small rug. I need to get a new heddle for the loom, 5dpi or 7.5, not sure yet. Ro gave me some warping thread a while ago so that's what I'll be up to next.

I'm also spinning up some silk hanky that I bought from Wingham, but I'm doing that on my drop spindle. It's a really pretty colour, very deep plum, black and brown. Here it is together with some silk that I spun from a hanky before on the spindle and another (cerise coloured) hanky. Bit wild eh? I thought they might knit or weave up into a nice little bag or something?

My first (woven) scarf

And I'm soooo proud of it. I took it in to work and showed it to everyone (even the ones who weren't interested!). Mostly people were very polite and said nice things. One said he thought I'd cut up and dyed an old sack but that's about what I expected from him and I think he was quite impressed really!!!!

The edges are a wee bit wonky and the fringe went sort of floofy when I tossed it into the washing machine to full it but I'm quite pleased with it. It has a very nice drape to it.

Now I have to decide what my next project will be. I quite fancy a bag using old plastic bags, but I also quite fancy tea towels or something a bit different. We shall see.

Following my post about Turtle Bags last week I was pleased to see when I stopped at the service station on the M6 this week that the M&S food shop there was selling them. I'd sort of got the impression that it was a bit of a cottage industry but if they're in M&S they're obviously bigger than I thought. Way to Go.

New toys and turtles

Last weekend I finally crumbled and went to Wingham Woolwork on my way home from Ro's. I deserved a treat as we'd gone to Northampton to watch Tigers play the Saints and not only had we sat for more than two hours in the freezing cold, but the Tigers had played pretty poorly and been beaten by the Saintanists (boo hiss).

So in view of the fact that I was in serious need of cheering up I went and splashed some cash and came home with a loom!!! I am now the proud owner of a Kromski 24" rigid heddle loom plus stand. I spent Sunday evening putting the loom together but couldn't finish the stand as there were a couple of bits of hardware missing. I wasn't too pissed off as I knew that I wouldn't be able to start anything before getting back from driving on Wednesday and I was pretty sure that Wingham would get the missing parts to me by then. I wasn't disappointed in them, the envelope was waiting for me on the mat when I got home.

Strangely enough having completed the construction of the stand I was a bit nervous about actually using the damned thing. I was in a paralysis of indecision about exactly what I was going to start with. I had some nice German sock wool that I'd bought some time ago from Astrid's Dutch Obsession and was going to use this for a scarf, but I'd also got some pink sock wool that I'd bought when on holiday in Norfolk which matched some of the colour in the german wool and I wasn't sure if I should use some of that too or just go for the simple option. In the end I decided to be brave and do a few narrow stripes of pink in among the warp.

I've been weaving most of this afternoon and evening and I'm not getting on too badly though my selvages leave a bit to be desired. I've got a few floats too but I'm fairly pleased with my first effort. Don't think I'll be wearing it tomorrow though.

I meet some interesting people with some interesting stories whilst I'm out doing my deliveries and this week I was talking to one of my customers about her business Turtle Bags which grew out of her involvement with the Marine Stewardship Council. Because leatherback turtles mistake discarded plastic bags for their favourite food (jellyfish) Turtlebags, by selling alternatives to plastic bags hope to reduce the number of plastic bags finding their way into turtles.

I particularly like the one made by a Bangladeshi womens' co-operative from recycled cement bags, very funky! Ooooh, wonder how it would perform as a knitting bag?

Well who'd have thought it?

When I spin on the wheel I spin S \ wise and ply Z / wise. I discovered at the weekend that when I spin on my drop spindle I spin Z / wise.

Go on, ask me how I discovered this. Was it perchance when I was plying (on the wheel) the two bobbins containing miles and miles of very fine Shetland/silk that I had painstakingly spindle spun? Why yes, I believe it was.

I decided it would be easier to ply on the wheel than on the spindle. I'd already wound my first single (green slubby) on to a bobbin by hand as I only have the one spindle. I wound the second one (gold shiny) using the bobbin winder I'd bought at a guild meeting (bargain it was too) and I just began plying. I wasn't too happy with the way it was looking but it wasn't until I was about two thirds of the way through that I realised what the problem was; I was plying it in the same direction as I'd spun it!!!!!!!!!!

After a bit of a panic I decided to carry on as I was and then run it back through the flyer spinning twice as much in the opposite direction. Luckily it seems to have worked, though I think it could have taken a bit more twist. I have 452 yards there. It's a bit brighter in real life (picture's washed out) and it's beautifully soft. Just have to find a project for it now.

Finished yarn is 60gms of about sixteen WPI (ish). Spun from some of the palest Shetland grey katmogget I bought at Woolfest. One single was carded together with some lime green tussah silk and some white silk noil. The second single was carded together with some gold mulberry tops (no tussah silk the right colour at Wingham when I went). There are about eight twists per inch (again this is very "ish" as it's not very regular due to plying cock up).


ETA: Hmm I wonder if that's what happened to the last lot? I just thought it had sprung into a disgusting mess because I forgot to tie it properly before taking it off the niddy noddy but I reckon it wouldn't have gone as ubertwisty from just that as it did. (no pics of that one; too embarrassing)!

Happy Holidays

I'm just dropping in to make sure the blog stays active. I've just read on Ravelry about someone whose blog disappeared without warning. (Gulp)

I don't suppose that anyone is still reading this as I've been so very bad at updating it but I'll start by wishing everyone who is a very

Happy New Year.

Hope you all had a good Christmas (if you do Christmas) and jolly holiday of other variety if you do that!

I seem to spend all my spare time on Ravelry nowadays which is why I've not blogged in a while, it's even more of a time suck than this is, and having a laptop doesn't help as it's there all the time unlike my old pooter which I had to go upstairs to use.

Since talking to you last I have started going to meetings of the Bradford Weavers Spinners and Dyers Guild and have met many lovely new people (in real life!!). I'm planning on joining this year. The Online Guild was great and some of their workshops were fabulous but I wasn't taking proper advantage of it.

My latest knitting is a pair of Pararie Boots to keep my poor cold tootsies warm. Because they're quite long they should stop the drafts that whistle across my living room floor from biting my ankles. The first one is a bit loose around the foot so I'm doing the next one on smaller needles. I may have to scoot over to the Texere open day and get me another 5.5mm circular.

Love to all

Bin spinning

When I went to Woolfest I took some wool/silk mix which I'd bought at Wingham ages ago to play with at the spin in. Since then I've been sporadically going back to it and spinning a bit more. This weekend I made a concerted effort and finally finished it off and plied it up.

I have to say that I'm really pleased with it, it's very soft and lovely and quite fine with occasional slubby bits. I'm thinking of a lacy scarf or something similar. There's 100g of it but I haven't measured the mileage yet. (Have now, it's 605 yards)

My second weekend project was finishing off some rainbow merino (also from Wingham) which I'd spun up and plied with some of the Manx Loghtan I'd had left on a bobbin. I spun the remains of the merino and plied it up with the remainder of the (already spun) Manx. It was almost a perfect match. Only a few yards of the merino left over which I used to practice my Navajo plying which is a bit crap.

There's not a lot of this (53 yards) but I really like the colour which is a greeny tan colour overall but has areas of other colours too. I've loads of the manx still but none of the merino left, may have to get some more and do enough for a project.

The Navajo plying was a lot better than previous efforts thanks to advice from some helpful Ravelers to the effect that I may do better if I slackened off the tension. Tried it and it worked. Hurrah for Ravelry.

Nice pic of both my finished efforts drying off.

On Friday I bought a book at the Oxfam second hand bookshop by Nicholas Crane (Coast, Mapman on the BBC) called "Clear Waters Rising: a mountain walk across Europe" ; an account of his seventeen month journey on foot from Finisterre to Istanbul. I have to say it's a fascinating read but the man is completely bonkers.

just stuff

Went to Ro's last weekend and we had a bit of a play with some scrummy Wensleydale that she'd bought at Woolfest. We wanted to wash it so that the structure of the locks was preserved so we set up a couple of bowls of hot water, one with washing liquid and one for rinsing and washed it lock by lock and laid it out on a towel.

When it was dry I showed her how to flick card it on one of her carders and we laid it out in a box so she can spin it worsted style.

This is it in it's finished state. Aint it lovely?

On the knitting front I've completed my latest pair of "left overs" socks. I decided that there was no way I was going to manage to match the stripes up on them as I'd pretty much just changed shades at random so I decided to go for a completely asymmetric look instead. I quite like them.

I'm really into knitting my socks toe up now. So much so that I've started knitting the tilting cable socks from Interweave knits but I've adapted the pattern to toe up. Seems to be working out okay so far and I got lots done last night as we had a co-op meeting which I knitted through. I'm enjoying the actual knitting but I dunno that I'm particularly thrilled with the finished object. I'll carry on though.

I was very chuffed this week as I had a delivery on my run which necessitated my driving past Get Knitted. As the run was pretty quiet I had time to pull over and go in. I bought a new cable needle (can't find mine anywhere) and some Regia silk solid sock wool in Tigers colours. I fancy me some silk socks to wear at the rugby this winter to keep my tootsies nice and warm.

Pastures new

This is where I parked up on Tuesday night. It's a lay by on the main road between Worcester and Hereford. I haven't parked up overnight in a lay by before, but it was okay. Bit noisy with traffic going past but I had my earplugs so I slept pretty well.

I was there because I'd been given a couple of drops off another driver's run because she was busy but my run was quite quiet. So I went to Hereford and beyond on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I neglected to get any pictures of Hereford itself which is a bit of a shame because it's quite nice and the Cathedral is very impressive. I did get a shot of the farm shop on the road to Brecon that I delivered to. It's HUGE!!! I was driving along, hoping that I wouldn't miss the turning when I came round a corner and saw it. Not much chance of missing it really?

On the fibre front I started having a proper look at the book I bought at Woolfest; Cat Bordhi's "New Pathway's for sock knitters". Here's a picture of one of the trial socks that I knitted from it last weekend. It's quite interesting constructing a sock in a completely different way from usual and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into a real pair that will actually fit me. The book itself is quite difficult to deal with though and requires a lot of flipping back and forth to get the information you require. I guess this is because it's an enabling book which explains individual stages rather than a series of set instructions which one follows strictly to the letter. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. There's a ravelry group devoted to the book and a number of the people on that have had the book spiral bound in order to make it easier to use. Worth thinking about perhaps?

Busy bunny

I've had all this week off work so I've mostly been doing fibrey things.

I've separated the Shetland fleece I bought at Woolfest out into four piles of distinct shades and have been washing them in batches in the bath.

here's the lightest stuff drying on the airer

and here's some darker airing off in front of the gas fire. Some more intermediate shade is already finished and bagged up (uncarded) and the darkest from the legs and belly is still waiting to be washed.

I've also been playing with my new drop spindle. I did a bit of Manx on it and then after plying that using the handy plying technique from Knitty I started on some of the silk caps which I'd bought at Woolfest last year but not done anything with yet. It's very uneven so far and it's hell on the fingers trying to draft it but I'm going to ply it up into an interesting slubby art yarn and make some sort of a scarf out of it I think.

I was very sad to hear of the death of Charles Wheeler earlier this week. He was the most amazing broadcast journalist. Listen again has broadcast an interview that Jeremy Paxman did with him when he was eighty. It's well worth a listen.

Woolfest

Firstly an apology; I forgot to take my camera with me to Woolfest so no pictures this year. Very very sorry.

Despite my inability to work out how many days there are in a week I managed to get myself organised in time (apart from the camera!). I was back from my run quite early as I only had two drops left to do on the Wednesday and a couple of pick ups. I was pleased to find that my parcel from Texere had arrived when I got home and that it had been put through the door as well so I didn't have to go back into town and pick it up from the sorting office either. I was able to carry on plying and emptied two bobbins to take with me for the spin in on the Friday night.

We had a pretty good journey up, though the weather was a bit horrible and we arrived at about four o'clock.

The actual show was great fun again, lots to see and do. I was a bit more restrained than I was last year as far as purchases were concerned. I bought a raw shetland fleece (a katmogget; white on the back and dark on the legs and belly.); a drop spindle so I can learn to spindle; Cat Bhordi's book "New Pathways for sock knitters"; twenty vintage buttons (five matching) and a Herdy the Herdwick mug. I also "helped" Ro to buy a black Wensleydale fleece as she was showing signs of not getting one!!!

We watched the parade of sheep which was interesting and educational as well as quite funny when the chap on the mike from the rare breeds survival trust offered to hold a Manx Loughtan whilst her owner said a bit about the breed. She decided that she wasn't keen on him and tried to leap out of his arms (for small sheep they can jump quite high!). The Alpacas also took exception to the Herdwick sniffing their bottoms, but in the main everyone was pretty well behaved.

We watched the sheep shearing but alas this year there was no audience participation (health and safety, not sure if this was in the interests of the volunteer or the sheep). And we went to the sheep auction which was such good fun. The auctioneer clearly thought that we were all completely bonkers, but he joined in with the spirit of the occasion in fine fashion and didn't turn a hair at someone bidding and breastfeeding at the same time (which I imagine was a first for him). Some of the sheep went for up to sixty pounds prompting the old boy who breeds Herdwicks who was sitting next to me to say that he thought he'd bring some dead ones down next time as they got better prices stuffed than they do live!!!

I didn't see as many people that I knew as I had in previous years but we met a friend from last year and met lots of new people. I also managed to say a quick hello to CarolL as I was shooting off on saturday evening. Oh AND as well as finding someone who will make bobbins to order from an existing one (Woodland Turnery) the chap on the Scottish Fibres stand told me that he adapts Ashford bobbins to fit Haldanes so I may be able to get some spare bobbins for the Orkney after all.

Got back home about four o'clock on Sunday absolutely shattered, but glad I went again. Roll on next year.

Managed a picture of my fleece after all, aint it a beut?

Rats, rats, rats!!!

I'm a bit harassed this weekend as I've realised that It's WOOLFEST NEXT WEEKEND!!! (gulp). Being my usual organised self I was not worried. Oh no. I'd booked time off at the end of the week so had it all planned that I'd do my run as usual, have the whole of the next day to get myself sorted out for when Als and Ro arrived that evening and we'd gently toddle up to Cumbria the following day.

Unfortunately I was working on the eight day week.

I still don't know how this happened but when I spoke to Ro the other night she pointed out that she and Als are actually coming up on the Wednesday evening (of course) because we're driving up to Cumbria on the Thursday. Well I'm driving on the Tuesday / Wednesday and have no idea when I'm going to get back as it's wholly dependent on how busy the run is and what the traffic is like on the way back up. So I'll get back at some time; have a bath (absolute necessity after being on the road for two days), get a meal ready for my guests (have to sort that this weekend as I'll have no time to shop on Wednesday) and prepare myself for the weekend away when all I'm likely to want to do is go to sleep.


How do I manage to mess things up quite so effectively? Never mind, at least I realised before Wednesday so I can spend this weekend getting organised. I've managed to borrow an air bed inflater that plugs into the car cigarette lighter so I won't have to cripple myself blowing up the spare mattress with a foot pump like I did for the Commonwealth Games so that's a bonus.


I also decided that I needed to finish plying the singles that I had on the bobbins of my Orkney as I'll need it for the spin in on Friday night. Don't know if anyone remembers that I was having a certain amount of trouble with this what with trying to ply from two lazy kates at the same time. (see here for details). I decided that it would be much easier if I had one lazy kate with all four plys on it so last night I got a bit of two by four that I had lying around; cut it to size and drilled holes in it to accept the metal parts of the two kates I have.

Brilliant! It worked like a charm and I didn't even need to tension it. I set about plying my singles. Half a bobbin later I ran out of the glitter thread that I'd been plying with the singles! AAAARGGGGHHHHHH! Of course I'd bought the stuff from Texere and they aren't open at the weekend so I can't get any more straight away! I've ordered some online but I dunno if it will arrive in time and if it does that'll be another thing to sort out on Wednesday evening.

Sorry this is such a downer of a post, I'm actually quite cheerful really. Who wouldn't be with next weekend in prospect? The thought of all that lovely fibrey goodness waiting for us would cheer even the most miserable person up. And who cares if I don't manage to get everything done? As long as we get there that's all that matters.

PS Dee, hope you're feeling better soon.
Oooooh Oooooh PPS I forgot to say that my "Sprout" is going to be on display on the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers stand at Woolfest. I'm sooo excited.

I am a bad blogger, I am a bad blogger, I am a.....

Think you get the picture.

A lot has happened since the PINK!! Monkeys. In fact so much has happened I've probably forgotten half of it.

I've finished two more pairs of socks; firstly:

Elfine's socks from "My Fashionable Life" by Amela Raitte. I'm teaching myself to knit socks from the toe up and I'm particularly pleased to have finished these as many years ago when I first begam blogging I attempted to knit a pair of these but gave up at the short row heel. This time I had help from Ann Budds instructions published in Interweave Knits on how to knit socks from the toe up, which I found quite helpful.

I've finished my travelling sock (Basic top down Opal pattern in Trekking XXL)

And I've knitted a blanket from stash wool (what a good girl!) 7 skeins of Rowanspun Chunky Jenifer Crawfords "Feather and Fan Afghan".

PINK!!!!!!!! Monkeys

They're a bit more fluorescent than they appear here.

And I wore them to the rugby today as it was breast cancer awareness day so we were wearing pink.

They're lucky socks, we won the game!!!

And we don't talk about last weekend.
Oh dear no.
It might never have happened we're ignoring it so hard!

I want you all to go Here and try this. It's fun (if you're like me and love words) and you'll be doing something good too (as well as wasting a bit of time).

Little bit of busy, little bit of bad.....

Well as per the title of this weeks post I've done a bit of the former and a bit of the latter. Firstly was my "Fidget" by Robin Dodge of One sheep hill ; which I made last weekend to wear to the rugby to keep the drafts out. I used up some Patons Funky Chunky (now discontinued) that I had in my stash (what a good girl!) which goes nicely with my tigers shirt.
I made it about twenty inches long, but I had to frog the end and take a couple of inches off as it was a bit loose.

Buttons were stash buttons too from the Kirkwood Hospice shop.

Nice quick knit and I love the texture of the twisted moss stitch.

Next the little bit bad. Having used two 50g balls from my stash I then followed up a posting on one of the Ravelry message boards and went to look at the Violet Green website. Needless to say the lure of beautiful, reasonably priced sock wool combined with free delivery was not to be resisted. This lovely little lot was waiting for me on the mat when I got back from work on Tuesday. (No driving this week, I've had a bad back).

More busyness on Wednesday and Thursday night in the form of a little bit of combing. This is some of the Wensleydale fleece that I mentioned washing a couple of weeks ago. It was sat staring at me so on Wednesday evening I got a (nylon) comb out and had a go at it. The nylon comb isn't ideal for the task. For one thing I've broken a fair number of the teeth already. I had a go at flick carding it on one of my carders and that seems to speed things up a bit. Now I'm considering a weekend trip to Wingham Wool Work in order to invest in a proper set of combs.

Why is it so easy to find things to spend money on?

BFF socks finished

Love them.

What I did on my Easter Holiday

No prizes for guessing where I spent the Easter weekend.

Yep, that's right. Saturday afternoon was spent in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff watching the Tigers go through to the finals of the EDF Cup.

We've been to matches in Cardiff a number of times before but this is the first time they've played the game with the roof open. It was great, much better than with it closed. The weather for our game was lovely if cold, but during the second game (Saracens v. Ospreys) it snowed some.

We didn't stay at the Hilton this year but at the Holiday Inn which was pretty good and the view from the window was spectacular.

It was a great weekend made even better by the fact that the Tigers won a game which I seriously thought they could lose. It was a hell of a game too, nip and tuck all the way.

I realise that I don't have a huge number of readers who are interested in rugby (well, I don't have a huge number of readers at all!) so here's a picture of my BFF socks which are coming on nicely. I'm still enjoying them hugely, and am getting on okay with the cables without a cable needle.

Yesterday we went to visit my other sister and went over to see how the sheep were getting on with lambing. Here are two who had got disowned by their mum. We brought them home to be bottle reared. I did some other stuff so if anyone asks me what I did on Easter Monday I can casually say "Oh, I helped castrate some lambs". I wasn't involved with the business end though, I just helped to hold them! I think both these two are girls.

I also waded through, how can I put this, ummm, cowshit to help feed the cattle. Luckily I'd been able to borrow a pair of wellingtons. I did smell a bit of sheep and pooh by the time I'd finished, but it makes a change.

Cookie A

Warning: the following post contains descriptions of some of the more unpleasant realities of a truck drivers life. Those of a sensitive disposition may not wish to read the last few paragraphs of the post!

I've never really thought much about a "favourite designer"; not being a "designer clothes" kind of gal it didn't seem something that was particularly relevant to me. Last weekend though I suddenly realised that I'd enjoyed knitting Pomatomus, Hedera and Monkey and that they were all designed by the same person; Cookie A. I wondered what else she'd done that I might enjoy knitting so via Ravelry I went to her website to have a look.

The pattern that I found was the BFF socks (BFF stands for Best Friend Forever; that's who she originally made them for). So I printed off the pattern to get started. I'd bought some cygnet 4ply single colour sock wool from Texere Yarns the last time I was there which I thought would be perfect for showing off the cable pattern. I decided that they were probably a tad complicated to take with me in the truck so I started a plain vanilla pair of "travelling sock" on Monday night but on Thursday when I was home and recovered from this week's run (tell you later) I cast on for the BFF.

Well it's been a while since my knitting has made me smile whilst I'm doing it, but I was this morning. I love a simple pattern that you can enjoy watching as it develops under your fingers and this certainly does that. I'm using it to teach myself to cable without a cable needle which may not have been a wise move using 2.25 mm needles (think I may need bi-focals) but what the heck.

So I think I may put Cookie A on my (brand new) list of favourite designers for inventive and interesting sock patterns. I may even have a look at other things that she's designed.

I managed to get a fair bit of my "plain vanilla" sock knitted this week as I had a bit of trouble sleeping on Tuesday night. Anyone who regularly reads my blog will know that this is very unusual. I get up at two am on a Tuesday morning and work a fifteen hour day driving and unloading my truck in the Bristol area. Come bedtime (about 8-00 pm) I'm ready to drop.

This week I parked up at the service station on the Evesham byepass. It's a bit exposed there but I suspect that I'd have had the same problem wherever I'd parked. I was woken at about eleven o'clock by the truck being buffeted by the seventy mile an hour winds that were sweeping the south west of the country.

The wind dropped briefly at about two and I caught another hour or so of sleep but I woke up again and then didn't get off after that. At four I decided that if the truck was going to blow over I'd rather have my clothes on; didn't fancy having to clamber out in me vest and knickers. So I got dressed, went and got a cup of coffee and sat up most of the rest of the night knitting and listening to the BBC World service on the radio.

I didn't feel like the brightest button in the box the next morning and when I got back on Wednesday I went to bed at eight and slept through till a quarter to seven the following day when the alarm went off for me to go back to work again.

Minor rant
I was deeply p!ssed off on Wednesday when I stopped at the service station at junction 2 of the M42. I pulled into the truck park, got down from the truck and looked to see where I had to go to get a cup of coffee and use the loo.

As you can imagine I wasn't best pleased to discover that I'd have to go for a half mile hike to reach the "amenity building" (as it was quaintly titled). You can just see it in the distance (indicated by the arrow in the picture).

One of the most unpleasant parts of driving a truck is the fact that the truck stops reek in the summer because (male) drivers have a tendency to relieve themselves against the wheel of their truck rather than bothering to use the toilets. On Wednesday I felt like doing the same!! Unfortunately it's a bit of an unfeasible trick so I had to bite the bullet and take a hike. I had a quarter of an hour break which was completely taken up by walking over, using the loo, buying a cup of coffee and walking back. Had to drink it whilst driving along! Of course car drivers can park right in front of the building. Who designs these bloody places?

Scouring longwool

I spent most of yesterday (on and off) attempting to scour part of the Wensleydale fleece that Ro and I bought at Woolfest last year. It's been languishing in a plastic sheep feed sack (no not feed for plastic sheep; don't be smart) in Ro's garage. But I asked her to bring it to the match last weekend so I could have a go at scouring a longwool fleece.

You can see how it looked when I pulled it out of it's sack. I've seen cleaner fleeces but I would imagine it's pretty tricky keeping these babies clean with hair in lovely long ringlets. It's pretty greasy too; more so I'd think than the other fleeces I've processed at home. I decided to try the technique that the Yarn Harlot detailed on her blog here.


I won't go into a great deal of detail here as she does it so much better but it involves a roasting tin and the hob of the cooker and BIG LOTS OF WATER!

It wasn't an unqualifed success. As you can see there's still a quantity of crud left on the tips in places, but the bits that did come clean are absolutely gorgeous.

This is a close up of the butt ends; which did come clean. It's like angels hair and positively gleams in the light.

Here's a few locks that I combed out. I've subsequently read about another technique for scouring fleeces to maintain the structure of the locks on Spinning Spider Jenny's blog. So I may give that a try next time. Whichever method I use I reckon I need to spend more time teasing out the tips than I did this time.