All things woolly

This is a new fleece that my parents surprised me with so there is plenty of fleece to spin now.  It was a thank you for helping Dad while he was building the cat enclosure a few weeks back. 

Now this has been washed but still to be combed out before spinning.  I have washed enough to go with the lovely blue I have been spinning to make it go a bit further.  The two will be plied together to make a normal wool. 

I am currently waiting for some 'energised' wool to dry.  It is created by using a single (rather than plied together) strand which has been slightly overspun.   I thought it would be ideal for the first ever proper bobbin I spun up.  Will be interesting to see how it knits up.

Now believe it or not this wool used to be the same colour as the raw fleece pictured below.

Combing it out and skirting it is a messy job but one that is necessary to be able to spin it.  Spinning it as is is really good for the hands as the lanolin comes out and helps to moisturise the hands.  Handy when they had been scouring fleece in hot water lol. 

I have also reached the halfway mark for the blue scarf too. 

Birthday stash/OPAM finish

I've finished one of my SKOW pincushions and this one is for the birthday stash over on Wendy's blog and also a OPAMer lol.  Two birds with one stone.

On Monday I also received another bunch of flowers from Deb who also lives in the Adelaide Hills.  Have certainly been spoilt this year.  Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes too. 

My weekend.......

I've had the most amazingly relaxing weekend and a great birthday on Saturday too.  Thanks for everyone who has sent birthday wishes too.  I was wondering who let the cat out of the bag so to speak lol.  Thanks Anthea for those gorgeous cupcakes on your blog.  They look sew delicious! 

Well first up I should share what the lovely Anthea sent me this week.  It was such a lovely surprise!

A gorgeous mini for the frame that Lance gave me.  I will take a more detailed pic of it later as it is stunning!

Next up the girls gave me some more Lindt chocolates and these magazines which are very topical at the moment.

My parents and brother gave me a kilo of this lovely wool that I had my eye on ages ago, a spinning book which is fantastic, and $50.

My lovely Aunty Vera, Lance's aunt from S.A., sent me a gorgeous card and some money so I went over to Tongala and bought 5 hanks of dyed merino tops from Ewe Give Me The Knits.  Fantastic shop for a little tiny town.  They also have an internet shop but it is only a nice 15 mins drive from Echuca.  Each hank is 100gms and one hank fills a bobbin.  So as you can see I hit the spinning wheel over the last two days and nearly have 1 bobbin full lol.  It is more the colour of the rovings in the basket.

I have also been looking at my magazines and knitting on that lace scarf too.  It is suddenly growing quicker too so it has not been all spinning all weekend lol.

These gorgeous flowers came from Lance's sister in Adelaide on Saturday.  There are some gorgeous yellow lilies that are not quite open yet which will look fantastic in a couple of days.

So all in all a wonderful weekend relaxing with people and things I love.

Mother's Day

I had a lovely day on Sunday and received two boxes of lovely Lindt chocolates and a couple of crafty magazines.  I also had a lovely roast lunch cooked for me and Grace made and decorated these little cakes too.

Birthday stash and OPAM

Here's two tissue covers for the birthday stash and a couple of finishes too for OPAM this month.  Now I can not believe it took me so long to get round to making these.  Two only took about 10 minutes to run up lol.  Might have to make a few more now. 

I don't know where I came across the tutorial for these but if anyone is interested I saved it as a word document so I can email it out. 

The pattern suggested you could overlap or just have it butt up in the middle so I did one of each.  I think the next lot I will overlap by a little more than 1/4" though.  I used Kleenex tissues but they were top opening.  A careful slit with a very sharp blade remedied it.

Spinning and knitting

Well I think I have it all nutted out now.  Wont be long and I might actually be able to do the four ply thickness for socks lol.  A little bit done every day has helped heaps.  This will end up an 8ply when it is eventually plyed with another bobbin. Remember the lovely garden twine I made with my very first attempt lol.

The knitting I have been working on has been the blue scarf.  Not a lot has been done but it will get there very slowly lol.  So I am not going to bore you with pics.

A question...

Has anyone else had trouble leaving comments on Barb and Michelle's blogs while using the bloglovin reader.  I have to come back here to leave my comments as they just will not work on the other one.  Just wondering if it is something I have set up wrong lol or if others are having issues too.

FNWF results

I had a finish!   Sarah's scarf is finished and it has only taken 3/4 hours of knitting over the last few nights.  Did the last 4 inches last night for FNWF. 

Then I did a few rows on the toes of these socks.

Then decided to do this project instead.  It is the 2ply scarf I started last June.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else achieved last night.  Better get moving as there is washing to hang out and then over to my parents for the final bit of the cat enclosure I have been helping Dad build.

FNWF

Yay its FNWF and I plan to finish a scarf I started 2 nights ago from Cheryll's giveaway wool.  Not far to go on it and I will have a finish!

I planned starting early but after putting tea in the slow cooker I walked the dog, had one girl home sick, helped my Dad with the new cat enclosure and Lance came home early too.  It was too nice a day to be inside really but now after a yummy tea I am ready to settle down with the knitting and relax lol. 

So pop back tomorrow and see if I managed to finish that scarf.