Part Two (life and a little knitting!)

I'm finally back with part two of the update. Back in January it was E's birthday, we didn't know what to get her so we decided on a junior keeper for the day experience at Howletts. Originally D was going to be her 'adult' for the day but he wasn't well enough so I got to go. It was a fantastic day and E absolutely loved it. Watching her with the animals and asking so many questions of our guide and all the keepers was wonderful. She got to feed the lemurs, make the elephants beds, have a look behind the scenes in the gorilla house and watch tigers being fed close up. I got quite emotional when we were watching the tigers, they are one of my favourite animals and I was close enough to reach out and touch thier fluffy tummies. It was only the sight of the huge teeth and claws that stopped me! Here are a few pictures, we took hundreds!






























































































D is feeling a lot better now and has started doing a gradual return to work. I'm hoping it goes alright, he is so up and down with his health that it worries me in case he doesn't cope and gets really ill again. On the other hand if all goes well and he ends up back at work full time we will need to sort out some childcare and that worries me too. It all makes for sleepless nights. I am distracting myself by planning my 40th birthday party. I am 40 on the 20th March and have booked a hall and disco for an eighties themed party. I'm going as Adam Ant and have hired a highwayman outfit. I am really looking forward to it as there are a lot of people coming that I haven't heard from in ages. I'll make sure some photos go up here so anyone reading can have a laugh.
I have a bit of knitting news too. I finished the seawool scarf from last months Yarn Forward magazine using the seasilk I bought back in January at the Posh meet. It is amazingly slinky and lovely. My only small niggle is that I wish I had made the scarf a bit bigger, I had enough yarn but followed the pattern instead of my instincts, even so its a very wearable scarf.





























I have also cracked the wheel! After my last post saying how we weren't getting on I tried using a different fibre and hey presto, it worked. I spun some BFL from Limegreenjelly and produced this lovely squooshy yarn.






















I managed to get some Posh Yarn roving in thier first ever sale of fibre and I couldn't wait to spin it up. This is called scotch mist and is falkland.






















Now I just have to find the ideal pattern to show them off and do them justice. I am thinking maybe some fingerless gloves in the Limegreenjelly and a hat in the Posh.
I had a trip with the beading group to the Bead Merchant for one of thier open days and it got my beading mojo going again. They had some swarovski rivolis in stock, which are like large, very sparkly sequins. I fell in love and had to have a couple. I had a play when I got home and made this ring. It can be used as scarf ring or worn as a ring. It is impossibly sparkly and I love it. Now if someone could just arrange for there to be an extra few hours in each day I could have time for all my hobbies!!

Part one (knitting)

Its been a busy month and I haven't blogged at all. The madhouse has lived up to its name so everytime I have sat down and thought about blogging something happens to stop me. My computer time has been made up of snatched moments here and there. There is so much to tell you that I am going to split this into two posts. One will be knitting and fibre related and the other will be everything else.
So this can be the knitting one. I have a couple of finished things to show, the first is a top in Wendy Pure Bamboo. I am really pleased with this, my only gripe is the sewing in of ends was a nightmare. This yarn is very drapy and slippy so I ended up with a needle and thread securing every end once I had weaved it in, I found that the ends would all come out otherwise. The neck is quite wide so I'm hoping it doesn't stretch when I wash it. I do have a little left over yarn so I can always crochet a new edge to the neck if need be.





























The other item is really exciting, because its a crocheted neckwarmer and the yarn is my own handspun. I'm still spinning chunky but at least its fairly evenly chunky. The fibre is from Freyalyn and I got it as part of the Posh swap last year.





























The guild wheel has now gone back and I have bought a second hand Louet S71. It is a beautiful compact wheel but at the moment we have a slightly rocky relationship. It has an incredibly fierce take up and is taking a lot of getting used to. I'm determined we will end up best of friends but it may take a while. So far I haven't been able to spin anything worthwhile on it at all. I just can't get enough twist in the fibre to stop it all breaking as soon as you try and wind the yarn off the bobbin.





























This hasn't stopped me buying fibre of course. I managed to grab some fibre on Davids last update on Come in Spinner on Esty. its merino and the colour is Midnight.






















I also bought some more fibre from Limegreenjelly. This time its BFL and called 'Girls just want to have fun'. Isn't it the most fantastic pink?






















Now for a confession, I have broken my stashalong. The friends of P group on Ravelry is having a knitalong using a new sock yarn called Zauberball. It knits up similar to the sock blanks, with the colours fading into each other. I just couldn't resist and bought a ball of Fuschia. I think Mitzie was cross with me.