I'm Back

Be Warned, this post is long, and with a lot of photos' so you might want to grab a cuppa before you start :)

Well I'm back, feeling rather burnt and sorry for myself (seriously, one day of sun & I could barely drive home. What I wouldn't give to not be so pale!) Well as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have loads to catch up on, but things have been so hectic that I can't remember anything before my birthday, so I'll start from there (I've put things under titles, so you feel free to skip bits :)

Birthday
Well it rained, and rained, then stopped, and rained some more. The weather didn't hold out long enough for us to actually BBQ so hubby came through, and stood in the kitchen cooking, while the rest of us sat in the living room drinking. Unfortunately the chap with the camera hasn't sent any photos through yet, but I did manage to finish this cardigan in time to wear on the day. My present to myself.




Woolfest
I had a fantastic time at woolfest. Sarah & I drove up to the campsite on Thursday evening. We arrived late, and had to put the tent up in the dark, now my tent is quite big, and a little temperamental, also it transpired that some of the poles were cracked, so this wasn't the easiest job in the world. I promptly fell asleep (sometimes having a sleep disorder has it's up sides) while Sarah didn't sleep a wink all night. We got to wool fest just 40 minutes after it opened on Friday, and it was already jammed. Sarah has posted some great pics on her blog of just how overwhelming the whole thing was. Any way to the nitty gritty, I was really well behaved, and didn't spend too much, my biggest purchase was this beautiful bosworth spindle, Which I haven't put down since.



I also bought 2 whole fleeces, a brown and a white Shetland.

And some gorgeous Alpaca, it's so soft, i can't wait to start playing with it.
I also picked up some pencil roving, which is probing a little difficult to spin at the moment, but I haven't tried it on the wheel yet, so we'll have to see with that one. and a Turkish spindle, just because I wanted one!

I also got to meet the wonderful woolly wormhead, her mum, and blog less aunt, and Susoolu, and to see the lovely wye sue, and her spinning wheel. Unfortunately there were others I missed, like missmalice, but I look forward to seeing more people next year.


Holiday
Hubby & I had a wonderful week in Devon, and even managed to catch some lovely sunshine, although as already mentioned I am now burnt to a crisp. I had some great knitting and spinning time, and after meeting the great woolly worm head, i just had to knit a hat, so here it is. You may notice that I've had my hair chopped off since the birthday photo too. Anyway this was actually ripped and reknit the next day, as it was a bit too small, but the resulting look was pretty much the same, and I wanted to keep this pic for posterity.

I did lots of spinning too, and managed to spin in the park, and on the beach, hubby developed a liking for photographing me when I was spinning, so there are some of that mixed in with all of these lovely holiday snaps.


Sockapalooza
Finally progress is being made on the sockaplooza socks. These are the socks I am doing for sock pal 1 theyareteal handspun merino and it's doubtful that they will still be boot-socks, but I'm really pleased with them, they're in stocking stitch, and will have a simple band of cable just below the cuff. I've nearly finished sock one on this pair.
This is the start of sock pal 2's socks. I love this yarn, but it has a very small variation repeat, just too short to be a stripe. I'm not sure about this pattern yet, and think I may opt for a simple diagonal rib in the end, to show off the yarn a little more. (sorry it's a really bad picture.

Other WIP's
Here are the few other things I've been working on lately

Camo socks - For Hubby, I spun the 2 greens, and over dyed with a brown/red. This is sock 2 and they're just a plain 2x2 rib


Red Roving - I dyed 4oz of this just before we went on holiday, It's come out with some lovely pinks, reds & oranges. These are the 2 oz I've already spun, and I'm going to ply it with a thicker fluffy off white I think.


And lastly there is this lace shawl. It's a bit difficult to tell, but it's a really simple, pattern, and I'll post it once I get round to writing it up, and once I have a finished blocked shawl to show. Right that's enough for me, I have fibre to be playing with.