Switzerland

A brief selection of my photos from Switzerland. We took 26 Guides and Young Leaders and 7 adults overall it was an amazing trip, the weather to start off with was a little damp, including hail storms and thunder and lightning. By the end of the week however it was warm and sunny, with amazing views from the tops of the mountains. We shall gloss over the 24 hour coach journeys, and being pulled off the coach to go through customs at 1.30am, apparently home office instructions are that all youth groups must go through customs in case they've been on terrorist training camps....

Hghlights have to be the views from the top of the Schilhorn and watching a group of teenage girls relax and not worry about what they looked like, and what others were thinking about them.











Oh and apparenly when we next go I might be organising it.... (PS. I also found a wool shop, and yes, I bought wool!)

I'm back

I've arrived back safely from Switzerland ahead of schedule. the RSS feed reader has been caught up with (111 blog posts), and 139 emails have been read or deleted!
I still haven't opened my bag, I still need to shower but I have had an all important cup of tea. Photos are going to be forthcoming.

On my travels

I leave tomorrow for a trip to Switzerland with Guiding, I am paying to spend money with 30 Guides on a coach for 24 hours, at times I think I need my head examining....
I think the packing is done, the important things like what knitting to take were picked out several days earlier less important things like "do I have enough clean knickers?" were only thought about last night. The answer by the way was no, I went to sleep to the sound of a washing machine attempting take off. It needed this much time because the weather to be quite honest has been dreadful, I've done a few climbing instruction sessions this summer and have worn water proofs for every single one. Most summers they might get put on once maybe twice if I'm unlucky. My legs haven't seen daylight for weeks, I am ready for Switzerland to be hot and sunny!

See you all in 10 days or so....

Until next year

The tour de france has just finished which means that it's time to look back on what I managed to knit and spin. This year got interupted by a trip to Scotland, and this time last year I hadn't learnt to spin yet so there was no repeat of last years mammoth effort!


I have however knitted a pair of socks from my own handspun, and a few squares for a p/hop afghan which is going to be auctioned in September.


On the spinning front I've managed 3 skeins in total.

98m of laceweight silk, just enough to work out I don't like spinning silk, and too little to actually be useful! It is pretty though.

Some sparkly fingering weight which is my first spindle spun yarn.

And some laceweight Teesdale wool.



Just so you don't start getting the wrong idea about me I also finished these over th last few days... the least said the better, they're going to the frog pond I've now knitted 5 individual legwarmers in an effort to make 2 complete pairs and suffered to get the sizing right on all of them. I declare defeat, the yarn is lovely soft alpaca, it can be something else!

Some spinning

Here's the latest thing off the wheel. Some Handspun Teesdale from Freyalyn's Fibres a few people have commented on Ravelry that they'd not encountered Teesdale before. It's lovely to spin, not super soft and quite grabby, but saying that it wasn't horrendous to draft. The finished yarn is quite coarse, with pretty good definition, but also a bit of a halo if that makes sense. It has made a really nice laceweight though the yardage is a little disappointing, only 250m from 100g. It will make a nice small lace shawl though.

Secret Pal parcel

My first secret pal parcel has arrived. This one has travelled from Europe but apparently the next one will arrive from Asia. To say I'm excited is an under statement!




Some Llama, some cashmere mix, some continental hot chooclate, a french knitting magazine, and amazingly a book mark. I used to have a massive bookmark collection as a child, relatives bought them back from holiday for me, and if we ever went away I always bought one back.

I just need to cast off a sock and then I'm going to go and get some exercise.

Homegrown

Does life get much better than this?


Homegrown lettuce, rocket, land cress and radishes. It looks wonderful it tasted even better. Now to get a few more things planted to keep me supplied for the summer.