Use it or loose it...

We joined the local library a month ago. The first visit we browsed the shelves and picked out all sorts of interesting books (that you'd never buy because you wouldn't read more than once) like this one on Lost country Crafts, and one on historical folk clothing including how making clothing has evolved, that I can't remember the title of...

Modern library catalogues are online now, so before we returned those books I reserved loads of books that I'd been meaning to red for ages, or just sounded interesting when I searched for the things I'm interested in...


An eclectic selection....

Anyway, my point being, we're all feeling a bit short of cash right now, if like me you have books in your amazon wish list that you'll never be able to buy, why not see if your library has them?

Summer

Summer means green for me, August is when the plants really seem to take off. We had a hot April, and a damp May and June, it's taken the plants a while to work out that this really is summer!
There's lots of inspiration for colour at this time of year. I love Sweet Peas, not just for their delicate colours but also for their beautiful scent.



The colours in these beauties, inspired this roving, unfortunately while I can capture colour, I can't work the same magic on scent!


For today, how about some Honeysuckle?



Or some Nasturtiums (which also taste rather nice in salads)?



Or a Sunflower?


Of course all this growth also means plenty of dye material, there's a few fresh braids of fibre that just need to dry so I can upload them in to the shop.

Bilberries

This spring the hillsides turned lime green, the leaves on bilberry bushes when they first come out are bright green, if you painted a picture of it you wouldn't think it was an accurate portrayal...
A few months down the line and all those leaves have photosynthesised lots, and the bushes are covered with berries. We've always called them bilberries, but I think over the border in Scotland they're called Blaeberries, and from what I can tell they're related to Blueberries. I ate wild Blueberries when I was in America last year and they tasted and looked identical to what I know of as a Bilberry.

One of our regular dog walks takes us right past a big patch of Bilberry bushes so last week we took some boxes with us picked away. Even though we ate quite a few, and the dog did as well (she likes berries...) we filled our boxes very quickly. The stains on our fingers were quite spectacular, and lasted for a couple of days.



Well worth it though because the pie we made was rather yummy...

My little brother

We're a competitive family... for years my brother and I competed about GCSE and A-Level results. My parents were the first generation of their families to go on to further education, they met at teaching training college, pretty impressive considering my Dad still doesn't have a Maths O-Level.
It was always expected that my brother and I would go to university, I went to Sheffield and got my BSC in Biology with a 2:1, Nick however had to go one better. A week ago he graduated, a First Class Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering. He starts his PhD in September.
The Boy done good...

Texture

Just up the road from us is Lake Vyrnwy, it was built by the Victorians to provide fresh drinking water for Liverpool, in true Victorian fashion even the water tower is ornate. Doesn't the photo above look like something from Europe?

Everywhere around here is "off the beaten track" very few people walk the footpaths through these hills, stiles are old and falling down. Lots of the fence posts were covered in Lichen. Such beautiful colours and textures.







The dogs had a great time pouncing through the grass pretending to be wolves, at times all your could see was Gwen's wagging tail!

Some more spinning

But not by me, it's some more yarn from one of my customers, and it's so gorgeous that I had to share.

This is one of the batts I made for the Tour de France this year called Maillot Vert, it's not available right now, but might make a re-appearance for next year's tour. It's a blend of Merino, Gotland Wool, Tussah Silk and Yak down, Elin, who spun it said that it was softer than she expected with a lovely halo (which will be from the Yak down).

Thank Elin for permission to use the photos, your spinning is wonderful. Elin blogs here if you would like to see more photos of her beautiful spinning- http://theknittingseaman.blogspot.com/

Mynydd

I've been a bit quiet on the knitting front recently. Lots of things going on behind the scene, but one of those things can now come out in to the open.
Meet Mynydd (welsh for mountain) it has a twisted stitch panel down either side of the leg and then rather cleverly (in my humble opinion!) splits at the heel to become a bit different as it goes along the side of the foot.
It's a really simple knit (the charts look harder than they are, but there are written directions as well), that works best in semi solids yarns.




The pink yarn is some rather bright pink from Collinette (I live 15 minutes from the factory), and the green is some Merino Dream from Fyberspates. If you like it then it's available to buy from Ravelry (you don't need a Ravelry account).



Gwen certainly seemed to like it as we were taking the photos!