A few days ago I got some rather exciting news, I mentioned it on Twitter, and I mentioned it in my Ravelry group but I completely forgot to talk about it here.
I'm going to be a stall holder at Wonderwool, if you fancy making the trip to Wales at the end of April I'd love to say hello to some of you. It's on the 28th-29th April, and is at the Royal Welsh show ground in Builth Wells.
It will be my first big show as a stall holder, I've been a few times as a visitor, and it's a fantastic place to go and see the best of the British fibre industry. I'm already making plans for what the stall will look like, and I've started carding fibre and prepping roving. It's very much a little and often thing, too much in one day and my body starts to complain a little, there's only so long you can turn a carder handle for before your arm starts to feel like it's dropping off! The big dream is to end up with an electric carder, but for now it's muscle power only.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Monday, 16 January 2012
Barn progress
The barn is becoming less like a barn, and looking more and more like somewhere someone can live there. The walls are now insulated, and the upstairs is plastered. Things like the kitchen and bathroom fittings are all in storage, ready for installation. This last part seems to be taking forever, but it will all get done eventually!
I'm no starting to have to make decisions about things tiles, which is driving me a bit potty, I'd almost like to wave a magic wand and it be all decided, but this will be the last time I can make these decisions so they need to be right!
Apologies if this is a bit incoherent, everyone is trying to talk to me, and I need to go and make a decision about door handles...
I'm no starting to have to make decisions about things tiles, which is driving me a bit potty, I'd almost like to wave a magic wand and it be all decided, but this will be the last time I can make these decisions so they need to be right!
Apologies if this is a bit incoherent, everyone is trying to talk to me, and I need to go and make a decision about door handles...
Friday, 13 January 2012
Frosty Morning
It's been an unusually warm winter, hardly any frosts, and certainly no snow.
I was woken up this morning not by the sun rising, but by the moon setting. It had been a very clear night, which meant it actually got cold.
I didn't manage to venture out with the camera until around 9.30, but everywhere was still glittering.
I'd just lit the fire and there was a slight temperature inversion, the smoke was sinking in to the valley rather than floating away.
The melt was starting though. Before long this patch of moss in a wooden bench will be free of the ice.
Tonight is meant to be even colder, though we're still a long way off the temperatures of last year, the icicles from the guttering nearly reached the floor.
I was woken up this morning not by the sun rising, but by the moon setting. It had been a very clear night, which meant it actually got cold.
I didn't manage to venture out with the camera until around 9.30, but everywhere was still glittering.
I'd just lit the fire and there was a slight temperature inversion, the smoke was sinking in to the valley rather than floating away.
The melt was starting though. Before long this patch of moss in a wooden bench will be free of the ice.
Tonight is meant to be even colder, though we're still a long way off the temperatures of last year, the icicles from the guttering nearly reached the floor.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Clever Spinners
There have been some very clever spinners at work recently. Even better they're been sharing their pictures in my Ravelry group, I absolutely love seeing what people make with my fibre. In an idea world I'd keep and spin it all, but this is reality, and it going to new homes, and becoming yarn, and then finished items is the next best thing!
The lovely Handa bought some of my Light Rainbow roving.
This is 70% British Shetland, 30% Silk, I card it up on my drum carder to make a rainbow batt, but then I use a diz to pull it off as a strip of roving rather than a batt. This way you get a length of fibre that changes colour gradually, and it's super light, fluffy, and easy to draft.
When you spin it up you end up with a skein of yarn like this
Pretty, but nothing remarkable, what Helen did next is the breath taking part.
The pattern is Boneyard for those that need to know.
The lovely Handa bought some of my Light Rainbow roving.
This is 70% British Shetland, 30% Silk, I card it up on my drum carder to make a rainbow batt, but then I use a diz to pull it off as a strip of roving rather than a batt. This way you get a length of fibre that changes colour gradually, and it's super light, fluffy, and easy to draft.
When you spin it up you end up with a skein of yarn like this
Pretty, but nothing remarkable, what Helen did next is the breath taking part.
The pattern is Boneyard for those that need to know.
Sunday, 8 January 2012
A whole week of taking a photo every day. So far I'm enjoying it, it's a bit of a challenge finding something new to photograph each day, but sometime I see something and think "I must photograph that", previously I probably wouldn't have bothered, deciding it was too much of a faff, but now I know I have to take a picture every day, so I make sure I bother!
Of course, being able to snap photos using my ageing iPhone helps, it means I can upload things straight from it, rather than having to bother connecting my camera to my computer.
Of course, being able to snap photos using my ageing iPhone helps, it means I can upload things straight from it, rather than having to bother connecting my camera to my computer.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Wild and Windy
The weather here has been wild recently. While we've not experienced the structural damage sustained by many, at times it has felt like the house will be swept away. We live in quite an exposed spot, and there's not much shelter as the wind whistles up the valley and hits the end of the house. I don't feel like I've had a good nights sleep in a few days, and the noise during the daytime has driven me batty. We're just inland from Aberystwyth where the roof was peeled off the National Library of Wales by the high winds.
Another downside of the wind is the rate at which the fire burns wood. Normally the fire glows away gently, but with gale force winds drawing it you end up with something similar to a raging inferno!
Tonight the wind has dyed down a lot, thank goodness, maybe I can get a good nights sleep, now would it be too much to ask for some properly cold winter weather?
Another downside of the wind is the rate at which the fire burns wood. Normally the fire glows away gently, but with gale force winds drawing it you end up with something similar to a raging inferno!
Tonight the wind has dyed down a lot, thank goodness, maybe I can get a good nights sleep, now would it be too much to ask for some properly cold winter weather?
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Here's to 2012
2011 was a year of big changes, I'm sat writing this post on a friend's sofa in Sheffield, it seems slightly appropriate, given that the biggest change I made this year was to leave Sheffield where I'd lived for the past 7 years, and move to Wales.
This will be the view from the upstairs window of my new home (once the builders have finished with it), my Mum says Wales is good for the soul, and I think she's right, everyday the view from the window changes, and inspires me, I'm willing to put up with alot to live somewhere as beautiful as this.
It was also the year I left teaching, I still have a lot of friends who are teaching and the feelings of hurt, pressure and anxiety weren't just things I was feeling, but I was lucky to be in the position to be able to leave. I am very fortunate that I could go and live with Mum and Dad in Wales and launch in to a new career. Selling something you make is scary, even after 6 months of people telling me how wonderful they think my fibre is, I still worry about someone out there who won't like it. I can honestly say though, that I am proud of what I do, I'm proud of the business I'm building, and I'm happy and glad I made the choice to change my life.
Proudest moment of this year though, has to be seeing my own name in print and my pattern on the front cover of Yarnmaker, I'd only ever dabbled in writing patterns, and I'll probably continue to only dabble, but this front cover was one of the best endings to 2011 I could have hoped for.
Happy 2012 everyone, Thank You for all the support and advice I've been given, may the New Year treat you kindly.
The New Year also brings new challenges, I just signed up for Photo Stash, it's a slightly more flexible, free and easy version of the 365 photo a day challenge, organised by the lovely Natalie from the The Yarn Yard, and Ann (Pixeldiva). Natalie's blogpost explains far better than I could.
At times I miss it dreadfully, mostly when I have a craving for takeaway food, but I think the things I've gained more than make up for it.
This will be the view from the upstairs window of my new home (once the builders have finished with it), my Mum says Wales is good for the soul, and I think she's right, everyday the view from the window changes, and inspires me, I'm willing to put up with alot to live somewhere as beautiful as this.
It was also the year I left teaching, I still have a lot of friends who are teaching and the feelings of hurt, pressure and anxiety weren't just things I was feeling, but I was lucky to be in the position to be able to leave. I am very fortunate that I could go and live with Mum and Dad in Wales and launch in to a new career. Selling something you make is scary, even after 6 months of people telling me how wonderful they think my fibre is, I still worry about someone out there who won't like it. I can honestly say though, that I am proud of what I do, I'm proud of the business I'm building, and I'm happy and glad I made the choice to change my life.
Proudest moment of this year though, has to be seeing my own name in print and my pattern on the front cover of Yarnmaker, I'd only ever dabbled in writing patterns, and I'll probably continue to only dabble, but this front cover was one of the best endings to 2011 I could have hoped for.
Happy 2012 everyone, Thank You for all the support and advice I've been given, may the New Year treat you kindly.
The New Year also brings new challenges, I just signed up for Photo Stash, it's a slightly more flexible, free and easy version of the 365 photo a day challenge, organised by the lovely Natalie from the The Yarn Yard, and Ann (Pixeldiva). Natalie's blogpost explains far better than I could.
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