Little Hats

Regular readers will know that I'm a big supporter of p/hop, I've designed patterns for them, and manned their stall at festivals. Normally everything p/hop does is geared towards raising money, so that cash can be used where it's needed most, at the very moment it's needed. 

We may all like the idea of making something for charity, but often the expense of transporting the item offsets the good it does. MSF usually likes local communities to supply items like this, it helps support the local economy, but Dr Miroslav who runs a neonatal unit in Qetta, Pakistan made a specific request for hats.
He doesn't mind what they're made of, in fact warmth is the main concern, so wool is better than acrylic, and they want hats that will fit premature babies, up to 5 year olds. The very smallest of these hats really are tiny, they'd fit on an orange quite easily, they don't take much wool, or much time to knit. Mum and I went for bright and cheerful, hopefully they'll bring a bit of cheer to a patient and their family in an upsetting time.
If you think you could knit a few hats then you can see the original request on the p/hop blog here, the deadline for the first batch is the end of April, to see some pattern suggestions, and discussions about the project, take a look on the p/hop ravelry group.

Nodding in the sunshine

Summer appears to have arrived a little early this year....

Last year we had our hottest weather in April, this year it's come even earlier and March is being glorious. The garden here had been neglected for many years, but sometime in the past someone had planted loads of daffodils in our garden. They fill the front garden, and are planted all along the fence at the back of the house. 

Some are the very simple classic shape, but some are more frilly, and silly looking. I never really though Daffodils had a scent, but when you have this many in flower all at once they smell glorious.

A few of them are in a vase brightening up my living room, and a few of them were used to make this.

Naturally dyed Shetland/Silk. It's listed in the shop now. 

Playing on the beach

A trip to the beach always blows the cobwebs away. Nothing like a Welsh beach in March to have you reaching for your hat and gloves!
Days like this are exactly why I want some mittens with flap tops, gloves are essential, but picking up a soggy tennis ball while wearing them is a bad idea!

And Meg really does want her tennis ball thrown, lots, and lots, and just one more time, and the next time...

The dogs love playing in the waves, though scaredy cat Meg won't go out f her depth, she loves water, but only when her feet are firmly planted on the bottom.

The dogs enjoy the wide open space, and this time of year we get the beach mostly to ourselves, come summer the place gets busier, but if you pick your days carefully you can still find a quiet spot.

Dark Rainbow

I promised a spinning post, it's taken me a while longer than I anticipated, however, it's not ready to be released in to the wild.
Part of the preparations for Wonderwool involve getting fibres spun up, and knitted. My Mum has helped with a couple of samples, but this one is my handiwork. It's not got further than the spinning stage yet, but the knitting shouldn't take to long. This is Dark Rainbow, which is my Black Welsh Mountain silk blend. It's carded, and then dizzed off in to roving so that it slowly changes colour through the rainbow.
I've actually spun one of these skeins twice, I took them with to York back in January, and only came back with one...

Their next incarnation is to become a pair of flap top mittens, I'm going to use the black yarn (also black welsh mountain and silk) as the cuffs, and then we'll see how far through the rainbow I'll get.

Chicken herding

Warning, this is yet another chicken based post (I promise I've got a spinning based post in the pipeline)

Now the chickens have got used to their surroundings we've let them out of their run for a peck around the garden. We've had a wet couple of days here so almost the first thing they did when I let them out was go and sun themselves in the dry on top of their house.

We've only got little legs, so a quick wing flap assistance is required! 

Once we're up there it was time to make sure we were looking pretty.

And then pose for the camera

After that it's time to go in search of breakfast

Final gratuitous shot of our very handsome cockerel, Mum has decided he's called Boyo, pronounced in your best Welsh accent for full effect! We're still working on names for the girls, not helped by the fact that 3 of them are impossible to tell apart, the black one is of course easy, and the one who's laying the eggs is a bit more mature, but the others will soon catch her up.

We put them in a run on one of the raised beds after dinner, and then made the mistake of trying to herd them back to their run this afternoon....

Mum and I chased them round the garden for a good half hour, they particularly liked hiding under the car, and had to be poked out with a handy bit of wood. Boyo didn't look quite so dignified when I rugby tackled him...

Mini eggs

The  Chickens have been performing very well, they seem to have settled in nicely, and are becoming rather friendly. They've also started producing eggs, I suspect it's only one or two of them laying, a couple of the hens have more prominent, redder combs so are probably a bit more mature than the other girls. So far we've had an egg a day, but it's not looking like we'll get one today.

Being bantams of course the eggs are tiny, we're used to little eggs, we get the smallest ones from our local farmer anyway (we have his littlest eggs in exchange for a cheaper price!), but these eggs really are tiny, smaller than a Cadbury's creme egg, that's one of the eggs in my hand in the picture, and I don't have large hands!


PS- Fibre Club subscriptions opened on Thursday, there's only 4 spaces left so if you were thinking about joining, best get your skates on!

Additions to the menagerie

Meet the girls (and one boy). There are 6 of them altogether, 5 hens and 1 cockerel. We didn't really want a cockerel at first as we don't have any plans to let them breed, but he came with the girls, and now he's here I'm glad we got him because he is a fine fellow, and very protective of his little harem.

They needed a little encouragement to brave the outside world this morning, but once they were rudely shoved out of the house have spent a lovely day scratching around in their run on what is going to become our asparagus bed.