Wintery Musings

We have snow, not much, but enough to make me happy. This winter has been so wet that it's nice to have a bit of variety. Today was particularly nice because the sun came out as well!

This is the view down our valley, the hills in the distance are pretty big, and Mum and Dad were walking in them today, apparently the snow is pretty deep up there. I would have loved to have joined them, but I had to use this instead.

It's the brand new boiler in my dyeing caravan, the last cold spell we had burst the pipes, which was a rather expensive error in not draining all the water out. This boiler looks rather space age, but isn't actually any better than the 1970's model it replaced. 

While I was busy dyeing, the chickens were busy being spoiled pests! They spend most of their day hanging around by the caravan and my Dad's workshop. He throws them a handful of corn on a regular basis, so today, every time I stepped outside I was met with sqwarking and indignant waddling unlesss a handful of food was produced. Of course, they then ignored most of it in favour of finding yummy things under the caravan...

All this is a roundabout way of saying, look out for some new dyed fibre in the shop over the next few days, there's definitely some Camel/Silk, and a few other things coming your way soon. 

Christmas knitting

Here's what was on my needles over Christmas.

Just a simple little cowl, perfect for keeping your neck nice and warm. The pattern is Eleanor from Knitty, mine is a more drapey version that than the original because it's made from some of my handspun Baby Camel/Silk. 

I spun this up at Glasgow School of Yarn back in October, it's roughly fingering weight, slightly inconsistent because of stopping and starting while I spoke to customers, but once you knit something up that all disappears. 

Even better, I only used 50g of fibre, so it's a perfect pattern for slightly smaller skeins. I had intended this to be a stall sample but once I finished knitting it I decided it needed to be mine, so it looks like I need to spin and knit another one to use on the stall!

Out with a bang

2012 went out with a bang, and a splash.
It was very, very wet round here. The Dyfi river wasn't quite bursting it's banks, but it wasn't far off. The rivers this close to the hills tend to be small and fast flowing, so when they flood there is a lot of water moving very very fast.

The river does a sharp meander here, and your can just see the water cutting the corner slightly, as an old university friend of mind would say it was geography in action, eventually the river will wear away at the banks and straighten. In the back eddy were full size trees, being tossed around like match sticks. This video clip gives you a better idea.

Just round the corner the river goes past a house, not many houses round here are built this close to rivers, precisely because they flood so often, this house must once have been a mill.

These trees are in the back garden of the house, they were bending, but it's amazing how strong a tree actually is, the force of water hitting them must have been incredible. 

Things have calmed down a lot weather wise since then, in fact New Years Day was actually dry! Though things have reverted to normal today, and it's still raining....

Coming up, a post where I promise not to mention rain...

2012

2012 has been an adventurous year. The weather has been dreadful, but fortunately everything else has been fantastic.

January saw winds strong enough to peel roofs off houses, the launch of handblended fibre club, and my converted barn neared completion.

February was the coldest month of the winter, our water supply froze up, and I moved in to my barn.

March saw the arrival of the chickens, the daffodils appearing, in the hottest March I've ever known, I was wearing shorts and sweating as I dyed fibre in the caravan. at the time I was worrying that a dry summer might mean we ran out of water and I wouldn't be able to do much more dyeing that year, if only I'd known what was in store!

April was a busy month, I was in the last stages of preparing for WonderWool, my first proper show, but the weather was still doing odd things, this frost put paid to any hopes of fruit from our orchard this year. 

I also took HilltopCloud to it's very first Fibre Festival, it was cold, very cold, but I had a lovely time meeting lots of online customers for the very first time.

In May, I got inventive and worked out how to use a Singer sewing machine treadle to power my drum carder, I then got even more drum carder envy on our guild trip out to Quarry Bank Cotton Mill, I went to Shropshire show and was interviewed on the radio about spinning. 

June was a busy month, and my laptop dyed on me, I did however take HilltopCloud to Woolfest where it rained, and rained, and rained. For my birthday I got a Charkha.

In July we got our bees, and I visited FibreEast, and handed over my Woolsack cushion as part of the cultural Olympiad. 

I also developed new labels for my fibre.

August didn't see much of a change in the weather, but we did get our first slow worm sighting of the summer, and work started on my deck from my upstairs door in the barn. 

September was still wet and cold, but I did go over to Welshpool to see the Tour of Britain cycle race, I also started my blogposts featuring small quantities of handspun yarn, I'm always after new ideas, particularly as samples for shows, please leave me a comment if you think you've done something particularly yummy. 

In October I did a series of posts featuring things customers had made using my Learn to Spin kits. We enjoyed reclaiming our beaches from the tourists, and I went up to Glasgow for the Glasgow School of Yarn

November was cool and misty, perfect for wearing my new Warriston jumper, I also ran my first full scale workshop for my guild. I took a break from work, headed inland, and drove through a beautiful temperature inversion. 

December has been wet (again), but I put up the Christmas decorations to get myself in the festive spirit, did a bit more spinning for samples , and moaned about the weather.

I've just been out to take photos of yet more flooded rivers, we're currently experiencing yet more heavy rain, the chickens are miserable so I've just put them in the polytunnel to dry out a little. 

My over-riding memory of 2012 has been rain, the wet stuff falling from the sky has been unrelenting for much of the year. I know Wales is renowned for it's rain, but it's been a bit much. 2012 has also been the year which has seen me turn HilltopCloud in to my full time, wage paying job. I hope 2013 treats me just as kindly, and I'm excited that I'm going to be at far more shows this year.

Thank You for your support this year.

The Rain

It's rained.... a lot.
It's rained on top of ground that was already saturated, the rain has never really stopped all summer, you might remember the flooding in the Aberystwyth area earlier this summer. Six months on and we've got floods again.
Every time I mention rain and flooding there are always some very kind people who post or tweet asking me if we're ok. We're actually quite a long way inland and it's the rain that falls on us that causes the flooding down river. We went for a walk yesterday morning, after a day of rain and already the water levels in the river was dropping, the floods rise quickly and fall quickly round here.

This is the River Dugoed at the bottom of our valley, we live around 30metres above the height of the river, it also runs through a very steep cut gorge, the noise of the river is incredible, but if it ever reaches our house then the apocalypse has probably arrived!

Oh, and it's still raining... 

Seasons Greetings

Have a very merry Christmas everyone, hope that Santa brings you lots of goodies, particularly fibrey ones, I know a few people will be getting something nice in their stockings, there are some very considerate husbands and partners out there!

The shop is staying open over the holidays, today is my last day of work, but I'll be answering emails. BoB parcels are going to go out on the 27th.

Post will be pretty unaffected, the post office will be open on my usual Monday and Thursday posting days so I'll carry on sending things out as normal.

I'm going away for New Year, not quite sure of the dates yet, but I'll be starting on the Handblended parcels when I get back.

Thank You for making 2012 such a fantastic year, here's to 2013 being just as good, if not better.

Katie

Estuary

This was the fibre that went out for the handblended club in August. It was inspired by the Mawddach estuary, just down the road from our house. I wanted to pick up the magical murky swirling colours you get as the river enters the sea. It also picks out the tones of the gorse bushes in the foreground. 

Coming up with this blend was a challenge, there are so many beautiful shades, but I've found the key with blends is to keep things simple, trying to include too many aspects of the inspiration doesn't produce as harmonious a blend. 

One of the key things I do when I'm working on a blend is to sample, drafting blends colours further, and a smooth yarn often looks very different to the original fluffy fibre. 

Here's a skein of the finished yarn, a subtle blue, with hints of brown, a colour that will go with lots of things, and look good when worn by lots of people. 

Things have been a bit busy round here as people do their Christmas shopping, there are going to be quite a few new spinners over the next few weeks. Hopefully in the New Year I'll be able to be a better blogger, and post here a bit more often.