Hats and PatchworkI

Its been a funny sort of week here at Maison Sunflower. It started with someone kicking our front garden wall over. He was not kicking it hard, just the 'pointing with your foot' type of kick......and the wall fell down!!!! I suppose the bricks got tired of being there for 70 years and rebelled. Anyway, I never did like the wall so we took the rubble to the tip - aided by said neighbour with the bionic toes : )

We are now going to have a lovely low wooden fence with a lattice work top so the flowers can peep through. I am working on persuading DH that an nice wrought iron gate is a good idea too!!! I also managed to finish some more blocks for my Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt and some hats for a Charity sale.
DS has got to the last day of his end-of-term exams. They have been going on all week and he is now tired and weepy and irritable so I think he will get lots of TLC this weekend. He is 13 years old and gets stressed by exams so doesn't sleep well. Nothing that Hot Chocolate and curling up on the settee with his duvet and a Sci-Fi film wont cure.

DH is in London doing a concert so he will be gone from 8am Saturday to 2am Sunday so I am going to attack the loft again. I have done about 1/5 of it and went to B & Q for some more roller-boxes yesterday to organize a bit more of our stuff.

Have a good weekend : )

New Toys

Its been a week for new toys for me : ) My new drum carder arrived - an Ashford finer one with 2 speeds and I immediatly got to grips with carding on it:

Then my Charkha arrived from America. It is made by Jonathan Bosworth and is weeny but very, very well made.

My first reaction was OMG what have I done, I can NEVER spin on that. Fortunately I went to Winham Wools for a 2 day spinning course last week and Ruth taught me how to do one-handed drafting and how to spin from the fold etc.

My first attempts are far too thick, but with practise the technique is straightforward.

Finally, remember the green merino I dyed? Well, this is it spun on my spindle. It is laceweight like the Oranges and melon spinning last week, so I am going to ply them together when I have made a lazy kate for spindles out of an old shoe box - watch this space!!!