Fibre & Spinning

First the Fibre - 2 x 100g of yummy squishyness from Babylonglegs



This is called 'Leo the Lion' and is 100g Falkland top


And this one is called 'Just Peachey' and is 100g Corriedale. I love the way that Babylonglegs uses such intense, saturated colours - no pastels with this lady!!!





And below is my current spinning. It is 100% Alpaca in 'Blue Moon' from the lovely Spindlefrog. I have just over 100g and have so far spun about 55g of it. It will be laceweight when I have plied it, I think.

I am using a 45g bottom whorl spindle and the scrunchie is to keep my cop of spun yarn neat when I stop spinning for the day. It also stops me from making a long thin cop as my spindle seems to spin better and faster with slow, wide cop. I suppose it isnt a 'proper' spinning tool but it works for me and looks pretty too : )

In Praise of Daleks : )

I knitted these squishy Daleks for my son last year. The pattern is called Extermiknit but doesnt seems to be available any longer on the web : (

I used a yarn called Drops Cotton Viscose from Scandinavian Knitting Designs. They have a UK shop, and the yarn had a lovely metallic sheen - just right for Daleks.

I did a Spinning workshop last Wednesday night at Coventry Knitwits and it was great fun. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I introduced a few people to Spindle spinning - including a senior gentleman who is a regular at the pub where we meet : ) The group meets up every Wednesday night at 7pm-9pm for general knattering, knitting, crochet and sometimes a bit of patchwork or spinning too and there is a workshop each month as well.

Bricks & Mortar - but only just

Our original job for the plasterers was to just skim the ceilings and make good the new wall, doorways and fireplace. So much for the plan. As my Grandma would say 'God Moves in Mysterious Ways'

The plasterers were delayed by a week so I thought I would strip the remaining paper off the walls to make it easier when we decorate after the plasterers have been. Unfortunately, as I pulled some wallpaper off, the plaster came with it. Not just little bits, but whole chunks. I stopped what I was doing and went into the lounge to tell DH. I heard an almighty CRASH and a whole square meter of plaster fell off in the hall.

I quickly called the plasterer who came over and did that sucking noise thingy between his teeth. The whole lot had to come off in the hall, stairs, landing and lounge.

Three days and a skip full of plaster later, this is what we had left on our walls:

And below is a photo of the Killer RSJ we uncovered. The whole of our bedroom wall and most of the loft is bearing on this RSJ and it was only balanced on half a brick!!! The steel bar you can see is a wallplate that DH has now put in to secure the wall. We wouldnt have know of this dangerous RSJ if the plasterers hadnt been late and I hadnt started removeing wallpaper.

God works mysteriously alright!!

I have blisters on my hands from the Kango electric chisel and some of my fingertips feel numb, but DH and I got the plaster off and the repairs done in time. The plasterers arrived this Monday and are doing a sterling job. More photos to follow : )

Progress and socks

We now have a doorway:

And we have a wall and another doorway:

And a fireplace:

And the sock is coming on nicely too : )

Must go - I have a hallway to remove the plaster from before Friday. The fun never ends here LOL

If All Else Fails........

The plasterer rang up at 9pm last night to tell us he was NOT starting today......he is starting NEXT Monday as he is still finishing off the previous job!!!! This is the second delay so far and I walked around for a while muttering curses and foul imprecations until I felt better LOL

Then I followed the advice of a very sensible friend who told me....If All Else Fails - make a cup of tea, find a comfy corner to hide in for a while, and cast on a new sock with yarn which makes you happy.

20 rows and one cup of tea later, calm has been restored!!

Aren't friends great : )

Demolition Day

You know how people always tell you that people who don't make a mess, don't make anything? and that you cant make an omelet without breaking eggs etc??? Well:


We now have a fireplace in progress

And a ceiling in progress

And a doorway in progress

And ,yes, that's right - a wall in progress!!!

Happy days LOL

We can re-build it!!!

Continuing from my previous post, we get to Friday and the repair work starts. You can see the leaning sleeper wall on the left, so our first task was to re-build it to make it straight. The sleeper wall is the first layer of the flooring sandwich and goes from the foundations of the house up to the bottom of the wooden joists.

Then we built a new lattice of joists for the floorboards to be attached to. The joists are treated for woodworm and rest on top of the sleeper walls.

Finally, we nailed and screwed MDF sheets of wood 3/4" thick on top of the joists to make the finished floor. That kept us busy until Saturday evening.

On Tuesday we start on the chimney in the lounge.. We plan to open it up and put a wood burning stove in to use up all our offcuts of wood. Hopefully I can get some knitting done soon too!!!!