My dear, faithful readers.
For far too long you have been left in the lurch, with no
word from me to let you know that I am, in fact, safe and well. I trust that
your distress has been minimal, and urge you to cease any rescue missions you
may have forged in my lengthy absence. You’ve been warned of the gargantuan nature
of this post, so grab a cuppa, a biscuit or two, kick your feet up and come
with me on a whistle-stop tour of my past few weeks.
With such time away from my blog, and computers in general,
it is tough to know where to start. A quick retrogression tells me that I left
you just after the Steeking workshop. So, that was way back in April, and a lot
has happened since then!
As mentioned, the mothership and I went to Wonderwool, a
large and glorious celebration of all things knitty up in mid Wales. I guess I
should begin by catching you up on how that went. In a word, Wonderwool was cold. Not just your average, “I’m going
to wear a scarf today” kind of cold, the kind of cold that makes every single bone in
your body ache. The kind of cold that makes you believe you will never be warm again.
No matter how many scathing coffees I poured down my throat, nothing could
quell the growing frost of my innards. Okay, so I’m getting a wee bit poetic,
but believe me, imagine the coldest you’ve ever been, and imagine that lasting
for 3 days. Our B&B room was not in the house, but actually out in the
garden shed. You can imagine how difficult it is to try and stay warm in a
garden in mid-Wales.
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| Months and months of work all on the back of a lorry! |
Frostbite aside, it was such a great experience – thanks so
much to everyone who came and supported us. It truly meant a lot to meet so
many lovely people, who not only were interested in what we were doing, but who
were also keen to support us. If you’re interested, my mum’s yarn is now
selling at Great British Yarns, and I’ve persuaded her onto Twitter. There’s
also a Ravelry group if you’re that way inclined. I loved being at the show,
and being there with a product I truly believed in. I felt accepted by the
knitting community and that was important for me. It was inspiring and
exciting, both in the people that were there and the things on show. My
personal highlights? Meeting the mighty Sasha Kagan – a knitting mogul whose
books have been on my mum’s bookshelves since I was tiny. The Shetland SheepSociety and the British Coloured Sheep Breeder's Association, whose kind words and
informative advice made many things a lot easier. It was great to see JohnArbon Textiles in person, too, as well as being next-door neighbours with The Natural Fibre Company, whose new stuff in the shop makes me fall over with
desire.
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| Our stall - 9 1/2 hours of building later... |
Right, so after Wonderwool I came back to work for a week,
warmed up, and then did my driving test. A pretty stressful end to a very stressful few weeks, but thanks to
the grace of God, I passed! Not first time, I hasten to add, this was my third
attempt, but I only got a few minors so I’m incredibly pleased. My pink license came in the post today, and
I’m not ashamed to say that I danced around my kitchen with the smallest of my
dogs. She was not amused. I feel like a fully-fledged grown up.
Following the driving test, I then hotfooted it over to the
New Forest to have a well-deserved holiday with my girls from university. Since
graduation, we’ve been blown our separate ways, so booking time in with
each other away from housemates and parents is really important to us all. We
stayed in a heavenly little cottage and had a wonderful time, with many wild
foals and donkeys populating the sides of the roads. A novelty that never wears
off! Of course, we managed to visit every wool shop we came across but I
managed to remained disciplined and held my purse strings tight. Now that I’m
running a car, disposable income has somewhat vanished!
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| What they were supposed to look like! |
Part of the reason for the holiday was my BFF’s birthday,
and I had decided long ago to nab the free Anna Hrachovec pattern from here and
make a selection of tiny rabbits for her. I think she liked them, although I wasn’t too
happy with the finished quality. By the end of it I was rushing, and though
they all had their own character and charm, I’m a perfectionist and would have
liked to spend a bit more time on them. Nevertheless, I churned out 6 in the
few moments of spare time I had leading up to the holiday.
I really enjoyed making the rabbits and decided to get the
Teeny Tiny Mochimochi book – they are really fun to make and this book is full
of great ideas. They make much easier gifts than socks!
So I got back from holiday, and was greeted by this fellow:
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| Looking deceivingly still and well-behaved. |
A new puppy! We got him while I was away so he was already pretty
settled by the time I got there, but he’s adorable. He’s a deerhound, so will
grow up to be the size of a small horse. At the moment he is fluffy and
pick-upable and so we’re trying to make the most of it before he out grows us
all. We called him Dobby. I like to think that it’s because of Harry Potter,
where in reality I know that it’s because my mum is a spinning nut.
Then I was back to work, where we’re super busy organising
our Lace Workshop and all the new stock for the summer and the coming Winter. It’s
been one of those months where my feet haven’t really touched the ground!
I must wrap this up now – I’ve been rambling for almost 1000
words and if you’re still with me you deserve a medal/cup of tea/long sit down
in a darkened room.
Not much knitting updates in today’s entry, but I will
knuckle down and continue to make cool stuff and learn new skills to fill you
in on soon.
