Les femmes de Samhain the beginning

 The Femmes are beginning to take shape, it seemed appropriate to use these colours at this time of the year

There is something about the colours that reflects night time, veils and winter

T'is Samhain draw back the veil

 It is Samhain today and I hope you all have a wonderful, magic day . It is a day for remembering those who have passed, both recent and long gone family and friends.

 A time when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. A time to reflect and to let go of things we do not want to take with us into the new year.

 I haven't made any femmes for a long while but the urge to do so came suddenly and you have to obey the Muse when she calls. There will be a few of them but as this one was finished I thought she could appear on the blog. Notice her funky boots:)

 It isn't easy to take pictures when mohair and felt are involved but more pictures at a later date when her sisters are ready.

 Her name is Hecca, a tribute to the Goddess of this festival, Hecate. The Goddess of boundaries and death and rebirth which is quite apt for this season.

There has been knitting, apparently shawls remain an obsession with me:) This is Pamuya made with Colinette Jitterbug and I thought a great colour for Samhain.

 This is Garden pond made with my own handspun yarn. A mix of merino/silk/ glitter and the like.
 


Fibre from Ashford and from Southern Cross fibres.

 One of my Samhain altars.

 Hope this day and night reflect within your heart and mind.

 Draw back the veil if you dare to and honour the ancestors.

This femme is a Samhain gift from me to one of you. Please leave a comment I'll draw the winner tomorrow evening

Samhain approaches

 I hate this new Blogger editor and its way of putting pictures on the blog

Guess what these will be being used for?

These words came into my morning pages today;_

They wrapped midnight around them and made it theirs.

The shadows and the twilight also they wore as if it were made for them.


Colours were visible within the velvet black  but overlaid by the shimmer of the night skies.

The dark enhanced their otherworldlyness. It made of it an eerie yet beautiful sense of dreams.


It is a dark time here but with hope.

flu jab problems now:(

Oh tis a happy house chez moggie:(

Not content with asthma, steroids and  inhaler Mr Mog and I went on Saturday for our annual flu jab. We have this each year because of my weak chest and normally it goes off smoothly. A sore arm for a day then nothing.

This year however was different. We were not aware that the governmen in their wisdom had decided to add the swine flu stuff to it. If I had know there is no way on God's earth I would have gone for the jab. So many friends of mine last year were ill after having this injection.


No mention at the surgery, no questions no information just injections.  Saturday was ok til the evening then both of us started to feel really weary. Aching, headaches, cold. The works
Sunday morning no better and no energy. Violent headaches and sore. Bed at 8pm for us both, trying to combat the poisons. At this time we were unaware that this wasn't the normal injection.

Forward to Monday even worse, we rang doctors and were told 48 hours we would be fine, take paracetamol and lots of liquid. No mention of anything else.

Speaking to an aunt later she mentioned the swine flu element. I rang doctors to ask and was told yes I think we may have that in this years injection. The devious part of me wonders if they don't mention it to avoid people refusing to have the darn thing.

Today I am in bed, shakes,I am  frozen, headaches, so weary I ache all over. Mr mog is a little better thank goodness. When he rang the doctors earlier when I could barely move for shaking he was told, she can come in at 7pm and have her chest listened to.
That will really do me good I am sure.
I have to go to the asthma clinic for the first time tomorrow, we will see what they have to say then. It reinforces my dislike of the medical fraternity and my belief in trying to doctor myself when ever possible.

Autumn flurries, autumn squalls Timbertops wheels for sale

 It has been a squally week or two chez moggie, very wintery weather and much colder than normal.
I've also been feeling pretty grotty and have now been diagnosed with late onset asthma. This particularly affects me more in the morning which is a nuisance as I struggle to move around then anyways. I've been prescribed steroids, Now steroids and I have a long long history we go back over (well over) half a century. I know they are excellent for some diseases/ailments but I hate the side effects of them. It would seem now that they prescribe them in a different way than previously and I have been given a two week course. This apparently stops all the weaning off and the side effects. I hummed and aahed about taking them because of previous problems but decided it wasn't going to get better without the help of these tiny pills.
I'm feeling somewhat easier(except in a morning) and the pills plus inhaler appear to be helping.
Watch this space.
It has made things rather fraught for us both but yesterday Mr Mog reorganised one of our altars as you will see below and that has lifted my spirits:) I love the effect of floating candles when they reflect in crystals.
 

Now onto the wheels. I'm destashing my 2 timbertops wheels as I am getting a suzie pro.
These are original Williamson wheels from the 70s. Both numbered/dated and in excellent working condition. The first is a timbertops Leicester in yew

Timbertops Leicester in Yew

 second is a Timbertops thurmaston 18inch wheel in oak. Both spin beautifully but in a small house I need a smaller wheel so these have to go.

Thurmaston 18inch wheel

Please leave a comment if you are interested in either of them

Dear governmen(t)

Dear Governmen(t)

What we would like as one of your electorate.

We would like the money you need for essential services to come from those who can afford it, not those without.

We would like the fat cat salaries, bonuses and pensions to be cut drastically. It is criminal to pay ineffective idiots large amounts to make a mess of things.

 Banks and big businesses we are particularly looking your way.

We would like you to rethink your cuts on essential benefits paid to the elderly and disabled. You hurt the ones who can't fight back and that's not playing nice. In fact I'd call it despicable, wouldn't you? Although I suspect the not fighting back is why you target this group. Naughty, naughty.

By all means don't increase benefit payments and pensions next year, everyone can then play their part in that way.

DON'T cut essential health care.
How would you like to be seriously ill and be told that there is no money for your treatment, the funding has run out or the drug is too expensive? And that they are sorry but that is how it is.
If you die it isn't their fault, blame the recession.
Oh that's right it won't happen to you Mr Governmen(t) man you have private health care and money to fund what you may need.

GIVE our military the equipment it needs to do the job you want and expect it to do.
If you want an army, navy, air force you DO need to pay for it you know?
Would you like to be in a war zone with no protection and third rate equipment? Would you like to be the father or mother hearing the knock on the door and being told your child was dead due to insufficient support? But he died for his country. I'm sure that will be a great comfort in their bereavement don't you?

Oh no, I forgot, money privilege etc. You wouldn't fight the fight, you would fund it if it made a profit, wouldn't you?

STOP Immigration NOW That is an essential, we are overrun with people.
This is only a small island you know. Its resources are finite.

And, a bonus for you if you stopped people coming in, less to pay out in health care housing and the like = more money left over for other needs.

GET RID of political correctness and the Elves of Safe Tea.
They are corrupting this country by the nonsense they preach  . Lets bring back Comm and Sense. They worked well for a long long time. In fact their influence can still be found if you look around.
LETS NOT spend millions lauding a sad old man who pushes things under the carpet and ignores them and their terrible effect on people, out of sight and out of mind?
His church has more than enough cash to fund state visits for eternity and beyond. So why do we bend over backwards and treat him as royalty?

Does it give us worth, does it help the needy?

I think not.

And, conversely, will we do the same for other faiths, other beliefs? Or is it one rule because you say so?

Dear Governmen(t)
This hasn't been polished or mulled over by a committee.
We don't have spin doctors or the like on our team making words palatable.
But I do suspect there are many more who feel as we do.
We are known as the common folk, the voice of the people.
We still have a voice.
It is our land.

Yours sincerely
the folk of this island

Giveaway winner:)

I've been very remiss. I posted at the beginning of August and offered a giveaway of my handspun yarn to someone.
giveaway post
There were lots of comments and Mr Mog has chosen a winner.
Priestess~Harper

As you can see there is slightly more yarn in the giveaway than I originally said. This is because it is a year almost since Mr mog started spinning and he decided to add 2 skeins to the pot. He has wound them ready for knitting and if you want the others winding P~H let me know:)
Congratulations:) and thank you everyone for entering.

Doing as I'm told:)

I'm on 48 hours rest, doctors orders to help combat this extremely nasty chest infection that I have, yet again.


I'm doing as I'm told no option really as it has made me weak as a kitten.
I can't just lie here though so I decided to explore my writing and reading passion.
I've always written. I've always read.
Throughout my life and my lifelong illness reading and writing have comforted me. They have been my escape and my solace.
I spent  a large portion of my childhood in hospital and convalescent homes. Then 2 years in a home for delicate children:)
Unable to do anything.
My nanny started my lifelong interest in history from around the age of 6 I think. Before that I read children's books.
I learnt to read at 3, my nanny again. In those days there weren't any kindergartens or play groups, you started school at 5.
By then I'd been reading a while. You still had to do things by the book :) but schools were far more flexible then than now and if you could read and write you were encouraged to explore that as far as you wanted.
A few years later I had read all the books in the children's library and started on the adult section.
Historical novels and science fiction were my favourites alongside history, but I would read anything:)
I wrote stories and poetry. Even when I became interested in other stuff books and writing were still essential.
When I first married the writing had to become a secret, it wasn't allowed and was a waste of time. I was chastised , hard to believe now that I let someone order me about like that.
So I still wrote but in secret, I had to do it it was a very big part of me and who I am.
It wasn't until I met Mr Mog many years later that I could be me, truly me. Write anything I wanted and bury my head in my books whenever I chose to.

I journalled furiously, after all I had a lot of time to make up.
My blog was, and is, an extension of the journals. I still write morning pages when I feel the need. I write bits in journals and bits on my blog.
I have empty books in the car and in my bag for when the need to write is on me.
Lying here with doctors orders for complete rest for 48 hours the writing again gives comfort.
It always has and it always will.
The written word holds so much within its letters, a magic all its own.
26 letters of sheer sorcery ready and waiting to weave their magic at our request and need.

Down in the forest Pamuya is rising

I've finished the most fabulous shawl:) The pattern is Pamuya which is Hopi for moon hence the blog post title:)
What a fantastic well written pattern. I had to do an abbreviated version as I didn't have enough yarn for the full pattern but I've cast on another and I'd love to do one in Wollmeise if I can get some:)

 What I really like about the pattern is that after every single section the number if stitches is given. Very helpful for those of us new at lace:)

 It is so good to find patterns that are well written and that make sense. Oh and that have written instructions for those of us chart challenged.

We were supposed to be away this weekend but sadly I started feeling yuck yesterday and after a night with no sleep I had to give in and say we weren't going. I've lost my voice, burning throat, headache and general flu symptoms. What makes it worse is that the sun is shining and it is lovely and warm. Sitting in the garden isn't the same.

Don't you just love colour?

For the first time in ages I dyed yarn.

I wanted to knit a fabulous shawl pattern that used sock yarn(wollmeise to be specific) I couldn't find any sock yarn but a search through cupboards found a skein of dark greens which I'm using for the shawl.

Pamuya is the pattern name and it is almost a sampler of stitches.

.
However the search did turn up 7 skeins of assorted undyed yarn.

Obviously you can't leave it like that so it had to be dyed.

What do you think?

Shawls and yarn

 There has been knitting chez Moggie and with my own handspun:) Another Shaelyn shawl, somewhat larger this time and shades of purples/fuchsias. I knew i didn't have enough of one handspun to do a large shawl so I mixed three different ones. I love the effect of them. No idea where this will be going yet.

Then I did some spinning. There are 788 yards here and 176g so pretty fine.

They yarn is one ply of Southern Cross fibre, shade glacier and 1 ply of Ashford Merino silk shade cinnamon. I've enough of the fibres left to do at least another 1000yards but I'm having a break from it and spinning something bright.
The weather here is glorious, very warm and sunny. I'm enjoying sitting in the garden watching the bees and the butterflies collecting from the flowers.