Yarn love affairs(or not) and happy birthday Mr mog:)

I was perusing a destash thread on Ravelry today that included Colinette yarns. I saw it and passed on to the next message.
At one time the mere mention of Colinette yarns would have had me interested, but no more. I am not sure if it was the abundance of knots in the yarn, the mismatched colour when they tied new strands on or the short yardage on the jitterbug that soured my love affair. Any and all of those I think.
At one time Colinette yarns used to be the one to go for. Her colours were, and still are, exquisite. Sadly nowadays ,for me at least, the quality control seems to have totally gone to pot. Several skeins I've had have been knotted, not just one knot but several:( The colours leach when I am knitting, all marks of a beginner in yarn dyeing not a long established firm.
I still love the old skeins of mohair I have in my stash but wouldn't buy more. This is just my opinion based on the yarns I've purchased over the past too many years to remember.
A lot of indy dyers are doing much the same style of colours as she is, she is no longer the only one.
I know also that as I've continued to knit over the years my taste has changed. Am I a yarn snob? Yes maybe. I care what yarns I knit with, I want comfort as the yarn passes through my hands so no cotton and no silk. No acrylic and no chenille. No hasty dyeing where the dyer hasn't rinsed the yarn properly causing stained hands and needles and in some cases skin problems.
I want fabulous lift your spirits colours. I want colours that zing and say "knit me now". colours that resonate within my soul, reflecting the beauty that surrounds us.
I like choosing colours to mix in a dye pot that reflect who I am at that moment and what my muse craves.
I do love indy dyers, I love their enthusiasm and their eye for colour. So have your tastes changed in yarn? What are your favourites? Some day I'd like to try the Sanguine Gryphon yarns and maybe Mama Blue. Not important and not necessary but interesting to give them a go.
On another note;-

Tomorrow is Mr Mog's birthday and as this approaches I thank the Goddess that he is here with me for this auspicious day. I give thanks for his smile and his patience with me when my pain becomes too much and I snap. I give thanks that I finally found my prince after kissing too many frogs. I give thanks that his cancer was caught speedily and that he is being treated for it.
I give thanks that he shares my life with me and always my love
Happy Birthday Mr Mog.

Woolfest part 2 the stash enhancement & gifts.

Woolfest wasn't just about having fun and meeting friends . There was some stash enhancement and some gifts.
Firstly from Artis-Anne 5 skeins of hand dyed hand spun yarn for the 5 elements. Anne and I had agreed a trade, 5 skeins in exchange for a cone of mohair to dye. Look what she came up with, aren't they gorgeous?
They will work beautifully with my femmes:)
I have wanted a shawl pin for a while now to compliment my shawls when I wear them. This is sycamore and was purchased from Kevin.
I love the shape of it.
Then I purchased some yarn and received a free shawl pattern from the Laal Bear. The pattern is written out which is better for me as I can't read lace charts. We will see how I get on, more later on that.
I chose these colours especially. When I was little I went to a boarding school for delicate children . I was there for almost 2 years aged 7 to 9. One of the crafts I remember doing was weaving and I made my nan a scarf using bright turquoise and bright orange yarn. It was extremely garish but she wore it with pride many times:) This blue yarn is called seaside and has some small flashes of orange in it so it seemed appropriate to add orange as a contrast.

I met up with so many online friends it was unbelievable. There were dozens of them and I enjoyed it greatly. One of these friends is Jan and she does the most superb crochet. I've several items in my wardrobe made by Jan and I now have 2 more:)
Jan gave me this along with some extra yarn so I can fringe or bead it to lengthen a little.

Isn't it gorgeous? I have the beads lined up ready to start tomorrow and watch this space:)
Not content with silencing me with the top Jan gave me this:-
Isn't it incredible? I'd seen the pictures on the blog and was tempted to ask her to make me one, I don't need to now. It is mine, all mine:)))
Jan I love the things you made for me and will love wearing them, thank you so much for them.

I also received 2 bags of yarn for my hospice knitting from Lisa and Vicky which is much appreciated:)
Wye Sue presented me with a huge bag of yarn to do with as I will, mainly Colinette. Guess I'll have to force myself to knit it then;) I love Colinette colours.
So a great time, very tired still today but it was worth it.
My thanks go to the Wool Clip for organising such a brilliant festival and to all the people I met who made me glad to be part of the online blogging community.

Wonderwool part 1the journey long

It was Wonderwool this weekend at the showground in Builth Wells. Last year we didn't manage to make it due to it being held 2 days after Mr Mog completed his radiotherapy. This year we were determined to go. A great chance to meet up with online friends and a possible chance for stash enhancement:)
This blog post is being split into 3 parts as it is quite long and full of pictures.
This covers the first part of the journey. I had never been to Builth Wells or the area, the nearest being to Welshpool and then on to Colinette Yarns.

I really enjoyed the journey down to the showground. The weather was kind to us and apart from roadworks near Newtown we did pretty well.

We decided to stop off for lunch at Lion Quay on the Llangollen canal. We both love the canal very much and also enjoy the lion Quay. Good food and lots of boats to watch -perfect. The grounds are full of colour, like this magnolia bush. Isn't that a great colour of pink?


Brides bouquet or spirea.
lots of boats,all narrowboats and not a cruiser to be seen. We do prefer narrowboats, maybe because we lived on one?


We had a delicious lunch, here you see the remains of mine, I suddenly thought I'd take a picture. It was rib eye steak with onion marmalade and stilton on foccacia. I only left the tortilla chips, I don't like them. Oh and the cucumber.

Have you seen the name of this boat? Ursula, it had to be photographed for a dear friend of mine:)
The bar/restaurant entrance to Lion Quay taken from the canalside table.
the moorings by the hotel.


After our lunch it was back on the journey to Builth.
Some fabulous primroses by the road side, sadly the picture marred by rubbish:(
Lush green trees all around us.
Almost at Welshpool when we saw this truck.

Just look at those hills
Lots of birds nesting on the journey and we also saw, but I didn't manage to capture, mistletoe. Clumps in the trees on the side of the road.
We went to the showground first to see where things were and to chat to stall holders setting up. Then it was off to stay with a very kind raveller and her husband. We had never met them before but Rebekah had seen my post asking about budget accommodation in the area for Wonderwool and very kindly invited us to stay with them. What a lovely couple and how kind they were to us. Rebekah had cooked an incredible meal to welcome us to her home and offered wine when we first turned up. I feel so lucky to have met so many people through the internet and especially through Ravelry but Rebekah and David have to rate high on the list. An added plus point was their having a cat:) I miss the company of a feline friend so it was great to see theirs.
Sadly due to awful ill health we had to curtail our stay with them but more on that later.
Thank you Rebekah and David for sharing your home with us. Don't forget, you are welcome here any time.
to be continued....
Stay tuned for the next instalment which covers stalls.

Finished some hats.

A catch up post on finished knitting first. A change from socks and shawls

Two hats for a blogger friend's baby.
These are knit from my hand dyed DK samhain nights. I was going to make socks for me but decided there may not be enough yarn for longer socks so I'll have to dye some more. What a hardship:) This is Woolly Wormheads Baby Icord hat



View from the top
This is Woolly Wormheads Baby Jester Hat. Isn't it cute? It took a bit of fiddling to kitchener the points as I did both hats using magic loop instead of DPNs.
I also added a row of holes to add pattern.

I was going to go to a friends knit in today but I've been way too sore past few days and wouldn't have been comfortable travelling.
Next post Autumnal femmes:)