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.

Colour me painful:(

 It has been a very painful week both for Mr Mog and for me. Poor Mr Mog has been for xrays as he is having lots of pain in his hip and leg. We will have the results Tuesday. The painkillers doctor prescribed aren't doing much at all for him.
I'm really sore all the time and my pills aren't doing much either.
anyway enough of the moaning I thought you would like to see some pictures.
The 2 Muppet tshirts above are for Mr Mog. He loves the Muppets and Animal:) We bought white ones as that was all they had and we got out the trusty dye pots to make them more into a Mr Mog colour. What do you think?

 The two tops above are mine. One was off white the other white and I too wanted colour so they went into dye tubs as well.
The full moon was on Tuesday and I managed to get some pictures both the days before and on the night itself.

 Love the misty effect around her

 We purchased several sets of solar lights a few months ago and I thought you would like to see the effect in the garden.

 This snap almost looks like flying birds with their own power source:)

 There is something very powerful about the moon this time of the year especially. I can feel the energies swirling around.

 I also have a couple of finished shawls to show you, both made with my own handspun.
This first one is shaelyn, a lovely easy knit. Please note it has sections of lace and I didn't have to frog it once:)

 This was a stashbuster shawl, pattern is Harry I think. Used up 2 colours of my handspun. Is very soft and is very large.

Of moons and harvests

Well after moaning that I hadn't seen the moon this month look what I found when I looked out the door last night:) Pictures aren't very clear as I was so excited to see her that I just clicked away.
I have really missed the Lady this month. I always know what moon phase it is without looking but it does make me feel so much better when I can see her:)

The light had a misty quality to it and all the plants in the garden had an otherworldly look to them .
Everything is growing at a fast pace, the combination of constant rain and warm muggy days has brought out the best in the garden.
The lilies are lush and there appear to be a few more buds waiting to burst.
We did a little harvesting from the greenhouses today, the peppers aren't very large but they are tasty. The tomatoes don't last long when they get picked. Like peas they are so much better straight from the plant. The chillies will be dried for winter use.
I do have knitting to show you but I'm just finishing the binding off first. Pictures later this week. It is a Vortex shawl done with my own handspun, round and lace:)

Summer colours knitting

I thought you might like to see current projects I've got on and off the needles.
Firstly the current progress on my Noro sock yarn shawl. Grown a little, takes a while as it is sock yarn. This will be passed on when finished. Not my colours exactly though close. Also being sock yarn will be a nice light shawl for someone.
Second is my favourite:) This is the handspun, red hot chilli pepper I spun from falkland tops purchased from Mandacrafts at Wonderwool.
I'm making the Vixen shawl with it. What do you think?
Third is a finished item. Yet another Elsewhere jacket. This time made in acrylic (hush) from James Brett. This will be being passed on, the colour is too pastel for me. I wanted to make an acrylic jacket to see how it would wear as all my other Elsewheres pill being pure wool. Well I've made it but don't want to wear it now it is done:)
Someone will like it I am sure.

Not eggs for BW

Blue Witch has a little fun thing going on her blog. The most unusual place to use as an eggcup. Sadly I've run out of eggs but I've improvised with a kiwi:)
First one had to be yarn of course, the latest handspun wound into a ball ready to knit with. Egg yolk colours of course:)

Second still to do with yarn, Shaun volunteered to help me out.
I decided not to wind him up because if it had been a real egg it would have broken with his walking.
A lovely day today, we have been on the prom for a little meander and now I'm thinking of spinning. I'm spinning the most gorgeous gothic glitzy deep purple batt. Pictures tomorrow

There has been spinning

As promised some time ago;) here be pictures of the spinning latest.

Firstly a group picture

then individually.
This is Limegreenjelly BFL purchased in Ravelry destash. 262 yds 100g.

Warratah crafts 70% shetland 30% silk, very lush to spin 266yds from 100g


This is my own hand dyed blue faced Leicester, colourway Midnight Melody, 280 yards from 100g, colour is actually a little darker than it shows.

A week is a long time in nature

A week is a very long time in nature. Or it can be.

You remember the pictures I posted last week of the park full of snow? This was the scene on Sunday when we ventured there once more.
Not a drop of snow or ice to be seen thankfully,leaving it clear for walkers, wheelchairs and the little ones in prams.

Lots of new growth on trees and shrubs.

It is surprising how much growth when you think of all the snow we have had and the very cold temperatures.
Doesn't stop Lady Nature from doing her stuff. Just look at these buddleia sprouting.
New buds everywhere we looked.

If you look closely at the picture below it shows a tiny mouse hole, the reason I saw it was that we heard the rustling and when we glanced down there was the entrance to the mouse's den. Mr Mog left him some food and then we left quietly so as not to disturb him any more.
The view through the tree branches is much nicer now that the buds are coming through.
Then I have some more knitting to show you.
Another Felicity hat, this one is for me. A mixture of one thread of mohair and 1 dk unknown.
Very warm and almost felted, perfect for this time of year.
I used needles a little smaller than necessary to get a very close knit fabric. Nowhere for the draughts to get through.
I'm finally getting a new mobile phone. The one I have is ancient and is giving up the ghost. It doesn't keep a charge any longer and the cost for a new battery is more than a new phone costs. The new one is one of the touch screen ones, unlike the old one which has a flip top to keep the screen safe. Why have they stopped making these? Far safer to have a cover surely?
I digress. As it is a nude screen I thought it ought to have some kind of protection, and to keep it warm in the cold weather:)
I used the remains of the hat yarn to knit a phone cosy. The yarn cord is to help find it in the depths of my bag.
Spinning is great fun and I don't think I've shown you these finished yarns.

Firstly Falkland tops in Woodland colourway from Mandacrafts. This is organic green yarn, grown with no pesticides, chemicals or the like which I heartily approve of. This is my first attempt at Navajo plying to keep the colours true. Not easy to do but worth trying. 2 skeins 100g in total. No idea on yardage as the yarn measure didn't cooperate while skeining this.
This is my Yule gift from Laal Bear. 100gm of Bluefaced Leicester. 178yards. Luscious colours.
This is Lime Green Jelly bluefaced Leicester from a ravelry destash. 100gm 214yards. Lovely colour , unfortunately the destasher omitted to mention she stored her fibre in moth balls. Not good for an asthmatic and despite washing, conditioning it still has a residual smell. Methinks I need to ask how fibre is stored if I do this again.

Several people have asked if I am accepting donations for this fourth year of hospice knitting, yes I am thank you:) If you would like to donate fibre for my project it will be very gratefully received. Just fibre this year thank you as I intend to spin and knit each item for the hospice.

Creativity, inspiration and distractions

At our guild meeting in November we were all handed a bag of merino fibre in various colours and told to take it away and create something with it. It could be just spun, felted, knitted, crocheted or what ever we wished to do with it.
I haven't had a very good relationship with pure merino so far, it has tended to run away with me and I haven't enjoyed spinning it at all. In fact the first skein I spun was so dreadful I made art yarn by adding a glitter thread to it.
The intention was to make a femme as my challenge answer.

As we all know plans can be changed and indeed often are.

I didn't want to give in so a few weeks ago I had another go at spinning the stuff. The colours were lilac, a mid green, 2 shades of yellow and 2 shades of blue.

I decided not to plan but to take random clumps of fibre and spin them, no colour scheme in mind. I wanted to go with the flow and I hoped that doing so would appease the powers that be and they would let it magically turn to yarn on my wheel.
Well they did and it did.

I then had to decide what to knit with it and came up with 2 items I've knitted before. One old, one new.
Firstly Calorimetry, I've made quite a few of these and it is an easy fairly quick knit. I made a smallish one as the yarn I spun was a double knit weight. It will fit a teen I would think. It just needs a button for decoration now.


Then, as it is a spinning group, I thought another felted bag for the bits of fluff and vegetable matter would be in order. This bag will hang on the tension knob of the wheel and is perfect for those odds and ends you don't want to incorporate in your yarn.
What do you think?

I've also been knitting my first item this year for the hospice. I wanted to use hand spun and obviously smaller projects will be easier, in the main, although I am not ruling out making larger items for them. No sense being definite about it we all know where that gets us. Loki is never far away when I make promises.
This is my fallow fields Felicity hat, pattern from Ravelry, BFL yarn hand dyed and hand spun by me.
How do you like my new modelling head? It is pot and cost under £4.

Back view of the hat. This photographing under electric light doesn't give the true colours sadly. Hat is very warm and soft.


I liked it so much I made one for me. This is my purple hand spun from a few weeks ago,the fibre is Falkland tops from Mandacrafts.
I decided I wanted a wee bit larger hat for my head and wanted it warm for this icy weather. I added a strand of a very fine commercial mohair to the mix.
It almost feels felted and is very warm.
I'm still in a great deal of pain, the bruising may have faded but the pain certainly hasn't yet. I'm not the most patient of people and this constant pain is a distraction to say the least.
It doesn't help that the weather isn't fit yet for going out. I'm longing for a thaw and some sunshine to enable me to get in to the park at the very least.

4th year of knitting for hospice, decision made on what

This will be my fourth year of knitting for the local hospice.
First year I did shawls, 13 that was 1 for each lunar month
Second year I did socks 39 pairs.
Last year was an assortment of socks, shawls, hats and cowls. 26 items altogether.
So this fourth year I didn't know what to knit. I do want to continue my hospice knitting, it is part of giving something back and I do enjoy it.
I've decided that every item will be with my own handspun yarn.
That means each month for every item I will have to spin and knit:)
It may be my own handdyed fibre, if I receive donations then it will be other people's hand dyed fibre.
But I'll spin it and I will knit it.
What do you think?

We still have snow and very treacherous ice. Main roads are clear but side roads and paths are awful. I'm getting cabin fever here and I'm longing for the opportunity to have a wee trip out in the fresh air. Not just to sit in the car.

My first handspun socks:)

I finished knitting my first pair of socks using my own hand spun yarn. I am very proud of these:)
The fibre was organic Falkland tops purchased in a Rav destash. It is dyed by Mandacrafts and sold in her Etsy store.
These are for a Yule gift:) The colour changes remind me a little of Noro yarn but of course I don't tie knots in and add a completely different colour change as Noro do. The colour is Heather and it does remind me of hillsides full of heather.
I also finished some spinning. This is also Mandacrafts Falkland fibre, colourway purples. There is 194gm here and I spun 599 yards from it.A little better than double knit thickness I think? I love it and I don't yet know what it will be knit as, watch this space.
We have still got a white skating rink for a road but the main roads are now all but clear. Hope it stays like this for Christmas day as we are invited to friends a little distance from here.