Coming along and got poorly lurgy

I actually feel properly ill today which means I can officially stay in bed.. quite like that... however I'm not actually acle to knit that much either. Don't like that.
Anyway here is the latest orkney situation and Tabby's collection of tat displayed to make me happy. Happy tabby.

Summer holidays

Having a soopa time.

Yarn along

Ive started orkney by rowan and it is really flying off the needles.  Very surprisingly.  Colors are a bit off but I'm using up my stash.  I'm reading a very dated machine knitting book. Following the chart for the fairisle leaves very little concentration capacity.
Lots of very's

Yarn along

Joining ginny on yarn along.  I needed a bit of a break from the monotonous stocking stitch and started on a pair of socks.  It's only tsken a day so far to do the colour work and that is just when waiting to pick up kids etc. Welk maybe staying up late too.  Im also reading taproot again. Its such a great magazine with no adverts....

Knitting when some people might suggest should be cleaning

I have an hour to spare. Well I don't really as the house is a pigsty. However,  it is a good day to be outside and lying on the ground and soaking up the sun. So, I fed the pony and lay down and listened to the birds singing and the dog snuffling. Life can be too short and these moments are not greatly forthcoming around here.

Although I've got a lot to do on the saddle shoulder boxy thingy I need a diversion. So a pair of socks out of the wool I dyed last week.  72 stitches and i'm going to do three inches of twisted rib and then see what takes my fancy.  I need stress relief as oldest boy birthday was this weekend and it involved ten boys sleeping, camping, climbing wall and lots and lots of food and egos.....

Ill clean when its raining. And husband is away.

A little knitting but a lot of dyeing

Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny.. who's having another Baby... I'm so pleased.. and i'll never even meet him or her.!! nuts world of the blog family!

 

 

A day late again... (for yarn along...i'm not having another one!)

Well I have had a wonerful day today. I am organising my eldest boys' eleventh birthday and I had just one thing left to do. It was weighing heavily on my mind and it was only a small logistical thing, but I knew that I was in great danger of not doing it at all, because i'm like that. Anyway...  I did  it and it only took five minutes!! Hooray!. 

 

Therefore I had time to do lots and lots of dyeing.. therefore my yarn along is the dyeing book Wild colours by Jenny Dean and I'm still knitting my boxy saddle shoulder thingy .  I keep falling asleep when putting kids to sleep so it is progressing very slowly.

 

 

 

I had mordanted (with alum , iron, and rhubarb root) various sock yarns and I had gathered a large handful of broom flowers and i got going.  I'd remembered that a few years ago I had dyed some wool with gorse before (another word for broom) and it was a fantastic bright yellow.  I've been a little bit obsessed with finding a yellow and grey combination for the last year, but I rarely find it. I have come close with my boxy saddle shoulder thingy but this is taking an age and I need something to divert me.  Anyway, to cut what could take a long time, short, I didn't really get it.  The yellow is really pastel and wishy washy and not me at all. I had eight skeins ready and waiting and I had plans to make a sweater worth of one colour. However, the disappointment in the yellow meant that I had to do more more more!

So here below are today's excitements.  I found some old cochineal hidden in a draw. Hardly any really - about a tablespoonful.  I boiled it up and added it to my alum and left over gorse flower pot. I also picked some amazing rhododendrums and put that in another pot.  I then put the gorse and alum skein in both - dangling one end in one and and the other in the other.  The rhodoendrums were very strange... instead of a pale pink... green.. go figure.

 

 the pear blossom with cocchineal/rhododendrum wool

 so.. left to right. iron and thrice extracted oak galls, left over gorse flower and alum, soaked and forgotten about eucalyptus bark and simmered overnight, gorse flower and alum mordant all in one (no different to the exhaust bath) then...... delicious oak gall an iron and alum mordanting with the exhaust eucalyptus.

 necklaces waiting fo the perfect yellow sweater to go with them.....  ooh just noticed small girl on stairs!

 

I went on the most amazing walk yesterday.. the mist had well and truly come in and I waited for three hours for the sun to burn through... did it? NO.

 

 

 

Boxy saddle sock thingy

Here is a picture of my wonderful to knit but eternity to knit self designed, er actually not designed but evolving boxy thingy.

This is a rather disheartening knit in that I'm still really excited about it but it is going to an age to knit up the body. And I have no idea whether it will come out as any kind of wearable garment..