It’s been a busy fortnight since my last post and I’ve been so caught up with travelling to woolly festivals and spending time with my family, that there hasn’t been much time or energy for much in the way of knitting.

Woolfest was fantastic and I’ve be getting a little post ready for Olann and about it, to publish asap.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was rather restrained with my purchases.  So much so that when I returned home, I was slightly disappointed at myself for not picking up a couple of the things I saw, that I meant to go back for.

Everything I bought, were planned purchases in the main, save for a little fibre, a book and a hank of yarn.  I had a couple of items on my list, that I wasn’t able to find on the stalls at the festival, so all in all my woolly savings pot didn’t take too much of a bashing.  Add to that, the fact that we were catching up with friends on the Sunday, so I only managed to pop into a couple of shops and I returned home with a purse much fuller than I had anticipated.

I had to pay my obligatory visit to WHSmith though, what can I say, it’s one of the shops I miss most.  Probably largely due to it being a shop I loved to go into when I was a child, to look at all the art supplies and pretty stationery.  Talking of stationery, we’d arranged to meet up in Ilkley (beautiful little town) and there’s a Paperchase there.  So I did manage to pick up some Washi Tape and a couple of bargains to use for stocking fillers.  (Yes I was referring to the C word, but I didn’t actually use it, did I?)

Whilst there hasn’t been that much knitting and the little that there has been is secret Olann and stuff, I have fully embraced the Tour de Fleece and have spun every day so far.  It’s been a great way of spending time getting to know my Kromski Fantasia wheel, which I haven’t really used too much since purchasing it a couple of years ago.  I tend to use Buttercup, my Ashford Traditional wheel more often than not and then the unnamed Kromski, just gathers dust.  Today is day five and I’m writing this, while I ponder the next fibre to begin.

For the past four days I’ve been spinning the Tour de France inspired Les Montagnes Fibre Pack from Hilltop Cloud.  This year the Tour de France travels to all 5 French mountain ranges; The Alps, Pyrenees, Jura, Massif Central, and Vosges.  Which is what Katie has based her colourways on, turning the different mountain ranges into fibre form.

The pack contains 140g of blended fibre made up from 12.5% Trilobal Nylon, 37.5% Corriedale and 50% Merino.  I only purchased one pack as I wasn’t completely sure they were my colours, but having spun up the full pack now, I’m gutted I didn’t order two or more.

I split the fibre in half and weighed each piece, which I noted down on a little piece of paper that I placed together with the fibre on a tray.  For me it’s an easier way of keeping the colours in order and being able to tot up what I spun each day.  In total there was actually 160g in the pack, or at least that’s what my scales said – bonus fibre 🙂

As you can see from the photos, the soft colour changes are actually quite lovely and if turned into a two ply, it would knit up well, but with only 160g, I won’t really have enough to make much of anything, well anything I fancy at the moment.  I’m considering spinning up some plain fibre to ply with it instead, but can’t quite make my mind up, whether to go with a natural grey or a natural báinín.  I’ve also got a couple of hundred grammes of green fibre from one of the Time Travellers Club installments, but I think that might muddy the final lovely bluey grey shade.

Perhaps, I should spin something else entirely for the next few days?  Sunday is given over to spinning something out of your comfort zone and I managed to find something a little unusual at Woolfest.  Monday is a day of rest for the riders in the Tour de France and therefore the spinners are also meant to put their spindles down or step away from their wheels, before getting back to it again on Tuesday.

Decisions, decisions.

In other news,

My hubby bought me one of these for my birthday (which hasn’t happened yet, but I think he was worried I might have bought it for myself).

It’s all done and I’ve received notification that it’s being processed, in the meantime I couldn’t resist having a look at building my family tree.

I’ve always wanted to research my dads history, but it’s extremely difficult when you and your brother are the oldest living members of that line and you have little or nothing to go on.  I had registered on Anncestry.co.uk years ago, when it first launched and at that time, there was very little information available to research.

What a difference a few years can make!  So far I’ve found my forth Great Grandfather and all with very little effort.  Although, it’s addictive stuff.  I went on to add some extra information to one of the members of my family tree and lost myself for four hours.  My mums side of the family, has already been researched, but it would be great to be able to eventually add all the information in to the one big tree.

You can order birth, marriage and death certificates directly through Anncestry.co.uk, but they’re a little cheaper if you order them directly through the General Register Office yourself.  Still a bit of a treat though, well a few pence of of ten pounds, but it will soon add up.  Maybe I’ll have to start a Family Tree Collection Jar?

I’m off to get spinning for Day 5

Happy Making

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