Hundred day hustle

I have just come across this (via Rachelle, and figured I may as well join in.



So, for a list of things to get done (in no particular order, mostly).

1. Finish knitting shawl (deadline mid October)
2. Assemble Christmas stocking
3. Lightweight jacket for The Monkey
4. New sunhat for The Monkey
5. Overdue wedding present to weave

And things that would be nice to get done:
1. Finish half made socks
2. Make a start on Papillon Around the World embroidery
3. Organise craft room some more!
4. Finish spinning purple corriedale

I think that's enough list for now, time to go and fish The Monkey out of mischief again.

Fluff acquisition

I went to the Wigram Spinners open day yesterday, and acquired some pretty fibre.

From Heavenly Wools:

Salamander on dark grey

From Felt and Fibre::


And from Wabi Sabi Fibres:

Magnolia

There were a few other things I was tempted by, but luckily someone else bought them before I failed to resist any longer.


In other news, I passed my spinning course, and should have everything back in a few days. With any luck I will feel a bit less grumpy with the merino when I next see it.

The shawl is progressing slowly, but no photos of that for a couple of months. It's for a swap, so I will post photos after it has arrived.

Spinning done! Hooray!

Sent it off today. I failed to take photos before it went, but will take some when it comes back.  One less deadline thing on the go now (and only nearly a month late...)

Next I have a shawl to finish, and some napkins to weave. And then I might almost feel like spinning again.

More embroidery finished

There will be some weaving eventually, honest! And in the meantime:


(Details in the middle hidden for privacy reasons)

Completed!

One Christmas stocking, embroidery done:



Still have to actually turn it into a stocking, but I've still got another 4 months to get that done.

Next embroidery is a birth sampler, the pattern is the September birthstone sampler from Sweetheart Tree.



It is only 38 stitches wide, so it's going very quickly. The top half is done, apart from beads, and the bottom half is about half done. I'm finding it very refreshing and relaxing to stitch on before bed.

The spinning I have been working on is nearly done, thankfully. The 50g of merino I finally finished last night was starting to drive me batty. I never managed to get long enough in front of the wheel to get into a rhythm with it, so I was fighting it the whole way. I think it took me nearly 2 weeks, the other skeins were 2-3 days for 50g. I have one more sample to go, but I'm back to the romney, which is beautiful to work with.

Spinning progress

Still no weaving, but I have managed to get some spinning done. I am doing the Creative Fibre spinning course, so most of my evenings are currently devoted to trying to get the samples spun up. So far I have done 3 out of 5, and am very happy with two of them.

Left to right: Woollen spun lamb single, Semi-worsted spun romney single, Semi-worsted spun corriedale 2-ply

I am happy with the singles, but I found the corriedale fleece was very variable so there are patches I'm not so happy with. Next up are two worsted samples

Not weaving

It has been way too long since I've done any weaving, and way too long since I last posted. I have managed to thread up, weave some samples and tie on again. No photos though, it's for a (late) wedding present. Now I'm hoping to get it done by late September, when I next see the recipients.

The Assistant has been very helpful, started walking and climbing a couple of months ago. Which means there is even more opportunity for mischief, but also means he is happy exploring, so I can follow him around with some knitting or sewing and get a little bit done. Not so good for weaving, or anything that requires staying in one place though.

I started this last Christmas, with the intention of being done for Christmas this year:


I think I have made good progress. There is still plenty of backstitching, knots and beading to do, as well as turning it into an actual stocking, but there is also still plenty of time. (I'm glad to know my goals aren't always overly ambitious...)

So, it's been a while...

Over the last 6 months or so, things have been rearranged rather a lot. But now:

New home, new project. Theoretically it will be done by the middle of March, in reality I'm aiming to have samples done by then.

I have finally managed to get back to my spinning wheel too, and feel like I am making progress. The current spinning was started about 9 months ago, and then my wheel got clobbered by a lump of plaster. I'm not sure it's running quite right yet, but I think partly it was the bobbin being slightly off.

Also, I now have a Very Helpful assistant (provided I want everything eaten).

Lots of pictures, and why my loom gets to be dismantled again.

On the 13th of June, my nice new craft room went from looking like it did in this post, to looking like this:




(Okay, the photos aren't fabulous, but it's been tidied up somewhat now. It was kind of tricky to find an accessible place to get a decent shot from).

Our house is currently a little chilly:


All the broken windows except the bulging leadlight have been boarded up now, but we still have some nice cracks through the walls too:

(the edge of the carpet is where the window frame used to sit, and that really is a gap through to the outside world that you can see at the edge of the floor)

And this old chimney is of some concern safety-wise:

The wood panelling is split and bulging where the bricks have moved. That's not an entirely comfortable room to be in at the moment...

The end result is that we'll be moving in just over a week (and we're hoping that we're not going to be told we have to move out before then!). Still got lots of packing to do before then. I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get the loom set up again this time though. (I have at least been managing to get some knitting done - it's portable and good for relaxation)

Here we go again

My craft room no longer looks nice and neat like it did in the previous post, courtesy of the magnitude 5.5 and 6 aftershocks we got today. The stick shuttle through the wardrobe door handles snapped, and the boxes are now strewn all over the floor. My loom backed itself over to the wall, and my (cast iron, weighs a ton) sewing machine fell off the desk.

Pretty much everything else in there seems to have fallen over too, and there is more plaster (chunks and dust) all over everything.

The rest of the house isn't really that much better either, so now the clean up starts all over again.

(Ridiculously, the picture we have in the lounge that has slowly been migrating along the wall since September has nearly reached the window now, and is still perfectly straight!)

I'm sure there will be some photos eventually, just not quite yet. One day at a time...