Just a little bit. Every beginning of September (or a bit later this year) Freyalyn and Mark come down and stay. And we all have a lovely time. Although this time was tainted with a little sadness for me as #1Son leaves for St Johns Oxford, and laboratories new at the end of this week. He and Mark celebrated in the fashion that only men know of, and took down and set light to the garden shed. (It had been asking for a suitable end for a while now). Freya and I on the other hand, got to talk fibre, and colour, and knitting. And all in all we had a brilliant time, none of us have laughed so much in ages.
We included a visit to John Arbon Textiles in Lynton. Apart from never wanting to go near Porlock hill again (those of you local to Somerset will understand) as the rake of the road was sufficient to stop my breathing - and sadly, I'm in deadly earnest! But it was worth it in the end, a lovely little shop with some brilliant yarns and fibres and he does mail order - whee! Which is just as well as I suspect we completely flummoxed the lovely lady behind the counter by asking for more than 100gms of fibre at a time!
The photo is the Shropshire (thank you Blueface) and the Copper BFL (courtesy of Freyalyn) all balled up ready to cast on my sweater. Which I did last night. After careful consideration I have plumped on an organic pattern of my own invention based loosely on a Gansey/Scandinavian shape. I want to include a really cool Spider chart I found the other day and the cuffs and collar are to be coloured. If there is any left over it may get a couple of other stripes as well, haven't decided yet.
Mothers white Ryeland in approx 4 ply is on to the second bobbin but shoes no signs of ending - bored now! I really want to get on to some of the lovely fluff that Freya treated me to.
In the meanwhile I'm making myself feel better with the fantastic sock yarn that also arrived with Freyalyn. These are nearly finished now and dibbed by #1Son, but that's OK, 'cus I've got another skein in spiffing purples and greens... Try and nab that one will you boy..... hah! I have done a heap of other stuff in the couple of weeks, including demonstrating with the Guild at the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Show and Sale at the new market just outside of Bridgwater. That was a lovely day with lovely company. I did pop my head into the Guild Meeting and caught up with several friends, but I didn't stay long enough for Val and David Bryant's talk on spinning through time, which was a shame as it was by all accounts excellent.
But now everyone has gone home and #1Son leaves on Sunday, so everything should slow down for a while and I can have a real go at catch up with everything I have on my to do list (including warm clothes for the winter which I suspect is going to be long, cold and very wet!).
Off now to attack knitting with a steam iron, will explain later.
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