Not lost

I'm here - just happily busy. I can't show you the wonderful things I am working on just yet - soon, soon.

However, I can show you some other things that have been keeping me out of trouble:

meet my spinning wheel - thanks to the extreme enabler (aka grannyg) I am now the owner of an Ashford Traveller?? not sure, but she's cute!I have always sworn that I would never take up spinning - my excuses ranged from "I do not have the space in my studio for the wheel and the whole extra world of fibre stash" to " I don't have the headspace for spinning" and "Flash will have me committed"-I'm glad to admit that I was wrong, there is plenty of space both in my studio and my head, and Flash likes the wheel's engineering simplicity - though I worry that if he had his way it would be lowered...with mags.

Here, dear readers is my first yarn, yes I plied it, yes I know that I do not know what I am doing, yes it looks like catsick (go on, ask me how I know) but it is mine all mine.

I can make yarn.

Gauge/ tension is an eternal source of stress/tension for me, I write patterns which can be used with different yarns, I have favourites but I do not owe any yarn companies any favours, so I make a number of suggestions and expect my customers to use any suitable yarn that takes their fancy, unfortunately the permutations are infinite, 4 ply can range from 22-30 sts per 10cm, but this little gadget is here to help me - it is a WPI gauge - Ravelry uses WrapsPerInch as well as other yarn descriptions and I feel that it is a useful addition, all you really need is a ruler, wrap the yarn around the ruler - not too tight, not too loose - you want the wraps to sit comfortably next to one another, then just count the wraps in one inch.

Unfortunately it is not a metric measurement, but we can all jump between imperial and metric can't we! I bought my little gauge from Karatstix who also sells cute little needle gauges and tension gauges. I'm happy to have another tool in my arsenal to help knitters get good results from my patterns.

Victoria is in the process of being graded

and test knitters have been roped in to help. I've moved on to playing with cables...oh you will love them, and I must tell you about the Christmas challenge I have set myself...many many socks, many socks...

"A harmless necessary cat"

a few months back , wandering around Etsy, I bought a present for a friend - as soon as I saw these little stitch markers I knew that she would love them, and she did.

Weeones creator Jillian willingly accepted a funny little request from me - to make stitch markers in the image of my cats Frasier and Layla - a little bit of of vanity for posterity, a bit of fun and frivolity, Jillian did a brilliant job - the Frasiers even have little paw pads and a spotted tummy! Postage was very reasonable and fast, and they were packaged beautifully.

(you just have to love her sock monkeys, cheese varieties and chickens too!)

(the promised pattern will be available soon - my beautifully planned yesterday was ruined by a broken crown - so I'll be at the emergency dentist today...)