Hello everyone. Just a short blog post tonight… I think!
Got out my Bliss this evening for a relaxing time in front of the telly, watching ‘Four in a bed.’ Nothing weird, I know what you’re thinking! It’s a competition between B and B owners of who owns the best B and B of that week. Ok, sounds sucky, but it’s not too bad.
Anyway, I had a pack of fibre from World of Wool that has been sitting on my shelf for months just staring at me. I finally decided that tonight was the night! It was a pack of 3 Corriedale wool tops, in silver/grey, brown and white/cream. Each top was 100g each, but knowing WoW, more like 150g each. (They are highly recommended and ship throughout the world).

I started off with the silver one first. I thought I wanted to make a DK, slightly chunky plyed yarn, but nope. As soon as I saw the bobbin filling up I knew this was going to be the first time I had properly spun singles. I was enthralled! So easy, so simple, so gorgeous! I tried not to put in too much twist as spinning, but the more I thought about it, the more twist I put in! So, I simply tried relaxing, and just let the fibre flow through my fingers. It worked beautifully.
I apologise for the very poor photo quality coming up. If this photo was taken in the day time it would have been perfect.

I think you get the idea though. I love how the bits of black show up clearly in the wool. It was a lovely silvery colour with a great sheen to it. You can see how it is fairly chunky, perhaps a DK weight in itself.
I finished spinning up the others – yep, 300g (about 450g) in about 2.5 hours sitting. The time sped by. The brown went quite well, but I think I had got a little bored of the white. I tried predrafting it less, and worked with thicker chunks of fibre, but that just didn’t work for me. I now know I must, must, must always pre-draft my fibre! The white has thick and thin bits of twist in it which are kinda annoying, but hey, all practice, right?
With the brown, I pull the fibre apart into the wanted thickness, and just rolled them up, ready to be picked up and spun.

Once all had been spun I quickly skeined them up using my black board, and tied them all in three places.

The wool sprang into a mass of mess! It looked like a mixture of boucle and plyed yarn. I stretched it out tightly and it looked great. Because I was going to make singles, I prepared a hot conditioner bath for them. Each skein was immersed in hot water, and gently rubbed and squeezed. Do NOT do this if you have plyed yarns! This will felt them. I felted mine a little so the twist would stay in and make the singles that little bit stronger. Who knows, it may have ruined the yarn, but I won’t know until dry, haha. So, yeah, I rubbed them gently, and wrung the yarn out. I then draped it over the towel rail with something heavy holding it down to stop the kinks reforming. Thinking about it now, I didn’t do the wrapping in the towel and standing on it method of getting the water out, drat! Oh well, I’m too lazy to get up now!

I went back in the bathroom not long after I had hung these up, and both the bottles in the middle had fallen out, so I grabbed another of my dye jars and put them there instead. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how these turn out. The grey is the softest.
That’s pretty much all of the yarny stuff I have done these few days. Well, I knitted a little cardigan using some of the yarn from the previous post. It’s a newborn size and really cute, and I actually seamed it really well together. Hang on, I’ll get a pic now.

Here is the baby model out again, haha. Underneath the cardigan is the dress I made during my tonsil operation recovery period. That was weird I can tell you. But then again, I made no mistakes with that dress, even though my head was so woozy! Anyway, this is a newborn size cardigan made with superwash merino DK yarn. Lovely and soft to knit with, a real pleasure. Knitted up on 4mm needles.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxG5-ywxwbFkRzdhNm1SUExQdE0/edit?pli=1
Here is the pattern if anyone is interested. I love it, and will be making another. I actually started one straight after, but this time I wanted to time myself how long it took. It took me two hours exactly just to make the back of it.

It’s exactly the same yarn as above, just in a different colourway. I want to time myself knitting the entire thing, as well as seaming it up. Just to see the sort of time frame it takes. I also fancy knitting another of those little dresses as I have some King Cole left over. And another of the chunky quick knit cardies. I love them.
But what else has been happening with me then? Well, for the first time EVER, I’ve lost weight! 5 whole pounds! I know, I know, not a great deal, but I think it’s really made a difference. I know I’m pretty slim anyway, but I’ve had real trouble fitting into some trousers I bought a while back. I tried them on the other day and they were so comfortable. My stomach looks lovely and flat too, which is what I’ve been desperate for, for ages.

What I’ve been trying to do, which isn’t the best way to go about it, so please don’t try it, is simply just eating dinner at about 4pm, and then that’s it. I never eat breakfast, and I don’t tend to feel hungry until about 1/2pm anyway, and then I just binge eat. So, I’m just waiting until dinner, a normal sized portion, and then that makes me feel completely full for the rest of the night. I don’t feel hungry during the day, I don’t feel snacky, so it’s really working for me. If I were hungry though, I would just eat fruit as a snack. I drink plenty of tea too. But however, I think weekends will be my ‘eat anything I want, as much as I want’ days 😀
I bought some gorgeous shoes the other day from an M and S outlet store. Gorgeous black heels, which are a change for me! I’ve been wearing my black boots with small heels for the past couple of years, so I thought I would try on these heels. Fitted beautifully, look gorgeous AND I can walk in them comfortably. Just need something to go with them now!

And they were only £6.99 on sale! Right, I very probably won’t ever mention shoes again on this blog, so, if I do, please slap me! I hate shoe shopping with a passion, but these just took my eye for a moment.
Right, I’m off now to bed. Freddy is lying next to me like another hot water bottle. I’m off to cuddle up to him and listen to The Goodies. Might even read a couple more pages of George Orwells’ ‘1984.’ Excellent book. 
This is how we caught Freddy sleeping last night. He moved straight after we took the picture. It’s the little things that make you smile the most, don’t you think?
Have a great night everyone.
xXx Love Kais xXx