Hello again everyone.Yet again, another super busy week. Had three days at the school. I feel like I’m never out of that place. Good thing I love my job!

I did a bit more on my plants display. It’s not great, but I just don’t seem to have the time to get it finished. It doesn’t look too bad though, which is good.

I might put some photos of the childrens work onto the bottom, of where they grew their cress plants. I still need to move the yellow border at the bottom to make it look less squint! I’ve been given some more contract hours too, which is brilliant, which means I’m working three days a week now. Tiring, but it means I get to do more work with some classes I don’t tend to have too much time with. That way we can get more done in a lesson or two which is fantastic.

Oh. MASSIVE tip. Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER let the younger classes play with glitter or anything small and sparkly. My classroom floor was a ridiculous state. I am so embarrassed that I left it like that. I swept up as much as I could, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. But, I did ask a couple of other teachers what I should do and they said that it was fine and the cleaners expect glitter at this time of the year. I left them a little note apologising and that I wouldn’t be using glitter again! Just hope I’m not going to get told off when I go back in!

Right, crafty wise, what have I been up to?

Remember the big stack of silk hankies I bought a while ago? I decided it was time to finally get them dyed like I wanted.

A big stack of silk hankies! I forgot that I needed them to soak at first for a while. I think you are meant to leave silk hankies in for quite a while as sometimes they don’t tend to soak well. I only left them about ten minutes but made sure they were wet all the way through by giving them a good squeeze in the water.

Looks horrible!

I managed to dye just over 100g I think. I’m loving the different colours that are there. The red one is such a bright, beautiful red colour. The blue one is a lovely colour too. The mixed one at the back was just using up the rest of the colours. Looks not very nice there, but it worked out quite nicely when it dyed.

And this was the state of my hands afterwards. Who knew kool-aid was so staining! I look like I’m turning into a smurf. I should have worn gloves really, but it doesn’t bother me.All hanging up to dry! It actually took several days for it to dry out completely. The front room is pretty cold though, so no wonder.

And here is the lovely, big, fluffy pile of goodness! Soooo soft!

Here is another of the felted dolls I made. I hadn’t got a thin, sharp needle on me at the time, so I didn’t do the eyes, and buttons. That’s something I need to do quite soon! I think she looks quite pretty, but would look better with eyes and buttons! She sits with the other felted doll.

Here is the start of my little knitted bag using my own handspun wool. It is Corriedale wool and soooo soft! I’m wondering if I should felt it when I’m done, but not too sure. I will run out of wool soon, so it looks like I need to do another order with World Of Wool. Yes! 😀

Here are a few bags of knitting patterns I was given. Lots and lots and LOTS of baby knitting patterns, yay! I am going to go through them all a bit later on, and sort out what there is. I think quite a few of them will be going to the charity shop. I’m not a fan of knitting womens/mens/childrens clothing, but baby patterns I ADORE. I think I’ve now got my knitting mojo back, so what to knit now? I need to finish the little grey cardigan I started before. If there is enough yarn left over I plan on making some little socks. I will use the same trusty four needle sock pattern that I always use. Just will be a bit different because I’m not using Patons Smoothie. 

Here is what I am still SLOWLY spinning. The one on the bottom right hand corner is the batt I have torn into strips and just twisted together. That way, when I start spinning it up again, I don’t need to stop to tear strips off again.

Here is one batt spun up and looking nice. Shame you can’t see it clearly, but there is quite a bit there. If you can see the middle back of the picture, the spinning wheel spring is in a dreadful state. I don’t know what I’ve done to it, just must have tightened it too much and it’s dragged the spring… out of the spring, haha. I’ll have to see if I can get another one from somewhere. Either that, or just take it off. I shall see.

I’ve also moved the hamster cage from on top of the wool cupboard, and changed it to the smaller, two level house. Neither of my remaining two hamsters are very well again (same as Saffy I think 😦 ) so I thought it’s best they were in a smaller house. It’s a perfect size for them anyway, even for when they get better. I thought the empty space left would be perfect for my spinning wheel and drum carder. Don’t look at the carder, it’s in an awful mess at the moment. I just need to give it a quick clean. But, the carder isn’t working as well as it should be really, so I think I will ask the makers if they are able to take it back and give it a once over, because it is on a two year guarantee. I think perhaps it’s just been used so much! But I love it, so hopefully it can get fixed.

Here is Freddy again, sitting with his toys on the bed. And in case you are wondering, yes, that is his cardboard box full of toys on the bed too. No, I didn’t put it there. He decided he didn’t want it on the floor and wanted to use the actual box as a toy too! I just heard him messing around at the foot of the bed, and the next thing I knew he had picked up the box and pulled it onto the bed! He had very, very cleverly moved all the heavy toys out of the box first. Such a clever boy.

Right, I had better go now. Need to go check on the chickens, get another cup of tea, and start on the huge mound of work for tomorrow. I’ll see if I can get a couple of weeks worth of stuff done. Right up until Christmas anyway.

Have a great day!

xXx Love Kais xXx