Hi everyone,

It is now just under five weeks until Woolfest! Sooo excited! I am pretty much only going to buy raw fleece I think, and one extravagent purchase – a new drop spindle. I am hoping to buy one from Spin City. Her spindles are beautiful, pretty, glittery and oh, so many words to use!

I’ve been busy with my fibre again and am happy with what I have done so far. I still have a huge bag of Zwartbles to card and a white Shetland. Maybe if I have a bit of time on the weekend I will try and get it done. A good few hours of carding might build up my arm muscles a bit.

What do you think of this lovely Gotland?

I bought this at Woolfest last year – 500g I think.

It went through the carder twice. Here it is on the first round.

Look how lovely and wavy it is! I opened all the locks out by hand, it took sooooo long! Def. a bit of TV watching whilst that went on. I got five batts out of this fleece.

This is fluffed up lamb Hebridean. I got a small 200g bag from Woolfest last year too. I’ve always been a bit wary of Hebridean but this one was lovely when washed. Unfortunately I got rid of about half of it whilst prepping it due to second cuts, etc. But I have got three batts out of it.

 

This is the unknown brown fleece that I found tucked under the stairs. It felt VERY dry but carded up really well. I got three batts from this. I’m REALLY looking forward to spinning this one.

Alpaca! Even with the amount I washed I still have been getting rid of about half of what I take out of the bag. In future, I will not cheap out and buy seconds alpaca. As you can see I have made some rolags out of it. I filled the box and when spun it gave me a heavy, packed bobbin on my Bliss. So, I imagine another box will give me a full bobbin again and I can get perhaps two decent skeins out of it. Even with the washing there is so much dirt coming off it! My hands are left black at the end of it, haha. My blending board has been getting some decent use out of it lately.

This picture makes me very happy! I fancy taking some decent photos outside though, this picture is a bit blurry. I imagine this will be a lot bigger when I have carded the rest of the fleeces.

I also fancied doing some more dyeing. I used kool-aid again and used the white Shetland as soon as I finished washing it. I didn’t wait for it to dry, just put it straight in. I also left it all curled up instead of carding it, as I want the fleece to get a mix of colours, not just one solid colour.

I pushed as much fleece into each bowl as possible. Each bowl got several minutes in the microwave, the dark dyes getting longer. The red ones were nearly impossible to get the water to run clear. When I spin it, I will have to give the red skeins an extra rinse. I didn’t rinse these in the washing machine, but left them to dry outside. I loved the colours the pink lemonade dye gave.

My little work station at the side of the kitchen. My lovely dried, dyed fluff. Each colour made a decent sized batt.

They were very easy to card. I decided to use a diz for the first time on my carder and made roving properly. I was so impressed with how easy and effective this is! Why have I not done this before?!

Most of them I managed to get done with just one ball of roving.

I spun up the pink one in the photo. Small skein, but sweet.

Lots and lots of fleece! I still can hardly believe that this was from a manky Shetland fleece!

I got this little machine at a charity shop in Ayr. It looks complete. It is a Simple Frame Knitter, made in the early eighties. It looks brand new! I can’t wait to try it out properly, but I’ve left it at A’s for now. I had too much luggage to carry back this time.

I’ve also done a bit more on my CAL. I have sooo much to catch up on!

Well, the next bit of this post is a bit sad. My lovely Martha died a few weeks ago. She was getting on a bit and not really eating a lot. (Except cucumber, she LOVED it). She had plenty of cuddles towards the end and died in her sleep. I miss her a lot and it’s not the same seeing five chickens when there should be six. Love you, Martha. ❤ This is one of my favourite photos of her. Beautiful girl.

This post is dedicated to my wonderful dog, Ben. On the 11th May this year, it was six years since he has been gone. There is not a day going by where I don’t feel like something is missing from my life. He was a wonderful companion and friend. He was taken far too soon and if he were alive today he would still have many more years to go. I miss you so much, Ben. I hope you are happy with your best friend, Bo, who was also taken almost exactly two years after you. I love you and miss you loads too, Bo. Words can’t really describe how much I want to see and cuddle them again. Maybe one day I will. ❤

Ben – 2004 – 11.5.2010

Bo – 2003 – July 2012

xXx Love Kais xXx

Hey everyone,

It’s been another couple of busy weeks which I have enjoyed. I managed to get myself a little part time job which I enjoy. It’s not teaching so it is far less stressy and far more enjoyable! I am still open for supply work though so at least I keep my hand in for teaching.

I’ve been using the past few weeks for some major fleece washing and fibre prep. Let’s face it, it’s Woolfest in six weeks and five days. I need to shift the stash to add to the stash. Am I right??

I found my much neglected blending board and decided that I really needed to get some good work out of it. I bought it at Woolfest last year and have made perhaps one decent set of rolags from it (the gorgeous red and black mohair fibre ones). I checked out what I had in my fibre box (which is MASSIVE) and decided to blend some merino 70’s/tussah silk with some dyed merino and some tiny touches of black mohair.

I was thinking that the rolags were quite hard to take off the board and wondering how others seemed to do it so flawlessly. Turns out I was doing it wrong. As you can see from the above picture I’m pulling them off from the top. I should have been doing it at the bottom and then pulling the fibre DOWN. A real DUH moment!

My lovely rolags and the blending board from Hedgehog Fibres. Love this board. It is just the right size for me. I am not sure if they sell them on their website.

I love these. Looking forward to spinning them very much! They are sooo soft. Must be about fifty in there?

I also found some clean Wensleydale locks tied up in little bundles in my fibre box and thought that I would dye them. Why the heck not?

Five bundles and five sets of colourings. Two of them are different shades of red, one is pineapple orange, one is grape purple and the one on the right is lemonade. That hardly had any colour at all so I added a green shot of kool-aid and it worked much better. I did my microwave heat set and put them to dry outside.

I can’t believe how quickly the fleeces managed to dry outside. Even though I was forever taking them in and out because drops of rain fell for five minutes and then it brightened up again! The fleece on the left is Gotland, also bought from Woolfest last year in a 500g bag. I am loving the silvers and greys in this fleece and it is a nice amount to prep. On the right side is black Shetland. First cut and sooo soft and lovely! I’ve prepped one half of that so far and the rest is soaking in the bath as I type.

And of course, I had to bring it in at night, so here is the Shetland at the bottom, locks in the middle and Gotland at top.

Oh, the photo above shows you how I wash my fleece. FARRR easier than dumping it in the bath or a larger tub. Rinses quicker and uses far less water. I then put the clean, wet fleece into a zipped laundry bag and put it in the washing machine on spin cycle for 16 minutes. Then I hang it outside or put it on sweater drying nets in the warm conservatory.

I try not to leave them in the front room because this is usually what happens…

After checking out all of my fleeces in the shed last week I had four left to process. I did one full one but had to throw away most of the second one. It was dry and just not nice. Not something I would want to spend time on processing.

Here is one of the fleeces. It is quite a large sack on an average garden table. (You can see the chicken house behind!!) This one was quite difficult to take out the bag as it was so big!

This is it, still practically folded in half! These Zwartbles sheep are HUGE! I think this was the first one I did, so the good one.

Anyway, I know this has been a rushed post but I hope to bring some photos of the processed Shetland, alpaca rolags and Gotland batts for next time. I need to go and rinse the Shetland currently in the bath at the moment!

Have a great evening everyone,

xXx Love Kais xXx

Hello everyone,

I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who follows my blog – I now have 101 followers! Thank you so, so, so much! It means a lot that people are following my blog, it must mean I am at least writing a little bit of what people find interesting.

I did start this blog off to show off what I have knitted and it just took off from there. People have witnessed my skills developing, learning crochet and my favourite, learning to spin. I have learned how to dye and created tutorials. I have created my own crochet patterns and learned so much about keeping chickens! So, once again, thank you very much for reading what I write.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, I am very excited to show off my, almost completed, hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-woven (that was a mouthful!) blanket. I have spun all the yarn for it, mostly dyed it all myself and all have been woven on a (hand-made!) pin loom. I would recommend getting or making one, very simple, yet effective. I was looking through my wool stash the other night and came across thirty pin loom squares. I think I put them away because I planned on making a bigger blanket. But I looked at them and thought, ‘why not?’

I had already blocked most of them, but one was left. This was carefully blocked.

I laid out all the squares on the bed.

Don’t they look a raggy mess! I managed to sew them up quite successfully. I was very impressed with them really as, even after blocking, some squares were bigger than others. But the next day, the blanket got put into a hot bath to soak for ten/fifteen minutes. It was very heavy to get out! I rolled it into towels to squeeze most of the water out. I had already laid out a blanket and two towels on the living room floor and then placed a large piece of cardboard on top. The blanket then got some SERIOUS blocking. I kid you not, I must have used about a thousand pins.

The squares look mostly the same size now and are mostly in straight rows/columns. I will unpin it tomorrow morning so I hope it will retain its shape! I even got my Mum to steam iron over it to give it a steam blocking too as it seemed to dry very quickly whilst I was pinning. Can’t be too careful, right?

Please excuse the mess in the background. The blanket looks kinda of small, but I plan on putting a crochet border around it. Using handspun of course!

I’m very excited for this project.

I’ve done some more spinning. Some for the blanket using fibre I found under the stairs (don’t ask…) and some random other fibres.

The top is Man Loughtan that was actually left on my wheel for ages. I decided it was time to ply it. This was from a fleece I bought at Woolfest last year, very clean and fluffy with lovely light brown tips. Prepped from raw, carded from batts. Batts were put through the carder twice.

The middle wool is Ryeland, also prepped from raw fleece purchased at Woolfest. This was bought in 2014… I think! This was an expensive fleece as it was so beautiful. Lots of silver and greys. I found some carded batts under the stairs and decided to spin them up. It is a nice, chunky spin. Dad wants a hat out of it, but I think it would be far too itchy for his skin! I still have so much fleece to prepare out of this though.

The bottom wool is Cheviot that I dyed with kool-aid, I think in 2013. So, a few years before it finally got spun! This MIGHT be going on my blanket, I’m not sure. Most little bits like this will hopefully go round my  blanket at least once, even if it is just tiny sc’s all around. I found LOADS of this under the stairs, all bright colours. I see some lovely spinning in the future.

What else have I been doing?

I was looking through my wool stash yesterday – look at the photo.

Yep… I have a lot. The bottom one is full of fibre. Fibre I had completely forgotten I had. Carded Jacobs, angora, sparkly stuff, full braids. I am going to be busy this year as I am going to make sure that that box will be half empty by the end of December. The rest of the big boxes are full of acrylic and mixed yarns. One box is almost completely cotton and the top box is full of just handspun. I want to be able to knit from a lot of my handspun too. I have lots of fleeces to prep, so should have a lot of yarn to knit something decent with. Perhaps another pin loom blanket of natural coloured fleece? All from raw? Different breeds? Ideas, ideas!

In one of the boxes I found a load of crochet squares that I had made years and years ago!I remember crocheting around each square in yellow and then joining four squares together in red. It sounds bad, I know. I sort of cringed when I found it. I laid it out on the bed and decided hang on, no, it’s not THAT bad. I found some matching red, and crocheted the rest of the squares so I had sixteen squares attached. I went round the lot with red and now am working an SC around the border. I plan on doing a few granny square rounds (hdc3 in one sc, miss 2sc, etc). Then a couple of SC to finish.

It is going to be a mini cot blanket. I’ll get a far better picture in the sunlight when it is finished.

I also remembered that I have seriously been neglecting my lovely Wonder Blanket CAL’s! One is much further on than the other and is only missing this fortnights stitches. I will see if I can do this tomorrow if I finish the above blanket. The other one is missing the last three weeks I think. Lots of catching up to do!

I have completed almost four squares now! Attic24 blanket is slowly coming along. When I went up to A’s I took the whole lot with me so I could work on that and only that! It amazes me how much time it takes to do each square. I wasn’t best pleased when I left them in the living room on the sofa and Aya peed on them… I rinsed them with soap and water but they now STINK! They need to go in the washing machine.

You can see the cool and warm colours emerging properly now. I worked on this whilst waiting for my train in Kilmarnock. An hours wait in the station cafe/book shop was well spent!

I think that is all for now craft wise. I’ll leave you with a few animal photos ❤

Aretha looks happy! They were tucking into boiled eggs with the shells still on. Absolutly lovely treat and it was a treat for me watching them. ❤

The ground looks pretty naff at the moment as there have been a lot of heavy rainfalls. They still have plenty of grass, you just can’t see it! They have a lovely big yard though and lots of places to have dust baths and climb and just generally have fun!

Alfie has been giving us a few laughs lately!

These dogs love their pillows, but Alfie took it one further. Pillow propped up against Freddy and he tucked himself into Mums cardigan and used it as a blanket/scarf. Sooo sweet! He slept for ages like that too. He has many funny poses – such as the meditation pose…

He is fast asleep! He also sleeps like this –

He loves sleeping on his back! Mind you, he is lying on his side with Freddy and me just now.

Look at them both – my whole world.

I love Freds expressions ❤

Have a great evening everyone!

xXx Love Kais xXx

I’m finding, that since I am off work at the moment, I am enjoying some quality, relaxing hobby time. My contract finished a couple of weeks ago at the school I was working at and it is now Easter holidays. So a good couple of weeks off is amazing!

I went into our local city yesterday with my Mum. She is a bigger wool enabler than me! She managed to convince me to buy a sweaters worth of yarn as she is wanting to knit a jumper. So, we are going to find a nice pattern each, a few good horror movies, and have a knitfest! I fancy making a cardigan. I very rarely make anything for myself, except socks, so a cardigan would be quite nice. My last jumper didn’t fit me, so I am going to make sure this next one does!

I’ve chosen the pink, Mum wanted the black and white. It is self-striping and the pattern it makes is lovely. I am going to show Mum how to do the sleeves at the same time. There will be more than enough yarn left over so I am sure I can use it up for little baby projects and so on. It was only 99p a ball as it was ‘perfect seconds.’ I can’t see what is wrong with it!

The two balls in the photo below were ones I had been after ever since I saw the lone ball in Blackpool Poundstretchers. I searched all of their yarn shelves and even behind them to see if they had another ball of this available. I ended up not buying it as I didn’t want to keep just buying single balls of wool. However, found these yesterday! I don’t know why, but I absolutely love these colours. I am sure they will make a lovely little cardigan. The yarn on top is 70% acrylic, 30% nylon and 4ply. It is baby yarn, but with nylon in it, it will make great socks!

It really was a big yarn haul yesterday! The yarn below is not actually for me. My Auntie is giving up smoking and asked if I had any spare wool that she could have to keep her hands busy. I use up my bits and pieces to make blankets and rather than give her the scrappy ends, I bought her fifteen balls of sparkly and non-sparkly yarn. I am also going to give her one of my sets of crochet hooks in a case, so she has all the hooks she will ever need. My brother is going to print her a tote bag with ‘You Can Do It!’ on it with a big ball of wool. Most people will think that it will be that she can crochet, but she will know that everytime she wants a cigarette, she just needs to look at her bag and crochet away. I wish her all the luck because I know that giving up cigarettes is very difficult.

I bought these today (or Mum did, I can’t remember!). A full tin of cottons for £1. Some were brand new and a couple of them are the perfect shade for my baby hexagon quilt.

I haven’t worked on this project for a while – the fish hat from Knitty. It is for my brother who saw it and immediately wanted one for himself. I don’t much knit for other people, but it looked like great fun so I agreed. I’m half way done I think.

As I said before, I managed to get two and a bit squares done of the Attic24 blanket. They are actually really quite big! Just under fourteen to go! I think when I got to A’s again I will bring the lot with me. Two hours on the train will get quite a bit done I imagine. And it will keep me busy the rest of the week too.

I am seriously not looking forward to sewing in those ends!

Here is a picture of the blanket that I am working on. It is the seafoam stitch and is working up really quite quickly. I do think that I will need some more yarn to finish it though, I don’t think six balls will be enough! I had to sew in some of the ends as they were getting in the way, but just loosely tying them at the ends is working for now.

A quick blocking at the end of this might make the dropped stitches more obvious and show the pattern a bit more.

The chickens are all doing well! They are getting on a bit better now, although there is still a lot of the pecking-order going on. Rose is definitely the big boss chicken though! If you want to join my Ravelry group ‘Rescue Chickens‘ please feel free. Lot’s of chat about chickens in general, as well as a thread for all of your projects that are going on!

Hope to see you there!

xXx Love Kais xXx

Hey everyone,

It has been soooo lovely having a few days off work! I am going down to two days a week at work since my contract has almost finished. I’m going to miss the work but I am really looking forward to a few relaxing, stress free days!

I went up to Ayr last week and had a few days there since the schools were on holiday. We didn’t do much since it seemed to rain constantly. When we braved going outside it was just for a walk round the shops. The weather was kinda  poor and it got really windy at one point. My first thought was, ‘Typical! Bet the trains will be cancelled/delayed!’ On the line I use, it constantly seems to get cancelled due to flooding. I know, I know, better safe than sorry, right?

I treated myself to a few nice things from woolwarehouse.com. I had been reading Attic24’s lovely blog (check her out – awesome!) and I saw a beautiful, sunny blanket that she had made. I immediately found out what she used and ordered a pack, along with a few sneaky extras…

Aren’t the colours lovely? If you can see them of course, I’m aware the photo is not the best it can be. I started off by doing the middle of the squares first, all sixteen of them. Then the next round.

 Then the next round. . .

Then the next round!

I even did a bit on the train going home. But that is normal for me. It would be odd if I DIDN’T have my crochet/knitting with me.

I think I was watching Men Behaving Badly. When I got home I started on putting in the bright, beautiful colours. It took a little while, but it was relaxing and I loved picking out the right colours for each row. I’ve only made one square but I hope to get some more rows done tonight.

When it has been blocked it will look much better. There are ‘cold’ colours on the right side and ‘warm’ colours on the right. I am dreading them sewing up of the ends hidden at the back right now…

… So it is a good thing I bought some of these!

I saw these on a FB group post and thought that they were a fantastic idea! They can be used at both ends meaning that you can weave even the smallest ends in without panicking that the needle won’t turn anymore. They are a little flimsy, but I think that they do the job perfectly well.

I also bought some teddy bear bits and pieces. I’m hoping to get some teddies made during my free time, so I bought a load of eyes and noses.

I also purchased some teddy bear joints on eBay. I would have bought them from Woolwarehouse but they didn’t stock any unfortunately.

I’ve done a few rows more on my CAL blankets. They are slow going (due to only 6-10 rows only being released every two weeks) but I don’t mind. It keeps my interest going in them. This weeks is a bit dull because we are doing basketweave stitch, which I’m not a major fan of. Oh well, it’s a learning curve, right. I couldn’t do it before, now I can! I did start another CAL blanket but I’m finding it really, really boring so I might quickly frog it before I change my mind. I don’t like giving up!

Ooh,  I have been super busy designing things lately… I am a massive fan of a certain radio show and have been creating a large throw using this genre. I am have managed to add in characters and scenery and words. I had most of the yarn needed to begin the project and added in a couple more colours when I went shopping in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago.

I’m really pleased with them. I have all of the charts completed now. You can only see four out of nine charts in this picture. I am going to put it on Ravelry when I have finished. I don’t know if other people will like it, but we shall see! Because Old Harry’s Game is a comic radio show about the underworld I am using lots of fire colours. I wasn’t going to put a backing to it, but I saw this amazing fire polycotton mix in Remnant Kings in Glasgow for only £3.99 a metre. I had to buy it! I’m hoping it will fit well onto the back. What do you think?

I have an awful lot of crochet to do by the seems of it!

I have also managed to squeeze in a little bit of spinning. Some of a Manx Laughton fleece from Woolfest 2015. It’s nice and soft and easy to spin.

It’s looking a bit unevenly spun but once it has plyed it will sort itself out. It smells lovely too. Using shampoo and conditioner on a fleece really makes it nice, haha!

I made Mum a hat for her birthday using a fairly popular pattern at the moment – the Baa-ble Hat. I used Drops Karisma for the sky and grass and acrylic for the sheep and extra bits.

(Yep, I’ve just finished knitting it on the train!) Mum was really pleased with it and wears it to work and when out all the time! I want to knit another one sometime. Someone at the camera club wants me to knit him a star themed one. I’ll have to see what colours I have first.

Last crafty thing – embroidery. Now, I have never embroidered in my life. I’ve done cross-stitch and tapestry, but never embroidery. I was very kindly given a load of old crafting and needlecraft magazines, some of which still had their free kits attached. These magazines were from 1992, so fairly old! They are very useful (the magazines) and one has an article on beginning bobbin lace making, so I am keeping that one out for future reference. I WILL learn how to do that this year!

This kit showed you how to make a Dorset button and some simple stitches. The needle had rusted completely so I had to replace that.

I really enjoyed the process and it is something I would do again. I’m going to have a dig through the kits and see if there are any more like this.

I put it into the card provided and will give it to my Nanny. She likes gardening so I hope she likes this card. I’ll be sending it to her this week.

I got this lovely  book from one of my little brothers for Christmas.

I’ve been using it as a craft diary and using it to write down all the things I have made and all the things I want to make. It has little notes, diagrams and achievements. I even stick in little fabric samples, etc. It is great when you are travelling and suddenly have an awesome craft idea. I also use the back of it to note down what crafty things I have bought this year. Hopefully with the idea of using them up by the end of the year. I’m a terrible craft hoarder! But we all are, right? Right??

Well, I’m off to do some crochet and read some more blogs. Feel free to comment, I love hearing from you!

Have a great night,

xXx Love Kais xXx

 

Hello everyone 🙂

It’s been a busy week or so what with being back at school. Gosh, it’s like I’ve never been away! I’ve had a lovely, relaxing time this weekend and enjoyed it, just doing some crafty stuff and watching what I wanted on my laptop.

There is a CAL (crochet a long) going on on Facebook and I thought it would be great fun to join in, just like I did with one a year or two ago. I saw some people had started two and I thought ‘utter madness!’ Then after I did the six rows required, I thought…. hang on, that was fun, I want to do it again. So, now I have two blankets started! It will hopefully make a decent dent in my acrylic stash and give me two gorgeous blankets into the bargain. No-one can ever have enough home made blankets, right?

I really should weave in the ends straight away as there is nothing worse than having hundreds to do at the end…

I’ve also used up a bit (finally) of the gorgeous cotton yarns I bought last year from woolwarehouse.com. I haven’t made baby items in a while, and this hat was a lovely, quick crochet.

You can get the pattern from here –

Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Bonnet

The only thing I changed was the stitch count. It says to start with 58 for a 0-6 month old. I found it far, far too long so I took off 20 stitches and made it to 38 stitches instead. This would fit a 0-3 month well, I imagine. I did three or four rows with the original 58 stitches but it was too long for me. Another thing that I found odd (just personal preference) was that it started at the front of the bonnet, and decreased stitches at the back into the middle. I prefer bonnet patterns to start at the back and increase stitches. But again, just personal preference. I would make it again. It would make a lovely addition to any outfit, just changing the colours as you go.

The last big news from me? It’s snowing! Not so much news as it has happened over half of the UK this weekend. The dogs have loved being in it, and we have had some gorgeous photos taken. The chickens were a bit peeved at first but perked up when they were able to rummage around in the garden.

Alfie loves looking out of the window to see the snow outside.

I’m off to watch some more Prisoner: Cell Block H. Does anyone else watch this??

Have a great night everyone,

xXx Love Kais xXx

Hello everyone,

It’s the night before I have to finish the weekend and go back to work. I can hardly believe I have been at this job for about five months now. I love every minute of it, even though it is a lot of hard work. I’ve had a good weekend and feel like I have achieved a few things crafty wise. The photos that I will show you have been from the entire month of May. I haven’t had a great deal of crafty time, but I’m hoping to get more done on the weekends than I have previously.

I’ve been working on a crochet baby blanket. This one is SO beautiful I had to buy the pattern straight away. The words spell out ‘Your first breath took ours away.’ How sweet is that?! I am using Drops I love 5. It is 80p a ball, so I filled up the online basket to get enough to make this blanket.

I’m using white cotton from a local yarn shop. It’s dishcloth cotton, but it is so nice to use.

I also finally, FINALLY used my weaving loom! I was going to cut everything off, but then I saw it had loads of thread left to weave on. I grabbed some of my white cotton in the thought  of making some dish towels, but when the time came to cut it off and cut it into separate bits, I couldn’t do it, so now it is a nice, white cotton scarf.

I haven’t worked up the courage to thread it all back up yet…

A couple of newborn crochet hats. These crochet up REALLY quickly. I did the blue one first, then decided to reverse the colours. I like the blue one better.

I started making a sock the other day. I didn’t use a pattern or anything, just sort of made it up as I went along. I think the sole is too long and wide. Not too sure where to go with this. I will probably frog it.

Look at this beautiful fleece! I visited a craft fair last weekend, but it was disappointing because it was so small. However, I got chatting to one woman there and she informed me that just up the road they had some sheep shearing demonstrations and spinning. Me and Mum went there straight away and we saw some gorgeous Zwartble sheep. I couldn’t believe how big they are! The owners were very nice and gave me one of their fleeces. It is HUGE. I took some photos of it this morning after unravelling it, but they are on the other camera. I have washed some (JUST remembered I have left it outside… I do hope it doesn’t rain!) and am just waiting for it to dry. It seemed to wash really well and was pretty clean. I look forward to carding it and spinning it.

I thought I would get the trusty drum carder up and used for a bit. It has sat on my shelf for a good few months now, which is a shame. I raided my wool tops box and found some bits and pieces. The red one is a mixture of kool-aid dyed Poll Dorset sheep fleece (prepared from raw fleece) with some sparkly trilobal nylon carded in too. The blue one is a mixture of German sheep fleece wool tops, with some blue bamboo fibre. Also, with some white sparkly trilobal nylon in too. Both have been spun up.

A very poor photo, but it is the two on the left. The two on the right are the darkest of the following photo –

It is showing a blend of colours from white all the way to blue. Very soft and smooth. It has been lovely to spin too. I simply spun the whole batt into a single, then Andean plyed it together.

It is a mixture of white German sheep wool tops, blue merino tops and white sparkly trilobal nylon. I am unsure yet of what to make with it, but I shall keep thinking!

I found out my old vintage carders this afternoon after I had a sudden craving to make some rolags! I have some alpaca fibre that needs spinning but it was quite difficult just spinning it straight from the fibre. I cleaned these up the best I could and then started on the rolags.

They do look funny in the box! I think I did fourteen altogether. I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to spin alpaca this way! However, it didn’t take too long to spin them all up. I’ve been looking at blending boards lately… they look fun!

And here is the resulting yarn! Very soft, but my hands were filthy afterwards! I’ve left it drying upstairs in the bathroom.

So, that’s been my crafty month so far! Before I go, here are some lovely pet photos of the month. I LOVE this one, it looks like me and Freddy are just in the middle of nowhere – the grass and colour is so beautiful.

Little man hiding in the field!

And a cute one of Aya, just before I left A’s house yesterday.

Look at that face!

Anyway, it’s getting late and I must go to bed. I hope you all have a lovely evening.

xXx Love Kais xXx

Ok, so this is it. The end of 2014. Can’t believe that it is the end of the second year of my blog! Last year I wrote about things I feel I have achieved and things that I wanted to achieve.

What I have achieved this year

• I have been horse riding.
• I have wall climbed! (I am immensely proud of this one).
• I have been to the top of Blackpool Tower – TWICE!
• I finally went to Germany!
• I am now a high A2, low B1 language level in German.
• I have been abroad on my own – full independence!
• I have a new teaching job.
• I got a summer job teaching English.
• I finally went to a pub gig and did some dancing.
• I rescued some more chickens.
• My boyfriend and I got a flat.
• I learnt how to sew.

Looking back over that list I am very proud of myself.

This is last years list. I will cross out what I feel I have achieved.

Things I would like to try/ achieve in 2014.

• Learn long draw
• Dye using proper dyes
• Learn entrelac
• Crochet a baby garment
• Knit another pair of socks
• Get as many of my kits done as possible
• Finish CAL blanket
• Do something with Tunisian crochet
• Sew up my dpn holder
• Sew the Christmas advent calendar
• Create my own knitting pattern
• Make some felt kits
• Get lots of more sheep fleece prepped

Yeah, looking good! I kept meaning to sew the Christmas Advent Calendar but never got around to doing it which is a shame. Me and Mum will sew it for next year. I tried having a go at Tunisian Crochet again but I don’t think it is for me. I used the fabric for the dpn holder for making baby pants, haha. Knitting pattern, hmm, thinking about I think I did sort of adapt a knitting pattern so that is kinda my own pattern, right? As for getting kits done… urgh! Hardly any done. I really, really need to.

Ok, this is what I would like to achieve by the end of 2015!

• Have at least ten baby items sewn, aging from newborn to age 2/3.
• At least ten baby items knitted, aging from newborn to 2/3.
• At least ten baby items crocheted, aging from newborn to 2/3. (Can you see the links here??)
• To get every single fleece in the shed and porch washed and carded into gorgeous, soft, fluffy batts.
• To spin up ten batts/tops/rovings that I have in my spinning box.
• To spin up an entire fleece.
• To knit/crochet/weave something using the handspun yarn under my bed.
• To learn to weave on my weaving loom.
• To weave on a pin loom and create a blanket from the squares using my handspun wool.
• To not buy any yarn/wool until I have used up as much as possible from the cabinet. (See how long this one lasts!)
• To lose at least two stone.
• To reborn at least three reborn doll kits.
• To go back to Germany at least once.
• To have something I have wanted since I was little.
• To make a baby blanket.

I think that is enough for now! I am looking forward to the end of next year to see if I have achieved any of these! I really, REALLY want to lose two stone so will be doing (after the New Year dinner) the dreaded diet and exercise… if possible! I would like to do some more reborn doll kits but will just sell them when finished. I already have two, it’s just the crafting that I love. And sooooooooo much wool craft – it makes me so happy to think of all that lovely wool!

Now, to see some photos of what I have achieved this year. Sadly, not nearly as much as last year but I have been working an awful lot. 🙂

January

February

March

April

July

September

October

December 

Ok everybody. I hate this bit… it always feels so sad knowing that this is the end of a long year. I hope that everyone has a very, very Happy New Year.

Make sure you do all that you want to do. Love deeply, be happy and don’t regret anything.

Happy New Year!

xXx Love Kais xXx

Hello everyone,

I have another blog post to complete later but thought I would squeeze another one in before I do my last one of the year.  Just a few photos to show the last month or two.

Here I was working on a simple crochet mitten. I took some of the shaping from a simple pattern but instead of crocheting in rounds I worked in a spiral. I found that was better because it didn’t leave a line up the back of the mitten. I have finished it now and put a little bit of blue ribbon round the wrist.

Here are the first pair of mittens I crocheted. Aren’t they cute?!

I am very proud of this next picture. This is another crocheted top with a little hat to match. There was only a few metres of yarn left at the end so I was fortunate to get it all finished. I will have to find the pattern out later. I learnt some new stitches (fbhp or something like that, haha) so my crochet skills are slowly improving.

Ok, time for some pet pictures! Here is sweet Molly sitting on my spinning wheel. She LOVES sitting on it. Excuse the mess, there are an awful lot of clothes not put away!  I also have to put sheets around the table so that she and Evie do not get under the table and stay there. Gorgeous girls 😀

My beautiful girls 🙂 Grace nearest me, Donna at front, Rose at left back and Martha. All doing well and happy 🙂

I was annoyed the other day that my train had been cancelled due to flooding. I know that sometimes they seem to exaggerate these things so I was angry at the thought of it being hardly a problem. Imagine my surprise opening the paper to find this! This is my exact train I wanted to get, haha. Ok, it’s not funny but I won’t complain about flooding again! (Everyone was fine, don’t worry). I had to get the slightly quicker, but more round about way train.

There has been an awful lot of flooding round here. This is the river in front of Andrews house (Ayr river). It was very high, a lot more than usual. Sometimes the river is so low you can see the floor.

This is a long overdue photo of the latest reborn doll I have done. The pictures don’t give it justice and make it look very, very pale with very little paint, grrr. This is the Tilly sculpt, bought from Lillian Trigg of Rochester. Beautiful kit. I didn’t see any pictures of what it could look like when painted so this was complete guesswork.  This one is different too as it has eyes. What a hassle trying to get the eyes in! You have to slit the back of the eye sockets and push them in that way. It took me ages trying to go through the front which resulted in me tearing tiny, tiny marks at the corners of her right eye. Oh well, she isn’t for sale anyway. I thought she looked like a boy when I finished, but the more I look at her it’s a her. She is a full limbed sculpt.

I love the soles of the feet.

You can just see the rosey cheeks in the picture above.

She is fully weighted to have the weight of a baby. She is filled with ground glass and stuffed with polyester stuffing to make a nice squidgey body.

In the photo below you can see the difference between the Tilly painted doll (right) and the Archie unpainted doll (left). The Archie sculpt is very pale in comparison and Tilly seems to have much more skin tone, and shiny lips!

I made a terrible error when I first started Tilly though. 😦 I had got most of her painted up and she looked great, no shiny skin or anything. Then I tried putting the eyes in and realised to my horror that the paint was rubbing off! I had forgotten to put thinner/sealer in any of the paint mix. This is a must as it seals the paint to the vinyl and prevents it from ever coming off. So yeah, I was very, very disappointed as the skin tone looked a lot better than it did in the photos you can see on here. Oh well, learning curves! I won’t be forgetting the thinner again, haha.

This is my little table I was using to get everything painted up. You can see I am painting in daylight because it shows the true colours. But because of the daylight fading away at 3pmish it was hard to stop. My wonderful parents bought me a daylight lamp, yay! I’m using it right now and it is amazing. It means I can do my crafts until stupid o clock in the morning and won’t be straining my eyes. The lights I have in my room seem very orange in comparison to the daylight lamp. I love it! But what shall my next  project be? Hmm…

Here are a couple of photos of the doll wearing the recent crocheted items.

I crocheted the little hat the other night in bed as a ‘something to do with my hands’ whilst watching telly. Going to make another one tonight perhaps? I have also crocheted a little diaper cover which matches the hat.

One thing I do need to work on is starting my crochet much, MUCH more loosely. It’s far too tight and pulls the stitches in, distorting it.

Right, I’m off to get photos and things ready for my final post of the year. Sobering thought, huh? I’ve now been doing this blog for two whole years. Never, ever thought it would get this far. But I love it, and I hope that everyone who reads it has enjoyed it too.

xXx Love Kais xXx

It’s certainly been a while since I lasted posted. The longest gap yet I think. I have had a few reasons for this though. First is that I was in Germany for a month. Gosh… that doesn’t seem real really. It was only a few weeks ago I came back and it hardly feels like I was there at all. I miss it so much, but I know I will be back there one day. Maybe next year, if I am lucky.

Here are a couple of my favourite photos.

Koln am Rhein. This bridge was very long – the Hohenzelle Brucke. Absolutely stunning. If you lean over the side you can see the ships and boats going underneath. The first few times that I saw it, the bridge was pretty empty except for a few tourists. The next time I went it was so busy I could barely move! I love the idea of the locks on the bridge. You put the name of your lover or loved ones on the bridge. You lock the padlocks (which are engraved or written on) and then throw the keys into the water below. This symbolises ever lasting love. (Apparently, if you split up, you have to dive into the water to retrieve the keys). I, of course, had to join in this beatiful tradition.

 

Me and my boyfriend, my parents, my beautiful, beautiful dogs, and above, my wonderful family 🙂 I took a photo of the surrounding area and the number above the bridge so I can hopefully find them the next time.

Here is a quick picture of me on the way back home (after a 24 hour bus journey!!) I was almost home… I look so tired.

If you would like to see some more photos of the Cologne trip you can view them here –

https://adventuresincologne.wordpress.com/

I created a little blog so I could show the photos to my family whilst I was away. I was there for a month but have only sixteen days worth of photos up. I need to get around doing the rest later.

I saw some beautiful craft shops in Germany, and the craft book section in Mayersche book store was beautiful. They sold sewing patterns too.

I loved this sign on a clothes shop window!

Knit Club!

I bought a fantastic crochet book from Mayersche shop. It is a pattern book for a really cute set of dolls with an entire wardrobe.

It was E12,99, which is kind of expensive. Ah, who am I kidding, it IS expensive. I worked out though, it was the same price if I had bought it online at home. I think it works out to about £9/10. The illustrations are so pretty. As soon as I got home I found out my favourite Patons Smoothie yarn and started. (After I had translated several of the instructions). It didn’t take me too long to create the basic doll.

After that I created some mini pants (whilst watching The Apprentice. Anybody been watching the UK Apprentice show? Last one was horrendous, was so annoyed with it) and then a little jacket.

I haven’t done any features on the face apart from a teeny yarn nose. I think she is cute. And it gives me a great excuse to buy some more Patons Smoothie. I cannot rate that yarn highly enough!

Mum had bought back my jumper knitting project from my Nans house and it was waiting for me in my room when I got back. It didn’t take me too long to finish the sleeve and sew it up. It was a little too tight the first sleeve I sewed, so I unpicked it and sewed it as loose as possible. Still a bit tight but wearable. I love it.

I had planned on knitting some socks when I was away but never got around to doing them. I started them a week ago and have them finished. I’m wearing them right now actually.

I used Sirdar Crofter yarn that I had been given ages ago. I used Silvers Sock Class tutorial to make these.

http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/

Absolutely fantastic tutorial for anyone who would like to learn how to knit socks, either on four needles, two at a time toe up or one sock at a time on circular needles. I think I can remember how to do it without a tutorial now which is really helpful. This is my second two at a time toe up socks on circular needles. Invaluable. I don’t think I would like to knit socks singly anymore, haha.

I added a bit of cabling and a picot edge bind off. The cabling was my own design. Not fantastic, but I like it. It might have worked better on non stripy yarn.

I bought some mini Christmas decorations back from Aldi in Germany. They were E2,99 and you could make six little people from it. It had an awful lot in the pack!

I love the little knitted hats. I did a bit of one and Mum did the rest. They look so cute! She put our initials on each of the angels.

They are hanging on a little tree in our hallway at the moment. They look so pretty. I need to get a photo of that.

The following pictures are of the little project I finished today. I fell in love with it when I saw the pattern online. It did not take too long to make and I want to make loads!

I then put it on Christina doll.

Haha, I love it. The pom pom took aggges. I haven’t made one in such a long time!

Anyway, I’d better go. Here are a few pictures of my babies… I was so happy to see them again. I couldn’t believe how much I missed them. It’s Alfies birthday today too, exactly one year old! Happy Birthday Alfie!

Alfie fell asleep like this…

Gorgeous boys together. Love you Freddy and Alfie.

Have a great night everyone,

xXx Love Kais xXx