So. Where were we?

The past month has been an especially draining time for me as I attempted to juggle several jobs, and do them all well - mothering, educating, keeping the house relatively ('relatively') crud-free, designing and testing a website and all the add-ons and widgets therein (oyyy), keep up a photo challenge, and work on yet more editions of Tend for ever-looming deadlines with contributors, my own work and advertisers. It has been, without exaggeration, intense. It has been like juggling balls and running between spinning plates and keeping them spinning at the same time. The phrase "you only get one time to make a first impression" has been whirring in my head for far too long; I hope I have indeed made a good first impression, and now I can just get on with the everyday work of putting a magazine together without doubting myself, and double checking, and worrying myself silly. It's live - it's out in the wild and free-ranging; new worries will no doubt preoccupy me, but for now, I'm a little tired.

So, what do us mama's do when we're exhausted? Oh we spin and knit yarn of course. Or make a blanket, a quilt, or something that really looks a lot like work, but is actually zen in disguise.

I've been revisiting the spinning wheel, which has been much neglected this winter as work called me away. It was in need of a few tweaks to get it ship-shaped and finally, with the help of the resident squatter, we figured a way round to making it workable again. I changed the cord. I even oiled everything like I am suppose to.

And then I sat and just belted them out.




















I do declare there is nothing nicer, or more full of promise, than a beautifully-coloured candy floss mountain of fluff and no demands on one's time.

So yeah. I'm back.

How've YOU been?

The Need for Fleece

I'm getting the itch to spin again. I haven't spun anything for a couple months now - other crafts have taken over, but oh I do so miss spinning. And it's shearing time, right? Maybe it's time to learn to dye as well... that would be good. To be able to call the whole process, from shearing to knitting, a total handmade endeavour would be very satisfying...

Carding Alpaca

There are worse ways to spend an afternoon, but the small pile of straw and crap underneath my chair after carding raw fleece is unbelievable. It's totally worth it to have soft alpaca yarn to knit up.

Handspun Yarn

I've been busy. Not very busy, because let's face it, spinning isn't that hard when it's accompanied with games, chit chat, tea and company.

These latest skeins were spun from utterly beautiful roving with subtle gradients of colour. They are completely jewel-like. And so soft - I totally recommend merino and silk. Soft and a teeny bit shimmery.

They were destined to be placed in the store later on today. But actually, I think I'll just keep them. Because I'm crazy like that. We'll see. I find no hardship at all adding beautiful yarn to the stash...

Slow Crafting

It's been a slow week. Last week I got KOed by a really nasty flu and not much of anything got done. It takes a while to stop feeling flat, but this interesting spring weather we're having isn't helping much.

As such, creativity is a bit thin on the ground here; I'm running to stand still with everything, and all the knitting, sewing and making that usually keeps me sane have been squeezed out of the equation. It's OK. The dust will settle and I'm hopeful I'll find time again for these things.

But right now I'm squirreling time by the wheel as my babes read, play, work. It keeps me busy enough.

The Nature of Fluff

I think I can see another shop update occurring soon... not sure if or when, but the amount of fluff would suggest it...

I have a plan

Half a sheep's worth of fluff; a few evening's worth of spinning; five skeins of yarn ready to be balled up; a new pattern floating around in the nether regions of my mind.

I have these good ideas. They keep me busy. They stop my brain from oozing out of my ear-holes. My mind has to be constantly doing something; I'm not someone who is just happy to sit and watch - this I've learned about myself in these years of managing PND. I am at my worst with no work to do.

This is my latest plan.

Me and My Shadow

Always keen to get in on the action; whatever I'm doing it's not long before I get a little shadow keen to join in with his own version. I hope he always remembers these days, the way he worked along side me and joined in. Right now life is intense, but all I see when I look at my babes is the empty nest they are going to leave me with. And I hold on a little tighter.

Watching His Mummy Spin

As I sat down one day to spin some new yarn, the midget sneakily picked up my camera, and before I knew it I was in the middle of a photo shoot - "THIS one's a good picture, Mummy!", "Oh, I like THIS one", "LOOK, Mummy - it's an amazing shot" and so it went on until his creative urges were satisfied and my spinning time documented to his satisfaction.

"You can put those on your blog if you like".

And so here you are. An afternoon of spinning and clicking.