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.

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.

{Mu'Mu} Handspun

I have one very impatient little boy waiting to put his cushion in the shop. I have another boy toying with the idea of making bags for the shop (can't be outdone by his little brother, now!).

Meanwhile, I would rather like the chance to make things to put in this shop too, actually, thankyouverymuch! And maybe sometime this year I will! If I can untangle their suckered tentacles demanding my undivided, loving attention and get super duper organised then maybe it will happen.

I do, however, have two things ready ... my first handspun for sale... bit nervous, as I've never sold my yarn before, but I do love it so.











Yes. Mustard and grey. It never gets old. Both hanks are 2-ply yarn approximately 100g each. The gold is merino and the grey is masham, which I just loved spinning. I will have to get more of that insha'allah. It has a nice 'bounce' to it.

Now if I could just make the things already cut and waiting for me to sew, I might be able to fill the shop and get the midget his audience.... woe betide me if I fail...

In the Stash

One of the side effects, so to speak, of me learning to spin (and practicing so much), is that I am steadily accruing skeins of yarn, just for the stash.

It tickles me no end to see these skeins and hanks of yarn sitting there, waiting for a project to take my fancy. I don't know why, but it does. It feels quite satisfying to see a few balls of yarn just sitting. It's like putting by, but in yarn. It appeals the part of my brain that feels the need to stock up and have enough to get by.

If ever I can't get to the shops, my family need not panic. I have yarn. We're OK.

Applied Yarn

The witchcraft has begun. This ability to transmute fluff into wearable, necessary, life saving clothes has begun to trickle through the spinning-to-needle process and we have a result. We have ... a hat.





People, I feel like a boss. I have found how to turn mud into gold. In primitive societies I would be a priestess now... along with the guy who learned how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. Stories should be written about me and I should go down in folklore like Rumpelstiltskin... because, dude, I can turn fluff into solid cloth. Hear. Me. Roar.

Yes, I am rather happy about this amazing transformation of myself from a consumer to producer of yarn.

Now all I have to do is practice until the yarn is a consistent thickness, learn how to dye, buy some sheep, buy the farm to put the sheep in, learn how to be a sheep farmer, learn how to shear and card and .... I can knit more hats.