Soup, polo necks again, tidying and no pics!

Whoops have been really busy knitting today and before I knew it the light had gone and wanted to take pics in natural light - will tie a knot in my hanky so that I remember to do it tomorrow! The doggy polo neck is finished - not bad for a design sample - haven't put the sleeves in or done the fancy work around the neck, it is marginally long in the body which means the weeing tackle will have to be kept clear when it is put on, had planned on the edge of the jumper being out of firing range - it isn't quite! Will develop this idea a bit, knitted on four needles it was a bit thick and stiff to manage but quick to knit.
Have also been making soup today, still very cold outside - ideal soup weather! First pot for today was cauliflower and horseradish - easy, quick, filling and low calorie and this evening had some ham stock to use up which of course lends itself to split pea soup - that is Thursday lunch taken care of as well!
I bought myself some plastic storage boxes in varying sizes from Dunelm before Christmas. Have been having a long overdue sort out of crafting stuff - bearing in mind that Lizzie (now textile graduate) has dumped all her stuff at home - moved to a smaller flat and now 'grown up' doesn't want all her student paraphanalia around her new flat, therefore all brought home and dumped around the house. Most of it has been decanted to the barn but some has been recycled into my boxes. Have some great shelves at the back of the dining space which are full of books, saying goodbye to them and putting my crafting boxes there but then there are the boxes of tweed, fabrics and wool ... oh dear! More tomorrow and pictures!

Snow, ice, chilean wool and polo necks for dogs

Oh boy is it cold! It is about -3c up here on the wold. Have been out walking today - very icy and slippy in some places particularly where there isn't any sun, the snow is still very deep in the shaded places and the drips from the trees have frozen onto the underlying snow giving a very pretty crystal effect.
I have been using some hand dyed chilean 4ply wool in blue/mauve shades for a pair of socks - they are very attractive, the wool was lovely to knit with and I have a good firm finish on the socks. I bought the wool locally in Driffield but the shop has since closed so I will have to look for another supplier. Have started some more socks with a Regia stripey 4ply, this is the one with wide bands of colour (orange and donkey brown) with a narrow band of black and white fairisle between each colour change. I knit on 4 dpns or sometimes 5 depending on the number of stitches - have never quite got to grips with circular needles despite Joan (Calana Crafts) best efforts! At the same time I am knitting Hamish (the westie) a polo neck jumper - he has a coat already but he is really sniffy about wearing it so I have decided that a polo neck jumper with sleeves is this seasons must have for a cool dog or even a warm dog! The vital statistics have been taken and the project has started a bit freefall, again on 4 dpns - about 6mm, using 2 strands of Katherine's Harris Wool in burgundy, I intend to do a bit of Icelandic/Norwegian patterning around the shoulders but I am thinking I may cast on around the armhole and knit downwards rather than knit a sleeve into a circular yoke - all this fuss for a dog! Will put some pictures on when the light is better tomorrow but for now here are some pics of the snowy wolds and a dippy dog on the scent!

Bags and socks

We are snowed in, this is day two so have spent my time catching up and finishing things off. Here are some of my design bucket bags, these are all in Harris Tweed and these have Amy Butler design cotton linings (Amy Butler is a designer for Rowan). The bags are trimmed with jute webbing and have jute handles. There is my tag inside (Tinshedbags - handmade in Yorkshire) and a Harris Tweed label on the outside of the bag. The bags are about 20 inches high by about 18 inches wide, plenty of room for shopping, magazines or your knitting. The bags 'sit' - they are shaped at the bottom to sit rather than topple or collapse. Will put more on as and when I make them. Also some pics of socks, the very multi coloured ones are handknitted in 75% wool/25% polyamide, this wool is called Mexico, colours are quite vibrant this pair are in size 7-9, the grey pair are in similar wool in the same size 7-9, they can be machine washed at 40c or below and cool tumbled - you can of course handwash them too!
Lizzie is home for Christmas from Leicester, she plans on making some corsage and a few other crafty bits, it will be lovely to see her as she hasn't been home 'properly' since she was here for a week or so with swine flu and some of that time was in hospital. I
I will be icing her cake and arranging the fruit on the top of our cake tomorrow - less calories without icing (well that is the plan anyway!)
The snow all looks very lovely but it is a nuisance not being able to get out - so I hope Lizzie can get through - the main roads are fine it is just our little lane up to the house but as that is three miles long it can prove difficult! These snowy pictures were taken on friday but we have had another six inches or so since then - we have a severe weather warning for tonight and it is -7c outside already!

snow and christmas cakes

It's happened - the snow and we are snowed in. Woke up to quite a deep snowfall but it has continued with big fluffy snowflakes through the day, thought I had better pop down into the village to stock up and got stuck on the hill by the church. Snowing again tonight so think we may well be stuck although a tractor did go down the lane not so long ago.
Finished icing two of the christmas cakes today - they look lovely on the dresser, they are twin cakes - they are both more or less the same, no arguments then! One for son Andrew and the other for Hil. Have used glitter on the sugar paste to add a bit more of a christmassy feel. Hil, my cousin is planning on visiting, she has just moved - the main roads are fine as they are gritted but will have to go out in the morning and see if she is likely to get through. Have tidied up the dining end in expectation - have made a load more bucket bags which I will photograph tomorrow along with some corsage that I have made and my daughter Lizzie has made and of course the socks! Hil is a ceramicist and is bringing me a plate she has designed and fired.
Here are some pics of the house in the snow and the cakes!

Snow forecast again ...

Well snow has been forecast again today this time upto 10cms. Last snowfall we were cut off twice as the snow in the lane drifted and was impassable for three days on both occasions, we have a steepish hill to get up to us and the gritters just don't come through all the little lanes on the Wolds, so we have to wait for one of the tractors to brave the snow and get through. Potatoes are being harvested now and there is mud everywhere so a smattering of snow will make everything look lovely!
Have been busy on the sewing machine today making some tweedy things - a Harris Tweed draught excluder in solid greyish turquoise. My daughter Rachel is complaining of a draughty front door hopefully this will help, will make some for sale on e bay. Have also cut out some more bucket bags, one in solid mustard Harris Tweed with a contrasting Amy Butler cotton lining. I have some really vibrant Liberty fabric in blues and reds and just the right piece of bright red Harris Tweed to go with it - will put some pics up of the work in progress. Also got some socks on the pins tonight, self patterning 75% wool and 25% polyamide, wonderful wool to work with and great through the washing machine and tumble drier too! My husband says they are the most comfy socks he has worn (no I didn't bend his arm to say that!), they are hard wearing and wash beautifully. Planning on knitting Hamish (the westie) a jumper, he has a knitted coat but it doesn't cover his chest - planning a polo neck jumper with sleeves for his front legs! He wasn't impressed with his coat (the body language says it all!) so I expect he will be sniffy about the jumper too but I have some lovely cherry red Harris wool to make it with and he will look so cute!
Hopefully the snow won't come tonight, shopping tomorrow for a few stock items just in case! It will be on to the UHT milk for a bit (I hate it !)

It's been ages since ....

I last wrote on my blog so here I am back! Life is busy out on the Yorkshire Wolds, very cold right now and snow expected. So what has been happening well start with me - joined a lifestyle group and have lost two and a half stone and still losing - dropped 2 dress sizes so far will be able to sideways behind a lamp post soon! (in my dreams) I returned to Harris during the late summer and saw some old friends on Harris and in Stornoway. Stayed at Urgha in Nina's ma in laws self catering cottage for a week - it was good to go back. Have since been to Norfolk to the boathouse again and also to Staithes just over the border into Cleveland. Lovely little fishing village hanging on to the sides of a very steep valley, the road down into the village is just about vertical and no space for anything - built before cars, all the houses are higgledy piggledy and streets have names like Slippery Hill. It was second homing in the extreme as it appears that most of the houses are holiday lets. We stayed in a tiny tiny one bedroom cottage built into the side of the cliff, sat outside most mornings (first week in December) catching the sun, knitting socks - have had a lot of orders.
What else - Lizzie graduated in the summer Textile Design and Print, doesn't have a job as yet but is signed up to do a business course with the Princes' Trust with a view to setting up a small studio in a converted warehouse in Leicester, apparently small spaces are let out very cheaply for people to get started. Lizzie wants to work with Harris Tweed making accessories and has lots of other ideas too.
I have also joined the Countrywomen's Association bit like the WI but not the same. Was encouraged to enter handicrafts in the village show and won the cup with socks, bags, corsage, baby beanies, sheep, brooches and some other things!
We are getting ready like everyone else for Christmas, have been feeding the cakes for a little while and next week is marzipan and icing. Again have orders - they will all be traditional, lots of royal icing! I have copied Kirstie (or maybe she copied me!) and have made most of my presents this year - socks and Harris Tweed bags, have done a new design and called it a bucket bag - Harris Tweed outside, vintage cotton lining, pinched across the bottom so it sits, quite big for shopping, holding the knitting and magazines or for use as a handbag, can come with a closure or with short or shoulder length natural jute handles, trimmed in natural jute. Gives a good contrast to the tweed and very sturdy. Again have had lots of orders and will be putting some on e bay in the new year when I have built the stock up a bit. They have been selling well locally. Carrying on my 'Tinshed' label they are called 'Tinshedbags' - Handmade in Yorkshire with the Harris Tweed label on the tweed. Here are some pics of the bags and the christmas tree with the morning sun coming through the door, Santa arriving by chandelier and Hamish sitting by the woodburner hoping someone will be going outside in the cold to fill the log basket! Well that is it for now - off down the big road tomorrow to Mansfield and then on Sunday Father Christmas is coming to our nearby town with his reindeer to the Christmas market - looking forward to that! Pictures to follow and if it snows - wow!

Lightening, portaloos, swine flu, Lizzie, hares and hedgehogs

Well what a few days we have had, however when I think it has actually been a bit longer than that. Firstly we were struck by lightening - well the house was no structural damage but the lightening went to earth down the well via the water pipe into the pump and burnt it out - so no water at all for 3 days. We get all our water from a 300 foot borehole and it needs a fairly hefty pump to lift it from that depth so we were stuck - fortunately Tesco had a good supply of bottled water and we were able to hire a bright blue site portaloo for outside the front door! The new pump was sent for and arrived by courier in a huge wooden box that needed three men to carry it. The engineers arrived and it was a bit like 'Oil Riggers' out in the yard as all the pipework had to come out of the well to get to the old pump right at the bottom of the pipe but it was installed in a few hours - it's been a week now but the water is still a bit murky so we are still on the bottled water although the blue portaloo was hitched up on the truck and taken away.
Lizzie (my 21 year old student daughter) has been very ill, has been working hard and not eating properly laid herself low and just when she wasn't looking along came the swine flu, she hadn't been to Mexico but she had been to Birmingham! She hung on and hung on down in Leicester for about 10 days worried that if she came home we would all get it here but it got to the point where she had to be rescued! So off I went to collect her as she was too ill and weak to drive herself, she came home on antibiotics and painkillers with a terrible throat infection and a range of scary symptoms anyway on her first night home she became so ill having had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic/painkillers/infection so was whisked off to hospital by ambulance, blue light flashing. Change of antibiotics and lots of tlc at home she has been delivered back to Leicester and is back to work on Friday. It was very frightening as she is fit and healthy normally but this just seemed relentless as she became more and more ill, she is still weak but wants to go back to work. She will be home again early next week for more home comforts!
We live in hare country. I love to see them bounding around, great long back legs and black tips on their ears. They dash around in a zig zag to put off their pursuers which unfortunately means frequently they run back into the path of cars. I will try to get some pictures, they graze in the front field - haven't seen them boxing yet this year. I went to a presentation on hedgehog rescue - apparently hedgehogs have a talent for falling into things - drains, wells, ponds, cattlegrids, swimming pools, we should install little ladders for the hedgehog to climb out on - just a piece of wood with some rails across for them to get a grip and climb out or even a piece of small gauge chicken wire will do the trick. They are brilliant swimmers but cannot get out! Please check your piles of garden rubbish before you put the match to it and be gentle with the compost heap - don't stick the fork in as you may kebab a hedgehog but the worst thing apart from roads is poison - oil, diesel as well as pesticides so please use organic where you can and sluice away spills. I had the opportunity to handle a hedgehog called Mimi, who had been spoon fed following a road accident. She is now living in a sanctuary - she cannot be released as she doesn't curl into a ball to protect herself so would be very vulnerable - their greatest predators are badgers then foxes. If you think you might have hedgehogs in your garden leave out a small dish of water and some food - small amounts of cat biscuits, dog meat or the scrapings from your dinner plate - not bread and milk as it gives them such severe squits they may die in agony. If you see a live hedgehog during the day it is quite likely that hedgehog is in trouble - thirsty or hungry, leave a little dish of water and food out, they'll find it. You will hear the snufflings and snortlings as they come to feed. Great little creatures to have in your garden!

Fab day - shopping?

Have had a bit of an indulgent week so far - went to the cinema on Monday to see Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, rather poignant about two misfits who get together, rather nice and not the usual cliched ending. Went to knitting - Pins and Needles, it used to be called Stitch and Bitch but some of the ladies objected to that so it was changed. Most of the knitting is for prem babies but they also knit gowns for stillborn babies - so sad but very beautiful work. I have finished another pair of socks - adult size 5 - 7 in kaffe fassett designed sock yarn that doesn't seem to have a repeat pattern at all, just one long pattern from end to end! I am now knitting a bag on a circular needle, this is something I saw Joan (bags) do whilst I was living on Harris, the base gets knitted on the circular as two needles then you pick up stitches around the side and knit upwards, it sounds difficult but Joan always makes knitting look so easy, she is so clever, does vegetable dyeing as well - amazing. Joan's blog is Calanacrafts - you can get onto it from here . I am knitting some more of these funny little sheep and heilan coos for some craft fairs I have booked myself into over near Bridlington, the 'Lamsey' sheep and brooches were really popular at the Sassygael craft fairs we held in Taigh mo Shenair last year (and they are happening again this year keep an eye on De Tha Dol)
Anyway back to my week - I am so sad as I got really excited about going to Waitrose... haven't shopped in Waitrose for about eight years or so since I left Lymington and of course filled a trolley - a little one!
I spent this morning with a medical student - mystery patienting a bit like mystery shopping but different! She was doing her final exams and she had me to 'deal with'. I get invited to do this as I had an acoustic neuroma. Acoustic neuromas are quite unusual - only 1:80000 people have them and as far as brain tumours go it is the one to have cos it's removable! Anyway she asked the right questions and did the right tests and I was able to promote acoustic neuromas to another budding doctor - AN's are nearly always missed and misdiagnosed so this is my little contribution to doctor education!
Onto more cheerful stuff! I am off to Leicester to Lizzie's Graduate Show on friday. She has printed some amazing fabrics and I am really looking forward to seeing them - will take the camera and get some pics. A lot of her inspiration for this final work came from the beach huts at Southwold and also the funfair at Bridlington. One of her designs incorporates appliqued merry go rounds! Lizzie has always loved the beach and beach huts - we had a lovely old hut on the beach at Milford on Sea for a number of years before she and I moved north to Manchester, we used to have great fun there as a family - early morning breakfasts and late evening barbecues, midnight swims before going home salty and tired. We took great pride in decorating it - all very vintage and distressed, absolutely delightful with lots of shells and rope, stencils - it was all great fun!

Buna

Pics of Buna, some from the house, from the garden and outside Roddy's house. The dry stane wall was going to be refurbed but the dykers said it was made of the wrong sort of stone and the whole wall would have to be replaced with new stone so we left the wall with the willows growing out of it and around it. There is a corner of the Tin Shed in one of the pics with Joan's house in the distance. The island was rescued, when we moved to the house it was very overgrown, we risked the midge and cleared it and then a friend - Dave Perry, built the bridge and we had a party to celebrate the bridge opening - needless to say it poured and poured and everyone got soaked and I forgot to take the camera out! We had great fun building and filling the raised beds - here are some lettuce and courgettes. The growing of veg became quite competitive as our neighbour - Joan and I vied for the 'best of' to go in the annual North Harris show. On the actual day I couldn't go as I had been bitten by a claic and was having a bad time with it so Joan walked off with most of the prizes! That was the 2008 show when Sheila's duck - Baggy, won first prize because he is just so handsome! Joan has moved onto bigger things with a polytunnel - she should be supplying the whole of Harris with salad this year if the tunnel doesn't disappear over the Clisham in the wind!

Mills and Daisy.

This is Horsey Mill - looked after by the National Trust and is on the North Norfolk coast. It is a drainage mill used to raise and pump water. It is so peaceful - sat here for hours just watching the world go by.
Have heard that Daisy (the sheep that I raised from orphaned lamb this time last year) has been sheared and the fleece is now waiting to have something done with it. Have asked Sheila - Daisy's new owner to spin it for me - you can see Sheila, Daisy and the others on her Scalpay Linen blog. Pics are of Daisy 3 or 4 days old and then at 7 months just before she moved to the Outend.
I have been choosing fruit trees - have opted for three apple trees and two plums. I didn't realise how complicated all the pollination stuff is, how you have to combine trees with different ways of pollinating - I hope I have got it right! I thought you just bought them and dug a hole put them in and that was that - no! I want to develop my hedgerow a bit, sow some wild flowers in amongst all the undergrowth, there are poppies in a field hedge just down the lane and they look delightful anyway that's the plan so fingers crossed for some more dry weather over the next few days.

Time flies when you are having fun! Have been busy with a holiday to Norfolk, my father in law having surgery and some 'sweatshop' work for daughter Lizzie who had a pile of appliqueing to do on one of her fabric designs - Mum was just the person to do it!
Went off to Norfolk thinking wellies and umbrellas but in actual fact had a lovely sunny week and had to go off and buy suncream. We (Tony, Hamish and I) stayed in a converted boatshed at the end of a broad, much entertainment outside as the big holidaymaker boats struggled to execute 3 point turns under the balcony. The boatshed was upside down with the bedrooms downstairs and the sitting room, kitchen and balcony upstairs. We had a relaxing time spent drifitng around - there were some lovely out of the way places - Horsey Mill and Waxham Barn that were absolutely delightful. We also had a trip on the Bure Light Railway - here is Hamish on the little train. The Shire Horse Sanctuary nr. Aylsham was wonderful, huge area to wander around in and lots of rescued animals - battery hens, alpacas (the wool would be wonderful!!), pigs, turkeys rescued from the 'bootifull' man - a lovely relaxed space to be in and a veggie cafe!
Back to the real world - the wool destash is going well, I am sending wool to all parts - Sweden, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Ireland and the UK, still got a lot but the pile is going down. I am making bags - a shopper/tote mainly from vintage fabrics, they are nice to use as a summer bag, for crafting or for shopping instead of the plastic handouts - they are fun - pink flamingos, strawberries, lighthouses, stripes and Harris Tweed. I have called them Tinshedbags as I want to keep the name going. Will get some pictures done and on line. I am knitting socks - of course and beach huts - did you watch Kirsty's Home Made Home? Mine are a bit bigger than the 'draught excluder' that was made for her and are more like cushions! They look quite good balancing on the back of the sofa. It was knitting group last week - I still don't think they 'get' me with my offbeat designs - still part of life's rich tapestry. My cousin Hil, who is a ceramicist, makes little knitted shoes that sells with her own design nursery set - porringer and mug, she is now making porcelain buttons - daisies and stars, when I lay my hands on some I will get them on here - she is down in Dorset but will hopefully be moving north to Derbyshire.
I am off down to Leicester again next week for Lizzie's graduate show. I had a demand for old deckchairs to recanvas - thank goodness for carboot sales! I want the vintage canvas that comes off though - lovely washed out stripes. Lizzie is replacing them with new printed canvas she has designed, she is keeping the wooden frames vintage not painting them. Looking forward to seeing the show!
I am busy choosing fruit trees for my orchard - planning on planting 5 trees (which is apparently an orchard) in the hen pen. The hen ark will hopefully be put up this week and I will get it painted - I thought wishy washy blue or pale green. Bit of fencing to do and I have told Tony I want him to pee around the perimeter of the hen pen as that keeps the foxes away and on that note I shall go - breakfast calling!

Destashing ......

I am having a major destash firstly of wool and then later vintage fabrics. Firstly wool, I have got a lot of hanks of 100% aran weight tweed wool that is an overrun on a well known manufacturers order. However it is not in those nice little balls that cost a lot of money but in hanks that are approx 630gms which should be sufficient for an adult sweater knitted on 5 mm needles but do a tension test first! It is handwash or dry clean and available in various colours - it is on e bay for sale - put in Scottish aran weight 100% wool and it will come up. It is lovely to knit with whether jumper, socks, hats, scarves or tea cosies! I need the space back in my store room so the wool has to go and then I have some vintage Harris Tweed and some Islay tweed and tartan plus lots of vintage fabrics that I will put on e bay.
Lovely day here today in the East Riding, the bluebells are out and the hedgerow is looking luscious - will get some pictures tomorrow. Foxgloves are shooting up and the gooseberry bush is covered in fruit - not that I like gooseberries but hopefully someone will. I don't like the seeds for some reason they always remind me of okra! The apple blossom is lovely too and smells absolutely delightful.
I am busy knitting fat fish and beach huts - I am going to have a lot of pics to take!

Pigeons and elbows

Busy busy today as a pigeon came to visit down the chimney in Lizzie's bedroom which doesn't get used except when Lizzie is here so by the time we realised there was a pigeon in the bedroom it was dead and what a mess it left behind. I have been scrubbing, disinfecting, cleaning the carpet and washing everything that will fit into the washing machine. Anyway the room is clean and fresh, the last moving boxes are empty and the pigeon has gone. However all that scrubbing has irritated my poor elbow, it feels stretched and achey and lifting saucepans or the kettle is so painful. In need of rest I think, I am going to heat up the wheat/lavender thing and put that over it and massage some tiger balm into it. If it doesn't feel better tomorrow then I shall sit and rest it by knitting! The perils of getting old! No pics today - only dead pigeons and nackety elbows but here is one of a lovely rusty metal heart I found in the garden and some very bright socks knitted in regia sock wool that I took a few days ago.

Hamish on strike, knitting, Teds and hens

Hamish the westie is on food strike again! Nothing new but turning his nose up at home made beef stew is a bit brutal! For those of you who don't know Hamish - he has always been rather particular about his food - very particular about not eating it! He'll eat mine and anything that is handed to him under the table but not in a dish on the floor. Other dogs don't seem to have any problem eating from dishes on the floor but not Hamish. We have been in situations where we have visited other dogs' houses and the food is guarded (Bramble @ Scalpay Linen does this) but Hamish couldn't give two hoots and when Bramble visited us she woofed down Hamish's food. I know of another westie who is even fussier - that's Chico at Aird Ashaig, she has lamb cutlets for tea every night - well I am not going that far! He will have to go hungry until he decides to eat, I am sure he won't fade away!
Was in Pocklington twice today - once for the market and the woolshop and then later for the craft group. Bought some Regia sock wool, this time in pinks and fair isle, which will knit up in stripes and another sock wool by King Cole which is white/pink/green/peach, it looks nice in the ball but has a rather dated effect when knitted up rather like those early random knits - very disappointing and bland - not the impact that the Regia and Opal wools have - so won't use that again!
At the craft group lots of stuff going on - some proddy, some knitting and crocheting with plastic bags, a lot of socks, hats and tiny body warmers being knitted for the special care baby unit in York - these are really tiny little ribbed beanies and little body warmers that open on the front and on the shoulder for little ones who weigh about 2lbs, some of the little hats have eyelets around the rim to allow all the tubes to be passed through whilst keeping the baby's head warm. I will get some pics of the hats and bodywarmers. They are so lovely.
I am knitting Teds again. Did a lot when I was on Harris for Harris Voluntary Services who were organising Teds for use on emergency vehicles, the idea being that if a child or older person was in distress they would be given a Ted as theirs to keep. The Teds were knitted to a standard pattern in one long length, folded over, stuffed and embellished. Really effective. Here is a Ted that I knitted recently although this one is not for passing on as he is rather fluffy and has a ribbon rather than the sewn on knitted scarf. This time the Teds are for use in A&E departments same as the emergency vehicles, will post a pic of the group when done! But here is one to be going on with.
I won the ark on e bay and it arrived today in a big box weighing 34 kgs, the next jobs are the fencing and the hens themselves. There is a farm supplier down in Market Weighton - will trot off down there and see what I can find. Mick (the ploughman) reckons the posts are going to be difficult to get in - none of that softish Hebridean peat here just rock hard chalk! The hens will come from the Livestock market that is held in York on Mondays. Apparently the bank holiday markets are the best ones but we won't be ready in time for next Monday! I thought I would like pure bred but think that maybe Heinz 57 type hens will be best to start with although I would like some Arucanas, the eggs that I used to get from Sheila were wonderful and so pretty!
Anyway off to see if Hamish has scoffed his tea - watch this space!