Where does the time go...

...May seems to have totally disappeared?!  I have absolutely no idea where the last few weeks have gone and seem to have very little to show craft wise for this month!

A week or so a go I decided to move my spinning wheel back down in to the summer house at the bottom of the garden.  It's been relegated to a corner in the hall for a very long time - after the summer house roof started leaking last year - but with the roof now fixed and the weather improving I decided to try to utilise the space a bit more.  Being able to leave my wheel set up has made a hugely positive difference and I have actually been spinning most days.

First off the wheel was some lovely merino, silk and camel spun from Fondant Fibre rolags.

Next up was a gorgeous braid of 50/50 Merino/Tussah Silk that was a present from Carla which she dyed the perfect red!

My spinning has definitely got finer and more consistent!  I'm currently working on some World of Wool Merino/Tussah Silk Custom Blend (another gift from Carla) which I hope to finish this weekend/next week.

Knitting wise I am STILL working on the border of my Pop Spots shawl.  It's truly never ending!!  I'm at just over 40 repeats of the 111 last count so shall keep plodding away at it and might finish sometime this year.  It very much reminds me of my Biellese border (another shawl I need to finish!)

On that note I should also confess to having cast on yet another WIP!  I needed something to stop my knitting mojo leaving with the Pop Spots border and couldn't resist starting my Avalanche sweater in the Wollmeise Lace.  I have to admit to not looking forward to winding the 325g skein into a cake but my (new to me) Jumbo Yarn Winder managed admirably.  Is this not the biggest cake of yarn ever?!

I completed the first and second contiguous sets and am just about to start the third set and neck shaping.  At first glance the pattern seemed rather daunting in so much that there is a huge amount of instructions (I much prefer to knit from charts!) but it's incredibly well detailed and broken down into easily manageable sections so in reality is very simple.  How long it's going to take me to knit is anyone's guess though LOL  I'm hoping to have it completed for Yarndale...might have finished the Pop Spots by then too!!

Ditching the Red!

Hair that is!

I have been dyeing my hair red in one form or another since I was 18.  I had a brief stint with the front bleached blonde prior to that but otherwise I've been most shades of red from auburn to mahogany, red highlights to henna and for the last few years, bright red.  I've gone from waist length hair to a pixie cut (most regretted hair cut ever...made significantly worse by an impromptu bleaching session...so thankful there are no photo's of that!) and back again.

I've been flirting with the idea of a REALLY short bob (with my usual short blunt fringe/bangs) for a while but in honesty am a bit too lazy!  I've been cutting my own hair for the last four and a half years and as I've always hated having my hair cut, it suits me down to the ground although I didn't really intend to grow it back to such a long length.  I really fancied a change though so decided to ditch the red instead of cutting it all off!

I'm naturally brunette - with white streaks nowadays!  My hair has been getting darker as I've aged so to get a bright red I was using dye with developer (but not physically bleaching before dyeing)   With Summer approaching and my roots in desperate need of a redo it was the ideal time to change colour.

I had a specific colour in mind (greeeeeeeen) but knew that I would struggle to strip the red out enough to get the bright shade I wanted.  After stripping and two lots of bleaching my roots were a fabulous colour - the rest not so much!!  So I went with the second colour option...

 

Pretty much the same colour I had been left with on the red after bleaching! But my plan wasn't for an all over colour - that would have been much too easy hehe!  So after a lot of swearing faffing because doing this to waist length hair on your own isn't easy plus my second colour was jet black (which I didn't want to get on my freshly bleached sections) I have ended up with...

 

A few days on and I am completely and utterly IN LOVE with it!!  The pink section at the side (which there is more of than it looks with my hair down) looks fabulous when I wear my hair in my usual messy high bun.  I've chopped my fringe again since I took the above (rather naff iphone front camera) photo plus a few inches off the length to tidy it up again.  

After wavering over dyeing it black for years I'm so glad I took the plunge and the hot pink makes it much more "me"!   I went with the approach of bleach, then black dye then pink which worked quite well and the benefit of where the pink sections are means I can get away with not worrying about my roots quite so often and of course can freshen up the pink without it affecting the black whenever I want!   

Love Your Blog - Gratitude

The final prompt in the Love Your Blog challenge from A Playful Day is Gratitude.

Ah, this I can do with a positive spin - I am grateful for SO many things!!

My absolutely AMAZING husband who I love so damn much, who has been my rock since I was 18 and STILL puts up with my crap!!

Our fabulous children who both delight and frustrate me on a daily basis with their bottomless enthusiasm and stubbornness independence.

My dad and sister, who whilst I am only just reconnecting with  (had a fabulous night out in Stoke for my granddad's 79th birthday a couple of weeks a go and LOVED catching up!) are a huge constant in my life - always believing in me and supporting me.

Best friends who are there for me regardless of what or why for - who I can spend the afternoon just knitting, chatting and browsing our iPhones with (occasionally with the odd gin thrown in!)  Who gets the knitting/spinning/yarn/weaving thing as much as I do...and is always there to enable/be enabled!

I'm grateful for anyone that takes the time to read the blog, the likes on IG and Rav and the tremendous wealth of knowledge, inspiration and support at the end of my fingertips from the knitting community.

And yarn....I am SO grateful for yarn hehe!!  It's my drug of choice, my therapy...and damn gorgeous to boot!!

Sunny Days

The sunshine has been winning me over this week and I love grabbing half an hour or so out on the patio with my knitting.  Sadly it's not uninterrupted so I don't seem to be getting a huge amount done, especially with the 429 stitch rows (which will shortly increase to 667 stitches!) That said I only have 3 and a half stripes and the red lace edging to go...