About time I did another proper blog update (rather than the daily twitter feed), I decided.  Work has been very busy – a week of on-call was very busy, I don’t think there was a single day that I didn’t have at least one call, and most days several, including during the night.  Bleh.

But on to more positive things – knitting, and spinning!  I’ve still be steadily knitting away with some of my first handspun.  I think I’ve decided it’s a silk/something blend, because it smells peculiar when it gets warm, especially if I’m knitting outside in the sunshine.  I like the smell though it seems many people don’t.  It might fade with washing.  I’m knitting a narrow version of a lacy scarf, so it’ll be narrower than the pattern.  I’ve been knitting and knitting and just keeping going until the yarn runs out, really.  I think I’m maybe just an inch from the end of it now (the scarf, not the yarn), so nearly done!

And then there’s the spinning.  Slow but steady progress in the last however many weeks it’s been, I’ve been continuing to spin up the peacock silk/bfl blend on my wheel.  Got the first braid done and started on the second, finally got that finished. 

Then it was time to start plying the two together.  I’m not a big fan of plying – it takes a long time, and it’s not as interesting or as meditative as the actual spinning singles process.  But, I will say this for it – it’s a lot easier to ply while watching tv than it is to spin laceweight while watching tv.  So at least I taught myself how to do that :)

I’d got each braid onto it’s own bobbin, and stuck them in the lazy kate, ready for plying.  I knew they wouldn’t fit on one bobbin when plied, but I was hoping for two.  Didn’t quite work out that way, so it ended up on two and a bit bobbins.  That was ok too though – most of the third bobbin was the tail end of one of the singles, I ran out of the other one, so did myself a plying bracelet with it to ply from both ends of the leftover.

I realised during setting up the bracelet that laceweight is the yarn that goes on, and on, and on, and on… eventually however it was all wound around my finger and wrist, and my finger wasn’t that blue really…

Because the yarn’s been sitting on the bobbins for so long (it’s not a quick spin, this stuff), I plied it up so it looked overplied to me.  Quite a bit overplied, too – I’ve noticed I tend to the slightly underplied, if anything, once the yarn’s been through the wash’n’whack process.  It’s hard to go against your gut feeling that you’re overplying it, but I kept looked to check I wasn’t drifting back to my default state, and it seemed good.

I wound it all off onto my skeiner, and because the yarn was so shiny and slippery from the silk, I decided to just knot the ends of each bobbin together.  They’re all in sequence, though I’m going to have to remember to put it back on the skeiner inside-out to wind it into a ball, I want it an outside-pull ball, not centre-pull.  I think it will be easier to weave the ends in than to try spit splicing the plied yarns together, but I might give it a go as I get to them while I knit (I suspect it will be impossible to get and keep enough twist in the joined part to make it strong enough, for the teeny size of yarn it is).

I counted more than 1200 revolutions of the skeiner to get it all on there.  If I’d  been using the niddy-noddy, my arm would really have fallen off.  Not to mention, it would never all have fitted on it!  When I did the sums, that comes out as at least 2166 yards of laceweight yarn, from approx 200 grams of fibre.  Not bad!  There was a slight mis-count at one point, so it could be out by a bit – but I erred on the side of caution and did the figures I knew I had – there may be an extra 30 or so revs of the skeiner in there that haven’t been counted.

It’s hung on the airer after the wash’n’whack last night, still drying.  It’s going to take a while, in that one huge skein… but it’s ever so pretty, and I know it’ll be perfect for the pattern - ‘peacock feathers’ shawl.

Mind you, this means once it’s dry, I have over a mile of yarn that needs to be wound into a ball… good job the pattern is going to take a while to arrive from Canada ;)

It is beautifully smooth and glossy, and I think it’s going to be just perfect for a lace shawl.  The colours in it are just wonderful, and because I spun straight from one end of the braid to the other, no splitting it lengthways, they are really long sections of colour that blend beautifully together.  Of course, when I plied them together, things haven’t lined up quite the same – that’s the beauty of handpainted fibre – and so the colour transitions are even more subtle shades in and out of different colours.  I can’t wait to start knitting with it :)

Not liking this week so much as some others.  Being on-call is most of it, plus having done a bit of work last Sunday, so it feels extra-long and as if it should already be Friday.  Monday wasn’t too bad, but Tuesday consisted of a tricky install (should have been a breeze) followed by the afternoon in the office.  Because I only just made it there in time for the meeting, the other informal meetings with people I needed to get done at the same time had to wait till after, which meant I didn’t leave the office till half six or quarter to seven.  The office is 130 miles from home…

.. so I didn’t get home till 9:30pm, had to work on a fault, and then at 11pm had some loop testing to do.  Yeah, go me – 16 hour day… and no lunch break either.  Stopping for 15 minutes on my way up to the office to grab a sandwich from the motorway services doesn’t count.

Wednesday – oh, last night – work didn’t finish at 5.30pm, but I stopped configuring up customer firewall rules at 8pm.  With them only half done, I was starting to lose the plot, and I decided better to be awake this morning than half zombied, when I would need to be actually making things work with the customer on site.  My plans didn’t go to… plan.  I didn’t get to bed till late, and then got woken up at 6:15am with on-call.  Back to sleep for an hour, then awake again…

House just down the road had scaffolders arrive, and it’s now got a steel tube frame around it, right up as far as the chimney.  Not quite sure what’s going on there, but I’m sure the coming days will reveal all.  Lots of people have had cavity wall insulation put in recently, it’s been a whole winter of hammer-drilling into walls and pumping of the insulation.  Good job spring is nearly here, the birds are yelling their heads off which helps drown it out :)

New pants are great.  Knickers, not trousers, for those Americans who may be reading :)  I don’t know why, but new pants always make me happy.  Possibly because they always shrink after washing and then eventually disappear up places I’d rather they didn’t.  Every time I vow I won’t put them in the tumble dryer, and every time my laundry-foo fails me and it’s that or no knickers for the day, so in the drier they go.  Anyway, today was a new knicker day, and it made me happy :)

What doesn’t make me happy, is cat puke.  Since 24 hours ago, I’ve cleaned up three stonking piles of undigested catfood.  Remind me why I like cats, again?

Looking forward to the weekend, even though I have to do a huge pile of expenses and overtime claims.  If the rain stays away, I’ll mow the grass, and if it’s sunny I may take the knitting out for a while in the sun… and hack the ornamental grass down, because it’s attempting to take over all plant within a 20’ radius of it.

Just discovered a couple of bond films lurking in my sky anytime on the sky box.  Classic sunday tea-time telly, so while I warm my feet up in front of the fire, I’ll watch Sean Connery looking suave debonair and handsome… and flirting with Miss Moneypenny, in Dr No.  Perfect to get some knitting done to – though not spinning, I need my eyes on the yarn I’m making too much to see any tv :)

Been a very windy day today – and rain, and hail, and a very small flurry of very small snowflakes.  Started off bright sunshine this morning and a mild 8°C, but when the rain and hail started in early/mid afternoon, the temperature dropped to a more chilly 4°C.  I gave in by late afternoon and lit the fire, and got another bucket of coal in for the afternoon/evening.  The wind is still pretty blustery out there, and dark clouds coming over make it nearly dark as night, before they clear and the sun comes out again.  Well, it would, if it wasn’t now setting.

Still spinning the bfl/silk ‘peacock’ yarn.  Finished one braid – managed to fit it all on one bobbin, which is good.  Started on the second braid which is the white blue-faced leicester/silk one dyed in the same colours.  It’s going well, but still slow.  Not quite as slow as the first one – I’ve got used to treadling a lot faster now to get the twist in there faster.  Still taking an age though, which means it’s going to take me about a decade to ply this yarn.

Still, that also means that hopefully I should be over the 1000 yards for the yarn once it’s done…

I got hold of a copy of the Alden Amos Big Book of Hand Spinning, and learnt lots.  Including that setting up my wheel for irish or bobbin-led wouldn’t actually be such a worthwhile improvement for spinning lace.  The last thing I want to be doing is braking the flyer – that’s the bit putting the twist into the yarn, and I don’t want a continuous draw-in – that’s what driving the bobbin will result in.  So, hmm.  Treadling like a hamster on speed it is, then.

March’s instalment of the Wildcraft spindle & fibre club arrived, and very pretty it is too.  It’s ‘Viola’ – a lovely braid of fibre in the same colours as the beautiful viola flowers in the spindle whorl.

The spindle is 25g so lovely and light, and a quick test-spin revealed it’s as perfectly balanced as usual for a wildcraft spindle :)

Of course, I had a photographer’s assistant just as soon as he heard the camera being turned on!  The spindle had some very interesting smells on it, apparently!

The weather is horrible tonight.  As I’m writing this entry, the wind is howling around the house, and rumbling in the chimney.  The <del>cat</del> photographer’s assistant is lying next to me, purring hopefully about the thought of being fed shortly.  We even have snow forecast for tomorrow.  Strange weather this year – or maybe just going back to proper winters and springs, after lots of milder-than-usual ones.  It’s only going to be another week and the grass will need mowing for the first time this year.

Working tomorrow for a while, so I should get to bed so I’m up and have a brain in gear by the time we’re starting on it.  Wonder if I’ll wake up to the world carpeted in white stuff again…

Ok – firstly, a bit of an apology to those who have been following me on twitter.  I realised recently (and failed to do anything about it) that when I post updates to my blog that are the summary of the tweets for that day, it… sends a tweet announcing it!  Yay for recursion.

So, I need to tinker with the settings and disable that.  The downside of disabling it is that I will have to remember to tick the tickybox for each post I write, in order for that to be tweeted out.  But better that, than tweet-posts being tweeted.  Sorry for spamming your twitterfeeds!

In other news – holy cow it is windy this evening!  I’m going to get the fire lit shortly, because it’s just too drafty without it.  Very cold wind whistling down the chimney and across the livingroom!  It got dark much earlier than normal today too – the thick cloud cover put paid to any feel of daylight past about 5pm here, and we have lots of rain due too.  And – although it’s now officially spring – we have snow forecast for tomorrow and Thursday.

Snowdrops are up in the garden, and the tulips have green shoots poking above ground too.  I think there should be some daffodils too, but I’ve not looked for those yet – certainly the only things in flower are the snowdrops and my winter honeysuckle.  Oh, and the willows around here.  There’s at least two I can see from my study window – so hayfever season will be starting shortly for me.

That’s all for now, folks – might have another update by the end of the week, but not got much done in the way of knitting or spinning the last few days – migraine plus working sunday hasn’t left that much time.  Oh, I will just mention that the Wii is still going strong.  The dance mat for it is just brilliant, but it is definitely better doing it with socks on than socks not on – it sticks to feet that gets sweaty and makes it that much harder.  It is SO much fun, though – and wearing yourself out while having fun is definitely a good thing!

Oh yes.  Up before I wanted to be (I’d wanted a lie in this morning, since I won’t be getting one tomorrow) – someone knocking on my door.  Signed for a parcel, made tea to take back to bed.  Didn’t get back to sleep, and someone else knocking on my door – the postie this time.  Colour me surprised – two things I ordered only yesterday both turned up today, and today is a Saturday.

So I gave up on sleeping in, and instead got stuck in to hopping about in my living room on a dance mat hooked up to the console.  Not easy for someone with a good sense of rhythm but who sucks at moving her body in any coordinated way to match up with directions.  A lot of fun, though, and of course the more I do it the more coordinated I’ll get.  Or at least, that’s what the theory says :)

Wasn’t long, though, before the impending headache turned into a headache and then into a migraine.  My own fault – I’d skipped decent coffee for the last couple of days, and my body reminded me about it’s dependency on it in short order.  The first coffee and painkillers made no difference, and neither did the second coffee, and I stupidly decided it was a good time to change the air freshener in the kitchen.  Stupidly, because my sense of smell gets very sensitive and smells change when I get a migraine (along with my vision and hearing).  And I also (very stupidly) thought it was a good idea to give it a squirt into the kitchen before I stuck it in the holder… the rest of the afternoon all I could smell was the air freshener, and it did not smell of spring flowers at all in my migraine-inflicted state.

Finally, in the early evening, the migraine started to fade.  I’m glad I didn’t let it drive me to bed, though it was a close call several times – but it still wiped out most of the day.  And I’m working tomorrow.  No spinning, no chores done around the house, no laundry… a very little knitting, and quite a lot of listening to podcasts, and sitting on the sofa wishing my head would stop pounding.  Blech.

Tomorrow I have a full day of work with a colleague – migrating 80+ customer sites.  It’s going to take us pretty much the whole day, and possibly into the evening.  And I could really do with tomorrow off, since today was a complete wash-out.

Couple of photos – firstly of a narrow scarf I’m knitting from the third yarn I spun myself.  Very pleased at how well it came out considering how new I was to spinning, and it’s knitting into a scarf I hope will be good to wrap around my neck a couple of times, and then hang with longish ends.  It’s a lacy pattern but quite simple with a wibbling ribbon effect.

The second is the spinning (that I did none of today) – the blue-faced leicester/silk blend.  Looking at it, I may need to spin it thinner – I can’t decide if it looks thinner than the last lot I spun or not, but I know I did want it thinner. I also have my suspicions that it is going to puff up a lot when it’s wash’n’whacked… I think I will be taking a bit off it to test plied back on itself and if it does need to be thinner – I’ll be winding it off onto another bobbin, then back on the wheel again, thinning it out as a go.  Which will take forever, but be worth it if it does need to be thinner, because I definitely want at least 1000 yards from it, and preferably 1200.

Bedtime for me, up early tomorrow, or I’ll be working all day in my PJ’s, and I want to make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.  Shrove Sunday, since I missed it on Tuesday :)

Ok, so here it is.  The latest spinning and knitting.  I think I already posted a photo of the first skein of thick'n'thin yarn I spun up, but you're going to get it again here :)

I spun a second skein of this up, but made the thin slightly less thin, and this got used for my ‘urchin’ hat.

I think it looks quite a lot like a sea urchin – even the colours remind me of the sea urchin that my mum has, and which fascinated me as a child. 

The hat is lovely and warm – just the thing when it was snowing a few weeks ago, and I was going out to the coal bunker to keep my fire going in the livingroom!

The first skein I made into a scarf – I used the ‘seafoam’ stitch pattern for it, and I like the textured effect the thick and thin yarn gave it.  It tends to hide the stitch pattern somewhat, but I think they still work together quite well.  The fibre was a brown blue-faced leicester, I think.

I’ve been spindling some bfl/mohair blend in ‘owl’ colourway – after spindling the whole 100g of it, I decided to do the other 100g of ‘barn owl’ colour using my wheel, and then plied the two together.

This is the ‘owl’ on the spindle.  Lovely colours, really deep russets that looked almost metallic bronze while it was spun up.

Once I’d spun the other single in ‘barn owl’, I plied the two together, and this is the result – a nice 2-ply that I think is light fingering to laceweight – it came out as 940 yards from approx 200g of fibre.

I ended up with a little left-over of the barn owl, so that got plied with itself – that’s the tiny skein on top.

I’d been previously spinning up bamboo with a dash of angelina sparkle on the wheel.  I’d started spinning this on a spindle, but quickly realised it was just too slippery.  A supported spindle would work with it but since I don’t have one of those, I transferred it to the wheel.  Bamboo wants to spin either quite thick, or frog-hair thin, so this was quite a challenge to keep consistent.  I’m pleased with how it has turned out though!

I decided with all this spinning going on, I had better get knitting with it – so I dug out one of the first yarns I spun.  It is an unknown fibre, but I think it has silk in it – it has a strange smell, not sheepy, something else (but I really like it).  It’s quite variable in size, but I think light fingering to lace-weight depending on which bit :)

I have a photo to follow of the narrow ribbon-lace scarf I’m knitting it into – it’s stuck in the camera currently and hasn’t quite made it to the laptop yet :)

Finally, this is what is on the wheel currently.  This is a Shetland/Silk blend, and I am thoroughly enjoying spinning it.  Not finding the silk to be a problem at all.  Trying to better my previous ‘owl’ lace-weight yarn and get more than 1000 yards of two-ply from 200g of it.  I’m doing a similar thing to the owl too, as I have a braid of brown Shetland/silk, and a braid of white Shetland/silk, both dyed as ‘Peacock’.  The silk really makes it shine just like a peacock tail, it’s fantastic.  I’m spinning each braid separately, and so the ‘shades’ (brown base) of peacock will be plied with the straight peacock.

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Yum!

We has it.  Yup, we have a lot of snow here.  The UK has seen snow falling since sunday afternoon/evening, and while most of it on sunday/monday dodged Northamptonshire, Monday night saw snow finally falling in decent amounts.  I woke up on Tuesday morning to a blanket of snow – around 6” I think.  That stayed throughout tues and wed, not melting on Wed anywhere near as much as had been predicted.  Thursday and we had more snow, and today it was snowing heavily when I woke up – and continued that way throughout the morning.

Photo on the left was yesterday morning, and during the day quite a lot of it melted off the fence, and the bushes, etc – and then we had a repeat of it this morning, the photo on the right.

It’s still snowing now, but is very light and small flakes.  Neighbours have been building snowmen (and a snowbunny) – today, it’s impossible to get cars out of my road.  I’m not off work of course, because I work from home normally, and so it would take a power cut and loss of my phone line before I would get a snow day off work.

Sherman is distinctly unimpressed by the snow.  He refuses to go out in it, and when I encouraged him out the back door, he stood in one of my footprints, shaking his paws in disgust, then legged it back indoors – very carefully only treading in my footprints to get in.

We now have more snow forecast for today, it is supposed to get down to about –5°C tonight, with more snow for sunday afternoon (previously, friday was supposed to be the end of this).  Lots of the roads around here are shut or have accidents on them due to the snow – yesterday the A14, A45 and A509 were all shut because of the snow and slip roads that no-one could get up.

Councils are running out of grit for the roads, which isn’t helping (this is apparently what’s caused the problem with the slip roads) – and we’ve yet to have our refuse collected this week because the bin lorries are snowbound.  The last time I remember snow like this was in the 1990’s.  And I drove to work in that – which was an interesting experience.  I still remember it – got there safely, but it took ages because it was impossible to go any faster than about 10-15 mph.

Time to go and chop veg for a slow-cooker casserole for dinner tonight.

I know there’s been no photos of the eye-candy variety – sorry!  My poor PC is once again out of space for photos from my camera, so they are all trapped on the flash card until I can find stuff to zip up or delete on here, so I can get enough space.  Really must get an external hard drive one of these days, but it needs to be non-usb, and I’m struggling to find one at a reasonable price that is also reliable enough.

Stay safe if you’re out there in the snow!

I tried my first thick & thin yarn last night. It went quite well, though I was 'stuffing fluff up the orifice' rather a lot. That's a technical term in spinning. No, it really is. Some day, I'll post something about the anatomy of a spinning wheel, but until then, just know that the yarn has to pass through a tube on it's way from my hands to the bobbin on the wheel, and that is the orifice. Very thick floofy yarn doesn't fit in the hole very well, unlike nice thin yarn which whizzes through with absolutely no help required at all.

100g of bluefaced leicester later, and I had two bobbins full of very thick and thin yarn. I wound it off onto the skein-winder (thanks mum & dad!) which took a fraction of the time that the niddy-noddy takes, counted the revolutions, and tied the skein, then soaked and shocked it. Very hot water to soak initially, then I drained and stuck it in ice cold water (really, it was only just above freezing, since it's winter here and been down to -7°C at night lately), then back into hot again, one more cold, and then squeezed out. A quick thwack against the side of the bath, and I hung it to dry.

Then, I spotted a free end, that didn't appear to be in the right place. Hmm. Not sure if the squeezing out did that, or if it is a bit underspun (that wouldn't surprise me), so I fixed that by felting it together. The felting doesn't matter - it needs a bit of that as a singles yarn anyway, so I read. Then I found another one, so I fixed that too. I'm hoping part of that was it being wet, and that it'll not keep doing that as I knit with it! Took all day to dry it, and I resorted to laying it on top of one of the radiators for a bit.

It's floofed up wonderfully - it was a bit sodden-cat looking when I first took it out of the sink - and I have roughly 58 yards. This is not enough to make a hat from it, I think, so it's a good job I have another 100g of the same fibre to spin up - 100yds should be fine for a hat! 

Well, I think I do. Spun up 100g of 'evening shades' which is sunset coloured brown blue-faced Leicester fibre, and tried my first ever thick & thin yarn. I didn't go through the lumpy yarn phase when I started spinning, so it's all new to me. I think it's worked out ok though. Two bobbins-worth on the wheel, and wound it off in short order using the skein-winder from my parents for Christmas - thanks mum & dad, it's great!!

Tied the skein off, just need to go and soak it in hot, then cold, then hot, and probably cold, water, before thwacking and leaving to dry. I'm not plying it, so it needs to be shocked to make it a bit felty, so the yarn doesn't drift apart when I knit with it. Still mulling over what to make from it - having just checked the yardage on it, it's looking like about 50 yards. Good job I have another 100g of the fibre!

Weather – still fecking cold.  Not above freezing at all today, snow and ice still on the ground.  Got down to –7C last night, and tonight is already at –5C.

Work is busy and doesn’t feel much like I had xmas off.  Cat is pestery, having decided he hates yet more cat food. 

Have fire lit this evening but since taking xmas tree down and moving sofa back to normal place, noticing it is not quite so warm as before.  Probably also needs more coal slung on it, but am waiting for bunker refill.  Russian gas stuff shouldn’t affect us in the UK but decided would rather have full bunker of coal just in case.

Been knitting a bit more on the thick socks, going to see if I can use up all the yarn doing a folded over cuff.  Pondering next spinning project – am tempted by a hat, possibly using thick & thin yarn, but never spun that even as a beginner spinner so may fail totally.

Rumours that LiveJournal may sink.  Not sure I believe them, laying off staff doesn’t necessarily equate to going under.  Glad I have my own blog running in parallel, and a full backup of all my LJ entries that could be imported to that if it happens.  Also makes me think I was right to think about moving from LJ to a self-hosted blog.  Not subject to the whims and vagaries of other companies that way.

That’s all (for tonight), folks!

The expenses are all done.  Go me!  I know the deadline for them is fairly early in the month, because they’re not paid along with the rest of salary at the end of the month but credited into the a/c earlier than that.

We had snow forecast today, but it’s not materialised yet.  Though, I’ve not checked outside for about an hour and a half – it’s pitch black out there, and last time I looked, the sky was pretty clear with just patchy clouds.  Apparently there has been light snowfall at my old house, south of London, and given I now live in the midlands, the snow must have passed over or round here without falling.  There’s still tomorrow though – more snow forecast, and I have to go to Essex.  Though I just realise, I haven’t had a call to say the parts were successfully shipped out on Saturday, so hmm.  I will have to call in early tomorrow to find out what is happening.

Tinkered a little bit more with the blog today – I’ve added a weather app in the sidebar that shows the weather forecast local to me.  For a better idea of what it’s actually doing, there’s a link to a local weather station in the links part of the sidebar.  Very cold here again – it’s been nearly –3°C this evening but is now –0.9°C.  Usually too cold for snow if it’s below freezing, it’s more likely to snow if it’s about 3-5°C, but it’s snowed before when it’s been below 0C.

Got a little bit of knitting done today – working on making the cuffs of my apple socks taller.  I’m doing them both at once on a nice long circular needle, knitting from both ends of the last ball of yarn I’d spun up for them.  They are lovely thick socks, so should be very nice and warm.

Stardust, based on the Neil Gaiman book, was a much better adaptation than The Seeker: Dark is rising, was.

Really good story, well filmed, lovely acting, great sfx and props (I just love the jar of eyeballs).  And it was pretty true to the book too - a few deviations but nothing major.  Of course, the book is still better, in my opinion, but then I love books, love to read, and wish I had more time to do so.

Films are one (or more) people's interpretation of the authors words, whereas reading a book is my interpretation.  Sometimes films match up, sometimes they don't.  This one did pretty well.

Recently I've started getting in to audiobooks.  Stardust was an audiobook, I don't own the actual written words.  But, it was the unabridged (seriously, what is the point of abridging an audiobook?) version, and also read by the author, which I think is by far the best way.  I think the author reading the book they wrote adds rather than detracts (unless they are a very poor reader) - and doesn't introduce vocal cues or intonation that just weren't there in the written word.

So, enjoyed Stardust, would watch again.

Today, no movies, it's a day for doing paperwork so I can claim money from work.  Which is long overdue.  And since I don't have a headache today (yay!) I really must crack on with that!

Headaches.  Hate them.  This one’s been rumbling around since Friday.  I’m blaming not enough sleep coupled with maybe needing to get my eyes tested again.  Woke up far too early this morning, dozed for a while, got up, and felt progressively more and more rubbish, despite the coffee and painkillers.

This led to snuggling under a fleece blanket (really must knit one out of wool) on the sofa, propped up on scatter cushions, watching a film.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.  Based on the book(s) of the same name, which were a great read, and which I have in my collection once more.  The film was good, but I have to say that the books are better.  Being a brit, I found the locations/props jarred with what I know the reality of villages/towns in the UK are like. 

There were all sorts of strange anomalies that crept in, like the sign for the bus stop, the school bus that really did not look like a UK one would, and the interior of the house the family was living in.  Not to mention the roads around the house.

Things like the outside of the house, the church, woods, etc were all very good, but it just wasn’t believable as a whole.

And then there’s the changes they made to turn it into a film.  I won’t go into those in detail except to say there were no references to the poem that is an integral part of the book, and which is woven throughout it.  Not a single one.  And that the main character is, slightly oddly, american.  Which is just completely at odds with the book.

The special effects were good, though – and the camerawork too, and I think that is what saved the film for me.  They matched very well with what I had imagined from the book, so all credit to them for that.  I just wish more of the book had made it into the film.

I enjoyed the film, but I have to say that I still prefer the book – by a long way.  I was left with a feeling that they had a tremendous opportunity with the film – but failed to realise the potential that it had.

Interestingly, having googled a bit about the film adaptation, it appears the author was less than happy about the changes made.  I have to say I’m not surprised, it is a pale shadow in comparison to the book.

The book is available both on it’s own or as part of a five-book set.  All five books comprise the whole series, the film covers only book two of the series.

Still feeling a bit grotty, so I have another film lined up – Stardust.  This is another film made from a book, so it will be interesting to see if this one’s more successful :)  Stardust is a Neil Gaiman book.

Weather

Old saying, that – and I think I agree with it.  It’s currently –1.5°C outside with a clear sky, and the temperature is still dropping.  I’m not quite sure what the minimum forecast for tonight is, because a lot of my normal sources for weather information seem to have outdated or obviously wrong information.  I suspect something to do with the year having changed, as they appear stuck at New Year’s Eve in terms of data.  Apparently there is snow forecast for this weekend/early next week.  And that’s not from those dodgy sources, but ones I think might have decent data.

Made red Thai curry tonight to banish the chill (at least temporarily).  Very nice – I added extra curry paste for a bit of a stronger kick to it :)  Should have enough for the rest of the weekend, too.  I feel a mug of hot chocolate may be in order shortly though.

Talking of which, I had a surprise on Wednesday when the hot chocolate I ordered from Whittard’s arrived.  I wasn’t at all sure that they would, given they had gone in to administration a couple of days after I put in that order.  It seems they found a buyer though, and will remain in business, which is good news.  Favourite things of mine from them are the Spice Imperial tea, the White Christmas hot chocolate (limited to Christmas time, and appears to have gone again already), and the Santos & Java coffee.  What I will never like, though, is any of their flavoured coffee.  And the sprinkles – just don’t go there.  Really.  I have never tasted anything quite so plastic and artificial in my life.

So I’m happy – I have two tins of yummy chocolate, should last me for quite a while!

Spinning & knitting

Not a huge amount going on at the moment.  I need to undo the cast on edge of both my apple socks, so I can use up the rest of the yarn I have for that by knitting up the leg.  They were done as cuff down socks, so I wasn’t quite sure how much yarn they would use.  Not useful to run out before the end of the toe :)

Still spindling the owl coloured fibre into something that will become lace weight.  It is tempting to use the wheel for it, but I don’t have a deadline for this yarn, and the spindle means it’s portable.

It’s the January meeting of the Longdraw Spinners group tomorrow.  I should be going, and taking the mystery fleece so I can spread it out on the floor in the hall to see what it’s like, and to get experienced spinners’ opinions on the quality (or lack of), and possibly what they think the breed is, too.  But I’m not sure if I will get there – I’m on call this weekend, so would have to take the laptop and hope for both mobile and 3g coverage in a tiny village in the middle of the countryside.  Experience tells me attempting to go and do anything fun like this will inevitably result in requiring connectivity and spending all the time fixing things for customers.  It might be a struggle to come up with a potluck dish/food to take as my contribution to lunch, too.  The little wrap thingies I did last time went down well, but I totally lack ideas on this sort of thing.

I’d love to live in a village.  Last time we met, in early December, there was a hunt setting off just outside the village, and we saw the hounds and a couple of the horses come back down the lane toward the village hall, after the hunt.  Of course, they aren’t allowed to hunt foxes these days, so I guess it was a drag hunt, but it was certainly interesting to see it in person, with the huge (and some not so huge) horses, the hounds with their waggy tails, the bright hunting coats.  The village is mostly (but not completely) old stone cottages, little lanes, absolutely gorgeous.

That’s enough of the blogging for today.  I’m off to make that hot choc and then go and curl up in bed.

I had a bit of a shock when I checked in at one of my favourite weather forecast websites, metcheck:

That’s an actual temp of –2°C, with a windchill of –21°C.  OMG I thought – and only then spotted the erroneous wind speed – of 361 mph :)  We are having near or below freezing weather at the moment though, most nights, and often during the day it is not above about 2°C.

Back from visiting the family.  It was good to see them again – must try and get down there more!  Also, airbeds are much more comfy than groundmats on carpet :)  Mum got the slipper socks she’d been knitting finished off with soles while I was there, and was eyeing up the basketry kit I’d got her for xmas, my brother seemed to like the puzzle I got him, and the slippers I got my dad seemed to go down well too :) 

I returned with some more of my old toys – a few books that I remember with the most pretty painted illustrations, and a couple of other things too.  I also brought back my hi-fi, that has been with my dad for the last few months being fixed.  Working brilliantly again, and not just the main part I use it for (sound for the tv) but also the cd player doesn’t skip any more, and one of the tape drives had the belt fixed on it too.  Yes, I do actually still listen to things I have on tape :)  Just like I still have vinyl records upstairs (though I don’t have anything to play them on).

I got a bit more of Shaun the Sheep knitting done – there is a body, head, topknot for the head, two ears, and an eye.  And maybe a tail.

Weather was very cold – thick fog on the M1 motorway driving home last night, and it was –5&deg;C at one point on the road from the motorway to where I live.  BRRR!

Cold today too – and I have no idea how cold because the temperature sensor on the back wall of the house seems to have stopped transmitting.  It usually starts up again after an hour or so.

Need to get unpacked and find a home for the wheel Simon got me for xmas, finish tidying the kitchen and <del>get two weeks worth of rubbish out for the bin men</del> remember the bin men are coming a day late this week.

New years eve tonight.  Between tackling the tidying, I may be building the skein winder/swift that my parents got me for xmas.  I’m thrilled to get it – it will be a big help with the spinning, I will be able to wind yarn straight off the bobbin of the wheel onto that, and take it off in nice neat skeins to wash-n-whack.  Or, put a skein on, and then wind it into a nice neat ball, ready to use!  And all without breaking my arm with the winding of the niddy noddy.  Much faster too, and I stand a chance of being able to count the revolutions as I go, instead of trying to count the strands on the niddy noddy afterwards.

Hope everyone has a great new years eve.  Not sure if I’ll stay up to see it in or not – I have a lot of paperwork that I need to get done, and if it’s not done tomorrow, I’ll be spending all sunday doing it.

Have a great 2009, all!

BBC NEWS | England | Northamptonshire | Tyre fire could carry on for days

I live not far from here, so it was a bit of a surprise to read about a big fire at a recycling site. I've not seen or smelled any smoke, so I'm guessing the wind must not be blowing it this way.

I don't think this was the sort of recycling the site had in mind, somehow.

So, what have I been knitting over the last several months?  All this:

Clicking on any of those should take you to a larger version in Flickr.  If you are a Raveler, head over to Ravelry and my project page for more details and links to patterns etc.

Spinning.  I don’t think I’ve blogged about this yet, as blogging faltered in spring last year.  Ravelry has been flaunting all manner of fun stuff at me, and a couple of those that caught my artistic side are spinning and dyeing.  Dyeing is the obvious one given I used to paint, but I have avoided that slippery slope.  Spinning? that one was a bit more Teflon-coated.

It started with a learn to spindle kit, which I thought would put me off the whole thing, because a spinning wheel was what really fascinated me.  Drop spindles had held no real interest for me.  But, despite that, within a couple of minutes I was spinning, and it was forming yarn.  I stopped playing with the un-dyed fibre, and went on to some pink/orange that came with it.  And spun yarn!

Once I’d spun it, I needed to ply it.  Ever the adventurous, I went for Navajo plying, which uses one single strand of yarn and by chaining it, turns it into a three ply.  Skeined if off from the spindle onto the back of a chair, then soaked it to set the twist, and let it dry:

I had my first yarn I’d spun myself!  I moved on to another fibre that had come in the kit, and wondered how fine I could spin.  Well.  Take a look:

Ahem, yes.  That is ridiculously fine.  At that point, it seemed clear I could spin.  And not just spin, but had a knack for it.  So I hunted around, and found The Alpaca Spinner, just half an hour away.  Linzi was great!  She looked at what I had on my spindle, and got her Ashford Elizabeth wheel out for me to try, explained how it all worked and set up, and got me going on that.  I made some great knicker elastic at first, as the wheel put in far more twist than I could keep up with.  I got the hang of it eventually, and then she challenged me to see what I could or couldn’t spin.  Out came some ‘fake’ angora fibre – I could spin that.  And then she set the wheel up as bobbin-lead, which is the highest ratio they have – lots of twist put in very fast, and you have to work hard to keep up with it.  If you don’t – it’s welcome back to knicker elastic :)

That clinched it really, and so I bought a wheel.  It was also an Elizabeth – the other option would have been the traditional, but I’d done some homework and it was the Elizabeth that seemed a better fit for what I wanted.  I had to oil/wax and put it together myself as it arrives in a box as a collection of raw wood parts, but that was fun.  It all went together without any problems, and so I had a wheel:

And it wasn’t long before I was spinning the rest of the pink/orange fibre on that.

And this is what the spindled and wheel-spun pink/orange was made into – a crochet bag to hang from the wheel.  I use it to hold things like the bottle of oil for the wheel (it needs oiling while in use), the little spare parts kit, tiny pair of scissors, tape measure, that sort of thing.

It’s great to have my first yarn spun on both spindle and wheel combined in one project, and for it to be so useful too!

Of course, things didn’t stop there, so these are a selection of photos from all the other yarn that I’ve spindled or wheel-spun:

You may recognise some of the colours of yarn there in the things I’d knitted, further up in this post :)  So that’s about it really for the knitting/crochet/spinning stuff.  If you’re on Ravelry, stop by and say hi :)

I’ve often wondered if the old wives tale is true or not.  Cheese before bed is supposed to lead to vivid dreams/nightmares.  If it’s true, tonight could be… fun?

Film: Interview with the vampire

Nibbles: Cheese and crackers

Anyone care to guess whether I’ll be waking up screaming in the middle of the night? :)

PS. Looks like I have found a nifty blog/flickr integration tool.  Since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged regularly, there are heaps of photos that haven’t made it onto the blogs.  Expect more posts tomorrow, with lots of colourful images :)