Fibre East

On the weekend immediately after Knit Nation another fibre event was held. This time it was outside of London, and held on a farm, rather than in a university. Logically, this would suit a fibre event, right?

The farm had two large marquees set up for the stallholders, and there were shearing demonstrations as well. Apparantly, if you got in quick enough, you could have picked your fleece right off the sheep's back, watch him or her being shorn, then take home the fleece! That's pretty amazing.

The night before we stayed with Sarah Jane and Chris who were volunteering on the Sunday morning. While we were there we swapped mini skeins while Scott had a go at spinning for the first time. This is the result of Scott's first attempt at spinning. This is something that he will try again when we move back to Australia before going out and look at spinning wheels.

Scott and I thoroughly enjoyed the Fibre East event. We were there from start to finish, as we were there from 9:30ish with Sarah and Chris. There was a great range of vendors - people selling fibre, tools, hand dyed yarn, fleece, bags, lamps and spinning wheels. There were sellers there who I'd never heard of which was fantastic.

All in all a lovely day catching up with old yarny friends, stroking lovely yarns, and enjoying the fresh air.

Goodbye Fridge Magnets

 
Alex and I have a street on our fridge. When we were in Amsterdam a few years ago we saw magnets that were shaped as various shops and fell in love with them. Since that time we have collected a number of magnets which fulfil a specific criteria. They are now about to be packed away in a box to be shipped to Australia but this is the collection that we have accumulated.

Knit Nation - The Purchases

Knit Nation was a fabulous weekend and not only did we meet a lot of wonderful people but I even did some shopping which I thought that I would share with you.

Patterns by OneHandKnits, the South Kensington Shawl, St Pancras Sock and T.A.R.D.I.Sock

An Easyknits Sushi Sock Roll
Sweet Clement Royal
Tube Line skeins from the Knitting Goddess
Mini Squeens from Skein Queen

Knit Pro Needles from Addicted 2 Knitting
Bamboo DPN's from Tall Yarns

We also bought items from Tillyflop Designs but as they will be a present for someone I haven't taken photos of those.

Yarn Dyeing

When we start running The Quizzical Owl as a business at the start of October one of the areas that we will be expanding into is yarn dyeing. It is something that I am very keen to try. I've been told I have a very good eye for colours. I have been very lucky to have been given a couple of opportunities to have chats with dyers and to do a little bit of dyeing of my own.

After spending time with Jeni from Fyberspates, these are the results. These skeins were painted with dye by hand, and steamed. Each of the four skeins below were dyed with the same dyes. The skein on the bottom left is an aran of pure wool (not superwash), and has taken up the colour differently from the superwash merino/silk blends (the two yarn cakes) and the sparkly yarn skein.

On a visit to The Knitting Goddess (Joy) I tried my hand at doing semi-solid colours.  I chose pink and green.

And the results:

The yarn cake is superwash merino and nylon, the top pink is a merino/alpaca blend, green is merino and tencel, superwash and nylon, and the last is a mini skein that I had dyed with Kool-Aid some years back and threw into the dye pot to see what happened.

Thanks must go to Jeni and to Joy for letting me mess around with colours, hot water, paintbrushes and for teaching me many things about the world of dyeing.

It's a world I can't wait to try out.

Alex

Isle of Wight Steam Train

The reason that we travelled to the Isle of Wight was to pick up the yarn from the Knitting Goddess for our London in Stitches Collaboration which happened at Knit Nation. We had a look at what we might want to do while on the Isle of Wight and noticed that the Heritage Railway was running for 40 hours straight as it was their 40th anniversary. Alex and I like trains, and thought that we couldn't miss the opportunity to ride on this steam railway.

We don't have a car so after getting the ferry across to the Isle, we got on the Island Train service which runs from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin. The train is a 1938 former London Underground Northern Line train. The train took us to Smallbrook Junction which is only open when the heritage railway is running.

We boarded the steam train which goes to Haven Street and Wootton and had a very relaxing ride. The railway doesn't go through any major centres so it was very enjoyable going through the countryside after what had been a very busy few weeks for both of us.

We went through Haven Street and stopped at Wootton where the engine had to be turned around.

On our way back to Smallbrook Junction we jumped out at Haven Street to have a look at the museum and shop. While at the shop we bought a couple more items for the train set that we both want to build when we grow up. Scott also bought a book from the shop that had photos of people platelaying. His Great Great Grandfather was a platelayer for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway so was very pleased when he saw a photo of platelaying in the book.

The steam train ride and the weekend on the Isle of Wight was a lovely and relaxing diversion from what has been an extremely busy couple of months.

Isle of Wight - Dirty Drink Names

I just wanted to post photos of these two drinks we found when on the Isle of Wight because they made us snicker. Hopefully it will cheer everyone up from a very rainy London.

Macro Photos - Insects

Alex takes a lot of excellent photos but while we were on the Isle of Wight, I was quite proud of a macro photo that I took of a bee on a flower and thought I would share it. Not to be out done though Alex took this amazing photo of a wasp when we stayed with the Knitting Goddess.

My Photo of a bee taken at Wootton Station on the Isle of Wight

Alex's photo of a wasp taken at Ventnor