She's my brandnew toy....tralala

I got myself a new toy:

Last week I ordered the brandnew Ashford wild drumcarder from diespindel . We have an old Luet carder at the museum, but it doesn't work well, especially with fine wool and fiber. So I decided to make myself an early christmas gift.

What a difference !!! You don't even have to fasten it to the table. It works so smooth and quiet. The clou is the packer brush, that is attached to the carder. The batts are narrower, but thicker than other carded batts, thats a plus for me.

All in all a great investment, if you like to mix fibers by yourself....

Just in time for the winter...

Finally I finished my "Revontuli / Northern Lights Stole". The pattern is really nice and very recommendable for advanced beginners. It's a free pattern from a finnish knitter, but it's availible in english and german, too. You can find it here .

The pattern was fun to knit, but the yarn was a real nightmare. Itchy and so rough, my fingers hurt after a half hour of knitting.... I hope it will soften with wear and a few turns in the water..

 

SP14 revealed

Last week I was on a short vacation and when I came home, there was a nice parcel waiting for me. It was the final package from Secret Pal 14. Now I know for sure, who the person was, that spoiled me quite rotten during the last three months. It's Giselle from Italy !!! Thank you so much for everything, you gave to me and for beeing the best pal ever.....


This is the "noble cowl" knitted in a very soft turqoise wool and then there was this super luxurios lace yarn, merino/cashmere mix in a gorgeous lavender shade.

I didn't take a picture of the orange flavored chocolate, that came within, since its already gone....

sadness and happiness

You know, history repeats itself. Only worse somtimes.....

A few months ago, while the SP13, our family pet died. The same day I got my second parcel from my secret pal. I know, it was "only" a pet, but we were all very sad about it.

Now, during SP14, it seems as if history repeats itself, only this time much, much worse....
At 2am we had a call from my sister in law, that her husband had lost his battle against cancer. He was the older brother of my husband and died at the age of 53. He was at the hospital since last week and his condition grew worse since Monday.

Only a few hours later this morning the postman brought the second parcel for my dear secret pal. This was a very nice "band aid" for me and something to be happy about. She send me 4 balls of very soft charcoal colored lambswool, 2 balls of supersoft merino wool in turquise shades and gorgeous angorino wool top, which is a mix of merino and angora wool, in the prettiest shades, to be spun up on my new wheel. Thank you so much my dear pal, your gifts did a great job in brightening my mood.

a rose is a rose is a rose.......

today a longstanding dream came true: I got my very own rose. She is so beautiful ! Just look at her......


I cant believe it......have to touch her every 5 minutes or so. The wood is incredible smooth and she purrs like a cat. The one extra, that I got for her is a lace flyer and the fast whorl.



I'm so excited. Probably can not sleep this night....

The only downside is, that I will have to part with my Kromski Sonata. There is simply not enough room for boths wheels. So if you know someone who would take good care of her, let me know.

getting hooked.....

I had a really busy time for several weeks since my vacation. Summer break is over and school has started already.

So what better time to take up just another time consuming hobbie....

Last week I took a class on tabletweaving. This is something I wanted to learn for a long time. It's a perfect link between my volunteer-job at the museum and my hobbie as a reenactor.



The first meters of trim are finished and I'm really satisfied with how it turned out.




The other projekt that got me "hooked" is a little scarf I found on ravelry (where else....). The perfect pattern for a nice handspun yarn in dk-weight..here is a little appetizer...

I got a package........

My secret Pal sent me a package!



The yarn is a gorgeous lace yarn, 100% new wool in stunning shades of petrol and blue. I love it!!
And then there was a great notebook, a wooden figure of an angel (I think this is a form for cookies), giant amaretti, a bag of VERY delicious chocolate and a cute little tin box with a measurement tape in it.

Thank you so much my dear pal !!!

I swirl, you swirl, he/she/it swirls..........

today I got a creative flash and after digging through boxes and cupboards came up with some polymer-clay that I bought years ago....

I found a great site on the net with awesome designs and great tutorials and did some swirling...



I think, that's a nice idea to create buttons and such things for knitted goods.

filling up the stash......

Today my order from world-of-wool arrived. Amazing stuff and they were sooo fast. I ordered on Thursday!


300 gramm Bluefaced Leicester Sock yarn

300 gramm superwash merino laceweight

on the left 500 gramm superwash merino/nylon mix on the right 500 gramm merino/tencel mix

on the left 100 gramm 50/50 superfine merino/angora mix on the right 100 gramm baby camel

100 gramm A-grade mulberry silk

and last but not least....100 gramm superfine merino/alpaca/baby camel/mulberry silk mix unbelievable soft and spins like a dream.....

Home again....

....after 2 weeks at the coast of the baltic sea. It was very relaxing. We had a gorgeous flat that was a few kilometers away from the shore, but was very quiet and luxorious. Altough the weather was unstable, we had a great time there.

Some impressions..






It was also great that the flat had wireless internet access. I was able to communicate with my up- and downstream pals and we had frequent mail-contact.

The best thing was, there was a little yarn store, just 3 kilometers away, that had drops, schoppel and other wool, I don't get here in our town and they even had nitpicks needles! Dear hb suspected, that I had chosen the flat only for this reason.

Due to the unstable weather I had plenty of time to knit. I made a bactus scarf and a pair of socks. Photos are coming soon.