Grab a drink, this has turned out to be a long-ish post, with lots happening and some FOs.

Felting

I’ve lost my felting mojo at the moment, I’m confident it will be back. in the meantime I’m enjoying other crafts.

Knitting

I finished my Sunday Sweater and it has a separate post about it. Its cosy and super soft but not flattering. I’m happy with it though, I will wear it over other tops and some blogging friends suggested it would look good over a turtle neck jumper. I have a little yarn left over so may adjust the neck as I don’t own any tops with turtle necks because my neck is so large under my chin and for my body size the necks are a bit suffocating.

Sewing

I used my overlocker/serger this week for the first time and it went pretty well. The threading is a bit challenging so hopefully the threads won’t break and I can just tie new threads to the end of old ones. I feel I could now make a start on a garment!

Spinning

Tour de Fleece has been continuing and I’ve been joining the daily Guild’s team calls when I can. On Thursday the cyclists of Tour de France were in the mountains, so some of our team members met at the Bealach na Ba, a winding single track road over the mountains to Applecross on the West Coast looking across to Skye. It was under 10°C there so they were wrapped up. I couldn’t make it, as on Thursdays I have the dog and they were going for tea and scones after. Hopefully next year it won’t fall on a Thursday and I can join them.

The photo below is Sue, our team captain, spinning some Valnais Blacknose on a spindle. She and Norah also took their spinning wheels and Cheryl took a spindle. Norah’s husband took their drone and got some aerial shots too. Sue was wearing a hat with yarn she’d spun earlier during this TdF! Because she knows how much I love Minions she called this her Minion yarn 😀. The hills in the background are the Isle of Skye (which is where Norah lives).

On my Ashford Traditional I’ve finally got going on spinning the rolags I made years ago. This is Falkland / Zwartbles fibre. Its ended up being 2 skeins of bulky whereas the earlier skeins were worsted/Arab weight. No idea what I will turn it into in the end. My earlier skeins are more even too so the bulky will be used separately.

On my Ashford Traveller I’ve made a start on spinning the merino / silk / flax fibre I dyed some months ago. It’s an odd blend to spin and I’m trying to ensure when I spin some flax bits I’m getting some wool or silk at the same time. The flax is a little crispy!

Weaving

I finished my hand towels and yet again failed to make them the same length. This time I went too long on the first one. They are on top of each other here.

I used my overlocker/serger to seal the ends before putting in the washing machine at 60⁰C and then the tumble dryer. This is the first time I have used the overlocker, I tested it first on an old tea towel I’d made that had a fringe end in the same yarn.

The yarn is Lily’s Sugar’n Cream worsted cotton. The warp colour is Emerald Energy and the weft was white. I did 12 picks on either end of each towel in 8/4 cotton to help the hem not be too bulky. I’m really happy with how neat the hems look using this method.

I’d like to make a green woven apron now, so that where they all hang in the kitchen its a little “woven by me” display as well as being functional.

Other News

My husband got a pizza oven from his mum for an early birthday present, so we have been eating pizza!!! The first one was a disaster, but we still ate the raw dough and burnt bits. I then bought some semolina and that made it much easier the next day to slide the pizza into the oven. My MIL came over on Saturday and we ate more pizza. Pizza is my favourite food, so a week with eating it 3 days is a good week…not for my waistline but for my mood 😃.

On Friday I made some hot smoked salmon and cucumber (home grown) sushi. It was pretty easy to make so I’m going to try some other fillings next time.

The wind is due to drop on Monday so I’ve made plans with friends to finally get out on our SUPs after months of not being able to get out🤞🏻.

Some of England has record breaking temperatures forecast (40°C) for Tuesday (and a national emergency has been declared already about it…remember air conditioning isn’t a thing most homes or places have here.) Luckily it is due to be a lot cooler than that here but abnormally warm so I may just get my hammock out at last and set it up in the shade!

Thanks for getting this far 😃

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This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 12th year, but this is my 5th year participating. See our Year of Projects Group page on Ravelry for more information on how to join in or find out other participants. My Year 12 list.