highlandheffalump

YOP13 Week 2/53 – visiting my sister

Knitting

Jumpers/cardigans

I was away at my sister’s Monday to Thursday so there’s not been much time for crafts and I travelled light so no room to take my chunky jumper with me. But still there’s some decent progress since last Sunday’s post. Yay for chunky yarn lol.

Spinning

I took my Turkish spindle down to my sister’s and spun a rolag of pink wool, which was part of the stash my friend Norah gave me. I plied it before I left my sisters and gave it to her (forgetting to photograph it first). She is making some granny squares to go towards a co-ordinated project to make a town’s granny square Christmas tree. It’s years since I’ve used my Turkish spindle so it was pretty uneven but never mind.

Other News

On Tuesday we went to Bicester Village in Oxfordshire. It sounds like it would be a Midsommer Murders type quaint village. It’s actually a very high end designer outlet village! Some of the shops had doormen and queues behind ropes. There were coach/bus loads of international tourists wheeling empty suitcases to fill with designer clothes. I notice on its Wikipedia page that it is the 2nd most visited place in the UK by Chinese tourists. Buckingham Palace being first. It had Christian Louboutin, Dior, Stella McCartney etc. I bought a credit card holder from Kate Spade New York reduced from £119 to £20.30. It has 8 slots and yet will only fit 3 cards, and that’s with a lot of pushing!!!

On Wednesday I went to the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, whilst my sister and BIL were at Wimbledon. If you have heard of the Chelsea Flower Show it’s similar but the show gardens are smaller and fewer. I had a lovely day, the weather was a mix of baking sunshine, heavy downpours or light rain. I bought a sun hat that goes really well with my summer dress. I also bought some other goodies including a carry-on bag for my flight home to carry everything 😂🤣. I walked 8.1 miles that day!

Hampton Court Palace
My favourite exhibition garden.

It had been 4 years since I’d seen my sister and 17 year old niece, so obviously the latter had changed quite a bit. My 18 year old nephew was in Cypress with his friends so I missed seeing him. My sister and I are very different, both looks wise and polar opposites on almost every scale or question you could list. We did, however, find we both like Taskmaster (the TV show), reading (although different types of books) and she is now crocheting quite a few things for my niece so there’s a small overlap on our interests.

Do you have a sibling you are total opposites or practically twins with? Do they craft too?

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 13th year, but this is my 6th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, as you’d be very welcome to join us. (There are 53 Sundays this YOP year, it happens sometimes!).

Year 13 list.

27 comments

  2. What a wonderful day at the flower show! What a surprise that your favorite garden features lots of purple flowers. Sadly I haven’t seen my sister much since she moved to Texas 25 years ago. She retired last year so she is making more visits to Ohio since my brother, dad, and I all live here. I tried to teach my sister knitting during her last visit but I don’t think it stuck. I am not a shopper so lines at the stores would have had me “outta there” but sounds like it was a fun sister trip. Your “chunky” jumper looks great.

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  3. My husband says that as we age my sister and I look like twins except for our weight. I like indoor chores better than outdoor; she’s the opposite. We both love to read, but she’s non fiction and I’m fiction. She’s more extroverted, and I’m more into details and organization, which can be overwhelming for her. We FaceTime every Sunday, and talk about whatever for at least an hour!

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  5. I love how your jumper is coming along. As much as I love light weight yarn, chunkier yarn satisfies my need for quicker results! My sister and I get more alike as time moves on. We find we weirdly develop the same tastes, interests, and mannerisms as the years roll on even though we only see each other once a year or so.

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  7. Your jumper is pretty, I wish I enjoyed stranded knitting with color, but I will just admire them from a distance :). Looks like you had a really nice time on your trip, everything looks peaceful in your pictures :). I do have a question on your spindle spinning, with just one spindle how do you ply?

    There was a lot of sibling rivalry with my sister when we were young, but we get along a lot better now :).

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    • I took my Turkish spindle with me and that has a removable cross shape at the bottom that you wind on the single to. You wind it in a specific way and then when you remove the cross pieces you are left with a Turtleshell shaped yarn that has a start and end. You then reconstruct the cross on the bottom and attach both ends of the ‘turtleshell’ and spin the spindle the opposite way to ply. You wind it on the same way and eventually you’ve plied the lot. If you search YouTube for Turkish spindle you’ll probably see a demo if what I’ve said doesn’t make sense.

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  8. I love your sweater!! My sister and I seem to have hatched from completely different nests, we are so different. Well, I guess you could say that I’m different from the whole family. They all quilt, like a lot. Like it is their lives. Me, I can quilt, and I’ve made some niece pieces that I’m pleased with, but there is soooo much more to do and I’m the only knit-addict and then there is the spinning wheel and the loom, and all the other crafty things that I’ve gotten into. My sister has asked me to please not give her any knitted stuff, and she reads books that I can’t stand, and then one day she told me that Covid was a hoax…

    I’m so happy that you had a great time with your sister!!

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  10. Glad you had a nice visit – must have been fun to see how much your niece has grown up. I’m envious of all the garden shows you have in your lovely wet climate. One day I’ll get back to your neck of the woods for a few of them.

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    • Yes she’s about my height now and probably will soon overtake me. Our temperate climate certainly helps make these garden shows a winner, although there were some interesting gardens concentrating on water retention or plants able to withstand drought, something that is becoming more and more important ‘down south’ in the UK. Here in Northern Scotland not so much.

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  11. I have more in common with my sister than not, especially our values. Her art is music; she’s learning cello in her retirement, and she and my brother-in-law are currently in Canada at music camp. She’s always been more into hiking and tent camping than I; now that I have the Roadtrek, that’s my preferred means of camping. And kayaking is my preferred sport. But we both grew up sailing and skiing, and over the years have done both of those things together. We both read a lot, sometimes even the same books. She gardens; me not so much. She studied biology, and became a professor; I studied textiles and became a middle school art teacher. My brother, on the other hand – I think all we share is a small portion of our DNA!

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    • I’m finding this so interesting reading about others sibling relationships. Thanks for sharing yours and I wish your sister well with her cello learning. I keep saying I’ll learn the saxophone eventually but my husband isn’t a fan of that idea…probably why he is so willing to put up with my other hobbies.

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      • (Snicker.) She has learned so much, improving to the point where she now plays with a low stakes orchestra – but it does mean practicing every day, which would cut into knitting and crafting time…

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  12. What a lovely trip. My sister in law is at Wimbledon this week. She also made a visit to the flower show. Would love to see your treasures you got while shopping.

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  13. Your jumper is really coming along! My brother and I are pretty similar in a lot of ways. The big difference is he is very extroverted and I am very introverted. But otherwise, pretty much the same.

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  14. Your jumper is coming along nicely. After working mostly with fingering weight for a good bit of time, I’m enjoying a worsted weight sweater. I’d love to do a chunky sweater, but I wouldn’t get much use out of it due to our climate.

    My brothers and I have similar personalities. When we were younger we had very different interests, but as we get older we have more in common.

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  15. I love your chunky sweater! I also like making them, but with our VERY temperate winters, and high indoor temperatures, they don’t get enough love from me. So I will live vicariously through you and your lovely cold winters.

    My brother and I have grown into polar opposites. We no longer can get along, and its frustrating and sad. But I have a best friend, who I’ve been close to since toddlerhood, and we are similar on our political and social beliefs, enjoy some of the same music. She doesn’t craft, but REALLY loves all the hand knit and crochet items I’ve bestowed upon her over the years. She’s like my sister in SO many ways- I’m lucky to have her.

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