Saturday 30 June 2012

Quiet week

It's been cool and damp, sometimes wet, here on Tiree.  We did get some nice weather on Monday and Tuesday where I got some laundry done, but the rest of the week has been a wash out.  Fortunately it's been warm enough here to avoid heaters having to be turned on, so there's some electric saved.

I've been out and about, been shopping on Tuesday and went to the post office on Thursday.  Both days I got to ride in Angus' car as both the buses were out of service, one is waiting for a fairly substantial part after getting a nick in its fuel line (the parts people don't sell spare fuel lines apparently) and the other should be back up and running next week after its fuel management system (lots of complicated electronic gadgetry) went phut.

In between times I've been knitting and spinning.  I've finished the first of the Maenad socks:

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Pictured here infront of my wheel, with fibre to be spun.

On Friday the councillor for the area came to visit and hold a surgery, so I went and had a chat with him, nice man, has a Sir Humphrey of a lawyer apparently.  Still, I took some - for lack of a better phrase - island mutterings to him and he's going to look into getting bits sorted.

Thursday I came home with a new piece of kit, may I introduce a Dryad table loom:

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Seen here with my sampler already in progress.

I've had a play at weaving before, I own a peg loom, weaving sticks and even a rather neglected Inkle loom that's soon to be dug out for some playtime.  Warping this beast took me 5.5 hours to do just 120 warps.  My back was not as impressed as I when I got up from warping it sitting on the floor (oops).  But, to be fair, I had completely forgotten we had those trestles and spare table top. 

Anyhoo, I warped it with about 2m of warp, or my armspan, and sat down with a box of oddments and had a play.

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Finished product.

I did want to reverse the rainbow on the other end, but the shed (where you thread your yarn/weft) through got too small to let me finish, so the other end stops at blue, as seen here:

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This is post-soak and spin, now air drying in the back room.

I can definitely see myself using this again, I've got ideas galore going round my head, plus there's using all 4 sets of heddles instead of the 2 I used.  Don't worry, if you don't weave that will make noooo sense.

But next is to warp my inkle loom ready to take to Tiree Music Festival to play on while helping out with the weaving stall there.  There is a plan to take a different loom and boxes of random scraps of yarn/fabric/findings and encourage all who go to TMF to weave a bit onto the weaving there.  I went to visit Fiona to learn how to use said loom and that's how this big beasty above came home, it was just sitting on her dining table looking sad after being refreshed by Fiona and Alan.

That's about it really.  The diet is going well food wise, but I'm managing to boggle the GP and all on a forum Jo frequents as to how, 3 weeks in, I have yet to shed a single lb in weight.  I'm even keeping a diart of not just carbs, but fat and calories, just to see how those change.

Anyway, take care all, and I hope there are no more floodings back in jolly old England!

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Weekend just gone

This past weekend was a bit cold and damp, Madam was not impressed.


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But it did mean I got to finish this:
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Jo heloped me calculate the number of stitches yesterday...43804, yes, forty three thousand, eight hundred and four stitches. That's not including binding off, another 1176. I'm not sure on the bead count, I think the designer said it was just over 1100.

Sunday morning I washed it and then pinned it out.
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Last night, it was dried and finished completely.
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The problem now is, it's too small. Each side is three feet, but my shoulders are too wide for it to stay put. Hopefully with loss of weight will come slimmer shoulders.
Now I'm back to sock knitting. One pair is "Maenad" from the "myhtological socks" pattern on Ravelry, the other pair is just plain sock in rainbow yarn.
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Maenad in production.
I'll snap a shot of the rainbow ones when they get to ankle point.
Finally, let me share a shot Jo got last week and I missed off the photos post:
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When poles fall

Our laundry line here is four stainless steel poles with four lines connecting them in a rectangle (I'm sure Jo can give me the correct mathematical name for it!).  This is an excellent set up during June/July because it allows for two full loads of laundry to be put out.  But, there is a catch.  If one pole falls, two sides are unusable.

Last week I hung out one of Madam's half duvets after it had been washed, nothing new there.  Unfortunately the wind was rather strong and the pole closest to the back door is rusted all the way up.  Yep, it snapped.  Then the wet weather came, and so the pole lay forlorn on the lawn...


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And there it lay until Sunday evening.  That afternoon Fred had vanished behind the bins and when I pulled back the grass to find him, I found a 12 foot long stainless steel pole, pretty much untouched by the elements.  That evening I uncovered it, took it to the downed pole and tried something...perfect fit!

Next was to dig out the pole hole to see if there was anything to slot the new pole over...

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After removing two pole clamps, a bent piece of sheet metal and digging down I found the rest of the broken pole.  Meanwhile, Jo had hacked off a good 3 foot length of the larger pole, we pulled out the short length of thin pole (lost yet?), dropped some broken roof tile bits down to raise the short one, slotted that back in, slotted the new 3' length over that, and with some wiggling, we slotted the old pole into the new pole...  yeah, far too many poles!


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It worked though.  Today it's doing fine, there's a bit of a wind, 13mph apparently, and the lines are all still off the ground, which is good seeing as two are loaded with laundry.

While playing with poles we disturbed some garden residents:

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These are both the same frog, but there was a smaller one hopped on my foot before this.








Tuesday 12 June 2012

Photos!

It's a bit hard to take a photo summarising a day when it's the same as the day before... This one pretty much sums up last week:
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Madam cooking herself while I knit or read. I did fly to Glasgow on Thursday and back on Friday, but that's a post that I'm still writing.


So, let me feed your eyes...


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Twelve backgrounds for the Tiree Day tapestry, panel one is being fully assembled this Saturday, I shall try and remember to take the camera.
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Rainbow from last month
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A little flowering plant in a drystone wall
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A flock of sheep that stopped my parents and I when we were exploring in the car.
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Madam trying to say hello to the ferrets. Fred is having a drink, Rumble showing his bum, Nushu downstairs.  And me reflected in that huge pane of glass against he back wall.

I've started a new diet, 20g of carbohydrates a day, as much protein as I like.  I'm still fathoming what's doable and what isn't. Once the weight starts coming off I can increase it to around 50g, then when I get down to near target I start adding until I level off.  I admit to missing cake and all the microwave meals but I am enjoying having enough meat to satisfy.

I hope the weather is good for all, alas it seems we've had too much sun up here and the crops might not do well.  Only time will tell.




Sunday 3 June 2012

Sleep birdies and socks

Today has been a catch up day for me.  A 'duvet day' some call it, where you just stay in bed and let the world go by.  Very good for one's mental, and physical, health.

I've finished the first of Jo's socks and am already on the toe of sock no.2  I do enjoy doing stripey socks in double-knit yarn, they're quick, thick and warm.

Today's photo is one of the many little birdies on the feeder...

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There's a good dozen that visit now, mainly sparrows but the odd other small bird.  There was even a starling earlier, but it decided that feeders are too much like hard work.

There are usually a pair of wood pigeons on the ground under the feeder too, but they're so easily spooked I rarely get a photo opportunity.

Saturday 2 June 2012

Catch up

So, photos and things since Wednesday...
Wednesday I had both doors and all the windows open, airing the house and enjoying the sounds of rural life.

Now, our house has a main corridor, all the room come off it, bees are apparently a bit dense.  Instead of flying in the back door, following the corridor and out the open front door, they fly in the back door, follow the corridor then veer left and splat into the living room window.

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Bee 1:
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Bee 2:
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Both bees were very polite and allowed themselves to be shown the open window to freedom.  Goodness knows why they veered, perhaps the airflow just sent them that way.  However they did it, Madam was intrigued.



Thursday was a lazy day.
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Madam and I spent the day lounging, her with her sun which now stays on her bed all day, and me with my Kindle on the sofa.  I admit to being bored out of my skull (sorry Dad, the B word!), but when you aren't allowed to use your arm or hand for a whole day there's only so much time reading distracts.  We did take a brief trot to Skinners for more birdseed though.

Friday was a busy afternoon.  I trotted down to the Resource Centre and enjoyed lovely company while I rewound some balls of leftover sock yarn from friends back in Tod.  It was also the final day for the Terns to come in before heading to Mull.  Nine terns in total...
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Today is proving to be another lazy day.  Jo is glowing from sunburn on his face after being out with the schoolkids doing cycling and raft building (hopefully he might post about that), so he's indoors doing some practice marking before he can get started on the 500-odd papers he's got to do.

I, however, am working on his birthday present.
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Socks!  I am finally allowed to knit my husband his first socks!  They're not a surprise, I've had to measure and compare, but that's not a problem.  This is sock #1, already past the heel area and on the leg.  I started them yesterday and had them at the friday group, none of the ladies there had seen socks knit from the toe up so I have been requested to bring in the finished articles and perhaps one ready to have the heel done so they can see how I do it.

Anyway, back to relaxing with my knitting.Oooh, wait! a photo is missing...I happened to walk by this field on Friday and just had to take a photo of the multitude of daisies!
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