take one piece of freshly washed and dried Romney fleece, add one pesky Ragdoll cat and it = ultimate comfort. Bloody animal. I'll have to make him a nice bed for the winter with some now.



I've started knitting the Milkweed shawl and are really enjoying it so far. Its a really well written pattern. The MadTosh sock is lovely to work with too:



I bought some fabulous green sock yarn to make another one. Its from Saffron Dyeworks and is really beautifully coloured:



Generally I've done not much more than sleep this week. The pain is more under control. I managed to get to Luke's sports day which was most important. I also managed to win an auction on ebay for 39 Yu Gi Oh magazines for a tenner! so that will keep him busy over the summer holidays.

I've finally finished my little cabled handbag made using Pigeonroof Studios Romney. I adore the colours so much. Making the i-cord strap went really easily too:


I haven't done any TdF spinning today yet but may have a crack at my singles again later. I've stroked my lovely lemon batt if that counts?

I've joined a knit-a-long to make this shawl called Milkweed. The KAL is being run on The Backwards Loop Ravelry group. I will be using Madeleine Tosh Sock yarn in the Home colourway which I bought months ago. Its really yummy soft yarn.

a new batt - its only 1oz but I've used handdyed lemon BFL, white BFL, gold merino, silk and sparkle. Have another 5oz of the mixture to make more batts up with:



I was stroking Sparky this morning. He has a bit of a love relationship with my floofy pink dressing gown so was in a blissful state. This is the face of a jealous hound. She did cheer up somewhat when Grandma turned up and took her out to the Ridgeway for an hour:



I'm really enjoying watching the TdF this year. Exciting speed trials today. They are dropping like flies. I am still sore, still tired but cheerier today. (big hugs Lynette - you are such a good friend, but you could have shot me with the Tirau dump rats when we were 14 and put me out of my misery then. Vache.)

Luke got a swimming badge on Saturday and I've sewn it to his blanket. As he doesn't go to Scouts he hasn't got many chances to earn any more. I've bought him some Star Wars ones off ebay but if anyone has any fabric badges hanging around that they don't want let me know!

Here's todays and yesterdays efforts for Tour de Fleece. On Saturday I made my first batt (!) and yesterday evening pulled it into roving and tried to learn how to spin low twist singles.


I carried on a bit today but are not making much progress yet. They keep breaking off the bobbin and driving me nuts. Just need more practice I guess.


Really really frustrated with my health. Have been SO exhausted and aching yesterday and today after feeling OK on Saturday.

I had a crack at sorting out my Romney fleece today ...

look mum, my fleece is better ...

this is before the first soak. it came out really clean except for some of the tips

its currently sandwiched between some net curtain and drying on the trampoline

I received a very big box from the USA the other day - a Strauch Petite drumcarder!!! Mike sold one of his motorbikes and bought it for me. I was so knackered the day it arrived that I undid the parcel, looked in the box, squealed and went straight back to bed lol! I had a very happy companion assisting me though:




I haven't used it yet. Just admired it and thought about what I want to card on it first. Sparky is running scared though just in case he is first through it! Here's a photo of him running scared:


I've dyed up a big vat of cheviot, merino and merino silk in a chocolate colour to use in the carder. The cheviot was grey, the merino was chestnut and the merino silk was a yucky pinky brown from a previous dyeing experiment. They've all come up ok and are currently drying on the trampoline:


they are not as red as in the photo. more a milk chocolate colour. mixed from purple and orange.

I managed to get to Woolfest last week. I didn't really feel strong enough to go but Mike said on the Friday night that we were going anyway even if I only spent 10 minutes there. He knows how gutted I was that I couldn't go last year due to migraines. He is a keeper.
So we left at 5am on Saturday morning and got there at 10am. Luke loved the scenery through the Lake district. He couldn't believe how big the hills were.
Woolfest was fabulous. Luke loved seeing the animals especially the rabbits. I felt really rough and had to sit down every 5 minutes but managed to buy 2 beautiful turquoise braids of superwash BFL from Fyberspates, some bunny fur and some commercially dyed merino.
I met some of the wonderful girls from Ravelry which really made my day.
We stayed 2 hours and then drove 5 hours home again.

here is the hard evidence that I win as the slowest knitter in the world. This bag is approx. 6 inches wide and it took me most of a day to knit the stockinette part at the top! Luckily I adore the colours so can live knitting them for ages:


Generally I have been exhausted this week and then have had a migraine the past 2 days. Its killing me being so tired as I am desperate to wash and dry my Romney fleece while the weather is so good.
My roses in the garden are looking fabulous. Luke's pumpkins, tomatoes and sunflowers are also growing well. I love summer!