done nothing today but knit and spin. another perfect day then. turned the heel on my sock and was going well ... until I realised it was too tight round the instep because apparently the depth of my instep is bigger that distance round ball of foot by 1". So I had to frog all I'd done today and add 6 stitches grr. just as well I'm enjoying knitting them.

Is this colour too green? you know who I'm talking to so answers on a postcard ...

we had a bit of an Alpaca chase today. Mike mentioned that he'd passed a field of alpacas while out on his motorbike a few weeks ago (why this important news was not passed to me on the day I'll never know).

Mike was working from home, Luke and his cousin were off due to a teacher training day and I can't drive at the moment due to new anti convulsants ... so Mike had to take us all out to look at the alpacas.

We then went to see a friend whose birthday it was and one of her other friends mentioned an alpaca 'shop' just down the road. So off we went to try and find this farm. And find it we did.

I am now the pround owner of 2kg of chocolate brown alpaca fleece - half a bin bag full. Its really clean with no vegetable matter in it at all so I'm thinking I can just spin it without washing it (I rinsed a small bit and nothing came out of it at all). So I've officially got enough fibre to last me for the next 10 years ... hopefully I can borrow the Guild carder next month and make some alpaca batts. The farm was great - alpacas, sheep, goats, chooks, a well hard turkey, geese and lots of dogs. The kids loved it.

I've started my stripy handspun socks and done about 5" so far. They are really thick and warm.



have you ever heard the saying 'as useless as a chocolate fire guard' .... ?


I rang the hospital this afternoon to get a date for my operation - its going to be on Nov. 14th unless they get a cancellation earlier. It seems a long time to wait

I had a really lovely day at the local spinning guild yesterday. The sun was out so we sat spinning outside - it was really hot and lovely. I finished spinning the lovely batts I received from Helen in the spinner's swap. I've never spun batts before and they were lovely to spin. I've bought some really fine gold thread and some gold beads to knit with it, hopefully into a scarf ...


I've started to spin some handdyed pale blue BFL to ply with the free range colour I spun earlier and its going well ...


and these are going to be my new stripy 'migraine' socks to wear in bed when my head is killing me and my feet are like blocks of ice ...


had a BAD migraine from Wednesday to Saturday morning. Its 'cause I couldn't tolerate the higher dose of gabapentin (> 2700 gives me awful muscle pains and swelling) so saw GP and I'm going to stay on gabapentin at tolerable dose (2100 - 24oo mg) as it helps with the migraine pain and I've started another anti convulsant called lamitrogine which apparently can really help with the aura and stopping actually getting the migraines ..... so here we go again. Feeling a bit spacey today and hungry but hopefully that will wear off ...

I've finally finished spinning the Free Range BFL I got from Dragon Fibers on etsy.com. It seems to have taken forever. Now I have to spin the BFL I dyed pale blue to ply with it. I'm hoping I'll get a lot of yardage out of this and that the pale blue I dyed does not overwhelm this bobbin too much.


I also managed to get a few more rows of my cabled jacket knitted today. I adore the colour and are really happy with how its knitting up. I adore knitting cables.


I'm finally getting over the flu - like virus I've had. Man I was ill over the weekend. Didn't know where to put myself. And because I've lowered the dose of Gabapentin the swelling in my legs has gone down and I am actually awake!

Don't read this if you don't want to hear me moaning yet again.

I'm feeling really really unwell so have dropped the dose of gabapentin again. Woke up with really swollen legs and ankles and getting breathless really easily which is a known side effect of this drug. Feel really shite. Have spent every day this week in bed as so tired except for Friday when went to see Cardiologist specialist nurse about my operation - did all the pre-op stuff and she is going to try and get me in in next couple of weeks. Au secours! and I came back from that appt. and went straight to bed again.
Sick of being sick and sick of moaning about being sick lol.

Its our wedding 11th anniversary today, 14 years since we first went out. And Mike's best man came over from Holland and they've gone out on their motorbikes (the 'girlfriends') for the day. Really glad Mike is having a good day out. He must get fed up with me being sick all the time.
Luke not feeling 100% so we've had a day of watching films and eating popcorn. And trying to make 3D cardboard Star Wars figures. Yes, me with my befuddled brain trying to follow instructions. Needless to say R2D2 has no legs yet at this point in time.

I dyed some BFL earlier in the week - the blue one is to be spun and plyed with the bird's egg coloured roving I am spinning at present ... which is taking forever because I'm managing to spin it a lot more finely.
The amber one is to be spun and will be sock stripes with the lovely Chica roving I spun earlier and the yellow one is to be plyed with the roving in the previous post - it may be a bit pale tho.


I've decided that I'm going to make myself some fingerless gloves with the lovely alpaca yarn that Helen gave me in the spinner's swap - I'm hoping to use the sequinny (is that a word?) one around the cuffs for a bit of winter bling.


Sparky has taken up residence in the washing basket.


Rosie is not sure whether this is allowed.


And I've been feeling really unwell for past two days. I thought I'd just got Mike's bug he had last week but it turns out I have a raging dental abscess so am on antibiotics - funny thing is I'm not in much pain thanks to the nerve pain killing side effects of the anti-convulsants. So they are good for something then. The dentist is worried I may get endocarditis due to heart defect so hoping it doesn't happen. Like really hoping it doesn't happen.

I've had the most awful fecker of a migraine since Wednesday night. Boy it hurt. but its starting to pass now. God only knows whether Luke got himself any breakfast this morning. Mike had to leave for London really early - Luke woke me at half eight. I got up, put him in the car, let him out at school and was back in bed inside of 8 minutes.
So I'm going to have to put my sunglasses on and go and pick him up looking like death warmed up. I'm sure some of the other Mums think I am an alcoholic as I look so awful sometimes ... and I've been know to be sick in the hedge on the way out of school. How embarassing is that?

My fab mother in law came over at some point during the morning and took Rosie out for a walk - I only know this because she was very wet when I finally came downstairs so had obviously been taken out for a swim somewhere. That woman is a saint, I tell ya.

I bought this lovely roving from Spindlefrog. I managed to do some dyeing on Tuesday and one of the ones I dyed was some lemon yellow to ply this with. I also dyed some pale blue to ply the birds egg coloured one I am currently spinning. I adore this new one tho. It is just so vibrant.