Daily Drivel

Baaaaaa!

I didn't manage to get any really nice photos of the hartline sheep last weekend but I do think they're quite pretty sheep with nice faces:

I'm hoping to have time to wash a bit of the fleece I got very soon so I can spinup a small sample.

We had our guild Christmas party yesterday which was fun. There was lots of chat, spinning, eating, knitting, more eating ;-) and we celebrated reaching 100 members! I made some little pasties and a stollen cake. I used quails eggs for the pasties, and wrapped them in cranberry sausagemeat stuffing. They turned out pretty tasty :-) Quails eggs are so cute:

The stollen turned out nice - although next time I think I'll make 2 or 3 thinner rolls of marzipan instead of using one big lump (which is howthe recipe said to do it). I made the dough in the bread machine, then kneaded in the rest of the butter and the fruit:



These pasties didn't make it through quality control after bursting open during cooking. They tasted fine - but they just looked too weird!!

Cough, splutter, sniffle...

I've got a horrid cold :-( It's very annoying. Started last week - on Tuesday I think. I felt better on Wednesday so thought it had gone. Oh no. It came back big time on Friday afternoon/evening and on Saturday morning I was feeling pretty yucky. I managed to drag myself out of bed to go and do the spinning demo I'd agreed to do for a local farmer for their open day. They have some pretty sheep. I took a few photos but I haven't sorted them yet - not even sure if they came out ok. I got a nice big fleece. It seems quite soft - it's only my 2nd fleece so I'm no expert - and it's a rather unusual rare breed (hartline) so I've not been able to find any information about whether the fleece is good for handspinning or not. It feels pretty soft and it's a bit crimpy too. I'm going to wash a bit as soon as I can and spin up a sample. I'm really hoping it turns out to be nice!

Sunday I was supposed to be spinning again but I felt too poorly so I spent the day on the sofa (I didn't even do any knitting!). Today I feel a bit more human but very chesty and short of breath. I've done very little today - just a bit of knitting really. Going to do a quick chicken stir fry for dinner. Hoping I might actually taste a bit of my dinner tonight. Couldn't taste anything yesterday. So - no life drawing for me tonight - but I will share a couple of my recent efforts with you :-) I still have a real problem with drawing peoples faces - maybe I should force myself to do a portrait course! Still, quite pleased with these:

I've decided not to enrol for life drawing again for next term. I might try and go to one of the 'open' life drawing sessions where you can just turn up. There are 2 or 3 not too far from me which I could go to. I'd like to try and go once a month, maybe twice. I'm going to do a short course in bookbinding in February. It's only 4 evenings so just a 'taster' really but I thought it would be fun. I bought a book last week ('handmade bookbinding' by Josep Cambras) - really on impulse as we were in Borders (I'm very sad they are closing) - I just liked the look of a lot of the projects in the book (which are not all bookbinding as such). I've already decided I need to try and make a nice portfolio to keep some of my drawings in. I also bought 'Intertwined' (spinning book) - I've wanted to get a copy for a while and it was a good price. It's a great 'coffee table' book as well as being a great resource.

 

Some sparkly things!

Please excuse my poor photos! I'll have to take some better ones when we get some light (it's horrid today - overcast, rainy and very windy!).

Here's a photo of my ring (sorry Laurel - I should have posted something with it to give it some scale!). I'm really pleased with it - even though it doesn't fit me. DOH!

I finished my copper sheep shawl pin this week too. Here it is 'in action' on my Damson shawl (bit blurry sorry!)

I'm definitely going to make some more shawl pins - I've got a few ideas I want to try out. I'm really loving the silversmithing - I can see myself investing in some tools etc. so I can do more at home :-) Another hobby - erm - maybe!

Here's a shot of some squishy yarn I spun up from a sparkly blue/pinky batt. It's n-plied and I've got an idea of what to use it for (there's about 50g).

I've been busy making some other things but I can't blog about them until after Christmas!

I spotted the woodpecker this morning grabbing a quick nutty breakfast! It was really windy overnight and has been nasty for most of the day so we've been quite lazy. The fire has been going all day. We've watched some rugby and I've done a bit of spinning and some knitting. A has been busy in the kitchen - he's made some rolls and there's a cake baking (which smells YUMMY!). I'm going to do a bit more work on my 'daybreak' shawl - it's going very slowly as I'm just fitting it in between working on a couple of other projects.

Owl sighting...

I saw a barn owl on my way home from a friend's tonight. I wasn't far from home and was wondering if I might see an owl - and a little while later a lovely barn owl flew across the road not far in front of me :-) Magic! I love seeing them.

Proof at last...

Finally got round to taking a photo of my progress with my first silversmithing project! It looks a bit odd but will be much better when it's had a good polish and looks nice and shiny! I've got to solder it together next lesson - should be finished soon.

I made a new orifice hook for my wheel today - would have been a lot easier if I could have found the small hammer which I know is hiding in the garage somewhere - but I was too impatient to spend long looking for it. I've made it so it fits my lace flyer (which the hook I got with the wheel doesn't). I just need to smooth the end of the hook down. Quite pleased with it - and it looks loads better than my other one.