Trying to be a good blogger.

.. and post more often.

Max, my stud alpaca, has an abscess on his foot. It's nasty and he needs treatment 3 times a day. This was okay when he was feeling very sorry for himself and slow, but after 5 days it's a bit better and he's thinking he doesn't want to put his foot in a bucket of betadine solution and keep it there for 5 minutes, then let me squeeze any gunk out then have an IM injection of penicillin. Nope, he doesn't want to do that anymore. And I can't put much effort into holding him with this pesky rib. So it's down to once a day now. Although he is weight bearing and not hobbling anymore, it is obviously still very sore and still producing muck, but I am trying to irrigate it with normal saline (salt solution) rather than put pressure on it.

Tomorrow is a big day, vets ( I really hope it is more than one), are coming to carry out the TB and brucellosis test on the alpaca prior to moving them back to the UK. We've already cancelled them coming once as there were more cases of F&M, and there has been another one over the weekend. They are all in the same area but we are taking a chance that in a months time we will be able to ship them. If not, we have to start the process again. And look for somewhere temporary to house them here as we should move out by November 15th. Oh, and alpaca do not have their veins in the same place as cows and horses and I really really hope the vet's have done their homework. I can't tell them where as I've not seen it done before and my efforts to find diagrams on the web have failed, all I've had is a description of where from other 'paca owners. It's done all the time in the UK and US, I just can't help but be a worry guts at the moment.

This to, shall pass.

Whoops a daisy

 

These are my ribs, one of them is broken. It's not displaced so it's very difficult to see, (10th on the left). I don't have a light box and my scanner isn't connected, so had to make do with the window, hence the view of the alpaca behind, neat.

Yes, it does hurt and it's a damn nuisance when I should be packing.

I slipped on the stairs when I was carrying a skein of handspun and noticed a grass seed in it, went to pluck it out and, whamn. Our stairs are just wood, no covering, and the edge of the treads are sharp. But I can still spin so it's a great opportunity to catch up without feeling I should be getting on with a lot of other chores. And of course I'm excused alpaca poo-collecting! And I'll try to blog more lol.

Only 2 months to go ....

..... until we move out.

I can't believe it is happening really. From feeling we would never find a buyer to suddenly having to sort a mountain of stuff. We are not really into to full sorting and packing mode as weddings, family gatherings and holidays are getting in the way. We are well on the way to sorting out the exporting of the alpaca back to England though because this is dependent on getting the correct licenses, certificates and testing on the alpaca syncronised.

We've found a place for the alpaca at Alpaca Power in south Gloucestershire; we visited last week and really liked the set-up and the owner's approach to alpaca care. Now we are trying to make sense out of the exporting requirements - we can't track them down in the French system! We've asked our vets, searched the web, finally rang the department's veterinary service today, and finally it is becoming clearer. I've found a carrier, it will cost a lot of money but it is well spent to know that they will be traveling with people who are used to caring for animals on long road trips.

Pictures:

Wedding: E's son Sam, and his bride Lydia, they are a lovely couple, the weather was awful but it didn't prevent them and us, from having a fabulous day.







I like this photo of the bridesmaids, they were just outside the door of the church and I was well inside, it was taken using the zoom on my little camera. Although the picture quality is poor, I cropped it and added even more graininess. I think it's lovely, imho.


And this is what the weather was like!!

Bugger

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, my mind has been totally distracted by other stuff.

I'll be brief.

We have sold our farm.

The suddenness of it caught me by surprise, two visits (the second with a tape measure, always a giveaway), first a silly offer then following quickly on the heels of our guffaws a sensible one. We signed contracts within a week.

We have agreed to complete the purchase on 31st October.

The dog and cat will not have valid passports (so that they can travel within the EU without quarantine) until mid February 08. Duh.

For pets to have a passport they need to have a rabies jab, then a blood test 30 days later. If that shows they have immunity, the passport is issued 6 MONTHS FROM THE DATE OF THE TEST. It makes no difference, apparently, if the pet has had regular rabies jabs for 3 years. You have to wait 6 months. After that then the animal can come and go at anytime, they just need to keep up with the rabies vaccinations. This is every 2 years in the UK, annually in France, 3 years in neigbouring Belgium - it's nonsense.

I don't know why I haven't had them done, I know the rules, we knew we were going to move sometime, there is no reason why I shouldn't have just popped down to the vets and had the test. But I didn't. I sort of thought we wouldn't sell the farm for months and months and then it would be 6 months before we moved out.

But, I think things will work out okay. We were going to rent a house in the UK initially in order to take our time house hunting. So we will just rent in France, it's cheaper anyway. There is also the potential threat of foot and mouth disease in the UK with all ruminant animals banned from any transportation. Unless this is lifted by early October I wouldn't be able to move the alpaca back anyway. I'm sure the spread of the disease will be contained this time unlike back in 2002, but if it isn't it won't be a problem, we can rent a place with land here.

I can go on at length about foot and mouth, I will another time.

For the people who think this is a knitting blog....



This is supposed to be a Clapotis for Sam. It's in Sea Silk from Fleece Artist in the Woodland colour way. I love the way the yarns look in the hank. I hate the way this is knitting up. I find it so disappointing that knitting does these type of hand painted yarns absolutely no favours at all - in my very humble opinion. I'm trying to think of how these beautiful hanks can be shown off to advantage. I think weaving is perhaps the best way - this obviously not what they are designed for, and a very expensive option, these yarns are not cheap. Perhaps used for stranded knitting with another plain yarn which picks up one of the main hues might work. I will just have to try it to see if it works. In the meantime I don't know whether to finish the Clapotis and hope Sam likes it, or rip it out now. I wait and ponder.....

Noro Cashmere Flavor

You probably know this already, but I've just stumbled upon this beautiful yarn! It's actually a knitting machine yarn, and works out at 900mtrs for 100gs. Makes a stunning lace weight.



You can buy it online here, home of the Secret Knitting Podcast.

The I found the complete shade card here. The trouble is I've just ordered two lots of Seasilk to knit a couple more Clapotis'. I can dream.

Dreams are made of this..

Our (well okay, my thoughts) are straying to maybe, when we move, perhaps, buying a motorhome and spending some time on the move. Maybe it's a reaction to spending the last 3 years 8 months more or less rooted to the spot. I do love to travel and would like to spend a lot of time really exploring the UK. Some may think after someone has lived there for 50 years + there can't be much left to see, but not so. One thing about the UK, especially England, is the landscape and general style can change within a few miles. There is just so much going on. Finances won't let us run to a luxury model such as the Knaus above, and to cope with tiny roads and difficult parking something like this may be more useful...


for sale here
I am spending too much time browsing motorhome websites, especially the forums where you get user's views and not just advertising speel. My knowledge base is expanding into previously unknown territory. For instance, I bet you don't know what a SOG loo is do you! That's one of the downsides of motor homing eliminated.

I'm on Ravelry!

Woo hoo! I put my name down here weeks ago but when I read there were 9000 in the queue I shrugged my shoulders and forgot about it. Then I got the invitation email just now, so that's my evening sorted.

Ages ago I finally got around to knitting a Clapotis



I'd resisted for some time, having swatched a bit I didn't really like the reverse side. Then needing a summer weight shawl/scarf I chose some fine mercerised crochet cotton sold in the supermarket, only 6 euros for 750 metres! I used 3.5mm needles so did a few more diagonals to compensate before the straight section. It came out definitely a scarf and not a shawl as it is long and narrow, having a natural tendency to elongate.

The yarn is very light and I thought the drape would be enhanced with a bit of weight on the ends so I added some beads on a crocheted edge - I also continued a single crochet along the long sides.

It makes a very nice scarf, the cotton softened and bloomed a bit after washing which made it even nicer. Another time if I use the same yarn I would knit it about 20% wider. My daughter Sam liked it so much I am going to knit her one in Seasilk from Coloursong, she's chosen the Woodland colour way.

I wove!

I have a small Harris, sampling loom. It's used rarely, my one and only previous attempt ended in disaster when I attempted to dress the loom with sticky and rough thin silk yarn (cheap in a sale...) That went in the bin. I've always thought that my handspun wouldn't be strong enough for a warp, but I realised that the combined strength of several threads probably would be, something Deborah Chandler pointed out. Plus you can buy knitting looms specifically for knitting yarn, and, finally, I really do have to pull hard to break a plied yarn that I've spun from alpaca, much more so than the equivalent with wool. All this preamble leads me to this!



I am inordinately pleased with it, it's really very ordinary and full of mistakes. Intended as a scarf, I soon realised it wasn't going to be long enough so half way through I started playing with other yarns and patterns. I learnt so much from doing it and enjoyed the learning, rather than feeling frustrated. I think because my errors were typical beginners ones and once I realised where I had gone wrong they were simply solved. I don't think I will ever be a true weaver, I am not one of those people who describe the first time they sat at a loom as finding their true vocation, but I can actually see an alternative use for my yarn now and will definitely do it again.

I will make a separate page of the whole process with more pictures at some point, it will be long and boring but a good record for me, and will give you the option of skipping it!

One more thing,

Dear Blogger (Beta), I've been slow with praise and quick to criticise in the past, mainly because you could be a RPITA most times, but thank you, from the bottom of my heart for introducing the 'automatic save' feature. (((((hugs)))))

I need a holiday

I want a holiday. We haven't had a holiday for 4 years. Okay, I did get to cycle for 10 days with my mate Annette last year so, yes, I suppose that definitely was a break. But I want one of those lie by the pool in the sun and then wander down to the bar in the evenings type of holiday. Without other people to consider (God I'm just so horrible!). But you know what? If someone waved a magic wand and we were off on a holiday to Crete next week, you know what my first thought would be?

Bugger, much weight can I lose in 5 days.....

Introducing ...

Lu Lu. She's a mate for Brian, hopefully they will have eggs together!

The first time she was let out after about 10 days she wandered around for an hour, then flew off. Cursing ourselves for being over confident she would stay, we searched but couldn't find her. All we could do was hope she would find her way to her previous home. Then early one morning a couple of days later, I spotted her amongst the long grass, I guess she'd been around all the time, making us feel rotten. She's a lot more cautious than Brian and kept to the far corners of our farm, but slowly she's become more confident and now wanders around with the rest of the hens. It has had the desired effect on Brian of reducing his deafening call, but it's not stopped completely. And he still sits on the roof of the car and chases us down the drive when we go out!

The Summer Solstice June 21 2007 18:06 GMT

I love midsummer, stone circles, dawn. Perhaps I'm a druid.









Photo by KimM-O

Yup, I'm old

The day before yesterday, Asda (large chain of British supermarkets (now owned by Walmart?)) announced that sales of clothes pegs had risen by 1000%. This was attributed to the increasing awareness of global warming and that, perhaps, you could forsake the dryer and dry your clothes out of doors.

Then yesterday, two separate channels ran items about HOW TO HANG YOUR WASHING OUT. I remember that a colleague once related a story, of how her neigbour turned down her offer to use said colleagues washing line when the neigbours dryer had broken (this was summer) with a snooty "but that's like a peasant". Peasants? Is it me?

The weather here has been wet, very wet. We had a long, grey wet winter, then April was absolutely glorious. We started to make contingency plans for watering the garden, saving grey water, maybe buying a pump for the well. But from May onwards, it's been 90% wet. It's still been getting warmer so the humidity is very high and we get thunderstorms. The hay can't be made, after seeing the grass go to early seed in April, now it can't be cut and dried. And the torrential rain is flattening it.

The little cria, now called Consuela for posh and Connie for short, very soon learnt how to dash for the field shelter. She's doing very very well, the best thing is just to watch her in the evening sprinting at top speed around the paddock, and yesterday she was even pinging, or pronking I've heard it called. It's a sort of effortless bounce on all four feet at once, they seem to just flick their feet, with hardly any movement in their legs, heads and tails up, they do it when they're happy.

Consuela 11th June 2007

 
The picture is from left to right, Sandie, clever mum, Connie and aunty Lissie, who can't help but poke her nose in.

Warning, contains icky stuff.
A brand new cria arrived yesterday morning. I don’t know if I will ever get through a birth without worrying myself silly. The dam, Sandie, has been having practice contractions where a definite bulge appears under her tail for weeks now. A week ago a very large bulge appeared and I grabbed birthing box expecting her to produce a cria then and there. But not Sandie, she continued to do this for several days. In the morning, there would be some large bulging from her rear and then by the afternoon she would go back to normal size. I was beginning to worry, 'is this normal? Is the cria too big? Has she a torsion??!!' I tried to rationalise my fears, she's eating normally and seems completely relaxed, so I should just be patient, but surely it must happen soon? Then yesterday morning Sandie was behaving differently, she was last up to the hay, and didn’t come down for ‘breakfast’ – oddly, the gran of the bunch, Margo, was keeping her company, I’ve never known Margo miss food – mid morning we had serious protuberances from her rear end, her vent was elongated, she rolled, went to the poo pile several times, but still nothing. I was pacing around wondering when, if, I should call a vet. Then at lunchtime I checked and there was ‘something’ on the ground behind her, and yes, a cria half delivered! Now alpaca do this funny thing of walking around for a while with a half born hanging from their rear end, but Sandie didn’t get up, and I could see she was having contractions but the cria wasn’t progressing. I gave a slight pull and there was a lot of resistance so I backed off and waited, Sandie got up, nothing, then she laid down again, dragging the cria’s head in the dust. All of this time the cria is sticking out of her rear end making gurgling noises, it is still attached via the umbilical cord and is receiving oxygen, so it’s okay although it looks damn awkward. The contractions didn’t seem to be doing anything so I caught hold of the cria’s legs and this time very gentle traction got her 90% out, I left the rest for mum to do and another few seconds and the cria was out, very mobile and SHE, WOOPEE, A GIRL!!! struggled up to kush position very quickly. Then the heavens opened and I had to pick her up and carry her to the shelter. Very soon she was up and wobbling around, and feeding within 3o minutes. Brilliant work.
Sigh, now I can almost relax. I did have a brandy, well two, small ones….

But you can never completely relax with newborns around….

Sandie is proving to be a very attentive mum, a very different attitude to the one she had for her fated boy 2 years ago who eventually died.

I think the cria is going to be called Consuela, nickname Connie….

Candy floss

I dyed this.
My Method Pre-soaked the roving in a large container with lots of water with vinegar and a drop of washing up liquid added. Then after several hours removed the wool, add a very weak solution of magenta acid discharge dye, swish it around and replace the wool. Leave to settle. Then with a 5ml syringe squirt a few mls of stronger pink and even smaller amounts of turquoise deep into the wool under water, be sparing and random. The dye pools, and doesn't bleed far from where you put it. Start to heat very very slowly over about 45 minutes up to the temperature you normally dye at. Continue as normal. I didn't stir the roving at all. I like the effect a lot. I'm into subtle now.

Then spun and plied it...



and swatched..

I really love this stitch pattern, start with an even number of stitches, K1 *yo, k2tog* k1. Every row - yes, even the wrong side row, that's how it works. It's not as fast as I thought it would be to knit up as the needles need a bit of manipulating to do the K2tog, you are knitting into the YO k2tog of the row below, and not purling as you often do. And just don't drop a stitch, they just disappear and are almost impossible to pick up.
It's going to be a shrug for Molly, I've 340 yards so I think it should do. I started to do a cuff to cuff version but I just don't like vertical stripes, and there are subtle ones in this, so I've ripped it and I'm now doing a front to back. I wondered if it's possible to do short rows to get a narrower sleeve sections, but as the fabric is very stretchy and should conform around Mol's little bod I don't think I will this time, not wanting to give myself the stress of ripping again if it doesn't work. I'm intrigued with the the idea though, so I might just try it on a doll sized garment to see how it goes.

Happy Easter!

It's set to be a glorious weekend here, the freezing cold wind has dropped and we are blessed with clear blue skies and temperatures around 16C which is very warm for us this time of the year.

The comment link disappeared on the last post, thanks to Little Critter Keeper for flagging it up. I was investigating then posted this and I see they are back! Just the one post it seems was affected. Poor old Blogger.

Okay, I'll spin then

I took some superwash wool which I picked up some years ago from Wingham WoolWork, then dyed it. The sliver striped into 5 separate strands very easily which helped to achieve the random, blobby effect, which of course was entirely intentional.

Then spun it up with quite a lot of twist as I wanted to Navajo ply it and still have a 'fingering' type yarn.



This is the swatch I did. There are approx 18 wpi and this is on 2.5mm needles.



I found it quite tricky to handle the fine single while plying. I don't have a tensioned lazy kate but adapted the Majacraft's bobbin box by tying cord around it and in the bobbin's grove which did put enough tension on it. I found it tricky to adjust the take up and one minute was feeding in to quickly, then slowed to a stop. So the number of plying twists aren't consistent and I noticed afterwards that the lower number of twists, the more it allows the plys to spring out and increase the diameter of the yarn. So, more twists gave me a snug, fine, cabled looking yarn, less twist, a fluffier yarn. There wasn't a problem with the yarn twisting Z or S either in the different sections so it seems I was probably at either end of the limits of the number of plying twists the single needed. An interesting light-bulb moment and one to put in my spinning records.

Now, I've 80grms, just enough for those small foot coverings..

Pride comes before...

See this sock?



Cute isn't it, it's for my 3 year old granddaughter, Emma.

Second sock is coming along nicely. I was especially impressed with the way I had the gusset decreases flow from the pattern, I wondered why I didn't think of that with the first sock (it's my own pattern). I didn't make notes because I always think I will remember and anyway, you can always squint at the first sock to work out what you did..



After a few rounds I counted stitches, umm, still a few rounds to go, usually there by now.

I haven't worked it out yet have I.

The sodding decreases work so well with the pattern because they are still part of the pattern, paired with a Yarn Over.

On the first sock I must have decreased for the gusset after the decrease for the YOs.

Rippit Rippit.

May as well rip the whole sock as this one is coming out larger as I've loosened up over the pattern. But, I suppose I should rip this one back to the heel and rip out the first one, as it's very unlikely I can make the second sock tighter.

Bum

Oh, and the bread is there because I was having a bad morning and I had to eat something.

Habadashery P**n

I could spend a whole day in a good dressmaking shop, handling the fabrics, drooling at buttons, salivating at trimmings, throbb- okay, I'll stop, but you know what I mean.

Well, almost as good is looking at MacCulloch & Wallis' web site. The photography is stunning!

One of their silk and velvet roses in the bridal section;



The hat blocks are so beautiful I'd like one just to look at and touch.



Go look at the bridal section and click on the flowers! Look at the buttons, and closures! Magnetic closures, leather trimmings, gasp. And the wool fabrics, so beautiful, wonderful colours, but very pricey as they are made in England.

As Brenda Dayne moaned in her blog a couple of weeks back, the UK has lost most of it's dressmaking and haberdashery outlets years ago. But, we do still have John Lewis', where you can buy fabric and notions. However there are only 25 stores in England and Scotland, (I've just been to their website and counted, more than I thought actually). But, there are none in the Southwest or Wales and you have to visit their Oxford street store in London for the greatest choice of fabrics. Some larger towns still have a fabric shop, where you will have a limited choice of buttons, including fish-eye plastic, where would we be without those, plain zips, a bit of Vilene and some velcro.

But MacCulloch's, I'm in heaven. When I get back to England that is one place on my list to visit.

I think I've done a bad thing, I was busy looking at the pictures and saving the images - JUST SO THAT I COULD SHOW YOU - but all of a sudden my browser wouldn't display any more images on their site. I guess it can tell when people are copying? Oh dear, I'm embarrassed now....

Socks and gin

I'm on a quick visit to the UK to see my old Dad and Mum and came away from their house minus my holdall. It contained the cursed socks and a litre of gin. Nuff said.

The Curse of the Sock Knitter

These have a curse on them. I completed this sock, kitchenered, didn't like the 'ears' although I slipped the end stitches over the next one in, the toe still had definite corners to it. I fancied the sock wasn't as snug as I liked them so decided to frog it and try a toe up version 4 stitches smaller. I found a few patterns with gussets which I like and need as I have a high instep so off I jolly well went.

I think it took eight attempts at the figure of 8 cast on before I a)managed it at all and b) was happy with my increasing. For some reason the increases didn't look nearly as nice and symmetrical as my decreases did. Once I got going I knit the sock up to the heel and once completed didn't like that either. It seemed too shallow. Frogged again.

I went back to knitting downwards, got most of the leg done then - I always leave a reasonable tail to mark the beginning of the rounds, one particular tail was too long so I grabbed the scissors to cut it off and cut the working yarn instead. Frog.

I got as far as turning the heel but kept looking at my gusset decreases which didn't match well enough for me. Frog. Then on Knitter's Review there was a suggestion that for ssk slipping the first stitch knitwise and the second purlwise works well - and it does!

So for the umpteenth time started again, this time to avoid the 'ears' turned the sock inside out to finish. Now I have to use a crib sheet to kitchener, it saves me time. I tried to reverse the instructions in my head, dead loss. So I re-typed the instructions substituting 'back' for 'front' and 'purl' for 'knit'. When I'd finished half the toe was okay but I must have lost track as the second half had purl bumps. I tinked back and tried again. Same result. Shit.

By then I was ready to chop it up with the scissors. I tinked back, decreased several times in the last two rows, sewed it up, said 'that will do'. Off course, it wouldn't. So after leaving it for 24 hours, I've frogged, cast on the original number of stitches as decided I preferred ever so slightly loose to ever so slightly over stretched. I'm now on the home run. On separate needles I am going to do a toe, turn it inside out and practice reverse kitchener until I get it bloody right.