It's not Friday, but here's some handspun yarn!

I had so much fun with this project, from start to finish. Hmm, I usually do with my spinning projects.
So, I took this fiber from FatCatKnits Day's End Fire on the Water, Polwarth:



and spun this yarn with it: 3.6oz, 2-ply, 400yds



It was so bouncy, that it would not stay in place for a photo, when I rolled it up.





I was so happy with this yarn, and that's why I decided to knit it up right away.
I found the Norby hat by Gudrun Johnston. I've been wanting to knit it for a while now. Love the design, and the finished hat too. Polwarth is such a lovely fiber.









I've knit the prim back and forth, instead of in the round, and closed it after the garter section, sewing the little gab shut, with the cast on end. I didn't increase after the prim, because I thought it was wide enough, but other than that I've knit it as written. I don't like to do tassels or pom poms although I love to have them on the hat(s). I started out working after the instructions in the pattern, but veered off soon enough. In the end I had one tassel, but attached with two strings. Well, lets just say I was glad it was attached, and didn't fall off.

♥

Summer Desserts

Throughout this summer I've enjoyed desserts with fruit, and some without. Here are a few examples:


Rasperries with banana and plain Greek yoghurt.


Pureed strawberries sauce with maple syrup and plain Greek Yoghurt. It really had this extreme color.


Strawberries and whip cream without the whip.



Almond/Coconut-Chocolate Chips Cookies, gluten free. Just something I threw together, and was surprised how well they held up and even tasted good.


Rasperries, bananas, shredded coconut, and unsweetened (as all my yoghurt is) plain Greek yoghurt.

And last but not least, a cream cheese cake, gluten free, with an almond crust (which got a little soggy over night, have to work on that one).



Now I'm hungry. I think I'm getting myself a bowl of yoghurt, berries and enjoy it out on the deck. Have to think hard who's turn it is to lick the bowl when I'm finished.

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Barndom - a test knit

At the end of May Stephen asked if I wanted to test knit another shawl. Do I ever! The pattern was released just recently, so now I can show my version of it here.











pattern: Barndom by Stephen West

yarn: Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Flashdance (420yds) and Amber Trinket (324yds): it was the first time for me using this yarn. It's wonderful to work with, and I loved both colorways. Even though they are not "my" colors, I like it, but it's going to be gifted anyway.

needles: 3.5mm

size: 25"deep x 75" wing span

start-finish: May 30 - June 4, 2021

mods: not really anything, except the edge is garter stitch and I made stripes with the CC color to use up most of the yarn

♥

I DO listen to Country Music, but ...

The last time I left the pups home alone, while I went shopping, I left he Country music channel on by accident.
That's what I found when I got back. ;o)




Can dogs cry? I think I saw tears in their eyes. Normally they watch the Space channel. I promise to not do this again, guys!
~
By the way, it looks like Fall is just around the corner!



Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
♥

Of course there's always an exception ....

As I said before, our dogs don't jump into the pool from the side, but use the stairs instead. That was true throughout the summer, until one evening, when I was swimming, and the pups, namely Denny, were not banned from being outside during that time. Because of course, he could not stand seeing me in the water, so he teetered for a while, before he made an ungraceful plunge to come and rescue me, whether I wanted it or not.

He is not the most confident swimmer, and does not enjoy it as much as the other two, but he likes to cool down, and has to retrieve his toys, when they are unlucky enough to be in that situation. Usually his first response is to look at me, and then look at the net, urging me with his high pitched barks to get it OUT, get it OUT already. If I don't, he has to jump in himself.

The funny thing is, that he would only jump in from the very same spot he did the first time, no other spot ever, and I have to encourage him to get his toy, to do it. Have a look. I had to through in his beloved squeeky toy several times to get the pictures, and after the last time, he gave me the evil eye, so I stopped. :o)


Still depating with himself if he should or shouldn't jump.




See how high the water splashed? It's like throwing in a sack of potatoes. Not very graceful, Denny!


Still klinging to the edge with curled toes. Hard to let go sometimes ... the landing looked like a painful belly flop. Happy is all excited about the whole thing, running in circles around the pool. He must have thought Deny to be so daring, and cool. ;o)


But he's got it!



He's had enough.

Hand carders!

Earlier this year I bought myself some Clemens cotton hand carders. I choose these for the fine teeth, even though I will only be using it with wool. I'm not interested in spinning cotton at the moment. I'm having so much FUN! I originally thought it would be tedious, and I might not like it, always having a drum carder in the back of my mind, but I was wrong! Besides, drum carders cost more than a spinning wheel, at least the one I would buy.


(Clemens curved cotton hand carders with FCK Sid & Nancy fiber club fiber.)

I love working with these. It doesn't take as long as I though it would, and I like spinning my little Rollags much more than I like the big batts. With these I also had to learn how to spin woolen, modified long draw, compared to my normal short forward draw with the commercial prepared tops I'm using. It's nice to know both now, and the resulting yarn is quite different. It's more bouncy, and fluffy, has more "air" in it. I am loving this so much.
This was one of my first handcarded finished yarn. I used a gifted batt from Shelby of Spinning Awesome Good, which was just over one ounce.

It turned into this little skein. It's only ~ 50 yds, worsted weight yarn, and it sparkles!

 

Next was some FatCatKnits fiber club fiber, from the famous couples, here is Sid & Nancy. Normally I love FatCatKnits fiber, but these two were not my favorites. So I didn't feel so bad using them to practice hand carding, which was a lot of fun. I know you get it, it's fun alright!



I especially didn't like Nancy, the pinkish/yellow one from this combo, so I used her first.
I made my little Rollags:


this is Sid though:


the resulting yarn:
darker Nancy:


lighter Nancy:


really dark Nancy:


and Sid:


Here they are all together: I chain plied them all. It's enough for a hat for sure. Hand carding does muddle up the colors, but I love the heathered look of them. Close up you'll find so many shades it's a joy to look for them. The yarn itself is a little bumpy, and uneven, and I can't get it thin yet. It's always around worsted weight, but that's O.K. for now.


I still have a lot of Sid fiber left over, since I only did about one ounce.
That's it for now. I've got more hand carded yarn to show, but I don't want to overload your brains! ;o)

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Juneberry Triangle Shawl

You guys know how to make a girl feel all warm and fuzzy! Thank you all for the warm welcome back!
♥
Last night, just before dark, the pups and I went into the backyard for a last run. I was standing there, Happy and Maggie beside me, when Denny started yapping, and I saw him chasing a bunny from one end of the backyard to the other. He was at least 2 meters behind the bunny at all times, no chance of getting close enough, and he knew it. He whined in frustration while running. Happy, Maggie and I were watching this with open mouths, it was funny.
But really, I'm pissed because of this suicidal bunny. Why, oh why does she have to have her babies in our backyard where there's always the possibility of three!!! dogs chasing her, and her offsprings? Early this summer, Denny found a nest, a badly made nest with two baby bunnies in them. For the next four days I tried to give the dogs space to run, but not go near that nest. The baby bunnies died anyway, with no fault of the dogs I might add. It made me sad.
Yesterday, Denny found another nest, totally inappropriate located out in the open, but at least with some bedding for the babies (no one home yet). Now I have to see that he doesn't dig it out every time we go outside, which is annoying. I don't want anyone getting hurt. Dumb Bunny mom. There's so many places outside our yard for nesting, but no, she needs to have some action in her life. Sigh. ~

O.K. back to knitting. I've finished this shawl back in April! Those of you on Ravelry might have seen it there already. I've got the pattern as a gift from the lovely Virginia. Thanks again! I love this pattern, and really would love to knit it again some day. It was fun from start to finish. Jared Flood writes great patterns.



pattern: Juneberry Triangle shawl by Jared Flood
yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, cheap wool, but this colorway is a lovely heathery color, which I love
        I used 4.3 balls of yarn = 468.7yds
size: it's not the biggest of shawls: 25" x 53"
needles size: 4.5mm
start-finish: March 21 - April 6, 2012











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Hi there! We are BACK!

Hallo, sweet readers! Boy, one can really get used to not thinking about blogging at all, but your lovely, inquiring emails about our well being, and whereabouts were enough to stir me back in the right direction. Since September is back to ... (insert the appropriate word here) month, I thought why not go back to blogging, it's now or never. So here we are. I've got lots of photos to share, so during the coming weeks I'll blog more often to catch you all up, on what I've been doing, and the pups of course, which are all well and accounted for. Here we go:


Happy takes his "alone time" with me quite seriously. Whenever I'm in the pool, and he's allowed in as well, he uses me as a island. Nothing else will do. I could not lift his 75lbs otherwise. He's quite content in my arms, big baby that he is.
The other two are bared from being outside, while I'm swimming, because of Denny's tendency to "rescuing me", which always comes close to drowning me. Maggie is just keeping him company to give Happy his alone time, he really needs.Oh yeah, and I hate my picture being taken, but I assure you, I'm smiling as wide as Happy does in this picture.


This year we were able to swim starting in May. Never before. We put up a puppy gate at the stairs, so we could keep the pups from jumping in when we didn't want them too. Somehow they thought the only way into the pool is through the stairs. I'm glad they don't know that it's possible to jump right in too.


Maggie and Denny: What do you think? Is it warm enough to go for a swim?



Maybe later.


I'm sure this is the way in, says Maggie.


Not! It's this way, says Denny.




Aaah, yes! Still cold though.

Well, that was a long Hallo! I hope you are all well, and enjoying your summer, which will be over sooner rather than later.
 ♥