More Sheep Stuff

Did I share this view with you already? I certainly meant to show you the summer view from HQ. I had to get out with the secateurs yesterday and prune some of the undergrowth from the side windows - it was in danger of becoming overgrowth instead!

It's been a busy weekend what with the Border Union Show and a lovely sunny craft fair at Harestanes today. I had talented illustrator Lynne's company and once our stalls were set up, she whisked her knitting needles out and I set to with needle and thread. We had a productive day in between the customers...!

Here are my latest yarns, spun, washed, dried and ready to be twisted into skeins and labelled up. The pink + dark Cheviot one is a scrumptious blend of shades and I'd quite like to keep it for myself.
And this cheeky ewe? She's the cover girl for the new Crossing Borders Art Trail booklet. The Art Trail this year is split over two weekends - 2/3/4 Sept for the East side of the Borders and 9/10/11 Sept for us Westerners. Get yourself to the Crossing Borders website to learn more or leave me a comment or e-mail and I'll post you a booklet with details of all the open studios you can visit.

Hugh and I will be on our best behaviour and look forward to meeting as many new faces and old friends as possible. There will be coffee and cake and artwork and no doubt some cheek too...

Happy Mondays

They don't always turn out as planned but today was a fine example of a day off. It still involved bits of work because they sneak in anyway, but it feels different when you are choosing to do stuff. And at the moment, carding and spinning are a little addictive. I had company in Tart HQ yesterday which was lovely. We put the world to rights over coffee and fleece. I had combed and teased out some of the black Cheviot and I was easily persuaded to incorporate some into otherwise solid shades of tops. Here you can see a bundle of clean fleece with a mixture of pink shades spun on the bobbin. I made quick rolags with added Cheviot and they have given the pink an interesting depth. This morning I started a second bobbin of a mauve shade of merino with added soya fibre and cut dyed linen as highlights. They'll get plied together this week and I'll show you the finished washed skein in due course.Yesterday being such a fine day, I also got the first of the Blue Texel washed and this second pic shows the variation in shades in one half of one fleece. It's very dense but fine and I look forward to combing some and spinning it.

The general aim is to do some walking on Mondays and there was no excuse today. We strolled a simple little loop - over the Tweed via the pedestrian chain bridge at Melrose, along the riverbank, across Lowood Bridge (this is the view from the bridge looking towards Galashiels) and back along the other bank. The hot weather necessitated the consumption of ice-cream on our return to Melrose. Back home, a few more jobs done and then dog-walking time again. (Yes, they'd have loved to have come with us today but our water-loving dogs and fishermen paying large sums of money to fish the river do not mix.)

Sheep Dip

I have acquired some interesting fleeces - a black Cheviot and Blue Texels. They are much softer and finer than I was expecting so I have been awaiting a dry day to start getting them clean. Today's the day for the Cheviot, and as you can see from the pic of part one soaking in the bath, it really is dark. Some of the rest is decidedly grey but I'll see how it spins up.

Above are three fine old Penguin paperback covers which I couldn't resist sharing with you. The Book of Toys one is rather cool, and the fairground horses are classic folk art - I love 'em!

Grabbing the sunshine....

I've got lots of lovely shades of merino tops in stock now for spinners and felters and anyone who enjoys messing about with fibre. I'm happy to supply titchy quantites so you can experiment without breaking the bank.

Thunderbolts and lightening today, and now a weak sun is poking its head out of the clouds. Not ideal for picture-taking, so here instead are a couple from the beginning of the week when we enjoyed a walk at Selkirk. We parked at The Waterwheel and headed up a track through the Philiphaugh Estate. The views were glorious, the peace delightful. Rejoining the road, we strolled past the rugby ground and took the track by the old mill lade. This brought us nicely back to The Waterwheel where we had lunch in the sun. A jolly fine day off.

Lest there be any doubt,

Midge and Ash are enjoying the sunshine...

Farewell June...

.... you didn't linger long, did you? Gone in a flurry of showers and fleeting blossom, washing on the line that got wetter instead of drier, a ceilidh, a party, a fine Woolfest and much painting of walls.

What have I got to show for it? Well, last weekend some friends and I decorated the village hall with real and paper flowers and bunting. That evening we enjoyed a lovely party there to celebrate the retirement and major birthday of a very fine friend and neighbour. It really is a privilege to live here among such good and fun-loving people! The next day I was not fit for all that much but I did make a few similar paper flowers with old sewing patterns.And this? I gathered in a sweet little old style Clothkits skirt at a local jumble sale a year or two back. Said fine friend had made it for her daughter and loved the design. I decided to make her a coffee cosy from it and this was me starting out, quilting it with running stitch.


I have finally acquired enough shades of merino fibre to be able to offer small quantities for sale. So if you are felting or embroidering or otherwise messing about in a creative way with colour, do pop in and select as little as you like - my scale weighs in 2gm intervals!

My latest lovely buttons are printed mother-of-pearl ones which you can see bottom left in this pic (which will enlarge if you click on it, as will they all).


And the lovely fibre in the top heart picture? Well I had a grand time at Woolfest, good company on the drive there and back and catch-ups with friends as well as a little light purchasing. This is dyed alpaca, from Whitby!

Summer Blues

Been decrepit since Monday but slowly getting better. So much going on this week and I have already missed half of it.
Woolfest beckons, though, so I have to be mended by Friday for my annual textile treat. And I have two passengers this year who have never been before so I can't let them down.

Here are my new doghouse and henhouse lavender bags, and shock horror, I have started restocking my Folksy shop

Birds and Dogs

Do not be misled by this image. It may appear to depict two well-disciplined domestic dogs wandering quietly down a forest track. In reality they are exercising their well-honed skills of sniffing out smelly dank ditches, previously gnawed and discarded deer legs and other irresistable trophies under the guise of minding-their-own-business.

Happiness is a large stick and some muddy puddles.


On a cleaner note, here are my latest paper creations. I'll be off with my wares to Jedburgh on Sunday for a little craft fair at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill -a Fathers' Day Special!

Flower Power

A kind friend presented me with treasure trove a little while ago. I don't know the history and I am not sure she does, but she was gifted a wonderful set of embroidery threads, all stored neatly in carefully stitched fabric rolls. I have not counted the skeins but there are scores of them. This was a serious embroidery habit. When L decided she was unlikely to undertake more embroidery herself, she passed them on to me. I feel privileged to own them now and love to look at the individual colour selections and imagine what stitchery took place over so many years.

From the sublime to the simple - a few flowers in a paper vase. One of a bunch of flower cards I made recently. Ande here's a mocked-up vase of felt flower and heart brooches. The vase has been depleted since I snapped this as several sold at the Food and Craft Fair at St Boswells last Saturday. There was a grand range of makers displaying their wares, from hats to homebakes, bags to artisan bread. I don't think any stallholder was immune to the glorious aromas emanating from that corner of the hall, and most went away with a loaf or two (yup, two in my case). Julia had done a fantastic job of organising the event and is maybe planning a pre-Christmas one too.

B&W

I lead a colourful life, surrounded by fibre and fabric, paper and pencils, but sometimes you just can't beat black and white.
Here's a little agricultural sampler from Northumberland County Show which we enjoyed on Bank Holiday Monday.

High Drama

I had intended posting today, but not quite this...

'Twas yesterday when I was out and about in Haddington (Peter Potter Gallery) and St Boswells (Tweedside Gallery), that Hugh's plans for the afternoon were shelved rather rapidly....
He'd lit the stove and gone on to do other things. When he returned to the kitchen there were lots of sparky noises emanating from said stove. Outside the road was thick with smoke. He moved dogs from kitchen (sensible man) and called the Fire Brigade.

Two hours later the fire in the chimney was extinguished. There was no internal damage. They advised Hugh to have the chimney swept again (it was only done a month ago) before lighting the fire. So that was duly booked for Monday

This morning before breakfast I investigated the occasional ticking noise from the stove and lo, the flue pipe was warm to the touch. There were wisps of smoke emerging from the chimney.

After a little contemplation, and breakfast, the Borders' finest firefighters were summoned once more. Green Watch from Hawick came rushing to the rescue, lights flashing, sirens scaring sheep and cattle for miles around. The fire had reignited from a pile of soot in a recess in the chimney (That's the short version of the saga). Another two hours elapsed as water was trickled down the chimney, the stove pipe was removed, a hole in the wall chipped out with a hammer and cold chisel, and the offending soot removed.

The fire is out. I am fairly confident of that. Green Watch departed with a dozen eggs for their lunch (they'd already missed breakfast on another call, I think). Now we await the loss adjuster appointed by our insurers before we can think about finding someone to fix us back together again...

We were very fortunate. It's only after the event that you start to consider the might-have-beens...

Stitchery

I finally finished off some cushions. The stitchery part is the enjoyable bit. The tidying it up and making it into a cushion cover, and making a pad to fit (if it's not a nice easy square) is rather less enthralling. But at least the flowery linen one above and the rose heart below are done and off my list. This fabric was a present from Katie and was surprisingly difficult to work with as it has a bit of stretch in it and kept blunting my needles. But the two cushions do show you the lovely effects of using variegated cotton perle thread (available at a very reasonable price from a Tart near you...)

Today was wet and windy, which made it a fine choice for a Woolgathering. Ali and Anne, Janet and Tricia, Jakki and Lizzi and I sewed and knitted and braided and finished off various projects very happily in the village hall. Anne had brought a huge stack of knitting magazines that she'd finished with so we went away with a collection to read through. And we are looking forward to Woolfest at the end of next month and wondering what we'll succumb to this time. At Harlow Carr I didn't only photograph tulips - the little potting shed had been painted a lovely sky blue inside and hung with old but serviceable garden tools. And who can resist auriculas? Though it does seem an odd choice for Douglas Bader, unless there's a hidden connection. You'd think he'd have merited a plant that was reaching skywards rather than these little titches...

Smitten...

....by tulips...Hugh and I were down in the East Riding of Yorkshire last weekend. We stayed at a very fine B&B and had a day exploring on the Friday. First we headed to the coast to admire the birdlife on the cliffs at Bempton. The gannets were majestic, the fulmars slightly scary and the puffins were just lovely! We only saw them on the wing but they are such chubby little critters that they really don't look like they ought to stay aloft at all.After a sojourn further down the coast to Hornsea we decided that kiss-me-quick and amusement parks (closed) were not for us and headed off to Beverley. I hadn't been before and thought it a lovely town with great architecture.The main reason for the trip was the LRO Land Rover Show at Driffield. Hugh has long wanted to go and it was a birthday treat. We had a grand time there on the Saturday. Next day we visited Harrogate en route to stay with friends. We visited RHS Harlow Carr which the RHS describe thus- Harlow Carr is a garden dominated by water, stone and woodland and is very much part of the surrounding Yorkshire landscape. We seek to push the boundaries of design and planting styles, creating displays that are beautiful but sometimes provocative. Careful gardening techniques, reflecting our respect for the environment, ensures that wildlife will flourish in the garden.
I liked the whole place but the tulips stole my heart - well, them and the leaf mould teapot!