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.)