Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The tale of a freebie fleece part the second

I can't, in my befuddled state, remember how much I have already said about my freebie fleece(s) so if I repeat myself, too bad. (Now, isn't that an improvement on saying "sorry"?)

It was free, there was a mountain of it.

Fleece mountain

It washed up very well - white and crisp.

Drying fleece

Sample locks, one combed, the other not, with a fifty pence piece for scale.

(no subject)

One of the things that I have been doing whilst besieged by builders and now the lurgy is spindle spinning some of it. (Lightish-weight Hatchtown Farm spindle.)

In progress

It was in such good shape, it was nice to spin, even though it is, it cannot be denied, coarse. Definitely not next to the skin stuff.

freebie fleece yarn

Then I actually knitted a small sample.

sample

I enjoyed doing all this, and it gave me a great deal of food for thought. (Of course, it is true that being in a somewhat weakened state what with the endless banging and clumping and clattering of the builders and the booming in my head from the cold, such thoughts may be ..... disordered, to say the least.) Be that as it may, I found myself considering the many things that could perfectly well be made from a fleece like this, walking socks, boot socks, blankets, gardening mitts for those damp chill days. I love contemplating the endless possibilities, just wish I could execute a few more of them!

And apropos of that...I have finished one of the silk socks and done the toe of the second. I am enjoying my sock marathon, too.

India asks when we leave for SOAR. Friday 20th October to an airport hotel, because I refused to get up at 2.30am to get to the airport from here and that saves a bit of time. The actual flight is early Saturday 21st October. Manchester to Paris, Charles de Gaulle, then on to San Francisco in one eleven hour long flight. Am I mad??? I have made it very plain that for our few days in the city, I need to be treated very, very carefully indeed. A few gentle tourist things and lots of coffee stops. It should be great, we have never "done" SF before, driven through a few times, but not stopped.

Then we are spending a couple of nights with friends before going to visit another friend on the way up to Tahoe City on 29th October. We are only doing a workshop at SOAR this year, going to spend a couple of days being tourists up there as well. After that, back over to the coast for five days in a yurt (with a wood-burning stove!)

This will all be extensively photographed and blogged when we get back, of course. I love boring people rigid with holiday snaps...

My head honcho builder tells me that we might have most of a roof back today! And tomorrow someone will make good the inside of the window. Could the end be in sight?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Nice to see your photos. And nice to get the roof done. Your roof is some kind of slate tiles? We don't have such labour intensive roofs here, just asphalt tiles that a home owner can put up. I suppose it is another example of building for the nonce or for the ages.

Dianna from SK

Sara said...

"50 pence piece for scale". Lovely. Next time, would you please put a dime next to the 50 pence piece, for scale? :-)

Leigh said...

Well, I wondered how big a 50 pence piece was too [lol]. But then I wondered if you all over in the UK would necessarily know the size of a dime. The freebie fleece is lovely, as is your spinning and knitting.