January Catch Up

I am doing January catch up at the beginning of February.  January is always a strange month after all the hype and run up to Christmas.  It is a time to pause and relax.  I do not make resolutions.  I not stop drinking or go on special diets.  I consider them a waste of time and life is too short.  I do have intentions and I have been working on those things that are actually important, like my health.  I have gone back to being vegetarian and eating more plant based foods as I do have high cholesterol and the medicines for that do not agree with me.  Although I haven’t lost any weight, I haven’t put any on either, and my digestion is much better.  I am  having fun trying different bread recipes and think I have found a method that works for me and my life style.

I am also working on going more green with my cleaning products and have been stocking up on things for when I use up what I have.  There is no point throwing away things you already spent the money on in the first place.  I have been following Nancy Birtwhistle on Instagram and purchased her books.  I already have loads of vinegar from feltmaking and have used it in my rinse cycle for years, so we are off to a good start. 🙂  I recently watched a documentary where the CEO of a well known UK eco friendly product range admitted that their products are not much better for the environment than other commercial products.  If that is the case, I might as well make my own, and for less money.

So, my intentions for this year are to work on my health, use more environmentally friendly cleaning products and do more crafting.  Oh, and have lots of fun of course!

My contract was supposed to finish at the end of January, but it has now been extended until the end of February, yay!  I have been doing this role for two years now!  I am a bit relieved that I don’t have to think about this again for another month.  Please note that I don’t get stressed about this as I have been temping for many years.

I did not go to the Guild meeting in January.  It was a spinning skills day and I really didn’t have anything to spin, nor did I have the time to just make up a few batts just to do some spinning.  I have noticed some issues with my hands lately and this month I was going to give them a rest.  I stayed home, did a few chores, and warped up two of my looms.

This is my 24″  Kromski.  I warped this and my 16″ SampleIt the same way. I am using a 5 dent reed as the warp is too chunky for the 7.5 dent. All of the yarns are handspun or cabled wool yarns.  The light yarn is Alpaca and the rest is Merino & Bling and BFL and another wool.  I wish I had another 16″.

I am using the above yarns and the ones below for weft.

They are mostly handspun or cabled yarns.  Browns are not a color that I usually work with.  I used to wear a lot of natural colors back in the day, and have realised that I need to add more of these colors to my wardrobe.

Here we are making slow progress.  I have woven about 10 inches in two weeks!  I am trying to make the panels the same, so I am weaving in tandem and writing everything down.  I am still on the browns.  I am hoping that this is going to turn out ok.

This is all I have been working on craft wise.  There is going to be another Fibre Fest on 1st of June that I will be at.  I won’t be making anything specifically for that and will not be displaying any fiber there this year.  I will bring some in case anyone asks, but not batts for spinning.  I still have some hearts to sew that are not just for Christmas, so I might add a few of those.  I had a very successful  time with my weaving and felting at the first Fibre Fest I did, so I will go back to selling that.  I still have my online shop if anyone wants to purchase fibre.

It seems that the post office lost a parcel of handwoven and knitted items I sent to the USA for Christmas. 😦  This is really disappointing, especially after all the love and care that went into making everything.  Hey ho.  What can you do?  I may need to send things earlier this year.

So, that is my news, which isn’t a lot, but at least I am feeling well.  Things are going to pick up as the days get longer and the weather gets better.  Hope all is well with everyone!