Presents

I mentioned I was behind with my posts. Two weeks ago, while Graeme was away at a conference, my mother and father-in-law visited and dropped off some lovely things for me. I was so excited and meant to write about them straight away but it's taken me this long to get some photos take and uploaded.

Some of you will remember how I was having trouble getting bobbins for my spinning wheel. Well Lorna and Bill arranged for a friend of a friend to make copies of the one bobbin I had as an early birthday present. They looked fabulous when they arrived, the bore was a little too small but Graeme widened it with the drill last weekend and they now work beautifully.

I managed to spin and ply some of my cheap generic sheeps fleece from WoolFest. I had to improvise a Lazy Kate but it worked fine.

I think the yarn has come out a bit overwound. I don't know if that's something I am doing or if it's to do with the ratio of the bobbin. I don't think it was winding onto the bobbin fast enough. I'll have to consult my spinning book when I get chance.

The next thing they brought was Lorna's friend Edith's old knitting stuff. There was a variety of old patterns (some good baby ones) and a lot of needles in this fab retro bag.

I now have a ridiculous number of needles and am wondering what to do with them all. Before that they all fitted into a metal jug.

The third thing was this fleece, which Lorna acquired on a Girl Guides trip to a farm.

I've forgotten already what type of fleece it is (I'm rubbish with names). Emily and I poked it when it arrived but I finally got it out this morning thinking I would wash it in the kitchen sink (I did this with the last lot). However when I unrolled it I realised that wasn't going to happen. I didn't realise how tightly packed it was. It's huge! I think it's going to need to go into the bath.

Lorna and Bill also brought some apples which I stewed and used to make apple and ginger scones, from my own made up recipe. What lovely in-laws I have.

P.S. Does anyone else find that Blogger now takes them to a german page when they post a comment? I only know what all the links are now because they're in the same positions as the English ones.