Great Vegetable Experiment 07, Day 130

Hmm it has been a while hasnt it, oh dear. anyway things are happening!flax has wee (blurry) blue flowers! pretty!
Cotton seems to be doing well
Courgette plant is threatening to take over the conservatory...AND:
An actual courgette! the only one so far....
Again with the blurry... a flower and an itty bitty pepper
a wee red tomato (not the first tasty wee guys!)
Brocolli with the beginnings of a brocolli!
Peas! prolly gonna get a good crop off these chapies at the weekend
Onions, doing oniony things
Potaters, hopefully gonna be ready towards the end of the month!

Mail Spin

So i have got parcels this week first up
A spiffy vinyl sock bag made by Sue for me to beta test for her before she goes into mass production, so far so good, I will post a full review in due course

I also recieved a parcel from NM from the darling Sobe
She very kindly obtained this for me in order to knit a birthday pressie for a friend, also in the pacakage as well as a picture from her son and some stuff for mother was this:
From the ever viligant Artsy who is on a constant campaign to protect her fellow knitters from outbreaks of purple funfurflies and has sent out repellant to all.

I've also been spinning today got thru my little dod of tussah silk
Mardi Gras Tussah silk, 18g, 93 yds somewhere in a lace-sockweight i think just a single so it'll go further
The reason why there is a mummy and a baby skein was i thot i had finished and was going to photo it when i noticed some pieces on the back of the living room chair, I had left them there fter taking it with me to watch Lewis Hamilton get pole in the British Grand Prix (woohoo!) and forgot all about it!!

Which muppertry brings me to my exploits yesterday, i had one of those days...
First off on the train to work i was so engrossed in my book i nearly missed my stop only realising cos i happend to look up and thus had to make a dive off the train.
Then since it was friday and we were finished i got outta work a bit early and was at the station in plenty time to get the train so i sat in the waiting room ans read my book, what happened? i got so into it i looked up to see the train leaving the station!! (for anyone whose interested I'm reading Wicked! by Jilly Cooper)

Then at night i went to see my friend who is dog sitting and got well and trully lost trying to find where she was, she was at a relatives house, in a town i had never driven to or round and my googlemap directions were all well and good excpet that the streets didnt have names on them and seemed to chop and change, i eventually found where i was going 40 mins later by sheer blind luck!!

Oh well...

Contenders Ready!

As promised here be my contest! I am starting it as soon as i post this and it will run to 8pm (BST) on the 2nd of August which is a year since i learned to knit!

Tis a fairly simple premise, I have just finished spinning my very first handspun on my wheel and what you have to do it guess the length!


Here is the yarn in question:

Close ups are a little blurry I'm afraid,
The vital statistics:
Fibre: Merino (i think)
Weight: 45g or 1 5/8oz
WPI: 13 (roughly its not the evenest)
Thickness (?) : somewhere in the DK/ very light worsted
Length: ????????

What ya need to do is email me (bumblefee (at) gmail (dot) com with the correct symbols) and tell me your name, your blog if you have one (cos i am nosy) and your guesstimate in either yards or metres I'm not fussy. On the evening of the 2nd i will announce the winner ie whoever guesses closest to the correct length and contact them for further info!
So what can ya win??

First Prize
1 skein of bright dyes handdyed Sock yarn in a greeny blue colour way!

And for the 2 closest runners up:
Very cute stitch markers!

Also if anyone has any ideas what i can knit with it, any suggestions welcome!

So go forth and let battle commence!!

**Edit: I'm willing to post anywhere so dont let geography put ya off!**

Woolfest!!!!

***PICTURE HEAVY POST***

So you have been warned


I went to the LAke District at the weekend to attend a wee event called woolfestI like the Lake District its pretty it was however also rather wet at timeMother looking cheerful despite the rain
there were many stops for cuppas
Including at the Cumbrian Pencil Museum (which is more fun than it sounds)

We went to somewhere I hadnt been before but wanted to see
Castlerigg stone circle constructed they think around 3000BC or summat along those lines twas very pretty nice views dowt valley
Oh that reminds me of a fabulous sign on the way up a hillside: "Tek care lambs ont road" yep a sign with a Yorkshire accent!!

So i suppose now you wanna know about woolfest eh?

Twas fabulous, most funtastic, lots of sheepies and shopping! I will try and get the breeds right but well my brain is a bit sieve like!
Manx Loaghtan Sheep, or as i like to call it devil sheepieTeeswater
ShetlandsWensleydale
Oh i dont know what half these are thus i give up! They are sheep ok



This one seemed to like my camera!

Now non sheep I know what these are
Llamas with which my mum had quite the rappore

Alpaca! looking at me with disdain


Angora Bunny with the funky lugs

So now i guess i should show you what i bought hey


Haul mine and mothersButtons, i love buttons


Regia Nations Colours, i like this is yellow

Regia Bamboo color, pretty



Silk Hankies for the spinning

A posty holdery thingy for a future cardi

Firecracker fibre, dunno exactly whats in it but its puerty

Addi turbos, a wee 12inch 2.5mm for the sockies and and a 2.5mm lace needle wooooo

Bright Dyes handpainted sock yarn, pretty pretty

some wee 2.5mm 10cm long Ebony DPNs for the socking, pretty

Susan Bates peg counter jobby have heard these are invaluable and since I've never seen em here afore i bought one!

Cygnet 4ply, its a little greener than it appears, the only thing so far with a plan, a birthday pressie for a babba

Silk/merino fibre

Same fibre, different colour

My bargain of the weekend, nearly 200g of sock yarn for 3 squid, should get 3 pairs of socks from that

Milk protein fibre, very silky





More Merino/silk


I also managed to fit in some knitting, mainly in the car and in the B+B got past the rather brain melting colour work of my pirate bag:

On the contest front, prizes have been secured, the format decided so more details soon soon soon...