Still Winter!

After a few days of mild temperatures and bright sunshine, today it is snowing again.
Luckily I have finished my Log Cabin Shawl, so I am warm as toast.

Tomorrow I am going to Unravel. This will be my fourth year at this delightful event and I am looking forward to it. Last year it was so mild that people were eating and drinking outside in the sunshine, but that isn't going to happen this year! I don't have many plans for purchases, but I would like to get some hand painted sock yarn and a toning plain colour to crochet La Vie en Rayures.

I've made some raspberry muffins to share as I hope to meet up with a few friends.

Is it Spring Yet?

Today it looks like Spring outside, as the sun is shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky. But outside it is cold! I've put two washloads on the line, though, as there is sun and a nice breeze, so I think things might dry quite well.

I've washed the recycled skeins I  unravelled last weekend and they are drying:

I've found this pattern,  Old Forge, which I think might look lovely in the recycled yarn, paired with a bright aran for the centre.

And finally, I'm on the last strip of the Log Cabin Shawl, after which I just need to add a border. I'm loving it so far!

Recycling

Nearly 20 years ago now I was staying in the village of Ambleside, in the Lake District, when I found  a little wool shop, now sadly defunct. It had some lovely, natural grey-brown Blue-Faced Leicester in an aran weight, and I bought some to make this sweater (the one on the right):

Well, twenty  years ago it was pretty fashionable ;)

I started knitting the sweater and I finished the back. Then I stopped knitting for a while and it was five years later, if I remember correctly, that I picked it up again and knitted the front and one sleeve. I started the second sleeve - disaster! I ran out of yarn. After some searching on the internet (no Ravelry in those days) I found a supplier of the same brand of yarn, but they did not have the same colour. They sent me a shade card and I chose a contrasting yarn which I used to make stripes on the remaining sleeve, the collar and sew up the sweater. What was I thinking of!

Well, it didn't look great, and I was not very careful about finishing in those days either, and the collar didn't lie properly and the sweater was very very heavy and really too warm, and, long story short, I never wore it.

I recently found it at the back of the wardrobe and I knew I was never going to wear it, but I still loved the yarn so I decided to unravel it and recycle the yarn.

I got started last weekend. Here's the sweater after I had removed the collar and the first sleeve. You can see how bad the striped sleeve looks. Plus there is a mistake in the front left cable.

I skeined up the yarn from the collar and the first sleeve using my niddy noddy and it looked like this!

Like poodle wool and incredibly sproingy.

The next step is to continue unravelling the sweater and to soak and dry the skeins. Once they are all processed then I have to decide what to make with them. Something I have noticed as I have been unravelling is that the yarn is quite soft and has a halo. I don't think it is ideally suited to cables as it softens them and they don't pop as much as they should.

One possible use for the yarn is to make a Girasole Blanket. I've wanted to make one of these for a long time. I think it would be soft and warm and would show off the yarn beautifully. On the other hand I still have a yearning to make it into something I can wear.
To be continued...

Butterflies in the Glasshouse

Today we went to see the butterflies in the tropical glasshouse at RHS Wisley. We had to queue for an hour to get into the glasshouse, but that is a good thing as the number of people in there at any one time is controlled so you can see the butterflies and take photos without being too crowded.

I took lots of photos.

Clipper

Great Mormon

Clipper

Achilles Morpho

Tree Nymph

Clipper - blue

Tiger Longwing

Scarlet Swallowtail

Tree Nymph

Malay Lacewing

What a lovely way to spend a cold, grey winter afternoon.

Knitting Update

I completed the handspun scarf on Monday and blocked it. Then I had to wait until today to have enough daylight to take a decent photograph. I really like it, and it is light and warm, too.

I've also made progress on my Log Cabin Shawl

I am using a pack of Jamieson's Spindrift which I bought one year at Ally Pally, and some left over sock yarn. The thin stripes are in a mixture of Trekking XXL and Crazy Zauberball. It's fun to knit.

A Burns Night to Remember

Last night, as it was Burns Night, we planned to have haggis, neeps and tatties for dinner and a wee dram, as one does. I'd had a very frustrating day at work during which I achieved less than nothing, so I was looking forward to getting home, getting the housework out of the way and having dinner.

Braveheart went out at 4pm to pick up Littlest and I started my housework. At 4.10 pm I received a phone call to say the car had broken down about 100 m along the road and could I go and get Littlest. I couldn't believe it. There was obviously some potent frustrating energy in the air which was going to prevent me from completing anything. 

So I stopped cleaning, grabbed my coat and bag and went to get Littlest. Once we got back we walked along the road to where BH's car was stopped in a not very convenient place. We tried to push the car back off the roadside and out of the way and succeeded to some extent but there was an upward slope and we were not strong enough to push the car right up. 

BH then had the idea that we try to push the car out onto the busy road in the middle of the rush hour,  do a U turn to get it facing in the other direction,  then push it back towards  home and then across the busy road into our driveway. Littlest (14), who has never driven a car, would steer while we pushed. It was immediately clear that this was not a great idea. 

So Braveheart called the RAC. They said it would be 3 hours so we all went back home in the warm and I got on with my cleaning which I did in fact finish. After that things got better as the RAC called after only one hour and said they were almost there. BH went off to meet them and in the end the RAC man took the car to the garage and dropped BH off at home on his way back, so I didn't have to go out and I used the time to prepare the vegetables for dinner. 

So we got our haggis, neeps and tatties, which was delicious, and boy, did I need that dram!

In the meantime I have been working away at my candy colours scarf and here is what it looks like now:

Not much more to do!

Winter Walk

Today we went for a walk in the snow. It's snowing again, lightly and persistently, but was quite pleasant to walk in.

This robin thought we might have some food for him, so he followed us for quite a way.

 These photos are of RHS Wisley in the snow.

Then back home for a nice hot bowl of soup!