Midsummer washout

Saturday was Midsummer Day. It has fallen out of use, with the Solstice being a more fashionable celebration. Either way, it was pouring with rain, so there were no Roses dry enough to pick to decorate the house for the celebration.                                                                                                               

So, into town, and a happy while was spent, choosing yarn. I have a baby cardigan to make, for the new granddaughter of my lovely hairdresser. Jane has been cutting my hair for....well, too many years to count.

The wool, and it really is wool, is for a fair isle cardigan. I designed one about five years ago, in pale pinks and greens. This may be the time for me to tidy the design up, and write it down properly.

So, the yarn sat in a bowl, looking pretty, in lieu of Roses.

Bread and Yeast Cookery

 One of the things I truly enjoy in life, is baking. I bought a copy of Elizabeth David's 'English Bread and Yeast Cookery ', towards the end of 1979. It was a fascinating read , and a lot of my spare time that autumn was spent experimenting with many of the recipes. The success of of those experiments ensured my continuing enthusiasm.  Sadly, my copy is showing it's age, and use.

Over the years, I have collected a number of Bread/Yeast cookery books.( Above is a picture of my favourites.) Mrs David remains the best, in my opinion. Luckily, Best Beloved knew that my old copy was falling to pieces, and gave me a new, hard-back copy for Christmas. 

This simple, enriched dough is not an Elizabeth David recipe. It includes some grated lemon rind, and a little cardamom.

Kneaded, and formed into small balls, it has a second rising.Then, it is baked quickly in a hot oven.

A simple glace icing, made from icing sugar and lemon juice gives a sweet finish.

I don't know who reads these posts.....would the readers like the recipes included?

Wild, wet and windy.

 On the trip to Wales, friday evening, everywhere and everything was dripping wet. Tiny lambs, which we saw as we neared our destination, disappeared overnight. Obviously taken into shelter by their shepherds, it meant I was not able to get any of the 'aah'-value photos I was hoping for. Better they were warm.

 So excited were we to be going to WonderWool, that all of us were ready to leave the hotel by just after nine. Ten o' clock saw us in the queue for tickets. I keep saying'we'. Four of us, all members of Close knit, went together.

Wonderwool Wales is held at the Welsh National Showground. In my opinion, a sensible venue. Our local show, Fibrefest, is lovely, but has been held in several different places. None of them truly suitable. Good basic facilities are of great importance at this sort of show, and they have been sadly lacking, so far. The facilities at WW Wales were busy, so imagine the chaos where they were not up to scratch, and worse, not signed!

I digress. Back to WonderWool Wales.

There were not as many stalls as the last time I went, but still more than enough to see, buy, do. The Welsh Guilds of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers were there. Stalls selling fleece and fibre of all sorts. Prepared or not. Dyed, or natural. Or the dyes to do it yourself. Every kind of equiptment for spinning, or weaving. Beautiful yarns. Some hand-spun, some commercial. Hand-dyed yarns  that were almost edible. Every conceivable type of needle to knit with.

The various sheep-breed societies were there, too. Some were selling fleece au naturel. Whole fleeces, or small bags. And the small producers, who keep a flock of something, then have the fleeces spun to their own specifications.

There were a number of stalls selling hot beveredges. My own favourite was Preseli Coffee. Two lovely people, who smiled all of both days. When in need of a drink, that is where I went.

The four of us went to the show with the intention of attending both days. Which we did. The Sunday, however, was extremelly cold. How the stall-holders kept warm, I do not know. G had taken a hat with her. The rest of us ended up buying hats. Over lunch, we decided to call it a day. On the journey back, we saw snow on the Brecon Beacons. Along with the torrential rain cascading down the hillsides.

 So, what did I buy? Well, there was the Wonderwool Wales bag, ordered a week or so in advance. Just as well, as they sold out! Once I had the bag, there had to be something in it, didn't there?

 So, diagonally up from the left....50 grams of first-clip alpaca from Fleecewitch. I have bought yarn from Jean in the past. Lovely.

300 grams of Merino/Tussah silk sliver from John Arbon. This has to be felt to be believed.

100 gram of Moorit Shetland, from a lady called Judy. I think that was the Shetland Sheep stand.

The red is 20 grams of hand-dyed wensleydale locks/fleece. The green is the same, both from Adelaide Walker.

The tweed is an of-cut (approx a quarter of a yard) of shetland tweed. But I can't remember where from.

A better view of the Merino/Tussah silk. Divine!

Four  20 gram balls of Angora mix, from Bigwigs. I have had this before, and love it. I made the Puderosa neck warmer from it. This will be for a sleeveless sweater. It will be as light as thistledown to wear.This was one of the few 'must buy's on my list.

Two 50 gram skeins of cashmere mix 4-ply, from Fivemoons. The colour does not look much, in the photo, but it is a soft bronze, which gleams gently in the light. Really squooshy to handle. It's beautiful, Sharon.

There was also enough leaf-green wensleydale 4-ply, bought from Sheep shop, to make a lovely sweater. Their own pattern. Some extra knit-pro cables.Two Addi lace circulars. Some lovely stitch markers from psychodeliceliphants. At last, some on nylon threads. They don't catch on the lace knitting like others do! And an extra bobbin for my Ashford traveller.

This hat, bought because I really needed one, but chosen because I love it. It came from a lady, I think called Jean Jones. She was spinning on the Ceredigion Guild stand. All spun, dyed, then knitted, by her. It has re-awakened my interest in natural dying.

Sometimes I wonder....am I interested in too many things?

Wonderwool Wales

Everything packed. Cake made for Best Beloved. House clean (ish). Right, I'm off....to WonderWool Wales. I will try to take photos, but can't promise. I may get overwhelmed by yarn fumes. Wales, here I come!

Sunny Days and Cream Teas.

Thursday was such a beautiful day, that Best Beloved gave himself the afternoon off. We put the dogs in the car, and drove over to East Quantoxhead. There is a car-park near the Church, so we parked there, and walked the Coastal Path to Kilve. The path runs along the Severn Estuary. At this point, it is up on the cliffs, and with the strong wind, was quite bracing! Barley and Quince thought it was great.
At Kilve, we had our first Cream Tea of the year, at The Chantry. The scones were really fresh....delicious! Barley and Quince were made much of by some of the other people having Tea in the garden - particularly one little girl, who wanted to take them home. Her Mum looked worried about the ''can we have one, Mum'', until I layed on the hard work required with a trowel.We left The Chantry, rather more than replete, and turned right. We were making for the other path back to East Quantoxhead, which crosses the fields, a few hundred yards further inland. As we walked, we noticed a building, obviously a Church, which we have never seen before. Now, we have done this walk on a regular basis since...well, since the early 'eighties. It transpires that a lot of work has been done, cutting down trees, cutting back shrubs, mending the walls, and re-painting the outside.Sadly, we could not stop to explore it, as we could see and hear a storm approching across the channel. The car was about a mile and a half away.

We will have a look next time we are there. Looking back from the other side of the field, doesn't it look idyllic?

The drive home was ''the pretty way'', over the Quantock Hills. Lots of Ewes, with lambs, ambling about, or lying in the road. The rain did not catch up with us, until we got home.

Temptation......

This month's knit night fell on Good Friday, so the cake had to have a Spring-like look ....sugar flowers were just right. There was a good turn out. I think the extra time makes it easier for busy women to fit in a bit of fun.

I finished the Royal Male Handlers....which have nothing to do with real Royals, and a great deal to do with Rufus Sewell as King Charles ll. Sadly, the gloves won't be going anywhere near him, either.
The gloves are knitted in Jamisons Spindrift, and are a simple fingerless glove pattern, but with a small medallion knitted on the back of each. The glove part was simplicity itself. The medallions caused tears of blood.
Then, a new project had to be chosen, yarn found, and so on.

I learnt to spin last Autumn, and have been practising regularly.Recently, I have been producing a yarn which is reasonable enough to want to knit with. This ( above ) is Exmoor Blueface sliver from John Arbon, of Lynton. The fleece is produced on the hills above the shop, and is spun by John at Coldharbour Mill, which is where I attend Spinning Group. It produces a wonderfully soft yarn. The pattern is Tryst cropped Vest, by Kristen TenDyke, for Classic Elite. I shall make it an inch or so longer than the pattern. So far, I am pleased with how it is knitting up.

At this point, I have to make a confession. I have mentioned Spinning, and Coldharbour Mill. It is great fun, and very instructive going to the group. My wheel, an Ashford Traditional, is lovely, but it is heavy and awkward to get out of the house, into my ( small ) car, out, into the hall at Spinning, then repeat in reverse. I have been idly looking at smaller wheels, and asking other members about theirs. Then I discovered that another member had an Ashford Traveller for sale. I tried it. I fell in love.

Reader, I bought it!

Sunny Days.......

The Primrose ( Primula vulgaris) has to be one of my favourite spring flowers. When we moved into this house, fourteen years ago, there were no wild flowers in the grounds. Now we have Primies, violets( blue ones and white) stitchwort ( greater and lesser), yellow pimpernell, native bluebell, native daffodil, wild roses, kingcups, and three types of native orchids. Most of them have arrived by themselves. ( Probably from long-dormant seeds, or just over-mowed, while retaining a rootstock.) I introduced the roses, and the native daffodils.
All of these are enjoyed every morning, at the moment, as I walk the dogs. This glorious weather has to be relished while it lasts.

I finished this lovely fitted neck-warmer some time ago, ( 6th January), but could not find buttons to suit, or fit. I finally found some beads in a craft shop in Honiton. The pattern is called Puderosa ( it means modest), by Lia Moya. The yarn is Bigwigs Angora, knitted on 3.5mm needles. It took less than one 25g ball. It is lovely to handle, and wonderful to wear.

A repeat of the Swirling Gauntlets... this pair for, and modelled by, Nick. They are to go with the Peerie Flooers hat.

As the weather has been so fine, we have taken the opportunity to do the Spring Clean of the Beehives. We went into the Winter with six colonies, all of which had been treated for Varroa. The autumn feeding had been done, and we were confident that we had done all we possibly could to see the bees safely through the winter.

Imagine our horror, then, to find that we had lost three colonies! We have never lost a colony overwinter ( or at all ) before. We did continue, and complete the spring clean. But with heavy hearts. I wrote up the bee diary, and we spent a good deal of time discussing what could have gone wrong.

Looking back over last year, we had re-queened those three colonies. One had been a very strong colony, which were very bad tempered, and a real trial to handle. It is quite likely that they did not like having their own Queen removed, and killed the new one. The other two...well, we are still wondering. They did not starve, though. All had plenty of stores.

The other three colonies are doing very well. All have an active Queen, and lots of brood. The workers are out, collecting pollen as soon as the day is warm enough. ( see above, worker collecting pollen from Hazel catkins).