Writing up my buisness plan today.

I think I've got an idea for something interesting to offer for sale, not necessarily something incredibly sellable, but something that will hopefully attract a lot of attention to the more mundane and more sellable items I can offer. I'll need to buy a bit of kit to start off on making them, probably 50 quid's worth and that is a quarter of what I have to start this thing off. however, if it works, it will be worth it.

I've got several ideas for other things I can be selling. I'm not going to discuss them here, but I am going to start getting together the things I will need to make them.

With my daughter starting nursery part time in September, I need to do something so I don't end up sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. i also owe it to my partner to at least try and make some money to take the pressure off him and be able to pay for some of the things I want. he offered to spend 200 quid on a wheel for me. I've decided that i'll take the 200 quid and use it for this idea and hopefully buy my own wheel and more.

knit rug

What would you do with a load of free and nearly free scritchy, veggie matter filled rug yarn?

Knitting a rug on 4 foot long needles would be a good place to start. My dad made these needles for me ages ago and I've tried several projects on them, never finding quite the right one. Now I've got it I think, 10 strands, 6 of various wools I got for free or in a charity shop bag for a quid and 4 of a cotton tape I got 24 balls of for a fiver at a car boot sale.

Only problem is that it's heavy. I've knit about a foot of it so far, at 4 stitches, 5 rows to 4 inches, the needles are in fact 18mm, the yarn bundle itself works out as about 2 wraps per inch. and a foot of rug weighs a good 3 pounds. Th3 finished rug should be at least 4 feet long, so I'm going to give my wrists quite a workout.



Oh yeah, and that's what happens when you wear one pair of sandals all the time, tan lines on my feet, get em every year

last 2 handdyed, handspun yarns

well?

3 more spun

Went on camp this weekend, spinning in public for the first time and lots of people found it utterly fascinating. It's been suggested that I offer to demonstrate for the local primary school.

Anyway, I'd love your opinions on the colours

I'm sure i recognise this

Actually, I do recognise this. I'ts the fiber that I couldn't afford to buy a couple of weeks ago because I had too many bills to pay. The fiber that fee bought for me as a birthday pressie.

I had a good day, girlchild behaved herself for the most part, got a bit wet in the fountain, but that's the be expected. And she had a good look about the museums.




Now of course the dino exhibit leads right out to the gift shop. I usually ignore this. but I couldn't resist hair-metal-o-saurus here. looks like something straight out of the 80's with a leopard print spandex suit and red dyed hair.

number 3

I like the pink and green much better than the pink and blue

second spun handdyed

I like this one a lot, and although it's 3 colours instead of 2, it's the same width stripes as the first, which is telling me ti's the colour combi, not the effect I don't like.

first spun of my roving

Well, the first to dry was the blue and pink, which i think was the one fee said she liked. Can't say i like it as much spun as I did as roving. Looks a bit mucky to me.

test dye of roving

I just spent the afternoon with some Blue Faced Leicester roving, a microwave, a bottle of white vinegar and some food colouring. This is the results.

to recover from absurdities

I need to get back down to earth, or in my case, down to compost. I moved the bootfull of compost out of my car this afternoon, unfortunately, it will then need to be put back into the car and transported from my postage stamp of a front garden to my allotment, having been soaked for a few days. I am really delighted at the prospect of this task.

I've also knit more blanket squares and started on a couple of new projects.

1. another pair of happy socks because I like the pattern

2. a freeform blanket, just garter stitch, but with random shaped patches and colours, because I had bits of leftover handspun and handspun is too precious not to use it all up.

Camping again this weekend. Just one night this time. I'll have to pack my Thursday, because I'll be meeting up with bumblefee on Friday. I'm also skipping out on a few hours of camp to see a few London area knittys. Another busy weekend and a big hint that I might finally be growing something vaguely resembling a social life. I'm not entirely sure about that though. I've been without one so long, it's hard to recognise one creeping up on me.

carrying a river over a river

Sometimes in life, the utter absurdity of something hits you all at once. The moment when I got a tv camera pointed in my face while i was carrying the knitted river alongside the Thames was one of those moments and I got the giggles, which didn't impress the person holding the camera much, which of course, amused me even more.

These are my highlights of the march through London, which ended up with me, the camera phobic being photographed repeatedly outside the doors of 10 Downing Street. Now considering I could still breathe, I figure I got over a lot of the camera phobia today.

Kids had a great day. I got sore feet, but I think it was well worth it.

getting on with cozy

From my first attempt ages ago to do this pattern,I know i've got used to knitting lacey stuff a lot more. I can follow the pattern, see where the repeats fit in with previous rows. It is just working. I'm knitting it instead of fighting it.

I'm about halfway done on it now. Used up 4 of the 8 balls of the alpacca I bought last year at the Olympia show where i met my first knitty heads and showed them what I could shop like.

My sp is getting the last 2 balls. hope she likes it.

artsygal yarn, socks completed

With the eventual arrival of my custom dyed artsygal yarn, I got knitting. There is a spiralling thing going on there, but I really quite like it. Its definitely there on both feet, but far more clear on the right.



Close up of the lace pattern. Fairly simple, but I think it looks great.

Back from camp

Which was an interesting experience. Compost loos, mechanical ants and Abba round the camp fire.

I was told by everyone that when girlchild got older, camping would get easier. I never quite believed them, but they were right. I barely had to parent girlchild compared to other camps. It helped that there were a lot of girls on this one. 14 year olds who went all gooey over her being cute and a lot of 4-8 year olds she could join in and play with. I spent a lot of time hiding in the kitchen tent, helping out in there. it was a break for me and I got to do more useful stuff than before on camps.

I also dug through a load of my long term storage bags and found a fisherman's jumper in there. I think it was bought for my father on a family holiday to Guernsey when i was about 6. he's not a jumper sorta person, so I guess it was dumped on me at some point. Anyway, I took it on camp to wear round the camp fire at night and to sleep in. Woke up at 4am, I think it was an over amorous pheasant in the woods, and I'd wriggled most of the way out of my sleeping bag and was still warm. I've decided it will go to every camp with me from now on.

sock in progress

My Artsygal yarn finally arrived and it is absolutely delightful. It feels really scrummy and soft and I'm really enjoying working with it. It is becoming happy socks from magknits.

I've got loads more news to share. A delightful package from my sp, the progress of my allotment and my seeds and loads of other knitting bits. However, I'm supposed to be packing to go camping this weekend, so all that will wait until I get back.