Tretower Court and Castle

An early Norman stone tower and a medieval/tudor fortified manor in a broad, fertile valley. A fat land as they would say, first of the Welsh lands to fall to Norman hands. The Welsh clung to the mountains and fought hard, but four hundred years later all hope for a free Wales died with Glyndwr.

It is hard to find that sorrow in Tretower. It is calm and rich. Broad timbers and plastered walls speak of wealth and the undefendable windows of safety and peace. The garden was thick with bright fruit, apples and rose hips



and the highlight of the day for my girls were the chickens scratching happily where they fancied.


The highlight of the day for myself and Anne, my sister were the re-enactors wandering as busily and happily as the chickens.
We were standing by the boundary wall chatting and just in the corner of our eye we saw a figure in dagged hood and cloak walk past us in the distance, like a ghost or a memory of the old house.

The day did in fact include a picnic and a short walk and knot gardens and soaking up the autumn sunshine in happy company. An grand day out indeed.

Autumn Days

Well, my man's done gone and left me...for the weekend that is. And while he is away visiting that heaven on earth that is Ffald y Brenin ( you have heard me mention it before) I am left to my own devices.
I love days like this. The sun is rising slowly and casting the shadow of my mountain onto the face of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley. The light is misty, tinged with lilac and amber. A proper berry coloured Autumn day is calling me, what shall I do with it? Something good I think...it will probably involve a walk and a picnic. I'll let you know.

Have a golden day whatever you do.

Ok, So Now I Know...

Your Inner Blood Type is AB!

Your personality is hard to define - you're very unconventional. And even if your personality could be defined, it would be completely different next week! Outgoing and shy, sensitive and thoughtless, you tend to have a very split personality. This makes you unpredictable. You can be a total angel - and a total devil. You are most compatible with: everyone! Famous Type AB's: Jackie Chan and Marilyn Monroe

What's Your Inner Blood Type?

Haven't done this in a while. I am actually O neg and very popular with the Blood Bank.

Yes, I know, it is late and if i am not careful I will go past sleep and hit the skids of Insomniaville again. I am now off to hunt down the warm milk and baileys.
Nos da Cariad

Anniversary

It is my blog anniversary coming up. Traditionally one runs a competition or something. I have no ideas really, so it is down to you, my few but faithful readers -

Leave suggestion for a nice thing to do and there will be a prize for the best answer

Thursday - Love is All Around

Headless Zac,
to see him is to love him.

On the Loom

The fabulous orange merino. Crochet and knitting the yarn somehow closed it up, so I gave the peg loom a go and it is working up a treat. I am very pleased with it.
The warp is a DK 100 percent silk in jewel tones, nice and sturdy but very soft. Which about describes the scarf too. It is always nice when an experiment works.

Weights and Measures

cashmere on niddy-noddy

Three bags full
and that's just the start...I have an attic full

How much yarn do I have exactly? Sorting out the stash for the felting day with Zoe made me think. So off to Birdie the soap maker whom one would have thought should possess accurate scales and she does, good enough for rock music as one might say. And she has a niddy noddy. Now that is not a sentence one hears every day "Excuse me, can I borrow your niddy-noddy?" but there you are. A pleasant evening, playing with yarn. Plus a casserole. Yum.

And I have rather more good yarn than I thought and rather more fibre...but you never can have enough, can you?

5pm

Amazing what a few hours will do innit? I'm feeling fine now and why is this? I'll tell you...three little words

Orange merino yarn.
This was part of the haul from the winghams sampling day.
From fluff to yarn in just eight days. Oh my gosh, I rock!

Pure merino in orange & merino and tussah silk blend in flame

Singles

Plied (fancy as usual)

The finished skein, steam set and drying on the bannister
ready for the needles this evening.
I am so chuffed

3am

Don't you just love those three am thoughts that come and leer at you as you are trying, once more to get to sleep. I loathe insomnia. It does no good. I cannot do anything constructive as I am too damn tired to see to spin and everyone else is asleep, so no housework either as I have folded all the laundry and there is nothing else I can do except think dreadful thoughts.
Like what ifs and oh my gods, the times when I have been cruel or stupid or crashingly drunk and embarrassing...and it has been years since I have been crashingly drunk...though probably only days since I was last embarrasing.

So the upshot of it all is ...is there anyone out there who knows a sure fire cure for insomnia that does not involve lavender or a bullet in my skull? I would love to hear about it 'cos frankly I think I am losing my mind.

Remember dear ones that it is three am and that is a dark time, a time where the earth sinks and everything looks worse than it is. In a few hours the sun will rise and my monday will start officially with Rose yelling that she cannot find her school shoes and V wondering where the car keys are and yet again I repeat with feeling...if you put them in the correct place each time then you would know what you had done with them/it.

Eden has woken now, just for a minute or two, just to check that I am still here, she will clamber all over me, demand a drink and then float off once more - the way that only an infant can and lose herself in sleep. I am so envious.

Nos da cariad, hope you sleep long and well with pleasant dreams and refreshed awakenings.

Sunday's Walk

Parc Le Breos Burial Chambers in the Gower. It was a lovely soft day, pearl grey light and a gentle rain falling. We were intending to go to the Gower Heritage Centre to see a spinning demonstration but we got there too late, so we went for a walk instead.

Friday Five

1. What's your personal hell?
Crowds, that crush of bodies impersonally shoving their way past each other - Oxford Street in December being an excellent example.

2. Do you prefer brightly lit rooms or dim spaces?
I don't mind as long as the light is warm and gentle. Cold light is miserable and flourescent strip lighting would also be in my personal hell along with Max Bygraves on the piped music channel.

3. What's the weather like today?
Cool, grey and cloud filled. A pleasant autumn day

4. Is it easy to be you?
Well, life has its freaky moments, but I am loved and that is all I need.

5. Friday fill-in:
My heaven is ... starlit, gentle, soft and loving. Chocolate covered almonds and a good merlot is in there too.

The Clangers

Lorraine, these are the Clangers and they are pure magic. I watched them avidly when I was a child and have passed on the love of all things created by Oliver Postgate to my own children.

They are little creatures that speak only in gentle hoots and whistles, they live on a far distant blue planet with such creatures as the soup dragon, the froglets and the sky moos and they make the imagination soar.

Thursday: Love is all Around

Lily and Eden on the mountain.

Haven't done this in a while, I don't even know if the connection site is still operating, but I love the idea and so here we are again.

I am not well today so I think felting is off. But then again, who knows...I still have some spinning to do. I finished off the portion of the flame wool and silk blend that I sorted out for plying and now I am on to the heavier weight pure merino in bright orange. If I get the energy I will post up some more pics today.

We had a lovely evening last night when Zoe and J came round for supper. I don't think I have ever eaten so many profiteroles in my life! However, thanks to a cold which jumped on me in the early hours of this morning - on top of at least six weeks broken nights sleep - I have the energy level of a snail. So we are eating soup today and watching every episode of the Clangers ever made.

Have a health filled and vibrant day what ever you are doing!

More Felt

Close up of the cobweb felt samples I worked up in the sampling day. I will probably do the scarves today.

Felt like felt in the end

We chose felt.
A whole day almost of potching around with pretty wool. All that and sausage and chips to finish off.

What Now?!

Cobweb weight spinning, plying, dying, crochet, cobweb scarf felting, felt the scarlet merino into hearts... arrrrgh! I don't know what to choose!

The Haul

• Merino, (white) cos it's a basic right? The equivalent of spuds in the pantry.
• Dyed merino: scarlet (for xmas decorations), fuscia, orange, chocolate and mixed rainbow snips for embellishing.
• Nylon trilobal in parrot, yes it is tasteless, glittery, artificial and altogther anathema to spinners in general, but I LOVE it!
• Cashmere, silk and merino blend. (white) Heaven in a fibre. Bought for felted baby blankets. Faith has started the ball rolling and babies are like mushrooms, once one is expected, more always come along. As long as one doesn't come my way I don't mind!
  
• Falkland wool,(white) makes a beautiful spongy yarn. So warm, just right for hats.
• Teal acid dye
• Two surina wood crochet hooks, 9 & 12 mm.
• Rainbow merino and silk blend (one length in rainbow and the other in flame) for cobweb felted scarves.
• Wool and possum blend. (beige-unfortunate colour but can be snazzed up with surface work)
  
• Blue faced leicester humbug blend.(humbug colour-I'm not kidding). This is a stunning glossy wool and it spins like toffee. Just gorgeous.
• Tussah silk (pale honey) as I was running low and it is useful for plying.
• Scrap of pencil roving (cherry truffle) to felt into the hearts.
• Finest white Mongolian cashmere. Destined for laceweight yarn now that I have learned this fab new technique. I will post on that when I get to spinning it up, but I have to finish the seascape silk first.

So I have an awful lot to be getting on with. Good thing it is the start of October as a lot of this stuff is destined for Christmas presents. Gonna be a busy girl from here until Christmas Eve!

Wingham's Sampling Day

One desperately needed cuppa after a hard days spinning, felting and buying fibre goodies

Birdie felting

Felt ehibition

A bobbin full of samples:
rainbow merino and the brown is possum.
Possum is a nightmare to spin, so short!

Daybreak

View of the back mountain at 6 am. The sky was pinker than that, but hey, it's close enough for pretty

I remember!

It seems like that I haven't done any spinning in ages. The guild meet on Saturday has really set me off though. I dug out some jacobs, washed to within an inch of its life but needing carding and I really got to it. Funny how carding a fibre really makes me feel as though I am spinning rather than working from roving which is what I normally do. Anyway, two hours later I have probably done about 100gms of fibre and filled a bobbin about two thirds full of fine spun yarn that I think i will navajo ply and then work into one of the usual suspects. Either a scarf or a hat.

Zoe is around for lunch tomorrow and a crafting day, might give dry-felting a go. But for now you will have to put up with Jacobs until I can get a pic of the fair Zoe and her new hat that I made for her.