On The Wheel

I'm really looking forward to this seasons new fleeces from this Springs shearing

In the meantime I'm just about to start work on carding and spinning up a small dark fleece, the last one I have in stock.

It has been lightly scoured just to remove the dirt, leaving some grease in for ease of spinning.

I shall spin a yarn for hand knitting and see how many skeins I can make from it.

My original idea was to use this fleece to spin with another to produce a mixed yarn because it is on the small size and with it being of these lovely soft, black ,grey and brown hues it lends itself well to blending to give me a naturally coloured yarn.

But I have decided to get this fleece processed before I take delivery of any new fleeces to give me storage space.

ALSO I love seeing a basketful of hand spun yarn just already for me to dive in and Cast On!

Sailing In The Sunshine

It was perfect weather over the Easter holidays to be back sailing our little flotilla of boats.
First we rigged up our Mirror dinghy and had a leisurely sail around the River Medina with a light Easterly breeze blowing. A hot sunny day developed and we sailed her over to our yacht and went aboard to have a coffee and sunbathe.



Another day we went out with our little Pup dinghy "Peewit". She is a Tender to our yacht as well as ideal for solo sailing just for fun.

We motored down the river to East Cowes Marina in our yacht and as the wind was a Northerly we raised the jib and were able to sail back up river.

The Marina was lively with visiting craft, the river sparkled, the Sun warmed us against the Northerly breeze; it is just wonderful to be back on board.

Peewit to the Rescue!

Peewit and Skipper had a little adventure on Monday-
Having just arrived on board our yacht, we were off loading our gear from Peewit when Skipper noticed a small dinghy had broken free from her mooring and was drifting swiftly up the river.

Not a good sight to see as it is always a worry that someone may have fallen out of it, we knew this wasn't the case in this instance.

However loose boats can do damage to other craft as they hit and scrape by.

So manning the oars he and Peewit rowed out to the rescue and drawing alongside Skipper grabbed the escaping dinghy's painter and towed her to the safety of a pontoon mooring nearby
where with help of a fellow boatman they made it secure.

Then off down river they rowed wind and tide against them to a little day boat where the occupancies on board were unaware that their little dinghy had decided to go on a solo voyage!

Peewit collected the owner and Skipper rowed them to the pontoon to retrieve their lost boat.
I'm sure he will be using a few more knots when tying on from now on!

Skipper has earned himself a beer with all that rowing.

And Peewit just loves being on the water, rowing, sailing and being helpful.

Back On the Water

"Lift in" day for our Sunstar 18. It has been a bit of a mad panic getting ready for Saturday morning as it became apparent that our old outboard's gearbox has packed up leaving us without an engine! Fortunately a few phone calls around to local chandlers and outboard suppliers I was able to source this fantastic "nearly new "Mercury 4 stroke outboard from Cowes. Skipper fitted it in place with a few hours to spare! Had a morning coffee and did some knitting while we waited for our turn to be lowered in by crane. It was a warm cloudy morning with no wind, quite muggy at first with a light Easterly later in the day. The Sun was shining by mid day, so I was pleased to be on board this trip. As there was no wind we motored down river to our swing mooring and we practised a few manoeuvres with the new outboard, it is lovely and quiet, nice and nippy too. The only concern is that it is heavier than our old one and with the full tanks of fuel and water she seems a bit low in the water aft. So for now I have re-arranged stuff from the aft locker into other lockers thus taking a bit of weight out. We may want to raise the outboard bracket, we'll see how things go after a proper trip out in the Solent. We took the Folly Launch taxi to shore and had lunch at the Folly Inn. Then walked along the riverside foot path back to Newport to collect the car and home. It's good to be back on the water and with the Easter and Bank holiday days just around the corner we are hoping to get out there and enjoy it!

Preparing For Sailing

What a lovely sunny April Weekend.

It was Skipper's Birthday and our Wedding Anniversary so we had a houseful of family over and spent a wonderful time celebrating in the island sunshine.

Last week preparations now, plenty of jobs to do to get our little yacht ready for her "Lift in day" next weekend. A major concern is the outboard engine which is in the repair shop having a new part fitted.

I hope the good weather holds! I hope for a light southerly breeze in warm sunshine as then we can shake out the genoa and sail our way down to our swing mooring.

Looking up in my logbook the last couple of year's it has been a strong cold northerly blowing and Skipper and son have donned their woolly hats and coats to motor her down to the mooring, while I have stood at the river edge taking photos and met them afterwards in the Folly Inn for a warming hot lunch!

Rigging her out again and putting the mainsail back on the boom. In the calm conditions we were able to raise the sail to check for smooth running, giving me an interesting photo opportunity.

Firstly because I'm usually on board so I only get to see the sails from that perspective and secondly seeing the hull and twin keels while the sail is up gives a great view of all her lines.

Handspun Project Completed

Hand Spun Hand Knitted Cushion.

At the beginning of March I blogged about carding the fleece and then spinning the yarn.

Here is the finished handknitted cushion ready for the exhibition.

I used garter and stocking stitches in my cable design to produce a textured effect of waves across the cushion with simple K1P1K1 raised borders to add definition to the cable.

Being Handspun gives this cushion a naive character that I feel comes from it's natural homeworked production. It has been lovingly and carefully made from the "sheep's back" through all the worked stages of scouring, carding, spinning, skeining, washing and knitting.

Local sheep, local wool and made by me!

I will also be displaying one of my Hand Woven Small Rugs at the event.

TWINED THREADS

An exhibition by the Isle of Wight Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

May 1st-6th 10am -4pm.

I enjoyed designing this cable stitch pattern and while working on it thought it would look really good knitted in some colourways too, particularly good in nautical and seascape themes for a cushion or bag on the boat and beach.

Olympic Dreams

Hopped on the car ferry from Cowes and had a lovely day out in Dorset. We visited the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy where the 2012 Olympic sailing events will take place.

It was a gloriously sunny day with a cold wind off the sea, what I would call bracing! which certainly blew the cobwebs away and refreshed the lungs after a couple of hours drive through the Dorset countryside.

Viewed some little Pico dinghies going out for a lesson; they got a lively sail.

Had a brisk walk around the marinas and waterside and then enjoyed a warming cuppa in the lovely cafe upstairs overlooking the bay.

I love sailing and especially enjoy watching the racing. It is thrilling to watch all the yachts race in the Solent in Cowes Week. Over the years Skipper has competed in different classes of yachts, crewing for various boats from Sigmas to Dragons.

At Cowes it has been great to watch our professional sailors compete, to watch them gain the edge, push the boat and crew to the limits using the wind, tide, tactics and that magic something to win.

I don't think I will be called up any time soon to represent Britain in the Olympics!! but I'm certainly inspired to take on the challenge of winning the Mirror Dinghy Race Series for 2011 which has slipped through our fingers two years running now.

Our dinghy has had her new paintwork, so when we get a spare moment we will get the dinghies down to the river and hope to get some practise in.

Handspun Project

It was a lovely Spring Day so I decided to light my little chimenea in the garden and do some carding of my Hampshire Down Fleece outside in the sunshine.

I am taking part in an exhibition in May and I plan to display some hand knitting and hand weaving, but time is running away with me and I need to have the designs in by the end of March!

I'm hoping to have enough handspun yarn to knit a cushion. The fleece I'm working with is quite small, so I'll see how it goes.

The fleece has been lightly washed.

I use my hand carders to prepare the fibres into Rolags.

Later on after an enjoyable day in the fresh air. I came inside to

Spin and Ply the fleece on my Spinning Wheel

Here are the first Skeins.

These have been washed and are now ready to ball up and knit.

I really enjoy knitting with my own handspun wool.

I will update you at the end of the month on this Handspun Project and show you the finished piece of work.

Right I'm off to get the knitting needles cast on!