I give up!

nothing special happened! I just can't find the time (or inclination?) to put stuff into my blog just now. I think it's best to give up on trying the colours once a week - I'll just show you what I have done and if I find a nice colour - I put it up as I find it....

I have done quite a few things in the meantime. I finished my "green monster" - the spring leaves shawl

 both pix show the scarf still with the blocking "wires" (actually they are made from carbon fibre) in. I haven't worn it yet (we have about 15 - 18 dec. C at the moment!), and didn't manage to take another photo of it either....but I am quite happy with it, even though the green is quite strong and luminous:))

I also knitted several dishcloth - this one is the starfish, the last one with this leftover cotton yarn - which used to be a baby cardie before:)) I like the pattern; it's pretty - but I am not too sure about the practical side: the main area is quite small and the starfish "arms" a bit in the way, when in use...

then there is the "blue" project for our spinning group. somehow I couldn't decide on just one project - so in the end (to get it finished in time!) I made up a mood board with handspun and handdyed yarns. the upper "cloud" yarn was inspired by a blue sky with fluffy clouds. the yarn is a two ply; one lambswool and one (fine) viscose thread, and when plying I trapped short pieces of cotton fibres in between.

then there are 4 yarns inspired by "sayings". the upper one is "send in the clowns", lambswool, plied with sewing tread, on which I threaded small pompoms. the second one is "midnight blue", blue lambswool with black alpaca. the third one is "blue plus" - several lambswools blended with some angelina and a second ply with added beads. the fourth one is my favourite: like a bolt from the blue. dark blue merino with flashes made of silk and viscose.

the last samples are inspired by the different blues of the sea - I spun and dyed blue tussah silk and some bourette silk in blue/turquoise. I then made 5 samples on the weavette loom, where I started with pure tussah and added some more bourette in each sample; the last one is pure bourette.

 those are some samples that didn't fit onto the board anymore. one is a coil yarn, tussah silk as the core and several blue lambswool tones as the coil.

the second is a royal blue corriedale, simply navajoplied.

and the third is my beloved "bolt from the blue" yarn again - easier to see on the light background. I'll definitely spin some more of this for a project!

 yesterday evening I finally managed to finish the last batch of the blue coil yarn - not all that much yardage, but plying takes up quite some time!

I also navajoplied my first batch of "chiengora", but the photo was so blurred that I have to take another one. the fibres come from the Akita breed, naturally a melange of nearly white to light grey. as I also had a box full of combings from my own two dogs, part of it is "foxbrown" and black:)) it's not washed yet and both "suppliers" were very keen to take a sniff!

of course being autumn means that there are still quite a lot of "pickings". the rosehips are done by now, but we still have tomatoes left in the porch, some "white" cucumbers from the polytunnel, lots of runner beans and the last batch of blackberries. I also juiced a lot of elderberries - which I am rather keen on as I just love the taste. and they're healthy too! we haven't had a good elderberry year for some time, so when I saw the trees this year I just had to collect each and every one of them!

we also have a few small cape gooseberries on most days - and very soon the sloes should be ready for picking too. this would be it, the sloes are always the last to pick!

of course I started a few new things here and there - but that'll keep until the next entry.....