some finished business...

slowly but surely the mountain of damp, but not yet dyed yarns and fibres has diminished. I'd like to show you photos, but every time I think I can heap the mountain of fluff onto the outside table - it starts raining again:(( or rather, by the time I've used the dry hours for gardening etc. - it does. but it needs the work now because very soon autumn will be here and it will be too late for many of the jobs! yesterday I had a lot of washing and after checking the weather forecast I decided that it's ok to leave it outside... tough luck, it's ok alright, but only if you like continued rinsing on the line:(( well, let's hope that the rest of the forecast hits it a bit closer:))

I did finish a few things, some houses in my embroidered village, a bird called Emma - and DS's HP sweater in grey.... so as not to be too bright:)) photos of the latter will follow as soon as I've managed to convince the new owner to put it on for about 30 seconds....

this is the bookshop in my village - drats, I forgot to upload my "art noveau" coloured hair dresser house... I changed the original design colours to a few I found in my stash box....

 and this is Emma - in contrast to DS she's not camera shy and posed in the hanging basket....

..... and among the parsley in the window box! I found the pattern on the coats homepage and knitted her in handspun cotton, with "legs" (ok, for her fat bottom the legs do look rather spindly, but Emma is a sitting chick, not a walking one:)) from handspun naturally green(ish) cotton and details in madder dyed linen tape... this was a first attempt and only after finishing I realised that the maize, which was added as the bottom filling to give it weight shimmered through slightly. the rest is filled with light grey fibrefill... I think I'll give it another try with thinner needles - and maybe larger eyes, too.... she looks rather sneaky:)) I'll also knit with dpn to avoid most of the sewing, don't know why the pattern used straight needles? and maybe I'll double up the green for the legs as well - to give her legs a bit more of a chance! this one was sent away as a birthday present - but even though I am not really a "deco" person myself, I think I'd like one of my own "Emmas" (any other ideas for a name?) dangling her legs off a shelf here!

I also knitted one grey hat from the leftover HP sweater wool - and started another one to use up the two balls I still had flying about. the first one was straight stockinette with a rib of 2k/2p, but to make the most of the rest, I am working the same rib now (which is long enough to be doubled up later), but will work double-sided knitting for the rest of the crown. DH is a "hat killer", who either looses them or puts them into hot washes, so two new hats might just be enough to last the coming winter (assuming there is one, but after the last two I'd be surprised if we didn't get snow and ice again....)

on the side I am still working the embroidery for my piece of bunting (not much to see yet) and following a KAL for the "wellenreiter" shawl - very loosely. meaning: while I have seen photos of finished shawls on several blogs - mine is only in the very early stages of maybe 30 cm of finished knitting.... not sure how much textile stuff I can fit in today - maybe a bit of spinning in the evening, but after crawling around in the garden for hours I am usually too knackered to do much more. tomorrow we have to go to town - DS's new school is open for "business", namely the selling of new and 2nd hand school books, of which two are still missing from his by now eclectic collection (weighing about a ton altogether! I think they should force the people who decided on publishing school books so that 3 years worth of learning stuff go into one book, to carry the results on their backs for a few days! I am convinced that they'd change that in a jiffy!!:(( or not, because they'd be at home in their beds with acute sciatica!!)