More handspun.......Goblin!!!

Theres one single of space dyed Corriedale, and the other is a block colour BFL that I did in my crockpot, I thought the roving needed a little *calming* as it was rather bright ;)

Goblin Roving

Space dyed in a braid, 100g of Corriedale roving.....

Marine Shorts

These are the shorts that are to go with the i-cord beanie in the post below :) Made in a small size, in hand dyed Organic Merino Aran, for a baby who was due about a week ago!!! Come on baby!!!

A typical Mamalonglegs day....... :o)

My days consist of getting everything done, that needs to be done, between the hours of 8.30am-3pm. Sometimes it a real squeeze!!! And very often, nothing that I do involves house work.......shame on me ;)

You may think that 6.5 hours is alot.... read on....time flies when you're having fun :o)

What I want to do is try an illustrate a typical day for me.......humour me?

8.20am: My kids and DH leave the house. Most days I am up, other days I hide.... skip to 2pm

8.30am: Have had my first coffee and first cigarette....feeling almost human. Have usually done my daily milkman scare by this point too......I dunno, you'd think that the strange lady at number 16 with the stripy bedsocks wouldn't phase you after a few months?
Put washing on, first of maybe 2 loads....depends whether scraping last nights dinner off a school shirt makes it wearable for another day....

9am: Have usally spoken to Lottie on MSN by this point......thats always a good start to the day :)

10am: washing has finished. If its raining I get narked at the weather and put it on the airer, if its fine I put it on the line and put another wash on.

11am: Have had 4 cups of coffee, and in amongst the washing (and narking if its raining) there's a dyebath bubblin' :) Apart from my house smelling of vinigar....I really have no option to dyeing this way now....as I use acid dyes. I used to use food grade dyes, which were safe for the kitchen, and at home kids....but now I am toxic....(that sounds quite cool to me btw)
I have no separate room, so all my creativity happens in a newly cleaned kitchen, and when its all finished.....I clean it all again! Ergo.....no other housework gets done, but my kitchen is always spotless! So my dyeing limit, in the time I have....is 400g max......and that suits me nicely. I tend to dye more than I need. If I have a custom order to dye for, or a dye job that inspired me, i always tend to dye an extra 100g if I can, that means I can store it for later.........this helps memto build up a workable stock level. Little and often.....thats my motto!!!!

12pm: Maybe I've done some spinning, or re-skeing of previously dyed yarns, whilst waiting for the dyebth to exhaust and another colour being on the go (this is an ongoing thing btw, a dyebath takes approx 20-30 mins to exhaust, so I am constantly checking).....packed up parcels, it all depends on my workload. I've definitely changed the music on the pootah a few times....or put Kerrang Tv on... Have usually spoken to Miffy on MSN by now.....and been the mistress of enabing!!! I usually have spoken to Mrs Flowerpot by now too....a little less enabling involved there.... :)

1pm: I'm working down by now, usually....on my last colour or even cleaning up after a mornings work....

2pm: Out of the house, off to post parcels and do shopping, usually veggie shopping etc

3pm: Kids come out of school.

3pm-7pm: Madness ensues. Hearing about things that happened in my childrens' day... talking about problems encountered, trying to make sense of their stories, stopping them fighting, trying to get the eldest to do his homework, cooking dinner, keeping the peace (this is an ongoing task with small children)......

7pm-8pm: Bedtime hour....stories, face and teeth washing....lots of cuddles.....

8pm-9pm: Usually an hour of spinning....to help me wind down after the madness of 3pm-7pm or if its been particularly mad, I have a shower and pamper myself!

8/9pm-12am: I usually sit my beeeehind onthe sofa and knit, and depending on my workload its business or pleasure (usually more on the biz side)

My usual bedtime is 1 am....

Then repeat the day 5 times...add beer on the Friday and Saturday night :) Also add the fact I am at my pootah at leat 4 times an hour during the day... checking email and forums....

I do sleep....honestly!!!

I am gonna be cruel, and tag a few other of my blogger friends to share their days with us:

Liss
Myrthestiek
Bigbird
Mrs Flowerpot
Nic

Goblin

Both skeins are uploaded in the Shop :)

Moonchild I-cord beanie

This is a WoollyWormhead design, and its the baby version :) Made as a gift for a customer who's bought some woollies off me for her newborn :)

I am so happy with how the yarn has knitted up.....the rest of it was used for a very special gift :)

I have a bit of the roving left, so I plan to spin it and put it in my Etsy shop

Ooh.....feeling special today :)

I took part in a washcloth swap on Ravelry and this is my haul!!!!

There's 2 skeins of sari silk…3 lots of soap, a lolly, a soap rack (just what we need, I was hoping I’d get one!!!) and a lip salve :)
I was just about to have a shower when it arrived, and it took all my strength not to use some of the soap and the washcloth straight away….. **grin**

So excited!!!

I've done a swap with a USA Wahm called Lori and I requested a Jolly Roger Hoodie in black.....and wow did she create something amazing or what???

I'm sending her some hand dyed and some handspun too....... :)

Can't wait for it to arrive!!!

And at last.....

I've been promising my lovely Lottie I would dye her 300g of BFL DK for ages....and I finally got myself around to it this morning!!!

Reckon she'll like it???

Shortly going northward......

This is a custom spinning order for the most talented Lizet. Its "roughly" DK..hehehe, and theres about 500g of it. One single of Corriedale, another of BFL

She wants to make her little girl something with it :) Can't wait to see how the dyejob turns out on it!! Have fun Lizzie!!!

Some stuff :)

This is a colourway called "Blue Lagoon" , 100g of it (plus trim) was for a custom order....

And this one is called "Fire in the Sky", inspired by the mosst amazing sunset I saw the other night :) Mrs Flowerpot saw it too, and she's blogged it....

Both of these colourways are for sale in my Etsy shop

Someone made my day :)

I have been given the "Make my Day" award by the lovely Lizet.

Wow...thankyou so much!!!

So now I have to tag 10 people, thus:

"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Lizet for tagging me, and making me blog, and also for producing such lovely things!!!

Lottie for being an inspiringly disorganised friend.....

Miffy for always being my little voice of reason :)

Bigbird one of my oldest friends.......thankyou for putting up with me for so long!

Yoshimi for being a master enabler :)

Mrs Flowerpot for allowing me to be the enabler!!!

Woollywormhead for being a constant inspiration....

SarahM for liking my cooking!!!

SpinningFishwife for being a spinning DIVA!!!

Nic.....who needs pulling kicking and screaming from a hole.....get out of it woman, and sew beautiful things!!!

And finally, and just because I like to be different, I'm going to add an 11th person...hehehe

Myrthestiek for always leaving such lovely comments on my blog, you ALWAYS make my day, Bedankt Tessa :)

Yarn Flower

My first large custom dye!!! Couldn't resist playing about with it for a photo :) There's 700g there.....wore me out it did!!!

**GRINS**

And the winner of my Birthday Comp is............

Sorry its taken me so long to post about it!!!

Gah....the goshdarnit hole monster :( I Didn't have the best of birthdays.... Joel was poorly, and I just had the almighty hump with my OH all day...... I tried having a word with myself about it, but I got the silent treatment *sigh*

Anyway, Daniel was very pleased to have chosen the name of his Auntie Trace, so expect something nice in the post...... ;)

Busy Mamalonglegs!!!!

On the knitting front, I've had two custom knits since I last posted here.....

Both in the Large size, above is "Phoenix", knit with hand-dyed 50% Alpaca-50% Merino, and below is "Rainbow for Gabriel", knit with hand-dyed Organic Merino Aran.....


And........finally, I have put some hand-dyed wool and hand-spun wool in my Etsy Shop!!! I've had the shop for ages, but I've just not got around to putting anything in it....

I've been busy on the spinning front too....the lovely Lizet has asked me to spin her up some natural coloured yarn, a single of Corriedale and a single of Bluefaced Leicester. She's going to dye it to knit something yummy for her little girl :) 400g down...only 200 to go!!!

Been fighting the hole dwelling monster alot this week...but I think I am winning....mostly. Experimenting with colourways has really given me inspiration though, I've come up with a couple of definite ones for the future, ones I have called "Enchanted Forest"

and "Toffee Apple"