Dyeing to have fun

I spent a very happy Sunday afternoon last month with my friend, the inimitable Knitting Mongoose where she taught me a bit about dyeing.  I don't know what came over me as I'm not usually a brights person, but obviously my subconscious desperately needed two rainbows

Dried and wound, the cakes of yarn look very different and I thought I would knit them up into a pair of socks

However, I decided that I really needed a big, multicoloured beret so off I went, following the instructions in the Knitter's Handy book of Patterns.  It's currently at the finished, bathed and drying stage, so you will have to wait for the finished result and my commentary.  I will say no more at this point!

Don't you know who I am?

I certainly don't. 

 This morning I was chatting with an online friend about an exciting collaboration we might be doing, and the subject of Pinterest came up. I remarked that I was amazed at how many followers I had and mentioned my user name - Artygal.  I was extremely tickled when she informed me that I was famous and she was always seeing pins by me in her feed.

Flattering, weird and puzzling all at once, particularly as she is famous in my worlds for her knitting prowess and stunning photography skills

Overwhelm!

So, after being in the blog desert for a long time, I suddenly feel like blogging about lots of things.  It's a bit overwhelming.  Do I make a huge splurgy post about everything, or trickle it out in shorter bites in separate categories?

Edited to add - I'm going for the separate posts - fits with other things in my life as you will see

Ah, so that's why I never took to a Filofax

I've had one planner in my lifetime. 

when I was a department manager for Sainsburys I thought it would be smart to have one for recording sales.  I needed something that would fit in the breast pocket of my polyester brown work suit (shudder), so my mum bought me the tiniest one from WH Smiths for Christmas 1989 or 1990.  The pages are a minute 8cm x 12.5cm.  It didn't work for me, so it has been stored away ever since.

Being brave

I did something big today.

For years I was obsessed with paper crafts, especially rubber stamping.  I spent a small fortune on them, even sourcing rarities from the USA.  However, eventually my interests moved on and my supplies just sat marinating but neglected and taking up space.

I had to move my beloved stamps and Bisley cabinets into the garage to make room for the pet rats, so today I called on the awesome resources of my friend Marian  and she has taken them all away, to be sold onto people who will actually use them.

For me this is huge.  So much of my time and resources were tied up in these supplies and my identity too.  I felt some pangs looking at my favourite stamps that I adored so much:  images I searched for over months; stamps that came from a maker who has since died; ones that I bought and have never been cut from the sheet, let alone stamped with.  All loaded into someone else's car and gone.

I feared what that would feel like but it feels right, freeing and timely. There's more, so much more to go, but it's a start

Good bye papercrafter Laura.  You were great, but it's time to let you go along with the beauteous Bisleys

curious

Anyone know what this is?

Lace spindle love

I bought a beautiful Turned On The Cut spindle from someone's destash and had a great time spinning this yarn from a batt I carded at the Alpaca Spinner's Woolly Day the other month

I taught myself to chain ply on the spindle and had a play at using random fibres too

Some of the colour combinations make me feel rather uneasy.  

I've got more similar colours to the stormy blue on the spindle at the moment which I'm hoping will give me a more useful yardage when combined.  I've taught myself ply on the fly for this second spindle, but I'm beginning to think it's a great party trick, but it's possibly slower than forming the single, winding on and plying as there so much swapping about