One big spider

Not for those who dislike these fascinating creatures!

This is Tiny 7 days on from his moult (his/her - still not 100% certain on sex - so will use 'his' for now). He is still pumping up and is stretching out here. From the tip of my middle finger to the centre of my wrist is about 7" and he is longer than that! There are no obvious male spider signs but he could still be a juvenile. I have rescued his moult and if I can spray and stretch it I'll have peak inside to see if I can see female reproductive signs - but it is touch and go if the moult will show them....just have to wait and see if he moults again. He isn't ready to eat yet, probably will be another week before his fangs are up to it, so for now he is just quietly getting used to his new self and looking magnificent.

As for the others - Boris is now officially Doris, she moulted a while back and stayed the same and at her age (around 5 or 6) she is female. Humbug is male and frail but still hanging on in there, the males get so skinny when they mature but he's still eating and tramping about his tank. Marmite is little, busy and I think he'll moult soon as his abdomen looks like it's ready to pop!

Slop, slap - almost there....

decorating the bedroom that is! What chaos, what mess, whatever.

I hate it - love the finished product, despise the journey to get there.

Walls and ceiling done. New blinds - being fixed as I type. Next stop - ripping up the carpet, glossing the skirting and door frames, then fitting the wood floor in the bedroom and upstairs hall/landing, then dismantling my old desk and building my new one, varnishing my wood chair and the final job will be fitting the new light and purchasing some fripperies (love that word). Hopefully the floor will go in next weekend and by the end of the following week the whole thing will be done, if not before.

M and I slept - very badly - in the lounge last night. He was so determined to get us back into our bed tonight he started painting before he went to work and got straight back to it when he got in. Now, I hear you cry - "Why did you not paint whilst he was out?" For the very good reason that I am 'so' crap at it he would have had to redo anything I went near and with dark brown, pale beige and a turquoise/jade/blue/green - wonky would scream at you at every colour meet up.

I did cook dinner and keep the dogs/kid/cat out of his hair. I also restored and maintained order to the rest of house.

I know we have the hall and stairs to go (fairly simple job - fingers crossed) but after that M and I will be all decorated out!

Webs of one sort or another

I haven't got very far (haven't had time) but this is the Suri Alpaca shawl. The pattern is from 'Victorian Lace Today' very simple and easy to remember. It will be pretty when finished I think.

Lack of time due to decorating etc am in the throes of it right now *sigh* just waiting to get 2nd coat on ceiling finished so walls can commence in full.

*****Spiders ahead******

Progress no further if you don't like big hairy spiders!!!!

Tiny, the Salmon Pink Bird Eater moulted yesterday. Still not sure if it's juvenile still - no sign of maleness but it may still be too young and he/she is not surrendering the moulted skin (it's in the foreground, you can see the fangs that were shed along with the skin.) The hair is much darker than on previous moults and the salmon pink hairs are longer and brighter. He/she is still plumping up so the new size is difficult to gauge - so I'll just go with 'BIG' possibly double what it was previously.

Back to the grind!

See no, hear no, speak no.

Or as I've renamed them Og, Blog & Snog. I love gargoyles, am fascinated by them. I could not resist these any longer. I saw them in the summer and coveted them. Went online to see if they were still available and they were, they a were also reduced in price......sold! They arrived Monday and I love them.

Yesterday was a spinning day, I had to give a talk to a local group on spinning last night and I needed to clear some bobbins, so here is some Navajo plied baby camel and silk - about 50g - this is prewash. It's a lovely fibre to spin and I still have more to spin I can't wait to actually knit with it.

Finished a pair of plain ole vanilla's. Started on our camping holiday - the leg on one isn't my neatest work but then I was knitting by candlelight and under the influence of red wine! Good enough for boot socks. The yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL knit on 2.5mm dpns and circs. These are washed and are blocking away next to baby camel and silk handspun. The conservatory is lovely and sunny today, the roof blinds are back so they should dry quickly, I hope the long soak in Eucalon will soften the Trekking as it feels a bit harsh to me.

Lastly, I needed something pretty to spin last night, eye catching, soft and lovely to spin - what better then Jo's rainbow merino that I got at the Safari (I think I mentioned her etsy shop to the ladies at least 4 times - hopefully the unusual name will stick!!!) I loved this merino, spins beautifully and the colours are amazing.

Now I need to go nurse my hangover - a couple of very late night glasses of red wine have made me feel a bit squiffy this morning, am feeling a bit light headed or it may be my rhinitis which when bad (which it is) can make me a bit spacey. A quiet morning of laundry and ironing should do the trick.

A bit of a mixed bag post.

Even more so because blogger put the pictures in a totally different order to the one I browsed them in!

Spent part of last night trying to get a good picture of the girlie's together, in harmony. Impossible if it isn't one it's the other, couldn't sit still if they tried.

That or one of the goes a bit dappy and pulls her long face - hence the nickname 'Lou-Lou Long Face'.

Now here's something tasty indeed. A gift from the bubbly glittrgirl www.glittyknittykitty.co.uk . She gifted this lovely Cherry Tree Hill Suri Alpaca Lace Weight in Winterberry when she came to visit us last weekend. It smells of her perfume oil (very nice) and is so soft and fine and needs to become something light and lacy and wonderful - I am resisting balling it up and knitting on it right now - 'tis so very lovely!

What's with all the weeping?

It is a weird feeling, to feel weepy. But to find yourself crying over televisual images almost beggars belief.

I don't do 'weepies'. I don't cry at the drop of a hat, never have and never especially over sad films/books. But since becoming a Mum I cry at anything!

I cry over the 'Cancer Research' ads, the 'NSPCC' ones - and I'm a campaigner for them! I cry over sad images on the news, I cry over films and last night I wept over the Channel 4 programme about the witch children in Nigeria.

Why am I now at 41 so emotional? It is so unlike me. Weird.

I feel the lump in my throat, my eyes well up and the tears stream down my face and I can't stop them. I hope it doesn't worsen as I age - I can visualise myself weeping buckets over labels on soup cans in Tesco at the age of 60 if this carries on!

Goodies galore.

First up a giftie from Sue http://www.knittiotherapy.typepad.com/ a wonderful sock bag and stitch markers. Skully ones, purple skully ones! I do love me some skulls - what? You'd never have guessed?

Now this is yarn to die for. It is kid mohair from 'Yarns of Distinction' - www.nimuyarns.co.uk. 300g of soft pinky prettiness. It will become something light and lacy that will compliment its beauty. The inner 'girlie' me could NOT resist this, plus it matches my hair. The silky yarn at the top, which compliments it so beautifully, isn't labelled but the lovely lady at Nimu gave it to me - it is lovely too and so is she!

How could I arrange an event with all this delicious yarn and fibre and not succumb to the lure of one of Jo's amazingly colourful fibre plaits? 100g of merino rainbow -she's a colour whizz who knows how to tempt me. Her stuff can be drooled over at www.limegreenjelly.com - don't you just love that name! I'm going to save this to spin on a grey day when I'm in the dumps cos it will be like spinning happiness.

Now this is another pinky pretty moment. A giftie from the delightful and talented Wibbo from Wibbo's Works - 100g of wool/nylon sock yarn called 'Salmon Song'. The colours meld together so well I can't wait to see it knit up. Wibbo and her delightful black kitty, Flossie, can be found here - http://wibbo.typepad.com/

Last but by no means least - more pinky prettiness (I must have been on a well girly kick on Saturday). This wonderful, smooshy soft sock yarn is from the delicious Jon at Easyknits -

www.easyknits.co.uk.

The pinky/brown is 'Choc Choc Cherry' and the other is 'Strawberry Shortcake' it is a bamboo/merino mix and the yarn actually has an amazing glowing lustre to that makes it highly pettable as well as tres jolie.

Am feeling more human again today. Have rediscovered my knitting and spinning mojo again (hurrah - it has been hiding from me for a while - t'was under the bed methinks). I even had another go at drop spindling yesterday (giving a talk on spinning in a couple of weeks, so thought I'd better crack it) it was, finally, more spindle than drop.

Right now I need to move me harris and get on with the chores etc.

Out the other side.

The 'Brighton Knitting Safari' Naughty Knitters in full swing :-)

The chaos before the calm. Jon (Easyknits) was a total angel lugging tables and setting them up.

So many lovely prizes donated by so many wonderful people - the raffle and swap made £145 for Suemoon's (http://knittiotherapy.typepad.com/) charity fund
http://www.walkthewalk.org/AboutUs/OurHistory.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Here's to the .................................watch this space ;-)

It is nice to be the other side of this. I intend to have a couple of quiet days before attempting the bedroom decorating at the weekend (am kind of looking forward to it). I want to take some time to spin and knit, both of which have been sadly lacking in my life the last few weeks.

The wonderful stash acquisitions from the Safari will come in the next post.

All ready for Saturday.

hol2008 069
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Some squooshy yarn for you to admire.

'Dream in color' Classy Worsted Weight Yarn (4oz's) in 'Chinatown Apple' - like it? Want it?

Then buy a raffle ticket at 'The Knitting Safari' on Saturday and it could be yours to take home and fondle.

Whirly-gigs & waffle

The whirly-gig is how my brain feels today, and yesterday, for that matter. Just so much stuff to think about, do and sort out and all I want to do is........nothing. Saturday is creeping closer, however, in the last two days much has been achieved from sorting out raffle prizes to finding out books etc for the swap stall, from stash diving to pad out the teaching area to paying out what feels like a substantial wad of cash for stuff.

As well as this I am decluttering the bedroom, prior to decorating and organising a fire work do for the kidlets and M tomorrow. Plus all my normal everyday stuff, helping J with math, walking the dogs, cooking (my turn for a change), cleaning, doing the laundry .....ahhh the list is endless. Did I sleep well - you bloody bet I did!

As for the waffle - here it is;

Boris moulted and is now for certain 'Doris'.

Knitting hours so far this week = 0.

Reading hours so far this week = 15 mins.

Yoga etc so far this week = 2 hours.

Time spent running about like a headless chook = way too much.

Plus my annual sadness that it was 17 years ago tonight, around this very time, that I last saw my Da alive and he didn't know who I was or that I was even there. I miss him. Leukemia is a bitch. Ma bought an extra special 'big' firework to let off tomorrow - Da loved fireworks and we try and do this every year - plus M & J love it too.

Hopefully my next post will be positive, jolly and full of cheer.............

Don't hold your breath!

Not again.

This week has been trying. Not only have I a mountain of stuff going on (including dealing with the prat solicitor who still hasn't finalised my MIL estate) but I've had another, no doubt stress related, bout of my recurring shingles. I have tried not to dwell on how ill I have felt, I've had it for about 10 days now, in fact I've tried to ignore it in the hope it will go away, but I have, at times, felt truly awful. The rash is now all dry, scaly and itchy and (fingers crossed) on its way out. But due to this we have decided to postpone decorating/flooring the bedroom until after next weekend (Knitting Safari) is over and done with - it was just too much to try and fit in.

Today I plan to rest and hopefully start my very busy week tomorrow with recharged batteries.