Alice Jean

Yes, here we have snow as well. It was only a thin layer to begin with, but the children had fun anyway. As long as one can throw snowballs it is okay. Since Sunday we have a lot more snow to play with. So the mittens I made are in use already. The cuffs are knit of Superwash wool, the mittens of Malabrigo Melilla . The Malabrigo was supposed to felt, the Superwash should not shrink. It worked, the mittens have a perfect fit. Oh, this 'felting and not felting' is not my idea, just followed Techknitting . My apologies for the somewhat blurry photo. Though the scratches on the floor are there in real.

For these slippers I used Myrthestieks beautiful handspun yarn. Before felting they looked like this After felting I decorated them a bit. This is how they look now

Some ramble about my spinning adventures. This here is merino Made into a tote. One photo before and one after felting. I have to admit I am very pleased with the result It came out just as I imagined. Also... I ordered some Superwash BFL Top at Babylonglegs . 'Very Berry' and some undyed BFL fibre Superspeedy delivery and it came with some coffee. ;-) The 'Very Berry' is on the wheel now and it spins up beautiful. I so love it! Today I played a bit with this new drum carder First I tried some Merino A nice first batt came off Second try out was some raw fleece of an Ouessant And here is the batt. Not bad at all, but this fleece was more difficult to card. Well, I will give the fleece some much needed more washes before I try again anyway.

Or how to destash about 1100 grams of yarn. Four pairs made of the veggie merino, one pair made out of a mishap of handdyed BFL. Not bad at all. One pair for Mick, one pair for Reese, one pair (with the fluffy cuff) for Dory and two pair of slippers for me. Jerrold says he is still happy with the Matalan slippers. Let him think, we know better. :-)

Two pair of socks are knitted, there's some yarn left over. Not bad at all. And all the secrets hidden in the ball are now uncovered. A dream catcher (very nice), some pretty pendants, a lavender candle light, a package with those small elastics in it, what are they called (English or Dutch, whatever). You know, those tiny rubber bands one uses as stitch marker. Originally meant as hair care product. And two felted eggs. I have to confess not to have a clue what they are. They have the form of an egg and they are felted. So my best guess is that they are for decoration. Nevertheless, it was great fun to do this swap and I am looking forward to the next magic ball swap. Back to the red Horcrux socks now...

This is a Gotland sheep. Doortjes absolute favourite at Woolfest . Oh yes, there were many sheep more, but the Gotland sheep were the most attractive to her. I was allowed to see one stand at the time and then we had to head back to those sheep immediately. For me as wool lover Woolfest was worthwhile. It is a great pleasure to feel and see all kinds of wool and the sheep who produce that particular wool. And to see all the magnificent colours of hand dyed yarn. And to see a lot of people spinning and weaving. She gave me this drop spindle and some Merino roving. Unfortunately I was not able (in time) to attend the 'Spinning with Hand Spindle' workshop, so I have to learn it myself from the Internet. Or maybe I find myself a spinners group in the area, we do have a lot of sheep here :). I did not only watch, but also bought some stuff. One kilo of undyed organic wool, a bar of Olive soap (one of the things I want to do in the near future is felting wool), two bars of Woolfat ...