Holiday decorating

A couple of years ago we had a new boiler installed, because we are on oil central heating the new boiler had to be located in the garden (yes, I know it is quite odd- but apparently that's what they do with oil boilers nowadays), the work to put the boiler in included moving a lot of pipes around - most of it going through our sitting room.   We had good intentions to get the pipes boxed in fairly quickly - but it didn't happen - we got used to the pipes, and they were useful at Christmas to hang the cards on. We knew it would be a long job and just kept putting it off.
It has taken a lot of time (almost two weeks) and effort, but we have finally done it, boxed in the pipes and redecorated the sitting room, my lovely husband has done such a good job I can hardly remember that they were there!

Here is a view of the pipes running along the ceiling in the process of being boxed in.

And here is the same wall after boxing in and redecoration - not a pipe in sight! 

I 'distressed' some old bits of furniture that we have - an old side table originally from a nest-of-tables, which looked awful but is so useful. 

Before 

After 

Also an old trunk, known for some reason as the 'Carpenter's trunk' 

Before  

After 

The fire-place has new decorative features -re-cycled from the old counter decorations that came from the shop my parents had back in the 1970s. 

We finally finished the glossing on the woodwork yesterday and got everything back into place - very happy to have reached the end! 

Wheels

Other news is that a month or so ago I purchased an old Louet S10 from DyeSpinKnit on Ravelry.  The wheel had been painted a weird gloss green (sorry if you like that kind of thing) but my husband came to the rescue again and stripped the green paint and Danish oiled the wheel for me.  The wheel is slightly stained from the paint, but I quite like the effect.  I love the huge bobbins and the wheel is so fast when compared to my little Westbury wheel. 

One of my first 'spins' were these batts

Into 'Pumpkin Patch'

Final thick singles 

Other things, I have knitted more gloves .... one pair in handspun camel (so soft) and one with red and grey stripes 

I have been trying out lace knitting (I am determined to do this - but fail every time)

Finished the latest Ruth Rendell novel

Tomorrow I am off to judge the crafts at East Bergholt Horticultural Society annual show - should be good!

Equinox

I had three balls of Kidsilk haze in my stash for some time; two balls of soft blue (I believe the shade is called ‘Trance’) and a ball of black.  I wanted to crochet a soft wrap with it so started a piece using a stitch called Iris, a very simple repeat of trebles with a chain in between.  Everything was going well until it became apparent at the end of the first ball that I would not have enough yarn to get anywhere near the size of wrap that I wanted!  The thread is impossible to unravel once crocheted (I don’t know how it behaves when knitted….any thoughts out there?) and as I so loved the results I was getting with the yarn as it was so soft and light, I had a decision to make  – do I buy more haze in blue, or try and do something with the two remaining balls (one blue and one black)?

After experimenting with various widths, I created a two-tone scarf consisting of one half black and one half blue.  By chance, I finished this around the time of the Vernal Equinox and, as the scarf is half blue and half black it fitted the idea of equal day and night, so I have named it Equinox.

Crocheted in Kidsilk Haze, 2 2.25g balls, using a size 5mm hook.

I am so pleased with the result that I have my eye on some beautiful hand dyed kidsilk from  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lichtfaden on Etsy (on vacation at the moment), I am sure some beautiful pieces are waiting to be made from this…!!

Trying to spin lace yarn

I have two alpaca fleeces, one is black - or near black, and the other is cream.  Last week I experimented  spinning the cream fleece as fine as I possibly could.   As the fleece is not overly mucky I have been spinning it without pre-washing. (or in the grease, my only irritation with these fleeces is that the these alpacas have had a lovely time rolling in the grass and moss!)   I first handcarded it into rolags and have spun it using a woolen technique, finally I plied the singles together to create a stronger yarn. The result is a very soft and light yarn which I am very happy with. 

However, I am sure I could get this finer and I am also curious to know how the singles would stand up on their own.  I am wondering if my next step should be to create a mix with the black or continue with the cream.... decisions decisions!