I went to knit-and-natter last night (at the Buccleuch in Dalkeith), there was about a dozen of us and I got chatting with some new people, in particular Gilleoin McClintock  who is a spinning teacher. She had some of her fibre arts display at the Dalkeith Arts Centre this week, so today I went through to see some of her gorgeous stuff and get some info about spinning lessons.

I was particularily impressed with the white sweater which I think is a mix of shetland wool and dog hair! I can't remember the dog breed, but it felt very very soft.

it only takes a minute girl*

to fall in love, to change your plans, to learn how to do something that's been bugging you for a while (well, that took 5 minutes, but it was fab!).
First of all, Friday afternoon's plans were changed several times-
 from taking Jen and two of her pals to Ocean Terminal so that they could see the chick-flick Leap Year while I happily knitted on Milo sock 2 in Costa coffee,
- to Jen heading into Edinburgh on the bus with one pal to see Leap Year allowing her dear old Ma to stay at home in comfort and knit,
- to realising that Jack wanted to go into Edinburgh to buy a guitar bag and was going to carry his brand new Ibanez acoustic bass guitar on the bus and round Edinburgh without any cover on it! AARRGGGHH!
Dear Old Ma and Da (ie, us) had got the young rascal this fab guitar for his birthday but we'd said he had to get the bag himself. But I didn't want him to be hauling it along with him on buses. So the plans were changed to taking him and the fab guitar to Edinburgh to a music shop.

Now luckily for me his first port of call was at Red Dog music in the Grassmarket which is very close to to the knitting boutique K1 yarns.

So while he had a blissful time shopping I had a fab time in K1, acquiring some Fyberspates merino sockwool in browns to make the pair of Two Hoots socks in Bobbins mag and 3 of the imported mags from Interweave.
The wool fumes were getting to me so I headed off to Hula for coffee and chocolate cake, and pretended that I was a student again, and when Jack had found a big enough bag for his fab guitar (honestly, I'm no expert at all, but the deep thrumming sound of this acoustic bass is wonderful) he joined me for coffee and cakes. Well, dear Old Ma was paying....

Then today I managed to get to the Haddington spinners open day at Poldrate Mill. I'd heard about this group last summer but it clashes with my Spanish class (both are on Tuesday mornings, in different parts of East Lothian), so today was my first chance to meet the group. One of the ladies very kindly took me under her wing, showed me in simple stages how to use my very basic spindle and I produced half a metre or so of OK-ish yarn. WOOT! that was a very useful 5 minutes.

Very encouraged I bought myself some lovely 100% superwash merino fluff in a dark wine red shade so that I can practise my drop spindling with a bit more confidence. Yay!!

 And 'cos I was feeling dizzy with wool fumes (that must have been the reason!!) I also bought a copy of "Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn" by Carol J Sulcoski. Jen had gone with me to Poldrate Mill and her eyes (and fingers!) were attracted to some recycled sari yarn. Not sure what she is going to do with it, pet it I suppose!

So, not the progress that I'd hoped for on the Milo sock, but great fun anyway, (& invoving cakes and fab wool), and sometimes plans just have to be changed.

*It only takes a minute girl, by Tavares, awesome!

I am a cider drinker

I am a cider drinker

I drinks it all of the day

I am a cider drinker

It soothes all me troubles away

Ooh aargh ooh argh aay

argh, the classic song by the Wurzels, a wonderful parody of Una Paloma Blanca, and amazingly enough it was a massive hit.

This fit of 70's nostalgia has been brought about by a can of non alcoholic pear cider from IKEA, which is a lovely drink after a 5 hour shopping trip with J2.

D is going to redecorate her bedroom at the weekend (while she is away sailing!) so J2 and I had to go and get the wallpaper, paste, paint, light fittings, lamp & mirror as well as shopping for new school trousers (term starts on Aug 19th).
J2 is has chosen sophisticated black & white from Laura Ashley with touches of red, to replace the lilac paint on her walls (my girl is growing up!)


I was soooo tired last night I couldn't pick up the drop spindle so I contented myself with sock knitting and listening to past episodes of Stitch It! to pick up info from Meghan on spinning.

The sock is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Sock Recipe - A Good Plain Sock which I'm making in Wendy Happy a cheap & cheerful bamboo/nylon sock yarn- in Aquarius I love the colours even though it's not my birth sign.

Meghan is a relatively new spinner and she won a scholarship to SOAR as she would cascade all that she learnt about spinning to her podcast audience. The eps that I was listening to were reviewing different types of sheep fibre ( Blue faced Leicester, Corriedale etc). It made me wonder what it was that I had put onto my drop spindle, the kit doesn't specify what it is, and then I decided it didn't matter, this is for practising with and I shall use it up, & keep notes on my progress. It's a bit like first time knitting on some random acrylic- it's just to understand the process of knitting, it doesn't really matter what it is.

I also listened to ep 39 of CogKNITive- Dr Gemma is new to spinning too and she solved one of her spinning problems (the unspun fibre getting tangled with the spun fibre) by making herself a distaff for her left hand. I'm definitely making myself one of those as I found that my unspun fibre was tangling with the spindle far too often.

And I'm definitely going to get myself some more Swedish non-alcoholic pear cider- it has a fab taste and there's no hangover. I generally avoid cider because of the awful thumping headaches which tend to arrive the same night- not even the next day. I'd better not sing along to the Wurzels too often though as my family will have me carted away!

new! new! new!

I lifted some of our new potatoes today for dinner- they were delicious, as were the freshly picked french beans . Never mind food miles, these have only food yards.

The raspberries have finished now, I picked the last handful on Sunday to eat while I was knitting in the garden.

I like the lettuce from the garden too, but as D and J2 are not lettuce fans I tend to pick a leaf or two and put some in my sandwiches at lunchtime.

There are quite a few apples on the trees, and 5 pears on one pear tree, which is a big improvement on last year when there were none!

I plucked up courage today and fished out my drop spindle which I bought in Keswick last year.

I've been watching some great videos by Abby Franquemont on youtube this week which are very clear and informative .

So fortified by the delicious potatoes & beans (and some grilled pork) I sat in front of the pc, watched the videos over and over again and using a very simple spindle produced a few yards of handspun. (The brown yarn at the bottom of the spindle was with the kit to use as a leader).

I have a lot to learn:

- how to draft properly,

- how to understand the twist building up in the yarn,

- and how to avoid dropping the drop spindle on my foot!

I haven't even thought about plying yet, I'm just going to work through my bag of fibre and keep practising.

nice to meet ewe !

We went off to the Haddington Agricultural Show today which was a great opportunity to meet up with friends and farm animals .

East Lothian is proud of its farming heritage and it was great to see so much of it celebrated with competitions for junior gymkhana, pony & trap, family dog training and the serious judging of sheep, goats, cows and shire horses.

I made friends with lots of sheep, met a farmer who keeps Shetland sheep (which surprised me as I thought the the sheep round here were reared for meat rather than for the quality of their wool,) and met Jean who is involved with the Poldrate Mill craft group and who told me all about a spinning group held there. I was chuffed to bits.

I want to learn to spin, but need a guiding hand to get me started and all the classes that I could find where at least an hours drive away. This will be a 5 minutes drive! I can't wait until September when the group starts up again.

My only disappointment was not seeing the alpacas (alpacas in East Lothian? who knew?), but I later found out that a friend of a friend keeps them and she sells the yarn that she spins. Woohoo!!

J2 had fun too, she met up with her galpals , won a coconut and a giant inflatable hammer and was pretty happy too. We also bought some delicious organic chocolate from The Chocolate Tree and some handmade soaps from Country at Heart . There was tons of other stuff that I could have splashed my cash on too, but I had to be sensible (for once) as we will be going away soon.

We had to leave the show early as we were taking J2 to TeenRanch near Dundee where she is going to have a week of riding, kayaking, archery and mad fun with 60 other kids. The ranch house is styled with a western theme, Native American artifacts and cowboy posters on the walls, and the groups are named Redskins, Broncos etc. When we pick her up next weekend there will be a gymkhana and BBQ before we leave. (I wish that I could have done this sort of thing when I was a kid, there should be something called middle-aged ranch for peeps like me!)

Rather than just driving back down the A90, D and I decided to cross the Tay Bridge and drive the scenic route round Fife and visited St Andrews, which was lovely on a warm summers evening in July, and very quiet as the students have graduated and left.


I've lived in Scotland for 14 years but there are still parts of this country that I haven't visited (much to my deep shame), but at least I've seen St Andrews now. I still have to visit Aberdeen, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, Orkney, Perth & Stirling and numerous small towns and villages too.


We enjoyed some fish and chips and then continued down the road through traditional places such as Pittenweem and Anstruther. It was fascinating looking across the Firth of Forth from the northern side and seeing a different view of Bass Rock and Berwick Law (which are so much a part of the landscape in East Lothian) through the sea mist. (and I did wave to Beth as we drove through Leven! Yoohoo Scattie!).


It was great having this time together, just enjoying a drive, no kids to worry about and chatting about the wonderful scenery around us. I can understand why Fifers are so proud of their corner of Scotland- it was looking at its best in the sunshine.