*sound of crickets*

Deulich!  Sorry!  I've been a little hectic the last few weeks.

I've got a yarn dyeing post lined up soon, just waiting for the latest batch to cool.

What's Deulich?  It's Scottish Gaelic for sorry.  Yes folks, I have now said 4500 different words of Gaelic and made 80 new sounds.

Our class and tutors on the last day:


Six days on instense brainwashing (yes, they use a brainwashing technique to help the words sink in) and the island now has four qualified tutors.

The weather has been iffy.  No long dry spells but no long wet spells, just all of it in each week.  This has led to the odd interesting visitor:



On the cold windy days Rumble the ferret has bounded out of the cage and gone for a good run about while the other two made their opinions very clear.





I've been working on "Christmas stock" ready for the local sale in November.



I've also designed a pattern for little stuffed fish that can be used in a multitude of ways including tesselating to make a blanket.





It was the lamb sale two Fridays ago, 'twas rather noisy!



Apparently it went alright, not great but good enough.

Madam doglet is enjoying today's sun and cooking in the living room.  It's pretty darn windy out there but that's not getting in so she's happy.

That's it for now, yarn and dyeing post soon.

TTFN

Active Day

Wednesday was fairly active and I took the camera roaming.

The Dutchman's Cap as seen from Scarinish: (Dad says it looks like a cake on a plate, it does a bit!)

Scarinish  Harbour was pretty busy, the Regatta was meant to be on this weekend but a combination of it having already been delayed one week and the weather looking less than fit for it means it was cancelled this year.  Folk were getting their boats out of the water.


Weds evening saw Jo and I head off for a walk.  We trotted down to the beach and saw some unusual sights.

A yacht.  I'd seen some white triangle on the horizon while we were walking down and Jo suggested using the camera's 26x zoom to see what it was.


A sheep carcass, most of which was here but we saw bones scattered for about 200m altogether.


A jellyfish:


Lots of seaweed that I photographed for colour ideas.











For the walk back I suggested we walk along the Reef, meaning follow the road but walk on the machair.  Jo suggested we try the more direct route.  There were lots of flowers out and blooming:








It was certainly an adventure.  We identified the house and made a bee line.  The first obstacle was the fence around the landing tarmac for the airport.  No problem, we'll walk around it. The undergrowth was rather thick and deep in places....



So deep that Jo left footwells rather than prints!

 
 Then I remembered how the airport is surrounded by a fence and that the road to the airport is before our house.  So we got to the airport road and climbed over the fence, went through a gate on the other side and carried on.  I lost my feet down the odd hoofprint but we made it home and did our best calf impressions and slipped through our own fence.  Certainly an interesting walk, shame about all the clegs/horseflies.  Jo got a couple of nibbles but apparently I'm the tastier option, to quote Jo "we come for the sweat, we stay for the bloooooood" and boy did they!  I had five or six bites on one elbow and two on the other.  They've only just stopped itching.

There was a gorgeous sunset that evening though:


I'm knitting Christmas items for the Christmas Fayre (I assume there will be one!) and have more ideas for my Etsy shop!  I made a big yarn order, most of which has arrived and I have many plans for it.  I've got 15 skeins of various blends and have some merino/cashmere/nylon on backorder too.  Lovefibre, Nicola and myself are going to have a dyeing day sometime soonish and now I know that dyed yarn dries quicker if it's turned out onto the lawn so I can dye and rinse and dry in one day rather than two!

I'm also running a dye bath in the garage.  We bought some green emrboidered but otherwise white bedding with the intention of dyeing it and now I have, plus three t-shirts and soon another set of bedding.  It takes longer to exhaust an alkaline dye bath than an acid one.  Anyhoo, as I'm lacking photos of those I shall leave off for now and get back to knitting.

TTFN.

Introducing The Woolly Ferret

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on something.  I've been dyeing yarn, talking to folk, renaming my Etsy shop and plotting.

Now I'm ready for the big reveal.



Look at the amazingly CUTE ferret!  (I've already had a friend point out that the image is a "fur-ball".  Very punny)


The image and banner were made by the local talented artist Gromitty.  I sent her a list of suggestions and was thinking of ferret on a ball of yarn, what does she come back with?  Ferret on a ball of yarn!  perfection!

I've fathomed how to add a gallery of some of the items in my shop to the side bar over there --->

I've even registered a .co.uk address.

Now I'm off to sort out Ravelry adverts for next month.

TTFN

Busy week

It's Thursday but it feels like the weekend already.  Jo's been mowing down the long grass, I've been watering some newly planted branches hoping they root and lots more!

I bought myself a flute:


Here it is with the wooden Feis flute I'm borrowing:


Unsurprisingly it's a tad more complicated to play fingerwise but a lot easier to get sound from.  Interesting balance and makes me think I want to keep up with both as I enjoy the simplicity and deep sound of the wooden flute but love the range of the metal.

It's currently persisting it down but we've had a mostly okay weather week that saw some gulls visiting.

One kittywake:


It was hanging around with two very grumpy and much bigger herringulls:


Jo and I had an evening walk down to and along the beach:




It was a pretty low tide so we saw this rock with green "hair":


Yesterday was insane and hysterical and fantastic!  We'd made arrangements with Peter and Nicola to have a crafty afternoon and share knowledge and skills.  We started with Jo showing Nicola how to make bread.  Peter took during photos, this is the result:


Then it was my tutoring turn, I showed Nicola how to dye yarn and we dyed many mini skeins that I can add to my hexipuff collection with.  I'd also bought two "sock blanks" (rectangles of sock yarn that you dye then reknit into socks).  Nicola dyed one in a very hippie theme and I did mine sea-style.

While those were cooling outside and the bread was on its second rise Nicola showed me how to make candles!


Mine during a cooling phase:


I've left them with Nicola because they sink as they cool and need another layer to level off.

This is their draining rack before dinner:


And their garden:


Goodness knows what people driving past thought of this sight:


I just love the colour combinations that were done:








After a delicious dinner, a game of Fluxx (a card game where the rules are constantly changing), some delicious Magnum ice creams and Ben swearing he's not been fed:


We went for a short drive and a trot along Gott bay.  Nicola and Peter were on the lookout for their "seaweed" shot for the Tiree Photographic challenge.  After playing with some weed and making the scariest possible face with shell, weed and wood I've ever seen they settled on a much more "acceptable" shot:


The actual photo is even sillier.

I have spent the day learning how to play A,B,C,G on the new flute and doing some tunes.  It's a lot harder to support this one because so many more fingers are required for keys but I am determined to get the hang of it!  At my current rate of an hour a day, 5 days a week, it'll be about 40 years until I hit the magical 10000 hours of becoming pro.  So, be a nice 70th birthday present to myself ;)

The mini skeins are all dry and twisted now:


They're in my "hexipuff bin" of sock yarn oddments waiting to be knit up.  I've also got a box of polystyrene balls and a tube of baubles for crafty things to sell at Christmas.  It's all go with a nice rest every so often here!

Simon has set the new challenge for the Photographic as "harvest".  I may well enter a shot of the mini skeins artfully arranged, as they are a harvest in a way.  Will have to see.  Anyway, I have ideas to try.

TTFN.