Knit, Crochet and Natter 6: Where there's a wool there's a way

[lazylinguist]

A thread for all woolly crafters, from total beginners to old hands! Previous thread here

Thank you! One more sleeve to go... The texture of the Fairisle parts is a bit bumpy atm, but based on how the yoke onmy sleeveless jumper turned out, blocking it should flatten and even it out quite nicely.

I've managed to sort of try it on even with the edges of the other sleeve hole still on a stitch holder, and I think the sizing is pretty good. Sleeve is a good length! (I always fret about the sizing!)

Yay, well done @lazylinguist 🥳that looks brilliant!

@CrochetBug how are you getting on with your tablets & diet changes so far?

Oo yes! Very neat @lazylinguist . Well done!

I may not have my knitting with me but I have done something related to wool. Here’s me feeding Alpacas.

Oh wow lazy, that's stunning! It's so beautifully neat!

Brilliant NiceCardigan! 😀 They've all got funny hairstyles, they look like rockers

I joined my local guild of weavers spinners and dyers during lockdown and they've started back up in person so I went along to the monthly meet up tonight. It was so nice, everyone was really friendly and interesting and there was lots of yarn and fibre chat. I'm so glad I went!

lazy that’s lovely! Looking forward to seeing the finished jumper.

nicecardiagn I love alpacas. I’ve considered getting some to help with our garden (it’s a long thin plot and we struggle to keep on top of it). The previous owner had goats and we’ve got a knackered set of stables (potentially outs self). I think the only thing you can do with goats is make curry, so I’d rather have alpacas. But then I’d have to learn to spin their wool so that might be a bit much to take on at the moment.

I did love the hairstyles apparently you can use the fleeces for felting if you don’t want to spin the wool (I asked lots of wool related questions!)

Thanks everyone! I wish I'd brought my knitting to school today - holy grail of supply teaching, as the teacher I was covering got back from her appointment 5 mins into the lesson (but I still get paid for the hour!). I don't think I'd make myself very popular sitting here knitting while other teachers are rushing about so busily though!

lazy crafting at school would be much more pleasant than the alternative at ours at the moment. It's chaos some days 🤯

I'm still not feeling the green jumper so might frog it tomorrow.

My friend has a 3.75mm hook I can borrow for the gloves though. I'll buy my own eventually, if I come across a pattern requiring one again.

The alpacas are sweet NiceCardigan. I think there's a place near us where you can go to feed & walk some.

Flavia has your cat situation been resolved fully? I can't remember

Oooh wow InTheNightWeWillWish! That would be quite something to look out the window at 😄 I think the shearing could be trickier than the spinning though!

All finally sorted thanks lucymam thank goodness! I was stressing about one of the older kittens getting pregnant too but they’re both neutered now and as it turns out males… Feeling a bit sorry for the mummy cat, she was pretty scared going to the rescue though she didn’t have much milk so it was for the best. She was so tiny to already have had two litters. I’m wondering if she might end up back with us if no better home is found, this is her fb.watch/8tLBGsHdd_/

I’m very much regretting doing this test knit, it’s doing my head in with sizing at the moment…

Aw bless her, she looks quite fed up. She looks a bit like the cat we had when I was younger. Glad it's sorted for the moment though. Would you mind having her if no one else comes forward?

@lucysmam bless you, thanks for asking! I'm still working out what my diet actually needs to be, but I'm seeing the nurse tomorrow so I'm hoping she can shed some light on it all. Some things say low/no carb. Some talk about GI. I've finished the bread we had and figure I just won't buy anymore. I LOVE bread, dc prefer wraps so they won't miss it. I picked the potatoes out of my veg stew today although knowing my luck the other ingredients are probably carbs
My tablets arrived yesterday. I'd already googled when they all need to be taken. With food/on an empty stomach etc. I then spent a very happy 15 mins putting a weeks worth into my dosage boxes (i have a habit of forgetting if I've taken them and this way I can check). I then realised that I'd dosed out 3 metformin every day and I have to wean onto them slowly and am only meant to take them once a day for the first week . But as long as I remember to ignore the ones in the 'noon' and 'eve' sections of the boxes I'll be OK.

Other than that all they've made me do is pee even more than usual (and i was going a lot!)

@NiceCardigan squeeeee!!! I adore alpacas . I'd love one in my garden. And a goat. Not sure it would be fair on them though as only small!

I'm on a mission to finish some of my wips. I have an embarrassing amount! I dig out what I thought was DK to continue with a blanket and the yarn seems much thinner than previous rows. So I found another ball. Still looks too thin. So I checked my purchase history, I've only ever bought DK in white so it must be DK. But it's so thin. I'm so confused, which to be fair doesn't take a lot

@FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack my friend and her wife took in a pregnant stray and kept some of the kittens. Then they took in another stray and then another... they currently have 8 cats!

Well, we’d suck it up rather than her being unhomed iyswim… She is a lovely little thing, it’s just pet ownership wasn’t a responsibility I wanted!

Oh flip CrochetBug! I’m allergic to any kind of furry animal, I was going for the antihistamines when I was trying to transport them so no 8 cats for us 🤣

I'm usually allergic to cats (only mildly, they make me sneeze and feel bunged up) but hers are fine. Apparently it's because they are black cats or something.
When we puppy sat for her a few weeks ago (she's also the owner of the cute pup I posted a photo of last week) DS2 was in heaven because he found if he sat quietly in the conservatory 6 of the cats would come and sit with him.

Wow - a puppy and 8 cats . One if each is definitely enough for me!

It's a bit chaotic atm at the two secondaries where I do supply too, @lucysmam. That's partly why I'm getting so much work. The thing I dislike most about doing supply is the last-minute nature of it. I have plans for what I need to get done that day, and I'm on tenterhooks until about 7:50 a.m. in case I get a phone call and have to drop everything! Looks like I'm safe for this morning then... (I'm doing actual teaching this afternoon).

Getting really excited about the spinning course now. I'll be setting off before 7a.m. on Saturday with the satnav and hoping it doesn't lose signal up on the Lakes roads. I am very bad with directions and maps!

I've started the second sleeve of my Goldwing jumper. Oof - this will have taken me a long time! I normally wpuld have allowed myself to add another WIP or two, but I didn't want anything to distract me from getting it finished!

Good luck with the tablets crochetbug It’s definitely worth taking it slowly with the metformin, there are definitely some side effects 💩😳

flavia how our garden is, we actually wouldn’t see the alpacas unless we went down to visit them. We have a long thin garden split into two sections. The top section we have as a normal garden and is like a large but normal sized garden. Then you get to the stables and we’ve got a fence so the bottom 2/3 is screened off and that’s just grass. You might be able to see them from the road but that’s not too unusual round here, I know of three alpaca fields round here and there’s livestock up and down my road. I sound like I’m 500 miles from civilisation but I can get into London in just over an hour but this is far as Londoners will brave it outside of London to “release” foxes into the wild

Oh, I'm vicariously excited for you Lazy! My SatNav has never lost signal except in tunnels so fingers crossed for you

Wow InTheNight that sounds ideal, with that many around you you shouldn't be short of advice or shearers!

Dd1 needed a pumpkin..."cos Halloween innit Mum" 🎃

Apparently she now needs a ghost too, and dd2 needs one of each as well 🙈 I will get to make something for me 🤣

SatNav has never lost signal except in tunnels so fingers crossed for you.

I'm also capable of getting lost when the satnav is working. I once accidentally went most of the way to Blackpool (about 45 mins) when I was supposed to be going home from Morecambe (20 mins in the opposite direction). I achieved this by getting on the M6 going the wrong way. Twice. While not actually intending to go on the M6 at all. I am at advanced level in geographical incompetence.

Oops, and I thought my sense of direction was bad 😂 Well, at least Blackpool is beside the sea so you could get fish and chips?

I shall look at the map a lot before I go to the course and hopefully I'll be ok!

Ooh lovely pumpkin @lucysmam! My teen dc love Halloween. I'm not so fussed about it, even though my birthday is on the 31st! I like autumn and autumnal decorations, food etc though. Dh makes amazing pumpkin soup and pumpkin tart.

I think Halloween is the only festival my dc would prefer to be at their dads for. I don't do Halloween and he does.
It's my brothers birthday so we celebrated that growing up, and trick or treating wasn't really a thing in my area. Although we did go all out and decorate the caravan we stayed in a few years ago. And we used to go to a thing at my mums local when my dc were small.