When you miss a spoke, it gets broke

Okay, I'm mixing my metaphores and it's not proper English, but it rhymes! And it's the truth... 'Cause when I got a phone call last night from big S asking me to pick him and Hannah up from further up the road, this was the reason why:

I had noticed a spoke was missing, and like the front wheel, the back wheel was a bib wobbly... And on Sunday, when we were planning to out for a cycle, we turned back home at the end of the street because I thought it was very strange to drive... Unfortunately, I did not get round to bringing it to the bike shop yesterday (see previous post)... and then when I asked big S whether he was sure he wanted to go biking with wee H... well, let's say I did warn them... Luckily none of them were injured, but it did crack dramatically... And now, I'm without a bike until Friday, and then I'll be two proper stainless steel wheels richer and quite a few Euros poorer... Another life lesson learnt...

Luckily, the rhubarb crumble is nearly ready. I just need to make some custard to go with it...

RSI

Repetitive spinning injury? No, not yet! But thank you for all your great comments on my DIY antics ;) I have my dad to thank for that strange kink in my brain that 'makes me' make stuff and do things like this. Combine this with a creative crafts streak from my mom, and this is what happens! I wonder what my dad would say if he could see me spinning on home-made spindles! His mom did it all too, but then on a proper wheel. She had sheep and goats and did everything from sheering to carding, spinning and knitting herself. Such a shame they're not here anymore to enlighten and teach me! I miss them...

But seriously, because my deadline (which one, you may ask, my life only seems to consist of deadlines these days...) is looming ever closer, I'm doing a bit more typing than is good for me. Steve has already compared my typing to a rollercoaster on the keys, and boy, am I feeling it. My elbows are raw (I am typing with two cushions underneath them), my wrists are sore and I can hardly feel the tips of my fingers anymore. Ten more pages. Ten. I'm at Van Halen and Frank Zappa is within sight... Then comes the joyous task of sitting back and relaxing, while checking this compendium of Rock and Roll for typoes.
But for now, I'm grinding my teeth, and hope I can finish this blasted book by 5 PM today... I'm off the knitting and spindling as a result, to give my hands and arms some peace, but more later on in the week (I hope!).

Update: 17.14 - DONE!

Get your drills out!

What do you do when the weather is atrocious, your husband is away and your daughter is playing on the Wii? Yes, you lock yourself in the shed, avoid a disaster - we had some bad storms last night and had I not been in the shed, the place would have flooded - and make stuff.
We had already raided the local DIY store for some spindle essentials, so while I let wee H know she could do ONE more game, I took out my big drill and set to work. Of course, the workmate was buried under a load of junk in our shed, so I had to fudge it a bit. Same with the mitre saw, the darn thing is always missing when I need it. But luckily the dowel wood was soft enough for me to just pinch it.
So, starting with this:

I ended up with two large and two small ones of these:

One of the big ones is already in use, and I'm getting a lot better at his hand spinning business. It definitely helps if you have a proper spindle, in stead of an improvised one made out of a pencil and CDs... ;)
I'm now looking into how I am going to dye the resulting yarn, I would like to use some natural type of dying aid, such as elder... Any tips are welcome! But first, get enough singles to plie into some yarn! I've 'already' got around 20 grams, so this will take some time...

From Carolus to Lodewijk

I don't know what happened, but for some reason Carolus' head is not really sitting straight on his body... Is this what happens when you're so engrossed in 'Celebrity Masterchef' that you're not following the instructions right? Or is it because I'm knitting on circs and just counted wrong? The poor little mouse... I'll see what I can do for him...
But, he's already much loved!
Before finishing him off though, I'm thinking over my sins by knitting a Lodewijk first...
Both in jeans blue acrylic Lisa-something: this is stash busting time!

And here my mitred square blanket. It's getting along slowly, but it's a much better project for watching telly ;) Looking at it from a distance, it can use more dark, muted colours... But it's not as 'pink' as I expected, haha... So, if anyone has any leftover bits of sock yarn, gimme gimme gimme...

And some FO's...

Here's my Suzy Q...

Made out of olive green Eskimo!

and some little baby socks. I've also finished my Koffieboontjes, but they're upstairs and I'm too lazy to bring them down for a photo. Next time!

It's official, I'm a spinner...

My my, this is addictive. And I'm not even that good at it yet! Here, lookie look!




All in all, I ended up with 14 grams of whool. My home-made spindle (made out of 2 CDs, some cardboard, sticky tape, a pencil and a paperclip) was not perfect, but good enough to try it out! I'm sooooo going to get some proper spindles and I've also been offered a spinning wheel. There goes my private life ;)
I'm not dyeing this ball, but I am going to knit Barbie a little Aran sweater or something... should be enough!

Knitting for my amusement

Me at Attractiepark Slagharen, with the big rollercoaster in the background.
I am too chicken to go on it, but I was very willing to pose in front of it with my (still very small) blankie...

News from our local hotspot

I love KPN. Not only because they gave us a hotspot in our holiday home, but also for only charging us for 15 minutes since last Friday. Hahahahhaa... I can honestly say, we have NOT just been on the Internet for 15 minutes, it's closer to 150! Anyway, ssshhhh....

This is my view at the moment:


And here is where I am, behind my laptop:



Today we were at a petting zoo/playground, and they were selling eggs, lambs (yes, real ones) and wool. Of course, I had to take a peak. So, here I am, knitting in an odd place (on an old tractor), with a bag of Schoonebeeker wool at my feet (unfortunately, it did not make it onto the photo... I am sure I will find a cool purpose for it. There must be an SnB-colleague who is willing to share tips on cleaning, spinning etc... or it may even be a cool SnB project! Everybody get your spindles out!).


Back to my knitting!!!