Listing on Etsy, that is. And today other work (which I love doing) got in the way as well. But I’m on it now – much of the yarn from yesterday’s pictures has already made it up there and I am beginning on the hot water bottles. I am under some pressure to clear space in the house (photo on Blogvember day 5 gives just a partial view….) People helpfully point out that until I do list the stuff, no-one can actually buy it. Well, of course I do know that, but describing finished items is so boring, compared to making them…. Very important to do it carefully though, so I’m now back at it.
Cup of tea in 20 minutes? Chocolate in an hour? Sneaky bit of spinning at midnight? That’s the kind of desperate bribery I seem to be into.
Some of the yarn I’ve been spinning over the last few months.
Today I’ve been working my way through listing it some of the art yarn on Etsy – but the problem is, I’d so much rather just spin some more…. Describing it gets tedious, but it can be inspiring and I keep eyeing up my wheel over there……
Struggling as usual with WP – and now, at nearly midnight, I have a choice of sneaking out of Blogvember after one week, or just marking a place with the photos I posted on Etsy earlier.
Hand warmers remain a mystery to me. Of course, I understand about seasonal fluctuations (though actually on a global platform like Etsy it is always winter somewhere ….) but I have noticed that sales of hand/wrist warmers follow a curious pattern. Once they start to sell, they simply fly away – followed by what can be a lengthy lull. Must be something about fashion – which is something I am more than happy to ignore.
This lot don’t look as if they’ve gone too far astray… I’m pretty sure they are Suffolks, despite being photographed in a field in East Sussex. I do know people who are very knowledgeable about sheep care and breeding – but I confess to being less interested in the animal than in its fleece. Like many spinners, I like to work with Wensleydales (long, crimped locks, rasta looking!) and Blue faced Leicesters (again, long and lustrous staples). Imported Merino tops are always soft. Local Jacobs are not, but make up for it by having such lovely colour patches. The Lake District Herdwicks are plucky little animals, hardy in the snow but with wiry fleece only usually used for carpets. The traditional flock near me are Southdowns, not nearly so numerous as they were but now being re-introduced to keep the Downs well cropped. They have a short staple which can be a pain to spin, but their fleece dyes well. There are many other breeds – including interesting rare ones. I once had fun knitting a series of hats from as many different breeds as I could get hold of to spin. I did not dye any of these – sometimes it’s good to let the sheep dictate the colours!
I fully intended to post pictures of the breeds I have mentioned – but with my current internet setup that would take me half the night, so I will have to let you Google them.
Sad sock story alert.
Every now and again I have a crazy sock week, when I can’t stop myself racing away on tiny 2.5mm circulars. This last one did not end well, however. I can’t wait to see those patterns emerging from the magic sock yarns – but I am destined never to know what that middle one would have been like. I had been knitting it on a car journey (as a passenger, don’t worry!) When it was time to come home I grabbed the knitting off the car seat and got back into it – only to run out of wool within seconds. Took me a while to realise that I had in fact slammed the car door on the 100g ball, which had chopped it off neatly and deposited it somewhere along the road. The wool was beautifully soft and silky – but I can’t track it down anywhere on the internet, not even on Ravelry. Those sock wools go in and out of production every season. I am well over it now (and have dozens of alternative sock yarns waiting their turn in my stash, including my own hand dyed ones). The only thing that rankles though – I had JUST FINISHED turning the heel….
Not needed for work today, so had a quick look at the sea (Hove end), then back to sorting stuff for Etsy. These pictures were actually taken in mid October, hence the startlingly blue skies (and lack of pebbles – which are all over the place today.) The statue is relatively new. It’s called ‘Flight of the Langoustine’, by a Brighton sculptor Pierre Diamantopoulo and has only been on the Hove plinth for a month or so. I love the energy of the thing – life size human figures, escaping into the air through a metal grid. It was apparently inspired by a discarded lobster pot.
I have heard mutterings about the £135K it is said to have cost and I suppose the timing is unfortunate right now but it is a major piece of bronze which must have been commissioned years ago – so much work involved.
I seem to have slept through the remains of storm Ciaran last night, which is not like me. But there does seem to have been more damage in Brighton than I quite realised – the roof of the big Boots by the clocktower became unsafe, so that the whole of North Street (major thoroughfare) had to be closed, which then meant re-routing the buses along the seafront – which cannot have pleased the drivers. There were several shops closed/opening late in the centre this morning while they dealt with leaks – in one case there was water coming down through three empty flats above the shop. The built environment in our city does have its downside – so much of it is old – elegant and beautiful, but what one builder described to me as ‘Victorian spec. jerry building.’ I think he was exasperated, dealing with the notorious Brighton Bungaroosh!
SpinningStreak 