Y Lloeren

C'est La Rentrée!

(Or 'Back to School' time).

Finally, it's the end of the summer holidays and both girls are in school. Meleri is back to collège and starting German this year (Quatrième). Rhianwen has started Maternelle. Her she is ready to go on her first day:



She's wearing prescription sunglasses because she pulled one of the arms off her ordinary glasses. They are now fixed and she's back wearing them again.

She had a good day there but they let her have a nap in the afternoon. Unfortunately she doesn't need much sleep and so she was then awake until 11.30 pm. This happens if she falls asleep in the car too - even if it's just for five minutes.

It was a bit of a weird start, Rhianwen started back on Tuesday but was then off all day yesterday - this is normal in France on a Wednesday. Meleri didn't start back until Wednesday but only had a half day - again normal here for her age. This means that today is the first full day for both of them and I am all alone in the house, yay!

It's been a difficult summer. We have been very short of money for various reasons but things are getting better now. Meleri has been playing the moody teenager card and moping around the house being grumpy, refusing to go out to see friends, refusing to help with housework and just sitting in front of the TV. This has meant that Rhianwen also wants to watch TV and then they get into arguements with Rhianwen being a typical three year old and Meleri responding as if she were still only three years old. It's made for a very stressful time and I've found it hard to get anything done.

Next week, I hope to start getting the house straighter and start dyeing fibre for the Etsy shop. I also need to start taking photos of all the differnt things I want to sell in the Etsy shop. I'm hoping my Mum will come and help with some of it.

Coming late to the bandwagon

We've all seen this elsewhere in blogland, I'm sure. I was finally prompted to do it myself after seeing it on Knitting, with dogs. I cut and pasted the rules and questions from there too.

The rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

1. Violent Storm "Emma", 2. Seafood colours, 3. Kenfig castle, 4. The green hair club meeting, 5. Anthony Kiedis & Red Hot Chili Peppers Portland 23, 6. Health juice in hands, 7. don't cry - sillustani, peru, 8. Tarte au citron meringuée 2, 9. happy new year, see you on the other side, 10. The Finger Family, 11. Redhead Beach Rock Formations, 12. Lleuad yn olau, plant bach yn chwarae, lladron yn dwad, dan weu sanau

Hush-Hush Handpsun Hootenanny Questionnaire

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself?

I've been spinning for nearly three years now.

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)?

Most 2 or 3 ply (standard and navajo). I recently tried a cabled yarn.

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)?

Mostly my Lendrum DT but I do have a few spindles.

4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don't like?

Wool. I've not tried many others yet but I recently bought a lot of different fibres to try including bamboo, soy and milk protein but haven't tried them yet.  I've not found anything I don't like yet
5. Who are your favorite crack dealers fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)?

Wingham WoolWork. I also love handpainted fibre especially with lots of saturated colours.

6. What kind of fiber do you want to try?

I'd really like to try some Cormo and some of the other breeds that you can't get easily in Europe. I also keep hearing about pin-drafted fibre and it sounds really interesting.

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn?

Longdraw and combing.

8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn?

Yes I do.

9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber?

I have carders and a coarse Louet drum carder. I do start from raw fleece as I can get some locally for free.

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed?

Mostly socks and other accessories so far but I'm working up to a sweater.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?

I'd love a yarn meter, a McMorran Yarn Balance (both in metric), a hackle, some combs and one day a picker and a drum carder for very fine fibre.

12. What colors "fall into your shopping basket"? Any colors you just can't stand?

Green, plum/aubergine/wine, other jewel colours. I'm not really a pastel person and only like yellow when it's combined with other colours. Same goes for beige.

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now?

North Ronaldsay in white which is going to be a 2 ply laceweight.

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?

Knitting of course, felting, making jewellery. Sewing occasionally. I also have a considerable bead stash.

15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about?

Reading SF. Contemporary architecture especially underground houses.

16. Do you have an online wishlist?

Yes - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/registry.html/ref=w_h_em-si-html_viewall?id=18Y0PLAE0K9G2

17. Is there anything that you collect?

Besides yarn, fibre and books, umm... not really although knitting/spinning/fibre animal related things (ornaments, jewellery etc.) are starting to creep into my life.

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to IK, VK, Spin Off and Rowan. I'd really like to read Wild Fiber. Yarn-wise, I'd love to try Wollemeise, Socks That Rock, Dream in Colour Classy, Malabrigo, Shibui Sock, Sundara and Noro sock yarn plus any Knitpicks. I have so many patterns waiting to be knit, it's silly. I'd also really like some of the KnitPicks Harmony needles, I hope to get the DPN and Interchangeable sets myself eventually but some of the smaller fixed circs would be good.

19. When is your birthday?

It's just bee, June 8 and I'm now 37.

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality?

Hmm, tricky one this. I've definitely got a side that's a bit like Juno (from the film of the same name),  referencing books is hard because I read so much obscure SF, maybe a bit of both Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax with a dash of Magrat.

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)?

Pretty warm hopefully.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself!

I speak Welsh as a second language.

Favorites
favorite painting/picture(link):

Hard to choose, I like HR Giger, Egon Schiele, some Klimdt. A local artist called Eric B. And of course, Franklin Habit.

Candy:

Good chocolate, especially Cote D'Or Bouchees (the red ones). Also sour sweets. Sundried mango. I don't like Mars bars and Bountys. I miss Cadbury's Wispas still.

Food:

A huge range including French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese. I love seafood; sharp fruits like lemon, lime, raspberry, blackcurrants, goosberries, rhubarb; avocadoes. I hate cauliflower and also cheese sauces so cauliflower cheese is my food nemesis.

Drink:

Juice. I love fruit juices and also fresh veggie juices. Hot chocolate, mint tea and other herb/fruit teas. I don't usually drink caffeine as I have very little tolerance for it so it makes me hyper but I do like a very occasional mocha or green tea.

Movie(s):

Early Christian Slater; Serenity, Princess Bride, Willow, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, LOTR, Gattaca, Harry Potter

TV Show(s):

Dr. Who, Firefly, Farscape, Lost, Ugly Betty, Hotel Babylon, Jekyll, QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Heroes.

Book(s):

I'm going to list authors mostly:

Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Terry Pratchett, Gwyneth Jones, Charles Stross, Steph Swainston, The Time Traveller's Wife (beautiful book!), Sheri Tepper, George R. R. Martin, Charles De Lint plus many more.

Guilty Pleasure(s):

Eating chocolate while reading in bed late at night.

We're all going on a summer holdiday...

Thanks to the amazing French policy of providing holiday vouchers to low income families. We get 100 euros per child for camping or gite holiday accommodation. We have to pay upfront and it's reimbursed. We also have to spend five consecutive nights there. So on Sunday we leave for a campsite that is right next to a very wild looking beach in Finistere. We decided to go at the start of the French school holidays but before the British school holidays start because we really want to avoid other Brits as much as possible. I know that sounds a bit odd but we want to remain in a French speaking mileu.

French campsites have a reputation of being very good, this one has a heated swimming pool which seems fairly standard. We don't intend to do much sightseeing, it's really more about have a good rest as it's Rob's only holiday this year. I will be taking knitting and hopefully my spinning wheel too as I'm not much of a sunbather. I also have the new Yarn Harlot book which I am saving for while we are away. It's taking a lot of willpower to not read it.

Change, good and bad

There have been some major and minor changes for us over the last few months. The most significant was that Rob's Dad, Gordon died suddenly about 3 1/2 weeks ago aged 67as a result of an aortic aneurysm. Too young. There's lots I want to say about Gordon but I will save it for another time.

I have been working full time for about 6 or 7 weeks now. It's only temp work for minimum wage and the contract is renewed on a weekly basis. It's in a meat factory so nothing exciting. It also means starting work at 6.30 am which means going to bed at around 8pm so I don't see much of Rob in the week.

We are also moving house on Thursday. We have found a place to rent in Merdrignac - a small town a few kilometres away. It's a very traditional style house and is small in some ways but it does have four bedrooms. It also has a 'cave', large utility room and an outbuilding so lots of storage space. No garden but a small courtyard with enough room to sit in the sun and for Rhianwen to ride her bike.

We are all looking forward to the move, living with Mum has been great and she's really helped me get well again but now we're just getting on each other's nerves. It's the right time for all of us.

The Etsy shop is almost ready, I just have to photograph the stock but there's been no time lately. Similarly knitting and spinning are progressing slowly. I work on the Tangled Yoke cardigan during my lunch break and I spin occasionally on the weekend to get some quiet time. I'm spinning some white North Ronaldsay top into laceweight.