Freyalyn's Thoughts

I took the pups down by the river and through the nature reserve this afternoon - needed to get back to TMS on the radio so we didn't have such a long walk as yesterday's, which was along the canal and back along the river.  I don't know how much longer we'll have this big field by the river; it's due to be developed, and has recently sprouted yellow posts put down by surveyors.  Lunil has a big scar down one leg where she scraped off a long strip of fur on one of the posts' sharp edges.  Apparently the footpath by the river will remain, but I don't know how wide it will be.

Still very green, as we've had lots of rain with our sunshine in the last week or so.


Just one poppy plant that I've found throughout the whole reserve (which admittedly isn't very big).  I've been enjoying this plant for a week or so now, it's in a sheltered position so the petals aren't being bashed off by wind and rain.  I took lots of nearly dry poppy stalks and seedheads down with me this afternoon, and left them in strategic spots.  I hope they'll be more poppies next year.


Across the river from the far end of the reserve these were flowering.  The river's very shallow here, and the pups can get across without swimming, though I didn't let them in today.  The heavy rain yesterday has stirred the riverwater up and it's a bit whiffy.  Not that LUnil isn't anyway, given the heat and the fact it's almost impossible to stop herself immersing herself in river or canal when you take your eyes off her.


The waterlilies are really starting to come into their own.  The tadpoles have mostly grown up and left the pond now, though there's the odd legless one still wriggling around, so there aren't any tiny froglets sitting on the leaves.  One end of the pond  is almost completely carpeted with the lilies.

Off to Alston Hall this weekend for a lovely annual knitting/fibre retreat.  I have lots of spinning, lots of knitting, lots of reading, and a workshop on spindling if I feel as if I have enough concentration.  The garden should be lovely, and the views over the Ribble Valley to the SE are wonderful.

I probably already am.  Sort of.

I succumbed to this in one of my favourite shops on the way home through Leeds this afternoon.  Hippo-Potter-Mouse.  Hippy, pagan, gothy type stuff.  Lovely incense from Nepal.  Interesting books and cards.  Slightly tacky (OK some is very) jewellery.  But I stuck my head in to see if they had any long skirts.  They didn't, but there were some lovely long tie-dye strappy dresses - the green one was too big, the blackish-green one fitted beautifully but I didn't have enough dosh on me for that.  But I could get this.  Fits beautifully too.  They'll have more dresses in later in the week.

I shall have a turf through my t-shirts and vests and throw out lots - the ones that are a year or so old and now too short, as things are finally getting below waist length in the shops again and don't look cropped on my longer than average torso.

Of course, I really ought to be sewing.  Mark is agitating for his moleskin waistcoat that I promised him last year, and of course I have Jeroen's medieaval stuff to do.  Now it's not so hot it's feasible I might get some sewing done.  Of course, having Mark in the house all afternoon (he's on nights) this week puts the kibosh on that a bit, especially as Torchwood starts at 9pm all this week and there's no point starting anything after it finishes.

Up at Woolfest on the Thursday evening, after we'd set up the stall and our tent, and Ma had offered her emergency help to bring my stuff up on Friday morning so we didn't have to trail back home that night.

We were at the vets again yesterday afternoon, taking advantage of the inoculation 'amnesty' being offered by various vets - more or less half price for those dogs who had run out of time for just a booster. So we had them both jabbed and got worm pills to. Bil is now just short of 25kg, and Lunil's pushing 40kg, which is six and a half stones and very hefty for a dog.

I shall have them boostered next year and then probably leave it, as they will have enough immunity for years then, and it's not as if they go into kennels and need current certificates.

I was poorly last night - I think the stress of preparing for Woolfest, then the heat and lack of sleep there, and sudden lack of stress on our return has got to me.

This is what Mark's been up to for most of the last week - taking the exam and practicing for his walling qualification. He's all bronzed and fit after having spent days outside in the sun (and rain last Wednesday) heaving chunks of stone around.

I think he had a great time.  This was taken when they'd finished on Sunday - Mark's bit of wall is what they're all leaning on - and they all passed.

My life is practically completely taken over with preparations for Woolfest at the moment, and I really daren't start anything else.

I have dyed vast amounts of fibre and lots of yarn, to all to the stuff left over from Wonderwool.  I did actually go and buy a zip and thread to sew a skirt, but just haven't managed to get around to it yet.

Mark has his drystonewalling exam this weekend, and has basically taken the week off to have lots of practice and make sure he can do what he needs to do in time.  He was taking the pups out this morning, just over the road as normal, when there was an enormous thunderstorm.  At one particularly terrifying crack of thunder poor Bil bolted, and Mark finally found him shivering outside our door.  Apparently someone saw him carefully crossing the (very busy) main road by the crossing point/island that we normally use.  Poor little bugger.

Have just had a large glass of nicely chilled white wine - Sainsbury's, didn't even notice what, though it tastes like chardonnay.  Prefer nobilo, but it's hard to find.  I may need to have another glass (in which case I'll hardly be able to knit, never mind tepy) so Mark will end up doing tea.  Salad, boiled new potatoes, pork chops for him and lamb steaks for me.

And another sheep hat on the needles  See the knit/spin/dye blot.

This is the blue linen blouse that I made Friday afternoon/Saturday morning.  It's a lovely fabric, a remnant from the Shuttle last year, a medium weight linen in a lovely lilac blue.  Very simple shapes, all squares and rectangles, and the bodice is self-faced so it's double thickness.  It is extremely cool to wear, and was good on Sunday's walk as it covered up shoulders and back and prevented sunburn (apart from the bit of my neck that I missed with the sun block.)


You can see where I got the shaping from.  This is the Nomad dress I made loosely based on the Folkwear Afghani dress pattern a year or so ago.  I can finally photograph these things more easily now I have the dressmakers' form.  This is so cool and practical in hot weather, though I really ought to make one in a little lesse, shall we say, exuberant fabric.  I was wearing this I think on Friday when Ma came round (I'd bought her a couple of things in Lush) and she just couldn't understand why I wasn't baking.  Ma's default for hot weather is as near to nothing as she can get - I often find something that covers but barely touches is much more cool.  T-shirts and shorts actually touch much more skin.

I trimmed the cuffs, neck and hem with a gorgeous green and gold ribbon, but sadly it just isn't up to the wear and tear of frequent wearing and washing.  It's starting to disentegrate, and I'll have to unpick it all soon.  I'll have to put something else around the neck.

I didn't take the camera today, but Mark suggested we take the train to Ilkley and walk back home over the eponymous Moor.  It's been another gorgeous day - brilliant strong sunshine, a cooling breeze, and hardly any clouds.

I clipped Lunil's tummy this morning with the dog clippers I bought for Freya just before the end, and she didn't bat an eyelid when I pushed her onto her back and rubbed a strange buzzing implement over her undercarriage.  What a sweetie!

Did some sewing Friday afternoon/Saturday morning.  Trawled a lilac linen remnant from the stash and made a loose blouse for exactly this hot weather - pictures posted when it's out of the wash, dried and ironed.

The Disco's steering is now fixed!  Yay!  I can actually drive it again.  I am a big strong girl so for me not to feel able to drive the damn thing means it must have  been bad.

Now all it needs is the lights sorting and then it's MOT.  (No sniggering at the back... it's in very good nick for a nine year old car).

Outside, just now.  A very new moon - it was too new to see last night.  No earthshine, though.

Whoever heard of a sunny bank holiday Monday in Yorkshire!  But we got one, so off we went - train to Todmorden, along the Rochdale canal to Walsden (where we said hello briefly to my friend Marion whose cottage backs onto the canal), off up onto the tops and long the ridge to Stoodley Pike, and back down to Hebden Bridge, fish and chips (very much deserved) and the train home.

Ma took this - we have Jasper as Ma and Pa have gone to the Isle of Man for two days, golfing.  Mad, but someone else is paying for them to go. 

I took lots of photos along the canal.  There's some fantastic industrial architecture, and everything was showing to advantage with all the fresh new green stuff and sunshine.

Both Bil and Lunil have a thing about crossing lock bridges.

This was so pretty and overgrown - but still perfectly functional.


It's fascinating when you see the railway leap over the canal (and in some places round here the canal goes over railways!).  The detail shows what pride and care went into something as prosaic as a supporting tower for a railway.  Nowadays only the pigeons seem to appreciate it.

Further up the canal it gets much quieter, but the quality of the stonework is excellent all the way.  Over two centuries old and nearly as good as new.


There are some lovely gardens fronting the canal, and this one has several geese nesting at the bottom.    There was very little wind down in the valley bottom - the only ripples on the canal were caused by ducks and geese.


This was the border point between Yorkshire and Lancashire, and also where we left the canal to start climbing.  Mark had to check which track we took upwards towards the canal's reservoir - this is also the top point of the canal; we'd been climbing upwards all the way, and at this point you can see the valley dropping down towards Rochdale and eventually Manchester.


Every time I stopped for a pull Lunil and Bil jumped on the grass - I think the tarmac was hot.  It's a long, steep climb up.


Nearly at the top, looking back.  I couldn't get the camera to focus because it was so bright, but on the horizon are the towers of Manchester.  Fantastic long views.


A dark, dank opening in the reservoir's embankment, where you could see the pipe coming out then disappearing underground.  It comes out a short while ago, and the water flows down the hillside, along probably it's original path before it was caught and dammed, down to the canal way below us.  Reservoir towers are always so grand and inspirational.  Nowadays it'd be plain and basic and concrete - if such huge public works were ever done.


Right up on the top of the moor, even when it was new its builders could hardly imagine many people would see it, but the stonework is beautifully finished and perfectly functional.  The weather it has to cope with up here in winter is appalling.


These tracks across the moor fascinate me.  Some of them are very old - back to monastic times - other date from the 16C and the later ones are 18C.  Packhorse trails - laid right over the tops on the ancient drovers' routes, where long trains of pack ponies, one after the other, carried essentials like salt, metals, and between villages and towns.  The first and last ponies would often carry bells so the drover could tell they were both there.  In wet weather you really don't want to step off the stones - both people and ponies can sink like a stone.



Stoodley Pike slowly got nearer and nearer.


I could go right off some dogs.  We'd laundered Lunil yesterday, as the fur was getting a bit whiffy.  She'd had lots of paddling and swimming as we'd walked along the collection goit for the reservoir.  Just as we'd gone past the last deep clean water, the vile creature looked at me and ran through a muddy puddle.  Just like in a cartoon, the puddle swallowed her up to her neck.  Bil had time to stop when she plunged downwards, but didn't.  Of course, this stuff dried on and will have to wear off, gradually (we stuffed her in our bath last night and it still wouldnt come off completely.)


For the first time I actually climbed up to the balcony on the Pike - Bil and Jasper came up with me.  This is view back over the way we've come - we have followed the ridge all the way back - and this is up inside the Pike.  Mark didn't see I'd gone inside and kept charging off - poor Lunil was torn between us and kept running backwards and forwards until I'd caught up.
Mark in the distance.

 
Small lambs - very late, and probably very tasty.  And the view as we dropped back down to Hebden Bridge and were amongst trees once again.  Up on the horizon to the left is Heptonstall church - one of my favourite villages, practically frozen in the early 19C.


Tiny little bridge, taking an old trackway over an even older sunken track that we were following down.  Really, you can't even guess how old these pathways are.  Ancient....


Mark gathers up Lunil and Bil for a photo and calls Jasper over to join them.  Jasper walks away.  Poor Jasper no mates....


Lunil, decorative in the bluebells.  You'd never guess how filthy the undercarriage was.

We hurt all the way home - my feet are still killing me.  But such a lovely day out.

Still sulking over last Thursday, when Mark and I went to the One Day Test at Headingly with Ma and Pa and it was completely rained off - even though we had brilliant sun all afternoon.  (Complicated reasons involving new turf on the outfield....).

Anyway, we had a lovely lunch involving much wine and beef fillet - we were on the top table in the Exec Suite and lots of interesting (and many not so interesting) people were there.  I've finally got past the point where the first thing most people say to me is something along the line of "haven't you grown/last time I saw you..." etc. 

But cricket would have been good.

Lunil was laundered this morning, and is now shiny and sweet-smelling, but shedding even more fur.  Huge handfuls are coming out freely and over everything - the shampoo seems to have loosened it.  I took a photo of her in the bath but the camera's downstairs and I'm supposed to be going to bed so I'm not fetching it.

A long walk is planned tomorrow - train to Todmorden or Walsden, a walk back over the tops to Hebden Bridge, and then if it's not raining we'll get beer and food before training home.  Finger's crossed for nice weather.

I finally finished the Batman Beyond outfit this afternoon, and Andrew and Tom collected it this evening.  This was the bat emblem I applied to the front of the superhero-suit, and this is how I allowed for the zip underneath:

One side stitched down and the other with a velcro strip.  I topstitched the loose side but not the other, otherwise the attaching line of stitching would have been too dark on top of it.  I cut the back of the bat to turn it inside out, so all the edges are even and smooth.

Betty (boss's wife) has asked me to alter a dress for her for a wedding later in the summer - just a couple of tiny increases in the darts under the bust.  And I'm dyeing her some yarn to make a toning shrug, though I shall charge her for that.

I've really enjoying sewing this particular outfit, and am inspired to do more for me.  Not to mention the early mediaeval outfit I need to start for Jeroen, except that's handstitching except for a very few seams I can get away with.

OK, this is what the Batman hood looked like until I stitched the ears upright.  I nearly peed myseld when I realised what it looked like, and after I'd pranced downstairs and jumped up and down in front of Mark (on the phone to his mother), he nearly expired too.  The ears flapped.  Extremely amusingly.  I don't mind looking like an idiot.


This is the pattern in question, though I'm adapting it rather drastically, including doing decent, pointy bat ears instead of the silly kitten-like things they suggest.  It's supposed to be finished tomorrow although I have to do the mask (different shape from suggested) and the bat applique on the chest, which is more authentic.  The jumpsuit looks good, though.

Went to see Star Trek this afternoon in Imax with Mark.  Completely blown away.  Completely.  I was expecting it to be good, and my expectations were way exceeded.  Zachary Quinto was perfect as Spock, right down to every little mannerism.  Karl Urban, complete with kingly cheekbones, was Bones to a T.  Even Kirk, who I was a little doubtful about, was excellent.  I'll see it several times before it leaves the cinema, I know.

The different timeline thing worried me for a bit, until I realised that this completely frees up this re-boot of the franchise to do whatever it wants, completely unbound by any happenings in the original TV show or subsequent movies.  OK, Vulcan's gone, but what fun.  And what a time paradox too - the old Spock now has memories that the young Spock can never appreciate.

And Ben Cross as Sarek - perfect, just perfect; long jaw, cheekbones and all.  Tiny niggle - if spilt Vulcan blood is green, how come they have pink lips and light shining pink through (lovely) pointy ears?  But a tiny niggle, and my only one.

The costumes - this was a historical movie as sci-fi.  The reproduction of the 60s fabrics and styling was  [sighs happily].  Even the riding up and creasing of the tunics....

Just remember to listen to all Dr McCoy's under-the-breath mutterings about Spock.  Several LOTR references there, if you're as geeky as me.

It has been a fraught weekend.  The plumber our landlords have arranged to come and replace the bathroom arrived at 2pm on Friday.  He was here until after 6.  Then from before 9 until after 6 on Saturday, and 9 until half five yesterday.  Nearly finished, though.  It's all white and shiny and new (apart from the plastered walls and the lovely underlayed floor) and was actually usable last night. The bath feels a very odd shape after the old one.

I managed to catch quite a bit of Badminton on the telly, so here is a totally unrelated horsey photograph.  This was the gypsy ponies down by the river about 5.45 this morning.  Just a hint of mist in the middle distance. There are a couple of very new foals down there, and three yearlings from last year.  Sadly they're all a bit on the skinny side as there really isn't enough grazing for the number of horses, and the owners have stopped additional feeding.  Several people have tried to get the RSPCA interested, but the level of neglect isn't really high enough.  There's certainly enough of us who take down additional food. 

We both went up to Ma's last night, as my little brother was on his way back from a rugby weekend (with all that that entails!) in York, and a very pleasant (and tiddly) evening ensued.  Just as well Mark and I decided to walk up with the pupz.

And I have a dressmaker's dummy at last!  They were on sale in Leeds last week; nearly killed me getting it back on the train.  But I'm not allowing myself to get it up and fitted until I've finished the future Batman outfit, and that's still in a large piece of black polyester jersey.

Broadband is imminent.  We'll have to wire the connection, as we're so near to the BT substation that the strong signal from that is preventing the modem from picking up our wireless signal.  At least we will be super-speedy once up and running - Tuesday with luck.

... at home yet.  My computer man came yesterday afternoon, couldn't make the CD drive work, so took the box away with him to fix it.  He brought his son Tom, a very cute 13-year old, for whom I made the Jedi cloak last year which is partly paying for the computer work.

And as for paying, Tom would now like a future Batman outfit making up.  I just love the barter economy!  I have measurements again, and after Wonderwool (is there life after Wonderwool?) I shall hunt down some fabric.  I have been presented with a very basic pattern for the basic 'hero' jumpsuit with embellishments, but having googled 'future Batman' there's quite a lot I can do to make the costume more authentic.  Like finding spandex rather than the cotton blend suggested.

I did some sewing for myself on Monday evening, having had a sudden desire for a new outfit for the weekend.  About three years ago at the K&S I bought lots of an embroidered crushed velvet jersey synthetic, in chestnut brown and embroidered with golds and browns.  I threw it together in a vest topped, high waisted, nearly floor length dress - the neck- and arm-holes are bound but I haven't even bothered hemming the bottom - it's yards around, as each of the four skirt panels was cut out separately across nearly the whole width.  

Wonderwool is a very different feel from Woolfest, and there's more likely to be people walking around in interesting clothes rather than jeans and wellies/trainers.  Much as I'd like to try something authentically medieaval (see Sally Pointer's stuff) that isn't really the impression I want to give here, so this long frock with a long-sleeved top or my green linen 16thC shirt will give an unusual but not eccentric impression.

Mark will be looking very spiffy in a brimmed hat with a knitted Greenleaf hatband and a dark green polo shirt with 'Freyalyn's Fibres' on the breast. 

If I've got time this afternoon (and, after all, all the fibre is labelled and packed and Mark and I  both have tomorrow off for organising/packing purposes) I shall make a longsleeved, widenecked tunic, depending upon what fabric I can dig out from the stash.  I don't think I've got any thin green linen, which is odd, it's the sort of thing I should have.  I know I have some lilac, which is not the right colour.

I wish I didn't have to sleep.

These arrived on Saturday, and were waiting when I got back from Guild and a demonstration session on drumcarding.  I'm so pleased - I commissioned them from a lovely silverworker in Birmingham via Etsy.  She does them in all sorts of colours, so I asked for three greens.  I also got a plain pair of silver hoops too.

This arrive prompted me to play with some wire and beads last night.

I've had three of these a while, bought from a fabulous American bead artist via eBay.  Believe it or not, these aren't her main 'feature' beads, but smaller fillers.  I put the three I had on spiral wires so I have one pendant and two for my earhoops.  They're just like little worlds, complete with clouds, sea and land, and icecaps.


The moon this morning about 5.45. None of last week's mornings were clear, and I hadn't seen the moon for  a while.

More or less sorted for Wonderwool now, a bit of skeining to do, then lots of listing and pricing. 

I love this photo, that Carol L took the day after we collected Lunil.

She was far too tiny to be left at home all day, and of course far too tiny to be inoculated or really be out at all. So I wrapped her up in a sling and carried her around all day. The little sweetie was good as gold, slept nearly all the time and was quiet when awake, and as soon as put down on newspaper did a pee and went back to sleep.

She still thinks it's perfectly acceptable to be carried around now.