SOLD .... almost

The idea of moving first came to us during one of those moments when the wine was flowing and we were lounging in our conservatory one summer's evening. I think it started with ... is this it? We have always been great fans of making our own food, whether it was jam, wine or bread. I said that I would really like more space to grow a whole packet of seed and raise some animals. We had already experienced the joy of choosing the veg for a meal from whatever was ready in the garden. We have also been blessed to have a variety of fruit trees and enjoyed both fresh and preserved fruit. So what next? The obvious answer was to move for a bigger garden. In the meantime we added back yard chickens to our current garden and have enjoyed fresh eggs.

The next stage in the plan was .... where to? In this local vicinity house prices with land have spiralled out of our budget so we could go northwards or France. Now anyone who knows me will tell you that I don't do languages very well and there could be a possibility of me being on my own somewhere in France on a farm whilst my husband worked from the UK or Paris and I would struggle to cope. Also I keep seeing stories of people buying properties abroad and being stitched up by 'local' rules and regulations. Northwards towards Suffolk looked like a definite possibility for some time. We even took a drive to view a property which sold before we had a chance to make an offer. 

Before we lived in Tillingham we lived our on Burnham marshes for two years. It is a wild and sometimes cruel landscape with uninterrupted views - definitely big sky country. We lived with my inlaws in a converted farmhouse. The children were very small and had just started to go to school. It didn't suit us at the time and we moved to Tillingham 15 years ago, leaving the inlaws to the farmhouse. Time passed and it keep niggling at me that what we want to do, we could do out there. With the passing of various elderly family members from both sides comes the problem of being a long way away and having to cope with making decisions from a distance. We came to the conclusion that moving back to the Marshes would be the only answer.

After various negotiations plans were approved and building work began in April this year to create the ageing inlaws their own space, leaving the farmhouse for us and we would divide the two and a half acres of outside space. The original time quote was 8-12 weeks for the build.  In July we put our house on the market expecting a quick sale and that we could be in by September ... or at least we hoped.

Many things were packed up to declutter our house to put it on the market. Photos were taken and we were on. The EPC and floor plans were completed and added to the website. The summer holidays came and went without a single viewing. We reduced the asking price for the house and then almost the day the children went back to school, we had our first viewing. It was the standard sort of thing. A young couple looking for their nest to create a family ..... but the rooms were too small. A week passed and I was wandering around Southminster when my phone started ringing. It was the estate agents. There are people (without an appointment) at your house now and they want to view your house. I rushed back to find no one there. I went into show house mode and about an hour later was showing my house to a couple who had sold their house and had seen ours on the website. Apparently of all the houses they had looked at on the website, ours was actually bigger than the pictures had suggested.

Another week went past and we had new neighbours moving in opposite. I wandered over and welcomed them to the road only to be greeted with, "Our son wants to view your house" ....  O. K. A few hours later Couple No. 3 were getting the tour. Meanwhile couple No. 2 had made an offer on the house way off from the lowered asking price. It was dismissed. Couple no. 3 said that they wanted a property with space to the side of the house, which was don't have.

Another week passed and we had another phone call from the agents announcing Couple No. 4 would like to look at our house. Now these two didn't really look right from the start. They were a young couple with the lady very, very pregnant. My priorities at 8 months would have been to stay put and have a baby - not move house. They had the tour and I was chatting with them at the end. I remarked that I would be getting lots of rest before the baby came out and she said, "Oh my employer doesn't let me rest". I asked what she did for a job and she said that she worked for the regulators who check that estate agents are selling houses accurately and honestly. ! ! ! ! !  Needless to say, they didn't make an offer.

Couple No. 2 were definitely still nibbling as they made a counter offer, still short of the lowered asking price, which was dismissed again. We were now nearly at the end of September. We made a counter offer which was accepted after a nervy weekend of waiting and we went to SOLD.  In the meantime the building site was still very much a building site and a long way from being finished. There had been problems along the way which had been sorted but it was now 5 months into a 12 week build.

Then came the surveys. They had two for reasons which I still struggle with, almost on consecutive days. And then the paperwork from the Solicitors arrived .... many, many pages of questions and a contract. Interestingly enough, if your property is the home of anyone who is aged 17 or over, they must sign the contract too to say they will be moving. The idea of leaving one's children behind to live with the new owners is a strange one, but ours duly signed and the contract has been returned along with the questionnaires.

We are now over half way through November. The building work is still not finished. The builder needs to have an operation that could put him out of action for a few months, regardless of the state of the build. It is nearly to the point where a competent DIY-er could finish the job but I think he was expecting to have finished by now.

Our chain is only 3 parties long. We are at the top with our buyers nestling very nicely in the middle. Their buyer has gone into rented accommodation and is itching to move. Packing has been sporadic as I identify things which I could do without ... or could I? We had Remembrance Day a few weeks ago and I couldn't find my black boots ..... packed in July as we were hoping to move in September. I did have the foresight to keep some coats back.

We have started to make contingency plans for how to cope if the building work has not been completed. Could we be ready to move in a few weeks time?  Christmas is looming on the horizon as our house fills with packing boxes. Neighbours have started erecting outside christmas decorations (in November) but I can't really even contemplate still being here at Christmas.

What has happened to the knitting, spinning, weaving? Most of it was packed in July leaving the jumper made from Lauriston wool (see earlier post) still being knitted. It is very nearly finished and will be a present for hubby's 50th on 15th December.

In two days time it will be the 7 month anniversary of the start of the building work. It is very frustrating waiting for the cogs to turn and the move to complete. Then to add insult to injury, another house that has sold in the village had removal vans outside today. I wished them luck, secretly longing for it to be us .... one day soon.

Inspiration comes when you least expect it

Visitors Centre map

So life is pretty up and down at the moment. Change is always difficult and we are trying to move at the same time as dealing with the passing of my Mum. The house is in chaos with car loads of extra stuff coming in from the clearance of her house in Stevenage. I think it is important to get away from it all and the opportunity came last Tuesday with the monthly meeting of the East Essex Smallholders Group as a farm visit to Lauriston Farm in Goldhanger, Essex. 

Having got lost on the way despite having printed out directions, the place is quite remote and down an unmarked gravel road well off the beaten track. Among the first of the group to arrive, we donned our trusty walking boots and we duly sprayed against bug attacks.

Essex salt marsh

Lauriston Farm is a bio-dynamic organic farm. ??? It was explained to us, I think, but basically the owners are operating a permaculture. ??? Operating organically, they do not bring in any fertilisers or pesticides. All the manure is recycled on the farm. They had North Ronaldsay sheep and Shetland cows. North Ronaldsay sheep typically live on the rugged coast line of the island with the same name, so it is ideally suited to grazing the Essex salt marsh. Cool! After the chat in the 'education centre' we were taken for a trek around the farm. This led us past sheep and cows, then up to the sea wall. This is a scene that I am familiar with but usually from a different direction. The farm has 225 acres which includes an ancient decoy pond and a salt extraction site dating back to Roman times. It was all very educational! 

Happy, friendly sheep

The final part of the walk took us back into a field where we were met by some very nice sheep. Their fleeces were starting to shed and were coming off in big chunks. The owners shear the sheep themselves and then send the fleece to be processed. This is a costly undertaking and always a gamble as they then have to sell on the resulting balls of yarn. We were shown some of these upon our return to the education centre. There were 50g balls of double knit at £3.50 each and 100g balls of double knit at £4.50 each. We were also told a story about how they had sent 75kg of their fleeces to be processed which had been lumped in together, rather than sorting for similar colours, resulting 75kg of grey wool. They weren't impressed with this so the processors over-dyed some of the wool in heather (dark purple) and plum. Upon closer inspection, the grey is more of a fawn/brown colour, which I liked. They also sell sheepskin rugs and meat boxes from their farm gate and run courses on getting to grips with a bio-dynamic farm. A brilliant evening enjoyed by all.

It wasn't really until the dog walk the next day that the idea came to me that my husband will be celebrating his 50th birthday in 6 months time. What could I buy him? He had commented that he didn't have any warm outside jumpers. I have made him a beautiful, intricate aran jumper which took years and he is too afraid to wear  . . . so I decided to make him a jumper from this North Ronaldsay wool. After a quick email to the farm, a few days later I was back down the gravel track to purchase 10 x 100g balls of the fawn/brown wool. Six months seems plenty of time but with all the current upheaval going on, it will soon fly. Better get busy knitting!

The North Ronaldsay wool is a little courser than the typical double knit that I'm used to but it does have the rugged quality that I was looking for. It knits up well and isn't so dark that it is difficult to work in the evenings. Lauriston Farm only seem to operate a farm-gate sales for their produce but they offer a friendly welcome via their website. www.lauristonfarm.co.uk

A lifetime of craft

Ann Wheeler (1st July 1936-7th April 2014)

On April 7th 2014  my Mum lost her short battle against cancer. She was my teacher, my inspiration and my friend. She introduced me to knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, dressmaking, photography, flower arranging, cooking, cake making and cake decorating. With a family of six children, making things was infinitely cheaper than buying them. I have fond memories of christmas cakes and trays of bread pudding. Dresses were made for special occasions and I was delighted when she agreed to make the cake, bouquets and some of the bridesmaids dresses for my wedding 25 years ago.

One of the crafts which remained unique to my Mum was that of egg decorating. I was still living at home when she began this craft which involved using real blown eggs with doors cut and hinged, then smothered with beads and pearls. Each child as we were married were happy to have a special egg for the top of the cake. As her skills improved, the eggs become more and more delicate and complicated. 

The family have had to clear her house and it struck me that the world has lost a crafts person of great skill. Her vast stash of crafting materials will be sent to the egging guild for redistribution and the collection of eggs that she created have been divided between the family. Its all very sad. I did manage to salvage the photographic record of all her decorated eggs which fills three photo albums. 

As a footnote to this blog I would like to say, share your craft as widely as possible. Teach, display and distribute. It is a gift which may well leave when you do. 

Just enough ....

Blue cable jumper

There is some fabulous yarn out there and one of my favourites is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo Double Knit. It is 80% Bamboo sourced viscose and 20% wool. It knits into a beautiful soft, sheeny stitch which is perfect for young skin. I had bought some balls of this yarn, knitted a baby jumper, sold it on eBay, but still had some yarn left.  I decided to make the same jumper again to sell but wasn't sure that I had enough yarn. I started to look around on the internet to find more in 'Sail boat' and nice, mid-blue colour only to discover that the yarn had been discontinued and I probably had the last few balls left in the world. The pressure was on to finish the yarn with what I had left, or I could undo what I had done and make something else. I decided to plough on and hope for the best. Making the jumper in 0-6 months, it should take the least amount of wool possible.

In the end, I did have enough, just. It is a shame that Sirdar have decided not to continue this colour. The trouble with many of the baby yarns is that the colours are a bit pastel. 

The finish article is now available on my ebay store via the following link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Babys-blue-cable-jumper-for-age-0-6-months-in-Sirdar-Snuggly-Baby-Bamboo-dk-/231178971575?pt=Baby_Clothing&hash=item35d35729b7

The next big step

Scallop baby blanket pattern

I was reviewing the initial idea that was Layette Knitting recently which was held as a file on my computer. One of the things that I planned to do was to sell the patterns as a pdf download to save on the postage. This was something that I initially tried with eBay only to be instructed that eBay don't allow pdf downloads because of the risk of malicious content. So for the last couple of years, selling my patterns involved printing out the pattern on quality paper, printing out the buyers address and an invoice, putting them in an envelope, paying for postage and getting the board-backed envelope into a post box that could take it (not many of those around here).

So my options for selling downloadable pdfs seemed to lie with my own website. After a bit of research I attempted to create one on 1&1. This did not go well and was soon abandoned as a bad idea.

Cable baby blanket pattern

I have been a member on Ravelry for a short while and recall that it is possible to sell downloadable pdfs from that site but the problem that I have with Ravelry is that it would tend to be the hardy, more experienced knitter who would frequent the site and my patterns tend to be for the novice knitter. My patterns have had quite alot of success on eBay with buyers recognising that they are helpful and easy to follow. Within 12 hours of uploading my patterns to Ravelry, I am pleased to say I have made a sale and been paid. Hoorahh!

Ravelry.com is an excellent website with many downloadable patterns, some of which are free and I have used the patterns available to achieve some excellent results. It is a free log in website and then you can search for me under Designers to find my Easy to Knit patterns.

www.ravelry.com

These patterns are still available on my ebay shop as before but you can save on time and postage by downloading them from ravelry virtually instantly.

Sweet success!!

There is NOTHING more rewarding that starting a new hobby (spinning) and creating something new, then to put it available for sale, have someone buy it and give you good feedback on it. 

My very nice yarn

Last month, I spun some Dorset/Hampshire fleece to create two 100g skeins of hand spun yarn. I have advertised them both on my ebay shop, only to have someone buy one of them. Ebay does put pressure on its sellers to offer FREE postage. That's all well and good but Royal Mail won't deliver it for free so the costs have to be absorbed somewhere. I advertised the yarn at £6 each with free postage and packaging. So when I did managed to sell one skein, just how cheaply could I send it and be happy it would turn up at its destination?

The normal postage for first class small parcel signed for is £4.10. That is a BIG chunk of £6. If I could get it down to large letter size I could send it first class large letter signed for at £2.30. One of the new toys that I have is a vacuum packer. It takes out the air from the package and heat seals it to create a vacuum. Brilliant for home made bacon but how would my yarn fair? It was worth a try. I squished it down as much as I could while the air was being extracted until the yarn looked like it had melted in the pack. I recalled someone else sending me some yarn like this and my feeling of horror as I opened the package to see the contents. I parcelled it up and took it to the post office. Yes, it would go through the large letter slop on the counter top gadget, and it was sent. I hurriedly emailed the buyer to let her know what I had done and how she should pierce the package to let the yarn reinflate back to normal.

She has received the yarn, reinflated it and left feedback .... very nice yarn.

Wow!! That's something I created! Brilliant. 

The other skein is still available for sale in my ebay shop.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Handspun-Dorset-Hampshire-fleece-Natural-100g-chunky-yarn-/331113021654?pt=UK_Crafts_Knitting_Crochet_EH&hash=item4d17dfc0d6

Spinning in the grease

Spun Jacobs yarn

So for February I have been spinning Jacobs fleece. When it arrived it came in a big bag and was transferred into a hessian sack for storage. Jacobs fleece is interesting because it comes in a variety of colours all on the one fleece. The fleece would have been picked over for big bits of straw but other than that, it is pretty much as it came off the sheep. As it had not been washed, it is called in the grease. This can make it easier to spin as it 'glues' the spin and smooths down any wispy bits. As I planned to ply this yarn, I weighed out two lots of 50g of grey/brown fleece and spun each lot as evenly as possible. Once both lots have been spun to the right, it is spun (plied) together to the left. Hopefully if all goes well, the two lots should be the same length, which they were almost.

The next job to do is to wind the yarn onto a niddy noddy to create a skein. This is tied in several places to prevent tangling and it can now be washed to remove the lanolin and grime. It is then hung to drip dry in the garage and after a day or two, it is dry enough to weigh. Amazingly it had lost 23g of grease and grime and now weighs in at 77g. 

I have listed it in auction on my ebay shop starting at £3 for this skein which I can wind into a ball on my ball winder if required.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hand-spun-Jacob-wool-77g-plied-chunky-natural-browns-and-greys-skein-/331129481628?pt=UK_Crafts_Knitting_Crochet_EH&hash=item4d18dae99c

And now its February!!

Jacobs Sheep

January seemed to fly past, again. Now we are into February and so I need to choose another sackful of fleece from my garage. For this month I have decided to spin a fleece from a Jacobs Sheep. This breed has special fond memories for me as I recall first spotting them in a distance field and boldly stating that they were cows, Fresians probably. The people who were with me were far more knowledgeable than me and corrected me staying that they were, in fact, sheep. Now prior to that moment, I didn't know that sheep came in multicolours. I had previously thought that they came in either cream or black (we've all heard about black sheep!)

Hmmm. Jacobs Sheep. I was therefore delighted to purchase a fleece of these mythical creatures last year and it duly became the last addition to my stock pile. 

Wiki has this to say about Jacobs Sheep .... 

The Jacob sheep is a rare breed of small, piebald (coloured with white spots), polycerate (multi-horned) sheep. Jacobs may have from two to six horns, but most commonly have four. The most common color is black and white. Jacobs are usually raised for their wool, meat, and hides. They are also kept as pets and ornamental animals, and have been used as guard animals to protect farm property from theft or vandalism and defend other livestock against predators. Cool!!

It's looking like Shetlands

Shetland Sheep

This weekend we had one of those learning moments when everything came clear. We have already decided that we would like to keep a British breed of sheep as they are easier to look after, generally smaller and much more tolerant of our fickle British weather. Then I heard that the group of British sheep which come under the heading of Primitives actually shed their coat. If you pick just the right moment, you can help the process and actually pluck the fleece off the sheep's back. This is called 'rooing'. Shetlands look like the best sheep for where we plan to live. They come in a variety of colours, are good mothers, have a very usable fleece and produce good meat. 

Desperate to know to more, I searched the internet and found this website.  http://www.shetlandsheepinfo.com/HUSBANDRY/rooing.htm

Unbelievable! You can actually peel or pluck a sheep. I needed to know more and found this video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsmPBfWFVf4

The fleece won't come away nicely until the under fleece is ready to release it. You only pull away the old fleece using the hands, and unlike shearing, you won't nick the sheep's skin. Brilliant!! 

Where can I get some Shetlands?

So, here we go!

So January is the month for working on the Dorset/Hampshire fleece that I purchased last year. It was already combed, which was nice because it is hard work on the elbows and mine is still grumbling because of the cold, damp weather.

I decided to spin the first lot. My thoughts on this is that if I spin two lots of 50g and my spinning is fairly consistent, they should be the same length. Well, they almost were. This is important when you ply yarn to make it thicker. Next came the measuring, mentioned in the last blog and at 106m that confirmed that the yarn was coming out chunky. Armed with all this information and after a light wash, the yarn was listed onto ebay. 

Blues and purples

I also purchased some Jacquard Acid dyes last year to tackle some hand dyeing. This involves boiling up the fleece or yarn in a big saucepan with vinegar (acid) and adding powdered dyes which merge together well to create the final effect. The problem is boiling real wool can make it felt and fuse together. A lot of care is needed. So I split the roving into 3 and plaited it to give it some strength. 

Yellow and greens

I have managed to create two 50g batches of blue/purple roving (unspun but carded fleece) and two 50g batches of yellow/green roving. Then they have been washed and drip dried so that they can be packaged up. They have all been listed on ebay and I shall see how (if) it sells with the idea of how the future fleeces will be processed. 

Follow their progress in my ebay shop:  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Layette-Knitting

An exciting idea!

Last year I set off on a journey of discovery to teach myself how to spin a sheep's fleece into yarn. This is partly because I was inspired by someone else who was trying the same thing and also because I knit, so it seemed a natural progression. I could also conduct a survey of the different British native breeds to determine which one would be preferable to keep for spinning. 

I had a varying results and then stopped towards the end of the year. I had purchased around 10 complete fleeces over the summer along with various devices for carding the fleece. Some of the fleeces are beautiful and some are seriously gnarly. The fleeces have been stored suspended from the garage rafters in hessian sacks and pillow cases, and resemble a collection of body bags. I have tried to spin various fleeces as they have arrived and probably narrowed my choice down the Shetland sheep or perhaps Suffolks. Hmmm. What to do with all these fleeces?

Dorset sheep

Last week I had an idea which has become a kind of New Year's Resolution! I will spend a month on each type of fleece. I will process them as they allow, spinning and possibly dyeing them to create yarn and roving to use or sell on ebay. 

Niddy-noddy

A week later and I have spun 100g of Dorset/Hamsphire fleece (it came like that), and dyed two lots of 50g carded fleece to sell in bags. I had to calculate the length of the spun yarn which was achieved by measuring the niddy-noddy using string (so that it doesn't stretch). One round was 1.8m, then counting how many rounds the spun yarn achieved (59),
1.8 x 59 = 106m. This also confirmed my suspicions that the yarn that I had spun and plied was coming in as chunky. I'm happy with that. Both the spun yarn and dyed roving have been washed and now comes the real problem of getting them dry again. I can't put them in the drier so they are drip-drying ... in January. From the Spring, they could go outside.  

In the meantime, the knitting has been progressing slowly. The stock in the ebay shop has been dwindling but I have nearly completed another cricket jumper and started on a new blue cable jumper. I have also been making big blankets, probably by instinct for the forthcoming severe winter. 

Check out what is still available at:  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Layette-Knitting?_trksid=p2047675.l2563