Yarntide!

Santa obviously thinks I've been a good girl this year, as he brought me Qiviut! Made from the Alaskan Musk Ox, it is supremely soft and apparently 8 times warmer than sheep wool by weight. Blimey!

And Louisa Harding 'Grace' merino and silk yarn.

Thank you indeed, Santas!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Yesterday we spent the day walking in the Lake District. We'd camped over at the National Trust campsite in Great Langdale, which was quiet and almost empty (I expect the crowds will be turning up for New Year's Eve though) with only about 5 or 6 other tents on site. The morning dawned grey, but dry and not particularly cold. We set off to walk over Crinkle Crags (859m) at about 10:20am.


As we climbed up the (steep!) path passed Brown Howe up to Red Tarn (where we got 'meh'ed at by a local), the clouds began to look a bit thinner and we started to hope that there was a chance of some views after all.

Even so, I don't think either of us were quite prepared for this though...
Looking back to see Weatherlam and Swirl How rising out of the clouds.

Just the tops of Harrison Stickle and Pike O'Stickle were visible, so the top of the cloud layer was at about 690-700m. This is what is looks like on a clear day (photo taken on 4th October 2004).

Almost a White Christmas.

The Scafells

This was our view when we stopped for lunch on the highest crag on the Crinkles - we'd come up via the Bad Step. Although I know the Bad Step is not as bad as the name would make it out to be, it is something I've always avoided in the past, but decided to go and take another look. There was still a wobbly moment, but I hung on and, not looking down or thinking too much about the size of the ledge that the toes of my boots were on, I made it up.

Descending into the cloud as we came down The Band, back to the valley and home.

I took a LOT of photos, and this panorama video clip, although be warned, it isn't very good quality and is a bit sea sickness inducing as I couldn't turn round on top of the pile of stones I was balancing on very easily!!

Yule

It's big, it's heavy, it's log!


It's lazy, it's fluffy, it's mog!
Well, I am as stuffed as a stuffed thing. My mid-winter feast of nut roast, roasted veggies followed by yule log and icecream went down a treat. Just need a glass of Bailey's to finish things off nicely :)

Weirdness

Thanks for this, Noo !!?!

To be honest, I that the things that most people of my acquaintance would think was odd about me was that I like to knit and I blog about it (although I don't tell many people about this actually!) I am thinking that this is not going to cut much weirdness-mustard with you lot though. The thing is about weirdness, I have decided, is that it all comes down to perception. If I were to ask 6 different people that I know to name a weird thing about me, I can guarantee that I would get 6 different answers - and the most accurate observations wouldn't be the ones that people would say to my face.

So discounting the things that people have commented on about me (within my hearing) before now - things such as the knitting, blogging, caring about weird things like the planet, animal welfare in farming, etc, wearing black most of the time, not wishing to get a tan (real or fake), not living in the same town or even county as my parents, being married for years and having no children (deep breath) - the things that I think are a bit odd about me would be...

1. The first weird thing about me is that I probably spent waaay too long thinking about this
2. My hair and nails grow really quickly. I cut them, and then poof! before I know it they are long again.
3. I never go out in shorts or skirts with bare legs. Not even in the height of summer.
4. I enjoy camping in the middle of winter; the colder, the better!
5. I can't stand listening to people say nice things about me, I get really flustered and upset.
6. I like beetroot soup!

And I tag the following: Badger, Bertie, Bronte, Diane (you're not getting out of it that easily!), Hawksley and Annie.

THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

Pretty!

The lace is coming along quite well. It would be quicker, but I keep stopping and stretching it out so that I can admire the pattern. The stitch pattern for the leafy section is very simple, so I haven't had any problems memorising it and everything seems to be progressing ok. I am trying not to think too hard about the nupps as yet...

I got my mitts on more sock yarn last week, in a swap for a couple of patterns with jam_mam so am now the proud owner of some Opal Zebra. It's more white than I was expecting, but am really looking forward to having some fun zebra socks! I shall be doing them on two 2.5mm circs, as I finally managed to get hold of some 60cm length ones. I was really surprised at how none of the shops that I visited had them, as it seemed that everyone knitted socks on two circs but no.

*waves*

Today I decided to change my blog from the strangeauntie spot to it's own sheephappens one to keep things a bit more consistent. I am also looking around thinking my template could do with a bit of a wash and brush up, but it's already getting late and I think I've had enough of Blogger for one night!

By the way, the address www.sheephappens.co.uk will also work !!

Just a quick hello too to all the people who's blogs I drop in on from time to time. Commenting seems to be a bit unreliable at the moment with the changes to the new beta blogger and I haven't been able to leave comments on a number of occasions. I am not ignoring anyone and hopefully things will be sorted soon :)
H.

Lace Am Begun

The next chapter in my How To Knit book is lace. I absolutely intend to master (well, attempt and try and gain a certain proficiency) all the techniques in my book and have been meaning to begin for a while. I bought the yarn. I bought the pattern. I got the Fear.

But I have been reassured by numerous people, and one in particular, that is it Not That Hard. I had a practise with some sock yarn which went ok and then spent over an hour winding my laceweight posh yarn in to a ball (while watching Apollo 13) and have begun. I will put it on to my circs when I've got the hang of it a bit better, I thought it would be easier to start on straights. It is early days yet, but so far there has been no tears or whimpering, or even very much terror.

Bit of a knitting update

I have finished the Christmas knitting - although I am thinking about knitting an elephant for Lily. I saw the cutest floppy heffalump the other day and thought how nice that would be, but I can't find the pattern for it. I spotted Kath Dalmeny's book World of Knitted Toys on Amazon, and am thinking that would be a great purchase, but the elephant is more 'correct' than the floppy being I fell in love with. I also think I should make some of the other stuff I've fallen in love with first. Hmmm.... deja vu....

Windy

Not me personally, but the weather!

The wind seems to have been a major feature of our weather lately, along with some clouds and rain. We had sort of planned to go away camping last weekend, but our usually apathy put paid to that and in the end it was probably just as well, I thought, as I lay awake in bed in the middle of the night listening to the howling gale outside.

We had gone camping a couple of weeks ago in the Lakes, with the idea of walking up on the Langdale Pikes but having nearly been blown over a dozen times when about half way up the hill, decided against it. This was then... That day, unfortunately, the batteries on Rob's windspeed monitor had given up the ghost, so we had no record of the actual windiness that forced us off the hill. It was probably slightly windier than Grasmore and definitely windier than Mam Tor (these are our previous 'very windy' experiences).

So, this Sunday we headed out for a walk around Dovestones reservoir (11.7miles) which is a local spot very popular on weekends and bank holidays as you can walk around for a couple of miles in the valley on the flat, but it is also possible to scramble up the hillside (if you don't mind steep slopes, rocks and a bit of slime and sheep poo at close proximity) to walk around the edge of the cliff-like edges overlooking the reservoir. We've been here loads, but it's still a nice place to come and blow the cobwebs away.

Blow is right, we measured a maximum windspeed of 51.2 mph up on the tops with an average blow around 20-30mph. These strength winds aren't enough to blow you over (unless perhaps you are a petite little thing, which I am not - although I am not quite a giantess, despite what some critters might say) but makes walking pretty hard work and I didn't want to get too close to the steep drop. I'm not scared of heights, but I am scared of hitting the ground at the bottom...