clickety clack

Been spending most of the last week spinning...finished two large skeins of the white with pinks purple and blue. The white is alpaca and the coloured is all sorts of bits that I had...no idea now if they were sheeps wool or alpaca, but they were soft like silk. The problem I have is I have no idea of the amount of wool I now have and how much I need to knit something. I'm almost tempted to try and knit a little vest or something for myself maybe something like this from http://saunshine.blogspot.com/.
(or check it out on http://www.bentemor.com/blogg/ under ruby in Innhold. Most of the discussion is in Norwegian (and no I don't fully understand it all, but it's fun to try), but I love how it looks on her. I also love the other things she knits...gorgeous little girls clothes and hats.)


...I do adore that wool, but I worry that I won't have enough, or that I won't want to wear it when it's finished. I think that's why I'm happy knitting mittens and hats and scarves and even blankets; I can use whatever colours and wools.

And on that note, Oscar was also nagging me about his pair of mittens. I made up this celtic design for him, adapted from a tapestry pattern, and decided to use the lighter lopi so that the pattern can actually be seen. But because the red isn't as thick, the mitten has knitted up slightly smaller and I had already adjusted the pattern, so it's smaller than I would have liked. Oscar is adament that it DOES fit, but that's because he couldn't BEAR me to give it to one of his brothers as ONLY he is allowed to have anything Celtic!!!!! Ah the joys of being a mother of a 12 year old. Or maybe it's just him as a first of many he feels he has to preserve his own identity. Anyway, at least I now only have to knit one other mitten instead of another 3!

And we have started gearing up for Halloween...just a few decorations. I took this photo the other day before it got really windy so the cob webs are looking a bit worse for wear. But I've got 4 pumpkins now, so I think we'll have to get into some pumpkin carving this weekend. And we have a little kit to make halloween chocolate lollipops too (the kids bought it ages ago at a garage sale and I'd nearly forgotten about it). The skulls down the bottom will light up when I buy an extension cord. I suppose next week I'll be sorting out costumes for them all. Only Ella has decide what she wants to be...a skeleton...and they get to wear their costume to school too, so it has to be more than a sheet over the head!