Long time, New arrivals and Learning New things!

Well its been a very long time since I last blogged, I can't believe where the time has gone really. Since the last blog I have taken on some new sheep, 2 lovely Blackface ewe's called Olive and Minty, 2 Hebridean ewes called HS1 and HS2 (Hebridean sheep 1 and 2, and also local post codes!) and 3 Hebridean Rams, PopEye, Brutus and Kevin! Taken from a friend that could no longer look after them they have settled in well and are super friendly (able to give them a cuddle, friendly!)

                                          My 4 New Girls (Olive is at the front, as usual)

I have also decided that I get 'second Sock syndrome', now for those of you that have never knitted socks its the feeling that you get that once you have made one sock, you have no desire to make the other, leaving one very lovely but sad single sock.

I decided to remedy this by getting the book, Toe Up 2 at a time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes and give it a try. It is also a first for knitting toe up too and to me seems like the perfect thing to do, as you don't run out of yarn, you just knit the leg as long as the yarn let you as the toe and foot are done first.

I have cast on and done the toes tonight, and I'm already addicted to doing it this way. The increase for the toe looks really neat and both socks will turn out the same. I would recommend this book! Pictures to follow of socks in progress!

We had last night very high winds, some parts of the Island recorded 101mph. The power was off for 16 hours and has been on and off all day, all OK, but glad the powers back on so the heating works!!

Pictures of sheared sheep, at last!

Finally got a few pictures of the sheared sheep, our friendly sheep, Timmy, was not too keen to come up and have a cuddle this morning as he usually does but none the worse for wear after their eventfull day yesterday. Timmy is the one with the T on him, it is harder to tell now they have been sheared so we sprayed him!

The Shearing is Done!

Today in the post the clippers came, just on the perfect day to start the shearing of the sheep. This is the first ever time we have done this, but my sister is a dog groomer so had a good understanding on how to handle the clippers!

It has been the most beautiful day here today, blue skies with a few white fluffy clouds, so we thought we would start. We didn't know how many would get done as the last time we caught them 2 got out and we could not get them back in the pen. We caught 4 to sart with, the black on evaded us but after the white ones were done, and with a little pursuasion with a bucket of food we got him too, we got them all sheared in under 3 hours, and I have 5 lovely fleeces that are ready to be washed for spinning.

Take a look at the pics, there is only one of them sheared at the moment, and as you can see they are not too keen to get too close at just yet, it will take a day or so for them to come back down and let us get near!

From This

To This!

As you can see, they are not too keen to come too close!

The Black sheep has faded over time, the ends are brown and the underneath is grey!

Pictures to follow of the sheared sheep, when they like us again! There was no one spare to take pictures while the shearing was being done, it was all hand on deck. The sheep do look very cute now they have their summer cuts, they look like lambs again and were running and playing after being sheared, I bet they feel better with out all that fleece on now.

Its Been a While....

Well hello again!

Its been a while since I have posted, I have been away on holiday, then we have had family visiting us up here on the Island. It was their first visit up to the Island since we moved and the weather was kind.  Well it was chilly but the sun shone and the rain stayed away.

I have been busy with weaving, just recieved another 2 tweeds today so will be tying in and starting weaving today, so will be kept out of mischief!

I have popped a few pictures that I took of various parts of the Island below.

Carloway Broch

Black House Museum

Our Naughty Cat, and a Kitchen Roll!

Busy, Busy

Well its been a month since the last post, I have been busy weaving and I have finally managed to finish my first proper lace project. I dont do things the easy way, I could have produced a bookmark or coaster but I decided to make a full size adults scarf! I did it in two halfs and kitchener stitched the two halfs together. The middle is plain stocking stitch as I didnt want to do the whole scarf in lace ( I get bored easily!)

The lace pattern was from Ravelry and is a simple 12 row pattern which when blocked looks beautiful.

Im off on holiday for a few weeks now so have lots of packing to do!

Tweed All Around

On Saturday we took a trip down to Harris, to buy some Harris Tweed. Although I am a Harris Tweed Weaver, the little left over bits I get are not useable, as they are unfinished. Once the tweed has been woven by the weaver it gets taken back to the mill, washed, shrunk and pressed, then stamped with the Orb mark to make it Harris Tweed. I bought some to make myself a new handbag, mine is looking a little worn now, after being used every day for 2 years, thing is I need to learn how to use a sewing machine so I can make it!
Look out for my finished bag in a future post (im not giving a time limit, the sewing machine looks quite complex to use!)

Below is the tweed I bought, the orange and brown dogtooth and the plain orange is going to be used for the bag, not sure on the others yet, I just liked them! They were bought from Tarbert, at the Harris Tweed shop (http://www.harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/shop.html ), any one comming to Lewis to visit should take a trip down and have a look at the shop, it is wonderful!

On the way back we took a walk on the beach wit the dog, the picture below was taken on Luskentyre Beach, and the hill in the foreground is the Isle of Taransay, where Cast Away was filmed back in 2000.

Time Flies when your having fun!

Well its been a while since I posted, and I am not sure where January went! I have been busy weaving and also been learning how to warp for Breanish Tweed which has been a fantastic learning curve! I have done a few warps for them, and hope there will be many more to come, the yarns are beautiful to work with, and once woven on the wonderful Hattersley looms it produces a wonderful cloth.

Not only have I been warping and weaving, I have also been knitting. I have finished a hat for my borthers girlfriend, and I have also designed my own hat pattern, available on my folksy.com shop. I am currently working on a lace scarf, my very first proper lace pattern, so will post when it is finished. Anyone on Ravelry that wants to be friends, just search for uniquechic.

I will leave you with a picture that I took a few days ago (Thursday 10th Feb 2011) from Gallows Hill, Lews Castle Grounds, Stornoway - see it doesn't always rain here!!

New Year's Resolutions

I have been thinking recently about New Years Resolutions, I don't usually make them as I am awful at keeping to promises to myself but I have decided to make some this year. I think the reason that I never keep to them is that I always make them about things I dont want to change, like 'I will start running' and 'I wont eat chocolate'. I am never going to do these things, I live for chocolate and I am not built to run, I keep fit weaving and love hill walking, I can easily manage 10 miles in the mountains of Scotland, but I am lucky if I can run 100meters with out hyperventilating!

So I have decided to make some resolutions that I will keep to, all fibre related!

1. Learn and perfect lace knitting - I have started this by knitting a chunky lace cowl, available now on my Folksy shop, see pic below, and I have a beautiful Shetland Lace Shawl pattern that I want to start soon!
2. Learn to knit Fair Isle - I think that this is one of the most beautiful things that can be done in knitting, so I am determined to master it, and with the lovely books I got for Christmas I should be able do it.
3. Not buy any more yarn - well, I am not going to buy any that I dont need for a specific project, I dont have any lace yarn so to achieve number 1 I have to buy some!
4. Perfect my spinning techniques - I have bought a drum carder, which I am sure you will see in future posts, and I am determined to scour, card and spin beautiful yarn.
5. Dye my own yarn - I have only tried to do this once, and loved it, the wait, and the expectation of what it was going to turn out like, so really want to do more.

Along with weaving and looking after the sheep and ducks its going to be a busy year!

The picture below is of the new Spring Time lace cowl I have just listed for sale at Folksy.com.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, I hope the festive period was enjoyed by all.

The snow has gone (for now) which is better for the animals out on the croft, the sheep are no longer ice skating to get to the food!

A few pics of the snowy weather, and I will be posting again soon.