Didn't this year go quickly? Last time I checked, I was moving into a new flat and it was barely August. Now, four months have flown by and we find ourselves on the 31st once again.

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Have you ever had some beautiful OOAK fibre go missing in the mail? Now imagine that's happened three times in the last month :(

Something's going very, very wrong with the mail in Spain lately... Beautiful batts from CountessAblaze - MIA. It's quite odd because I ordered from fibre the week after, and it arrived within a couple of days. Then batts and locks and rolags from Siobhan Crafts - MIA. And on top of it all, yarn for a sweater (that's like 6 skeins of sock yarn, guys!!) from Fondant Fibre, custom dyed - MIA. Screaming intensifies. I also had some face oils go missing but the replacements arrived - but whatever, it's not OOAK wool, yo.

Generally, I feel quite awful because these are all one-woman shops and I don't want to burden them with what's quite clearly a Spanish mail problem... A few more days until they're deemed officially missing by Royal Mail - and we'll see what happens.

On top of that - another disappointment! The Xisqueta wool I ordered is a let down. It's been washed so awfully that it's really felted together, and any attempts to card it result in a tube of sponge instead of a rolag. Maybe that's due to the natural crimp of the wool anyway, but it's still not what I expected. Maybe I'm comparing it to long and straight merino fibres... But I've really got no idea what to do with it next. Hmm.



Until then, I've been spinning some lovely superfine Shetland in Sherbert Dip by Fondant Fibre - I'm trying a fractal spin so should have some nice matchy-matchy bits and some lovely crazy barberpoling. I split the braid halfway lengthways and spun one bit as is, and the other half I've split into about 8 more thin strips which I'm working on today. I've plonked myself down in front of the telly, catching up on last night's X Factor, and sipping on a nice cuppa as I spin. Small pleasures.

I've been meaning to post this for a long, long time. But then I was moving house... And the lack of internet made it impossible... And then I started working... And then it seemed like TDF was all too far away for it to matter anymore. But, really, when I think about it, why should three weeks of solid effort be ignored? So here's what I managed to chuck together this year :)

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The last week of TDF, the spinning picked up! I actually got quite a lot done and I'm really happy with the results :) Lots of different techniques, colours and fibres made for a very busy but enjoyable week.

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This week's been fairly quiet... At least on the yarn front! I've been running around like a crazy woman, sorting out ID numbers and social security and bank accounts, not to mention viewing various flats around Barcelona. We actually saw one near the Santa Maria del Mar church - great location - that had zero windows. Not. A. Single. Window. I don't know how the tenants there deal with the humidity, and I don't even want to think about what happens inside the sweatbox when someone has too many beans on their toast in the morning. No escape.

Anyway! This week's project has been more spindle spinning at the mister's house, and working on Pigging Out, my combo spin of Cherry Bakewell and Pigs. By the end of Friday 17th, the end of the second week, I'd make a good start on the braid of Pigs, but not much more! Time for some more gratifying spins to finish up the last week, something nice and quick and chunky I think.

So far, we're off to a good start! Wheel has been turning, stash has been dwindling, and I've actually produced some rather lovely yarn!

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So, here we are! It's already July, Tour de Fleece is starting tomorrow, and I've got a pile of handspun skeins that are yet to be photographed and written about. As it happens, June has just been insane. The school year finished so the girls were driving me crazy occupying more of my time; I've been job hunting and filling in applications and doing online tests and attending interviews left right and centre; and although weekends are my prime spinning time, it's also the only time I have to spend with my boyfriend lately. So! As a result, these lovely handspun skeins have been languishing in the cupboard, waiting for some attention.

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Okay, so I missed it by a week. Oops.

Early June 2014, I ordered a "learn to spin" kit online. Inside, a clunky wooden spindle, and a few balls of natural Finn wool (it's still one of my favourites breeds, even now). A few YouTube videos later, and I was park-and-drafting, and making some kind of super slubby rope that wouldn't really come in handy for anything in particular. A few days later, the slubs started to even out, and I was spinning some kind of fairly-even-if-a-little-fat rope. And then, 10th June 2014, I plied, washed, skeined and photographed my first handspun yarn. I called it Cappucino. Super bulky, probably underplied, but even now it's stashed away in London as a reminder of where I started.

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Technically, most of these were spun in April. I've been ridiculously busy with preparations for a big family party abroad (more on that in another post!) and spinning got pushed to the side. I had four lovely skeins all ready to reskein and photograph, and they just got waylaid... Not to mention my #spin15in15 goal - I've been so good with it, only missing about four days so far, and then bam! over a week with no spinning...

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This new arrival is like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.

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A few finished handspuns recently: a lovely, squishy, smooshy thick instant-gratification single, and my all-time Everest that took me what seems like forever. And ever.

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When it comes to blended tops, I reckon Spin City has it covered. Beautifully bright colours, a big range of wools and fibres, and drafting is easy-breezy - they basically spin themselves... I've not been disappointed by an order yet!

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Earlier in the year, I bought a mammoth haul from Fondant Fibre - included were a set of Adele fuzzlings, 100g of gorgeous squishy mini-batts that are ready to spin

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I little while back, I bought the Bakery Collection sample pack from Fondant Fibre - four gorgeous cake inspired blends in mini versions so you can try the lot. So far, I've spun up Angel Cake, Chelsea Bun and Dundee but I'm leaving Cherry Bakewell to go with my full size braid.

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Another happy mail day: I got my fibre from February's Odyssey Trail update at Countess Ablaze, a Turkish spindle, and some 40" circular needles for making socks (I'm learning to knit two-at-a-time magic loop, but more on that in an upcoming post).

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I recently treated myself to some goodies from Hilltop Cloud - a shop I'd been ogling for a long time, but never ended up buying anything for some reason. I bought Imbolc and The Valleys, as well as a little wooden WPI gauge. My lovely little parcel arrived on the same day as the gorgeous invitation for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party that's happening this May. Everyone's super-mega-excited and scrambling to find an outfit - the whole family will be there (and my granddad is one of ten children so that's a lot of cousins and second cousins...) and you gotta look your best!

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I'm living in the Temple of Disease and Pestilence. A couple weeks ago, Littlest Bug had chicken pox, closely followed by stomach flu (let me tell you, you can never quite unsee the moment when something so little manages to barf up the Pacific Ocean...). Everything seemed fine... until the early hours of Friday morning, when all hell broke loose. Stomach flu snuck up on me, and made its surprise appearance very well known by 3am. Bigger Bug now has chicken pox. And Littlest Bug is battling another round of bronchitis. Basically, a terrible weekend had by all.

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This past week has been a bit higgledy-piggledy all over. We've had plenty of beginnings and endings: new knitting projects, completed handspun, various illnesses floating around the house...

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I tend to get a little bored when working on the same project for what seems like forever - I love to pick up another project to take a break from the previous. Then, of course, a third to have a break from the second, and so on...

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