And a lovely weekend was had by 2

A wee while back I posted I'd won a girls night out.  Saturday was the day I chose and my knitting friend Joanne and I had a wonderful time!    We started at the guild knitting and about 1.20pm we left for the hotel, which was Chateau on the Park in Christchurch.   I was working on the beginning of Ingenue (a jersey) from my handspun Romney and Joanne was working on a feather and fan scarf (which looks lovely btw).   I've got the neck almost finished over the course of Saturday and Sunday, just 2 repeats to go; and for those wondering, yes I swatched first.
Anyway, getting back to the point.  We checked in and half an hour later were on our way to Dressmart in Hornby with the intention of spending our full budgets.    I managed, within budget to get 2 skirts, 2 tops, a bra and undies set and my running sneakers.    Joanne had a little more to spend, but also did really well with skirts, jeans and tops.   We were picked up just on 5pm, back to the hotel and got ready for dinner with a touch of knitting done too. 
We had dinner in the restaurant, a fishy theme here.  I had the whitebait fritters (a little too eggy) and Joanne had Dory.   Then dessert before we paid and left to go and knit.   We were meant to go to the movies, but there was only 15 minutes from when we finished to when the movie would have started so we're doing that at another time with the vouchers.  Need to give our DH's a little time to recover from looking after the children first.   
We did get quite a lot of knitting done that evening instead though, but then Joanne discovered she'd made a mistake so had to undo quite a bit too.   We watched "Along Came A Spider" on free to air tv that night and got to bed a little later than planned. 
Next morning was a lovely smorgasboard breakfast (pancakes, bacon, hash browns and fruit), followed by; what else?   More knitting!   And then down for our manicures; J was sneaky and said I could go first, that way she got to knit, lol.
I now have deep burgundy nails, with bling.   Which I then went home and used to start making our new outdoor table, so they're not quite as perfect as they were.   I'll post photo's of the start of the jersey and my nails later; as well as the table top.   Had to stop before we finished as I was getting blisters.
I guess that's the end of my ramble atm, more ramblings later; maybe after Thursday's spinning meeting.

It's finished, it's finished, yippee!

I finished my Aeolian shawl at the guild this afternoon so this is basically a brag post.   It's gorgeous, and that's before blocking. 

Here it is blocking!

I also tried spinning linen for the first time, it's short bits and not going quite so well, got covered in it!   Will keep trying though.

School Holidays and I won something!

All I can really say for that is that I'm glad it's over!   No car for the first week aside from the Thursday so there was way too much computer and tv for the boys.   Weather wasn't great either which didn't help.
Monday this week they went to Grandma's place so I could go to the sock knitting day over in Bishopdale with the spinning guild.   I then picked Ian up and took him to his first session at the University for a course we're doing there.  He spent most of his time telling me he wanted to go home now.  
Tuesday we went to Willowbank which was definitely enjoyed if rather quicker than expected.   Wednesday both boys went to Grandma's for an overnighter; bliss!   I did quite a bit of knitting, a little tidying and Thursday morning went to the Heathcote spinning guild; which I'm going to join!    Unfortunately when I picked the boys up I found out they hadn't been very good, so no TV till after 5pm yesterday as well as no Xbox and PC at all for the rest of the week.
Got a phone call yesterday morning from "The Breeze" which is a local radio station.   I'd won the ultimate girls getaway, so I've invited Joanne from my knitting group to join me for a night at a hotel, followed by a small shopping trip and a manicure.   Should be good.   Just waiting to hear back if the night I want is ok with Joanne and if so then I'll ring and hopefully book it.   Has to be a weekend night.

Got a bit further on my sock, halfway through the foot of the first one now, also got partway through the first Agave chart for my Aoelian shawl, thought I'd stuffed it up for a while, but in the end it was simply my counting that was off.   Need to try and get that finished by the end of next month so I'll be taking it to the guild tomorrow instead of spinning.   Part of the reason for that though is that the weather is awful atm and I don't really want to take the wheel when it's peeing down with rain even if she does have a custom made raincoat.

Next week's going to be busy too.   Monday is fairly quiet, but I"m going to make a doctor's appointment for the following week for a general checkup.  Haven't had one ever and I need my tetanus shots updated anyway.  Tuesday I'm doing a spinning demo at school, hope it's reasonably warm as I'll be spinning raw fleece which won't be so easy if it's cold.   I'm demoing as it would have been done 100 years ago, so raw is the way to go, no drum carding and I'm not prepared to ruin my combs on raw fleece so I'm using an old flick carder.  Once that's done I can then spin the linen.    Wednesday is the first parents meeting for the course I'm doing with the University; hope I can find a park.  Thursday will be the Heathcote spinners guild again and Friday I'll start back at the gym.

From then on it's Monday and Friday at the gym, Wednesday at University and Thursday at the guild; I do hope Ian starts getting more hours at school so I have a chance to get some other stuff done!

Spring Cleaning

First I have to say I had a wonderful time at Glentui and I'm going back next year.  I've already paid my deposit.  It also looks like I may be joining the Heathcote spinning guild as they've invited me back which is grand.
I finished the yarn I was working on when I left for Glentui and although it's DK rather than fingering, it will still make nice socks.  I have also got to the transition on my Aeolian shawl so I'm happy with that.

Now that it's spring I've been sorting things out.  The conservatory is now tidy for the first time in ages; we have a lot less toys and I've started going through my fabric stash.   There's a mountain on one of the lounge chairs of stuff I'm never going to use, which I'll be putting on the trading post of TNN to see if someone else wants it.   I'm hoping I can sell most of it locally as I hate posting things like that.  There's microfleece, polarfleece, denim, suiting and all sorts in that pile. 

Getting ready for Glentui

Very busy this week, working frantically as I won't be home to get anything done this weekend.   So I'm doing my work for WEFT, cleaned out the car and been making Alpaca/Silk batts to spin up while I'm there.   This stuff is so fine my drumcarder isn't really coping as well as I'd like; I'm dreaming of a Pat Green Supercard, but that's never going to happen.  They're not even available over here!
I've been doing some work on my Aoelian too, I'm on the second Yucca pattern and I'm really liking it, she's going with me to Glentui as well as my socks as I need something easy as well.    I'm also taking my current spinning which is the Dorset/Columbia fibre that I dyed and am spinning for socks.   I'll also take some pencil roving that I dyed myself, it's a Merino Acrylic blend which I've never come across before, not sure how it'll wear, but I'm hoping it'll do nice socks.   I'm also taking the batts I'm blending atm; that should be plenty I think.   I'll take a book; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  I've read it before and enjoyed it, but it's not something that will override my spinning mojo.
Gotta get back to work now, Ian's on the computer after having a lot of time drowning the sandpit and being good at school; he's earned this :)

Knitting and spinning and Autism

Well, I sent off the yarn for the painting themed yarn swap on TNN this morning, have just realised I forgot to take a photo before sending it; duh!   Went to do some work on the shawl I have just started and found that the new needles have a raised bit which is catching on the yarn; luckily Morag at Vintage Purls is putting a replacement set in the post but it still means I can't work on it today.
I've finished the first swatch for my Paloma top, it's dried and is just hanging lightly weighted so I can see if I get gauge.   If I do then I'll cast on for that tonight after I've got some work done.  I'm using Elann Lara in the most amazing turquoise.   Should look fantastic when it's done, assuming I do it correctly of course.
Mum's only got a wee way to go on George's jumper too, so he should have that for next winter no problems, though she's just caught a nasty bug and can't get up today.
I'm going to be working on some sock yarn on the weekend, try and get my first 3 ply set up.  Technically it's not the first, that was my Merino/Yak/Silk blend, but this is the first I've dyed and spun from scratch.  One ply is finished, 2 to go.

Had another meeting with Ian's school and GSE (group special education), no more hours yet as he has no time when he is independent so we're still only getting the time that they have a one-on-one person funded for.   So still only 3 hours, next meeting isn't until the 4th week of next term so if we do get extra time it'll be for 6 weeks max before the Christmas holidays.  We're working on getting him a bit more independent at home in the hopes that it will translate into the same thing at school.   They were also doing the application for funding for next year.   It's kind of scary, the max any child can get is 17 hours a week; Ian needs full time support and he's able bodied.   What must it be like for children who can get that 17 hours but are not able to do anything for themselves?

Update

Interesting times as Terry Pratchett would say. Our PC is effectively now new, it has a new motherboard and CPU plus an extra gig RAM, apparently it wasn't uncommon for the particular motherboard we originally had to cause freezing. We'd already replaced the power supply so there's not much left of the original PC aside from the DVD recorder, case and hard drive. She's definitely faster than she was which is good.
Also been doing more knitting, got to contact Patons about the Inca yarn I'm currently using as there's quite a long bit I can't use as it wasn't spun properly; one bit way too thin and further down is way too thick!
Ian's at school now, 3 hours a day. Had a period of time where the school weren't communicating very well, possibly some fault on our side too but I can't see it myself. He's settling in reasonably well, but has had several days off sick; including today. DH is home looking after us as I'm feeling rotten and the boys have been off school to recover. We have our next meeting on Monday after school and we're really hoping that we get some more time, even if it's only the half hour till lunchtime up till next term. Next term he gets a wee bit more funding so extra hours will be easier.
Spinning up a storm as well, just finished the yarn for the latest TNN yarn swap, no photo's atm as I don't want to spoil the surprise. I carded the fibre first and I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. It's somewhere between a DK and Worsted; a trifle thicker than I wanted, but the blend of down sheep fibres pretty much guaranteed a yarn with a little bloom.

In a couple of weeks I'm going to Glentui for the weekend, it's a weekend of spinning with like-minded people from the various Christchurch guilds, really looking forward to it; especially now that I have a sleeping bag. Speaking of that the spending has gone off slightly with DH's bonus. We now have a new BBQ and a few extra bits coming for it, including a BBQ cover and grill thingie.

Will come back when I'm feeling more with it and update properly.