TGIF

If you had told me, back in the days when I was thinking of giving up work to run away to Scotland, that I would ever again be in the position of waiting for the weekend to come around? well, I just would not have believed you. Yet here I am, going “Phew, thank the $deity it’s Friday.” It has been a frantic week here on the Windswept Acre and I am looking forward to a little down time.

Today I weighed out little bags of cocoon strippings, ready for craft club members to buy some to take home on Monday night if they wish to. I also tried dying some carrier rods and thrower’s waste in strong tea (experiment not yet concluded.) Colour dying is on hold as I don’t have any fixative.

Lunch was like an episode of MasterChef. “Here’s the ingredients, go and invent something” – except my choice of ingredients was very limited indeed. No spuds in the house, and we’ve had pasta already this week, and frozen chips, and white rice… I made a rich tomato stew-type dish with one chicken breast, some left over salami, and some frozen mushrooms – served with brown rice. It was actually pretty tasty in the end, though presented a challenge when I found I had only beef stock cubes in the house. I flavoured it with paprika and oregano and salt. Mr L said it was “interesting”. Oops. Definitely time for a trip to Kirkwall and a good re-stocking of the larder, methinks.

This afternoon was part 2 of the introductory spinning course. All three pupils are very adept and fast learners, they made it very easy for the teachers. It was fun, actually. I still have revisions to make to the fact sheets but I was pretty well pleased with the way that they turned out. I guess we are ready to go public and advertise activity holidays now. 🙂

The Sanday Spinners group looks set to enlarge – all  three of this week’s beginners seem keen to progress their new skills. We shall be needing larger houses to meet in – or more than one session a week, or something.

I got to use G’s “Wee Peggy” wheel today and absolutely fell head over heels for it. It’s so perfectly well designed. I think it would be an ideal wheel to take on the road with me when we go off on our big adventure. Mr L on the other hand thinks I should get an Ashford Joy wheel as he thinks that is designed for a life of travel. There’s plenty of time in which to decide, but my heart definitely belongs to Wee Peggy.

The other plus from today was an little envie of unexpected earnings from the craft shop. My Xmas cards and gift boxes seem to have sold quite well and I have been asked if I have more cards to sell. I’d better get myself into my workroom and see what I can magic up.

I cast on my beaded shawl last night. I can’t say that I got on very well with the beads. I think stringing them is not going to work well for me.