Photos, orphan lamb and the new linen

First a picture of little Heather - she looked so cute in this one that I couldn't resist it.

The postie arrived in the afternoon with an interesting package - it turned out to be the book I had ordered from Donnie at Photo Hebrides (see the blogs I follow on the left for a link). It's a fabulous book - incredibly smooth and glossy to handle - you just want to stroke it for a while, gazing at the photo of the highland cow on the cover. The photos revolve around a story structure which is just enough to theme them together, but is well-balanced enough not to intrude onto the pictures.

This book is destined to be a great friend. At last I have found someone else on my wavelength who realises that the long-abandoned vehicle in the centre of a moor is an embellishment, an enhancement, to the landscape - not something that needs clearing away, tidying up, sanitising. I particularly loved the celebration of corrugated iron structures - I have a very soft spot for corrugated myself (see photo hebrides blog for yesterday!) and would joyfully give up my stonebuilt residence for something iron and clangy. I recommend this book to anyone who lives here, has visited or is considering visiting. Well done Donnie, you have well-captured the spirit of the islands. More power to your lens!

We have a new orphan lamb - this time not a new-born - strangely it is the little black lamb whose mother came back for her after she initially abandoned her. Sadly, her mother died very suddenly yesterday morning and the lamb was quite inconsolable for a while. Once she gets the hang of feeding from the bottle she will soon settle.

A photo of our present weaving project - 16lea dew retted natural colour linen sleyed on a 10 dents to an inch reed at 3 ends per dent. 960 warp ends, about 29 inches wide, 28 shot wheel which is giving about 32 shots per inch, on a 50 yard warp drafted as 2 x 2 herringbone.

Despite the dry weather today it is weaving remarkably well - edges relatively firm and overall appearance crisp and well-defined. Considering that it is a dry-spun tow yarn that does tend to get a bit hairy with handling, it is bearing up remarkably. The only trouble is that with 32 spi it is taking forever to weave and is very, very boring. Thank goodness for BBC i-player on the cordless headphones!

Also, yesterday I received the yarn samples from the linen spinner in Belgium. Jos Vannestes has some gorgeous colours, and everything is wet spun and beautiful. Can't wait to get up to the mill at Shawbost and start rifling through their yarn store to find matching shades to get started on the co-ordinating linen and harris tweed cloths.

Two of the ducklings have gone to a new home in the village this morning. They aren't really ducklings any more - at this stage I call them "duckettes".

SassyGael WoollyWags had a record attendance at the knitters group last evening - we even had a holiday visitor who brought her knitting. It's good to get an opportunity to get together for a laugh and a cup of tea - sometimes we even manage to get a bit of knitting done. The main topic of conversation was the Square Up 2 A Blanket project which lifts off tomorrow at the Harris Inn. Everyone in the area is welcome to attend between 11am and 3pm - there will be spare yarn and needles there for anyone to borrow.