In the Nick of Time....

Well, amazingly I have finished my entry for the forthcoming exhibition at An Lanntair, Stornoway. The exhibition is called "Grinneas nan Eilean" and is open to anyone involved in artistic activity who also lives in the Western Isles.

My entry is a piece of hyperbolic crochet in a sort of pinkish 2/11 nm Shetland yarn. It started with a chain of 6 and I estimate that there is around 25,000 double or treble crochet stitches in it. I then put it on a card base and covered it all with a double layer of shrink film to give it a firm yet slightly squashy feel. Then to hide the card base I stuck a bit of felt that I'd made from some Carloway bits underneath. However, it still looked like a cauliflower, so I presented it in a shallow basket on a bed of carded Carloway yarn. Wondered if the organisers might think it was a bit peculiar to be included - but haven't heard from them despite handing it in on Wednesday.

I was a bit stuck for a title, so I finally settled on "Brain Coral" which is what it looks like.

Yesterday our guinea fowl suddenly went berserk - screeching, screaming and running around in the way that only guineas seem to be able to do. When we went out to see what was spooking them there was a great big Goshawk sitting up on a telephone pole giving all the poultry the evil (or maybe that should be "eagle") eye. It hung around for ages, flying from pole to pole before finally gliding off into the distance towards Kyles where Calana Crafts is based.

A few days before that we saw a golden eagle fly over coming from the direction of the Isle of Skye. Typical - just before lambing. Up in Lewis and over in Applecross in Wester Ross the Sea Eagles take quite a few lambs - and not just the weaklings either. We are waiting on our first lamb to be born. Will it be black? Will it be white? Will it be spotted? Will keep you posted.......

Good Grief! Is it that long since I posted on the blog?? What have I been doing?

Well, actually, we've had the builder in and things have been a bit hectic and not much has been achieved apart from a successful start to our Weekly Knitters' Club in Tarbert, helping to organise a good Flea Market last Saturday also in Tarbert, and starting knitting up a little jacket in zig zag pattern from some of Joan Calanacrafts gorgeous Uruguayan yarn which she took to the club and which I couldn't resist.

My camera is still malfunctioning, so today I thought I would post a picture of one of my favourite animals - the Alaskan Musk-Ox. For those in the know, the fibre that comes from these beautiful beasts is called "qiviut" pron. kee-vee-ute, and is amongst the finest fibres known to mankind. It is so warm because the muskoxen sometimes have to survive temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees.

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks has a research herd and sell the fibre - proceeds go towards the maintenance of the herd and the research.

The fibre is incredibly expensive (£100 for 8 ounces) but it is so warm it can be spun incredibly thin and goes a very long way. A pair of qiviut socks or gloves mades a wonderful gift for someone who is elderly or has problems keeping warm.

This picture is of one of the new mums with her twins earlier on in the year.......

For more info on the musk-oxen go to http://www.uaf.edu/lars

See what the wind blew in......

A couple of days ago, we were out on the croft when we spotted something red under a rock. It turned out to be a partially inflated balloon originating from Demiro's Mediterranean Restaurant, Cardigan Bay. We rescued the balloon which managed to deflate more before I took the photo, and e-mailed the restaurant in question who were very surprised to hear where it had ended up! We have an invite to join them for champagne next time we are passing Cardiff Bay. As we've had constant southerly winds for a couple of weeks now and I guess the balloon escaped and floated up here. If only it could speak, I bet it could tell an exciting story of its travels.

Around about the same time, my husband came in with a yellow plastic tag he had found on the shore. This had belonged to a lobster that was taking part in a research project but sadly the lobster was no longer attached. On one side of the tag was written "DFO LOBSTER NL" and the other had the serial number as per the photo. When we looked on the internet at lobster research programmes, we found that NL showed it originated in Newfoundland! I have e-mailed the DFO in Canada and they are trying to find out more details for us.

So all in all its been a week of interesting things finding us instead of the other way round. But it is so good to think that we are all networked together not only be the internet, but by the winds, and oceans etc. Food for thought.......

On the knitting, weaving, spinning front, things have been a bit slow as we have the builders working at home and the loomshed is really cold, what with the frosty weather etc., so I have designed and knitted a jolly little shrug-type garment out of my handspun Carloway Tweedy yarn, and with a handspun white Wensleydale border crocheted round the edge and armholes. It's in the final stages of being partially felted just now - so pictures tomorrow. Have started another one already for the Etsy shop as the one I have fits beautifully and is incredibly warm.

The SassyGael knitting evenings get going this Thursday evening at Tarbert Community Centre, Isle of Harris between 7 and 9 pm. This week Joan from Calanacrafts has a prior engagement so I shall be holding the fort. A great place to come to knit, crochet, sew, or do whatever handcraft that floats your boat - and all for £3.00 per person including a cup of tea and biccie. Beginners and experts in all fields welcome.

New Lambs in Suffolk and connections with the outside world....

Gedgrave Wensleydales (http://www.gedgrave-wensleydales.co.uk/) have their first lamb of the season. A wee boy who has been named "Jachin". I had the pleasure of spinning his mum, "Maizie"'s, fleece earlier on in the year. Isn't he just the bees knees? Makes me go all soft and marshmallowy inside. Our first lamb is expected on 25th March, so we still have a while to go yet.

So Congratulations to Tracey - and good luck with the rest of the lambs.

1st February - Great Day to start the month

Today the weather is wonderful. Sky is dark blue with almost no cloud. Earlier we took the dogs for a walk on the moor to enjoy the day. The temperature had just hit freezing and the puddles were covered with a thin skin of ice in beautiful cobweb patterns. Couldn't resist taking a few photos out there......

Little dog Heather made a pretty picture against the skyline running over the ling heather. This part of the moor was burned about two years ago and the heather cover is only about four inches long. This is best for the sheep to graze on as there are plenty of shoots coming through and because it is so short, any holes in the moor where the peat underneath has worn away are visible so the sheep can safely graze. If the cold dry winds continue I have my fingers crossed that we can continue with the "falaisgean" (heather burns) and get some good photos.

Then we came across one of our peat stacks - after we had cut and dried the peats in May last year, we stacked them up and put turf over them to keep them safe from the weather until we needed them. Just to check the condition of the peats, we removed one or two of the turves and had a look.......

Beautiful and dry. Hard and black. These peats will burn like coal when the time comes. The forecast is giving news of snow and cold winds next week, so maybe we will be glad of extra peats for the stove.

At the end of the track we found an old electricity transformer that had stopped working during the last series of power cuts we had a couple of weeks ago. The power company had to bring a helicopter to lift this transformer from its position on a light pole near to Eilean Glas lighthouse which does not have vehicle access. Here's a picture of a light pole with a similar transformer attached to it:

Weather, paper boats and Daisy the sheep

After a busy end of week spent organising the school library at Leverburgh, S. Harris with a colleague, I arrived home last night to find that my husband had been busy with the camera.

The sea was very rough and grey and glowering yesterday so here's a picture of the bay near to where we live.

Even though we are a couple of hundred yards away from the seashore and can't see the sea at all from the house, we are still aware of it because of the noise the waves make breaking onto the rocks, especially when the weather is stormy. Some people think that there is no noise here because we are remote from centres of population, but nature can be incredibly noisy at all times of the day and night.

Good news - my paper boat which I made from paper printed with our new Harris Tweed pattern and named "An Clo Mor" docked safely at Durness and is now part of the Caithness Horizons exhibition-in-progress. For more info see http://joannebkaarpaperboats.blogspot.com/ Friday 30th January entry - my boat is number 17. It's not too late to contribute to the exhibition to commemorate the voyage of the Westland to New Zealand. Just click on the above link.

Update on Daisy the sheep - she is doing well. Lots of new friends and new places to explore.

This is Daisy having her tea......

Hen of the Day - Bonus edition

As promised we have two hens of the day. The first is the Voorwerk, who is kitted out in a natty little ginger outfit featuring a black head and tail and white ears. We have four Voorwerks who are all well-mannered and get on well with the other hens. They lay brown eggs and the breed originated in Holland I think.

Our second hen is a brown araucana. Araucanas originate in South America and aren't related to other breeds of chicken. They lay blue or green eggs which leads to them sometimes being referred to as "easter egg layers". The blue shell is thicker than the brown and the egg itself is lower in cholesterol than regular eggs. They have a cute little topknot and some have either fluffy earmuffs or a beard, or both. In temperament they can be very squawky when roused and in the three years we have been keeping them we have never had one go broody. We have four full blood araucanas - three lilac (which is really a light grey), one brown and a half dozen crosses who carry some of the characteristics of the araucana.