Hats, hats and A Few Days in Donegal

Stayed in a luxury hotel - Eske Castle Hotel, which lived up to its luxury claims. The days were rather overcast with a little rain but that didn't bother us - especially as the restaurant food in nearby Donegal town was excellent. We visited Derry (wall of etc) and Glencar too.
On the way there we stopped at the Crafters Basket in Sligo and I got myself a head - a styrofoam one that is, to model my knitted hats:
She's a bit eerie, the head, but very obedient.
I must practice taking photos - here's some anyway:

Back to Donegal:

Some of the statuary in the grounds of the hotel:

Glencar waterfall:

Other pics: 

A warm wind

Mountainy nSheep of course

and Lawnmower sheep

Into An Grianan Alleach

That'll do.

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Spinning the 100 gms of fleece

I've started spinning the 100 gms of combed fleece - well it's more like 130 gms as there were some combed nests lying around already.
Using the 9:1 ration on Ashford Traveller wheel and backward draw, I'm aiming for a bouncy Aran weight yarn with 2 plies.
I'll probably dye this one an blue-green and make another hat.

I aim to follow this yarns progress to finished item in this blog - well, we'll see.

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Wollywormead's hat workshop

Attended wollywormhead's (aka Ruth)  hat workshop in This Is Knit in Powerscourt Townhouse center Saturday last (July 20th).
Although it was a very very hot venue given the sunny day, it was really enjoyable and started the mind working on the structure of a knitted hat, its fittings, shapes and the maths involved. She gave us a useful written handout too. In the center of the table she had placed many of her own hat creatings - showing several of the interesting and different styles that can be made by varying stitch nunbers, patterns and colors.
I bought 100 gms of Aran weight Malabrigo Rios Lotus yarn from TIK - a nice merino-silk blend. However, being variegated, it doesn't lend itself to much stitch patterning so I decided to make a benay style with just a subtle pattern for some added texture and structure - and mostly to help me learn about shaping hats.

I have a big head! measured 23.5 " around from forehead to occiput. Must say the hat feels very nice - look forward to wearing it next winter.

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A trip to Doonis with the IWT

The Irish Wildlife Trust had a Creepy Crawley walk Sunday last -  21st July.
They had placed moth traps the previous evening and there was an amazing bounty in each of the two boxes the next day1 I saw moths I'd never seen before - didn't even know they existed.
The most striking were the Tiger moths - of which there were 28 + - very striking black and white wing markings over a bright orange back - and the Poplars - very large and complex - with no mouths at all!

We also walked around by the lake and on the raised bog.
It was a very pleasant outing indeed.

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Bog cotton

Ya caint spinn Bog Cotton! Grrr - picked a lot and tried - not 'cos its a short fiber, its 'cos it's too fragile.

Pity, it's such a beauty:

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Longford ICA Craft day

Went to the Longford ICA Craft day in the Temperence hall in the town last Saturday.
A very good display and I enjoyed the morning demoing my spinning on my wheel, Ashling.

Here's a link to their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LongfordFederationICA?fref=ts

My photo os in their Album - as usual, I ooh like the hag fro hell in most of them, but, what the heck :).


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Huddie's new friend

Huddie (the ASBO Dog red border collie) had a great time earlier this year when he visited with Bobbie who lives right on Lough Ree, Westmeath. They had a ball together.

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