SP12 2nd Fourth Question(!)

Perhaps the other fourth question wasn't an official one, or something, as this one arrived in my inbox marked 4th Question. Hmmm!
1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?Well, I don't really take holidays on a regular basis, never really could afford to. I now live in one of the best holiday destinations in the world -today at one of the beaches on Skye (where the sea colours were tropical - above) I even remarked to my daughter, "And we're not even on holiday!" So I don't (again!) have an answer to this question.

2) Where is one place you'd like to go?

Ah, well, now you're asking! There are many places I'd like to experience - Venice, Orkney, Shetland, Isle of Lewis, Harris - all the Outer Hebrides. And I very much want to make a return trip to the Grand Canyon and stay for a while.

Inspirational MASSIVE rethink on stash building

While I tried to sleep on Saturday night - unsuccessfully due to the anticipation of soon having two dogs in my care! - I was finally inspired (I've been waiting a long time for it!) to create knitted artwork. The idea of knitted pictures isn't new to me but this idea of more than just pictures - creative exploratory expressionist artwork - which could only ever be unique to the creator, ie me! - is. I guess it's an expansion of the idea of freeform but it wouldn't (I think) look much like freeform at all. My first idea is pretty set in my mind and something dawned on me regarding stash building - that I will need a large and varied stash in order to be able to choose yarns for knitting the artworks. RTT has a large selection of donated yarns which I will be able to pick and choose from but these are mainly plain old yarns and I would also like to build a really varied stash of my own, with lots of different, unusual and textured yarns. And I will probably only need a little of each!! Yippee!! I now have the excuse to covet and accumulate after all...!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I just need to find the time to do it. My new girls are going to take up quite a bit more of my time. :-)

Guess who's living with me now!

After all that disappointment on Friday night about the dogs needing rehoming, I got a phone call on Saturday evening to let me know that the other interested party hadn't followed through and that the dogs' owners wanted me to have first choice. What a turnabout!! It all moved so fast after that and I travelled south to pick them up yesterday!!!!!!!!!
So let me introduce to you... Jet and Jazz, mother and daughter, aged 10 and 8 respectively:

This is a photo taken (as you can see from the date) at their previous owners, which I've included cos it's a closeup. Here's a photo of us with my grandson in sunny (for a while!) Glencoe yesterday:

While it's wonderful to have them, it's very much tempered by the fact that it was very emotional for the previous owner which, in turn, was emotional for us. We drove away feeling very sad indeed about the whole thing. It was heartbreaking for him to say goodbye to them, and heartbreaking to witness and be the prime mover in it! I'm sure the girls think they'll be going home sometime soon, but they seem to be fairly content with things as they are just now. I now have a full 2 weeks holiday from work in which to get to know them and to spend lots of time with them. I'm still feeling quite tentative about the whole thing, just in case the previous owner changes his mind and wants them back!

They are beautiful girls, just lovely, very friendly and placid but also ready for fun at the least notice! It was quite something to get up to happy tail-wagging dogs this morning!! I had to do a day's work today but was able to take them into the workshop with me and they lay quietly while I worked. Walking them is going to be so good for me! I just love having the excuse and purpose to be out of doors!!

Sickness and missing out

I missed out on a day of feltmaking at RTT this week... :-( It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Meg of the now ex-Skye Fairies had folk making new Raggy Fairies and they are just beautiful. I don't have photos but might be able to get a hold of some. Sandy made one with bagpipes!! They're adorable. Meg is back next week for more of the same so, even though I'm on holiday, I'm going in to have my turn!

SP12 Fourth question

Oooo... I just noticed this on Ravelry, it didn't come into my inbox.
1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
Oh this isn't any easier to answer! I would love to try some Noro though I'm not sure which one, Silk Garden, maybe? It's the one that has a long colour change. There are just so many beautiful yarns out there, the vast majority of which I've only seen on the internet... I just love all the variegated ones in delicious colours in delicious yarn mixes. I cannot answer this question!!
2) What yarn do you never want to be without?**
Ooh, I'm not much help, I can't answer this one either. Variegated sock yarn, I think... I think!