Moved to a New blog, where the chat continues

I have moved to writing on a different Blogger blog;

https://spinmeayarnireland.blogspot.com/
yes, a Spinning blog, just because I found that I was writing more about Spinning on the blog Mitt Liv på Irland. My Life in Ireland.
Now it turns out that I am writing mostly about life in our house during the CoVid-19 school closure, and not so much about Spinning, but I am still mostly over on https://spinmeayarnireland.blogspot.com/
so yes everyone is welcome to pop over and have a read of my thoughts and doings.
Stay safe!
E

procrastinating

Hmmm,
Why do I spend my evening on this and my other blog when I really have a ton of stuff to do?
I am such a procrastinator.
Spring is coming, even though the weather has been dismal the last while.
Snow and ice warning for tomorrow , as well as the floods we have already had in parts of Ireland. (not us personally, thankfully)
Sleep well good folk,
I just want to say that life is very good, when one can look out at a sunset at 6pm instead of 4,30pm and when one has a bit of dark chocolate to munch on with a cup of tea.
Talk soon,
liz

Last post....

Hello all,
After nearly 8 years, I have decided to write what I believe will be my last post in this blog. I am well aware that I have not been tending my blog at all as well as one should do, it is months and months since I posted.
I went over to Facebook and that took all my time. Well now I am glad to say that I am off Facebook. I have tentatively started a blog called Spin Me A Yarn Ireland, where I plan to post about spinning and textile history etc, as I go along. At least on Blogger the info is easier to scroll back through and reread.
So hop on over to my spinning blog  https://spinmeayarnireland.blogspot.ie/
if you are interested in that area of endeavour. If not, fare well my friends and keep well. I may pop up again and comment on your blogs now that I have left the all-consuming Facebook behind,
Regards
Liz

Happy New Year! Gott Nytt År!

Happy New Year everybody, Gott Nytt År allihopa.
I hope that 2017 is a good year for all of us.

A few photos of us at midnight on New Year's Eve:

Above: my Donegal wheel, from Johnny Shiels Spinning Wheels, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal.

Above: Selfie with my two youngest and me

Finally, a shot of 3rd daughter plus me, talking out of the side of my mouth, and my wheel. 

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year. We had a peaceful Christmas here, glad to have all of us back together again, and to take time to relax. 

 There has been great sadness also, as 2016 and cancer claimed the lives of two young mothers. May they rest in peace. 

I am hoping to continue with the weight loss and the getting fit. I also just want to get more crafting done, especially  knitting and spinning and weaving. 

Other than that I am happy to observe life and nature outside my window in this quiet corner of the Irish country side.

Spinning my yarns!

It has been a long while since I was in in here in the blog. I took up Facebook and it took over, I think.
I went back to work last May after the surgery in April, and all is very well now. I had no complications. I started Slimming World also in May and so far I have lost 2 stone, that is about 13 kilos. I am very happy with that. Onwards and upwards (or downwards, hopefully, the weight anyway).
We have 2 daughters in college now. Both are going to University of Limerick, which is about 20 mins drive from here. They stay in town, near the University, so they can live the student life and so I do not have to buy and pay for a car for them. Parking is a problem in the University, so it is just as easy to have the girls within walking distance of the University.
I am back at school again. My husband just got a new job.
I am still very interested in spinning and learning to weave, and knitting and all fiber things. I may allow this blog to go into hibernation, as I just want to follow the Spinning wherever it takes me.

I hope all of you out there are well and I am looking forward to reading your blogs after this post.
 In the meantime, if you are on Facebook, you can find my FB page if you search for Spin Me A Yarn Ireland. The photo should be a purple and yellow skein of wool.
That's all for now folks!

Photos of some crafting I do

I bought a loom last year and set it up over Easter. It is a Glimåkra Victoria 4 shaft table loom. Here is a photo of setting up the loom for the first project I am weaving on it.

I started knitting shawls almost 2 years ago. Here is the first triangular shawl I knitted. The yarn is soft and I can wear it next to my skin so I tend to wear this one a lot. It is acrylic so it washes easily. Perfect for everyday use really. Even if I have since decided I don't really want to knit with acrylic much anymore. 

This third photo below is a photo of a larger triangular shawl I knitted in 2015. It uses a Noro yarn, but I cannot remember the exact name. I enjoyed knitting this and seeing the different colours appear out of the skein. The border is knitted sideways, involving short rows. It was time consuming but adds a lot to the shawl so I am delighted with the whole shawl. 

Finally for now,  I did a bit of yarn dyeing using Kool Aid sachets and some good old Goodall's food colouring. I used KA Black Cherry to get the coral red colour on bottom of pic below, Goodall's blue to get 1 skein of blue, KA Grape to get the 2 skeins of soft purple and the last 2 skeins at top of photo are a mix of these 3 colours. The yarn is commercial yarn, Bergere de France Naturelle in white. It is like a handspun thick and thin yarn, 2 ply. It is a mix of wool and alpaca. I am waiting to see what it might want to be.... A shawl probably...

Recovering...

I am recovering, slowly but surely. It is hard to be patient with pain, when the sun is shining outside and when all I want is to get up and go, at my usual pace. But, but.....

This too will pass. I am reading new books and rereading some old favourites. I am getting some knitting done. I hope to do some weaving or spinning next week when I am stronger.
I am glad to be home and glad to have people to look after me!

out of (blog) hibernation, for a little while anyway

Well, how is everyone out there in the blogosphere?
I see a lot of you have continued blogging and I am delighted to have your blog posts to read, and see what is new in people's lives. There is sadness and happiness, as I guess Life itself is a mixture of sadness and happiness.
I am going to be off work from tomorrow for a couple of weeks, nothing sinister, just a small operation, so I got thinking of what I did the last time I had an operation - I started blogging! So here I am back again on the blog.
All is well here, I am working, the husband is not working, (he is my house-husband, you could say,  which is a good thing,) my children are growing up slowly but surely. Yesterday was the 10th birthday of our son, the youngest of the family. The eldest girl is in 2nd year in University of Limerick.
The other thing I started doing back in Dec 2009/beginning of 2010, was to join Ravelry and start back knitting again.
Well, things have moved on rapidly from the first pair of brown acrylic legwarmers which I knitted back then. I got interested in spinning (again, I had done a weekend course in Spinning Wool back in 1994, but then promptly gave it up to have children and work, etc)
So I bought myself a spinning wheel in Summer 2010, and I now own several spinning wheels, all of which I love, and the latest of which was given to me, so I have now become the lady who spins and who people might even give a spinning wheel to....
I learned how to spin using a drop spindle, and joined a small group of women who do Viking Re-enactments, the craft and cooking and clothing side of it, (no weapons here, sorry) and I have done demonstrations of spindling with them in Waterford, Wexford and Dublin, as well as regular spinning wheel demos in Limerick, Dublin and anywhere else that will have me.
I can crochet, I own more than one knitting machine, and a lot  of wool, I read about the History of Textiles and Textile Production avidly, I own lots of books on these themes and I follow like minded people on FB and on blogs. I am practising Nålbindning and Tablet-weaving.
And I bought a secondhand 4-shaft Glimåkra table loom and have set it up and started weaving on it ( I was lucky enough to have about 4 months of weekly weaving lessons last year with a Master Weaver).
So I guess if I need something textile-related to tide me over my recovery period, well there is plenty to choose from here at home already.
Maybe I will be able to blog a bit when I am at home recovering.

taking a break...

24th August 2015: I will be back at work in a week’s time. I will be cutting down dramatically on my use of social media, including blogger and blogspot and reading blogs. If anyone needs to contact me, it is best to email me. If you need my email now, then quick, message me this week, before 1st Sept 2015.
This blog is going into hibernation as of 1st Sept 2015.

second guest post on Weave, Spin, Dye, Ireland

here is a link to the second guest post I submitted to the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, about some aspects of the history of Spinning and the wool trade in Ireland,
http://weavespindye.ie/2015/02/09/history-of-spinning-in-ireland-part-two/

my guest posts on History of Spinning Part 1

here's a link to my guest posts about the History of Spinning in Ireland, as seen from my own personal viewpoint so far, on the website of the Irish Weavers Spinners and Dyers Guild,
www.weavespindye.ie
part 2 will follow

long time no speak

Well, people. it's been a long time;
Christmas came and went. so did January.
Now it's February! amazing...
Where does the time go?
I am working, trying to get walks done, spinning, knitting, reading and  back at yoga.
I am hoping to start a Weaving course this coming week, we'll see if that happens.
All are well here in this house.
The Swede is at home, having taken redundancy from D*** last year.
All the kids are at school or in one case, University!
I am back at school, busy, busy....
Lots of kids to teach and I am trying to also give them experiences of yarn, weaving, pompoms, braiding etc, also.
Spring is about to spring here, there are snowdrops and in one place, daffodils, in bloom. IN other places, the daffodils are about to come to bloom.
The days are getting brighter.
I like Spring, I like the early signs of Spring we get in Ireland, much earlier than in other places further north, like Sweden, for example.
It is still cold, but at least there are no crazy storms like last year, yet anyway...
Oh and we got a new steel shed instead of the little wooden garden shed that blew over in Storm Darwin  February 12th 2014.
We are alive and kicking , and that, dear people, is the definition of Success for now!
Be well , take care.

Sunday evening awe

Wonder and awe and beauty:
standing yesterday in the early evening quiet, outside the car-park of a GAA pitch in North Co.Meath, before me to the east, the rise and fall of the drumlins of this county, the tinge of dusk off to the east, pink and purple shades to the sky,
above me, powder blue sky, and to the west, the few clouds had taken on hues of peach and cream, touched by the rays of the setting sun.
I am standing beside a bus, from the hall in front of me comes the sounds of people laughing, singing, dancing;
These are  the sounds of joy from the supporters of our Ladies Football team; our lovely young women, our daughters and grand-daughters played a most wonderful game of Gaelic football and conceded not a single point to win by 1-13 to no score.
So I breathe in the damp cool air, rejoice quietly in the beauty around me, the November countryside, the fog beginning to lift from the wet fields, the last few crows flying home, the stillness of the Irish countryside and I give thanks for it all, the fire and fitness of the girls, the commitment and the determination, the managers who give of their time voluntarily, the supporters who travelled for 4 hours to watch a match, the generosity of the people in the North Meath club who fed us and were so dignified towards us, even though their own daughters must have been so disappointed to lose.
I give thanks  and I am struck by how absolutely beautiful it is to be in Ireland in that spot at that moment and to be witness to all these wonderful things. And in I go to rejoin the celebrations in the hall.

going to handMaid craft day tomo, maybe Bunratty on Sunday!

I'm off to Dublin, the Big Smoke,  to handmAid craft day tomorrow, in aid of Laura Lynn Hospice, can't wait, very excited.
Just about to pack the bag now, taking some knitting and crochet and spinning stuff with me, as I will be at the venue all day, taking two classes and inbetween classes hoping to mingle, and craft together with other knitters/spinners/crochet-ers.
Have a look here: http://handmaidcraftday.com/news/

Then, a little secret, I may even get to Bunratty Castle outside Limerick on Sunday for some demo spinning, gulp, I just rang up earlier this afternoon and asked if I could!
check out Bunratty Harvest Day here: http://www.shannonheritage.com/Events/AnnualEvents/TraditionalHarvestDay/
The only thing that remains is to get 'permission' from the family to go Missing and Crafting two days in a row!
been a very bad blogger, I know, so very sorry, life catches up on me!

wouldn't I love to have time to write in this blog

Indeed, wouldn't I love to have time to write in this blog....
Instead of which I have to spend my time writing up the End of Year reports for the pupils in my class, all 30 of them...
I have a basic outline done for each report, but I need to go back and reread and correct them now, today.
I am also tempted to spend some time spinning on any of of my 4 spinning wheels, but no, that particular joy is denied to me while these reports remain unfinished.
Wouldn't I also love to have time to take photos and  upload them in here in this blog, photos of plants and wool, and wheels and weather in Ireland.
But no, I am quite tired now from staring at this computer for last 4 hours, so I'm off for a little siesta, a nap to restore the batteries and then later I will get up and deal with these reports again.
And all the time I am thinking, wouldn't I love to have the time to write in this blog.....

my first 10km Great Limerick Run

I did my first 10km run (run/walk/jog, to be honest) yesterday, Sunday May 4th 2014,  as part of the Great Limerick Run. My chip time was 01:25:15, ie 1 hour and 25 minutes. I am delighted with myself, even if I am a little stiff today.
My 3 daughters (ages 18, 17, 13) also did the same course, they ran it all and finished in 52mins/53 mins and 54 mins respectively. Well done, my lovelies!
And my brother ran too, he topped us all, finishing in 44 mins, well done, young fella!

Extra day off today Monday, a public holiday instead of on 1st May as in most European countries. Well deserved day off, to potter around and enjoy the peace and quiet, and rest a bit after the exertions of yesterday.
Just a month of secondary school left for my 3 daughters, and the eldest has that very important final state exam, the Leaving Certificate exam at the beginning of June. The other two can take it easy, although luckily the 17 yr old has a part-time job in a local shop which will keep her happy and busy.
My husband is now enjoying his first days of unemployment after taking a redundancy deal with his former employer. Dinners will be made, and house will be kept tidy, I am looking forward to it!
I've two months left at school, a very busy time,  lots to do and finish up with before the final bell rings on Thursday 26th June.
Spring has come, Summer has officially started, but there's no Summer weather yet, rainy and cool at present. Not to worry, it's easier to teach, and study, if weather isn't too hot and fine!

last day of March 2014

Brief Update:
1. The van passed the NCT, by the skin of its teeth, but hey, a pass is a pass, yes? Hooray! It will once again do the job of driving the 6 of us plus luggage  from Limerick  to Dublin Airport in the summer, on our now yearly trip to Sweden!
2. One daughter turned 17 last week, where are the years going to?
3. Dear son turns 8 next week!
4. The clocks went forward, so it is officially Summertime (in one way of looking at it) now in Ireland. It was great to have the extra hour of light this evening, I even went for a walk/run with younger daughter. (Although in my case it's more like an accelerated shuffle, than a run, but hey, I kept doing it, so it counts as a run!)
5. New Year resolutions I am trying to stick to include: Walk more frequently, Run a bit, Watch what I eat and Lose weight. I am slowly but surely losing weight and getting a bit fitter slowly also.
6. Part of the New Me, is getting to bed at a reasonable time each night, so that's it from me folks!
Good night, Take care!

Saint Patrick's Weekend

It is a month since I wrote in here. Apologies to all who like to follow blogs with daily updates, you will find that I am not a daily blog writer.....
The storm of 12th February will not be forgotten for a long time in Ireland, especially here in Munster. The South West of Ireland really took the brunt of it. We were without power for 3 days, some of my friends were without power for 6 days. Isn't that incredible?
Imagine trying to get children to school and yourself to work, on cold wet days, when the house is dark and cold every morning, I don't know how people coped.
We got power back during the weekend, so we were spared the worst of it. We had a single gas burner, so there was a lot of porridge cooked, followed by either boiled or scrambled eggs and copious amounts of tea. Luckily, my mother who lives nearby, is on a different line and got her power back after 24 hours,so we spent a certain amount of time in her house, in front of her stove, warming up, with kids watching TV and rest of us just glad for brightness, and warmth.

The flu or a heavy head-cold made itself known to us after the storm. Coughing and wheezing became everyday difficulties for at least 3 of us in my house:, Darling Husband(DH), Darling Son(DS) and me. All 3 of us went to the doctor with it, and got sick certs and medicine. We are almost back to normal now. All I can say is,  "Modern medicine is great stuff!"

Spring is here, certainly in the last week, one can feel the difference. It has become a bit milder, and there is a huge stretch in the evenings, and the mornings are bright again at last. The snowdrops have bloomed and are now fading, the daffodils are in full bloom and there are some tiny wild pink cyclamens under the trees in a place where I sometimes walk. The wild primroses are flowering on a ditch, about half km away. There are buds and catkins on the bushes and trees around my house.
I love Spring, the hope and the promise it brings.

Sadly, we have had 3 very sad and tragic deaths in the parish and neighbouring parish. I have taken my two daughters, 18 and 16 , to wakes for 3 people they know in the last 3 weeks. It is heart-breaking to think of the pain and grief of the families bereaved by tragic circumstances beyond their control, 3 different situations, unrelated events, but huge sadness and pain for the people who have to somehow struggle on without their loved ones. My prayers go out to them.

Today was St Patrick's Day. My DH took DS to a parade in a small country town not too far from here. I was at a funeral and couldn't go, but I would not really have gone anyway, as I have been many times before. There were parades in the city too, but I am not a fan of crowds so I avoid the bigger parades.

Tomorrow it's back to work and school  for all. My van is going for the NCT (National Car Test) tomorrow after work. It failed the test about 2 weeks ago, on basis of failing handbrake cables, so I have had those replaced, along with some bushings and bearings,  and now I have my fingers and toes crossed, that it will pass tomorrow.

So, time to hit the sack, and dream of the one thing I didn't get to do this weekend: spin, on one of the 4 spinning wheels, yes, I recently acquired 2 more wheels, both second-hand,  both Ashford , both beautiful and addictive.....
I love my spinning wheels.

Take care all!

177 kph, the 8th storm, Storm Darwin

Storm Darwin hit South west Ireland yesterday, 12th February 2014, with Violent Storm Force Gale 11, gusts of up to 177 kilometres per hour! For 2 hours from about 1pm to 3pm, the wind hammered us.
The roof was blown off the Boat Club in Limerick city.
Windows were blown in on the 4th and 5th floor of the Tax Office in central Limerick.
Trees were blown down all over the county.
250.000 households were without power, a record number, mostly across the southern part of the country.
Roads were blocked. It took people an hour to drive detours, instead of the usual 7km 10 min trip home. Some people had 4hr journeys/waits/detours.
Nobody was killed, thankfully.

When I drove home, it was like mini-Armageddon.
When I got home, I found the garden shed we call the playhouse in a pile on the grass, 6 metres from its base. The trampoline had blown over 2 hedges and was in next door neighbours back garden.
The old dog house was blown to bits. A weeping willow tree was blown over. The fence at the gate was blown over. Flashings from the edge of the roof were pulled off and lay in our lawn and next door.
We had no power and spent last night in darkness, with just the single gas burner to boil water, pasta, etc.
Today, still no power.
Watery sunshine thankfully.
We now have a Boil Water Notice for our area.
I have an upper chest infection, and am wheezing and have laryngitis.
I am at the public library writing this on my way home from the doctor.

Storm nr 9 coming tomoro

7 storms in 7 weeks

The weather forecaster tonight said we have had 50% more rain than average since mid December, and that we have had 7 storm systems passing over Ireland in that period also.
Luckily, where we live, we have not been affected by flooding, but there have been many people affected by floods in Lmerick City, 20km away, and more people affected in Cork city, in County Clare, in Galway, and in seaside areas, as well as in many towns with rivers flowing through them... It must be horrendous to have your house or business flooded and to have to clean it all up and try and live in the house again.

Me, I am not a fan of storm force gales, and I sincerely hope we have seen the last of the storms for a while now.

Today I went for a walk, and spotted daffodil shoots coming up, and when I drive past my gran-aunts house I see the snowdrops in full bloom under the hedge.
There are already 3 daffodils in bloom outside a house I pass on my way to school.

I braved the elements last Friday to drive to the other side of Limerick to look at a spinning wheel, and yes, I bought it! 3rd wheel, and the reason I bought is was because it is an Ashford traditional, from circa 1985, and it was in great condition. I was told by an experienced spinner: You can always get an Ashford Traddy to work! It's true, in this case anyway. I had to improvise a drive band with kitchen cotton twine,  from tesco, and the wheel needed oiling, but then, she spun just fine for me.