Magic View - Landscapes - Field

With a bit more free time on my hands, I have been looking at Flickr, the website where I upload and organise my photos. They have a new(ish) feature called Magic View - some kind of photo recognition takes place which then arranges your photos into sets, according to content. It's by no means 100% accurate, but it's interesting to see what has been grouped together! Here are a few of my photos that were grouped as landscapes of fields. I'll definitely be sharing more of these with you over the coming weeks. So sit back and enjoy! xxx

What's all the fuss about?!

Meow meow everyone, Florence here! I've got a bit of a dilemma and I'm hoping that you'll be able to lend a paw and tell me what you think. Many people think that cats spend most of their time asleep. It's true that I like nothing better than curling up for a nap somewhere comfortable. However, I do also recognise that it's important for me to keep in tip top condition and I try to exercise regularly to keep my flabby underbelly at bay! Tree climbing in the garden is a favourite pursuit, but when I'm indoors, my Mum and Dad have a selection of toys to keep me both trim and entertained. I must admit that I consider myself a bit of a rodent connoisseur, being the owner of a number of rather splendid imitations. Allow me to acquaint you with some of them.

Laser mouse. One of my oldest toys. Just the slightest click on the button has been known to rouse me from a deep sleep. Guaranteed to provide hours of fun, although I do find it a tad frustrating that I never seem to catch anything! Very hard to get my paws on that blasted red light and I feel exhausted after the chase!

Leather mouse. This one is rather flat which means there's not a great deal to get my teeth into. It does have fur at least, so resembles the real thing. Great for throwing around as it's quite lightweight. I can really show this one who's the boss in this house!

Shaker mouse. This one has something inside it so it rattles a bit as I play with it. Has a bit more weight to it so I can give it a good pounding with my back feet. The string tail is a little rough in my mouth though!

The pastel twins. This pair can often be found on my Mum's desk, so when I'm helping out, it's easy for me to extend a paw and knock one or other about for a bit of fun. I must admit to them being one of my favourites.

Woolly cat nip mouse. This one was created just for me by a friend of my Mum's in the USA. Crafted from luxury yarns (of course!) and filled with top notch cat nip, playing with this beast gives me a wonderfully happy, drugged up feeling. Perfect for when I want a deep sleep afterwards. 

The All American duo. These two also crossed the Pond to come and live with me, and like their knitted cousin (above), they too are filled with cat nip. I prefer the dark blue one as its fluffy coat makes a very satisfying sound when I claw it.

So I think you'll agree with me that I certainly 'know my mice'. I could appear on Mastermind, no problem. Name: Florence, Specialist subject: mice in all their guises.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the tale. Yesterday started out pretty much like any other day. Slept a bit, ate a bit, went for a constitutional around the garden, smooched a bit, had some lap time and before I knew it, it was time for bed. I followed my Mum and Dad upstairs and settled down on the bed for a sleep. Woke up around 3am and decided it was time for a bit of exercise. I padded downstairs and searched for something to play with. Nothing! Zilch! Nada! So what does an enterprising kitty like me do? Go and wake up Mum and Dad and ask them to find my toys? Nope! I did what I thought was the most considerate option - I went outside to search further afield. I have been known to take my toys outside on occasions, so I was most hopeful of finding one of them in the naughty corner of the garden. No such luck. But while I was looking, I came across the most wonderful thing ever - a new furry mouse!! I couldn't believe my good fortune, so I carefully picked it up and in through the cat flap I came.  Of course I wanted to share my good news with Mum and Dad straight away, so I hurried up the stairs and into their bedroom, announcing my arrival with a somewhat throaty meow. I couldn't speak as clearly as usual because my mouth was full. Oh my, then the fun and games began. I dropped my 'toy' on the carpet and it started to move, all by itself! And when I say move, I think that this was the Usain Bolt of the mouse community. It sprinted along by the skirting board at a tremendous rate and I leapt and pounced to my heart's content. And you'll never guess what? This mouse made a sound too! It squeaked most satisfactorily when my paws made contact! I think that the squeaking woke up Mum and Dad, because the lights went on and Mum got up to see what I was doing. HAVING FUN!!!! By this time, the little mouse seemed to have a mind of its own and was running about across the bedroom and behind the bedside table. I got so much exercise, it was brilliant! Sadly, Mum decided that my new toy had to go, and before I knew it, she'd whisked it off somewhere - what a spoilsport! Mum and Dad were not amused by my antics and told me so in no uncertain words! So what did I do that was so wrong? Please tell me.

Meow meow meow for now. Flo xxx

Getting in a fine old spin!

It's already a week since Fibre East, and I know that I promised you news of the Spinning competition. This year, as I told you here, I entered 7 different classes; more to support the event rather than with any grand ideas of winning anything. So you can imagine my delight when I got to look at the display of entries to see three 'firsts' and a 'second' attached to some of my work! The competition was judged independently before the actual weekend of the event itself.  My entries, along with comments sheets and rosettes, were returned to me on Friday. Let me share them all with you so you can read for yourself what the judges had to say. (FYI, each class is marked out of 10.)

My first entry was a hank of handspun yarn from prepared tops... 

Next is a skein of handspun multicoloured yarn to show the advantage of Navajo plying...

The last skein of yarn I entered was using a technique that I learnt at a spinning workshop at last year's Fibre East - adding beads during plying. The class stated 'a skein of handspun fancy yarn using at least two different fibres'...

I also decided to enter some garments made using handspun yarn. The first class was a garment incorporating colour made from the Entrant's own handspun...

Next, a garment incorporating texture made from the Entrant's own handspun...

A shawl in fine handspun yarn was my penultimate entry ...

Lastly, a shawl in any weight of yarn (other than fine handspun)...

I think that the organisers were bowled over by the number of entries and so they contacted the vendors to see if any of them were willing to provide prizes for the winners. So lucky me has some treats in store! I'll be sure to share them with you when I receive them. Each of the entries that received a 'first' place was then judged to pick out the overall winner of the Spinning competition and I could not believe it when I found out after the event that my shawl pictured above in the last photo was judged the best in show! There were so many beautiful items that it never entered my head that I might win, so I feel very fortunate indeed. I cannot wait for my wrist to be healed enough for me to get back spinning again properly.

My photos don't do the competition justice because I didn't use my flash for them, but here's a couple of pictures of the exhibition for you to see for yourself just how hard it must have been for the judges.Thank you so much to Fibre East for the opportunity to challenge myself with my spinning and get some constructive feedback. I hope that it will encourage more 'normal' spinners like myself to have a go and enter something themselves next year. xxx

Happy Birthday Flo!

The bunting is up chez josiekitten today to celebrate the 5th birthday of Florence! We don't know when her actual birthday is as she was a rescue cat and her age was estimated at 1 year by the vet when we adopted her. But 4 years ago  today, she came to live with us and so we decided that August 1st would be her official birthday.

It's hard to remember the nervous, hissing cat we first met...

She settled in very fast and has become a confident kitty who definitely knows her own mind! Here she is with her 'sister' Elsie, who sadly had to be put to sleep not long after coming to live with us.

She soon made herself at home...

... and proved an invaluable office assistant!

She developed a love of all things knitted early on...

She likes perching on my shoulders...

We watched as she took her first steps outside in the big wide world...

... and she swiftly became a pro at using her cat flap.

She likes to 'help' when I am spinning too...

But this is what she does best of all ...

Happy birthday to the most velvety black pussy cat in the world! xxx

Fibre East 2015

Where to start? At the beginning I suppose! My Fibre East adventure was a little different this year, as I not only went as a visitor, but also spent a day volunteering so I got to see the event from both sides. All I can say is that I am in total awe, admiration and appreciation of all the people who have been working so hard all year long in order to put on the event. I arrived at the venue in Ampthill around 10am where I met up with Jan, the driving force behind Fibre East. She introduced me to some of the other volunteers before I started work for the day - measuring and marking up the areas for all the vendors. I became a dab hand with a tape measure and can of spray paint and I only managed to spray my foot once!! We were all well looked after with plenty of delicious refreshments to keep up the energy levels and I was made to feel very welcome. While others were shifting tables for some of the stands, I made myself useful stapling signs together and then helped set up the display of entries for the spinning and weaving competitions. I was so pleased that I was able to play a very small part in helping with this year's show and would like to make it a regular occurrence. 

I stayed overnight in Bedford so I wouldn't have to leave Norfolk at some unearthly hour for my spinning class. I had booked a workshop on spinning luxury fibres way back in January; long before tendinitis set in. But I decided that I was going to go and do as much spinning as I possibly could. So armed with plenty of ibuprofen, I arrived in class. There had been a last minute change in the course tutors, with Sarah Wroot replacing James Perry. Sarah proved to be a most interesting and inspiring teacher, sharing her knowledge of fibre with us. One of the most important things I learnt during the day was not to be afraid of changing things on my wheel. I ended up with a totally different brake band which slowed down the pull of the yarn into the machine immensely as well as trying out a home made lace bobbin with pipe insulation to change the speed of the bobbin. We sampled a number of fibres including merino, Optim, alpaca, yak, cashmere and angora. Sarah showed us a number of different techniques for spinning and then we got to play with each of them! I was amazed by just how the slightest tweak to the brake band could make such a difference to my spinning. I managed to spin the finest yarn during that day. I am very proud of this alpaca yarn!

We were encouraged to take samples of our yarn and record them for future reference. I think it's a brilliant idea and something that I plan to do in the future. 

With only 8 of us on the workshop, we had plenty of individual attention and I left feeling inspired to get going on my wheel again as soon as possible. 

It was also wonderful to be able to look at some of Sarah's own spinning. I don't think you ever stop learning. Spinning is a life-long journey of discovery.

Yesterday saw me heading back to Ampthill, this time in the company of Snoopydog. Although I had been on site the previous day when the vendors were setting up their stands, I hadn't seen inside any of the marquees or halls as we had been in class the whole day. I was totally bowled over by the size of the show and the huge number and variety of exhibitors. Hats off to the organisers for booking such a great selection. Whatever your interests were, there was something for you. So hard to pick any favourites, but here are a few photos to give you a flavour of it all. Pop over to my Flickr album to see all the photos I took. 

Of course I brought back some 'souvenirs' of the day! As well as some gifts for friends, I managed to buy 3 skeins for myself, a couple of postcards, a fob for my sewing scissors and a mini loom kit that will hopefully be useful for school. The green and yellow yarn is from Sparkleduck and will make the perfect pair of Norwich City match day socks for Mr JK! I seem to have a bit of a 'thing' going for sparkly yarn right now as I couldn't resist the lure of the raspberry coloured skein from Debonnaire yarns. Snoopydog bought a skein too so we can be sock twins! The third skein was my first purchase - a dark grey fingering weight yarn with little rainbow splashes throughout. (I seem to have a thing with rainbows too!) This was from the Knitting Swede. I'm so glad I bought it when I did because when we went round a second time, all the skeins had gone!

I was delighted (and somewhat astonished too!) to discover that I had some placings in the spinning competition. I'll tell you more about that another time!

Hope you have enjoyed your virtual visit to Fibre East. I'll be back soon, but please excuse me for now as I have some yarn to fondle! xxx

The weekend in a nutshell

Mr JK made flatbreads for lunch and we ate them warm off the griddle with some smoked salmon and salad. Mmmmmmmmm!

I baked some more biscuits. Following the success with Delia's Gingernuts, I dabbled a bit with the recipe and made some oaty vanilla biscuits. The house was filled with the delicious fragrance of baking and Mr JK's eyes lit up when he returned home from the gym this morning. They provided the perfect boost to his depleted carbs and he polished off two! (As did I, it would have been rude to let Mr JK eat alone!) They were really very yummy indeed. If anyone is interested, I will add the recipe another time.

We went for  a walk around the gardens at East Ruston Old Vicarage this afternoon. It's a lovely place to visit as the gardens are changing constantly. All the summer flowers are in full bloom right now. There's something about sunflowers that just makes me feel happy! 

Florence, as planned, has had a lazy weekend. Lots of this! See you later in the week when I'll be on holiday! Yay! xxx