I feel that this is a little self indulgent - but I had a lot of fun putting it together and you might like to see - the very first picture is Poppy at 7 weeks - the day we brought her home (looking so sad to be wrenched from Mum) and all the others are our pups.

Create your own scrapbook design

Puppies 2 & 3 and The Knitted Maze

Here are the missing two puppies from the previous batch of photo.s Numbers two and three - two is the little girl with such a sweet personality and three is the most Chihuahua like one - also very sweet - rather quiet and cuddly.

Am off to Saffron Walden later to help with the knitted maze project - below is my contribution.

Spinning in the Museum Gardens (and puppy update)

We were very lucky yesterday - we had lovely weather for spinning and it's a lovely setting. A lot of people don't realise that Harlow museum has beautiful walled gardens - there's a knot garden with lavender, large lawns and paved areas with seating (where we gather to spin) and some lovely planting. I found a couple of dye plants which we may be able to use for our dyeing in October - Solidago (golden rod) and Tansy

The museum is very interesting in itself - with the Roman history of Harlow, bits on the Anglo-Saxons and a room full of exhibits for each decade of the 1900s - you will see stuff your grandma was using! The old bicycles are worth a look too.

There were only a handful of us yesterday but it was still a nice meet - we had a few newbies which was really nice and I continued to spin the yarn I started last weekend at the Sammy Rally - a blend of pink silk (from the travelling tea box) and Samoyed fur from last year's Sammy rally.

My In-laws visited the pups yesterday - they were all very good (the pups that is).

Here are number one, four and five looking much more grown up now.

My Canine Family

This is dad 'Dylan' - an exceedingly fluffy Chihuahua - taken the day Poppy came home - a handsome little chap - laid back and very cuddly.

This is mum 'Poppy' - wire coated Jack Russell with really cool tufty bits IMHO - looking a little forlorn whilst the babes are suckling fiercely out of shot!

Number four cuddling up to mum between feeds

Number two - we call her 'the little girl' (people seem to think calling her number two is somehow wrong)!- she's the weeist baby - but has metaphorical balls - definitely a strong mind of her own.

This week all their eyes have opened and they're just starting to try and stand (more fun to come when they're totally mobile) - I think at least some of them can hear now - they're ears have certainly flopped forward and become more fluffy.

I've been trying to coax them to lap - with mixed success - Number three is keenest - one, four and five have had a little bit of a go - but the little girl is adamant that this is not for her (yet).

We have puppies - 5 of them - 4 male, 1 female. Born last night.

Poppy had a bit of an ordeal with number 1, who took 3 hours to arrive, but then two to five arrived within the next 3 hours. She's proving to be an excellent mum - but is now pretty much exhausted - as are we!

These are the first four - safely ensconced in a heated box while number five makes his entrance!

We have puppies - 5 of them - 4 male, 1 female. Born last night.

Poppy had a bit of an ordeal with number 1, who took 3 hours to arrive, but then two to five arrived within the next 3 hours. She's proving to be an excellent mum - but is now pretty much exhausted - as are we!

These are the first four - safely ensconced in a heated box while number five makes his entrance!

Dunmow Christmas Tree Festival and Craft Fair

This weekend there's a Christmas Tree Festival being held in my local town and a friend & I were invited along to demonstrate hand spinning.

Yesterday we went along for a day of spinning and chatting - all very enjoyable. We started at 10am and were immediately surrounded by children from the local schools who were fascinated by what we were doing - especially when we told them we were spinning dog fur!

In fact we were both spinning Samoyed fur which spins into a beautiful white fluffy yarn. We had a selection of samples on the table - including German Shepherd hats, Newfoundland scarves and little samples of Poodle, Labradoodle, Bichon Frise, Border Collie and others.

We were there for 6 hours - spinning fairly continuously - when I got home I measured the 2ply yarn I'd spun and plied, and it was 82m in length, and weighed 30g (approx 1 oz) which means it would be approx 328m per 100g or roughly a 4ply weight yarn.

I took photos of the chrismas trees on my mobile - if I can work out how I'll post them here later.