Tour de fleece, finished shawl,spun (thin) yarn

It has been very hot since we returned from Woolfest and I have been totally drained with it all. The fact that I can't find a bone that doesn't hurt makes it much worse:(

But the sun is shining once more, I heard the delightful dawn chorus this morning so that is good.

There has been crafty stuff going on chez Moggie.

A finished shawl From Vixen to Goddess. So named because the original pattern was called Vixen. I made the red hot chilli shawl ,previously shown, as per pattern(mainly) but this one I decided to improvise so I threw in some bands of stocking stitch.
I much prefer this I think.

Fibre was some merino from Adelaide Walker, drum carded with silk, glittery trilobal and angelina and some BFL.
Very sparkly and very gorgeous to spin.
I love the lightness of it and I love the way it drapes. Wasn't it lucky that some of the flowers in the garden matched so beautifully with it?

Mr Mog and I are joining the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. The aim is to spin each day of the Tour de France. As we both follow it avidly this seemed a good project. We don't watch the full stage each day but the ITV highlights of an hour per night.
Less irritating than the incomprehensible waffle from the commentators on Sky , ITV are much more restrained normally and don't spoil the action with inane comments. The idea is that we will spin of an evening while watching the highlights, not necessarily the full hour.
Mr Mog is doing a melange of fibres, a sampler almost.
I've dyed 400g of BFL/Kid mohair. Something I haven't spun before so a challenge for me.

I wanted an undersea colourway so kettle dyed the fibre with cerulean blue, jade, emerald and a tiny bit of spruce.
I love it.
My next photograph is of some merino cashmere fibre I purchased from Mandacrafts at Wonderwool. This fibre wanted to be spun fine so who am I to disagree with it? Despite hating to knit with fine yarn I decided to go along with the bolshy fibre.
A challenge for me but one I managed to win.
This skein is just 65g in weight and a staggering 531 yards of yarn.
I am very pleased with it, hence 2 photographs for you.
What I will do with it I have no idea. I do have another 85gms so sufficient for something big when I spin it up.

Gardens and Vixen shawl

Today is not a good day pain wise. In fact it has not been a good week for me and pain, it has definitely been winning the battle.
However, the sun is shining and the garden is looking lovely. I thought you might like to see what is growing.
If you aren't interested in gardens then the shawl pictures are at the end.

We only have a small garden but Mr Mog has worked wonders with the space.

Here you see mange tout growing and flowering alongside some pink fir apple potatoes and a bamboo friends gave us last week.

Heuchera, Acer, lungwort (pulmenaria) in front of the new water feature built by Mr Mog. I love the way the water just ripples.


This is a cheapie plastic greenhouse from Wilkinsons, I think it cost £40 which for a 6ft x 4ft space is good. Came complete with shelving as well. We have several varieties of tomato, peppers and chilli peppers
The loosestrife has just flowered today, we did have the purple one as well but it hasn't made it through the winter sadly.
More varieties of potato and a tub of beetroot.
Another greenhouse,this one holds 3 tomato plants and a tub of basil in front. The middle tomato isn't doing too well it is a plum one. For some reason they never do as well for us.
Herbs
More herbs
yet more, the flowers on the chives taste as good as the stalks.
Sage flowers

This rose is only 1 year old and we weren't sure if it had come through the winter as it is grown in a tub, I'm glad to say it has and the perfume is wonderful.
The vixen shawl is finished and what I hadn't realised when knitting it is how much the colours remind me of foxes.

A very easy knit, I did a few extra pattern rounds as the hand spun yarn was quite fine and the shawl looked a little too short originally.
I don't often make this style of shawl but I loved it and I've cast another on already in some glittery purple I spun. I'm going to tweak the pattern this time and and add some stocking stitch sections as well.
What do you think?