Welcome to the Letter S (I feel like I should be on sesame street)

On Aknita's knits I Spotted this meme with a letter theme. Interesting I thought, so I followed the trail to Soctopus and asked Missmalice for a letter - she gave me the letter S. Easy peasy lemon squeasy Methinks. Does Alice know that I'm married to an S, have a son S AND a dog S? (not to mention spinning, spinning and more spinning and sheep).

The idea is that you ask in the comments for a letter and one is sent to you at random. You then blog about ten things you love beginning with that letter.

Here we go then:

1) I'm married to a Steve. This is a rather old picture of he, before the front room got painted (it takes us a long time to decorate). He does not like his picture being taken. He is loyal, funny, kind, patient, an excellent cook, much better at tidying up than me, and a good friend. We've been married 26 years this July and lived together for a good long time before that... (and if I don't get off the computer soon, we may not be together much longer!).

2) The dog who is lying at the foot of the armchair is Tilly. This (you may have noticed) does NOT start with an S. BUT she is the mother of Sydney. Therefore Sydney is her Son (that's two 'S' for the price of one. Sydney was born (with his 8 littermates) during the Oz Olympics. Sydney - geddit?

Here he is waiting for a stick, with Tom the collie waiting to beat him to it. Syd prefers brightly coloured toys that squeak to sticks, usually. So that's Stick and Squeaky toys too (two more S that is)

Here he is having his ears played with (which he adores) and a Sneaky pic of one of my latest FOs - mazzmatazz's ocimum gloves from the Guardian knitting extra a few months back (remember that?) knitted up in my handspun.

3) I also have a Son called Seth. That's two more S. Seth is a great galumphing bear of man (6'4 and size 14 feet) and he gives great hugs. He has inherited his Dad's sense of humour (warped) and is also a great cook and raconteur as well as being a sensitive sausage. He is very people centred and popular. Unfortunately he has inherited my housekeeping abilities. I love both of my men.

4) My Sister is not an S but she is my Sis. Jane is three years younger than me, and fitter, and taller and more intelligent and slimmer. But I love her despite all these things. She teaches Science in a girl's school in Eire. Have I a picture of Jane?

Yep, here's one of her talking to a local yokel down in Cornwall, when we walked 80 miles of the SWCoast Path together, three years ago...

5) I love Spring and Strolling through the lanes around here, with the Sun shining and the snowdrops in abundance. (How many S in there?). Haven't taken any pics of the snowdrops so you'll have to take my word for it! I'm so lucky to live in Dartmoor National Park. This picture was taken on my walk across the moors to Postbridge - to the Hollowing Weekend back in January.

6)I also enjoy Solitude and Solo walking.

You CAN see me in this picture of a viaduct on the West Devon Pathway - I'm the little shadow in the gap in the wall at the top of the viaduct shadow. walked from Tavistock to Plymouth over a couple of days and camped out wild with the dogs - great fun.

7) Spinning, Sheep, Spinning Wheel, drop Spindles...

I'm obsessed, what can I say? I have a golding and an ashford spindle (the one chewed by Jack Russell and which still spins great), and a couple of others too. I also have my lovely, my preciousSS. my Lendrum spinning wheel (which I haven't photographed yet?!)

- but here's what she looks like (pic of distant relative). I've been spinning about 18 months now, and it has always felt like coming home. 8) S is for Skip North and Stash Expedition (SEX) Extraordinaire:

The weekend of 20th March over 40 of us will meet up in Haworth Youth Hostel to Spin and Knit in Public and be whisked around the LYS of Yorkshire, not forgetting the KCG collection and yarn mountain at Lee Mills.

The youth hostel itself is amazing - this stained glass window looks over the master staircase (and I love Stained glass too) - the building used to be owned by the mill owners and has gone through several incarnations before YHA took it on.Here we all are in the front room last year, cooing over stash and knitting, crocheting, knattering... I'm starting to feel the excitement building now. Love it, love it.

9) S is for a sweet tooth I possess, the stodge (think Stew and dumplings for example) I enjoy and the slim waist I long for - the two (three?) being mutually exclusive.

10) and finally a Sigh. The sigh I make when frogging. I have STARTITIS and have upped my WIPs the last week or so... One of my projects on the go is Apres Surf Hoodie by Connie Chang Chincio. She is lovely person btw - We're having a ravelry kal of this hoodie and Connie regularly drops by to offer encouragement. I'm making this hoodie into a cardigan in drops alpaca (I love the colour) - It took me a couple of starts on the lace before I finally could read it - the force is with me now and I'm on my fourth repeat with no (noticeable) mistakes. I'm making the fronts and back all in one to the armholes - that's a very long row to frog!

I also have mimbres vest to finish off (THAT involved steeking - another 'S' but not a love I guess); french beret started to use up some handspun; scarf in touch yarns laceweight boucle to finish off; couple of my own designs to finish; felted clog booties to knit for brother in law;socks to complete. Sigh again. The list goes on.

I was going to discuss Somnambulism but I think this post has gone on and on enough already.

This has been good fun and thanks to Aknita and MissMAlice at Soctupus.

If anyone else would like a random letter to blog on, please do ask and I'll pick one out of the Jacob hat for you.