So is there anything that isn’t in the range for spring which you would absolutely love us to make?

What would you be buying now if we had it and what are you buying from other people this season because they have something we don’t? It can be a bit of kit  for your sport, or something you would wear everyday or maybe something we used to make but don’t anymore.

Send me your top 3 ideas for spring summer to mel@howies.co.uk or comment on this blog.

Thanks for your time and think of warm weather and sunshine.

I looked to see if the howies library had it but it was out on loan and so I looked on the web and found its quite rare now and its selling for as much as £50. They also had second hand ones, the cheapest was £9.99 but had brown edges around the pages and scribbles, well so long as it had the words it didn’t matter really so I ordered it.

It arrived and it was in good condition and on closer inspection the scribbles inside were actually a note from the author Janine Benyus.

I couldn’t believe it.

I am now reading it again, its so inspiring.

I will get into it but it usually takes a few weeks.

I had a few issues with the ishuffle thingy too, but I found the off button pretty sharpish.

I started at my local beach and ran around the cliff, down onto the beach, but where I could usually cross the stream across the stones I coudn’t because of all the flood water, I love that when the  conditions cause humans to do differnet actions than they planned, makes you feel so small and insignificant. So anyway I went back along the road to the woolen mill. I run by the old mill quite a lot, its called Melin Tregwynt and its famous for its weaving.  http://www.melintregwynt.co.uk

It used to be powered by water and you can see  where the water was channeled into the mill, George found a channel and thought the white frothy stuff was snow, so he went for a bit of a swim when he stepped on it. I took him home and gave him a nice warm shower and now he’s all fluffy and recovered.

I’m off for another run tonight around the cliffs thanks to Ade for inspiring me to get back into it, I always see beautiful scenery and have an adventure because of the weather and the conditions whether it be rain wind or sun its always different.

Some people love the snow, like me because when you wake up in the morning and snow has been predicted you feel like you did when you were  a kid, excited!

I live quite a few miles from howies in Cardigan which is good and bad, today it is good because I can’t drive or walk to work but I can work from home.

This was the veiw this morning from my garden when I went out to get logs for the fire.

So today I won’t be going sledging or making snowmen like I used to when I was a kid but I will be making sure the fire is going, taking George for a walk in the snow and drinking lots of tea.

I will also be thinking about and designing next summers range, erm dresses and tops and shorts, not sure I’m inspired, I have more ideas for warm cosy jumpers coats and merino at this moment. If you guys have any ideas of what you would like to see this summer let me know.

This quite often happens as you drive along the coast road, the mist gathers in the valley of the Preselis and goes all the way along to the river Teifi in Cardigan and out to sea. As you drop down into Cardigan the temperature drops several degrees and you are surrounded by mist.

The last few mornings have been beautiful here  crisp skies with snow filled blobs of cloud, I’m hoping to go and get some better pics tommorow, fingers crossed.

Even london looked like the country side on the way back compared to the dazzling heights and lights of Hong Kong. However I didn’t  notice much of the journey as I think I feel asleep as my head hit the car seat and before  I knew it we were home to sunny skies and  frosty fields.

Lisa and I came in bright and breezy this morning with lots of lists of things to do emails to answer and specs to fill in, we’ve made a dent and Louise is helping me with the specs tommorow, hurray.

Kim went home ill, we hope it’s just jet lag and not the flu.

Lis went home early feeling shattered, I am the last one standing, sleep is the key but I am fading fast now.

Thanks to Kim for driving us home.

Thanks to Linda and Derek for looking after George my doggy.

Thanks to all our suppliers and their hard work it was so exciting to see such complete and well made protos.

Please can we buy lots of this range this time as its all so good, hope there’s money in the pot and you guys are spoilt for choice next winter?

Thanks to Hong Kong for being a major contrast to home and making home even nicer when we come back, just in time for christmas, where did the first half of December go?

I get in oh a bit late, naughty 

Do some design stuff

Go to pilates with Clare at the theatre down the road

Have lunch

Do more design stuff

Chat about stuff you don’t get time to talk about monday to thursday

Tea and Friday cake

And then off home for the weekend.

Happy Friday to everyone.

One which I have been pasionate about having in the range are some merino leggings.

It doesn’t matter what sport you do leggings are an essential bit of kit with your merino base layer, I use them for running, cycling, rowing, and kayaking. The ones I have owned before are from a well known huge brand, they are the best I have found but they annoy me, they are made using all man made fibres, they get cold when they are wet, they smell after a few wears, they dig in on the waistband and below the knee and generally feel uncomfortable and soon as I’ve finished I take them off because they feel so uncomortable. 

This lead me to want to design some merino leggings as we all love our merino tops why can’t we have merino bottoms too? However, merino is a very soft fabric so it had to withstand a lot of bending of knees (no baggy knee syndrome allowed) and it had to put up with some abrasion and fit the body without being uncomfortable. I came up with the Taith leggings which are in our new catalogue and on the website. Taith means’journey’ or ‘tour’ in welsh, you will see a lot of these when out on your bike or running in beautiful welsh country side.

Anyway, I have been testing them for a while now from original prototype to the size set which had all the alterations on and they are brilliant, and exactly if not more than what I wanted.

The waistband doesn’t dig in, it’s high enough to keep everything warm, they are a mid length so they don’t cut under your knee, they don’t get baggy knees and they feel like you’re not wearing anything, Lisa was out running in Tenby and said “I feel like I am bottom half naked”.

Last night, after a run along the coast path I got in, made food, curled up with the dog on the sofa and completely forgot to take them off, they were so comfy, warm, dry and non smelly I forgot I was wearing kit.

It’s is a great feeling to be able to design and make something you really want and know that all those little annoyances won’t bother you anymore because you’ve solved the problem, I love them and ladies I wanted to share all this with you because I think you will all love them too, and lets face it, it’s hard trying to find good kit which feels and looks great too.

I am going to stock up and I hope you do too as I want them to be a howies product for years to come.

Here are some pictures of the detail, so you can see the inside of the fabric is merino, the outer nylon to give it strength and the flat finished waistband.

Anyway, the blueberry Angoras centre is just up the road from howies in a beautiful village, in a valley a stones throw away from the sea.

I met the lady who looks after the goats, dyes their fleece, cards the fleece, spins it into yarn and who sends the yarn off to be made into blankets, cushions, socks, jumpers, hats, scarves, she also weaves some special projects herself in her studio just next to the goats shed.

She kindly let me have a go at spinning the yarn, I was not very good and made a slubby yarn, but I got the concept in the end although I didn’t really get the hang of it. She gave me a sample of yarn too so I can have a go at knitting it on my knitting machine. It was great to see an old skill still being used and I’m thinking about taking classes to learn how to spin my own yarn properly.

I saw the Angora goats too, here they are in their shed sheltering from the blazing sun. 

Sorry the pictures aren’t very good I only had my phone with me. I will be re-visiting the goats more often for some yarn so I’ll take better pictures next time.

While we wait for the last few samples to come in and for the buyers to do the buying I have a few days thinking time so I have been thinking about knitwear and merino and finding out all sorts of interesting stuff.

Anyway, I have a lot of ideas but I thought I’d ask you what new stuff you would like to see in our merino range? We all love our merino  and it becomes a staple in a few months time and so it’s a pretty important part of our wardrobe and we think yours too, for skiing, snowboarding biking running and just keeping warm.

So is there something you wear which you love but you think it would be even better in merino wool?

Or is there something howies make now but you’re desperate for a new colour?

Or do you want a specific fit or shape we don’t do at the moment?

If so, drop me a line with some of your thoughts to mel@howies.co.uk

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway, a few weeks ago a nest appeared nestled between the two buoys, and then there were 5 little eggs.

Now the eggs have hatched and we have 5 little chicks, I’m pretty sure they are sparrows which is good because sparrows numbers were declining due to gardens being too neat and tidy, they like wild gardens and well, yes ours is a little bit wild and doesn’t want to be tamed ,as much as we keep trying.

I wasn’t sure if the chicks would be ok in their parents chosen nesting spot as it’s only a meter off the ground and right next to where I park my car, so with me getting in and out of it all the time i thought the mum would abandon them.

However they don’t seem to mind me being there, they are all going strong, they’re getting bigger every day and soon they will be too big for the nest and fly away.

Here they are from this morning, very cute.

nest in buoys

chicks

They came from Devoran in Cornwall and one of their longest members Ralph Bird was the man who made all our Gigs. 

We decided to show them the local sights which we love but we had hoped the weather would be good but we didn’t expect it to be the most stunning conditions we have ever seen going around Ramsey Island.

Here are just a few amazing photos, thankfully Steve had his camera charged and ready to go on the water as words couldn’t really describe it.

Words we used to try and describe the water was milky, glassy and silk but they don’t do it justice really.

We have lots of cameras in our house as myself and my man take a lot of photos, but they all had flat batteries.

I only had one small camera to try and get a photo of the lightening and the battery light was flashing so I knew I only had a few shots in there.

I managed to get  one shot, not great, but I got it, did anyone else get a shot?

It’s a racing kayak, extremely light and fast and designed for minimal weight and maximum speed.

A few years ago they changed the design and took the wings off (it was shaped out-wards just past where you sat for stability) and now they are really narrow and look very wobbly.

Anyway I had a flash back of the days when we used to just jump in our boats, carrying them is so easy because they are so light and you didn’t have to faff around with kit, shorts and a vest or bikini was all that was needed and off you go.

Here’s a pic of me back in the day paddling on the Severn having some technique shots taken by my coach Steve.

See the splash in the water off my paddle, that is not good!

I picked up spider crabs and swam large shoals of silvery fish and with large ones too and dodged jelly fish, you wouldn’t believe people get on a plane to go diving when our coast is so beautiful, we went 20 miles down the road for our holiday.

Unfortunately I will not be telling you where these photos were taken as it is my favourite beach since I was about 7 years old thanks to my dad who’s passion for it spilled onto me.

It was quiet, unspoilt and as beautiful as I remembered it when I was young, that’s pretty impressive really when you think about it, that’s over 20 years ago and it’s not changed or lost its magic at all.

Roll on next holiday, or even next weekend.

8 of us went kayaking around the coast

3 of us were fishing

they caught 20 mackeral

we found 3 hidden bays

we stopped on one for lunch

found 1 TV on a hidden beach

pretented to watch TV whilst sunbathing

rescued TV litter and took it home for correct disposal

we saw more rubbish than normal, we think it came in on recent bad weather

8 of us waded through the shallows from the sea to the river to get to land

6 of us went for ice cream, coffee and cake

1 great day out in Pembrokeshire

the team

We came first for Wales in the Gig championships too as we are one of only two ladies teams who raced from Wales, both of which are from Porthgain rowing club.

Here we are in our new howies team kit after the final on one of the beautiful Beaches on St Marys’.

We have ran in the wind in the rain with dogs around muddy farm lanes…

Lifted weights and attempted beating our pull up records in a cold barn…

Raced each other on the rowing machine desperately trying to reach our target 2000 metres time..

And rowed out of the harbour in all conditions with our cox Tom who coached us through each race, counting our stroke rate, watching our technique, our boat speed through the water, the wind, the tide and navigated around our coastline shouting at us all the way.

It was all going great, then we started dropping, FFi had flu, I hurt my knee and my back and half of us were finding the coaching all abit too much. There were tears, plenty of Chiropracter sessions, late night phone calls of encouragement and just terrible rowing sessions out on the sea.

Then last thursday we headed off to Penzance to catch the ferry, with the knowledge I couldn’t row and we would have to find someone to stand in for me, we were all nervous about what the weekend would bring.

The first race was all the womens gigs together, 118 on the start line, a huge swell and a bit of wind but the girls started well thanks to Hannah from Bristol who kindly stepped into my number 2 slot. After a spotless row and only a slight fight for water near the end the team came in 33rd position! We were very surprised and had to count on the results board 3 times to double check we were correct.

Last year we came 52nd over all so we were very pleased.

In the end after 2 shorter races in groups of 10 we found our place in group D and came 4th in that group in the final on Sunday which brought us to 41st overall which we were all very proud of.

Here’s a picture I took on a boat of the Porthgain Ladies near the finishing line on the first race, I’m very glad we were able to row and I still felt part of the team even though I didn’t row. It was very strange for me having spent 8 months training for something which I didn’t do, thanks to all the girls for their help and support over the last few weeks.

Porthgain Ladies Team near finishing line

To anyone else who went, hope you all had a great weekend and performed as well as you had hoped and see you again next year.

We wanted a Beagle and we found George.

He’s a year old now and full of beans.

We knew it would be hard work having a dog, but we had no idea how much fun it was and it’s great going walking when its cold and windy and wet and dark and the sea is crashing all around us.

Alison saw a dog and was very close to keeping him.

Emma got some kittens.

Then a couple of weeks ago Scania got a dog called Daisy.

Now Clare and David have a Dog called Sonny.

We will need a doggy cresh soon.

Here’s my George in the snow last week.

I have known I’ve been lucky and I’ve just kept getting away with it, untill Sunday that is.

The reason I have been lucky is I have not had many accidents, not like Tom and Pete in howies.

I have never broken anything, had any operations, wisdom teeth out, nothing.

I have not been too safe, I have been canoeing down rapids and rivers, rowing on the sea, river rafting, sea kayaking, coasteering, mountain biking, climbing, running along cliffs, driving and on a motorbike.

The worst accidents I can remember are, one when I was 5, I was swinging around a pole in the garden and fell down some steps and got concussion. Then there were two incidents where I fell, once off my bike and once when I was roller blading and I got water on my elbows.

Then yesterday I fell down the stairs on my house, not just normal stairs either, wooden planks which are slippy, steep and face a wall. I ended up with my head in between the stairs and the wall and my feet in the air, not funny really.

I now have a huge bruise on my hip which looks like a galaxy, a bump on my head, a stiff neck and numerous other bruises aches and pains.

Maybe I have been too safe in the past, maybe 2009 will the year for more adventures and accidents.

Maybe I’m just not very stupid….

or maybe I have just been lucky.

For years I have canoed, biked, run, snowboarded and stood around in normal cotton pants which are fine most of the time…
until that is they get wet from rain, snow. river or sea water, then they get cold and I get a cold bum.

As soon as I experienced merino base layers I knew there was a need for merino pants.

I have worn the women’s merino briefs in cold and wet conditions and they are fantastic.

I was always amazed at how they seemed to be so warm in the coldest conditions.

I have tried to tell my story to friends and family about my warm bum but I needed backup.

Yesterday I was reading one of my wool magazines and read an article about merino wool and I found out that when wet, merino actually warms up 3 degrees C!

That is quite a lot when you think you can get hypothermia when your core body temperature reduces 5 degrees C.