SoCherry Knits

New blog

2011-03-05T15:37:00.002Z

Now I've figured out how to update my blog from my blackberry I'm going to start updating it again - this time with a fresh new look and blog - here! Click here!

Crap blogger

2009-07-30T20:23:00.003+01:00

OK ... my blogging of late has been particularly poor I confess. Summer and little free time (read inability to get off Warcraft...) means it has been a bit tumble-weedy here.

I have however, been managing to Tweet daily, so if you're interested in what I'm up to in the meanwhile see me here (Twitter is a social site where you update what you're up to in 140 characters or less - I seem to be able to manage this...)

Almost a month

2009-07-04T20:09:00.003+01:00

Wow, almost a month since I lasted blogged. It's been all go at Chez Socherry. Even this blog post is going to be a rush as my sis wants to play Call of Duty, and I've been busy every time she's asked for the past few weeks.

Today the boy and I were shop-sitting Old Maiden Aunt's shop, so I took the opportunity to make use of the great sink, pans and most of all space, to do a whole heap of dyeing. I got totally into it, and didn't sit down for more than 20 mins in 7 and half hours! The pics are not even th half of it. Once it's all dry and pretty in skeins I'll add it to Rav and the blog.

The yarn above was one that I honestly was about to throw into the street. It was a very kind donation by someone from the States as I wanted to try Knitpicks laceweight - but it came in a Terracotta colour - which isn't really my colour. So I tried to dye it a browny-yellow. This made it even worse.

The boy suggested maybe a blue to make it more purply... so I went with a vibrant teal. It didn't go purple at all - but in a happy accident, went a really cool burnt wood kind of colour. It's a bit darker in real life, a woody brown with black, and looks really quite interesting.

I also dyed a yarn what I thought would be a lovely rich mustardy yellow and it went Way Too Primary yellow on me. I added a bit of teal for luck, and it went total bile. Just revolting. Left it swinging for a bit and carried on dyeing, then decided to throw it in with a whole pot of teal again - and it worked again. Now I have an olivy green, which may still yet be too bright, but is definiately a million times better!

In other news, I finally reached the Dark Portal in World of Warcraft at Level 58 - I'm very proud of myself for this - lotta hard work and time.

Fenna continues, as does Rogue. Rogue has 4 more rows and a complicated hood cable grafting which is currently a bit daunting to consider ... the sleeves still need blocked too (as does the never-ending blue scarf - but we won't go there... who needs a scarf right now anyway - it's a heatwave after all)

I also played a bit with colourwork and won! I'm now confident that a yoke steeked cardi is in my future. Or at the very least some fair-isle gloves.

I found a course to start in October, and am gearing up to sell my Cherry stitch markers again. Phew! So this is me signing out to run around being a soldier with my sis for a bit on the Xbox.

Sorry for any spells, and lack of linkage tonight - the cat also wants my attention and has been whinging like a little brat for the entire duration of this post *sigh*

Ravelry Day 2009

2009-06-10T10:35:00.005+01:00

It was a dreich day on Saturday, and I was outdoors for all of it. But it was the best birthday ever! Loads of stalls full of yarn, dyes, buttons, fibres - just fab! I spent, spent spent, while the patient boy wandered around Coventry town centre in the rain. Thank you, the boy!

And then it got even better - I had a ticket to Meg Swansen's talk, which was inside, in the warm and dry. Above, a photo of the man taking photos of all the fans. Below, the talk was introduced by Jared Flood!

It was a great talk, and there were plenty of questions. I really enjoyed myself, and feel lucky to have been there, as I believe this was her first talk in the UK. And, she signed a book for me! So I spoke to her too- I was a little starstruck!

I thought it would be cool to run into the Yarn Harlot in Toronto, when we're there later this year, but after meeting Meg I realise that I would probably be paralysed with fear ...

At the end of a long day, it stopped raining at last. Just as the alpacas were being loaded onto their little lorry - attracting much double-taking from the locals.

I got so much - above:
Jamiseon's shade card - yum!,
vintagey Birds of Toronto book from the boy,
Hand Knitting with Meg Swansen and Knitting Around from the book signing,
Gathering lace from my mum (also from my mum, the cool Johnstone's of Elgin waterproof bag - which came in very handy!!)
An amigurumi book from Lynette - in English so I can finally figure out how to do it! I got some Japanese ones from Tokyo when I was there, but can't quite work it out.
Some buttons from Textile Garden - be warned, the website is very addictive!!
And the rest below;

Troon tweed aran, oiled in just lovely colours, from Texere's stall.

A bouncy bouncy birthday pressie from old maiden aunt!

184m of DK handspun is the most sumptious colours - an absolute steal from kraftykoala!

And 2 cones, one of Blue-faced Leicester aran, and one of 4ply lambswool, for dyeing. I also bought some dyes too.

As I said, the best day. Ever.

Dreich

2009-05-22T17:28:00.007+01:00

It's been a dreich old day today. So what better to cheer me up than a couple of skeins of old maiden aunt's yummy squashy dreich alpaca/silk blend?

It's not as gloomy as it sounds - the boy says (and I agree) that the colourway looks like the sky with a silver lining - when the worst has passed and it's beginning to hint that it might brighten up soon.

I popped along today with a couple of knitty friends to see Lilith in her studio. It was great - I got to watch her dyeing away - a very organised set-up it was too. Hooks above the sink to leave yarn to drip and cool, clothes horses to let it dry. It's given me the dyeing bug again and I'm hoping to get along for one of her dyeing workshops soon.

I also borrowed a copy of Stahman's Shawls and Scarves as I'm having a lust for a faroese shawl, and Fenna looks like the just the ticket!

I know, I know, what about Rogue? Well Rogue is motoring on - I'm onto the hood now.

It's still a great knit, it's just that I'm in a knitting mood, and ends need woven in and the sleeves need hemmed and blocked. And I can't be arsed with doing the footery stuff at the moment.

But to be honest I'm looking for something a bit mindless to work on. I realise even as I say this, that I winge relentlessly when I end up knitting something mindless ... but I'm hoping that the Faroese shawl has enough in it, with shoulder shaping and a planned feather and fan bottom, to keep me entertained.

I tried to take some arty Brooklyn Tweed-style shots here - the angle is quite fun, but the colour is WAY off - it's much more of a petrol teal-y blue (hence the colourway Petrol!).

Some more nature shots - the flower below is lovely and sharp. I'm very happy with it!

At the bottom is a very quickly taken shot of a moorhen baby hiding in the reeds - it's blurry but so cute. We saw him/her about a week ago but haven't seen it since - it's been pretty rainy though, and the council (in their 'wisdom') have seen fit to start digging up the path next to the pond in the middle of nesting season...

And the squirrel was papped scratching his armpit on a bin - classy.

Gawd

2009-05-10T17:06:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I grabbed the nearest scrap of paper to scrawl notes on levelling alchemy on Warcraft (those in the know, you understand. Those not in the know, if you're really interested click here) which turned out to be a ball label from the yarn I'm using for Rogue.

I feel these photos provide a much better description of my free time this week than words ever could - Warcraft and Rogue, with a bit of web design on the side.

Rogue

2009-04-28T20:06:00.004+01:00

We were wandering around Kelvingrove Park this morning taking pictures of all the pretty 'Spring is in the Air' flowers that have burst forth when ...

... ever so quietly, so we never heard them coming ...

... the Glasgow Pigeons re-enacted The Birds. 'Twas a bit spooky.

In other news, I am thinking of Christmas already with the arrival of a Bookmooch pattern book. These are so cute, and knitted in a chunkier yarn, so probably the best first attempt at colourwork. If I start now I might be done in time for Christmas!

After all, I only started Rogue in Sept 2008 (the second attempt. Prior to that, my first attempt had been around for more than a year.) OK! So really I started Rogue in around summer 2007.

And I've now caught the bug - it's a surprisingly quick knit once you get into it. I'm loving the cables - the detail is from the waist-shaping. I'm at the back now and can't wait to see this all come together. The yarn is a lovely boingy Blue-faced Leicester aran-weight from Texere yarns, and is just yummy.

Hat trick

2009-04-17T17:51:00.001+01:00

I got home from work tonight to a surprise - I won a competition! A pattern book: Rowan's Organic Wool Collection (Rav link) What a great start to the weekend!!

And lookee - a finished object!! Some gloves with Fyberspates Merino/Tencel sock yarn and the Web of Wool glove pattern.

I liked it so much, I've started another pair in some more sock yarn - this time dyed by Ysolda. I've followed Julia's knitting rule - you can cast on something once you've cast off three works in progress.

I cast off the never-ending scarf, and the gloves, and also Luna Moth shawl in Handmaiden SeaSilk (when I say cast off ... for the last project I actually mean pulled off the needles and made into pretty balls of yarn once more. It just wasn't working, and with the yarn costing £18 a ball I wasn't prepared to let it's destiny be a shawl I merely felt 'meh' about)

So where is the never-ending scarf?

Well, to be honest, I'm sick of talking about it, and sick of thinking about it. It's still to be blocked, and that's going to take 1,000,000 pins and probably my thumb pads too. So I'm just enjoying myself for a bit before I get back to it!

Some squirrel high-jinks in Kelvingrove Park.

Domestic nerdess ...

2009-04-11T19:39:00.002+01:00

The boy and I have had quite a nerdy couple of weeks ...

... we went to do some stargazing as part of Glasgow University's contribution to Moon Week, 2009 being the International Year of Astronomy apparently.

We went to the University's observatory and had way more fun than we were expecting to have. We saw the moon up close and personal - it was like a concrete block really. And we learned that the dividing line between the light side of the moon and the dark side is called The Terminator - nerdalicious!

I saw Saturn and it's rings - which was quite unreal. The astronomy guy pointed to a star, and when we looked through the telecope it was Saturn! I never really thought about space before - I mean, sure, it's up there and all. But we don't often see any stars in Glasgow with all the light pollution, so I guess I don't really think about it that much.

Then we saw some constellations, and the astronomy guy blew my mind saying that we were viewing a star as it had been 45 millions years ago ... I googled light years, and speed of light, and I guess that I get it ... but ... whoa ...

Then on Monday we lost our minds a little and got up at 4am to do Caperwatch at Boat of Garten. We were staying in Elgin for a couple of days, so it was only an hour away - slightly longer if you count the time spent going at 2 miles an hour behind a hare trapped in the headlights running in the middle of the road.

We arrived at 6am, just as the sun was rising, and found the hide in darkness, with silent birdwatchers inside cramming all the hide's viewing holes. We visit this reserve all the time but the atmosphere was quite different so early in the morning. These were the serious birdwatchers, and there was no way that any of them were giving up their viewing space to layabouts such as ourselves, who sloped leisurely in at 6am (!) ...

However, eventually a Capercaillie was spotted on the monitor and they all flocked over for a look (get-it, ho-ho) giving us the opportunity to stare at empty fields for a bit. After 30 minutes or so, one of the helpers came in to say that the Capercaillie could be spotted from the other hide (not usually accesible to the public) and tickets 130-140 could go along to see.

Well pandemonium ensued, as telescopes were lifted and watchers did that walk/run thing to try and get to the front, without appearing too childish or rude. And then the hide was nearly empty so we watched the pair of Ospreys surveying their territory in the rising sun. It was very peaceful.

Then it was our turn, and we got to take a look. No sooner did I have my eye on him I was told to move and let the next person see. So we did a rotation so everyone got a look - it was great to see his Caper'y head poking out of the reeds. Especially as we learned there had been no sign the previous two mornings. ! I didn't realise this - I mean I know that when watching nature, nothing is a certainty - but it hadn't occured to me that getting up at an insane amount in the morning might have all been for nothing.

Luckily for us, we saw him. Then we went for a wee wander about the Loch - which was stunningly still so early in the morning. I must add that all the pictures in today's blog post were taken by the boy.

So what's with the 'Domestic' part of the title? Well, thanks to Lynette for pointing out the Easter weekend offers - we have just bought a Dyson Animal Ball - the Bentley of vacuums, with a whopping £130 off! All the cat hairs in my living room are gone - I'm so happy (and not a bit weirded out that I can find bliss in a vacuum ... teenage me would be so disappointed)

And the other domestic'ness? We've spent the last 4 back-breaking days in the garden, and now have a vegetable patch - with a handmade bamboo net frame to protect against birds and slugs (thanks Girl Guides for teaching me) and loads of seed beds all over the house. Strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots we hope.

And in knitty news; the scarf is complete. Oh yes, you heard correctly - complete!! Finally there should be more knitty content from now on as I move on to other WIPs that are more photogenic. But for now, more Warcraft!

All about the birds ...

2009-04-01T17:35:00.008+01:00

The boy and I were away last weekend at Loch End Chalets, near Aberfoyle in Stirling. It was so tranquil, and just what we needed. I hadn't realised that I was so stressed until we got there and I felt so relaxed.

This was the view from the dining area, and just outside on our wee patio (that's the Loch, right there). We just got the telephoto lens before we left, so there's lots of photos playing with it ahead!

We spent the weekend vegging out on M&S food and DVDs at night, and driving around during the day. We went on the Inversnaid RSPB reserve walk - 400 mere metres (!)... very much uphill, with not a bird to be heard.

Lots of lichen though - rare lichen apparently. I don't know about that, but I do know that in the spirit of Bill Bryson walking the Appalachian Trail, I spent some time on the ground ~~facedown, in sheer exhaustion with lichen stuck to my cheek~~ examining the lichen.

The ducks at Loch End were hilarious - we may have taken quite a few duck shots - they were accomodating! From the moment we arrived they were at the patio doors tapping with their beaks to be fed. All in, there are about 12 of them, and they seem to spend their day going from patio to patio gorging on bread given by guests.

We also discovered that they were quite happy to work for their food. The one below being so keen that he jumped right out of shot (This would have been a fab shot if I'd got him all in it)

I must warn that there is no knitting content in this blog post - it is all birds from here on out. Feel free to wander off ... or alternatively overdose on our pics here if you like.

Quack - that just cracks me up!

The one above I took at Kelvingrove Park this morning - I'm so happy with it (bigger version here), so crisp and clear - think I'm getting the hang of this digital SLR malarky.

The two Kelvingrove Herons - the newcomer above (a real 'ned'dy looking creature) has scared 'Kelvin' the regular Heron from the pond and was spotted a couple of days ago shooing a couple of gulls from 'his' pond. Then he does victory laps around the central island making sure his reign is secure. I'm sure that there's a bottle of Buckfast under his wings...

Poor, civilised West-End Kelvin looks on at his old home from the path. He tried a landing just after this shot - there was a squawking and then he flew back to the river again. Hopefully to plot a decent revenge (although in the manner of West Enders, this will probably involve an harshly-worded but polite letter to the council, and a petition)

My final shot is a great tit looking at the floor. In the bigger version you can see all the feathers around his neck - I'm getting seriously addicted to this photography stuff!

Paparazzi - the natural way

2009-03-25T17:07:00.005Z

We got a new toy to play with - a digital SLR (Canon EOS 1000D for the curious), and it has been such a lot of fun! First I read the manual about apertures, shutter speeds (ISOs?) and depth of field.

Then I snapped the cat and took what I think is my favourite picture of all time. The detail in his cute little face if you look at the Flickr version is amazing! He looks so peacefully you'd believe he was sound asleep ... which he wasn't. He was closing his eyes to try and avoid the pain of yet more flashes going off in his face. (Just kidding ... or am I?)

Then I snapped my knitting, and played with depth of field on a yummy skein of Old Maiden Aunt cashmere (I wasn't very good at it).

Then we went out 'in the field' for some of nature's paparazzi fun. I promptly forgot all about apertures and the like, and took all of the photos below with the auto settings/focus. The camera makes a great kat-shh noise - even if they added that noise in, I wouldn't care! I feel like a real photographer.

The Kelvingrove Heron (the new one - s/he seems to have scared the regular Heron away). I got really close (we are still waiting for our telephoto lens to arrive) ...

... too close in fact, and scared him away.

Then I pointed and shot at the trees, and got some rather good (if blurry) pics of blue tits and squirrels.

And lastly, a couple of kissing pigeons framed by a triangle of branches.

(They all look better when biggened on Flickr)

tumbleweeds

2009-03-18T17:06:00.002Z

The never-ending scarf continues. I could put up yet another pic of the same scarf, but really ... as beautiful as it is, I think you've got the jist!

Our router little green light changed to a red light for some inexeplicable reason on Thursday. Who'd have thought such a small light could bring so much sadness? Rang my dad and went through reinstalling router, resetting router, changing all leads and bits for other leads and bits. Restarted computer about a bazillion times. No joy. Without the internet my lovely expensive laptop became nought but a worthless rectangle of metal and plastic.

Phone Tiscali's technical help to get told the line is fine and that is the full extent of their technical help ... visit PC World's techical help who look at (and don't touch) router and tell me it's broken and point to where the fresh new ones are. *Sigh*

I nearly wept when that little green light finally went on again 56 hours later. It's amazing just how much we use the internet for every little thing these days. We were going out for a meal on Saturday somewhere in Edinburgh and couldn't logon to get the postcode for the satnav. I had eBay things selling that had ended on Friday night, so had to get my dad to read out all the addresses of what had sold over the phone. And most importantly, I couldn't get onto Warcraft!!

We also had some fun with the washing machine *crackle* bang ... wait for the washing machine guy to come out on Saturday to tell us the motor's gone and it's flatlined. (He's so lovely, he didn't even charge us for the callout!)

Of course we couldn't get on the internet to check out which machine we should buy to replace it (The boy and I discovered that we can't make an expensive consumer move anymore without checking loads of consumer feedback websites)

Then I rave on about getting a Dyson rollerball hoover, and the next day smoke starts curling out of our (crappy) existing hoover. Boy doesn't believe I haven't sabotaged it in some way ... *pleads innocence*

Dad helpfully tells me how to fix it a few days later (bugger!)

My chores in the house include hoovering and doing washing, and my main distraction in Warcraft. Do you think that cosmic forces were at work to make me finish the never-ending scarf or what?

Beads n' yarn n' stuff

2009-03-11T17:56:00.008Z

Lots of crafty fun this weekend - we had a bead meetup to sample the delights of the Bead Company in the west end (next to the new Tesco on Dumbarton Road) It was ... overwhelming! There were 2 floors of beads of every kind, and we spent a l-o-n-g time in there. I bought lots of fun beads to make stretchy bracelets.

I especially love the apple-y bracelet I made - it's so Sanrio! There was an incident, when I learned the strength of super glue and had a bit of cardboard stuck to my finger for a few hours...

Before the bead-fest I did a dash around the SECC who were hosting Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft - I'm so lucky to live in Glasgow so that I can do this kind of thing on a whim. I made it round in less than an hour - slowed only by the fact that I shouldn't be spending money when I'm trying to save for my web designer classes.

Bought some yummy Sublime Angora Merino - 6 balls for only £1.99 a ball, and 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Soho for only £19.99! I'm not so sure about the Debbie Bliss - yarn fumes may have factored here!

I usually avoid her stuff as I find it pilly - although the colours are stunning. Hoping that the Soho won't go that way. Hmm... maybe I'll check Ravelry to see...

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I'm back! No mention of pilling, but a few 'this is scratchy' comments, so guess it won't be a scarf then. Although I think I have a higher tolerance of scratchy yarns.

I also succumbed to Old Maiden Aunt's buttony hat kit - which is literally drool-soft and squooshy. Really love the red buttons too - Chosen by Karie and a great choice! Can't wait to cast on ... in fact, with the never-ending blue scarf being the only thing I am knitting at the moment, I'm pretty much lusting after every other project there is right now.

Julia at my knitting group suggested only casting something on once three things have been cast off. This seems like a good solution to me. Others felt that as it is a hobby, I should enjoy myself and cast on and knit whatever I fancy. I fear with me this would just result in a mass of 50-odd guilty WIPs, and none of the satisfaction of finished objects.

I enjoy knitting but I love finished objects too - and have been thinking of all my WIPs and getting re-excited for having them done.

And some more fabby knitting -but I can't take the credit for these. A gorgeous pair of Fair Isle armwarmers arrived in the post yesterday, knitted by my Granny. I love them! It was a real surprise, and now I'm a knitter I can appreciate the hard work that has gone into them. Thank you granny! :D

That's me for now - I've got a bag of Pick 'n Mix, a never-ending scarf and Desperate Housewives waiting for me on Sky Plus.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ...

2009-03-02T10:19:00.006Z

... I dunno, gotta put something in the title section. It's been a long Monday, and I couldn't upload yesterday cos Flickr had 'hiccups' - which is funny the first time, but not after you've hit refresh 900 sodding times.

Anyhoo - I made pancakes last week - not for Shrove Tuesday, as I have knitting group that night. More of a pancake sunday really.

Remembered that we forgot to buy a special pancake turning device - like the fish slice thing, but bendier - last year and vowed once again to buy one so that next years pancakes will be easier to flip. (No, I can't just flip it - pancake making is stressful for me, and I'm not wasting it by sticking it to the ceiling!)

Yum!

We are also getting into the spirit of spring (I realise the weather is forecast for heavy snow tomorrow - I am in denial) and started meddling in the garden. We built ourselves a dead wood pile. I'm pretty sure that the neighbours think we're bat sh*t crazy, but *meh* we want bugs 'n beetles n' things so that the birds come more.

It was a long dark few months after coming home one evening to some feathers on the ground, and zero birds after that. Local cats I think.

We built a much higher, safer bird feeder, put multiple tasty treats on it, and waited. Tossed out loads of snow-laden damp uneaten food. And waited. And waited some more. And finally, this weekend were rewarded with the return of the sparrows!

Also a pair of cheeky starlings who made off with their own weight of fat-cake ... they cost us a lot in bird food. Surely they can get their fill of food from the Asda carpark along with the rest of their kin muching on crisps and Doritos?

I was desperate for some flowery colour, so we bought some primroses, mini-daffodils, crocuses and roses. I know - a true gardner's plant - I think we'll probably kill it, or infest the neighbours' roses with some rose-killing disease by accident... anyone with any rose-living tips/links please leave them in the comments.

We've also been walking around Kelvingrove Park in the mornings before work in the past week and came across what looks like a guerilla knitting project ... different coloured yarn tied to branches all over the park - could this be for birds nests? Does anyone know anything about this?

Tried to Google and found nothing... I'm so curious!

On the knitting front, the never-ending lace stocking stitch scarf continues to grow 1 mm for every 10 hours of knitting. I'm going to my knitting group tomorrow night and I shall not moan about it, just knit on, zen-like and calm in the face of lacey-adversity*

Bye for now!

*Disclaimer: this blogger cannot be held liable for emotional distress to surrounding knitters, should her zen-like state crumble and descend into a whinge-fest...

yawn ... stretch

2009-02-21T17:27:00.003Z

Yawn ... yep, I've been in hibernation for quite some time! Think I'd like to stay under the duvet for another couple of months but thought I'd better show my face around here, before I had no readers anymore.

So, what have I been up to? Well, some haggis to keep out the cold - and it was the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns this year. If you haven't tried it - it's yummy and a great winter staple (and if you're a bit squeamish most shop-bought haggis isn't wrapped in a sheeps stomach anymore)!

It finally finally snowed 'proper' in Glasgow (it was deeper than this) after many years of waiting. The last good snow I remember was the winter of 1995/96, when we came back to student digs to find the water pipes had froze and burst, flooding everywhere, and filling the place with delightful (and some not so delightful) firemen.

Growing up in warmer lands, I am totally excited by snow - I love it!! Once, about 3 years ago, we woke up on a Sunday in March to find about a foot had dropped unexpectedly overnight. It was all gone by Monday, but for Sunday it was great. Everything was so quiet and people were out on the streets. We walked to the supermarket as we couldn't get the car out - it happens so rarely here that tyre chains, snow shovels and the like just aren't needed.

I took this shot of the birds on the frozen pond in Queen's Park - we stood hand in hand at the edge and watched the local neds skittering Buckfast bottles across the pond, and then slowly making their way over to retrieve them. I wasn't crossing my fingers and muttering 'please fall in' at all...

And we did a bit of birdwatching too. This was at Vane Farm.

On the knitting front, I've been making good progress with another version of Under the Hoodie, this time with some New Lanark yarn and my first attempt at colourwork, making up the Horde logo from World of Warcraft. It's going quite well I think.

Although I haven't been spending ALL my time away from this blog in Azeroth gaming. I have also been having a mid-life crisis of sorts. I had a seminar thingy for my work held at the Glasgow School of Art - which is where I studied Graphic Design. This led to a bit of a 'what the hell am I doing with my life, working in a law library!?!?!!? So after a wee wibble about this, I pounced on what I think I want to do with my life; web development and web design.

Now I'm busy figuring out software needs, courses, possible volunteer work etc. etc. to figure out if freelancing this could lead to a bit of life satisfaction. Not that I'm unhappy - but I feel I'd like to be more creative - and also extra money would be nice! More yarn and all that!

I've also been crocheting a bit - this is the fault of my knitting group. As if I don't have enough (at least 8) projects on the go already, they've decided that we should have a crochet appreciation meet this Tuesday. I can hear them saying 'nobody forced you into casting on something else Elaine, this is a voluntary thing'. Honestly, the mere suggestion of a new thing to try and I'm right there. I wish I could be more project monogomous, but it's just not in my dna!

So that's me for now. Promise I won't leave so long again!

Festiveness

2008-12-24T08:39:00.003Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

This was my favourite picture of the year - taken by the boy, during the Olympics, as I tried to finish Honeycomb Vest before the Olympic torch was extinguished.

I'm still here ...

2008-12-02T09:12:00.002Z

... but I'm spending all my time in Azeroth - it's not addictive, not a bit ...

In the meantime, the Women's Institute is conducting a survey on violence against women - it'll take about 15 minutes to do - if you're female, click here to take part

oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!

2008-11-05T20:01:00.003Z

I'm having a yarn-gasm! Due to the fact that there is no daylight anymore in Glasgow for the rest of the autumn & winter the photos just can't illustrate the extreme softness and beauty of this yarn. The girls at my knitty meetup had a good feel though, and they can back up my claims of yarny heaven, I'm sure!

The pattern is Leaf Lace scarf, by Ann Budd. Rav says it was from Interweave Knits Spring 2000, but I got it in a later Interweave scarf pullout booklet. It's a great knit because the lace is simple enough to do while watching the tv, it goes fast, and you can't get further than a few stitches without being made aware of any mistakes that have been made, so there's no need for lifelines really.

I also got a hot tip at last week's knitting meetup to folksy.com - the UK etsy. I went straight on and bought exactly the same item, because it's just too cool. A project bag from Plain Jane Textiles - so well made, and with a lovely personal touch.

I'm sitting here this evening updating my blog to the sound of about a million fireworks. It's been quite a good day - spent my day at work (in an academic library) updating the "US Elections" display with the happy news. Whether it was the complete media overload of the election I don't know, but the mood today has been quite infectious - even though it isn't our election. A general sense of excitement and relief that a new improved time may be on the horizon, which will hopefully impact positively upon us all.

Ooh, bang! whizz! I love Bonfire Night in Glasgow. There's so many fireworks displays; big 'proper' ones in the city, smaller 'proper' ones in the parks around Glasgow, and tiny ones in people's gardens. From our flat we can see across the fireworks and smoke covering the whole city.

Unfortunately the cat is now utterly terrified of all the noise and banging. This time last year he watched the fireworks from the window with me, but in the Spring some wanna-be nedlets thought it would be hilarious to throw mudbombs at our windows while he was napping on the ledge. It gave him such a fright, and he's lost his nerve ever since.

We also went to the Necropolis at the weekend for a wee wander - and got some pretty shots. This was about 4 o'clock when the sun was just starting to set. We hoped to see some deer, but it wasn't really the right time of day. A sparrowhawk nearly crashed into us though!

The gravestones and tombs were really ... wow. You can tell this is the final resting place of richest members of Glasgow, and the view up there is amazing.

I just can't stop ...

2008-10-26T16:59:00.002Z

Despite the fact that it has rained for 40 days and 40 nights, we decided to go to Lochwinnoch today. M&S had a deal on roast chicken, tatties and apple pie so we felt the best way to appreciate a yummy Sunday roast was to precede it with a bracing walk in some sleety rain.

It rained worse yesterday so as you can see above, the last part of the trail was abruptly shortened by a wee flood...

One of the resident Herons looked quite content with the weather though.

This is me outside one of the hides. You can see that it's standing in water, where usually it's standing on land ... It was a rare 5 seconds when it stopped raining and the sun came out - I didn't have time to take down my hood before it darkened and the rains began once more.

More flooding - I had a great plan to take some 'action' shots of Garter Stitch Mitts IV, but it was so cold that there was no way my hands were coming out of the thick fleeced-lined (and shop bought!) mittens. All the shots are curtesy of the boy, as mittens this big render any attempt to use my hands pointless.

So instead, here's a couple of shots; one from the watch point in the RSPB reserve, and one at home. The yarn is from the Teoshandspun in Skye. A handspun, handyed pure silk that it so loverly! I modded the dk garter stitch mitts pattern for this aran-chunky weight yarn, using 4.5mm needles to get a good dense cosy fabric. I'm very pleased with them.

Cakes

2008-10-17T17:38:00.003+01:00

Not much going on in the world of knitting for me as I'm a wee bitty addicted to Civilization IV right now. I've still been shopping for yarn though, and found this utterly droolsome (what? it's a word!) shop o' joy: Twisted Fibre Art, whose colourway make me actually hungry for yarn.

However, I just stopped by to pass on this hilarious cake wrecks blogs - it's so funny!

Also - I pressed a button on Blogger, and accidently updated something, and now I've lost my Clustermaps. Clustermaps (which I pay for) fills me with much joy as I see all the places in the world that view my blog - now I'm lost. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Celebknitty

2008-10-06T21:36:00.004+01:00

Well, we made it; we were on TV tonight (UK readers click here to watch - about 4 mins in) *gulp* I can't believe how cool it looks - everyone looks great! I'm so embarrassed, but so excited too, that we were featured.

In other knitty news, Rogue is going well. I'm so stunned that I made this cable - I'm knitting blind really, as I'm not experienced enough in the cable chart to know what's happening. It's a bit like one of those magic paintings that you paint with plain water, and all different colours appear as if by magic. Wonderful cables are appearing; twisting and turning over each other.

I've also been knitting more of my Ker-azy, madcap Kool-Aid-dyed hot water bottle cosy. It fits a treat, and it's fun to knit something in this fizzy neon.

In the spirit of kitchy bright fun, I also got a pressie from the boy - this fabulous Kawaii charm bracelet, with Gloomy Bear*, Hello Kitty, a little deer and all kinds of plastic joy. He got it from a collective of designers, who have a virtual eBay presence here.

*link not child friendly

Finally, a thank you to everyone for their comments to my last post, in person, and in my blogs. And thank you to Kirsty for her response also. The whole thing left me feeling a bit blah about my blog for a bit - but I'm back again, and have plenty more knitty joy to share I'm sure!

And finally, finally! I have no idea what's going on with the formatting of this post - it's all over the shop and I'm too tired to fix it! Ravellers who come in via the friend blog bit of your notebooks; everytime I publish, change and republish does this appear as multiple blog posts from me in that list?

The last finally, I promise! There was to be a cool pic from our gardening sunday but the boy has forgotten that he promised to retrieve it from his camera phone because Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox has temporarily removed him from reality...

A response

2008-09-29T09:01:00.003+01:00

I thought I would make a new post to respond to a comment left in my last post.

I had posted this: "I'm Scottish, but due to moving around a lot when I was young I have an English accent. I don't like my accent at all - this is not to say that I think there is anything wrong with being English, but I'm Scottish, and it bugs me that I always sound like a visitor to my own country. "

I dithered about posting this in the first place, because I was anxious that it would come off in a bad light.

Kirsty's comment reads as follows - and I would like to say a thank you to her for posting. I would rather someone posted their opinion and gave me the opportunity to clarify something I've posted, than they walk away thinking I'm narrow-minded.

"I would just like to point out that lots of people without Scottish accents actually like to consider themselves to live here, and not just visitors, but ingrained attitudes like that certainly make us feel less than welcome and remind us that some people are making judgements about us as soon as we speak."

I feel we are perhaps coming from the same angle, however I struggle to write with clarity on an issue that is quite an emotive one for me. I, as you, are aware of the judgements that are occasionally made as soon as I open my mouth.

However, that is not say I make those same judgements on people, and perhaps my choice of words made it appear otherwise. (I love to post my knitting life on my blog, but don't profess to being a 'Writer')

Perhaps a little more information about my past would be useful; When at school in England I was bullied for being Scottish, when I moved to Scotland I was bullied for being English.

It can be tough to feel that you don't 'fit' and so, from a young age I have longed for a Scottish accent so that I could 'fit in' with my family - who all sound Scottish. I think it is natural to want to have an identifying accent with your family and home country. Moving around a lot (inside and outside the UK) in my life has left me feeling that I have no 'home' and so my accent is one thing I feel that places me.

So for me, it is about my identity with my family/Scotland, and my struggles to come to terms with this.

I have never felt that someone without a Scottish accent shouldn't "...consider themselves to live here, and not just [a] visitor ...". Glasgow in particular is a diverse city, with many, many people from all over the world living here, and this is one of the reasons I love living here.

Because of my experiences, I feel that I am more aware of the judgements that can be made on anyone who doesn't 'sound' like those around them, whether they sound English or Scottish (or Irish or Welsh for that matter). I've been at the receiving end of many hurtful comments in my life.

I certainly don't make that judgement myself with people, and I'm quite worried that it would come across that way in my blog.

OK, I've typed, and retyped, deleted and edited! I do hope that this hasn't come across as defensive, or negative. I'm a bit upset, so perhaps I shouldn't post quite yet, but I'm not going to be able to do anything else today with this in my mind. At the moment it's reading a bit like 'A Statement' or something, but I would rather just post it than say nothing at all.

Scottish Television

2008-09-24T17:43:00.005+01:00

STV filmed my knitting group last night for the Five Thirty Show. I managed to get a shot of the cameraman filming 'The Force Scarf' that I knitted for the boy's Christmas.

I couldn't use the flash as it would disrupt the film (and he was having a hard enough time trying to get the heavy camera at the right angle to see the shadow knitting!) so it's a bit blurry.

It was interesting seeing how it filming this type of thing worked, and the host Vicky was great fun - very enthusiastic and said it was the best feature that she'd filmed - go knitters!

She wanted to interview me about the scarf *gulp* I hadn't considered that I'd actually talk. I'm Scottish, but due to moving around a lot when I was young I have an English accent. I don't like my accent at all - this is not to say that I think there is anything wrong with being English, but I'm Scottish, and it bugs me that I always sound like a visitor to my own country. So anyway, I didn't plan on talking, because I didn't want to hear my accent on TV.

But suddenly there was a camera and a bright light in my face, and Vicky saying 'just look at me, and talk natural'. It's just that easy!

I've always had on my report cards at school; 'doing great, but needs to stopping chatting so much' ... and it's true, I do like to chat, and chat.

However, I've learned yesterday that if you stick a camera in my face, not only do I become as verbal as a newborn baby, I can also suck my own hair into my mouth and almost choke while talking...

Lynette says that I'm overthinking this, and she's probably right, but I don't expect my interview to appear on TV - maybe a shot of the scarf - which would be cool. A library is the worst place to work sometimes because all I want to do is be distracted, but working in a quiet environment makes my mind recall Vicky commenting on my Yaarnn pirate t-shirt, and me getting excited and shoving my chest into the camera. Doh!

Should be coming out this week, or next in case anyone wants a laugh at me.

Identical hand twins ...

2008-09-17T17:19:00.003+01:00

In the last fortnight I've gone a bit mitten mad. I've made Ysolda's garter stitch mitts with some Orkney Angora that I bought at K1 Yarns - it's so utterly soft.

I love LOVE this pattern! It's perfect for work because the mittens don't cover too much of my hands. At a glance it might look like I've got longer sleeves. They also keep my hands nice and toasty, but free for knitting.

And they're quick, quick, quick! Which is good because I want to make them in every colour and fibre.

Then I made some giant cable mittens - this is the first pattern I've designed from scratch. I've just got to get a wee bit more Paton's Jet so I can finish the other one. Then I might see if I can get some test knitters to try other sizes and maybe get a pattern on Ravelry!!

I'm in the middle of making gloves with a sockweight yarn using Anna Tillman's glove pattern. The yarn is Fyberspates merino/tencel sock weight that I bought at Woolfest. The colourway makes me drool a little bit - it reminds me of winter berries.

I also used Fyberspates Scrumptious DK in spring green, kindly given to me as a birthday pressie by Lynette, to make more mittens and a hat.

The mitten pattern was Ysolda's garter stitch mitts again, and the hat was 11th Hour Hat by Amy Florence. The garter stitch brim is knit sideways, which makes it easy to knit the perfect fit. Then it's grafted together, stitches picked up along one side, and knit up to make the top of the hat. The spiralling decreases look great.

I got both out of 1 skein of Scrumptious, with about 3 inches left over.

And finally, I made some fingerless mitts from the Noro Designer Mini-Knits pattern book by Jenny Watson. I used 2 skeins of the same colourway but different sections to make a striped effect.

They look great, but the pattern was knit flat so it was a bit of a footer to seam up all the fingers. I changed the pattern by adding an extra stitch to the pinkie finger. After seaming the pinkie was a bit too narrow otherwise.

And a close up shot of the kitty to remind myself that he can be an angel sometimes, when he isn't getting tangled in the spagetti of wires behind the tv causing it to nearly fall off the unit. Or sitting on the laptop when it's on pressing buttons that make the laptop speak the screen, turn the screen upside down, and other commands that I don't know how to undo. Or mieowing incessantly from about 4am, 'just for kicks and giggles'

And a pretty sunset from a couple of nights ago, outside the front of our house.

Granny's Heiland Hame

2008-09-01T20:15:00.006+01:00

The boy and I are just back from a lovely weekend in Elgin. We stopped on the way, just past Carrbridge for some FO shots of the Honeycomb vest. I finished it the day after the Olympics, but had to block it. I'm quite pleased, but I picked up too many stitches around the arms, so it's sagging a bit - I think I'll try weaving some elastic into it and reblocking, before taking the drastic action of reknitting.

It was quite a hard pattern to follow - there's an expectation of a knitting level I feel. Luckily I managed to grasp the pattern, and how to adapt it when waist shaping leaves the stitches out of sync with chart pattern. I modified it to knit in the round (notes here)

We also popped up North to Brora to see some relatives. My granny mentioned that she had aquired some Hunters of Brora yarn and I've been desperate to get my hands on this for some time.

Sadly, this yarn was found in bags out the back of Hunters after it closed. They threw out bags and bags of it. I wish we had known and we could have hired a moving house-sized lorry to remove it.

The 2 shades I got are stunning though - a 4ply, enough for 2 cardigans or jumpers - yay!

On the way my mum mentioned a traditional song about the area from her childhood Granny's Heiland Hame. I've never heard it, but found the lyrics online.

We hadn't meant to travel that far North, and had only popped out to try spotting some dolphins at North Kessock and Chanonry Point at Cromarty. I really really wanted to get the yarn though, and the boy hadn't been up to see where my family are from.

We set the sat nav from Cromarty, just to see where it would take us (even though we know the route) and it took us a different way... 'take the next left, and then take the ferry'. Ferry!? What?!

The sat nav alerts you when your route will include toll bridge, so it never occured to us that it would take us on a ferry route without warning us first.

And a ferry? On a Sunday? We were doubtful, but sure enough, there was a two car ferry, every half hour, every day. So we thought why not (after checking on ye olde-fashioned paper atlas that we weren't about to go on an island-hopping detour)

It was state of the art ... well perhaps not, but it was totally cool to find this adventurous detour. If we hadn't been using the sat nav we would never have come across it - and we shaved a good hour or so off the trip. The pic above is of me trying to keep my balance.

when I'm counting it means don't speak to me...

2008-08-24T17:39:00.002+01:00

So close ... I only had 11 rows to go.

I'm so tired that I have no words - I've been knitting frantically all weekend and am a bit disappointed that I failed this Olympics too.

Ah well, there's always Vancouver

tick tock, tick tock, tick tock!

2008-08-21T20:15:00.000+01:00

Don't have time to blog!

Day 8

2008-08-16T21:40:00.003+01:00

Day 8; Things are going well - finished the waist decreases, and the increases. I made a mistake below - One of the cable crosses went the wrong way. But as I discovered this about 3 inches later on, I can live with it!

I had a lovely day today - we went through to Edinburgh to see Lilith's Trunk Show at K1 Yarns. SHe had made a seriously large bundle of sumptiously yummy yarn! I spent enough to get a pretty emergency yarn keyring.

Here's Lilith's legs spinning away - she didn't want her photo taken but Ysolda didn't mind. The Edinburgh shop is really nice, and has lots of comfy chairs to sit and knit. There's even tea and cake!

Here's some shots of Old Maiden Aunt Baby Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere blend laceweight - it's so beautiful!

And some Noro Silk Garden Lite, and Orkney Angora for gloves and hats. I know I shouldn't have spent so much, but having to stay faithful to one project made my eyes wander onto yummy yarns!

Day 5

2008-08-13T19:58:00.002+01:00

Day 5. I had a wee couple of days off from blogging ... there's really not that much to say. Knat more, got a bit further!

Realised that when I change from knitting in the round to knitting flat for the armhole/neck bit that the stripes will get wider. I have decided to start flat knitting a wee bit earlier so that the wider stripes start below the boobs, instead right over the middle of them. It may even make them look them bigger - which is always a good thing!

Suppose I better get back to it - I'm enjoying it despite the tone of this post. It's been a long and rainy day - it feels there is no sun in the summer anymore.

I found out from Revenue & Customs that the very exciting news about an EU regulation increasing the import duties threshold when buying from outside the EU from a pathetic £18 to a more respectable £105, is in fact going to make no difference at all to us *biggest sigh ever*

Basically (if you're interested) the custom duty level will raise to £105 before you have to pay duty. The VAT rate however, remains as payable on anything with a value over £18.

Therefore, buying anything over £18 will incur a 17.5% charge on not only the goods value, but also the freight and insurance charges, plus the £8 handling fee from Royal Mail.

I know that I shouldn't be buying yarn from abroad because of the carbon footprint, but really - elann and knitpicks can make me a 100% wool jumper for £17 - you'd be hard-pressed to achieve this in the UK for less than £50 (unless you go with scratchy 100% wool, or a wool-blend)

So I'm a bit grumpy, because I was imagining all the Socks that Rock joy that was going to be heading my way... ah well! There's plenty of good stuff here, I know. The grass is always greener elsewhere!

Day 3

2008-08-10T21:02:00.002+01:00

Day 3 - getting on quite well. My finger's are a bit achey now - but I work full-time, so I wanted to knit as much as possible during the weekend while I can. It's been a lovely weekend on the sofa with knitting and Sky TV.

Last night after I posted I realised that the Honeycomb cable was 'jogged' over a stitch from the rib, and wasn't flowing nicely from the rib. After knitting the cable row (which takes 45 minutes!) I was halfway through the next row when it became clear.

I knat on for another 20-odd stitches trying to convince myself that it didn't bother me. Then I knat on for a few more stitches while I tried to come to terms with the inevitable.

It took a while but I tinked it back before going to bed so that I could start this morning fresh and going forwards.

Because of the twisted rib it wasn't really possible to frog back the 2 rows easily. The rib also confused me and I managed to put all the stitches back on the needle twisted... So a row that already took 45 minutes now took even longer because I had to straighten all the stitches...

The good news is that I'm getting faster at the cable row now, and can do it in front of the TV instead of having to go and sit in the bedroom.

The pattern is looking lovely, but the decreases are not written in - there's just instructions on how to do them depending on whether the decrease row is a cable one or not.

So that's fine, but then the rows after don't 'work' anymore, and I have to figure out how to do myself. It's quite good for learning the intricacies of the pattern, but not so great for a Ravelympics projects, because I don't have time to arse it up...

Anyway, better get back to it I suppose!

Day 2

2008-08-09T21:07:00.002+01:00

Day 2; Got all the twisted rib bit done. 22 rows, plus the 1st row of the cable pattern. That's 4784 stitches!

I'm liking the twisted rib. It's the first time I've knit rib like this and it gives a nice effect, although is quite hard going knitting through the back loop for so long.

I love the way that the colourway is going better for this than it did for the test square, and the colour changes are driving me to keep knitting.

That's it for today, since Tiscali is charging me £14.99 a month for an broadband connection that is so slow I'm nearly in tears. Every sentence takes about 1 minutes to process. I also discovered that typing whole paragraph and knitting whilst waiting for it to catch up only angers Tiscali and it steals my words and replaces them with a flashing cursor.

Grr! Off back to knitting. Until tomorrow!

It has begun

2008-08-08T20:57:00.003+01:00

It has begun! I got to see the amazing drummers counting down the start of the opening ceremony and a nano-second of the fireworks, and then I had to go back to work as my lunch was over.

So I didn't get to cast on until a couple of hours later in my teabreak.

The atmosphere in the Ravelry Ravelympics group is electric! There's an Opening Ceremony Stadium Parade where all the knitters are parading around a virtual stadium waving their sticks and yarn in the air. There's stats so you can see your event and how many projects are in, and how many are complete.

I'm in Vest Vault, and there are 222 of us knitting vests.

There's even a souvenir booth!

Here's my progress so far. I had a brief panic as I realised that I hadn't thought about the maths involved in converting the flat pattern into the round; would the repeats still work with seam stitches omitted? Would the rib work with less stitches?

I also hadn't thought about how exactly a chart with RS and WS works when there is no longer a WS ...

I thought about all of this in the hour before the opening ceremony. Fortunately Ravelry came to my rescue!

To convert a flat cable chart to the round is easier than I thought. The RS will have any cable crossing 'stuff' and the RS is just worked as is.

The WS usually has chart symbols like 'P on WS, K on RS' - so you just pretend that your WS is a RS, and follow the RS stitches instead. i.e. Knit where it says purl and vice versa.

I'm planning on posting each night at around 9pm with my progress over the next 17 days. Let the games begin!

Twilley's Freedom Spirit VestTop

2008-08-07T20:25:00.002+01:00

Taa-daa! Finally a break in the rain to take some pics of the finished Twilley's Freedom Spirit Vest Top.

I modified the pattern to knit in the round, which was quite a mathematical feat for me. To remember where it says 'dec 1 stitch either end every x rows, x number or times (76 stitches)' that it should be 74 stitches, because I had to omit 2 stitches for the seams ...

(I breathed in ALOT for the shot above ...)

I think the decreases worked really well.

I had a slight problem with the neck decreases because I decided that 'dec 1 st at neck edge every 4 rows' meant every right side row only. Why I decided this I have no idea, but it meant the decreases were spread over 8 rows instead of 4.

I just overlapped the fabric at the shoulders before seaming, and no-one can tell but me...

So that's me. Ravelympics are tomorrow!

Luna Moth - not finished. Pinwheel sweater - not finished. Ah well!

the clock is ticking ...

2008-08-02T09:21:00.003+01:00

Some maths ...

The Beijing Olympics is 6 days, 4 hours and 16 minutes away.

There are 34 rows to go on the Luna Moth Shawl.

Purl rows take an average of 16 minutes.

Lace pattern rows take an average of 20 minutes.

There are 17 purl rows, and 17 lace pattern rows to go (plus a cast off row)

That's 9 hours 42 minutes of knitting to go.

Which doesn't seem much in comparison with the time I have until the start of the Olympics, but I will be spending a good proportion of time working full-time, sleeping, commuting etc. ... I think it's probably best if I find time by avoiding housework.

A little more maths; the workings of the Honeycomb vest. I'm just desperate to cast on a fresh project at the moment! It's a real struggle not to.

Our resident garden fox seems less concerned with time and how to fit it all in ...

This was him last night, taking a brief interest in what the weird humans behind the glass were doing, before settling down for a rest in the sun.

Photos by the boy.

The Sun is out!

2008-07-27T16:15:00.003+01:00

Lookee - the sun has come out in Glasgow at last!! Wewent to the fruit shop to buy a yummy watermelon this afternoon, and I'm currently sitting covered in watermelon juice, squinting at the laptop screen.

The cat seems to have found his hotspot...

The Honeycomb tension square is complete. I'm not all that confident about this one - I am going to modify it to knit in the round again. It has to be knit with 4 inches of negative ease, which makes me a little anxious that this is going to be teeny - but I am on a diet, so if it is hopefully it will fit eventually.

The gauge is 28 stitches per 4 inches. Before blocking I had 32 stitches with a 3.5mm needle, so figured I would probably need to go down to 3mm. I blocked it anyway, cos you never know, right?

It shrunk down to 30 stitches when damp, and 28-28.5 stitches when dry blocked! Huh? It also became narrower than before, resulting in more rows per inch.

Of course this, coupled with my apparently longer torso, made for some fun maths... Adding an inch before decreases, and figuring out exactly how many rows "knit until piece measures x inches' will be based on blocked rows per inch.

The pattern is now full of my additions and scribblings. I'm hoping I haven't gone wrong somewhere - the pattern is for a 12.75 inch tank top, from bottom to the armhole. I've gone for 16 inches instead.

We were also down in England last week, eerie misty shots taken here from the balcony of the boy's family holiday spot; Slaley Hall. All the more creepier due us going to see The Mist at the cinema last week!

We took a (long!) walk around Geltsdale, an RSPB reserve. Didn't see much, except a few Kestrels hovering around. And also had to walk through a herd of cows with babies. That was quite scary - the mum was snorting a bit as we walked past her and her calf.

Then we passed 3 calves on their own, and realised that the mum was on the other side of the road and that we were between her and her babies.

I don't know much about cows, but they're pretty big, and as a general rule, getting between mums and babies is never a good plan. We walked through smartly, with our heads down. Eye contact a good idea, or a reason for a cow charge? Who knows... (I've just read this *gulp*)

There was little in the way of fibery goodness in the area though, but I managed to convince the boy to stop off at Stitching Time in Hamilton for some knittery treats. Some beautiful Louisa Harding and Araucania ... mmm... I've wanted the Louisa Harding since Lynette did a lovely project in it.

Stitching Time was a treasure trove of yarny joy, and Nan and David are lovely. I really enjoyed my trip and would recommend it to all. They also have cheap Addis.

I also got a magnetic board to keep my place in lace charts (I got the last one, sorry! Although not that sorry - ha!) Lilith was talking about these awhile back and I meant to get one, but forgot. She's right - it's such a Godsend! No more stupid Post-its losing their stick after one removal and curling at the edges. And it's a flat surface to rest the chart on the couch-arm too. Genius!

I may have done a wee bit of online shopping before I left too, so that I would have a pressie from the postie too. Some Noro Kureyon sock yarn in the same colourway as I've made a hat in (although the hat was in aran-weight Kureyon) I can't wait to knit with this, and am thinking a lovely wrap would go well with the hat. There's a serious amount of yardage (I wrote yarndage the first time ... ) on this ball too - enough to make a shawl.

The best saved until last; some old maiden aunt 2ply silk/cashmere blend in espresso colour - it is yarn that literally melts in your hand. So utterly sumptiously deliciously soft! And with a 32% discount too.

2008-07-17T20:59:00.002+01:00

Olympic Training begins with swatching for Honeycomb. I am in LOVE with this yarn and in LOVE with this pattern. The autumnal shades and the cabling pattern were made for each other!

I also learned to cable without a cable needle, so I can motor through this quickly - 17 days are not many when I also have to juggle a full-time job, and an occasional glance at the housework.

It's a great technique, but I think it would only work for me with cabling that requires only 1 stitch being crossed over another. Otherwise I think it would just be too footery.

And yes, I am still trying to complete Luna Moth (don't mention Pinwheel sweater OK?) - I'm on repeat 6 now. The pattern was written for a DK to aran weight yarn, and I'm using 4 ply so I'm wondering how many repeats I'll need to do, to have a decent-sized shawl.

Obviously it's going to be more, but how many more? I think I'll have to put it on waste yarn to get a decent idea. And then how much does seasilk increase in size after blocking? There are too many factors to consider and time is running out!

And another project, because I don't have anything portable at the moment (apart from a sock in progress which is boring me senseless) - this is the most beautiful ethereal pattern. I found it on Ravelry and just HAD to cast on right away!

We went to Mull of Galloway today - the southermost part of Scotland. Saw four puffins!! I couldn't believe it! I never imagined I would actually see them in real life. Unfortunately they were perfect in our binocs, but too far away to photograph. You can see in the pic above - it's a long way down to the sea they were floating on.

One thing that the photos can't show is the sheer noise all these birds make - there were every type of gull, kittiwakes, puffins, guillemots, cormorants, and so on. We also saw a lone roe deer hopping about.

As we walked behind the lighthouse to get down to the foghorn viewpoint, we noticed that the walls were covered in the black dots...

... of about a million snails...

They were ....

... everywhere!!

Does anyone else's cat ...

2008-07-12T21:23:00.004+01:00

... do this whenever the heating is on? If I didn't put a towel there, he'd just be up on the radiator without it, frying his little self.

Well, it's nearly that time; the Beijing Olympics begins at 08.08.08pm (2pm GMT) on the 8th day of the 8th month, 2008. (8 is a lucky number in China

So I must cast on when the flame is lit, and have the object ready for blocking by the end of the final ceremony.

The boy bought me the Olympic mascots for Valentine's Day - in order they are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini. Beijing huan ying ni means "Welcome to Beijing"!

I've joined the Ravelympics group on Ravelry- they've got loads of great events to join. There's Sock Put, Amigurumi Toss, Mitten Medley, Scarf Stroke, Hat Dash ... I've joined the Vest Vault and plan to make Honeycomb from Knitty.com, using some lovely DK yarn I bought in Tokyo. I've been dying to cast it on since I got it.

So, 17 days to knit a vest top. I think it's doable - I finished the Twilley's Freedom Spirit tank top quite quickly. (I just have to wait 'til my head is no longer full of snot before I agree to publishing pictures of myself on the interweb!)

What of the projects I was to finish in time to begin the Knitting Olympics?

Well ... I have two left to complete; Luna Moth Shawl, and Pinwheel sweater.

Frogged were: Crochet Wrap, Twilleys armwarmers, Branching Out (both of them) and Jaywalkers.

Completed were: The Force Scarf, Summertime Tunic and Glasgow socks.

Do I think I'm going to pass this task? Probably not ... but I'll give it a shot!

Edited to add; Thank you for all the lovely comments in my last post! There were a couple of questions;
The Fyberspates yarn is destined for a pair of gloves, and possibly a hat too.
And Mary's question - yes I was wearing my new Central Park Hoodie at Woolfest - you should have said hi! I know what you mean though, I saw lots of Ravellers and was too shy to say anything to them!

Woolfest joy in the Lake District

2008-06-30T20:27:00.003+01:00

I'm back!! And ready to flash ma new stash!

Above: Krafty Koala merino/bamboo sock yarn in a luscious Chocolate Cherry Ice colourway.

This fabby Yarn Yardage Requirements card by Ann Budd - I found it a little late, after having spent the morning walking around with handwritten notes in a wee pad.

I also printed off my Ravelry queue using the neat little print icon next to the queue. It's frigging genius and I love Ravelry! It prints of a wee thumbnail pic, the meterage requirements, and the yarn weight required.

There are 4-5 queued projects per page - I asked the boy to guess how many pages were printing in the yarn room as I rushed about packing for Woolfest...

His guess? 3 pages.

Reality? 29 pages.

4 skeins of Manos Silk Blend which is so yummy I could eat it! And below, 2 skeins of Fyberspates merino/tencel sock yarn - with a 10% discount for being on Ravelry. I love the colourway.

Above; some Trekking XXL in a colourway I've been after for ages (I realise the photo's upside-down, but I couldn't be bothered, OK? I've a new project waiting for me to finish blogging and get back to it)

And finally, below 700g of DK 100% wool for a bargain £20!

We were in the Lake District - so really an opportunity not to be missed, bird-watching wise ... The clouds however, felt differently. Dropping down to car height they ensured nothing could be seen, and damp, raininess was everywhere.

These shots are of Haweswater - it took an age to get to it. More if you include the many times we passed the turnoff and had to go up and down the motorway a few times (but shh, don't mention it to the boy - he gets awffy cross when he gets lost - especially when "we're wasting precious petrol!". Oh, and also English signage is apparently "crap!" We're now saving for a tom-tom...)

So we finally get there, and step out into the drizzle to find that the hide (1 mile away) shut 5 minutes ago ...

We also went to an Osprey viewpoint just next to Keswick, where we were staying. Turned up 5 minutes too late to view the nest there too... The shot above is the boy watching the chaffinches and wee birds instead.

And an arty shot of the trees on the trudge back down.

Grab a cup of tea ...

2008-06-22T16:33:00.003+01:00

It's been a fortnight and quite a bit has been happening.

There's been a trip up north to see the relatives - above; we went to Loch Ruthven to see the Slavonian Grebes. You'll just have to trust me that they were there, we don't have the equipment to photograph them as well as Springwatch can. (If you select the 3rd video down on the Springwatch page "A Farewell to Speyside" you can see them near the end of the video)

We also took my sister, who managed to spot an Osprey on her 1st time! I think she was unimpresed with the whole birdwatching malarky though ... oh well.

Then we went to Boat of Garten, a regular stop on the way back to Glasgow. The boy took this shot using the telescopes at the hide - you can just see one of the Osprey chicks if you look carefully. One day we'll get there a daybreak to try and catch a Capercaillie.

Anyway, enough birdwatching - onto knitting! I finally stopped procrastinating, and blocked the button band. Finding the buttons was such a challenge - purple is really hard to match buttons with - especially using online button websites.

I found ribbonmoon.co.uk - which was great, but I was too impatient to send off a length of yarn for them to match. Instead I bought 8 sets of purple buttons (they're really cheap!). Not one of the buttons matched ...

... however I finally found these silver buttons at John Lewis, on the way to knitting group.

Remember Lilith's Race for Life in my last post? Well I won a prize! The best prize! A cashmere Swallowtail shawl, hand-dyed and hand-knitted by Lilith herself. It's utterly sumptious and I got lots of envious looks at my knitting group - hee-hee!

You can see the beads in the shot below.

And I had another birthday, making me officially in my thirties now. I got oodles of lovely pressies; Some long coveted Socks that Rock from Lilith, some utterly lovely Fyberspates yarn from Lynette, an Amazon voucher from India (which bought me Fitted Knits), and a yarny voucher from my sis. I also got lots of lovely cash from my grannies, parents and the boy for Woolfest - less than a week away! I'm so frigging excited!!

So a massive thank you to everyone for all my yarny joy!

Twilley's tank top is going well - I've been knitting it in the round instead of flat pieces. I've just separated it for the back, and am nearly at the neck. Obviously without sleeves, this is a quicker knit. I doubt that it'll be long before this yarn felts, but at the moment it's very cosy, and looks like it's be nice and toasty.

Given that it won't be long until the tank top is done, I'm swatching for Apres Surf Hoodie from the latest Interweave magazine - it's looking good so far. I'm doing it in a superwash sock yarn so that I can bung it in the wash - handknits can be very high maintenance, and I'd like a few machine wash jumpers that I can wear to work.

We're getting our office refurbished over the summer, and when we come back it'll be baltic-freezing air conditioning that will engage in a constant battle with me and my foot heater to keep the temperature at freezer levels ... I know this because we have aircon on the main floor where I work at the enquiry desk, and I'm in a scarf and layers of clothing all year round. Knitting is not just a hobby for me, it's a survivalist neccesity! (I'm the only one that's cold - everyone else is fine in t-shirts)

I digress. The lace tension square is very pretty, but I am wondering this; how exactly do you measure a lace tension square? I should have 24 stitches per 4 inches, but it's going to be hard to figure out.

The lace repeat is 10 stitches, so it would have been fine if it was 30 stitches equals x measurement, as I could just measure the repeats. But 24 stitches is 2 repeats and a bit ... anyone?

Congratulations!!

2008-06-08T16:22:00.004+01:00

Lynette, Mags & I were up early this morning to cheer on Lilith (and her RSA) in their 5K Race for Life for Cancer Research at Glasgow Green. There were over 13,000 women racing and they raised 1 million quids!! It was a lovely, and emotional, morning. According to the man on the mic, the Glasgow Race for Life was the biggest in the UK!

... and they're off!

... and 42 minutes later, Lilith and RSA came running past us for the final few metres. I was going to take a photo, but knew that Lilith would have found the strength from somewhere to destroy any camera taking her picture at the end of the 5K. I decided instead to take a shot of her once she'd passed - I've circled her in pink above.

There's still time to sponsor her by clicking here

In other news, Twilley's Tank Top is coming on well. I've modified the pattern to be knit in the round, which seems to be working quite well so far ...

It was my birthday on Friday; I got lots of yarn-enabling money for Woolfest, and some stunning Fyberspates yarn from Lynette to knit Garter Stitch Mitts. I'm really struggling not to cast on for these as I have currently got Twilley's Tank Top and a mystery project on the go, when Pinwheel Sweater remains lying in the corner, unloved.

Speaking of projects I shouldn't be thinking about, Apres Surf Hoodie from the latest Interweave Knits, caught my heart so much that the yarn was bought on the same day, and it is literally taking all my willpower not to cast this lovely one just yet.

PS Central Park Hoodie is still finished and waiting for me to sew on 2 more buttons, block the button band and hood and pose about a bit. Soon, I promise!

So tired ...

2008-05-31T17:52:00.004+01:00

Roasting hot and sunny today so we made our way (along with the rest of Glasgow) to the garden centre to spend a fortune and prettify our little bit o'land.

Everything now hurts and it's an effort to lift my arms up to the keyboard - but they look pretty and summery and we are pleased with our efforts (except for my back, which isn't pleased, but instead is quite angry at all this unexpected activity)

Anyone know what these little yellow ones are and how we care for them? They began with an 's' and ended with a 'via' but the box had no instructions - they must have fell off somewhere.

In fact, if anyone knows anything about how to keep any of these flowers alive it would be great if you could pass on tips in the comments box or at mail [at] socherry.co.uk

Lovely pics taken by the boy :-)

PS Central Park Hoodie is complete - just waiting for some buttons and the opportunity to photograph - watch this space. I promise to try and not leave it so long next time.

The Central Park Hoodie is flying and the Peregrine is sitting

2008-05-05T18:32:00.005+01:00

It's been a lovely sunny Bank Holiday Monday today - the perfect day for sitting in all day watching true life TV movies, er and knitting! Central Park Hoodie is flying - I've done 1 and 3/4 sleeves, and seamed up the back and two sides.

We went back to the Falls of Clyde yesterday to see how the Peregrine Falcon was doing - sitting on her nest of 4 new-born ugly babies! The boy took this great shot using the telescopes and the camera - you can see one of the chicks under her.

AND ... I never bought any yarn at New Lanark....

I did however, buy this; Some lovely dyed-to-order merino sock yarn from old maiden aunt - I wanted sunshine on my feet, and she dyed exactly the right shade - I'm thinking a honeycomb cable pattern sock for this.

Cabling along ...

2008-04-27T21:40:00.003+01:00

This knitter is very tired from a jam-packed weekend involving finding an outfit for a "formal dress wear" event (gah! where to begin? I'm a girl who wears no make-up and is always found in handknits, jeans and trainers...), to gardening, to blocking current progress on Central Park Hoodie number 2.

I'm fairly whingy at the moment since my back hurts from crawling around in shop changing rooms repeatedly taking trainers on and off, crawling around in the mud gardening and finally, crawling around on the floor blocking a bigger version of a cardi to go around my widening hips *sigh* so I will try to keep this short and sweet.

I'm proud to say that I have managed to complete the back, left front and right front. I'm on sleeve number 1 now. It's been 2 weeks exactly since I cast on. Considering both weekends have been pretty much full of non-knitting time, with one thing and another, I think I've done quite well.

I'm confident that I can complete a (buttonband-less, hood-less) jumper or cardi pattern for the knitting olympics this year.

I love how the cables form from the ribs - so elegant...

There was much more to show and tell, but it will have to wait ... every word I type is deleted and retyped due to the number of tiredness-related spelling mistakes. And so I will go for now.

Firing through the wips

2008-04-13T13:27:00.004+01:00

Ta-da! Summertime Tunic is finished! I bought two ribbons for it; a brown velvety one, and a pink gingham one. I love the length, and fit - thankfully, because I couldn't face trying it again. The round and round of the stocking stitch meant that my motivation waned frequently and this project took 8 months to complete.

My second finished project is a neck-warmer. I made it from Posh Yarn's Alice handspun hand-dyed cashmere. I think it's probably the most sumptious yarn I've ever knit with. It only took me two days - cast on 90 stitches and knit until the skein was complete!

I realise that this isn't on my list of wips to complete before the Beijing Olympics, but I had to take a luxury yarn project break.

We were in Oban last week - really lovely place. I dropped by Wool and Needlecraft - it's a great place to get buttons. They had some stunning yarns that I hadn't seen before - not the usual baby acrylic that most small town yarn shops seem to hold.

We were eating our chips in the car, next to the sea. (What else would one have for dinner after visiting a Sea Life Sanctuary?) It appeared that we had caught the attention of the locals ... there was one of the fence in front, one on the bonnet, and one on the car roof of the cars next to us.

The boy thought it would be fun to step out of the car and throw some of our leftover chips at them ...

... at which the two gulls next to my window screamed at every gull on the west coast "free chips, this crazy city boy is giving away free chips!!!!" ...

... about a million gulls appeared from nowhere, crapping all over the car in their excitement as they gave chase to the boy, who was running towards the rubbish bin in a state of shock and fear. I sat in the car just about crying I was laughing so hard.

And finally, another wip has begun. Central Park Hoodie number 2 in a bigger size. I realise that I'm not supposed to be starting anything new, but all I have left is a crochet wrap, pinwheel sweater and luna moth shawl. I've decided that I need something new. I must have something else to knit before I lose my knitty mind.

Glasgow Socks complete!

2008-04-03T10:59:00.003+01:00

The sock recipe is complete! A Bosnian toe, a turkish heel and Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn cast off make a lovely snug sock. The pattern was adapted from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet.

I say adapted ... what I mean is adapted with many, many froggings, swear words, loss of heart and lots of tears.

I increased the toe to 80 sts initially; too big. 70 sts for the next attempt. It occured to me on the 2nd attempt that I'd made a pair of Lucy Neatby socks before - maybe I should go and see how many stitches I had for that pattern, as they fit really well. They had 60 stitches ... another frogging.

For a while there I was off - round and round to the afterthought heel. Waste yarn added without a problem.

The heel. Oh the heel. First attempt too big. Tried the second, smaller attempt on the second sock. Too small. Now both socks need their heels frogged and an in-between sized heel added. At least the after-thought heel made this relatively easy, but I was starting to lose hope at this point.

Finally, heels that fit! Now, onto the cast off (both socks were sitting on waste yarn while I used the needles for the heels).

Cast off as normal. Way, way, way too tight.

Cast off one socks with needles 1.25mm bigger. Too tight - can pull on at a push, but cutting off shin circulation *sigh*

Frog back a row on other sock; knit last row and cast off with the bigger needles. Tighter than previous attempt ... what the [insert expletive of your choice here] is going on here!!

Consult the oracle of the toe-up sock for advice and try Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn cast off. Advise boy to leave the room before trying the socks on.

Perfect fit!!

Why is she taking pictures of her feet and not paying attention to me!? Very well, I shall bite her stupid socks *receives smack and scream from sock owner* ...

... I wonder what'll happen if I bite these? *another scream*

Fun at the New Lanark Mill on Monday. This was the walk to the Falls of Clyde and the nesting Peregrine Falcon at the end. Here I am below, looking all up for it, and stylish in my new fancy wellies...

... which were crafted by evil and far too narrow for my big boat feet. Every step back down was like razor blades on my poor footsies. It was 4.35pm, we were still walking back to the mill and I hadn't yet been to the New Lanark gift shop to score some yarn. Hysteria was setting in. Torn between walking faster and literally shearing my toes off, or walking slower and not getting yarn.
There was a point where the pain almost won, and a fleeting thought of "screw the yarn" may have crossed my brain, but it passed a nanosecond later.

I made it with 15 minutes to spare and dragged my limping, sobbing self over to the yarn, which was (of course) at the far end of the shop. Bought 20 balls of DK for £20.00 - it was worth it!

And these final two shots (both taken by the boy) were of Vane Farm - a lovely sunny hot day. I didn't wear my wellies, and had a great day.

Kites and sites ...

2008-03-30T18:01:00.007+01:00

The boy and I are on Easter hols this week, and have decided to be active, and get out and about in Scotland since our RSPB membership cards came in this week. Today we went to Stirling in search of nature. We spotted Hamish the Highland coo in a woollen mill next to Callander, surrounded by 3 coach loads of tourists armed with cameras. He just loved the attention...

We also stopped at Aberfoyle (great toilets) and popped up to the David Marshall Lodge. A lovely place with virtually tame birds at the seed hangers and tables; chaffinches, coal tits, siskins etc. Really enjoyable, spoiled only by the completely inappropriate noise-fest that is Go-Ape! (exclamation point part of their logo ... 'nuff said).

But the best place we visited was Argaty Red Kites - it was unexpected because we only stopped in as it was on the road we happened to be on. We timed it perfectly, arriving just after they'd been fed. There were lots of Red Kites flying and diving about. Click the pics above and below for a close up - they're tricky to photograph.

On the way back to the car the showers stopped and the sun came out. We took the opportunity, and the barn full of sheep, to take some pics of my latest FO - finished yesterday and so so toasty. It's another hat-shaped hat by old maiden aunt.

Readers who are wondering what happened to finishing all the WIPs before Beijing - this is another work in progress. I had already finished this some time last year, but it was far too big, and went into the 'WIPs that must be frogged and re-knit' pile.

There, I said it. I confess; I didn't photograph all the WIPs I have - there are more.

Fourth time's the charm ...

2008-03-01T20:36:00.003Z

The Lucy Neatby Toe Up Socks are finally going well ... on the fourth attempt.

1st attempt was the top down socks that were too small ....

2nd attempt I began trying the toe up option and got carried away with the increases. I increased to 80 stitches. After putting the stitches onto some waste yarn and trying them on I realised that they were way too big.

3rd attempt I chose the smaller size options in the pattern and went for 76 stitches - seemed about right. Still too big. *sigh*

It occured to me that maybe I should see how many stitches were on my previous pair of Lucy Neatby toe down socks and work from there ... there were 60 stitches. Quite a few less then!

4th attempt is 60 stitches and seems to be fitting perfectly so far. Only one and half inches to the heel too. I thought that I should read the heel instructions, and was delighted to discover that it's an after-thought heel (see Dec 18th post). This is something I've been wanting to try.

Look at him ... so cute isn't he? This is the same cat who has decided when he needs to be sick that the best place to do it is from the top of his climbing perch (5 feet high). He's done this a few times now ... onto to his fluffy cave bed, onto the newly plastered and painted walls, onto his scratch post. *sigh* I do love him, but sometimes I wish he'd just show me the common decency of throwing up on a newspaper, or even better, in the toilet.

And on that lovely note ... byee

An FO and a new challenge

2008-02-24T16:39:00.003Z

The Star Wars scarf is finally complete and blocking. Above is the view as you stare at it, and below is the side view when the text 'magically' appears.

It took 2 balls of white and 2 balls of black Cygnet Superwash DK. Having washed a swatch ... well a mistake actually - a swatch implies every went smoothly. I washed the mistake as I couldn't face a 3rd frogging. Anyway, having washed the 'swatch' I have discovered that this yarn doesn't do well in the 40 degree wash as it's label suggests. It went fuzzy. Whether this is due to the high contrast colours I don't know. Maybe it would be fine if it was just one colour *shrug*

All I know is that I'm going to have to handwash this after all, despite an extensive search for machine washable DK wool *sigh*

Negative aside - I love this. The boy loves it too, and that's the most important thing. Non-knitters are genuinely perplexed by this and have decided it requires lots of maths (it doesn't). Shadow knitting is playing with knit and purl stitches to make stitches 'stick out' so that shapes appear. Wikipedia explains it well.

My pattern was 11 stitches either side to serve as a margin, and 15 in the centre to use for the letters. I got the idea and chart from this Craftster with a slight modification. I was going to do the one side of the scarf with black lettering for the dark side, and one side with white lettering for the light side and sew them together. The fabric turned out quite thick though, and I just don't have it in me to knit another ...

And so onto another project that must be completed by the start of the Beijing Olympics (165 days to go). The Glasgow socks were cast on with too few stitches - it wasn't my fault. The gauge swatch lied again - by a whole stitch!! So I frogged in and thus was able to start a new project, without breaking the promise of casting on anything new before finishing all these wips.

Since it had to come out I was toying with the idea of trying toe-up socks. For some reason I was a bit scared, the thought of the challenge was daunting me. Then I snapped out of it - how many new things have I learned in the knitty world over the past 3 years? Loads! And then a sign; a Raveler contacted me out of the blue asking for all the wool ends I had on my trade board in excahnge for Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet book.

Once again knitty fate has struck. I'm doing a toe-up pattern with a Bosnian toe - a rectangle knitted with a provisional cast on, so you can out it on a needle later, then pick up the stitches around the 2 other sides and have the beginnings of a toe!

I'm struggling a bit with the whole 'knit til it fits' concept - I prefer having everything set out for me the first time I embark on something new. After frogging 4 rows (as I went too far with my increases) I think I am on a smooth path for now (at least until the heel...)

Still it's fun doing a 'new' project.

I believe I said that I would be trying Rogue as my project for the Knitting Olympics. It was pointed out to me that the Olympics are a mere 2 weeks long ... I will be revising my idea of what I plan to do - I suspect a pair of DK socks may be a more achievable goal ...

The B&B has been booked for this year's Woolfest - I'm so excited!! Cumbria is a lovely place, made all the lovelier by the big barn full of lovely knitty goodness - yay!

And Creative Stitches at the SECC in a couple of weeks with my mum - I can't wait!

And K1 Yarns have opened a 2nd shop in Edinburgh, in the place of HK Handknits I think. Anyway, Debbie Bliss will be there on the 1st March for a grand opening. I feel dizzy with all the yarny joy!! (I know my credit cards do not feel the same)

Project Fatigue

2008-02-13T20:19:00.002Z

Oh what enthusiasm my last post held ... to systematically work my way through all the projects which have started to become guilty burdens so that I could be 'organised'. It is probably telling through my lack of posts of late that project fatigue and the reality of this challenge have hit home.

To try and not overwhelm I have concentrated on only two projects;

Summertime tunic - a project as boring to photograph as it is to knit... and it's a shame as this is a lovely top, and I'll surely wear it frequently once it is done (should Glasgow weather allow of course). The yarn is stunning, with a lovely drape too.

But the miles and miles of knitting in the round are testing me, creating a project that is almost as torturous to those around me as it is to me, such is my whining about it. It stuck at 7 and half inches from the ribbing for about a week, no matter how much I knit. The 'never ever ever growing no matter how much I sodding well knit' phase usually precedes the 'oh crap, I've knit 2 inches too far' phase.

Well not in this case - it's started to move slowly again, now standing at just over 9 inches. It has to be 11 and a half inches... Keep rooting for me, as I'm losing the faith here.

The Force scarf is faring a little better. Yes that is the 'M' of 'May the force be with you'. The end is in sight. Not least because Summertime Tunic motivates me to stick with this over round and round and round.

I realise that this was a Christmas Day present and it is Valentine's Day tomorrow, however, in my defence, there were 3 of us at last night's meetup knitting Christmas presents. I am not alone - and those that love us knitters are used to receiving promises and presents on the needles for Christmas/Birthdays.

Since I haven't been knitting much, I haven't been blogging much. I'm pretty close to throwing in the towel and asserting that I knit for enjoyment. If I want to cast on 200 projects and not finish any of them, what harm am I doing, really? But in my heart it doesn't particularly make me happy to have piles of unfinished projects about - I started them because I loved them, and I still do. I want them finished.

So I ordered a long-lusted after book; "The Opinionated Knitter" by Elizabeth Zimmermann. If anyone can put the fun back into knitting it's her. I flicked through earlier and felt the urge to start knitting 'proper' once more. (I also felt the urge to cast on about 8 new projects, but let's not go there)

Another person has helped to keep me motivated in my Beijing challgenge, although she may not be aware of it. Lilith is doing the Race for Life - a women's 5K run to raises money for cancer research. She's doing in memory of her dad, and I'm in awe of her efforts. As she states "running comes as naturally to me as flying does to a penguin", therefore this is no easy feat. If she can do this (and in the icey, foggy, freezing weather we're having), then frankly I can sit on my bum and finish a few projects!

She is trying to raise £1000 and there are loads of fabulous knitty prizes up for grabs - every fiver you enter counts as an entry. So please go over there and donate some cash! I'm rooting for you Lilith!!

Only 202 days to go...

2008-01-18T12:26:00.000Z

I have a resolution. I realise it's 18 days into the New Year already, but I was thinking about a resolution I really wanted to achieve this year instead of something like not buying yarn in 2008. That just wouldn't work out for me - I would have my knitting needles crossed as I said it.

So I have it: 202 days until the start of the Beijing Olympics.

In these 202 days I want to either complete or frog the following wips so that I will be prepared to take on the Olympic knitting challenge - which this year will be the completion of Rogue (stop laughing - I can do this!) I have gauged Rogue - I know the needle size I need, the yarn is bought - I'm practically finished already!

At the moment I'm working on the 3 projects above - The Force scarf is a concentration/home one, the Summertime Tunic is a knitting group/work one, and the crochet wrap is for when my hands hurt from too much knitting!

These blasted armwarmers are practically finished - I'm up to the thumb of the second one - it would take me a weekend. Why can't I just get on with it?!

Above is Luna Moth - I'm going to go easier on myself for this one. It does require extreme concentration and about a gazillion stitch markers. I'm about halfway there. A quiet day off could make a big improvement in this. I want it for summer too...

Glasgow night/Kingfisher socks *sigh* my gauge was 7.5 stitches - yes I gauged in the round. Surely this deserves a reward, right? But no. My actual gauge is 8.5 stitches. So these must be frogged back a bit and made into wristwarmers now. Just psyching myself upto gathering the stitches to frog.

The 2 Branching Out scarves; the top one I want finished for spring time. The second one is to be frogged - Kidsilk Haze blows. It's just urg to knit with.

Picking up Pinwheel and learning short row shaping to try and bring her back to life is one of my biggest challenges. I'm going to do it though... I am!

And finally; Jaywalkers. I'm on turning the heel of the 2nd sock so again, not far to go. We'll just keep quiet about how these were my last Olympic knitting project *whisper* in 2006...

Wish me luck!!

It's been a while...

2008-01-07T20:35:00.000Z

... but I didn't want to blog until Earnshaw was done. And now it is! (Yes I am hugging the radiator - it's freezing in Glasgow, and daylight for decent photographs is but a distant memory)

Earnshaw has a couple of problems ...

... it is a little wide. In fact I could fit one and half of me in it.

It has a breathtakingly strange-looking hood ...

... and the sleeves were a tad long.

But it is most definately loved!

I can finally blog about The Force scarf for the boy. Currently at 'orce be with you'; it will eventually say 'May the Force be with you'. The idea being that the force is always with you even if see it you cannot...

Above is the front view, and below is from the side - it's called Shadow Knitting, and I believe it originated in Japan.

I got the idea from a girl on Craftster and thought it would be a great Christmas present for the boy. (Yes I did wrap it on the needles ... )

Whilst tidying away the Christmas decorations, the boy was struck with one of those 'episodes' - you know the ones: The 'we have to get organised, and clean, and sort things out in the house!!' That kind of thing.

I was in the living room knitting and pretending I couldn't hear him calling me to get involved in the Great Cleaning Episode. This worked until I heard the sound of something large being thrown on the floor followed by the words 'do you want this stuff or not? ... since you haven't used it in three years!' Curiosity piqued (and fear of Important Things being discarded without my overseeing eye) I shuffled through to see what the large 'thing' was.

Turns out it was a binbag containing, amongst other things, the Tupperware lollypop maker passed to me from my mum. Bringing back memories of my childhood in Cyprus I had to bring them back to life. Plus ice lollies made from cranberry juice have got to be a good detoxifying start to my new year diet, right?

Yum!

Maybe it's time for a new hobby ...

2007-12-06T21:21:00.000Z

I've joined the shoulder seams of Earnshaw - it's not a dress! In fact it fits just how I wanted it to. And I finished the sleeves and seamed one! And - because knitty karma is just not that nice to me - the sleeves look utterly stupid. I mean really really weird - I have points at my forearms. *le sigh*

So I have a plan. Why, by the way, must I always have to think of a plan? Why can't it work first time? Why!? Anyhoo, I digress... the plan is; to seam up the sides of the jumper, pick up the sleeves stitches and knit down the way. That way I can keep an eye on the sleeves in case they decide to form peaks.

Also knitting in the round is a must for garter stitch I have discovered. Mattress stitch on stocking stitch is a beautiful piece of magic, a miracle really. Mattress stitch on garter stitch edges looks like my cat had a go at knitting.

To remind me that it's not all bad, and sometimes good things can happen to good knitters; my finished replacement scarf with pockets. Lovely and cosy! I washed the Noro Silk Garden then soaked it in conditioner to soften it up - seems to have worked quite well. Cashmere it ain't, but it's still soft enough to wear next to the skin.

Oh well - suppose I better stop procrastinating and start frogging.

The 2nd day of Christmas

2007-12-02T18:35:00.000Z

Not much knitting to report - Earnshaw is halfway up the 2nd sleeve now - the end is in sight.

The boy has been promising a cool advent calender as I don't take caffeine - which means chocolate. An advent calender with no chocolate is a dull affair indeed ... until ... in the shape of a Christmas tree; 24 Christmas scratchcards!! How totally cool is that!

WIPs, WIPs, wherever I turn...

2007-11-25T18:47:00.000Z

Even though Pinwheel is still in the naughty corner, it has at least meant that I've been forced to look elsewhere for knitty gratification. I'm aware that with approximately 15 projects on the needles at the moment, I cannot possibly justify casting on something new. Even if I did, the WIPs would be crying away in the [usually ignored] guilt corner of my brain and ruin said newly cast on project.

So I've knuckled down and got on with it - the blocking project photographed is a Noro Silk Garden scarf - folded in half to block, as there is nowhere big enough to stretch it out full. It's two colourways striped every two rows. It was knit lengthways because at the time I thought this would be more gratifying as there would be less rows ... that each row took an eon to finish was something that dawned on me later.

This scarf is to replace a threadworn big grey scarf my granny bought me a few years back - I always wear it at work to keep me toasty and it has two big pockets. So I made this scarf with two pockets also. The grey scarf has been worn so much that it is full of holes and I'm going to have to say my goodbyes to it soon.

I pushed the needles into the carpet with this funky thimble I got from Tokyo - makes the job much easier!

Earnshaw has also been making progress - look: a back, an almost complete front, and an almost complete sleeve! [Yes, it is abundantly clear to me that this a knitted dress ... I'm ignoring it so please don't mention that I'm flogging a dead horse, or I may cry]

Earnshaw is more of an endurance feat than an enjoyable hobby at the moment. Ella at my knitting meet was reminding me how I was the same with Central Park Hoodie - convinced that it's never growing, measuring it every row, and generally whinging to all that will listen that I'm bored of it.

I don't know how this happens. I mean really. I find a new project, get hyper-excited about it, look halfheartedly in my stash, then buy some yarn [I wanted some shiny new yarn really]. I can't possibly wait for it come standard delivery, so pay a fortune for express shipping.

It arrives and sits for a bit, while I work up the motivation to gauge. Then I realise I don't have the right size needles, so I have to send away for them too. I gauge, then wait until the weekend to wash and block the squares. While waiting for the squares to dry, a little of the excitement of the project wilts.

Then it's cast on time and excitement all over again! I'll do this every lunch, teatime, every evening and all weekend and it'll be done in no time.

By the time I'm halfway up the back I'm getting restless. I can see what the yarn looks like knit up, I know how the pattern works, I'm looking for a new challenge. Maybe I'll just cast on a wee hat - that'll break up the monotony. Before I know it, there's 15 projects on the needles, and all of them bore me.

Fortunately I'm feeling the love for Earnshaw again ... for now anyway ...

An FO

2007-11-13T20:50:00.000Z

Ever since the Pinwheel fiasco of late [still in the naughty corner] all my WIPs are taking on a 'blah' feeling. When this is combined with Christmas knitting which cannot be mentioned there was little left to blog about really.

My iPod cosy knitted a couple of years ago [with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton] has finally worn from overuse. Sure I could have frogged it and re-knit - but I felt it was time for a new design. And more importantly, time to get an FO out there just to make myself feel the knitty love once more.

Ta-da! A lovely snug cosy made from the remnants of the technicolour sock: Schoeller + Stahl Limbo Colour DK sock yarn in colourway 2539 Rainbow. It's so autumnal and the iPod cosy looks much better made from a finer yarn and smaller [3mm] needles.

Glasgow City Nights

2007-10-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

So it didn't turn out exactly how I planned, but I think this yarn was fated to have another colourway name; Glasgow City Nights. It reminds me of autumn, fireworks, dark evenings and orange city lights against red sandstone tenements.

Speaking of fireworks; thank you to the 3 moronic twats who felt it would be just hilarious to light a rocket directly outside our house at 3.30 am. I was unable to get asleep again for quite some time, so busy was my brain furiously penning letters to MSPs. We found the rocket this morning next to the car - I was all for submitting it to Toryglen polis for fingerprinting ...

With thanks to the boy for putting up with me and driving me around Glasgow during the 20 minutes of perfect 'evening sky' for some good blog pics.

Partial triumphs....

2007-10-21T18:29:00.000+01:00

I've been away from blogging land for abit - partially because the Ravelry forums are sucking away my life [in particular the pinny thread] and partially because I'm not having an awful lot of success on the fibre front of late.

Finally Pinwheel has been allowed off the naughty step and is currently blocking [looking to be about 5cm to small in the diameter which I think is totally fixable]. I have taken something good out of this debacle however; I have learned that once I have swatched I should go up 0.5mm needle size to get correct gauge for the 'real' knitting. Clearly I tense up a bit on the waste of time that gauge squares always feel like.

[Even though I'm planning on making a big project memory style blanket out of all the squares.]

A Christmas knitting gift [photographed in extreme close-up so as not to give the game away - the intended recipient is a reader] went a bit awry when I realised at the final hurdle that I had cast on the wrong number of stitches. The wrong number of stitches! I can't believe I failed at such an easy level! And then! - not to notice throughout another shaping aspect of the knitting because I ignored such lines as "you should have x number of stitches remaining, etc, etc" because it didn't even occur to me that I might not have the right number of stitches. *Le sigh* Knitty karma has swiped me once again.

I have cast on again ...

Good news - the yarn room is clean and organised - I'm very happy about this. Notice the extra empty pamphlet boxes to accomodate future knitting magazine purchases - I am thinking ahead.

I thought I'd play with my new Ashford dyes this weekend too. Notice my lovely new dyepot - she is pretty isn't she? So the kitchen was clingfilmed, then newspapered...

And the dyeing began. I wanted to create 'Kingfisher' as I saw one this year with the boy and apparently it's quite rare to see one, but I saw it right when I began birdwatching. I wanted the blue to be a Cerulean blue since this was the name of our hotel in Tokyo. The blue was spot on I think.

I used superwash sock yarn so that it was a total fudge it wouldn't matter as it'd be pretty much hidden anyway.

Then on Sunday I added the Kingsfisher orange - the perfect shade! This is where I should have stopped. Blue, orange and white - these are the colours of a Kingfisher.

But for some reason I decided it needed a brown for the muddy banks, and that was where it went a bit blugh. It turned out more purple brown than an orangey brown and doesn't look great. Unfortunately as it's quite a dark shade it's pretty much unfixable - unless anyone knows better? I'll probably just leave it though as my knitting karma seems to be set for October...

The final colours - I'm going to wait for it to dry then ball it up and see if it knits up nicely - I think it will as it's primarily the Cerulean Blue. Oh well, off to carry on with mystery Christmas shopping. Promise I won't leave it so long next time!

Gauge Rage

2007-10-04T19:48:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd get into the spirit of autumn and walk around Kelvingrove park taking pretty tree shots ... I was trying to re-find the things I love about Glasgow as it all seems a bit 'meh' after Japan. Various shots were ruined by the rubbish lying everywhere *sigh* so I went off to find the resident Heron at the pond ... instead I found a family of rats.

... and a fibre-stealing squirrel. I was on way to Knit n Stitch as well, so I was stacked with yarn.

In the spirit of the changing season I decided to sort out my craft room. Above is the clean bit. Then I ran out of shelf space and a trip to IKEA was needed ... and so below is what remains to be sorted. Despite appearances there is an order to the chaos.

And I got to the sleeve section of the Pinwheel Sweater - yay! Until ...

It's too [expletive] small!! I could cry. I really could. I mean I gauged the arse of this I swear! I bought 3 sets of sodding Addi circular needles ... IN THREE LENGTHS. I washed every single swatch. I was good right? I did what I supposed to?!! And I got bitten.

So I'm torn between washing and blocking what I have - just to see if it miraculously grows by 10 cms in diameter. Or frogging it and facing the fact that all my passion and love for this may wilt.

It's not the best time of the month for this to happen ... the following is the exact words the boy used when I expressed a desire to frog this quickly, like removing a plaster - before the shock wears off and I start to weep at months of wasted knitting;

"Maybe you should wait a bit? You're all hormonal at the moment and not thinking straight"

He maintains that he 'didn't mean it like that'.... He is currently residing in the dog house.

What should I do? Washing and blocking is a waste of time right? I just have to face this don't I?

A bit of culture...

2007-09-23T09:24:00.000+01:00

Well we're back in rainy Glasgow, and I think I'm sufficiently recovered from jetlag enough to be able to operate a PC, string a sentence together and complete my Japan blogging. Just in case you thought we'd spent our entire time playing in yarn shops, arcades and eating - a bit of culture was also had.

These pics are from the Meiji shrine and surrounding Yoyogi Park. The top pic is a big pond full of koi karp, terrapins and massive dragonflies. We had our lunch there - it was very peaceful and relaxing. The above picture was the dwarfing entrance to the shrine. We walked around the gardens and had lunch but we never visited the shrine itself. [It was a Saturday so fairly busy and really humid hot, so we were looking for a bit of peace from the crowds.]

This was me walking in the park - I used my umbrella to shade myself from the sun, but on this occasion it was up despite being in the shade ... due to the massive spiders that lurked.

This was just at the entrance to the park, where all the funky Harajuku kids hung out [you can see me in the right of the picture imploring the boy to hurry as I was wilting under the heat - I have no idea how these kids managed under all their outfits] It was weird really - all these kids were decked out in their cool clothes in a corner while tourists surrounded them taking films and photos.

Back inside the shrine area - barrels of sake donated to the shrine, and below - one of the lights along the way.

The above and below pictures were of Osaka castle [at the top of a hill in the park - extreme heat!] On the walk through the park to get to the castle we saw something of a trademark of Japanese parks - blue homeless tents everywhere in the trees [we assume - it wasn't like there was a sign, but it was pretty obvious] - very neat, with proper toilets and showers built in the centre of the blue tents.

The boy took up the '300 Yen to dress up like a samurai' on the 3rd floor - gathered quite a crowd of smiling [or laughing - who knows] Japanese tourists.

It wasn't really a castle so much as a 'castle shell' with an air-conditioned inside all done up like a museum - I really really appreciated it though, and bought a Hello Kitty at Osaka Castle face cloth from the gift shop. Doused in water, the face cloth was a huge relief in the heat, and so I joined the ranks of Japanese walking around with wet clothes dabbing their faces - great idea!

The above pic and two below were back in Tokyo - Asakusa, where we visited the Senso-ji, a Buddhist temple. This was a total tourist place - even the connecting Ueno station had an English sign stating the cost to Asakusa [they must have got fed up of tourists queuing up to ask] but still totally amazing.

The five storey pagoda is supposed to hold some of the ashes of Buddha. We went into the shrine itself and hung respectfully at the back watching people purchase bits of paper from drawers and either tie them to specially-made rungs or take them away with them. We were a bit unsure of what was going on really, but there were people clearly coming for spirituality in the midst of all the tourists and gift shops.

Afterwards we went for some yummy tempura lunch around the corner, and found the paper shop just outside the entrance - bought some stunning woodblock prints and Japanese paper.

Above: the boy had heard that there was a gojira [Godzilla] statue somewhere around Ginza so off we traipsed to look for it. I have to say: a anti-climax indeed...

And below: a samurai sword shop at Asakusa - the boy got this great picture while I was in buying a Hello Kitty Senjo-ji face cloth [my Osaka one needed a wash by this point]

On our final day we were just walking around Shibuya getting some last minute gifts and all the main streets were closed for some kind of festival. Lots of men clad in traditional clothes - drummers [amazing - you could feel it in your heart- and they were so so fast!], and people carrying golden shrine-type things about. We still have no idea what was going on, but it was definately a big deal whatever it was.

The picture above was the drummers - you can barely see the one on the left he's going so fast.

... and finally - we stored all our photos on flickr [click here] if you want to see more :)

We had an amazing time in Japan - I can't believe that I was worried. It's not always an easy holiday what with the weather and language barriers - but it's an fantastic place, and we'll be going back without a doubt.

Yuzawaya and all Kawaii'd out

2007-09-16T08:13:00.000+01:00

I made it to Yuzawaya in Kichijoji - wow! I mean wow! It was AMAZING! Unfortunately I had to be fairly restrained as I've reached my suitcase limits and am probably going to have to pay excess... There was a group of women knitting too. The yarn went on for about 15 aisles -loads of different brands and types. I bought some love variegated 'Scottish Heather' all purples and greens, and some variegated autumn colours from the same brand. I also got some organic cotton in quiet subtle shades. A few sets of needles in Japanese sizes so I have in-betweenies for those gauge crisis', and also some cherry ribbon and handle parts. I could have stayed in there all day, and spent millions...

The boy didn't seem to realise just how big it was - even though we left at breakfast and I had planned dinner in Kichijoji.

We also made it to the infamous Kiddyland in Harajuku - another wow! Probably 6 floors I think.

I think I'm all Kawaii'd out now :)

... and I finally managed to suss the UFO grabbers and win one or two ...

Oh well - we have to pack now so I guess the next coupla posts will have to wait until I get back - it's been utterly amazing here! Brilliant - well worth it!

Osaka

2007-09-12T13:05:00.000+01:00

Just back from a few days in Osaka. We went by bullet train [Shinkansen] and it only took 3 hours from Tokyo to Osaka. [About 300 miles I think - it slows down for station but otherwise I think we were going about 130 miles an hour]. It was a great experience. The staff leave carriages backwards, bowing to the carriage before the doors close - how nice is that?

The only issue was that sometimes it's going so fast that when it passes through bridges, the passing bars can create a strobe-like effect which is a bit uncomfortable.

I saw cranes and Mount Fuji, and there was never more than 5 fields between more houses. Never-ending people the whole way.

I did chicken out when I realised that we had to be at Tokyo station [7-8 stops away from Shibuya] during Tokyo rush hour. We went down to the desk to ask for advice - who agreed that it would be an utter-cram fest on the train.

Tokyo taxis are notoriously expensive but I didn't care. The trains are so busy at rush hour that if you have a panic attack or faint no-one else will notice and you can't even move your arms. No thanks... The taxi was fun to do - the doors are operated by the driver so you don't touch them - and there's no tipping!

This was our Shinakansen - the Hikari Tokaido Superexpress. 14 carriages of high-speed delight.

Found these funky little posters all over the Osaka stations - there were more in the series but we only snapped this one. Look at the drivers placid happy little face ... then the stern order "Stay out of here!" below. I'm sure these are done by the artist that does the Miffy books, but there was no mention [maybe there was and it was in Japanese]

We visited the Osaka Aquarium after dumping bags at the hotel - we also picked up a gap-year Australian student who was doing around the world on his own *gulp* the confidence of youth! This was me next to the King-daddy of the spider-crab tank.

We missed the whale shark - it's not in the tank for 3 days out of the year, and we chose to go on one of those days *sigh* The tank it was in was full of tuna, schools of fish, etc. - it was truely amazing and I probably can't convey just how big the whale shark's tank was. It took up 3 floor levels in depth - and each time you went down a floor you could view it from a different angle.

This was one of the cute little signs posted around the aquarium - this was in the jungle section and means 'watch out for falling leaves'. I love how all the Japanese cute signs convey their messages - they always graphically illustrate the reason why you aren't allowed to do something, but then soften the blow with kawaii little characters. Like to mind your fingers in the closing lift doors - they have stickers of cute little crabs grabbing at fingers.

This was us outside the aquarium.

And the next day we went to Universal Studios - which was hot, hot, hot and lotsa fun! The Spiderman ride was immense - but I was too scared and ended up hiding under the boy's armpit! Ditto Back to Future ride. Made all the more scary by the fact they're in Japanese so I don't know what's going on, when monster's are coming and so on. I liked the ET ride though, and managed to get my way and go round Snoopy's kiddyland - nice and safe.

The highlight of my life! I met the actual Japanese Hello Kitty!!! She was lovely and held my hands and posed with me for this photo. I smiled for a long time :-)

Tomorrow - Yuzawaya in Kichijoji - prepare for immense yarn purchases!

All things animal

2007-09-08T01:54:00.000+01:00

Well we lived through the hurricane - there was one point where I woke up and the building had stopped creaking and was now literally screaming in anger at the hurricanes attempts to remove it from it's foundation, but I couldn't feel any swaying or anything so felt confident it was OK [for 'confident' read 'lay awake wide-eyed and ready to leap into the cupboard at the first sound of glass breaking, lest I be sucked from the room at this high altitude'] and eventually dropped off.

The boy woke up later to a noise that he described as 'firemen with jet hoses directly outside the window firing not water, but bird seed at the glass'... I am SO glad I didn't wake at this point, though I have no idea how I slept through it.

In the morning all was calm, and cooler. Although a lot of train lines were suspended.

We have so far been brave in our Japanese dining, and embarked upon revolving sushi bar, tempura and shabu-shabu restaurants.

The one you see pictured is Shabu-Shabu [we went to Mo-Mo in Shibuya - where they have english menus - yay!]. This is thin strips of beef and a bubbling pot of boiling water in the middle where you swirl the beef on chopsticks for less than a minute and it's done! Then you dip it into one of 2 sauces and yum!

Perfect for me - I know exactly what I'm eating! Can you picture such a restaurant in Glasgow ... boiling pan of water combined with all-you-can-drink beer? Imagine the queues at A&E...

It's all you can eat, so once you've finished your fill of beef slices then you chuck all the veggies in for a beefy vegetable soup - no waste - clever, no? It was great and we're definately going back!

The revolving sushi bar was great fun - the staff were so friendly. I was expecting revolving sushi, but instead there was plates with Japanese signs on them for what they were, written with Kanji and Kana so the boy and I couldn't read them. Puzzled faces = menu with pictures!

I hadn't realised but it seems to be the norm to include Wasabi [hot hot Japanese horseradish] through sushi here. I nearly fell through the table! Trying not to draw anymore attention to our big Western selves, I motioned the women over and replaced the word 'tomato' with the word 'wasabi' in my prepared Japanese phrase: Can I have this without ...' and all was fine again. I have also memorised the word for water!!

And yesterday at Sunshine City we went to a tempura restaurant [well chain - probably the McDs of Toyko]. Tempura is fish and vegetables fried in a light crispy batter with either rice or noodles. It's practically Scottish! [Actually brought over by the Portuguese]

Everytime we go towards a Japanese restaurant I'm so nervous - especially this one as it was full of Japanese men - everything in me wanted to run to KFC [I place I wouldn't frequent if you paid me in Glasgow, but it's familiar] but so far I've not lost my nerve. And everytime the food has been fantastic and the staff just lovely.

So we went to Sunshine City yesterday [no yarn - it's an aquarium] in Ikebukero. I did however manage to squeeze in a visit to a Hello Kitty gift gate. It was cool although the seals and otters looked quite sad in their confined little spaces. There were some cool fish we'd never seen, and a whole lotta spider-crabs [see below]

And finally, some shots of the view from our hotel. When the woman opened the blinds I nearly fell on the floor - we're so high. Only the 26th floor as well. I remember being so excited that our hotel is the highest in the area - I didn't really think about it until we go here and we looking down ...

You can see Mount Fuji [on a clear day - we haven't had one yet], a stacking car park, a ferris wheel, a dog nursery [directly below where they all run about on the roof all day] and so so so mch more! I think we could just look out of this window everyday for a fortnight and constantly see new things.

Creature Comforts and knitty goodness

2007-09-06T09:05:00.000+01:00

Home early this evening thanks to the hurricane - just lots of rain and a creaking hotel at the moment, but I think it's due to get worse later so we're staying in the hotel. I checked with the desk this morning before we went out: [as we can't understand the Japanese weather channel and the BBC hasn't been bothered to update the latest for 24 hours...]

"Today's weather" I said to the reception woman [by way of setting the subject before I embarked on broken Japanese/English with pantomime hands]. "Aah yes" she said, before I could begin; "it will be rain with hurricane in evening. Thank you." - not much more to be said really I suppose!

Last night we were supposed to be going to the Shabu-Shabu restaurant that Bob and Charlotte go to in Lost in Translation. However the boy translated the words "put the translation book in your bag" to mean "throw the translation book on the bed" and so we ended up outside the restaurant for 5 minutes before decided that we weren't confident enough to try such specialist eating without a book to at least give the waiting staff some idea of what we wanted.

I was all for throwing in the towel and getting rice balls from the 7-11 on the 2nd floor of our hotel , but the boy convinced me to try again. We ended up at Hobgoblin - a British pub just round the corner. It was SO GOOD! In photos of Tokyo you can often see long vertical stripes of neon signs down buildings - these are usually advertising what is on each floor - so our pub was on level 3. It's quite strange - you go into what looks like an apartment close and get in the lift. Then the doors open on Level 3 and it's a british pub!

Also on my travels I found Japanese Corn Flakes - not bad! So breakfast is sorted.

A few shots of the Shibuya crossing just 2 mins walk from our hotel. Photos don't really cover how it is here - it's so busy, and there's a giant TV screen at every side so there's noise noise noise constantly competing for your attention, plus people standing shouting adverts for Karaoke bars on the streets, and cool-as-ice Japanese kids everywhere smoking and exuding 'I am so cool' attitude all over the pavements.

Every so often we walk past a place where the automatic doors slide open and there's all these middle-aged couples playing something in an arcade type environment that involves trays and trays of ball-bearings - it's overwhelming smoky, and there's a pumping techno beats - what's that all about?

This is all the information we can get from the weather channel - does this mean the hurricane gets bigger?!

This morning:
We embarked on our first train journey and went off to Shibuya this morning. The train was quite easy - there's an English tannoy on the train to tell you the next station, time of arrival, which side the doors will open on etc. So efficient! The problems only come with the approx 50 exits to every station ...

I managed to find Okadaya relatively easily, and oh, it was bliss! Spent quite a bit :) And forgot to mention - yesterday in Tokyu Hands they had this yarn that said "Shetland Yarn", then "Made in England" and had a British logo... I couldn't take a photo unfortunately because everyone is very uptight about any photos being taken - I even asked in Okadaya but she said no :( You'll just have to take my word for it that it was cool.

Here's all my goodies:

An amigurumi kit for making a frog and a double-ended crochet hook with a different size at each end.

Some Hello Kitty yarn - which is 100% Acrylic but I just couldn't resist!

Some more Tokyu Hands fun stuff - and a baby Pink Panther that I finally won at the UFO catchers! It may have been easier as it was a child's UFO Catcher [I assume as I had to kneel on the floor to use it] but I'm not fussy at this stage!

Enough of this lovely un-dyed 100% wool [which is so so soft] for a jumper. I even managed to ask the woman in Japanese for balls from the store room as there wasn't enough on the shelf.

When I say Japanese I do mean I said the number 12 then visually illustrated that there was only 9 on the shelf - I dont mean flawless fluent beautiful Japanese - but I got the point across :0)

And 6 balls of this merino wool - the shades are just sumptious - so delicate - I think it's going to be a scarf. I have my Jaywalkers with me but I'm just not feeling the love so I needed another project as I haven't knat for days.

And finally another amigurumi book with the cutest little animals, and a book demonstrating all the stitches that Japanese charts use in their patterns. I got these from Kinokuniya bookshop in Shinjuku [all the knitting books are on the 2nd floor [down one from the floor you come in at] and left from the escalators - they're in the middle of the 3 aisles coming from the wall]

Phew! Lotta writing - that's me for tonight. We're just back from a Sushi restaurant with the revolving bar - but more about that tomorrow.

I'm here!

2007-09-05T09:30:00.000+01:00

Yep - we made it!! I'm over-stimulated to the max so I'll probably not make a lot of sense...

Seen so many things in the last day that it would take a year just to document it all. The top pic is the arrivals board at Narita Airport. The 2nd pic is the Welcome to Japan sign. We were delayed by over 3 hours in Amsterdam which made it quite hard going initially.

First stop [naturally] was Tokyu Hands. We've only scratched the surface of this immense amazing shop - a pic of my new goodies above: Some felt buttons, cool Kana and rabbit stickers, lots of Japanese pencils advertising sweets, an amigurimi [sp?] how-to, a knitting pattern book, and a Clover bag-making template thingy. Just so cool!

They also had earthquake proof sticky stuff to stop your TV falling during quakes, with accompanying simulation earthquake display to prove it ... *gulp*

Also bought a big transparent umbrella a-la Charlotte in Lost in Translation - I've always wanted one and they're everywhere. Quite useful as it's about 30 and really humid with rain showers every now and again. Fighting off a migraine but trying not to let in dampen my spirits. Typhoon due in on Thursday...

One of the streets of Shibuya.

We played for a while in the crazy saccrine-sweet, smoky, noisy, coloured-saturated game arcades. Got a few pics before a woman came over shaking her hands in the 'no camera' international sign language. Bowed and sumimansen'd my way out of it I think.

I didn't win anything - even when the Sega guy took pity and came over bowing lots, opened the case and repositioned all the cuddlies to give me a better shot!]

Also got some fab photos together in those booths where you can pic your background and everything - it turned out really confusing though so I had to ask a schoolgirl for help [my Japanese is doing OK - made myself understood quite a bit - yay!] In the end there were 5 of them all gathered around the booth waiting for our photos to come out. It was fairly embarassing as we couldn't really say anything except 'thank you so much'.

Then we had lunch in a park ... can you believe this - I was totally sold on the marketing!
Having an immense time - loads more photos to upload and things to tell. The food issues are OK - there are 7-11s and mini-mart type things everywhere. It's about 6pm here at the moment so we're going to think about somewhere to eat now.

Latest Wips

2007-08-26T18:20:00.000+01:00

*emerging blinking into the sunlight from Ravelry* yep I'm still here. It's taken a while and I'm only 3/4 through uploading my stash, 3/4 through uploading the WIPs, and barely 1/1000 through uploading the queue works.

I've been having fun with swaps, and chatting on the forums.

Anyways, back to knitting [and crocheting this week] - I've been motoring on with Pinwheel Sweater; I'm loving the colour choices. I had hoped to have this as part of comfy, cosy plane outfit but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen now.

Luna Moth has stalled for the moment.

Miller's has given up on trying to sell yarn, and everything is bargain bin. Picked up six balls of Sirdar Click [it has some wool in it...] for 50p a ball - thought it would be perfect for a wrap for work as it is machine-washable. This is one of the stitches from Ripple Stitch Patterns called Delicate Lace.

I love crochet for the fast return - I started this on Friday evening, and have been working on both it and Pinwheel. I'm on ball 2 already!

Ravelry

2007-08-15T07:12:00.000+01:00

I'm in!!!
And it is as good they say...
I'm going to be busy cataloguing my stash/needles and projects
See you soon!
Elaine x

Ravelry

2007-08-11T18:19:00.001+01:00

My invite to Ravelry

You signed up on June 13, 2007
You are #8643 on the list.
190 people are ahead of you in line.
15838 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

So close!!

and the next WIP ...

2007-08-08T18:58:00.000+01:00

... is Pinwheel Sweater. Which had made it as far as the sleeves before I realised that I had an extra yarn over about mid-way through the 2nd yellow. I put it down very gently in the yarn room and closed the door on it for a day or so until my emotions had moved past wanting to set fire to it.

There is really no way around an extra yarn over with this kind of pattern - an extra yarn over in Icarus was resolved by a darning needle and some matching yarn. With Pinwheel however, this makes the segments have unequal stitch numbers, and the cool funky twisty-turness of the segments means that any plan of dropping down to fix such errors are impossible.

I took back out of the room and glared at it for a couple of days over my Summertime Tunic [simply round and round stockinette] but the yarn over remained defiant and glared back.

And so, I took a darning needle and threaded contrasting yarn a row below to make an after-thought lifeline [since this worked so well with Icarus]. It was mighty hard around the yarn over bits. Then I frogged back. Quickly.

Now I'm at the start of colour 3 again.

There also would have been shots of Rogue [up to row 9 of the 1st chart] however I made a big mistake in the cables which a bit of patient tinking probably would have resolved. Coming so soon after the Great Pinwheel Yarn Over Fiasco however ... Well, Rogue didn't stand a chance. It was frogged and rewound into balls smartly, like removing a plaster - before the realisation of another frogging sank in.

one wip of many ...

2007-08-05T15:39:00.000+01:00

I've had so many wips, birthday pressies and knitty news of late that I didn't even know where to begin with blogging, and consequently there have been few posts lately.

After a period of avoidance I realised that I was being a bit silly ... knitting is supposed to be fun, not stressful. And I'm only 938 invites away from the supreme organisational powers of Ravelry that will help me to feel more in control of my obsession.

And so, one at a time I decided ... starting with the utterly stunning Handmaiden Sea Silk that I bought from K1 Yarns with birthday vouchers from my work colleagues. As you can see it has sat in my stash for a minimal amount of time [the time taken to free the needles from Icarus] before becoming a wip.

Handmaiden Sea Silk is a Canadian yarn made of 70% silk and 30% SeaCell [made from Seaweed that has magic properties for your skin]

It's colourway Moss, is the most sumptious knit and is becoming the Luna Moth Shawl [free pattern from elann.com]. I'll shut up now and let the pictures do the talking ...

Icarus complete!!

2007-07-29T17:24:00.000+01:00

I've been away for a couple of weeks doing this; Icarus! My first ever lace shawl, and I have been bitten by the lace-y bug! I've heard the Yarn Harlot speak of the 'magic' of lace blocking, and now I too have experienced the magic ... and it is AMAZING! [although I had to wear a plastic on my thumbs for the next couple of days after pushing all those pins into the carpet]

This shawl chose me - I went to see Sunshine at the cinema [alright, but mince for the last 3rd of the film] and the spacecraft was called Icarus. Random knit-blog surfing after the film found me at Mirum's blog. I love the design - it's Icarus' frame with the feathers having melted to the ends.

I used handpaintedyarn.com's laceweight - colourways Bombon and Sunshine Yellow.

Like Icarus, I too began in a cocky manner, convinced of my success and confident that I didn't need lifelines or stitch-markers to mark pattern repeats. I learned my lesson [along with how to tink lace and cry without letting the tears splash the yarn ...]

I found the idea for a colour change on Craftster and thought that the smouldering shawl would be fantastically highlighted by the tips being 'on fire'.

I've swung back and forth with whether I actually like the colours, but since I've finished Icarus it hasn't been off my shoulders!

My only problems with the pattern were remembering the separate ways to yarn over, depending on whether after a purl, before a knit etc.

I would recommend this as a first lace shawl - the frame section is relatively easy, and the lace section was a good introduction.

Bedtime Bear

2007-06-29T21:46:00.000+01:00

Presenting .... : Bedtime Bear! Made for a work colleagues 1 year old little girl.
Pattern: Simply Knitting Magazine, Issue 13 April
Yarn: GGH Amelie [now discontinued, but still available at Loop]
Skills learned: First time making a knitted toy and embroidering onto knitted fabric.
Modifications: None - had to knit blind as I had no idea how it was going to become a bear until nearly sewing up time.

An added label on her bum!

I wanted it to look like the old-fashioned style bears, but with the more modern yarn, and I hope she loves it.

Family knits

2007-06-20T17:35:00.000+01:00

I was home in Elgin at the weekend and got to chatting with my mum about knitting and one thing led to another and doll's clothes, our baby clothes, knitting magazines etc. got pulled out of the attic. There is so much to blog about that this is post 1 of 2!

Above is a cardigan my dad knitted for me when I was born [pic of me in it below]. It's blue not because they were expecting/hoping for a boy, but because blue would look OK on a girl, but pink maybe not so much on a boy.

My mum helped by casting on and off, and seaming the sleeves, but other than that this is all my dad's work!

This was knitted by my great-granny for a doll - although there are pictures of me in it. A doll!! Look at the work in it - I could never give so much for little girl's doll, and I took a lot of photos of it - Fair Isle is next on my list, so I was entranced by this stunning cardigan.

Reverse photos ...

This pink shawl was knitted by my granny for my mum when she was a baby - it was cream then. My mum dyed it pink and it was passed down a generation to me when I was a baby. It was knitted in Brora wool [and I think the cardi above was too]

detailed shot ...

[There were many many more photos, however they didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.]

Finally a pic of me at the Osprey Centre at Abernethy where I saw a baby Osprey [sadly it has died since] and it's parents feeding it. So I got an Osprey cuddly toy from the boy [with real Osprey sounds when you press it's belly - I didn't whilst there - but the cat fairly got a shock when I let it screech in the house]

There was a point where one of the staff exclaimed that the dad was coming back to feed the chick with a big fish in his mouth, and the birdwatchers stampeded in a flock to all available binoculars and telescopes. I figured a similar event would happen were someone to shout that free silk laceweight was available outside during one of our Knit n' Stitch meets!

Cotton Crochet Market Bag

2007-06-13T19:15:00.000+01:00

Finished!
Pattern: Free - Bernat Cotton Crochet Market Market
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton 3 balls
Skills learnt: All of it - brand new to crochet.
Modifications: The strap originally went the other way, but I felt tote-style made it lie better - it just felt twisted the other way [see pattern link]

I'll be taking this with me to Japan as it expands and therefore can fit lots of yarn.
Not an awful lot else to say really... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A new angle

2007-06-04T17:17:00.000+01:00

Encouraged by K1 Yarns and Sarah, the boy and I visited the Lighthouse this weekend for the Scottish Show/Six Cities exhibition. There were lots of cool things to look at and think about - in particular someone's suggestion to improve the entrance to the Mitchell Library by covering over the gaping motorway hole with a lovely flat green space. So simple, but such a lovely idea. He wrote to the relevant authorities but no answer as yet ...

Anyways, we climbed alot of circular stairway steps to get the top of the Lighthouse tower - I had to be persuaded, and had I not been wearing my pedomoeter the boy probably wouldn't have got me up there [no pedometer = wasted steps].

It's amazing how a different perspective can shed a whole new light on a place [click for giant pics];

The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art [spiky pointy roof]

The formidable Gorbals Towers

How did they get there to tag this?

A lovely roof garden - bet they love all the people staring at them from the Lighthouse tower - especially those that take photos ... In the distance; Glasgow tower blocks.

Just liked the perspective of this one.

I loved the colours and perspective of this shot.

And back to all things knitty; I have fallen in love with Elann's Pinwheel sweater [free pattern here]. I have a few balls of Wool of the Andes from various swaps, Canadian friends' kind mum's, etc., and I think that I can put these together with a few balls of Elann's yarn to make this. I'm thinking browns, springy greens, golden yellows and pale cream. There's even a knit-a-long for this, although it seems fairly quiet.

I can't believe it's been a year since I finished the baby blanket for my boss's little girl - she is 1 on 2nd July, so I have bought the yarn for this Bedtime Teddy. A pattern from Simply Knitting Issue 13. It'll be my first toy, and if it goes well, probably a staple pattern for future baby presents.

Crochet is going well - I'm onto a mesh bag for Japan - it's for cramming all the yarn I plan to buy in, so it is expandable. Clever, no? Made with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, free pattern here.

And a final kitty watching the birds shot. I'm currently addicted to Springwatch and I think we may have baby blue tits any day now. Mum and Dad Blue Tit have been hauling food back to what I hope is a nest full of babies for quite a while now. The boy is so happy that I love watching the birds - I've long mocked him for this hobby, without realising how cool it is to watch wee birds having dust baths, and feeding their fluffy babies. Wish we had more blue tits and less boring brown sparrows though.

By Jove I think she's got it!

2007-05-30T17:14:00.000+01:00

Huge shout of appreciation to Kathleen for leaving a link to some excellent crochet videos in my comments! Crochet definately seems less catered to on the interweb so if you have any funky links please please leave them in my comments.

The videos combined with this Craftster post made me sigh out loud. As Kathleen had suggested when I showed her my drunken 'v's, I was in fact crocheting slip stitches. Through no fault of my own I might add - the Happy Hooker book has a fatal flaw; the single crochet instructions are actually instructions for slip stitch.

So I have mastered slip stitch, and for those that wonder what happens if you crochet slip stitch: you get a sideways knitted fabric...

[above] You can literally see where the penny dropped. Thanks also to Ella at the Knit n' Stitch for keeping me right. Once I'd mastered the first basic stitch it was time to address those row ends and beginnings ...

Ta-da!!! 20 stitches of Single Crochet [Double Crochet UK], Half-Double Crochet [Half-Treble UK], Double Crochet [Treble UK], and Triple Crochet [Double Treble UK] - woohoo!

...and after that I began to run. A circle [bit of trouble with the row ends/beginnings though - Happy Hooker didn't mention whether to keep going round or to turn back]

The ultimate in crochet mastery; the Granny Square! I can't believe I made these! They are so funkylicious! Now I'm addicted to squares and will probably make enough for a blanket before to long. They are so quick and fab for using up spare bits of yarn. This is all cheapo acrylic for practicing.

I may need some help with sewing them together if anyone at the meet knows how to do this?

Knitty love and Crochet hell

2007-05-24T18:03:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it's been a fortnight since my last post.Various things have kept me away; Blogger, the camera, lack of writerly mood, the lack of excitement in photographing Icarus - stunning, and so exciting, but at the moment it's really just a clump of lace knitting on circs.

But mainly my hand has been giving me trouble. It's been tingling, and 'nerve-jumping' for a while, causing me problems with knitting [gah!], keeping in touch with friends [email & texts] and gaming. All of which has made me blue. Honestly, I don't know how people can just veg out in front of the TV and do nothing - tried it, and turned into a crabby person within 2 hours.

I mentioned my plan to restrict my knitting/gaming at work. My colleague said 'yeah, don't knit for a week or so, that should help'. I meant I wasn't going to knit for 24 hours. A week! A full entire endless week with no knitting *shudder* Not possible.

So I did everything else. Swapped my mouse over, adjusted seat, monitor etc. a-la University workplace guidelines, stopped slouching and sat up in my seat. I've walked lots [over 12000 steps the day I walked to K1 Yarns after work] in attempt to 'fix' the twinge in my back which is probably causing the hand strain.

Everything is feeling a bit better now - I haven't felt the tingling for a few days. Clearly my sedentry hobbies are not helping. The fear of being unable to knit or game appears to have motivated me to take exercise where every other motivational tool has failed. I don't care about floppy muscles or an inability to run to catch the bus.

I DO care VERY MUCH about being unable to knit though...

Thought I'd try my hand at crochet ... the top attempt began as a rectangle and ended up 'freeform' to get used to the crochet actions.

My second rectangle - a pair of lips! ... I started using stripes in a vain attempt to ensure I was using the correct 'v's with my hook. My 'v's are drunken and slope off to one side - I have no idea why this is so. Trying to work it out caused me to flip a bit though... I tried to demonstrate to the boy how knitting is the art of giving one pointy stick a stitch with another pointy stick, whereas crochet seems to be jamming the bluntest part of a hook directly into the fabric causing much yarn splittage and expletives.

The inability of the boy to understand and help led to further rage and a call to my mum; who offered to show me next time I visit [I'm sure she can't wait!] When I can't grasp something I tend to get all rage-ful, stressed and cross, which doesn't help. I learned knitting via the medium of rage, and it seems to have worked though ...

The thing that makes me cross is that this is my great-granny's hobby. And she was brilliant at it. So I feel like it should be built into my genes somehow in the way that knitting is. Hopefully soon I will be able to present an actual rectangle, that I can read and see the rows and stitches in, rather than a wooly mess.

I have been in the land of pattern-reading of late, since I wasn't able to actually knit much. So I bought a few mags, browsed the web and found some lovely patterns to add to the catalogue of Works in the Queue.

Toe-up sock pattern from Interweave Knits...

Summertime Tunic, also from Interweave Knits. You know the patterns you look at and just 'know' - like Central Park Hoodie? Well this is one of those - and there's even a KAL. Whoop! Love it. Love the simplicity of the pattern - this is a meetup pattern for sure.

Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's funky Colinette jumper from Vogue Knitting - I adore this so much. Priced it at Colinette - £74!! Perhaps this will just stay as a picture then ...

In Oxfam I found this total gem of a Patons pattern book from the seventies;

I really want to make the jumper in Christmas green with white and red reindeer. I'm thinking Home Alone - the American Christmas with everything festive and themed - I need a Christmas jumper. The hat and mittens are a bit overkill though - esp. on a beach in summer....

This intarsia pattern is delicious - it was a man's jumper that was so vile Blogger probably would have rejected the image so I cropped it so that it wouldn't detract from the beauty of the pattern.

I love this librarian-type 3-quarter sleeve top - too cute!

Look at her retro serene-ness - the sleeves are fabulous!

And a final shot of the area where I live [next to Hampden Park, Glasgow] during the UEFA cup final. Both Spanish teams had to come to Glasgow to this weather, poor things.

Busy old week ...

2007-05-10T17:34:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy week, what with Scottish election going on. It was busy for me as I work in an official publications library, so there was displays to put up and continuous updating required as the results trickled in. I was really pleased to see crowds of interested students around the displays reading the latest news on spoiled ballots, results etc. It made it all worthwhile.

On the other hand some of the students have been getting up to high jinks relieving exam stresses in the library - I came in this morning to find books wrapped in pairs of boys underpants [!] stuffed into the roof of the lift ...

And the Uni has put on a Pedometer Challenge - all staff signing up get a pedometer and those that show the most improvement could win a prize - it's all very compulsive, this step counting. There's all kinds of fancy technologies attached to this gizmo - for example, I've burned 1933 calories walking and walked 2.46 km - the life of a library assistant is quite active it would seem. The challenge begins next week.

Onto knitty content - does anyone know how many calories knitting burns *thinking of Excel spreadsheets and how much chocolate I could have if I exercise-knit*

Icarus is coming on well -although it's kinda 'saggy'-looking when photographed. The safety pin is where I have an extra yarn-over and absolutely no inclination to drop down and try to fix this. A darning needle and some yarn at the end will sort this out.

I read this blog and her happy accident helped me to see how 2 colours would work with Icarus. I have decided to do the same with mine- with this 'just burst into flames' scorching hot yellow colour.

Whaddya think? I may even add some amber-coloured Swarovski bicones to the ends as the designer Miriam demonstrates so clearly how to add them, and I think it might add a bit of weight [and sparkle] to Icarus.

Summery Icarus

2007-05-03T08:45:00.000+01:00

It has been lovely these last few days in Glasgow - perfect sunny Icarus weather! I finally knat back the 4 rows to fix the problem above by 6pm on Friday. After dinner on Friday I sat back to resume when ... [click to enlarge the pic] if you look closely you will be able to see that I have knit 2 together on either side on the central line for two more lace knit rows below ...

What had taken 2 days of painstaking fixing has been done twice as much below. The boy saw me staring closely at Icarus and remarked that I looked as if I had been punched in the stomach...

... and so I decided that there were 2 options. Frog the whole thing [given the yarns' fusion capabilities this was not appealing] or try to fix it. I added an after-thought lifeline [yes I can hear how ridiculous and unlikely this is to work - but I was desperate!] and frogged back 5-ish rows.

Of course navigating the lifeline row amongst k2togs, yos and ssks was bound to be troublesome - especially as this is my first shawl. I learned ALOT about lace yarn fabric - including; how to rectify stitches picked up from the row above and the row below, how to k2tog, ssk using a crochet hook, how to add/remove yarn overs and so on.

Of course it shouldn't have worked - Karma should have punished me good for even trying such a thing as an 'after-thought' lifeline. But I was determined and - after many, many, many hours - it was fixed.

A lifeline has been added, and I will not knit Icarus at knitting meeting again - I have learned my lesson.

Such was the lovely sunniness yesterday that I took Icarus all to a grassy bit next to the Uni ...

... set up a wee area with iPod, strawberries, water and spent a happy hour lace knitting in the sun. Taking pictures of my own lap did draw a few curious looks ...

A final pretty shot of the tenements in Glasgow.

Central Park Hoodie Complete!

2007-04-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

Central Park Hoodie is complete! I'm just squinting in the sun by the way - I am happy. It was a lovely day in Glasgow today, and we found this fabulous tree hidden away in Shawlands which looked like a great place for a CPH photoshoot.

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie from Knitscene Fall 2006.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in colour 9430.
Started: August 2006 - finished April 2007
Skeins used - about 5 and a bit for size 36.

Modifications - grafted the hood rather than 3-needle bind-off for neatness.
I found the front side panels to narrow so knat an extra inch of ribbing on either side.

If I did it again - I would knit wider front panels, and probably the sleeves for the size up. It was a bit snug but blocking helped. I'm a 32-34 inch bust and I knit the 36. I think I might knit another in the next size up for 'fat' days.

Skills learned - buttonholes and picking up stitches [thanks Granny :0) ]

A shot of CPH with my newly arrived Gamerchix t-shirt. Personalised with my gamertag 'Vyol8' [violate - get it?] It's a gamer 'club' [2000 members at the moment] for the girls of the Xbox - sometimes it's tough being a girl in a largely male-dominated community, so we have our own online hang-out.

I'm quite pleased with the shoulder seams - I didn't do a 3-needle bind of because it would have required short rows [haven't done yet] so I was a bit worried it would be messy. I think it's OK though.

Icarus has begun!

2007-04-25T17:29:00.000+01:00

The yarn has arrived and Icarus has begun! 100% wool hand-dyed laceweight from handpaintedyarn.com in colourway Bombon. I love all the beautiful colours - exactly what I was trying to create - hot, burnt, golden, sun, Icarus.

But see below ... this is what happens when I think the following;
I've never tried a lace shawl before, but hey - this bit of the chart is easy - I don't need a life-line... Even as I thought this I could see Lilith's expression. I tempted Karma further by thinking; Och I'm on the 2nd repeat - I can do this at the Knit n' Stitch meet up without problems - there is a rest row after all...

And then the final carefree thought that brought Karma stampeding my way; I don't need the central stitch markers, I'm not an idiot - anyone can see where the centre line is.

I discovered what I had done this morning before work. Every line of yarn overs has the following pattern: k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk except the central line of yarn overs, which [in order to make the triangle shape] is only yo, k1, yo.

I have learned that if I don't have stitch markers in the central line then I will do 2 extra decreases and lose a couple of yarn overs and ... well a bloody mess i what I have learned! I can't even begin to describe it. I know exactly what I've done though.

And if I hadn't seen it [pre-caffine] this morning before work [and before rational thought] I probably would've been OK. As it turned out I thought that I could fix this without knitting back 3 rows. I thought that I was 'cleverer' that Karma.

I have been slapped down.

At tea break I realised that going back stitch by stitch was inevitable. Resigned, I set to it.

Continued through lunch ... [and renamed the lovely laceweight 'Fusion; never-gonna-separate']

And late tea ...

Now: I get to the bit where I tried to fix the tangle of this morning's bright spark ideas. Hmm ... the tangle was such that the only way to continue was to force a ball of yarn through a hole the size of a stitch. Now how the [expletive] did I manage to do this!? I mean how! There would have been a photo but I was busy crying and growling.

Rage took over - I yanked about 20 stitches off the needle and pulled the yarn to try and release it. I thought I could 'scare' both the yarn and Karma. But [as with the students at the academic library where I work] once you show that you've lost control the battle is lost.

And the photo is where I'm at. It's not a lost cause - I'm still in the 'I can fix this' bubble. Watch this space.

Restless knitter

2007-04-17T17:46:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I blogged - I can't seem to settle and just 'get on' and 'focus'. Above - I received the yarn for Rogue - Texere Yarns Aran weight Blue-faced Leicester in Petrol Blue. It is SO soft and delicious!! I'm in love with Blue-faced Leicester! So I immediately set down to start tension squares [for all the good they'll do...] Got one done before I realised that I didn't have enough Addi Turbo straights in any useful sizes. So I ordered some from Angel Yarns - I received an email a week later saying that they were out of stock. This is not the first time I've ordered from Angel Yarns only for the item to be out of stock - they clearly don't understand my impulsive spirit! So the project has stalled for now ...

And so I cast on for another Branching Out in a sockweight yarn that I bought last year from Ysolda at the Miso Funky markets. She dyed it herself - the colours are so spring-like and natural - perfect for a leafy lace scarf.

I finished the back, and started the front of Earnshaw for a bit of mindless knitting. I thought straight garter stitch would be great, but I haven't done it since I learned to knit - it hurts! Maybe I'll take this opportunity to learn the other way [I think I'm continental but I don't know - I'm a 'thrower' with the yarn]

And this is my next big project - Icarus. I felt it was fate - the boy and I went to see Sunshine at the pics last week and that ship was called Icarus. Perhaps not the best name for a ship flying to the sun as it's mission ... After the film [good until the last third, then pants til the end] I was blog-browsing and found myself at the designer's blog.

I am in love - the pattern illustrates the frame of Icarus' wings with the feathers all gathered at the ends, having slid there due to the melting wax. So I've bought some 'hot' coloured yarn from handpaintedyarn.com - only $8.20 shipping with tracking to the UK for 5 skeins of laceweight [I couldn't pick a colour - so I have enough for about 4 Icarus shawls should I feel so inclined... I love tracking - at the moment my yarn is in Argentina.

A pic of the kitty - he has been all sad lately and I think this pic shows his mood well. After a visit to the vet he is on a diet ... my poor little fat cat. I didn't realise how big he was getting. I wish someone could restrict my food like this so I could shift a couple of pounds. He doesn't seem to appreciate how lucky he is ...

A trip to the Miffy Birthday exhibition at the National Library, Edinburgh. Too cool - drop in if you're about. Also the Pixar exhibition is definately not to be missed!

And finally ... some blueberry cookies from Cookies Galore. Delicious and totally easy to make! Oh yes, and Central Park Hoodie is complete!! I'll take photos probably this weekend if the weather is good.

SoCherry Knits

New blog

Crap blogger

Almost a month

Ravelry Day 2009

Dreich

Gawd

Rogue

Hat trick

Domestic nerdess ...

All about the birds ...

Paparazzi - the natural way

tumbleweeds

Beads n' yarn n' stuff

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ...

yawn ... *stretch*

Festiveness

I'm still here ...

oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!

I just can't stop ...

Cakes

Celebknitty

A response

Scottish Television

Identical hand twins ...

Granny's Heiland Hame

when I'm counting it means don't speak to me...

tick tock, tick tock, tick tock!

Day 8

Day 5

Day 3

Day 2

It has begun

Twilley's Freedom Spirit VestTop

the clock is ticking ...

The Sun is out!

Does anyone else's cat ...

Woolfest joy in the Lake District

Grab a cup of tea ...

Congratulations!!

So tired ...

The Central Park Hoodie is flying and the Peregrine is sitting

Cabling along ...

Firing through the wips

Glasgow Socks complete!

Kites and sites ...

Fourth time's the charm ...

An FO and a new challenge

Project Fatigue

Only 202 days to go...

It's been a while...

Maybe it's time for a new hobby ...

The 2nd day of Christmas

WIPs, WIPs, wherever I turn...

An FO

Glasgow City Nights

Partial triumphs....

Gauge Rage

A bit of culture...

Yuzawaya and all Kawaii'd out

Osaka

All things animal

Creature Comforts and knitty goodness

I'm here!

Latest Wips

Ravelry

Ravelry

and the next WIP ...

one wip of many ...

Icarus complete!!

Bedtime Bear

Family knits

Cotton Crochet Market Bag

A new angle

By Jove I think she's got it!

Knitty love and Crochet hell

Busy old week ...

Summery Icarus

Central Park Hoodie Complete!

Icarus has begun!

yawn ... stretch