Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary, 20 years! Wow, that is a looonnng time!
To celebrate I am trying to find us somewhere to visit for the weekend, with 2 teenagers and dog of course, not too easy.
So if any of you know anywhere exciting to visit, not toooo far away with somewhere that takes well behaved labradors and mostly well behaved boys, please let me know. Searching the internet has given me a severe twitch in one eye, so am off to knit and plan a yummy dinner, tchao

Monday, October 29, 2007

Good morning, good morning


The sun is shining, hoorah, hoorah, its the holidays.
We are very excited its the school holidays, the last couple of weeks of school seriously kicked our butts,
I for one, am so glad its over and I don't even have to go to school.
Well except when summoned but lets not talk about that.

So the thing is, did you know that stress makes you start lots of new projects and not finish any, seriously it does.
So where to start, lets see, so this gorgeous roving from Natalie



became this.

and its finished, yeah for FO's, problem is he thinks its a girls hat and a bit tight, thats okay one of the boys loves it, my DH definitely doesn't deserve knitting, woolly things are TOO warm and here was me thought that was the whole point!!

The gorgeous roving from Maylin became this


and this



which wants to become these, soonish as its getting a little chilly here.

If I am knitting you a xmas present don't look here, or here.

I am boring myself to death knitting the boringest ever baby blanket, here.



Some silk from Jen became this



some alpaca and beads became this, so soft and squishy, thanks Jen.


There are also a couple of things that have been started and frogged and a couple with no pictures, I am hoping to get more organised in the holidays, well as organised as I ever get.

I am glad to say my parcels to Isabella and Rebecca made it safely, though the Royal Mail strike has eaten one of mine AND it had sock yarn in it and there is a little space in the drawer, just for it!

I think I have to start my xmas list, I MUST have this, so am searching for the perfect thistle yarn, problem is, I think I need to see the yarn in person, so if you see perfect thistle yarn, let me know, okay, thanks, tchao.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Dog

Jonah was in serious need of a bath, he loves to be washed outside with a hose. He hates getting in the bath, I think the photo proves how much he loves it!




It takes 2 people to stop him from jumping out all soapy and shaking everywhere, all in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon. Luckily the sun was shining so he got to dry off while running around outside because there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog, even clean wet dog.

I am getting all organised for a day of being a taxi, there is a strike here. The teachers are not allowed to tell the kids they are on strike, so they have to go to school at normal time, there are buses early in the morning, then the bus drivers go out. The kids are then stranded at school with half of their teachers not there, so need ferried around, the traffic will be horrendous, so something to look forward to later.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Finally finished

Yes, I do have at last a FO that is not a pair of socks,
it seems like this shawl has been on the needles for the longest time.
I was thoroughly sick of it by the end.
I love the pattern and the yarn but none of the needles I had were working with the mohair and the slipperiness on my addi, drove me insane!
I did need the needle for something else so, it had to be finished.



It has been added to the xmas present pile. (which is still very small!)

The other day a package arrived from Maylin and it contained this loveliness.



The colours of the one on the right are sooooo pretty when spun, so it became this,




and this.


I love it, thank you Maylin.
You can see more of Maylins stuff here


The thick and thin I want to knit ysoldas urchin beret with but not sure if it is thick enough, it really wanted to be thin yarn, so the other half became thin singles that I don't know what I am doing with yet. Something pretty.
This afternoons choice of activity is ironing or some spinning of purple roving, choices, choices!!

This part is really not knitting related so you can skip it if you want.
All weekend there has been a discussion going on in Ravelry which did start out as a discuss the hooha caused by Jane's lovely book and the term pinny porn which was used to describe it.
Having listened to the interview on Womens Hour, I was interested to see what everyone else thought.
Well, this discussion went way, way off topic, starting with someone saying that boys knitting made her cringe!
Also that as women our jobs were to look after the men and boys shouldn't be encouraged to do girly things!!!
As at the time of reading the comments were already in the 200+, I didn't get involved, but at dinner the boys were asking what I had been reading, it did take me a while to read it all.
So I explained what it was, this was of course while eating dinner, which for the most part my husband had cooked, while no2 son made muffins.
Anyway after explaining everything no 3 teenage son said, "So, does she just think that women should be slaves then?"
No2 said "Why as an adult would I expect anyone else to do things for me, that I am perfectly capable of doing myself!"
So I am very proud of my boys who knit, sew, do laundry, etc etc, I have to say the rest of the dinner conversation included football, rugby, cars, a physics test, and the Nobel prize winners, just in case you were worried we only talked knitting chez moi!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

I have nothing

Well that's not strictly true but blogger won't upload my pictures, so no dogs on Thursday, I'll try tomorrow.
Thanks for the hat suggestions, the Mohawk hat is hilarious, so that might work.
I really hate that I can't access email addresses with some comments, its the part of blogger that sucks the most.....

I am feeling a bit better but now have a sick kid home, its all fun around here, I did manage a little spinning as Maylin sent me some GORGEOUS fibre, that of course you can't see today. I really wanted it to be beaded thick and thin yarn to knit Ysolda's beret with, unfortunately it really wants to be thin/thin yarn, so we will see how it works out....a demain! With any luck!

All about the dog

Its Thursday (well its not now, just pretend, okay)




So that means dog pictures


I know you have a ball with you, give it to me


Ha! Knew it, now its mine, all mine


Stop taking photos, can't you see I'm busy, got to keep my eye on the ball.


The only problem with autumn is that you end up with a mouthful of leaves, ick!

Knitting soon, have a fun weekend.....tchao

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Its all pink


A pink flower to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month, I have been doing my bit, gently prodding all my friends to double check, book mammograms etc. So go on, do it today...

More pink, these feet are wearing anklets, handknit by me, in one of my first handspun yarns,



this fluff




became these.




Please excuse the terrible blurry photos, the weather was awful, I am sick with a horrible head cold and terrible sinus pain, so bending over was very painful.

Being sick did mean some knitting time, Juliet is finished, no photo as I have decided to give it as a xmas gift. I am now deciding if I want to knit smaller versions for my nieces for xmas, it is very cute.
We are on a serious gift budget this year as we are taking an unplanned trip to Scotland to visit family.
Jim's dad is halfway through his chemo for cancer of the esophagus, it is very hard to deal with something like this, when so far away, especially as the decision to visit is a financial one, if only money was no object.......

I do have 3 nephews to give gifts to, not sure if they would appreciate anything knitted, any ideas anyone? They range in age from 15 to 8.

Off to drink tea and knit......

Saturday, October 06, 2007

winners

Well this is the sock yarn drawer.




and it holds 27 pairs of adult socks worth of yarn plus the 4 that are on the needles is 31, not too shabby, think I might need to knit socks a bit faster.
Though maybe not if the other guesses are anything to go by, it will take me a little while to get up to 70!!!



So we will have 2 winners, poshyarns and spinningfishwife, thank you all for entering and for sending me birthday wishes, they were much appreciated.
Hope you all have a good weekend, off to sort out prizes as the sock yarn is stuck in the postal strike, if its not La Poste, its Royal Mail, they take turns at keeping my parcels!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Non-birthday post


So today is the 2nd October that is the day after my birthday, hands up who remembered it was my birthday?
That is in the people who are supposed to remember?
Okay, there are only 4 of you and not one of my guys remembered to leave me a card, make me a card, goodness knows there are enough supplies for card making lying around, nothing, nada, zero, zilch, you guys are rubbish!

So instead of me getting cards, you, the blog readers, get to have a competition instead, this is a non 41st birthday,almost 1 year blog birthday contest, also I am interested to see how any lurkers there are.

So, at the minute sock yarn is my thing, the contest is how many pairs of socks could I knit without buying any more yarn?

Now, you could cheat and look on ravelry but I have to admit to being really slack at loading stash on there.

So leave me a comment before saturday 6th october and we will see who is closest to the winning number, the winner receives sock yarn of course.

So other than sulking abut the non-birthday event I did some spinning this weekend.



This is some merino tencel from Amy, which I did find really hard to work with but my reason behind joining Amy's fibre club was to be pushed to try new things.


I am a very beginner spinner but I am not going to keep new fibre until I am a better spinner, I will only be a better spinner if I try new and harder things. This worked out not too bad as far as I can tell. I have about 85m of 3 ply very soft, shiny yarn, in a colour that is SO not me but which taught me a lot. Perfect!



I did start my Juliet and have just started the lace part, I did just start the lace part about 4 times,
something to do with the not able to read
or count to 3..
or 4... made it all too difficult.
I think I have it now, but am sure I could have been almost finished it, if I had only stopped and read the pattern through,
1 more time!!!