postie came again

With a lovely package from the delightful Yorkie. A load of craft bits for kids to play with on camp, rubber stamps, beads, fima, foam, raffia, it will all get used to great effect I'm sure.

I also finished a craft project of my own,. the fish rug that is now on my daughter's floor and has had her bum sitting on it for at least half the day.



This has also been a week of food preservation. I used up a big bowl of lemons bought cheap off the market for salt preserved lemons, I'm making 2 batches of wine, one a kit and the other from scratch and I've just done blackberries preserved in whisky. I'm feeling inordinately pleased with myself atm.

Look what the postman brought me

Isn't it pretty?

well, I think it is because I've bought so many variations that are similar to this colourway, it's getting to be quite a habit. This is the lovelly Mountain Colours aran that arrived in the post, along with some scrummy feeling alpaca this morning for me, thanks to lucyvanp. A lovelly pressie to cheer me up.

So whatsup?

Well, I'm working on more earrings, and planning some other bits and bobs, and still fighting the camera on a regular basis until I can work out how to take pix I'm happy with. I'm cooking up a storm, 2 types of homebrew on atm, a blackberry wine in a bucket having a good stink at me, and a cheap wine kit that will hopefully be ready in 2 weeks so I can take the wine to camp. That is bubbling away nicely on the kitchen surface.

Knitting wise, I'm working on one of my blanket projects, I've started a new big blanket project, a somewhat special idea that I'll launch in a few days, knitting squares for the urbanite blankets. I'm also working on a latch hook rug kit, that i should finish later today. The whole thing is a bit paint-by-numbers, not in the slightest bit creative but it cost me a quid and I know the girlchild will love it.

food heaven

I don't know about yours, but mine has to involve blackberry pavlova. made the mix and put it in the oven while i went to pick the blackberries, Let it cool, topped with fresh whipped cream and the pick of the crop of berries.

Look what came in the post

My beads arrived today. I made a couple of mistakes in ordering, some of the glass pendants are far, far too large to go with what I've got planned, but I'm sure I can use them at a later date. I really like the carved bone ones though, I got stars and flowrs.

i've also realised I need to hurry up and sell some stuff, because the bead shop sent me a catalouge and I want to buy loads of pretty beads and make loads of really scrummy jewelery. It's been ages since I spent any time making jewelery and I'd forgotton how much I enjoyed it.

I also spent several hours making felt beads. All I need to do now is dry these and I'll be ready to start putting together some earrings. I've got a good feeling about this one.

check out the earrings

Sorry for the delay in blog posts but I've had quite a few weeks. I had a HUGE terrible looking and very painful lump appear in my left boobie. I'm still seeing the docs about it, but I'm just going to say, you know you are having one of those moments in your life when you are delighted to find out you have a abcess the size of your fist

Onto a more cheerful note, check out the earrings. This is the latest idea in my quest for world domination, Tidy things up a bit and they will appear on etsy. That will hopefully bring in the income to put some of my other plans into effect.



well, what do you think and what would you pay for them?

mystery stole 3

finished chart A.

I know it's not a good pic, but i'm feeling a bit under the weather atm and don't want to be prancing abut outside to get better pix. I'm sure I've made mistakes as well, you don't have to point them out tc me. I like my design features in my knitting.

However, I like the pattern and I'm glad I signed up for this

beginning lace

yes, you are actually reading that label right, 435 yards to the oz. it's finer than nylon sewing thread.


And this is what it's becoming, the first, beginner lace scarf in Victorian Lace Today. I thought if I was going to knit in something that fine, I'd at least try to make it easy on myself and knit a simple pattern instead of something hugely complex.

it's taking some getting used to working with something that fine, but I think I'm getting there. I've knit a bit more since I took that pic and I'm getting to the point where I need to start thinking about how long to make it. I've decided not to make it any longer than my arm span. It's too fine to be practical for anything, and will be very, very light, so I won't want really long ends flapping everywhere. I should be able to finish it tonight.

I'll have to finish something else before I get another cast on though. So far, I'm wavering between my branching out and starting to try and get some of the cloth bags completed so I can start using them.

another FO

Crochet wristbands this time. Found in the UFO box only needing to have ends sewn in. So that done and I can call another pair of FO done and cast on something else.

My book arrived today, so I'm flicking through images of women on stunning lacely stuff wandering about stately homes. Don't think I'm going to look like that, but I do like the lace. There's a lot of simple, non fussy stuff that will suit me and be easy enough to knit when I'm not a lace expert. The main question at the moment is how many of the patterns I want to knit. So far, I'm looking seriously at at least 8 patterns and a bank loan for laceweight yarns, which aren't easy to get here.

girls like handbags, boys like....

Well, i wasn't really sure, but I wanted to make something for my son to keep a few bits in. So I made him a small bag with a belt loop, so he can wear it on his waist.

To keep up to date on the WIP along

finished: handspun wrap and broach for the wrap

cast on: laceweight grey clapotis

finished: boy's bag


I'll update my sidebar after the weekend

I'm really at it today

Here's the pin I made to hold the ends of my sheep wrap over my chest. I knit on needles 2mm smaller than the wrap, so it's holding it's shape really well.

here's the pix

3 finished objects in one picture.

the background is the giant rug, knit on 18mm, 4 foot long needles.

then there's the dark brown sheep wrap, a knitty pattern. Dark brown wool doesn't really show that well in pictures, but it is a beautiful black coffee colour and I'm sure it will be very warm to wear. it's Shetland wool, so a shoulder wrap instead of a scarf that would be round my neck and against my skin was a good move I think. This is what i did with my first vaguely usable handspun, so the colour does help hide how wonky it is


The blue/green is also handspun, but without the benefit of a dark colour to hide the wonkyness. it is a nice soft warn scarf though and I'll wear it camping.

I've decided that if the book doesn't arrive today, I'll use the rest of my aran weight handspun to knit a broach for the wrap, possibly something flower shaped. If I can finish that, I'll be ready for my next cast on with the whole diet thing

WIP along progerss

finished: happy socks from magknits
giant knit rug

cast on: girlchild wrap


finished:handspun scarf
girlchild wrap

cast on: a lace something when my book on order arrives.


I've ordered Victorian Lace Today. I don't normally order books I haven't seen in person, but after seeing several of the projects from this, I decided I loved enough of them to make buying a book worthwhile.

Plan is for my next cast on to be something from that. I need to finish plying the handspun Shetland laceweight that's sitting on multiple loo rolls on my desk. Then measure it and determine what I've got the yarn to knit, and yes, it is actually spindle spun laceweight. No pix, because pix of plain dark brown yarn wrapped round a tube is pretty boring, but I reckon I'm in there calling it laceweight at about 30 wraps per inch. I'll show you when I've started knitting with it.

Oh yeah, i'll have pix of the other 2 finished objects taken later to proove I'm not cheating.

it's a wrap, it's a girlchild wrap

OK, So anyone who guesses where I misquoted the title from wins an ice cream, but I just couldn't resist. This is what happened to the roving from dragonfibers on etsy that Fee gave me. It was so scrummy and soft, I just had to spin it as a low twist chunky to keep it that soft. And since it's super wash, a gift for girlchild was definitely in order.

So I adapted a pattern to make it right for me to knit and for her to wear and here we go, a girlchild wrap that she said thankyou for without any prompting at all and absolutely refuses to take off.



So these are another pair of happy socks from magknits.

I'm still waiting for the giant rug to dry so i can weave in ends, then I'll finish another project and cast on for another giant rug, this time tying together small balls of leftovers and stuff as well as using up some more of the rug yarns.

Cast on Diet

I'm working on a specific plan here, for each project I cast on for, I have to finish 2. I think this will effectively mean that I'll finish one old WIP and one newer project for each cast on. In some cases finishing will also involve writing up the pattern or article that goes with it.


The WIP list is getting ridiculous. I think there's a few things in bags that I haven't added to the list either, not to mention half done bits of spinning for various project ideas, and swatches and balls of yarn out t start on that I can't remember what they were for.

It is time for me to reduce this pile and start actually finishing some stuff. If it's worth knitting, it's worth actually completing. I'm spending too much time working on things I don't get to enjoy as a finished item for months.

I'm not setting myself a specific time limit on this, but I think I should continue until I can get the WIP pile down to under 10 items and I should endeavour to keep it that way. The yarn diet I started for my April challenge hasn't finished yet. I used the month to look at the yarn I already had and began to use up some of that. Since then, I've only bought small amounts of yarn from charity shops and i'm working on some great ideas from the stash I already have. I'm hoping a cast on diet will help me appreciate those things I've started knitting and think about how to finish them or whether they are viable as projects at all.

And this has already started. The rug on big needles was the last free cast on. Although that is now almost finished, I just need to tidy up and weave in ends, I'm waiting until I finish a second project until i cast on with the yarn that I spun from the roving fee gave me as a birthday pressie.



I'm quite impressed with how it turned out. It was so deliciously soft, i didn't want to take away any of that, so it's quite a low twist chunky. The 100g gave me about 130 yards of yarn, enough for a wrap for the daughter. Fee has suggested a pattern that I think will work if I do a few adaptations to it.

However, i have to finish something else before i make it. So the second sock to go with the one in St James' Park is being rapidly finished off. I have one more pattern repeat, then an inch of rib. I should be starting the wrap tonight.

my new sock

Toggle and her new sock in St James' Park
Originally uploaded by SueP

World Wide Knit in Public Day was an interesting experience. First came the fun with security guards who have decided they don't like you, but know they can't do anything about it and keep blustering thinking they will get their own way. First we were an event, then an organisation,l then a public performance. Then he announced he hated his job and i knew we had won. He blustered for a few more minutes and then wondered off

Photo was taken in St James' park by Sue. We grabbed a few beers after the knitting and caught some sun and some rest. All in all a good day and Sue has some more pix of the event if you want to see.

Writing up my buisness plan today.

I think I've got an idea for something interesting to offer for sale, not necessarily something incredibly sellable, but something that will hopefully attract a lot of attention to the more mundane and more sellable items I can offer. I'll need to buy a bit of kit to start off on making them, probably 50 quid's worth and that is a quarter of what I have to start this thing off. however, if it works, it will be worth it.

I've got several ideas for other things I can be selling. I'm not going to discuss them here, but I am going to start getting together the things I will need to make them.

With my daughter starting nursery part time in September, I need to do something so I don't end up sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. i also owe it to my partner to at least try and make some money to take the pressure off him and be able to pay for some of the things I want. he offered to spend 200 quid on a wheel for me. I've decided that i'll take the 200 quid and use it for this idea and hopefully buy my own wheel and more.

knit rug

What would you do with a load of free and nearly free scritchy, veggie matter filled rug yarn?

Knitting a rug on 4 foot long needles would be a good place to start. My dad made these needles for me ages ago and I've tried several projects on them, never finding quite the right one. Now I've got it I think, 10 strands, 6 of various wools I got for free or in a charity shop bag for a quid and 4 of a cotton tape I got 24 balls of for a fiver at a car boot sale.

Only problem is that it's heavy. I've knit about a foot of it so far, at 4 stitches, 5 rows to 4 inches, the needles are in fact 18mm, the yarn bundle itself works out as about 2 wraps per inch. and a foot of rug weighs a good 3 pounds. Th3 finished rug should be at least 4 feet long, so I'm going to give my wrists quite a workout.



Oh yeah, and that's what happens when you wear one pair of sandals all the time, tan lines on my feet, get em every year

last 2 handdyed, handspun yarns

well?

3 more spun

Went on camp this weekend, spinning in public for the first time and lots of people found it utterly fascinating. It's been suggested that I offer to demonstrate for the local primary school.

Anyway, I'd love your opinions on the colours

I'm sure i recognise this

Actually, I do recognise this. I'ts the fiber that I couldn't afford to buy a couple of weeks ago because I had too many bills to pay. The fiber that fee bought for me as a birthday pressie.

I had a good day, girlchild behaved herself for the most part, got a bit wet in the fountain, but that's the be expected. And she had a good look about the museums.




Now of course the dino exhibit leads right out to the gift shop. I usually ignore this. but I couldn't resist hair-metal-o-saurus here. looks like something straight out of the 80's with a leopard print spandex suit and red dyed hair.

number 3

I like the pink and green much better than the pink and blue

second spun handdyed

I like this one a lot, and although it's 3 colours instead of 2, it's the same width stripes as the first, which is telling me ti's the colour combi, not the effect I don't like.

first spun of my roving

Well, the first to dry was the blue and pink, which i think was the one fee said she liked. Can't say i like it as much spun as I did as roving. Looks a bit mucky to me.

test dye of roving

I just spent the afternoon with some Blue Faced Leicester roving, a microwave, a bottle of white vinegar and some food colouring. This is the results.

to recover from absurdities

I need to get back down to earth, or in my case, down to compost. I moved the bootfull of compost out of my car this afternoon, unfortunately, it will then need to be put back into the car and transported from my postage stamp of a front garden to my allotment, having been soaked for a few days. I am really delighted at the prospect of this task.

I've also knit more blanket squares and started on a couple of new projects.

1. another pair of happy socks because I like the pattern

2. a freeform blanket, just garter stitch, but with random shaped patches and colours, because I had bits of leftover handspun and handspun is too precious not to use it all up.

Camping again this weekend. Just one night this time. I'll have to pack my Thursday, because I'll be meeting up with bumblefee on Friday. I'm also skipping out on a few hours of camp to see a few London area knittys. Another busy weekend and a big hint that I might finally be growing something vaguely resembling a social life. I'm not entirely sure about that though. I've been without one so long, it's hard to recognise one creeping up on me.

carrying a river over a river

Sometimes in life, the utter absurdity of something hits you all at once. The moment when I got a tv camera pointed in my face while i was carrying the knitted river alongside the Thames was one of those moments and I got the giggles, which didn't impress the person holding the camera much, which of course, amused me even more.

These are my highlights of the march through London, which ended up with me, the camera phobic being photographed repeatedly outside the doors of 10 Downing Street. Now considering I could still breathe, I figure I got over a lot of the camera phobia today.

Kids had a great day. I got sore feet, but I think it was well worth it.

getting on with cozy

From my first attempt ages ago to do this pattern,I know i've got used to knitting lacey stuff a lot more. I can follow the pattern, see where the repeats fit in with previous rows. It is just working. I'm knitting it instead of fighting it.

I'm about halfway done on it now. Used up 4 of the 8 balls of the alpacca I bought last year at the Olympia show where i met my first knitty heads and showed them what I could shop like.

My sp is getting the last 2 balls. hope she likes it.

artsygal yarn, socks completed

With the eventual arrival of my custom dyed artsygal yarn, I got knitting. There is a spiralling thing going on there, but I really quite like it. Its definitely there on both feet, but far more clear on the right.



Close up of the lace pattern. Fairly simple, but I think it looks great.

Back from camp

Which was an interesting experience. Compost loos, mechanical ants and Abba round the camp fire.

I was told by everyone that when girlchild got older, camping would get easier. I never quite believed them, but they were right. I barely had to parent girlchild compared to other camps. It helped that there were a lot of girls on this one. 14 year olds who went all gooey over her being cute and a lot of 4-8 year olds she could join in and play with. I spent a lot of time hiding in the kitchen tent, helping out in there. it was a break for me and I got to do more useful stuff than before on camps.

I also dug through a load of my long term storage bags and found a fisherman's jumper in there. I think it was bought for my father on a family holiday to Guernsey when i was about 6. he's not a jumper sorta person, so I guess it was dumped on me at some point. Anyway, I took it on camp to wear round the camp fire at night and to sleep in. Woke up at 4am, I think it was an over amorous pheasant in the woods, and I'd wriggled most of the way out of my sleeping bag and was still warm. I've decided it will go to every camp with me from now on.

sock in progress

My Artsygal yarn finally arrived and it is absolutely delightful. It feels really scrummy and soft and I'm really enjoying working with it. It is becoming happy socks from magknits.

I've got loads more news to share. A delightful package from my sp, the progress of my allotment and my seeds and loads of other knitting bits. However, I'm supposed to be packing to go camping this weekend, so all that will wait until I get back.

april chalenge revisited

lets see how well i did on these, yellow ones I completed, green ones partially completed, white I didn't get near.


A is for allotment clearing. dig up bramble roots.
B is for baking bread at least once a week
C is for finishing christmas pressies from last year
D is for drive home from cornwall
E is for exercising for 20 mins per day
F is for finishing 3 other WIP
G is for tidying the garage
H is for clipping the hedge
I is for knitting an item using intarsia
J is for junk clearout, 1 box a week to charity shop
K is for knitting an item from handspun
L is for lawn clearing, mowing, weeding, regrowing grass
M is for making swatches for at least 3 pattern ideas.
N is for not buying any more yarn this month
O is for organising my kitchen shelves and cupboards.
P is for getting out my secret pal's final package.
Q is for 20 mins quiet time to read every day.
R is for cooking at least one new recipe every week.
S is for spinning at least 100g of the roving
T is for clearing the front room table
U is for undie and sock drawer clearout.
V is for cooking at least 3 veggies in each evening meal
W is for weeding the front garden
X is for eXperimenting with dyeing roving (ok I cheated badly there
Y is for yarn tidying, clear up the stash and sort the WIP.
Z is for finishing putting the stars on my daughter's ceiling above her bed- zzzzzzzz


I don't think that's a bad effort considering my late start and the enormity of some of the tasks I'd set myself.

However, I now need to set myself a challenge for May. The suggestion has been one for gardening, something outdoors to take advantage of the scrummy weather we've been having recently. I shall see what I can come up with for that.

knit a river

I know that many people donated squares towards the water aid knit a river project. This is nearly complete with the march through London to attempt to increase awareness about lack of clean water for so many people, happening on the 12th may.

I went along to one of the sewing up sessions today at water aid's London HQ. They have recieved 60,000 knitted and crocheted squares. When the project was first suggested they weren't expecting more than a few hundred and have been absolutely astounded by the response from around the world. I don't think they will underestimate the generosity and compassion of knitters again.

There are more pics on my flickr account, but I didn't want to stick up too many here and and make it unviewable for anyone on dialup.

thankyou

Firstly, a big thankyou to curlytop, who sent me this yarn to go to camp with me this summer. We've taught knitting on camp before, and it went down pretty well, but we don't have a lot of money to spent on craft materials, so your donation will be much appreciated.



Secondly, this is a selection from the squares I'm knitting towards the great blanket swap. I found that a search through the stash got me a LOT of yarns that will be suitable for this, probably enough for 6 blankets. I think my problem with this one will not be where to begin, but where to stop. I'm enjoying working with loads of colours, seeing how they go together, which si great for learning about colour before spending loads on expensive wools for garments and they are great mindless knitting for when I'm stressed about how much I have to do.

Thankyou secret pal

My knitty sp sent me a scrummy package with yarn, chocolate, gifts for the kiddies and a garden ornament.



this is some of the yarn she sent me. I'm taking part in a group project with my knit group. We're all knitting squares out of scrummy coloured wools that we will then swap with each other so we can all make really nice coloured blankets. Made one as a group project for a preggers friend as a baby blanket and decided it turned out so well that we all wanted one for ourselves. This yarn will be absolutely perfect towards my share of the project. I also got some really nice variegated cotton. Wish I could get cheap cotton in nice colours here, but a taster is certainly better than nothing.



Girlchild took great delight in finding play dough. She adores this stuff and will spend hours playing with it. The lad is rather impressed with it as well and has stuck his poster up on his wall.

So thank you sp. Can't wait for the next instalment.

more pictures

Firstly, girlchild enjoying her chocolate bunny.



Then sleeping it off later



Crockpot dyeing the sock yarn



Sock yarn drying on the radiator. I'll have to get a better picture of this later



Cozy from knitty. I didn't want to wait until I had the sock yarn dry to knit with nice green yarn. This is an alpaca that I bought at a show last march and couldn't think what to do with it. I'ts part of the first really massive stash enhancement I did. With the sari silk I couldn't use going partly to fee, partly to my mother, a pattern to use up the indigo denim, it seemed good to use this up at the same time. Plus its a cooler day today. I won't get many more days where I can knit alpaca during the day for a while so it's definitely a good time to start.

500 yards of sock yarn

I think I got a little enthusiastic this week with the spinning and I've estimated that this is 500 yards of handspun sock yarn, all ready to dye. I think it's gonna be a greenish colour. Definitely can't stay white if I'm going to wear it camping. anyway, it's about 130g of yarn there, so is not too far off the weight I would expect from a commercial sock yarn of about 200 yards per 50g. I'm feeling very pleased with myself atm for being able to get an even-ish yarn of the right weight on my first try spinning sock yarn.

and a start of the pix

Dorset yarn bought from my freind Cledry yarner



spun



plied



with a little bit leftover



and swatched on 2mm needles.



This yarn will soon be dyed and become warm socks I can wear to camp.