disappointment

**warning -this post contains swearing.....much, much swearing******

****consider yourself warned!*****


I was supposed to be attending the Jared Flood seamless sweater design workshop yesterday as part of the Knit Camp 2010 festivities. Yeah, well that didn't happen. I've been pretty neutral on the Ravelry boards since I dislike how it makes us look as a knitting community if we all indulge in a bit of 'let's pile on and trash the bitch'. Well, I say neutral, but what I really mean is I've been trying to make my point in a firm way without resorting to saying what I really wanted to which was:

"What the fuck! How can you get away with treating people like this, you clueless cow?"

When I called at 9:30 on Monday evening to see if the event was going ahead the next day, the lady I spoke to was pretty calm, sounded a bit stressed I suppose and she told me my Tuesday class was being put forward one day to Wednesday 'would that cause me a problem?'. Yes, when you work full time and have specifically arranged one fucking day to attend a workshop with a freaking knitting hero of yours, moving the agreed date is a bit of an inconvenience, actually! I have meetings and commitments today, Thursday and Friday, so I was screwed. I hope everyone who goes has a fantastic time. I'll be there on Saturday with my mad knitting crew, but I'm gutted to be missing Jared and I'm just so fucking angry at the way we have been treated.

Lady needs to learn the art of communication....and fast.

busy doesn't cover it!

since we've been back (a whole 2 days now) I've been crafting like a demon in our sweatshop - sorry dining room. I've made a little collection of felted leaf and flower brooches and I've just listed a new item on Folksy.com - a cute cream felted bowl. Life is busy, busy. I still have the order for Texere to finish up and I need to check whether anything from the little collection I put into another shop has sold yet. Nervous about that, but still excited! Things seem to have really taken off in a small but exciting way for me with the shop and I'm hoping when the mention in next months's Yarn Forward is taken into account, sales might just start to creep up and up. I can hope anyway!

It's not that I don't like my job, it's just that doing what I'm doing with MY company and MY time and using MY skills is just so satisfying, I can't help but wish I could spend more time on it.

Here's hoping you all get to spend more time doing what you really love in the next little while :o)

In the meantime, here's a little taste of what I've been up to.......

cakes and knitting

Just got back from Cambridge yesterday where we were camping at a lovely spot. Lovely weather - so much so that I actually sport a colour other than 'peely-wally'. Saw some beautiful sights, ate some lovely cake, was in danger of lamping students in Cambridge itself if they had asked me one more time whether I wanted to punt down the river. Good clean cake-filled fun.

I knitted, too - the Pi Shawl above is from EZ's lexicon in single ply icelandic. Love that stuff. You have to be a little bit 'ginger' with it while you're knitting, but it seems to make your brain send signals to your fingers to be gentle and relax. I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already tried it out. And it's cheap as chips! The other pics are from Ely Cathedral. Amazing place - we loved it so much, we went twice.

Glad to be home now, but not glad at the size of the pile of washing awaiting me :o(

just the one

Forgot I had this one of my mum in her Christmas present. I'll upload it to Ravelry when I'm feeling better, but here it is for now - Mum in her Opal sock yarn Ishbel

and here's the other bit of Christmas knitting, Dad's feet in his Christmas socks (I can't believe it's taken me to July to upload these!!!!)

stinking cold

I'm at home off work with the aforementioned stinking cold. I can't even knit to cheer myself up since I can't put my glasses on, my eyes and nose are running so much. TMI, I know, but I have to give you the full picture so you sympathise! I'm sneaking five minutes online before I go for a nap. Don't have any knitting photos to show off, but thought I'd show another garden photo, just to prove I'm still alive and blogging :o)

As soon as this stinky cold has gone, I'm going to be putting some of my knitted and beaded stuff on sale in a local library - Duloch library, if any of my followers are in Fife and fancy a look. I might see if I can get a snap of the little cabinet once it's all loaded up with my brooches and baby shoes and button brooches and felted bowls......now you're curious!

see you all on the other side of the sniffles.....

C.

Folksy birthday!

As promised over on Ravelry, here are some pics of the lovely things I chose for my daughter's birthday today:

Lovely mini handbound book in moroccan leather from Oscar Cat Designs on Folksy







THE cutest owl in the whole world courtesy of entanglewood on Folksy









A set of beautiful sleepy owl cards from gooseberrymoon on Folksy








fantastic camera badges from Mighty Thrifty on Folksy










lovely, delicate turquoise rose earrings from Realicoul on Folksy








Quirky camera earrings - really detailed and unusual from Purple Schmurple on Folksy







sweet, sweet polka dot hairgrips from Concept Design Form on Folksy







the sweetest westie badge from Forever Foxed on Folksy









and the most delicious ginger lip balm from ameliorate on Folksy








and finally, the most original little painted mirror from Superfumi on Folksy







all I need to say is - who needs chainstores????

this and that

The 'this' in this post, if you see what I mean is another baby thing (or two). Hope you're not getting bored looking at them, because I'm aiming to knit right through my stash this year and there'll be a lot more baby stuff coming!! This is a baby skirt I designed (if you can call it that, it was so simple). I think I'll knit up another one and write out the pattern to post on Ravelry. I've used enough free patterns in my time that it's probably about time I gave a couple back to the knitting community :o)


This is my 5th tomten jacket. If there's anyone reading this who knits and who doesn't know Elizabeth Zimmermann, do yourself a favour and buy a copy of the Knitter's Almanac. You can pick it up easily for only a few pounds and if you're anything like me, it'll change the way you think about knitting for good. The jacket is so simple but so satisfying to knit and I never get bored of making it. The hood is so cute when you see it actually on the small person you made it for!












The 'that' is another load of photos, but this time of the gorgeous flowers out in my garden at this time of year. Scott (the husband) is a mad keen, fantastic gardener and these are just some of the beauties he's grown. I like the photo of the clematis especially since it's the first time I've ever taken a picture of a bee. I wanted to get it just as it emerged but then it flew towards me and I got scared. I am a wuss and I am not ashamed :o)

All the roses in our garden (6 varieties) are heavily scented. A rose without a perfume is such a disappointment. The big pink one in the photo is my daughter's rose and smells of baby powder!

Speaking of the daughter, I'm just about to go put pizza in the over for her and her friends since they're all coming over for dinner to celebrate her 14th birthday. My girl is 14. How did that happen??

Happy Birthday Rhia!!

baby, baby, baby

A workmate is having a baby boy later this year and the sister of another workmate has just had a baby girl. Combine these facts with a stash that includes many, many single balls of yarn, not to mention scraps of yarn and I can see that there are going to be loads of baby things coming in my summer knitting. I'm going to knit another dress and write up the pattern for Ravelry. You like??

Look Ma - I've actually been knitting!

Just to prove that I know where the camera is and how it works :o)




This is one completely calorie-free cupcake. Damn, that doesn't sound appealing, does it? Pretty cute, if a bit fiddly. Can't complain about the pattern since it was a very well-put-together freebie from Ravelry. It's just that I'm fingers and thumbs when it comes to assembling small stuffed things!


These are a few of the stitch markers I've been wearing away my fingers making lately. It's a very addictive craft and people so far seem to like them, so that's good! I'm selling them through a couple of yarn shops - K1 in Edinburgh and Three Bags Full down in Halifax and also through my little Folksy shop. They are such fun to make - especially the Fimo cakes. It's like being a kid in a candy store!














If you're interested, nip over to my Folksy shop for a browse - there's loads of amazing stuff on offer there from makers all over the UK. Most of my daughter's birthday presents seem to have come from Folksy this year. So, the link is...
http://www.folksy.com/shops/snowday

I also had a bit of good luck a little while back when I won the Telegraph's travel writing competition. Not quite as grand as it sounds when you realise that they run the comp every week, but still. The prize was £200 and I'm going to enjoy spending every penny when we're down in Cambridge later next month - there are three yarn shops in Cambridge...I'm just saying ;o) If you're interested, the link for the travel piece is:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition/7770807/Just-back-unearthing-a-Scottish-secret.html