Dervish

This is the beginning of a series of posts which I hope will encourage me to spin more and work my way through the huge stash of fleece and fibre I currently have.  I'm too chicken to try out the TDF this year on Rav, but there's always next year. 

So, this weekend, I had the luxury of time and I combed bumps of fibre with my mini Valkyrie combs.  I turned the bumps into a sparkly, bouncy two ply double knitting weight yarn.  I think there's about 130g there altogether.  The sparkle was what hooked me.  It's a kind of sea green/blue - think Vegas Mermaid.



Bumble Bee Exotic Blend from http://www.worldofwool.co.uk/

 I'd also treated myself to three 100g lengths of tops from World of Wool a little while back.  The Bumble Bee colourway was the first one I tackled and turned out to be a bit of a surprise.  I'd thought it would turn out yellow and black, but not so much!  It's a lovely, deep, lustrous green.  I think it's the silk in the fibre which gives the lovely sheen and I tried to bring this out by thwacking the washed skein on the side of the sink a few times.  Think it worked well and I'll add photos very soon.  I'm actually tempted to buy some more so that I have a usable amount of yarn, instead of the 97g I've ended up with. 

I'm trying to get better at adding photos to Rav and this blog, so hopefully more photos of fibre and finished yarn will follow. 

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

a good yarn

just got back from the library knitting group. Well, just got back, had a mug of tea, whined about how irritating the new Jamie Oliver programme is and posted on Ravelry. (Aside: just play-yelled at daughter to 'get to bed!' and was told quite calmly 'shut up'. I love being a mum)

The group was big tonight - 21 people, I think and they are a great bunch. Didn't get half as long to chat as I wanted to, though. There need to be other knitting nights where I'm not worried about how many people turn up and how many books they borrow.

It's still a big 'told you so' to those in the library service who suspected the group would fail miserably, though. Not that I'm gloating. Because that would be petty. But so, so satisfying all the same :)

Don't care if I'm repeating myself here. I do love being a mum - especially the part where I wake her in the morning and get to sneak lots of kisses while she's still only half-awake.

bed now. tired.
C.

ishbell

Ishbell shawl by Ysolda Teague (www.ysolda.com/wordpress)

Finished in a weekend and love it - as you can see from the photo. Tennis elbow seems to be abating. Hooray!!

slowly, slowly

not been knitting up a storm as I usually am, recently. The tennis elbow has really slowed me down. It's annoying, but it's meant I've taken up a bit of sewing in the meantime while it heals. In fact, I think I may have developed a bit of a fabric as well as a fibre addiction.

We have enough Christmas fabric to make all the holiday ornaments, napkins and placemats we'll ever need, so that's good!

I'll post pictures of Christmas in progress soon.

It's also meant that I can finally display all the vintage hankies my Mum gave me. I have 12 so far - and might buy more from Ebay, but I'd really like the quilt to be made with only family hankies. That's right, I'm making hankies into a quilt. Look at http://www.ehow.com/how_2077800_make-handkerchief-quilt.html if you want to see how to make one. There's one hankie in the collection from when I went to Sunday school as a tot which is a bit mad and seventies, but that's only to be expected - since it WAS the seventies :)

I'm going to try to make this quilt a long term project so I don't rush to get it finished for a deadline and screw it up somehow. It will be lovely to put something on my bed which has so much sentimental meaning and history. Much better than the pile of hankies lingering in a drawer somewhere.

C.

KIP day in Dunfermline

Prizewinners from Dunfermline Carnegie Knit in Public Day event. Don't quite know how it happened, but the winning ladies were sitting beside one another - must have been lucky seats!

On the left, we have one of our best customers, Mrs Betty Healy and on the right is Ravelry's very own, MrsJollyJackTar. I want to see the socks when they're done!

So, we launched our new library knitting group for members of the public on Worldwide KIP day. Great success with a good mix of ages and knitting tastes. We had a complete newbie learn to knit at the event and evaluation from the morning has been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks to all the lovely knitters who turned up to support us on the day! Remember, the knitting group will be starting June 25th in Dunfermline Carnegie Library from 6-8pm and we'd love to see you there.

dyeing to meet you

For the second easter holidays in a row, my daughter and I have been dyeing like women possessed with Koolaid. Smells nice - except when you add cider vinegar to the dye, in which case it reeks like an especially rank pair of socks. It's easy to use and gives colours that are bright without being BRIGHT and looks homemade without looking too homespun, if you see what I mean. At least, I hope they don't look too homemade - let me know what you think!

We used at least 4 packets of Koolaid for each 100g of yarn - a nice undyed merino 4ply I bought from Texere mills online.

The yarn colourways are, from the top - where the wild socks are, spring, Irn-Bru on a summer day and below that, cherry blossom. The last picture is when the skeins were just dry and waiting to be re-skeined and buttoned - badly! Can anyone point me in the direction of a toot on how to skein and button yarn????

e.t.a. I've just noticed, when you embiggen the last photo of 'hand with yarn' you can see how wrinkly and pruned my fingertips are from all that dyeing.

reasons to be cheerful, 1,2,3...

No posts lately, down to the job being kerazy busy, but will try to do better. Maybe I can start by listing all the things I've knitted in the past while and then wait for the smack on the back of the head when I tell you that I have no pictures of any of them. Not the Charlie Brown jumper I've just finished for my niece's baby or the cardigan and Wicked jumper I knit with my Christmas wool. Pathetic.


I mean, how hard is it to walk the ten steps to pick up the camera after I've finished something and then take a few snaps? It's not like I'm having to fight my way through rampaging hordes to get to the camera or anything. No, the worst we're talking about negotiating is a flight of stairs. And yet, still there are no photos. I'm thinking of just passing all photographing duties over to either the daughter or the husband.

It's not always pure laziness, though. Although I can't imagine feeling completely at home in any other country and I love living in Scotland, our days are not always filled with the type of light that lets you take effortlessly lovely photos - like the ones on brooklyntweed's blog for example. His photos are amazing. Just beautiful. He captures everything in one go; the fibre, the stitch pattern - everything. If I could put one photo up on this blog that is one tenth of his standard, I would be so delighted.


Maybe I should aim lower and plan to have one photo per post this year. And with that in mind - here you go. One photo. My pattern - albeit heavily influenced by the very warm hat by EZ. And I am entitled to look like that. I've been in a service plan meeting all day with the 'high heid yins'. You'd look like this too if you'd been there! And I clearly have the attention span of a cheese sandwich 'cos I see from the title of this post it was meant to be something entirely different.

"I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow."

Any guesses for this lyric??

laugh 'til you puke

Had a little photoshoot at work today during my coffee break. Wanted a not-too-horrific photo for my Ravelry avatar - nearly ended up with a laughter induced hernia.

and they say librarians are sane.

Lots of knitting on the cards - and the needles. We're talking Wicked, Branching Out, Malabrigo collars, christmas decorations.......Photo-rich posts to follow. Yeah, I know. It's been an empty promise before, but this time will be different.

Probably.

red

I'll explain the title of this post in a minute. meanwhile, here's a quick shot of a bundle of random squares - can you guess what it is yet? kind of self-explanatory, this one. still, he's cute isn't he? and this is the only time he's sat still for more than ten seconds at a time in his entire life, so the occasion needed to be marked.
new socks. and these ones will not be felted. are you listening, Scott? ankle sock pattern from socks, socks, socks. I swear I will insert something sharp in my husband if he felts another pair of handknitted socks.
another pic. of the mystery squares, looking less mysterious and more baby-blankety. for a lovely girl in the library who's expecting her first baby and knit by around ten of us at work. EZ's heart elbow patch pattern, so you know it must be good!

Now I've finally given you eye-candy, I can tell you about how I've lived up to the unexpected part of this blog's name this week.

Thursday, I got my hair cut at a recently re-modelled salon in town - I only mention this 'cos it means I can tell you they now have chairs with magic fingers that massage you as you get your hair washed. Good idea, but it kind of reminded me of all the irritating buggers who sit behind you in the cinema, rolling their knees down your back through your chair. Anyhow, I hated the way the girl 'styled' my hair into a nice, neat, turned-under brown helmet, so I went straight to the chemist and an hour later I was the proud owner of a crop of bright red hair.

Bright red. Not copper, or titian or rust. Bright red. Yay!

Must have been something in the air that day since I also bought and wore a bright yellow cardigan in the Monsoon sale. I've never to my knowledge worn yellow. Ever.

I like being unexpected. It's one of my favourite words and favourite things to be.

I'll post a pic. of the hair once I've re-done the dye-job, since it's fading already!

It's a disgustingly rainy day and I'm off work since Rhia's school is striking so I'll have to go and force myself to knit all day and watch the Olympics. Shame. Don't you feel sorry for me?

Alive

It's what I officially am.

Working hard - the contract as a service development librarian has been extended to next March so that's good. That's very good so far as Christmas and the putting of presents into stockings is concerned. The folk I share an office with are really cool and I'm having a great time as part of this team, so no worries there - or not until early March next year, anyhow.

Knitting not so hard - my mojo's all out of sorts. I lift and lay... lift and lay.... start and rip..... start and rip. At one point last weekend I actually thought it was a do-able reasonable plan to start threading outsized rainbow-coloured sequins onto a ball of bright pink mohair yarn and make a scarf with zany panels of sequins at either end. Yeah, that would have been fun; scraping sequins along yard after yard of hairy, shedding yarn knitting a scarf that nobody with half a fashion-recognising brain would ever wear.

If I'm knitting less than normal, I've still got multiple things on the go. Maybe that's the problem; as soon as I take up the ankle sock, the mitered squares start calling me and then there's the two balls of laceweight mohair I bought in Oban a few weeks ago - what the hell are they going to be, exactly? The internet must be browsed - the truth (in the form of the perfect pattern for whatever) is out there!

I need a good kick. And a glass of wine. A big one.

What exactly do you knit when your head is up your arse? I'm open to suggestions.


"I'm like a coo with a gun."
(Expression used by workmate to describe how uneasy she feels when handed a newborn.)

shaking the margarine tub of life

I should probably explain.

When I was little, we had a fridge (yes I came from a priveledged background, what of it?) and inside this fridge at any one time would be on average five or six identical margarine tubs. My mum would use them to store leftovers, so any time you wanted to spread some delicious margarine on a piece of toast say, you had to pick up and shake a few tubs before you hit paydirt. A heavy slosh meant tinned peaches, a slow slump meant tinned beans and as for a dry rattly shake, take my word for it and don't open this one - it'll only be maggots for your brother's weekend fishing trip. Yeah, that one still haunts me.

I'm realising as I age how much like my mother I am. Now I'm the one who won't throw away leftovers and won't mark freezer boxes so that what you think is tomato soup you're defrosting for lunch? Yeah, that'll be the strawberry/rhubarb puree I froze months ago.

I'm like this with my stash too. Half or quarter balls are kept - hell, balls that a dealer would give out as freebies are still kept for that rainy day project where they'll be indispensable.

But I've found a project to use up all of those micro balls of sock yarn at least. The Sock Yarn Blanket by Shelley Kang. Have a look at www.shellykang.com or search for sock yarn blanket on Ravelry. I promise it's worth a look.


"It's like fighting a battle of wills with an unarmed man."
overheard this week at work.