Tsuki's World

Just keep knitting

2012-01-18T16:06:00.002Z

Well I’ve completed very little over the past fortnight in the Nerd Wars hiatus. I knew this would be the case, but it still makes me a little sad.
I’m continuing to work on hubby’s scarf, which was intended as a Christmas gift, but alas it’s almost late enough for a birthday gift. He’s not getting a knitted thing for his birthday – or it’s very unlikely anyway! There are some things in my Nerd Wars queue that might fit… but probably not.

The chickens are doing very well; we’re getting between two and three eggs a day at the moment. They’re not as different in colour as we had hoped, but they are different. This means that we have lots of fun trying to work out which chicken laid which egg!
We’ve discovered that they love melon, banana (the softer the better it seems) and mashed potato. When I give them mashed potato, I add a little cod-liver oil, which is meant to be good for them. They also get vinegar water once a week.
We let them out into the garden a little while ago when it was quite mild. They seemed to like it, though Buffy wanted to know what goes on inside the kitchen. Silly Chicky.

I hope to have some nice knitting to show you guys soon, and some spinning (I got some lovely things from the knitters for my birthday).

Veggies!

2012-01-08T11:52:00.000Z

One of my Christmas gifts was a set of indoor propagators, and some packets of seeds.

I've started putting them to use now! Here's the first of the three on my south(ish) facing windowsill.

I've planted 2 seeds in each plug - I'll "thin" them to one plant when they start coming through. I've planted 5 plugs of tomatoes. There's some built-in redundancy there, I'm not sure I want 5 tomato plants, but I'd rather have more than I need than have them fail (my squashes failed like that last year)
I've planted 15 plugs of onions. I may plant some more of those, I'm not sure yet. I think you get one onion per seed.
Finally I've planted 20 carrots. These are an early dwarf variety, so I'll definitely want to plant some more.

I've also got some seed potatos.

On the left are "Arran Victory" - a heritage variety of potato with purple-ish skins. These are a maincrop variety of potato. The others are "Duke of York", a nice early crop there, good for salads so the packet says.

I'm quite excited about these. I've made a note of the planting in my RHS diary, and I'll be keeping track of my future plantings and their progress in that book too.

Well, I'm off back to my knitting now. I love having creative hobbies!

Planning for 2012

2012-01-06T11:45:00.002Z

Well, hello there 2012, and what do you have in store for me?
I’m hoping for another action packed year!

Here’s some highlights of what I have planned

A Birthday Party! – since we were at a wedding on my birthday, I’m planning a second birthday on my husband’s birthday. We’re even considering booking a hall for the occasion!
My sister’s wedding. I’m going to be a bridesmaid, and it’s lining up to be even better than my wedding! I’m really looking forward to it!
Going to France – we’re off back to visit Hubby’s family in central France in the summer, and we face the challenge of travelling with just a cabin bag each!

I’m also hoping to start getting to grips with the garden. We’re thinking about getting someone in to sort out the front garden. It’s basically decorative and I don’t care enough about it to weed regularly. In the back I need to make space for lots of veggies this year, I got some fun garden based gifts this year, including seeds to be sown – the first of which go in this weekend! Squee! Growing my own veg is fun, I was so pleased with last year’s courgettes and carrots; I hope I can do even better this year. (Note to self: decide whether there are any other veggies to try growing…)

On the crafting front, I’m going to be part of Nerd Wars again, so I need to plan for some projects I can complete within a month. I also want to get some of the existing current projects finished, preferably before the end of January. (Tournament four starts on February 1st.) I’m still knitting from stash where possible. One of the things I want to make is the $5 in Paris sweater. I have some lovely pink and brown yarn that would work for this. There’s also a lace weight top that I want to knit. I’m not sure I can fit that into a month, but perhaps it could be a dissertation for the three months. I really need to knit some more socks too, not least because I accidentally felted a pair not that long ago (sadness!) and also I have a lot of sock yarn! And I want to do more spinning, that’s a lot of fun. I just need to get the fibre currently on the wheel spun up and off the wheel so that I can spin some more. (That’s another January task, all being well!)

Well, I’ve prompted myself to make some lists now (don’t you love lists?) – For veggie growing, for knitting and spinning, lots of planning to be done! Woot!

Felt Like Weaving?

2012-01-03T17:10:00.000Z

So, here's a project I didn't share with you yet!

I created a square (that's important) cardboard loom, approximately 20cm square with 5mm cuts in the edge for looming with. (that's not the right verb!)

Then, I started to weave on the loom, using continuous weave. This method used the same strand to create the warp and the weft at the same time

This created two slightly scruffy looking bits of fabric.

which I crocheted together and added a small loop for a fastening

and then felted (I haven't added a button yet)

(sorry, the radiator cover is in better focus than the bag there...)

Pattern: Continuous weave
Yarn: Noro Kureyon
Hook: not relevant, but it was 4mm
Modifications: n/a
Verdict: Continuous weave is good fun and interesting. On a larger scale it could be amazing. Cardboard probably wouldn't stand up to much larger a loom though.

2012...

2012-01-01T09:24:00.002Z

Happy new year folks, lets make 2012 a good one!

End of the Year

2011-12-27T20:36:00.001Z

Well, while I am attempting to finish some more crafting before the end of the year, I don't think it will all be done. If I take my wheel to Scotland with me then perhaps it will.

So, here's my year in crafting. I've made over 32 things including 12 yarns! Most of the spinning was towards the beginning of the year when my wheel was new and I wasn't really feeling the knitting vibe. Since I joined Nerd Wars the crafting has picked up pace, with 16 of the 32 items being created since September 1st.

and missing from there?
My honeymoon shawl...

A great year for crafting, can 2012 be better? I hope so!

More Crafting!

2011-12-23T12:15:00.000Z

So, I've photographed and uploaded some more of my projects!

First up, a crocheted bow tie!

Pattern:Crocheted Bow Tie by Craftzine
Yarn: James C. Brett Pure Merino - red.
Hook: 4mm
Modifications: None, but if I did it again I'd make the neckband a lot smaller! I have to tie it in a knot at the back to resize it due to the stretch of the yarn!
Verdict: Well, not a bad pattern, but doesn't take into account the stretch. Maybe in cotton it would be fine.

A Washcloth (here's hoping that the recipient doesn't read my blog!)

Pattern:Starfish Dishcloths by Coats and Clark
Yarn: various
Hook: 4.5mm (I think)
Modifications: None really. Didn't do the crab stitch edge.
Verdict: Good. The crochet is a nice texture and the pattern is pretty!

and a soap saver bag

Pattern:Pickin' Knits Spiral Soap Saver
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton (I think)
Hook: 4.5mm (I think)
Modifications: It's finer yarn and a smaller hook than recommended, but no other changes really!
Verdict: Good. The crochet is a nice texture for a scrubby.

I can't believe it's almost Christmas already! It's quite nice that we have a Saturday as Christmas Eve, a whole day of no plans for me and hubby.
Well, I say no plans. I have a bag to felt, some spinning and knitting to do, and I'd love to get through some more of hubby's prezzie. It's no way going to be finished on Christmas morning, but I'll be able to knit on it when he can see after Christmas so there's a good chance he'll have it before the New Year.

So, There may be another post after Christmas with some nice knited things.
Or not.
We will see.

Knitting owls, and Chickens.

2011-12-21T12:07:00.000Z

Well, I'm still knitting! I've had a nice week so far, though the weight loss isn't really on track right now everything else is going well!

So, Still being inspired by Nerd Wars, I have two items for you today (and when I get the pictures uploaded I'll have some more!)

The first is this cute little stuffed toy

Pattern: Owl Puffs by Jenna Krupar (Rav link)
Yarn: Random Leftovers
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: Used buttons for eyes
Verdict: Cute! Ideally I would have used a firmer gauge. Also, it's quite small, so perhaps extra increases and extra rows for a bigger owl. But still, cute!

And the second is this lovely tie which I knitted for my hubby while watching the Buffy season 1 and 2 box sets.

Pattern: Knit Necktie by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: Pure North Ronaldsay Wool (from woolfest a couple of years ago)
Needles: 5mm
Modifications: cast on less stitches for a skinnier tie. Also, cast on an odd number so all rows begin k1, p1... makes the moss stitch easier!
Verdict: Great! I'm really pleased with how it looks, and hubby likes it too!

I have also completed a small bag, a bowtie and I've cast on for the re-knit of the Klingon sweater. All being well it will be more successful this time.
I also hope to complete hubby's Christmas present and some spinning I have on the wheel. I've no idea what I'll knit after that though!

January will be a month off in Nerd Wars, so I'm free to knit whatever I like! Not that I haven't knitted things I've wanted to knit over the past few months, but...

In other news, the chickens are well.

Buffy, the older of the three, laid her first egg on December 9th. She's laid 4 days out of 5 since then, so lots of lovely eggs now starting to be available. We had a lovely flan type thingy made with the first four eggs yesterday for lunch and it was very nice. Looking forward to my Christmas Morning eggs and bacon.
They all seem quite happy too. We let them out in the garden for the first time at the end of November

They seemed to really like it! We let them out for an hour last Sunday too, and they all spent the full hour hiding behing the shed. While this made me quite nervous that they would either accidentally get into the paddock out the back or else into next door through the hedge, they didn't bother about that! They all came back to the house for bedtime like good little hens. I'm getting more relaxed about letting them out in the garden to free range, though probably only when we're in. I'm looking forward to the summer when we'll be able to let them out after work for a few hours!

Well, that's all for now. I'll show you my other crafting when the photos are up!

No WIP left behind

2011-12-06T15:54:00.000Z

Yes, it's December.
In fact, it has been December for almost a week.

Cue working out what I've made in the past year and whether I feel like it's "enough", and also reviewing my "goals" from last year.
I didn't really set any proper goals, but on the 4th of January I included a list of things I planned and hoped for in 2011 (I've re-worded some of them!)

Get Married!
Have an amazing honeymoon!
Get chickens!
Yarn and Knitting!		Where to begin? There'll be a knitting in 2011 post later...
Spinning Wheel!
Gym in the garage!
Join Zumba		Not my thing!
Lose weight at slimming world
Move roles at work		Woo!
Have an Excellent year!		Well, I think so :)

Nerd Wars Round 2 is over!

2011-12-03T12:18:00.000Z

And I haven't blogged about it once. Shame on me.

Well, that does mean that I have quite a lot of finished things to share with you.

The challenges this time were more challenging (and the round three ones are REALLY hard!) but I eventually came up with something for every one of the six challenges.

I made a square on the diagonal which I've donated to an AIDS Orphans charity...

Pattern: cast on 3, increase by kfb 2nd stitch every row until sides are desired length, knit 2 rows, decrease by k2tog every row until 3 sts remain, cast off.
Yarn: leftover Karaoke and leftover Cascade 220
Needles: 4.5mm
Modifications: n/a
Charity link: Knit a Square

I made a snowflake, which will be a tree ornament for me.

Pattern: Snowflake 11 from Chez Crochet
Yarn: 4ply baby wool
Hook: 4mm
Modifications: I changed the final round slightly for ease, but can't really explain it!
Verdict: Once it's starched it will be fab!

And I made a heart (Spock's heart, so it's green)

Pattern: Baby Hearts (Rav link only)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton (lime)
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: Nice pattern, would be fab stuffed with lavender or similar.

And I made this shawl.

Pattern: Mizzle (Rav link only)
Yarn: Orkney Angora St Magnus D.K. (pink), Sublime Yarns Angora Merino (brownish)
Needles: 5mm
Modifications: Didn't do the garter ridges, otherwise knit as written.
Verdict: It's fab. It needs blocking, then I'll know if it's big enough!

Slack

2011-11-11T14:04:00.001Z

Sorry I’ve been slack in updating the blog. Between the chickens, Nerd Wars knitting, and life generally, I’ve been a little bit busy!

However, last month I did complete two further items (well, three) for Nerd Wars, and I’ve submitted some yarn I spun for this month too. So let’s start with a little finished items display!

Baby Hats
These were for the colourtastic challenge, simple but effective:

Pattern: Basic Baby Hat
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton (white and lime), King Cole Bamboo (blue and brown)
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: None! I knit one newborn and one 0-3month sizes
Verdict: Nice pattern, ends up with a nice enough hat. Basic, simple, quick – and most important sweet!

Neckwarmer
This was for the “best dressed nerds” challenge!

Pattern: Easy Neckwarmer Headband
Yarn: Llama yarn my mum brought back from America!
Needles: 5mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: I like it! It’s actually a bit loose for a headband for me, as I don’t have a lot of hair. I’m considering running a strand around one end and pulling it tight for a hat. But for now, it’s a good neckwarmer! It needs a bath too, hopefully that will soften the yarn a bit!

And then for this round of the tournament:
For the “nerd culture” topic we have to make something related to another nerdery. I picked Doctor Who, and made some Yarn which reminds me of the Sixth doctor. It’s called LCARS after the Star Trek information panels.

Fibre

Yarn

Fiber: Felt Studio UK Wensleydale
Colourway: Multi
Spun using: Ashford Traveller, middle ratio
Spin direction: Z (wheel turning anticlockwise, spin to the left)
Plying type/direction: 3ply, Navajo, S-plied (wheel turning clockwise, spin to the right)
Yarn Stats: ~100g / 117yds (approx. DK)
Verdict: I took some merino I was spinning off the wheel to begin this. I expected to spend a couple of days on it, but in reality I spun the yarn in an afternoon. (woo!) I decided to aim for a slightly thicker yarn, partly because I wanted a quicker project and partly because the fibre felt better when I did that. The colours in this braid were fantastic, so I knew I had to Navajo ply from the beginning. The result is a lovely slow stripe passing through the colours in a really pretty way. It’s lovely smooshy yarn too. Now I just have to figure out what to knit with it! (a recurring theme with handspun, I find)

Cop Out

2011-10-28T11:29:00.000+01:00

I want to post again today, but I don't have much to share.
The chickens are all well (we think) and we're still waiting for our first egg.
I've frogged the Nerd Wars tank top, and I'll be reknitting that (probably in round 2 of Nerd Wars!) and I've also frogged the cowl I started and I've cast on a new one with the same yarn.

I have made a wordle of the last month of posts on my blog, here it is.

(clicky linky to see bigger)

Chickens!

2011-10-24T13:35:00.002+01:00

A few days ago I posted about our new chicken run which we assembled in the garden.

On Friday we visited a nice couple who had quite a lot of chickens. They had quite a few breeds there, and they were all interested, perky and generally fun.
I wanted to have three chickens (the house could probably take four large hens, but I don't want to test that right now!) so we were considering which three breeds to go for.

The most friendly and docile chickens were the Gingernut Rangers. These are a cross breed of chicken, the product of a Rhode Island Red and a Light Sussex. They're chickens which look like chickens. The one we picked - well, she picked us. She was scratching around and pecking my wellies, and hubby picked her up easily.

We've called her Buffy, she seems to be in charge (even though she's the smaller of the three - she is also the oldest)

A close second were the light Sussex hens. They were a bit more wary of us, but the owners were able to pick up our favourite quite quickly.

This one is Willow. She's a bit nervous of the camera noise that my iPhone was making! She settled into the run quite quickly. She doesn't seem to be the brightest of the three chickens though!

Finally we were originally thinking about getting an amber star. However, while we were there I fell in love with the Maran X that they had. We think they were Maran x Rhode Island, so she should be a similar temperament to Buffy, but maybe a bit more flightly. She's a beautiful colour, grey-blue, with a black hood.

And the perfect name for this one: Faith.
I'm sorry about the picture quality of Faith, she wasn't keen on having her photo taken, and so she's a bit blurry. She's also so dark coloured that the iPhone couldn't cope with her in those light levels!

We had put fresh newspaper and sawdust down for them on Friday, which we found they had made a right mess of, so we put fresh bedding down for them today. I think this is probably because they've been cooped up (quite literally) in the coop. Now that they have the run to wander in, they shouldn't mess the coop up quite so much.

While hubby was making lunch, I took them the end and innards from the pepper we had. They went absolutely mad for it! They also loved the mealworms we gave them to encourage them out of the coop!

I'm really excited to have chickens. It's been a dream of mine for a while. Hopefully when we get a bit more used to them we might be able to consider getting some rescue hens.
First things first though, we need to build them an extra run.

Voyager Tank - Complete!

2011-10-21T09:56:00.000+01:00

So, I submitted my Voyager Tank Top (well, sleeveless cardigan) for team unity in Nerd Wars! Yey!

Pattern: “Uffington” from the Scrumptious Collection Volume 1
Yarn: RYC Cashmerino Chunky
Needles: 6mm and 5mm (I didn’t have any 5.5mm circs)
Modifications: None!
Verdict: The pattern itself is well written, and the garment came out to the size it should have. I got the correct gauge with the yarn I was using. Everything went as it should, with just one problem:
The tank top and I are not the same shape.

It’s hard to see from these pictures, but I’ll try to explain…

The shoulders of the top are the right shape and size for me, I’m happy with the proportions here. But there is a bit of looseness on the back below the arm shaping.
I chose to knit the 12-14 size, on account of my bust (in a bra) being 37 inches – which is in the pattern’s range for that size. However, I think that rather more of the 37 inches are on the front of me than the back. I should have considered that when knitting this one, and maybe made a smaller size on the back and a larger size on the front.

The waist shaping isn’t right, but I’ll come to that in a moment…

I didn’t do such a good job of picking up for the front button bands. This means that the neckline isn’t properly square. I’m not totally sure how I would rectify it, probably needed to pick up another stitch at the top there, or leave one hanging from the rib or something.

Also, the button band and buttonhole band are pulling in way more than I would like. I think I should have picked up more stitches than I did, especially considering that I was using a needle which is 0.5mm smaller than recommended.

The next two issues are really the same issue combined. I have quite a long torso, and my natural waist is quite low. You can imagine how much fun this makes buying clothes in regular shops. Anyway, I digress.
I knitted the top as written. What I should have done is lengthened the body by between 2 and 4 inches (see where the pale orange top comes on the pic of the back, that’s really my minimum top length) and moved the waist shaping accordingly. Of course, had I done that then the circumference of the bottom ribbing might not have been several inches too wide either.

Anyway, I’m not comfortable with the top, so I will not be wearing it. This means that I have two options:
1. Find someone who is the same shape as the top and give it to them.
2. Frog the whole top (sewn in buttons, woven in ends, seams and button bands and all) and re-knit.
I’m currently thinking about re-knitting it. As a tank top rather than a cardigan!
You see, I love the square neck, the pattern up the back, the shape of the shoulders. I just don’t love the fit around the bottom part, and I’m pretty sure I can modify it in such a way that this will work.
I think that the problems I’ve had with the fit are entirely down to the shape of me, which is a shame!

Of course, having read Ysolda’s book, I should have seen this coming.

Still, knitting the whole thing only took me about three weeks which is much quicker than any of my other sweaters. I think I can reknit it in the same sort of timescales. Especially if I do a sweater version, because that will mean no button/buttonhole bands!

I can also learn from the other mistake I made while knitting this garment: slipped stitches on the edge do not help if you will be picking up stitches for a button band. On socks it’s a real help, I don’t know why it’s different for a sweater, but I found that the slipped stitches made me want to pick up a lot less stitches. Not good. But they did help with the sides which needed seaming. (That said, I might take the controversial approach of knitting it in the round, if my cable is long enough! Save on seams!)

Completed, submitted, going to be frogged.

Chicken Run!

2011-10-19T15:06:00.000+01:00

At the weekend we built the chicken run.
It's from Steve Fisher Woodworking near Selby. Not the most communicative, but great quality as far as I can see!

I've ordered feeders, drinkers, food, grit, treats and the like.
It's all very exciting.

We're going to view some chickens on Friday, all being well. Also near Selby. (Who knew that Selby would be the Chicken Capital of the East Riding!?) We're hoping to get three different breeds because being able to tell the difference in the eggs means we'll know if one of them is ~~not pulling her weight~~ unwell. I've got an idea for names for them too, but I'll share that when I'm sure that they look like their names.

-o0o-

On the knitting front, the buttons arrived and I finished all the knitting. I just have to weave in the ends and then sew on the buttons. Last night I didn't fancy weaving in the ends...

so I left it for this evening.
I'm not sure it's going to help.
But I can't wear it without weaving in the ends. And I can't submit it for Nerd Wars either.

Slack

2011-10-17T13:44:00.002+01:00

Yes, I’ve been a slack blogger lately. This is largely because I’ve been concentrating on knitting for Nerd Wars, and this weekend, sorting out the chicken run!

What have I been knitting for Nerd Wars? Well, while the front and back of my “tank top” were blocking

I quickly knit a little wash cloth. It’s turned out rather smaller than I would have hoped, but it looks rather good.

Pattern: Baby Trekkie Wash Cloth from Wilderness Witch Knits
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton (white)
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: Pretty cool, and perfect for Nerd Wars! I don’t think this cotton is very good for wash cloths, it’s quite thin for Aran weight. It is really soft though, and would be fab for baby garments I think!

I’m anticipating finishing the “tank top” any time now, I have the two arm cuffs to knit and buttons to add and it will be done. I’ve ordered some buttons online; they should be on their way soon I hope. I’m excited to be able to wear it!
It would have been finished this weekend, but I got distracted with the chicken run, with felting some slippers for hubby, with cooking and generally faffing around!
I could use a long sleeved t-shirt to wear underneath it though. Maybe I’ll have to go shopping!

Feelin’ hot hot hot!

2011-10-03T15:37:00.000+01:00

Well, this weekend just gone was lovely, weather wise! It’s very odd that it’s October, and in the north of England we decided to have a barbecue.

Now, if you’d told me back in September (which was both chilly and rainy) that we’d be barbecuing on the 1st October, I would have laughed at you.

But there we were.

I had a lovely morning sitting outside in the sun knitting (No, I’m not preggers, that dress just isn’t very flattering)

And what was I knitting?

My first Nerd Wars project, of course! This is going to be cool! (Well, actually I expect it to be warm, it’s knit in RYC cashsoft chunky. I love this yarn so much!)

Sadly, this means that I’ve pretty much stopped work on my other projects. I think I’ll easily get it finished in the time, so I can work on other things. I plan to do so tonight at knitting group when I will knit on super-secret-gift-for-hubby.
Of course, while hubby is around, I don’t knit on that, so it’s not progressing as quickly as I would like.

Go Team!

2011-09-28T13:29:00.002+01:00

I have my team assignment for Nerd Wars!

Woo!

I’m quite excited about it. In three days I will know what the possible challenges are, and then I can get crafting!

I’m over half way through the singles of the Vampire Rock merino, so it’s unlikely that it will be spun and plied by the 1st, but you never know! I’ll keep working on it.

I’m looking forward to seeing the ravatars of other Nerd Wars competitors too; there have been some really creative ones in the forums so far.

X all the Y

2011-09-28T13:04:00.000+01:00

I have been enjoying the meme known as X all the Y.

The original can be seen at hyperbole and a half

It’s really struck home with me, this simple but effective way of communicating how you feel about performing a task. Break it down into an easily repeated message.

I didn’t realise that it had become a “snowclone” (I had to look that up!) until I was kindly linked to this meme about Star Wars , and then I was hooked.

I’ve been finding many things fit into the X all the Y! and X all the Y? templates.

And so, I proudly present, my first meme snowclone.

-o0o-

When I started my new job, as a business analyst, this is how I felt

But sometimes, when it’s all getting too much and I’d rather go home and knit, I feel more like

Excited!

2011-09-23T14:12:00.001+01:00

Three days ago I received a PM in my Ravelry inbox.
The PM was from one of the moderators of a group on Ravelry called Nerd Wars (Rav Link).

The concept is pretty simple; knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers from Ravelry join teams representing their favourite nerdy topic (ranging from Star Wars to Books to Board Games!) and then these teams compete by crafting along to challenges for points.

Points can be earned for projects which meet the brief, and bonus points are available for projects which meet the brief in a way that reflects ones chosen nerd-dom. On top of that there are even more bonus points for projects which meet a challenge set by the team.

It’s been a while since I took part in any group crafting, and I think I’ve really only joined in with swaps in the past. This will be my first real craft-along!

I’m quite excited about it, and even though I won’t know for sure which team I will be on for this round (I’ve joined in time for tournament 3) until next week, I’ve been designing a new Ravatar for my first choice team: Team Enterprise. I’ll show it here if I do join that team. (The team is Star Trek, in case you couldn’t guess)
My other options are Rogue Squadron (Star Wars) and the Unseen University (Discworld).

There will be a challenge for each month, so I’m working to get my spinning wheel free (I’m about a third of the way through spinning my Vampire Rock fibre from a Little Bit Sheepish.

I also have the super secret Christmas gift for hubby on the needles, that’s not going to be done before the 1st October! The Lava cowl might be done by then if I concentrate on it for a bit. It’s quite a fast knit as it is heavy DK and on nice big needles!

And then there’s the two swallowtails. I’ve ripped the pink one back to just prior to the second-to-last lace section, but I still need to pick up the stitches from the lifeline and then re-knit the edge. I’m almost at the end of the budding lace on the blue one, though it would go quicker if I stopped making mistakes on it!
Depending on what else I decide to do on Monday and Tuesday next week (when I have two days off work) I might get one of the WIPs finished.

I have a week until round 1 of tournament 3 begins!

Having a Wrest in the sunshine

2011-09-20T15:08:00.000+01:00

At the weekend hubby and I visited Wrest Park. It’s a really pretty place, and the weather was amazing.

We strolled through the gardens

And saw beautiful buildings

And a gorgeous library

It was a lovely day out, I’d recommend it to anyone who likes old buildings, beautiful scenery and that sort of thing!

I did have a sad moment this weekend though.

My Swallowtail, which I’ve been wearing as a scarf for a while now, had a mysterious hole in it.

On closer inspection, there were a couple of holes, so I decided to rip out the final section and re-knit it.

While I was ripping back, I ended up with about 12 different short-ish lengths of yarn. I don’t think that any of them were unrelated to the holes I already knew about, but it did make me nervous about that fiendish creature; the moth larvae. I have checked all of my knitted garments for holes, and I’m looking into storage options which are breathable but mothproof.

At least I have plenty of the yarn left.

And in the meantime, I’m knitting another swallowtail anyway! It’s only small again, but will be pretty when finished. This one is in the same yarn as my wedding shawl (you know, the one I didn’t wear on the day!)

Ghoughpteighbteau

2011-09-16T14:35:00.001+01:00

If I’d named this post ghoti, you’d know what I was talking about.
Or would you?

I’m talking about phonetics. It was a discussion on the news this morning.
I did a little reading on the web, and came across a wiki article about phonics that made me realise that when I was at school, we certainly did synthetic phonics as a way of learning to read. I remember the flash cards with OO, EE and TH on them.

I also remember, and believe that most people my age will remember, the videos we used to watch about spelling – specifically magic e and Francis Drake (the duck) and the O-O sound (I wish I could find a clip for that!)

So, I bet you’re still wondering about the title of this post? Perhaps you’ve figured it out?

P as in hiccough (pronounced hic-cup)
O as in though (tho-)
T as in ptomaine (toe-main)
A as in neigh (nay)
T as in debt (det)
O as in bureau (byu-row)

Potato (Gh)(ough)(pt)(eigh)(bt)(eau)

Isn’t English amazing?

Speaking of which, I hear there’s an alternative to the Police Phonetic alphabet too (foxtrot, Charlie) where the idea is that the word does begin with that letter, but doesn’t sound like it does (k for knife) and one where the word sounds like it begins with a letter that it doesn’t (q for cucumber)

Since my online name (Tsuki) is often misread and mispronounced (Tusky being a favourite) here’s a phonetic breakdown of my name:

TS (as in Tsunami)
U (as in rude)
K (as in pick)
I (as in la-di-da) (sorry, I can’t think of a word where “i” makes the ee sound!)

So, there you have it.

My thought for the day
wouldn’t English be a lot harder to learn if we spelled potato as ghoughpteighbteau?

and a lot less interesting if we didn't know that we could spell it that way!

Crafty is as Crafty does

2011-09-06T16:07:00.000+01:00

I'm plotting some more crafty adventures.

last week I picked 450g of elderberries. My Mum has also picked me about a pound, so if I pick just two more pounds of elderberries, I can make wine to my Dad's recipe. He's bringing me some demi-johns for doing that with. I also hope to make some plum wine, as the neighbours gave us a bucket full of plums!

Well, as you can imagine, there are more plums than I need for the wine. I'm also going to make some jam. The trouble is that I don't have any jam jars!
I do have about 600g of raspberries which are also lined up to be jam, but I've frozen those. I bet I can pick another punnet of them tonight too.
So, I think I'll need to buy myself some jam jars. (Though my Mother-in-Law has offered that I could have some of hers, which might be a cheaper solution!)

So, wine, jam - how cool! Anyway, we also identified that the tree/bush behind the shed is not, in fact, a blackthorn bush. Therefore it doesn't have sloes on it. It's a damson tree, and so I have also picked 450g (about a pound) of damsons. I'm going to make damson gin with some of them, and I might make damson rum with the other half if I can find a small (35cl) bottle of cheap white rum.

We're also making a scarecrow for the Bugthorpe Scarecrow trail. I'll post pictures once he's up. We're starting tonight by making a papier-mâché head.

On the fibre craft front, I am still working on the hoody, but I confess it's not really appealing to me at the moment. I just need to get to the top of the arms and it will be interesting again! I guess it's all down to my orangutan-like proportions - or so it seems! I've rarely met a jumper (hand knit or bought) which has sleeves the right length. Most often they are too short - the cuff leaves my wrist bone exposed, or in some cases they look like 3/4 sleeves even if they're not meant to be! Sometimes they are silly long though, but that's less of a problem!

I did cast on something new, a cowl. The pattern is Lava Flow Cowl (Rav Link) although I have made some amendments because of my yarn choice.

The yarn is actually much lighter than in that picture, it's the Llama yarn that my parents brought back from America when they went.

This arrived in the post this morning

It's greener than that (the joy of taking photos when it's rainy and miserable!) but really nice. It's 30% cashmere 70% merino from Colourmart. It's going to be something for Hubby for Christmas. He has seen the yarn (I had to check when it arrived, I was a bit worried about the green-ness) but that's all he's going to know about it! It's lovely stuff, I've already skeined it and I plan to wash it tonight. This is because Colourmart yarn is usually weaving or machine knitting yarn and as such is usually oiled. I want to make the most of the 150g I have, so I'm going to want to pick the most appropriate needle, and not have to make a swatch. (That and I hate swatching)
Then I want to re-skein and wash the bargain red yarn from the British Wool Weekend because it smells a bit fusty. Trouble is that it's probably twice as heavy as the Colourmart yarn, and it's laceweight. So re-skeining that could be a bit of a nightmare! I may have to do it into 100g skeins! That's going to have to be a project for when I'm a bit less busy. This week in my evenings I have to:

help with the scarecrow
pick elderberries
pick courgette
pick raspberries
pack for visiting my sister (and travel there on Friday)
organise present for upcoming birthday
go to Slimming World

I think that's all. But that's a lot to fit in to the next three evenings! I guess it's better than vegetating in front of the telly though, right?

Well That Didn't Last Long...

2011-09-04T10:15:00.001+01:00

Indeed. Finishitupitis ended almost as soon as I typed the last blog post. Boo.

I was still working only on the hoody, but then we went to the British Wool Weekend in Harrogate yesterday.
I find events like that incredibly inspirational! This was the first one of these weekends, but the stalls were fabulous. There was plenty to look at for spinning and knitting, and some lush buttons! It was pretty calm in there too, not the mad scrum that usually occurs at the Knitting and Stitching show.

One of the exhibits in the hall was giant knitting.

I think that the "needle" might be made out of a drain pipe! It was certainly very cool. It took six of us to move the knitting round once a row had been completed! (I wish I had asked someone to video that!)

So, I was pretty restrained on the buying front, though I couldn't resist some laceweight yarns

They're both from Oliver Twist, and they're both very similar colours!

There were also some great button stands, one of whom gave me the idea to make some button broaches. (It turns out I don't have any broach backs, so I'll have to make do with one for now!)

I'm really pleased with it though.

I'm looking forward to making some more!
Also, I found this bargain yarn

It's "Cashwool". The lady asked for £5 for it. I don't know what the yardage is, but I think it's 100% merino, there might be some cashmere in it but I don't know. It's really soft. though.

Oddly...

2011-08-30T22:26:00.000+01:00

I heard, back in Jauary, that there was such a thing as “finishitupitis”. It’s the opposite of “startitis”, something which I have contracted more than once. Normally this occurs just after I bought yarn, or when a new issue of knitty comes out. Sometimes the arrival of a magazine or even spotting something in a shop can trigger a case of startitis.

Well, it seems that I may have contracted finishitupitis this time. All I’ve been able to think about over the past week is how I want to finish the projects I’m currently working on.

I looked at, and even knit a little bit with the Fyberspates Scrumptious which is going to be Tirrold from the Scrumptious Collection. Then I put it back in it’s little ziplock bag and put it in my craft room.

I thought about how my recent handspun would make a nice scarflette or similar.

I thought about a secret idea that I’ve had for a Christmas gift (I know he doesn’t read the blog, but it’s always best to be safe).

I decided what pattern (monkey) I was going to knit with some of the yarn my parents brought me back from Nevada. (I can’t believe I didn’t blog about it, so here are two teaser pictures, the sock yarn is on the left)

And I made a mental note of it.
Then I picked up the baby cardigan I have been working on.
I knit on the remaining arm for a bit. Garter stitch in the round is not a lot of fun! Then I picked up and knit both button bands, sewed on the buttons and voilà:

Pattern: Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Ecobaby Fairtrade, just more than 2 balls (3rd ball was just for the button bands) in the pale green colour
Needles: 3.5mm circular
Modifications: None really. I chose the garter stich button band option which I think looks lovely. I might consider working button bands as part of the fronts if I were to make it again.
Verdict: It’s a really cute baby cardigan, and simple to knit too. While this one lingered longer than it really aught, that was mostly because this was the second cardigan of this pattern that I have knit in succession. So, if you’re making 2 I’d recommend getting a really long circular and doing them two-at-a-time!

Moving on, I picked up my “Fangirl Socks”, which were inspired by the Yarn Harlot as I briefly mentioned when I started them over a year ago! I’ve finally finished them.

Pattern: Basic Vanilla sock recipe, plus simple rib sides and only short length
Yarn: Zwerger Garn Opal – Regenwald (Rainforest). Colour 2675 “Isabella die Meeresbiologin” (Isabella the Marine Biologist) – about half the skein
Needles: 2.25mm 80cm circular needles for two-at-a-time magic loop
Modifications: I used a standard heel flap rather than Yarn Harlot’s short row heel.
Verdict: They’re great! The Opal yarns are good value and pretty hard wearing (my other pairs made with Opal yarns have stood up, both in colour and texture, to numerous machine washes in my front loader (on a wool setting, of course!). The sock pattern is just a vanilla sock, but the ribs down the side make it interesting enough to not be boring.
They're only short, which is great for a summer sock. If we get any more summer this year I'll let you know how they go on. Failing that, they are still good socks!

That just leaves my woven bag and my Après Surf Hoodie to be finished. While the bag is going to take the least time (it just needs sewing together, lining and a strap) the hoodie will be a challenge. I usually don’t like to have only one thing on the go at once, but perhaps this bout of finishitupitis will last long enough to get me at least on to the hood!

Continuous weave?

2011-08-24T09:57:00.001+01:00

I read an article in Yarn Maker recently about something called Continuous Weave. This is a type of weaving where the warp and the weft are made from the same strand of yarn at the same time. There’s a pretty good website here about it. , as well as this one about making a tube with a circular (or square) bottom.

Well, I was inspired, and as it said that I could do this with any symmetrical shape I decided to give it a go with a rectangle. It seems, though, that by any they didn’t really mean any in the literal sense of the word – or perhaps it’s symmetrical I should be defining better here.

As far as I can tell, it can be done on: triangles, squares, circles, hexagons (with sides of equal length) should work too. Rectangles? Not so much. You see, I believe that you need the same number of warp “pegs” and weft “pegs” to make the weave work. On a rectangle this isn’t the case.

By the time I realised this, however, I already had a lovely rectangular frame (made by my husband) and as he put a lot of work into it, I decided to have a go at weaving in a slightly more conventional manner (well, sort of).

I “warped” the frame by wrapping the yarn on the diagonal across the whole frame, and then using the principle of weaving a “loop” of yarn that is used in continuous weave, I began weaving on the frame.

What I ended up with is actually quite pretty, I think. This is noro sock yarn held double. It’s possible to “cast off” the edges to keep the fabric from unravelling once you’re finished too.
I’m pleased with the edges as shown in this pic, but I did a crochet chain along one edge which I’m less pleased with. I might have to pull that back and re-do it properly.

Then all I need to do is fold it over and make it into a bag. When it was on the frame I thought I might need to line it, but it’s spring together quite nicely as a fabric now. I might still decide to line it though, I think it will feel more finished if I do.

This was a practice run, and I’ve learnt a lot in doing it. I’m going to have a go at a square and do it properly. I think I’ll use some thick card to do that, save poor hubby’s woodworking skills for when I need them!

Make do.

2011-08-12T14:33:00.000+01:00

Make do: to use what you have rather than buying new.

Hubby and I have been talking about our next holiday. We’d love to go away somewhere sunny in February. But, looking at the finances at the moment, I’m not sure we can afford to this year.

In an effort to save us some money, I’ve decided to make a commitment. Initially it was going to be yarn based, but I think I might have to extend it to include fibre.

I’m going to commit not to buy any new yarn or fibre for the next 6 months. I will work entirely from stash.

I think that should be quite straight forward, as I have 39 different lots of fibre (including over 2kg of alpaca) and 125 different yarns (over 200 balls/skeins) in my stash (not including handspun).

I am going to make one exception for Hethe, a laceweight cardigan which would be knit from Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace. I love the Scrumptious, but it’s £15.99 per skein, and I’d need two skeins. That’s £31.98 – which isn’t bad for a sweater, I know.

Using some maths, I can work out approximately the yardage for my size (rather than going for the full 2 skeins, which it might not be.)
The pattern comes in 6 sizes: 6, 8-10, 12-14, 16-18, 20-22, 24-26.
The actual bust sizes for these are: 34, 38, 42, 45, 50, 54 inches.
(I guess that this means that it’s got a bit of positive ease, because I’m not really an 8-10 but my bust size lies in that range, this is something to consider because I don’t like my clothes to be baggy.)
Anyway, the pattern also states that for these sizes you need 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3 skeins of yarn.
Now, since I want to make something between the 8-10 and 12-14 size, I’m not going to need the full 2 skeins, as that would make the 16-18 size too.
I can either do the maths on just the three sizes which require 2 skeins, or on all sizes.

To be honest, I like to do both.

If the 6 needs 1 skein (1000m) and the 16-18 needs 2 skeins (2000m) then:

6	8-10	12-14	16-18
1000m	=1000 + ((2000 – 1000) / 3) =1000 + (1000 / 3) =1000 + 333.33 =1333 m	=1333 + ((2000 – 1000) / 3) =1333.33 + (1000 / 3) =1333.33 + 333.33 =1666m	2000

To extend that across all sizes:

6	8-10	12-14	16-18	20-22	24-26
1000	1400	1800	2200	2600	3000

So, my least amount of yarn likely is 1333 (if I make the 8-10 and my lower estimate is right) and the most is 1800 (if I make the 12-14 and my higher estimate is right)

I’m currently thinking about getting the yarn from colourmart, as they have some nice extra fine merino, which isn’t quite the same as merino silk, but it is lovely. They sent me a sample of their cashmere (seen in the swatch below as the grey) which was heavenly. Sadly, that probably wouldn’t be cheaper than the Scrumptious! They also kindly sent me small samples of some other yarns I was interested, and I made this swatch to see how they knitted either on their own or plied up:

Anyway, after that, I’m knitting only from stash.

Other than to save money, I think it’s important to prove to myself that I can knit from stash.

To aid myself (and my sanity!) I’ve been going through my stash and my queue on Ravelry and pairing up yarn with patterns I want to make.

Yarn	Pattern
Tsuki - Hand Dyed Lace I dyed this yarn myself with some Kool Aid. It's realy bright and summery!	Aeolian (shawl)
Violet Green Bourette Silk 4ply	Amiga (cardi) The name of this pattern appeals to my inner geek
Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran	Angostura
Abstract Cat Merino/silk laceweight This is what's left from my wedding shawl, I hope I can squeeze another shawlette out of it! If not, the edging might have to be another colour.	Annis (shawlette)
Noro Kureyon Sock	Brandywine Shawl
Debbie Bliss Stella	Climbing Vines Pullover
Noro Sekku	Etherial (shawl)
Violet Green Gloriana Bluefaced Leicester 4ply Sock Yarn	Gail (shawl)
Rowan Summer Tweed	Hey Teach I'll have to rename this "Hey Business Solution Designer" - or perhaps "Hey Code Monkey"
Violet Green Stellar	Lace Capelet
Fyberspates Nef Lace	Laminaria (shawl)
RYC Cashsoft Chunky	Little Blue Sweater
Louisa Harding Kimono Angora	Moebius Cowl
Sublime Yarns Organic Merino Wool DK	Poet's Pullover
Sublime Yarns Angora Merino	Selene Pullover
K1 Yarns Laceweight Linen/Cotton	Summer Affair (cardi)
Violet Green Mulberry Merino 2ply Lace	swallowtail (shawl) (make big!) My last swallowtail is more of a scarf, I'd love to make a much bigger one, but I don't think it would look as nice in 4ply.
Noro Kureyon	Tempting
Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace	Tirrold (tank)
Fyberspates Sparkle Cashmere	Whisper (cardi)

But, for the time being I still need to work on my 3 WIPs; the hoody (Still on the sleeves), the baby cardigan (also on the sleeves!), and the socks which are on the foot.

I have also cast on for a moebius from some yarn a friend gave me (on the condition I knit something for her from it) but it’s not going well. Partly because it’s mohair, which isn’t a lot of fun to do this pattern with (hence the angora in the queue to be a moebius. I might send that to the frog pond and think about something else with that yarn. Something a bit simpler, perhaps. I’m not sure that my friend would wear a shawl, so that’s out of the question. Hmm…

Fibre East, Ysolda and such like

2011-07-31T14:21:00.000+01:00

Well, the last few weekends have been amazing! I've done lots of crafty things and now I'm finally getting around to sharing them with you...

So, lets start with some knitting. After I finished the tam, I decided that I needed to do something with all the yarn I still had. After a false start on a feather and fan pattern I was trying to make up, I created these simple mittens. I've done a raglan thumb for ease of knitting.

There is even still a little yarn left! I'm thinking about making some flowers or something with it. Any ideas?

Well, my dear mum saw the hat I made and she liked it so much that she asked me to make her one! So, I took some yarn I dyed myself (with natural plant dyes, no less) and set about making another one.

and here it is:

I made it exactly like the hand-spun version, same mods and everything. :)

Well, that's about all the knitting I've done lately. Well - that's finished anyway!

The weekend before last was very wet, but that didn't stop us from visiting the Bishop Wilton Show. There were some lovely exhibits in the craft part of the show, though not many - I think people were put off by the weather. However, we'll go again next year!
The Sunday saw the Malton show, an altogether larger event. The exhibits at this show were also of a very high standard. (I'm thinking about entering something myself next year!) I especially enjoyed walking around the chicken, duck and rabbit section. While we were wandering round, I cam across a man who makes crochet hooks, and I couldn't resist this one

It's in excess of 10mm, and will be great for some rugs I want to crochet out of old fabric scraps.

Last weekend was Fibre East. It's a small festival in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire. I love fibre festivals! This was on the smaller side, but no less exciting. We knew it was going to be a good day when we started with a very nice cuppa and Hubby had a bacon butty. I wandered around for a while and oogled lots of nice things. I did pick up a long cable for moebius and some 3mm tips for the Fyberspates Lace.

I also bought this lovely thick 4ply Shetland. It's so soft and yet sturdy. Love the colour too! The chap said it would take dye well, but I think it's nice as it is.

I stopped by Woodland Turnery and picked up this rather nice inch gauge (that's for working out the WPI or Wraps Per Inch of a yarn)

And this mini niddy noddy, which is shown here with my standard sized Ashford niddy noddy.

I ummed and aahed about my last purchase, mostly because I already have over 1000g of alpaca fibre which is to be spun.
But the colour was so nice! It's rose-grey, which is a kind of pinkish tinged grey, though I have a bit of brown and a bit of white in the bag too...

Now all I have to do is spin it, and make it into something nice!

Well, last but not least...
On Friday Ysolda Teague visited York.
I went along to try on some of the samples from her new book Little Red in the City and to get my own signed copy. (woot!)

I even managed to get a photo with her, which was nice!

Ysolda was really lovely, just as you'd expect from reading her blog.
I almost bought a sweater-worth of yarn too, but it turned out that there were only 4 balls of the colour I fancied. Shame, but probably for the best. I'll have to use some of the yarn I already have!

Blocking

2011-07-19T08:52:00.002+01:00

So, last time I posted, I was showing you my new handspun hat. However, I did say

"It does still need blocking, to make it less pointy and more wavy."

Well, I finally got around to it, I dug out a loose-bottom pie tin which was a good size for blocking this hat with, and smooshed it into a tam shape.

Once it was on the pie tin, (bottom off) I sprayed it with water to make it damp (not wet) and the left it overnight to dry.

This morning, it's a lovely shape, though the rib has lost some of its stretch, as you'd expect.

and it looks more star shaped and less pointy when I wear it.

Of course, today the sun has come out and it's not really warm enough to wear a hat. I guess it will have to wait on the hat rack until the weather is right. Cold enough for a bit of a hat, but not cold enough to want your ears covered!

Another Handspun FO

2011-07-11T16:49:00.001+01:00

After the success of the bookmark I present a hat!

Yes, I finished the hat that I cast on last week, and I’m working on some matching mittens now. I’m totally hooked on working with my handspun; it is lush! Credit where it’s due, it’s really thanks to the fibre.

It does still need blocking, to make it less pointy and more wavy. I’ll have to think about making a template in the correct shape…

Pattern: Star Hat by Tetiana Otruta
Yarn: Handspun Bonkers Fibre, Flamingo, approx. DK/Worsted, 76yds
Needles: 6mm circular
Modifications: Instead of SKPsso used SSK, changed the purl rows in the decrease section to be the same as those in the feather and fan pattern.
Verdict: I love this hat! The pattern was nice and easy, quick and satisfying. I love twisted rib anyway! I’m glad that I chose this for my handspun! Now I just need to work out how to block it properly.

-o0o-
PS. We've adopted some Robrovski hamsters, named Bill and Ben. So cute. Expect to hear more about them!

Regaining my mojo

2011-07-07T19:05:00.001+01:00

I found the cure for my lack of desire to knit.

I’ve started working on a hat, the pattern is Star Hat by Tetiana Otruta.

I was going to make a Moebius Cowl (Rav Link) by Cat Bordhi, but my 6mm circular needle is only 80cm long, and I really would need a longer needle. (I did try, it wasn’t happening)

Well, then I had my yarn all wound into a ball, and I was determined to knit something with it! It looks lovely in the cake, the transition of the colours really shows well.

Anyway, I found the Star Hat pattern – it’s written for Noro Kureyon. My yarn is not really the same, it’s a 3ply rather than a single, and it’s merino bamboo rather than 100% wool. But so far it’s looking good. I just hope that my 205yds is enough!

I’ve just finished the twisted rib, and I’m moving on to the main pattern. It’s a pretty simple feather and fan type of pattern which I like the look of on the pattern page. I hope mine looks as nice when it’s done!

Sadly I have to spend some time away from my knitting just now. I have cards to make. This is irritating because if I had thought of that before I wound the handspun, I might have been less sorry to stop knitting! Haha.

Inspiration

2011-07-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

Something I’m sadly lacking right now is inspiration. I don’t feel inspired to finish my current WIPs. I don’t want to start any new ones until I do.

I’ve been working on the thank you cards for our wedding. They’re getting there, and despite being quite simple I think they’re going to be pretty.

One way that I get myself inspired is to sort out my crafty stuff. I might need to invest in some more storage; given the amount of fleece I’ve been given! My dad’s managed to source me a fleece, though I’m not sure of the breed it looks and feels really nice. My neighbour has given me several pluckings of her Soay sheep (they don’t get shorn like regular sheep) and my other neighbour has said she has a fleece in her garage for me. That’s on top of the two fleeces a friend already gave me (though they could be quite pooey, I don’t know. I need to get on and check it out.) I’m not sure what the best way to store those will be, but I’m pretty sure that in random bags in my garage is not it. I guess the best bet will be to make a start on sorting it all, and then anything not worth spinning can go into the compost!

Other than that, though, I have a pretty big mass of prepared fibre I could be working with. Everything from merino silk to alpaca roving! I have rare breed sheep fleece, washed and carded, or washed alpaca locks (so soft!), or coloured merino silk, hand dyed Jacob…

And then the yarn, so much yarn! I have laceweight silk, laceweight merino, 4ply in so many varieties, DK angora, Aran weight wool or cotton and chunky wool too.

(And that’s not even all of it! There are 170 types of yarn and fibre in my stash, 340 balls, skeins, bags or braids)

Oddly, even in writing this I feel more inspired! Perhaps I’d better stop off at B&Q and buy a bucket, and oil my wheel, and sort out all of my needles ready for all these projects I’m about to begin!

I do have 10 pages of queued items on Ravelry too, 282 possible projects...

Oh well, it should keep me busy!

Woolfest

2011-06-29T22:15:00.000+01:00

Two years ago we spent a week of glorious sunshine in Cumbria, and attended Woolfest as part of our holiday.

We were moving house last year, so I couldn’t go.

This year, we decided to take a long weekend, so we headed off to Cockermouth on Thursday 23rd to stay in Rose Cottage B&B for three nights.

On the way we stopped off at somewhere called the Alpaca Centre. They had alpaca jumpers, gloves, hats, alpaca rugs, a stuffed cria; the works! They also had some real live alpaca in their field.

After a much needed cup of tea, we arrived in Cockermouth at about lunchtime. As the B&B wasn’t yet open for arrivals, we headed into town for some lunch and a wander. There were some interesting craft shops, and Hubby spent some time in the music shop there.

Friday was Woolfest. It usually runs on the Friday and Saturday, and I like to go on the Friday. We didn’t spend too long queueing, which was nice, and then we had a wander around. I like to do one loop where I don’t buy anything, and then re-visit everywhere I want to buy from.

I came back with quite a haul!

Here’s a bit of a breakdown
The black "sheep" item is a limited edition bag. It says "It's all about the sheep" and is very cool.

This is a plying tool. After my disastrous attempts at Andean plying (big tangled mess) I’m quite excited to find this tool. I can’t for the life of me remember who I bought it from…

Because I know I will never get around to making myself one, this is a roll for my crochet hooks to live in. rather than the tatty plastic cases they live in right now.

Sock yarn, made from Teeswater sheep (though not from Teeside). Each skein is unique, and this was such a pretty colour. Also the Teeswater is very lustrous. I don’t know if it will be socks or something else. The little bag it’s sitting on is a hand-made gingham bag; lovely!

Fyberspates Lace weight Scrumptious (buy it here) yarn. It really is that pretty shade of blue. It’s amazing. I also bought the Scrumptious Collection book, which Jeni signed for me! I’m already planning to make one of the tops in the book with the yarn I picked up! I have to finish my Après Surf Hoodie first though.

Manx/Wensleydale Organic Laceweight. It’s lovely and soft and pretty and naturally that colour. What more could you ask for? It’s amazing.

500g of “caramel” coloured alpaca fleece, ready to spin. Lovely. It’s a shopping bag full, and when it’s spun I have a bag I can shop with (though it will be a bit hairy for a while!)

I stopped off at Felt Studio UK’s stand and watched Daniella spin for a (very short) time, before buying some lovely Jacob hand-dyed top. It’s a nice fat squishy braid too!

I bought a 100g bag of Hebridean fibre to spin with too. It looks pretty hairy, but it doesn’t feel rough to touch. I’m hopeful that if it is a bit rough I might be able to felt something from it.

Angora Bunny fur from Skyrack Angoras. This is a lovely greyish colour. I had a lovely chat with the lady about how to spin this. She recommended blending it with something else. I think that I’d like to get it to be about 50% angora, but I don’t know yet what I want to blend it with. And I only have some small hand cards. I might need to get on Ravelry in the UK Spinners forum and ask them what they recommend.

I stopped off at the Winghams stand and selected these bargains. 50g balls of merino silk for £3.50. Lush colours too. And now I’ve seen it in person, I’ll be reasonably happy to pick some more up online. Well, when I’ve spun more of my spinning stash anyway.

Manx Loughton fibre, carded (there were also rollags available!) ready for spinning. As you might have gathered, I’m keen to try spinning as many different breeds of fibre (including non-sheep) as possible!

All the colours on Freyalyn’s stand were amazing. I was determined to buy some as the sample I got (that I killed by trying to Andean ply it) from the fiberholics box was really nice colours. This isn’t merino though, it’s BFL and silk. (I went a bit gooey for silk blends this woolfest!)

We also went to Trotter’s World of Animals which was good fun! They had a nice selection of animals there, the meercats were cute, but my favourite were the gibbons! So I’ll leave you with this video of a gibbon running away. Brilliant!

In the Groove

2011-06-21T18:34:00.000+01:00

I’ve finally got back into my crafting groove!

After the honeymoon, I started a new baby sweater (I linked it in a recent post). I’m part way through my second one now, only the sleeves and button bands to go.

Pattern: Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Ecobaby Fairtrade (2 balls of 14005 – sea blue)
Needles: 3.5mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: I like this little baby cardi. It’s a quick enough knit and is suitable for either sex of baby. I would consider knitting on the button band as it’s worked for future cardis, but for the first two I’ve done it as written.

Since then I have also been working on my honeymoon shawl. I’m pretty pleased with how that has turned out too.

Pattern: Elise Shawl by Evan Plevinski
Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball (1 ball of cranberry)
Hook: 6mm
Modifications: Instead of the 11 repeats suggested I did 16 repeats of the two pattern rows. I also used a larger hook (5.5mm was recommended). Finally, at the point instead of a picot to make the point have a twin point rather than the single point
Verdict: I really enjoyed working on this; in fact it’s really won me over to crochet! I’ve done small things in the past (bags and slippers) but this is so pretty and was so simple. It also had the benefit of being good aeroplane work, as it’s not permitted to take knitting needles on flights out of the UK.

I’ve also been doing a spot of spinning. This was fluffy BFL fibre that I picked up from Grace and Jacob a short while ago.

I was totally drawn to the colours, so vibrant and pretty. I wasn’t sure about such discrete stripes, so I decided to go for another attempt at fractal spinning.

There were some patches where the dye hadn’t penetrated the whole way through the fibre, which gave me some interesting pale patches. At first I was cross about this, but now that its spun I quite like the effect!

Here’s the yarn now that it’s finished. It was spun, plied, washed, whacked, spun in the washer and then hung in my garage.

Fiber: Grace and Jacob BFL Superwash
Colourway: Summer Pudding
Spun using: Ashford Traveller, highest ratio
Spin direction: Z (wheel turning anticlockwise, spin to the left)
Plying type/direction: 2ply, S (wheel turning clockwise, spin to the right)
Yarn Stats: ~100g / 426yds (wpi tbc, approx. laceweight)
Verdict: This was quite fun to spin, and when I got into the swing of things it took very little time (almost all of it was spun in one weekend!). I wasn’t sure about the pale patches until it was plied and they actually look quite nice, though we’ll see how it knits up. It was quite easy to spin too, the BFL is nice and grippy.

So, lots done.
It's woolfest on Friday/Saturday, so I'm going to Cumbria! Woo! I'm taking the second baby cardi, the sweater-that-didn't-make-it-on-honeymoon and maybe my socks, so I'll have choice of what to knit!
Anyway, my husband wants his tea, so I'll be off for now.

2011-06-14T16:50:00.000+01:00

It’s been quite quiet on the knitting and spinning front for a while, hasn’t it? I’m afraid I have only one finished object since the bookmark I made with my handspun from MHE.

I have been doing some spinning; I was working on some lovely super wash merino. It spun up nicely, though it was drifting in places, and I decided to Andean ply it. This, it seems, was a mistake. I now have a tangled mess of singles in my waste bag :( fortunately it was just a sample 10g. I’ve moved on to some BFL from a local shop, Grace and Jacob. It is shocking pink and red, exactly what I feel like spinning at the moment. I’m managing quite a fine but high twist single. I’ve split the fibre in half, and then split one half into 4 lengthways to try to minimise the striped effect. It’s like the fractal experiment I tried recently, but not.
I’ve barely spun any yet though, but I will.

On the knitting front, I haven’t gone back to my hoody yet, though I shall. First though, I want to finish the second of these baby cardigans. The one linked has already gone to its new home, and I am on a green one now. There are a number of babies on the way at the moment, so I might have to consider a different pattern for the next one, though this one is nice and quick, and quite easy to adjust. I’ve also got some way still to go on my honeymoon shawl. Perhaps I’ll pick that back up tonight. It’s an easy enough pattern, and I have plenty of yarn left. I’m going to finish the ball to give me the biggest shawl I can manage from 400yds of Zauberball!

I have promised myself I will knit something with some of my handspun too, though I don’t know what to knit, or which handspun. Sadly they’re different enough colours that they wouldn’t really work as one garment (there’s an excuse to spin more).

they are also plied differently, the middle one was Navajo plied, I think the other two were both just two-plied from bobbins.

I have been keeping an eye on the scrap swap on ravelry though, which is giving me ideas! I’ve been thinking about buying a pack of small amounts (5-10g per colour) which would normally be for felting, and then having a go with that. Or maybe buying up some plain undyed fibre and dying it myself…

Or, as I saw in a post by MHE’s Helen, I could take several “skeins” of fibre, line them up in order of a colour progression, split them in half to create two plies and then “shift” one ply to fade from colour to colour.

e.g.

Before Sorting		.	After Sorting
A	A	.	A	A
A	A	.	A	B
B	B	.	B	B
B	B	.	B	C
C	C	.	C	C
C	C	.	C	D
D	D	.	D	D
D	D	.	D	A

That would give the effect of “barber pole” where A and B overlap, and where B and C overlap etc. If they’re similar colours then this would be quite subtle. For more contrasting colours it would be a definite stripe! Of course for a 3ply this effect could be made all the more striking. I saw an article, I think it was in spin-off about a scarf knitted like that, using lace weight yarn but knitting with six strands held together, changing out one strand for the second colour until all the strands were of the second colour. It worked really well! I love that subtle fade stripe effect, similar to that in Noro yarns. Of course if fibres A, B, C and D were all hand dyed fibre too, and were not solid colours, then this might be even more interesting!

This is the trouble I have though; I have all these ideas but no time to bring them to fruition! It sucks! I guess too much inspiration is better than not enough though. Certainly if I want to be creative I have many outlets though which I can express myself, whether it’s painting, cardmaking, knitting, sewing, crocheting, spinning, writing this blog, designing, cooking, gardening... the possibilities are (almost) endless!

Honeymoon Part 2 - 8 nights on Meeru (in the Maldives)

2011-06-05T16:43:00.000+01:00

Well, after the fairly hectic schedule of the first 6 nights, we were ready to take it easy for a while.

We had a mid-day flight with Sri Lankan Air. They were pretty good. We transferred to our island, Meeru, by speedboat and once we'd been greeted we were shown to our room. Our room was amazing. We were in a jacuzzi water villa.
This was our view:

And the walk into resort (or back of an evening) was none too shabby either...

It was pretty, and peaceful, there were few children and no louts.
We relaxed a lot.
We relaxed in the infinity pool (adults only, by the bar at the end of our jetty)

We relaxed over dinner in the beautiful dining room

We relaxed while watching sunsets...

...and dolphins...

I crocheted on my honeymoon shawl

we did a spot of kayaking, in the rain!

we drank cocktails from coconuts

and did some sunbathing

we even went snorkelling

and relaxed in the infinity pool some more, with "all inclusive cocktail of the day" - in this case, cosmohito. Yum!

Amazing! Lovely and relaxed.
But no, I haven't finished the shawl yet (I've done what the pattern said, but it's barely a shawlette, so I'm doing more!) I'm already looking forwards to our next holiday, though that's in Cumbria so I'm not expecting this sort of weather!

Honeymoon Part 1 – 6 nights in Sri Lanka

2011-06-02T22:18:00.001+01:00

After a night at the airport, and a couple of hours in the VIP lounge, we boarded our first flight at lunchtime on Monday. The first leg was on an Airbus A380 – the Super-Jumbo. It’s a great plane, even in cattle class we had a good amount of space. We were flying with Emirates, so all the in flight food and entertainment was good. I enjoyed having a choice of food! We changed at Dubai in the middle of the night, and so we tried to sleep for much of the next leg. We were on a Boeing 777 for that leg, which doesn’t really compare! Still, we arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at about 8am local time, and once we’d picked up our bags we headed out to meet our Kuoni rep and our Driver.

Day 1
Once we’d met Monroe, our driver, he took us away from Colombo and we got on the road to Kandy. One thing to say about Sri Lanka is that the transit system isn’t exactly the autobahn. However, before we really knew it we were at our first stop. A small museum dedicated to the Asian Elephant. We found out some interesting facts, such as that the Asian Elephant’s ear is shaped like India. (Okay, we knew that too) or that only 3% of male Asian Elephants have tusks (we didn’t know that) and that they’re used in Sri Lanka in much the same way as horses were (and sometimes still are) used in the UK.

We visited a suspension bridge where part of Indiana Jones was filmed, which was pretty cool. It was amazingly humid!

We had a massage to round off the day (the rest was travel! Kandy is a long way from Colombo!) and a lovely evening in our first hotel, the Chaaya Citadel. It was a really nice hotel!

Day 2
Our second day we headed off to an ancient monument in Sri Lanka, known as Lion Rock (Sigiriya).

We climbed up to the frescoes and saw those, it’s a shame how much has been lost over the centuries, but it was well worth seeing. These frescoes were centuries old!

Then we climbed up the last scary set of steps to the very top of the rock. The top part would have been the summer palace, we were told, with the gardens on the way up being part of the winter palace. I think that the main difference between summer and winter is the amount of rain that they have.

It took us a long time to get all the way up, and about half that time to get back down again.
It looks cloudy, and it was a bit cloudy, but it was so hot you wouldn't believe!

I bought some lovely carved elephants there too! On the way back we stopped off at a giant golden Buddha. I’m pretty sure it’s painted gold as opposed to being actual gold.

Day 3
We packed up our stuff, as we were moving hotels, and headed off to the Temple of the Tooth during the time when the tooth is “visible” – by which I mean that you can see it from three rooms away, and it’s in its own container, so no actual tooth seeing.

It's the white thing back three rooms in that picture. See?

Still, the temple itself is amazing, and there is lots to see there. Our driver conducted a personal tour for us, which was great because there wasn’t a lot of signage.

Our next stop was Nuwara Eliya, in the tea district. I loved this part of the trip.

The weather was a little cooler, and much less humid. There were rose trees everywhere! And it smelled of tea. Everywhere you looked there were tea plants. It was amazing. We drank tea there too, and brought some home. Tea in this country is a shadow in comparison to proper Sri Lankan tea!

Day 4
We had a nice relaxed day. I spent some time in the morning reading in the gardens (it was a nice temperature to sit out in) and pottering around. (Hubby was feeling ill, so stayed in bed).

In the afternoon, when he was feeling better, we went to the botanical gardens nearby.

It was beautiful, and I really enjoyed the quiet pace of the day. (It set us up well for the next day which was to be hectic.) On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the post office in Nuwara Eliya itself, where they had a King George VI post box!

We had another night at the hotel there, the Tea Factory. The service there was amazing, and the staff were all so helpful when I asked them not to disturb hubby as he wasn't feeling well - they even offered to call the doctor if we needed him!

Day 5
Most of the morning of day 5 was travelling, though we stopped off at a nice waterfall on the way, and saw some wildlife.

But that was just on the way to the highlight of the day: Safari!

Well, the pictures speak for themselves, don't they?

We even saw more elephants on the way to our final hotel in Colombo... This was on the elephant highway, so they are behind an electric fence.

Where we bid farewell to our guide, and checked in for one last night.

The hotel was amazing, it had its own beach too. There were at least three weddings going on while we were there! I loved the traditional saris, and there was a girl in a very European looking gown too, but different somehow - more sparkly I think!

It was an amazing 7 days, and then we had the pleasure of jetting off to the Maldives for the second half of our honeymoon. I'll post about that later.

Married!

2011-05-25T13:52:00.002+01:00

On the 30th April 2011…

I married the love of my life

My dress had a full 50s circle skirt

We had lots of fun

My knitting friends knitted me that blanket on the table. It has squares with the TARDIS, the wedding date in binary, our initials, a dalek, it's amazing and I love it so much!

All in all it was an amazing day.

All photos in this post were taken by Mik2 photography (http://www.mik2photography.com) and have been borrowed from their reduced quality web versions while I wait for the photos to be ready.

I’ll post again soon about my honeymoon, which was a-ma-zing!

Fractal Spinning

2011-04-14T10:25:00.001+01:00

Since I started wheel spinning, I’ve been interested in the different effects that one can get by spinning from fibre. It can be quite different to the effects that can be obtained when dying yarn. One of the reasons for this is that if you spin multiple plies for a yarn they do not have to be the same colour. Commercial yarns sometimes take advantage of this (such as Rowan Plaid, seen below)

It gives a nice mottled finish when knitted, and lets the eye blend the colours.

The thing that one generally doesn’t get with commercial yarn, though, is two plies of the yarn with the same colours changing at different rates. One of the ways to achieve this is called fractal spinning.
The idea is that you take your braid of fibre and split it into two (or more) pieces. These are then spun as separate plies, then plied together to give a subtly striped yarn.

If you split the fibre into two, and then one of those halves is also split into two, you would get yarn which would ply together so that in some places the colours in the plies would be the same, and in some places it will “barber pole” where the colours are not the same. If you have fibre with a consistent length colour repeat then you will get a very distinct effect. (I hope to try it with some plain solid yarns, 6 of them, in sequence some time soon!)

The fibre that I have chosen for this may not show this effect in quite the way I describe above as it doesn’t have such a strongly defined colour repeat, but it was what I wanted to work with next! It’s a braid from MHE again, this one is Shetland fibre, and is called Kaleidoscope.

First, I undid the braid

Then I split the fibre down the middle, or as close to as I could without weighing it!
I then split one half of it into two…

and then each of those two into four. I did a little pre-drafting of the fibre

before winding it into balls

I also pre-drafted the half I didn’t split up, and rolled that into a ball as well.

then I started spinning in the Z direction (wheel turning anticlockwise) to produce one ply from the large ball, and one ply from the smaller balls.

and then I plied is in the S direction (wheel turning clockwise) to give me (before finishing) 357 yards for 95 grams of yarn.

I’m really quite pleased with how it’s come out.

It’s much more pink than I was expecting it to be, which is a good thing as I love pink! It’s approximately light sock weight I think, though it has yet to take a bath and be measured properly.

I’m going to start including a breakdown of the spinning, much like the ones I do for my completed knitting. Here goes the first one:

Fiber: My Heart Exposed Shetland Fiber
Colourway: Kaleidoscope
Spun using: Ashford Traveller, highest ratio
Spin direction: Z (wheel turning anticlockwise, spin to the left)
Plying type/direction: 2ply, S (wheel turning clockwise, spin to the right)
Yarn Stats: 95g / 357yds (wpi tbc)
Verdict The Shetland was lovely to spin, it has a nice crimp to it and holds together well. It is less coarse than the Corriedale and the resulting yarn is lovely and soft.

Hopefully the yarn will bloom slightly in washing, bringing it to around 4ply/sock weight. As it’s going to self-stripe I expect that I’ll want to knit something which will show off that fact. Perhaps something like the Argosy Scarf, though it would need amending as it’s written for DK yarn. I also have some plain-ish shawls in my queue which would work well with this yarn I think!

It takes time

2011-04-13T11:47:00.000+01:00

I’m finally on the sleeves of my honeymoon sweater. Whether it will be ready for me to wear on the honeymoon is another question though. It depends on how much knitting time I get between now and the wedding, since there’s no way I’ll have time to do any more knitting, seaming or blocking once the wedding gets here!

Though it has taken me since January 19th to get this far, I think that I haven’t spent as much time knitting as I could have, and some of that knitting time has been on other things. I’ve also been spinning a reasonable amount, which hasn’t helped the cause either! (I really want to finish the fibre that I have on the wheel at the moment; I have about 12g left to spin of the approximately 100g I started with!)

I spent some time last night and this morning in the car working on the 5.5” of stocking stitch for the cuffs. I have a nagging suspicion that I’m meant to be increasing too, but I have left the pattern at home so I can’t check! Oh well, I’m sure it’ll all pan out.

I am pleased with how it’s looking right now though, but to finish the sleeves, the yoke and the neck in the next fortnight seems optimistic. However, we do have a nice long weekend coming up (Easter weekend) and if I can be in a position to join the sleeves to the body and start the yoke by then, I think I may be able to finish it. Sadly, I don’t expect to get a lot done this weekend, as it’s my Hen Party! Woo!

Knitting!

2011-04-07T11:43:00.003+01:00

Yes, despite all the talk about spinning, I have been knitting away in the background too.

Perhaps not quite as often as I should have been to get this finished for the honeymoon, but still knitting. In fact now that I’ve accepted that it probably will not be ready for then, it seems to be trucking along nicely! Ironic, but probably it will still not be ready in time.

I have decided I am not going to knit the hood on the Après Tricot sweater. I may yet change my mind, but I’m not sure that I will have a use for the hood, but I can see myself wearing a lightweight lacy top with a nice stockinette v-neck.

I have been modifying the pattern, because I didn’t want seams in this nice thin 4ply sweater. I therefore decided to knit it in the round as much as I could. I’ve had to leave stockinette panels down the side for increasing and decreasing, but I think it looks fine.

I’ve also done 4 rows of garter stitch prior to commencing the stockinette edge, to try to prevent rolling. It’s not working so well at the moment, but I think that perhaps when it’s blocked it may help. If not, I could fold the garter edge under and sew it in place, but that might be rather bulky. I may have to try steam blocking the edge while I knit the sleeves.

The lace pattern, now that I’m using markers, is nice to work, and I’m looking forwards to getting to that part of the sleeves! I have some free time this weekend during which I hope to get some knitting and some spinning done.

I guess even if this isn’t ready for the honeymoon, it will be a lovely sweater and I look forward to wearing it!

More yarn spun!

2011-04-04T13:24:00.000+01:00

I continue to spend more time than I aught on the spinning wheel. Though I have been good, and since this came off the wheel I haven't spun anything new until last night when I started on a fractal experiment.

The shiny white bits are the bamboo where the colour didn't take. It has a lovely sheen to it!

Anyway, this has been finished for a while, but it seems I forgot to photograph it until this weekend.

I love the light-and-shade effect the yarn has in this photo

Fiber: Bonkers Fibre – Flamingo (NB: they’re American)
Ply Type: Navajo; Z Spun S plied.
Yarn created: 205yds approx DK weight yarn.

I think it looks great! I’m looking forward to knitting it up into something. I think 205 yards might be enough for a little shrug (like this one I knit a while ago using less than 185 yards of aran weight).

Pretty, isn't it?

Also, it should self-stripe, which I’m quite excited about, some of the darker stripes (purple-black ish bits) could be long enough to go all the way round a shrug!

I need another project to take with me on honeymoon[1] as I’m a great believer in Sod’s Law[2] so this might be it.

The math-science geek in me wants to work out approximately how long it takes me to knit stuff, and then work out how many hours worth of knitting I have planned, and then see how much actual knitting/crochet time I have available, and then add socks. Always.

-----
[1] Yes, I’m taking knitting with me on honeymoon.
[2] Sod’s Law is that if you plan for something then it will not happen, but if you don’t plan for it then it will. Such as if you put your umbrella in your bag (taking up vital space for other stuff) then it will not rain, but if you decide that you need the space for something else, it almost certainly will. This same Law appears to mean that if you don’t pack a sweater for your holiday to somewhere hot, it will be cold. Remember this holiday?

Just 20g

2011-04-01T20:40:00.000+01:00

A story of 20g of fibre and the dream of making it into something useful.

First, I’ll declare my interest. My Heart Exposed (link to the folksy store, Helen’s blog) are having a contest to celebrate being one year old. Happy first birthday MHE!

Well, I’m a little later than that to the party. I only recently got my spinning wheel, so I hadn’t really looked into fibre much.
The week before the wheel, I ordered a sample pack from Fibreholics to have a look at what some local (UK based) indie dyers were doing with fibre. One of the samples was a 20g braid of MHE Corriedale fibre. Now, I’d been battling with some factory produced Corriedale at this point, and though it washed up into a nice yarn it wasn’t that nice to work with. So, I confess I was a little wary of the MHE Corriedale. I expected it to be like the Corriedale I had so far used.

How wrong I was!

Helen uses rainwater in her dying process, and only 100% natural dyes. Despite this, she gets amazing colours, such as the beautiful lavender and gold in this braid. (These photos are a little darker than in reality, the yarn (later in the post) is a much truer colour!)

An array of different colours that all work so well together!

The fibre was lovely and fluffy, clearly treated with care during the dying process, and much less harsh on my hands than the commercially dyed top I had been using. 20g was enough to produce a lovely 36 yards of 3ply yarn, at around Sock weight (15wpi) (I Navajo plied to maintain the colour repeats, I didn't want to blend the lovely lavender and the gold into one muddy colour!)

I did consider putting it in a box frame on the wall!

Then came the challenge – what could I knit that would effectively show of these lovely colours, the striping and yet would only need 36 yards of yarn?
A few simple ideas spring to mind – crocheted flowers, a small toy, coasters and cup-clutches. All small and some useful, but not really what I was looking for.

Wound into a ball and ready to go!

Once I had measured the wpi I knew all the details I needed to search on Ravelry for an appropriate item to knit. There were lots of ideas, but the Flourish Bookmark from Ninaclock designs stood out as a great idea! It specifies slightly more yarn than I have, but I can make a smaller tassel. I love to read, I'm always in need of a bookmark! I use whatever I can lay my hands on, so a lovely little knitted reminder of this lovely yarn seems like a great idea (and might be the way some of the other samples go too!)

I can't say in words what these lovely photos show for the bookmark... so here it is.

Self Striping Bookmark

Pattern: Flourish by Ninaclock designs
Yarn: Handspun MHE Corriedale
Needles: 3.25mm
Modifications: Only did 3 repeats because of using the lager needles
Verdict: The pattern is great,the fibre is great, and the yarn is nice - I'm so pleased with it!

Something pretty

2011-03-21T12:23:00.000Z

In case my experiment didn't interest you, I thought I'd share some pretty pictures of my latest spinning escapades.

First, I'll start with the burgundy Corriedale from the experiment. I confess, I didn’t really enjoy spinning it – this Corriedale was rather rough and a bit matted (probably partly my fault for storing it as I did)

Despite not liking it; the experiment being of interest, I spun it reasonably quickly. Here are the results:

43g / 72yd (100g/167yd), Z spun, S 2-plied, approx DK/Sport, quite heavy.

See the white ties - that's how I know it's the 43g skein.

50g / 96yd (100g/192yd), Z spun, S 2-plied, approx DK/Sport, still reasonably heavy.

This one has blue ties, for the 50g second skein!

After that, I decided I’d quite like a change. Since I hadn’t spun any of the samples from the Fibreholics pack I ordered before I got my wheel, I thought I’d give some of that a go. I had a bit of a rummage and found that Laal Bear had sent me some Blue Faced Leicester, which I fancied having a go with. I wasn’t enamoured with the colour of the fibre, but I thought for 20g I could put that behind me. I spent some time fluffing and pre-drafting it – after all, my experiment suggests that will produce longer yarn, which is good.

So, from fibre…

I've tweaked the colours in this picture, but the fluff is about the right blue

…to yarn:

20g / 64yd (100g/320yd), Z spun, S Andean-plied, approx 4ply

The two colours in the plying give it a nice depth that the fibre alone didn't have, much improved!

The resulting yarn is actually a rather nice colour; I just need to decide what to do with it! If anyone has any ideas for 64yds of blue heavy 4ply yarn do shout up!

Finally, I decided to move on to another sample, I was drawn back to the My Heart Exposed braid, and even though it was Corriedale (which had fallen out of favour with me) I decided to go for it.

Pretty but not so bold as I usually go for!

This Corriedale was nicer than the previous stuff, whether it was because of different storage or just that the dyes that MHE use are that much gentler on the fibre I don’t know. I quite enjoyed spinning it! Well, when it was on the bobbin (bad spinner didn’t take any photos at this stage) it looked really pretty and I couldn’t bear the thought of plying it with itself and muddying the lovely colours. I did a Google search for Navajo plying (also known as N-ply or chain-ply) and decided to have a go. The benefit of N-ply is that it allows you to keep the colour sequence of a yarn, to create a self-stripe (or variegated) rather than heather or barber-pole yarn. I’m pretty pleased with the result, but because N-plying provides a 3-ply thickness to the yarn, I got a rather short length out of it!

20g / 36yd (100g/180yd), Z spun, S Navajo-plied, approx heavy 4ply

The texture of the Navajo ply is so finished looking!

and because I like it so, here’s another shot of the MHE:

The pinks, greens and golds all get to shine individually!

I’ve already got some more fibre on the wheel, I’m working on some Bonkers Fibre, it’s a merino / bamboo blend, which is rather slippery! It’s a pretty colour though, called Flamingo. I’m likely to finish that before I have any finished knitting to show – although I might consider showing off my WIP at some point.

Experimental

2011-03-21T11:58:00.000Z

Does the amount of air added to fibre make the resulting yarn less dense?

Abstract

An experiment to show that fibre preparation prior to spinning helps to produce a longer yarn without detriment to the thickness of the yarn; only the density is altered.

Purpose

The aim of this experiment is to discover whether the amount of air one adds to the fibre prior to spinning (by stripping, fluffing and pre-drafting) changes the resulting yarn, providing a less dense, longer strand of yarn than when the fibre does not have air added. Should this prove to be true, it will enable me to work towards spinning enough yarn from 100g of fibre for a three-ply to make a pair of socks.

Hypothesis

The more air that is added during the spinning process, the less dense the resulting yarn will be and therefore the resulting piece of yarn will also be longer.

Materials

Fibre: 100g of Corriedale Fibre (colour: Burgundy) split into two 50g strands
Spinning Wheel: Ashford Traveller

Procedure

Split the 100g of fibre in half lengthwise to produce two 50g strands.
Split the 50g of fibre in half lengthwise.

First 50g
Spin directly from the strips of fibre, drafting while spinning.

Second 50g
Separate the fibre width wise to produce a wide fluffy strand
Elongate the fibre lengthwise (pre-draft) to produce a long fluffy strand which is virtually see-through.
Spin from this pre-drafted fibre, still drafting while spinning.

For both cases
Spin direction: Z
Ply type: Andean
Ply direction: S
Using the niddy-noddy wind the yarn off the bobbin and into a skein.
Count the number of wraps of the niddy-noddy. This number should be multiplied by 4 to provide the number of feet of yarn produced, which should be divided by 3 to provide the number of yards produced.
Tie, wash and whack the yarn to even and set the twist.
Measure the wpi of the yarn.

Results

	First 50g	Second 50g
Yarn Thickness	DK/Sport	DK/Sport
Yarn Weight (g)	43	50
Yarn Length (yards)	72	96
Calculated Length per 100g	167	192

Final result: Second 50g is 115% length of the first 50g, so the length has been increased by more pre-drafting.

Conclusions

The length of yarn spun from a given amount of fibre can affect the length of the final result.

I was expecting a more dramatic difference between the two fibres than was achieved, but this smaller difference may be due to my spinning style varying between the two, and how quickly I was spinning. Spinning faster may cause less drafting, which could also result in a more dense yarn.

I don't think I can stop...

2011-03-12T21:05:00.001Z

We went cycling today for the first time in over a year. That was not a good plan, especially since I'm still recovering from a cold. Managed about 3 miles though, which is better than nothing. Celebrated with a glass of summer fruit squash.

In other news... Well, it's not news is it? I've been spinning again. I've finally plucked up the courage to spin something which isn't a plain colour. I still haven't done anything with the alpaca singles, but that will be dealt with.

So, back when I learnt to spin on a spindle, I bought some lovely fibre. I then put that fibre in a box in my craft room, the box stayed there before moving briefly to a friend's house while we moved, and then it moved back in with me. At last, I bought a spinning wheel, and the fibre could meet its destiny of becoming yarn.

So, the fibre (see previous post, I have no new pictures of the fibre itself) was spun over the course of a couple of evenings. I spun it pretty fine, I thought. I haven't measured the wpi (that's wraps per inch for the uninitiated) yet, but by length-to-weight ratio, it's around worsted weight again. I would have liked slightly finer.

First I spun two singles, I was hoping they'd be the same length as teach other, but it wasn't to be.

The colours look great, don't they?
Next, I plied the two singles with each other (and Andean plied the remainder with itself) to produce some pretty yarn.

which wound into a very pretty skein too.

Overall, even if it is thicker than I planned, I'm pretty pleased with this. I think it might be enough for a cowl or a hat of some sort, especially if it's lacy. However, before I jump in on that I need to measure the actual wpi of the yarn - to see whether it's different to what the average weight calculation I've done suggests. If it is, I might have to consider a different method, like actually measuring the wpi!

I'm back to the Corriedale now, but it feels rough compared to the Merino I have just spun. I have one more ball of Corriedale after this, but I do not love the colour at the moment, and I want to enjoy the spinning. So, much like with knitting I believe that even at the beginning you'll get further using the nice stuff. After all, I'm not going to knit with something that's rough either.

{edit}
So I measured the wpi and it comes out at about 12 - or "sport" weight - somewhere between DK and 4ply. How odd.

Yes, more spinning.

2011-03-11T12:01:00.000Z

(and more to come too)

This began life as some undyed alpaca from a swap.

I dyed it up using some natural dyes to produce this less-bold-than-I’m-used-to fibre.

Naturally Dyed by Me!

and then it sat there, waiting for me to decide to spin it on my spindle.

Well, that day never came, but I’m so enthusiastic with my wheel that I ended up spinning it on that instead. Now I just have to decide what to do with it.

Singles on the bobbin

At the moment it’s 50g (I think) of singles. It’s pretty thick, for a singles, though it’s thinner in places. One option that’s been suggested on Ravelry is that I might ply it with some silk/cotton thread. This would give the yarn some strength while still retaining the fluffy soft nature of the alpaca. Then I’d be able to knit something with it.

While I decide, I’ve gone back to the fibre bin and picked out some more pretty fluff to play with. I’ve finally gone away from the plain colours and picked out this

sorry; this picture is tragically awful, I hope my photography skills where fibre is concerned have improved.

It’s spinning up quite prettily. I’ve split the whole thing in to four pieces lengthways and I’m spinning that into two singles. I’ll ply them together and hopefully the colour repeats will approximately match. I expect some barber pole effects in places.

Of course, all this spinning is still detracting from my knitting. Though that said, I’ve not had the concentration to do the lace on the hoody so it may be for the best.

Yes, more spinning...

2011-03-07T13:09:00.000Z

I’m not sure what’s more worrying, the amount of time I spend spinning, or the amount of time I spend when I’m not spinning thinking about spinning.

I know, it’s the same with any new toy – it consumes me for a little while and then I settle back into a normal routine.

I’ve had to self-impose a rule though; I’m knitting for the same number of hours as I’m spinning, approximately. Yesterday that was enough knitting time to do a few rows on the hoodie. I love the lace pattern now, it looks great! I’ve got into the swing of it now too. I do hope that it doesn’t grow too much when I block it, as it’s looking about the right size pre-blocking. Though also, I was making a smaller size than I thought strictly necessary, and it will need some under garment, being lacy.

All the spinning time seems to be paying off though. I’ve made some quite nice yarn now! I spent some time washing and drying the red and yellow yarn, I hope to turn it into a hat. There’s a nice basic roll-brim hat pattern in my “Spin to Knit” book which fits the bill nicely. I reckon I’ll begin with the yellow as it’s a bit more robust, then stripe in the red in some sort of sequence.

Here’s my latest offering:

P&M Corriedale in green

It’s about 155yds and 96g. I looked up a random DK, a random Aran and a random worsted weight yarn on Rav, and decided that this makes it somewhere between worsted and aran weight. So I’m thinking about knitting fetching in it, which claims to need between 100 and 200 yards of yarn. I guess the question is what happens if I run out?

Much finer than the red and yellow!

I have made fetching before, using about 130 yards. Fingers crossed! Though I did modify those, I think in the end I made them bigger. I hope that the yarn will hold up to that pattern, and hopefully the cables will look great in a plain (rather than stripey or varigated) colour. We will see!

Addictive?

2011-03-02T11:30:00.000Z

So, I’ve been doing some more spinning! (and not a lot of knitting, or anything else!) I’m starting to enjoy it – I can get into that great quiet zone where there’s nothing but me, the sound of the wheel whizzing and the yarn being created.
It is making my hands rather dry, which I heard was a side effect.

Second attempt at plied yarn - not bad

This one is about 62 yards (I counted 47 wraps around my 12 inch niddy noddy) and weighs 86g (there’s a little more on the bobbin because I couldn’t quite fit it all on the one bobbin – though I tried!) The jumbo flyer sounds like a fun idea; I assume that you can get more yarn on with that!

I’m going to have a rainbow of yarn! I think, now that I’m moving on to the green Corriedale, which I might consider trying to spin a little finer. Both the yarns I’ve created are on the chunky side.

Fluff due to become yarn

I am not sure what I might want to knit with some aran/dk weight green Corriedale yarn, but that is my aim. If I can keep going at that rate of improvement (I think the red might even be super-bulky, the yellow/gold is certainly bulky, so if the green is aran, then the purple could be DK and I might manage the burgundy at sock-weight!) then I will be pleased.

I really must do some knitting too.
I’m almost at the point of shaping the bust on my Après Surf hoodie.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round!

2011-02-28T11:10:00.000Z

As you might imagine, I was excited to collect my spinning wheel on Sunday. We met the seller at the Hartshead Moor services on the M62 – about an hour from my house.
After we dropped off another wheel for another knitter, we headed directly home so that I could get set up and spinning!

Ashford Traveller, rather nice!

After a short while, I was merrily spinning!

I must sit up straight - that explains why my back aches

Despite creating some waste from my practice…

A bit of a mess...

I managed to create 80g of this chunky-ish yarn-like stuff.

"Yarn"!

looking back, it’s not that much worse than my first spindle spun yarn, so I have hope!

My first spindle spun yarn, also very thick and thin, and a lot less of it! (about 15g)

I’ve started on some yellow fluff now; I had a total of five plain coloured Corriedale tops to begin on. I’m thinking about spinning a bobbin each of the yellow and green and then plying them together.

I’m enjoying my wheel, and I’m looking forward to the experimentation that I plan to do. However, since I spun about 100g of fibre in about 3 hours (I don’t know if that’s fast or not, but I’m not worried about that) then I reckon I might need to buy more fibre!
Ok, maybe I’ll use what I have first.
Maybe.

Things I did last night

2011-02-25T11:04:00.000Z

Eat - done! We had a lovely spaghetti bolognaise, and I also made a garlic-mussel-pasta for lunch today.
Build Shelf - done! Though I had to enlist my fiancé’s help – it was a 2 person job.
Make Invitations – done! Though FH made most of them, I just helped with the last bit of sticking.
Clean up – done! Well, mostly.
Reorganise craft items – done! I now know where everything is, and what’s what. My yarn stash is nicely organised into my three-drawer chest, my fabric is in boxes under the desk, my spinning stuff is now available including a nice tidy box downstairs, and the books are shelved!

So, I thought that as part of this process it might be fun to flash my stash! I’ve put the partial balls and items to be frogged in a separate location, they will return to the stash when they have been dealt with. What you see here is everything else. The far left is laceweight, then sock / 4ply, then DK, then Aran, then a bit of chunky on the far right.

My Stash in all its glory!

I think it’s a good idea to get all the stash out every once in a while. It has several benefits. One of them is that you can check for nasties – things that you wouldn’t want to find lurking in your yarn, but that would like to be lurking in your yarn given the chance. You can see that all the yarn shown here is in plastic freezer bags. I know these aren’t 100% moth proof (or airtight) but they do make it hard for moth larvae migration, reducing the chances of losing everything.

Another good reason for getting out the stash like this is to prevent you from forgetting what you have! I have quite a lot of yarn (though by some comparisons it’s a small stash!) and I have been known to buy yarn for a project which I already had yarn for, or not to buy bargain yarn because I thought I already had some yarn of that sort. Always check!

I’ve put the chunky and aran/worsted yarn in the bottom of the chest, the DK and Lace in the middle drawer, and the sock/4ply has a drawer all to itself.

I’m pretty pleased with the new shelf too. As predicted it is a different colour, and it’s also a different size! However, the new boxes fit on the shelves, and I’ve been able to fit all my craft books, all the DIY books and all the fitness books onto the shelves, as well as a whole bunch of now-tidy craft stuff!

Nice and Tidy

Things I intend to do tonight

2011-02-24T12:27:00.000Z

Isn’t it always handy to have a checklist? And I do like lists…

Eat
Build Shelf
Make Invitations
Clean up
Reorganise craft items

I actually started with an 18 item list, but I realised that wasn’t very interesting, so I’ve kept that separate and I’ll use that for myself!

I’ve bought a new shelf for the craft room. It’s the same as the shelf I already own (and although I bought the same colour, I bet it isn’t) which I use to store my craft books and some crafty items like cardstock. It’s been a very useful shelf, and surprisingly sturdy for a cheap shelf.

This desire to tidy up is in part driven by the prospect of the spinning wheel. While the wheel itself will probably be downstairs (certainly while I’m using it) I can’t take over the whole house with the fluff that goes with it! (Well…)

I’m hopeful that the lovely fibre I bought earlier in the week will have arrived at my house today. I’m torn between the desire to practice spinning and not “waste” nice fibre and the desire to produce something I could use to make something. In any case, the fibre needs a home while I’m spinning the other fibre (or knitting, crocheting, dying, sewing…)

Also, I want to find the books on spinning that I have already bought, so that I can be prepared when I settle in with the wheel at home.

I might take the opportunity to flash my stash, and my craft room – though I suspect that the camera might be flat!

Whoops!

2011-02-23T15:39:00.002Z

I have agreed to buy a spinning wheel.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning?

Back in December I was able to visit the Cottenham Spinners to talk to some of the folks there about their wheels. I got some nice advice and even got to have a go on a couple of wheels.
Of all the wheels that I tried in my price range my hands-down favourite was an Ashford Traveller, preferably double treadle.

Since then I have been occasionally looking on ebay, but since we’re getting married in April I was not planning on buying a wheel prior to that. In fact, the plan was for me to save up and buy one at Woolfest when we go.

On Monday we were talking about wheels and such, and the girls at knitting reminded me to check the UK Spinners forum occasionally. So, on Tuesday I thought I’d have a quick look, not expecting to find anything – my ebay searches over the past months have got me nowhere.

Lo, there was an Ashford Traveller on the list.

I thought to myself, it’s probably sold. Still, I talked to my fiancé about it, in case it was still available. He told me to go for it, and I needed no more encouragement!

Well, the wheel was still available, and on Sunday it will be mine.

In the meantime I haven’t been able to resist ordering some lovely fluffy fibre to spin on it when it comes! I’ve not ordered a lot though, and I’ve kept to the stuff which is more suitable for beginners. I do have quite a stash of fibre already, ranging from single colour Corriedale to handpainted bamboo-merino and BFL, and everything in between. I even have some of my own hand-dyed alpaca roving to have a go with. (It is only 50g though, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to make out of that, even spun really fine!)

I’m currently planning to sort out my craft room. I know, I only moved in September, how bad can it be, right?
Wrong.
It’s been a bit of a dumping ground, there is an air bed in there and some other crud. The place is awash with card-making supplies from making all of the invitations (and I still have a couple more to make) and I don’t really have enough places to put my card making things now. There’s a big bag of yarn (I was looking for all my pink yarn, turns out there’s a lot of it!) and several boxes and bags of yarn, fibre and stuff that need to be properly sorted out.

Basically, the things I should have done when we moved in? Doing them now.

I reckon I should be able to sort it in one evening. This evening we’re going to look at some frames (wedding related) and I’ll probably try to convince the fiancé that some more storage for stuff would be useful. I could really use another bookshelf actually, maybe I should be on the look out for that. If Ikea wasn’t such a time-suck I’d consider going there after I collect my wheel, but I really want to start using it (Sunday afternoon is already planned for spinning) so it might have to be an Argos special!

Lacking in Inspiration for a title

2011-02-21T16:53:00.000Z

Well, I’m continuing to be rather busy!

I’ve been for my first dress fitting. There is a photo but I’m afraid that’s secret for now. The dress is amazing, I really do like it, and it feels very me. It’s not a fussy design, nor is it bling or lacy, it is beautiful material put together carefully with a funky twist.

I’m having a reasonable amount of success with losing weight too – not losing masses but then I don’t want to end up looking emaciated! (I know, I’m a way from that!)

And knitting; I’m still knitting the Après Surf hoodie. It’s going pretty well, I have to wind a new skein into a ball soon, and I’ll soon be in a position to start the bust increases. I had a bit of a ‘mare with the lace to begin with and I had to frog back to the stocking stitch section, but it’s going more smoothly now – I’ve used some waste yarn as stitch markers and marked every repeat.

I’m picking a crochet pattern for on the plane!
Why crochet?
Of course, knitting on an aeroplane is still forbidden. I believe that the UK has a blanket ban on knitting needles to make it easier for the security staff. After all, most non-knitters don’t realise that there are so many different types of knitting needle, in so many different thicknesses, lengths and straight/double pointed/circular. I agree that a 12 inch long metal 4.5mm (UK no 7) needle could “have someone’s eye out” or worse, that a strong 24 inch circular could be used as a garrotte or that 2.5mm wooden dpns could, er, give you a nasty splinter?
Anyway, crochet hooks are allowed (as long as they are not too big, and not made of metal), so I’ve decided that I’m going to crochet a shawl on the plane. The shawl I’ve currently got at the top of my list is called “Elise Shawl” by Evan Plevinski. It seems to be a shell-pattern type shawl, so I’m hopeful I’ll be adequate enough to make it. I will have to hunt down some non-metal hooks though. I have a full set, but they’re all nice shiny metal. I do have some others in wood and plastic, so I should be fine.
Why a shawl?
The benefit of this particular shawl is that it requires 400yds of 4ply / sock yarn. I have several[1] skeins of sock yarn available for the purpose. This means that one 100g ball of yarn should be enough to keep me entertained on the plane(s) for a good long time. And at the airport(s) too.

I will also be taking some knitting with me, more for the Maldives than for Sri Lanka. I’m hopeful that I’ll be busy enough in Sri Lanka with the touring and such! But it will be nice to have a sock available for those quiet moments. Just a plain vanilla sock. In fact, I’m going to take a leaf out of the Yarn Harlot’s ~~book~~ blog, and knit them as tubes with afterthought heels! In case I’m knitting while doing something interestingish.

[1] Ok, I admit it, I have more than several. I actually have several skeins of sock yarn with enough yardage and in suitable colours!

Busy?

2011-02-02T13:20:00.000Z

I might not be blogging much but that's because I'm so busy!

Things I've been doing recently include:

Makeup test runs for the wedding. I try to do one of these each weekend with a different combination of foundation, highlighter, mascara etc. So far it looks like my new Rimmel foundation is winning - no flakes, no grease and lasted well the day I wore it. Anyway, I've been taking photos of each trial so that I can compare, contrast and hopefully recreate the best bits.
Ordering more shoes! haha. Nice flat flip-flops for late in the evening when my feet hurt. I'd like to say that my wedding shoes are so comfortable that I will not need to change, but there are only so many hours that you can wear 5 inch heels, and I suspect that 10 hours might be pushing it! My flip flops are also turquoise so that's great - and what an excuse for another funky pair of shoes!
Invitations for both the main event and the evening. I've made my own. I love them. They reflect us and the venue really well.
Dieting! Check out my progress on my diet blog here.
Knitting (but not a lot)

I've started knitting the Apres Surf Hoodie that I've been meaning to knit for a very long time. I hope that I can have it done by the time we go on honeymoon. It will be nice and light for chilly evenings (or being up mountains!). If I don't manage it then I'll have other sweaters I can take, and I'll take some shawls with me too because they're so versatile. That will include my wedding shawl, which is more of a shawlette, but will be lovely!

But back to the Apres Surf Hoodie.
I had knitted almost a full repeat of the lace pattern, but it all went horribly wrong. I don't know what exactly I did, but there was a mess that I couldn't fix. I did try, but to no avail. So, I've frogged back to the top of the stocking stitch section (only about 8 rows) where I intend to insert a lifeline, use lots of markers, and maybe take some post-its home for the chart. (I wish I knew where my magnetic chart holder went! I last used it on a shawl...)

Recently I did complete a lovely chunky shrug...

Ribbon Shrug by Louisa Harding knitted in Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky

Pattern: Ribbon by Louisa Harding

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky 8.5 balls of "Merlot"
Needles: 6mm and 6.5mm straights
Modifications: the 6.5mm straights should have been 7mm but I didn't have any, otherwise none.
Verdict: The pattern is great, easy enough to knit the lace and cables but not dull. If I were to make it again I would probably knit longer sleeves, or perhaps the short sleeve version. I fancy trying it in a lighter weight yarn too. I'd also recommend using circulars rather than straights, too many stitches on one needle!

99

2011-01-21T10:50:00.000Z

It's 99 days until I get married!

Good to be back?

2011-01-04T17:10:00.000Z

Yes, it's another New Year!
One I have high hopes for, I must say.

The blog, well - I'm trying to keep it up, but given how busy a year it's shaping up to be, I promise nothing.

So, goodbye to 2010, it's been a corker...

I got engaged to my boyfriend of 9 years

I started scrapbooking

Our two hamsters, Rowan and Aran both died :(

We redecorated the old house

I designed some knitted garments

I bought quite a lot of yarn

I also did a fair amount of knitting

And finally we moved into our lovely new home

What does 2011 have in store for me?

Well, there's my own wedding, plus at least two other weddings to attend.
The holiday of a lifetime for our honeymoon. (Excited!)
Chickens, and maybe rabbits.
More yarn, and more knitting, and all being well a spinning wheel.
A gym in the Garage!
Joining Zumba (the first class of the New Year is a week today!)
And a lot of hopes:
I hope that I'll stick to my Slimming World classes, and get a bit more weight shifted.
I hope that I'll be able to move roles at work.
I hope that we will have an excellent year, me and my soon-to-be-husband.

When did that happen?

2010-12-08T16:04:00.002Z

Folks, it’s only 16 (plus the rest of today) days until Christmas.
Crikey!

And although I have done most of my shopping, there’s a catch. I’ve done it online, and then this slight cold snap that we’ve had appears to have upset the postal system a little bit.

I wouldn’t normally worry about that, but I’m off to my parents’ place at the weekend, at which time I intend to leave all the gifts for my sister and her fiancé, and my parents, with my parents. Clearly I can not do this if said gifts are still sitting in some stranded lorry somewhere. Boo.

Well, I do have some things for each of them so far. I’ve had to return one item already, and so I’ve decided to buy the replacement item in person in an actual shop. I may have to pick up some backup gifts for my sister as 95% of her gift is still in the post.

(Well, I guess there’s a chance that some of it is waiting for me at home, if the post has arrived today.)

Somehow this makes me want to go out and madly buy more stuff! And then I feel a bit materialistic!

I’m only doing a little bit of Christmas knitting. One item is almost finished and will go in the post this weekend all being well. The other is for my fiancé, and he knows he’s getting a knitted thing, but he knows not what. I need to get cracking on that! I feel some in-car knitting will be required (we have a 20-30 minute commute, he drives…)

Well, I’ll cross my fingers about the parcels. They’ll understand if there are more to come! (The other year an item I pre-ordered didn’t arrive until the following February!)

Here’s hoping!

At Last!

2010-11-04T17:17:00.000Z

Finally, I’ve got round to taking and uploading some photos of what I have been up to in the past month or so!

We’ve been in the new house for about 7 weeks.

The back bedroom, which still needs photographing, has been given a new look with a fresh coat of paint on all the walls. I’m sorry to say we didn’t strip the wallpaper, that will have to wait until we get round to doing it again one day. However, I’ve painted over the floral pattern (I’m sure it’s lovely to some, but to my taste? Not so much) and the places where the previous owners’ cats scratched up the wallpaper. It’s not perfect, but it’s much more “us”. We have a nice new wooden curtain pole which needs to go up, and some rather nice curtains too. The new bed comes a week on Saturday, and once that’s in I’ll share photos. we must buy a lampshade!

The shed, which also needs photographing, has been given a couple of coats of Cuprinol Ducksback and is now reddish brown rather than grey. I’m pleased with it, and it’s hopefully not going to let water in any more. Though having moved the massive log pile from the side of it and cleared all of the brambles and mud will have helped. (I didn’t do that, Fiancé did.)

Anyway, this is the house.

There are lots of rose bushes in the front garden – they’re still flowering (in November!) but once they’re done flowering I will cut them back hard to try to get them into more even shapes and sizes. They are lovely though, lots of pretty colours!

The big window there in the garage is over a second sink with cupboards and drainer. This will, when I get it tidy and clean (and spider free), be my dying area. I’ll put the steamer out there (there’s power and water!) and the washer and dryer are both there, so I can do felting out there too! I’ll probably see about getting Fiancé to build me a bench to work on too at some point, and we’re going to put more shelves and hooks and a washing line up there too.

At the moment that area is also home to my new wormery.

I love worms. They’re one of the most amazing creatures ever. These worms are specially selected for wormeries. I’ve settled them in with the starter worm bedding, some treats (yes, you can get worm treats, how amazing is that) and some anti-acid pellets (too much acid upsets them!)
Anyway, they’re not trying to escape so I hope that’s a good sign.
We also have two large compost bins. We got the sort with bases because next door tell us that there might be rats (I figure; we’re in the country – there probably are rats, so we’ll try not to attract them)

This morning I saw some sort of hawk in the back garden! It was about the size of a pigeon, but dark brown with almost black wings, head and back. It was beautiful. I didn’t get the camera in time to take a photo I’m afraid.
There’s so much wildlife around here though, it’s fantastic!

I like my new home a lot, and I know I’m going to be happy here

New Sweater

2010-11-04T17:15:00.001Z

So, After almost 3 years of having the yarn, I’ve finally finished my green sweater! It was originally going to be but I didn’t like the finished item – I think it was the wrong yarn choice, as well as pilot error (PEBNAY – Problem Exists Between Needle and Yarn).

So I decided on a simple raglan cardigan, trying on as I went. And here’s the result:

Before weaving in the ends!

Pattern: My Own Design (I might publish it as I’ve kept notes, but it needs test-knitting first!)
Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha (40% Silk, 30% Wool, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) in Emerald (105)
Needles: 4.5mm circs & dpns
Modifications: N/A
Verdict: The yarn is lush, lovely to knit with. It’s a bit slubby but that adds to the charm I think. The cables pop really nicely in this yarn and colour. I’m quite pleased with it. It’s very warm so I haven’t had chance to wear it.

Almost Settled

2010-10-24T18:29:00.000+01:00

So, we're settling in to the new house still.

I love it!


Sunrise over Bugthorpe

The photo is not our garden, I'll show you that some time!

Well, we're in the middle of decorating our main bedroom, the one which has this view. I've put a coat of paint on all the walls now, so they need another coat this week. Then we should be getting the new bed soon too. We've ordered a massive bed - super king size! It's as wide as it is long! The mattress arrived already, and is stored in the garage. (We have a garage!) We've also picked up some bed linens. Curtains are next up - though the windows are big.

Otherwise things are steady here. We're getting used to the house, and the quiet.

P.S I'll try to remember to take some photos of the needle felting I've been doing, it's great fun!

Apres

2010-10-07T13:25:00.002+01:00

Apres Surf Hoodie

I've been thinking about making the Apres Surf Hoodie for a long time.

In fact, it's probably since that issue of Interweave Knits came out back in Summer 2008.
I even bought the yarn I needed for it.

Well, today I photocopied the pattern so I could write on it. (Like books, I can't bring myself to actually write in my magazines. It's weird. Most (not all) of my magazines are in as-new condition.)
I've decided to make the 3rd size, which I'm calling "medium" in my head (like, XS, S, M - right?)

It's got a 39.5" bust, assuming I get gauge, so it will have some positive ease (about 1.5") - the next size down is 35.5" and so would have 2.5" negative ease. I hope that this is the right choice. I would want to wear a t-shirt or something under this hoodie as it's lace and thus see-through.
According to the magazine, the one in the picture has "minimal" positive ease and it's the Small.
While that's not so helpful since I don't know the model's measurements, I think it should be okay.
Who knows if I'll even get gauge?

I am considering knitting a gauge swatch.
Despite being a hater of swatching, this is an awful lot of stitches to knit, and frankly I don't like ripping out and reknitting things.

Whether I'll be able to get gauge in the stst and lace sections... well, we'll see!

I can haz teh internetz?

2010-09-28T20:30:00.000+01:00

(Sorry for the I can haz cheezburger title; it had to be done)

Yes indeed we're back online, in the new house! Woot!
I really like the new house, which is a surprise to me really because I wasn't sure about it when we initially put the offer in.
Now that we're in, I like almost everything about it. We have a greenhouse (with tomatoes and aubergines left in it, thanks to the previous owner!) and a shed (with power!) along with a lovely garden which with a little TLC, a shovel and some planning should be capable of holding chickens, veggies and maybe a "bee garden" (I like bees)

I'll be back with some photos once we get into some semblance of order, we're still living with rather more boxes than I would like.

Actually moving

2010-09-15T11:28:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while, I know. There’s been no news that hasn’t been too depressing to blog about. However, the move is now happening, we’re actually being packed as I type (how much does that rock?)

We have a bit of recycling to do on the way home, and a little more to put out in the morning, but otherwise we’re all good. The packers have their instructions on what to pack and what not to pack, hopefully they’re not going to accidentally pack things they shouldn’t. I don’t mind so much if they leave unpacked things I’d rather they did pack, that’s easier to solve!

So yeah, we’re moving out to the countryside; I am very excited!

Also, I’ve a hectic schedule for the next month now. So we’re moving house tomorrow, then I’m off to a hen party on Saturday. The following Friday is the wedding (to go with the hen party) followed by a weekend off, then my folks are visiting, then both my bridesmaids and their partners are visiting, and then? Then I think we can relax!

Somewhere in there I need to fit in painting the bedroom, moving all the furniture into the right places, unpacking all the stuff, setting up my new craft room, starting to sort out the garden and planting some stuff (hopefully) and maybe looking into chicken runs, rabbit runs, and the like.

So it’s all good. Or it will be, tomorrow, when we get the keys!

Thunderbirds are... um... waiting until Thursday

2010-08-27T14:37:00.001+01:00

So, we're not moving today. Hence blogging is happening.

We might not have a phone line after today, we're not sure.

We're still moving though, it's all (currently) still on, but we have to wait until our buyers get their mortgage sorted out (Yes, I agree, they should have done that well before they did, but sometimes people don't realise these things and I'm trying to stay positive!)

So, I've cast on something new, to help take the edge off still not having my stash: a scarf for the "Knit the York Walls" campaign (Ravelry Link to Ramshambles Group) in lovely pink yarn provided by "Wannabe18". It's Rowan Pure Wool DK (same stuff I made fiancé his jumper from)
I'm doing a simple garter and drop stitch pattern, which is actually growing reasonably quickly. Though knitting at home while off work sick has helped!

Fan girl

2010-08-23T14:42:00.000+01:00

So, I cast on for some socks about a week ago. I fancied something a bit different, so I was making up a wavy pattern using short rows. It looked quite nice for the first two repeats, but after that there was some unpleasant pooling, and the sock was also a little loose. On top of these things there were some little holes where the short row turns were, and I decided that these weren’t the socks I wanted. So, I frogged the socks and put the yarn in my bag.

We took a trip to Edinburgh on Saturday, so on the train in the morning I cast on for both socks at once. I’m making the same socks that Yarn Harlot just made which are her vanilla sock with some ribs continued down the leg. It looks like she’s done a short row heel, but I’m currently undecided about that. If I do short row heels I usually do them over more than half of the stitches, which would mess up the pattern. So, I will probably stick to my usual heel flap and turn.

Edinburgh was a full on day – I’m afraid I can’t recommend travelling to and from Edinburgh in a day on the train, and fitting two shows, lunch, the Scott monument and the K1 yarn shop. It’s too much! The main reason we were going up was to see some plays that Fiancé’s brother (FBIL) was in or wrote. He’s part of a group called Gomito. (Google them, go see their work, they’re good!) Those two plays book-ended the day.

After lunch we went to the Scott monument. I went up the first set of stairs, but those of you who know me will know that I’m not a fan of twisty staircases, and I’m not a fan of heights, and – well – I didn’t go any higher.

We also called into K1 yarn shop. It was a tiny crafty bubble of calm in the throng that is the Edinburgh festival. I could have spent hours in there. I bought some linen and cotton laceweight, and some Zitron Trekking hand-painted sock yarn.

The linen/cotton lace is a nice pinky colour, quite delicate. With 700m it’s not massively long for lace, but I’m sure I can make something nice from it. (I have a lacey shrug in my mind, or bolero). I want to do something exciting with the sock yarn too – it’s a lovely red-orange-black fiery combination of colours. Perhaps it will become a hat, or hat and gloves (depending on how much yarn the hat takes!) I need to think about it.

And, of course, when we move on Friday I will (all being well, subject to meeting the removal man tomorrow) be getting my yarn back.

All Go (hopefully)

2010-08-20T15:04:00.000+01:00

So, we’re due to exchange and complete on our new house on Friday next week.

Exchanging and completing on the same day is making me nervous, I’ll admit. I’m one of those people who like to know what’s happening for certain, and plans stuff. I find I’m not very spontaneous these days (I like to think I used to be, but it could just have been circumstance)

Well, anyway, we’re making plans based on the exchange and completion happening together on the Friday. Everyone involved is keen for this to happen, so it should be fine.

That means we’ve been booking the movers. This has turned out to be more taxing than I expected. The movers we were going to use are fully booked. So my fiancé has had to ring round to find someone. We decided to go with the people who answered the phone, who could fit us in, and who don’t cost an arm and a leg (though I suspect that the cost element might be the one we have the least control over!)

Now we just have to explain that we have a bunch of stuff stored at some friends’ house and we’d like that to be picked up too. We’ll see what he says when he comes to look at our stuff on Tuesday.

I guess we’d better tidy the house some more!

In knitting news, the socks I have been designing have been frogged. I liked the way they were looking, until I got onto the 4th repeat when the colours started to do weird things. So I’ve decided that they’re just going to be plain old vanilla socks. Yarn Harlot’s recent pair where two of the ribs continued down the leg were nice, perhaps I’ll do that (I’m such a fangirl)

Another workout today:
dead lift – front squat – push press, 20kg, (20, 10, 5; 20, 10, 4; 20, 10, 3) (that’s an improvement!)
bench press – sit ups, 20kg/bodyweight (12, 20; 8, 20; 7, 15)
kettlebell swings – kettlebell rows – kettlebell curls, 12kg/12kg/8kg (10, 8/8, 8/8; 10, 10/10, 10/10)
I didn’t do the jammer press, I think I’m going to ask for an alternative when I see my PT on Wednesday. I have been shown how to do a hamstring stretch on the “power plate” which is cool. (if you’ve never seen one, a power plate looks like those really old fashioned scales, but the floor plate is wobbly and vibrates. It’s odd)
I did do the X-Trainer again, 3 mins between each superset.

I reckon, if I keep improving on the dead/squat/press I should be able to manage the full 5 push presses with 20kg for all three sets soon, and then I get to put the weight up! Woo!

It could be 10 days...

2010-08-18T15:59:00.001+01:00

...Until we move in to our new house.
Or it might not.

We will not have a firm date until our solicitor organises the exchange of contracts.

Despite this, we’ve gone ahead and ordered a fridge (we can always push the date back if needs be, we’re thinking positive!) and after getting a call from BT asking about our buyers taking over the line we’re now signed up for a BT line in the new house. (This is a bit of a sore point, actually. We’re going to be writing a letter to customer services at BT.)

Otherwise it’s still a bit limbo-ish.

I did finish the shawl I’ve been knitting, though I still don’t have any action shot photos of it!

Here’s the knit down:

Pattern: Citron by Hilary Smith Callis
Yarn: Abstract Cat Merino/silk laceweight in the Dragonfly colourway
Needles: 4mm circular
Modifications:Knit to pattern except for a slight amendment to the cast on (which I can’t remember) and knitting the last 4 rows in garter stitch rather than stocking stitch. That’s both prevented curl and also made the ruffle more ruffley as garter is fatter than stocking stitch!
Verdict (New!): I mostly enjoyed knitting this, and the end result is very good looking. The main problem with it is that as it’s a semi-circular shawl the number of stitches on the needles increases quite drastically per repeat. By the end there were over 500 stitches per row, which is a lot!

the shawl while blocking

Oh, I should mention my brand spanking new workout program! Since I last wrote about the program I’ve continued my “diet” which is working reasonably well for me (except today, I had a bacon sandwich. It happens. I’ll be better tomorrow)

Anyway, I spoke to my PT, explained the issues I was having, that I’d recently changed the way I was eating, and that I wanted a program I found more fun.

He’s sorted out a much more weights based program for me. There’s still a bit of (low impact) cardio for me in the form of the cross trainer, which is okay I guess. But the weights! Oh, they’re fun. Not mega-super heavy, but y’know, good.

Here’s today’s lifts:
dead lift – front squat – push-press, 20kg, (20, 10, 5; 20, 10, 3; 20, 8, 3)
bench press – sit ups, 20kg/bodyweight (8, 20; 8, 15; 4, 15)
kettlebell swings – kettlebell rows – kettlebell curls, 12kg/12kg/8kg (3;8e/s;8e/s) (Had a hamstring issue here, so stopped. Will do better next time)
jammer press – straight leg sit ups, 13kg/bodyweight (5, 15; 10, 15; 4, 16)
with 3 mins on the X Trainer between each set.

It’s so much more fun than the previous programme! Okay, it’s new, and I was enthusiastic (well, a little sceptical too) about the last one. But this one – I was looking forward to going to the gym on Monday and today. That is a result.

We’re going to start going every morning again, and swimming on the off days. Worst case, if the swimming isn’t happening (tight muscles, just too tired, whatever) I can sit in the Jacuzzi or the sauna for 20 minutes instead!

Edit: I just wanted to add that I’ve been having an issue with something called an IT Band (nothing to do with the computer, everything to do with my thigh) which has been causing me pain. My PT has got me doing foam rolling (which was in my Fit Female bible too) which is very painful to do but seems to help. I'm considering getting a foam roller for at home and also thinking about getting myself back to the Tuina guys for a pummelling!

RIP: Aran

2010-08-14T11:37:00.000+01:00

Our hamster, Aran, died in the night.

He was about 2 years old, which is good going for a dwarf Russian hamster. He outlivd his brother (Rowan) for some months. Since Rowan died, we've been giving Aran extra treats, but not handling him as much (he liked to bite) so as not to stress him too much.
We've really enjoyed having Aran as our pet and he will be missed.

Limbo

2010-08-09T11:34:00.005+01:00

That’s how I feel at the moment, like I’m somehow held in limbo.

The house move is probably going ahead, there’s no reason for me to think it isn’t. Even so, we don’t have a confirmed move date (though I’ve speculatively booked a day off work when it’s meant to be!) nor do I know if we’re waiting for anything further.

I’m still looking forward to the move, and settling in to the new house. If all goes to plan we’ll be moving on the bank holiday weekend. Obviously that’s great from a moving in perspective. I hope it works out from a buying appliances perspective too! However, if all we manage to sort out is a fridge then that will be fine – we’ve got a week off not long after to tidy up all the loose ends! Hopefully we’re visiting my sister in the weekend there too, with a trip to Costco, which will mean that if we do have a chest freezer by then (here’s hoping) we can buy some stuff to fill it. Woot!

The wedding is definitely going ahead (ahaha) but there are a whole bunch of things that I can’t do until we’ve moved house. I’m not setting anything in motion until then either. That means that after the move I have to visit the dressmaker, visit the registrar, confirm our new address with the photographer, the venue(s), and anyone else, and make invitations for everyone. I’m actually quite looking forward to making the invitations. It’s a nice excuse to spend a few (!) hours in my craft room making things. I’m less looking forward to sourcing addresses for people I don’t have addresses for!

Fiancé has sent off his passport to be renewed, well in advance of the honeymoon. It may or may not get back to us before we move. In either case we’ll be redirecting our post for a few months – an annoyance but a requirement. Until I have the confirmed move date there’s not much to do other than sit and wait! We’re still deciding on where we want to go for the honeymoon. I’m quite keen on a twin centre holiday with a first week of doing stuff and a second week of doing nothing. My favourites so far are Mexico and Sri Lanka / Maldives (or Thailand / Maldives I think is also available). Fiancé hasn’t expressed a preference yet. Still, that’s something else we want to get started on sorting out soon.

The shawl is coming on nicely. It’s one of a small number of things I’ll share in their entirety with the blog because it’s lovely. And it’s not really a key element; it’s just to keep me warm. I’m not sure whether I’ll knit any other semi-circular or circular shawls – the number of stitches is phenomenal. I’m in the last section now, but one row is taking almost an hour!

(Picture to the right is from knitty.com - more information about the pattern there.)

And the gym, that’s also in limbo right now. I’ve not been getting on with the program that my PT left me before he went away, and then the car broke down so we didn’t get to the gym, and I just haven’t mustered up the desire to go back. I have another session on Thursday, so we’ll see if he can come up with anything else. I haven’t enjoyed the “weights as cardio” thing in the program – I know that’s what turbulence training is all about, but it’s not for me. I enjoy lifting weights. I appreciate that I need to do some sort of cardio to get the results I want, but the all cardio nonsense I’m doing right now is just depressing – and it’s not giving me any results. Honestly, I’ve lost more weight in the two weeks I haven’t been able to get to the gym (but have been dieting) than I did in the two weeks where I did this program three times a week. Either I’m doing it wrong, or it doesn’t work. And I suspect it’s the former – even though I’m killing myself to get round fast, I must just not be going fast enough for long enough.
I have been for a run twice while I couldn’t get to the gym. Neither time was especially pleasant, but I made it round my 2 mile course in less than 30 minutes. No, that’s not fast. I think it might even be quite slow.

For a change...

2010-07-23T11:37:00.002+01:00

I guess the last few posts there’s been a bit of a fitness/weight loss overload.

So, I’ll talk about something else today!

We’re still in the process of moving house. I’m hopeful that we should be able to complete at the end of August, though it does depend on our seller (the person we’re buying from) moving out in time. I don’t know what stage she’s at now.

I’m quite excited about the new house, it has so many things that we’re looking for!

We have some enquiries with our solicitor at the moment regarding some of the information in the deeds, specifically pertaining to the covenants. I suspect that I am better not detailing any of them here, for the time being at least.

Anyway, there’s so much scope for doing the things I’ve been wanting to do but not had the space for. Ranging from more dying and getting into spinning to growing vegetables.

Here are some of the things I’d like to be able to do in the new house:

Grow Veggies including potatoes and carrots, squash, aubergine, tomatoes, peas and strawberries!
More Dying not really good in an unventilated room with cream carpets which I was using in our current house…
Spinning I’ve been spindle spinning, but I’d love the space for a wheel. After that I’d love some more hours in the day!
Growing dyestuffs this is on top of growing veggies – my own dyers patch, what fun that would be!
Chickens I’d love some pet chickens. I’m talking two or three, not many.
Bunnies! I love bunny rabbits. Guinea pigs would also be an option.
While we’re on animlas: Doggy! Ok, this is a long term thing, not something for the shorter term, but I would love to have a dog. Preferably a big dog. My favourite breeds are Great Danes and Wolfhounds. I love Setters too, but all that hair!
Painting and I don’t mean rooms. This is something I’d like my fiancé to be able to do more of too. We have an easel, it will be nice to have space to put it up.
Cooking and dinner parties our current kitchen is small, we don’t have much space for people. The new place will be large enough to have a reasonable number of people round! I don’t claim to be a brilliant cook, but I can follow a recipe quite well*.
Sitting out I’m truly more excited than I should be about the prospect of getting a patio set – you know a couple or four chairs and a small table. Maybe we could upgrade the barbeque too! Alas, there isn’t likely to be much time left this year where outdoor cooking is acceptable.

I’m sure there are millions of other things I could add to this list!
But I’ll stop now.

In my current garden I have bought two more herbs. We visited a small nursery when we were back home, and they had some quite nice plants there at very reasonable prices. I picked up an apple mint (why yes, I do like mint. How did you guess?) and a small lavender called Melissa Lilac.

*when I say quite well, I mean with only one or two substitutions or changes. It’s a bit like knitting patterns, a recipe is just a guide!

One week in

2010-07-20T10:54:00.000+01:00

So, as I mentioned, the working out just wasn’t enough for me and my drive for results. (I have a suspicion that this is also hindering me on my shawl, more on that shortly)
Well, I’ve been trying hard to eat sensibly, while still reducing the number of calories I’m eating – basically trying to be more aware of what it is I’m eating. There were two “challenges” last week in the form of the Department Night Out (more on that later) and movie night with friends. I fared better on one than the other.

So, how did I do last week?

Well, we worked out twice. I decided against working out with a hangover (remember the DNO?) so, I’ve stuck with “sedentary” for my formula, which kind of makes sense.

At my start-of-week weight, my maintenance calories was 1902
My average calories per day were 1379 (a deficit of 523 per day)
My lowest calorie day was Wednesday with 1165 calories consumed (approx)
My highest calorie day was Thursday with 1663 calories consumed (approx)

I tried seven new meals last week. I think that the carrot soup was the most successful, but it uses up a lot of carrots. I’m considering trying the same thing but with different veggies next time. Broccoli and chicken salad was also a success as a packed lunch. Brilliant!
One of the hardest things is making sure to have healthier snacks to eat when I’m feeling peckish. I’ve rediscovered my love for Granny Smith apples, which is rather nice.

So, what was it about Thursday that gave me that extra 300 or so calories? Well, if it hadn’t been for the Department Night Out I suspect I would have done much better.

I had my usual breakfast: Instant Oats made with 200ml skimmed milk and 40g of sultanas, I also had a cup of tea with a little semi skimmed milk. ~345 calories.
For lunch I was doing pretty well, I had salad with two hard boiled eggs, and 4 olives in oil. ~427 calories.
I also had a nectarine and one more cup of tea that day. ~ 51 calories.
Dinner is where I let myself down. It was a barbeque. There was free drink. I had some canapés (mostly with brie, cheese is my nemesis) which I’ve estimated at about 158 calories (yes, just for the canapés) I had one sausage and one burger (about 192 calories for both). I didn’t eat the salad, much coleslaw or the bun. I did have some sauce, but compared to what’s coming it is negligible.
I had three glasses of champagne (267 calories) and about 4 glasses of wine (356 calories) That’s one glass being 120ml.

So, it was the alcohol that did for me, I think.

As for the shawl? It’s progressing. Very. Slowly. It’s not the most exciting knit – it’s basically miles of stocking stitch, interspersed with really complicated counting rows. I have to be in the right frame of mind to do the counting rows, so it frequently stalls on those rows. I’m nervous about knitting it while doing other things because I don’t want to go wrong, even though it’s really simple! I love how it looks, and I’m sure it will be worth it in the end, I’m just glad I started nice and early, and that I’m not knitting the same thing for anyone else!
As I said above, I think that I want to see progress, and the shawl isn’t that kind of project. With it being semi-circular, the rows get so much wider that each row takes an age. I’m lucky to get one row done in my lunchbreak – and if I need to do something else, it’s not going to happen at all!

Getting Fit? Not Really

2010-07-14T15:45:00.002+01:00

So, I've been following the program set by my PT for 3 weeks.
It's hard, very tiring, and yet - I'm not seeing any results. That is pretty disheartening, as you might imagine.
I weighed myself just prior to starting this section of the programme.
I haven't really changed my eating habits - though I've stopped eating chocolate at work.

I weighed myself after one week and I had lost 2lbs. Woo!

However, since then I haven't lost any weight at all.
I have seen a change in my measurements, but I'm not sure how much of that is my dodgy measuring and wishful thinking.
None of my clothes fit any better...

Now, I confess, I am supposed to do two repeats of the program (at least) which should take 40 minutes. About half of the time I do two repeats, though it takes more like 45 minutes. I'm not really getting on with the concept of rinse and repeat. If I hated it the first time, I'm hardly going to look forward to it.
I've discovered some interesting things about how I like to exercise, which is good.

I don't mind cardio. 3 minute bursts are fine.
I dislike the bike and cross-trainer.
I don't dislike the rower (at the moment) and can row 600m in 2:40 if I try, at the lowest resistance.
While I like weights, doing them like cardio sucks.
Olympic lifts are fun!
I get bored easily - three weeks in and I want to change stuff!
I have results focus - I want to see changes in my body, I want to weigh less, have less girth, feel better

Now, I can't wait for my PT to sort this out. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or what. I'm probably not going fast enough on the cross trainer, but that's only one out of 3 cardio bursts.
I know I'm belting through the weights - to the point that they're not fun.
I'm shuttling between items, no rest, barely time to have a drink.
And yet - no change.
It's not acceptable!

So, it's been suggested (by my fiancé no less) that it’s not possible to out-train a bad diet. I begrudgingly accept that this is probably true. So, I’ve looked up some recipes with reasonable calorie counts (in the 300-400 range) to have for dinner with veggies, potatoes or pasta (another 100 cals for pasta!) or to have on their own for lunches. The aim is to create a deficit in the number of calories consumed as compared to the number required.

I’m using a formula to calculate the number of calories I need to consume which is as follows:
BMR = 655 + (4.3 * lbs) + (4.7 * inches) - (4.7 * age)
(BMR is basal metabolic rate)
Maintenance Calories = BMR * 120%

So, for me that’s
BMR = 655 + 922.1 (sorry, not telling you my weight, height and age!)
BMR = 1577.1
Maintenance Calories = 1892.52
To lose 1lb per week, you need to eat 3500 calories less*
That’s 500 calories per day
So, to create a 500 calorie deficit, I need to eat no more than 1392.52 calories, or expend more calories.
Several sites recommend not reducing calories lower than 1200 calories.
So, that’s the plan. I’ve never tried calorie counting before, but we’ll see how it goes.

Tuesday night’s food wasn’t quite the number of calories I had planned because it seems that I can’t read a recipe! I scaled down all of the ingredients from a 4 person recipe to a 2 person recipe. Except I didn’t. I forgot to scale down the cheese (the cheese will be my downfall). While this made the mustard-and-cheese-stuffed-chicken-breasts very tasty, it also made them an extra 200 calories! Whoops! I had a little bit spare from having my über healthy porridge and sultanas for breakfast (I love it!) but I was probably only under by about 300 calories in the end.
Nevermind, I’ll do better today.
I’m not going to beat myself up about it, in the end if it gets to April and I’m exactly the same size and shape then so be it. All in all (and sending many good vibes to the Karma Gods) I’m the happiest I have ever been at the moment, and why shouldn’t I be? Okay, work is a bit irritating, but there’s some interesting stuff happening at the moment, we’re buying a fab new house, we’re getting married in the spring (in the Spring!!) – it’s all good, I can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) complain!

And anyway, my dress is going to have a built in corset in it.

*this is a generalisation, I gather, but should get me close enough

Crochet Complete and Scrapbook!

2010-07-03T16:42:00.005+01:00

So, I've finally got some things to show you

Pattern: Inga's Haekelbeutel by Inga Joana Mertens
Yarn: King Cole Bamboo Cotton (1 skein each of the blue and brown)
Hook: 4mm (the only one I have not in storage)
Modifications: Other than using a completely different gauge, none.

Also, I've been doing some pages in my scrapbook. I'm as far as I can go now before the wedding!

I kept the Save the Date page nice and simple, it's a printout of the pdf with some embellishment.

This page was hard, I really wanted those three elements in there, so I had to fiddle with it for some time.

I think this is my first attempt to use a "template" on a CD I received with the DoCraft magazine. I'm pretty pleased with it, and I think my scrapbooking is progressing nicely.

I plan to purchase a chipboard "HOME" book to do something nice for the new house with. I'll get some new papers for that too.

(Untitled, again)

2010-07-01T11:35:00.003+01:00

Well, we decided to accept the offer on our house, and offer on the place we wanted to buy.

They accepted!

So, we’re (hopefully) moving house very soon.

The new house is on the outskirts of a village; the village has a post office and a church, but no pub as far as we can tell! Though it’s only a short cycle from some other villages nearby where we know people. I’m quite excited about it now, looking forward to having a bit of space, both inside and out. Because it is three bedrooms, I can take over a bedroom for my crafty stuff without losing out on the guest room, which is useful! There’s so much scope for coolness.
I am trying not to get too excited at the moment though, until we have the keys in our hands!

-oOo-

In other news… There isn’t actually much other news. The wedding shawl is going well; I’m about half-way through from a number-of-rows perspective, but maybe only a third from a number-of-stitches perspective! It’s a pretty relaxing knit though, which is good!

I’ve done two more of the crazy workouts that my personal trainer has given me to do while he’s away in America. It’s going okay, I think. I find that if I push the cardio too much I can’t manage the weights, and vice versa. My aim is to get to a point where I can get through three circuits, or make it through two in 45 minutes; it’s taking me an hour for two at the minute which isn’t as fast as he’d like me to be going. It seems to be working though; I lost two pounds last week! I hope that I lose some this week too. We’ve been eating pretty healthily; I’ve been having fruit for a snack rather than chocolate, and three workouts a week.

We will not be getting three workouts this week, though. Well, unless we go on Saturday some time. The car has gone in to be MOTd and I don’t have a parking space at work any more. That means we’re getting the bus into work, and there’s no bus that gets us to the gym. In theory we could cycle there (it’s about 4 miles from our current house) but I’m not sure I’d want to work out when I arrived!

-oOo-

I must take a photo of my finished crocheted bag too, it’s in use as a bring-my-knitting-to-work bag right now, and is doing pretty well despite not being lined! I might not bother lining it, though I do have to keep anything that might fall through the holes in an additional bag!

Shoes, Shawl and Such

2010-06-28T15:24:00.002+01:00

I have been eyeing up some shoes for a while.
They're designer (Kurt Geiger) and they looked (on screen) perfect.
I found a KG shop in Cambridge.
They didn't have the turquoise shoes in stock.
They let me try them in coral.
I loved them (I'm tempted to buy them in coral too!)
I decided to buy the turquoise ones online.
They didn't have them in my size online.
So I called the KG concession in Fenwicks in York.
They were very helpful and ordered them.
They came and were perfect.
And on sale.
So I ordered the matching bag.

No, I'm not showing you. You'll have to wait til next April for the photos! :P

I have also cast on for a shawl in the "dragonfly" yarn I got a while back.

And we're in negotiation about the house, which is scary and weird. We've had an offer, but not as high as we'd like, so we're not able to offer as much as we'd like for the house we want... ho hum. We will see.

Cakes and Flowers

2010-06-09T13:40:00.008+01:00

Warning: Wedding Heavy Post!
Note: All these pictures have been taken from Google Image Search, I hope I haven’t infringed any copyrights.

I bought a recent guide to wedding cake and flowers. it claimed to be the “ultimate” guide, but with less than 10 pages on each flowers and cake, I think not.
It did have some pretty things in it, and has led me to consider my options further.
Fiancé and I are not especially fussed about having a massive cake. For some reason (a bit like my odd reasoning about heel heights I guess) I prefer cakes with three tiers. We’ve only discussed it a little, as we wouldn’t need to order the cake until around October (6 months prior) and I am still not sure whether I want to go high-end or not.

The cost of wedding cakes is quite high, considering what the constituent parts are, and considering how simple a shape, style and colour I prefer. I think I’d like a plain, smooth, round, three tier cake, white iced with (possibly) blue bands of the same fabric as the dresses.

I’ve seen some nicely dressed cakes with a few small flowers on them, which is something I would consider.

This brings me nicely on to flowers. We have visited a florist. I couldn’t breathe properly in there, my eyes were streaming and my head hurt, my nose was running. Basically, I had a very strong allergic reaction to the florists! I suspected that it might happen, but it really did confirm for me that I want silk flowers for the wedding. I’m not the only one in the party with allergies, and I didn’t think my allergies were that strong either!

There are other benefits of silk flowers. One of the benefits being that they last! I have an idea for the wedding flowers; I want to have the three bouquets (mine and the two bridesmaids’) made into arrangements. One is for my house, in a nice vase, as a memento of the day; the other to be made into a small arrangement to be placed on my Nanna’s grave. This might sound a little maudlin to some, but it’s something I want to do. I hope that there will be chance for me to go and put it there myself.
I don’t know what we’ll do with the buttonholes. I am sure we can think of something.
Finally the table centrepieces, these are going to be reasonably small – I’m not into ostentatious table decoration – I like to be able to see who is opposite me, and I assume that others do too! I’ve been collecting pictures from Google of those too.

I like the simplicity of some of the single flower in a glass type of arrangements, but it would need to be a big glass, or several glasses, in the centre of a round table. Though it might be nice for at home too! (I’d like to be able to use some of these at home, or give them to wedding helpers as a gift)

I’m also a fan of these fishbowl things. Simple, self-contained and attractive; these are nice and could be a variety of sizes I’d think.

Or there’s the usual vase-based stuff, with a squat vase this could be fine for what I’m interested in.

Of course, I will be discussing this with my fiancé, and probably posting several more witters for you here about it too!

Training, and not knitting!

2010-06-08T14:08:00.000+01:00

This morning I was at the gym again. (I know, that’s no excuse for the chocolate I’ve eaten today. Diet is something I need to work on!) I have been working through the programme that I’ve been given by my Personal Trainer. It starts with some high-intensity low-weight cables. I like that; it gets my heart rate up. Once I’ve done that I do squats (I’m using a 15kg bar right now, aiming to get the form before I up the weight – do it light, get it right!) and dead lifts (also 15kg) and then clean-and-press (10kg) which isn’t the same exercise as the one we do in body pump. Then I have around 30 minutes of cardio work, which takes about 40 minutes including travel between machines and stopping to breathe so I don’t die.

I’m getting on okay with the cardio. It’s something I really don’t like doing which makes it a challenge. Even when I was doing quite a bit of running, I never liked that. I spend time on each of the static bike, treadmill and cross trainer. I don’t really like any of them, but I know that I need to get my cardio fitness up.

Still, at least I’m doing something in the gym, and it really does make me feel better for the rest of the day!
Well, until the aching sets in! I’m looking forward to a nice long hot bath!

On the knitting front, I haven’t been! I know – it’s a shocker. I bought a big bunch of new yarn recently – the pictures I took of it are rubbish!
Some of the yarn has plans. The bamboo is being made into a bag (as mentioned before), the Noro Silk Garden Sock is going to become a shrug, all being well. I need to do a bit of planning on that one, like deciding whether to knit it in stockinette or in garter – or something else! I don’t want to do any fancy patterns; Noro SGS is beautiful enough on its own.
The other Noro, I don’t know what I’ll do with that. I’ve been toying with the idea of some sort of felted thing, although it’s expensive yarn for felting with! Failing that, perhaps something smallish – a vest top or a shrug maybe. I have 5 balls, which is about 500yds I think. should be enough for a vest – especially if there’s openwork/lace somewhere on it.

A friend of mine kindly provided me with another herb! Yey! Now I have another variety of mint, Apple mint. It’s lovely, and was the other one I considered getting at Yorkshire Lavender.

So, it’s all good.

Lacey Fingerless Mittens

2010-06-07T11:03:00.002+01:00

I’m having some bizarre issues with my Macbook, so I’ve been unable to post. Normally I wouldn’t worry, but I’ve been waiting to tell you all about my latest pattern!

Pattern:Lacey Fingerless Mitts by Tsuki (download now)
Sizes Available: S, M and L (though from feedback the small runs more like XS, the other sizes are about right)
Yarn:Violet Green, Sappho (70% merino 30% silk, colour pink ruby); yardage just over 150yds (140m) for the medium size.
Needles:2.25mm circs long enough to do magic loop, or 2.25mm dpns.
Other:you’ll need two pairs and one odd stitch marker, and a darning needle for weaving in the ends.
I enjoyed knitting these, and I hope you will too. Do let me know if you knit them – and if you like to knit for friends for Christmas these would make a lovely gift. Just click here to download the pattern and you’re away!
Thank you for reading!

Any feedback about the pattern (including errata) is very welcome, please leave a comment, or come find me on Ravelry – I’m Tsuki.

In which I get Personal...

2010-06-02T10:09:00.001+01:00

...Training.
Yes, that’s right, I have a personal trainer. How wicked is that?

Originally I had organised to join a fitness class; 10 weeks, including nutrition and fitness advice, a programme to work to and group work. Sadly, there weren’t enough people interested in the evening class, so it was cancelled, but the trainer offered me 6 hours of personal training as a replacement. One to one personal training is not cheap, and this is bargain basement cost, so I decided to go for it.

I had my first session on Monday, where the PT checked out what I can actually do. He’s pleased with the weight lifting, but (unsurprisingly) wants me to up my cardio rather a lot. Well, from nothing to about 20-30 minutes for this first fortnight.
It’s not so bad when you have someone telling you what to do, how fast to run, when to stop. I’ll see how easy that is when I’m doing it on my own. I need to do the program he’s set me at least 5 times before I next see him. Given that we’re off to visit fiancé’s folks over one of the weekends in between, that’s going to be hard – but not impossible – to fit in.

More about that...

2010-06-01T16:38:00.003+01:00

As I posted yesterday, I’ve bought some new herbs. I don’t know where this desire comes from, but I love having plants, growing things in my garden is so interesting, so much fun, and the results are beautiful and tasty!

Last year, I bought a collection of herbs from B&Q. this consisted of (as seen in the green tub picture, left to right) chives, sage, parsely, oregano, coriander (which is an annual and died over winter) and Thyme.
Now I also have Dill and Coriander (both annuals), lemon thyme, oregano and French Tarragon, and basil (in the green pot, because he lives indoors) – these were all from B&Q too, and three (yes, three!) varieties of mint. I have peppermint, spearmint and garden mint. I am considering getting some apple mint too, which I really like. I love mint; it’s a great smelling herb, and pretty to look at too. I’m trying to learn the difference between the types of mint in looks, as well as smell (from the smell it’s easier!)
Fiancé’s mum picked up some chocolate mint, which she tells me chickens are meant to like. That has the most amazing mint-chocolate smell to it! She also bought some lavender. I quite like lavender, especially as it is a nice strong smell which can be used to mask the wool smell in a house full of wool!

I’m quite excited at the prospect of having a proper garden to grow things in. I like vegetables and salads and fruit – and I love the idea of growing my own! I could spend hours in the grow-your-own section in B&Q, or perusing in a garden centre.
I’m also looking forward to having space (and hopefully time!) for chickens. I will probably wait until we’ve settled in properly before introducing chickens – perhaps after the wedding (though we’ll see, I’m not usually that patient!). The main thing I’m worried about is being able to find someone to look after them when we go away, and as that would be for three weeks after the wedding, that’s quite an ask.
Chickens need to be let out in the morning, and shut away in the evening.

The crochet I flashed up yesterday is a new bag I’m making, Inga's Haekelbeutel (in German) (Rav link) – it’s a cleverly constructed bag made from granny squares crocheted together. since I quite like making granny squares, I thought this would be a great item for me to make. as usual, I’m not using the yarn called for. I’m not even using the weight of yarn called for! I might end up having to line the bag, which I might have to do 1) before I make it up and 2) by hand.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. My sewing machine, threads and most of my fabric stash never made it to storage (friends’ house – many thanks guys, you know who you are) so I should be able to line the bag without too many problems – though it might be as easy to do it by hand, though I detest sewing by hand, so I have to consider that thoroughly!
I have noticed that my newer squares are a bit tighter – I’m not sure if I’m crocheting tighter, or what. hopefully I can block them all to approximately the same size, prior to crocheting them together. I just have to decide what order to do that in, once I finish making the squares. I’m on 5 of 8 in the blue-then-brown pattern, I’m doing 8 others in brown-then-blue.

Herbs

2010-05-31T21:28:00.003+01:00

I've bought some new herbs. We went to Yorkshire Lavender this weekend and there was a lovely selection of other herbs there, including some varieties of mint that I fancied having. Well, we also went to B&Q and I ended up with several more herbs, so on top of the six I already had, I now have some pretty new ones. I've also been doing some crochet...

Stuff

2010-05-24T10:11:00.000+01:00

Well, the house is on the market. We were scheduled to have two viewings this weekend, but both were cancelled at the last minute. Boo. One of them will be rescheduled; the other was cancelled outright as they had bought a different house.

Oh well.

We’re going back to see one of the houses we’ve seen. I’ve also made a (short) list of other houses we could see. I haven’t done anything about it though! It’s hard to be positive about looking at houses when we haven’t even had a viewing yet. I know, it’s early days, but it’s so slow!

I’ve ordered some lovely yarn from Stash of Chester over the weekend. I have ordered some Noro Silk Garden Sock at silly prices, and some (more) Noro Kureyon. I wouldn’t have to do this if I had access to my stash. Honest. And it was 15% off sale prices – the SGS was half price effectively! What can you do?

I’m due to have my first personal training session on Friday morning. It was rescheduled from last Friday, which is a re-plan from the class I was going to do that there wasn’t enough interest for. I hope it’s motivational! In the mean time, I guess I need to sort out my diet. It should be a simple as cooking dinner most evenings rather than eating pizza, Chinese, curry etc!

Here’s a sneak peak of the mittens I’ve designed. The pattern is due to be available at the end of the month.

In which I rant about HDNL

2010-05-19T15:14:00.001+01:00

So, as you can see from my last post, I’ve been ordering shoes from online. The shoes I’ve had to return were actually no problem. HDNL delivered the Barratts shoes, Royal Mail delivered the ASOS shoes. Both were left with a neighbour. Success! Well done to both companies.

So, given my success, and the fact that I had a £10 off voucher for LoveYourShoes (Barratts) I decided to give the whole shoes online thing another go. I’ve ordered some fit-flops. (You know, the ones that tone your bum when you walk)

The first problem was with LoveYourShoes. for some reason the £10 wasn’t taken off. Why would I pay the shop price plus delivery when there’s a Barratts in town? I wouldn’t. I had to wait until the shoes had been shipped before they could refund me. What a good system that is. Anyway…

They use HDNL to deliver, which was previously a success. When they delivered to my house last Thursday, I was left a card suggesting I could go to Hull (35 miles away) or arrange a new date (when I’m at work), so I called and asked them to deliver to work. Technically we’re not meant to get parcels at work, but I’ve never had trouble with it before. They said that it might be too late to schedule the redelivery to happen on Friday, but that it should be updated by Monday.
On Friday there was no sign – I assumed that all was well.
On Saturday we went out in the morning, and when I returned there was a card from HDNL. I assumed that this was a different order – something else I’m expecting in the post.
On Monday there’s another card. I’m not expecting three parcels so I suspect that something is up. I call HDNL (at 10p a minute) again.
To their credit, the chap on the end of the phone was very nice, apologetic and helpful. He confirmed that they were indeed all the same parcel (I’m assuming it’s the shoes) and that the re-direct message had not got through. He told me he’d call the Hull depot and fix it, and that my shoes should be with me on Tuesday, or today at the latest.
Well, it’s almost 3pm (HDNL are at pains to stress that they could deliver any time between 7am and 7pm) and there’s no sign of my shoes. That doesn’t mean that they’re not here with the post room, but I suspect that they aren’t there either. So tonight I’m going to have to call them again.

I wouldn’t bet on them not having returned the shoes back to the sender. If they have, I’ll probably wait for my refund and then go buy them in store without the money off. Or possibly even from another supplier who doesn’t use HDNL.

At least with Royal Mail the depot is just down the road from my house.
Not Hull.

Shoe Fail

2010-05-18T17:02:00.003+01:00

I ordered these:

but they had too high a heel - seriously, I can't walk in a 13cm heel. Otherwise they're gorgeous!

I also ordered these:

But they're not the right colour, they're not as blue as in this picture, they're much more teal/green.

So, no turquoise shoes for me, yet. Ho hum.

Interesting Times

2010-05-12T16:28:00.001+01:00

lib•er•al

favourable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
favourable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.

con•serv•a•tive

disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness
having the power or tendency to conserve.

I’ve been watching this year’s British election with much interest. I confess, I have voted in previous elections without really understanding the various manifestos. I think that my fiancé has been one of the forces behind me exploring what I actually do believe in, and lining that up with what the parties say.
Now, I’m not going to go all partisan on you; who I voted for is my business.

I stayed up on election night to watch the exit polls and early results. Like most people watching, I disbelieved the exit polls – the Lib Dems couldn’t have done that badly surely? So, when I got up the following morning and saw that the exit polls were pretty accurate, I was surprised. I was also convinced that there would be a Liberal – Labour deal; a Liberal – Conservative deal was just too unrealistic. Then it happened; Dave and Nick agreed to form a coalition.

We are now entering a new type of politics, which is a Good Thing. If this works, if it provides stable and productive government, it will be very exciting.

Though I confess, Oliver Letwin and George Osbourne worry me. Very Much.

Welcome to Lib-Con, please remember to wear your ID (wait, no – that’s being scrapped) and don’t forget to pack your nuclear protective gear (you’ll still need that, we’re keeping Trident – the minty nuclear deterrent)

All quiet

2010-05-10T10:50:00.000+01:00

We had a busy day on Saturday, plenty to do!

First, we headed into town so that I could return the two pairs of shoes I ordered online. Both pairs of shoes were amazing, but the ones from Barrats were just too high heeled (13cm or 5¼” in old money) – otherwise they were exactly what I’m after! The ones from ASOS were the perfect height, style, shape, they were comfy, but they weren’t the right colour. I want a more blue kind of turquoise, and these were kind of teal.

While we were there, we also picked up a new shirt for my fiancé, a mirror for me (my other mirror is now making the landing look nice, which is great for the house, but not so good for me) for doing my hair in the morning, and collected a new watch strap in the post for him too.

Then, at about 1pm, we met our agent again. This time it was a lady who took photos of the house for use in the brochure and online. It’s all very exciting. We also handed over our key, as we’re hoping for them to do the viewings rather than us. My mum has suggested that this will not be practical, that we might have to do some viewings, so we will see.

In the afternoon we headed off to look at two houses which are for sale. Neither was the house for us we think. Both were nice enough, but there wasn’t that wow factor. I guess I’m looking for the feeling I got with my engagement ring and my wedding dress; I should want to stay there. I should be mentally putting our furniture into the rooms, and deciding on décor.

Swallowtail Shawl(ette)

2010-05-04T14:06:00.002+01:00

I’ve finished my Swallowtail shawl. I’m really pleased with it, though it's not really big enough to be a proper shawl, more of a scarf or shawlette.

Here’s the knit down:
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Violet Green Merino 2ply Lace Yarn (I think it’s discontinued, sorry)
Needles: 3.75mm, 100cm long circs
Modifications: Used beads instead of working the nupps.
Notes: I used Kim’s mileage chart for the budding lace section, very useful.

Here it is before blocking (dimensions: centre back to tip 15”; wingspan 33”; tip to point 23”)

And after blocking (dimensions: centre back to tip 24”; wingspan 46”; tip to point 33”)

So, other news…
Well, the wedding-free-house-free weekend wasn’t. We’ve now been to see a mortgage advisor and got a mortgage in principle agreed. I hunted for turquoise shoes (no win). We went to see the jeweller where we got my engagement ring to ask about vintage wedding bands. It seems that there aren’t many – with the price of gold being as high as it is, people are having them melted down for the cash rather than selling them on which isn’t worth as much. We confirmed that I want a rather narrow band (2mm) and that we can’t justify the cost of having diamonds in it, and also that 18ct will be okay with my 15ct engagement ring. We also confirmed FH’s ring size, the width of band that he’d like (6mm) and the fact that his colouring suits a white gold band better than a yellow gold one. We looked into a house we liked, but sadly discovered that it’s sold, so back to the hunt for that.
Oh, and I signed up for a weight loss program and some body pump at the gym!

Sad News

2010-04-29T09:58:00.003+01:00

I realised that I didn't pass on some sad news.
A few weeks ago one of our hamsters died. That's Rowan when we first got him. He and his brother (Aran) have been with us for almost two years now.
Rowan managed to escape about a week before he died. While I don't think this was the direct cause of his demise, I suspect it can't have helped. We found him trying to nest in my walking boot. My first instinct, sadly for the blog but happily for Rowan, was to scoop him up and take him home rather than take photos.

We miss Rowan, but his brother Aran is still fit and well. He's enjoying extra treats now (he especially likes fresh veg) and seems quite happy.

Transformed!

2010-04-29T09:44:00.000+01:00

We’ve been sorting out the house for sale.
It’s ready.
Woo!
So, we turned this:

Into this:

This:

Turned into this:

And lastly this:

Turned into this:

I’m really pleased with the result. We’ve worked really hard to get it to this point, and I hope we can sell it! Now we have to find somewhere to move to!

(Also, I bought some shoes for the wedding. They’re turquoise. That’s all I’m telling you!)

A busy (long) weekend!

2010-04-21T13:14:00.000+01:00

We’re trying to get the house ready to go on the market. It’s about 90% there now, I reckon. We need to do a spot of cleaning (like sweep the laminate and Hoover the rugs) and some bits in the yard. Otherwise though, it’s ready!
eek!
So, Fiancé is calling some agents to get them to come and give us a valuation. Once that’s done, we can put it on the market and have people come and view the place. While I’m sure we’ll get the people who didn’t read the advert (“we were looking for three bedrooms” or “we actually wanted off street parking”) I’m quite hopeful that we’ll be able to sell for a little bit of a profit. Given what’s gone on with the housing market and mortgages, I think we’re pretty lucky if we do manage to make a little profit!
So that means that we’re also looking for a property to buy. We have seen some, though they’re all sold now, while we’ve been watching the market over the past few months. Now I guess we have to get ourselves in gear and go on and look at some of them in person. I feel a busy few months coming on!

At least the weather seems to have picked up, which bodes well for the same happening this time next year (and the year after) for my (and my sister’s) Wedding.
As you know, I’m scrap-booking all the main events. I’m pleased to announce that I’m going to be creating three new pages shortly! Woohoo!
The first of those will be for the “Save the Date” emails, and then one for the venues – both now booked and, by this evening, deposits paid. The third page will be for our photographers, who we have also now picked.

I’ve also enquired about another dress appointment. I’ve only been to three actual shops, and though two of them had the right sort of thing, only one was right. I’m leaning towards going with that dress, for the least unknowns, but before I do I am going to see another seamstress. I’ve seen one seamstress, and I got a quote from her. The amount that I would be saving isn’t massive, and the risk of not knowing whether the dress she’s making is “the one” until only a few weeks before rests heavy on my mind.

And I’ve bought some yarn. It’s been a while; I’m not buying yarn at the moment without a proper project in mind. This yarn is turquoise, lace weight, from an independent dyer. It’s going to be a shawl/shawlette for the wedding. More than that I’m not completely sure, though I’m seriously considering Gail / Nightsongs, which is beautiful, or the Victorial Lace Today Lady’s circular cape in shell pattern (both Rav links). I am also going to knit myself a shrug. I’m torn between a couple of different options for the shrug too, but usually in a slightly heavier yarn.

2010 - Three months in...

2010-03-29T14:03:00.002+01:00

We are one quarter of the way through 2010. How time flies! We’re also 13 months away from my wedding (and 25 months from my sister’s wedding!) which is very exciting.

Highlights of the past three months?

1. The highlight of January was getting engaged. In fact, that’s probably going to be the highlight of 2010 – and so close to the beginning of the year, how do we top that? (should I even try?),
2. Highlight for February would be publishing my first ever paid for pattern – Dangerous Socks For Boys - Click Here to Buy Now
3. Highlight for March is a tough one. I did enjoy our visit to the farm near FH’s parent’s, where they were lambing. Cute lambs! ,
4. Low point for the first quarter was definitely the car going bang (well, not exactly bang, but…) although the hire car was lovely!

Scrap-booking - Engaged

2010-03-28T15:13:00.006+01:00

I have decided to keep a scrapbook of the run-up to the wedding, encompassing events from the day my Fiancé proposed to the day of the wedding (and maybe even a honeymoon page, if I have space!)

I've discovered, from my investigations into the craft world, that scrapbooking isn't simply sticking cinema stubs and train tickets into a big book (although it can be that); it's creating beautiful pages of memories to look back at in years to come. This appealed to me, not least because so many photos nowadays are destined for life in only digital form, they don't adorn the homes of their takers in photo albums or frames.

So, for me this project is as much about remembering all the fun (and possibly stress!) of getting engaged, planning the wedding, and getting married.

When we got engaged, FH (Future Hubby) and I took ~~many~~ some photos of the ring, both in the box and on my hand. I've printed a couple of these out, as well as some decorative writing (I know where my talents lie and handwriting is not one of them).
Then I thought it might be nice to include one, some or all of our engagement cards we've received from people (Thank you to everyone who sent us cards, they've been decorating our bookshelf these past two months!)
After some consideration I decided on just one card, which had a tasteful and beautiful picture of a couple dancing and kissing. (Well done Chris for having very good taste)

All of those items have now been combined into one scrapbook page celebrating our engagement.
Here it is for your enjoyment.

I'm pleased with my first attempt at scrap-booking, I'm sure I will improve over time and this book will also be a record of that.
If anyone who does this sort of thing has any hints, tips, recommendations for places to buy stuff, and all that jazz, leave a comment!

Excited!

2010-03-24T16:35:00.001Z

I’ve been booking some dress-trying-on sessions for the Easter weekend.

I know roughly what I want. I know I prefer sweetheart necklines, I’d prefer a high-ish waist (I have a high natural waist) and I’d like some straps of some sort. I have some (many) pictures on my computer, and I’ll print out a few of them to take with me for inspiration for the dress shop clerks. I’m also taking my mum.

We’ve booked for one shop in Harrogate on Friday afternoon – after which we’re going for dinner at the venue we’ve tentatively booked for the reception. If the food is up to scratch and everything is generally good, I’ll be firming up the reservation. And then two more bridal wear shops on Saturday, hopefully with time for lunch in the middle.

Fiancé and Daddy will be coming with us to Harrogate – there’s a men’s section there too, and they have a good deal at the moment, so fiancé can try on a couple of (or more) suit jackets.

They’re going to finish (I hope) the kitchen on Saturday while I’m dress shopping with Mum. We might have time to go to monsoon or something for mum to look at outfits too.

Knitting Update!

2010-03-22T10:46:00.001Z

It’s been a while since I posted any knitting, despite having finished a number of things. I’ve been quite busy though, between decorating and sorting out wedding things I haven’t had a lot of time to do much, and the time I find spare I either knit or sleep! I have finally taken photos of the second turn a square hat that I knit. I knit this one first: But it was a little on the small side for Fiancé, because of him having hair to squeeze under it. That one has now gone to my dad, who hopefully will get some wear out of it. And I knitted this one: for Fiancé. He’s happy with it (can you tell?) as it’s warm, big enough, and keeps the rain off too! it was a fun knit, and I got better at the jog-less stripe by the time I did this one! I’m considering making one for me too; though the weather is probably warm enough now to be hatless. That also means that the in progress phoenix (sorry about the PJ top there) will probably not be finished until it’s too warm to wear it. Boo. The other completed project is the socks for FFIL (that’s future Father in Law) – he is really pleased with them, both colour and fit. I’m glad. I’m thinking about making a pair for my dad next, well – after I finish the pair I’m knitting for Fiancé, and then finish the fingerless gloves I’ve designed but not knit. I’m going to get them tested as before, and they’ll be a free pattern when they’re done. The shawl is also well underway, I’m on the second half of the beaded (or nupp, as written) section. It looks really nice so far. I’m looking forward to blocking it and seeing how big it actually is. I’m also looking forward to wearing it! I’ll have to figure out an outfit to wear it with, perhaps on dress-down-Friday. Though it could be seen as quite dressy!

Poorly Car

2010-03-11T10:29:00.004Z

Our car is poorly. Back in July 2007 you may remember me posting about our new car. The little Polo has been good to us for the past almost-three-years; starts first time, even in the snow. We had some work done on the breaks and the exhaust, but nothing unusual for a car that age (it’s an N reg).
But, on Monday night on the way home from knitting, as we got back to the street, there was steam billowing out from under the bonnet. Eek!

We’ve called a mechanic. He’s (so far) proven to be a nice man. He’s going to pick up the car and then have a look for us. The current thoughts (both from him and my dad) are that either there’s a coolant leak, (I’m sorry captain, we cannae go to warp, there’s a coolant leak in engineering), or the head gasket is broken. I don’t know what a head gasket is, but it sounds expensive. I’m told that in order to replace one it takes a lot of work and taking the engine apart a bit. That also sounds expensive. I hope it’s a coolant leak, and an easy to fix one at that.

The pattern for my lacy mitts design is ready for me to start test knitting. Unfortunately, because all of my knitting stuff is “in storage”, I only have one set of sock needles which I’m using to knit some socks for Fiancé. All that this means is that he’ll get them super fast! I bought some lush yarn (neither photographed nor in my Rav stash yet) to make them with (because all my yarn is in storage), a Violet Green merino silk blend, in a lovely dusky red. It’s not a solid colour entirely, but has lots of hues of dark red and dark pinky red. It’s lush; I really can’t describe it and do it justice! I’m pleased with the pattern so far. If there’s yarn left over I might make another one of my lace bag too.

Designs and Decorating

2010-03-01T11:31:00.000Z

I always have ideas for new designs clamouring for attention while I do other things. Even while I’m knitting I’m thinking of new knitting designs. Or when I’m at work, so many ideas appear!
There’s a school of thought which says you should write them all down. Every single idea you have. I’m a bit disorganised, so the chances of me having an appropriate notebook to do that is slim. However, I believe that an idea which is good enough gets lodged in my brain! I have a bunch of ideas which I haven’t written down for things which will eventually be made. Or, as in the case of the wedding invitations, I’ve designed them in my head, and even scribbled a sketch on the side of some meeting notes, but not actually made them, or really done much towards making them!

-oOo-

We had quite a productive weekend, my folks were up and we did some painting, some cupboard building, and cleaning. (I say we. I’m afraid with the cleaning Mum did pretty much all of it, while I did some ineffective tidying. I’m rubbish at that sort of thing!)
We’ve also bought some paint for the bedrooms. If I’m honest, they’ve needed a lick of paint since we moved in. The walls are magnolia, just magnolia. Which isn’t interesting and means it looks a bit “rental”. We’ve not gone miles away from magnolia though, I’ve bought warm magnolia for above the dado rail. In an effort to make it look a bit more chic, I’ve bought some warm beige for below the dado – kind of a milky coffee colour. (Photos to come, eventually!)
We’re going to do the same colour scheme in the back bedroom, which is currently also magnolia. I have to re-paint the ceiling in there too. I’ve also got the woodwork to paint in both bedrooms too. Nothing too fancy, we’ve got some matt wood paint (rather than gloss) in a colour called cotton white.
I’ll try to remember to take some photos this evening (or set my fiancé on doing so while I’m at knitting!) of the paint, and the painted door! the bathroom door needs sanding down now, and another coat of paint is required. it has already made a big difference to how the bathroom feels when you’re in there – though we can’t shut the door at the moment as there’s no handle!

-oOo-

Of course, that meant I got no knitting done! I do still have two weeks to finish the socks I’m knitting, and I’m well on the way with those. I want to try them on again; I’m getting close to where I need to start the toe. I’m aiming for a shoe size larger than I wear, so I’ll start the toe a few rows later than I normally would.

Dangerous Socks For Boys

2010-02-26T18:45:00.004Z

So, I heard back from Knitty, and though it was a lovely email, it was a rejection. However, for the small sum of £2.50 Dangerous Socks for Boys could be yours! Just click on the link below and (hopefully) you'll be able to download the PDF. It's via paypal, I believe. Just click the link: I wanted to create some socks for my boyfriend that were manly enough for him (no lace, nothing too fancy), comfortable enough to wear in slightly warmer weather and most of all interesting enough that I didn’t get the dreaded second sock syndrome! I also wanted a pattern that I could knit while on the move – something I could commit to memory easily. Thus, the Dangerous Socks for Boys were born, though the only danger is that you might want to keep them for yourself rather than give them to another boy in your life. The cuff ribbing is designed to flow into the main pattern, though it can easily be replaced with k2p2 rib. The central ribbing flows down the heel flap, helping it to hug the heel when worn. The blue sock is shown with k2p2 ribbing, the brown sock is shown with patterned ribbing. (Click to see larger versions) So go on, treat the boy (or man) in your life to some dangerous socks!

Not (quite) an epic fail

2010-02-25T13:53:00.002Z

Well, sort of. I heard back from Amy, the editor at knitty.com. She told me that, as I suspected, I had only sent her my headshot and not the rest of the pattern details. However, she has asked for me to resend the details, so I might still be in with a shot! Woo!

-oOo-

We spent last weekend moving all of our superfluous stuff from our house to the house of some friends in a large van. It was a long wheel based high top something or other! It was pretty big anyway. I didn’t drive it because I couldn’t reach the pedals and we couldn’t figure out how to move the seat any further forward! We also took a van-load of things to the tip, so we have much more space at home.
Now the real fun begins (sarcasm) because we have to tidy, sort, throw away some more things, tidy some more, sand, paint, dust, sweep, Hoover, tidy, stick down, cover up and generally make the place look like it should.
I want to get it on the market by the end of March – with some luck we might even be able to get people round to see it over Easter that way. Perhaps that’s ambitious, but we’re so close to being ready, all it needs is some commitment, elbow grease, and me not to get ill or injured!

-oOo-

The shawl I’m knitting at the moment is coming along, although I’m not spending enough time on it. Lately I have been watching a bit of telly in the evenings, which isn’t conducive to lace knitting for me. So I’ve been mostly knitting some stockinette socks I’ve been making. These are a surprise gift for someone, who fortunately has feet a similar size to mine (one size larger, so should be an extra few rows before I begin the toe!)
To add interest (and, as it turns out, speed) I’ve been knitting two at a time on one circular needle. (I think I mentioned that already!) Which is working well for me!

Epic Fail?

2010-02-15T12:00:00.004Z

On Sunday I went to a vintage wedding fair. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed, though I don’t know what I was expecting, I think I expected something larger. Anyway, there were some lovely things there, and I consolidated my desire for a fifties style wedding dress. I like the way A-line skirts look on me, and the masses of underskirts. A long time ago, not long after I met my fiancé, we went to a fancy dress party. We decided to go as “fifties kids”, so he wore tight jeans and a checked shirt and I wore a circle skirt and a fitted v-neck cardigan.

(You can’t really see the coolness of the skirt in that picture!) I love dressing up!

There’s a chance that I’ll find something in a traditional bridal wear shop, so I’ll be doing the trek around those at some point. Probably with my Mum. It should be fun, though perhaps a bit daunting. I’ve managed to find pictures online of the sort of thing I’m looking for. The other thing I’m considering is getting something made especially. That would be cool.

The main thing I’ve changed my mind about is the colour. I was thinking about having a green dress (after seeing this knitted one on Rav) but I’m not sure that they’re wedding-y enough for me. While I want something practical-ish, it should be obvious that it’s my wedding day – right? So I’m almost certainly having something white (unless I change my mind again) – though I’m also hoping to have an accent coloured sash (and possibly shoes…)

-o0o-

We’re continuing to pack up things in the house. He’s ordered a van for us at the weekend, and we’ll be using that to ship some stuff to our friends’ house – they’ve kindly agreed to store some stuff for us. This also gives us even more reason to sort ourselves out as we can’t trespass on their hospitality forever! We’re also going to take the opportunity to get rid of some of our larger items that we no longer want/need. This will cause some fun in the interim, as we will not have enough sofas for visitors! That said, I’d rather that be the case than for the place to be a mess!

-o0o-

I’m still getting a fair amount of knitting in amongst the chaos! I’ve been working on the two-at-a-time socks for FFIL (that’s Future Father In Law) and I’m about a third of the way down both heel flaps. It’s going quite well, considering. I’m a bit apprehensive about the picking up of the stitches around the heel flap, but I think I know what I’m doing. I am kind of making up as I go along, which is fun.

I haven’t heard back from Knitty about my sock pattern. I have a suspicion that I had a bit of an epic fail with my email submission, which may mean that I can either (1) submit again for the following issue or (2) self publish and submit another pattern another time. I’ll be sending a note to Amy of Knitty before I do either! (I have done that)

The cardigan is going slowly. When I’m knitting at the moment it is mostly the socks, or the swallowtail shawl that I have on the go. Because it’s a triangular shawl that means that each pattern repeat takes a little longer than the last. I’m quite excited to get on to the next section though, for the beads! I’ve got two options on the bead front

Image not mine,

borrowed from e-beads.co.uk - an excellent business

who shipped my beads really fast a

nd didn't charge the earth

for either the beads or the postage!

On the left, metallic iris purple, on the right, silver lined amethyst.
Both are very pretty, and remarkably similar! I’m not sure which set I’ll pick yet, but I like both! Both sets match my yarn too!