Planning for 2012

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!

Cop Out

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)

Having a Wrest in the sunshine

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

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

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:

1. help with the scarecrow
2. pick elderberries
3. pick courgette
4. pick raspberries
5. pack for visiting my sister (and travel there on Friday)
6. organise present for upcoming birthday
7. 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?

I can haz teh internetz?

(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. 

Fan girl

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.

Stuff

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.

2010 - Three months in...

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!

Just For Fun!

I found this on facebook, but can't work it on there, so it's here instead...

MY LIFE ACCORDING TO...Girls Aloud!
Rules:
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.
You can't use the band I used.
Try not to repeat a song title. It's harder than you think...

Pick your Artist:
Girls Aloud

Are you a male or female:
Girls Allowed

Describe yourself:
Something Kinda Oooh

How do you feel:
Sexy, No no no

Describe where you currently live:
Real Life

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Live in the Country

Your favourite form of transportation:
Love Machine

Your best friend is:
Racey Lacey

You and your best friends are:
We Wanna Party

What's the weather like:
Long Hot Summer

Favourite time of day:
Forever & A Night

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
You Freak Me Out

What is life to you:
All I Need

Your fear:
Deadlines and Diets

What is the best advice you have to give:
No Good Advice

Thought for the Day:
I'll Stand By You

How I would like to die:
Biology

My soul's present condition:
Untouchable

My motto:
No Regrets

If you decide to have a go, drop me a comment and I'll come look. It's actually good fun. I'm off to try it again with some other artists!

Some thoughts...

...Kitchen update and knitting update coming soon...
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have - Anon
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go - Oscar Wilde
The essentials to happiness are something to love, something to do, and something to hope for - William Blake

and lifted in part from my Yarn Harlot calendar:
When I give someone a hat, I don't really mean, "Hey, here's a hat." I mean, "Take this. I made it for you. I want you to be warm and safe and careful in the big world. I want you to know I love you."

What makes you happy?
Who makes you happy?
...did you tell them today?

Lost somewhere...

I've not blogged for a while. I can't say I've missed it. I've had lots of fun things (and some not so fun things) to be doing, so that's a good reason for not blogging. It's not like I get paid for blogging! Ahaha.

So, anyway... Check these out: These are 100% natural materials. They're wool on top (wicked tweed, no?) and have coconut husks in them, as well as natural (ethically sourced) latex. Spot on.
They're boyfy's new shoes. He's bedding them in at the moment.

Also... A new FO! These are the VioletGreen waterfalls socks, using VG yarn too! Woo! I'm really pleased with them.
Pattern: Waterfalls, from Violet Green.
Yarn: Violet Green Socrates 4ply
Needles: 2.5mm Modifications: None, really. I did the second sock in reverse colours to the first.

And lots of new yarn.
1. Fyberspates British Merino, 2. VG Lace, 3. Fyberspates British Merino Sock, 4. Fyberspates Nef Lace, 5. Red Handspun

Seriously?

Wow, I had to blog this article
I really hope that this is a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic article (I know, it’s American and they get sarcasm about as well as they get irony, in general)
I love the idea of an organic veggie garden at the White House – that’s what I’d do if I had all that space! No, the article must be a send up. Right?

Mostly Knitting

I’m on the last repeat of the shawl. I’ve done some maths and I think that after this one I wouldn’t have enough yarn for another repeat plus the 8 finishing rows and the two row cast off. I’m really excited to block it and see how it looks! The colours are amazing, there’s no other way of putting it! I think I’ve learnt a lot from this project too, about reading my knitting and correcting mistakes without tinking (knitting backwards, un-knitting) or ripping back to a lifeline. Incidentally, I haven’t used a lifeline either. Touch wood, it’s been fine! There were a couple of moments when I thought I should have, but I’ve recovered from both problems!

Once the Shawl is finished I plan to cast on for Corsica. I should also work on the cardigan for mum. Maybe now I’m a bit better at reading my work I’ll be able to do it justice.

As it’s knit-night tonight I will probably be working on the baby jacket for JJ’s baby. I believe that it’s due any time now. I hope he’s not holding on until the sweater is finished! It’s looking so cute now though, I’m on the left front. Then I have two lace panels to knit and if there’s enough yarn left I might make a matching hat. I also need to buy buttons, so I’ll be making a trip to Duttons soon I think. The elephant isn’t going to be ready in time.

I’m also progressing well with my Violet Green Knit-a-long socks. I’m at the heel flap now. I’ve decided on two pattern repeats (like in the picture on the pattern) which is about long enough. After blocking it should be spot on. It’s such a funky pattern too! it came in the kit (pictured) as a gift from Not-MIL for my birthday. It’s not quite as dark as in this picture. The needles are nice, though I am used to shorter ones I have got on with these well so far. They have a good weight to them. I like it when I get to the heel flap, it feels like I’ve made progress.

The KAL is going well on ravelry too, we’ve got lots of participants and everyone seems to be joining in. Some people knit much faster than me, and some have more time for knitting, so there are already finished objects available for the KAL, which is pretty inspiring. It does make me wonder about upgrading the socks from lunchtime knitting – which I might have to do if I want to finish them by January 31st! Argh!

In non-knitting news, there isn’t much going on. The gym is going okay (updates are on the diet blog) and I’m not disliking any of the workout, even though push ups are really hard, even “lady push ups” where you do them on the flat bit of muscle above the knee (not on your knees, that’s really bad for the joint, and means you can cheat by using your legs)

I mentioned the disturbance last night with the wing mirror smashing (it happens about this time every year, oddly) and it seems that it was a good job that we fold our (red) mirror in. (our car is green).
When we came back from the gym there were at least four cars on the street without wing mirrors on that side. That’s just the ones who were willing to park on the street again! I’m pleased we don’t need to replace the wing mirror again, who knows what colour we’d end up with!

Miserable Monday?

They say that today is “blue Monday”.
We’re still over a week from payday, but the bills from Christmas are all here. It’s cold, wet and miserable – weather wise. It’s just long enough for everyone to have broken their new year’s resolutions (not me!) and there’s a credit crunch.

What’s funny, though, is that I was feeling pretty positive this morning (actually, I still am!) even though I’m not going to have time for lunch today (meetings always end up at lunchtime, and this one requires a 45 minute bus journey first. Sigh. At least I can knit on the bus, eh?) We already have dinner tonight sorted, and so we might even make it to the gym. And, despite the man who was smashing off wing mirrors at 1:30am, ours wasn’t touched, so we still have an in-tact car! (well, as far as I could see!)

Well, I have work to do. Have a Great Monday, sod what the newsreaders say!

In The News

In an effort not to talk about the same things every time I post, here’s a news roundup of some issues that have caught my eye recently:
There are 25 Common Programming Errors which make life easier for hackers. Sadly, the article doesn’t go into detail about the errors.
Primark and TNS Knitwear are exploiting workers in sweatshops in the UK. The thing which I find most incredible about this is that it’s happening in Manchester, not in the outer reaches of India or China. The people in the sweatshops seem only to be there because they can’t get work anywhere else (usually due to a lack of papers). It is a bad thing that while awaiting asylum applications people aren’t allowed to do any work – some kind of temporary permit would at least mean that they could be kept track of. Worse than that, though, is the illegal immigrant and overstayed visa workers. In any case, though, minimum working standards should apply. We should not have factories in the UK which are in such a state. And the wages are shocking. So, if you ever wondered (and you knitters may well have) how Primark were managing to make knitted garments (sweaters) for less than £10 each, or the gloves which were so popular at just £3 a pair, now you know. The only way the prices get that low is through illegal and immoral labour being used. It’s despicable!
The 1911 Census is now online (and if you’re interested, it’s Here, at 1911census.co.uk) – my grandparents were all born later than 1911, but there should be families in the right areas with the right names available for my family history research. The most difficult part is making sure you get the right branches as you go back. The other great thing about this census is that the householder filled it in themselves, so you can get a glimpse of the handwriting of your ancestors. How amazing is that? Sadly, the 1921 census is unlikely to be made available any time soon, the 1931 was destroyed in a fire, there was no census in 1941 because of the war, so the next one, 1951 will be available no sooner than 2051. That’s a long time to wait!

What's on your bedside table?

They say (whoever they are) that you can tell a lot about a person by [insert some area of vague interest here].
Indeed, or by what they choose to keep by their bed...

I don't have a bedside table, as such. There isn't room.
What I do have is as follows:

• Alarm Clock - y'know, to make me not late for work.
• Random knitting - not even what I'm knitting right now!
• Spinning stuff - I'm spinning some red stuff which I'm about half way through.
• Books: Stephen King's Lisey (which I lost my place in) and a book about crafty/yarnie words in real life.
• Magazines: Just some knitting mags now, there were some cardmaking ones but I moved them to the craft room just today.

I'm not sure what that says about me. I think it says that I should get out more, why am I posting this drivel?
Goodnight

Can you spare £2?

If you can, go to Ramblings of a Yarn Junkie and click the link to donate it to her sister's skydive in memory of their mum.

It's a touching post, and I can't even imagine how those sisters must feel. I've been lurking on the blog for a while after coming across Shirley on Ravelry.

Go on.

Curing cancer is something we can all believe in. And if you're not bothered about that, go anyway - you can win some nice goodies.

Tea

A thought for the day:
If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. Gladstone, 1865
So go on, put the kettle on.

Too Cute

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