And Sew it is

Visiting

2010-09-14T00:38:00.007+03:00

Well, part of the long silence has been due to our long awaited trip to Britain. Philip and I have not visited family and friends in Scotland together ever (I know, that's shameful isn't it?) and since we have a little girl, we thought it was high time we got ourselves over for a visit.

We drove all the way over with my parents... yes, that was a little nuts, but at least we got to see my grandfather, aunts and uncles and as many of our friends as we could squeeze into our short visit.

Rafaela loved meeting all sorts of new people and even though she was exhausted, I think she did benefit from it... OK so she probably didn't benefit from the lollipop someone gave her...

Philip got to enjoy a brief paddle in the sea

While Rafaela napped on the beach

We went to Loch Lomond with friends

We have loads of pics of Rafaela sleeping in different places, here are a couple of our favourites..

The beanbag nap

The Luton Airport nap

When we got back, it wasn't long till her birthday. Rafaela was 1 year old and decided it was the perfect time to start walking. She's been walking a week now and she's realized how much more convenient it is than crawling. It's really fun to watch he go. We'll post pics soon.

Bits and bobs

2010-07-27T15:37:00.006+03:00

Well, I finished the Caera cowl, it knit up absolutely beautifully and I love how it looks, unfortunately I can't post a pic as I think the person due to receive it reads my blog. However, for all you ravelers, please feel free to peruse my pics here

I also, in a fit of sheer insanity, cast on something else, however, I believe it was a wiser choice of pattern... the dropstitch scarf, I have knitted it before, so I don't need to look at the pattern. Here's a sneak preview.

There was another pattern I wanted to knit and I checked the needle size required and I thought 3.75mm... no problem, I've got those needles. You see, a few years ago when I took up knitting, I bought about 30 sets of needles on ebay for £10 (in fact, it might have been more needles than that) and since then have completed my collection as I needed with bits and bobs, however, it seems that in all my knitting I have either never needed 3.75mm.... or I just made do with another size. So, I thought I would try out the new spectra flair acrylic tips from knit pro. They are much cheaper than the metal or wood tips which suits my 'bare minimum' price range. I ordered them a few days ago and was very happy when they arrived today... that's really fast delivery for me as they came from the UK.

I bought them at the ebay store of www.P2tog.com and I would happily recommend the shop to anyone as they were very efficient and well priced (items and postage).I can't wait to try them out!..... Oh yeah, and the little lady knitting card is a needle size conversion chart.

Last of all (then I will let you go) a while back I did a swap with a fabulous etsy shop. I received an email from Elizabeth, of Creations by Elizabeth, who was interested in a swap (involving nappies) so her end of the swap was these absolutely gorgeous fabric letters for Rafaela. We will put them on a little rail in her bedroom (once we have built her bedroom that is)

As you can see, there's a good reason as to why I don't get anything photographed these days!

Ok... I know I promised that would be it but just a quick not to say that I am having a sale on all my handpainted roving, just in case anyone is interested.

Outbacktus and Caera Christmas

2010-07-15T12:48:00.008+03:00

Ok.... so I realised I never posted pics of the Outbacktus (lacy baktus) when it was finished, so here we are...

I love how it came out, it's a gift for someone.... and I don't really ever want to knit another one, it seemed stupidly difficult considering how uncomplicated the pattern is.

I also thought I would explain a little why I don't really knit (or blog) these days...

This is what just one wee section of my livingroom looks like after 10 minutes with Rafaela... Oh and she's making a quick getaway to mischief elsewhere... Multiply that by a house and you see my point.

All that said, I was feeling a little crazy last night, so I cast on a christmas knit. I would like to make a few knitted gifts for christmas presents so I thought I would get started (though, whether I get it knitted in time is another thing entirely)

This is the Caera Cowl which I am knitting in new lanark donegal silk tweed granit and cobalt. I love cables, I love how beautiful they make knits, but this was a prime example of why I should check out the instructions of a pattern more clearly before I commit to a knit. This is the description of one of the cable patterns

"C5B _ Slip next 4 stitches on cable needle and hold in back, K1; slip 3 of the 4 stitches on the cable needle back into the left hand needle; then (before knitting the stitches) bring the cable needle with the last stitch to front between the needles, passing to the left of the yarn: then k3 stitches from left hand needle; then knit last stitch from the cable needle."

Talk about a pain in the needles.... looks like I might have to concentrate a little while I knit this. Still, at least it's a cowl and not a whole jumper!

Found the uplink cable!

2010-07-10T23:56:00.005+03:00

Well, I finally found my camera cable so I finally have recent pics of Rafaela available, so I thought it was time for a wee update on our girlie.

She's 10 months old now... can you believe it? As you can see, she quite literally gets into everything.

She loves to help mummy with the washing.

And she has this odd little habit of howling.... yes...like a little were-baby. I thought I would upload a video to demonstrate this curiosity.

We recently packed up her baby-walker and got out this little rocking horse.

This little Tri-ang rocking horse was mine when I was about her size.

It was a second hand tatty little horse with a plastic head which my dad bought for 50p (about 75 cents) and my mum thought 'oh no, what on earth is he going to do with that'. My dad cleaned it up, removed the broken plastic head, painted it, got an old piece of wood and sat one night carving the new head for my little horsie.

As you can see, Rafaela appreciates it as much as I do.

You may also have noticed we did manage to get our grass cut. Rafaela is in her element in the garden which is lovely, and in-between the dreadful storms we have had, we all spend time sitting in the garden enjoying the flowers and the weather.

So that's about it from this little chicken at the moment, I'll leave you with a photo of her contemplating the complexities of grass...

Finally a productive post!

2010-06-30T22:00:00.004+03:00

Well, I've been merrily following all the lovely things other people have been doing but havn't managed to get round to posting about my FO's. I have momentarily misplaced the cable for my camera, which means I can't show pics of the Sun bonnet I finished for Rafaela, but I promise to do so as soon as I find the cable.

However, if you take a peek at my mini-etsy shop on the side bar, you can see what other things I have been up to. I decided to take up hand painting roving, some for personal use, as I cannot afford to buy it, and some to sell, so that I make a little money somewhere. I think it looks lovely, the pics arn't the greatest because etsy makes you shrink them down to load them up. This one is my favourite of all

I called it 'Stormy shore' and it's lovely soft Blue Faced Leicester. I really enjoyed dying them too.

Anyway, I'll hopefully post tomorrow with pics of the bonnet and maybe some other things I have been up to. Thank you all for your kind thoughts regarding the storm. We did have more bad weather but nothing else as bad as it was, thankfully. We havn't managed to fix all the damage yet, that's going to take a while.

Storm of the century

2010-06-18T21:55:00.004+03:00

We had a huge storm today. It hit our little village with a force that no-one here has ever seen before, especially at this time of year. Our power was out all day, the rain beat so hard on our old windows that it eventually poured right through them and flooded our hallway. We heard terrible breaking sounds and cracking sounds, though we couldn't see what caused them until the storm settled a little, enough to go out and inspect the damage.

The storm blew our front fence over and knocked part of the roof on the main house off

It also blew the end off of our other out building

There are other minor bits and pieces, but we were blessed compared to our neighbors. The widow next door had a hole the height of my body in her roof and the courtyard was full of broken down trees (one of which had fallen through the roof causing the hole)

The other neighbor had the trees in front of their house blow down

and they had considerable damage to their roof, including the loss of their chimney.

The people on the street rallied to help one another. The old bachelor across the street had no damage to his house and came out to help us put the fence up temporarily (it will have to be replaced), he then went next door to help the old widow.

We live in a rural agricultural village, people without much money. They farm their land and raise their animals. this storm is a real blow for them, not only is there damage to their property, but, like us, they also have considerable damage to their food crops in the garden. Not only was there considerable damage today, but there are more storms predicted, so it will be a case of patching up as much as we can, securing everything and bracing ourselves for the coming weather.

Well I'm here now and that's what counts!

2010-05-16T23:30:00.005+03:00

Well I hadn't realised how long it had been since I updated my blog. I just got absolutely swamped. I apologise for falling off the grid, I hope you are all well, I'm going to catch up with you all soon.

So where was I....well, first of all, it was spring and we have an acre of land, that's a lot to plant and it take a good while to plant it all.

As you can see, we also need to trim our grass!!

I also had a lot of nappy/diaper orders on my etsy site, which I have been frantically sewing in the evenings after my little tot has gone to bed.

On top of this, I took on another job, a part time as a medic in another charity that run a home for the elderly. The job has a lot of work to set up systems initially, so I was a little run off my feet and exhausted. Though it's starting to get a little easier now that I have finished most of the set-up done.

Lastly, our little tootsie has mastered crawling and getting into things and it looks as though we are not far off walking, as she is already standing herself up against things and coasting along.

She's such a little monster, we have the most fabulous fun with her, she never stops moving from morning to night, she has so much personality, most days she doesn't nap and she's brimming with energy. She now has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth which, when she's not using them, she likes to grind them together. yuk!

So that's about where we are just now, hopefully I can get some more blogging done in the next little while. Can't promise it will have any knitting though...

Swaps and spring

2010-03-08T14:38:00.001+02:00

Well, its been a while hasn't it! I started back at work which clearly just throws life upside down, meaning no knitting, no crafting, no time whatsoever till now. Also doesn't help that I have misplaced my camera.... oops! So I took pics with a different camera for this post.

Let me just tell you about the the Seven days of Special swap that I took part in. My swap partner was in New Zealand and managed to get her swap together quicker than I did (take a look at her gorgeous blog, puts me to shame!)... as if that would be hard! It arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't get a chance to blog about it, so here we go.... the packages were individually wrapped in these cute little packages made out of a craft magazine, which was gorgeous, with little stamped numbers for the day i was supposed to open them.

Here's a little overall view (minus the edible chocolate pineapples)

A close up of Millie the mouse, made for Rafaela.... her head is made from a 'birds of australia' tea towel...so sweet.

A lovely card of vintage buttons from her own collection

And a gorgeous vintage copy of Villette by Charlotte Bronte....

I really enjoyed taking part in the swap, I hope that she will enjoy my parcel as much as I have enjoyed hers!

It's spring here now and while we had a cold dip into the minus again this weekend, it is in general getting warmer and brighter. We have loads of work to do around our land if we are to accomplish what we hope this year so it's busy busy busy here.

Proper Pics

2010-02-19T01:15:00.003+02:00

A photographer friend of ours recently came for a short visit to us in Romania. She took incredible photo's of the work my folks do and their day center and so we begged her to take a couple of pics of us too.

This is just a little post mainly for the benifit of friends and family who would like to see more pics of our growing little monster...

My girlie and her auntie

Checking out her toes...
Obsessed with the camera flash. She kept looking straight at it with this stunned look on her face.

Having a good giggle at mummy tickling her tummy

That's it for pics just now, though I added one on the side bar. She has bother her bottom teeth now and they are really sharp, I hope she doesn't work out how to bite me, though I think I am being a little over - optimistic.

Busy Busy and Broken down

2010-02-08T10:13:00.006+02:00

Well, I have spent the best part of the last 3 weeks housebound. Our old, tired and irritating hunk of junk car played up for 3 weeks. We were paying for one trip into town with 2 days at the mechanic (who is very kind to us thankfully) we were repeatedly towed, rescued and picked up by various members of my family, until last friday when we decided it might be time to make a huge sacrifice and buy another car. No sooner had we decided this, than the car actually just gave up. So while the old car settled down for a long rest on the driveway, my sister picked us up to go look at some used cars. We finally settled with a VW Golf, diesel engine as it's more economical. We couldn't really afford it, but we also can't afford not to have a car as we live in a village and transport is crucial, including for my getting to work. So, we are very excited about it all, if not considerably poorer.

Frustrated days at home meant I could catch up on some things I had to get done, as well as having a little time left for knitting.

I finished my wee one's 'dress' but it looks like it will be a better top for a one year old than a dress for a 6 month old baby, so that's probably what it will be. The wool worked out beautifully for it, so pretty.

I have also been spinning....but not for myself. I have an order to spin 1000 yards of wool for someone on etsy. The shetland moorit tops are absolutely delicious...

This is the yarn spun and navajo plied (as per request)

It's really lovely, my hubby is jealous I am not knitting him a soft jumper (sweater for those of you picturing my husband in a dress).

My first nappy (diaper) order went down well, my client received them and was happy with them, which I am glad about. I have another little idea in the works that I am hoping to start selling soon.... will keep you posted.

So, that's pretty much it from this wee corner of the world for the time being. It's snowy still and cold so we can't start work on our garden yet but that's going to be a priority soon too. Rafaela is learning to crawl, she can get onto all fours, but she seems to start moving backwards when she does. She's still blowing her raspberries and has also progressed to sticking her tongue out too... which is embarassing in the quiet intervals at church.

National Raspberry Day

2010-01-30T09:45:00.005+02:00

I thought I would brighten up your day with a little glimpse of what our girlie did all day long yesterday

Yup....all day long

Spinning, snow and snoozing

2010-01-21T12:59:00.007+02:00

Well, I finally managed to get some pics of my latest spinning adventure. I won this lovely fiber in a giveaway on Phatfiber before christmas.

which has spun lovely colours

I was looking through my piles of pics and I thought I would post this...

One of my baby pics... followed by one of Rafaela

My wee girlie... she's much older than I was in my pic... in fact, I can hardly believe she is almost 5 months old now.I took this one of her last night while she snoozed on her daddy's arm... it amazes me how much she has grown.... she's so long!

And her favourite pastime is eating her fists...

We've had freezing fog, which is beautiful, but impossible to photgraph and then its started snowing again yesterday and hasn't stopped yet, but thankfully it's not been as cold and the pipes have not frozen again like they did before christmas.

The little girl and the lamb

2010-01-16T01:25:00.006+02:00

Well, no further on the Baktus... so, sadly no knitting pics today. I should have some spinning pics but I got lazy and didnt get round to it.

However, this is not to say we havn't been busy. We butchered a lamb today.... we turned this....

into these ...

...manageable portions of lovely fresh lamb. We also made haggis, i miss haggis an awful lot and the only way to get it here really is to make it for yourself, so we did.

mixed meat and spice

and toasted oatmeal

which we then put into portion sized sausage links (rather than in the traditional sheep's stomach). I think that the mini-haggis dont look bad for an amateur.

My little girl was hitched in her little walker to keep her occupied while we worked. At one point I thought she seemed particularly quiet....

Yup.... she was sound asleep, with the musical keyboard and flashing lights going off... she just slept on....

I got video footage of her too, it made me laugh so much to see her.

Wool washing

2010-01-08T15:45:00.004+02:00

Well, the fleece finally arrived and i got to work washing it...

After a few baths it looked like this

Amazing isnt it... just dishwashing soap makes such a huge difference. So now i am carding my way through it and starting to spin it bit by bit, its lovely.

The other thing that arrived was this...

An exceptionally kind gift from Rani... she even put in some Reeses christmas bells... they only just made it into the picture. I feel utterly spoiled. It's really hard to even get woolen yarn here and we dont get any handpainted....at all... its lovely and I'm really excited about what i can knit with it. These skeins however....

Are destined to become a little dress for Rafaela. I think I will do the 'liitle sister dress' with it.
I can't wait to cast on... but my 3mm needles are still busy with this....

I hope to have it finished over the weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Yikes.... it's New Year!

2010-01-04T12:25:00.010+02:00

Well.... Happy new year, I hope 2010 brings new opportunities and lots of joy your way. Hopefully this one wont go by as quickly as 2009 did.

Lets catch up shall we....

The week and a half leading up to christmas saw us snowed in with temperatures of -19 C ....which is pretty cold. Outside looked like this

And driving looked like this....

.... yes that is ice on the inside of the window..... so we avoided going out unless it was absolutely necessary. This meant that I had a little time to do this....

Yes, you are looking at the finished nativity...."what nativity?" you may ask... well... when I started this blog, I shortly thereafter started a knitted nativity, which has been unfinished since. So, after 3 years and much nagging on my hubby's part, I have finished it, and we had it set up over christmas.

I also got some more gifts made....

heat bags for my grandmother

A fun little outing bag packed with goodies for Yasmina (fostered little sister who is 3)

And a patchwork tablecloth for my mum (sorry about hopeless upsidedown photo).

And we set up the christmas tree

We spent Christmas day with my folks and stayed there for a while. We got Rafaela a baby walked for her christmas.... she absolultely loves it, though she doesn't look impressed in the Photo

Finally, I'll share the joy I have over what my lovely Husband gave me for christmas. He says it's combined christmas and birthday (he hadnt given me anything for my birthday this year)

yup.... it's a .....

Spinning wheel...can you believe it? isn't it beautiful... I'm thrilled and I am also getting the hang of it now.... look...

close up....

that's my first spun and plied lot off the wheel... it's about 67m of thick yummy yarn.... it's so exciting. I have ordered 2 fleeces to prepare and spin.... I'm really enjoying myself.

So.... that's us all caught up, I do apologise for the silence but I am sure you all had enough to do with christmas and new year hope you all had as great a christmas as we did.

Flu and festivities

2009-12-06T20:02:00.004+02:00

Well, I have been so ill the last week that I barely did anything. What I did manage to complete was the nappy order I have on my new Etsy shop... 12 waterproof pocket Nappies. They have a layer of waterproof nylon in the back of the pocket to stop leaks and the buyer wanted them with an extra bit of elastic accross the back of them and velcro closures... so... here's a peek if you are interested...

The other thing I have acheived is to finish the back of a new cardigan that I have started, this is a pic from the very beginning...

The wool I used was not the very pricey Kidsilk Aura that the pattern calls for, I bought a mohair 70%/acrylic 30% wool from a shop here. Not only was I amazed to find anything with a content of mohair or wool in it, but the price also amazed me, it was about 1$ per 50g ball. It's a lovely colour too, so i a really pleased.

I might as well round off with a pic of the wee girl... this is Rafaela with my mother-in-law, the cafe we are in dates back to the year 1200 when the Ottoman Empire reached into Romania.

Ribbons, buttons and visitors

2009-11-12T14:05:00.004+02:00

Well, we are enjoying a visit from my mother in law atm, who has come all the way from Australia to see the newest addition to our family. She's really enjoying spending time with her new granddaughter and is even knitting her a little outfit to grow into.

she knits so fast it was hard to get a pic

I took part in a ribbons and buttons swap and i dutifully sent off my partner a pretty package and was surprised at how quickly my own package arrived. look at these lovely buttons and printed ribbons

So thats mostly it for now, except that i have opened a new etsy shop, which I am still in the process of filling. For those of you curious... The Moody Cow

More mess and car trouble

2009-10-30T11:22:00.005+02:00

Well, the other day the weather picked up and we went out in the car to town. We were driving on the country road to town when we decided to stop a little while in the grass, it was so pretty. So, I pulled the car over onto what I thought was grass... however, apparently the barrier was knocked down and was lying invisibly in the grass... I could tell from the crunching grinding sound that followed.... I had gotten lodged on the broken barrier and killed the tire.... impressive huh???

So this is my hubby changing the tire on our old girl...

While Rafaela and I admired the scenery...

...and played at 'driving the car'

We did finally get her moving again.... see... pic of the pretty road to prove it

Thank you for the suggestions to nap instead of blogging...I have a guilty secret to admit though, my baby sleeps all through the night and I don't need to nap... shocking isn't it! In fact, ironically enough, she ONLY sleeps at night...which lead to last nights 'white night', which I pulled in order to get peace to make more mess...

Which eventually resulted in these....

Mission accomplished! These are the finished product modeled by our little madam....

Such a lovely fit, i really like them.

Lastly, I had a fabulous parcel arrive this week, the lovely wool and lace magazine that Marie sent me from her going to paris giveaway....

Gorgeous lambs pride worsted.....Now I just have to find a perfect project for it

water water everywhere....

2009-10-27T01:49:00.005+02:00

Ok, well not everywhere exactly....

You may wonder why I am proudly displaying a photo of what appears to be a kitchen sink on my blog...well.. it is a kitchen sink. We've lived here since the start of the year. When we first moved in we had no running water at all and no indoor toilet..... we've come a long way since then (in stages) and the last stage was completed on sunday night. We now have running hot and cold water in the bathroom and the kitchen. WOO HOO!!

This means we no longer have to boil water on the wood stove which makes bathtime easier and a lot more fun (for mummy)

Our wee girl is growing rediculously quickly...she's 7 weeks old now and is 62 cm long and believe it or not, she's cutting her first tooth.... I can't even believe it... its far too early to deal with teeth

I made baby hand and footprints with her,

I didnt want to press too hard, so they are just enough indentation to feel them and see them and I made them into decorative tins I had saved from soap and bath salts so they look pretty for her.

I have managed to do a little crochet... I'm making a scarf...

And, I'm also making a mess....

This is my 'process'....I'm making some nappies...I have a few different kinds of nappies, but I wanted to just add a couple of covers that will dry quickly (made from fleecy fabric).

So that's us more or less caught up, sorry the blogging is a little erratic... I seem to only get to blog when it's the middle of the night and the milk monster is sleeping. Ok... I'm off to enjoy a hot shower...yey!!

blogland...

2009-10-18T00:20:00.003+03:00

i was cruising through blogland when i came across this giveaway if you are a knitter you should cruise on by and leave annette a comment, you will just have enough time!

Weather, wool and warmers

2009-10-15T15:11:00.005+03:00

Well, it looks like we have just completely bypassed autumn and gone from the end of summer to miserable beginings of winter. I was hoping to blog about this (photo from last week)...

The beautiful harvest weather, the warm afternoons, the gold light.... instead I am bloggin about this (photo from this morning)...

Flippin' cold, blue, icy light with rain, wind and chance of snow. What went wrong?

Oh yes, and on the subject of 'what went wrong'... do you remember my lovely urban aran, which I finished while I was pregnant? I excitedly got it out to see how it would stand up to the chilly winds...

Uh huh... this is urban aran, finished in all it's painstaking glory .... on my husband!!! (sorry Mr pjs, I couldn't resist your 'I'm unimpressed' pose) Clearly I'ma knitting idiot...it drowns me and I look completely rediculous in it. So in the end it's a good thing that i knitted it in a colour that suits my hubby cause it looks great on him and at least one of us has a cosy jumper.

My little sister growed up and left home to go to uni this year, she was away for one week when the weather changed and she realised she hadn't taken her warm clothes.... so I made her a little 'so-you-live-on-your-own-keep-warm' present... a neck warmer. Hope she will like it.

Scrappy little bird mobile

2009-10-06T17:40:00.006+03:00

This is the easiest little project to do even if you are a beginner in sewing. It can be accomplished quickly and will use any colour or pattern of scraps which you fancy.

You'll need:

-Piece of paper
-Fabric scraps in colour or pattern you prefer
-Stuffing (can be synthetic stuffing or you could use more little fabric scraps if you dont have synthetic stuffing)
-Embroidery Floss
-Buttons or beads
-Yarn (just a strand about an arms length)

First of all you'll need to pick your fabric pieces. I made this mobile with 4 different solid colours of linen scraps, but you can make as few or as many birds in as many colours as you like and from whatever fabric you have left over.

Now take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Then take your smallest piece of fabric and mark the width on the folded edge of paper like this...

remember to leave fabric for seams at the edges. Now from the marks you made draw a shape like this...

proportionally, the shape is probably twice as long as it is wide. cut it out making sure you dont cut the fold and you should have a shape like this...

Cut the pieces of your fabric out by pinning the shape to them and allowing for seams, it should look like this...

now fold the fabric shapes in the same way the paper shape was folded, with the right sides of the fabric facing each other , and stitch from the folded edge down both sides of the shape leaving the bottom open, giving you this...

Now turn the shape the right way round, using a pencil to poke the points out, like this

Do the rest of your fabric shapes and you should have a pile of little bird bodies

Now get your stuffing and fill the little birds

When each one is filled turn the lips of the hole in and bring them together

Pin and stitch down the seam as close to the edge as you can

When they are finished you should have a little pile of cushions like these...

Now it's time to get creative, take the embroidery floss and use it to make these little pillows into little birds, pick one end to be a beak, push both sides of the pillow together flat and stitch a triangle for the beak, pick a point to stitch on your eyes and the same for the wings. Now, if you are better at embroidery than I am, which, lets face it, wouldn't be hard, then this is the moment to shine, use your fabulous skill to make extraordinary little birds (my husband had a hard time believing mine were birds at all!!) Anyway, these are the basic little birdies I turned out...

Now do the rest of your birds...

Now take your length of yarn and start connecting your birds.

If you have beads, use the beads threaded between the birds to separate them. I didn't have beads, I used buttons just to decorate it a little...

Once they are all threaded on snugly you're finished.

You have a lovely little string of birds and you used up some of your fabric scraps.

All work and no knitting

2009-10-06T11:40:00.007+03:00

It's been ages since I posted anything, mainly because it seems Rafaela can tell the minute I start typing and she wakes up. (Note to reader: this post is equal to several, so get a cuppa before you start)

I thought, since I havn't made anything (except a mess of my house), I would share with you some (only a couple) of the lovely things that people have given Rafaela.

I'll start with shoes since shoes are just the perfect thing to start with.... Our hope-to-soon-be-sister-in-law-if-my-brother-would-just-ask-her bought us these absolutely gorgeous little leather shoes with ribbon laces just after she was born...

And just when I thought it didn't get any better in the shoe world than that, she surprised us on sunday with the same shoes in pink!!

We have her reading skills covered with this fabulous old favourite...

As well as these other lovely books...

A good friend of ours made Rafaela her first dolly...

Which we will let her play with when she is a little older, and another friend bought her a second dolly....

Which we will never let her play with.... this beautiful little dolly is porcelan and is dressed in traditional Romanian dress.... much much too pretty for her to play with, but we'll let her look at it if she's very good (ha ha).

We took Rafaela to church on Sunday to be dedicated. A friend of ours had sent a beautiful outfit which we kept specially for the occasion. We had a lovely day and a little lunch with close family and friends afterwards. She looked gorgeous in her outfit....

But as you can imagine, was not impressed at being made to sit for a photo!

I'll try not to bore you with photo's, but just a couple to complete the post...

This is 4 generations of first born daughters, Rafaela, me, my mother, my grandmother

Me and my father, he's barely seen his granddaughter but he seems pleased enough with her...

And lastly, My Hubby and I with our wee girl

I suppose the post was largely pics, so hopefully you survived to the end. Will try and regulate posting.

Baby bags and bags of baby

2009-09-22T11:05:00.004+03:00

Well, I said I would get on and blog the baby bag I made last week for Rafaela, since she's currently napping next to me, I thought now would be a good moment. The real problem was I couldn't find a baby bag in the shops around town and the one that I did find I thought, I can definately make a better one than that, so I did. I had this absolutely gorgeous heavy fabric that my Mother in Law kindly posted over to me, so I put some of it to good use.

Everything fits in nicely and my husband isn't entirely embarassed to hold it either as it doesn't have pink bunnies or fluffy bears on it... which is great because I'm finding that you quickly run out of hands with a little baby.

This is the knitting that I managed to accomplish while I was in labour. I had a 'false labour' before the actual labour, so I had a lot of time knitting. This is my first fair isle attempt, and I think it's not too bad for something knitted between contractions. I only have one mitt completed and who knows when the other will be done!! (This is the pattern and the wool is New Lanark donegal silk tweed)

Of course, I have to post a couple of pics of our wee girl, she seems to be settling into things nicely and she likes to nap which is great.

She's napping on a blanket that her great-great-auntie Betty crocheted for her. My great aunt crocheted one almost exactly the same for me when I was born, so it's really special to have one for Rafaela too.

Anyway, I had better nip off and hang some washing while the milk monster naps, I am reading blogs, even if I am not commenting, I can manage to read while I breast feed, but not type (funnily enough)

A week in parenthood

2009-09-18T17:37:00.003+03:00

Well, our first week home with our baby and it's been lovely. As expected, knitting close to zero, though I did finish one half of a pair of fair isle wrist warmers, half was knitted in labour and the other half during rafaela's nap the other day. So, as threatened, this post is largely pictures of Rafaela and us.... we're really thrilled (and tired).

Her daddy is thrilled to bits with her, and she has his lovely hands and long (knitting) fingers too!

It seems knitting and breast feeding are mutually exclusive, trust me I've tried, though I can manage to read blogs while Rafaela naps, sucks and blows bubbles at my breasts.

but she does lots of this too... so i managed to make a lovely changing bag which i will blog sometime.

I'll leave you with this weeks favourite picture which captures perfectly her "mummy....where's my hand??" look

Our little late arrival...

2009-09-15T18:20:00.003+03:00

Well, I'm finally home from the hospital, and I got to bring our daughter home.

Rafaela Alisa was late 2 weeks but in the end she's very healthy and seemingly very happy. She weighed 3.9kg at birth and surprised us all by being a girl, we had thought from the size of her and the strength of the kicking and squirming that she was a boy!!

I'll post a couple more pics in the next few days, I don't think I'll be getting much knitting done, but at least I filled my quota while I waited on her.

Knitted distraction

2009-09-03T11:13:00.003+03:00

Well, More knitting will let you know that the baby is not here. The OBGYN said that it's fine for now and has booked an appointment on Monday afternoon if I don't give birth over the weekend, so we'll see.

Of course, knitting has been a welcome distraction from life at the moment, which has meant I have finished another project. I can't do much else.

These are the felted slippers, they need another round in the washing machine, but they are working out perfectly, thankfully I don't need them yet (it's not cold enough at all).

I also made my sister some slippers. It was the Drops crochet slippers in Eskimo, of course, I didn't use Eskimo. and I changed the flower for one that was a bit larger and more extravagant.

The pattern is exceptionally easy and very quick to make. I am already on a second pair for my mother.

It's going to be a quiet day in for us today I think (provided the baby doesn't show). The funeral was at 6am for us, we hope it's gone well, we'll be able to talk to family later.

September, slippers and scarf

2009-09-01T17:07:00.002+03:00

Well, the baby still hasn't come, a whole week overdue, I can hardly believe it, all that's happening is that I am getting larger and moodier.... well, that and some knitting.

This last couple of days have been a washout, obviously. I have acheived nothing but sat and knit to occupy my time. This means I have finished the dropstitch scarf. This is it washed and blocked and the colours look super, I hope she'll like it.

When I finished the scarf, I realised I had nothing to occupy my fingers, so I cast on a pair of felted cloggs last night (my gratitude to Rani for that pattern is unlimited). I got out the 9mm needles and realised that they were broken, so I used my 8mm needles, which of course was going to mean they would knit smaller slippers, so I knit the large instead of medium. I also didn't use the yarn the pattern called for, worsted weight, I used DK and held it double strand, they look right, so hopefully they will felt up nicely.

..... they are finished too (other than felting), so I'll have to cast something else on tonight, since the baby has shown no signs of appearing.

My Father in Law will be laid to rest on Thursday, we obviously wont make the funeral in Australia, so it's going to be a hard week.

Thanks for all your kind words and kind thoughts, I can't tell you how much it means to me.

Bittersweet Life

2009-08-30T10:37:00.004+03:00

This morning we recieved the sad news that my Father in Law finally lost his long battle with cancer, and died peacefully in his sleep. While we are glad that he doesn't have the pain anymore, we were hoping that the Little Late One would arrive before we had to say goodbye to his Grampa. It's not the case though and we're going to miss him terribly.

We were lucky enough to have lots of time with him and he was able to come all the way to Romania last year to spend 3 months with us before we got married. We know he was overjoyed to have been at the wedding and moreso when he heard about the baby.

Today was his birthday, He turned 75. Happy Birthday Dad, we're thinking of you.

No Action....

2009-08-29T20:37:00.004+03:00

We're still on the wait.... that's right, no baby yet, really was hoping for some action tonight, so that baby can at least be born on my father in law's birthday... so fingers crossed eh?

In the meantime, I am still knitting (and crocheting) so I am about halfway through my sisters dropstitch and I also made this.....

It's my baby nephew Sam's scraptacular crocheted 'Celestine' by berocco, there is also a knitted version if you are interested. I didn't use the recommended yarn (in case you couldn't tell) I used multicoloured scraps, which I also decorated afterwards to make a lovely interesting stuffed toy for my little nephew in Australia.

I have to say, it was a challenge with the slight differences in gauge created by the different yarns, but I thnk it turned out fine in the end.

Will keep you all posted if you promise to keep your fingers crossed.

Coral Cast on

2009-08-27T09:05:00.002+03:00

Well.... day 2 overdue. I'm finished the shawl, thankfully and I think it looks lovely, this yarn really is superb for knitting pretty shawls... I'm even contemplating investing in some more to knit gifts for some other friends.

In the meantime, since baby hasn't shown up in the night, I thought I would cast on another Dropstitch project. This time dropstitch scarf just like the pattern calls for (though a teensy bit wider) for my sister. She really suits pink and this is another ball of rayon boucle, but not the silk stuff. It's laceweight, so again, not the sportweight that the pattern calls for, but it will look lovely in the end I hope. Here's the progress so far...

That second pic looks like pink spaghetti, or a pink birds nest, but it will be fine once washed and blocked I think (hope).

So that's all from us for the moment.... I'll just knit myself into labour, or insanity... we'll see which offer comes up first.

Dropstitch and D-day

2009-08-26T10:07:00.003+03:00

Well... The dropstitch shawl is almost done, it's absolutely gorgeous in this rayon boucle... there is a shiney lustre to the yarn which allows the colours to stand off against each other.... of course, this also makes it difficult to capture well in photos, but I have attempted none the less.

As for my other little project, well, apparently yesterday just wasn't his due date, so, we're still waiting. Hopefully the bumpy ride up to my folks house will help....

I have my knitting project for the hospital stay (at least 4 days) all sorted and packed, with my nighties and tiny tiny little baby clothes.

So Bump.... ready when you are!!!

Still on the inside...

2009-08-25T10:39:00.003+03:00

Still on baby watch, as you can see, he's not emerged yet.

Still... the chicks have grown nicely havn't they. Still knitting away on the shawl, it's odd deliberately dropping stitches.... more difficult than you imagine.

Rosalind Wrist Warmers : : wooly wrist warmer pattern

2009-08-25T09:06:00.001+03:00

My sister in law lives on a farm in Australia and in the winter it gets pretty cold there, so I designed these wooly wrist warmers for her, a combination of pretty and practical.

Materials
100g of New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed (in 'Cobalt')

Set of 4mm (US size 6) DPNS or 4mm (US size 6) circular needle or whichever style of needle you like to use to knit in a round.

Cable needle of appropriate size

Gauge

5 stitches = 1 inch in 2x2 rib

Abbreviations

CO Cast on

K Knit

P Purl

St Stitches

Rnd round

C4B Slip next 2 stitches onto cable needle and hold at the back of work, K2, then K2 stitches from the cable needle

C4F Slip next 2 stitches onto cable needle and hold at the front of work, K2, then K2 stitches from the cable needle

Cable Panel (Worked over 24 stitches)

Rnd 1: P1, K6, C4B, P2, C4F, K6, P1
Rnd 2 (And all even Rnds): P1, K10, P2, K10, P1
Rnd 3: P1, K4, C4B, K2, P2, K2, C4F, K4, P1
Rnd 5: P1, K2, [C4B] twice, P2, [C4F] twice, K2, P1
Rnd 7: P1, [C4B] twice, K2, P2, K2[C4F] twice, P1
Rnd 9: P1, K2, [C4B] twice, P2, [C4F] twice, K2, P1
Rnd 11: P1, [C4B] twice, K2, P2, K2[C4F] twice, P1
Rnd 13: P1, K2, C4B, K4, P2, K4, C4F, K2, P1
Rnd 15: P1, C4B, K6, P2, K6, C4F, P1
Rnd 16 : As Rnd 2

Begin!

CO 46 stitches

If you are using DPNS then divide the stitches up into 24, 12, 1o, this will make it easier for you to work the cable design, as it will be laid across one needle, these 24 stitches will be the top/back of the wrist warmers.

If you are working on circular needles, divide the stitches into 24 and 22, the 24 stitches will be the top/back of the wrist warmers and the 22 will be the palm side of the wrist warmers

Rnd 1 start knitting on the palm stitches as follows:

[ P2, K2 ] 5 times, P2

now accross the 24 stitches, set up the cable design. P1, K4, P2, K4, P2, K4, P2, K4, P1

Continue in this pattern for 5 Rnds

Rnd 6 : [ P2, K2 ] 5 times, P2,

P1, [ work Rnd 1 of Cable Panel as above ] , P1

Rnd 7 : [ P2, K2 ] 5 times, P2,

P1, [ Work Rnd 2 of Cable Panel as above ], P1

Continue working in this way and following the cable pattern until you have completed 2 repeats of the cable panel, where you will be ready to work the slot for the thumb.

The pattern for the wrist warmers is exactly the same for both hands except the thumb slot, which is worked on opposite sides of the wrist warmers... see below and remember to knit one for each hand!

Right Hand
[ P2, K2 ] 3 times, P2, K1. now take a piece of waste yarn, preferably in a different colour so it is easy to see and knit the next 7 stitches with it. Now slip those stitches back onto the left hand needle so that you can go back over them, re-knitting them in the original pattern, which would be K1, P2, K2, P2

Left Hand
Take the waste yarn (as above) and knit the first 7 stitches , now slip those back onto the left hand needle ready to knit them in the pattern, which will be [ P2, K2 ] 5 times, P2,

Now that you have completed the appropriate thumb slot, continue knitting rounds in the pattern, completing one more repeat of the cable panel and cast off. You've finished the main body of the wrist warmers, all that remains to be done is to go back and knit the thumbs.

Thumbs
Go back to the thumb slot and remove waste yarn carefully, so as not to lose the live stitches that are left there. Arrange the live stitches either on 2 needles, if using DPNS or on top and botton of a cicular, the idea being that you have 6 live stitches above and 7 live stitches below.

Now attach your yarn and knit the 7 stitches on the lower needle, pick up 2 stitches between the upper and lower needle, knit the 6 stitches on the upper needle and pcik up two between the upper and lower needle. You should now have 17 stitches. Knit 4 rnds, or to desired length and Cast off losely.

This pattern was very kindly(and efficiently) test-knit by Marit, and so there shouldn't be problems with the pattern, but feel free to contact me if you have any difficulty.

Half-way through a shawl

2009-08-24T08:53:00.001+03:00

I am officially the cast-on queen.... here's the most recent project, I'm already half way through it.

It's an altered version of the Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel. The idea was to make a shawl to use for breast feeding, I'm using the lovely brick oven rayon yarn that I bought a little while back from yarntopia treasures. The pattern is altered only in that I used a fingering yarn instead of sport or DK, and I cast on 136 stitches instead of 26.

The yarn really works well with this pattern, I love how it's working out.

Speaking of baby, he's due NOW..... no sign yet though, who knows, maybe I'll get the shawl finished before he shows up.

All this time at home with my feet up does my knitting the world of good!

Christmas Presents

2009-08-21T16:16:00.000+03:00

I think annual maternity leave would help me a great deal in getting christmas makes finished in time. I finished my sister in law's wrist warmers and I am writing up the pattern for a friend to proof for me, and today, I finished Eliza's ballerina, I started her on Monday and stitched the last bits together today.

She's a variation on Alan Dart's Tooth Trader, but modified to be a ballerina instead of a fairy,

I think she turned out reasonably well.... I mean, knitted toys are not my forte, but, well, it's ok.

Make way for baby

2009-08-17T09:48:00.000+03:00

Well, we are on our final week now, the baby's due date is next monday or tuesday and judging from how quickly last week whipped by, I fancy we'll be holding the baby before we know it, so this weekend we made sure we had the baby space all wrapped up and ready....

I organised the baby sheets...

And flannel swaddling...

The baby bouncer, play mat, and snugli carrier...

and the nappy's are all stacked neatly in the nappy holder which my husbands grandmother made for my sister in law when she had her wee ones.... whom I happily inherited from ....

Sorry about the sideways pic of the nappy stack!

We are using 'real' nappy's as we feel that even though disposables may be easier at times, that they are a real waste of money (especially here, there arn't burdget brands) and they are not really ideal for people who try to keep waste to a minimum.... we're not tree-huggin' hippies, but we live on the land we feel that you need to think about these things.

I think we are as ready as we'll ever be, how ready can you be lets face it?!

Surface crochet : : A crochet tutorial

2009-08-17T09:12:00.000+03:00

As I was writing up my pattern for the spiral baby blanket, I was going to link to a tutorial on surface crochet, but I couldnt seem to find one which would be comprehensive enough, so I just thought I might as well make a quick one up.

Surface crochet is a great way to embellish both crocheted items and knitted items, it's quick and easy and you can make up the patterns as you go along. If you know how to crochet already, then this will be a walk in the park for you to learn.

Firstly you'll need a practice swatch and a contrasting colour to practice with.... and of course, a crochet hook. Here's my practice piece.... it doesn't have to be very big....

Hold your contrasting yarn behind your work so that your crochet hook can access it, I hold mine like this, but you can hold it any way you feel comfortable....

Now, pass the hook through the front of your work where you want the design to begin like this.....

Let the hook grab the yarn and pull it back through the hole, it should look like this...

Now, pass the hook through the front of your work in the next stitch space like this....

And do the same, hook the yarn through the work and you should have this.....

Now, just like ordinary crochet, you pull the new loop through the old one and you have a stitch on the surface.....

After a few stitches it should look like this...

Repeat this till the end of your work and it should look like this....

And there you have it.... you can surface crochet to your heart's content now....

Baby Blue : : A spiral baby blanket

2009-08-16T14:25:00.001+03:00

Well, I promised to post the pattern when I got round to writing it, so here it is, free and available to anyone who dares.

This crochet pattern is really easy, so if you are a beginner at crochet, it's well worth having a go at it.

Materials

3 x 100g balls of DK or Sport weight wool in colour of your choice
1 x 50g ball of DK or Sport weight wool in contrasting colour for edging

1 x 4mm (G) crochet hook

Gauge

Another reason that this is a beginner friendly pattern is that really the gauge doesn't matter, in fact, if you want to use heavier wool and a larger hook it will work out just as well, as long as you have a fabric that you are happy with, you can also make this as large as you like, my version was made pram size, like a small mat, but more wool and you can make a huge one if you like, you just keep going.

Abbreviations
Ch chain stitch
Ss slip stitch
Dc double crochet

Rnd round

*******Very important edit*****
The pattern was written in British english, so the DC (double crochet) in American English is actually a HDC (half double crochet)**

Begin!...
Ch 4 and join with Ss to make a ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 7 , 1 Dc into ring, [Ch 6, 1 Dc into ring] 5 times, joint to th first Ch of th round with Ss

Rnd 2: 1 Ss into each of next 3 Ch [ Ch 4, 1 Dc into next 6 Ch loop] 6 times

Rnd 3 : [Ch 4, 2 Dc in next 4 Ch space, 1 Dc into next Dc] 6 times

Rnd 4: [Ch 4, 2 Dc into next 4 Ch space, 1 Dc into each of next 2 Dc, skip 1 Dc] 6 times

Rnd 5: [Ch 4, 2 Dc into next 4 Ch space, 1 Dc into each of next 3 Dc, skip 1 Dc] 6 times

Rnd 6: [Ch 4, 2 Dc into next 4 Ch space, 1 Dc into each of next 4 Dc, skip 1 Dc] 6 times

Rnd 7: [Ch 4, 2 Dc into next 4 Ch space, 1 Dc into each of next 5 Dc, skip 1 Dc] 6 times

Continue working rounds as you have been doing increasing by 1 Dc each time as you can see above, until you reach the desired size for your blanket.

When you reach the desired size for your blanket, change to the contrast colour and work one round of even Dc stitches (one in each stitch, no increasing, no chain stitches etc)

**at this point, if you don't know how to surface crochet, take a look at this tutorial before you continue on the blanket**

With the contrast colour go back to the center of your blanket and surface crochet round the center circle (as you can see in the first picture). Then surface crochet along the inside of one of the spirals, following the line of holes...

Repeat for each spiral as you can see and it should look like this....

There you have it, a simple pattern that doesn't take much time or much concentration.... or even much skill in crochet.

Have fun giving it a go, if you have any problems or corrections feel free to contact me.

Triumph...at last

2009-08-15T10:50:00.000+03:00

Well, here it is finally..... Urban lanark, finished and sewn up (not blocked yet though)...

Sadly, the bump means I couldn't do what I enjoy most when I finish something.... so it's being modled by a cushion and my bench.

Working hard

2009-08-11T10:53:00.000+03:00

Well... look at the spoils of my week... I have managed to get back and front finished on Urban lanark....

And as you can see I have turned 2-at-a-time socks into 2-at-a-time-sleeves....

But my progress is constantly interrupted by these little fluffy things.....

And the fact that my car failed her MOT, poor darling, she needs a little tweeting.... I mean tweaking!

**If you would like to learn more about our chick raising you can check out our house blog here

Some finished objects...and more chicks

2009-08-05T11:36:00.000+03:00

Well, I didn't get much done yesterday what with the chickies popping out of their eggs. We have 5 now, 2 of which I collected at 3 in the morning.... crazy huh? I set and alarm to get up and go check for chicks at 3am, I dont want them to be hurt by the other chickens or to get cold, as they aren't in a broody coop. Here's the entourage in full force

OK, so back to finished items.... Some socks I knitted. I love them. The wool is Yarntopia Treasures SW Merino Sock, colourway 'Brownstone'.

I would have modeled them on my feet, however, my ankles are pregnant lady ankles and the socks are not going to go on... lovely huh?

This sorry excuse for a finished object is a sweater vest knitted for my friends wee boy, same recipient as the spiral blanket. I am not fantastically happy with it, for numerous reasons, but I figure that the spiral blanket makes up for it.

And lastly, I have been doing a little spinning, and have managed to produce this...

...which at the moment is just an undyed wool blend, but we'll see what colour to make it later, when I finish spinning it all.

Urban Chick!

2009-08-04T10:18:00.000+03:00

Well, some of you may remember my long time work in progress .... urban aran (patons pattern)... well.... I sort of lost t, which of course puts a damper on the whole knitting side of things.... however, yesterday I finally thought to myself, this is stupid.... and rumaged around in packed and half unpacked boxes till I found it.

I had finished the back piece but when I looked at it yesterday and I remembered how cold the winter was this year, I though, "I think I would like it a little longer" so I unpicked it to the armhole shaping, then I tried to work out where I was in the cable panel... so frusgtrating, but finally I managed and it's now 2 inches longer and ready, once more, for armholes.

However, our best news of the day is this......

The first hachling on our little smallhold. Our hen has been sitting for a couple of weeks now and though we thought she was due at the weeked.... SURPRISE!

Is't it fab... heres a wee video too just because it's so amazingly sweet, he's only a few hours old!!

There are more chicks on the way too, she's sittng on a heap of eggs and there is 'cheeping' coming from under her. Very exciting, probably means I wont have time to knit today though as I have to keep nipping out to check for chicks!

Big news!

2009-08-02T19:43:00.000+03:00

Well a few things to say at least....

Sadly, because of not having the internet and realising that my initial idea hadn't taken off, I closed 'Craftimis' my etsy shop. However, every end is a new begining..... I am planning to open again, but this time under a new name and with only my handmade items,.... sadly it seemed no-one was particularly interested in the Romanian items.

I finished a couple of things lately, but hadn;t been knitting for ages beforehand. I only have one thing photographed at the moment.... its a pram blanket for my friend who had a baby boy a couple of months ago (oh ...and it's crochet not knitting)...

Our other fairly important news has a lot to do with this.....

Which after five months looked like this......

..... and last month looked like this...

So you can imagine why I don't have photographs of this month cant you....

My little bump is ready in about 3 weeks time, we don't know what we are having as we wanted a surprise, we felt it didn't matter to us either way, so we are very excited.

This has of course meant that we were very desperate to have running water and a bathroom finsihed in our little house before the due date. Our bathroom is finished and the water connected but we can't switch on until tomorrow. Hot showers and flushing toilets as of tomorrow!!! terribly exciting!

So that's a breif update.... I'll be back most likely tomorrow, and the next day and so on and so on... So exciting, plus I have more time to knit now I am on maternity leave! Hooray!

GREAT NEWS !!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-02T13:55:00.000+03:00

After 7 months of internet drought and disappointment, looking like this........

I am finally blogging from the comfort of my couch and looking a little more like this .....

So will be blogging my little heart out from now on in..... speak to you soon!!!!

M I A.....

2009-07-10T10:41:00.000+03:00

Well... I'm not really missing, but we don't have internet at our home so I never get online, not only that but my trusty lappy finally gave up on me and I have to beg borrow and steal computers just to check email.

However, I have been promised faithfully by the net company that they will be coming next week to hook me up..... and they don't lie... right? (never mind that this will be the 4th time they tell me they are coming to install in 6 months!)

So all being well, I should be back to my little blog in no time, with a few surprises!! See you soon!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T18:04:00.000+02:00

I hope you have all had a fantastic christmas. Sorry about the blog silence, We have moved into our own house and we dont have internet there. I am at my folks with my lappy stealing my folks internet....

I probably wont get a chance to get internet or onto the internet until after the new year, so I hope you all have a very Happy New Year, may it bring a good year for you all !!!

Catch you as soon as we have the internet!

Blog Fairy

2008-12-18T00:04:00.000+02:00

Well.... as you can see I visited the Blog fairy and used one of the fabulous free templates to jazz up the old blog a little.... I like it.... ok, so it's really the dummy's guide to redecoration, but quite frankly, when it comes to computers, that's about the extent of my capabilities.

Do let me know if you find it obscenely difficult to read wont you??

If you check out 30 Days, you will see that Mique has a fantastic blog makeover giveaway going on... so if you fancy a makeover, and you are more on the ball than me.... why not enter... you never know, you might just be the new author of the trendiest blog in blogland.

So.... I have no pics of the mans jumper... which isnt finished...though it almost is. Other than that preparations are insane and we are about to move house....tomoro.... oh and did I mention that we are hosting christmas for 20 people.... yes... I think we might be mad afterall.

Wish us luck... and lots of good cheer!

Wednesday Winner

2008-12-11T02:00:00.000+02:00

Wow.... I was overwhelmed to see so many people visit my blog. I hope that you all had a little look, I have checked out so many new blogs over the last week and really had a lot of fun.

I randomly selected a winner from the 230 comments.... it's Beth...

Beth said...

Beautiful fabric choice, I have a SIL who knits every where she goes, and this would be great for her needles.

04 December 2008 13:45

I'm sorry I can only give it away to one person (there's only one roll) however, because of the response, I thought I would put a tutorial up over the next week or so, and then you have some help to give it a go yourself, so keep an eye out for it ! .....I had better go and email Beth.

Hopefully I'll see more of some of you.

Handmade Giveaway

2008-12-03T11:27:00.000+02:00

Well, here it is, my giveaway for 3rd of December.

It's a needle roll made of canvas. The floral fabric is vintage fabric and the interiors are thick contrasting canvas

It's going to be able to hold needles, pencils, brushes or other notions of your choice. Here's a look at the inside.... with my needles and hooks to show you how what it holds
Once you get the needles in... flip the flap....

...Roll it up...

....And away you go....

To win the needle roll isn't hard, just leave a comment, take a look at my shop if you like or browse around the blog and leave me a message with your email or blog URL or some way of contacting you if you win.

I'll draw the winner on Wednesday the 10th of December...you've got almost a week...

And dont forget to check out the Sew Mama Sew giveaway List!

There are jumpers and there are jumpers

2008-12-03T10:04:00.000+02:00

Hmmm... well... just a short post.... not yet the giveaway post... I thought I should clear something up. You see I'm making a jumper for my husband.... To me, 'Jumper' conjours images such as this...

Not my pic (or my hubby in fact) but you get the idea.... rugged, manly and so on. However, as a good friend pointed out (with a giggle) this is what the word 'Jumper' conjours up for her....

As you can see there's rather a significant difference there...

A quickie

2008-12-02T21:10:00.001+02:00

Well... I've been busy, the hubby's jumper is close to finished (pics to follow eventually) and I made a couple of purses for the shop and a pencil case (with terrible pics).

The Sew mama sew giveaway is on tomoro (check out the button on the side ---->) and I am taking part, so feel free to take a look at what is on offer tomorrow.

Sorry about the dreadfully dull post... see you tomorrow.

Vintage Stripes

2008-11-25T14:37:00.000+02:00

OK... so here's a wee pic of the finished jumper...on me... eek

Here's the only bit I dont like

A wee squiggle on the neck.... but it's fine, it's not so bad that I plan to unravel the lot... I especially love the long sleeves and it's going to be nice and cosy when we are tucked up in our little cottage this winter.

Finished...

2008-11-25T12:45:00.000+02:00

Well... I do have a finished item to show you... though I will do that in the next post. In the meantime, I started the Hubby's jumper with the wool he picked in Australia. Which is a pain to knit with but knits up fast.

This is what it looks like up close

It reminds me a little of this....

See the similarity

So when it's finished, the hubby will be like a big wooly sheep and hopefuly just as warm.

Back in business

2008-11-20T08:55:00.000+02:00

Well, winter is rolling in and the frost is heavy in the mornings. The days are short and crisp making everyone scurry around quickly about their business to get it all done and get home to the fireside. We're not immune to this scurrying and we always feel a little desperation as the sun starts to set and the days work isn't done.

However, long cold nights wrapped up indoors leads to lots of knitting.... I'm proud to present my first knitting in months ....

These are the sleeves of the jumper I am almost finished knitting..... I LOVE the wool. It's Cleakheaton 'Vintage hues' from a sale in a Sydney wool shop. I decided to just knit a very plain v-neck to emphasise the fabulous striping.

You may also recognise those needles..... yes.... I finally have my very own knit picks! I havn't photographed them yet, but I will. I just have the small started pack with 3 wires and 3 needles, though I bought an extra pair.

So in Sydney I had a little adventure in a wool shop.

pics from Morris and sons themselves

Thankfully they had a couch, which homed the hubby for the duration of the adventure. They had 30% sale on everything (yes, everything) including the knit picks. I bought 40 balls of wool..... um.... it came in packs of 10. I bought the vintage hues for me and then the other 20 were this.....

This is for the mans jumper...nobbly curly stuff.... I love it (thought not as much as my own)

I also had an adventure in a wool and fabric shop in france (it really was an adventure) couldn't understand anything and couldn't explain that I wanted the book I had seen in the window. In the end I took the lady out of the shop and pointed to the book in the window, and smiled a lot. It was a tiny little shop with every surface filled with shelves of fabric and wool and with racks of crosstitch, tapestry, patterns, tension squares, beads....you name it, it was stocked there somewhere. With barely enough room to maneuver, I purchased this....

It's just gorgeous and I cant wait to start something from it.

Unfortunately my little shop stands startlingly empty, I have not had time to do anything to sell there. Not only that, but I can't see anything happening for a while yet as christmas is round the corner and I plan to make some gifts. Not to mention that lovely nativity that I STILL havn't finished. Oh dear. Looks like, once again, I am all outta time.

OK, today I am off to paint our bedroom. We ought to have the power turned on today too (fingers crossed) and then soonish (in a couple of weeks) we should be living out there. In case you forget what out there is, this is the acre we stand on...

Oh... and we need to get some firewood too.

Much to do, and we are going to host christmas (with a big fat goose) hopefully. Better hop to it, catch you later.

I'M BACK ! ! !

2008-11-18T09:11:00.000+02:00

Well... hello !

So, it's been ages and to be honest, I don't know where to start. I gave up all craft and knitting for the whole time I have been away, knowing I needed to devote the time to my work and planning the wedding.

SO... I handed in all my final papers, sat all my final exams and now I am officially Dr. PJS. It's been a really long hard 6 years, but there we go, it worked. I was also accepted to specialise in Reconstructive Surgery, which I will hopefully begin before this year ends.

This was us at the graduation....

2 weeks after the graduation, we got married. We'd been engaged almost 2 years, but we had wanted to wait until after I graduated to get married. So on the 11th of October we tied the knot in a beautiful church in Arad. Here are a couple of pics (we still havnt seen them all)

Me with my girls

My man and some of his family (mum, dad and one of his sisters)

Me and my dad (right before I stumbled on the dress, didnt fall over though, no worries)

We had guests from Britain and Australia, which was lovely, as well as all our Romanian friends. My only complaint is that it was all over too soon.

We nipped off to a wee picturesque village in France for our honeymoon and then on to another part of france to meet up with friends, and finally, we did the long haul out to Australia and spent a few weeks there. We got back tired and a little dishevelled on Sunday night. And now we are back in business.

I'll post on my latest knitting later and will catch up with all the blog reading I have missed later.

Bye for now...

Not a stitch

2008-08-18T18:54:00.001+03:00

Hi folks,

A rediculously long period of time has passed since I wrote here, I doubt anyone still reads my blog (it wasn't like there were thousands of readers anyway). With the wedding and my licence exams and a bout of pneumonia, there has been exactly NO time for crafts. I am not even doing wedding knits as they became redundant. The only crafting has been our wedding invites (to be posted at a later date)

So, to make it official, the blog will be active again in November. A long time you say? Well, exams september, wedding and honeymoon october and ....well... then it's november.

I miss my knitting, and my sewing. It's been ages now and I miss blogging too but I just havn't got the time at the moment.

See you in November

moving madness

2008-03-18T17:54:00.000+02:00

OK, so it's been a week of silence... and then some before that too. Well, last week we found out that the landlord wants to sell the flat, so we have decided to make what was going to be our 'summer move' an 'in-a-months-time move' instead.

As you can imagine there is a lot to do when you have to pack up your house in a short space of time, the major of which, is de-junking.... wow the stuff piles up. We are also trying to think up meals to make out of whats left in the pantry and freezer.... which is fun and very organised... this weeks menu...

monday - black pudding and potatoe scones
tuesday - meat and potato curry (we have so many peas)
wednesday - chili con carne (we have tonnes of kidney beans)
thursday - chick pea curry (we have 2 portions from the last time stored in the freezer)
friday - lentil, pinto bean and cashew burgers (cause we froze the mix when we made it)

Other than that, the fact that we are moving into my folks place for a couple of months means that we have to decide, what do we need essentially and what can we put away till we move into out house.

In the meantime, we are having work done on our cottage. We were able to buy it outright last year and it has an acre of land with it too so we are really looking forward to moving in... which we will... after the honeymoon in october.

So, there are many knitting and sewing projects lagging (of course my knitting will count as essential item and not be packed) and my blog has become a sparse and infrequently updated mess.... I feel so boring!

There are many good points to the move, this flat is driving us nuts right now anyway, plus it is a lot less expensive to live in a house.

So, for boring-ness and silence I apologise, bear with me.

7 random things...

2008-03-12T18:55:00.001+02:00

I think it's probably the first time someone tagged me to do anything like this, but Arja tagged me with the '7 random things' meme, so here they are...

1. I'm pretty much willing to try anything and usually once I have started something I am determined to finish.... eg. it meant I abseiled down the side of a hospital for a lung cancer foundation

2. It's said I am a 'strongwilled' person.... a nice way for those who love me to call me a stubborn ass.

3. I lived in India and then Pakistan when I was small.

4. I have a real Marmite addiction.

5. Sitting in the grass at sunset on a warm day is heaven to me.

6. I love being in the operating theater and all that it entails, it's where I feel most at home. I am not faint or weak at the site of blood or bits, and while I started medicine with a leaning towards pediatrics, I am finishing with a most definate desire to be a surgeon.

7. I absolutely adore australian wildlife, especially wombats.

Not fabulously interesting, but certainly random. I would add that I am a complete and utter tea addict and that I cant function without it, but, that's not really a random fact.

I am supposed to tag 7 people... I wouldnt want to force you, but please, if you read this and you feel you are up to it...consider yourself tagged (you know who you are!!!).

Stitched up...

2008-03-07T09:33:00.000+02:00

Look what arrived yesterday....

Lots and lots of yummy stitch charts. ... 332 yummy stitch charts to be more precise

At the moment I am so overwhelmed I cant make my mind focus long enough to even begin thinking of applying them. The ideas flick around in my head as much as the pages.

It's really great and really comprehensive with lovely big glossy pics. I love it!

Also, yarn from a swap on ravelry arrived. I promised Man I would make him socks with it, so I cast on last night. I am waiting on some needles for my own spring socks.

There is a pattern in there but you cant see it yet. I dont mind really in the end whether or not the pattern is very clear, the sock yarn is interesting enough (of course, that's why the stitch pattern isnt very clear though)

I am much better, thanks for the get well thoughts, still have a cough, but most of the rest of it is gone. Back to the old life on Monday.

I am in my final semester. That's a scary thought. I have been in the degree for 6 years, I am in the final semester of it. It was a relatively safe place to be, but soon I'll be thrown into the big world where I have to take real responsability for my actions, where my learning finally makes the difference between good and bad, where I have to figure out on my own what to do with people. I wonder what it's going to be like.

Sick day

2008-03-05T20:05:00.001+02:00

Another non-day has slipped by in which I have eaten a breakfast, lunch and dinner of Pill Cocktails and vitamins.

I felt a little better this morning so I flopped around the house trying to pick up a little and make the place look a bit better only to discover that I had overdone it and spent the rest of the afternoon feeling and looking like something that crawled off the screen of 'Night of the living dead', eventually succumbing to a long nap in bed in an attempt to kill the headache.

Back to the doc tomoro to tell her that indeed antibiotics did help and that I'll be needing a 'sick note'. Maybe next week I might actually be productive. If I am not still coughing up pieces of my lungs.

Best go, I'm sure to be due a dose of something

Hot water.... at last

2008-03-03T19:39:00.001+02:00

Well, that hot water pipe that burst over a week ago now was fixed last night when my fabulous father (jack of all trades) turned up last night and said.... "oh, you still dont have that fixed... hang on, my tools are in the car"

Fantastic.... now there is hot water coming from the tap in the kitchen!

I paid him back with cream cheese and parma ham toasties.

As the gals of the sock year know, I have not finished my feb socks.... though, I am here

My progress on all things is slightly hindered by this delightful bout of flu I have. I gave in and went to the doc today, so it must be bad.

Astrum Beret : : A knitting pattern

2008-02-29T14:35:00.001+02:00

I bought this fabulous wool boucle from Yarntopia Treasures and I knew it was destined to be a beret. It’s knitted top down to use lovely neat yarn over increases as a feature of the pattern, resulting in an asterix of sorts.

So here’s how to do it…

Materials:

Aprox. 230 yards of sport weight wool

The beret is knit in a round, so, you need whatever needles you use to knit on the round in a size 4mm (US size 6) (i.e. a set of 4mm dpns, 2 circular size 4 needles, 1 long circular size 4mm needle whichever you feel comfortable with. )

Gauge:

aprox 5 stitches per inch. I used a looser gauge as the boucle is more effective when not so closely knit. However, if you aren’t using boucle, use a thicker yarn and aim for the same gauge.

Abbreviations

CO Cast on

K Knit

P Purl

M1 Increse one stitch in last knitted stitch

YO yarn over

SKP Slip the next stitch knit-wise onto right hand needle, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch.

2x2 Rib knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches

St Stitches

Rnd round

I knit this with one long circular and cast on with figure 8 magic loop for a neater start. If you haven’t done this before you can find instructions here, or you can just cast on and join the round in your usual way.

Begin! …

CO 4 stitches

Knit one round even.

Next round: increase one stitch in every stitch (8 st). Repeat this step on the next round (16 st)

Place a marker at the start of the round

K1 M1 K7 M1 K1 M1 K7 M1

*K2 M1 rep from * to end of round (30 st)

K one Rnd even

*K3 M1 rep from * to end of round (40 st)

K one Rnd even

*K4 YO rep from * to end of round (50 st)

K 2 Rnds even

*K5 YO rep from * to end of round (60 st)

K2 Rnds even

*K6 YO rep from * to end of round (70 st)

K2 Rnds even

Repeat this pattern, increasing 1 stitch before the YO each time and knitting 2 even rounds after each increase round.

Stop repeats after you complete *K14 YO rep from * to end of round (150 st)

-End of the increase pattern

K 5 Rnds even (you should still have 150 st)

-The decreases begin here

K13 SKP

K12 SKP (130 st)

K 1 Rnd even

K11 SKP

K10 SKP (110 st)

K 1 Rnd even

K9 SKP

K8 SKP (90 st)

K 1 Rnd even

K1 K2tog, K45, K2tog K to the end of the round (88 St)

Work 2x2 rib for 1 inch (or desired band width)

Loosely cast off (try the stretchy Russian Cast off) and sew in the tails of yarn.

Now all that’s left is to block it.

This pattern is far from perfect, so, if you have any questions, corrections or suggestions please feel free to leave me a comment.

Russian cast off : : A knitting tutorial

2008-02-29T13:50:00.000+02:00

The Russian cast off (Russian bind off) is a looser, stretchier and more elegant way of casting off than the traditional method. It works particularly well as a finishing to ribbing, especially on a ribbed collar or a ribbed band (eg on a hat).

To start with, take your row of stitches (practice on a swatch first I think)

Knit the first one as you normally would when casting off

Now, insert the left needle in the back of the stitch you just knitted, you should have this sort of thing...

Now, take the tip of the right needle and insert it in the next stitch, as if to knit,

you should see a lovely cross formed with the stitches and the needle through both of them and out the back, like this

Now, just pass the yarn round the needle as usual for a knit stitch

Pull the point of the needle back through your cross, you should have a lovely stitch on your needle

Now pull that off the left needle, and start again

Put the left needle through the back of the stitch on the right

Right needle through next stitch to knit

Knit

Off

Keep going, it should look like this

and eventually, you have this

Here are a couple of examples of this stitch in real live action.....

The collar of the Drops Jacket

The band of the Astrum Beret

Simple, elegant and useful, give it a go.

Birthday quilt

2008-02-28T08:26:00.001+02:00

Ok, so this is what I have really been working on, now that it's been gifted away to my wee sister for her 18th.

It's pretty huge so it's not all in this pic...

She said she liked it.... she's a pinky girlie girl

These are some of my favourite squares from it

I also had to learn how to do the binding.... I did OK but also learned alot.

I actually found it difficult to be totally honest, Not the task itself, but keeping going to get it done. I mean of course I love the outcome and I wanted to make something lovely for Annie but I hated sewing hundreds of little lines, it became very tedious very quickly. But I suppose that's part of the love wrapped up in it, the task itself makes the quilt special.

OK I will stop rambling and get off. I am really feeling pretty ill so sitting it out today and going to finish my beret and see where I get.

Work in progress

2008-02-26T18:03:00.000+02:00

OK... the sink isnt fixed yet but we have stopped up the leak and we just have cold water which does result in a great amount of faffing to heat water to wash dishes, but, we've still got hot in the bathroom so anything else is do-able.

I have something great to show but will do it tomoro. I also have my Pay it forwards in process (thanks for the patience gals) and here is some of what I have on the needles

My Urban Lanark... the back piece if finsished and I am on the front now

A beret... the colour in this pic is completely wrong, the cold light washed it out, it's better in the second pic

OOOOOOH and my Tsuki yarn arrived today.... soooo soft, the bridesmaids are having shawls in this and regency style dresses in a steel-blue (that's the aim at least)

Water water everywhere...

2008-02-24T13:58:00.000+02:00

This morning I was awoken by my mans shouts from the kitchen 'honey.... come quick'.... reluctantly leaping from my bed, I realised there was a strange sound coming from the kitchen...

...A rushing, wet sound...

arghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

A hot water pipe spontaneously burst and was watering the fridge and most of the kitchen.

After stopping the gush as it sprayed all over me, we managed to mop up most of the water...
Cant fix it myself as the pipe is so old and cant be unscrewed without breaking the seal on the water meter (which will mean us being accused of stealing water) .... and I am not even going to try calling a plumber today...

*Thanks to Bill Waterson for the pics of calvin without which I could not fully explain the horror of this mornings events

Why the long space...

2008-02-23T11:13:00.000+02:00

The silence.... well... let me tell you about that.

You see, last thursday night, before my last exam, I suddenly realised that On the 5th of March my passport expires...oops... I live abroad and I will soon no longer have a passport....could be a problem.

So, I won a free mystery tour of Budapest and all the lovely sites it has to offer. Where they told me that all I had to do was ask and they would give me a passport, right there and then.....

ah haa hah hah ha

No..... I planned a dawn trip to Budapest with my poor folks to go the british embassy there where they told me that I had to fill in a really annoying form, redo my passport photos to make sure I look as much like a criminal as possible and then I would have to surrender the old passport and wait in budapest 10 days till they could issue the new one.. oh yes, and the pleasure of the whole proceedure would cost me a whopping £120 (that $234 for you Americani's)...great.

Uh huh....

So, I told them I couldnt wait that long, that I dont live in hungary and so waiting in the country was out of the question, I begged (mum begged) them to rush it. The best we could do was that I got to keep the old passport, that they would do it on friday (earliest).

At least the city is not entirely ugly

Valentines day and birthdays

2008-02-17T20:13:00.000+02:00

Well, of course, we had a fabulous valentines day

My Darling gave me a bouquet of these

then dinner in our favourite restaurant.... it's not our favourite for nothing.

After a beautiful starters and mains delivered with fabulous service from one of our favourite waitresses, our desert came with compliments from the house ... we were flattered... and they came like this....

tiramisu (the best in the world) with big chocolate hearts....

Absolutely....Perfect

My baby sister turned a terrifying 18 on Friday (yes she missed being a valentine baby by 20 mins) so we went through to my folks place to personally wish her happy birthday and to help my folks set up for her party. We didn't stay of course (we dont really fit in with all those young people) but she had a great time... really pleased because she definately deserves it.

On saturday our little feint of spring ended and it dropped back down to about -10 (celsius) and a blanket of white stuff fell....

Which makes an already incredible landscape.... unimaginably still and quiet

We took a couple of snaps from the train, it was so picturesque

A trully lovely weekend

Valentines day

2008-02-14T08:56:00.000+02:00

In Ad 197 and AD 269, respectively,

Valentine of Terni (bishop of Interamna) an evangelist and healer

Thanks to www.catholic-forum.com

and Valentine of Rome (a priest) imprisoned for feeding the martyrs who were in prison .

Thanks to www.catholic-forum.com

...were beaten and beheaded...martyrd. Which, to many people doesn't mean much, until.....

Merry Old Chaucer

Thanks to www.nndb.com

wrote, in 'Parlement of Foules' in 1382,

For this was on seynt Volantynys day

Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

Spawning the popular 'courtly love' of the high middle ages

The earliest valentine card (surviving) is from Charles, duke of Orleans, to his dear wife while being help captive in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

And so, many disputes and declarations later (catholic church heavily involved) we celebrate a highly processed, pink and red, love-heart strewn version of St Valentines day.....

And thats why we are going out to dinner tonight.

Happy Valentines day...

Pop Larkin and the Handspun yarn

2008-02-12T08:27:00.000+02:00

Remember the 'hairy' norwegian sliver?

I actually finished this skein of handspun last week but didnt get round to posting about it. I love how it turned out and hopefully it will be a pair of sock for my man... when I start to knit them (ha)

Yesterday, this arrived in the post

The Pop Larkin Chronicles, by H.E. Bates (written in 1958). You might know it as 'The darling buds of may', the TV programme they made from it. Its a hilarious look at country life in the late 50's, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a light, lovely book to read. As Pop would say 'Perfick'

Knitting is at a standstill, I have one last exam on friday after which I fully intend to knit and sew my little heart out for a week.

Monster sock and fabric bomb

2008-02-08T11:50:00.000+02:00

Well, this was our miserable start to the day (we washed the white dog last night so of course it rained this morning)

Soon brightened up though with a bit of toe shaping to carve out monster sock number 1

With pretty heart detail down the top of the foot

I quickly read this great article and thought I would give the shawl a try, based on the nice and easy prinicples... it's working. (I simplified the design to be literally the basics)

As you can see the laptop had become the new stage for my knitting show, partly because I am lazy, and partly because my other stage (couch) looks like this...

...I call this piece 'The thought process'.

Oh and of course study, but that doesnt make for interesting pics at all.

Making Peoples day

2008-02-07T08:41:00.000+02:00

Hee hee, I had to post this, Cashmere cafe, one of the fabby blogs that I gave the 'you make my day award' posted this in her blog when passing it on...

"...After careful thought I decided that no, I probably cannot give this award to Ravelry, where I have met a couple of lovely, great, kind and adorable knitters..."

After giggling a lot, I thought, how true though...

So, this is the new sock....

See the distinct lack of holes around the gusset. That is with the biggest thanks to Rani and
Queen of the froggers who helped me way back on the first disast....I mean sock.

I had a lot of new visitors to the site this week and I would just like to say thanks to them for popping in and having a look at my wee site and wee life. And thanks for all the comments, its been lovely to be visited as much.

We love the post office

2008-02-06T20:32:00.000+02:00

This is what we call a good day in our wee house.

This is what arrived this morning (as if the post office doesnt think I am odd enough ordering spindles) It actually came in sack.... ha ha...

This is my valentines wool ....

Its BFL from fyberspates, i have 5 glorious skeins , so of course I had to cast on my february socks...

which let me test my new 30cm (12") sock needles... so much fun, feels like knitting with toy needles they are so small. Though, it means I am not always loosing my spare needles. Someone is going to have to teach me to knit socks on 2 circulars.

Next up is 500g of Norweigan grey sliver. Roving with 2 lengths of fiber to make 'hairy' wool...

and of course I tested just a tiny bit...

Perfect! I love it.

Lastly There is some falkland top (200g)..... so soft and absolutely beautiful (i'm saving the spinning till I have time to really enjoy it)

If you want a wide choice roving at great prices check out Wingham wool works ... I'm really pleased with them.

Trip to the park

2008-02-05T08:43:00.000+02:00

It was so pretty at the park I tried to get a pic of the dog. I have about 20 failed attempts but we did get 2 wee beautys

We like to think we can tire him out (silly owners) by taking him to an enclosed park where he can run in circles chasing grass to his little hearts content.

But it's not an entirely wasted trip

Progress is slow but steady on current knitting projects...

I even have a finished object.... Penllyn Socks which I knitted in my 'famous' non-descript mixed wool handpained stuff (leftovers from lost in translation) I am almost sick of knitting with it, but I feel the need to use it up... the man was muttering something horrible about wool not needing purchased till stash is used up....

Urban Lanark plods on, I have almost finished the flank detail (back). I still havnt decided to make it a jumper of a cardigan. Of course my most challenging problem was that I kept having to undo rows, thinking, 'there are purls where there should be knits' . Finally it struck me that if you go B-A-C for the panels one way, you cant do B-A-C on the way back accross... D'oh!

What's knitting a shawl like... any hints?

Heat bag tutorial

2008-02-03T10:34:00.000+02:00

I have a lot of back problems and I find one of those microwavable heat bags is just the thing I need at times to help soothe it a little... however, I have 2 major problems with my bog standard shop-bought heat bag

1. All the wheat falls to one end when I use it
2. I can't find it...

Which spawns this...

My own (sheepish) lavender scented heat bag with individual compartments for the rice, so that it stays evenly distributed. I used rice as it's what I had in the cupboard.

**When heating the heat bag, put in the microwave for a max of 2 mins, it should heat up quickly and any longer may burn you**

You will need:

20" x 10" piece of natural fiber outer fabric (I used a heavy cotton/linen canvas)
20" x 10" piece of cotton lining fabric
sewing machine (hand sew if you are brave enough)
aprox. 200g of rice (long grain and not quick cook/ parboiled rice)
9 teaspoons of dried lavender flowers
Ruler, Pencil, teaspoon, funnel, iron

Start out by cutting your fabric up into pieces 20" x 5"so you should have 2 pieces out outer fabric and 2 pieces of lining fabric with those measurements.

Put the outer fabric to the side for now, take the lining and consider the edges like this

(to see larger versions of the pics at any time just click on them)

Now make a 1cm pressed fold along egde A of both pieces

and now you can consider the right side (RS) and wrong sides (WS) of the fabric like this ...

Place the 2 Right sides of the fabric together so that the folds are on the outside like this

Now, sew round edges B , C & D, leaving the length of edge A open

you should have a pocket like this

Turn the pocket the right way round, so that the folds are now on the inside, press flat and even.

Now take a ruled and (here I should say fabric marker, but I dont have one) pencil, measure out and line 2.1" compartments all the way along the pocket. In the end you should 9 marked out pockets like this

Now sew up each of the marked lines and you should have 9 little pockets like this

Heres where you will need your rice, lavender and your teaspoon. In each of the little pockets put aprox 4 tsp of rice and 1 tsp of lavender. the pockets shouldnt be more than 2/3 full in the end.

Now, sew the little pocket shut, like this

Repeat these steps until you have 9 filled and sealed little pockets along the strip

Now come back to your outer fabric. Place RS together.

Considering the edges the same, fold down (towards the wrong side) and press 1cm along each edge B.

And now sew edges C, D & A so it should be a long narrow pocket looking like this

Now turn the right way round and press

Now insert your pockets in the outer fabric

And neatly sew edge B closed

There you have it, you just made a heat bag and I bet it didnt take you long.

You Make my day...

2008-02-02T22:30:00.001+02:00

The very fabulous Rani awarded me this little award, which is just lovely. I have to say she would be on my list if she didnt already have it!

So, It's my turn to pass it on to 10 beautiful blogs. I may not always comment on your posts, but these are some of the blogs I most love to read (alphabetically)

All buttoned up

Cashmere cafe

Cloth.paper.string

Craftymum

Hyena in petticoats

Knitting Elephant

On the needles

Pink Purl

Queen of the Froggers

Twisted Knitter

These are not the only blogs I read (not by half) many of you already have the award. Its nice that so many people share so many interesting bits and pieces of their lives with everyone else. Thanks very much.

Progress and sunshine

2008-01-29T11:33:00.000+02:00

Well, I haven't done much substantial knitting (and no sewing at all). I did finish the felted clogs though. The Man modelled them today...

Hamish loves to get in the way.

They are great, although I think the left one needs just one more felt for comfort and equality with the other.

I have been trying to knit the Penylln socks, Last night I thought it was going fabulously till about 4 row into the pattern I got to the end of a round and realised I had too many stitches left over and couldn't figure out for the life of me what had gone wrong. I pulled them back to the rib to start over and somehow lost 2 stitches .... didn't drop them, just, lost them.... I think I will just start over.

We've had cold weather but lots of sunshine, so, in the house, with the heating on, the sun coming through the windows is making it really warm. So warm that the plants seem to think it's spring...

My Ivy went on a mad growing spree and I have to keep picking its creepy fingers out of the walls. It is pretty though

And this is a very brave chilli that is determined to flower.

Urban Lanark is going well.

I think after knitting on a much smaller gauge for so long it shocks me how quickly it falls off the needles.

I love it though, the most I have to cable is 4 stitches so no sore fingers for me.

And the New Lanark wool is lovely, I really like it.

OK, so thats just about where I am at for now. The exams are going ok, though I have another biggie in a couple of days which is STRESSING me out.

Sunsets and stitches.

2008-01-26T15:43:00.000+02:00

Well, firstly and finally, here it is... Lost in translation. I am really pleased its finished.

I blocked it this morning.

Every night, and I just never get the camera in time, just as the sun sets there are a couple of minutes when it hits the tiles on the building next door and it looks lovely.

I thought you might like a little sunshine.

Oh... and Its about time I inroduced another member of our little family. Hamish consideres him his arch nemesis... This is Pickwick who was keeping me company yesterday while I studied and then knitted.

He's a blue mutation of a ring necked parakeet.

Oh, and I've also almost finished the first of the slippers from the felted cloggs pattern. they are huge! Pics to follow.

Lost in.... a ball of yarn

2008-01-22T10:43:00.000+02:00

Guess what I have got....

I'll give you a clue....

Do not be distracted by the beautiful balls of yarn.....

Or the pretty colours...

Look beyond the balls.... to The Winder.... of the balls...

Fabulous...

And yes.... i did wind every bit of wool I have in the house!

Of course, Hamish found it all very hard work.... *snort*

'Lost in translation now looks like this...

As you can see, we have a neck and we are well on our way to having a covered up midrift too.

Speaking of covered up..... we have had a good deal of this the last few days...

I wonder if there is a 'real' explanation for why I can see farther in the photos than I can with my
eyes..... hmmm... its erie. It feels like we are characters in 'The Others'...

Sorry about the long pause in the posts, exams and knitting in the downtime.

Lost in a neckline

2008-01-17T11:27:00.001+02:00

I know it sounds unreasonable, but I really want to finish this by saturday. This means that my man has endured me spending all my 'downtime' swearing at the knitting.

Still it has paid off, I am shaping the neckline
My next cast on's will be...

Fiber trends felted clogs

And.... oh my goodness.... a pair of socks....

I'm not known for my socks I know, but look at them, arnt they lovely? the pattern is 'Penllyn' by Lisa Parker.... how can I resist them. I'm glad that someone very sweetly sent me the patterns as a little trade off :).... though I think I got the better deal

New Lanark

2008-01-16T10:26:00.000+02:00

Yesssss!

I ordered this wool last week (yes, just last week) from a mill in Scotland near where I grew up (they opened an online shop).

And it arrived already....

Check the label.... traditionally produced wool.

I ordered 'Woodland Haze' A green slightly flecked with browns and blues.

And hopefully, if it ever arrives, I will have the pattern for this

Which, I think, paired with the lovelly green aran will work out nicely.

I also ordered shade cards and will definately get more wool from them. If you are planning a jumper or something similar, lovely wool... I highly recomend them. Prices and shipping are really good.... new lanark mill

Anniversary...

2008-01-15T09:46:00.000+02:00

Today my man and I celebrate our anniversary. Like last year we will spend tonight in our favourite restaurant and smiling a lot. We've had a great year and the one that's coming for us will be even better. Neither of us could be happier.

However, until we go to the restaurant I will do some more of this...

Lost in translation, progressing nicely, in about 6 cm I will start the neck shaping. The one thing I will say is you need strong yarn and strong fingers for the cables. (Rani, the wool is some hand painted i bought from someone online no name. I thought since the pattern reminded me of foliage, I would use the wool that reminded me of foliage. I am using 2 strands)

In other news.... my new love ....

We affectionately call this one.... ball number one. (hand dyed, hand spun, plied)

It got better as I went on.... still my own dyed stuff... there is a better consistency in width

And this one is the last one from that batch of roving. I really loved learning to spin with it.

But this is what we love..... batch number 2, which I saved till I had done my practice roving.

The dark brown and the pale cream are natural colours, the caramel brandy in the middle is my natural dye experiment.... I first spun it this time, then I dyed the skein with onion skins. very easy, very nice colour, very cheap dye.

You may notice that the wool looks a bit more consistent and looks like something you could knit with. I think i am getting the hang of it.

My next step is from scratch, fleece, wash, card, dye, spin. I think it may take longer.

Exam went ok yesterday, results next week

Lost in translation

2008-01-13T10:40:00.000+02:00

This is 'Lost in Translation', the drops top I posted about yesterday. I got the hang of it eventually and it's coming out nicely now.

I thought I would also post the drops jacket I completed at new year. I heavilly modified the neck. I think it turned out ok, plus I did a russian bind off on the neck which is stretchy and elegant. Overall very pleased.

Patterns and translations

2008-01-12T16:22:00.000+02:00

Well, I am not really doing much knitting or anything at the moment as I have major exams hanging over my head and it's pretty stressful. I am not doing them in English either for the first time so there is double stress present.

However, as I was a little too stressed and a little unwell today, I cast on for this....
Which I love, however, the pattern is translated from Norwegian (i think) and its not so relaxing when you knit knit knit and get to the end of a rather long row only to discover that you are not at the end of your stitches, but have 10 left over.... oh dear. I have had to start it over 3 times now. I am going to unravel it once more as I have finally sussed what is going on. Ugggghhh...

In other news, I love spinning. More on that later.

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

Ok .... we're back

2008-01-07T17:11:00.000+02:00

It's been ages since I posted. Anyway, Christmas and new year were as lovely as it gets in terms of being out of the city. I hope everyone else enjoyed Christmas and that you had a good time welcoming in the new year.

I did my back in between christmas and new year and I got a the whole drops jacket done. I finished it off in the new year and stitched up back at our place.

While I was away, a package arrived for me..... a dying and spinning kit that I ordered before christmas.

So....

I got started....

And it was great fun...

This is officially the first little piece of my very own hand dyed, hand spun and hand knitted wool...

A little rough, but we'll get there

It's a fun way to start the year. Will be back to posting more regularly now.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a good one

Christmas countdown draws to a close

2007-12-20T22:44:00.000+02:00

This is where we are headed to spend Christmas, the quiet village my folks live in.

Here Christmas is a small affair, closeknit and communal.

Here little children still sing christmas carols and people don't shop on Boxing day.

It's peaceful and it's importance is not measured in gifts.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hopefully you can experience some joy and goodwill somewhere peaceful so you can remember what it's all about after all.

'But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good-night'

"Night before Christmas" - Clement Clarke Moore

Mr Greedy and the Gingerbread house

2007-12-14T16:42:00.000+02:00

Another week ends... I cant believe it. Next weekend is Mans birthday and then ta daaa its christmas.... ouch... where does the time go??? As you can see above, Mr Greedy and his salt dough counterpart..... it turned out well and my little student was really excited when he saw I made it for him (it was all dry for his arrival thank goodness)

Below you can see the dough decorations we made. These are my students ones, which we threaded and got ready to hang before he left. We also watched the muppet christmas carol and I gave him the 'Mr Men christmas carol' to read for next year.

And here was our second christmas activity last night... A gingerbread house, complete with snowy icing and sparkly jellies. Was great fun.

Ok, I'm off for the weekend. Take care and keep warm.... it snowed here today!! I am hoping that (as usual) my folks had more snow as we are off to visit them.

See you monday folks.

Christmas dough

2007-12-12T23:32:00.001+02:00

I promised my little english student that in the last few lessons before christmas we would do conversational english for the last half of each class, over a fun christmas activity.

Last week we made paper chains.

Today we made dough ornaments for the tree. This is the last batch going in...

The big blobby thing that looks remarkably un-christmas like is in actual fact this fellow here.,...

Sorry about the picture quality, glossy books are hard to photograph. My english student hasnt really shown much enthusiasm towards anything we have read till I found one of these old books and thought I may as well give it a go. Last week we read Mr Rush and he loved it. So for this week.... Mr greedy. Student even did extra unrequested homework... pics of mr greedy with a little blurb about him in english below. I'm so impressed.

so. I am making the squiggly dough monster tonight (instead of going to bed like i should), while student is gone to surprise him tomoro when he comes. Hopefully it will be painted and dry by then.

Oh yes... and extra stars for good measure.

Opera season commences

2007-12-12T09:51:00.000+02:00

Sunday night started here....

In our favourite restaurant, which was all festive and cheerful while still being exceptionally tasteful.... check it out....

Man had Beciul Domnesc - feteasca neagra... superb (though I avoided) a wonderful romanian grape. In general romanian wine is vastly underestimated and underappreciated. People don't realise romania has been making wine far longer than france and has a really rich variety and an interesting classification system.

Then, on to the Opera, we've been waiting months to go and we couldn't make the first showing of this when it opened the opera season, but we finally made it....

We collect the programs and this one is a beauty..

I thought it would be nice to post some pics of the actual opera house interior

The chandelier...

The stalls....

The boxes..

Where we sat....

This is the frieze in the intermission recess

here, is the square, at night, with christmas lights, from the balcony at the front of the opera house.

Can you tell how much we love it?

Madame Butterfly was superb and the finale was magnificent. The walk home afterwards was chilly but really lovelly.

I realise it's wednesday and we went to the opera on sunday, however, i have been moving furniture and de-junking for 2 days..... no crafting either. Bit of knitting... finished my tam-o-shanter.... although... it's a disaster... hideously large for me and completely unsuitable.

I'm off to do something useful...

Operations and Opera

2007-12-09T14:16:00.000+02:00

The other day as we walked up the little path to our block I commented on how much I hated the state of the pavement and wondered if they were ever going to do anything about it.

The following morning I had to laugh when I woke up to this.....

Clearly, the intention to make a path ... woo hoo!!

we're going to the opera tonight, madame butterfly. I have been waiting to see it for ages and it will be my first time tonight. It will also give me a chance to model my opera gloves. Though I am sad I wont be able to have champagne or coffee in the interval.

I was very productive so far this weekend so I think it merits the treat. I listed my new needle roll and 2 bags. Very pleased and sunday mornings are easy to list on as we are awake over here before america :).... very sneaky huh?

enjoy your sundays...

Pay it forwards

2007-12-09T00:40:00.000+02:00

Ok... so not many people were interested... free gifts obviously just wern't appealing enough.... maybe next time I should offer free pints of blood with the free gifts, however.... 3 lucky (term used losely) ladies did respond. So... sewvain, Tracey and Rani, Please send me an address so that I may rain handmade gifts upon you :)

In other news... I'm trying to upload the new items into etsy which takes an age. I love making the stuff, it's relaxing.

Almost finished (halfway through) my EZ tam-o-shanter.... I got this gorgeous soft wool to knit with and mmmmmmm I love it in a lovely smokey grey.

Anyway, I had better get on.

more to post tomoro (hopefully) sorry this was a bit on the boring side.

Christmas at Christmas : : Mos Nicolae

2007-12-07T01:11:00.000+02:00

I took this picture last night as the sun set and brought the eve of christmas festivities.

Today was Mos Nicolae. This means that last night, before all the children went to bed, they cleaned their shoes and laid them on the doorstep so that Mos Nicolae (Old Man Nicolaus) would leave them sweets.

The tradition says that good girls and boys will have sweets in their shoes in the morning, whereas bad little girls and boys will have onions and turnips (winter veg) and birch rods in their shoes (the birch is to beat them)

These are our birch rods and mistletoe. The birch rods we use as part of our christmas decoration and the mistletoe hangs on our front door.

However, as time has progressed, so have birch rods, which are now thousands of varieties of decorated sticks (of various materials) and everyone gets one...and sweets.

We also went to see the nativity which was still being set up....

Much to our joy, the sheep are indeed real. Munching happily away on some hay, watching over Jesus and the gathering.

Of course, as you will have noticed (maybe) this also signifies the end of my 'no christmas til christmas' protest. We have also put up our decorations (most of)

I just love these hanging lights and modelling modestly in the foreground is Pickwick, my ring necked parrot. He will be moved the warmer room now as it is too cold for him there.

So here it is.... Advent and the christmas countdown.

Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you havn't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you havn't got a ha'penny then God Bless You