Buttons and daisies

Sometimes it's the simplest things that make me happy. I think I've just found the perfect buttons for my almost finished gilet assymetric.  Yet another set of wooden buttons but these are a little quirkier than you often find, all the more suprising seeing as they're "designer" too.  I almost never splurge on Vogue buttons as they're often pretty pricey but these, I couldn't resist and the bonus being - I got staff discount too.  How about that?  There are definate perks to working in a yarn shop!

On a completely different note, here's a little something I've been doing on and off this summer, daisy squares.  Cute hey?  I came across this pattern a while back and loved it but then after bookmarking it, promptly forgot about it as I had other things on the go. It's the Daisy Pattern by Krochet Krystal and was published for use in her charity blankets. Unfortunately by the time I went back to it the pattern was unavailable apparently due to some rather negative comments made by fellow crafters.  Something I was rather sad to hear. 

To cut a long story short I loved the pattern so much, I reverse engineered it from pictures and the like on Ravelry and hey presto, I made squares! I've since emailed the designer and made some to be included with her comfort blankets.  You can follow the story of how she started on her blanket blog. These ones are ready to be packed up and posted off and hopefully will end up as part of a lovely blanket that'll make somebody else very happy.  I've got another pile of them using up odds and ends in my stash that I'm going to make into a blanket of my own.  More of those later though.

Life is...... good, I think.

I'm generally not a great one for writing long introspective posts, this is primarily a craft blog after all.  However, until about a year or so ago, it also included odd snippets of my life with my little man as they so often influence the direction my projects take.  Events as always overtake us and while angry and disillusioned with certain members of my extended family, I made the conscious decision to exclude those parts of our life and make this a purely craft blog.  As always when you make decisions like that they invariably have an unintended side effect and I found that rather than blogging being a fun thing anymore, it had become a chore.  Hence the sporadic posting of recent months.

Anyhow, I digress, back to the present day.  Sometimes unexpected events happen to make you reevaluate your life and the way you look at things.  I've had a fantastic Easter away in Manchester, most of it spent decorating my sister's house but I also got a glorious reminder of what my life was like before responsibility kicked in and grounded me - I got to spend a completely child free weekend away with the "grown ups".  As much as I love my little man and wouldn't be without him, it also reminded me what I've been missing out on.  Don't get me wrong, my life is pretty full but I hadn't realised quite how much I'd allowed parenthood to define me rather than being my own person.  I've spent most of the last few days working out in the garden catching up on all the spring jobs.  Manual labour is great but it also gives your mind far too much free time to wander and dwell on things that have happened.  

So what to do now?  I have some wonderful friends here, in fact I have more female friends at this stage than I have ever had in my life.  They've provided so much support and encouragement over the last couple of years and I have definately grown as a result because of it, I am now designing more and have built a good foundation for my little yarny business.  I've also realised, I'm not angry any more and that I can be the bigger person, that I don't need to allow someone else's bad behaviour to affect how I view the world.  However, there's still something missing and I obviously need to get a better balance in my personal life. 

I need to make some changes and while they may not happen all that quickly, I've an idea where I need to be going and I think of how to get there.  That has to be a good thing right?  In the meantime, I'm going to make the most of everything going on here and look forward to a fun weekend with my knitty friends.  I can make random postings of things that have caught my eye and hopefully return to loving my blog again.  Has it helped to get all this off my chest?  I think so but I guess we'll find out over the next few weeks.

Who turned out the lights?

I'm finally beginning to catch up on blogging but am back with a bit of a problem.  While I carry on talking about things already finished and photographed, I can't get a decent picture of anything that's current!  With this rubbish weather we're having, my usual light box doesn't work.  All the natural light is too blue and it's bleaching out all the colours.  Greens look blue, reds and pinks become purple.

Of course I say "light box" in the loosest of terms here.  What it usually involves is a big board balanced on my bedroom windowsill covered in a white table cloth.  There's usually such good light coming in there in the morning it makes for a great place to take pictures.  It also means I have to have a blackout blind in the summer or be woken up at daybreak (but that's another story entirely).  This is also proving problematic for getting yarn uploaded to the shop.  Trying to tell people that the rather grey looking yarn in the picture is actually a beautiful shade of apricot just doesn't wash for some reason.  So, new light box set up it is and quickly hopefully.  I think I've still got some daylight bulbs tucked away in the cupboard.  Fingers crossed they'll do the job!

Time flies ... again

.....and new year has already come and gone!  Add in the snow days and chaos it caused and I have no idea where the time has gone to.  Anyhow, "Happy Almost February" everyone as it seems a bit daft saying happy new year a month late.  This is just a quickie to say no the blog isn't gone and yes, I do know it needs some tidying but I just seem to have been manically busy the last few days. I have way too many pictures to post, projects to catalogue and I'm not finished being busy yet so in the meantime I leave you with a sunset totem to make you smile.

goodbye November, where did you go?

It's been a fab weekend on the knitting front with another successful weekend knitting meet for Colchester SnB. The wind might have been whistling past the front of the hall but inside was warm and cozy with plenty of tea and cake to sustain us. I finally caught up with a copy of December's Let's Knit magazine too and so managed to check out the Fibreholics article. I had to squeal in delight when I saw they'd used a picture of my yarn to promote it! How cool is that? Actually Fibreholics continues to go from strength to strength - we completely sold out in less than 10 days this time and are planning for next year already but more of that another time.

Actually it was lovely to be able to just sit and knit and gossip all day Saturday with no pressure to be up and doing which I always have at home. Other than me casting on for a pair of much need gloves for me, there hasn't been much knitty progess here at all lately as we've been knee deep in paint and wallpaper and when I've not been decorators mate, I've been in school painting and making for the various Christmas events. Hmm, a bit of a theme developing here. As I type, we've just put the finishing touches to the sitting room walls and I can safely say, I'm all painted out for the moment.

I don't know what it is about our family, we always end up decorating in the run up to Christmas. I use the royal "we" there but it's only me and mum that actually get the work done. For some reason everyone else seems to evaporate about the time that all the stuff gets brought into the house. They're quite happy to be around for the choosing and purchasing part but the actually doing side of it is apparently one step too far. I'm beginning to realise as I get older that I am far more my mother's daughter than I ever thought I was.

Sorry this is turning into a bit of an epic, slightly random but picture free post so I think I'll finish here and be back soon with some pictures. I find that having not posted very much lately I have more to document than I realised. Toodle pip and I'll see you in December, which reminds me I must find that advent calendar for the morning.

Short and sweet.

I've been having another one of those "why do I even bother paying for this internet connection" weeks again, hence no pictures today or for the last few days. Frustratingly, I have a pile of yarn to upload to the shop and am struggling somewhat to get it online. I'll have another attempt later but as it's also the holidays now, I have to fight for some time on the computer during the day with the mighty midget himself. We need to arrange to get out more but although we're well, the same can't be said for all of his little buddies. This swine flu business is becoming a bit of a nuisance and the rubbishy weather that can't seem to make up it's mind isn't helping.

Anyhow, back later hopefully with pictures as I've more things spinny to show, a nice haul of books from the library to browse and it's about time I did a round up of what's on the needles again. If nothing else, I need to get myself back on the knitting straight and narrow as I am a serial project starter and not a lot seems to be getting finished at the minute!

Wow, what a mad few weeks it's been. I joined the PTA at the school a while back and we've been working hard to get things organised for the school fete last weekend. It was discovered that I'm one of the "arty" ones, and so I volunteered with my friend Marian to produce a set of picture boards and signs for most of the stalls. Hence the lack of knitting progress recently and also the lack of blogging updates. Here she is putting the finishing touches to the varnish on our boards. I've actually really enjoyed it all and although I was shattered after the weekend, I've rediscovered my love of painting so I shall definately be doing more. Probably on a bit of a smaller scale than these ones. Fun though aren't they? So anyway, from the sublime to the absolutely ridiculous, we are now in the midst of a swine flu outbreak. It seems that the mighty midget's school is the local hotspot and so now half of his class are being treated for it including him. It's so rampant through the populous, that they're not even testing anymore, they're just handed out the antivirus like sweets. I have to see the funny side of it though as we ended up seeing the doctor in the car park in the rain as they didn't want the MM in the building. Anybody'd think he was contagious or something?!

Our doctor's lovely and was really apologetic about the whole thing as he handed out the prescription and government gumph. At least we didn't get another one of those leaflets with the revolting sneezing man on the front of it. So that's it then, he's off school for the next few days and to be honest, he's getting bored already. By the end of the week I think I'm going to be a complete basket case. Well, that's assuming I don't have it too by then :s

Are you a Fibreholic?

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a little group of indie dyers based in the UK who got talking one day about how it would be lovely to try everyone elses yarns and fibres. So someone said, well how about a box of samples? ...... and it snowballed from there. So anyhow, to cut a long story short, it's here and it's happening. Fibreholics UK is about to launch, the samples are finished and being boxed and we're counting down to the launch day.

So just what is it? Well, it's a way of getting your hands on some fabulous yarn and fibre samples from some of the best micro dyers around and without spending a fortune. The boxes are in two sizes - costing £10 and £20 and will feature a selection of either 5 or 10 different artists work depending on the size you buy. The first boxes are planned to go on on sale at Woolfest. Yes, really that soon.

You can follow the progress of the boxes and see a selection of the samples by following the blog or looking on the Fibreholics Ravelry group. So to get you started here's a quick peek at my samples.
Mini skeins of sock yarn, Popsickle (the bright pink) on Merino/Nylon superwash and Aniseed (the blue) and Hobgoblin (the greens) both on BFL/Nylon sock yarn. I've keep a couple of samples back of both of the BFL and am currently working them into my neverending sock blanket. Pictures of that to follow soon.
Now the fibre, there's Hubba Bubba on BFL - dusky pink and reds, real bubblegum colours and then Spring Greens on Falkland roving. I love them both and hope you do too. So anyhow, I'm a fibreholic, are you?

Thought for the day

What is it about small boys and toilet humour? Pull my finger ..... enough said really!

Colchester Knits

and here are the pictures to prove it.

We'll actually, not everyone's from Colchester we had ladies from Dedham, Ipswich, Chelmsford, Manningtree, Boxted to name but a few and twenty five of us in all. Much cake was eaten, new friends made, projects shared, yarns and magazines traded.

What was great to see too was that everyone was doing different things - it's not just about the knitting you know. We had tapestry, quilting, crocheting a little spinning going on too.

All in all, it was a great fun day and as there has been so many requests for another, we decided to make it a quarterly event. In fact, we have just set the date for the next one which will be Sunday 11th July. I'm sure I'll post more about it before then but if you want to be kept up to date, stop by the Colchester SnB group on Ravelry.

Hello

So, it's been a while since I last posted but hey, I'm back. I do have my fingers firmly crossed at this point though. Was trying to find a nice picture to put up but I'm not quite sure where to start as I have projects and all sorts of other things to chronicle, not least the Colchester weekend knit meet which was fantastic. Anyhow hopefully my internet connection is back up running properly again and I'll be back soon with pictures :)

Travelling North

as I said at the end of the last post, I suddenly realised I'd not been blogging again and I'm annoyed with myself as I'd decided I'd try and post more this month. We're a week into April already, it's the holidays and we definately seem to be stockpiling Easter eggs. I also have a huge shop update to get posted but as heading to Manchester again in the morning, it'll have to wait.

We've been making the most of the lovely weather and been outside in the garden for the last few days. It's beginning to look great and now that we've cleared the bottom of the garden, I have a whole new veggie patch to fill and it's twice the size of the last one. All of the plum trees are covered in blossom too so hopefully we'll have a bumper crop this year and we've had the first of the rhubarb already. Yum. Hang on a mo, when did this turn into a gardening blog?

So to redress the balance a little, how about some yarn? Homespun yarn at that. This is some of my favourite so far, it's BFL/silk from Babylonglegs. The first bobbin came in at 26wpi, the second at 28wpi. It's more or less consistent and the finished yarn came out if I've measured it right at about 16wpi. It's lovely and it's going to make me a fantastic pair of socks :D

I love hats!

I haven't been completely unconstructive with my time lately, although the housework has slipped a bit as usual, I've been knitting like mad and dyeing away. Most of the last couple of weeks of new sock yarn hasn't actually made it as far as the shop though as the ladies of my knitting groups have dived on it instead. Still, can't complain the new yarn bases are a success and I'll definately be ordering more - the general consensus in Colchester seems to be that it needs to be superwash.

Although it's sunny again today, last week saw me making hats again. You can never have too many and I'm loving Woolly Wormhead's hats at the minute. My new haircut means I can wear beret's at last without looking really daft so I've finished a new Meret, made a Starburst hat for one of my friends and am considering doing another for me. I've also lined up Jared Flood's Porum pattern, Lisa's beret and a Flappy Cabler (sorry, those are all Rav links and I'm too lazy to find others). Never mind that I have a couple of pairs of socks on the go, I'm trying to finish two cardigans for myself, the mighty midget has put in a request for a jumper and I've also promised to knit dad a new aran. Are there enough hours in the day?

It's funny, I sat down to finish this post and suddenly realised it was a week old! Where on earth has the time gone? I only saved it to go and find some pictures of my finished hats. So here's me looking silly, wearing hats and yay, new hair.

Pattern: Starburst by Wooly Wormhead
Yarn: Wendy aran
Needles: 4.5mm

Pattern: Meret by Wooly Wormhead
Yarn: Sirdar aran with wool
Needles: 4.5mm

Rubbish pictures of me, but the hats are fine ;)

An award and some trivia

My blogging mojo has been m.i.a. recently so although I've sat down a few times to write an update, it's not got much further than a draft. Anyhow, here I am again. I'm still snuffling away with my spring cold but at least I feel like writing now. Thanks to all those who take the time to comment when they drop by, I really appreciate it so I'd like to share my recent blog award with you all. Suse has nominated me for an Honest Scrap award and in return I'm to pick 7 blogs that make me happy and nominate them in turn by posting on their blogs. Finally, to list at least 10 honest things about myself.

So here goes, ten or more trivial things about me:

1. My sister and I are exactly the same height but she looks taller as she's slimmer.
2. When I got made redundant, I spent the whole of my payout and more on a trip around the world. I had an absolute blast and met some fantastic people and wish I'd been able to travel for longer.
3. I love being outside on cold winter days so long as it's not raining.
4. My mum started me doing patchwork in my teens to stop me biting my nails in front of the tv. The patchwork grew so much, it now covers a double bed. I still haven't finished doing the final quilting part 15+ years later although I use it anyway.
5. I can cover a double bed with yarn and that doesn't include the shop stock.
6. If I have a good book to read, I can lose a whole day and it's the only time when I still bite my nails.
7. I have really low blood pressure and if I skip meals, I get migraines.
8. I talk with my hands, just like my mum and sister and I've noticed recently, I've passed it onto my son.
9. I also have never seen the whole of Titanic. Five minutes of the "happy Irish doing a jig" was more than enough.
10. I've surprised myself the last few years in that I've really enjoyed being a stay at home mum and now I keep finding excuses to put off going back to work.

Right onto the nominations and I've a bit of a confession, I've actually not been great at reading everyone else's blogs recently as I've been so wrapped up in everything going on here. I think since I started using Ravelry so much, I tend to just read the headlines rather than actually going and checking out people's individual blogs. As much as I love Ravelry, it can definately make you lazy.

So anyway, here's a few blogs that I go back to time and again and one or two new ones:
Cinders muses about... Ruth has so much to deal with health wise but she soldiers on.
knitpurldrop Paige is a transplant American in Colchester, it's great to see her enthusiasm for all things English as she crams as much of the UK into her trip before she heads back to the US to finish her studes.
Laughing Mouse I'm looking forward to seeing how Scarletti is getting on after her move. She's struck out on her own with her kids which is incredibly brave.
Babylonglegs - Sarah is an incredible dyer and it's hard not to keep buying her fibre when I have more than enough of my own already.
I saw her STRANDing there, Megan spins, dyes, knits, crochets and is far more organised than me.
Confessions of a Graveyard Gypsy. Kate's a fearless knitter, designer and publisher.
and finally another Lucy from Attic 24 who's blog I found after a knitting friend's recommendation, her blog's so bright an colourful.

Thanks everyone and keep on blogging :D

Date for your diary: 25th April

We're having our first weekend meet up and are opening our doors to anyone in the area, be it knitters, crocheters, spinners, felters - anything yarn related really. If you fancy a day out, it'd be lovely to meet you.

Meet Molly, currently the most spiteful cat on the planet. She might look beautiful but don't let that fool you. Underneath the calm interior lurks one of the meanest cats around. Oh she might be nice and come and cuddle up to you at night but let her into your room and she might just leave you a little something on the carpet. The weather is beautiful, the litter tray is clean but no my bedroom is currently her spot of choice for doing her business. All I can smell is cat wee. It stinks, it's pervasive and this is now the second week in a row that I've had my carpet up and shampooed. I even caught her in action the other morning so I know that it's her. As much as I love her - I am never having another cat!

So anyway to cheer myself up the last couple of days, I have wandering around my garden enjoying the sunshine. Let's face it, this is England so you have to make the most of it while you can. Still, if it carries on like it's started, we could have a beautiful year to come. I'd best start crossing all my fingers now. Actually, it's a bit cloudy and much chillier today which is why I'm in the study composing this instead of digging in the garden. Mind you, having shifted almost a tonne of soil between us at the weekend and also mended the greenhouse I don't feel so guilty about doing so. There's always so much to do in our garden as I'm not the only fair weather gardener in the house. It's an old place too with a pretty mature garden and having mature trees means it's never just a straightforward job to trim them back. This year it's going to involve ladders and chain saws at some point and that's well beyond my remit. I'll stick to the flower webs and the veggie patch. We did a soil test in the veggie patch at the weekend and wow, did we get a surprise. We have the most beautiful, light, free draining soil. Like a lot of Essex, we're on sand and over the years we have piled barrow load upon barrow load of compost into it. By rights we should be able to grow the most fantastic carrots but they never get to more than 2 inches long regardless of the variety. Anyhow, the test showed that the garden is alkaline and not just a little. I'm not sure we'll be able to pour enough manure in it to be able to fix it. Well, certainly not this year anyway.So anyway, here's my pick of the spring flowers so far. Helebores poking out from under their leaves at the bottom of the garden. This is the first year they've done as well - they don't like our regular summer droughts.

Pulmonaria or Lung Wort or as my gran always called it, Jacob's coat. It flowers really early in the spring and then all summer you get huge green spotty leaves.
The first of the violas.
Frogs, lots of them but so far, no spawn. I found young newts at the weekend too while I was moving some of the stones about. They were obviously still hibernating so I covered them back up. Finally the winter clematis - about the only thing in the garden that's a bit late flowering this year. Mind you, that could just down to it being in the shadiest part of the garden. Ah spring is definately springing, before we know it it'll be Easter.

I've just had the best day ever and I'm now sat here with the cheesiest smile on my face. It started out with a trip out to a new weekly knitting group (Monday mornings at Fillpots Nurseries in Boxted if you're in the Colchester area). I met some lovely new ladies, caught up with a couple of people that I hadn't seen for a long time and had tea and cake. Pimped out my shop a little and with the help of the others converted another knitter to start on her first pair of socks. I gave her some spare needles and a pattern and sold her some sock yarn - hehe, aren't I shameless!?

It's been gloriously sunny all weekend and I'm still on a high for working or should I say, skivvying in the garden. Then tonight when I picked up my emails, I had one to say my advert has been approved. I am officially a ravelry advertiser and of course, when I logged on, I saw my first advert. Ah, maybe I'm just easily pleased but hey, my little shop is being advertised on Ravelry. Yay!

What's in a meme?

This meme has been doing the rounds for a while but I confess I filched this from several other blogs including Kate's and Kai's. The tip is to mark in bold the things you have done, the things you plan to do in italics and leave the rest.

Afghan
American/English knitting
Baby items
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Combination knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing spinning fibre
Dyeing with plant colors
Dying yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Free-form knitting
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Gloves
Graffiti knitting
Hair accessories
Hats: Cuff-up
Hats: Top-down
Holiday related knitting
Household items
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Knitting a gift
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting art
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting on a loom
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting to make money
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fibre yarn
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting with dpns
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with wool
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Participate in an exchange
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe-up
Socks: top-down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Tassels
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male how to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing
Tubular CO
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Writing a pattern

Some of the things I think I've done but am not entirely sure what they mean so I've left them. Anyway it looks like I've done a fair bit already but I still have plenty left to try :)

New Year, New Beginnings

When I first started looking into knitting online a couple of years ago I googled and came across a fabulous knitting community who welcomed me with open arms. I made friends, picked up tips, shared the highs and lows of life and knitting and discovered my local knitting group who I'd now be lost without. So it was somewhat of a shock to discover last week, with no warning, that the Angel Yarns knitting forums were no more. Not even the moderators had an inkling of what was to happen and the ripples of frustration and fury continue to flow. All the lost links, the depth of information shared, the friendships that had been built all lost at the touch of a button.

Anyway, as with all good things something will always rise from the ashes and so begins the Phoenix Knitting Forums. Built by it's membership out of love for something irretrievably lost and also no longer tied to seemingly dying yarn shop. Huge thanks have to go out to Traxia, Zyle and Peter for stepping up and building us all a lovely new home.

Now that it's no longer tied to one shop, we can also promote other people including indie dyers like myself. If you stop by the (I suspect) soon to be renamed Angel Yarns ravelry group, you can join in their first competition. This week the prize is going to be donated by me and if I understand correctly the questions will relate to my little shop. So for a chance to win a skein of my sock yarn, look out for the questions on Friday. The colour's still a secret but will be on a theme of "new year, new beginnings".

Here's one I made earlier

I have been intending to post about spinning in Australia but to be honest, I have stopped and started the post I'd been writing several times and in the end, I gave up. I did manage to take a snapshot of one of my regular spinning haunts on the veranda though. You can just make out Ashford traddy I got to play with and the pile of fleece I also got stuck into. I've got some more pictures somewhere so I'll have to root them out too. So anyway, as the title says, here's one I made earlier. Yarn!I picked this fibre up from a lovely lady I met at the Atherton Tablelands Spinning Guild Meeting. She couldn't remember what it was but there was 200g and it was green and soft and I fell in love with it. I've still got a bit of the fibre left actually but I also have just under 400m of rather nice yarn and it's a fairly consistent 19wpi. My first ever homespun sock yarn!

This is one that I started before I went to Oz. I was a little worried that the single might have lost a bit of it's integrity having sat on the bobbin for so long but actually, it plied up really nicely. It started out as some of my own dyed Corriedale (above) and ended up like this.100g and approx 315m at 18wpi :)

It occurred to me the other day that I keep on spinning and not actually knitting any of it up so now I'm in search of suitable patterns to knit them all into. Suggestions for the slubby earlier yarns are always appreciated.