Penguin Horde

Halp! Me brain haz pain!

2008-10-28T11:20:00.008Z

I thought for years that I should like knitting socks but all bar one previous attempt have failed miserably, with me yelling and pouting and then frogging. Simply, I didn’t the experience one bit. The successful socks were from a two needle side seam pattern, and I loved knitting them.

Saturday evening, I decided to stop procrastinating and try a toe-up pair, using the universal pattern from Vogue Ultimate Book of Sock Knitting. The toe wasn't great but acceptable, I passed the hurdle of the misprint/mistake in the foot length section (suppressed rant!) and on to the heel some time on Sunday afternoon.

For the life of me, I couldn't get an acceptable result on my short rows - nasty, nasty holes. I tried three times, then started trying other variations (Japanese, etc etc). I still couldn't manage an acceptable result. I practised several heels with different yarn and they were great, back to my sock and another rubbish result. (Silver lining - alternate uses for short heels blossomed in my head, more of that later.)

Out came the waste yarn as I decided that I needed to knit dammit not futter around with the same stitches over and over again, and an afterthought heel would be a learning experience too. I did cock up a bit there because I was tired and frustrated and not quite well but nothing that's unfixable and well, learning experience is learning experience. Now I've got a lovely tube with a contrasting stripe and while I'm still knitting up the leg I have been considering the Heel Problem.

Except I've been looking at different heel methods online and I'm totally confused. How, for the love of parsnips, am I supposed to choose which kind of heel? There are too many options. I need someone to just say, "Silly moo! This is the heel you're looking for - use it!"

So, in summation, me brain haz pain.

But Richard Armitage strips very nicely indeed, so I think I'll be staying tuned to Spooks in the hopes of seeing scenes showing him with no shirt. After all, what's the point of the character having all those tattoos if we don't get to see them regularly?

Catching Up

2008-04-05T12:11:00.003+01:00

Two months since my last post! How quickly one gets out of the habit of blogging, eh?

Me-wise - it was the middle of March before I actually started to feel physically well. I've been doing a group therapy thing which has been an emotional strain but has led to improvements in my mental health. I managed to attend the knitting group in Borders a couple of weeks ago, and intend to go back. General life stuff rather than anxiety has prevented me going the last two weeks, and I won't be able to go next week because I have another engagement but the week after that? Yeah, I want to go.

Don't try to catch up on four months of housework in ten days. It ain't gonna happen and you'll feel horrible when you fail. Set a more reasonable goal of just doing 'some' catching up.

Wool-wise - I got my German learn to knit book but it took three weeks to arrive and by then my brain had moved onto a new mini obsession. Can't remember what it was, because several mini obsessions have come and gone since then, including the Quest for The Perfect Sock Cast On, an epic journey which would have brought Indiana Jones to knees and which had the end result of me deciding that I'd rather do a toe up pattern and then cast off stretchily in rib. My book and pattern collection has expanded but that probably deserves a post all to itself because I have acquired some beautifully freaky vintage patterns.

I've finally finished the kiddy raglan in Marble Chunky but Lilliana and the Smoke Ring are still lurking. Admittedly, Lilliana just needs all her ends sewn in, and if I could just stop feeling indecisive about long I want the Smoke Ring, I could probably rattle through the rest in a couple of days now my health has returned to it's standard settings.

This is my most recent FO: a crocheted baby bonnet which is supposed to resemble a flower shoved onto the baby's head. The pattern is in Leisure Arts #3176 Pretty Posies. I enjoyed making it as it was both easy and absorbing. There are actually two small mistakes in it, and I didn't frog back to re-do and make it perfect. I figured that if I couldn't find the mistakes without serious examination, no one else would be able to. This is me trying to defeat my perfectionist streak.

This is my most recent cast on. Ignore the colour, it's actually a much nicer bright orange. The pattern is a Patons pattern from 1988 which I got last weekend in a St Andrews charity shop. The yarn is Sirdar Salsa. I like entrelac, the eyelet entrelac isn't really any harder to do, and I like the look and feel of Sirdar Salsa. However, the pattern and the yarn don't suit each other. I feel that the slight fuzziness of the Salsa interferes with the clarity of the eyelets and I would prefer much crisper stitch definition for them, so it's going to be rattled back into non-existence.

I think I'm going to make myself finish off something before I give myself the treat of a new project. This is mainly because I don't have a strong preference for any particular pattern just now, and the horror of weaving in ends, joining seams, etc. will probably be a huge inspiration.

I'm going to also try and catch up on blog reading but the internet isn't holding my interest much ATM. I much around on Ravelry a couple of times a week but not much else.

Pattern Lust Strikes Again

2008-02-05T14:28:00.000Z

I freely admit that I have more knitting and crochet patterns than I will probably ever be able to personally make. In English.

And I am always seeing more patterns I have to have. In English.

A few years ago, I looked at free online patterns in French and German, and so taught myself the rudiments of understanding French and German knitting instructions. I didn't knit any of the ones I saved, and the knowledge I forced into my brain has slowly leaked out again.

However, I have now come across patterns which, again, I must have and must knit but it seems unlikely that I will be able to afford them. One is a toy pattern, and as it seems to be rare, it will always command high prices on Ebay. In English, that is. In German, the pattern is a free download. I am now Very Over-excited. Caffeine, chocolate fingers and forgetting my medication last night may be (small) additional factors.

You can see why I'm excited, can't you? My mum loves this pattern too but alas, I doubt that she could be arsed learning German knitting instructions. She is also even meaner than me when it comes to deciding how much cash should be handed over for a pattern.

The other book(let) which has me in a lust is another Schachenmayr Inspirations, number 74 to be precise. It has Folk patterns, and seems to be hard to get in English, but somewhat easier in German. I could probably manage the gnomes but a garment from a German pattern? Hmm, mustn't get too ambitious. Maybe I should knit a gnome before committing to buy Inspirations 74, or maybe look at a pattern for a garment in German at least.

And as for why it's been so long since my last post - it's not the fault of Ravelry, like many other bloggers who fallen by the wayside because of Rav-addiction. I've had pneumonia, from which I'm still recovering. The cough is much better (apologies to anyone I terrified with my coughing fits) but I tire even more easily than usual and have to take longer to rest. Don't make me laugh, because that will still cause a coughing fit, though one less likely to result in me seeing stars in a black sky. To highlight the seriousness, I didn't knit or crochet for the best part of two weeks, and last Wednesday I went to Craft Group for the first time since the second week of December. To unhighlight the seriousness, a course of antibiotics and now some codeine linctus is taking care of me, unlike those poor souls who end up in hospital or even die.

Now, see how medicines warn us not to operate machinery if it makes us feel drowsy, does that include computers? A computer is definitely machinery, isn't it? Perhaps that explains some of my recent online purchases. I was adversely affected by my cough bottle. I was drowsy and accidentally bought two balls of Noro Kureyon, the feel of which I don't like. It might even explain the book I bought yesterday: Two Balls or Less. As my stash is mostly made up of two balls or less of a myriad different types of yarn, this might help me use up more of it.

Especially after I learn how to first knit with my feet, and then knit at the same time with my hands and feet.

Happy Tuesday!

2007-11-20T18:05:00.000Z

Why is it Happy Tuesday? Well, the Davebeast is off work this week and we're having fun just loafing around together. My broadband connection is up and running after the breakdown at the weekend. We saw a fab film yesterday - Beowulf. I managed to take some good (for me) pictures this morning.

This is the raglan sweater I have been working on. It's done in James C Brett Marble Chunky and is my first go at working a sweater in the round. I have been using Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, which is Plug & Play for knitters.

I like the way the stripes have worked up, though it was a bit of an issue for me at first. I do like things to be symmetrical, you see, and the sleeves definitely don't match. I mucked around trying to find the same starting point for the second sleeve and eventually decided that I would lose too much yarn and hey! why not just go for it? The sleeves are thus totally different up the raglans.
This is my second attempt at joining all the pieces together and finishing off the top. I was unhappy with the decreasing the first time, and when I cast off, I flung the damn thing across the sofa. 'S not a good reaction to a nearly finished WIP, is it? So I frogged and re-did, this time without the pesky stitch markers (which I don't need) that had caused the problem in the first place. Now I'm pleased with raglans, and those lovely angled shoulder stripes.
I love decreasing, so raglans (like hats) are always going to be favourite projects for me.

This yummy redness is for my Vince Noir Glam Rock Ski Hat, or Tundra Hat, from The Mighty Boosh, (Series 1, Episode 4). There is an informal KAL in the Ravelry Boosh group I'm in. Donnac1968 and Knittyinpink have already done theirs.

I'm going to follow in Donna's footsteps a bit. I've bought the same yarn as she did - 100% wool chunky, made in Latvia (!) because I want a felted hat. Mine is going to have a touch of glam rock added by the use of a red lurex thread knitted along with the main yarn. I have already knitted a tension square (which went missing two minutes before I got out the camera) and four inches by four inches equals 15 stitches by 18 rows. As soon as I find that gorram thing it's getting tortured by being dunked in very hot and then very cold water and scrubbed violently. Once I've got the post-felting size I can start what pattern (if any) I'm going to use. I like the way the lurex looks in my sample and it will be interesting to see what felting does to it. I'm travelling to Belfast at the weekend, and a hat on thick circs in thick wool seems like an ideal coach/boat project.

I got some great acquisitions at the weekend but I shall post about them separately because otherwise there would be too many pictures for one poor post to sustain.

Booshfest!

2007-11-15T16:19:00.001Z

I've spent a large part of this afternoon absorbing Booshness. The following is just one of the many fine things my eyes have viewed this day, sir. It is a compelling and intellectually dark piece from Comic Relief. I hope your psyche can deal with the dark darkness within this clip.

Do not forget, sir, that Series 3 of the glorious brilliance that is the Mighty Boosh starts tonight on the televisualbox. Or if you are a fiend, sir, a veritable fiend, you may have already watched it on the BBC website. All I can say, sir, is Shame on You. Yes, Shame on You, sir! You have deserved to suffer in silence, swallowing back salty spoilers while your friends quiver in orgasmic anticipation. Yes, sir, ORGASMIC anticipation.

I have already completely covered my sofa in plastic sheeting for The Event, and fluid-proofed my knitting. No more need be said on that subject, sir.

Resolution? What resolution?

2007-11-01T21:07:00.000Z

Yeah, yeah, I've made several resolutions recently, and broken them already.

Blog more often. Kiboshed by illness.
Work every day on Liliana & Smoke Ring. As above.
Not start any more projects until current two finished. Sabotaged by illness.

I've just not been able to cope with any sort of stitch pattern, because my brain is foggy. After spending three hours last week crocheting Liliana, with a net result of minus one round, I decided that it would better to leave off working on anything to which I have an emotional commitment. The experience was so frustrating that I became very depressed and upset. After that I decided that comfort knitting was the order of the day.

Hence James C Brett Marble Chunky and fat circular needles. I now have a new mildly daft hat, most of a pair of mittens (number two needs a thumb & a finger) and the main body of a child's raglan sweater. Sleeves are almost progressing. These items have provided proof of my contrary nature, as if anyone were in any doubt about this.

Recent purchases included Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns and Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I decided to eschew my usual scraps of paper and follow the instructions provided in these books. It would be soooooo simple and straightforward - no brain work required, just read and knit.

Except I didn't bother with any of the crown shapings for the hat, using a three needle cast-off so I could just stop knitting at a point when I got fed up. And the mittens? Well, I decided I wanted trigger finger mittens, and that meant mixing and matching the mitten and glove patterns, using numbers for two different tensions because my mittens were 4 stitches per inch and the 'largest' tension for the glove pattern is 5 stitches. My tension for the raglan is 3.5 stitches, and the book instructions are for whole numbers only. So, I'm using the length measurements for one size and the stitch numbers for another size. And I couldn't decide what kind of ribbing to use, so I've done a provisional cast-on with the intention of knitting on an I-cord edging later which is a suggestion from the book, except now I'm thinking I want a garter stitch border worked so the rows are at right angles to the sweater body and attached as I work, which isn't suggested. Contrary, definitely. At least I didn't spend several hours looking through my pattern collection in order to choose a pattern I could largely ignore.

The Marble Chunky is feels great to knit with, and I think it looks lovely. Pictures soon, once my brain can cope with the extra activity.

*There's a better way of saying that, but my brain can't remember it at the moment.

Nighty-night!

Mega SEX!

2007-10-03T16:29:00.001+01:00

This is the most yarn I've ever bought in one go. That's ten 500g packets. Including delivery, the yarn cost approximately 29p a ball. There are one hundred 50g balls. There are forty balls of Sirdar Frenzy and sixty of Sirdar Salsa.

I am extremely excited. My sister is pole-axed by the news. See, I had told the Maternal Unit and Female Sibling Unit how much yarn I was expecting, and how little it had cost, along with it being forty-eight hour delivery. They were dubious, and were pretty sure that I must have got it wrong or misread something, because it was just not believable. I can't blame them; I barely believed it myself.

The Maternal Unit is currently away from her station. The Female Sibling Unit was, I think, a little put out to be proved wrong. She does not have the Knitting Gene which has turned myself and the Maternal Unit into such frenzied stash accumulators. I hope she waits until the Maternal Unit is sitting down before passing on the news.

I had assured myself that the delivery would be tomorrow, so when I entered the building and was pounced on by a concierge to take charge of my Very Big Box, I may have shrieked slightly. I'm not sure about that, but I do remember the concierges grinning at me, so I must have done something funny.

Anyway, the yarn is not all mine. Half of it is for the Maternal Unit, though there had been muted mumblings about maybe we should have a hundred balls each as it's such a bargain. Dave is largely reconciled to the arrival of the yarn because half is only resident temporarily. I think he's going to be pleasantly surprised by how little space it takes up.

In other news, I have completed the sleeve tube for Liliana, and have started on the central section. I tried the sleeve tube on at Craft Group, and was told by the group leader that it would look much better on her, so I let her put it her. It was too big, but she wants it anyway. I think she is now convinced that she must learn to crochet, after she failed to convince the other crocheting member to make a Liliana for her. Envy is such a marvellous incentive towards learning new skills, don't you think?

Woo Hoo!

2007-10-01T14:49:00.000+01:00

Not only is my living room sunny today, but I know where my camera is, and the batteries were fully charged! This means - pictures!!!

First off, sticky cake goodness. Looks yummy, but not as yummy as it tasted!

Next, my two current active WIPs. The top one is the Liliana Pineapple Jacket, worked in Patons Spritz, in Silver. The main body is just basic V-stitch so I'm dashing through this at a reasonably quick pace. I actually started this last Tuesday night (about 3 a.m.) but I decided on Friday that I wasn't happy with the drape, ripped out it and started again with a bigger hook. It's turning out much better this time and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I am a little concerned about the weight, and wondering if it's going to sag drastically, but if it does, Frogging is My Friend.

This is the Flared Smoke Ring, which I started at the beginning of September. It's having a bit of rest because I'm obsessing over Liliana. I only need to do about another four or five inches but I'm in a crochet mood, not a knitting one. I did think that I would do a bit of each every day, but that was just a sop so that I could break my word to myself to not start Liliana until I had finished the Smoke Ring. The yarn I'm using is laceweight from Handpainted Yarns. I love the way the colours are working up in the spiralling stripes, and it is like knitting with warm air. Yum yum yum.

These bottom two pictures are of loot from a knitty friend. She knitted the face cloths and I promise you, the stitches aren't wobbly looking in real life - that's just my shoddy photography.

I've decided to try blogging regularly again, mainly because it helps me remember what I've been making. I feel like I haven't produced anything for years, but actually I have, just haven't put them into long term memory, i.e. blogged 'em. I'd been feeling very inadequate about the pictures I take, and had decided that either me or the camera or both of us were just plain rubbish. However, I managed to take some pretty good pictures last week Outside, so I started thinking that maybe it wasn't me or the camera, maybe it was the conditions in which I was trying to take the pictures. I shall just have to keep trying, and perhaps good blog pictures won't be a matter of a fluke.

Maybe Me....Maybe Not

2007-06-30T17:34:00.000+01:00

It says I'm Slightly Functional. Well, I can't disagree with that.

"I Never" meme

2007-05-16T17:46:00.000+01:00

I got this from KnittyinPink. Edit the list, bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

In knitting news, I have quite a few FOs to post, several WIPs and some luscious yarn I bought from Hand Painted Yarns. But as I'm still having a bit of a camera oops, and there doesn't seem any point in posting without pictures, there will be a further delay. Plus there is some major scale housework and reorganisation happening chez Pengy, as I prepare for the arrival of a new member of the household. Yes, after years of longing and sighing, my dishwasher arrives on Friday. More guilt-free knitting will be happening very soon. I mean, that I'll be feeling less guilty about knitting, not that there will be any more than already happens. There will be probably be more baking though.

Snigger ...

2007-04-17T19:35:00.000+01:00

I was in the chemists today. There was a man seeking advice from the assistant. He was talking very quietly and the assistant wasn't.

"mumble mumble mumble" he says

"IS IT JUST DIARRHEA?"
"mumble"
"IS IT JUST DIARRHEA OR ARE YOU VOMITING AS WELL?"
"mumble"
"WELL, THERE ARE DIARRHEA REMEDIES BUT IT DEPENDS ON WHETHER YOU'VE JUST GOT DIARRHEA OR OTHER THINGS AS WELL."

This conversation went on for several minutes, with the assistant mentioning DIARRHEA in 98% of her sentences. I had been standing next to him at the counter but I moved away "to browse" after the first D-word. Someone else then came in, stood next to him, got caught by the D-word, and did that embarrassed shuffle thing.

The assistant's normal tone is pretty loud but I'm not sure if it's always that loud. Maybe That Word has a special echo effect or something.

Dave asked me if I laughed. Nope. There wasn't even a twitch of my lips. I savoured the experience internally. Course, I laughed my socks off when I was telling Dave.

Not dead, just slacking ...

2007-04-14T22:13:00.000+01:00

I couldn't possibly comment on the accuracy of these results.

Arcane Trickster

48% Combativeness, 60% Sneakiness, 82% Intellect, 41% Spirituality

Brilliant and sneaky: You are an Arcane Trickster!

Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you've fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't.

Arcane Tricksters combine arcane magic with rogue skills and sensibilities. They use their magic to confuse their opponents or to augment their more mundane, roguish skills. If you thought it was annoying keeping an eye that that rogue, the Arcane Trickster is probably picking your pocket from the other side of the room.

Both smart and sneaky, you're probably the type of person that loves planning practical jokes... either that or knocking over banks.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Combativeness
You scored higher than 99% on Sneakiness
You scored higher than 99% on Intellect
You scored higher than 99% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

My knitting week

2007-03-09T19:43:00.000Z

Monday Morning

Tuesday Morning

Wednesday Morning

This is the 'entrelac cushion', pattern published in the home supplement with the current issue of Simply Knitting. Do not ask about the pattern itself; it should have been proof-read more thoroughly. As you can from the pictures, I fairly cracked on with this, until it was time for the top triangles to be done. I attempted the pattern instructions at least four times, and it just didn't work out. I spent time ranting, then browsing my books, then googling. I found a solution which looked like it might work but decided to give the actual pattern one more try. Because I didn't expect it to work, I didn't pay attention to what I was doing, and the first section worked out correctly. Um. Not sure what to think. Well, obviously, thinking was not the answer - just trust that the fingers know what they are doing. For the next section I kinda paid attention, and it only kinda worked. Um. Confusing. Didn't pay attention to the next section, it worked fine. Paid attention while not paying attention in a kinda chaos magic way and thus was able see what I'd been doing. Then after a scribbled margin note, I paid attention, cocked up, had to frog, did something unpleasant to the section below, meaning that more serious frogging is now necessary, so the cushion front is currently languishing on the floor next to my knitting chair.

Despite my ranting I have enjoyed this. It's been a while since I did any entrelac, and the last time my skills at knitting & purling backwards were rather rudimentary. Now I am teh rocksor at this working backwards lark, entrelac is brilliant fun. Therefore, I am going to do the back in entrelac as well, probably in two colours, if I have something in my stash which will do. I have some dark cream which might work. If not, then one colour only, and I will add interest through embellishment with beads, ribbon or such like.

I have been knitting between the last post and this, but it's been either secret knitting or boring to blog about, i.e. lots of stocking stitch in silver grey. Hmm. What did I recently get a pattern for, which is silver grey? Might it be a K9? Couldn't possibly comment.

On Sunday I'm going to the SECC in Glasgow for the Creative Stitches Show. I'm trying not to think about it, otherwise I'll get too excited and then there'll be trouble. But - I want to make a list of things to look for, so I have to think about it without thinking about it. I'm a tad out of practise at that, because I do practically no magic these days. If I had realised before, however, that chaos magic skills are transferable to knitting, I would have been more assiduous about practising them.

Anyway, please feel free to peruse the list of exhibitors at the show, and tell me which ones I should not miss. I'm so excited about seeing the knitted garden. (Saddo that I am.)

PS The yarn I'm using for the cushion was in fact bought for this shawl. However, I needed to knit entrelac on Sunday night, that 400g ball was nice and conveniently placed, and I had been thinking that it was a mite scratchy for a truly comfy shawl. These accidents will happen when one has a disorganised stash. I shall just have to get another 400g of aranweight. Perhaps on Sunday? ;D

The Violence of the Lambs

2007-02-10T23:06:00.000Z

Fibre freaks everywhere, watch out!! Now the sheep bite back!!

Dave and I are now mad to see this film.

Map Meme

2007-02-10T02:29:00.001Z

Create your own visitor map!

PS This is my 100th post!

Book Diary

2007-02-09T22:42:00.000Z

I tend to not think of reading as a proper activity so when I'm thinking about all the things I haven't done, I forget that I've buried in books. There's not much point in me blogging about books I'm currently reading, because most books only last a couple of sessions.

I can't remember most of what I read during January so here we go, in random order:

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
Usually read several times a year, because I find it soothing.

All Fun & Games Until Someone Loses An Eye by Christopher Brookmyre
Great fun. Need my own copy. Brookmyre remains one of my favourite authors. The characters are brilliant.

The Torment of Others by Val McDermid
Reasonable, but no urge to re-read it.

Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan
Good fantasy, interesting characters. Will read the rest of the series.

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs
Usual enjoyable Reichs fare.

Blood Pact by Tanya Huff
Same ilk as Anita Blake but without the torrid sex scenes. The book was only just bearable, and I won't be reading any of the others.

Orcs by Stan Nicholls
I'd looked at this book several times in the shop and eventually borrowed it from the library. I'm glad I didn't buy it because then I would have felt obliged to read all of it. I managed about 45 pages before giving up. Blow by blow battle scenes are not my kind of fantasy reading.

Jack the Ripper's Black Magic Rituals by Ivor Edwards
Dave chose this book so obviously I've read it first. Pretty standard Ripper book - "I've got it right, everyone else got it wrong" but interesting take on the murders. The different perspective comes from the author having been a professional criminal for thirty years, and some personal anecdotes about being a slaughterman add depth to the usual skilled/unskilled killer debate. Has some different illustrations from the usual. Doesn't seem to know about killers' comfort zones, though.

The Crow Road by Iain Banks
I'm glad I bought this book, and sad it took me so long to read it.

Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre
Absolutely hilarious. The first chapter was rough and put me off, but I came back to the book a few days later. The rest of the book more than makes up for the ropey beginning. A comic masterpiece.

Kafka on the Short by Haruki Murakami
After I read this, I didn't read anything else for a couple of days. I needed the time to absorb what I'd just read. I liked this a great deal and would recommend it, just as it was recommended to me.

Ashworth Hall by Anne Perry
I only read this because it was one of the few Pitt books I haven't read. The main entertainment came from the comments that a previous reader had written in the margins of this library book. Some of the comments on historical inaccuracy were the 'drivel' that the person had called the book, and I almost feel a need to track down this critic and point out his/her errors. As a Pitt book it was okay, not one of the good ones.

King Rat by China Mieville
An excellent book with some amazingly evocative descriptions of music, London and rotten food.

One Shot by Lee Child
I enjoyed this book but I don't know if I would read any more by the same author. The main character was too much of a Mary Sue for my taste.

Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich
Funny but I wish the main character wasn't such a dicktease. If she's not going to have sex with Hooker, then she shouldn't let him get away with feeling her breasts without slapping him, and there's no need to sleep in the same bed as him. It put me off.

Expotition Reeport

2007-02-07T09:10:00.000Z

On Saturday I spent four-plus hours travelling so I could spend two hours here

learning how to produce this with a drop spindle

I don't feel I really understand what I'm doing but I'm sure if I keep practising I will be able to produce yarn which isn't twisty. Of course I bought a drop spindle kit! I haven't managed to hurt myself with the spindle yet but the roleplaying guys on Sunday evening were looking rather dubious as I was swinging it around.

The yarn isn't finished yet. I have to 'set' it, which involves dunking & soaking in water and then hanging up to dry. If it were thinner, I would 'ply' it, i.e. twist it together with another length, but given how thick it is in places, I think that might be a daft plan. This means when I hang the hank up to dry I have to weight it. I think this might be a bit fraught, given my clumsiness and Dave's erratic observation skills. Where can I hang the weighted hank where it will get plenty of ventilation and heat, yet not be liable to drop on heads? Further thought is necessary.

I enjoyed the class but the vagaries of rural bus routes meant a much longer journey than if I had gone by car. Perhaps I should start scouting for fibre freaks who drive & have cars. Apparently there is a knitting group which meets at Borders now, but it's on a Wednesday which simply isn't suitable for me.

The drop spindle class was the first part of my 2007 plan to stretch my boundaries. I thought if I started at the extreme end of scale, other parts might seem easier. In the end, it was Too Much for me, and it's taken me three days to recover, physically and mentally. As I said, I enjoyed the class but despite being interested in other Twist Fibre classes, I won't go again unless I can arrange another way to get there. My next Expotition will be probably be the March trip to the Creative Stitching Show in Glasgow.

Hmm, yes, my boundary stretching will probably be all related to yarn in one way or another.

Anyway, back to Twist Fibre. The shop is well stocked with items I usually only see online, including the most sock yarn I've ever seen in one place. The fibre was arranged in Pick & Mix fashion and was very tempting as was the penguin needle felting kit (duh!). I resented the ten quid I'd spent on travel because it deprived me of goodies. However, Twist Fibre do sell online so there may be some future purchases that way.

Time for Craft Group.

What?! A Sewing WIP!!!

2007-01-29T13:20:00.000Z

This is most (probably) of a knitting bag. Made by me. On my sewing machine. Scary biscuits. I even put the zip in by myself without help. I admit it, I am stunned. Perhaps even unable to parry...

Okay, as yet it has no top and no bottom, and they will require more skills that I do not have. The process involves putting bias binding round circles. Now, I haven't attached bias binding to anything before, and it seems that circles are more difficult than rectangular shapes. I didn't even know what bias binding was six months ago so this is going to be an exciting process with much "Aiee!" and "Ay Caramba!"

I have Googled for instructions. Jeanette did show me last week at Craft Group but I've forgotten. The information has been pushed out of my brain by the acquisition of knowledge about bobbins. (It transpires I only have only one bobbin which works in my sewing machine, which is partly why my stitching is in white instead of a matching camel colour. I'm not telling you the real reason but it might sound like frain bart.)

Using the sewing machine results in shrieking and other cries of distress which summon the Dave as fast as an ultra-cheap sale at HMV. Sometimes I put my foot down a tad too heavily on the pedal, the machine zooms off like some turbo charged monster (super fast for a 99 year old) and I shriek in fright, followed by realisation of what I've done and some insane cackling ensues. Then the whole process starts over again about three minutes later.

Obviously, at the moment I'm just putting off the evil moment when I have start pinning binding to fabric. I may need a bit of a rest first. Two or three years should do it.

Winning Streak!!

2007-01-26T17:51:00.000Z

This last week, I have had amazing luck on Ebay. I've snagged three pattern books I have wanted for years. Happy happy joy joy!

The first was the Dennis the Menace pattern book. I already had a Dennis and a Gnasher from a magazine pullout but I wanted Beryl the Peril and Desperate Dan, desperately. The bid came in well under budget, so I was pure chuffed.The Hanna-Barbera booklet also became mine for much less than the usual selling price. Anyone remember the name of those mice? My memory has failed me in this instance. It was Pebbles and Bam Bam I wanted here.
But the most spectacular win of all was this:

I've wanted this book for about four years, but every time I've bid, the price has rapidly gone out of my budget. My lust was recently intensified by Knittyinpink sharing some of pictures from the inside. My lust-o-meter bust its gasket when I saw the Action Man outfits. I am now extremely pleased to have got my own copy for under a fiver (inc. P&P). I can't stop wriggling with excitement. I paid for it about three minutes after the auction finished. It would have been sooner but Dave interrupted me. I wonder when the book will arrive? Not soon enough!! I'd better get some projects finished ASAP.

Fingers crossed, my luck continues for another few days as I have a bid in for another long-time lust object. I won't say what in case it jinxes my chances.

Great Sadness...

2007-01-21T01:37:00.000Z

Now, my pal Dr Sordid RIP's anybody and everybody. I'm hardly ever that interested in the recently departed of the famous kind.

I've just had my first proper trawl around the web since before Christmas, having been lanquishing in the doldrums. I'm very sad to learn that Robert Anton Wilson died last week. He was one of those humans who deserved to live forever.

Insomnia Strikes!

2006-11-20T16:59:00.000Z

Actually, I'm not sure that it is insomnia. Once I fall asleep I'm mostly okay but last night it took over three hours for me to doze off.

As I was in my own room, I passed the time in a strangely productive manner. First of all, I made stitch & row markers for a maternal Christmas present. That's not the strange bit.

I have a compartmentalised case in which I keep my beads, buttons & other bits and bobs. I decided that the bits and bobs were taking up vital bead room so I moved them to one of those white embroidery thread boxes. Then I noticed that there were googly eyes mixed up with rhinestones, so picked them out. To cut a long story short, I ended up sorting several hundred rhinestones by shape, then several dozen googly eyes into round & oval. Dave laughed at me, because I make fun of him reading his comics in alphabetical order. I don't care, it will be easier to find the right rhinestone when I start making my Christmas cards and it was very soothing activity which helped me relax enough to fall asleep.

I'm not anal, I just prefer things to be arranged. Nothing wrong in that. Now I've arranged one medium sized box, I can move on to the entire rest of my flat. Yes, sirree, that's what I'm going to do. Dave will also have to be properly instructed in the correct arrangement of everything.

But only if I never fall asleep again.

Quizzy!

2006-11-15T15:57:00.001Z

You Are An ISFP

The Artist

You are a gifted artist or musician (though your talents may be dormant right now).
You enjoy spending your free time in nature, and you are good with animals and children.
Simply put, you enjoy bueaty in all its forms and live for the simple pleasures in life.
Gentle, sensitive, and compassionate - you are good at recognizing people's unspoken needs.

You would make a good veterinarian, pediatrician, or composer.

What's Your Personality Type?

Quizzy!

2006-11-15T15:57:00.000Z

You Are An ISFP

What's Your Personality Type?

There & Back Again

2006-11-10T19:52:00.000Z

On Wednesday afternoon the Davebeast & I went to Perth, he for a job interview and me to scout a previously unvisited wool shop. There was a fabric cum craft shop I was also very keen to visit, and I had made a list of charity shop addresses. Preparation is everything, you know.

Things did not go according to plan. The fabric/craft shop was no more - dead dead dead - but there were far more charity shops than listed in Scoot. I must have been in at least six or seven, and Davebeast thinks I missed one.

I scored Charity Shop yarn - lurid pink mohair, royal blue mohair, black chunky & red chunky. There may have also been some yarn buying in the wool shop and elsewhere but I couldn't possibly comment. No piccies because it's been too dark to take decent ones.

I also returned home with some lovely patterns. I've scanned in the most horrific ones for your amusement. I think Dave was praying for salvation at one point as I rummaged through folders and folders of vintage patterns - well, we were in the Salvation Army Shop :D

I made it home in one piece but I've been suffering ever since. I walked too far and carried too much. Wednesday night I sprayed pretty much my entire body with Ralgex and then got a headache from the stink. Last night we only had to spray my feet and ankles. Ugh. Stinky.

There's something about the arrangement of the legs in this one which spooks me. The legs seem to match in odd ways. I'm sure the two brown socks legs belong together but the photographer must have been sitting on the guy's head. It's just cos the brown leg and beige leg don't seem to match.

This little booklet looks sweet and innocous until you realise it contains the Scariest Doll Evar!

A small, sensible, part of my brain says that the doll's face has been retouched or redrawn or something but the part that fears the dark says "No, that's a real doll and it's coming to get you!"Ah, the 1970s. Need I say anything more?

Apart from the fact that it was a very scary decade for male models. Gordon Bennett, that orange one is nearly as petrifying as the doll. I don't know if you'll be able to tell from the reduced picture size but the orange helmet is knitted in two pieces which are sewn together, according to the instructions. But it looks as if the bottom folds down and the crown part lifts out, creating a kind of topless egg cosy effect. You just have to shag a man wearing a topless egg cosy, don't you? He obviously has big tackle to dare to wear something that hideous.

Currently, I'm knitting away on Dr Sordid's Christmas pressie. I've finished the body already and am well pleased with my progress. It is knitting up far faster than I had anticipated, so I should have it finished well before Christmas. I am certain that this particular knitted item pays full, respectful homage to his evil past. I can visualise the panic on his face as he reads this, and then the relief as he remembers that I never finish anything.

Or do I? *manic laughter*

Oh, a random passer-by told me I looked like a demented bumble bee in heat. I guess it was a combination of my Winston Churchill physique and my hat.

This hat is currently available in the men's section of Debenhams. I'm telling you this because I know that this hat is soooo fine you all want one.

Expedition Report

2006-10-30T13:11:00.000Z

Thanks for all the good wishes, folks.

I survived Saturday relatively intact, though I am still recovering from the excitement. I only managed about two hours sleep on Friday night - kid before Christmas, definitely. Yesterday I could have slept all day, and if it were not for Dave and Rippers, I would have.

The Hobbycrafts show was mostly card making, which was probably a good thing. I make cards, but I'm not a maniac about it. Apparently, many of the people there were maniacs, as the two little old ladies I was with both got pushed, shoved and sworn at, sometimes by other little old ladies. No one pushed, shoved or swore at me, possibly because I was dressed all in scary black. I did get anxious at times because it was so busy but I didn't actually discombulate. Great eh? That means I might risk going to the SECC in March for the textile show. I should start saving now :D

I did buy yarn, and I don't know what I'm going to make with some of it. I bought two balls of Rowan Chunky Print (cheap), two balls of Sirdar Frenzy (very cheap), three balls of bog standard acrylic (two red, one bright green, & CHEAP) and 99g of Bubbles hand dyed mohair from Victoria Smedley (not cheap). The Bubbles is a lovely range of purples; I keep rubbing it against my face. I have no idea what I'm going to knit with this but I love it. The Rowan Chunky Print - again no idea what I'm going to use it for, but as it's 100% wool something fulled, I suspect. The Frenzy is going to be a Christmas scarf for some lucky person. The red acrylic was bought because it is a very special shade of red I haven't been able to get in Dundee. I would have preferred this red in a chunky but consider myself fortunate to have found it at all. More on that later in the week. The green acrylic is a cheery green that I've had before but been unable to obtain since, so I had to get it.

I bought some other bits and pieces, such as four skeins of braid/thread stuff that I am going to freeform and embroider with. I also got two plastic canvas hexagons and one plastic canvas heart for experimentation, and a embroidery thread storage box which was much less than I would have paid locally. I think I'll be using it for the findings & beads which I want to use at the craft group because it's a lot easier to cart around than the small 'suitcase' I use for my main collection of beads, buttons, etc.

I surprised some of my fellow travellers by crocheting a complete hat on the journey there. In fact, with my usual Erisian timing I finished the hat just as we were eaten by the traffic jam. Admittedly, I was using Sirdar Nova Super Chunky and an 8mm hook but they were still impressed. I was too tired on the way back to crochet and passed the time by working out how I'd turn the Scottish countryside into knitting. The sky was three separate shades of blue, and the clouds ranged in shade from ivory through to a deep purple grey. Skies like that make me wish I could paint but the fields and hills definitely need something with lots of texture do them justice.

Latiss Hat Knitting Pattern

2006-10-30T12:52:00.001Z

Materials
50g chunky yarn, 6mm circular needles (plus dpns for the last few rows), sewing up needle

Tension
4 stitches per inch in stocking stitch

Instructions

Cast on 72 stitches. Join into a circle, careful not to twist your stitches.
Work 8 rounds of garter stitch (1 row knit, 1 row purl)
Rnd 9. Knit
Rnd 10. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 11. Knit
Rnd 12. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 13. Knit
Rnd 14. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 15. Knit
Rnd 16. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 17. Knit
Rnd 18. Purl
Rnd 19. Knit
Rnd 20. Purl
Rnd 21. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 22. Knit
Rnd 23. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 24. Knit
Rnd 25. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 26. Knit
Rnd 27. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 28. Knit
Rnd 29. Purl
Rnd 30. *Knit 2 together*, repeat to end (36 stitches left)
Rnd 31. Purl
Rnd 32. Knit
Rnd 33. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 34. Knit
Rnd 35. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 36. Knit
Rnd 37. *Knit 2 together, yarn forward*, repeat to end
Rnd 38. Knit
Rnd 39. *Purl 2 together*, repeat to end (18 stitches left)
Rnd 40. Knit
Rnd 41. *Purl 2 together*, repeat to end (9 stitches left)
Rnd 42. Knit 1, *knit 2 together*, repeat to end (5 stitches left)

Cut yarn, thread through the stitches, pull tight and weave in end.

Copyright L Harley 2006. No commercial use permitted

An Awfully Big Adventure

2006-10-27T21:14:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I'm going on an Expotition to a Faraway Place. There must be planning, and provisions, and emergency rendezvous procedures.

I'm going to the Hobbycrafts Exhibition at the SECC in Glasgow. Please keep your fingers crossed, that the excitement of all the shiny things will keep at bay the anxiety caused by the huge number of people. I'm trying to not get too excited today otherwise I won't sleep. There'll have to be a bath filled with lavender to knock me out at bedtime.

I have to do my getting ready decision making this evening, like what I'm going to wear, what hairstyle I'm having, which yarn to take, what breakfast to have, because decision making in the morning will be hard.

Yes, that's right, I'm going to a show to buy yarn but I'm taking yarn with me. I'm spending two hours (probably) on a minibus to get there, I need something to occupy me, I mean two hours is a hat or a curly whirly and then there's the journey back too.

I've decided that if I get overwhelmed by all the people I'm going to head for the Knit & Natter Stand, run by Yvonne, because being surrounded by people holding pointy metal sticks is very calming LOL! I've charged my mobile with electricity & money for first time in several months, so I can contact other party members. It seems strange talking about party members and not meaning PCs and this will be a context in which splitting the party is a good choice, not a prelude to stabby stabby death or such like.

Why am I blogging instead of doing all that decision making stuff? Cos I'm working up to it, that's why. And cos Dave's not here to nag me. Also, having just located the right cable, I'm emptying my camera so I can post these.

The skulls are actually this colour. Once again, the pictures are blurry but I've worked out that it isn't the camera or my total lack of photographic skill, but my shaky hands which cause this, so you're just going to have to lump their out of focus nature.

I saw a bloke today wearing a hat with four big skulls on it. It was okay but would much better if the skulls were KNITTED rather than painted on. I think that I shall take this on as a future project.

I have a hat pattern to post here, a chunky, knit in an evening project. I just need to take a decent picture of it - the usual...

Too lazy for a proper update so...

2006-10-27T11:48:00.000+01:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
5
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

The hat is dead!

2006-10-08T14:49:00.000+01:00

Well, I frogged my WCTP hat last night, turned the yarn into nice little cheeses, and started again on 4mm needles.

I've only done ten rows so far and I'm already better pleased with it. The fabric on v.1 was dimply and I thought it was something I was doing wrong with my stranding/weaving technique, even though it was dimpled before I started the skully part of the chart. Now I think that perhaps the yarn didn't like being worked at such a tight tension, and the dimples were the expression of that unhappiness.

The new fabric is nice and firm without being stiff and I'm not getting the hand cramps that I had put down to the onset of Autumn aggravating my fibromyalgia. So - Result!

A lot of my frustration disappeared along with the hat and I'm feeling optimistic again. If I had finished the hat as was, I would never have been happy with it.

Whinging Ahoy

2006-10-05T19:30:00.000+01:00

The onset of Autumn is hitting me hard. Don't get me wrong, this is my favourite time of year, but it don't always agree with me.

I've been knitting We Call Them Pirates for (it feels like) months. I am four rows away from being finished, and it is not going to fit me. I'm going to check my tension again but fundamentally, it ain't going to squeeze on my head.

Option 1 - Finish the hat & give it to someone else.
Problem - While I'm happy with my knitting on this item, all things considered, it isn't of a quality I would want to give to someone as a present.
Problem - It's black & pink. I don't think I know anyone who it would fit and who would wear a black & pink hat.

Option 2 - Unravel and re-knit on bigger needles. The fabric is practically bullet-proof as is, so bigger needles won't be a problem.
Problem - I have been holding back on a couple of other things I want to make until I'd finished WCTP. Do I push these other projects back still further, or postpone WCTP and run the risk that I never again summon up the momentum to knit the hat?

Option 3 - as Option 2 but first knit those last four rows and photograph the hat just to prove I did actually finish it.
Problem - as Option 2, obviously.

Here's a couple of blurry pictures from when I was about halfway through.

I have enjoyed knitting this pattern but my low mood has infected the project. Still, I've now got the hang of knitting with a colour in each hand and got to use my jingly stitchmarkers. I also discovered a few days ago that I have managed to grok Norwegian purl as it just seemed to happen naturally without me thinking about it.

Now I want to knit socks but I haven't found a pattern that matches the pictures in my head. Hey, I'm an experienced knitter, I can make this shit up, no worries, if only I can decide exactly which picture I want to make first. So I might just knit a hat or two first. The usual...

Oranges & Mittens

2006-09-23T17:41:00.000+01:00

This pattern is a new addition to my collection, bought solely for the quality of the picture. It's a real beauty, huh?

Oh dear...

2006-09-07T13:43:00.000+01:00

I downloaded a demo for Civilisation IV. It only lasts 99 turns, which is just enough time to get interested, and then it stops and opens a browser to load a Buy Now! page. Must Have This Game!! Fortunately it is nearly the Penguin's birthday so Someone (to be confirmed who exactly) will be buying this for me. The most likely choice was Dave but I think he may have decided it is a Bad Plan, as the demo has been stealing excessive amounts of Penguin attention from him (that's only his opinion BTW).

My 40cm bamboo circs arrived from Hong Kong yesterday, several days earlier than the week minimum. They are brilliant. I love them.

Am I actually doing any knitting at the moment? Yup. On the needles right now is an Elvis wig. Now, loads of people love this pattern but I haven't found anyone who has knitted it up. The pattern says it needs two 50g balls of Funky Fur but I think I might need another one. I bought another ball just in case, to make sure that I wouldn't need it. The wig would have been finished by now if it hadn't been for (see Para. 1).

Also in progress is a blue square for Knit a River, which is a very good idea and I encourage everyone to have a go at this. Even the dodgiest, hasn't knitted since primary school person can manage a 15cm square. DO IT!

Oops, I've done it again

2006-09-06T00:21:00.000+01:00

Reasons to restrict my internet access #42

2006-09-02T13:24:00.000+01:00

Just warning you now...

2006-08-27T00:56:00.000+01:00

I've just watched four episodes of Stargate SG-1 in a row. I didn't watch any yesterday but I did watch four on Thursday.

Here's a link you might need

Signs you've been watching too much Stargate

Actually, I do think it might be cool to have Stargate symbols painted round the toilet seat (no. 35).

I'm already guilty of numbers 7, 8, 53 and 61. And loads of the others sound like great ways to wind people up.

I'm also planning some Stargate knitting. Of course. No real surprise there.

Some catching up

2006-08-26T00:11:00.000+01:00

I've not been blogging much recently even though some fairly amusing things have happened. I still remember some of them so here's a first installment.

My family have always had terrible luck in raffles. We rarely win anything and it's usually rubbish. However, my mum now wins sackfuls of prizes, quite often prizes she donated in the first place. Yup, it seems if my mum is somehow involved in the raffle organisation (i.e. a member of the group running it), she wins prizes. If it's a 'star prize' she hands it back to be drawn again, because that's just the kind of person she is.

Recently the craft group had two raffles and I won one of the prizes. Much to Dave's immediate relief, it wasn't the large English sheepdog toy but then he found out what I had won (which was one of the 'good' prizes.

I won an electric carving knife. Coolness, as far as I'm concerned. I like kitchen gadgets. For those who've ever lived with me, SCARY BISCUITS. For some reason, past and present flatmates regard me as a dangerous person with knives. I don't understand, I've never sliced any of them open. In fact, it's several years since I've accidentally drawn my own blood while cooking. I mean, I haven't even had a baking burn for about four or five years, and they were pretty much a monthly occurrence.

Okay, I've done very little baking during that time so maybe that's why no burns but I have regularly been using the oven. Mainly for frozen pizzas, but there are still plenty of opportunities for a clumsy person like myself to get burnt taking pizza out of the oven.

I haven't used the electric carving knife yet. I haven't had a reason. You know, it can cut up frozen food (while it's still frozen!). I'm sure that there has been more than one occasion when I have urgently needed to cut up something frozen - I just couldn't name any other than wanting to get unsliced bread to thaw faster.

Maybe I should freeze something just so I can cut it up with my electric carving knife. Any (sensible) suggestions?

And despite yesterday's assurances, my phone didn't resume normal service today. There may be more phone related ranting tomorrow.

Warning - Rant imminent

2006-08-24T22:02:00.000+01:00

Seen all those cutesy adverts for Post Office HomePhone? Seen the leaflets promising cheaper line rental and 24 hour customer service? Thinking of changing your telephone provider to them?

Don't Bother.

I haven't been a customer of theirs for a full quarter yet, and I will be changing providers in the immediate future.

24 hour customer service? Indeed, but with very few staff in place, otherwise I would not have been 'queued' for approximately twenty-five minutes. Did I phone at a core time ? I didn't think that 9.20 p.m. would be an overwhelmingly popular time to phone Customer Services. Plus, every other time I have phoned this line, I have never had to wait less than five minutes. Maybe the staff just have abysmal call-handing skills and times... Well, all the agents I have spoken to have tried to get me off the phone instantly, using such techniques as speed-talking. That doesn't faze me, I just ask them to repeat everything, reduce the speed of my speech, waffle and repeat myself. I wouldn't do that if I were dealt with in a helpful or accommodating manner.

The agent I've just been speaking with claimed that she was taking down all the details of my complaint. I doubt it. There weren't nearly enough keystrokes coming over the line. At least 'Patricia' wasn't patronising, unlike 'James' several weeks ago.

I am shaking all over. Those twenty-five minutes were spent in a public phone box, thus aggravating my agoraphobia and my fibromyalgia. Standing for that length causes tremors and spasms in my legs, spreading to my back and then up to my neck. The prolonged anxiety, caused by location and by my purpose, is about to culminate in an anxiety attack. I feel it coming on and I'm trying to stop it but really I'm only slowing it down. If I'm lucky Dave will be home before it hits me. I would phone him to come home NOW but my phone ISN'T WORKING.

Anyway, the agent claimed I would hear back about my complaint within ten days either by letter or telephone call. I didn't believe her because I've told before I would be receiving a phone call, such as to tell me when my phone would be fixed, and no calls were forthcoming.

Customer Service don't answer their emails either.

I think it may be time to bypass Customer Support altogether. How long should I give them to get in touch with me regarding my complaint and compensation claim? I'm thinking a week.

Another week gone

2006-08-22T10:08:00.000+01:00

Firstly, Dave returned from Belfast in fine fettle, with a new bag. I was glad to learn that the old bag would no longer be polluting my living space with it's hideous puke yellow/greeness. I hated that colour.

I've mislaid my battery charger and I learned from experience that ordinary batteries just don't hack it in my camera. I am just too tired to search.

Hence, no pictures of the ladybird earrings or the bookmark I made last week.

Currently I'm forcing myself to finish off items which are practically completed but require sewing together, buttons or embroidery. I'm such a process knitter, the end product is simply a happy coincidence, and once the best bit (i.e. the knitting) is done, I often lose interest. Which is why I make hats in the round, of course!

I had intended whinging a bit because there hadn't been any post, such as the memory wire rings I bought on Ebay but the postman was just running late. It's rare for him to arrive after 10 so I guess more of my neighbours had post than usual. Anyway, I now have memory wire in the form of two bracelets and ten rings. I'm going to try expanding my mucking round with beads habit into producing items I can wear. After all, having a cool new bead shop actually within my safe zone is probably going to result in more beads sneaking into my stash.

Currently I'm a little perplexed, though that may be the result of sleep deprivation. The point of memory wire is that you can muck around with it and it returns to it's initial shape, yes? But the rings are too small for my fingers and surely if I try altering to fit me, they'll just go back to their original size? I'm missing something obvious, of course. I bought a bead book last week, which may enlighten me on this matter. I'm probably just being a numpty.

In the last ten days I've had two nights and one afternoon of decent sleep. As soon as I get one problem sorted, another one crops up. There's not much I can do about the sleep though. My medication pretty much prohibits any tabs to promote sleep, unless I want to be a complete zombie. Caffeine intake has been nil for the last week. In fact one great night's sleep happened after caffeine. This is just something which happens to me and I simply have to bear up until it passes. It makes pattern following difficult but I need something with an exciting pattern to keep me interested through the fog.

My whole life is one Catch-22 after another. Or even, side by side.

Not dead, only resting

2006-08-15T22:40:00.000+01:00

I've been a bit poorly for the last couple of weeks. I gave in today and made an appointment with the doctor. When the illness start to interfere with the knitting, well, it's just got to go.

For a start, I had my new printer for a whole week before I set it up and I haven't actually done any knitting since last Monday. I did some crocheting at the weekend, but it shouldn't really count as it was only a couple of dice bags.

I did make three pincushions on Sunday - more glue than sewing.

I actually went for 56 hours without touching the PC, never mind arsing around on the web.

And the Bead Shop opened on Saturday, and I managed a visit, leading to some more stitchmarkers. Perhaps I should get the hang of making other items from beads? Though I have found that having an over-abundence of stitch & row markers means I find uses for them. In fact, last weekend I discovered that I needed more row markers than I had, which is amazing as I didn't think I needed any at all. Apparently, marking out regular intervals on an edge does make it much easier to pick the correct number of stitches. I mean, I read that it did, but all that fussing with pins seemed too dangerous and I could manage alright without too much preparation. However, having all these little clip-ons handy just worked out perfectly.

Yesterday I was so fed up I went on a little outing. I didn't buy any yarn but did get some Batman fabric so Dave is one step closer to getting his Batman cushion. Do you know? I can't remember how long it is since I last bought yarn? Maybe a month, maybe more. Perhaps I should check back in my blog. I've been buying beads instead. They're much smaller and I haven't filled my designated bead storage space yet.

Don't not worry though, my stash has still managed to increase. I have been given yarn - woo hoo!!

I'll try and manage some pictures tomorrow.

First Steps towards World Domination??

2006-08-01T19:45:00.000+01:00

Last month Dave and I joined the management group of the community centre. Last week we were confirmed as members at the AGM. Office bearers are decided amongst the management group, not by election at the AGM, and this was scheduled for today. The lady who has been the Chairperson for last couple of years said she did not want the position again. Bing! I'm nominated, I haver, I'm seconded, I accept the nomination, I'm in. Scary biscuits. Dave is now Secretary. Some easy collaboration there I hope. Even scarier biscuits? When we (the group) were being briefed on some financial matters, I understood it all, and even spotted a better way of arranging matters.

Pottering around online today, looking something up for Dave, I noticed that the college does open/flexible learning ECDL courses, which means I can do the course at home online. Hubba hubba! Plus it wouldn't cost me anything. I think I shall sign up. I could probably pass the modules pretty quickly because I have the relevant knowledge, just nothing to prove I have it. Then there are Advanced ECDL courses which look interesting but I'm not sure if I could do those at home.

Of course, what I should take a course in is digital photography. I found my alien, took pictures of it but they are all totally rubbish and don't show the alien to any advantage. Any tips

And I'm now satisfied that I don't have too much stash. I have proved it to myself. I've been looking at patterns and I haven't had the right yarn for the things I fancied starting - hence insufficient stash. So now I'm going to find patterns which fit the yarn I have. How frugal of me.

Not as previously advertised

2006-07-25T11:23:00.000+01:00

So, I was going to take a picture of my alien head this morning, but I couldn't find it. Dave confiscated it last night while we were playing Necessary Evil with friends. I was only passing it round so they could have a better look. It got as far as Dave and stopped. I can't find it now and Dave is incommunicado for the moment.

Instead, then, I present my latest set of stitch markers.

When Dave reappears I shall torture him until he reveals the whereabouts of my alien.

Mutant Bunny!!

2006-07-25T00:05:00.000+01:00

Why does Blogger make all my pictures look blurry? Never mind, here's the mutant bunny I made last week. What with my nervous system still in recovery mode, I am shunning patterns and just doodling until I get something I like.

Tomorrow I shall attempt to take (non-blurry) pictures of the alien bust I made at the weekend. I think it's soooo cute.

Stitch Markers

2006-07-22T19:05:00.000+01:00

The photos are a bit rubbish. It was too dark to take pictures, really, but I'm not feeling very patient today. The second & fourth sets have bells on them

With rings on her pins
And bells on her rows
She have music wherever she goes

Time now for the double bill of NCIS and sorting out my bead & button box.

Return of the Penguin

2006-07-21T20:48:00.000+01:00

I could write a huge long post about what I've been doing for the last three weeks but it would get tedious (for me, that is - I wouldn't presume to speak for any readers).

We managed to achieve an emptied wool room so Dave could move in. He's now been here for ten days, and it's not nearly as strange as we thought it was going to be.

I was without a working phone line for ten days. There has been no contact to explain why it took them so long to locate & rectify the problem. The company had my mobile number & email address. Their customer service is a bit poopy.

The arm is healing nicely now, after a small infection caused by the (non) dissolving stitches. The scar is currently a rather nice shade of purple. If I took my arm into B&Q, could they mix paint to match the scar?

I've done very little knitting, mainly because I don't know where it all is. The re-organisation wasn't, well, very organised and many of my possessions have ended up in random locations. This is very stressful for me and I've dealing with it by not dealing, in a very ostrich fashion. I have crocheted some random mutant things which was very relaxing.

My stash is now nearly all in the Wool Cupboard. It is in two stacks which are both taller than me (5'4.5). I have no hope of finding anything unless it's on the top of the stacks.

My current obsession is making stitch markers & row/round markers. This is a bit of a dodgy one, because I rarely use markers in my knitting as I can 'read' it quite easily most of the time. The round markers for crochet have been useful and caused the mutants, because I had to test which kind of clasp I preferred. I think therefore I shall try flogging some of the stitch markers on ebay.

I have been reading people's blogs but not commenting - I'm just not feeling chatty at the mo. I've also been hanging around on Craftster and CrAftermath. That's just to set Dave's mind at ease, because he worries when I ignore the internet and am not bothering to make anything.

Dave has finally managed to interest me in wargaming. Specifically, making scenery & buildings out of yoghurt pots and polystyrene. He has also nicknamed my Wool Cave the Cupboard of Shame and the Cupboard of Despair. He's over-reacting - I don't have that much stash.

Though I have gone from thinking that I have Enough Yarn to thinking that maybe I have Slightly Too Much Yarn but I have a plan, I just need a tall accomplice.

Hearts & Minds & Taste Buds too

2006-07-01T10:17:00.000+01:00

A rainy day in Dundee City Centre, brightened up by the presence of an Irn Bru tank, and quite a few fit young men in tight fitting, damp t-shirts. It was absolutely teeming with rain but still rather warm. That's how dark it was at 11 a.m.

Flat re-organisation continues, as do my stitches. The nurses decided that the stitches needed to sit for a few more days yet, maybe they will be ready on Monday.

I've done very little crafting this week, even at Craft Group. I don't want to get into a project when there is so much to do in the flat. Eight days and counting to Dave-Day. His room to be isn't even half empty yet but his bed arrives on Monday, and on Tuesday we're off to get a carpet. Anyone know how to turn a cupboard into a TARDIS?

The Boys from Bassetts

2006-06-27T10:34:00.000+01:00

I like jelly babies
With their firm and tasty flesh.
I like their belly buttons
And teeny tiny noses.
I like to bite their toes off
Or tear them limb from limb.
I give them different voices
So they can plead for death.
They are so sweet and tasty
And tingle on my tongue.
They come in many colours
But I like no one the best
I always save the head for last
After waving it as a trophy.

Still no knitting, so something completely different.

Black Monday

2006-06-26T17:59:00.000+01:00

And it looks like next Thursday is going to be black as well.

I love Lidl specials, and I hate them too. I bought a set of four pliers, because I don't have any (£3.99), a soldering gun, for which I have no immediate use (£4.99) and a 'perforator set' (£1.99).

There's a gadget for making holes of different sizes, one for installing press studs and one for installing brads/eyelets.

Last night I went to the cinema to see "An Englishman Abroad", which was written by Alan Bennett and filmed in Dundee, as the best substitute for Moscow in 1983. The film was funny but we (the whole audience not just me!) laughed as much at the shots of Soviet Dundee as at the script, I think. My favourite moment was seeing Soviet soldiers marching on guard outside the High School. The extras were all locals - I wonder if any were in the audience last night? I was a stressed bunny afterwards because I went with two people I hadn't seen for ages, and of course I was early while they arrived exactly on time for the film starting. I bought a copy of Simply Knitting on way home, partly because Mary-Lou is in it, and partly for the Beach Bunny Babes. I guess I'll be buying next month's as well, what with the pattern being in two parts, and I want that knitted surfboard!

I also released my first book into the wild . I wonder if I'll ever hear from it again.

I spent Saturday night sorting out my foam shapes into different bags. You know, all the round ones together, all the square things, yada - it was to keep my hands busy while I watched telly, as sore armness prevented my usual occupations.

There was a Kurt Vonnegutt reference in CSI:NY. When they showed a photo of the dead girl to the suspect, he glanced at it and said "So it goes" - Slaughterhouse 5. The cops took this as an expression of callousness, but we know better, eh? Of course, he was the person that had killed her.

NCIS is zooming up my favourite telly chart, and not just cos of the goth girl, who I think is tremendously cute. Week after week, it has well put together plots, funny character interaction and it just all round entertainment. Another new entry in my telly chart is "Spiral", a French thriller being shown on BBC4. It is so different from the usual American imports, and pretty compelling telly. It's shown on Sundays, repeated on Wednesdays, and I'd be happy to watch the same episode twice a week. The French legal system is so different from ours and it is fascinating to get an inside view, even if a dramatised one.

Buggration

2006-06-24T12:06:00.000+01:00

I've hit a small snag in my plans for the weekend. My 'wound' starts to hurt after a while crocheting, knitting or even just mucking around on the PC. I've not tried it on housework yet, but I'm assuming the same result.
I've mislaid the ball of cream fur which I was going to use on the edge of the curly whirly scarf I started while in the hospital waiting room. I've found the bag it was in, the other things which were in the bag with it, but no actual yarn. In light of (1), I shouldn't be bothered, but I AM.
I wasn't going to go out today but I have two loads of laundry to do, and only enough washing tabs for one load. Going out may be dangerous.
My 'wound' seems to have been bleeding during the night, judging by the state of the dressing. I don't have another dressing (or any sanitary towels or liners) so a trip to the chemist seems necessary. If I'm lucky, I won't have to pay for more dressings (community pharmacy for people with medical exemptions). If I'm really unlucky, they will tell me to phone NHS 24, who usually treat me like someone scamming for drugs.
I'm woozy from lack of sleep but couldn't actually sleep any more.
It's a Black Monday at Lidl this week, with Specials on things I need/want, like pliers, eyelet punch-thingies, etc. I think I can probably resist the soldering gun even though a little voice is insisting that it would a very useful thing to have around the flat.

At least I have a fridge of food which requires minimal preparation & effort. I don't even have to decide what to eat first, because that's largely dictated by the Eat Before Date. Result!! In the circumstances, I think I'm going to buy chocolate chip ice cream and some more bananas.

Back to regular programme

2006-06-23T11:23:00.000+01:00

I managed to get through yesterday without a panic attack. Poor mole has been sent away for testing, to find out it was a nice or nasty mole.

Now, to confess what happened on Tuesday. Even my mum sounded a bit shocked disapproving on this one.

I was in the revolving charity shop. I found yarn. I was rummaging through it, having decided that I could have a ball or two as a small treat. Then the terrible/marvellous/exciting thing happened. One of the ladies approached me and said "For the wool, it's fill a carrier bag for £1.50". So I did, resulting in twenty-two balls of yarn, mostly 50g but a few 100g.

Five balls of Sirdar Romance
Five balls of Sirdar Salsa
One ball of Sirdar Duet
One ball of Sirdar Sorrento
One ball of Sirdar Snuggly Chatterbox
One ball of Sirdar Evita
One ball of Wendy 100% Cotton
One ball of Sirdar Snuggly Tiny Tots
One full & one partial ball of Jarol Inca
One partial ball of Sheena Anne Bobble Top
One nearly full ball of something babyish & spotted
Two nearly full balls of something babyish, multicoloured & bobbly

I would take a picture but I'm too lazy today. Each of the Romance & Salsa balls is a different colour, but each kind co-ordinates so lovely stripy things can be made.

And Bookworld/Bargain Books/whatever it's called has also started selling yarn, not just eyelash or furry either. It has something very similar to Patons Festival, two quid per 50g ball or three balls for a fiver. No, I haven't bought any. Twenty-three balls of yarn in one week is enough even for my compulsive self.

What do you mean? Only twenty-two balls from the charity shop?!! Okay, maybe another little ball did sneak into my shopping bag but it came from Poundland and I needed it for a Craft Group session and half of it has gone already and I might donate the boa (when finished) to the group anyway for a sale, even though it's in lilac & black, which is one of my favourite colour combinations. Don't pick on me, I have a Sore Paw.

Speaking of which, the stitches come out next Friday, but nothing was said about how long I leave the dressing in place - for a whole week? I might phone the practice nurse to check, cos I'm a worrywort. There will be a little scar but at least no one will accuse me getting plastic surgery just so I can have an Action Man scar (hello Dr Sordid!!).

And Dave has gone away to Belfast for a few days, leaving me on my ownsome. Well, just me and a shipload of yarn, that is.

Big Day

2006-06-22T08:40:00.000+01:00

How do you stop moles digging up your garden? Take away their spades!

A mama mole, a papa mole, and a baby mole all live in a little mole hole. One day the papa mole sticks his head out of the hole, sniffs the air and says,"Yum! I smell maple syrup!" The mama mole sticks her head out of the hole, sniffs the air and says "Yum! I smell honey!" The baby mole tries to stick his head out of the hole to sniff the air, but can't because the bigger moles are in the way so he says, "Geez, all I can smell is MOLASSES!"

A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.

A group of moles is called a labour. So, when they get together to celebrate, is that a labour party?

Okay, I'll stop now.

No. I don't think I get to keep the mole afterwards, though when my mum had her nose pea (we always called it a mole, but it was probably some other kind of lump) removed the doctor did ask her if she'd like it in a little jar to take home. She thinks he was joking.

Gosh, is that the time?

2006-06-17T21:47:00.000+01:00

I don't know where the last week has gone. I don't have much to show the time elapsed, though I have bought some crafty stuff (quel surprise!). I haven't been ill as such, just floppy and tired. I destroyed my bedroom on Monday morning (before 8 a.m. no less) by deciding to move my bed and replace the broken slat. Destroyed? How?

See, I had these piles of clean clothes waiting to be put in the wardrobe, along with the piles of books, knitting patterns, bags of finished & unfinished projects, yarn (of course) and various other types of Lindsey-clutter. If I had approached the bed moving in a systematic way, I could have completed the operation with little additional mess... Instead of which, I just started moving the bed and whatever stuff happened to be in way of the process at any particular moment just got shoved, pushed or chucked out of the way.

Bonus, I found two odd knitting needles whose siblings have been missing them for several months. I also found six little tissue packets (the pocket sized ones) in hiding under the bed. Now they had definitely been hiding, because under the bed was the second place I looked when I needed a new tissue. Either they hid themselves or Dave hid them. He has a dislike of used tissues, and what with me having a nose which drips mucus for nine or ten months of the year, there is never a great distance between me and a snot rag but Dave steals them constantly.

On Thursday, I'm off to the plastic surgeon. Not to have my face anti-gravitied, or have bum-fat injected in my lips or anything gross. Nope. I'm having a mole removed from my arm. This little sucker has not only moved about half a centimetre, it has also changed shape, becoming rectangular. Yes, rectangular. I scratched my arm on a protruding bolt last year, which left a scar almost touching the mole. I thought I'd been lucky not to cut the mole, but then the mole started moving and now it's covering the scar and taken on its shape. Freaky, huh? I think I'll also ask about the mole on my nose. I don't want it removed unless it becomes essential, because I think most of my nose would vanish too, it being a medium sized mole right on the tip. The scar after removal is supposed about two and a half times the size of the mole? That's most of the end of my nose. Maybe my arm will end up with a funky scar like I got from the last mole removal, which looks like the X-Men symbol, but not in shiny gold, obviously.
I bought some old records today because I want to make an earring holder, except to display buttons. That's what I think I'm going to do now.

Oh, and don't mention the bag lining. Never happened. Never was going to have happened.

Penguin, Property Developer

2006-06-10T20:11:00.000+01:00

I saw this item at the Jumble Sale three weeks ago. I bought today, for the Craft Group. It cost the huge sum of £2. The plan is, it will be a group project for renovation, upgrading and furnishing, with the aim of raffling it off in the run-up to Christmas. I was informed this morning that it is a garage, not a house. Well, turning just about any building into a residential property is very popular in the 21st Century, so why not for toy buildings too?

Keep your fingers crossed

2006-06-08T16:14:00.000+01:00

I'm going to attempt a bag lining today. I've been procrastinating long enough. I have everything I need. I'm just going to go for it and rely on my common sense (F, where are you? I need you!!).

There was excitement yesterday but I'm not going to tell you right now because that would just be further procrastination.

I'm going to gather my tools and start work...? Nah, probably by the time I've got everything ready to start work, I'll be ready for a rest. Because I've already had a long walk today, that's why.

Didn't we have a luvverly time ...

2006-06-06T22:35:00.000+01:00

... the day we went to Broughty Ferry!?!?

It was another lovely day. I deserved a treat after yesterday so we went to Broughty (rhymes with naughty) Ferry, which has five charity shops plus the YMCA shop. There was yarn in several of them, and I didn't buy even a worthwhile fraction of it, just a cone of sparkly blue 4 ply, 250g of Phildar Anouchka in red, and 100g of Jaegar Double Spiral Pure Wool in a peacock shade. I admit, I did buy some knitting patterns & magazines but they were 20p each and have some fantastic ideas in them.

My madness reaches new depths
One of the knitting patterns was purchased simply because the picture made me smile. It is of two disgruntled children - the little boy is wearing a knitted hooded catsuit in a random, poodle yarn with a loopy brim around the hood. It is a fabulous pic, so I've framed it and now just have to decide where to hang it up. I have other 'vintage' patterns I got just because of the pictures. I've been putting them in a knitting album, a kind of pattern coffee table book, making it easier for me to inflict the photies on unsuspecting visitors. Now I'm thinking, why not frame and hang up more of them? They deserve to be seen and appreciated more often.

Dave gets excited by fabric
I showed Dave some fabric for sale on ebay last night. It was various styles of Batman fabric, and Dave is an immense Batman fan. Now he wants me to make him a Batman cushion. We went into the Sewing Station in the Ferry, and it stocks two of the Batman fabrics. Dave got very excited and seemed eager for me to buy the fabric right then and there.

This is the fabric he wants.

I know my attention is largely focussed on yarn, but the possibility of superhero fabric had never occurred to me. There's Spidey, Supes, the Marvel logo - who knew? Loads of people, obviously, but no one had ever mentioned it to me. And it doesn't come in cotton. Oh, no. You can buy large fleece panels. Blanky sized fleece panels. This will see me through several years of Dave presents. I wonder if there's a DC logo fabric? or Transformers? Do you think he'd get fed up with receiving these kinds of presents before I got fed up with making them?

Plus there are all those other fanboys I know. I just googled, and there's Star Wars fabric! OMG!! And Coca Cola !

I knew I led a sheltered life but I had never suspected anything like fanboy fabric just available to buy by the metre! I would have assumed that such stuff was only available ready made up into bedsets and pyjamas and the like.

Oh, no! Brain has been hit by creative earthquake! Most of the fabric is just ordinary cotton, right? Adult sized superhero pjs. I just need to learn dressmaking and Dave can have a Batman outfit, Jakob can have a Coke outfit, Dr Sordid can be dressed up in Superman duds. Oh my oh my!!

This is too much excitement for a poorly little penguin.

Just faffing

2006-06-06T00:33:00.000+01:00

I've had a bit of a traumatic day, which I've been treating with a combination of unnecessary housework and web-wandering.

I joined Craftster a few days ago. It seemed the best way for me to not continually forget about it's existence. In my associated browsing I've seen so many things that the Craft Group would like that I'm not going to print them off. Nope. I'm going to put them on a CD (I do try to put URLs etc on the things I save) so they can browse at their leisure. Plus I have photos so why not have a CD for everything?

I started work on my quilted cat cushion panel on Sunday and it all progressed much faster than I anticipated. So far it's going according to plan - how rare! It's my amateurish take on Trapunto quilting. I tacked together the two pieces of fabric and then sewed round the cat image. It only took me the length of Young Master for the sewing. I've postponed the next stage, when I snip open a portion of the back fabric in order to stuff the cat shape, whereby it will create a 3D effect on the cushion front. The delay was partly due to me not knowing where I've put my stuffing, and partly to only being able to find two pairs of large scissors and my long nail scissors. I think my crochet scissors ended up in the cupboard after Craft Group last week. Plus I've yet to get a piece of fabric for the cushion back and I don't know what size of zip to buy, which means I shall be seeking advice on Wednesday. If I don't forget...

I arsed around a bit tonight with a piece of felt, allegedly making a monster toy. My stitching may be a bit hit and miss, sewing round a dark grey outline on black felt with black thread in artificial light. When I realised that one side of the head was deformed I chucked it in for the night. Upon consideration, it's a monster - why shouldn't one side of its head be a different shape from the other side?

Um, Dave is now pleading for PC time and as I don't have any matchsticks to keep my eyes open, I think I shall oblige him. It's goodnight from me, and goodnight from him. Goodnight!

Mixed Success

2006-06-03T16:50:00.000+01:00

Despite some snags along the way, I managed to finish the items I promised for the sale. I 'lost' the self-adhesive magnets and had to resort to plain one. I was fearful that I'd have to use the hot glue gun and it was after 10 pm by that point, and I reckoned I was too tired to be in charge of hot, spurting anything, never mind glue. Fortunately, the magnets adhered well enough with PVA. The two flower magnets were my concession to plainer tastes.

The second snag was that I mislaid the brooch backs, found them, put them in a safe place, forgot I'd found them & put them in the safe place, tidied the living room while looking for them, and then found them on the chair next to mine several hours later. What can I say? It's the sort of thing which could happen to anyone, any normal person, and not just me, so we can't blame it on my lunacy. I sewed the brooch backs on the flowers while watching a rather interesting documentary on SkyOne about prostitution. Probably a good job I'd finished making magnets by that point because who knows what I'd have been inspired to make. Rude things, no doubt.

I was signed up to man (woman?) the stall from 2 to 4 this afternoon but I popped down this morning to hand over the booty and a small landfill's worth of carrier bags. I'd also intended to help set up the goods but Liz was doing a great job, I didn't like to interrupt, I was gossiping with Jeanette & Mary (enough excuses yet?). We also met Liz's bloke for the first time. I didn't think his head was that huge so reckon Liz is just making excuses for her inability to knit her man a hat. Well, maybe he has ultra bulky hair or something :D
I also took the opportunity to a snap a pic of the plate I glass painted earlier in the week.
I feel it has a certain primitive charm, but alas no one liked it enough to buy so I might just have to buy it myself. Another 'present' for my mother, perhaps?

Despite my misgivings about the star vampire magnet, it was the first one sold, snapped up pretty much as soon as we opened for business. It was the two flower magnets which remained, unbought and unloved, until nearly the end of the day. I was rather surprised by that and concluded that I must make more oddities next time.

Moira & I packed up a bit early. The weather had been fine and warm all day but it turned a bit overcast about 2.30 and then a strong wind blew up. Our goods were firmly pinned or anchored but I was in danger of an indecent exposure charge, as my floaty skirt kept trying to fly over my head. I had to clamp it firmly between my legs and not move around, but that attracted some odd looks. I had heaped scorn on Dave for bringing his Slayer hoodie with him on such a lovely day. Fortunately, his gentlemanly instincts stopped him from gloating too much when I started to shiver and whine about being cold and he willingly lent me his extra layer.

I think my favourite bits of the day when there was a tidal surge of senior citizens from the Marryat Hall. We had a small line in front of our stall when the metal band started playing, and the ladies started bobbing to the music in a kind of demi-mosh. Later the band played a trash version of Sweet Home Alabama which is one of my favouritest songs ever. A neighbouring stallholder protested at such sacriligious treatment of a classic but, you know, it was a pretty good version, and we enjoyed our fake moshing.

We made only a small profit but I think we learned a bit more about what people will and will not buy. This is still a learning process for us - only our third sale - and it might be a while before we know what works. Apart from the ubiquitious tombola, of course, which is an instant attractor of every demographic.

Almost Productive

2006-06-02T08:05:00.000+01:00

The Craft Group has a sale table at a local event tomorrow. Last week (in my absence) they had turned out a number of glass-painted tealight holders. On Wednesday I painted a glass plate for the sale and I'll have to take a picture of it before it gets sold. What? Of course it will sell - it has a smiley sun face on it.

Anyway, on Wednesday I volunteered to make a dozen fridge magnets and a dozen flower brooches. Ambitious of me, I reckoned I could manage. I haven't reached target yet, in part due to the great knitting pattern/glitter glue disaster. Glitter glue takes an unfeasible amount of time to dry. The rest is pretty obvious I think. I was pleased because I had only managed to get small amounts of glitter glue on me while turning out quite passable results.

On Wednesday evening, I made five fridge magnets. Yes, the star does have goggly eyes on each of its points and another in the middle. Yesterday morning I made four danglies (there were more but they died in the disaster.

And last night I made six flower brooches.
Rather than a dozen, I've decided to make ten brooches & magnets, mainly because the findings are sold in packs of ten. That means I have five more magnets and four more brooches to make today. That's doable, I reckon.

I don't know why I made the danglies apart from 'I had the techonology', which is a very human reason for doing anything. I might make some more but that depends on various factors, like am I daft enough to spend time making things I didn't say I'd make rather than making the things I said I would.

And I didn't even have to get the hot glue gun out *sigh*.

Damned if I do...

2006-05-30T12:39:00.000+01:00

My knee is very painful at the moment. Dave suggested Deep Heat which worked a treat yesterday. It's working a treat today as well, but the stink of the stuff is making me feel sick. There is only a certain distance one can keep from one's own knee and it isn't far enough. So which is worse - the pain or the nausea? The pain I think. I'll see if another layer of clothing over the knee contains the stink otherwise it's the bathroom for me ...

Knitting is still nowhere. A consistently sore head seems to take the pleasure out of everything. Time to go back to the doctor and complain about still being poorly despite the luxury of antibiotics.

One entertainment has cheered me up. The shooty-kicky game was a right giggle. See if you can find me on the high score table.

Aaargh! The Family Curse!!!

2006-05-28T12:22:00.000+01:00

The Family Curse is not, as Dr Sordid may surmise, being Completely Hatstand but something far more serious.

We never have any scissors. It doesn't matter how many pairs of scissors we actually own, when we need a pair urgently, we can't find any or if we do, they are totally unsuitable for the task at hand i.e. nail scissors when we want to cut wallpaper (not that that stops us using the unsuitable pair, you understand, it just means we are more aggravated than we might otherwise be).

Hitherto, I thought I had freed myself from the curse by not living with my sister, who has always been the prime suspect when anything sharp goes missing. She loses scissors & knives the way other people lose socks, and she is a veritable Bermuda Triangle to sock-kind. Therefore I have enjoyed years of curse-free existence, living with multiple pairs of scissors for different purposes and always knowing where to find the pair required for the task in hand.

Today I decided to try out Acrylik's instructions for an accordian book. I reached out for the pair of scissors which I had put down by my armchair last night. Nope, not there. I expanded the search a little wider, a bit more, a little bit more then just switched to frantically searching the whole room. My lovely big pair of scissors? Gone. I get my crochet case which always has a pair of scissors inside. Nope, no cutting implement there either. Fine, the sewing box - that has a pair of utility scissors. Not there either. Cue hair grabbing & feet stamping. I eventually found a pair on the knitting machine table hidden by a cushion. No, I don't know why there was a cushion on the knitting machine table - ask Dave.

It is all part of the Universe (or Eris's) plan to turn me into a complete raving loon by hiding all my stuff. I'm currently off balance because of the re-organisation of the flat. I don't know where everything is and it is bothering me. I'm not a tidy person and I enjoy a certain amount of clutter but I usually know where things are. Well, yarn mainly. Need a ball of something blue & fluffy? Right over there in that red carrier bag. Cream crochet cotton? Upstairs in the green tartan laundry bag. Except that I've been transfering the yarn into something more durable and more easily arranged and now I don't know where my yarn is. On a ball by ball basis that is, I mean, I know where the stash is, I just no longer have the whereabouts of each stash component ready to hand inside my brain. And I'm finding it to be a very traumatic experience.

Recent Acquisitions

2006-05-16T20:45:00.000+01:00

I suppose I should explain why I have so much luck with charity shops, agoraphobic as I am. While occasionally I might travel to other parts of Dundee in search of treasure, most of the time there is no need.

Firstly, there are two permanent charity shops within easy reach. Secondly, there is the revolving charity shop, which is a shop used by many different charities in rotation, usually two weeks at a time. Each new opening has all new stock, usually starting off cheaply because they are over-stocked, and usually finishing off even more cheaply because they don't want to have to take the stuff away and store until their next turn.

Thirdly, there is the Boys Brigade sale, which I call the jumble sale for nostalgia's sake. They take over a church hall about 3 minutes walk away for four weeks every May. They get fresh deliveries of good every day pretty much.

Most of the volunteers staffing these places put little value on wool, patterns & needles, especially as the wool is bulky and there is the perception that few people knit these days and would want these items. My appearance also gives me an advantage - I look younger than I am, and therefore it is often assumed I am a student and poor, so I get things a bit cheaper. Also, because the staff put little value on these things, they seem to believe that they are taking advantage of me somehow, whereas I'm sure I'm taking advantage of them.

I had a stressful appointment this morning. My way home is past the church hall and I needed comfort. I found some yarn (about 150g) they didn't have last week (yoink!), four Agatha Christie novels I don't have (yoink!), a Boris Starling novel which looked intriguing (yoink!) and a selection of knitting needles of which I selected 5.5mm 40cm circulars, 5mm 80 cm circulars, 6.5mm 40 cmm circulars and two pairs of 25cm needles in 6.5mm and 7mm. This haul cost £2, and I felt immensely comforted.

Last week I spent £3 at the jumble sale and got about 1kg of DK & 4ply (mostly Sirdar Country Style), two cross-stitch books with kits, a couple of novels, a pair of silver coloured heart earrings and a silver coloured heart charm. I could see that the ladies were worried that they were over-charging me. The silver hearts are going to be cannabalised into a crochet wallhanging I have in progress, the kits will be flower show entries, and some of the yarn is already most of another Flower Show entry.

A little voice keeps suggesting I should be feeling guilty about getting so much for so little, but I never haggle in these places. I ask a price, they tell me a price, I pay it. No guilt required, I have decided.

On the pins, I have a dog hoodie which will be a Flower Show entry. I have used Sirdar Country Style in black & red (from the jumble sale). The hoodie is mainly black with the belly done in red & black stripes. I'm going to Swiss darn a skull & crossbones on the back in red. I did toy with the idea of intarsia for the skull but it was going to be actual work calculating where to put it. Urgh! More labour saving to just knit the damn thing and Swiss darn the motif, which I actually enjoy doing.

Pictures very soon, honest.

Bandwagoning

2006-05-15T12:51:00.000+01:00

You Are The Moon

You represent the unconscious side of life, what happens in dreams.
You are capable of great genius - but also of great madness.
Emotions tend to be primal for you, both your fears and your fantasies.
Your intuition is always right, listening to it is the difficult part.

Your fortune:

You are about to embark on a very important journey - and a very difficult one.
Some of your deepest dreams will be realized, as well as some of your deepest nightmares.
Follow your creativity and visions; stay away from your weaknesses.
You are taking a voyage to the center of yourself, and you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.

What Tarot Card Are You?

Proper Treasure!!!

2006-05-12T21:34:00.000+01:00

I just popped into the jumble sale down the road this afternoon. I had bought most of their wool yesterday but went back to buy some dark green DK that I had dithered over. (In the middle of the night it occurred to me that it was the colour Dave said he wanted the pterodactyl made in.)

They had had some new things in since yesterday morning and so Dave ended up carrying home a sewing machine, which had cost £15. It's one of those ubiquitious black Singer machines. I had just been idly curious when I had opened up the case and thus amazed to discover the only sewing machine I actually know how to use with any ease. My mum had had one and I used to much around making amulet bags and dolls' clothes when I was a kid. Except this one has been electrified and mum's was totally manual.

As I was setting it up on the table the needle fell out and while I racked my brains and fiddled around, I couldn't remember how to get it back in. Well, that's what the internet is for so with some help from Google I went looking for instructions. The machine is so old it has a serial number than a model number but you can look up the serial numbers on the Singer website. I found out that my machine was made in the Kilbowie factory, Clydebank between January and June 1908.

This machine is older than my granny would be, if she weren't dead ;o

What was I saying the other day? That I needed a dirt cheap sewing machine that I knew how to use. Someone Up There likes me. Thank you Eris.

I phoned my mum and she was excited too. I phoned Dave (who is playing Weapons of the Gods tonight) and he was unmoved by the news and eager to hang up for once - something about being in the middle of a combat scene. Pooh!!

I have to go sew things now.

Oops, again

2006-05-11T01:34:00.000+01:00

I'd meant to go to bed two hours ago. Not quite sure what happened. Am pretty sure just bought 100 buttons off eBay. Penguin buttons.
Could argue that it had to be done but that would just be a Big Fat Lie, and generally strive towards honesty. Have just noticed that Penguin Button looks a bit evil and/or cross, so it will match the pop-up card I made on Tuesday.

WTF am I going to do with 100 penguin buttons? I could have bought a set of 20 but nooo, I decide that it works out cheaper to buy 100.

There is no end to my lunacy. I admit it.

One of lovely ladies at the Craft Group has given me a knitting machine table. She is grateful for the extra cupboard space and I'm grateful for a table I can use without Dave wanting me to put the machine away. He did express concern about where the table was going to live, but was reassured after I told him that it folded flat for easy storage. Little does he know the table will never be put into storage...

Well, until some point on Friday when he reads this.

I've started knitting another bag to felt. Told you there was no end to my lunacy. I gained useful advice at Craft Group on how to line bags. Tomorrow I will attempt this oh-so tricky procedure. Sewing & woodwork were the only two subjects I consistently failed at school. Have I mentioned I've got a fancy for making my own wooden buttons? Infinite lunacy. But someone has suggested a place which might sell my bags so maybe I'm not completely hatstand.

Back to the buttons. I remember seeing pictures of twigs which had been turned into toggles, and I reckon I could do that, especially now I have my mini craft drill, though I might need some kind of clamp to hold the twigs while I drill. I asked Dave if he wanted to go on a twig hunt and he did enquire further so I haven't completely killed his curiousity yet, though he did stop asking questions when I said that I wanted twigs and it would be a nice walk. I want twigs, we go get twigs, his not to reason why.

I'm not even sure how big the penguin buttons are. The listing did give a measurement but it has made no impact on my brain and I'm scared of going back to eBay to check. I'm feeling exceptionally weak willed just now.

King Fu Sunday

2006-05-09T10:42:00.000+01:00

It's become a semi-regular thing, Kung Fu Sunday. It involves some friends, food, daftness and at least three (more likely four) kung fu films in a row.

I've learned the hard way not to work on anything that requires more than minimal attention during Kung Fu Sunday. Between the fight scenes, the subtitles, the heckling and the popcorn, most patterns suffer. This time I actually sat through the first film without fidgeting but it nearly overloaded my brain so the second film resulted in a 12 inch granny square.

Iron Monkey
We kicked off about 3pm with Iron Monkey. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It has interesting characters with back story, kick-ass fight scenes, sleezy Shaolin monks and a pitiful corrupt official who struggles to support his nine mistresses, especially as the Iron Monkey keeps stealing his stuff. I've read some reviews which describe it as a Robin Hood type adventure but I think it is more like Zorro - masks, humour, hapless but sympathetic guards, secret identities. The only Robin Hood element is that Iron Monkey steals money from the rich and then distributes it to the poor.

Swordsman 2
I enjoyed this film, despite its confusing elements. The main confusion was that Brigitte Lin was in fact playing a male character who was undergoing a sexual metamorphisis as a result using the Sacred Volume to acquire supernatural kung fu powers. Some of the audience didn't catch on until pretty late in the film that Brigitte's character was a bloke with female characteristics. There may have been more clues for those more conversant with Chinese culture, in the costume styles perhaps. There was also the fact that while this is apparently a sequel, most of the continuing characters were played by different actors. As the continuity was character based rather than plot there was a certain amount of "Who? What?" by the audience. There was also the rather common hiccup that one finds in Kung Fu films - that of names being rendered differently in the translations found in different films or even in different releases of the same film.

Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon
Now, this was an utterly fantastic film. I not only laughed my socks off, but jet propelled them halfway across the city. The Tiger & Dragon of the title are two cops with unique methods of dealing with criminals. The buddy banter between them is great and the use of nicknames was also very funny. Sammo Hung (one of my HK favourites) plays Fatty, who fights like Bruce Lee. Dave assures me that most of the fight scenes were recreations of the Bruce Lee fights, except with a fat bloke. Most of this was lost on me, apart from the nose/face wiping thing. Karl Maka as Baldy Tiger was brill, especially when he was getting his arse kicked. Easily one of the best kung fu films I've watched. Like Jackie Chan? This is better. It was so good that I didn't think even once about picking up my crochet and films don't get much more compelling than that.

Free Pattern

2006-05-06T13:16:00.000+01:00

Alice mini-shopper

Felted, crocheted bag

Materials

Approx. 25g each of black, lavender and purple mohair

8mm hook

Needle & strong thread

Uses UK terms

Bag

Working in stripe sequence – first two rounds in black, thereafter 1 round lavender, 1 round purple, 1 round black.

Round 1 3ch, work 7tr into third ch from hook. Join into a circle.

Round 2 2tr into each stitch.

Round 3 2ch, 1tr in same st, *2tr in next, 1tr* rep to last st, 1tr, join.

Round 4 2ch, 1tr in same st, 1tr, *2tr in next, 2tr*, finish round 2tr in 1, 1tr, join.

Round 5 2ch, 1tr in same st, 2 tr *2tr in next, 3tr* finish round 2tr in 1, 2tr, join.

Work 14 rounds straight, changing colour every round. Fasten off. Tidy up ends.

Handles

Using one strand of each colour, make a chain 150cm long. Fasten off. Tidy up ends.

Do the felting thing. I flung this in a hot wash with a few towels.

Blocking

I used a round plastic food container and left the bag to dry in place.

Cut 3-colour chain in half. Sew on as handles.

www.penguinhorde.blogspot.com

AAARGGGH! Scuppered Again!!

2006-05-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

I'm being picked on, definitely. Positively. Picked on.

First a regular correspondent (you know who you are, missy) emails with ideas involving knitting machines and felting. My brain went all gooey and excited but I managed to recombobulate my thinking processes. I am not completely obsessive about New Toys (no arguing, no backchat).

And there were the two penguin patterns that arrived in the post (ta very much to Knityoga & Knittyinpink). Again, excitement but Must Stick to the Plan. The Plan is Supreme and must be obeyed.

But you know, I was so tired yesterday that I didn't want to boot my brain and somehow ended up knitting two more bags for felting and I've nearly finished a crocheted bag to felt as well. That was just while listening to Alice Cooper on Virgin and then watching telly. Don't blame me, blame my fingers, it was all their fault. I didn't do it. I just left my fingers to their own devices and they go and do all that work, contrary to the Plan, without seeking permission from the brain, which is currently punishing the fingers by refusing permission to take photos.

Anyway, I decide to play a little on the internet because... well, no real reason actually. I'm taking my weekly look at the What's New pages at Knitting Pattern Central and Crochet Pattern Central and find that people have actually had the evil audacity to put up more patterns that I want to make. Terrible, isn't it? The world is picking on me.

Firstly, the pteryldactyl from Feckless Nomenclature calls out to me. Could it, I wonder, be classed as a pram toy? I know I'd happily give it to a baby to play with, but would anyone else? Then the Felted Bubble Bag from My Eclecticmess is cute and I have this current bee about felting plus various fancy yarns I'm not sure what to do with.

I saw the Hot Pink Bracelet Purse at Knotty Generation, and thought - might be a good project for the craft group but I'd have to try it out first.

Well, the brain thinks it had better finish the crochet bag the fingers started last night and then get felting - in a washing machine this time.

Now Felting at Platform Loon

2006-05-02T11:47:00.000+01:00

As the eagle-eyed will discern, the bag still has stitch definition, and has turned out shorter but slightly wider than it was. I would like the fabric to be more felted but I don't know if I can cope with another session in the bathroom. The basin & bath looked like King Kong had been to visit. I tried to get pictures but they all turned out rubbish. Plus I'm not sure I have a smaller box over which to block the bag unless ... I could wrap a book or two in something waterproof and then block over that. And I could give the bag a few minutes in the tumble dryer before blocking, for a tad more shrinkage.

Maybe it's me that needs the Shrink-edge, to reduce the ongoing yarn madness.

The yarn was practically felting as I was knitting it, so I had assumed that very little effort would be required to actually felt the bag.

I used the pattern from Sarah's Craft Closet, a random set of fat DPNS (7mm, I think) and about 75g of Emu Fiord, some vintage Pure New Wool I picked up at the recycling centre last year for pennies. I have another three 50g balls & the part used ball left, meaning this is a repeatable project WITHOUT me having to buy any more wool. I also have a selection of vintage silver buttons (more charity shop treasure). The handle decision will wait until after I'm happy with the actual felting of the bag.

I was eyeing up wool on the Texere website last night. However, I have a fair bit of mo(le)hair* in my stash, if I can only find it. I think I'd like a hairy, stripy bag. I've got about 500g of black mo(le)hair*, the same again in lavender, and assorted 50g & 100g in purples, reds, blues, etc.

*Does it really come from moles? Do they get shaved or combed or skinned or what? This is a paraphrase of an actual conversation I had with someone. There were half a dozen witnesses. The word had always sounded like molehair to him, with his accent & my ears, it sounded like mohair when he said it, leading to a cross-purposes conversation and side-splitting hilarity. It's what? at least two years later, and Dave always asks about the poor moles when I mention mohair to the point I think I just say molehair now.

Diary of a Lunatic, Part Umpteen

2006-05-01T20:46:00.000+01:00

Dear Universe Today I gave my buttons a lovely, foamy bubble bath. I wore pink rubber gloves, they wore nothing *giggle*. After I had soaped them all over, I dried them on a thick fluffy towel, before leaving them to loll (still unclothed) in front of the television.

They were such dirty, dirty buttons, you see. I had to bathe them, honestly. They might have contaminated my other buttons with their dirty dirty dust.

There's lady opened a thrift shop down the road. She has filled large matchboxes with assorted buttons for 25p a box. I've bought eight boxes, that's a lot of buttons. They had spent unspecified number of decades (yup, decades) in a cellar, so they were filthy.

I think I'm breaking Dave.

"Lindsey, why are there buttons in the kitchen sink?"
"Oh! They must have escaped while I was giving them a bath."
"Okay then. Here they are."

Good job he was out tonight. I was felting the bag I knitted last night. I decided to use the bathroom basin because the height is better for my back. I underestimated considerably the number of soap suds caused and the amount of energy required. So I stripped down to my undies.

Talk about knitting domination porn.

Undies, pink rubber gloves, potato masher, bazillions of bubbles. You think the image in your head is bad? I lived it.

This is the bag pre-felting. That is the tip of a handknitted sock. 'New Tricks' is starting, time for me to go and empathise with Brian.

See ya later.

Loopa disappointment

2006-04-29T23:06:00.000+01:00

I finished my first Loopa boa, and I'm disappointed. I've obviously screwed up because it isn't a boa, it's a collar. I suppose I was overwrought while working on it so it's no wonder the results are a bit rubbish.

I'm glad that's over

2006-04-27T13:03:00.000+01:00

It seems that my current eBay craze is winding down. Wot a relief! It happens every so often that I have this mad fit for buying stuff because IT MUST BE MINE and then it wears off and I sit around contemplating the damage. This time it was triggered by the List and mithering over what I was going to make.

For a few moments this morning I thought that the craze was reviving, but it was just a false alarm. I think buying a third knitting machine has satisfied my shopping need for now.

It tends to be an eBay craze because shopping in RL often leaves me feeling ill, anxious and upset, which takes the fun out of a lot of purchases. Plus, there aren't that many places which can satisfy my need for old knitting & crochet patterns within a comfortable distance from my home.

And I've just saved myself. A Craft Group member asked me to order something online for her. While there I ordered a Sirdar Loopa as well, taking advantage of the free postage my friend's item was earning. My original intention had been to try the local knitting shops first, and we all know that once in a knitting shop it was unlikely I would leave without buying more than just the Loopa. Plus, it saves me at least the same again amount of money in bus fare. But more importantly, if I went to a shop and bought things I didn't need just because I got over-excited, I would feel horrible afterwards.

I am in favour of supporting the LYS but not at the expense of my mental well-being. So there! *sticks out tongue*

Accidents will happen

2006-04-26T14:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I visited the revolving charity shop down the round, with Dave in tow. I discovered a pile of Bond knitting pattern booklets, an intarsia carriage and another box with various Bond bits & pieces (row counter, weights, etc) in it. Cue excitement, as I've always been outbid in my eBay attempts to get an intarsia booklet. The bloke charged me four quid, and there were twelve pattern booklets which I will probably end up selling on eBay as a lot of the things aren't to my taste.

Anyway the shop was really busy yesterday so I peered in the window this morning and noticed a notice saying "Craft Books". Obviously, I was right there on my way home again to investigate this pile of craft books. Unfortunately, they were sewing & dressmaking books, so I only picked up one called Making Samplers (in an earlier edition than this). While poking around the bricabrac I spotted a long brown box with some familiar looking plastic poking out of it.

Now I had commented to Dave yesterday that it was odd to find all these bits for a knitting machine without the actual knitting machine being in evidence.

Can you guess what was lurking in the corner? Yup, a Bond Classic Plus, so fitted with the thirty needle extension kit and with the short hem & rods. The hair stood up on the back on my neck but I decided to be casual when I approached the staff. I was prepared to haggle because these were all different people from my last visit. My approach would be simple - the knitting machine was incomplete, so should be marked down in price. Me bad? Mebbe. Anyway, I was quoted the princely sum of a fiver, and I said "Done!" and the bloke threw in the book for nothing. I think they were glad to be rid of the machine, perhaps they had noticed it was denuded of parts and thought they were 'doing' me, instead of me 'doing' them.

Now I have to go look at online knitting shops, but it's not for me, it's for a friend who wants me to order something for her. Honest guv, would I lie to you?

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

2006-04-15T16:39:00.000+01:00

I have finally finished the second sleeve with the teflon-coated diamond pattern (which is why it kept slipping from my brain, obviously!). I can safely say it has taken me longer to knit the sleeves than to knit the entire rest of the cardigan, and probably to sew it up too. The latter process is under way but as I have no buttons the damn thing is not due for completion today.

It is a beautiful day today. The Female Parental Unit and I went for a small jaunt to Sanquher on the bus. I saw my first lamb of the season, skipping next to its mum and dead twin (alas), a pheasant and two grouse, one of which seemed to be racing the bus. Grouse are too cute, especially when they run and their little red caps bob up and down.

Mum wanted to show me the stock of yarn now in the Co-Op. While rooting through some King Cole Monte Carlo I discovered Regia lurking at the back of the shelf, in 6-fadig & 4-fadig, in several colourways each. I was pretty gobsmacked and had to explain to Mum that it had taken me two years to find some Regia in the flesh for groping and then purchasing, so finding it in a country Co-Op was exciting. There was also some Patons Festival, which was new to me. It felt lovely and soft, and the changing colours and textures were very exciting. It must be mine!!! Dunno what I'd make with it but I neeeeed it, really I do.

The Co-Op also had some King Cole Sprinkles along with a Sprinkles pattern for a teddy and a cushion, which I got, but they didn't have the yarn in the Lychees colourway which is what I have my heart set on. Never mind, plenty more yarn shops to explore.

Speaking of which, I bought a copy of Simply Knitting this week and used it to make a list of woolly web addresses. There were sixty in total, most of which were new to me. Sixty! Dave reckons his chances of getting a shot on my PC are now drastically reduced but there's no saying that all of them are shops which need my considered attention.

Space...

2006-04-06T20:21:00.000+01:00

Today we got the Mac ready for collection by the Recycing People, and gosh! it was worth the pulled muscle in my back (though I might have done that in my sleep*). The metal computer trolley has been replaced by the wooden computer desk. The former is a more attractive & expensive piece of kit but large. The trolley protrudes 99cm from the wall, while the desk is 74cm with keyboard shelf out and a mere 44cm with the keyboard tucked away. It makes a vast difference in the living room, disproportionate to the number of centimetres involved. There is also now a huge clear corner in the second bedroom, so the metamorphsis from Wool Room to Dave Cave has been greatly facilitated.

The extra computer, trolley & cooker should be collected tomorrow. I've also found a home for the exercise bike (through Freecycle), also due for collection tomorrow. My storage cupboard will be more or less empty, meaning I can fill it with the boxes from the stair cupboard and then fill that with stuff from the Room formerly known as Wool. Fuff! No wonder I'm knackered. This decluttering thing is getting kind of addictive. I've started looking at my bookcases with a critical eye and thinking "That can go, that can go, hate that book" and so on. Perhaps I'm a reforming pack rat.

The yarn stays though. Absolutely, definitely.

*Honestly. I've pulled back muscles, twisted my knee and sprained my ankle in my sleep several times. I thrash around because of nightmares and night terrors.

Oops

2006-04-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

I went out today to treasure hunt i.e. poke around in a charity shop or two in search of interesting books or maybe even some yarn. The two charity shops I visited didn't have anything I would class as treasure, though I did buy a little teddy to dress.

So I went into the little shop next door to Oxfam which sells some yarn, some haberdashery and dance clothes. It had yarn I hadn't seen before, including Sprinkles, Elle Heathermix and various spot & striping baby yarns. After much dithering I succumbed to two balls of James C Brett Rio.
I bought some Rio last year in the purples colourway (or as I call it, The Most Beautiful Yarn in the World. Despite this plunder I was still disappointed so moved on to the Recycling Centre.

This is a warehouse full of stuff - it's like a giant ongoing jumble sale with amazing things. The last time I visited it had a glut of organs, today it had a glut of pianos. Most of the space is given over to donated furniture with a small section turned into a bric a brac shop with some adjacent bookcases full of randomly shelved books. I've have got some great buys from the Recycling Centre in the past including much wool, a bag of roving (of course I don't spin), my lovely sofa, several bookcases and my footstool.

Today I got this treasure for the princely sum of Â£1. The white ball is Peter Pan3 plyy, the tan is nameless DK and the two cones are James C Brett, both 4 ply. The Pastelle cone is unused, 340g. The photo doesn't do justice to its shades, which are white, several shades of grey, black and a dusky pink. The pink one is called Shimmer and has a slightly fluffy lurex type thread running through which is a bit darker. I bought another footstool as well, this one opens up and I thought it would be handy to have a bit of extra storage in the living room. Plus David keeps monopolising the footstool I already have.

Despite the fact I was already carrying Too Much, I went into Poundstretcher as part of my ongoing campaign searching out suitable stash storage boxes. Again, there was dithering over which size to get, but I plumped for the one which would hold the stuff I'd already bought. Cunning, eh? Considering I was getting the bus home. There were also plastic, lidded CD storage boxes about 18 inches long which looked ideal for storing knitting needles; one of them came home with me as well. I did resist the Penguin with the Chocolate Poo, though. There are already Too Many Penguins residing in this flat.

I haven't made a very good job of arranging this post & its pictures, just too tired to fiddle around with it.

Blatent Lies

2006-04-03T21:59:00.000+01:00

David wants attention. David wants me to leave the PC & internet in order to cuddle him. He's getting increasingly desperate. Hence -

"Lindsey, I'm made out of wool. Cuddle me!"

and

"Lindsey, I'm made out of wool and have internet access. Come here and cuddle me!!"

What can I do or say about this? Obviously I'm going to log off and go do some knitting while continuing to torture the poor lad.

Increasing Frustration

2006-03-31T08:28:00.000+01:00

I'm knitting a little cardie, see. I'm trying to knit the first gorram sleeve and I keep getting it wrong. It isn't a problem with the pattern; it's a problem with my brain. The pattern is a simple six stitch, six row repeat but I just keep screwing up adding the extra stitches in as I do the sleeve increases.

So I decided to draw up my own chart. Five attempts later I have something accurate but shabby. Brainwave! Why don't I do a version on the computer and print out? It seemed like a reasonable plan. I even enjoyed 'colouring in' the spreadsheet. I couldn't get the total number of stitches to fit on one page but that's fine because it's just the first & last repeats I need to worry about, and how the new stitches add on to them. I decide that I'll just print it out as a rectangle and then cut out the sleeve shape. That'll be easier and quicker than extra fiddling round 'uncolouring' sections. Still feeling fine. This is going to work so well, and I feel like a demi or even semi-genius.

Click the print button. Printer makes funny noises. Realise there is no paper in the printer. Pause print job. Run around room trying to remember where I had tidied the packet of paper away to. Rummage through pile of clutter lurking on table. Peer under table. Peer behind chair. No paper. Snarl in frustration. Contemplate phoning Dave to find out if he knows where the paper is, but realise it's now well after 2 a.m. so probably a Bad Plan. Cancel print job and console self by looking at French crochet & knitting sites and deciding it wouldn't be a huge amount of work to translate patterns into English. Or even to just get the hang of crocheting in French. It didn't take me to long to get the knack of crocheting in German, after all. Miss the narrow window of opportunity which I get for falling asleep, and so stay awake all night.

Then think, why not do a blog entry? While typing the previous paragraph suddenly remember where the paper is - on the shelf of the computer desk, about six inches away from my knees.

I'm going to bed now. Night Night, boys & girls.

The Definitive To Do List

2006-03-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

Baby's 4 ply garment - 95% done
Baby's DK garment - 75% done
Aran weight garment - 20% done
Baby's Bonnet, Mitts & Bootees - 90% done
Knitted Dog Coat
Knitted Pram Toy (max. 8 inches)
Dressed Teddy in wool
Baby Doll in wool (12 - 16 inches) (knit or crochet)
Dressed doll in wool (16 - 24 inches) (knit or crochet) - 10% done
Crocheted Toilet Roll Cover
Knitted Toilet Roll Cover - 90% done
Pincushion
Sewing Needle Case
Bookmark
Cross stitch card
Christmas decoration (12 inches max.)
Greeting card
Handmade Jewellery
Knitted Novelty Doll (up to 16 inches)
Knitted Novelty Doll (over 16 inches)

The coloured ones are the classes into which I want to enter two items. Yep, that's thirty items in total. I know I'm being too ambitious but I'm going to try anyway.

Feeling Better, thanks

2006-03-30T13:31:00.000+01:00

First of all, thanks for the sympathy & good wishes. They cheered me up.

What also cheered me up was going into one of the £1 shops yesterday and discovering eyelash & 'plume' type yarn. The eyelash was only 'okay' so I only bought 2 balls, but I succumbed to five balls of 'plume' in royal blue. So much for my yarn diet, though I have been soooo good this year in using up much more than I've been buying. I would post pictures of the yummy blueness but I'm short of suitable surfaces to photo the yarn on.

Lindsey + Poorly = Much Clutter.

I've spent so much time looking at patterns & books that my head is buzzing with all the things I want to make. I'm trying to impose some order on this creative jambalaya and be systematic. The big event of my crafty year is the Flower Show in the village where my parents live. There are two Industrial Sections for knitting, crochet, and various other craft items. My mother being community spirited, I am under continuing orders to enter as many things as possible to help keep the show alive. Last September various other women added their instructions to my mum's after inspecting my twenty or so entries. It's more for the glory than the prize money, though there is a cup to be won by the person with the most Industrial points. I've decided to start early this year, instead of leaving it until July or August and then knitting in a frenzy to get things done. I've even stayed up all Friday night to get entries finished for the Saturday morning deadline.

There are twenty classes I want to enter, and two entries in each class are permitted. I am not putting in two entries in all twenty, but some will be easy to double up on, like bookmarks & greeting cards. Also, instead of the piecemeal approach of previous years, I am working my way down in the list in a methodical manner. I think I'll need to finish six items a month to get everything done which may or may not be possible. Cardmaking will take a couple of hours, but the Aran will be a couple of weeks, if I'm lucky.

Three steps forward, two steps back

2006-03-17T23:35:00.000Z

The last time I posted, I was having such a good day. My brain was working, really working! My concentration levels were pretty good and I achieved actual STUFF.

It's all gone a bit downhill since.

The GP's best guess (cos I couldn't get an appointment to see my usual doc) is that I'm having a bad fibromyalgia flare up combined with a viral infection. The fibro has been attacking my feet, so much so that walking has been dreadfully painful, even just around my home. This is the first time I've been online since my last post, which is so unlike me. I don't like taking painkillers, but the doctor has given me some pills (usually I just have over the counter pain relief, combined with hot baths, etc).

The essay? Unfinished. I'm going to try working on it tomorrow but if I have to take painkillers I'll be sleeping instead.

I feel rotten emotionally as well. I felt I was making progress and now I'm knocked back on my bum again. I hate being ill, I'm such a bad patient, and the less I can do, the more depressed I feel. I've passed time by leafing through my craft books & magazines and planning what I want to make.

The title applies to my crochet as well. I started work on a little crochet baby jacket last night, I already know the stitch pattern so I thought it would be within my current capabilities. Alas! The amount of work I've put in to it so far should have resulted in a complete garment, if I hadn't had to regularly frog because I'd made a mistake. I want to the enter this jacket into the Flower Show later in the year so it has to be perfect.

I've got to go rest again - this amount of typing has worn me out.

Thinking with my eyes closed

2006-03-09T17:28:00.000Z

I have to write an essay on the relationship between tourism management and urban conservation. I also have to make up my own question, though I think I may have settled on one now. I'm trying a new (for me) method.

See, my supervisor is flummoxed by the fact that I turn out first class essays in exams without flinching and nary a panic attack, but outwith exam time, essay writing is a hugely traumatic experience for me. He suggested that I try writing my coursework within a time limit. I have been considering this and so I have approached this essay like an exam. I have spent time 'revising', I've prepared a list of questions, and now I'm going to write the answers to those questions. Hopefully twenty questions with twenty answers at 200 words each will equal the essay. I'm mostly convinced by this plan. I have to be because my usual method of essay writing fails to produce completed essays on time.

The time limit? The essay is due in at 4 p.m. tomorrow. I can do this, I just need to keep remembering that I can do it and that writing is something I enjoy, not torture.

Did I mention it's an illustrated essay? Google Images will be getting some hard use later this evening, though if anyone knows of a online source for good (free) pictures of Temple Bar, Dublin & York, please throw its URL in my direction. (As this is research/private study and not for publication I can use pictures as long as I attribute them correctly. So the library FAQ says.)

Oh, and while loads of people get a stunned expression when I tell them my essay topic, I would like to point out that I actually enjoy my course a great deal, and that I feel passionately about urban conservation and regeneration. For me, an urban landscape is about texture and colour, so yes, I do often think about cityscapes in terms of yarn & knitting. My supervisor doesn't regard knitting/crochet as a creative/artistic pastime though his experiences with me may have loosened that opinion somewhat - "Well, I can't sketch that building, but I could knit it for you!" But not lifesize, obviously. I don't have the skills to render what I see in a building through paper & pencil because my brain doesn't work that way. I think in textures first, then colour, then shape, etc.

And the title of this post? I wrote my list of questions then lay down on the sofa with a blankie, shut my eyes and started planning my answers and concentrating on the results I wanted. David thinks I was actually asleep for a little while as I was snuffling but usually the reason I'm still and quiet for any length of time is because I'm sleeping so confusion is understandable. Thinking is very hard work and now I'm sleepy. Anyway, my main motivation is bribery. Once I've answered a quarter of the questions I'm going to play with papier mache for a bit.

Sad & Happy

2006-03-04T18:55:00.000Z

I had a lovely time today, meeting up with friends and their children for a long lunch and silliness. Jakob got to meet Baby Sordid for the first time and Mrs Sordid thrust the infant into his arms. She only took one picture of him with child but I am a much meaner person and took several. One of them is rotten so I won't blog it, but applications in person to view the picture will be considered ;D

After his initial terror, Jakob got to grips with the whole cooing and aahing business with immense aplomb. Of course, the things he was cooing at the baby weren't the usual "coochy coo" comments but bizarro logic stuff.

The sad part came on the bus back to town. I don't know why, probably because it was so lovely to see everybody, and so sad to say goodbye. David is away for the weekend as well, so I shall have to sort myself out without any help.

It is cold tonight. I'm going to snuggle up under a blankie on the sofa and practising Norwegian Purling. I'm usually a 'thrower' but I ' pick' as well. Unfortunately my purl 'picking' is terrible, and having read various articles, etc extolling the Norwegian method, I'm going to have a proper shot at that. I want to feel confident in both ways so I can alternate and rest my hands when they get too painful. That's one of the reasons I will abandon a knitting project for crochet or vice versa - my hands get too sore and I can feel them start to swell. Changing activities actually reduces the pain somewhat and stops my fingers stiffening up completely. I don't want my hands to get to the stage again where I couldn't even hold a pen never mind knit, which means plenty of regular exercie for my fingers.

Um, a bit tangential, that last bit. Anyway, I reckon by the time I've done a garter stitch scarf in Norwegian purl it will feel natural.

Paper & Paste

2006-03-02T16:25:00.000Z

After my nocturnal blethering about wallpaper paste & reusing plastic pots, I sat down this afternoon and started transforming a small box instead. I hate throwing away little useful boxes but they're never very attractive so I don't use them. I had gone upstairs to get some bits I needed and spied the box that had contained my mobile phone. It had seemed to be a handy size so I had stored it away with my craft things.

Anyway, with the addition of wallpaper paste and torn up bits of the old phone directory, it now looks like this.

I'll move onto the next stage when it has dried out a bit, which also gives me a bit of time to decide how I'm going to finish it off. I was thinking of a layer of black tissue paper and then maybe rhinestones on the lid with some random applications of glitter. I have more ideas than I have boxes to decorate. I have various different kinds of paper and a myriad of shiny things I could stick on.

I think this is going to be my next craze. I find the whole process very soothing. The paper & paste really does strengthen the cardboard amazingly, so I'm going to muck around with a flimsier box next, like a Christmas card box, to see what the results are. The Craft Group may come to regret getting me started on this papier mache lark.

Treasure!

2006-03-02T00:33:00.000Z

Today when I arrived at Craft Group I was handed a yellow document wallet with "Crochet Patterns" written on the front. I bounced for a few moments, because this wallet has been promised to me for some time. It contained 59 patterns, mostly vintage doily patterns, then baby patterns, a few hat patterns and some random adult patterns for sleeveless tops. The hat patterns were all vintage P & B from the Sixties and pretty mental. Some of the doily pattern books are American and date from 1949 & 1950. One of them has crochet & tatting patterns including collars & cuffs. When it's daylight I'll try taking pictures of the hat patterns because I have to share their vintage wackiness. It's times like this when I think a scanner might be useful.

My brain was working even less well than usual, which meant that I guided David (who gets bus sick) onto the wrong circular. However, it meant that he got a look in Toys R Us and we investigated the giant Tescos where I was slightly naughty AND very good.

The slightly naughty was buying a toffee sundae thing and a little box divided into sections which I thought would be useful for beads & buttons. The good part came from buying plastic chests in which to store my yarn.

They are kids' toy chests and because the line has been discontinued they cost £3.98 rather than £5.97. I got four of them because, well, I have a lot of yarn. David was pretending that I had bought these as an excuse to buy more yarn to fill them, and was 'surprised' when I informed him (huffily) that they were for yarn I already have. I haven't filled one yet so I'm not sure how much yarn they will actually hold. I don't know if they will be enough for my stash or if I'll have to get more. The lids are pretty clever - there are clasp/hinges on each side which lock and mean that the lid can be opened either way.

This is because if David actually moves in he wants a room of his own which means no more Wool Room, which means I have to be much more organised with my stash. The stair cupboard is going to become the Wool Cave & hopefully my craft shelf unit will fit in there as well. He wouldn't be moving in until July (if he does) but I have so much stuff I need to get started early on organising it all, because the only system I have currently is of the random kind, and with my low boredom threshold for this class of work, I need to plan for doing it in fits and starts.

Also I have a sudden need for wallpaper paste NOW. It's because of the papier mache we've been doing at Craft Group (my shelf unit isn't finished yet cos I had to leave early today). I ate my toffee sundae and while fidgeting with the pot decided that if I covered the outside of it and lid with papier mache as we have been doing with the shelves, I could make a very attractive, matching container. In fact, I could make several to keep paper clips etc. in. In fact, given how much we've enjoyed the last two sessions, we could turn all kinds of plastic pots into decorated items for our next sale. Unfortunately, while I might be able to buy wallpaper paste in the middle of the night in Dundee, I can't get to any of the 24 hour shops without spending a tenner or more on taxis, which seems excessive.

D'oh! I've just remembered that I had meant to print out some of my hat patterns to get the other crocheter in the Craft Group to test them for me.

I am in such a waffling on mood tonight, I could ramble on for hours about the various ideas bouncing around in my bonebox. I'd better run away before my fingers run away with me.

Some Encouraging News

2006-02-24T00:44:00.000Z

I went to the doctors today to find out the results of the tests I had done at the hospital last month. The abnormal levels of whatever in my blood have dropped and if they continue to drop I won't have to have a biopsy in the summer. I may not have lost the masses of weight the doctors recommended but I must be doing something right. Or it could be that the ALF results were nothing to do with my weight at all, as that was just an educated guess sort of diagnosis because the scans showed my internal organs as being perfectly healthy. Who knows? Who cares? The novelty of being a Medical Mystery wore off years ago and as long as I don't have to have honking great needles stuck into me innards, I'm happy enough.

Yesterday at Craft Group I made a small shelf unit out of cardboard and covered it with papier mache. It was a pretty successful attempt. I was only slightly sticky afterwards, didn't get wallpaper paste over my clothes, didn't stick anything that wasn't supposed to be be stuck, and I wasn't the last one to finish in the group. Next Wednesday we shall be decorating our shelves with paint or decoupage or some such. I shall probably get painty because that it was usually happens when we paint anything. I caused discreet female hilarity by taking in a print-out of the Tit Bits pattern for a member who uses such things. We had to be discreet because we have a male in the group who isn't up to such discussions. I had mentioned the existence of the pattern last week and they didn't believe me. After the edible thong pattern incident, you'd think they'd know better.

Back at college

2006-02-20T23:50:00.000Z

Today we learned about the rehabilitation of Madrid's historic city centre and about how interpretation of heritage sites is no longer optional but essential. I didn't spend any time in the library drooling over books.

I don't have to go to the Wednesday morning class so you know what that means - CRAFT GROUP. We're making frames using a technique I don't know how to spell because I'm not sure what it is actually called - maroc or mudrock or something starting with a 'm' and ending in 'ock'. It uses fabric which gets stuff done to it to make it hard. I think. If anyone knows what this is, please tell me so I can google a bit first in a (no doubt) futile attempt to hide my ignorance.

This is a picture of the students' union reflecting Dr Sordid's old home in Airlie Place. And that's my old home, Belmont Tower, in the background but we can't see my window. Shame, eh?

I braved the Knitted Textiles Room today. I just marched in and asked someone to show me how they cast on their Knitmaster machines. They all use the E-wrap method. Now, why didn't I think of that at weekend when I was losing the will to knit? And the students admired my curly whirly scarf.

Last night I started knitting a hat in the cursed cream Aran with stripes of Elle Plume. I like the way it's turning out, and I might even make a matching scarf. I lost track a bit with the decrease rows (poor brain get misfiring) so the shaping might not turn out as I'm picturing in my head. I suppose there might be something to be said for planning these things out beforehand instead of just peering at the fabric and muttering "That looks about right".

I have a two hour lecture at 9, and a two hour lecture at 11. Time for bed, said Zebedee.

Interrresting...

2006-02-18T13:38:00.000Z

Rohirrim

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Rime of the Ancient Wotsit

2006-02-17T18:45:00.000Z

Twas a grumpy pensioner
And he had a go at me
Twas MY wool quoth he.

I spotted a carrier bag full of cream yarn in a charity shop. I had a bit of a grope and decided that it felt yummy so asked the price. Fifty pence, the nice lady said, and I probably broke Mach 10 getting my purse out of my bag.

There was this elderly bloke lounging in a armchair just across the room.

"I know a story about that wool," he said.

Well, my mother brought me up to be polite to elderly strangers (especially when they have walking sticks!), so I smiled in a friendly fashion and indicated that I would interested in hearing his story. Stupid, stupid plan.

"I bought that wool. A woman was going to knit socks for me to go with my kilt, but she died." At this point I felt impaled by his glare. "It was VERY EXPENSIVE WOOL."

I mumbled something about how it certainly seemed like very lovely wool and tried to make my escape before I offered to knit the kilt socks.

When I examined the yarn at home, I decided that it had been in that bag for some time. There's at least 400g of it, in a nearly 400g size ball and several grapefruit size balls that have been wound off, plus a mismatched pair of knitting needles. There was a bit of knitting, about 1cm of rib, that had escaped from the needle and it had been on that needle so long that the stitches had been stained by the metallic coating. Any guesses on long that would take?

Tease(l) me!

2006-02-17T17:58:00.000Z

I bought a teasel brush about three weeks ago and I've had a bit of fun with it. The brushing had a fantastic effect on the Gloriously Fugly hat (which is still In Progress) and I wanted to show off the effect obtained. I had always throught that a teasel brush only really brought up nice effects on natural fibres like angora but a friend told me otherwise which is why I bought one to play about with.

So first of all, I made a hat from two strands of DK and a 8mm crochet hook - one of my instant gratification hats. I took some pictures, attacked half of the hat with the teasel brush and then took some more pictures.

It's the usual rubbish pictures, but I think the change can still be seen. The fabric does become very soft to touch; this was some Elcheapo bogstandard acrylic I had hanging around and it feels delicious now. I want to see what happens when I tease a very scratchy fabric. If two close colours are used the resulting blending is very pretty. That's what happened with the orange and red yarns I used in the Gloriously Fugly hat, which will be appearing on a monitor near you in the near future. I just have to make three or four pompoms for it.*

So - attacking FOs with a sharp metal implement isn't always a bad idea.

*I know, three or four pompoms sounds excessive and they're not going to be dangling from ear flaps either. It already has a mini-curly whirly and some strange surface crochet.

Bah!

2006-02-15T15:31:00.000Z

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		70%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		65%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		60%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		60%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		55%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		50%
River (Stowaway)		50%
Alliance		35%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		35%
Inara Serra (Companion)		30%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		25%

You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

I wanted to be Wash, and I wasn't going for River, so there.

Finished Wackiness

2006-02-14T16:03:00.000Z

The bee hat has come out as more of a helmet. This is because I'm feeling the cold at the moment and so kept adding bits to cover my ears and back of my neck. I put in a smidgen of shaping at the back so it curves a bit. Maybe it should have been more black than yellow ...

I did write the pattern down as I went along, just not all on the same piece of paper, so it will have be collated and then typed up. I will add the pattern later in the week.

Wackiness In Progress

2006-02-13T12:26:00.000Z

It's a bee hat in progress, adult sized of course. Well, half a bee, really, because there isn't going to be a bee head or bee wings. The 'stinger' isn't lop sided in life, and if David stops pretending it's obscene & doing obscene things with it, the stinger probably won't need any stuffing to keep it pointing up. Unlike many other things, the more David plays with the stinger, the floppier it gets. Ho hum.

Last night I had twice as much hat but I decided that it was too big and frogged it as far as the last increase. I've actually been writing down the pattern for this, suffering from the delusion that other people might want their own crocheted bee hat. I've been thinking about how I would knit one, and decided that crochet is definitely the way to go.

A knitted stinger would have to be stuffed while the crochet one probably won't have to be. Starting at the stinger and working down is the easiest way to get a good fit but I don't like knitted increases as much as I like knitted decreases. On the other hand, quaker rib would give a good textural effect.

There has been a certain amount of angst over the stripe proportions. David googled bee stripes for me and came to the conclusion that there is no single set of bee stripes, all bees are differently striped. I just don't want any confusion with wasps, though the over-exaggeration of the stinger might lead people to believe that I've got a wasp on my head. Waspish as I often am, I wouldn't wear one. Anyway, when finished the hat is getting a good going over with a teasel brush to make it fluffy and more bee like.

Some of you may be wondering why I'm blogging instead of being at university. Well, I slept in by three hours despite my raucous alarm clock and I feel too rough to spend the afternoon traipsing around looking at buildings. So boo to you. I don't intend to slack off all day; there is a bag of washing staring evilly at me from across the room. The only way to purge such evil is to shove it in a washing machine with Exorcism Powder (or Liqui-tabs, your preference) and let it be rinsed clean in the water of soapy cleanliness.

Out of hiding

2006-02-10T12:57:00.000Z

I re-started my college course last month. This will be my third attempt at this semester. Previous attempts were aborted because of poor health. It means that I will usually miss my craft group meetings, which I am unhappy about, because I do enjoy them a great deal. It also means that I spend at least half of the week too tired to switch on the PC, and when I do, I feel guilty if I'm not doing 'work'.

I've been having a bit of a fibro flare-up this week though, so I wasn't up to classes. I knew from past experience I'd be exhausted by the time I made to the college. I was feeling a bit low, so made the effort to go to Craft Group which is only a few hundred yards away, instead of the other side of the city. I made a fabric covered picture frame. It isn't completely finished because I need to add some beads or such like to cover up the mistakes I made.

My knitting & crochet has been a bit random, because it depends so much on what my moods are. I took pictures today of one hat, and I have another couple of hats & another curly-whirly scarf to photograph.

So much for my plan to keep a record of the things I've made by taking pictures of them! Some of the FOs I can catch later because they were things I made for mum. A couple are now living with new people far away so are unlikely to be within range of my camera again.

As Thursday now seems to be a Rest Day, perhaps I should designate Friday as Blogs Day, so I can read what other people are doing and witter on about I'm making.

I've been busy, honest

2005-12-18T00:44:00.000Z

Since I last posted I've made, um, five hats? a doll & a neckwarmer thingie. No pictures partly because some of the things are pressies, partly because I've mislaid the camera. Now I know it's on the table but that poor object is currently heavily laden with patterns, sewing stuff, roleplaying books & wargame minatures.

The two crochet hooks I bought from ebay arrived yesterday. I was so excited, it's sad really. One is an Inox 6mm, with a metal hook end & a plastic handle. It's good to work with, much better than the plastic 6mm I've had for donkeys & only use when I can't avoid it. The other hook is a light metal 8mm hook by a company called Apple. I was worried about the weight involved but it doesn't feel much heavier than the icky plastic one and is a dream to crochet with. I've already used to make two hats. With this hook and two strands of yarn, I can whistle through a hat in about ninety minutes while watching telly.

Last Saturday two friends visited me & brought me so much stuff that I was dreamy for days. There was a large amount of wool, dozens of knitting needles & crochet hooks, patterns (many vintage magazine pull-outs), sewing & dressmaking supplies and just assorted crafty stuff. David didn't know whether to be sniffy about all the extra wool & patterns or amused by the way I kept giggling whenever I remembered all the treasure which had taken over my living room. They had cleared out a house belonging to a lifelong hoarder.

We joke about SABLE (stash already beyond life expectancy) & PABLE but this kinda of struck me as so sad. I've been thinking about it and while I'm definitely PABLE I am not SABLE. I use (during an average week) at least 100g of yarn. That's 5200g per year or 52,000g over ten years. I don't have anywhere near that much, despite what David tells people. Until A & F brought me treasure, my stash had been reducing, in that I had been using more wool than I had been buying.

Admittedly, realising that my stash was shrinking did send me into a bit of a panic, leading to hours of ebay browsing & such like, before I calmed down. After all, I'm visiting my parents over the festive season which means my knitting & crochet will be funded by my mother's stash. I usually take a couple or three balls with me but mostly I play with my mother's wool.

I have to start deciding what knitting I'm taking with me. Usually I take a selection of patterns, my crochet hooks & some short circs, along with any yarn already allocated to a pattern. I have to crochet during the journey - it stops my anxiety going into overdrive because I'm so far away from safe places. I also take any books that I think Mum will be interested in, as long as they're not too heavy. I try to be prepared for different moods, so I have a project to suit whatever frame of mind I'm in. Yes, Mum does have patterns but that is not the point. Her patterns are different from mine. It's awful being in the mood to make a certain thing but its pattern is a hundred miles away. I get very frustrated when that happens. I will have to make sure I have a couple of sudoku books with me as well. Last time I visited I finished all my puzzles only to discover that the local shop didn't stock any puzzle books. Imagine having to take a two hour round trip by bus just to get a sudoku book!

With it being the last weekend before Christmas, I'm wondering if the wool shop in town will be open tomorrow. I must get some black wool ASAP. I need to crochet a scarf by Wednesday. The yarn I was going to use turned to be ... less than suitable, shall we say? Its lumps & my crochet speed turned out to be incompatible and I became rapidly scunnered with the thing.

Now, the current big decision - am I going to crochet or am I going to do sudoku puzzles in bed tonight? The nightlife of a poor sleeper can be so exciting.

Craft SEX

2005-12-08T11:21:00.000Z

I bought a Christmas card kit yesterday. It has six cards, 12 mini cards, all the envelopes, silver cord & red ribbon, lots of sparkly bits plus shiny trees & snowflakes, a piece of cellophane & card strips.

It cost the amazing sum of £1. While on the one hand I think, "Hey, Poundland rocks!", I also think it's no wonder we couldn't sell our Christmas cards last weekend when there are deals like this available.

The next blurry picture is another example of Monkey See Monkey Want. D6 beads. Nicola bought me some dice beads many many years ago, which I used as hair beads. Now I have these tiny babies to play with. I'm thinking dice bag with these beads on the drawstring, or maybe worked into the fabric. All Hail Ebay! I couldn't have got these in Dundee. At least, in no shop I've visited recently.

Cupcake Pictures

2005-12-06T11:23:00.000Z

Comfort Crafting

2005-12-06T02:13:00.000Z

It's a bit like comfort eating, I suppose.

I've been feeling fed up all day.

Anyway, I've made a baby Cupcake Hat. I fiddled with the pattern to make it work with DK & smaller needles. I couldn't be bothered digging out circs in the right size so I knitted it flat. I worked the whole of the top in 'icing' rather than having the crown in 'cake'. And I didn't make a pompom but crocheted a cherry which has been stuffed and sewn to the top. I'll take a picture in daylight, whenever we get proper daylight again in Dundee. It has been so dark the last couple of days, I have needed the light on all the time for working.

The cupcake hat willl go to the craft group sale. Hopefully it will be an attention grabber. I think I will make the viking hat as well, though I am toying with the thought of a cow pie baby hat. This is Dundee after all, home of Desperate Dan. Actually, an adult cow pie hat would definitely attract attention. I'm also considering the Slapstick Pie. I might fiddle with that so it becomes the Slapstick Pie Hat. I'm not sure if I have any pastry coloured wool, because I don't have that particular colour as a category in my memory banks. Who knew? Though I've discovered that I do have some raw chicken coloured wool. My random SEX habits do have some advantages.

I was thinking that if, instead of just selling these novelty items, we could have a raffle or tombola or something with these as prizes. Hopefully then we would make more money per item. I think that people tend to get more excited by the unusual and at this time of year they may reckon that a novelty hat would be a great jokey present for someone.

It may be 2.30 a.m. but it's time for me to go play with some sketches & draft patterns. I would like to have made a good start on this by Wednesday.

Don't forget your donkey!

2005-12-04T15:06:00.000Z

Lifted from AmyP

The ones in bold are the ones I've read.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

-- George Orwell
3.

Brave New World

-- Aldous Huxley
4.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

-- Philip Dick
5.

Neuromancer

-- William Gibson
6.

Dune

-- Frank Herbert
7.

I, Robot

-- Isaac Asimov
8.

Foundation

-- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10.

Microserfs

-- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13.

Cryptonomicon

-- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16.

The Man in the High Castle

-- Philip K Dick
17.

American Gods

-- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

I wonder what the top 20 things to knit would be? Either general categories or specific patterns. I think it would vary a lot on whether the knitters asked were on the internet or not. I've noticed that net-knitters seem to do more things like socks & bags, and are more prone to the crazes. The non net-knitters I've asked about socks (fr'instance) say, "Oh, I haven't knitted socks since I was at school" or similar. These have tended to be 'venerable' knitting ladies. I was amazed to find out that my mum had knitted socks at school. Maybe that's where she gets her dislike of dpns from?

The poncho craze did sweep the board though, leaving wool shops stunned by the sudden influx of demand for poncho patterns. It hit Dundee in the middle of August 2004, about a week after the schools went back. Suddenly every little girl urgently needed a poncho, there weren't any in the shops, and grannies found their woolly skills much in demand. I loved the harassed look on the wool shop lady when someone asked her about a poncho pattern. She didn't have any and she was innundated by demands. I advised her to tell people to check on the internet, and stunned her still further with the idea of knitting patterns for free on the web. A little light went on over her head. I do like enabling other people's pattern addictions.

After the fayre

2005-12-03T15:46:00.000Z

We made a profit of about £35. This was mostly because of Big Bunny - £1 for 5 guesses about his birthday. Helen was ambushing people with the diary as soon as they came in. It is a lot harder to ambush people with Christmas cards; we only sold four of those. Only two stalls seemed to do well, which were the cake stall and the tombola. I don't understand people paying £1 for five chances to win tat, when for the same money they could buy sweeties, calendars, etc. It's not even as if there was any booze to win.

Mark forgot to bring the bag with the hats & scarves. He was apologetic but of course my paranoia kicked in. Was it because the stuff was rubbish? No, just me being paranoid. Anyway, the table was small and only had just enough room for the stock we did have with us. I noticed that the gift boxes we had made were also missing. I think we should check about table size before the next sale and maybe get two tables if they aren't very big. I had one curly whirly with me, and it was sold as soon as it came out of my bag. Of course, it was bought by our Glorious Leader, who then had fun prancing around the hall in it.

The next sale is on the 14th so we are going to re-think our strategy seriously. The calendars will have to be sold, obviously. We don't have the storage space to keep much stock over for next year. One lady liked our things a lot but didn't have any money with her. She begged some cash off her husband but didn't manage to get everything she wanted. I made a point of telling her about the next sale & said we'd look forward to seeing her then.

Helen has commissioned me to make a long black scarf for her grandson, 'like all the young ones wear, all foufy, to wrap round and round'. I'm not sure what this means precisely, but I'm sure I can come up with something. It's to be a Christmas present so I'd better get cracking. I think I have some stash that will fit the bill. I also have to make a hat for Helen's great-nephew.

David is away until Wednesday. He pointed out yesterday morning that this would be an ideal time to make his Christmas present. Am I in the mood for that particular project? Dunno. I'm thinking we need something attention grabbing for the next sale. Maybe if I finish the radioactive pig... Or knock out some little dollies or something. It's getting people to stop and look long enough to see that there are things they would actually like to buy.

I sat & crocheted for about ninety minutes. We were hoping it would attract extra attention and it did bring a few people closer. The number of visitors just plummeted though. It turns out that the rain had just got heavier & heavier. On my way home the streets were practically empty and the few pedestrians were bundled up heavy against the cold and rain, hurrying to get somewhere warm and dry.

I want the next sale to be more of a success. I felt guilty at first about not making the flower brooches but none of the brooches we did have were sold. I'm trying to think of things I can make which might be popular and of which I can make multiples in the next ten days. I can make another couple of kitties & ask someone else to sew the faces. I'm not very good at producing cute expressions. I think children would like the kitties.

Obviously I can make more curly whirlies because they only take me a couple of hours or so now I have got them down pat. I just don't know if it's worthwhile when I'm not sure if they will be popular. There are four in storage, and I have nearly finished another one. I have the yarn to make a hat to match the CW in progress but again, I don't know if that's worthwhile.

It's easy to tell that David isn't around. Normally I would talk to him about all these things and it helps get stuff straight in my head even if he doesn't have much of an opinion.

Avoidance Post

2005-12-03T11:07:00.000Z

I'm posting just now because I'm putting off going out. I want to go, but I don't want to go, and the icky weather isn't helping.

I decided yesterday that I will make Christmas presents for people, after I had thought I wouldn't bother this year. The list is three hats, three neckwarmers, two scarves and a set of earwarmers, plus David's present. The hats won't take me very long but I do have to buy the right yarn. Mum made a special request for a ribbed hat in furry yarn. The yarn shopping will have to wait until Tuesday. I'm going to make a birthday card for Dad (for the 18th) & I think I might try to make Christmas cards for some people.

I have most of two blankets (one knitted, one crocheted) sitting in bags. They just need to be sewn up. If I can get my arse in gear I could finish at least one of them and it could be a present for Dad. I think he would prefer the knitted one as it is garter stitch squares and he used to reminisce about the garter stitch square blanket his granny made for him when he was a kid. My squares are 12 by 12 inches though, done diagonally with two strands of DK on 9mm needles.

I'm taking my camera with me to the Christmas Fayre so I might post pictures later of our stall. Hopefully we'll get a good turn out despite the rain and raise a reasonable amount of money for our kitty. I will have to remember to take a picture of the spiral scarf before it gets sold. I had a look round some of the shops the other day and none of them had curly scarves like mine so I'm telling myself they'll sell like hot cakes, being so unusual.

Fingers crossed!

Oops...

2005-11-28T11:04:00.000Z

I did mean to make flower brooches. I even spent ninety minutes trying out flower patterns but I was frustrated by the results sooo...

I made another curly whirly.

That was on Saturday. Yesterday I started - guess what? Another CW. I wanted to experiment with stripes, you see. It was all in the interest of science.

Making the pink curly whirly reminded me of the loopy scarf I made with the same yarn (Jazzy, by Tawny, if anyone's interested). I therefore dug the loopy one out of the bedroom so I could take pictures of it. I do like this scarf. I knitted during Summer 2004. I mean to make another one, but more narrow. The loop stitch makes the fabric fairly bulletproof and very cosy.

Have I mentioned I love this yarn? It came in 250g blobs. I've made scarves, gloves, a shawl, a wrap, a hat and a balaclava* with this stuff. It is fuzzy and warm, and I like the way it stripes while still retaining its essential PINKNESS.

Anyway, the amazing PINKNESS reminded me of the War Pixie hat, languishing by the front door. I made this a couple of years ago because a newbie crocheter on Livejournal was trying to find a pattern for a stocking cap. My mother hates the War Pixe and refers to it as That Hat. I think she is disconcerted by my habit of waving at people with the tassel.

*Yes, a bright pink balaclava. It has a kind of widow's peak front. You will all be jealous when the cold weather comes and blizzards rage, and I remain cosy & visible at great distances. Maybe I should photograph the balaclava as well.