Long Weekend

I have been doing some knitting lately, but it has been for Christmas presents so no photos.... although I'll put this one in just to prove that I've not been idling and watching reality tv shows (actually I've avoided getting sucked into obsessively watching I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here this series, which is always a good thing).

The shades have been changed to protect the innocent.Had a couple of days off work last week and we went into Manchester on Thursday, had some lunch, did a bit of shopping, went to see the new James Bond film. I'm no film reviewer - so I'm not going to try - I'll just say that I liked it. It has vertigo inducing stunts, blatant product placements, torture, long & involved poker playing and no cheesy Roger Moore puns and crap.

Had the obligatory wander around Waterstones on Deansgate (their range is really improved lately, there are at least 3 shelves of knitting books now) and got a couple of books including Andean Folk Knits by Marcia Lewandowski, mostly because I fell in love with this fishy bag:


I tried to take a picture of the book for the blog but this happened

And then thisso I gave up.

Slow day

Just having a blog browse and came upon this on Bagpuss's blog, thought it was funny, so I nicked it.

Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say? Conversely, if there are plenty of coulombs available, a small voltage, such as 117 volts (or even less), can result in a lethal flow of current.

If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching? A book shelf.

What’s the last program you watched on tv? Everest, Man and Mountain

Without looking, guess what time it is. About 11:30am. Close it's actually 11.28am.

Except the computer, what can you hear right now? The air con

When was the last time you were outside and what did you do? I walked across the car park this morning.

Did you dream last night? I vaguely remember something about going to London and there being rubbish piled up in the streets.

When was the last time you laughed? This morning, we were talking about music exams and a colleague was telling me about a friend's 6 year old who had won a violin competition, in the under 7's, under 11's and under 14's categories. Can you imagine how embarrased you'd be, being 13 years old and being beaten by a 6 year old!!

What’s on the walls, in the room you’re in right now? some storage cupboards, lovely shade of taupe.

Have you seen anything strange lately? I found a miscreant ball of sock yarn in a drawer and have no idea how it came to be there.

What do you think about this meme? Funny, it was the first book question that made me want to steal it.

What’s the last film you saw? Pirates of the Carribean, Dead Mans Chest. Wish I'd waited until the next one was out then I could have watched them together.

If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money? I'd give some to charity, some to my family and move to the country.

Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know. I got married in secret in Las Vegas!

If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be? I like Bagpuss's idea of the buses. More and decent sized cycle lanes would be good too.

Do you like dancing? Yes

George Bush? No thank you.

What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy? Lorna and Jared (not going to happen!!!)

Would you ever consider living abroad? Not seriously

What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven? Come on in

Who should do this meme? Any one with a book to hand :)

video testing one two three

If this works, it'll be a miracle.

Here should be a video clip what I made earlier of me crocheting a border onto a knitted piece of stocking stitch. That's the plan, anyway.

Can anyone see it? Has it worked? *


* if you can see, I apologise now for the crappy quality.

Lovely Glovely

Sorry - the title sounded better in my head.

So this post is dedicated to all things handy. Firstly, these are the wrist warmers that went to the Keep Pie Princess Warm This Winter Effort.

And this is the first of my Fyberspates gloves. I really enjoyed making this and I learnt a lot about how to make better gloves in future! The main thing is not to be a slave to the pattern, just because it says that you should pick up x stitches, if this should leave holes then there is nothing stopping you from picking x + 1 or 2 and then decreasing on the next row (this also stands when picking up stitches for the heel of socks) and as long as you end up with the correct amount for the finger width you need, all is peachy.

The Project Formerly Known As Shrug

...is now a scarf. I realised that I had miscalculated the number of flowers needed to make the flowery thing as a shrug, and it would have been flopping over my hands and way beyond. So I decided a change of plan was needed and simply finished it off when it reached scarf size and added some fringes. It may not look like much, but I am very pleased with this project as it was my first foray into lacy 'open' crochet (I have no idea what the correct term is, but by 'open' I mean repeated flower motifs joined by chains rather than solid material rows of crochet) following a pattern, so I am rather chuffed that I was able to decifer it.

This is the final result (and demonstration of my bad posture...)

I have also made another pair of the Noro wristwarmers, but these are a gift for Pie Princess, who won't get them for a couple of days, so no piccy just yet.

In my crazed state of getting on with unfinished objects, I also did some more of the DB hoodie and am almost at the top of the first sleeve now. The yarn is really hard work though, so I don't think I'll be working on that solely and have started making plans for a pair of gloves out of the Badger Fyberspates. I was going to do a pair of chevron socks with it, but when I saw the little tension swatch on my finger I thought it would be ideal for a pair of gloves. There are loads of patterns in my Grandma's pattern collection, so we'll be heading back to the 1950s for these. I don't think the 'new' Paris style shorties are for me, but there's a rather nice pair of ribbed cuffed ones with patterned backs that look just the job.

Wonderful things

We had a lovely evening last night with our friends, stuffing our faces with baked potatoes, stew and fruit crumble with ice cream.

I have to show off the present that they bought us from Manchester Art Gallery, which I think is inspired. It is a porcelain toothbrush holder in the shape of a tooth. Genius.There was much talking and a small amount of knitting. Kirsty has 'inherited' an almost completed tank top from her Auntie Joan and would like to finish it as a present for her Dad, so we were deciphering the (very old!!) pattern and I showed her how to work the dpns for the neckband. There's not much left to do, but it might take a while with a very interested 1 year old about! I have also introduced Kirsty to the world of sock knitting - and gave her one of the balls of Opal Elemente from my stash and some Addis to get her started.

What goes around comes around, for today a skein of sock yarn arrived for me as a present from Badger for writing her a poem (or cobbling together some words that rhyme would be more accurate).

My Posh Yarn Lace Club yarn also came today, it is Felicity - pure silk and pure heaven.