January 30, 2007

FOs and WIP



I know, I said I'd be quiet but Mr Mog took me a couple of other photos while photographing my gift from Brooke.
Finished objects, yes more Calorimetrys, I'm a little addicted I think. Don't they look delightful all sitting together? Yarn is Noro silk garden left top, Kureyon right top and handpainted yarn. com bottom I think.
And Ta DA I give you the mogs lace, my holey shawl . Lacy prairie shawl from the Folk shawls book. Doesn't look much on the needles but its mine, all mine:))

MY SP gift arrived:)


A beautiful, thoughtful final gift arrived today from my SP Brooke White willow
Its been great getting to know her over the past few months and I know we will keep in touch.
I know, I know you want to see a picture right?
I received Godiva chocolate bar(eaten already)
a great little pad for keeping track of my rows doing lace:)
Green tea with flowers, smells delightful.
choccy biscuits. Never had these before and they are yummy:)
pot pourri in a rich fruity flavour.
stitch markers of lions for this Leo moggie:) Never seen anything like these before and Brooke made them me herself:))
A card and
HANDPAINTED MOHAIR IN RASPBERRY FROM MOUNTAIN COLORS YARN
Had to shout that because it is incredible:) A rich moggie colour for sure.
Brooke I really can't say thank you enough for all your gifts but this, this will be made into a shawl(naturally) just for me. I'm thinking some gorgeous eyelash mohair to go with it. Jo
are you listening, do you have any in your stash that will go with this??
I'm off to fondle my yarn now, please don't disturb me unless its absolutely necessary:)

January 28, 2007

New Blogger, knitting and so forth

Been moved to new Blogger:( Not sure I like it yet and have tentatively started a wordpress blog with nothing on it yet, just in case. It says you can import blogger but sadly old not new.
We will see how it goes next few days.
I'm knitting the lacy prairie shawl from Folk Shawls. Pictures soon but I've done around 15 inches of it and its not too bad so far. Its holes so does that count as lace??? Jo, Marianne Ms Knit??
Also still working on the Cavendish throw in Noro as and when the holey thing gets too boring.
Finished 2 more Calorimetry and an ear flap hat that awaits felting and is pink:)) For a friend not me. I don't like baby pinks particularily.
What else? I'm sore, very sore and can't take my pain relief as my stomach is being tetchy. Makes for long long nights and lots of pain. I did garden watch today and had an amazing amount of birds, blue tits, great tits, gold finches, green finches, chaffinches, wren, robin, siskins, sparrows. Can't remember what else. The new niger feeder Mr Mog put up is really attracting the goldfinches. They are so pretty aren't they?
Busy getting the final parcel ready for my SP, it will probably go out tomorrow to her. My SP sending to me is Brooke White Willlow
Check out her blog, she has been a great SP and its been wonderful getting to know her.
Well I am going to go and knit me some more holes:)

January 24, 2007

Frost but no snow and lace????






some pictures from the woodland walk across the road. We had quite a lot of ice and every where was so crisp and fabulous views. I'm having a go at the candle flame scarf from knitpicks as it has written instructions. Its for my imbolc shawl. I'm using a lovely green for it that reminds me of new growth pushing up through snow. Pictures when I have something to show.
A question, how do you folks ma rk your page to enable you to see the line of pattern you are following? I used to have something that slid across like aruler with a space but can't find it. Have googled but obviously not using the right search terms as I don't know what the darn things are called.
Also all hints on patterns with written instructions for shawls, scarves gratefully received. They can have charts but need to have it written down also. I got victorian lace today but sadly its all charts so it will be being sold on. I wish publishers/designers would give the choice of charts and written for those of us challenged with the little squares:)

January 20, 2007

Finished things:)




Yay, I have some finished items to show off.I would add that whilst making the mohair fingerless gloves my youngest grandson (almost 9) greatly admired them and wanted a pair. I ended up making both grandsons a pair while down there in rowan cashsoft in a delightful beigy colour I found in the local yarn store. I have no photos because I didn't take camera with me.
Without further ado I giove you 2 pairs of fingerless gloves, my own pattern. One pair colinette mohairs, the other pair not sure but very very soft:) And another Calorimetry. I had an idea of making 2 matyching calorimetrys and stitching them together as a bra:)) They do have a cup shape to them when finished. However I haven't got round to it yet with the bad week we've had.
I'm now off to finish my first Hospice shawl as the lovely Jo of Celtic Memory yarns sent me sufficient, well more than sufficient yarn to finish casting off. Thanks Jo and yes pictures tomorrow hopefully when its blocked. If anyone hasn't tried Jo's yarns I highly recommend them

January 19, 2007

Home again, home again safe and sound:)

We have spent past few days grandson sitting in Lancashire. I am from there and have to say that this past 2/3 days weather have been worst I've known for around 20 years. I've never been so frightened in my life. Yesterday in Preston and surrounds especially. We tried 3 times to get into the hospital to see my uncle and couldn't. Firstly because the car parks were all full to overflowing, secondly way too windy for me to even contemplate walking more that a yard or so. It was blowing me over and I'm not tiny:)
We went to our once local butcher or tried to. As we crossed over the canal bridge we had to stop with a fallen tree, turned round and another tree had fallen in the minute or two we had gone past. Took half an hour for builders close by to chop up and move one of trees it was so massive. Then as we couldn't get near butchers we headed off to pick up grandsons early from school while still able to get there. We were blocked more than a dozen times with fallen trees. Lucky I knew alternative routes. My DD and her partner were coming home from London, DD couldn't get any trains. Her partner had to drive across London to pick her up, took 2 hours. They decided to try driving home thinking to take A roads as motorways had been closed . They arrived home 10pm very tired and DD had interview this morning for new job.
We arrived home in Scotland around 4 pm very cold sore and tired.
House was cold as there hadn't been any fires since Monday morning. Our friend had lit it this morning but it takes a goodly while for these thick walls to heat up again
Boy am I glad to be home:)

January 14, 2007

A giveaway for my blogaversary:)

Just checking back on my blog and my first posting was made 2 years ago 1st January 2005. I hadn't realised it was so long ago. My doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself:))
In honour of this anniversary I'm having a giveaway. All comments received between now and Friday will be put into a draw. Winner will get a skein of Colinette yarn

Work in progress and goodies in the post



Here you see another Cavendish throw in progress from the Noro book. This one I'm using up odd balls of the kureyon but will finish with the same gorgeous turq/purple thats at beginning. I quite like the patchwork effect of the different colours and its a great way to see how the different colours look knitted up.
Second picture is a great buy:) I purchased these patterns from a girl in Australia via ebay. All a good price and from her to me less than a week. I had wanted to try the felted clogs everyone was talking about and someone? had mentioned that these particular shawls had written instructions as well as charts. So there you go. Guess what I'll be making next??

guess who can do short rows??


Well here you see my 2 versions of Calorimetry from knitty. First one the Noro Kureyon blue/purple I did 80 stitches because I'd read that the original was too big. It fits as a tight alice band. 2nd is kureyon also colour 150. Isn't it gorgeous colour? I did 110 stitches this time and its a perfect fit. I hadn't really done short rows in years so I'm so pleased with this very easy project. So pleased in fact that I've come up with an idea using this. Don't want to spill the beans til I see if it works so watch this space. Further post to come work in progress

January 11, 2007

finished objects(well almost on one)



Firstly a hat I knit for mr mog, quick and fairly easy and on 4 NEEDLES no less:) So why can I do hats but not socks? answers on a virtual postcard please
secondly this is the first shawl for the Hospice lunar year. You will notice I haven't managed to cast off the final stitches. That would be because I ran out of yarn./ I was convinced I had enough to cast off honest, but I didn't. So I'm awaiting Jo's return from holiday to get a little more from her. I reckon I'm around 2 metres short. I tried pulling back but it won't.

knit today magazines


knit today

Still destashing

I'm still busy busy destashing:)
Her is what I have left
Have filled a bin bag half full with fabrics inc scrim, hand dyed felt, yarn, papers, collage materials. Collage pieces I've done in various workshops, beads, rubber stamps fabric atc blanks and more. I'm looking for £15 for it. Postage included and I reckon postage will be around £6-7 so a great bargain. I'm literally filling it with everything I see here in the stash reduction room:)
Also still have full set of quilting arts magazines bar 2,have 1 to 24 EXCEP numbers 18 and 21. all now £2. each plus postage but less if you take all I'd take £32 inc postage for all
simply knitting and knitting mags £2 each(Both UK mags)
Interweave knits mags £2.50 each
embroidery and nature Jan Messent £2
have color by accident Ann Johnston £5 now
also have drawer of beads charms plus gemstone chips etc.
PLEASE NOTE costs for postage for UK only, outside UK costs more

Determined to have room to move and money for downstairs loo this week if at all possible
pictures of Finished objects next post

January 02, 2007

Happy belated New year

A belated happy new year from the moggie. We lost our power on New Years Eve around 5.30pm and have just got it back today 2nd Jan at 3pm. That translated as 2 night with no electricity not an easy thing and at new year also. Luckily we always have plenty of candles and tealights in the house so it was a simple matter of lighting them all:) The new stove was a godsend. Weren't we lucky that it had been fitted a few weeks ago? Heat and we could cook on it also. We had already decided to have our friends and neighbours around for new year so that went ahead . It was delight to sit around a cosy stove chatting and enjoying the atmosphere of candlelights. A few glasses of wine and later on the curry that our friend had made and that had sat bubbling gently on top of the woodburner. We had also wrapped pitta breads in foil and they too warmed atop the stove. The moon was incredibly bright to say it wasn't quite full then. She lit the way across the courtyard as our friends returned home.Next day we had porridge cooked on top of the woodburner and then lunch was a mixture of ham, potatoes and onions cooked in the wok. I sat the wok inside the stove and it made speedy work of cooking. For the evening meal I let a selection of vegetables and stock cook into a veg soup. The only drawback was it was very hard to read by candles. We went to our other friends house next door in the evening to play games and chat(by candlelight of course) My main worry was the freezer of meat that I didn't want to spoil. Fortunately when the power came on there was still ice in the freezer and the meat wasn't too soft.
Today my grandsons have arrived for a couple of days and they were very disappointed that we weren't living by candles:))
I have got plenty of knitting done though. I've done a couple of earflap hats, photos when camera connected. Also progress on my cream shawl.
Right off to catch up on the blogs I read:)

Poetry for Brigid Imbolc

  The Lake Isle of Innisfree BY  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay a...