Tuesday, December 31, 2002
The Polar stripy scarf is now finished all it needs is a little blocking. The Big Wool off the shoulder number is almost finished. Just need to steam, join seams and pick up stitches to knit the off the shoulder fold over bit. I'm hoping to finish sewing my purple wool duster coat on Wednesday. They say to be careful what you do on New Year's Day as you'll be doing it all year round. Fine, I'll sew etc. and avoid cleaning the house. I bought the lining fabric on Saturday and intend to stamp and stencil dragonflies over it. I plan on using either plain cocoshell or mother of pearl buttons with silver dragonfly buttons sewn on top for the enclosures. Not sure how practical it'll be but it should look good! We're having a New Year's Eve party tomorrow/tonight. It won't be a huge affair but that's probably good. I bought some tops in the sales today so won't bother worrying about sewing something to wear. Friday, December 27, 2002
Christmas really tired me out. It's the combination of travelling too long, food and small children I think. I had some fab presents including a DAB radio with CD player from Andy. He's more obsessed with digital radio than I am but it was incredibly cool of him to get me one. Now I can listen to the delights of such digital only stations as BBC Seven whilst in my craft room. I didn't start knitting the Colinette Fandango sweater until Xmas night but it's now about a third done. Looks as though it will be really soft and cuddly. I still have to finish off the Point Five sweater, the Wild Spice raglan cardi and the Big Wool off the shoulder sweater plus there's still my wool coat and possibly a tunic top for New Year's Eve. Although I've just placed an order for some skeins of Koigu, I'm still intending to concentrate on knitting up yarn/projects that I already have rather than buying more. Of course it's far easier said than done. And I still have to finish the garter stitch stripy scarf in Rowan Polar! Tuesday, December 24, 2002
We're leaving for Andy's parents soon and I think I've packed everything! I finally decided to take a sweater knit in the round in some Colinette Fandango. The shade is Velvet Bilberry and it's bit darker than I'd normally wear but I bought it almost a year ago and feel the need to knit it up. It won't be that easy because the yarn is a thick chenille and about an inch of it has been frogged from something else already. I am tempted to perhaps take the ingredients - I can't help thinking of patterns in terms of recipes! - for the novelty yarn scarf from Sally Melville's wonderful "The Knitting Experience - The Knit Stitch" book. I think I might cram that into my knitting bag! For anyone who's worried about my revealing that I'll be away in my blog, don't worry we have friends staying in our house to look after the cats. Meanwhile since this will be my last entry for a while I'd like to say to everyone - Sunday, December 22, 2002
Oh well turned out that I could edit those emailed entries after all. I was hoping to get up early and start sewing my coat tomorrow but looking at the time I know that's not going to happen!
I'm halfway through the second sleeve on the off shoulder sweater and have just started a striped garter stitch scarf. I'm knitting it in Rowan Polar in a pink and a purple colour. Because it's garter it's knitting up quickly and I'm trying to be good and sew in the ends regularly. It's bizarre but I seem to consumed with which projects to take with me over Xmas at Andy's parents place. We're only going up for a couple of days but it's a five hour drive. I think I'll probably take a Colinette sweater to knit in the round that should be easy enough in the car. I also want to take a couple of other smaller projects too. Don't know why I don't think I'll have that much time to knit! Since it's cold up there I have to make my winter coat before we leave. I finally decided to make it out of the Paw Print's To Dye For Duster pattern rather than their swing coat pattern. It's just because I have to make it quickly and can't face dealing with a new pattern. I made the duster a couple of years ago in two different colours of velvet. This time it's just in purple wool coating. Can never have too much purple in your wardrobe! The fabric is a fantastic shade of purple too. I'm going to love wearing it! Just have to hope that I finish it in time! Oh by the way, some of my posts look a little strange with too many spaces between the words. I'm afraid that this is because they're emailed posts. As a result I can't change them and tidy them up. Think I'll stick to just blogging via Blogger's website instead. Thursday, December 19, 2002
Well as it happens my colleagues weren't weirded out by my knitting at all and really liked the patterns in my Rowan book. One, Ruth, was fascinated by it and watched me for a long time. I'm used to this because if I have lunch with my work friend Dave he watches although he does make wise cracks too! I know he doesn't mean them but he has refused my offers to teach him how to knit. Says it's unmanly and my telling him that Lawrence Fishburn knits does nothing to persuade him. Shame. I'm knitting an off shoulder sweater from the Rowan Bigger Picture pattern book. So far I've completed the back, front and one sleeve. I'm a bit scared about finishing it because you have to pick up stitches and I've never done that before. I'm just nervous that I won't do it right. Still have to make my winter coat before Xmas. I'll try and do it over the weekend, been too busy writing cards and wrapping presents, I haven't even cut the pattern out yet! Monday, December 16, 2002
I've got to get up really tomorrow morning for work. I have to catch a train to visit another part of the company and see how they do things there. I'll take my knitting and probably freak out my co-workers but I don't care. I've started knitting a new off the shoulder top from Rowan Big Wool and it will be finished by Xmas. Finished the front this evening and have already started the back. The Big Wool is great and knits up very quickly on big size 12mm needles. Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Frogged a few rows of my wristwarmer twice today. I find it very hard to knit with sock wool, the plies seem to separate very easily and I catch them on my needles. Ah well the result will be worth it. I'm actually using a different pattern from Bonne Marie's Voodoo one but the fur cuff is purely from the comments section on her site! I read about it and had to have one myself. The fur is made from some Phildar Cygne that I bought in Paris. It's very nice but, as with most eyelash, hell to knit with. I'm off Thursday and Friday taking leave before the December 31st deadline. On Thursday we're going to Bristol where I'll be checking out the yarn section in John Lewis and a craft store warehouse called HobbyCraft. Can't wait! Monday, December 09, 2002
 My stash taunts me, too many wonderful things to do with it. So little time. By the way that's just one tub from my stash. Always check your gauge. Yes they always say it and it's true. I just had to frog all of the Artful Yarns button shawl because my gauge was off. It was about three inches too wide and I'd almost run out of yarn. At least it's quite chunky so won't take too long to knit back up. Sunday, December 08, 2002
I really love dichroic glass beads and pendants. SaraRuna has some wonderful ones on sale. They include seconds - ones that didn't quite make the grade - but they're still fabulous! Should finish off the buttoned shawl but couldn't help casting on an eyelash trimmed wristwarmer in a purplely variegated sock yarn. Blame that Bonne Marie! See her Voodoo pattern on Knitty.
Read Fillyjonk's latest post and completely agree with her about fashion. I do read Vogue and various style and fashion articles but I'm not very fashionable. I have my own style and am comfortable like that. I aspire to wearing more tunic tops and sort of eastern influenced clothing - I like the clothes worn by the companion character in FireFly a lot. While tidying up the craft room yesterday I moved some of the sewing projects that I want to finish by Xmas onto the table. Really have to make the Purrfection swing coat before we head up to the freezing North of England on Xmas Eve. We always spend Christmas with Andy's family who now live in Barrow in Furness and it's really cold up there. I also have to plan which knitting project I'll take up with me. It'll probably be a sweater knit in the round that'll be easy enough to work on in the car and while I'm there.
Our friends Jenny and Richard came round for dinner tonight. After we'd eaten I showed Jenny my craftroom. As usual I was a bit embarrassed because it's very messy with stuff all over the place. I showed her some fabric that I'd bought last year and hadn't yet made up. She told me about some tweed material that she'd bought 30 years ago and still hadn't used! I went to a trunk show hosted by Dianne Ericson in November 2001 and she said that we must cut into all of our fabric instead of hoarding it for the future because "you can't take it with you!". That's so true, but I still need to find the time to use all of my various stashes up! Friday, December 06, 2002
I'm just trying out this new feature where you can post to your blog via email. Think I feel a stash enhancement online visit coming on! Really want to try some Koigu. It's the startitis again! Thursday, December 05, 2002
I'm writing this on a brand new Pentium 4 computer with 17" flat screen monitor, 512 ram, 16x DVD ROM, 40x CD Writer and 80 Gig hard drive. Yep the old comp is well and truly done in. Poor old Andy has spent most of his week off waiting in for phone calls from the Microsoft support team. Today he said that it would just be easier to go out and buy a new comp. We'd been planning to get a new one next month but had been keeping an eye on the latest offers. I hope to get the old one up and running eventually even if we have to reformat the hard drives and start from scratch because I'd like to network them. I'm also sentimental. Buttoned shawl is two thirds done. Been too busy buying and playing with new comp to knit this evening but did do a few rows during lunch. One of the guys I work with said that when his gran knit her needles had numbers on them - I knit with circular needles so you can't see the sizes - he couldn't understand why they had different numbers. "They're all the same size aren't they?"! So I had to give a quick lesson about different yarn types. Could be worse, at least no one's ever asked me if I'm crocheting! Tuesday, December 03, 2002
The Winter 02/02 issue of Interweave Knits arrived today along with the December issue of Sew News. It was really difficult when I was on vacation in SF because I saw Interweave Knits and really had to stop myself from buying it and just wait for it to arrive. Still waiting for the new issue of Knitters. It's torture looking through Knits because I can't let myself buy more yarn just yet. I have to try and knit up more of my stash. I think I may be able to use some Noro yarn that I have a load of to make the wristwarmers and round collar style scarf from the last issue of Rebecca. I just hope it's in the right gauge. Still can't help looking at Knits and wanting - Modigliani Pullover p 40, Impressionist Cardigan p69, Saddles at Dusk p76 for Andy but I'd probably never finish it!, and Lacy Bell Pullover p90. Wish I could knit the Kasuri Chanchanko Vest p108 but it's beyond me right now. I've two thirds through with the Artful Yarns buttoned shawl. It's a big boring as it's a straight piece of stocking stitch with no increases or decreases. I'll just have to plough through it so that I can start something else. Will probably finish the Wild Spice cardi tomorrow.
I saw Omid Djalili in Cardiff again last Wednesday night. He was performing at The Glee Club, it's a comedy club chain and the worst venue I've ever seen comedy in. The layout is like a school canteen and the seats are really uncomfortable. You can read my review of Omid's appearance here.
I'm so sick of computers! Andy and I have had a stressful weekend trying to fix ours. Last week Internet Explorer started freezing on us and we couldn't seem to fix it. No problem we'll just use Netscape, then I go to update the blog and find that Blogger Pro doesn't support Netscape. I try Mozilla, it says that it will support that, but that won't work either. Try updating IE and it sticks 92% through the install! Try cancelling the install and get a message that it may take several minutes and the computer shouldn't be restarted or our "system could be damaged". Leave the comp for 45 mins and it's still trying to cancel. End up leaving it on all night and in the morning it still hasn't cancelled. Today Andy reinstalled Windows several times and now IE works but we have an error with our Plug and Play bios so the cable modem, mp3 player and other USB connected things won't work or be recognised by the damn comp. I am fed up. I hate computers! Thje Wendy Wild Spice raglan cardi is almost knitted. I just have to finish the last front and sew it up. I've also finished the Colinette tagliatelli wrap and started the Artful Yarns Circus Buttoned Shawl. I realise that I forgot to add the url for the wrist warmers pattern. Of course now, I can't find it. But as soon as I do I'll include it. |
