Friday, May 30, 2003
 The colours are actually duller in real life. The photograph doesn't show up the ickiness of the green shade. I finished this last Friday while waiting to check in for our flight from Berlin. I'm just at the beginning of the leg of the second sock. I've been taking the Art Fibers cardi to work to knit during lunch and it's very slow going. As a result I haven't been working much at all on the sock. Have just found out that my sister-in-law Anne is expecting her first child. She and Andy's brother Gareth now live in Melbourne Australia. I quite fancy knitting this for their baby. The pattern is in this month's Knitters and uses Fortissima sock yarn. Sounds like it's the only decent thing in that magazine! Tuesday, May 27, 2003
I'm busy printing out some posters for a Bellydancing night in Cardiff tomorrow called Arabesque. Andy and my friend Hannah will be DJing and other friends bellydancing. Finally! First pics of the new stash  From left to right - 1. Stahl Wolle Big Print 7932 2. Regia Crazy Color 5260 3. Socka 1019 - hasn't photographed well but is a black and multicolour twist 4. Regia Mini Ringel Color 5220 5. Regia Mini Ringel Color 5219 6. Regia Ringel Color 5045  All Regia - 7. 2054 8. 2002 9. 540 10. 1257 11. 2066 I have 100g each of the first six and 50g each of the last five. The plain colours will be for toes and heels of socks. I'm concerned that I might not have enough of the Big Print for a pair of socks. It's 85m per 50g and knits on 4-5mm (US 6-8) needles. I just didn't think when I picked it up. I may knit a swatch and the use the sock yarn estimator included with The Sole Solution to see whenever I have enough. If not it's either finding a similar weight superwash yarn or knitting wristwarmers instead. Same for the Regia Crazy Color although at 125m per 50g and knitting on 3mm needles it might be enough for my size four feet. The label says that you need 150g for a European size 46 shoe while I take a 37. Monday, May 26, 2003
Still no pictures of the stash yet and the comments aren't fixed yet either. Ah well. Despite it being a bank holiday time just seemed to slip away from me today. I wasn't able to do as much knitting as I'd hoped. Kept getting distracted by other things. I did turn the heel of my first Regia 5047 sock but that was half done anyway, I've also done a little knitting on the second Opal sock. I'd hoped to get around to turning the heel but perhaps I'll do that tomorrow. I intend to take the Art Fibers cardi to work tomorrow for lunch hour knitting. I really want to get this finished. It's been ages since I finished something that wasn't socks and the colours of the yarn are knitting up so beautifully. It will be wonderful to wear once it's done. I'm off to watch Fraiser! My comments aren't working at the moment. People are leaving them but they aren't showing up. I've emailed the program support but with it being a bank holiday in the UK tomorrow I don't know when the problem will be sorted out. I have the Pro version of Enetation and every time someone leaves a comment it's emailed to me. So, in the meantime here are some comments that have been sent to me - "Well I for one would miss you if you were to leave the blogworld too. I haven't been to Berlin since 1978 and can't wait to see your photos and hear more about your trip. Thank you very much for sharing!" genia "Glad youre safely back & have sorted out the problems with your site. I look forward to pictures of your new stash :invasion:" Emma "i read and I like it, thanks for the info and fun. I envy you Berlin sounds good for yarn buying. Lucky you with no tax on the Oz yarn buy it was me who asked. I have no luck and always get stung" Judith "I think it's bad news to spend too much time wondering WHY you blog. Just blog. Don't overthink it. It's all part of making sense of the trip, man." Annie Thanks for the comments! It's so nice to get feedback. I think Anne has the right idea. As Alfred Lord Tennyson said "Ours not to reason why Ours but to do and die." Knitting news - I'm afraid I've been too busy struggling with the India ribbon today to photograph the new stash. That ribbon is beautiful to look at but so slippery. I've ripped back and started again about three times today. I was really annoyed because I probably could have completed the foot and heel of the second Opal 235 sock if I'd worked on that today instead. Since some Addi Turbos arrived from KCG Trading last week I picked up my Art Fibers cardi and worked on that for a while. The silk/wool mix yarn is easier to handle on the Addis than the bamboo needles I was using. It was still tough on my hands though. I'm now working on the Opal 235 second sock and am about halfway through the foot. I'll be glad when it's finished and out of the way. I'm really not keen on the pattern. My next pair of socks will probably be from a thicker weight wool so less knitting time! Sunday, May 25, 2003
I posted a little while back that I'd been having trouble coming up with things to write in this blog. A case of the blog-blahs as Wendy calls them. Now I find that Shobhana has called it a day and that Kate is taking a break. I can understand how they feel but it's also really sad. Blogs mean so much to me, reading them allows me to feel part of a wider community. I mostly read craft blogs and as someone who doesn't know many knitters, for example, in real life blogs allow me to commune with other crafters worldwide. There are certain blogs that I read every day and would miss so much if they weren't around. I know that people read this blog and while I have no idea if they like it as much as I enjoy my daily clicks I'm going to endeavor to keep posting always. So whether you like it or not I'm going to post as much as I can! :-) Pics of my Berlin and new postal acquisitions (cool stuff arrived in the mail while I was on holiday!) will be added later! I do love show and tell. Have just been clicking through the Windy City Knitting Guild in Chicago site. They have a great show and tell page. Have also swatched and cast on for a summer cardi in Lana Grossa's India ribbon yarn. I forget what shade it is but it's sort of jewel colours. I bought it in a store called Frau Wollen - Mrs Wool! - in Berlin on Friday. It's beautiful stuff but I think I'm knitting it too tightly. I've undone a few rows and am going to start again. Will try and hope for some relaxed knitting while I catch up with CSI, Boomtown, CSI Miami (aka CSI crappy) and Law & Order.
Matrix:Reloaded - I was very excited about seeing this film. I loved the first one and decided to do some homework before seeing the sequel. So I rewatched The Matrix and saw the Animatrix short "Final Flight of the Osirus" this afternoon. We then saw the new movie at 8.15pm. Well, what a disappointment that was. I won't spoil it by giving away the plot but will say that some editing wouldn't have gone amiss. Less romance and more action would have been good. I also thought that the special effects were too cartoony in places. I felt rather cheated as I left the cinema. Not a patch on X-Men 2. Saturday, May 24, 2003
I was hoping to post pictures of my fabulous new stash acquisitions today but that may have to wait for a while. I bought sock wool, of course!, some gorgeous ribbon yarns for summer cardis, fluffy eyelash yarns for scarves and some wonderful textured yarns. The textured yarns were bought from an interesting shop run by a male knitter - first time I've seen a guy knit in person. Sadly I speak next to no German so we couldn't have a conversation, also I was completely distracted by the yarns in his shop. Most were brands that I'd never seen before but were all interesting. We actually found the store by chance while trying to find another that had moved. We had stopped off in a cafe for coffee and ice cream and Andy looked up "Wolle" - German for Wool - in a yellow pages they had there. The store we were looking for wasn't listed but this new one was just on the next block. It was a small shop packed with yarns and some quilters quarters - I was so interested in the yarns that I didn't pay any attention to the fat quarters. Hung all around were knitted garments - some were pretty wayout! But the yarns were very varied and if you're like me and love texture you'd have a whale of a time in this store. I spent 71.90 euros but he gave me a 1.90 euro discount which was nice of him. As I left Andy was concerned that I hadn't paid or something because the store owner was following us out brandishing the twenty euro note that I'd given him with my payment and chattering away. He excitedly went into the bakery next door so I think he was saying something like "I'm going to get myself a cake now!" or something like that! Of course now after all that buildup I realise that I don't have the address on me, in it's in Andy's notebook. I will be creating a special Berlin page on scifiville.com once the site is up and running again. I'm really pissed off at whoever has created this DOS attack. They're malicious idiots. I could speak more colourfully about them but I always try and control my language on the blog! Friday, May 23, 2003
Guten Tag! I'm blogging from a cybercafe in a Berlin department store. It's our last day but we've had a good trip. I've visited quite a few interesting yarn stores and hope to get to a couple more before we leave later today. Knitting - I finished the second CTH Wild Cherry sock last night and am on the cuff ribbing of my first Opal 235. I've not very keen on the colour of the 235 sock at all. It's a sort of dirty rainbow striped design. The problem is that where the yellow runs into the blue it produces this nasty muddy green. I will knit the second sock but I expect it t go on the back burner and not be my main knitting. Have to go now, only four minutes left in the cybercafe! Monday, May 19, 2003
We're off to Berlin later this morning. I owe some emails to people so apologies if I haven't responded but I've been a bit busy. The second CTH Wild Cherry sock is almost finished - just an inch or so of ribbing on the cuff to do. I've cast on some Opal 235 - think it's from the Crocodile range, it's a rainbow striped yarn - for my travel knitting. I'll probably chuck the CTH socks in my case too so that I can finish them. With the exception of the Regia 5047 socks tend to be projects that I finish. I'm especially good at casting on the second sock immediately after finishing the first. Almost makes up for the numerous jumpers, cardis, slippers and bags that are waiting to be finished. And of course unfinished projects won't stop me from buying more yarn in Germany! I have made a list of most of my German sock yarn stash so I can avoid buying something that I either already have or is in my latest box at Martina's. The current Martina box is almost full - only room for 200g more of yarn. Customs - someone, I'm really sorry but I'm rushing this post and can't remember your name, asked whether I was stung with customs charges on the Oz Yarn order. No I wasn't although the order was for £23 of yarn. I have been very lucky when buying things from Australia and Canada in that so far, touch wood, I haven't had to pay customs despite ordering things that are over £18. The limit for importing from outside the EU is £18 for commercial goods and £39 for a gift. Now I don't think the sellers marked my parcels as gifts but I honestly can't remember. I don't think printed matter - and that's if the parcel or customs form is marked printed matter - is subject to duty but I may be wrong. Most of the Oz Yarn stuff is quite cheap so you may find that £18 goes a long way. Right well I'm off now to finish the many things that I shouldn't have left to last minute! Wednesday, May 14, 2003
 Here you see a copy of Australia's first knitting magazine Creative Knitting and balls of Colourburst in (top) Rich Rainbow and (bottom) Rich Jewels  And here's a close up of the yarn. It's a sportweight 100% English Leicester wool. I did think it funny to find that I'd ordered yarn from the other side of the world and it had originally came from over the border in England! The colours of the Colourburst yarn don't show up that well in my picture, they are a bit more intense in real life. The yarn feels a bit rough but I cut a little and test washed it and it softened up a lot. They recommend it for socks so I'm sure it'll be just fine.  I'm now in the middle of turning the heel on the second sock. I hope to have this pair finished before our trip to Berlin. I'm still deciding which sock yarn to knit during my holiday. I'm wondering about the Colourburst because it's a sportweight but it is a little rough and I'm not sure I want to have to deal with that while I'm away. I could take the in progress Regia 5047 one but don't really want to do that. I feel in the mood for a self patterning yarn since the last couple of pairs have been hand dyes but I can't decide. So much yarn, so little time! Again have done no work on the one seam linen/cotton jacket. Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Yes! Shobhana's back! And Wendy has a beautiful new kitty called Lucy! I'm still working on the linen jacket. Not doing any sewing as yet, have just been looking through my fabric and deciding what sort of accents I want to use. This is going to be quite a plain jacket because I want it to co-ordinate with a lot of pieces but I'm going to use a bit of a Japanese tea-dyed dragonfly print fabric on the pockets and over the one main seam. I may see if I can find another plainish Japanese type print to use on the main body of the pockets, just to jazz them up a little. Sunday, May 11, 2003
I'm very happy and relieved to say that Sabre is now back to his usual annoying self! He was very quiet yesterday but seemed to get better as the day went on. This morning we had our usual Sabbie "get up and feed me!" alarm call as we were woken by his incessant scratching and mewing outside the bedroom door! So all is well! Yesterday I bought 3m of a linen/cotton mix fabric in black. It's a medium weight so should drape well. Mopsie - I'm making the jacket version of the One Seam Topper. It's a bit hard to see in the pattern picture but it's actually second from the top left and has pockets. If you look at the more illustrated pictures it will be a shorter version of the coat. I've cut the pattern out and will need to master the overlocker together tomorrow so that I can serge the edges before sewing the one main seam. It's an interesting design based on the very first coat - the Bog Coat - and is made from a rectangle of fabric. There are some wonderful examples here and a method of making one here. It's a simple design that can be made quite fabulous. Mine is going to be pretty simple though as I want it to be something that I can wear often. I've made one from fleece before but this will be my first linen type one. If it's a success I have enough fabric to make two more. That's a great part about this coat you need very little fabric. You can make the small size, which is about 54" wide, from one and a quarter yards of fabric which I think is less than a meter. However you do need fabric that is at least 54" wide to make it. Mine is 60" and yes I do mix my measurements between imperial and metric! Yet I still seem to understand what I'm doing! Laurie - I'm only too pleased to have helped you add more Noro to your stash! Saturday, May 10, 2003
Need a better firewall Do you ever get those pop-up Windows Messenger messages? People can send them to you if your computer has an open port. I obviously need to upgrade my firewall because I get several of these a day. They usually advertise porn sites or get rich quick schemes etc. except that today I've had two advertising some author who sells via Amazon. I hate any type of spam so I say boycott anyone who advertises in this way. The author's name is Paul Vincent. I've never heard of him. The day started off a bit worryingly. Our black cat Sabre wasn't his usual frantic self, staying upstairs on the second landing instead of rushing down for breakfast. We were going to take him to the vets this afternoon but he seems to have perked up a bit now and has eaten and gone into the garden. He also ran from the garden into the house for some lunch which I take as a good sign. The CTH Very Cherry sock is now on the cuff. Some yarn from Lotusblossom on eBay arrived today and I had an email yesterday from Oz yarn saying that my order is on it's way. Plus it's just over a week until our holiday in Berlin. I'm going to have to watch myself around all the yarn! But if I see some pretty Opal that I don't already have, and that isn't in the box at Martina's, I'll just have to get it! Going to look for some black linen in a mo for a jacket. Been meaning to make another One Seam Topper type jacket for a while. Hopefully I'll stop being scared of the overlocker (serger) this weekend and actually use it! Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Ever get those days when you can't think of anything worth blogging and don't even feel like blogging? Well I've had a bit of a week of it. I've still been crafting in my free moments but have just been pretty wiped out recently. I finished the second MW sock on Friday and cast on the first CTH Wild Cherry sock. I've started turning the heel and will probably work on the ankle part of it tonight. We had a long bank holiday weekday (that's what we call public holidays here in the UK and yes it did come from letting banks have an occasional day off!) and I did think that I'd either get a lot of sewing or a fair bit of work on my Art Fibers cardi done but that was not to be the case! Just placed an order with Oz Yarn - for a new Australian knitting magazine and two different lots of hand painted yarn - Colourburst range - for sock knitting. Some very nice colours and also quite cheap about £6 for 100g of handpaint sock yarn. Very good when compared with some of the US stuff I buy. |
