Friday, September 26, 2003
I think I'm coming down with the flu. A lurgy as we call them is traveling through the office at work and everyone seems to have sore throats and coughs. My throat felt sore this morning and tonight things seem to be getting worse. My head feels heavy and as though I'm on the way to feeling like crap. Just in time for the weekend. Well at least it means I should feel better by next Saturday because - Saturday October 4th is the date for the Cardiff Stitch & Bitch! It'll be held upstairs at A Shot in the Dark cafe on City Road, Cardiff at about 1pm. There are some nice big tables upstairs for people to spread their work out which is great. It's all about stitching so not everyone will be knitting and I don't expect a massive amount of people but we'll see. If you're interested in attending but want more info drop me an email or leave a comment. I've picked up my Have Fun scarf from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch last week. I started a while back, in fact it may have been last Xmas. It's a lengthwise garter stitch scarf knit in many different yarns. At the moment I'm knitting three rows of a yarn before switching to the next. Really wish I hadn't read about the Mango Moon Recycled Silk Sweater kits on Matt's blog. Yet another thing that I want! The weather is starting to get really cold. I'm already seeing people walking about wearing winter coats and scarves. This means that I have to finish my purple wool To dye for Duster coat soon. I'll try and see if I can manage it this weekend as it would be great to wear. Oh and a nice big box of various yarns arrived the other day from Martina. Lovely sock yarn plus interesting novelty yarn for a feather boa type scarf. Mmmmm! Tuesday, September 16, 2003
I'm so tired! I've been busy catching up on The Design Workshop with Lois Ericson online class that I'm taking from Pattern Showcase. I was concerned this morning about being behind because I'd missed the first week of the class due to our holiday. But once I settled down at my desk and got busy with the first lesson - these are available as pdf files to download - and contributing to the class discussions I found that I soon caught up. I now just have to finish lesson four and it was painless. I can't recommend this class highly enough. It is so good for stimulating creativity and encouraging you think outside of the box. I feel a lot more confident about creative sewing now. My first subscription copy of Spin Off arrived today and it's the summer issue which I already have! :-( Anyone want to do a swap for a different fibre/creative magazine or something? The new issue of Heels and Toes Gazette was in the post today as well. And another box of yarn from Martina in Germany is ready to be sent to me. Ah well you can never have too much yarn can you? Monday, September 15, 2003
Ohhhh! The new Knitty is online! And lots of lovely interesting patterns for Noro yarns! I don't know what to start first but I think that Sonnet might win out. Now to get ready for work!
Look what arrived for me in the post today! It's my order from the Handpaint Heaven Labor day Sale!   That's one skein of Ballerina and one of Plush. The Plush must be discontinued because I can't find it on the site but it's a super chunky cotton chenille. Not too sure what I'm going to do with these yet, as if that matters!, but I think they may be destined for scarves.  As you can see it's from Noro Kureyon with an eyelash cuff and I'm knitting it on two circs. I'm managing to keep up with the continental or combined knitting technique although I'm finding it hard to hold the yarn comfortably in my left hand. It's difficult to avoid having to adjust it every few stitches. Perhaps this will just come in time. Cardiff Stitch and Bitch - In response to Judith's comment a few days ago, I haven't finalised a date for this yet but it will be on a Saturday afternoon at "A Shot in the Dark" on City Road in Cardiff. Map, more info and review here. It's in the heart of studentville and the cafe is a very nice place with comfy chairs and good coffee. The deserts are very good too! :-) As soon as I've sorted out the exact date I'll post it here. I expect it will happen in about three week's time. Friday, September 12, 2003
I've been back in the house about an hour and have spent most of it deleting spam! I've also been clicking through a few messages about a Lois Ericson online class that I'm enrolled in at PatternShowcase.com. The wrist is already starting to ache and my course of anti-inflammatory medication is now up so quickly - I went back to Albert Cuyp Street yesterday and bought some more viscose velvet in green, a cotton print of Boticelli's Venus in purples, some black fine cotton and purple needlecord. The latter is destined to become a skirt. Also visited Beadies and bought some nice Indian glass beads and interesting sparkly charms. Will make some fun jewellery from these! :-) Amongst the mail when we arrived home was Interweave Knits - the Fall issue in fall for a change. This magazine is routinely late, I didn't get the summer issue until the last week of August! Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Hello from Amsterdam! I'm currently in an easyInternetCafe, the first time I've used one. The mouse on my PC is crap but the net access is cheap. It's the third day of our trip and so far I've bought fabric from Albert Cuyp Street - two meters of a really lovely handyed look purple viscose velvet, beads from Coppenhagen Kralen - mixture of fire polished crystals and silver look beads, yarn and needles from De Afstap - 450g of Cantata by GGH in shade 11, mainly blue with rainbow colours, and Addi needles and yarn and needles from Breiwinkle Maglia - mad as it may sound I bought 50g of Rowan Alpaca in shade 388 a pinky red. I haven't seen this in Cardiff and would have ended up ordering it from Colourway anyway so the price would have been about the same. I've been fairly reserved with my spending on this trip. It's not payday until next Monday so I'm having to be a bit careful. Also the San Francisco trip isn't very fair away either. I'm also feeling very conscious that I already have a sizable stash of fabric, yarn and beads that I really should use. The Cantata will look very nice knit up in the top-down raglan pattern on Glampyre I think. I've not got long left in the cafe so time to sign off! Sunday, September 07, 2003
We arrived back from Cornwall at about 2.30pm today. The wedding was lovely but after leaving the house at 6.30am to get there we were both knackered. Charlie looked beautiful in her wedding dress and Andy was very handsome in his morning suit. My own Andy looked gorgeous and dashing in his black velvet long coat - sort of like a frock coat - with pale grey tie. It was a treat to see him all suited up since he dresses casual for his job as website producer. I wore a dress that I made about two years ago from Purrfection's Forecast pattern along with the black linen jacket. At some points it was very chilly - out by the sea in Newquay for photos etc - and I was very glad of that jacket! During the wedding breakfast - served in the afternoon - a book was passed around to write things for the bride and groom but I couldn't think of anything to write, my mind just went blank, so added my name to Andy's entry. Now that I'm back my mind is clearer so I'll write here instead - Charlie and Andy have to be two of the most genuine and friendly people I've ever met. There truly is no side to them. Their love for each other is very evident and my own eyes welled up in the church yesterday when Charlie, voice cracking, sobbed through her vows. There is something so incredibly moving about hearing people profess their love for each in public, it sets me off each time! Andy will soon be moving to Cardiff for he's about to retrain as a doctor. This is all a big step for both of them and I wish them nothing but happiness in the rest of their lives together. Well I hope that wasn't too boring for anyone expecting crafting comment here! On now to knitting. I have been to do some knitting despite the RSI. This week I finished off the Noro Kureyon felted bag.  I still have the icord strap to make. I used a pattern on BoogaJ's site. I actually used an earlier version of this pattern so am not sure if my bag is the same height as her one. We'll see how it goes when it's felted! The colour is number 87 and I did remove a fair bit of green from each ball because I preferred to keep mine more purply. I also started knitting this on the way to Cornwall yesterday  It's knitted in Lana Grossa Pep Print 312 and is actually more vivid than in the picture. I'm calling this my sea scarf because of the colour. It also reminds me of the coast in Cornwall. While knitting this my RSI was very painful so I tried using my lefthand to carry the yarn and that reduced the pain a lot. So I'm going continental! I found these instructions on Glampyre's site and will start learning tonight. I also really like her free top-down raglan pattern. I have plenty of yarn just calling to be knitted in that pattern. I'm also wondering about mixing different colourways of Kureyon that are similar. We'll see how that little experiment works out. Last week I went to a very cool cafe in Cardiff where I'm planning to hold a Cardiff Stitch and Bitch. I know that a few of my friends will come but as for other who knows. I'm not sure yet if I'll have much time to advertise it widely. If anyone is interested in coming please email me and I'll let you know when it happens. It will probably be either later this month or early in October. We go on holiday to Amsterdam for five nights tomorrow and I am really looking forward to checking out the yarn, bead and fabric stores. I was also determined to see our eldest cat Clyde before we left. He has a habit of wandering, he's a big flirt and we tracked him down to our friend Angela who lives down the road. Andy brought him back and he's now with the other cats in the kitchen.  The picture might look a little strange because it was very dark in the kitchen even with the lights on and Clyde's coat is a very dark tabby. But he's still a very stylish cat! Here in Cardiff the weather got cold as soon as we entered September but I still have one lily flowering!  My right hand is a bit sore and I still have packing to do but I will try and update both the Amsterdam and Paris crafty shopping guides before I go. Tuesday, September 02, 2003
The one seam jacket is pretty much finished. I just need to add some patch pockets. I also want to wash it before Saturday to soften it a bit. I'm still focusing on finishing half started projects. I found a sueded rayon skirt that I threw down in a huff last year because I'd sewn the french seams too wide and it didn't fit me. It's a really nice wine colour in a sort of checkerboard pattern that I bought from Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley last year. I have some more of that sueded rayon in a purple which I plan to make into a tunic top. Speaking of the Bay Area we booked our trip to San Francisco over the weekend. We'll be there for five nights on the third week of October. I'm looking forward to checking out the Halloween shops! We'll also be very careful of what we eat this year. Don't want to end up hospital again! I'm really looking forward to going to Amsterdam next week. I had a look at the store reviews at PatternReview and it looks like the Albert Cuuyp Street market will be a great place for fabric bargains. I've also had some yarn store recommendations from regular reader Laurie which I'll be posting before I go. I'll also be finally adding the Paris crafty shopping guide too. In the meantime I still need to keep resting my hands because of the RSI. |
