First post of 2009

Happy New Year everyone! My year has been low-key so far although I have been suffering from a mean case of startitis since just before Christmas. I've started a pair of socks, 2 sweaters and 2 scarves since then, plus I have project on the needles, cast aside in favour of all the fickleness, which is really quite near completion and which I should probably try to work on. Anyhoo, the socks have been ripped out to be restarted at a later date, 1 of the sweaters is on hold (having knitted about 3 inches worth) - the other sweater is no more, 1 of the scarves bit the dust after only a few rows and the nearly completed project awaits seaming (I hate seaming)... only 1 of the projects from the bout of startitis has stuck...

here is the currect state of the one that endured:

Of course you can probably tell what it is... the ubiquitous Clapotis. I've never made one of these before but something inspired me (maybe a project that I saw in the random faves pages on Ravelry?) and I just decided it would be good to cast one on ... the Kauni yarn was a bit of whim too but is working out beautifully. Anyway, the project, despite being only a week old is somewhere around 75% finished so I reckon I'll be posting an FO here before the month is out.

In the meantime I'm posting a little (actually maybe not so little) review of my day to day life in 2008 - more as a little aide memoire to myself, but if you are at all interested then feel free to have a nose around!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Tried to walk up a mountain (Snowdon) – maybe in 2009 I’ll get to the top.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t make any specific resolutions for last year, this year I’d like to lose a fair amount of weight (and finish my godforsaken thesis).

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No – a friend and his partner had a baby just after Christmas 2008 and another friend is pregnant with her first child and my cousin with her third child. That’s as close as I can get!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Fortunately, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

Spain, Wales.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A job that doesn’t depress me, more guilt-free leisure time.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I’m not good with days and dates – the only event which I can correlate with the correct date is the US elections on Nov 4 – I stayed up way past my bedtime (until Ohio was called) watching the results shows with the boyf. Cheesy, oder?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finally got offered a new job, hopefully I might be able to start it soon!

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not finishing my thesis, plus too many minor failures for me to want to list!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Sprained ankle.

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?

A Nintendo Wii (for Christmas – wonder why there hasn’t been any knitting content for a little while?.....)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The fabulous Richard who finally made it all the way to being Dr Dick.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Mine sometimes (not so much appalled, a little ashamed and depressed though).

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bills, biggest purchases were a new tent and a new camera.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Too many silly little things to mention – what can I say, I’m an excitable type…

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Kids – MGMT – at least it was surely the catchiest tune of the year.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Fatter or thinner? Fatter.

Happier or sadder? About the same.

Richer or poorer? Poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Saving up. Working on my thesis.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Disappointing people. Feeling guilty and ashamed because I felt I wasn’t working hard enough (even when I was working my arse off! – can you tell this is issue is a thorny one for me?)

20. How do you plan to spend Christmas?

In 2009 we would like it to just be the two of us with a couple of side visits to the respective families.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

It has been a good year for our relationship despite a lot of rubbishness going on our little world.

22. How many one night stands?

-

23. What was your favorite TV program?

House, Waking the Dead.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Not that I can think of – which I would say is a good thing.

25. What was the best book you read?

I don’t think I managed to read a whole book that I hadn’t already read before – so it’ll have to be The Secret History even though I’ve read it loads of times.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Seasick Steve, and the rediscovery of Manu Chao – great music for working on the thesis.

27. What did you want and get?

In a childish way: a Nintendo Wii, in a serious way: a job offer.

28. What did you want and not get?

Lots of jobs I applied for, the perfect pair of black boots.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

All my old favourites, I can’t think what stuff I saw at the cinema – Sex and the City, Burn After Reading – they were both OK.


30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Went to the greyhound track in Hall Green and lost a lot of money! I turned 27.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Working less.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
The year of the skirt (relatively speaking).

33. What kept you sane?

The boyf, friends, taking breaks even if that was hard and left with me with difficult emotions to deal with.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Daniel Craig maybe, but he’s a bit of a perennial.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Not sure.

36. Who do you miss?

My family, especially my brother, didn’t see much of him this year.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

I didn’t really meet anyone new. Except fleetingly.

38. What was the best thing you ate?

Probably something from the restaurant where my brother works.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008?
If you can handle the guilt it’s always worth taking time for yourself to relax and be you.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I’ll have to think about that and get back to you!!

Winter Knitty has a lot to answer for!

Overall I didn't find the latest Knitty that exciting - there are only 2 patterns in there that really caught my eye. First off there is Amelia which I think is a lovely little cardi, which hopefully I will get a chance to knit one day. Secondly there is the front cover pattern Bijouterie which had an unexpected impact: it broke my resolve regarding not doing any Christmas knitting. I find Christmas quite stressful enough generally and this year has been my "year of stress" so far, so I certainly wasn't planning on adding to it by setting myself lots of deadlines I'd be unlikely to meet (I'd wanted to knit a shawl for a good friend who was very taken with my Adamas but steadfastly and with a heavy heart decided not to go for it). Then Bijouterie came along... well, knitting some earrings ought to be faster than a shawl and my friend will still get a knitted gift... it's not too bad. I ordered some materials and decided to start with a test run straight away. Here are the results of said test run:

I tried out all three of the patterns included in the collection - I couldn't quite seem to get the second style to look quite right so I discarded my scrappy efforts and moved on knowing I wouldn't have time to refine the results. I'll be keeping these trial versions of styles 1 (on the left) and 3 (on the right) for myself (although I'll probably undo the style 1 attempt and reuse the findings). I'm currently working on the second versions of each of these styles and these will be the ones that will actually go to my friend - I'm going to use coloured wooden beads in style 3 and clear seed beads on style 1, I also need to be more careful to make my stitches nice and even on that pair, the trial version is a little sloppy looking... these are very quick to make so expect to see the results soon!

The other thing that Winter Knitty has to answer for is the fact that it made me spend money not just on materials for the knitted earrings but on a little gift for myself as well. I've been looking for a nice needle storage case for a while so when I saw the listing for a circular needle holder in the cool stuff section I thought I'd check out the etsy store listed. You can do the same thing by looking here. It's a bit risky though, because, like me, you might be instantly smitten and find yourself clicking 'buy'. I bought myself this lovely needle case:

It's a lot more stylish than most of the mass-produced ones I've seen in the shops and has plenty of space for my (currently) relatively modest collection of needles:

A reasonable price for a lovely hand-made item as well, and it arrived really quickly, especially given that it came all the way from the States during the dreaded Christmas postal rush period.

So, there you go, Winter Knitty has a lot to answer for - but nothing that I'll hold a grudge about!!

It's that time of year again

I went out last night to the annual fireworks display at the university. I don't know if I am becoming more pernickety with my advancing years but I didn't think the display was as good as it has been in previous years (probably not helped by it having to be temporarily stopped because of people wandering into the firing line). I still managed to snap a couple of acceptable pictures though:

I had go on one of fairground rides too - something I don't normally do - the experience of going on this ride:

has left me with rather a stiff shoulder today as well - ouch! (Possibly another sign that I am becoming old and decrepit - *sigh*)

Probably the best bits about the evening were the edible ones - a friend of mine made some delicious treacle bonfire toffee for our little group to share, yum. I contributed some seasonal(ish) cookies:

They don't look much but they tasted delicious. They are lovely Chocolate Parkin Biscuits, with delicious tangy chunks of stem ginger. The recipe is a recent one from Dan Lepard in the Guardian Weekend magazine. You can find it here - definitely worth a try!

I'm down to the last three rows of the Adamas Shawl now as well - exciting times! It should be off the needles and beginning to block over the weekend. I can hardly wait. Watch this space!

Look what I got!!

Please don't be worried - I don't think it is a sign of an impending apocalypse that I have posted two days running! Just a quickie today, I wanted to share with you my wonderful new drinking vessel:

Isn't it great? I have 3 mugs that I usually use in rotation... one of them met a nasty end involving the kitchen floor at the weekend... at first I was upset... but then I remembered a blog post I read recently (I can't for the life of me remember whose blog it was - for that you must forgive me - forgiveness no longer required - it was here at Damn, Knit & Blast It!) and I knew where I had to go to get a new mug. Why, Sainsbury's of course! Who'd have thought it? The mug cost £4, is lovely and tactile and came with two little packs of Walker's Shortbread as well. A bargain, no?

So this has just been a little public service announcement about where to buy a very knitterly mug (please also forgive me for the fact that I am effectively advertising Sainsbury's - I had to weigh up the disadvantages vs benefits and decided you all might like to know about the mug...)

All about me meme

All about me meme
Originally uploaded by nicolamk

It's been too long again! Argh! By of way of providing a change of scenery for people who might stop by here and get sick of seeing the same post over and over again I thought I'd take the lazy way out and post a meme which has been doing the rounds on Flickr. Hope this passes the time for a while. Click through to Flickr to have a look at the questions and my answers which are represented by the photos. If you answer this yourself let me know - I'd love to have a look.

Long-awaited...

Or maybe not long awaited - you tell me! It has been more than a month since my last post. WTF?! There are two items on the agenda for today's post and I shall start with the most important:

THANK YOU! To Knit-Nurse and to Kath of Krafty Kreations fame for honouring, yes honouring, me with the You Make My Day Award (have a look at Knit Nurse's post here for a bit of background). Far more than I deserve I am sure especially since I have been so useless on the blogging/knitting fronts recently. You certainly both made my day by thinking of me in this way. Now I have to think of my 10 people to pay it forward to.... Hmmm, an update on that will appear soon I hope - when I've got over my indecisiveness!

The second item on the agenda is the really long-awaited bit: FO pictures of Rayne. Without further ado here they are:





So now you can see that I really have finished this project! However, I don't think it is going to stay in its finished state like this for very long - the fronts are just too big in my opinion they add a lot of bulk and get in the way (although I am very intolerant of irritating clothing - other more mellow types may not find it a problem at all) so I am going to try shortening them a bit - so the project will have to be finished a second time - d'oh!

There are lot of knitting projects that need finishing off properly around here at the moment - in addition to Rayne Mark 2 there is Muir, my Elfine's socks, the mitts and hat to go with my Multidirectional Scarf and the My So-called Scarf that I started. My goal is to have all of these things sorted out fairly soon - maybe by mid-April, thus clearing the way for a potential project that I have fallen head-over-heels in love with - details to follow on that front!

To finish off the post I'll leave you with some pictures of my recent visit to the Henry Moore at Kew exhibit - I'm so glad that, despite being so busy recently, I made it there before the exhibit closes (at the end of March) as it was really a lovely day out and we were very lucky with the weather (on 1st March).

So, I shall return soon - at least, hopefully sooner than in a month's time this time! Bye for now, Nicola

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008 indeed! January certainly came round sooner than expected for me. Since my last post I have been lazeeeee! But I make no apologies... I think a bit of lazy was just what I needed. It is only this week that I really feel up to getting up to full speed again on projects other than my 'day job'. I plan to attack my thesis and my knitting projects with renewed gusto :o)

I received a few crafty-ish gifts this Christmas and their presence has been inspiring and got the cogs of my brain turning and thinking about potential projects for the coming year - no really concrete plans though as yet - I shall see where the mood takes me.

Gift number 1 was from a good friend of mine - it was this book:



It's not a book I had heard of before but I am taken with a few projects and the idea of combining knits with graphics is an appealing one, as colour work is something I would like to branch out into soon. I rather like the scarf project featured on the front cover - it is knitted from Kidsilk Haze which I understand to be rather good - but which I have never used myself. Another project I like the idea of is this one:



Not sure how this cardi would look on me though... I shall give it some consideration though, that is for sure. I suppose if I am feeling nice it could even be made as a gift for someone, we shall see.

I also received this book:



I've been wanting this one for a while - I would like to be able to begin using the sewing machine I received last Christmas for projects more involved than turning up trousers! If all goes well I can get me thesis out of the way sooner rather than later and have time enough to begin sewing on a regular basis as well as knitting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! (But not holding my breath - that could prove dangerous!)

The last 'crafty' gift is these earrings:



The fella got these for me from the German Christmas Market in Birmingham after having been on the receiving end of some fairly hefty hints ;o)

I think they look a little bit yarny (although this photo doesn't really show them to their best advantage) and they remind a little bit of these earrings which got me into a covetous mood when I first saw them on And She Knits Too.

So, there you go, my Christmas haul.

At the moment I am still working on Rayne - it has grown rather large - the body is nearly finished and then I just have the sleeves to work, which I think should go quickly. I may have failed to meet my previous self-imposed deadline but the enthusiasm is there again (helped along by my recent purchase of a skirt that I think will look very good with this wrap/sweater) and there should be results soon.

No knitting of note...

... but instead there is most certainly cake, see:

Yum, yummy, yum. I know I first read about this Chocolate Guinness Cake in connection with Nigella Lawson's 'Feast' book, but it wasn't in the book itself and beyond that I don't remember where it was I read it... What I did know was that I had to make this cake! A Google search turns up several free recipes for Chocolate Guinness Cake or Chocolate Stout Cake and I chose one of them - can't remember exactly which but they are all pretty similar.

So the cake was easy to make, the hardest part (physically at least) was whisking together the topping which is cream cheese, double cream and icing sugar - I think mine was still a little bit runny but I am a weakling ;) The cake was served as a dessert when friends came round for dinner on Tuesday and it was unanimously agreed to be very tasty - especially the topping, it's good because it's a chocolate cake which isn't at all sweet really, even the icing has a pleasant tang from the cheese - thumbs up all round.

So culinary adventures (oh well, and a bit of work) have been keeping me from knitting all that much - there have been two further repeats of the Muir chart produced, but there just doesn't seem much point in another photo when it's just more of what you've seen previously!

The other thing worth getting excited at is this:

The Frankfurt Christmas Market is back in Birmingham - the opening day was yesterday so we went along for some Prager Schinken, Bratwurst, Gluehwein and Weissbier - yum! Once the German Market rolls into town I consider it acceptable to start feeling festive and Christmassy - it's hard not to when you are faced with such seasonal cheer whenever you go into the city centre. It's definitely (one of) the best thing(s) about living in Birmingham. I am looking forward to many more visits before December 23rd!

Remember, remember...

Well, it might not actually be Bonfire Night yet per se, but seeing as I went to my favourite Fireworks Display on Thursday the 1st I thought I would post these pictures as I hinted at before. I really like Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night as an occasion, why do we need to adopt Halloween here in England when we've already got this seasonal celebration? (It's only a shame that this custom originates - like many others I'm sure - from such a somewhat 'un-PC' source - I think this might be a good example when it is OK to let the root of your traditions get a little bit lost!)

Lauded ;)

It was a very pleasant surprise to discover recently that I've received a little bloggy award. Ms Blog_Bletherings sent me a Schmoozer Award (see it over there in the sidebar?) - if you visit this post you can see why she thinks I am worthy - I can't thank her enough!

The award is designed to promote blog-friendships by rewarding those who are good Schmoozers, schmoozing being 'the natural ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection". Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogsphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship'.

That being the case I gave a fair amount of thought to who I would pass the award onto, and came up with three names - one of them was Blethers herself so I guess that won't work so well, another was Kath from Kath's Krafty Kreations but she's already got a Schmoozie award and I don't know if you are allowed more than one! So I am left with only one person to pass on the love to, that person being the lovely Knit Nurse. Knit Nurse is without a doubt my most regular commenter and I appreciate her interest in and contribution to my humble blog very much - cheers m'dear!

Even more obsessive update...

Yup, I'm still awake - bleurgh, if I can just squeeze out 500 more words I can go to sleep with a clear conscience. At least I can have a Saturday lie-in, although I'll want to keep an ear out for the door I reckon - my package has arrived at the 'DHL facility' in Birmingham - don't want to miss any potential deliveries that might take place tomorrow...

Obsessive update!

Ho hum, I am up late tinkering with chapter 2 of my thesis (no light at the end of the tunnel on that front yet - *sigh*). As depressing as that may be it is heartening to know (courtesy of the good people at DHL) that my Sockapalooza package has made it to Blighty - East Midlands Airport to be precise. That's not far from Brum at all :) Not long now!

(If only I could siphon off some of this Sockapalooza enthusiasm and redirect it towards my thesis...)

Eager beaver

A bit too much of an eager beaver in fact... on Saturday I turned the heel for my second Falling in Love Sockapalooza sock, by Sunday afternoon I was within one repeat of starting the cuff ribbing, by Sunday evening I had ripped all the way back to the heel - wah! Boo hoo! So eager was I to knit the leg that I forgot to start the lace/cable pattern on the back of it and carried on doing the plain stockinette continued from the sole of the sock. D'oh and double d'oh. I suppose at least I realised before I actually started the ribbing (or, even worse, finished the ribbing and cast off). I've been busy working on my thesis for the last couple of days so no progress has been made on reknitting the leg as yet. Hopefully tonight I can make a start. Silly, silly me!

Other than that what's going on? Well not that much I guess...

The aforementioned work on the thesis (how it'll ever be done by the end of September I don't know - but I persevere).

Since Saturday we've been staying at the house of some friends who are on holiday so that we can dog-sit their 9-month-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. It's great fun, I love dogs and I miss my parents' black Labrador quite a lot, so being dog-sitters has been a nice interlude, the dog is very lovely (easier to look after than the Labrador but that might only be because our friends have a big garden for their dog run off his energy in) and he makes cute little pig-dog grunty, snorty noises which make me laugh. We hand him over to some other friends for the next dog-sitting shift on Saturday which is sad but probably a good thing because it is hard to get work (and even knitting) done when there is a doggy to play with instead.

Since this morning I have also been dreaming of a new sweater to knit - it's this one from My Fashionable Life. No pattern is available as yet but I will certainly buy it if it goes on sale. Thinking of sweaters I might as well start working on Thermal again once I've finished my two current (sock-shaped) projects since it would appear that we are skipping summer this year...

Why, hello there...

I'm back!

Of course I have been for a while but me being me just haven't managed to put in an appearance until now.

I had to hit the ground running when I got back... I was back at work last Friday (which would have been OK if our flight hadn't been delayed for 5 hours - meaning that I didn't get to bed until 2am!), then me and the boyf attended the wedding of some friends at the weekend (which was lovely :) ), the washing machine went kaput so there was that to deal with (although now it seems to work again of its own accord - I shall be monitoring the situation), this week I've changed to a new pattern of working hours which hasn't been quite as seamless as I would have liked, I was rejected for a job that I really wanted and had an accompanying existential crisis (don't worry the worst of that is over now!) and all in all it's been a bit of a struggle this last week.

As I say though the worst is over. My photos are uploaded, knitting was done whilst on holiday (although no complete pair of Sockapalooza socks just yet) and the holiday itself was just wonderful. I just need to take some progress pictures of the current socks and then I promise I will compile a proper post ASAP!

Hope you're all still out there :)
N x

Happy (early) birthday to me

This is a bit of a rushed, cop-out, cobbled-together post before I go on holiday, but hey ho, I suppose I’ve at least written something.


First of all a progress update: The first Falling in Love sock is very nearly done – I’m on to the cuff ribbing. I hope to return from holiday with a completed pair, but we shall see, if I haven't managed it while I am away there is still a little time left.

The Lorna’s Laces has also been packed into my suitcase just in case I should have a sudden spurt of activity and finish the Sockapalooza socks really early – definitely no danger of my being knitless.

Something else that has been packed is my passport in a new cover:



I know Primark are a strong contender for the title of "Root of All Evil" but sometimes the draw is very hard to resist - a super cute passport cover for only £1.00 - it's tricky, but obviously I am weak cos I gave in.

Continuing the random nature of this post...

As it will be my birthday while I am away I thought I would steal this appropriately themed meme from Once Upon a Time…

***

The rules are to go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday month and day only. Then post 3 events, 2 births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday, then tag 5 friends.

Events

1936 - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell published.

1977 - Virginia Wade wins the Ladies Singles title at Wimbledon, the last British champion at the All England Club to date.

1997 - The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

Birthdays

1975 - Ralf Schumacher, German race car driver

1983 - Cheryl Cole, British singer (Girls Aloud)

Holidays

Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


I'll refrain from tagging people in favour of a more free-for-all approach, if you want to do the meme then please do :)

***

All that remains now is for me to bid you farewell for a week, hopefully I shall be well-rested and raring to go when I get back...

New Knitty

Meh.... what a collection of odd patterns, I feel a bit let down. There is only one pattern that I really love in here and that is Grrr. I might make a couple for my mum's birthday, she is a Leo so it is appropriate as well. Maybe this is the knitting gods' way of telling me I should be working on my thesis rather than mucking about with yarn. Spoilsports.

Be prepared

I hope the photo above is evidence enough that I am attempting to be prepared. I've been giving more thought to my summer holiday knitting and to my Sockapalooza plans.

The summer holiday knitting is now more than likely to be Argosy from Knitty. But I want to make it wider as I saw has been done by others, for example here. So that's what the scrawl up there on my writing slope is - I have copied out the chart to take account of the fact that I want my version of Argosy to be about twice as wide as the original, I expect for many people copying out the chart would be somewhat superfluous and they could work out the additional repeats in their head - but I'm not sure I quite trust myself... I think it will have to be a Noro type yarn that I use - Shikisai seems lovely and I like shades 4 & 6 or maybe Silk Garden Lite as is used in one of the models in Knitty. I will see what I can get a deal on :)

As for my Sockapalooza socks I think I've decided on a yarn. I thought of Colinette Jitterbug almost straight away because of the British roots of the company and with my pal being from the States I thought it would be nice to use materials from closer to home, the existence of the Raspberry colourway is the deciding factor here as I think it will perfectly match my pal's colour preferences. I'm still not sure about a pattern - at the moment I'm quite liking Hello Yarn's Cable Twist socks especially since I saw this finished pair... What does anyone out there think?

My knitting manifesto

I stole this from And She Knits Too! within 30 seconds of looking at it – I hope to be able to turn some of these italicized items to bold sometime soon. Maybe this is my knitting manifesto…

***

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL (although only if Sockapalooza counts)
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting (is it bad I don’t even know what that is?)
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting (but maybe one day I’ll get my head round it)
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes (on my doomed bulky cables cardi)
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting (thwarted through no fault of my own)
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting (when I was a little girl and my mum still used to have a knitting machine, probably won’t do this again I wouldn’t have thought)
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves (I tried but I failed)
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies (is it just me that thinks 'preemies' is an odd word?)
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom (if those little French knitting dollies count)
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Where's ya been?

It's a bit late really for a what-I-did-at-the-weekend post, so this'll just be a where's-Nicola-been-for-the-last-few-days sort of post.

I never made it to the Rag Market at the weekend to look for more bag fabric, the weather was just so nice on Saturday that a trip to an inner-city, indoor market paled in comparison to the chance to spend time out in the sunshine. I'm glad I made the effort to go up to the Lickeys again as well as the bluebells were out in force and the sights and the smell were amazing. These photos don't really do the scene justice but I will post them nonetheless:

The extent of my crafting lately has been fiddling around trying to unravel the bottom ribbing on Thermal which is proving to be easier said than done, I've nearly got to the point where it doesn't look dodgy anymore so hopefully I can get that sorted out even if I don't eventually get round to adding any extra length as I had originally planned.

I've also been looking at new houses to move to since our landlady gave us our notice, and after a short but intense burst of activity (fortunately mostly Internet based) I've found somewhere for us, so now we've got sorting and chucking out and packing to look forward to for the next few weekends. Oh the joy! Hopefully I won't have to blog too much about that!

Of course the Sockapalooza 4 matches have been made now which is very exciting. I guess I'm not going to get to start work on my socks until the house moving is over and done with, but now I've got my pal's details I can certainly put my mind to deciding what pattern and yarn I will use...

Forward planning

It's all been quiet on the knitting front recently. I've been working on an essay and was also away visiting family at the weekend so I haven't had much time to get anything done in that respect.

It's always easy to fit in a little bit of musing about future projects though. As I mentioned before I'm looking for some new springy/summery projects but wasn't sure what to do. Given careful thought I think the idea of a knitted skirt will fall by the wayside - the risk that it will just look rubbish is too great!

My next knitted project (most probably worked alongside Thermal) is likely to be a little shrug I think. I like this very simple pattern from Knit On The Net. I've seen some good deals on Rowan's Little Big Wool recently as well although I might have a look around for other yarns as the colours for Little Big Wool don't grab me all that much, although "Amythest" and "Topaz" aren't bad. I'm hoping to buy yarn for this project once the next pay cheque rolls in.

I have other plans up my sleeve as well, I was inspired by something I saw at Tres Chic Veronique - the lovely Amy Butler Frenchy bag pattern. A cotton bag like this seems pretty summery to me and I've been looking for a shoulder bag which is big enough to carry a few of my uni books and papers around in - sounds good so far. Even better though it will give me a chance to play with a toy of mine that has thus far been sadly neglected:



My mum and dad bought me this little (mug shown for scale) sewing machine for Christmas and I have yet to use it for any real project. (I did have plans to finally hem my bedroom curtains so they are the right length but seeing as our landlady has just decided to give us notice to quit on our flat it doesn't really seem worth bothering) So, I hope to make a bag using my (still) new sewing machine and new pattern:



Hmm, yes there does seem to be two patterns in that picture, I found the Frenchy bag pattern on ebay from the lovely ebay shop Monkey Foot Boutique, the proprietress was kind enough to point out she could post up to 3 patterns for the same postal fees as one so I thought it would be silly not to take advantage of that opportunity to a certain extent and snapped up a Swing bag pattern too. The first big task for this project will be to choose fabric, that will probably entail a visit to the markets in Birmingham at a later date (pay cheque dependent again).

Well, that's turned into a rather rambling post about not very much at all, I'm sure it's high time I quietened down! Looking forward to starting out on my new projects :)