An update! A REAL update!

I'm a little late on this. The entire world has now forgotten about Woolfest, but I've only just unpacked my yarn from my many many moving boxes so I shall inflict it on you all now anyway (oh, I'm sure you are backing away from the screen in horror).

I took a grand total of...no photos in Cockermouth, big surprise, so we just have pictures of piles of yarn on my dining table instead. Hurrah! Somewhere, possibly on my mother's computer, there are photos of me wrestling a pair of giant knitting needles with which I managed all of 4 stitches, but it's probably a good thing I don't have these photos. The needles were about 9 foot long, they were very heavy, and there was much gurning involved in my manoeuvring of them.

I was very good at Woolfest. I had to be very good, because I only took cash. As in I only took cash to Cumbria. I left my cards in Bournemouth, so I'm not entirely sure what I would have done if I'd lost my train ticket home or something equally horrible. It was reasonably easy to be good, since the majority of the festival was fibre and I'm not a spinner (Mum is - she spent horrendous amounts of money on the offcuts of exotic beasties). Besides, I'd gone with specific garment projects in mind and most of the yarn stalls were selling variegated sock yarn rather than jumper's-worth amounts of solid colours. I did buy some sock yarn though. It was too fun to pass up. Only one though. I was good.
















Both my 'sensible' yarn purchases were from a stall called Knitting4fun (not at the same time - I had to umm and aah and then come back for more). This is a wool/silk blend for the Silk Ribbed Corset, hopefully, though I forgot to take my notebook with me so I have no idea if it's going to come close to the right gauge or yardage.
















These are pure wool for Candy, which Mum has promised to make me matching Fimo buttons for. Remember that Mum? I'm gonna remind you in like, 4 years time when I actually get round to making it.

















This is my fun yarn. See, I told you it was fun. It's Colinette Jitterbug in MARDI GRAS!! (I may have added the capitals and exclamation marks myself). As always, the photo does not do it justice, it's much more...glowy in real life. Especially the yellow, I could wrap the yellow around myself as a reflectivejacket. A very small and pathetic one, but a glow-in-the-dark one all the same.


I have new WIPs since settling (Ha!) in my new abode, mainly because I am a huge quitter and can't be arsed to work out the new sleeve caps on the red jmper.
















This is the first row of the Snapping Turtle Skirt. As far as I can tell it's going to fit me around the hips (yay!) but it is so far merely a Snapping Turtle Belt. I'm getting over my fear of picking up stitches though.





















This is the beginning of Mia, and is also an out of date photo. I took this two days ago (before I could be bothered to update the blog) and I have since knit about 4 inches of the lace back, decided it was too tight with twisted stitches, frogged it back to the sleeve, knit the entire back with nice normal stitches and started the second sleeve. I may even finish this. Woot.





I use brackets too much.

UK Swap Question of the week #5

Yep, I'm behind. My advice to you all, never make the mistake of moving house on your own, while still looking for a job, 2 days before going on holiday. Not that I had a whole lot of choice, but still, spectacularly stupid.


Quick fire questions this week, based on a game I've played with friends whilst on (very long) car journeys!

Choose one - don't think just choose...

1. Stop or go? Stop

2. Going out or Staying in? Staying in

3. Small town or big city? Big city

4. Happy or sad? Happy

5. Straights or Circulars? Circulars

6. Red or Blue? Red

7. Seaside or countryside? Seaside

8. Fish or chips? Chips

9. Surprises or plans? Plans

10. Wine or beer? Wine

11. Sweaters or cardigans? Cardigans

12. Pizza or Pasta? Pasta

13. Chopsticks or fork? Fork

14. Early Bird or Night Owl? Night Owl

15. Knitting or crochet? Knitting

16. Hot or cold? Hot



And now for the picture part of this quiz (copied from a meme that's going around at the moment)

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.


I do like this mosaic and the searching was fun, but a lot of the UK swappers have the same images popping up. I think since I saved this mosaic I've seen that puppy at least 5 times. This would work better on questios that had more than 2 choices. Still, Stop! Hammertime makes up for any minor dissapointment.























1.STOP: Hammer Time, 2. Primary Stillness, 3. Montmartre on a cloudy day HDR, 4. Amazing Thailand, 5. Star light, Star Bright, 6. Gizmo, 7. Shell pick 'n' mix, lightly arranged, 8. Angel of the Morning, 9. First Snow 2007, 10. Why, Yes...I Do Have Shoes To Match, 11. And now for something completely different, 12. 'stick' together, 13. Colours, 14. Crafting 365, day 159 - another brooch to add to my collection, 15. Rut. With Gullfoss., 16. Some like it hot

UK Swap Question of the Week #4

What is your favourite thing that you have knit? (It might not be your favourite thing to wear but it was the most enjoyable to knit).

I really liked doing the travelling stitches on the Sunflower Tam, and also my Anthropologie Capelet, as my first top-down knit, was eye-opening.

What is the worst thing you've ever knit?

Hmm. The first scarf I ever made ended up too wide and too short. Not brilliant.

What are your favourite knitblogs?

I like the ones that make me laugh, like Yarn Harlot, The Panopticon and recently Boffcat.

What is the most amazing knitted thing you have seen (This Ravelry thread might help)

I've seen some pretty mindblowing fairisle and cables all over Ravelry, but this is the one that's in my head right now, by LenaF:















What is your favourite knitted item to wear? Post a picture if you can.


It used to be my grey and white stripy scarf, but since I've lost that (*sob), I'll go for my first pair of socks and my chocolate chip mittens.

101 in 1001 update: Month 2

Ok, few days late with this, but if I don’t post now it won’t get done till the middle of the month because I’m Going On Holiday! Did I mention that? Apparently ripping wax off my legs and stinking of fake tan is enough to make me excited about something I was previously a little wary of. Well, provided my friends don’t persuade me to hit the town in hen party-esque costumes I should be fine. Roll on over-priced cocktails and sunburn.

5. Get the CD drive on my laptop fixed.

This one I’m changing to ‘Buy external DVD drive and/or Playstation’ after I was told replacing the drive in my laptop would cost about £120. I really don’t love this machine that much.

29. Go to the Bournemouth and Poole Stitch’n’Bitch at least once. Complete

Yes! After being a member of the Ravelry group since March I finally managed to make it to a meeting last Thursday. Hopefully I will be able to find a day time job soon and go to many more meetings, otherwise Sound Circus will continue to eat up my Thursday nights. It was good though! I got through a mile of otherwise very boring stocking stitch, ate much cake and talked to people close to my own age (GASP!), which was a nice surprise - I went to a ‘Knit and Knatter’ in Poole a couple of months ago, and while they were also very nice people, I was the youngest by a good 15 years and felt a little out of place.

37. Stop putting off my pile of clothes to be repaired. 3/

I sewed some buttons on. I can think of no way to make this more interesting.

42. Make myself a costume for each Hallowe’en and Summer Ball. 1/5

Yes, I have already blogged about this, but here, have another photo for good measure. You can see my moustache in this one. Loved that moustache.
















58. Go to the cinema at least once a month, even if it means going on my own. 2/33

Yes, twice, I’m counting the first one as last month’s cinema trip, because it was early in the month, and I’m apparently already cheating on this list. I have now seen Indiana Jones 4, which is fantastic and I am still in love with him (though I have to stress Indiana Jones, not Harrison Ford – this is strict character love), and Wanted, which I loved but Lucy thought was “the biggest pile of gobshite I’ve ever seen”. I guess I was just in the mood for silly overblown unrealistic violence, and she really, really wasn’t.

63. Make a curry from scratch. Complete…ish

Well, kinda. I started from curry paste though. It’s just a mite too expensive to get whole spices. I cooked it from the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook too, does it count if it’s a low fat version? I’m not even sure why I own this cookbook, I’m not on a diet and doubt I ever could be, I like carbs and dairy way too much. If I get blobby I just have to accept the fact that I’ll have to spend money on a gym membership. Or liposuction.

75. See a sunset and a sunrise in the same day. Complete

Yep, got to the summer ball at 9, didn’t leave till half 4. Very very weird to be walking that road home post-sunrise. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it in daylight before.

78. Go to Bournemouth Oceanarium. Complete

Yup, we watched the stingrays being fed like bona fide tourists. There were teeny tiny baby seahorses too, which I was most disappointed to see people walking straight past. I wanted to grab them and force them back to the tank to take a closer look. I think it’s a good thing I’m not a tour guide, I have a feeling you’re not allowed to be that aggressive with unobservant members of the public.

15. Sell, donate or throw out 101 items I don’t need. Complete
20. Reach 175 blog posts. 11/133
82. Try a new food every month. 2/33
91. Wear a skirt at least once a week. 7/143
95. Buy from a local butcher/grocer/market instead of the supermarket once a month. 2/33

Yes, yes, blah blah, very boring. Lychees = ming. That is all.


Still no progress on the knitting and sewing list items. I fail at free time.