Float'n'purl

Formby Fair Isle

Yesterday we took our students to Formby beach for the afternoon. Its the site for their final project. Well, its not actually on the beach but the adjacent Red Squirrel sanctuary run by the National Trust. It was so nice to be by the sea, especially in January when even with grey skies the sand reflects a brilliant light.

As for my ventures in Fair Isle knitting - I'm on the decreases for the hat. Its taken me a while as I had to frog some of it then ended up with long floats but on Saturday I got some sound advice from Debbie at the Guild on how I could weave them in again after frogging. I've had to borrow some DPNs now as its too tight for the circulars. I've also had to order a smaller set of circulars for the lining but they're out of stock at the moment so who knows when it will be finished!

Knitted Thong!

I've seen it ALL now! A knitted Thong!! Personally I like my knickers to be the size of a (small) circus tent and can't understand why anyone would want to wear nothing but a piece of string so this really made me laugh :)

I needed a bit of cheering up and someone ran into the back of me while I was out driving to a meeting today. I feel fine but it still shakes you up a bit, then there's the hastle with the insurance company to come..........such is life.

On the up side of things I'm off to the Guild on Saturday then the Stitch and Creative Craft Show in Manchester on Sunday so a crafty weekend lies ahead.

Waterbabe

The title of this blog refers to a new fitness class I went to at the local pool last night called "Water Fitness". It involved wearing a floatation belt that made you look like a Sumo wrestler (this inspires a most attractive image) and dumb bells made of foam. The idea is that the belt keeps you afloat in the deep end while you throw the dumb bells around underwater and kick your legs while trying to stay upright - not an easy task I can tell you. If only I had a waterproof camera you could see how silly it all looked!

On the yarn front I've been carding with a drum carder borrowed from our Guild.

I carded some black Alpaca with hand-dyed mohair in purples and oranges. I only passed it though once as I wanted the different colours to remain distinct but maybe if I use it again I'll have a go at blending. In fact we're having a carding workshop at the Guild this summer which I hope I can attend as I'm still a bit shy at blending through carding (and too lazy to use hand carders for more than five minutes). The resulting yarn is looking like this.

Warning - Yarn Porn: I want some and I want it now! Not only does the Ardlanish Hebridean yarn tick the "organic/ sustainable/ supporting local suppliers (yes I like to think of Mull as "local" in a global sense)" box for me but it ticks the "Scottish" and "West Coast Islands" boxes too!! Don't you just hate yarn diets.

Talking of yarn diets I have to say that since I started my Extreme Yarn Diet on 7th August 2006 (that's 5 months and 16 days but whoes counting?) I have bought 3no. 50g balls of Rowan cotton for a crochet project not yet started, 1 ball Jager DK to finish my curly scarf (so this doesn't count as most of the yarn was from my stash) and 2no. balls of Dale of Norway Hauk to knit this.

I've become obsessed with Fair Isle knitting while making this hat. Have you ever done something and it feels like your at home, or have come home. Its an activity that your were susposed to be doing all your life but you've only just discovered it now, aged 35? Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but right here and right now, I'm really enjoying my first steps in Fair Isle knitting (pictures to follow once I have a bit of light).

Finished but not forgotten

I've recently finished a few items, granted all of them were started last year, and one finished by Christmas, but the others can still count as FO's 2007 in my book. There are also two firsts!

Item no. 1 - my first piece of inkle weaving on my inklet.

It started off as a "thing". To wide to be a necklace, too narrow to be a belt so I lost interest after a while and it sat for too long doing nothing. Then I decided that I should weave a bag handle for a bag I'm trying to finish so it had to come off the loom and low and behold I have a hand woven book mark!

(The book was a Christmas present and could have been written for me if only the author also knitted - it has boats, canals and the West Coast of Scotland plus a few remote islands to boot).

Item No. 2 - a ribbed hat from this pattern from Wooly Wormhead in my own 3ply handspun Bluefaced Leicester for my dad but DH is modelling it. In fact he wanted to keep it and keeps going on about wanting one despite the fact that I've told him how long it took to spin.

Item No. 3 - my first crocheted piece, Spring Spirals from Interweave Crochet Magazine, Spring 2006. It took 225g of Jager Matchmaker DK in shade 656 which was in my stash although I had to buy another ball to finish it. I've really loved making this scarf but now I'm trying to crochet straight items I'm finding that my tension is too tight so I'm having to keep on frogging things. I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

So since finishing some items I've gone into a frenzy of casting on, even though I still have projects to finish but I'm enjoying the pleasure of new challenges.

Oh, and I did venture into Stash but only to buy some circular needles for a new project. After spending a fortune on my Denise needles I discovered that they only go down to 3.75mm needles and I needed 3.25mm - typical. More on my new projects later...........

If you can say a quick hello..

Can you please say a quick hello to:

1. Joanna from across the pond who has a blog with almost exactly the same name as mine!

2. Maureen who has just come back into the blogging world after a long break. Send her some good wishes if you can.

Right, off to Chester shopping, or more to the point taking back some bad January sales items. Will I be able to resist going to Stash? In the afternoon its onto North Wales and Abakhan Fabrics to look for some material for some new blinds for the boat. DH has got a bee in his bonet that he does like the current ones - true they are a bit small!

I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky lucky.........

As I've said previously, I do tend to give away as presents most of what I make so imagine my delight when my friend gave me these lovely gifts last night. A skein of Hipknits silk in a lovely blue/ green colourway and a needle holder made by Lynne's sister, Jackie (thanks Jackie) with material she brought back from the far east. She also made me a hat and gloves from Louisa Harding's pattern book "Gathering Roses" using Twilleys Freedom Spirit yarn. I love hats and the colour is perfect. The fingerless gloves are really warm and look at the lovely little flower and ribbon. As Lynne said they're great for working on the computer but not so for gathering any roses (if I had any!). It was really difficult to take a picutre of myself wearing a hat. It seems like others have had the same problem!

I've also been busy putting together a Guild blog. Hopefully over the year we'll have some interesting images of workshops and member's work to add plus we're planning to have an exhibition in November which I'm really excited about since I've only ever exhibited work at college.

Ziney

I recently bought a copy of Lixie's "Proud to be Crafty" zine. For only £1.50 (including postage) its a good buy if you want to have something in your hands to read rather than trying to read on a screen. I especially like the crochet flower patterns (being a recent crochet convert) and I think the yarn samples are a lovely touch. I think its wonderful in the days of the internet that we still have a need to read from paper - well done Lixie!

Talking of paper reads I have three books waiting for me at home. Amazon rather cruelly sent me confirmation that they were on their way but of course I'm in Wales at work until tomorrow night so I'll have hold my excitement until then. Are they knitting books - well in fact two are crochet books and the third a novel. I promise to do a review later.

In fact tomorrow night I have to go straight to a meeting of our SWD Guild committee meeting. Yes, I rather hastily agreed to be on the committee but now I'm not sure I can really give it any time. I do like going to the guild though so felt that I should try to help where I can? I hope I can be of some use.........

"6 weird things" meme!

Yes, I've been tagged by Steph on the subject of "6 weird things" so here goes:

1. Diet - anyone who knows me knows that I have a weird diet. Vegetarian but I do eat fish (correct term Pesco-vegetarians), I know that isn't very weird but I also have Candida which means no yeast, sugar or anything that can ferment. I also avoid cow's dairy, mushrooms, bananas and food combine so I'm about the worst possible dinner guest!

2. I can't stand "builder's tea" and drink mostly herbal teas but love coffee although I had to detox for health reasons so now a cup of coffee sends me into a crazy state!

3. I'm always cold in bed and even in mid summer I'm known to have a "hot bag" (a hot water bottle but we always called it a bag in my family).

4. I always squeeze my toothpaste from the middle of the tube (much to DH's annoyance).

5. I'm the world's worst speller which I guess these days isn't that weird but I wish I wasn't and hate being embarrased by others with my poor spelling!

6. Gosh, this is harder than you think. I'm sure if I asked DH for some answers he would have a few but I really can't think of anything else except for my hate of waste (energy, water, food etc). Just today I met one of Paul's friends who had gone to spain for a meal! What a waste of energy was my immediate reaction but I was too polite to say so!!!!!

Anyway, I don't want to burden anyone with any pressure by tagging them but if you feel like trying to expose your own weirdness feel free :)

A little less grumpy!

Sorry for the grumpy post yesterday but I was feeling rotten and thanks to all the kind wishes :)

I've been reading a few blogs where people have been reviewing their projects from last year and making plans for 2007 so I thought I would look back at my plans for 2006!

New Yarn Resolutions 2006:

Normally I don’t divulge any resolutions as they’re destined to be broken once spoken but here goes:

1. to finish all of my 2005 projects before the middle of 2006 (I’m trying to be realistic here!), or at least frog what I’m not going to complete and use the yarn for something else! (well I still have two projects left, one back and 1/2 a sock to knit so that's not too bad!)
2. to knit a shawl (no, didn't manage this one although I bought a book of shawls and even did a swatch but I was too scared to actually start one so this remains on my list for this year)
3. to try some colour knitting – this may be a while coming as I’m not that temped at the moment (no, still not temped by this - maybe I need to take a class or something?)
4. to finish my first pair of socks and knit another pair before the end of the year with the cashmere yarn in my stash from Hipknits (opps, socks still unfinished!)
5. to make a real dent in my stash!!! (well, since my yarn diet I have been knitting just from my stash so I feel this is an achievement?)
6. to knit something from my own handspun – this is long over due now and should really be at the top of my list! (at last, something I have achieved - a bag and a hat, not much but there's a scarf still on my loom)
7. be more selfish………..when it comes to knitting of course. I think I knitted too many presents at Christmas so I feel I don’t have enough FOs for myself (well I only knitted two items for Christmas so that wasn't too bad but I have a tendancy to give things away that I have intended for myself)
8. keep my blog more up to date? (one can but try........)

On the other hand I have had a go at different things this year. A lot of dying, some weaving and braiding plus I've learned to crochet which has been a revelation. I still haven't finished my crochet scarf since I've ran out of yarn for the second time but I will very soon. It too, once destined for myself is now ear marked as a present. I just can't help myself, if someone admires something I'm making I simply have to give it to them. I guess that's not such a bad thing really!

Grumpy New Year.........

I had plans on a proper update but one is feeling sorry for one's self. Yes, for the first time in god knows how long I'm sick with a sore throat type thing. Feeling v. sorry, sad and can't be bothered. I know lots of people are "properly" sick and just having a sore throat is no excuse but there you go. I feel crap so off to bed - Happy New Year!

(proper update to follow when I've more energy)