Adventures in knittingland

Makings!

2009-10-31T21:02:00.006Z

There has been much making of things (well much is relative but still). Firstly there has of course been knitting:

5 hour sweater for a boy (or a girl, dunno what its gonna be yet):

Dont think it took as much as 5 hours even, I did alter the patterrn slightly as i felt it kinda odd but other than that its more or less as it says on the tin. Ravelry details.

Next Amused, for me. I like this its pretty. Photo isnt the greatest tho...

I have no head eep! Ravelry Details

Lastly, pinwheel blanket for the same baby as the cardi (all the cardis...) I made a somewhat mammoth effort to finish this before a week past friday alas that did not happen (somehow trying to knit 1200 rows/12 or so feet of edging in a day whilst also working didnt happen...) I did get it done tho:
Ravelry

Now the non-knitting! First up stitch marker, which are kinda knitting related:
Silver twisty jump rings with freshwater rice pearls, that i got at hobbycrafts thing at the SECC last week (there was yarn purchasing too maybe more on that later), which means i now have 51 new nondangling markers huzzah!

Definately not knitting, there was a bakesale at work yesterday for breast cancer awareness thus i made cupcakes that Siress Yorkie herself would be proud of:
Under the fondant they are coconut and raspberry cupcakes, which were deemed to be suitably tasty (recipe).

It is of course Halloween, and in due accordance i donned costume (which I did not make):
The pumpkin however i did carve (with a little help from Martha)

Of course in the spirit of economy (or something) I didnt just carve my pumpkin and discard the rest no no

The seeds were toasted with (perhaps too much) chilli:

I scraped out as much of the flesh as i could and its cooked down and frozen ready to be made into some delicious pumpkiny dessert goodie:I believe that is all for now, I was going to go and knit some more of the neverending (because apparently I cant knit with the power of my mind) baby cardigan but i think instead bed and a good book are calling!

Also it would appear that this post was sponsered by brackets (or parenthesis depending on your orientation with regards the Atlantic)

I want your money!

2009-10-10T13:26:00.002+01:00

Well actually Aspire wants your money! I'm doing this which is kinda silly but well its a challenge innit!
If you want to sponsor me then there is the widget in the side bar or youcan go straight here!

I'll put a little progress bar up too, so far I have done 570/1770 lengths, and if i can be arsed moving I may do more this afternoon!

Now get sponsoring!

thank you in advance ;)

Well Meh!

2009-10-03T15:26:00.002+01:00

here we are again nearly 4 months since i last posted, no excuses just an overall mehness. I could use the whole getting married thing as an excuse but well it wasnt all that stressful realy, when i get around to it i'll post some photos (expect that arund january)

I suppose i should show you what i have done this year, i think this is almost everything i have knitted since about February! Hopefully nothing I have shown you before but if so i apologise.
Rather than bog everything down with lots of images here is a natty flickr mosaic of everything with links to the bigger photos!

FOsaic
Originally uploaded by bumblefee.

1. P1010075, Sedum Cardi for me. Ravelry

2. DSCF2089, Sheep Yoke Cardi for soon to arrive baby. Ravelry

3. IMG_6663, Aeolian Shawl for me. Ravelry

4. P1020069, stripey cardi for above baby. Ravelry

5. P1020066, Cabled drops cardi for same baby. Ravelry

6. P1020060, Imagine Sweater birthday gift for MIL. Ravelry

7. P1010940, Pirate mittens for me. Ravelry

8. P1010938, earflap hat for me. Ravelry

9. P1010826, Vinnland socks. Ravelry

10. P1010823, foray into crochet #2. Ravelry

11. P1010822, foray into crochet #1. Ravelry

12. P1010818, Dr Horrible style wristwarmers. Ravelry

13. P1010813, Batman jumper. Ravelry

14. P1010811, Lacy gloves. Ravely

15. P1010775, Lacy hat. Ravelry

16. P1010761 Aran Jumper. Ravelry

Not a lot to show for close to 9 months knitting but there we go.
Have also added twitter widget, I seem to manage to update in 140 character or less more often.

Hey look, its me again!

2009-06-15T19:57:00.000+01:00

And once again i completely brainfart on the blogging, I can make excuses: wedding planning, work etc but really its just being lazy.

I have been knitting tho and in an attempt to not get overly picture heavy and get more than a post every 3 months i shall blog things individually.

without further ado: Mittens!

You may remember somewhere in the mists of time i knitted the full length bellas mittens for Katy, well they were so well recieved that her mum wanted a pair in black in a more regular mitten length and thus:

Its Bella's mittens (again) in lambs pride bulky in onyx (i think, black anyway)
Ravelry deets herererere.

I wants your money!

2009-04-03T20:42:00.001+01:00

Have decided to the the Cancer Research Race for life thing, thus I want your monies!

Sponser me here

(Also putting it in the sidebar)

RAAAWRR*

2009-03-01T18:16:00.005Z

We decided at work we needed a lab mascot, and naturally it should be a dinosaur called Reg. We decided that instead of trying to buy one I would knit one, thus pattern search ensued, there are little to no T-Rex patterns it turns out.

In the end my mum found an Alan Dart pattern (this one) which i modified to make into a dino!

Hence I give you Reg:
knitted in various colours of acrylic.

*dinosaur for I love you...

Winter Woolies!

2009-01-18T09:58:00.004Z

Whats this? Knitting something that isnt a cosy for some form of electrical device? Shocker!

However I havent quite managed to escape the knitting for others tho.

After we went to see the film that shall not be spoke of my dear friend Katy decided that she musthave the mittens in it thusi was set to task, a quick ravelry search yielded multiple patterns but i went for the freest and the chunkiest as i felt them truest to the original, yarn was ordered (i had actually hoped it would be darker, boo to monitor colour shindiggery). Yarn arrived and 2 days later Katy had mittens:
I do not seem to have escaped the knitting for others loop as now her mum wants a pair, thus i have to find a nice black chunky weight yarn...
Details: Yarn is patons Inca and the Pattern is Bella's Mittens from here. Rav it up over here.
It was a good pattern to knit and cos of the chunkyness quick quick.

I have managed to fit in some knitting for me! Its cold and the only hats i have are either a touch big or a touch smAll and tend to compress my hairto the point that i cant see thus a new one was in order...

Front:

(excuse the emo hair it needs cutting)

Back:Its Meret by Wooly Wormhead, the first time I've tried one of her patterns and I must say it was a very pleasent experience, it was a super quick knit, only a couple of evenings simple but not boring and the end result is ace, it also gave me a good reason to trymy new blocking boards.
The yarn is Arawhatsit nature wool solids and apparently neverending, i started with 2 balls, knit a pair of quite large slippers, then this hat and still have over half a ball left! What next?
Rav details.

In which i once again return from falling off the planet...

2009-01-10T13:29:00.011Z

So December kinda disappeared huh. I have excuses I started my new job (its good so far), went to my friends wedding (pictures here) Anthony was over, and I got a horrible horrible cold flu thing that knocked me for six, my lungs are still trying to escape.

I have not however been entirely idle in this time.

I finished my scarf:

Its a bit too long for proper pictures! Its Backyard Leaves from the scarf style book, in Knitpicks Andean Silk in i believe appropriately leaf, rav detailios.

I also got the christmas stockings done in time (altho mine was finished late xmas eve due to afore mentioned illness)

Anthony's was lined cos well the colourwork was a bit scrappy on the inside. Details

Illness also meant that the one piece of xmas knitting i was doing wasnt finished in time but daddy didnt mind:

Alpine sweater from the lionbrand site knit in Knitpicks Swish (Which is very nice) in delft heather and indigo heather (which may have been a little purple, damn you colour representation on monitors...)

I then seem to have got myself into some what of a loop. It started with this:
A little iphone case for my friend, because since living in edinburgh and being a posh lawyer she has become a ya (tho we still love her) thus i decided her phone needed a ya sweater too. knit as per the pattern.

My dad saw it and said oh i know someone that keeps theirs in a sock could you knit him one. So I did:Again close to the pattern except knit in the round and the bottom grafted
My other friend saw it and said hey can you knit me one for my camera

So I did, this time again in the round but using the chart from the Anemoi mittens. Then my dad decided he wanted a case for his SatNav/GPS (depending on your nationality)
Thus i did, I had asked what he wanted on it he said (i think) jokingly the World, well I aint one to shirk from a challenge so a chart of the World was drawn up, I also made it a wee bitty wider and longer to accomodate the chart/beastie.

I had decided that my 5 year old ipod was getting a bit past it (30 minute battery life anyone) and that a larger capacity would be fun, so a new ipod was got (and new headphones as you can see) thus it needed a case to keep it shinyKnit in the round on less stiches for more snugglyness, at this point i wanted it done quick so dispensed with the colourwork, I also changed the rib to 1x1 to make the top tighter so there was no need for a button etc.

I then showed this to my friend at work who then asked if i could do one for her DS

I did, this time knit in chunky not DK, as i didnt think i had any red DK, as it happens i do but this made it quicker. knitted to fit the DS.

They are all based in varying degrees of looseness on the Argyle Iphone Sweater and mostly (appart from the first one) knit in acrylic. Ravel it up here and here and here and here and here and here.

I am not showing them to anyone ever again....

I do still have the stoopid sock in progress which make good train knitting and my silk cardi has a body:

The sleeves are mostly done but its all being ignored due to the 5 cosies in the past 10 days and now I am knitting my friend mittens based on the ones in Twilight (which you really dont want to get me started on)

WIPdate: week 4

2008-11-30T22:22:00.005Z

Or is it 5? I cant remember. So here we are, end of November, managed to post everyday woo me, now I can go back to only posting when i have actyual content.

I didnt get my sweater finished but considering that since the last week of October I have knit 2 sweaters, a pair of mittens, most of a scarf, some fingerless gloves, a xmas stocking, slippers a washcloth and another scarf I reakon thats pretty good going.

As for the Wips, the only postable change has been in scarf:

It has grown a bit from last week, got 4 and a half repeats left so really only an evening or so's worth of knitting, when i can actually be bothere (not tonight too tired).
As for the socks I think they have had half a row knitted on them since last week, oh well.

I do think its time for more casting on soon.

Ho hum

2008-11-29T23:49:00.000Z

Went to the crafts for christmas or whatever its called show today, not terribly exciting, didnt seem to be a whole lot there, 2 booths with acrylic and no fabric (which was what i was wanting) to be seen not even that much in the way of cardmaking really but never mind. I did get a couple balls of goldfingering to play with so thats ok.

Then we went to Costco where i failed to get boots but did get PJs which are always good. Thats it for now

I wonder if there is a support group

2008-11-28T23:10:00.004Z

This week I bought these:

Pink and Black, we enjoy pink and black.

Possibly the greatest shoes in the World (which i make claim of a lot, I know this, but there are a lot of awesome shoes, most of then Converse)

Now this may seem ok, but given that these are pairs 6 and 7, I may possibly have a slight addiction (which clearly blogger is embarrassed by as it wouldnt let me upload the pictures of the other 5 pairs).

So Converse Addicts Anonymous anyone?

Because I dont have enough to do...

2008-11-27T23:35:00.003Z

I have started another semi sekrit xmas project. I am knitting stockings for Anthony and I , they are semi secret because while he knows I am knitting them, what they will look like is a surprise.

Given that its only 4 weeks til xmas you may think this foolhardy however:

Big yarn, big needles! No Bother...

Nothing much to say

2008-11-26T23:01:00.002Z

The problem with this blog everyday thing is it gets to 11 at night I still havent blogged and by now i cant be bothered with the whole getting up and taking pictures thing, not that i have anything terribly exciting to take pictures of but I'm sure i could find something, so I end up with nothing interesting to blog about, I could go steal a meme from somewhere but really at the end of the day who is interested in that? So I shall say nothing and apparently I shall be quite wordy with my saying nothing.

Now I shall go back to grumbling.

To keep my tootsies toastie

2008-11-25T22:08:00.002Z

I have cold feet, always. So I knit me some slippers. Good old instant gratification knitting, they took me a night.

I think they will benefit from a wee block i think as the ribbing kinda flares out the way

They are ballet style slippers knit in Aruwhatsit natural wool something something (can you tell i pay attention, ravelry knows more about it.

3 In a week!

2008-11-24T23:40:00.002Z

Anyone who has been paying attention will have noticed an absent project from yesterdays WIP line up, that gentle reader is because they are no longer a WIP

Convertible mittens:Finished sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning during an all night transatlantic intercontinental gaming session, that was all a dream!
Pattern is Convertible Mittens, yarn is Per Trving something something that i inherited from somewhere (Yorkie?), knit 2 at once on a 32" circ. Rav stuff.

As they go they are alright, bit wide in the hand and i got bored of the flap so its a little short but bearable, I suspect there are also a couple errors in the pattern that i didnt notice til i had knit all the hands which means that the beads are in differnt places on the 2 mittens but they will do the job and the ladybug buttons are cute.

I also managed to kill my windows install today (I blame facebook) so I am on borrowed computers til an XP disc can be located.

Blink and your miss it

2008-11-23T16:53:00.002Z

The progess that is!

The WIPs as they stand:teeny tiny scarf half

2 half feet.

I am so tempted to start more casting on but if i do that i doubt these will ever get finished and I need to get on with the Sekrit Sweater which i doubt will be done by then end of the month as I am only halfway thru the front oh well.

I like food

2008-11-22T22:45:00.002Z

So I stole this from Adam, cos it looks like fun.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Italicize all of the items you want to try.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. ~~Steak tartare~~
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. ~~Brawn, or head cheese~~
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. ~~Fugu~~
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. ~~Sweetbreads~~
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. ~~Chitterlings, or andouillette~~
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu or shaojiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. ~~Bagel and lox~~
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

38/100, somewhat middling...

Filler Post Alert

2008-11-21T23:34:00.002Z

You Scored as Sookie St. James

Cooking's great, you friends are great, you are great. The best friend a girl could ask for.

Sookie St. James

80%

Lorelai Gilmore

80%

Lane Kim

70%

Rory Gilmore

70%

Jess Mariano

45%

Michel Gerard

40%

Luke Danes

40%

Emily Gilmore

40%

And Another one!

2008-11-20T23:02:00.002Z

2 sweaters 1 week! Woo me!

This one turned out way better than i had expected I am really pleased with it, its not too gaudy at all.
Close up to show off the sparklyness
Off the shoulders
More boat necky

Ignore the gawky photos its hard taking photos of yourself

So Stats: yarn: Noro Aurora that i inherited from Miss Yorkingwhop pattern is $5 in Paris, Ravelry detailios are here.

A small rectification

2008-11-19T23:06:00.002Z

Now I have one more pair of shoes yay!

Its about that time again

2008-11-18T16:20:00.005Z

Time for my annual shoe review, this year I have taken individual phots and made a flickr set a preview of which is here

www.flickr.com

I have much fewer shoes than i thot i feel thuis should be rectified, course there are a few pairs omitted as they are in another country but still...

You knew it was coming

2008-11-17T23:43:00.004Z

I finally managed to buuild up the effort to finish the sleeve:

Yes i know the white vest underneath and the flash makes it look like i have been paped! I'm not sure of it, its a little big and shapeless, the armholes comedown to practically my waist but well its'll do for generally wearing. The pattern is Purple Sweater and the yarn is Knitpicks Cotlin in Desert Turquoise.

In other news I finished the back of my NaKniSweMo sweater and decided to knit on my mittens for a bit, when i pulled them out there bag i found this:Well i found the needle, the disengaged tip i found on the floor 5 minutes later. I think with the addition of some superglue its salvageable but until then I cant cast on the rest of the sweater (i need those needles for the hem/cuffs)

Also note the cutting it very fine to not posting today, totally forgot. I also wasnt sure i was gonna have an internet to post with due to ISP switching but as you can tell I'm still here!

Its Sunday...

2008-11-16T23:09:00.003Z

...That means WIP-date! I have decided for purposes of non-repition etc to only show the projects that have actually changed since last week.Blue sweater which has had the most attention (as you may be able to tell) it really should be this weeks FO but the sleeves are boring and long!

Mermaidish socks have had a few rows knitted. thankfully they are no longer orange.
$5 in Vegas, still stripey and still liking it yay

So thats it,I have also nearly finished the back of NaKniSweMo which prolly isnt good enough progress but no matter...

Shiny thingamajiggy!

2008-11-15T20:15:00.003Z

Twas Christmas markety thing in Lanark today, twasnt all that exciting, never is to be fair, but we got some njyummy cheese and I got one of these.

I thot it was quite nifty in ones hair it looks thus:have you any idea how hard photoing the back of your head is?

Unhair its all comby

Its kinda pretty and subdues the hair well enough

Well who woulda thunk it...

2008-11-14T23:34:00.001Z

The organisation continues

2008-11-13T22:58:00.005Z

My stash is now fully ziploc bagged up after the procurement of more baggies, I did have to sit on top of the unit for a while to squoosh it down enough to actually get it closed but well...

I also organised this:

Large pile of knitting bags containing the various WIPs one trip to Ikea later and:
Some S hooks over the end of my bed, much neater and easily accessed!

Then while in tesco tonight we took pity on the victims of what had clearly been a horrific accident:and my took pity i mean brought home and nyommed on.

Shopping!

2008-11-12T22:59:00.003Z

I like shopping, today i got new shoes for dancing at weddings in and a piratey style top yay! I should take photos but well i cant be arsed. Tune in 2moro for actual content

I need to get out more...

2008-11-11T23:28:00.003Z

Again nothing particularly interesting to report, plugging away on NaKniSweMo sweater am almost at the armpits now.

Got fabric samples today for le wedding frockie and my aunt came and we discussed flower ideas.

There is some exciting news tho I get Anthony for xmas!! YAY!!

Thats it.

Random picture? Oh go on then

Adventures in Stash Organisation

2008-11-10T22:13:00.008Z

Today I started with this:

My big corner unit filled with a random jumble of somewhat intertwined yarn.

Once emptied out i had this:
From a different angle perhaps?
Now I am not sure if this constitutes a lot, I suspect to a non knitter it would but to a knitter prolly not.

Just for an idea this is what the unit looks like empty:
Its quite deep...

After a few hours of organising (and playing Spore) I have this:
Which you might say looks emptier, is that due to etter organisatio?

Frankly no, its due to running out of bags, I still have all this:

Left on my bed (which needs to find a home before i can go to sleep...) But there is increases organisation. I should add that isnt all my yarn thats just the has no purpose as of yet stash, i have a sizeable tote box that has the planned project yarn stash.

And of course there is the sock yarn stash. After a convo last night on having lots of sock yarn when you dont care much for knitting socks (which i dont) I decided to get it out and photo it. In its normal home it looks like this:
When all laid out for examination:
I think I win...

Weekly WIP (W)Update

2008-11-09T18:26:00.003Z

I went out in the freezing cold to take advantage of the last vestigies pf daylight to try and get vaguely colour accurate photos.

In no particular order.

Backyard leaves scarf, half a side done.

Blue sweater which is going along nicely

Mermaid socks that i dont think i have touched since last week

$5 in Vegas, which is actually turning out nicer than i thot

Mittens, finished the ribbing and done a repeat and a half of the cable pattern.

Thats it for this weeks update, hopefully I can keep up the FO a week output

NaKniSweMo progress: 11"

Hot Off the Needles!

2008-11-08T23:48:00.005Z

And squeaking in just under the wire for todays blogpost!

I give you SexSox! You know why.

Pattern is Coupling, I enjoyed it simple without being dull and I had never done a toe up heel flap before. I think they are maybe a wee bitty on the wide side but still wearable. The yarn is of course Artsy yarn colonial blend in Attain gold, which is squooshy!

Pickle!

2008-11-07T22:59:00.002Z

I really dont have anything of interest to report today, knitting is progressing, the WIPs are WIPing, but in the spirit of post everyday i shall do! I have also added a little live traffic hoodgie that i stole from Yorkie so thats fun. Thus I shall leave you with a cute puppy picture cos who doesnt love puppies.

Quick and Cheap

2008-11-06T23:13:00.005Z

First the quick, my mum's work are having a charity raffle 2moro and she needed pink things to donate as prizes after a wander round the shops I remembered I had a bunch of chunky pink yarn so after combination with some 10mm needles I had a scarf:
Also while shoping i got me some new shoes:
Which, once i gett used to walking in them shall be worn with bridesmaid dress at wedding in December. Bonus part, they cost £5.

NaKniSweMo Update: 8.5 inches

Happy Guy Fawkes

2008-11-05T17:21:00.003Z

Remember remember the 5th of November, gunpower treason and plot... and the rest of that that i cant recall. But anyway here is some really bad mobile phone video of the fireworks!

To all my American Readers...

2008-11-04T22:53:00.001Z

... Happy Election Day!

Now go vote already as a) the suspense is killing me, b) despite what anyone wants to believe whomever gets in effects the rest of us and c) as a future (hopefully) US resident it will likely have bearing on my life.

Thus ends my only political outburst

NaKniSweMo update: about 2 more rows today, oopsies! More 2moro...

It's so delicious and moist

2008-11-03T17:51:00.004Z

This is what i spent the other afternoon doing. Lots of lovely yarn cakes so that I can cast on without too much effort!

NaKniSweMo update: 5ish inches in!

WIPs on Parade

2008-11-02T22:56:00.004Z

Ok, so after essentially a week of casting onthe WIPs are as follows, in order of casting on:

Backyard Leaves scarf in Knitpicks Andean Silk in Leaf (or Lettuce I forget) has been cast on for sometime admitedly and is now half way there.

Coupling Socks in Attain Gold, thats right people SexSox!

$5 in Paris, or as i like to call it $5 in Vegas due to the sparkly Noro Aurora yarn.

Convertible Mittens in Per Trving, too much rib on too wee needles!Some variations on the theme of mermaid socks in opal Hunterwasser (or whatever its called)

Purple Sweater (which is blue) in Knitpicks Cotlin in Dessert.And most recently cast on (save super sekrit NaKniSweMo project) fetching the remake in cygnet superwash DK, I like these ones better as they are a bit bigger and smooshier.

So thats it, FOs as they come!

Lets try this again!

2008-11-01T23:45:00.002Z

So, have decided to try the whole blog every day in November thing again just to try and kick start the blogging agin as i have become super lax!

I was intending to show you all i have cast on this week but as the photos are refusing to uploaf and its 4 mins to midnight that will have to wait til 2moro.

For tonight I will simply say, yay i have a job, I am a functional and contributing member of society at long last!!!

Lets play catch up!

2008-10-17T01:10:00.003+01:00

Well dont I just suck at this blogging thing! I havent meant to not post in so long honest but well life has just got away with me what with weddings to plan etc. There has also been a whole host of technical difficulties not least of all coming home to my computer being on the fritz having it working for around 24 hours and then dying and taking the harddrive down with it (sob) meaning much much loss of stuffs (weep) ((and yes i know i should of backed up)). But anyway I am not going to go into the details of my trip away (i have been home now for just over a week, cry) but there are pictures of the whole shebang here.

What i will give you seeing as this is technically a knitting blog n all is a run down of all the knitting i have finished lately, and there has been a fair bit:

Fuzzy Felted Dice bag, cos i ama big geek.
Yarn is Patons SWS in geranium and the pattern i just kinda improvised myself, sorta made a had with eyeholes and then felted all heck out of it. Ravelry details here.

Mangyle from new Knitty for mr Anthony, now I know what you are thinkign what about the sweater curse, well I figure i have the ring on my finger so its all good and he asked me for it cos he wasnt ever gonna get round to knitting it himself. I finished it at 1.30 the night before i flew back that picture was taken at Seattle airport (hecne the plane). Yarn is Patons classic merino in natral mix, grey mix and worn denim, rav details

Hooded sweater for meeee, photo is kinda soft focus as my mum was cooking pasta in the kitchen when i took the photo (same with the dice bag) so the lens of the camera steamed up!
Pattern is Judith that was in magknits, now i think its on rav somewhere, yarn is Rowan summer tweed in summer berries, had a bit of a yarn issue in that i got halfway thru the hood edge and ran out so had to make a mad dash to the LYS which luckily had some in the right colour, i also got some super awesome buttons from JoAnns that look all vintagey like. Ravelry it up

A cardi for wearing over my bridesmaids dress in Decembeer as it will be chilly! Pattern is Cropped leaf somthing or another from knitty and the yarn is Knitpicks Andean Silk in Pitch (i do enjoy this yarn its squooshy) to Ravelry
Lastly, Thistle Shawly thing, pattern is the Scotch Thistle Stole (which i kinda object to the name as Scotch is whisky but no matter) yarn is handdyed cashmere fromthe knitting goddess in lavender again I ran out but couldnt get more so its a bit forshortened but i think its an ok size now its blocked out. Raaaaav

So thats that, there are a few WIPs as the progess bars attest and soon there will be more as ihave decided in a clear bout of madness that I amgonna cast on a project a day until i runout of needles, but of course this will be stalled onSaturday when i start NaKniSweMo to knit up a supersekrit xmas projecty but generally thre will be lots of Wippery. I also need to do something about spinning up the meagre stash that i have and generally getting the wheel out for the first time in months...watch this space!!

Ooh and also we have set ourselves up a wee wedding site which can be reached from the link in the sidebar over there

Shiny Trinket

2008-09-30T05:32:00.002+01:00

(left hand nudge nudge wink wink...)

Finito

2008-08-22T03:53:00.004+01:00

So slightly tardy (even tardier now that i realise that despite writing this on the 22nd of Aug I apparently never published-oops) with the posting but nevermind! Olypmic shawl is done!! I finished the actual knitting on Tuesday, blocked on Wednesday and it was Dry and photoed on Thursday, so I'm not sure which day counts as it being finished but its well before the deadline anyway

Portland! and days 3 thru 6

2008-08-14T21:20:00.004+01:00

Yesterday we went to Portland to hook up with Adam we had lots of fun! We went to the farmers market, various yarn stores (things were purchased). We had nyummy lunch and we knitted, alas i spazed a bit on taking pictures I did however take one while we went for tea:

I look a bit goofy and somewhat vampire escque but no matter. I also managed to find something very exciting at the tea zone
A scone! with jam and cream, it was particlarly nyummy, hot and light with a good crispy outer.

Like i said there was shopping, we went to knitpurl I got
Soak for the blocking of the shawl etc and

Pencil roving so i can try out the spindle thats kicking about.

We also went to Powels and Anthony got some books that i have been wanting to read
because well there is nothing i love more than a good bandwagon to jump on.

He was clearly feeling generous as when we went to Twisted he bought me this
isnt it pretty and cute! I have to say i approve of the Portland yarn shops, lots of monies could be spent.

Adam brought me a present!
I;m pretty sure its silk, tho i am not entirely sure if its roving, or a hat, either way its pretties!

Not only did i get to meet Adam i also got to speak to Miss Zanne on the phone and also miss Amber which was quite exciting!

Now the progress ont olympics

day 3
day 6not really much difference, 3 or 4 repeats i think but i actually left the house and i am developing shawl induced narcolepsy the rows are sooo long! At this point i have 3 repeats to go so hopefully a few more days should get it done.

Day 2!

2008-08-10T21:17:00.002+01:00

so far, so good, another 2 and a bit repeats yesterday, at this rate i reakon its gonna take me less than a week so I can try and knit my cardi too as part of the olympics.

I also just realised that this is my 200th post and that i totally forgot/missed my 2 year knitting/blogging aniversary! I feel like something should be done to mark such and event but well i havent anything planned, oh well...

Ravelympics: Day 1

2008-08-09T21:08:00.001+01:00

I decided not to get up at 5am to cast on, I didnt actually cast on til about noon, then some David Attenborough and some Buffy later we have the above (orange for scale) 5 pattern repeats done, 10 to go, of course it gets more ardous with every row!!

Shiny things and Lacey things

2008-08-08T06:52:00.004+01:00

Sick boyfriends = not doing much = lots of DVD watching= lots of knitting time, thus things have actually been finished/progressed!

First the finished:

The necklace from the kit i got when i was here at Easter except that i made it wider and shorter (and ran outta thread in the process) was quite fun using the teeny tiny needles!

I have also finished the first half of the Scotch Thistle Stole:

bubbly unblocky goodness, the 2nd half shall be postponed til i get the Wedding knitting done.

All this finishing means i am all ready to start my olympic project 2moro, shall we get up at 5am to cast on, we shall see!

I am also working on something else as a kinda side project, we got given a bunch of red heart so i decided it would be a way to sate my crochet urges so i am making it into a puppyghan:

I shall granny square it up til i run out of yarn, it is of course for this cutie:

Who is either a pirate or has been hitting the sauce while we aint looking.

Anyway stay tuned for olympic progress for now its back to the strange musical...

3 weeks, in 1000 words or less...

2008-08-02T12:07:00.000+01:00

Hmm so I've kinda forgot to blog again whoops. Since I cant be bothereed uploading tonnes and tonnes of photos I shall just send you here...

So what have i been doing. The 2nd week in Canada my uncle and his family were there too which was kinda nice. Sunday we went into Banff and had a wander there went to the Hoodoos (big rock things). Monday we went up the Icefield parkway to the Alabathca glacier and got the big ice buses up onto the glacier and wandered about which was pretty, then on the way back down we saw a bear! wandering about at the side of the road, it wandered off before we could really get any decent photos, dad asked if there were any spare childrens to lure it back. Then what did we do? I cant really remember when we did things but we went to the hot springs which were nice til the thunder started, went out for a Chinese meal in Banff which was nice, went to the driving range and dad tried to teach me to golf, i sucked. Mother had a shot at driving the jeep and nearly fired us all through the front window trying to slow down to photo a deer (left foot breaking bad), we wandered around Canmore did some shopping. Thursday night (i think) there was super thunderstorm, i got woken at 4.45am by the house being shaken by thunder, the storm lasted pretty much all Friday so we drove about in the rain and I spotted more bear! Saturday we left early and went to the zoo in Calgary, it was ace! I like zoos and it was a particularly big one, we were there prolly 4 hours and we still didnt see everything before we had to leave for the airport.

The airport was a bit different, instead of the usual check in then bugger about for a few hours it was a case of check in right go through there and do immigration etc (so mych better doing it before i left when i was the only one there than standing in line for 3 days) so it was kinda like oh i am leaving right bye parents! Flight to Seattle was uneventful save the small child a few rows back who everytime the plane turned was convinced we were going down!
Got to Seattle and it was straight out the airport just like a domestic flight in the UK, found Anthony and my bags and headed off.

SEattle was fun, I met Anthony's mummy she is very nice we went to her store which was awesome. On the Sunday i met up with the fabulosoisis KnittingKitty and we ate far to much Greek food (well i did, damn those portion sizes) and fondled novelty yarn. Then Anthony and i headed off the see Dark Knight at Imax, it was pretty good, go see it if you havent allready. Monday Anthony and I did touristy things, we went to the zoo and the aquarium (Anthony got a sticker) and on a cruise of the harbour which was very pretty. Then Tuesday it was up super early to get to the station for the train to Eugene, we got the tourist train so we sat upstairs which i have always wanted to do. Saw a fair bit of Washington and Oregon whih was nice.

Now i am in Eugene (yay) and havent really done a whole much of merit, went swimming, had picnic, watched a lot of dvds, played a lot of rock band/Wii fit, played board games, cooked etc etc if anything more exciting happens then i shall post about it!

Now i suppose some pictures would be nice? I finished the entrelac sockies when in Canada:

Entrelac sockies, from Spring 07 IK in 4 different colours of opal uni. I was originally gonna do 2 pairs but after the first i thot sod it i never wear matching socks anyway i shall just make odd ones! As i said before i had to do a few 8 stitch tiers to get round my fat legs. I also taught myself to knit backwards which reallly speeded up proceedings.

Other things have been cast on which i dont have photos of just now but i do have yarn porn!!

Knit picks Andean silk in Pitch and Pallette in Purple, the black stuff is to make a cardi to wear over my bridesmaid dress and the purple to make a shawl for the bride (and is also my ravelympics project!)

I also decided to do something i had been considering for a while:

New Hair!! and i think it was the cheapest hair cut i have had in my life! hurrah!

Anyway i dont think there is any more to report, I shall go do fun things like laundry...

Thursday, Friday, Saturday...

2008-07-13T01:53:00.008+01:00

Thursday the weather was set to be a bit mince so we drove into Calgary to go to the mall. It was fairly exciting as malls go usual kinda shops, there was also like a British grocery shop, i think i managd to convince the woman at the till i was an ex pat hehe.
Like i say weather was not well forcasted however we didnt entirely expect this when we came out the mall?

The carpark was white! big fat hail stones! There was a lot of snow too on the mountains and it was generally wet and horrid. However things were purchased, namely shoes:
Sketchers sandally things cos i dont really have any sorta dressyish summery shoes and i do like me some sketchers (especially ones that are in the sale)
And some Keds cos a) they are super cute and b) it was 25% more off the 2nd item so more shoes had to be purchased!

Friday we went adriving again down to Radium (ie land of the motels) and Invermere where we had a wander down to the lakeside:

Suitably scenic and what not, then we wandered round the shops. We went for a nebby in an antique/junk store type place. I got:Vintagey style costume jewellry, I do like me some vintage costume jewellry and I got all of it for the princely sum of $3! While we are on the subject of shopping I got this stuff earlier in the week, pretty no?
Today we went for a walk into town, I wore my new shoes which was of course a bad idea and i now have a hole in my foot. We had a wee look in the old RCMP barracks museumy place which was kinda neat and then specially for April:
A Mountie! (is it y or ie? ie looks better...)

The cos Canmore the town we are staying was built up around mining, it is miners heritage weekend this weekend and today there was a parade which we watched:
There were more mounties(ys)
A pipe band complete with Scottish flag!
Miner! and then all the mining familys came along with like labels as to who they were and such like, then there was an unvaling of a statue and some free food, which dad partook of mother and I missed out cos we were in the quilting shop oh well.

On the way back we noticed that even the clouds are supporting the Vancouver Olympics
(if you use a little imagination)

And of course there has been knitting too:
Entrelac sock nummer2, which was going along great guns but now i am getting bored of, I do wanna get it finished before i go to America but I mayhave to force myself, altho i dont think i have anything else i can knit before i get to Oregon so its the sock or nothing!!

OMG!! PUPPIES!!!

2008-07-10T04:00:00.005+01:00

Today we went to Snowy Owl Dog Tours and went on their kennel tour and a sled ride through the forrest, it was awesome!

Dad and I made friends:
I got hugs and kisses...

We saw beeg fluffy doggies

and wee fluffy doggies

We saw their wolf hybrid, he's 96% wolf as much as you can get before he's fully wolf
Isnt he gorgeous!

We got to go in and pet and hug all the dogs which meant by the end of it:

Puppy prints! If you wanna see more puppy pics the flickr set is here.

After that we went out towards Lake Louise, stopped at Johnston Canyon and had a walk up to the falls which was pretty:
Then on the Lake Louise, which was smaller than I thot:
And lastly Lake Moraine which was an even better shade in reality
We stopped for a cuppa by Lake Moraine and there was a ground squirell that was evidently used to people, at one point he was sat on a guys knee stealing his chocolate bar.
Cute no?

There are more photos which i will upload to flickr once i get somewhere with a decent connection!

Day 5 in the Big Brother House

2008-07-08T16:10:00.009+01:00

Dad's big brother that is. Today we ventured further afield to see stuffs, I got the map and planned us a trip.

First stop Takakkaw Fall (its magnificent in Cree) one of the largest waterfalls in Canada:

Now with added parents:We bimbled about here after the drive up steep windy road, some wee critter darted infront of us but as yet it is unidentified. At the falls the only wildlife we saw was this:

The lesser spotted Allisterius cameraticus which you can just see in the middle of the picture thru the trees.

Then back down the windy road and on to Emerald Lake:Lots of rock flour in this lake. We then took a random notion and decided to go native:

Yep we went g'nuing! I say we, father and I g'nued while Squaw Crapsitatwobbles sat in the middle and chastised father when he tried to go faster.
When we got back to the hut thingy mother escaped quickly

Then after some amounts of abortive navigation (the map wasnt entirely clear) we went to Kicking Horse Ski Resort and went up the gondola:

Its the top of the World! We were above the snow line so it was rather chilly.

I did spot a sledge:
however there wasnt quite enough snow to make use of it, there were however lots of clearly mentally insane mountian bikers careering down the mountain side, rather them than me.

Then we took the chair ride up to see this fellow:

Boo the Grisly! isnt he cute
We were about 6 feet or so from him, which frankly is as close as I;d like to get and there was of course a bloody great electric fence betwen him and us. We had a little tour and a talk by the woman at the refuge which was interesting and Boo bimble about and did bear things.

After that we headed back and went to a pub in town for tea and were waitressed by Yorkie's Canadian doppelganger it was quite alarming the similarity!

So that was that, next some photos i took out the window on Sunday but forgot to post yesterday:
A rainbowSunny mountains!

Now i must away and wash and see what adventures are in store for us today!
(I shall endeavour in the name of not being uberly picture heavy posts to do more or less daily updates assuming we do things with photographing/chronicaling)

Canada: The beginning

2008-07-05T17:28:00.007+01:00

Ok, so one has arrived in Canada, flight was not bad really having company helps! We got out the airport super quick and picked up our hire car, a brand spanking new jeep thus all aboard, father got himself used to this left hand drive/driving on the right crazyness:

Then it was out of Calgary towards Canmore, passin the olympic site from when the winter olypics were there in some year:
The olympics being behind the pick up.

We drove along highway 1 (its the longest in the World) we saw mountains:

A mountain, there are many of these it seems.

Found the house, which is very nice all airy and posh and what not with a spiffy view:
excuse rubbishy photography, it was 5am, thank you jetlag, why is it last time i travelled transatlantic i was up for 42 hours whereas this time i was ready to drop after a mere 14 or so?

Friday after we all woke up at 5 we just bimbled around Canmore, we stopped off at a cafe for 2nd breakfast:

I made a rookie mistake and forgot about the magnitude of the portions in this part of the World and ordered French toast which arrived and was enough to prolly feed a small village. We wandered round teh shops, i found the yarn shop and if i havent spent it by then end of the holiday i am going back and spending all my money there.

Then we decided to drive out to the side of a lake (I forget which) to have lunch:At this point i was berating Canada for not providing me with adequate wildlife spottings, well apparently Canada was listening cos when we got home we found these guys:

Just hanging out in the back garden, they didnt seem overly fussed by our presence, dad went out and sat on the deck and they just went about their ways.

Saturday we went into Banff, had a wander up and down the streets looked in all the touristy shops, didnt buy a large amount of cowboy gear then we went up on the gondola to have a nebby.
Father enjoys gondolaThe view down the valley
A ground squirell there were wee baby ones too but the wee buggers were too quick. On the road back down we saw an Elk which was quite exciting, tho i think it was a young un as it was fairly small and antlerless

After that we went for a cruise on Lake Minnewanka (apparently its an o sound not an a) it was supposedly a wildlife cruise but there werent much wildlife to be seen but well it was ok
Today we drove around Kananaskis country and that sorta area there were mountains, lots of mountains and some lakes, which i didnt take photos of cos well, a) its not the same in a photo and b) after a while they all kinda look the same, there was more wildlife spotting tho

a gopher there were loads of these scuttling about the side of the road along with a red squirell or two.

Tommorow we may venture further afield and see what happens, I imagine there will be mountains.

(NB, I am tryin terribly to not be all "what i did on my holidays by Fiona aged 6" but there isnt really any other way to write it, I have you will be glad to know ommited the intricate details of the trips to the supermarket etc, thrilling tho they were)

First Mitten Syndrome?

2008-07-01T17:36:00.006+01:00

woo look 2 posts in as many days!!

Everyone has heard of Sexond Sock Syndrome, but i think i had the lesser known condition of first mitten syndrome, mitten number 1 on the right took 5 months, mitten number 2 on the left took a smidge over a day!The palms, funs!
And of course it wouldnt be stranded colour work without a shot of the floats, pretty neat no?
But yes these were my first real attempt at stranded colourwork so I'm quite pleased, I really dont know why the first took so long, too many other things got done in between times, I think finishing the first gave me motivation to do the 2nd so 3 or 4 discs of Season 2 of the Gilmore Girls later here we are! Pattern is Anemoi Mittens and the yarns are Cygnet 4ply in Raspbery and Phildar Lambswool in Camel. I likey them they remind me of Windwaker!

And talking of things taking forever and second sock syndrome, I finally got thru the first entrelac sock:wheee, I had to make the top a bit wider for my fat legs. Now i need to work up to casting on for its partner, which will be a different colour!

This will of course most likely be my last post before i leave the country for 3 months (I dont see anything exciting happening tommorrow) so hopefully that will mean my life is more interesting and there is more to blog

Huh? I'm supposed to update this thing?

2008-06-30T17:38:00.006+01:00

Seems i am getting quite of the habit of posting, I finished this on Thursday it occured to me on Saturday that i should blog it and its taken me to today to actually do it, in my defense i tried yesterday but blogger wouldnt let me upload then i forgot agian.

Anyway I finished my sweater, and my yarn concerns (would i have enough, since its discontinued sods law would have me run out) were unfounded i even had a ball to spare!

Anyway you want pictures?

1 sweater:
Doesnt it look weird without a body in it? Oh to have a waist that thin, blessedly once worn it looks more normal:
ta da! woo self photography!! Also new camera as a graduation gift, hopefully improving picture quality. Anyhoo yarn: KnitPicks panache in dusk, such a lully yarn all soft and schwooshy. Pattern is Corsica twas an interesting way to knit a sweater and despite my dislie of picking up stitches enjoyable to knit.

Not sure of much else to report at current, no longer a postie woohoo. um something else, I forget oh well.

Also thank you to every one for the lovely comments on my graduating!

2008-06-23T15:48:00.004+01:00

BSc Biological Sciences (Genetics), Second Class, Upper Division.

WOOHOO!!!

Fibress

2008-05-29T14:01:00.004+01:00

It occured that i didnt have that much fibre stash left so i went to investigate:
thats it, thats all i have (well save the never ending roving thats on the wheel and the dragonfiber stuff but that will be saved til this is all done) I reakon thats a months worth tops! Saying that i took the photo prolly a month ago and bugger all has been spun tho i have carded the wensleydale. I think i need to set myself a challenge...

Can i have no fibre stash by the time i leave the country on the 3rd of July? thats a smidge over a month. Can i do it? We'll see...

I have dyed!

2008-05-28T10:39:00.005+01:00

Tho despite once again sucking at the blogging i havent died, I really haveno excuse for not poting other than sheer lazyness, I am a bad blogger!!

But anyway stuff, last year at woolfest mum got a natural dyes kit and the in September we got some sock yarn to dye, thus we kept saying oh we should dye this weekend and so on and so forth, but never did, in the mean time i got a hank of knitpicks bare witht the tweedy flecks so i decided that should be dyed, then a couple weekends back we decided we would. So first off needed to make a giant skein to get reasonabloe repeat lengths thus:Having knobs on ones bed is very useful! Mother decided to use a doorhandle and a chair

Next, soaking and mordanting with alum
Then out on to the path on a big length of cling film, it was windy hence my tomato soup addiction vame in useful
Dye was painted on (i forgot to take photos of that really) I ended up doing mums too cos i have the glove and stuff on and they had visitors but she told me what she wanted. Then it was all wrapped up and ready to microwave
After a nuking and rinsing it got left to dry (mine is the one in front)

After they dried they were would up and looked a little something like this:
mums
mine (before it was wound)a swatch of mine knitted up, not quite self patterning but still pretty, see how mums looks when she gets to it.

I know, I know

2008-05-09T13:57:00.004+01:00

Again with the sucky blogging but in my defense I have been busy

I had to give my presentation on my project last friday and i needed something to wear thus i pushed to finish the sweater i had been working on:
DNA! fitting no? Its the DNA shell knitted in knitpicks cotlin in morrocco

Talk went ok i think, Ellie took pictures of me recaffinating afterwards:slightly better shot of the DNA

Then being as how we were having a heat waave i decided to knit me some gloves...

First on Sunday i knitted these:

A variation on the theme of Irish Hiking mitts, in Patons SWS which is quite nummy. I took out one of the cable else they were gonna be giant and i knitted in the round and made them a bit longer.

Then on monday i made these:Eowyn from some Rowan booklet in Debbie Bliss Soho, and er yeah thats not a trick of the light, of the 3 balls i had i decided not to use the 2 that were the same dyelot oppsie!
Modelled, i suspect they will be put away til its chilly.

I also made my Sobe "scones"

the inverted commas are there because really these are not entirely scone like, well they are scone but they have things not commonly found in scones, like jalapenos and bacon! still quite tasty tho

hmm..what... oh. Hello

2008-04-26T14:00:00.003+01:00

Yes so its been a bit quiet on the blogging front. I havent really done anything blog worthy. Had me some mighty jetlag and didnt sleep for 5 days, during which I had my final exam, that was fun! Think it went ok tho. Finished up project and what not so all i have left is a presentation on Friday so thats good.

There has however been knitting!

I wanted to get something for my project supervisor and figured i would knit him summat, and since the project was on pig DNA well:
I have no idea what the yarn is, stuff that Yorkie gave me she thot it may be Jaeger and it feels like it might have some manner of cashmere and or silk in it. Its squooshy anyway.

Hopefully more exciting things wil happen, or at least there will be more knitting soon!

toodles!

My Vacation, by Fiona age 24

2008-04-13T16:23:00.011+01:00

Well I have been off in far off lands, as hinted in the title, I've been in Oregon with my lovelrly loverly boyfriend. It was super fantastic awesome. I shall tell all, tho i am warning you know this is gonna be long and photo heavyish so beware!

Lessee where to begin, as my flight was at 6am on the Tuesday morning and i had to be in Edinburgh for 4, i didnt bother going to bed as i would have been getting up at 2 anyway. So i stayed up hoping to get some sleep on the plane. No dice. 32 hours of awakeness later i arrived in Portland, the flight landed almost an hour early but then i had to stand in the Worlds longest queue for immigration as there was only 1 forign persons desk open, eventually they opened a 2nd but still. but i got there and they let me in the country which was nice. I got out of the airport met up with Anthony and the lovely miss Applie who brought me jam which was most tasty! We went to the Tao of Tea where i got caffinated up again (16 hours with no caffiene makes Fiona borderline comatose). Applie endured the sickeningly smoochyness and we went to Yarnia, which is like a sweetie store for knitters, cones and cones of different colours and fibres thatyou can mix and match up into whatever manner of yarn takes your fancy! I got this:

Amid much cries of predictabilty from the wings, its 3.5oz of sock weight pure wool with a bit of sparkle thru it, somewhere int region of 400yds. Now i got this made up and went to pay for it at which point i nearly keeled over, wanna guess how much? $6.60 ! thats like 3 quid! I was shocked by the cheapness, which i must say kinda set the tone for the week. Then Applie departed to go wrangle her kidlets and we went for a look round Powells, which i think were i less sleep deprived woulda been more exciting as i kinda went in looked at the largeness and that was it. At which point we decided pizza and onto the train to Eugene was the best plan of action.

Wednesday you would think would have been a resful day to recoer from trvelling, oh no the bugger decided i was walking up a hill to a prk, which admitedly was very pretty. En Route we stopped in at Dari Mart where i had my first "everytin is bigger in the US" moment:Thelittle one on the left is what we get in the UK. I also expeienced bisuits and gray which are neither biscuits nor gravy, but plesent enough none the less. Then it was on to the park the ldst city prk of Eugene (ther are many parks) and cotaning a rhodedhendrom garden.
And i thuoght I was supposed to be the tourist? Then we took a stroll back down through the U of O campus, which was very nice and fit nicely into my TV generated images of American college life, kids playing ball games in the quad etc etc. Then the first scary part, meeting his friends!! EEP people came over to watch the adaptation of the Colour of Magic as provided by the British person, thankfully they were all very nice and didnt mock my incoherance.

Thursday my ideas of American life were further pandered to with a trip to the malls, i was quite excited. I shopped i think i was fairly restraint in my purchasing, until of course i was let looose on Hot Topic:
Slightly less restraint, i do love it so. We then went to the other mall and hit up target, where i decided that i would buy Anthony a terribly altrustic gift: an electric kettle. Boiling water on a hob takes an age, i need tea and i need it quickly!! I also bought me some DVDs
I have been trying to get the neverendding story on DVD for at least 4 years but it doesnt seem to ever be coming out here, and the L word was cheap so hurrah! I also got me a target bag cos well ytou can never have too many bags
On the way home we stopped in at WinCo so i could sate my American grocery desires, i nearly passed out yet again at the size of the place, the amount of different stuff and the prices! I love the bulk section, i think WinCo is my new Mecca.
A small smattering of what i bought (the rest has been eatted) note the 2lb odd of root beer jelly bellys, which i might add cost all of 5 quid!!

Friday we watched Enchanted, which lead to the decsion that i am never allowed to choose the movie at the video store, or at least not unless it is from a pre vetted selection. It was bad. Then at night we went to Bingo, I love bingo! which was fun tho we didnt win, but as it was our first time we got free daubers:

Thus i have a commemerative bingo marker! Then it was back home for board games and much discussion on calculating bingo odds. oh the maths!

Saturday was the trip to the coast, and possibly the worst dfay weatherwise of the whole trip, oh well! We set off making pit stops for coffee and McDonalds brekkie both drive thru, wheee. Then headed out, as we had just had breakfast and didnt really want lunch an hour later we decided to go see the New Carissa a ship wreck near Coos Bay and the wreck of an older ship near by, after some cellphone googlemaps related navigation we found the road leadin to it, which was a sand road thru the dunes, oh no bother the van has all wheel drive... You can guess whats coming
yep we got beached. we tried pushing it which lead to little more than Anthony getting a sand shower after his complaints of hating sand. then a guy with a shovel came to our aid and well dug us further into the sand . Then some guys in a pick up came along and offered us a tow, they let almost all the air out the tires and then after some faffing attached two tow ropes joined together to the back of the van and started towing, at which point one of the tow ropes snapped. So they hooked up just the 1 rope and got us towed. Instead of towing us to the corner where the sand was firm and packed, they towed us further back to where the sand was softer again and left us there, where we preceeded to get stuck again. Next a guy on an ATV and a guy in a hefty pick up came along and with some manovering managed to get us out and back on to tarmac, some 2 hours later... Then we limped to the nearest town to get the tires aired up again and set off again, having never gotten closer than about 2 miles to the wrecks! So then we set off again to go up to Florence for lunch, punctuated by a sudden veer off to go see a lighthouse. In Florence we went to the drive up A+Ws which is big time Americana and muchos cool! We headed on up the coast stopping in Yachats to go to the tide pools but when we got out the car the rain was horizontal so we decided against it. Then we headed to Newport to go to Pirates Plunder, a very cool sorta antiquey beachy piraty shop, which closes at 6, we got there at 5.57 so Anthony played the my girlfriend has come all the way from Scotland card and they let us wander about for 10 mins or so.
of course i bought piraty things, mints and a pirates liscence! Anthony bought me the mug, technically he bought me too, 1 for here and 1 for there. Then we headed to the beach

I touched the Pacific woohoo!we wrote cheesy things in the sand and generally got rained on. Then it was off to Moe's for dinner, where my delightful boyfriend insisted i try an oyster shooter, yuk yuk yuk yuk, evebtually I'll get the photos of my reaction, they was icky. Then we went home all tuckered out.

Sunday we didnt do much thru the day, watched a couple movies and did some knitting, then we went out for dinner with a load of friends before coming back for much apples 2 apples goodness and excitement over the novelty of the kettle. Over the time we took the bus a lot, the buses have a very nifty bike rack t the front:

It just folds down and can fit 3 bike s on or can be folded up when not in use!

Monday we went to the shops. First we went to JoAnns and i managed to get some fusible fleece for my bag i am making
Then we went to the Yarn stores, now i do not need any more yarn, I was also not really wanting to have to carry a projects worth of yarn home, but i felt i should get something thus:

A beaded necklace knitting kit and some 0000 needles ti knit it with , yes they are tiny tiny wee.

Then we went to Monday night knitting:
Which was fun, all the knitters were very nice as knitters tend to be and i got observed because i knit funny and this intregues people. Afterwards we hit up the supermarket and went home.

Tuesday we were all domestic with laundry doing and i cooked dinner which caused some confusion as apparently in the US beef stroganoff doesnt contain tomato, oh well. Then it was off to do something truly American... Shoot things! After a stop off at bi-mart to procur ammo and clays we drove out of town to a hillside shooting range to try our hands with a variety of shooty thingsOne very large shotgun which bruised my shoulder!! I did only manage to hit 1 clay out of 10 but well.

Wednesday we went to the Natural History museum and saw the oldest shoes in the World, very cool. Then went and watched some people lob javelins. then we went to the mini golf place and played skeeball which is super fun! Then off to the bowling alley where I had my arse well and truly handed to me but at lest i got into double figures. Oh and Anthony tried to kill me with a bucket of mountain dew, I suspect American portion sizes will never agree with me. Then we walked back to the video store to get a film not of my choosing, en route i managed to photo this sign which i had seen a few days earlier:
Wanna guess what I thot it said?

Thursday we went to the shops so i could get a few last minute gifts for people and we wandered past these guys:

LLamas! i wasnt allowed to steal one.

Then on Thursday eve we took Sorsha a walk in the evening sun

I think this was shortly before she discovered the edge of the water was steeper than she thought.

There was a pretty sun set. then we took a very tired and very grubby puppy home, so tired she didnt object to being bathed. I packed my suitcase and decided i needed a second so stole one the requiring of a 2nd case was in no small part due to people sending me gifties!

Friday it was an early start and onto the train to Portland where we knitted

Then we caught to MAX, listened to soap opera like phone calls and got to the airport got me all checked in then went to watch the planes before we had to say goodbye at which point i may have cried somewhat akin to a small child, which was further driven by looking out of the plane window to see a body standing on the car park roof waving at the plane.

Ok so, reasons for 2nd suitcase:

Fantabulous pirate shoes

DS game which Anthony bought me I would like to say because he loves me so but really it was so he could play pokemon (after deleting my save games the bugger)

Awesome pink sheepy converse
Gifties from April, a class of 08 shirt that i might not tempt fate by wearing prior to graduation, possibly the most fab bag ever which got toted all over Eugene, a tape measure which i have eyed up many a time, some postcards and a book of Oklahoma speakings. Thankies!Next up a parcel from CBear, who after i squeeed over the elephant she made for her kidlets made me a FeefellforAnt (i really did) and a pin cushion along with some yarn, some of which has gone to my mother. Again Thankies
Lastly a parcel from Sobe, some knitpicks she enabled me, sock yarns, sock book, sweeties (of which there were more but i ate em), scone mix DPNs and some rather spiffy DragonFibers Roving! Yay! Much Thankies

I also ordered myself some knitpicks
32" circs in 2, 2,25, 2.75 and 3mm a 32" cable and 4 and 5mm points, thus continuing my quest to never use DPNs again. And some Cadena yarn in Neptue, there was more of it but it beame this:
Lace Leaf Pullover from Loop D Loop. I finished this on the train to tthe airport and much to the amusement of the women opposite put it on straight away and wore it home. its squooshy and lead to some arguement as to the correct execution of a SSK.

OK i think that is it! If you wanna see more pictures then the Flickr set is here

And another one

2008-03-29T14:18:00.004Z

Another bag, another door handle
You kno the drill by now, yarn is some linen stuff Yorkie gave me. What I hear you cry is that pink stuff showing through?

Its....Yarns!

the first yarn i have bought since October! the best part? it was £1.99 for the lot from oxfam woo charity shops. I'm fairly sure thats its wool, bargaintastic!

Need a hand?

2008-03-28T16:29:00.004Z

So we went the other day to ge chairs for my grandparents, ones that help you standup, we went to a shop that sold all sorts of mobility aids ad other things that help you when you are less than spritely any more. We spotted this?Which made me giggle, because well I'm imature like that, but then when we noticed the label on it we all but fell over laughing:
thats right a "bottom buddy" I wonder why they replaced that...?

Introducing Venus...

2008-03-20T20:09:00.004Z

"The new venus" or at least I'm sure she was back in the 1970s or whenever when my mum got her! but I have claimed her as knitwear model extrordinare and other such shenanigans. Thus allow me to introduce Venus:
Who clearly has no shame.

Next, on my drive to do skyence every day i pass a lot of sheep what with it being the countryside n all, ans as it is that time of year there are lambs a plenty.

First up regular common or garden ones with a twist:
They decided waslking away as the photo was being taken was a good plan. There are several fields of lambs all in there wee blue jackets, which apparently save a lot of lifes cos if wee bodies get wet they get very cold very quickly.

Then there are a field of Zewarbles which i couldnt get brilliant pictures of but you get the idea
The lambs are stupid cute, pure black save a white blaze and wee socks with ears at right angles to their heads.

Next, In shocking events there has been knitting, finished knitting even!

Yet another Saturday morning bag, this time in knit picks sparkles in sunset and sirdar firefly in midnight (suitably themey colourways no?) really i think this is so fug its fab! Also the 4 I have made thus far got a testing at Tesco this eve and fared well.

And therres more...

The clap! really it is infectious. in Lornas laces shepard sock in daffodil, hence the flowers behind it.

And of course as i couldnt possibly just have 2 WIPs I cast on again for the entrelac socks with smaller needles, still seemed a bit wide but i perseverd and it seems oki now:

Thats it, I'm on holiday for 3 weeks so maybe I'll get round to posting more than weekly, tho reports have to be written and boyfriends shall be visited so we'll see

For the love of Yorkie...

2008-03-11T16:44:00.006Z

Once again Yorkie came to visit, well eventually after Fifi the whore tried to get her to walk to Lanark!

As is tradition she came bearing goodies and yarns!
goodies! note the HH for father who is quite taken by it!
Yarns! lots of yarns! inc some rather nice Noro...

She also brought me my xmas pressie!
Avast!!

On Saturday we went to the creative stitches and hobbycrafts show at the SECC. We saw knitted gingerbread house

We generally perused and reeled in horror at fun fur sweaters
This turned out not to be the instructional manual we thought it might be
The embroderers guild had some displays including this which we both agreed resembled a certain knitties husband...

Throughout the whole thing i was very restraint and all i got was:
Checked fabric that will ultimnately become a shirt.

There was knitting too!

The bag of the beads is finito!
PAttern is Saturday morning market bag (again!) yarn is patons grace, beads are hama esque which my father spend an evening threading for me so muchos props to him!

After Yorkie departed we did a very Sunday thing and went to garden centres where i got a seed tray andf got my first load of seeds planted up

So we shall see how they grow!

Finally a little artists impression for Yorkie...

The start of a new obsession...

2008-03-02T18:41:00.005Z

First off i suppose i have some catching up to do, I finished the sockies, the 2nd was much quicker, isnt knowing what you are doing fabulous. Thus:The only thing i could find that was baby leg sized was some spice jars.
Yarn is brown sheep wildfoote in columbine, pattern be here

Next the purchases! By popular demand a picture of my new fabulous shoes:

Arent they pretty?

And most bargainiferousyness:
Hippo fabric! about 2 or 3 metres maybe more, how much did it cost me?? 50p!!! From the bargain corner in Ikea wheee

Close up of a hippo! I think i will make it a very cute summer dress!

Next, another FO and the subject of the title:

Another Saturday morning market bag, this time in Rowan Linen print in blush. Once again with the modifications, in the round, only 60 stitches and i made 2 handles not one.
Dont we think the pictures have a certain New England colonial quality?

Which brings me to the obsession forming, the bag contains balls of yarn which will equally be made into thes e bags, i think i will end up with 7 or so when i am done including this one :
I got a tub of hama style beads for 37p and figured that they would brighten up a fairly dull beigy yarn and make a cute bag, so we'll see.

However trying to knit with yarn with several thousand beads on it is somewhat troubling so i developed a systemHanging the yarn over the light in a pulley esque system!!

I think thats it for now, adios!

In my pants....

2008-02-25T22:13:00.002Z

1. Put your music player on "random." Skip songs with not-very interesting titles (such as "Concerto #4 in E minor")
2. List the titles of the first 25 songs to come up.
3. Put "in my pants" after each title.
4. Bold the ones that actually made you laugh.

1. I'll be ok in my pants
2.Sisters are doing it for themselves in my pants
3.Lazy Sunday in my pants
4. The time of my life in my pants
5. Angela in my pants
6.I feel so in my pants
7. New Rose in my pants
8.Thanks a lot in my pants
9.Machines of hate in my pants
10.Drive the hell out of here in my pants
11. Pikachu in my pants
12. I Ain't no nice guy in my pants
13. Lost in the shadows in my pants
14.Call Me when you're sober in my pants
15.Will you love me tommorow in my pants
16.Bastards in my pants
17. Give a little in my pants
18.Ain't seen nothing yet in my pants
19. Tragically unhip in my pants
20. This love affair in my pants
21. The story in my pants
22. It's my life in my pants
23.Spider in my pants
24.gonna find you in my pants
25.something i should know in my pants

I'm not dead

2008-02-24T17:45:00.005Z

I just havent done anything interesting lately at all. Have finished the majority of coursework, dissertation and essays are in, now I'm just plugging away at the project so really nothing going on.

As for the knitting, its still going on, I got me some shiny ravelry progress bars that means things should stay more up to date. Progress is fairly slow cos I'm lazy.

But i do have an FO and a half, someone my dad knows had a wee girl and he asked me to knit summat so i did:

Seamless baby kimono from here, in sirday supernova chunky, I love seamlessness, its my new best friend. I knitted this in a couple of days, woulda been less had i not been out mosta yesterday celebrating my friends engagement.

I also started some socks for the baby:ok thus far sock, because apparently this pattern hates me i really kept arsing it up, hopefully the second one will be better now i kno what I am doing, i knitted the garden in between socks cos i was using 4 inch DPNs which were giving me stigmata!

so there we go, I'm still here...

Spotted!

2008-02-09T12:59:00.000Z

So I am writing my dissertation and my dads in Paris, this means i get full TV rights which means that Kerrang is on mosta the time as its good background for the writing you see.
Anyway this video came on:

Genius no? The song is quite catchy too. Anyway i have another 1600 words to write, can i do it today? watch this space

Awards: the catch up

2008-02-03T11:45:00.000Z

So I have been given awards by lovely people!

first up

This award must be given to blogs you consider as good. Understanding as such, the blogs you visit regularly, and on which you leave comments.
If and only if, you receive a “It’s not a bad blog”, you should write a post:
- Naming the person who awarded you, with a link to the respective blog;
- The badge for the nomination;
- The rules;
- And the nomination for other 7 blogs for receiving the award.
You must display visibly and proudly the badge for the award received, in your blog, preferably with a link to the post where you talk about it.
Optional. If you wish to grant some publicity to the creature with too much free time to spend in silly things, Skynet, you can do it on the post itself. He’ll appreciate it. (He really does have too much free time (-; )

So after the rules, here it goes.

Awarded to me by Sade

Whom to nominate?

the most scentiferous glittr of glittyknittykitty.

Peri and her wondiferous socks

Sue of the fabulous bags

Kraftie and her yarn diet

Angela of the sheeps!

Mickey and PeBAK

Barb in the hope she posts again soon

Secondly Adam awarded me:

so now i must nominate 10 folks that make my day...

First up Anthony, he never posts but he sure does make my day

The fantabulous Miss String and her awesome hats

Ellie cos she puts up with me

Zanne cos she is a dirty enabler

My mummy cos i am a suck up

Kilt-Boy cos he rocks the tartan

Yorkie cos she is just fabbo (and brings me loot)

Thobles cos she's my first mate

CJ cos she's mental (cant find blog like the noo hence flickr is suffice)

Sade cos she would totally kick my ass otherwise :p

now you guys nominate 10 folks, go on i dare ya

What to do instead of essays!

2008-02-02T14:04:00.001Z

Build a snowman!!

I shall call him Stanley!

However this is attempt number 2, as attempt number 1 had a little accident:I like the parsnip sticking out the snow.mid construction
Me n stanley.

NB: no knitwear was harmed in the making of this snowman...

Christmas knitting in February??

2008-02-01T14:42:00.000Z

Yeah i know its Feb why am i posting Christmas knitting? Cos i didnt get it finished til now? nope the knitting was finished on Dec 23rd. Mainly cos i am lazy and didnt get round to photographing til last week, and i dd some tinkering with it after i gifted it! So here we are the only other piece of xmas knitting, also for my dad cos i didnt get him a birthday pressie

Lug flaps for his cycle helmet! he cycles to school most days on his crazy electric bike, and you know its winter and its cold!

The yarn is random aran stuff i got at New Lanark and the pattern is here, they were a bit on the large side so i felted them which has the bonus of extra toasties.

So what else? went to Inverness in a blizzard last week, which was nice, went to a shop that puportedly sold yarn (it did not) was mainly patchwork stuff but they had a sale section so i got some fabric to make me (another) knitting bag:

Sheepies!!! SHEEPIES!!

I did some knitting in the car:
The start of Anemoi Mittens, ooh they are brain melting!! will take a while (prolly finish them in June when one really needs mittens,...)

So what else am i knittin? the WIPs arent totally outta control which is good
One sock yarn clap (yes i sucumbed to the disease, but given its so long after everyone else does that make me new and cool?) All the increases and one set of straight rows done)The on going DNA shell thingamawhagy, also fairly brain melting especially when you dont pick it up for weeks and have no idea where you are! but its progressing

Now i must write an essay and a dissertation, fun for me!

A Hat, some snow and a deer

2008-01-26T14:23:00.001Z

woo for the overly literal post title!

First more knitting (i kno 3 FO's in a week! hello procrastination!)

Somewhat more sucessful than the last...

Now i asked my mum to take pictures of me in the hat in the snow (which we will get to) and this was her effort:

Which is all very good, shows the snow, but not so much the hat! Thus we tried again:
better! Now it is a smidge on the big side, shoulda knitted the medium but oh well its done, from the front it makes me look a little like toadette! but it does mean i can stuff my hair under it!

Patterm: Chromosome hat

Yarn: Hipknits alpaca silk (ooh its scrummy)

Incidently this is the first in my series of how many genetics related things can i knit before the end of my degree...

Next snow, as you see it was snowy... This was on the way up to inveress, drving in a blizzard isnt fun (dad was driving not me) This was the drumochter pass:

kinda white!! Was very pretty right enough

Now i cant remember if i mentioned the deer before? But there was a wee deer in the garden last week which i only managed to get blurry pics of, but then today it appeared again, in more photogenic conditions and i managed to get a photo there ofJust a wee female roe deer. eating the plants!!

It had to happen eventually

2008-01-23T17:08:00.000Z

So actually i finished this on Sunday, thats right 2 FO's in one day! Which dear readers tends to lead to:

Yes a picture of my finger, with a hole in it! (not the most heinous injury every suffered by mankind but still) I blame the addis, them buggers is sharp!

But i hear you cry what is this second FO of which you speak, well i like to think of it more as an FU . All the time i was knitting it my dad was declaring it hideous and akin to a brillo pad.
Alas i fear he was correct. but anyway may i present the Plastic not so Fantastic in all its glory:

See i didnt even model it its that bad. You may think that it looks ok laying on the floor innocently but all is not as it seems, tis badly shaped, the hood is weird and the head hole tiny! over all bad bad bad (not to mention the small acrlic aspect)

But there is light at the end of the tunnel all is not lost! The yarn came from dearest Yorkie and thus to there it shall return Mr Maxman can hopefully get some use for it (tho it may take some growing into)

Either way there we have it my first real (well kinda) knitting disaster!!

I gave up!

2008-01-20T18:01:00.000Z

Originally i had big plans, i have 2 balls of this yarn thus knee high socks woohoo!! I started them in September i knitted whee all went well i had feet, then i stopped, bored of all the stoking stitch, they languished in my bag for months untouched.

Yesterday i decided sod it , i dont need knee high socks, i might as well make them normal length and get the damn things finished and thus i did:not the most flattering angle at which to photo oneself from but meh

I pretty much knit the entirety of the legs in the past 24 hours

pattern i essentially made up, yarn is Opal crazy

I must say tho 2 at once magic loop toe up is the way to go, really!

Cherries and sweeps

2008-01-18T11:48:00.001Z

Remember the fat quarters i got back in October? well thanks once again to the sewing wizardry of Mme Sue they have become bags!because one can never have too man bags, especially if they have the sweeps on! this is now just and excuse for more WIPs of course...

I have also been spinning:
Cherry Truffle Tussah silk, quite lully.
217yds, 41g of roughly lace-fingering weight yarnages

Too tired...insert witty title

2008-01-14T19:04:00.000Z

Boy go home, this makes me sad. Having to be up at 4.30 to take him to airport makes me sleepy thus a meme i stoled from Sade

Elaborate on your default icon:
I'm not sure i have one usually a ball of pink handspun hot boys or Tiffany, cos she rocks! (the singer not you dear tho you rock too)
What’s your current relationship status?
I have a lovely man that buys me root beer :)
Ever have a near-death experience?
Not that i recall
Name an obvious quality you have:
big brown eyes
What’s the name of the song that’s stuck in your head right now?

um listening to Teenagers by My Chemical Romance that count?
Any celeb you would marry?
Zach Braff!! (sorry sweetie)
Who will cut and paste this first?
dunno...
Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?
Um assortedly Angelina Jolie, Drew Barrymore, i think its crap tho
Do you wear a watch?
nope i have my bandana I have a Swatch watch that has the loudest tick in the world tho
Do you have anything pierced?
Ears multiply and nose
Do you have any tattoos?
Purple/blue celtic knot on my right ankle
Do you like pain?
Not particularly
Do you like to shop?
not usually, I will if i am bored but generally i go to buy something rather than just wander, I hate shopping with people
What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Roll and sausage and coffee from Ikea
What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card?
Fibre for Adam (edited cos i missed this un...)
Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
Either my mum or Anthony, cant remember
What is on your desktop background?
Anthony and a Tardis
What is the background on your cell phone?
Anthony making faces (spotting a theme?)
Do you like redheads?
I’d like to be one
Do you know any twins?
Used to date one
Do you have any weird relatives?
Most o f them,
What was the last movie you watched?
Half of Legend, in its entirety um.. Sense and Sensibility maybe
What was the last book you read?
On the Edge Richard Hammond
Is there such a thing as love at first sight, or it is more likely to be lust at first sight?
I'm not ruling it out
What’s your favorite book?
Vampire Lestat
When was the last time you visited the street where you first lived?
i passed it on the train last week?
When was the last time you googled your own name?
its been a while actually
What was / is your favorite subject at school?
German prolly
What was / is your least favorite subject at school?
PE, i dont do sports
Do you like having your photograph taken?
Fairly indifferent really, depends if i am feeling photogenic
What time were you born?
3.20am
Ever seriously questioned your sanity?
always
How many phone numbers do you have remembered and can say off the top of your head?
prolly a few, i used to kno more
Can you Limbo?
I shouldnt imagin e so
Have you ever killed your own dinner?
I do not believe so
How long have you been living at your current residence?
23 years minus the 5 and a blob i was in edinburgh
What phobias do you have?
i dont like butterflies...
What’s your ideal breakfast?
tea and crumpets
Where are you right now?
in my room
Why do you blog?
cos my fans love me (hahaha)
What would you call your autobiography?
I Feesius! (or maybe not)
What’s the longest time you’ve stayed out of the country / where?
i think about a week and a bit in Italy/Switzerland, soon there will be more time in foreign lands!
Do you use ICQ, AIM, etc..?
MSN, AIM, YIM, G-Talk probablt others
Do you have nightmares frequently?
not really
If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
maybe, do i have coffee?
Which TV character could you be friends with?
hmm Lorelai Gilmore
What’s on your mouse pad?
A black leather one atop a hello kitty one
What is your ring tone?
Kenya!
What did you watch on TV last night?
last night i think the only thing i watched was Brian and Tiffany (no in that way perv!)
Scary movies or happy endings?
Happy, I;m a sentimental sap

Friday: FO and Fibre!!

2008-01-11T22:25:00.000Z

I finished something!! Shocker!! In a bout of knitting ADD i decided to cast on something that would hopefuly be fairly quick just to have something finished. I think knitting time this took about 3 days but they were spread over about as many weeks so!

I give you Saturday morning market bag:
(see as well as being useful for bringing me snack foods he is a dahhhaaalink knitwear model hehehe). Its a bit of an odd shape almost triangular.

When filled with goodies it stretchs out quite a lot:
Still not the regularist of shapes tho.
The reason for the odd shape?

slight yarn shortage, this was all i had left...

Pattern is thus, I modified it quite a bit, first i knit the main bit of the bag in the round and did a 3 needle bind off for the bottom seam, I have no idea how many pattern repeats i did just til i felt the need to stop, then cos i was running out of yarn i only did 2 ounds of garter round the top and made the handle quite short.

Yarn be Ella Rae Kasbah in teal.

And since i was getting stuff from Scottish Fibres anyway i got a few wee bittys for myself (well mother (we) just got a double treadle kit so there will be much spnning to do)
Linen tops stuff
Ronaldsay, sheepies from some Islands up north that eat nothing but seaweed so makes the wool different, we shall see what its like when we spin!

In which one extoles the virtues of having a chap from foreign lands

2008-01-06T21:43:00.001Z

Really i just want him for the foodstuffs he can provide (also i suspect he may be insane bringing all the following...) Hamburger Helper which i was instructed to try, as yet i have not i will report back
Cheese, to refute my claim that my cheese is better than his cheese
A veritable assortment of snackcakes, because i watch too much TV and wanted to know what twinkies are like
Root beer cause its awesome and hard to come by (there was more but i drank it...)
Nerds and fruit stuff for Ellie and Red Vines for Adam (which i havent broken into yet cos i am good)

There mighta been more, some chocolate i believe.

But anyway, i shall be thoroughly fattened up, and generally he be quite fabberlous.hurrah

I broke my rule...

2008-01-03T12:04:00.000Z

I had said a while ago that i was all for the selfish knitting and that this year i wasnt knitting any gifts,but by the time it got to the 18th of December and i had no idea what to get my dad for Christmas I decided i would knit him a sweater, yes thats right a week before xmas... There was much exclaimations questioning my sanity but well, then i had to find a pattern that i could knit from stash (see knitting from stash good...) I decided upon the Cobblestone sweater from IK and thanks to some kind knittys (big hugs to April and Sobe) i got the pattern. I think i cast on at about 10pm on the tuesday night and the progress was as thus:
19/12/07 11.52am20/12/07 17.1922/12/07 12.0723/12/07 23.26

I'm not entirely sure how accurate the time stamps onthe photos are but its close enough. So yes a sweater in a smidge over 5 days... Properly modelled at the Falkirk wheel in the mistPattern cobblestone from Fall 07 IK

Yarn Robin Aran with wool in a creamy flecky whatever

(yes I know its taken forever to post this but we'll there have been distractions....)

WANT!!!!

2007-12-28T15:50:00.001Z

want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want

that is all

spinning up a storm!

2007-12-16T11:46:00.000Z

Exams are over wheeee!! Last one was better than i thot it would be but we'll see.

As such i have lots of time on my hands so yesterday i sat down with season 2 of the Gilmore Girls (love it) and my wheel (which incidently needs a name, ideas??)

Corridale i starte ages ago and it got kinda neglected:Tis 105g, 40yds of fairly bulky (about 5wpi) but very smooshyness. No idea what it will become!
Next!
BFL in bumblefee! Got this from KK's etsy store bck in what May? and finally decided i can do it justice. Rather lully no?
Span it all up last night then decided i would give this Navajo Plying a bash, turns out 12.40am is not the time to try and learn new things! Thus i gave up til this morning and got it sorted out thus:

114g, 67yds somewhere between aran and chunky i think (7wpi), again what to make?

But now i think these kiddies need a bath and a stretch.

Woo for Wiki

2007-12-11T12:15:00.000Z

I had planned semi constructive blogging today but then i saw this on Ellie's LJ and had to have it!

"Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name.
Click random article again; that is your album name.
Click random article 15 more times; those are the tracks on your album."

band name:DS
album name: Hate (comic)tracks:

1)Hunting H.126
2) Inga micheliana
3) Château de Montaigut
4)Baseball Writers' Association of America
5) Frightmare
6) 4TVInteractive
7) Chulahoma
8) Venetia
9) Fyodor Vasilevich Shutkov
10) Julie Gardner
11)Law enforcement in Mauritania
12) Space–time trellis codes
13) Thawal Thamrong Navaswadhi
14) Seize
15) It's Immaterial

hmm yes.. I see it being some sorta Industrial Cyber goth/punk band...

And now my coffee is done thus its back to the PEG for me funs funs funs

All that glitters

2007-12-10T09:15:00.000Z

Another finished project! Shocker!

This had been sitting under my desk being footered with now and then but last night (in a no means non-procrastinatory act) i decided i would finish it off. Thus 1 episode of Top Gear later (i love you hamster, call me!) and thus:yay poncy early morning self photography!

Winter trees necklaces and earrings from Crochet with Wire, I used red beads rather than white cos y'kno, I'm em...a pirate... and i made it a bit shorter and more choker like.

Now i shall go forth and read about disease for i have an exam this afternoon!

(tunage: I write sins not tragedies-Panic! at the Disco)

Procrastionation on the theme of Whedon

2007-12-09T12:59:00.000Z

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

The Pilot. You are a leaf on the wind, see how you soar. You have a good job, and a stunning wife who loves you (and can kill people). Life is good, which is why you can't help smiling. Now if you can just get people to actually listen to your opinion things would be perfect.

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

69%

Inara Serra

63%

Shepherd Derrial Book

56%

River Tam

56%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

56%

The Operative

56%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

50%

Simon Tam

50%

Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye

50%

Jayne Cobb

44%

Which Buffy the Vampire Slayer Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Oz

You're Oz! Willow's ex guyfriend. Oz is the lead guitarest in the band Dingoes Ate My Baby. He is also a werewolf. He is famous for his lack of emotions and his magical color changing hair.

65%

Willow

60%

Anya

55%

Cordelia

55%

Buffy

50%

Faith

45%

Angel

45%

Xander

40%

Giles

20%

Which Angel Character Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Fred

You're Fred! The clever one of the group, people often turn to you for help. You're stronger than most people would give you credit for.

Fred

81%

Lorne

69%

Cordelia

63%

Angel

56%

Doyle

56%

Wesley

50%

Gunn

44%

Connor

31%

I can has Glubs!

2007-12-05T22:17:00.000Z

Procrastination/project ADD knitting!!

Finished glove #2. I feel them quite fantastic
The colours are truer in the 2nd pic. Also hurrah for my fake hand!!

Pattern be thus
Yarn is left over bumblefee Artsy yarn

Had exam nummero Dos today went considerably better than mondays tho that wouldnt be hard!!

(tunage Fireworks-Plain White T's)

Things that can happen before an exam

2007-12-03T13:57:00.001Z

This:
not so high on the list of wants.

Had a it of a coming together with alamppost. Going round a roundaout i was turning the car wasnt, think the road was icy/gritty.
After the very nice men at Pentlands Science park security box thingy made sure i was oki, i decided the car was drivable (tho much scrapy noises and bits fallin off!) and got into uni for myexam, which needless to say didnt go brilliantly!!

But the worst injury i sustained was a broken nail removing the hubcap to drive home (slowly!) so i suppose its not all that bad! Pain in the arse tho!

(tunage: Gypsy- Uriah Heep)

The first step is admitting it

2007-12-02T21:13:00.000Z

70%

Phoenix Dating

fairly restrained and also ta to Sade from whom i stole

also:
76% Geek

El Paso Dating

yeah i know, i make you proud...
(Tunage: Teenagers, My Chemical Romance ((current song of the week)))

studying=lose of carpet and other flat surfaces

2007-12-01T22:34:00.001Z

exams next 2 weeks means i has to studies, this means papers. apparently this also means a general layer of detritus accumulating everywhere:
The only reason i dont have essntially a fort built out of mugs is my mother periodically comes and removes them...

In other news its December! this means 2 things, first i get to open my spongebob advent calander (today it was a wheel!) and secondly Novemeber is over, thus the daily posting need not continue, tho i might try more frequently. I did miss a few days but i think 28/30 isnt bad

(Tunage: Thin line between love and hate- Iron Maiden)

Warning: Knitting content ahead

2007-11-30T09:41:00.000Z

now dont all die of shock! Actual knitting! Almost an FO in fact half an FO anywayI took a notion for something quick and easy so i am knitting these.

Rock!

Still rocking the genetics too. Anyone wanna know about a 2 hyrbid screen or maybe splicsosome assembly? but not transcription regulationcos is evil..

A response, because I can

2007-11-29T09:29:00.000Z

I like procrastination.

I has been decided my apparent Emoness is just an unfortunate collision between my punk/goth sensibilitys and a hefty dosage of pirate (hence the love of all things striped). I'm prolly to old to be emo anyways.

But my point is clearly i am a pirate:

Are you a Pirate?

You are Captain Flint. Most cruel and wickedhearted pirate of them all, you are. Indeed, though only a pirate of imagination are ya my lad. (Or lass, as the case may be.)You are a Captain though and as such command power. I was going to say respect but fear is a rather more accurate term. Isn't it, sneaky?
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Are you a pirate or....?

You are a pirate. Good, good.
Take this quiz!

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What kind of Pirate are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Mary Read

You are very unconventional, you defy the rules as often as you can and like to take as many risks as possible. You will probably end up living happily under a bridge somewhere laughing at all the unsavory deeds you once instigated.

Mary Read

92%

Captain Jack Sparrow

83%

Captain James T. Hook

67%

Captain Barbosa

67%

Morgan Adams

58%

Sinbad

58%

Black Beard

50%

Dread Pirate Roberts

42%

Will Turner

42%

Long John Silvers

33%

Your Pirate Name is

Captain Tartan Beard
Of the pirate ship Playboy Bunny

Get your Pirate Name at Quizopolis.com

See its all good

(i will post real stuff, possibly even knitting, soon, promise!)

Because I'm a procrastinating science geek..

2007-11-28T12:25:00.000Z

Humans are they say carbon based lifeforms. however were somone to mush me up and perform a chemical analysis i suspect the predominant compound would be:
closely followed in equal measures by:

and now back to genetic approaches (yay!)

I've been Worried

2007-11-27T15:33:00.000Z

First off this posting ever day thing has kinda gone to hell, oh well, i have exams to study for and a boring life!!

But the subject of this post is to assauge a fear i have had for a while. Its difficult for me to say this but i was worried i might be *whisper* Emo...

I kno i kno the outrage, but well I do like the pink and black stripes or the red and black stripes, but that can be attributed to my inner pirate, however the more worrying is the bands sneaking on to my playlists, Panic at the disco, fall out boy and most recently and concerningly My Chemical Romance. so i felt something had tobe done.

I did what anyone would do under the circumstances i turned to the internet for self diagnosis. seems there are many quizzes as to whether one is Emo, the results were thus:

Are You Emo?

YOU POSER! GET THE FUCK OUT!
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You Are 52% Emo

You're not emo, but you're plenty thoughtful, unique, and even a little angsty.

Are You Emo?

Are you emo?

you dont know much about Emo so here is some facts.Emo is an Art and it stands for Emotional Hardcore. Rites of spring was one of the first emo bands and you cant say My Chemical Romance and the used is Emo.the answers to the last question:Ampere, Braid and Embrace is the Emo bands. TBS, GD and MCR is not pure emo.
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You are 39% Emo. Ha Ha!

Whiner baby.

Stop your whining and grab a tissue. Suck it up princess. You can do better, don't you think? Oh well.. anyway.. thanks for playing...

How Emo Are You
Quizzes for MySpace

Your EMO Test (How Emo Are You?) Purity Test Results
You answered "yes" to 16 of 50 questions, with a total value of 16 points out of 53, making you 69.8% HAPPINESS pure; that is, you are 69.8% pure in the EMO domain (you have 30.2% EMO in you).
According to the scoring guide, your EMO experience level is: GLUM

You are almost emo. You listen to music with emo lyrics like Linkin Park (crawling in my skin) but haven't really ventured into the acoustic sounds of the true emo audiophile. You might have shaggy hair, but only because you're lazy, not really because you strive for emo-ness.

AreYouEmo.com

It would appear I am not emo, this is good.

I still wouldnt let me loose in Hot topic tho...

I got distracted...

2007-11-25T00:30:00.001Z

yeah so technically its sunday, but since i'm still up its still saturday oki... time kinda got away with me today not so good.

I went shopping yes again!

Havent got any pics yet but will rememdy that eventually

i got, well over yesterday and today

1 pair blac trousers
1 pair black jeans
1 black jumper (a theme anyone)
1 black n pink striey polo shirt
1 flannel shiirt
1 pair redleather gloves
1 sex pistols CD
1 Artemis Fowl graphic novel
1 crazy rhinestone embellisher thing my clothing shall hence forth have sarkly sweeps!!

The last 2 things are going to santa tho...

I like pink

2007-11-23T07:27:00.000Z

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are pink aluminum.Retro, straightforward and fun, you love classic things. If they're 99 cents at Goodwill all the better! You are moved by striking colors and tasty morsels, and you like a stitch-n-bitch session in the sun. Just remember, while you're being kitschy cool, don't get too cold. Ice cubes are best kept in your cocktails, baby!
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Again cheers to Aam who sent me this...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T19:55:00.000Z

so yes i kno i'm british we dont celebrate thanksgiving but well i dont care, Yorkie sent me the pumpkin and as holidays go i think its a good un

We had turkey:With assorted accoutrements

The of course the pumpkin pie!!
Which was actually rather tasty!!

So there we go one stolen holiday later

Oh and what am i thankful for? All the wonderful people in my life who love me, simple but true.

Because everyone else is doing it

2007-11-21T18:19:00.000Z

and I'm lazy

Lets101 Quizzes - Quizzes For Fun

alarmimgly not far of...

What the postieman brung

2007-11-20T12:23:00.000Z

first off i got my ravelry shirt!! i kno theres been some talk about sizing, while yes this is a little snugger than i would normlly have a shirt, its not unwearable wheeee

I also got a parcel from the lovely Yorkie:
choccies and pie fillings! now i can make pies hurrah!

Upon the oddness of my father

2007-11-19T21:31:00.000Z

My dad decided he wanted to cycle to school, but as this involved buggering big hills (or certain death) he decided against a more traditional style bike and bougth this bad boy:Tis a hybrid, electricy job, which you can either have powered, assisted pedal or just plain pedalling.
Thus he has taken to stoating about on it! In the week and a bit he's had it he's acrued nearly 100miles!

(its actually kinda fun wheeching about on it but shh, i still think he's weird)

In which my goth/punk sensibilites are revealed

2007-11-18T13:10:00.001Z

I said i got something at the Christmas markets. Its not what one traditionally what one would imagine one would get! In amongst the twee shite was a sorta alternativey clothing stall

I got this:

(apologies for the posing, its troublesome to photo oneself efficiently)

An attempt at a back view, didnt work terribly but i think its a kinda cool photo
I likes my new Jacket (tho mother did question if i have enough to wear a different one every day of the year...)

Its too early for Xmas

2007-11-17T18:24:00.001Z

Its mid November, but yet yesterday we got an xmas card and today we went to the "largest xmas market in Scotland"(ha):Lanark high street woo!

I went last year and wasnt impressed, wasnt really any more impreesed this year usual assortment of sweets booze and over priced "crafts". Generally i just wandered, bumped into a few people i hadnt seen in a while which was quite cool.

I didnt buy anything til the last stall but more on that 2moro...

Fail!!

2007-11-16T16:16:00.000Z

So yes i totally forgotto post yestrday damnit! Can i blame the squished face??

I had stuff all ready but i got distracted and remembered in my way to edinburgh this morning

but anyway a day late here we go:
scary close up,look at my red and swollen nose!! pity me!lavish me with sympathy! mock my stupidity... I at least amnot disfigured and still loveable!

I made things too
bracelets!! Top one says Teleport initiated (cos i didnt have beads to make bing, makes sense...) I woulda made more but the elastic kept pingin and the beads falling off an it annoyed me!!

Normal Programming Shall resume shortly

2007-11-14T23:54:00.000Z

Just realised its 23.55 and i havent posted today.

walked into a door

my face hurts