Ironman 3, Gym Bunnies, Blue Lace and Top Gun
Hello Everyone,
I hope you’re having a good weekend so far!
As you know, yesterday was busy in the morning. In the afternoon, I went up to our local gym, signed up and spent the afternoon in the pool, the hot tub, the steam room and the sauna. As I floated in a star shape for what seemed like an eternity, I realised that this is what I stopped working on Fridays for. All the stress of the last couple of years seemed to melt away. Bliss.
Afterwards, I met with Jon and Amber, we had dinner then went to see Ironman 3. The film was great however our projectionist appeared to have significant technical difficulties. Firstly, the film started with subtitles, then it broke, then it started again over half way through and we had no idea what was going on. Jon went out to speak to someone in charge and he finally located the manager on the ice cream stand. The film was put to rights shortly afterward, and as we left the auditorium we were given free tickets for another couple of films! Woop!
I think I overdid the swimming yesterday as today I can barely move. I am sure this always happens when the aged and unfit start new regimes.
Today the weather has been quite nice but I’ve had a quiet day. 2 naps so far, and Amber and her friend are revising physics in the kitchen, we’re watching Top Gun. Our cat has slept all day.
In the same position. All day.
My lace edging I was whinging about yesterday is now going really well! I am in the rhythm completely now. It won’t be long before it’s finished! And the sun has finally come out!
Good Patterns Please!
Hello all,
Today has been very productive, I did my “House Blessing” lol (see my link here to Flylady.com) and it sparkles here now, I am very pleased with my efforts.
I also sorted round my makeup on my dressing table, it is so nice to ring the changes!
The chap came to quote for the fence, his phone rang 60 seconds after we had started discussing in the garden, he was on the phone to his colleague for so long I ended up wandering off and went and sat on a bench at the other end of the garden. I don’t know why he wasted his petrol coming over, frankly.
When he did deign to return his attention to my shed requirements his quote for the base was staggeringly high and the sheds were all double the price of those I’ve seen elsewhere. It was a bit embarrassing really.
Anyhow. My friend Sweaty Knitter has been writing a series of excellent posts on how to write a decent pattern. Hear hear! I say!
As a case in point, trying to use a lace edging pattern from Ravelry this morning, I am either completely stupid, or there was a row missing in the graph of the lace edging I was attempting, because when I followed the graph I didn’t have enough stitches to do the sk2ps on row 5.
Perhaps it’s me, I have such bad luck with pattern instructions.
Anyhow, I did a kind of extra row of row 3 then started the row 5, once I had the right number of stitches, and it seems to have done the trick. Now I have my rhythm going, I am sorry to have to put it down! Watch this space !
I will have a lace edging!!!
Day of Planning
Hello everyone!
I hope you’ve had a good week so far! I am looking forward to pay day next week! Not that I need more yarn, however, I am very keen to knit a particular jumper and it specifies a certain yarn I don’t have…..
This week has been a week of planning. You’ve seen me slice through a giant magazine pile and now I have a huge clippings pile. So many inspiring things now to make that were hidden from view.
There is also my huge Ravelry queue, and my library of knitting books. I need to work out how to incorporate these additional designs into my folders.
I am thinking I could print the Ravelry page for those designs and put them into the folders as a placeholder for the patterns I don’t have. Then I could take a photo from the books and print these off as placeholders also. If I did these over a period of time it would be manageable.
Jan recommended I prioritise the patterns I really love, that will be last, although I am putting the real favourites at the front of each folder. My selections are making me quite surprised, in a good way! It is tremendously exciting.
The feeling of abundance is very satisfying, I feel like I am starting to get a plan together.
At work, all week I have been planning my priorities as well. By the time I left the office tonight I had a smashing spreadsheet, slots in my diary allocated for next week, and a proper plan. I hope I’ll be able to better cope with all the demands on my time.
My Nipper is doing her AS levels and has two tough exams tomorrow. She has worked so hard and she has a tremendous attitude to her work. I can honestly say she has given her all to her studies. This evening we sat together, I was slicing the magazines up and she was studying; I really enjoyed it. I am so proud of her. Good Luck darling!
Tomorrow I shall be doing my pattern filing, sewing my blue jumper which Jon blocked last weekend, and the shed saga is still chugging along, I have a man coming to give me a quote. Perhaps this time it will come to pass.
Here you can see my happy cat helping me with my shawl. I am nearly onto the lace part.
Plain Jennifer Shawl
My friend Jan asked to see what the finished version of my blue shawl would look like.
I always make the same “recipe”, a small version of which looks like the yellow shawl below which is on Ravelry as the Jennifer.
Basically, you take 4 ply yarn or sock wool, one skein variegated, the other plain. The yellow version is a Noro Sock, Jamieson Spindrift in Daffodil combo.
The best bit of the recipe is mulling over which yarns go together. Then watching the magical stripes and the colour play emerge as you knit!!
I use 4mm needles, straight bamboo ones, my favourites were a free gift from Hotmail.
The finished one, small version, uses the whole tiny ball of spindrift but leaves you enough Noro sock over for a pair of ladies socks. Mega thrifty!
Sometimes I make the middle stockinette, sometimes garter stitch. Anything easy. The small shawls take me only 12 days to knit, I knit the middle until the bamboo needles are full of stitches, then I transfer to a circular needle.
The blue version I’m making, will be a deeper triangle, and I’m waiting for the Royd Moor yarn to be used up, which will not be long. Then the soft denim solid blue the cat was eating earlier will be a lace edge of some kind, but only a simple one. I do love a crochet cast off which makes little loops.
Erm, No I Did Not Eat Your Wool
A picture of innocence. I only left my seat to eat dinner with Amber and Jon!
Litany Against Fear
Hello All!
We have again survived another Monday and I’m off to bed shortly as my batteries are flat. I am also tempted by the lovely clean bedsheets and it’s nice to go to bed whilst it is still a bit light outside sometimes, it just feels luxurious!
Today was a big day for my Nipper as it was the first day of her AS exams, maths to be precise. Of all the things you expect to face as a parent, helping your children when they are terrified is the most important one, and the hardest to help with.
I first read Frank Herbert’s book Dune when I was quite young. It is my favourite book ever, and has shaped me as a person in thousands of ways.
The opening words are from the Emperor’s daughter,
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct
It was the first book to talk about ecology, and to consider the entire ecosystem on a world as a whole within the context of a fiction novel. The book is also very spiritual, and it talks about the power of individual belief and the politics behind organised religion, and explains the concept of a Jihad, or holy war.
There are a whole series of Dune books, plus a bunch of prequels written by Herbert’s son after his death. I enjoyed all of these.
When my daughter was looking for my help this morning to face her frightening day ahead, I looked up the Litany against Fear from Dune and showed it to her. I explained how I had used this little prayer throughout my life, and how it helps you see that you can face your fears and assures you you will come through the other side. It was originally used by Paul Leto, when challenged by the Reverend Mother Helen Mohiam and her Gom Jabbar.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.
Culling Magazines, Jan Was Right
I think I’ll need 86 binders. Am not even half way there, oh God I’m gonna end up on Hoarders on tv…
Wild Dyeing
Hello all,
Just a quick post to let you know my local Elizabethan mansion is doing a course shortly on dying with natural herbs and plants. Click here to see details!
I love this place, it is haunted, it has connections with Guy Fawkes, it has a herb garden and it’s gorgeous. Oh yes, they have a smashing tea room with home made cakes! Their website is here.
Sunday Snippings…
Hello everyone!
What lovely weather we had this morning! A bit windy, we’d planned to have a barbeque Just the three of us however the BBC weather said it would start to tip with rain at 3pm, so we opted for a roast dinner instead.
I don’t know how you guys cook your roast chicken, we have our own way of doing it, we have a very elderly enamel roaster with a lid, and we put stock cubes, fennel and carrots in the bottom with about a pint of water, then we put in the bird and season it liberally. In the oven for a three or four hour slow cook it makes a restful dinner.
We make our own seasoning sprinkle in a little pepper grinder I bought years ago in IKEA, it has a mixture of cardamom pods, chilli flakes, fennel seeds and cumin seeds and salt flakes. We grind it over everything meaty pretty much.
The first thing we did today was put the blue cashmere jumper out to be blocked. It is drying now.
I wanted to show you some pictures from around my house today, firstly the cat print I bought a week or so ago, Jon framed it for me today and it has pride of place in the front room now.
Also, you can see my cutlery drawer with all my hand knitted and crocheted dishcloths. There’s quite a selection here, it makes me really happy to see them all folded away. They do last for years.
Some of the ones you see here are the traditional “Grandmother’s dishcloth” pattern, this is my absolute favourite design. The first ones I made were too small, I was following an American pattern and their dishcloth cotton is worsted weight, so would turn out bigger.
Also, the yellow ones are the Tunisian crochet ones I made recently. The pastel ones are from Plymouth Yarns in the US, my dear friend Michele bought the yarn back for me as a gift. There’s also a slip stitch pattern one, that’s coral and white.
I have a selection of dishcloths to make in my Ravelry queue, mostly they feature houses in the design, one is actually house shaped with a chimney, the other has eyelets making the shape of houses. The other one I want to make has a leaf design in lace, I am quite obsessed with leaf designs.
Also, I am making a shawl, it is getting really big now, I plan to make the main body in the two colour stripes, then do a lace edging in the denim blue. Here you can see Woozle helping.
