Let us commence

We will begin with the baby cardiagn which is finally finished.

It actually looks much nicer in the photo than it does in real life. I have taken badly against these colours. The yarn is from the regia brasil range and Bernie (in the office) LOVES them while I LOATHE them. Just goes to show. It's a funny old world.

My world now officially contains ATCs. These two are the first ones for the swap I have set up on swap bot. The first is 'just' textile (front then back below).

And the second (front only as the back is quite boring).

That's silk ribbon sewn trhough it that is. I have plans for lots more at the weekend and in true Byrne style have been on ebay and found a set of those holding pouches to keep what I plan to develop into a large collection in. Oh yes. (Poor pooch)

My swap bot addiction has replaced my ebay one which I guess is good in that I only have to spend minimally on the swap and there are a limited number of them. This is what I sent in my second swap - the girly box swap.

My buddy's fave colours are yellow and blue so I tried to get pampering things that were those colours. She is also a knitter so I included a couple of the postcards I was hawking on ebay. I have set up another swap for knitting magazines as I tend to buy them and then be a bit disappointed.

Poochwise things are good. Not even a cross word for almost two weeks now. Madwise things are looking sideways. I had a leetle bit of a problem 2 weeks ago (nothing to worry mum about Sian) and saw Dr P for the second time in 3 weeks to admit I'd been fibbing when I told him before that everything was fine. That man is such a dude. I have designed some intarsia socks for him and cast on last night. They will be sublime. He and I had the most amazingly frank conversation about all the hardcore side of being mad and he didn't turn a whisker with me spouting out all this stuff. In the end he recommended I cut the fluoxetine to 40mg a day and start taking 15mg mirtazapine at night. That is the one I was on about 5 years ago so I feel pretty comfy taking it. The only thing is the pharmacist only had the ones that dissolve on your tongue. They have artificial flavourings so taste OK except it wasn't til about 10am that I got any kind of proper taste back. Made my morning cuppa of hot orange squash distinctly lousy. I have to be careful and watch out for signs of seratonin syndrome as now I am taking two sources at once. Most of the symptoms sound like my normal existence though so I'm not worried.

So plans fos the bank holiday people? Mine include a massive tidying operation which includes carting about 8 bags of charity stuff to the nearest charity shop which is about 20 mins away by bus. 'How can one A Byrne be that far from a charity shop?' you ask? Yes, I know. Mistifies me too. There will also be a lot of photographing for ebay and making of ATCs and in my spare time I will be knittign profusely and planning more xmas presents. Oooooooo 3 days of time all to myself! Hoorah! Hope you all have a good one too. See you Tuesday.

ATCs and quilts (lots of photos)

I know what you're thinking - what the hell is an ATC? Is it some weird cash machine? Well click here and find out all about it and then join the associated swap. It's going to be fun!

Now let us get to sturdier matters. Let us speak of quilts and men. I've got some rather lovely photos which have mostly turned out reasonable and so this post should really be retitled 'quilt porn'.

Quilt Porn

Isn't the handbag rather cute? They had a lovely range of handles on display that I am determined to take advantage of as soon as I create a bag worthy of some.

So what did I actually splurge on (while keeping to budget)? This rather nice collection of fat quarters:

Some very cute charms:

Some quite insane felt:

Plus a load of stuff designed to make life easier if slightly more cluttered.

I have sent off my stitch markers for the first swapbot swap I've joined. This is them:

I had been saving the beads for ages to do these for me but then realised that half the time I lose them as soon as I make them and end up using a hairband so my recipient would be better off with them.

I've been doing the early waking thing - this morning at 3am with food poisoning but that's an exception - and one morning at 4am cast on a scarf modelled on Nickerjac's kits. I have collecting the motley bits for ages and this is it in close up:

Here it is on:

I cast on 100 stitches on 15mm and used about 20 rows of different bits and pieces. It is super long and I really like it even though I can see that some of the rows don't quite work. It is astonishingly warm as well although I think there's only 3 rows of wool in it. People not wanting to end up with a weird version should hot foot it to Woolly Workshop to buy one of Nic's kits as she really is a goodess when it comes to colour (and many other things of course!). Actually i can't see them there at the mo but hop over to her blog and maybe she'll sell you one direct.

Yarn Porn

Look away now people. Actually before I get going the people that do this amazing stuff have a waiting list. If you email them and ask to be put on it they will email you about 24 hours before more stock goes on sale. They are really good about postage too and the yarn was packed perfectly.

Sadly I can't remember what all these are called but baby....who cares....

Coming Pooch's way we have:

Originally intended for Robbie but due to some over zealous knitting (I was enjoying knitting it so much I went a bit crazy on the foot length of my first toe-up effort) for Sian's extra-sized boyf Brown.

Possibly the Robbie replacement is a zingier shade of green....

Or maybe this in blue and pale cream....

And then am I not worth it? One for me....

Oh yeahhhhhhhh baby.

Here they are again all cuddling each other.


There is something really rather dirty about how much I like this yarn. Maybe if I did stashalong more often I'd appreciate all my yarn like this. Speaking of which my sister Sian took the piss at the weekend whenI turrned up with a felted bag on each shoulder and queried why I didn't just make a bigger bag. From the mouth of babes etc etc... So have finally tucked into that stash of DB Maya I got half price about 18 months ago. One large bag in deep reds with metallic threads and sequins woven in coming this way.

I also of course was at Festival Of Quilts on Friday (sorry about not meeting up with the blogger posse but only saw your email on saturday) but will write a separate report about that when have calmed down a bit.

No wait I forgot...

SNAKES ON A PLANE

You just have to go see this movie. It is better than sock-hop-sock-yarn. Maybe.