The best bag(s) in the world

I have always wanted one of those japanese wrist bags and after an afternoon of non-work and browsing on craftster.org I came across some rather nifty links to bag tutorials. If you have not been to craftster you should go - there's a link in the list of blogs on the left. There are so many tutorials on how to make really cool stuff. I did quite a bit of printing that afternoon...

Anyway, the moment you have been waiting for..... (I'm suddenly feeling I may have hyped this up a bit too much)

I can not tell you how happy this bag makes me. I bought the fabric out of John Lewis's remnant bin about, literally, 6 years ago and have been waiting for the right project ever since. It is perfect for this. It is a really good size and feels highly natural just sitting on my arm. Yeeha for craftster!

Now this was on Friday night because you all know that I do not actually have a social life. At all. On saturday I set to with a second tutorial and the lovely fabric Pooch bought me. And this is it!

Isn't it a beauty?

That's a little pocket inside for my travelcard! Pooch is really really happy about this. I like it that he likes it too and I like using the fabric he bought me!

Meme

Just nicked this from A Mingled Yarn

48 Things You Could Care Less About

1. FIRST NAME? Alexandra

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? On Tuesday at couple therapy with Pooch.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It varies between cool and 'arty' and completely illegible. Overall I'm pretty happy with it.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Prosciotto

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I don't think so. I'd be friendly to me but I think her mood swings would bore me.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Kind of. I do have one but I don't write in it often. I did have loads of diaries going back about 8 years but threw them away as they were full of depression stuff. Kind of regret doing that now.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? If I was presented with the opportunity yes, but can't be arsed to sort it out or pay for it.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Applejacks. It's american and neon green and orange. Mmmmmm, soooooo goooooood.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? If I'm tired I do as it's too much effort to yank my feet out otherwise.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Phish Food by ben and jerry's. Artery cloggingly good.

14. SHOE SIZE? UK size 7 which I think is about 40.

5. RED OR PINK? Red to wear but pink to look at.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? The depression. And how I can write things on a blog for complete strangers to read that I can't say to Pooch face to face.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Weirdly it is a guy called Oliver Shaw who just left school after GCSEs and I never heard from him again. We used to get an well in a platonic way and I often wonder what he's up to. If anyone knows him - he'd be about 28/9 and went to school in Canterbury up til 16 - then please let me know.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? I'm not going to send it to anyone - but let me know if you use it and I'll come by and read yours.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue jeans, handknit socks, no shoes, brown top with grey tanktop with sequins on it.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Yorkie Bar. I boycotted them for ages because of that stupid 'they're not for girls' advertising campaign but they are unequalled.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? There is silence around me, or as silent as it gets in london when you live in a flat and the window is open. That's quite unusual for me as usually I get uncomfortable when there are no distractions around me.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Strawberry lipbalm.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Muvver.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Smile, lips, Pooch factor.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? I don't know her, but I like reading her blog. I figure we'd have a good conversation if we met up.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? Robinsons Special R Orange Squash (accept no substitutes).

28. FAVORITE SPORT? WWE. Yes it is a sport. I loathe any unnecessary physical movement and long for the day when I have a cyberman to do my bidding as he can just carry me everywhere.

29. EYE COLOR? Hazel.

30. HAT SIZE? Wow, I have no idea.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? Chocolate.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings I guess but at the end of a comedy film, not a soppy love story. Am not comfortable with emotion. Someone reading these answers could be forgiven for thinking I'm a pre-menstral dalek.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter. I like the warm weather but I feel you know where you are in winter.

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs except from Pooch x.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate based.

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Am not sure. Nickerjac perhaps if she has time.

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? My Dad.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? 'Families and how to survive them' by John Cleese and Robyn Skynner, 'Knitting Around ' by EZ,

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? No pad - I've got a laptop.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Some sort of rubbish. Have completely no recollection now. Was just on in the background while I was making the coolest bag in the world.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Rain.

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Depends on the moment.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? I am rubbish at geography but I'm guessing san francisco.

46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Retaining enthusiasm for things when even an idiot would have known to give up by now (at work). At home - Pooch maintenance.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Margate, Kent. Oh yeahhhhh.

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Stole it from A Mingled Yarn

Belated ally pally round-up (photo heavy!)

I know I'm a week late but it's been a busy one so in every sense, better late than never. For those of you who have never visited the Alexandra Palace show I thought it might be nice to have a look at this, which is me walking through about a 1/10th of it.



I really did have a very lovely time and, a la Wormhead, was having trouble carrying everything on the way back at the end of the saturday. I got some really awesome things but my biggest splurge is yet to arrive - enough pukka shetland wool for the scoop neck fairisle in the most recent Vogue Knitting. Ooooooo. Anyway, from what I did get....
Hip knits silk and the new magazine on the block:

Fat quarters and beads and the like:

Handmade paper for an altered journal swap:

The cheap stuff - for a hard wearing trivial pursuits cushion and the variegated for the shawl on the fornt of the Vogue shawls book:

Lovely pure wool Twileys Whisper or something like that for either a boxy cardigan from knit1 or a jumper:

Wicked chocolate notebook with a mix of square, lined and blank paper inside plus the latest Interweave knits and a patchwork-how-to-book:

Patons washed haze (50p a ball!) for a cardi and the touch yarns merino for I don't know what but I loved the colours and it was 25% off:

Lots of little things to play with - ribbons, non-slip feet for Pooch's next handknit socks, square sequins etc etc


So what has this massive acquisition done to the yarn chest? Well, I had actually been very good before AP and during stashalong - I had a big clear out and sold a load on ebay. I also then took a huge bag of odd balls to NWKTog group and shared them out with the rest going to the charity shop. So despite having bought all this I can (just) close the war chest:


So with all that going on you'd have thought I'd be happy with my little lot and get down to some serious knitting right? No! What I did was get a cold and my mood slipped again and was quite down for a couple of days. I found myself not really in the mood for knitting so instead have been making ATCs for swaps. I rather liked these on the theme 'fall florals':


I have been feeling a bit better the last couple of days though and was even better once my end of the knitting magazine swap arrived. I got these two awesome magazines from the US:

I had never even heard of them and there were a couple of 'how have i lived without....' type items in each. Feast your eyes:






This last one is crochet and I thought I'd try it as a scarf first to see how it looks.

So there you have it. Actually you don't - I made the coolest bag in the world last night but I reckon that's enough photos for today!

Oh my god, it's tomorrow!!!

True to form I have got a cold. I feel really really achey - like I've done a cross-country run or something. And we all know how likely that is. But I struggled in to work today like a good girl and have spent a lot of the day fantacising about ally pally and rediscovering my love of strawberry shortcake. Now I'm talking about old skool, not any of this twee little thing WEARING TROUSERS!!!!!! What the hell! Anyway, calm down Byrne and remeber that opnce upon a time you used to be a feminist. True, you were 14. But still. Remember your roots.
Look at these things though!

The original little miss.

Who nowadays dares hug a duck without fearing the RSPCA?

Not a child protection officer in sight.

Not a true original charactor but so cute I had to include her. There are tonnes of website out there with loads of good stuff on (as I discovered this morning). This is just one and the graphics are rather good.

So has she actually done any knitting then or what - I hear you ask. Well, not much I must admit. I did whip out this rather nifty crocheted string bag though out of the finest mercerised cotton oddball I had to hand at the time.

I'm disproportionately pleased with this and it will be accompanying me this weekend. Inside are the goodies I recently sold on ebay and some more ATCs on their way to be swopped.

And speaking of swaps the 'whats in a purse' swap parcel arrived and it was AWESOME!

My spoiler, from Portugal, included not one but two beautiful handmade objects - a key ring and a pouch - plus sweets, lipgloss, playing cards shaped like an icercream and more. Lucky me!

Finally, I have been quite taken up with the woolly thoughts yahoo group and when I went to the 60 years of british art exhibition at the hayward (very good by the way and only a fiver if you're passing) I couldn't help but think of the bridget riley paitning that has been used on the website and on all the promo material in terms of a cusion. Garter stitch stripes with long strips sewn together. Do you see where I'm going with this? Not that I'll actually do it of course. And then I saw this:

Now look, don't hate me. I know the exhibition said no photos. And I know it reduces the quality of the work to be shown in crappy non-flash light like this rather than in the flesh which was a whole lot better. And I know it's just wrong in so many other ways. Let's leave that for now and I'll flail myself with a circular when I get home. (Not as penance though, just for fun...fnah fnah - all going a bit weird here now so back to the point.) This painting was surely designed to be freestyle crocheted. My hands are suddenly too achey from flailing at the keyboard to carry on typing so I'll just leave you with that thought and we'll see what happens.

Incidentally if anyone is at ally pally tomorrow and would care to say hello I will be at the knit and natter or knit and relax or whatever it is called this year at 11am. You have been warned! I'll be the one with the string bag. Fnah fnah.

A whole lot of crafting going on

I was rather busy at the weekend doing all sorts of crafty little things. Some were experiments for the second edition of 'ProudtobeCrafty' - your favourite crafty zine. Last few copies are still available FREE so email me with your postal address to littlelixieathotmail.com

I saw some scrapbooking letters that were 3-d and made something like this so decided to pull out the fimo and give it a go. The wire I had for the joins isn't perfect but seems to be holding together.

When I wrote before about swaps and how I'd got fed up with them my secretpal8 got upset and annoyed and I haven't heard from her since. I tried to explain by email that it was because SP8 had been so good that I'd got fed up with the paltry-by-comparison swaps at swapbot but it doesn't seem to have worked and I guess I never will receive that final parcel. It's a shame because up til now SP8 was really good for me. Anyway, one of the swaps I did before I got fed up was 'something chocolate' and my swap partner was in australia. She sent me the following really rather amazing goodies:

The cherry ones on the left were *GORGEOUS* and barely lasted the journey home from the sorting office but the koalas win the 'cute' prize. Lookie here...

Aren't they sweet. And very yummy!

The background of that picture brings me nicely on to ProudtobeCrafty project number 2 which involves using packaging. The Japanese and Americans seem to do this quite a lot but we seem to largely use the wrong sort of plastic. So I went shopping for packaging rather than food which, you can imagine, led to me coming out with a rather weird assortment of groceries. One was a pouch of raisins which turned into this.

It's a kind of large needle case/pin cusion. Details will go in the next zine along with more pics.

I haven't mentioned it so far but let us not forget that it is only FOUR FREAKIN DAYS TIL ALLY PALLY or until I get there anyway. I am like a kid on xmas eve - I just can't wait. I finally managed to get it together enough to buy 'Cushy Numbers' - mathematical knitting patterns from WoollyThoughts. Their website is a bit unreliable at the mo but you can see all the books, patterns and final objects here. Email patatwoollythoughtsdotcom to order. I am absolutely definitely going to do a curves of pursuit cushion. They have a Yahoo group too called 'woollythoughts' and there are some fun people in there.

Buttons

Here we go....


Picture at http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/littlelixie/wtw2.jpg


Picture at http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/littlelixie/wtw1.jpg

Wear Your Wool To Work Day

I have been meaning to do this for ages and the thing that was holding me up was not having a button. But now I still don't have a button but am not waiting any longer. To fit in with Ally Pally and it being National Knitting Week I declare next wednesday (11th October) to be WYWTWD - or Wear Your Wool to Work Day! Your challenge is to create a button and also spread the word! What you do is.....wear soemthing that you have knitted to work. Or school. Or Uni. Or around the house if you're not working that day. Pretty simple!

In other news here are some photos....

This is the spiral tank top which I have run out of wool for! Tess thinks she can do me some more. Feel like such an amateur in running out!

This is the first of Pooch's lobster mittens. Long story. In case some of you haven't noticed, and for the rest of you to read once you recover from your faints, The Byrne is using dpn's. I know. I knwo I hate them. The fact that I'm using them and for fairisle no less is surely a sign of my immense love for The Pooch. Or some sort of sick, masochistic thing.

I bought a book in Oxfam called 'knitting 4 seasons' which is pure 80s but has some rather interesting things in it. One of them is this coat.

There is also a top in the same pattern. It seems to call to me....

I received mt copy of the 'cut out and keep' zine which is really lovely. It is A6 size.

I also got some wicked 'to do list' bookmarks and a 'girl hooker' badge which is pink with a crochet hook on! I will be watching for the second issue. You can buy the first one here.

And talking of zines....here is my entry into the first challenge!

I'm pretty sure I'm not eligible for the prize since I'm judging although I wouldn't mind keeping one of the goody bags that are on offer. There are still a few zines available so email me (littlelixieathotmail.com) with your postal address and I'll send you a copy. Everyone else send me your photos and they'll be posted in this album. Top three get the prizes.

Glitter sperm

I told you I'd try and sort out a picture. It looks better in the flesh.

Did I mention Pooch's pants? Can't remember now. But many of you who have items similar to Pooch around the house will know that once they find something they like they seldom want to change. Pooch liked the 3 pairs of pants he had and nothing would induce him to change or, and this is key, add to their number.... So byrne breaks down and buys Pooch pants but lo and behold, they are the wrong sort. So Pooch goes out and buys his own pants to prove his point and.....

{as an aside - let's all speculate on how this is going to end. Before you scroll down post a comment and let me know!}

....the pants Pooch buys are IDENTI_FRICKING_CAL to the ones Byrne bought except hers were from Tescos and his are from M&S. This is the result of 10 minutes alone with these pants.

The bars on the 't's aren't very distinct in the photo :(

I was in Greenwich last night and saw this billboard. Isn't it amazing? Not the actual billboard - more the fact I had my camera with me.

Of course this is actually quite appalling and I hope no one was hurt.

SkipNorth has, by popular demand, expanded to take a whopping 35 people. Now that really is a whole lot of knitters! This means we now have some extra places available on this too-cool-for-somethingorother knitting holiday in March 2007. More details at www.proudtobecrafty.co.uk. There are going to be flyers handed out at Alexandra Palace so I don't expect the vacant slots will be vacant for much longer!

Reasons to be cheerfull. 1, 2, 3.....

I really like that song – reasons to be cheerful by Ian Drury.

I spent more time navel gazing (or naval gazing as one of my colleagues once wrote in a widely circulated email) this weekend and have an addiction to craft (or cr-aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ft as Pooch nows calls it – he’s been working on his south of england vowels after a life of phonetic crime up north). I obsess in order to distract myself from having time to feel stuff, innit. And then I hoard stuff so I can never run out of things to do. Because then I would have to use the byrne noodle for something other than glitter positioning. And on the subject of this, because life is never too short for such things, I made some sperm out of glitter glue last night. Now let’s review that sentence for a minute and reflect.

Yes.

I would show you a picture (have just realised I’m making this sound worse) but didn’t have the camera handy. Suffice to say it is an ATC for a pregnancy and still-birth awareness ATC swap on swapbot and no glitter was cloned or harmed in the making of this object. I guess you need to see the picture really.

The first copies of the zine have reached their destinations and people are being very nice about it. But I need ideas and suggestions for the next one folks so email away or leave comments. If you are thinking to yourself, “What zine?” or even “zine = ?” I refer you to my previous post (scroll down because I screwed the formatting). Remember if you would like a copy (it is FREE!) you need to send me your postal address as I can’t get that from your blogger ID. Thank God. Goodness only knows what nonsense we’d all get in the post otherwise. Drifting off there into snail-spam-holocaust-mode. You can email me your address to littlelixieathotmaildotcom and be assured I will not post you any snails. Fnah fnah.

I leave you with this. Surely one of the most amazing creations of our time. It is firmly on my to do list.


(naval gazing)

And the beat goes on

Ugh. I am supposed to be going to a keep fit class tonight after work. You can tell where this is going though right? I don’t wanna go! I wanna go home and eat cake. Poo.

Anyway. Let’s get over that and move on.

I have had lost of swap post this week. The first was a couple of brooches with are really rather lovely.

The one on the right is double sided and has a pixie on the back in black and white but for some reason I don’t have a photo of that.

For the second I’m going to take you on a little journey of discovery because it was such fun to discover the contents.

Then…

Wait for it…

Ta da!

Loads of lush stuff! Lots of papers and things for card making. And then some choc and shower gel and mmmmmm, lovely!

Lastly I’ve had two lists for the list swap.

One of these was 10 bits of advice. The advice given was so good I didn’t think it was fair to keep it to myself.

The other was 10 things that make you happy and that is the one with the maple leaf on it. Receiving them definitely made me happy!

The thing is, I have had a bit of a revelation about swaps. What I’ve realised is that they are far too much hassle and why on earth am I bothering? I think I got too excited about the last secret pal and missed the sending and receiving. I spend money buying things to swap and then have to spend twice as much posting them. So I have resigned from all swaps in future other than ATC ones. Because I am pretty hooked on ATCs.

I had loads to think about last night so ended up not going to knitting so I haven’t seen the gals at Golders Green for about 2 months now which is quite distressing. I wonder whether I didn’t go in order to avoid any kind of emotional response because that is what I was talking to therapist Janet about. It’s worse than I thought which worries me, although you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I’m basically suppressing every reaction to things and avoiding all sorts of stuff so as not to have to experience things. Janet was commenting on how I don’t have any wrinkles. She was wondering whether it was because I don’t do facial expressions unless I am overdoing them when overcompensating and playing the fool. The thing is, I just don’t know what to do. How do I learn to react to thing or to learn to react to them without then running away from that reaction? All quite glum making. Could really do with a bar of chocolate. I just realised I’m feeling sad.

There are somethings that are just too cool to put a short title on

This is one. For I am talking about SKIPNORTH.

Man. I know I am the organiser so should probably be a bit calmer about things but this holiday is shaping up to be one of the baddest things ever. In a good way. Because now we have a history (i.e. Feb 2006) and have proved our buying worthiness places are actually willing to open especially for us. It is just awesome. And people keep volunteering to run workshops on the Friday afternoon. There is just too much good stuff going on to believe it will fit into one weekend.

Incidentally, bookings are still open at http://proudtobecrafty.co.uk although 19 places have gone and we were originally only taking 20. I've maxed us out to 28 but that will leave us straining at the seams so once they're gone they're gone unless I go mad and get a bigger coach. Unlikely.

You'd have thought an international playa such as myself would be rolling in wonga but alas this is not so. I am on a strict budget this month although in fairness this is so that I can afford to splurge at Ally Pally. Ooooo, I am just so excited about that too. Got a mental shopping list of all sorts I need to get. Yeah, *need*, right. Whatever. This all means more selling on ebay and I have decided that one of the things I will be passing on will be some of the sockhop sock yarn. I'll let you all know when it goes on. That stuff is fricking nice but I've discovered I can get a pair out of one skein so have ended up with twice as much as I needed. And that's on top of my already crazy stash of sock yarn.

I got my magic yarn ball last week and it was awesome as I believe I might have mentioned. Here is what it looked like when it arrived:

Looks good enough to eat! Here it is afterwards:

So many lovely things! I had a dream last night that I was using the littl green flowers to embellish something I'd knitted. It looked absolutely amazing - the most amazing anything has ever looked but I can't remeber what it was now.

The last photo is Proud to be Crafty- the zine that beats all other if only because it is free. Let me have your postal address and a copy is yours. Email it to me at littlelixie@hotmail.com or leave it in a comment. Just remember - it has to be your real actual living address and not your email. It's not available online. Ooer.