Catch Up Part 1

I have had an impromptu few weeks off from blogging and podcasting...but I'm back again and have lots to share.

This is the year I turn 30 and so I have being trying to decide how to mark it. One idea I had was to dye my hair red. But I'm not 13 so I couldn't bring myself to do a DIY full change so this is the adult version.

This is the adult version with me momentarily captivated by something on tv.

The red is underneath with brown above and below. Bit like a jam sandwich on granary. To go with my new hair I went for a new experience - a recording of "I'm sorry I haven't a clue" in Hammersmith. This is the gang on stage.

Jeremy Hardy was the fourth team member and all together they were very funny. Humph even played the trumpet and it was absolutely magnificant.

Back in the real world the travelling button swap on ravelry arrived at Byrne Towers. It is a lovely idea - fill a box with buttons and send it round the participants. Each time it arrives you take out what you want and put the same amount back in. I scored this lot.

The yellow daisies on the right are really lovely - I've got quite a collection of lower buttons now. There are also some lovely metal ones and some pretty inlaid shell ones too.

It had been some time since Pooch had come home with a weird present for me so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he produced this:

Yes, it is a bonsai. Anyone without a bonsai is probably thinking it's quite a nice present. Anyone with one I already thinking that kittens are less hassle to look after. It's not the weirdest present he's got me and it has made it through the first week so there's hope yet I suppose.

My biggest achievment since I last blogged is to have made a pair of shoes (ok, slippers). These are out of a japanese craft book I got on ebay a while back. They are not much but for a first attempt I think they're not at all bad and I have been wearing them.

And of course they do help sustain my complete polka dot fixation. Check them out with my pyjama bottoms...

With the instructions being in japanese I had to half work them out myself so as an aide memoire for next time:
1. Assemble uppers - sew at heel on outer and lining first and then sew two together around top of foot.

2. Attach soles. Double layer arranged as attached. I left the toe open so I could insert a commercial insole from Boots.

3. Inset insole and sew toe shut by hand. Voila!

This is a similar book to the one I used and it is the same seller. I've had quite a few books from her and she's very reliable.

One bit of knitting I have been doing is my version of the button up socks from Ravelry. The pattern on there was something crazy like $8 so I winged it using my two-needle pattern. This one is a tad too small so the next will be a bit looser.

Yarn is ridiculously cheap on etsy from here. It's called Vinca and is kind of slightly hairy as if it had a small amount of mohair in it. I looked it up on ravelry and its been reviewed well. I love this colourway. I'm considering another sock yarn jumper in it.

Quite enough of a catch up for today. Tutankhamun and more knitting to follow another day soon.

Can I get a woo-yeah? OK, how about a boll-ocks?

I finished the lovely lace style cardi. Only thing is it just isn't that lovely. It's too fricking big!!!

At first look it might look ok. But let's take a closer one.

First hint of truoble. Look at how that shoulder is all puckered and not looking too good. Close up you can see the shoulder is hanging more than an inch below my actual shoulder.

It's not like I'm underendowed in the shoulder dept. It's just too damn big. Such a shame because I really like it.

Work it girlfriend...

The only thing keeping me going is that my crosswalkers (links straight to pdf) are looking rather nice.

Much more subtle than jaywalkers but still interesting and they adapt very well to the magic loop method.

I scored an amazing book on ebay this week called 'The Tap Dancing Lizard'. I came across it by chance and it is full of charts for hand and machine knitting. How can anyone not fancy this on a jumper:

And, um, elephants...

OK, maybe not the actual elephants, but it does have some amazing designs and I can see them appearing in knit-form in my near future.

Now lastly I met up with my little sis on monday for dinner. She really is an impressive specimin. Brain the size of a planet and about to jet off to America for a year as part of her degree. She was in london, all expenses paid, to do a course with her prospective employer and happened to have the boyfriend along.

This is a rather rare photo since she's normally a tad camera shy. Think the young man must be doing her good.

Hot water hotty

A happy ending to a sorry tale. The never ending aran jumper I was making years and years ago has finally become something useful. It occurred to me as I was dropping off to sleep one night that Pooch wanted a hot water bottle cover and I had this large piece of lovingly knitted pure wool with no purpose. So I took this:

and felted it. And made it into this:

Pooch wanted the buttons to be red "for hot" so I delved into my button stash.

Pooch and I have had a rather nice long weekend. We went off to this kind of craft collective in Colliers Wood called Merton Abbey Mills. Of course we managed to go there on possibly the weirdest weather day of the year. It was quite sunny at one point but then bitter winds were followed by a full on blizzard/hail storm. The snow/hail was blowing so fast it hurt when it got my face and we both ended up soaked and freezing. Haven't felt like that since I was little having snowball fights in the front garden.

This is Pooch in happier times being happy about the working water mill that still powers the potters wheel.

And then this is him being blasted by snow and ice. He's from the north, you know.

Meanwhile I have been slogging away on my Lace Style cardi and have almost finished the last bit - the back. I know you're supposed to do that first but I prefer to tackle a smaller piece first just to make sure it looks ok before going big. Should have done that with the never ending aran but it's obviously a lesson learnt since then. I hope to have it sewn up and done this week.

Lastly I have been catching up on jobs this weekend and one of them was to list this on etsy (Note: shameless self-advertising).

It's a one-off that I made for myself and have never worn. Perfect condition - just a bit chunky for me really. If anyone fancies it just pop over here and snap it up!

Bad blogger

I can remember rushing home from work to blog about my day and now here I am just bothering once a week. Pleh.

Something unusual happened chez byrne yesterday - I actually went out and was vaguely social....and with people I haven't been out with before. It was a gig by the band 'Susan George Booth' and my 'team' at work (aka Martyn) happens to be the lead guitarist and deputy singer. It was a strange experience. The pub was full of today's bright young things with lots of trendy haircuts and skinny jeans and quite a lot of flesh on show. All a bit ageing really. The music was what could be broadly described as shouty. The band describes itself as Grunge / A'cappella / Black Metal which I guess sums it up pretty well. I actually enjoyed it although more as an experience than because of the actual music. I couldn't make out any of the words. Jesus, listen to me. I am so middle aged. Anyway the point was it was good fun and it was good to be out and about.

Other unusual things have been happening chez byrne. If you look back to the last post you'll see some stubby little shoots in a green bucket. A week later it resembles this:

It's all gone a bit triffid. They are very pretty though.

Knitwise there has just been more of the usual going on so nothing much to tell. The lace style cardi has both fronts and almost a whole sleeve. Rob's ribbed jumper crawls along as usual. The blue socks remain in progress. But something I did do that I'm rather proud of is this:

It's a button I made using a clover button kit. The letters round the outside spell 'Louise'.

It's gone to the daughter of a friend of mine who has had a really awful experience and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. I know it's not much but I hope it made her smile.

Final bit of news is that I am now officially going cold turkey. The pill cut down has been going on since last autumn but today I stopped taking the final fluoxetine. So far I just feel tired and have had a nap already. By tomorrow I'll be forgetful and finding it hard to concentrate. Hopefully within a week it'll start wearing off but it could be an odd month as I could end up with sleep disruption and get crabby in true charlie brown style.

Brrr, just started raining and is brass monkeys outside. Proper knitting weather. And napping of course.

I tried to drown my troubles but I couldn't persuade Pooch to go swimming

A woman at work sent a forward round the office yesterday of Peter Kaye one-liners. This was fairly revolutionary - forwards, like spontaneous buying of doughnuts, don't normally happen at our place.

Many thanks for all your good wishes but the but the wheezing has now gone...and been replaced by a kind of gurgling which I can assure you is even sexier. Apart from that and the occasional coughing fit though I'm more or less better. Which meant that I was able to keep a social engagement I had made with myself yesterday evening.

Daddyo was kind enough to get me membership of the V&A for my birthday last year and so off I went to the China Design Now exhibition member's preview last night. That exhibition is one impressive piece of work. I have been to quite a few design exhibitions in my time but this one was really something.

It is split into three rooms representing three cities which have played key roles in the development of design since it was liberated from being just state controlled propoganda type stuff in the 70s. Th first room was mainly graphic design but also featured some clothing and these little fellas.

They are actually about a metre tall and cute and yet menacing at the same time to see for real.

Some of the posters were amazing but the ones that particularly caught my eye were those that played with the chinese charactors, fonts, alphabets and meanings. Posters representing the 60th anniversary of hiroshima had the character for hiroshima with key parts missing while still keeping it readable to represent what was lost that day. So moving even without reading mandarin. This on I particularly liked. It is a collaboration between a famous ceramicist and a graphic designer and the character represents 'China'.

There was also a case of these little maquettes decorated by different designers. Couldn't help buying one and planning how to decorate it myself.

The other two rooms were Shangai and Beijing. The Shanghai room was more 'arty' with videos playing and installations. The Beiking room though was truly amazing. I guess it caught me because I'm now surrounded by landscape architects but it was concentrating on the design of the olympic buildings. Wow. You might not like the way the chinese government acts but visually it is going to be an amazing olympics.

So apart from being amazed by chinese design what else have I been doing? Well I had my appraisal at work. "So how am I doing?" I said. She paused...."I thank god every day I see you walk through that door." So that was ok then. Somewhat different from my last appraisal at the IOP which largely centred around two points. 1 - It's all your fault cause you're rubbish, 2 - when are you leaving?

Then there has also been some knitting...

The cardi from the front cover of Lace Style. Using SkipNorth yarn naturally!

And then there is this to report...

This is a bucket of four leaf clover type plants Lou gave me and they all seem to be sprouting! I am terribly excited. But i don't want to get my hopes up as I generally kill off plants.

So today bodes well with my sister over and we're off to get pampered in a minute.

Quit your jibber jabber fool

If Pooch was to be believed Mr T would be popping out of a tank and throwing a snickers bar at me any minute now while telling me to 'quit my jibber jabber' because, as he solemnly proclaimed to me last night, three days is rather a long time to be ill. He seemed to think that there was some malingering going on and I should go into work regardless of whether I was better or not. At 1am I was coughing so badly and for so long that even he, who had taken refuge in the spare room complete with ear plugs, came in to ask me whether I was ok. "I'm fine" I croaked between whoops, "I think you're right - I'm definitely not really that ill. I'll go in tomorrow." I woke up this morning weak as a kipper and with this really sexy new element to my life - I audibly wheeze when breathing - both in and out. Yeah baby, I'm pretty irresistable right now what with the bed hair, sneezing, coughing and definitive fat pants ensemble - designed not only for comfort but also for those speedy sofa to bed transitions. So far today I haven't even done any knitting - that's how kipper like I am.

Anyway, one thing that is keeping body and soul together is the wonderful parcel I got from the Ravelry Discworld Swap. My pal was Judy and she sent me this lovely lot. (There was some chocolate too but in true swap style this didn't make it to the photography stage).

First up is this gorgeous bchunky cotton.

Judy is a bit of a whiz with natural dyeing and assures me the colours came from mushrooms collected locally from near her house in france. Wow.

She made me these lovely stitch markers:

And there were more beady things. A bag of red beads and these rather amazing things.

Knowing my love of buttons, would you take a look at these and guess how happy I was with them?

Aren't they amazing? Definitely another one for the buttony cardigan.

Now before I get to the piece de resistance this was a Discworld swap and wouldn't be complete without a Nanny Ogg recipe for...chocolate and garlic cake!

Hmmmm, maybe, but I can definitely see some of the other chocolate recipes featuring in my near future. Just look at this for a new take on crispy cakes.

Now....take a deep breath (ignore the wheezing and hacking cough it causes) and look at this.

Oh yeah.

Work it baby.

So pretty! Thanks Judy!

SKIP-a-dee doo dah

I'm back from SkipNorth and do I have stash to share... in fact I think I might have gone a little bit over the top. And that is me saying that. To take a photo of it all I had to stand on a chair and hover over the double bed like the human fly.

SkipNorth hit Coldspring Mill, the Skep, the KCG yarn mountain and KCG trading and Wingham Wools. I also made a personal trip with Julie and Sue to Texere on friday morning. And the photo above shows the spoils.

Going round we start with the big pile of greens which are going to be another starghan, but for my sister Sian this time.

Then there is a selection of lace weight cones and some Rowan Kaffe Fasett light tweed in dark brown - cones were £1 each and rowan was 1p a gram (can you believe the prices?).

A pack of wingham chunky in blue/green - this is what made my so called scarf out of.

Above that is some green and blue airedale aran from Texere. Destined to be a stripey jumper for the Pooch. Also some Wingham roving destined to be another felted bag. I love the ones I've made from the last two trips and am going to make a bigger one.

There's a huge skein of lovely dark purple dk from Coldspring. Then a 400g ball of the james c brett denim. One of these is going to be Prepster from the Happy Hooker.

Then there is the sock yarn. The opal was 2 balls for £4 and I love the bright yellow. Jane has made me reconsider yellow for socks. There's some regia for baby clothes and some gorgeous variegated grey and blue too. The latter is from the Skep whilst the regia/opal is from KCG Trading.

At the very front of the pic is one of WyeSue's ginger cakes - she had made about 6 and I ended up with a whole one to myself! Am going to start on it later on today. WyeSue also gave me a lovely cold to bring back with me but I'm not going to hold a grudge. Just bring it up every time I see her from now until doomsday....Above that is the Zimmermann dvd set which I am so looking forward to! I got that at the KCG too.

I know what you're thinking (especially you Pooch) - how much more? Well we're nearly done. The surprise hit of the weekend was a haberdashery shop that Sian and I found last year by accident. It is so retro but the thing is all the retro stuff is just stock they still have left from when they first bought it. So here we have a small gathering of beautiful ribbons, buttons and nicknacks including a wooden pen and notelets from the KCG.

Just look at some of these buttons!

Aren't the teapots amazing - and the rest are just so kitsch.

So yes, all in all a very good haul indeed. And what about next year? Well, neither of us want to commit just yet but this year's did go especially well so the odds are good. To stay informed either join the Ravelry group or sign up to the Yahoo mailing list. I've also got the most amazing discworld swap parcel to show off that arrived while I was away but I am saving that for tomorrow so it doesn't get swallowed up in all the SkipNorth spoils.

I went to a kniting show and forgot my knitting (and a podcast)

It's true. I went to the stitch and knit show at Excel yesterday to work on the KCG stand and forgot to take my knitting. Rather irritating since could have got through a chunk more rib on Rob's jumper. This is it so far.

Going to look like that for quite a while longer yet!

That meant that I needed to buy some yarn and needles and being patternless I decided on another preemie cardi and hat.

Finished them both barr the sewing up and the buttons while I was there. Not the best show although did get to catch up with Les and Tess from Silkwood which was lovely.

Some of you may remember this little beastie which has become forever known as "Mum's butt ugly jumper" even though its a cardi. I'm just living on the edge type crazy like that. She claims to love it although I find it hard to believe but did ask me to put some buttons on and take off the peplum which was ridiculous from the beginning. So I've done a finishing job that I should have done in the first place but am now stuck on my choice of buttons.

The bottom ones are mother of pearl. The top are boring old plastic fish eyes but somehow they look better. What do you guys think?

So finally there's a new podcast out there. Episode 15. You can either get it on itunes or here. AMAZING competition prizes too, sponsored by Yarnimals. You can also get their stitchmarkers at Woolly Workshop.