Week One of the Holiday Complete

My last post got a lot of comments and suggestions so I'll follow up on them in a few days once I've researched all the extra shows you've recommended. Meanwhile, what did I do with my first week of holiday?

Out and about I went to Cheddar Gorge of which I'd heard much but never seen. If you like caves, you should take a trip.

I also took a jaunt over to Step By Step Patchwork in South Molton which is a fabulous fabric shop. I spent about 90 mins just meandering around, stroking fabric, choosing a charm pack (oriental metallic blends), picking up a xmas kit, and generally wishing I could move in there.

Fortunately I'd kept stopping on the way over to take photos as on the way back it was torrential rain. The views on Exmoor really are fantastic.

No wonder I spent the time smiling.

Plus a full rainbow.

Bliss.

While there I really got to know the chickens.

They really will do anything for lettuce. Can't think why. They're so much better than they were when they first arrived from the battery farm. Tonnes more feathers and roaming around all over the front and back gardens. The cat was also a darling.

That's one of the 10-stitch-blankets under her, knitted by my fair hand. You see those paws? And how the pads on her 'toes' are dark or pale depending on the fur colour? Sooooo cute. Paw-over-nose is her preferred sleeping position.

I also finished the body of my fairisle cardi.

And hand-sewed the paper pieced hexagons for my cushion cover's front.

So basically, I've had a great time and Mum and Dad agree we are going to make it an annual thing so I shall we doing more of the same next Autumn. And still another week of this holiday to go!

TV to Knit Things By

I do a lot of knitting while watching episodic crime series. A number of these are American but regardless of who made them I am always on the lookout for new ones so leave a comment if I've missed a good one. I acquire these episodes in a way that pater, as a solicitor, would not approve of but they are generally available on services like netflix or sky+ and so on. I'll go for alphabetical order.

CSI

No list like this could be complete without these three - that is CSI, CSI:Miami and CSI: New York. I've watched both of the others but cannot stand Horatio on Miami and got sick of New York so I'm back with the original. I almost baulked when Ted Danson - with hair as white as his teeth - popped up as the head of lab (for those a few series behind Grissom is gone but oft referred to). But it's turned out even though they've robbed his character of the quirks it had when he first joined. CSI is up to its 13th series so if by any chance you haven't seen a hundred episodes of this already and like the idea of quasi forensic science solving the crime you've got plenty to keep you busy.

Grimm

It's not often you get a new take on the "man with X problem/issue/history solves crimes using Y technique aided by his sidekick who has Z problem/issue/history". Guy finding out he's one of the keepers of the peace type people for a whole parallel human species who relate to animals and ancient german fairytales is a pretty good one. It's actually a lot more complicated than that and they did some good stuff towards the end of the first series which means the second one hasn't just been a repetition. My favourite character is Monroe who is actually a werewolf kind of person but helps Nick out solving the crimes using his insights into the world of the Grimms and knowledge of Grimm folklore. He fixes clocks too and does pilates. 

Hawaii 5-0

I'm serious - they remade it. I believe we're even on series 3. It's kind of like they took Magnum, shaved him, made him a bit more military, lengthened his shorts, and put him in charge of a special police taskforce with unlimited budget and no HR department. There's no shortage of wet t-shirts and beachwear here. Although it is all quite amazingly unsexy. This is something I watch to be amused at how retarded the latest plot twist is. As a hint, we're currently up to his mum not being dead and having been such a good secret agent that she's stayed hidden for twenty years in a hut in vietnam or something. We've also finally found out why Danny doesn't like the ocean. It's hard to believe it's taken then this long to think up that lame arse reason but there you go. 

Lewis

It's unusual for a british crime drama to generate a spin off. I think. But none have been more deserving than the long-suffering Lewis, sidekick of Morse. "Poor Lewis" easily replaces "poor Morse" in these modern day stories and the addition of Laurence Fox as Sergeant Hathaway was a welcome bonus. He does occasionally get wet but only when wearing very opaque clothes. Shame really. They are pretty much as good as Morse although the continuous rumblings about both their love lives are a bit wearing. 90 min episodes with some juicy murders and interesting storylines. Seems they are about to film the final series and I can't see a "Hathaway" filling our screens in ten years. Shame but life moves on.



Lie to Me

 This was so good. I was gutted when they axed it. Tim Roth was awesome and undoubtedly brought the word "wanker" so a new generation of americans. He was actually english in this which apparently confused a lot of them who thought he was american. Based on real psychological research into micro-expressions which is fascinating in itself. There's a daughter who skillfully avoids being annoying and a good sprinkling of rumpy. The crimes are varied - certainly not always murder - and interesting. Good acting all round. Definitely to be recommended.


Miss Fisher Mysteries

A rare Australian entry on to the list but don't start thinking about Neighbours. Set in the twenties (?) our heroine (I am Miss Fisher. Yes I am) returns to Australia having come into an income that allows her to keep a house and servants. With these and her friends she sets about righting all sorts of wrongs including the murder of her own little sister when they were children. The settings are perfect and the wardrobe is *divine*. A second series has been commissioned and is eagerly awaited.

Morse

Do I even need to say anything? This is an amazing series of quality dramas from start to finish. I guess some non-UK readers might not know them too well and let's not forget they are now a little dated but still - Morse nailed it. In many ways, and I don't say this lightly, they're better than Colin Dexter's books. Each one is about 2 hours long and deal with serious issues but with a delicacy that reflects the time (the eighties) where no one ever dreamed of swearing on TV.
 

Murder She Wrote

If I had to pick just one from this list it would be this one. Angela Lansbury is a god. Jessica Fletcher is a close second. I adore the corny stories, the endless friends Jessica has around the world, the way any relative of hers is accused of murder, the times she pretends to be drunk. I love it all.



 NCIS

Ah, Mark Harmon. You grey haired love god. He was my first older man crush and in fact my only one so far, apart from Pooch. He plays Gibbs, former Marine and now head of the navy crime service. This one was a spin off from a spin off from CSI. The original spin off, JAGS, didn't last (and was pants) but the spin off from that did. Yay. NCIS is now on its tenth series so if you like CSI but think it doesn't have enough american navy politics in it you'll love this. I lost interest when they brought in this dappy woman as Gibbs' boss (and of course they were ex lovers) but once they brought in whatshisface, the current one, I was back in the game. I should point out Gibbs never takes his t-shirt off. But you wouldn't expect him to. You respect him too much for that.

NCIS: Los Angeles

I've put this as a separate one just because it is SO different from NCIS. You can see the link but it vanishes after that. Let me explain - it has LL Cool J in it. That's basically enough. But it also has Chris O'Donnell (think Robin from Batman and Robin when the Batman films were realllllly bad) and a woman called Hetty as the boss who is about 4 feet tall and kickass. This is the secret agent part of NCIS so there are lots of mentions of "getmo" (Guantanamo) and people going undercover. LLCool J wrote the theme tune, sings the theme tune. And there his similarities to Dennis Waterman end. If you wish NCIS or CSI were less sciencey but had more gadgets, car chases and unresolved sexual tension then this is your bag.


Perception

A newish addition to the genre but very much in the "Lie to Me" stable. The guy from Will and Grace is a schizophrenic neurosomething professor at some american uni who has a lot of hallucinations. The FBI call him in and a different hallucination each week generally pops up to help him quiz his subconscious on how to solve the crime. Obviously. I was a bit wary of this format because being a mental myself I'm always suspicious of how they're going to be portrayed on screen. Bonus points though for the mentaler to be solving the crimes rather than committing them although of course a number of those involved do end up being ill. The first series finished earlier this year and a second is commissioned. Worth a look if you've already seen Lie to Me but be warned, Will does not take his shirt off once.

Vera

Awesome, awesome, awesome. British TV at its absolute best. Brenda Blethyn is genius as the fifty year old in charge of the murder squad with a young male sidekick. She's got parent issues, eats worse than any student, is overweight and unfit. The episodes are about 90-120 mins long and heavyweight issues are dealt with. The filming is a lot like the Branagh Wallander with gloom and blue filters on things. Really excellent TV.

I'm sure I have forgotten a few (some, like Columbo, are deliberate) but leave a comment to let me know if I'm missing anything good.

It Is Amazing How Quickly You Can Find Yourself Talking To Chickens

There's five of them. They're mental.

The ones I refer to are real and distinctly non chocolatey. They love lettuce. Who loves lettuce? Cocktails, yeah, But lettuce?

I found myself talking to them within minutes of arriving. AND I'm carrying the cat past them because the cat...the predatory if-it-bleeds-i-can-eat-it hunter...is scared of them. I let her out and she bounded through the door and executed what I swear was a complicated salsa move to redirect by 90 degrees without losing speed in order to avoid them. I swore I wouldn't do that. Ha.

But then who knew the cat was a chicken.

Get Your Skip On

Booking has opened for SkipNorth! 

15-17 March 2013 will find me and 30 odd other knitters whooping it up in Haworth. Want to join us?

I'm looking forward to it already...

Pay It Forward!

I love a bit of Pay It Forward. I recently saw this on Nati's Blog *and* I was one of the first to comment so I will be receiving something from her within the next year. Yay! Love postal surprises. So...

Here are the "rules" (as taken from Nati's blog):

1. I will create a crafty gift for each of the first three people who comment to this post. This is a surprise, and will arrive to you anytime within the next 365 days.

2. In signing up for Pay it Forward, you are committing yourself to the project...someone pays it forward to you, so you pay it forward to others! Just post this, or something similar so others can get involved. Basically you will create your own post where you create gifts for 3 people as well.

3. You need to have an active blog of your own...(or some way to post up your Pay it Forward info like a flickr, pinterest, or Facebook account). Basically you'll need a place to announce your own Pay it Forward and to post some pics of the process.

4. After commenting on this post, post something similar on your blog...so you can spread the pay it forward love. I will email you asking for your mailing address (and the online address where you are posting your Pay it forward info) so I can get your crafty treat in the mail. Please make sure your email address is visible on your profile or leave it in the comment.

So what kind of things do you need or want? Are you going to leave it to my imagination? I would love to know what colours you are into at the moment... just leave a comment to this post, letting me know anything about you or the things you like... I will be stalking you for a little bit to get an idea and then get crafting for you!

(This is me stalking you.)

(Mow)

And don't forget the International Rainbow Charm Swap here. 

International Rainbow Charm Square Swap

This is a heads up about a swap I'll be running in December and the New Year.

The swap is described on the new page I've added to my blog which is in the lefthand blog bar.

Sign-ups don't start until the beginning of December but you can leave me your email address so I can remind you when that comes around.

Questions? They should all be answered on the swap page but leave me a comment if not.

Framed II

I ended yesterday looking for those Bernard labels. It then occurred to me to print my own. While looking for the originals I found a sheet of cotton with a paper backing ready to go through the printer.

Surprisingly easy to do really. And then a rotary cutter and a ruler later...

At Festival of Quilts I got some glue to use with applique instead of double sided fusable stuff and it works really well. The fabric is a little translucent but considering how cheap they are to make I'm not really bothered by that.

Here are all the combinations. This one is for me and actually had an outing last night as a little change purse. The fabric is called "Dysfunctional Family" and I only bought it for this panel, which is one of many.

This one is for a swap.

Then these three are for xmas presents:

In fact...some of these are already finished...

Bet you can't guess what kind of swap it is. And then look how those labels turned out.

Pretty cute huh? I really like making these and can see me making more once I get paid again.

After yesterday's post I decided to be a bit more proactive and so in place of the email Pooch and I met up to talk today. I was not at my best after a fun night out in Richmond yesterday but we had a good talk and agreed a basis on which we can move forward again. We are agreed though that neither of us can go through much more of this stop-start relationship type thing. But then we both want things to work out so we'll see how we get on.

Framed

I got my long awaited delivery of purse frames today. I got them from this Etsy shop which is in China so the usual hand off between price and delivery speed. One is for the U'r Priceless Blog Hop in November but the others are all mine. Well, except that I'm making presents for people. I'll have some WIP shots by tomorrow. Meanwhile some lovely possibilities from flickr...

(Click on the image to find out what they all are.)

I've been cutting out pieces for purses this evening while waiting for an email. I'm wondering why I'm waiting.

I didn't think it was a difficult decision to make but then the thing about thinking time is it works both ways.

Then again...

Meow. I'm really looking forward to spending a week with the cat. 8 days and counting.

Meanwhile I can't find these fecking labels.

The ones that say "Handmade by Bernard". I just can't think what I've done with the bloody things.

Travelling Without Moving

Lots of activity going on chez Byrne while not much actual action is apparent. It's mainly cerebral. All this being in charge of your own destiny stuff is very confusing sometimes. I have been making a few things though. It started with a pin on Pinterest, where else, where the pinner explained how useful this type of keyfob was. You don't rummage for your keys because it's easy to catch hold of the long strappy thing. (The smaller one is for my cupboard at work.)

I've found it pretty useful so have made some more for xmas presents.

It all served to remind me how much I enjoy hexagon patchwork. Plus I have all the papers left from this bad boy...

...(which is still in my WIP pile) AND I've just completed a 2.5" square fabric swap. So when I do a house swap with Mater in a couple of weeks time I'll be taking this pink box with me.

It's what I used for the quilt to keep all my hex's in before making them into flowers. I've decided this time to go smaller - a cushion cover. Meanwhile I have finished a present I can't show, cast on another I can't show and continued with my fairisle mashup. Cue blurry photo.

I'm increasing after the waist at the moment. I'll be taking this away on the house swap too.

I've been looking at crafty things to do while I'm away in Somerset. I am strangely tempted by Cheddar Gorge. Anyone been?