The Byrne is back

Hello again peeps. I'm back again on british soil with the fruits of my hardcore shopping /sight seeing expedition laid out at my feet. Only not quite because Pooch gets irate about that sort of thing. Not that I should consider this when Pooch has behaved so dispicably in my absence. I mean, look at this...

This was a healthy plant when I left. I'm hoping it will perk up. Am talking softly to it and slowly feeding it water.

So....New York, eh? I'm going to dedicate a couple of other posts to KNY (knitnewyork) at a later date and to my specific experiences but less us for now glory in what I brought back. Now I had saved up for this and was expecting to do a fair bit of economy-boosting but I amazed even myself. I truly believe even my lovely sister would be in awe of my achievements. Here is a shot of the booty.

That is my not insignificant coffee table completely slathered with gubbins. I'm not going to list it all because it's embarrasing to realise quite how much I did buy but there are skirts, tops, presents for Pooch, baby t-shirts, the amazingly yummy apple jacks cereal and the list goes on. But, I hear you ask, where is the knitting goodness? Can it be that Bernard has wimped out?

As if. Stand by.

Yeah, I did go a bit mad. I anticipated you'd want a better look so get ready for your close up....

Bottom right we have some beaded and sequined loveliness.

Tilly thomas aqua green silk with sequins, 2 balls of glass beaded whiteness, buttons and some lovely cascade in the red quatro colourway. I picked up some of this last year and really liked working with it. At the top of the picture is a norwiegen sock yarn which took my fancy. Next is bottom middle

Berrocco cotton twist in three shades for a secret little project I have up my sleeve and some natural indigo dyed organic wool for my SP.
Bottom left

and we have some cherry tree hill. OK, 4 skeins, plus some lovely laceweight wool in blue and grey. This is my first laceweight purchase and indicates the way my little mind is working - I feel the future definitely holds lace, people. Also two skeins of koigu to finish off my crochet spiral tank top I started about a year ago. Top left

we have 4 balls of knit one crochet too cotton in lurvely blues and greens, 2 balls of diaketo (a japanese brand) and a big skein of blue heron loveliness too. Also a tonne of stitch holders and other bits, some of which are also for my SP. Top middle brings us...

... 4 pairs of scissors, all from a chinese superstore on Broadway that I would have loved to get lots of beautiful china from. The ones in the pink snail creature are my favourite and are great because when I take the scissors out he looks sad, which makes me uncomfortable, so I have to put them back in. Could it finally be that I will not lose a pair of scissors within 24 hours of purchase?? The red and brown wool is aussi wool and bottom left is more sock wool by a company called zitron. There are some nice mags there too including CRAFT which I had deliberately gone out looking for. I'm impressed and will probably subscribe. I wish I could have found MAKE too but that one proved more elusive. And finally,

a knitter is no good without her needles. I finally got my lantern moons (ebony), some lovely rosewood ones and ...... some square ones! Yep. 3.75mm apparently although I'm yet to test the tension. I just had to give them a go though. And there's just one more thing to highlight, because it is so cute!

This is a 4.5cm stitch holder. Isn't it sweet!

So I'm posting this...um...post, now because I am confident Pooch is on the tube by now. And so he won't realise how much stuff I bought until he reads this blog, which might not be for ages as he rarely checks in now we're better at communicating face to face. Ha. Cunning = Bernard.

So I will post in more detail during the rest of this week about which stores I went to and what they were like and all of that. Plus if I owe you an email hang on another day or two as I've got tonnes in my hotmail account and will get to those this week too.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Am in america, so those are zed's I'm counting and not zee's. Or is it the other way around? Am sleepy. Anyway, quick update...swanky hotel room as until tomorrow morning I am on expenses.

A teeny weeny bit of shopping has takenb place since I arrived. No one is tgo tell pooch. Note to self - buy extra suitcase (well geez, it is soooooo cheap and I've been saving up.)

No shopping took place here as it contained nothing knitted that I could see. False advertising. Tsk.

The only knitting that has passed my lips as I have deliberately not been near a wool shop. Tomorrow brings new york and then....ahahahahahahahahhahaahahahaha. Wool shops beware!

Will be back in the uk on tues.

Maybe I have a brain tumour?

I know one shouldn’t joke about such things but maybe I do. There is a story in one of the Oliver Sacks books (An anthropologist on mars is my favourite one ) of a guy who was a peace activist or something similar in the 70s and ended up getting enveloped by a cult. His family were able to visit him after a while but were very concerned because he had gained a lot of weight (see moi), smiled all the time (OK, not me yet) and had no memory beyond about 1974 (see me on prozac). He also lost all his hair. Maybe something like this… (me in my thinner days) The people in his cult loved him because he was like their Buddha but when his family finally managed to get him away from them and into ‘a medical facility’ (see dictionary under ‘loony bin’) they found he had a massive, inoperable brain tumour. They stopped it getting any bigger but he remained, as Dr Sacks would say, 'locked in the past’ and totally unaware of modern innovations. At one point he breaks his leg and it takes months and months to heal because he keeps forgetting and falling over when he tries to walk.

The reason I think I might be turning into one of these

is because I used to be filled with zeal. Lots of fire and brimstone followed me around. I was going to change to world. I was going to not so much fight the system as run the system. I was going to be It. And now, I just want to knit. I sit around thinking about knitting. And more knitting.

Ah well. I am off to the US for a week tomorrow so may be MIA for a while but rest assured – I shall be thinking about all things knitterly in the meantime and will have much wool news to share by the time I get back!

Three is company

No, not preggers. But I did win a special award for being the youngest to learn to knit in my Secret Pal group which I feel rather happy about. Strangely like I've achieved something....hmmmm. Or not.

So here is the little baby cardi I did in the james c brett marble chunky last weekend. Cast on sat am, cast off sun pm. I love marble. Marble, marble, marble. And as Anne pointed out over on the podcast page my favourite store is stocking marble chunky although only in packs. I have emailed them to ask if they'll do it by the ball and they said they'd think about it. That's what I like about them - there's real people in there that respond to one-to-one stuff with proper answers and everything.

I also, finally, finished my first magic loop socks which are destined for sianybo's poor clodhoppers. We have EB running through my dad's family. I don't have it at all although I suppose I could be a carrier. Means sianybo needs to be careful about her socks so I'm hoping these will be ok.

Staying on the subject of socks I've started these from Interweave Knits from winter 05. They are called embossed leaves socks but I'm thinking of them as my cherry blossom socks. This is the first of the sockyarns my lovely SP gave me and they're coming together very nicely indeedy!

And EVEN MORE SOCKS! This rather pathetic little thing is a sample I did of a sideways sock. I actually did it some time ago but only sewed it up today. I can see the shaping went a bit wrong but the idea is sound.

And EVEN MOOOOOOORE SOCK!

OK, finally. I've been doing what I've been thinking of as log cabin squares with a view to making them into a blanket for charity. But looking at them I realised they weren't really log cabin. Anyway, they keep me busy when I feel like a bit of mindless crochet.

Parcel number two!

Knit-wise I had a pretty damn awesome week. Parcel number two has arrived already from my secret pal and boy oh boy am I being spoilt. It actually got here on Thursday but I have been rather remiss in not blogging until now. Here are some ickle pictures for you....

This is what I came across when I opened it. So much stuff!

A few highlights...some divine sock wool. This time from an australian source.

Some smellies, tied up with this amazing wire and bead stuff that was also around a CD containing tonnes of hip hop lovelyness.

A beautiful couple of magazines. My pal also included some of those page marker post-its (in red, so thoughtful) to mark my favourite patterns with and I have used every last one. Will try to scan some of them for my next post.

And then there was this.... I left it til last as I had an inkling what it might be from questions she'd asked me.

Now I have a video of my newly sock-clad feet doing a little dance but it hasn't yet made it onto the computer so these pictures just don't do them justice but - finally - I understand why people like getting handmade socks so much. And these are such an amazing pair!

Bit more detail:

Plus a lovely strawberry candle, lip balms and all done up in such a lovely way. Here's the complete haul!

Went round portobello road with sian yesterday. Found a little bakery that specialised in cupcakes and cakes. Queue coming out the door! We had to stop and try one. I had a chocolate bling (with those little silver balls fairy cakes always used to have in my yoof) and sian got a red velvet in the cute little take away box.

You'll notice my cupcake didn't make it whole to the picture. Well, you don't buy them to look at, do you?

There have been many replies to my appeals to help curb stash enhancement in my last podcast which promise to make the episode 5 even better than the others. And many thanks to those people who have left a review on itunes!

Now must go and answer the latest rsvp's for Nickerjac's baby shower which promises to be excellent and quite possibly cupcaketastic. But before I do, I have this strange urge to get going on a feather and fan something or other. Yarnstorm has one going on. Nickerjac has one as her page header and A Mingled Yarn has just done a very lovely scarf and there are more. I'm not sure whether to give in and just do it or stay strong. I've never had much luck with them before. I always get my repeats and increases mixed up.

The post of many titles....

Title One: Pity Me
Somebody, anybody, please go and leave a comment or review on itunes about my podcast. Even if you hate it. It just looks all neglected sitting up there all barren. I was going to leave one from me but then I considered how truly sad that would be and so didn't. And speaking of truly sad have many of you so far managed to avoid facebook? It's sweeping the ocean, as frank zappa said in the amazing song/ballad/opera 'mudshark'. Pooch is seriously addicted. He is on there now on his laptop (while watching the football at the same time - isn't it amazing how some men can't seem to think and eat at the same time but when the footie appears they become madly multitasktastic) updating his profile to let people know he is in the sitting room and not in the kitchen. And you know who is to blame for this. Aha! Sister 2! You know it. There she is with her youngandtrendy lifestyle and Pooch is determined to show he can keep up, bless him. Hang on, they just scored. Whooppee, no sulks tonight. Perhaps time for title 2...

Title Two: Good Vibrations

Of the many weird things I do when I get an idea in my head (such as buying a long arm stapler) today was the product of the weirdest in a while. Allow me to introduce you to....the powertoner (that should be read in the kind of voice that announces films like 'The Terminator'). This fairly harmless looking device resembles a step machine such as you might spot while walking past the gym on the way to buy cake. They were offering free trials so rather to my surprise I phoned up and booked one.

Dude.

In the photos on the website the already thin and toned models are holding plastic balls in a coquettish fashion and looking rather composed. The bits they are sitting on vibrate. No, I am serious. These things are giant vibrators. Now when you put, let's say, a stick on a vibrating plate it jiggles about. Now let's think about what happens when you put, say, a jelly on a vibrating plate.

Uhuh.

That was me. Vibrating. I swear there were bits of me going one way that really should have been accompanying me back the other way and other bits kept colliding between the up and down strokes and the whole time there was this muscly man saying 'yeah, alice, you're doing great' (men call me 'a-lice' a lot. I'm not sure if this is because they mishear or they consider me to be some sort of creepy crawly). It was very very weird. And considering I was there for a free trial wouldn't you have expected them to try and sell me something? Or tell me about the benefits of sitting on a vibrating plate, apart from the obvious? Or even just fling a leaflet at me as the session ended with a "OK, that was great guys, bye" leaving me standing there with some bits not yet having stopped moving. I guess I should consider myself lucky but it added to the weirdness.

Title 3: Where A-lice is swayed by peer pressure

Actually I don't think you could describe it as pressure. It was more like the kind of force used when someone blows a kiss. Because I was listening to craftypod from itunes (you know, the one that you are going to visit any min now to review my podcast) and, as regular readers will know, I love Sister Diane who does craftypod and so do tend to hang on her every word. And during the episode she talked about DIY planners and gave out the website diyplanner.com. Oh My God. There really are people out there as fricking weird as each of us and some of them have websites. This is just the sort of thing I have been looking for all my life. And so being as impressionable as a saggy tomato I immediately went on their website and printed out the pdfs and started converting my life into an A5 (mostly A5 - the guillotine slipped a bit) booklet. And, remembering the tomato thing, I went and bought the book that inspired the guy who started the website to start the website.He doesn't seem to get a commission which I think he should really look into because he totally sold me on it. I'll let you know how it works out.

Title 4: In which the madness gets talked about again (yawn!)

Yeah I know, time for some navel or naval gazing, depending on your preferences. I rebought a book called '10 steps to positive living' which was the one all the therapists went on about when I was in hospital being mad. I would really really recommend it if you have low self esteem or you get down and procrastinate or get anxious and all that stuff. I felt I needed a top up so couldn't find my original copy and splashed out on a new one. Today I bought the kind of follow-up but more like the books that expands one particular chapter about low frustration tolerance called 'Beating the Comfort Trap'. This book is also by Windy and with another author he lays out some stuff about why, for instance, I put short term chocolate pleasure ahead of long term beinglessfat pleasure. And possible even why I keep buying unecessary stuff, such as the long arm stapler. And what made me really think about this was the subject of stash acquisition which, as I mentioned in the podcast, you know, the one you're going to go and review on itunes in a min, I just seem to need more and more wool. And I also need to have it around me. And while I know a large number of readers would describe this as perfectly normal for a knitter I'm not so sure. And since thinking about buying wool is stressing me I'm thinking it's a problem. Pluis there's the chocolate thing. Man, I could really eat a big fat cupcake right now. Anyway....

On the subject of cupcakes I had an email from a listener (to the podcast, the one at itunes) including a photo of her very own knitted cupcakes which do lok fantastic! I love the white eyelash type yarn for the coconut topping. She also sent me a link to an amazingly tempting site called cupcakeblog.com that as well as having conventional recipes has real off the wall ones as well as loads of gorgeous photos. The listener in question blogs here and has done one of those amazing feather and fan shawls I think I blogged about a few months ago and which makes me want to give feather and fan another try (it being something I have never managed to love). She has also done some of the potamus socks from knitty. Can I be the only one in the blogosphere who has not yet attempted a Cookie.A. original?!

Look, these are her cupcakes (reproduced by kind permission of catmum!) - aren't they divine!

Yo diggidy

My name is....slim shady.

Was asked to post the answers to 2 questions as part of secret pal so here they are....

1. How old were you when you learned how to knit?
   I was three! My mum bought me a 'my first knitting' kit with blue plastic needles and really scratchy acrylic yarn and away I went. Can't remember what I made but i can remember some older kids seeing me and telling everyone who came near that I was only three. Looks like knitting in public has never been something I was shy about!
2. Who taught you? My mum. When I took it up again properly later in life (erm, about 21) I went to the library and looked in the children's section for a 'my first crafts' book and re-learnt all the casting on and off bit.
   

So episode 4 of the ol'podcast is up at http://lixieknitsit.podbean.com so hop along and have a look or subscribe through i-tunes. One of the things I talk about is the shop 'all the fun of the fair' off carnaby st and I remembered I had a few photos of it on my phone so here they are.

The wall you can see is all the yarn with the other walls and tables full of accessories and goodies. The second photo shows the shop window and if you look in the background you can see the knitted cupcake tower I talk about in the podcast.


I've also got hold of a cushion pad for my archemides spiral cushion from woollythoughts.com.

Yeah, it does look kinda crap but hey, you can't win them all. I also have a finished object, namely a baby cardi that used up the last of the wool I did my amazing jumper in.

Just a very plain garter stitch one from debbie bliss done all in one piece. Did a lot of that while watching wrestlemania at Denning's house. So cool (the knitting and the wrestling!).

So have eaten my chocolate rabbit and am still pretending to self that this is the start of a new less-choc-era. Well, have made it to almost 11am and haven't had any yet in any case. Have an added incentive to start a weightloss programme to keep myself sweet for Cillian Murphy who is now on my get-out-of-jail-free-list*. Oh yes, he is so fine. Oh yes, I'm going to make him mine....

*Some people find it strange that Pooch and I have these lists which contain between three and five people depending who is telling the story. These are people we can go and do the dirty with without it impacting on our relationship. Pooch has natalie imbrulia, eva green and kate moss i think and I have whoever I damn well feel like at the time**. The rules are they have to be famous and a sub-rule is that you have no chance of ever scoring with them ever in a million years ever. But a gal can dream!

** Cillian Murphy, Mark Harmon and ..... not sure who else today. Angelina Jolie?!

Oops

Jeez, I am a really bad blogger. I'm having some mood swings at the mo so keep not feeling like blogging. Am temporarily up though so thought I had better act fast.

I have one mofo amazing finished object to show off but no pics as my camera has once again vanished. It is the Zimmermann jumper in the cashmerino chunky I got from coldspring. Oh, it is soooooooooo nice. Plus a cushion and have cast on another pair of socks using the stupendous addis my SP sent me. Woo ha for SP!

I know the next podcast episode hasn't appeared and that was really a result of me being down as I just couldn't be arsed. But.... I do want to do another so let's see what easter brings.

On the subject of easter I have a couple of token pics for you but most of all a poster on a zine list I belong to has told a story of an answermachine message they had when they got home. Apparently a telemarketer had called and left a message which went....

"Jesus died for you.

The least you can do is go to church on sunday."

Yeah baby. You know society has reached a new low when churches resort to open guilt-trip tactics.

(Note point 3!)

You know how sometimes you write a big long post about socks and then blogger eats it?

Ah well, poo happens.

This really rubbish montage is the result of my frustratons with trying to manipulate many images of socks, all of which are potential candidates for the sockwool by SP gave me that I blogged about first thing this morning. I want to do it justice and so I present, for your entertainment ...



I keep changing my mind. The green ones are from this website which has some awesome socks on it. The others... well, you'd have thought I'd have written them down somewhere. Um, I'll find them. Um. Anyway, which one? I think I've gone off the plain ones with the spiralling eyelet. The beaded ones are nice but somehow don't feel right for this yarn. Hell, should I just blow the $6 and get the pattern for the green ones?


A couple of people have asked where the sock yarn was from (apart from it being from my secret pal) and it is this website which needs flash but is worth it as it is all dynamic and flashy. This is the blog of the dyer too which has a 'translate' link for english. I've just been having a great time trying to wok out what she meant in the first place from the translation. Whatever it is she has this rather amazing mobius wrap going on that looks moth eaten and yet utterly glamourous! And the last link is the socks my pal is knitting although she has made some changes to it. It's a free pattern and they are lovely knee socks so it's well worth a look.


Podcast should be up tomorrow!

Oh yeah baby

Today's post is accompanied by the track 'jump around' by house of pain. Not, as they might sound, an emo grunge band. But some hip hoppers from the nineties who wanted to put the 'irish' back into hirishop hop.

Because, Lo! A mighty box from my most excellent secret pal has appeared and Lo! It is truly mighty. This was sooooo cool and really reminded me why secret pal is such a great great thing. It is so lovely to get not just one but a whole box full of presents all tailored to yoooooooooou! Let us begin... first up is a notebook and pencils for sketching impromptu kniting designs.

But... this isn't just any notebook. It has a picture my sp took herself on the cover, some personalised toe up sock instructions inside AND knitters graph paper at various tensions glued to some of the pages. How cool is that? Here it is again...

Then we have the edibles, and not so edibles.

I love it that she warned me not to eat the lush bath bomb that looks like chocolate. Ahhhh, how well you know me. Don't tell Pooch but the rabbits didn't quite make it through the night and there was also the most delicious cherry choc bar which didn't even make it to work. I really think I have a problem but let's not go into that now. Isn't the little sheep cute! He's is one of those really really soft jellybean ones which I was in fact eyeing up to give to my sp at the weekend.

Then, make sure you are sitting down, not just one but TWO addi needles for doing magic loop socks. Oh yeah baby.

Plus yummy lipbalm in both vanilla and strawberry which I had put as my two favourite scents. How well thought out is this parcel?

And of course having provided a sock pattern and the needles, what else but some delicious sock wool? I am so spoilt! Not just the regia in a delicious shade that makes me think of chocolate cherry bars and which I haven't seen before, but some hand dyed yarn from a place she did tell me but in my excitement I have temporarily forgotten (sorry) but that is local to her.

This yarn is really beautiful - the photos don't do it justice. I kept picking it up and combining it with other things from the parcel. Here it is with the card she made, which also uses the photo from the notebook.

I am just blown away by the generosity and thought that has gone into it. My pal had wrapped everything beautifully with lashings of red tissue paper and gorgeous ribbon. She says in her letter how she is more into cool tones so thinking 'red' was a real challenge but one she has risen to wonderfully. I spent the rest of last night trying to think of a sock pattern that would do the yarn justice. I was thinking maybe something with cables? She did say it gives wonderful stitch definition. Any suggestions?

Wooha!

Fruitlooping it UKHandKnitters Style

I swear (or I would if the list rules allowed it) the UKHandKnitters yahoo group has a complete hissyfit every three months. It is a sign of how society does something to someone everytime some sort of circumstance happens, especially when they are in a group or community represnting something, or something like that. This time it is HipKnits again. There are the "but she's pregnant/given birth" camp and the "but she took my money and won't answer my emails" camp which I was until recently part of. I have now got my refund and am steering well clear of hipknits. The listmom, in a misguided effort to steer the conversation away from HipKnits, has announced she will be banning all discussion of any inidividual company or any discussion that looks like it pertains to any company. I have some questions, which I've submitted to the list...

1. Is she now reading every message and passing or deleting them individually?
2. Are only certain people's messages being monitored, and if so who?
3. (I only just thought of this one) does this mean we can't talk about patterns that are in books by Debbie Bliss or Rowan?

I feel for Dora but can't help feeling she's started a whole new heap of trouble for herself. I'm just going to go no mail for a while (which is what I normally do when these nutty episodes kick off) and go back in a few weeks when everyone will be all loved up again and past indiscretions forgotten. Jeez!

Back in the swing again

Geez, I was really really low last week. But it was miraculous how putting some distance between me and london, or more specifically, me and work, on friday night caused a complete shift in mood. I have been spending waaaaaaaaaay too much time trying to work out how to make my current job more bearable and generally stressing about it while not having any energy left to get a different one. So, off with the old and in with the new. I have been thinking a lot about what was taking up the most head space for me and it was the usuals of having power and money and respect. What other people would think of me and the impression I gave was far outweighing what would make me happy and what would make me think well of myself. So I'm not looking for the same money anymore because with that kind of money goes pressure and responsibility. I am happy to exchange a pay cut for a happier life. My priorities are so different now to what they were before I went mad. I used to think of position and career and possessions whereas now I'm thinking about learning to cook, how I can contribute to society and yes, maybe even having one of those noisy sprogs I see hanging around the necks of some women.

Anyway, enough of the navel gazing. Let's talk knitting. I've got a few photos to share. First up what I have been working on loads for the last week. It's skipnorth booty from coldspring mill. It's an elizabeth zimmermann pattern and is done completely in the round. It is some half price DB cashmerino chunky and is just yummy.

Still a fair way to go but it's coming along.

Then there is this...which I should think practically every knitter ever has knitted by now. It is, of course, branching out from knitty.com.

It's been done in alpaca silk from elann and was a present for my mum who's birthday is tomorrow. I gave it to her today as we were down there for the weekend and she loved it so that's good.

Then there is a slight catch up as I have finished a vast number of socks since I last blogged properly. Here is one pair (socks that rock)...

and another (cherry tree hill)...

and the oddments....

I'm actually rather pleased with these last ones. They were a present for Pooch and here he is gracefully modelling them.

Here is a detail of the random slip stitch pattern I used.

OK, and finally, a sneak preview of a pattern coming up in the third issue of 'Proud To Be Crafty' the zine. It's what every gal needs for her eco friendly shopping - a reusable and 100% degradable cotton bag.

I've gone and splashed out on some blue sky cotton to be the sample with the zine so people can see how lovely it is. Although you can also use £1.99 a ball sirdar cotton and it will come out just as wonderful.

So here is to a happier week - hazaaah!

Whew

Um, been a long time between posts. Sorry about that. Had a visitation from the item pictured, as Kate would put it, and so have been a bit out of it.

I did make it to getknitted in bristol yesterday but haven't had a chance to photograph it. It does mean I am sooooo definitely on stashalong now. For a month (I go to new york in a month so you know, I couldn't really be on stashalong there). But after that for another two months. Or maybe three.

Episode Three is up....

....and includes a really interesting interview with the Chair of the KCG. And it really is interesting, not just because it is me doing it. Have a listen and then get in touch with them with your ideas.

http://lixieknitsit.podbean.com/ or on itunes.