Pooch might have swine flu (but probably not - I think he's just tired)

I went to a knitting course at IKnit on saturday called 'Weird Techniques' to learn all sorts of crazy things like knitting backwards, cabling without a cable needle, sewn cast off, purling with the yarn in the back, continental knitting and an added extra of kitchener. I think I might actually have got it this time. I didn't add to the stash except to get a tiny thing for my Secret Pal, but I was tempted by the malabrigo ....

and the nearly solid cherry tree hill.

I haven't had much of a chance to try my new techniques but the cabling without a needles is worth the class fee by itself. I can feel my Chuck Cabled socks calling me.

My knitting recently has been on the Buttercup Top which I got to about 6cm below the armholes for and then tried on to find it was much too big. There can't be many more times in my life when I'm going to find myself knitting the extra-small size.

It's a lovely colour and I like the pattern too.

I have been thinking a lot about colour recently as I have been gathering fabric for a quilt. It's not often I embark on a big sewing project (and even more rarely do I finish one) but it was love at first sight for me when I saw this quilt on Thimble's blog. So here is what I had at the weekend.

I identified a few gaps in the colour and light/dark tone scale and so a trip to Liberty after work today brought these home with me.

Fabric arranging, knitting and learning weren't the only things I did this weekend. Oh no. Now this really has to be tasted to be believed.

This is the recipe - which comes really near the top when you google for chocolate cake recipes. It is amazingly calorific (500+ per slice apparently) but OMG. Tastes so good. And you've got to love ganache overhang.

It was going to be my birthday cake for work last week but I didn't have time to make it so I took it in with me today. The first slice was gone by 9.10am and most of the rest by midday. Mmmmm.

So I think that's it, other than a quick Pooch update to explain the title of the post. He spent a very leisurely weekend listening to the cricket on the radio and taking up all of MY sofa. I had to knit in the armchair.

"Bring me another tea, Byrne?"

Sadly such things don't last. He's feeling tired and so has convinced himself he has swine flu. I've taken his temperature and it is 36.6 instead of 37 so goddammit it's serious. Really I shouldn't joke because we're all bound to get it soon, especially in London with the tube to spread the germs around. Hopefully when we do get it it won't be too serious. But for today, I think we're safe.

Fooling about

From here.

SP14 - Hostess News

Just a message for my group in case they are checking in here. I've just sent you all your matches so check your emails for who you're spoiling!

If you're in another group and you haven't had yours yet - hang in there. They'll be coming out during the next few days.

Holiday round up - part 2

I'd covered woolfest in my last post but hadn't got on to the Lakes themselves. It really is an amazing part of the world. The light changes in minutes from bright sunshine to threatening gloom. We only had two downpours - one while driving which reduced visibility to about 5 metres - and one while having dinner. So, just before...

During...

Just after....

Aren't the low puffy clouds amazing? I recently invested in this book so spent a long time trying to work out which was which.

One can not go to Keswick without visiting the Cumberland Pencil Musuem. I was quite fascinated by how they are made - not how I had imagined - plus I have now seen the worlds largest pencil, as authenticated by the Guiness Book of Records.

There you go - now you've seen it too. It's yellow.

We (I - Pooch don't drive) drove from there to Colne to see the in-laws and took a scenic route. We passed someone called Farfield Mill which was described as an arts and crafts centre so naturally we had to go in. I'd recommend a visit if you have a chance. It's full of artists in residence plus exhibitions and old weaving equipment, some of it in use. This one...

...had the most exquisite wip on it.

I do love a good zigzag. Also this deserves special mention.

I think it is wet felted. Each panel was as tall as me. Very beautiful.

With the in-laws the action continued fast and furious. We went to Ilkley and to Betty's which is surely the ultimate tea room. Very traditional, with cakes on stands and the most delicious macaroons! Pooch in particular was very taken with them.

While food is always the highlight for Pooch, for me it was a trip to Duttons for Buttons, which I didn't even know was there. Behold, the button room.

(droooooooool) My MIL stood there in amazement as I went into fits of ooh and aah like a giddy kipper. 20 mins later I had about a dozen chosen. Man, I just love buttons.

We got back on wed night and since then have celebrated my birthday! (yesterday). Pooch got me a lovely dress that I am now really too old to wear (bit short) but what the hell. I wore it to dinner at Gauchos last night and felt like a million dollars.

I got some lovely presents and there are more coming today when I meet up with my sis for a picnic (weather allowing). Hoorah!

In amongst all this activity I have also found time to match up my secret pal group. I'm planning to send out the matches tomorrow so if you're in my group (and you'll know because I'll have sent you an email or two already) look out for them tomorrow.

SP 14 Questionnaire

We interrupt this blog for.....SECRET PAL!!!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I have been knitting a lot for babies recently (other people’s) so am doing everything in superwash/machine washable wool. I do prefer yarns to be machine washable but at the same time I appreciate the delicacy of silk or something special. I’m like everyone in that I don’t like scratchy acrylics, but have nothing against soft ones. What I am really into at the moment is cotton or wool with long colour changes.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I like sewing so have made a storage case for my straights as well as another for my circs. I’ve also got a denise storage case – I love my denises! Other than that they are to be found around the house in mugs, pen pots and jars. One thing though – I HATE dpn’s. Never use them.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I’ve known how to knit for about 25 years but only got seriously into it about 8 years ago. I’d say I’m an intermediate – advanced knitter. I can do most things but have yet to try steeking – I consider this to be the holy grail of knitting! I’m an intermediate crocheter too.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

http://byhand.me/u/oNPx.

5. What's your favorite scent?

I don’t wear perfume and am allergic to lavender, but I do like things like vanilla, cocoa and honey. Sweet smells!

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Does the pope poo in the woods? I am a chocolate addict. Milk or plain – too much cocoa and it starts tasting too healthy. Also strawberry and raspberry flavoured sweets. Australian Cherry Ripes are my all time favourite choc bar.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I can spin but I don’t. I prefer to focus on knitting. I also sew, both with a machine and by hand. I do a little freehand embroidery.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I have an ipod so am fine with mp3’s. I like hip hop but mainly listen to audio books. Always detectives and preferably classic ones. Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham etc.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

Love red, orange, purple and yellow. “Smoky Aubergine” is the colour that best suits me. I also have a weakness for anything with polka dots on. Red with white dots is my favourite. I dislike neons and pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I am married to a computer geek called Pooch – 2nd anniversary on 2nd August. Ironically he is allergic to dogs and cats. I loooooove cats but sadly a husband is for life, not just for Christmas, (maybe) so I can’t have one.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Yes, yes, yes and no.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I knit a tonne of socks. I always have a couple of pairs on the go. But I also like jumpers, fairisle, intarsia, felted bags…all sorts really.

13. What are you knitting right now?

On the needles… wedding present afghan, 2 pairs of socks, baby blanket, fairisle jumper for mum (in planning stage), buttercup top for me.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yep!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

They both have their time and place. Just no dpn’s.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes, both.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Years and years. Don’t make me think about it.

18. What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe?

I love Christmas! I’m not religious though.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Buttons. I am crazy about buttons. Big ones, small ones, old ones, new ones. Love ‘em.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to Interweave and Knitters. Also ‘The Knitter’ in the UK. I like Norah Gauguin and have her ‘Knitting Nature’ book but none of the smaller ones. Don’t buy them new though! But if you found a second hand copy or something like that I’d love it. I love sixties and seventies patterns too and have quite a collection.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I’ve tried most things.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I certainly am. I take a UK 7 shoe (European 40) and have average ankles etc in that commercial sock patterns fit me.

23. When is your birthday?

4th July! Seriously!

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

I am littlelixie.

Back from the Lakes, and from Woolfest, and from the in-laws, and...(Picturetastic)

So I finally made it to Woolfest. I've been trying to go since it started and I finally made it on its fifth birthday. And it was great! But something rather strange happened. There I was, almost knee deep in the good stuff, and yet I only came away with this...

The closest I got to yarn is sock blockers - which are absolutely beautiful.

They've got painted tops - so pretty! I also managed to stock up on buttons. I am getting really into buttons nowadays.

My favourite part of the day was the sheep auction. The auctioneer was the one who usually does the animal auctions there and was brilliant.

I bid on a number of things but struck lucky with these.

Aren't they amazing? I forget now who made them but I absolutely love them. More than £1000 was raised for the nominated charity and most people looked as if they were having as much fun as me. There were also some actual sheep. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this one - with a centre parting.

There were also lots with amazing horns.

As well as the usual amazing knitting on display...

....there were also traditional crafts....

...and traditional music and dancing.

Plus the most awesome ewe milk ice cream. Phew - that stuff was divine.

I think that's enough for today - I'm going to finish off my post tomorrow. Just to say - those signed up on Secret Pal the partners haven't gone out yet. Will be a little while longer but stay tunes to the blog for updates.

In a not unusual development....

....I have new shoes!

These came from Schuh and were a steal at £12.99. I thought they'd be perfect for our holiday, which we ste off for on Friday morning. 3 nights in the Lake District following by 2 nights with the in-laws. All very nice, plus Woolfest thrown in on the Saturday for fun. Hoorah!

Not much to report knit wise but a little spurt of creativity of a beady type. 2 necklaces, a bracelet and 7 stitch markers.

The stitchmarkers use them scarab beads I got in egypt, some plastic leaves I got the other day and a dangly crystal thing which is a bit bulky but looks lovely. I've had the beads for the necklaces for ages but have never got around to stringing them. The red and while polka dots are fimo and I made them about two years ago. The greyer ones are actually polka dot too and really beautiful. Close up:

I can't remember where I got them from now but I wish I'd got more - so pretty.

I love my socks!

I finished my Kai Mei socks!

I completely and utterly and totally love them.

It's the way the lace curves across them. So cool. The yarn is Malabrigo sock.

Was so excited to have finished them I've cast on another pair from the Cookie A book called "Rick" which have a fancy spiral going round them. Am using some amazing yarn I got from Nickerjac on Folksy. Crimson, orange and red. Awesome.

I've also used the first of the embroidery transfers Jane gave me the other weekend. It's only a little one on a baby t-shirt but I rather like it!

Will be heading to Pooch's sister at the end of the month.

Who dat?

Dat, I mean that, happens to be moi et ma soeur. Did I spell that right? I'm so out of practice.

I am on the right wearing the dress Pooch got me for xmas last year. It is Sian's birthday in about 2 weeks but she'll be away so we had a nigth out last night. She'll be 29. My little sister! Not looking too bad for a 29 year old huh?

We had terribly posh cocktails followed by very unposh dinner at Bodeans. Great fun was had by all!

Meanwhile the Kai Mei socks continue nicely. about 2/3 through the second one. Just love the concept.

And don't forget...

Secret Pal Sign Ups Close Tomorrow!

Go here to sign up.

UK Ravelry Day

Had a lovely day yesterday. Despite the fairly torrential rain! Really felt for the organisers. If it had been last weekend it would have been perfect. As it was everyone made the most of it - I saw one person improvising by using a plait of roving as a scarf. Now that's cunning. 3 people said hello to me after recognising my skirt (the one made out of curtain fabric) and 1 said she recognised me from my voice and others asked for more podcasts. I have been thinking about doing another one but it's just actually sitting down and doing it that's the thing.

The one low point for me was the talk by Meg thingy - EZ's daughter. If someone had paid me to come over from america to talk about my mum I'd do more than just read out of one of her books for 20 mins. That was all she had prepared, apart from the original baby surprise jacket. The rest was depedant on the audience asking questions. Contrast that with what Stephanie Pearl McPhee did at the IKnit day last year and there's just no comparison.

I got some beautiful yarns, buttons and geegaws. This is some Araunacia.

Plus a KnitPro needle to try.

Plus an added bonus - Jane gave me some awesome embroidery transfers. Robots, science and mexican wrestling!

This is obviously my queue for some more pant embroidery. Woo ha!

It's undoubtedly irrational but the "Meg" experience has made me wary of booking for the sessions for the IKnit weekender - that and the fact they are £20-£35 each. All the details are up on the website though so take a look.

It's official - Poor Me

Within the last week and going from past to most recent:

• Fallen over running for the bus = bruises, scuffed palms, wrenched muscle, which only becomes apparent over the weekend.
• Get the sickness bug that's been going around and spend 36 hours convinced am going to be sick.
• Wrenched muscle (in bosom area, directly below left breast) (my left) gets more painful. Miss a night's sleep and end up on prescription pain killers.
• Gave blood. This in itself was fine but the painkillers were stopping my blood clotting as well as usual so start bleeding again and end up fainting.
• Hospital appt with handsome italian to personally examine my freckles. It's not skin cancer but is a non-NHS prescription so ££££. OK, so the italian actually made this a good thing on balance.
• Root canal at dentist. Am in the chair for an hour and he drills into a nerve (which is one of my long-time nightmares) which wasn't his fault at all but caused me to leave the chair and instinctively grab hold of him which was very suprising to both of us.

So yeah, poor me. It's been quite a week. The only thing keeping me going is the thought of the Ravelry Day in Coventry at the weekend. That and my sock. I have sock love. Isn't this beautiful?

I am so loving it, and the pattern is very easy once you get going. It's an excellent book - best knitting book I've bought in a long time. I'm about 2/3 through the first one.

Of course the big news is that...

SECRET PAL 14 SIGN-UPS ARE OPEN!

I am one of the hostesses this time round and I am looking forward to it. Go along to the blog to find out more. And do sign up - you can choose to have a pal in this country if you're not wanting to spend on postage at the mo and you can choose to spend as little as $30 or up to $90, depending on your budget.

She doesn't just knit

When the spirit takes me I sew too. Not as well as A Mingled Yarn, but I do it nonetheless. In the past 24 hours I have knocked out three skirts, all of which I am terribly pleased with and all of which were completely from fabric stash.

The first is from the curtain leftovers.

A straight a-line with a zip and button fastening. Strictly speaking it's too heavy for clothes but I love the print so I've just gone for it.

The second is the same shape but longer.

It's a slightly stretchy cotton mix so didn't need a waist fastening - just some shaping.

The last is my favourite - you know I do love my polka dots.

It is one of those proper circle skirts so has excellent movement...

....check out those pins. Also with a zip and button waist.

I couldn't have done any of these without my beautiful sewing machine with its button setting. Plus of course the book "Sew What! Skirts" which I can really recommend if you're interested in making some simple skirts to your own measurements.

I have also finished my wonderful blue cotton cardi. Hoorah for warm weather!

So nice to be knitting something other than baby blankets!

I have great plans to start Kei Mai from Cookie A's book which finally arrived from Amazon. I got a beautiful skein of Malabrigo sock from I Knit yesterday and just need to disentangle a circ from a boring ongoing sock so I can get going.

Yoiks, splendid, ghastly and other useful words

Just because you don't hear some words very often doesn't mean they are not good words. 'Splendid' is literally a splendid word. Juicy. Full of meaning. 'Ghastly' also. I won't stop using them however much people have taken to sniggering when I do.

So...yoiks! It's been two weeks since I last posted which is pretty ghastly. However, I have some splendid photos to share so stand by.

I'm going to break with tradition and actually talk abou knitting first before launching into the rest of my trivia. I am thoroughly sick of baby knitting and having seen a rather dishy cardigan in monsoon with a price tag of £50 thought "I can do that from stash" and got to it. The yarn seems to have been used as a dog bed at some point in it's past so as soon as it's finished it will be getting a nice bath but it is coming along nicely.

It just goes to show the benefits of aran weight yarn - it's taken me less than a week to get to this point.

Of course some would say there had been more serious events going on that my knitting (they would be wrong - but they say it anyway). Last night saw poor ManUtd lose the something league. It was a tense last 10 mins at our house.

The scarf-round-the-head of exhibit B is a trick that had never previously failed when it came to generating luck - but last night not even that could create 2 last minute goals. Pooch, it need hardly be said, was not a happy bunny.

Fortunately I have a photo from happier times to share too - when we went to the local park for a picnic over the bank holiday weekend.

It was really lovely. Less than 10 mins walk away and the first time I'd been there despite living here for more than three years now.

A mixture of gardens, grass, amazing trees and a beautiful lake.

Featuring baby coots - or cootlings as I like to think of them. Some of the trees really were amazing too. Check this out:

You can picture it walking around Lord of the Rings style.

So there we go - that summarises my last two weeks. Except to briefly mention that the BSC element of the membership at work is in full swing once again so work is once again like being at the wrong end of a firing range. Ah well. I am a hostess in Secret Pal 14 so that is about to swing into action and keep things busy. I'll post here when it opens but there is also a group on Ravelry.