Wool Masher Monthly

Isn't that a great name for a magazine? If I weren't so busy fighting crime while weaing spandex in my spare time I'd probably start it up. But then I would only make another million and lose it after having my heart broken by an unscrupulous nogooddirtydawg.

So here we go, in this first and only edition of Wool Masher Monthly.

Have had a busy day over he old dye pot. Or saucepan. You see, dude, that's the good thing about koolaid - it's nontoxic so you can change the colour of your old grey pants without needing to keep a special saucepan for it. Not that that is what I was doing. Oh dear me no.

So here is what we started off with - 300g of superwash wool all together. 100g each of white, aran cream and pale heathery green. All soaked and in 50g skeins.

Here is what we ended up with at the half way point. One of the green ones suspended over 'grape' and the two white skeins half in and out of 'lemon and lime' and 'cherry'. I love that cherry red colour.

And what happened to the two aran skeins? Well....I thought I would try something Nickerjac showed me about sprinkling the dye onto wet wool then steaming it. Except this is koolaid not proper dye and it didn't exactly work. There were a number of obstacles to be overcome.

1. The only colours I had left were ones I hadn't used before so I wasn't sure of the colours that would come out.
2. The wool wasn't wet enough.
3. The koolaid doesn't have the same permeating powers as dye.
   

Here is me trying to overcome obstacle three.

Yes folks, it's a potato masher. It came to me as if in a dream. It didn't work but it made me laugh for a while.

Anyway after about 2 hours of fidgeting about here is what I ended up with, drying off.

The grape and green. I'm liking the colours.

The cherry and lime. This one I really love.

The 'what-the-hell-dude' that obviously didn't work that well.


Does everyone else own a copy of this book. If not you seriously need to. This woman, this goddess amongst women, is the bees knees. I located the joining technique I was after and socks....socks abounded. My cup runeth over with socks. (You know I'm going to have to abbreviate this episode of Wool Masher Monthly as Pooch is getting the hump with me tapping away while we watch 'Enter the Dragon')


This is the complete pair I am wearing as my fingers strum the keyboard.

These are some for christmas presents.

And then there's these.

OK, Pooch severaly miffed now. Got to go my sweets x

Crimes against Jumpers

Behold... http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/gypsy/gypsy_lg.html

The formatting toolbar isn't working at the moment so I can't make this a link but copy and paste only when sitting down - this one is a baddy.

Plans for the weekend anyone? Personally I have dying on my mind. No, not a return to the bad old days but with Koolaid! Hooray for koolaid! I bought a load of superwash merino yesterday and plan to have my wicked way with it tomorrow. You see I am in a sock knitting frenzy and have been furiously knitting one pair that need sewing up, half of a regia 6-ply jacquard, 2/3 of a regia 4-ply stripey which I realise I have been knitting on one 2.25 and one 3.25 needle (i.e. one of each) since forgetting to substitute the second needles after finishing the first 5 rows of rib. I am now part way down the foot. Doh! I kept thinking the fabric seemed a little on the firm side.

3 whole days. 3 days! Yay. Oh I forgot to blog yesterday - but at lunchtime during a 'kung fu physics' demo I chopped a block of wood in half with my bare hand. It was terribly exciting and I have hardly stopped talking about it since. Really made me feel I had achieved something.

Have given up on the making-a-backpack idea and am instead focussed on the waiting-for-it-to-be-delivered-from-ebay idea instead. A bog standard pale blue one for a fiver which should be slightly better for me.

Do you know I feel far too doolally to actually write anything else coherent here. Sorry peeps - I'm off!

Eye candy part 2

Thanks for the comments and suggestions people - although there is one I want to discuss with you. Nick from CSI. Now Nick you would have thought meets my criteria - beefy, dark hair, fairly chisseled but NO! There is something just a little bit pathetic about him so on my list he will not go. Warwick however...now you're talking. So to continue...

• Warrick from CSI - yeah I could have found out his real name but that really isn't the point here you know. Just look and enjoy.
  
• Johnny Depp - believe me the king of kings was only left off through lack of time before. I actually found the whole pirate thing very attractive but hell you know. I'm now thinking this list is starting to reveal too much about me.
  
• The Rock - can you tell what he's cooking?Yep, another buff wrestler but this one acts too!
• Ok this really is quite shallow. Enough said I reckon.
  

Eye candy

Is that a derogatory title? I just mean these people are lovely to look at.

• Tom Ward - Silent Witness plus a voice to go all crinkly about.
• Keanu Reeves - obviously
• John Cena - WWE wrestling champion and badass
• Pooch - image to follow
• Angelina Jolie - as a straight woman I am not ashamed to say I fancy Angelina Jolie. But I never knew how hard it was to find a picture of her with her clothes on.

To be continued.....

Floating

I went and bobbed about in a flotation tank last night in London Bridge called Floatworks. I've never done that before and the experience was very worthwhile although I didn't manage to switch off that much. I do feel much more relaxed generally though today so I'll see whether that lasts.

In other news Pooch has taken to wearing his red hat...and nothing else....around the house. I thought about posting a picture and then thought how many of you it would upset and decided against.

Told my boss yesterday that I was going to do this other job and he was rather annoyed. He kept saying he wasn't annoyed with me and it was a great opportunity for me but..... He ended by advising me not to let Sean get away with it cheaply and to insist the MBA was from Cranfield or London Business School and on a massive payrise.

I've done a two needle sock in the variegated brown mercerised cotton I bought at the weekend. A lot of people think it's too rough for socks but I'm ok with it. I'm trying it out too as I quite fancy it for a jumper and this is a good way of swatching on a large scale and really trying it out. I feel I might be entering another sock knitting phase (on 2 needles of course) so it's a good time to start bashing out the xmas presents. When I was with Lucy and Lou they both complained I had never knitted them anything and Freddie started in too. Freddie has now been going out with Becky for 8 months so I think she might be a fixture for some time to come - better find out how big her feet are too.

So sorry no pictures this time....the SkipNorth website is almost ready though so if you want to be told when it goes live email me at skipnorth@hotmail.co.uk It's going to be a wicked holiday!

The stitch is back (long post alert)

Dude....have I ever not blogged for this long? Goes to show the action/illness packed week I've been having I guess.

The headaches are finally subsiding. I think it probably was sinusitus so many thanks to Nickerjac for the sinutab tip. I still have a session booked in a flotation tank for Monday though (thanks Yvonne!) which I am really looking forward to. I'm also thinking it might be time to get my eyes tested again (thanks Nikki). In fact thanks everyone for all your suggestions.

So finally I have had some time for some knitting...so prepare to be bombarded with pictures. First up we have a swtch for the pinky hat using my handspun. The yarn is red with red sequins so I thought it would look best on a red background (dur).


Pooch chose his red yarn and the life aquatic hat just needs sewing up now. Here he is modelling the wip!

It's very simple 2x2 rib and I basically did it yesterday on the train down to canterbury and back.

Canterbury was very good. I was there to see my little-ist sister Freddie who is now a whopping 17, and my two best friends Lucy (left) and Louise (right).

We were best friends at school and are still really close now. Freddie and her girlfriend Becky were there too but Freddie doesn't do photos at all. It's such a shame because she's really pretty and it makes me feel so proud to see the family resemblance (we share Dad A) but then I hated pictures when I was younger so I can understand why. The 5 of us had lunch together and it made me the *happiest* person ever. This is going to sound all gushy but it was like we were 'proper' sisters with her hanging out with my mates and me hanging out with her and hers. The two of us sat next to each other and everyone was laughing and joking and...it was just wicked. God I am sad but I don't care! It was really really good. After lunch Freddie, Becky and I headed for the shops where I was relying on them to help me look cool and regain my lost youth but frankly they were rubbish at that so I bought a jumper I first saw 3/4 years ago and a t-shirt with 'Hurley' written on it. Is this good? Answers on a postcard to me please. I like it anyway. I feel also that the general opinion was that anything was better than the star trek t-shirt I ws wearing. But come on, cut me some slack, I have a physics degree. There's only so far one can get away from that fact before it all bounces back at you!

One place I did drag them to was 'Jems' by the cathedral gates.

Jems has had a 'cool' makeover (not that the shop has changed at all in the last 50 years - it's just the stock) and are now carrying needle fleting kits plus things for scrapbookers. Despite queries from Becky along the lines of "How long can you need to spend in a sewing shop?" (I know, she needs showing 'the way of the yarn') I only bought 3 balls plus added a skein of variegated viscose to the embroidery threads and silk I bought at Liberty the other day.


The sunbeam St ives is something I have't seen before but was in C&H Fabrics as well. Perhaps a kent brand?

I also managed one or two other little purchases for use with spinning.


The flowers are one of those fake hawaiin garlands that I wil occasionally include one of in another creation.

So basically an awesome day. I sat down with Pooch in the evening and pulled out the kaffe fasset vneck which was beginning to resemble a ufo rather than a wip. It is now definitely a wip although I have done something that some people might think of as 'wong'. Cause what happened right was I started the front with the fairisle pattern and it's quite complicated. And I was bemoaning this at goldres green when, I believe it was, Jane suggested I make the back simpler and do it in stripes. I feel sure I've posted about this before in the distant past but the result can be seen here:

I've been doing it quite randomly and I like it - plus it makes a nice break from the fairisle every now and again.

So what does today hold? Well it's raining (I prefer this to the sun but don't tell anyone that) so I guess I'll be hanging out indoors. Fortunately there is knitting to be done and maybe some spinning and there is Pooch to snuggle up to. There is also the provisionally titled SKIP North to be organised - this is what I have been hinting at recently (SKIP = spinnign and knitting in public). A weekend extravaganza at Haworth in Yorkshire next Feb where 30 spinners and knitters will come together to share, learn and enhance stash through specially organised workshops and shopping trips. Nickerjac and I are trying to keep the costs down as low as possible and it looks like we might be able to do it for about £100 including all meals, 2 nights accom and luxury coach hire and materials. I have been crafting the website so I'll let you know the address as soon as it's sorted.

Phew right I think that's my lot for now!

Goddamn spam and flotation tanks

Have had to change the comment setting to registered users only. I didn't want to have to do this because I respect people's right to anonymity but then its been abused.

Thanks for all the advice about headaches. I remember seeing some 4head stuff in boots that I think is like tiger balm. Will go and have a go. And a flotation tank? Oooo I fancy that. Plus I like the head massage idea - let's face it they were all good. Thanks everyone x

My head hurts

And, friends, that just about sums up my life recently. Have had headaches for the last couple of days. Off work today as everything makes it hurt more. Ibuprofen gets rid of it for about an hour - paracetamol does nothing. Am allergic to lavender but open to suggestions if anyone knows of a non-pill cure. It's an old joke but I like it - if I jumped up and down I'd rattle. So nothing much to blog recently.

Plans have been developing well with Nikerjac. Anyone free first or last weekend of Feb? You'll hear it here first....

Apology and spam

Becky! So sorry - the sequins are from you not purlpower. I get confused when I see people's 'real' names. Purlpower has sent me soemthing else that hasn't yet materialised. Mind like a sieve - sorry. Needless to say I *adore* the sequins and am looking forward to knitting pinky with them x

Spam - guys.....I don't want a ceiling fan, anything to grow bigger, a laptop or a new job. I'm sorted for all that stuff. Don't want to have to alter the comment status but really....

Lixie Spins It

I am still knitting though, honest. As proof, here is the wip - dreamcatcher cardigan from loop-d-loop.

That big hole in the middle is what you put the cobwebby bit in. Knitting with two balls of wool is no particular fun, although I am now aware that it is easier if the balls are smaller.

But actually that's the most knitting you're going to read about now because Byrne has the spinning bug, and she's got it bad. A little trip to handweavers studio yesterday yielded excellent results....
I love Wendslydale curls. There's just something *SO* "look at me" beautiful about them. I'm yet to actually knit anything that includes me but, hey, what's the rush?

And then I got lots of lovely merino (lots of red for my pinky hat - and I thinks I have spun enough for that today.
Lots (200g) of blue faced leicester and more camel for my first knitted homespun item - a scarf. Although now I feel compelled to spin some sequins or something into. I shall try to resist though. Spun some of this up at nickerjac's.

Lots of glittery and generally lovely stuff, plus some mohair.


And some random stuff to experiment with.

As I dropped in there earlier I was at Nickerjac's lovely studio yesterday and...an idea was born. Under the codename Nickerlix it is currently being churned over in my tiny mind. With my organisational and Nik's people skills and contacts we've got it sorted - I'll keep you updated as things develop.

On the way back from Nik's got terrible stomach ache and have been wiped out since then with a summer cold. Really sore throat, oh, poor alex. Luckily Pooch came home with a surprise for me to cheer me up...

It's the first time he's had his hair shaved since we got together and it is *so* soft and strokable. Like a beautiful cat. He has just said I just want to spin from him. But nah, would need too much washing.

So let's see, how's life at the mo. Well, madwise everything is all stable and well. Poochwise all is good. Jobwise the future looks rosy. Housewise we're moving in a month and searching is under control. Having said that the neanderthals downstair have just put the boom boom techno on. And people like them will actually breed. Yuck. Anyway, where was I...

Yeah anyway, stuff's fine. Bring it on, tomorrow.

Stitch Markers for Sale

All of these are £2 for 4. P&P is free within the UK. £1 within Europe and £1.50 for the rest of the world. Email me at littlelixieathotmaildotcom with the description of the ones you want and what size needles you want them to fit on (in mm up to 25mm) and I'll make sure I've got some in stock! Posted within 7 days of payment receipt. Payment by paypal, cheque or postal order. Please don't post me cash but feel free to throw wads of it at me if you see me in person. All are about 1cm square apart from the rose petals which are more like an inch, the dragonflys which are an inch across the wings and the sewing ones - the tape measure ribbon is about 3cm square. The semi-precious stone ones come in purple (amethyst) or orangy-red (red agate) or a mix of the two.

Quick spin update

Pooch, poor tired thing, went to bed at 8.30 but I stayed up til midnight and carried on spinning. This one is done but needs the twist setting.


This one I really love and want to make the pinky hat on knitty with it.

Recognise those sequins purlpower?!They are perfect for this.

So the more retentive of those among you will notice that if I was spinning at midnight, and it's now 7.15 am, that suggests not a lot of sleeping. And you'd be right. 5.58 am I was wide awake. What a bugger. Feel *exhausted* but can't go back to sleep. Oh, isn't life just so hard!

Catch up, ketchup

Yay, settled in front of the tv with the laptop (OK, Pooch's laptop), a twirl and a pepsi max cooling in the fridge. Watching the A-team (bless you dvd) with two whole days of la la la ahead of me. So where to start?

I guess with the bag that finally got to my secret pal.

Another of my trademark button bags. Found the bag itsel in matalan and has a zillion pockets so thought would come in useful and she seems to like it. Here's a close up of the buttons.

And let's not forget this was pre-jane so had limited buttons to work with. Am now plotting to spin with buttons, but more of that later.

Next up would have to be the brooch I won on ebay. It's a lot bigger and heavier than I thought but I think it'll look good pinned to a bag. It was only £3 including postage so I'm not bothered.


And finally in the picture stakes, I've come over over spinnable. Here is me trying to spin three threads at once and realising that it's not for me.

Got into rather a tangle and had to literally cut my way out of it. Here is what the second attempt looked like (all 10 g of it!)


Sorry, got distracted...
Baddy: Oh you're a big one aren't you?
Mr T: More to the point I'm a mean one sucker

The thing is, the thing I still haven't got a handle on, is what do you do with your handspun afterwards, Nickerjac made a hat. But what do you do with 10g? Sell it to a scrapbooker possibly? Or is there another option? Anyway, between philosophising and biscuits I spun/span 3 shades of grey merino together and got the stuff wrapped round the bottle. My plan was then to ply it with the flourescent letters on the coral 4-ply but I actually quite like the greay stuff as it is. But then we come back to the big philosophical 'why'? or 'what'? Depending on how you look at it. If I don't molest it with letters then does it have any point or is it just an existential protrusion into undefined craft-space. (I designed that sentence hoping that Terry Pratchett would drop by and be proud of me).

I have a couple of plans for the weekend..

1. Visit the handweavers studio and pick up some more supplies of merino, wendsleydale and blue-faced-leicester plus another drop spindle and something to wind spun stuff onto that isn't a water bottle.
2. Visiting Nickerjac in her studio
3. Spinning lots more mad stuff
4. Having a bit of a clear out

Workwise stuff today was quite weird. Sean, Denise and I know I'm taking this new job. I told Vishanti last thing as she's on leave next week so now she knows. I'll tell John I'm applying on Monday, then others will get to know and gradually everyone will know and then I'll move desk and then that'll be it. Weird.

So what happened is...

I fired, let's call him Git, last Tuesday after he kept missing deadlines, pushing work onto another person and coming in late all the time. He immediately played the 'but I have a baby' card (Yes, he does have a baby - 4 months old, very cute, and the reason Git has been given umpteen warnings and wasn't fired 6 months ago) and officially appealed, adding in that I was extremely agressive towards him and bullied him all the time. The appeal interview was this morning and the decision was upheld BUT....can you believe this.....they gave him two months money as a goodbye present *even though he was fired for being rubbish*. Those babies huh? They can really add to your income. So Git gets the money, I get the hassle with everyone internally hating me for being practically a baby-murderer and now I have to recruit someone else while doing both his job and mine and my other staff member's who is off on sick leave til end sept (absolutely not stress related fnah fnah - her only comment when I rang to tell her was "yeah, well I'm not surprised").

Or so I thought. There I was, chatting to my mentor, minding my own business, when he offered me a job. Working for him so same company but completely different stuff (no more bloody chartered status) and....wait for it....no staff. No one to worry about. No one to do appraisals for. No one to have to tell off or, worse, sack for being crap. I get half a PA but she's his responsibility. I'd also 'have' to do an MBA while I was working which they would pay for. What a tough break huh? Although actually that could cut into my knitting or, even worse, blogging time.

Sooooo......how d'you like them apples?

It's so lovely of you - people have been emailing me and commenting all day to see if everything has worked out OK and frankly I'm still pissed off about Git but the thought of being able to up sticks and leave the drudgery of my last 5 years life work behind is a real thrill.

Knitting wise - apologies, not much to report. Off to the golders green group tonight so am sure will have loads to post about tomorrow. Pooch did finally get home (god knows how, I don't think he could see that well) all pleased with himself because his colleagues think he's a genius or something - him keeping me awake for ages telling me repeatedly what happened has all been banked and will be kept for another time. I showed him the swatches I'd done this morning and apparently the colour is all wrong. But wait, you're thinking, didn't he choose it himself? Yes....that's my boy! I've now got 150g of alpaca 4-ply in a gorgeous red. Any ideas on what to do with it? Maybe luxury socks or is that just wasteful? He's going to take me to liberty to buy some 'the right colour' and maybe one or two other things......fnah fnah

Buggery fuck

Spent most the evening swatching and drawing up a pattern for my secret project. Then spent ages threading about 150 beads onto my yarn. Now I've done the first three rows, realised I've written the pattern wrong, and noticed all the beads are on in the wrong order. Note to self - never try to knit with beads of more than one colour. Bloody pissed off now.

Have done two swatches for pooch's life aquatic hat - the alpaca arrived today and is very nice - good work Texere. But......Pooch isn't even here. He decided last minute to stay out to watch the football. Leaving his pmtense girlfriend behind.....with no chocolate. Pooch is in trouble.

The only good thing about today was my temari book turned up along with 'spinning designer yarns'. Tomorrow is d-day. Pants.

Aran madness?

Am I mad (madder than usual)? I have expressed a desire to knit an aran jumper for dad 2 for xmas and, as every knitter knows, one can not embark on a new self-designed project without buying at least one new stitch dictionary. This one is excellent - all the stitches are indexed according to how many row repeats they occur over. Was pouring over it last night and knitted the final tension swatch on my denise needles. But am I aiming too high? It's going to be quite a piece of work and I find cabling very boring. Basically we both know this is a project doomed to piss me off but.....but..... he will really like it and then I can tick "Aran jumper" off my 'what I need to knit before I die' list.

In other news the alpaca from texere still hasn't arrived which is a bit boring. Have half a mind to knit Pooch this hat rather than the more boring one he wants.

There has been a really nasty spat going on on the UKHK list. Dawn has been really rude to colin - I hate that kind of thing. It's supposed to be a list for people to share their love of a craft. Makes me angry when people spoil it.

1-day til zero hour at work. By tomorrow lunchtime the nastiness which has been ruining my sleep for the last week should be resolved and I'll finally be able to explain what has been going on. I hope I'm not kidding myself as I know the staff gossip will continue but at least I'll be able to draw a line.

;p

Had a lovely day with tess, les from silkwood and nic and two bunnies. They all had a stand at syon park (which is very lovely - I want to go back for a proper look another time). Here it is:

And I know what you're thinking..."Who is that fine figure of a man on the right with the crochet hook?" Well down ladies, he is firmly married to tess but that is les, in full charm mode. Here he is in all his glory:

Note the braces. I love those braces. Les is a self-taught crocheter-extraudinaire and had just finished a second shawl in an angora mix from their own rabbits. So soft and delicate (the shawl) - only 80g for the whole thing. I know he won't like this but I have to admit that while he is everything a woman could possibly desire in a man (stash-friendly, a wood turner so good for needles and peg looms, plus positively disposed towards cats) I long to add him to my collection of dads. You see I have two (so far). Dad A (Chris) who is the biological specimin reads this blog occasionally so obviously he is lovely, wonderful etc etc....he is quite good though. He is business-dad, golf-dad and legal-dad. He also had the good sense to spawn my half-sister and brother, Freddie and Piers. It was Freddie's 17th birthday yesterday but I digress....Dad B (Rob) is gentle-dad, practical-dad and happy-as-long-as-you're-happy-dad. So what role could possibly be left for a Dad C? Well, there is an opening for fibre-dad. Neither of the current two can (to my knowledge) knit, crochet, spin etc etc and wouldn't know angora from merino. And as I seem to collect dads it seems too good an opp to pass up. I need to consult tess to see if she would mind. Ironically I've seen more of les this year so far than of A and I'm getting near to number of days spent with B too. You see that's why I need so many...

Anyway, back to the good stuff, what did I actually do while I was there?

Oh yeah baby. I knitted away and kept laughing when person after person said "Couldn't you find any smaller ones?" fnah fnah...! I thought they were great fun and they weren't hard at all. All the weight is on the floor and of course it all knits up quickly. One woman had a go and tried to hold them continental style. Persuaded her leaving them on the floor is best. Although they are massively long they are (only?) 23mm and I've got some 20mm in the other room. IOf you see some at a show I recommend giving them a try though as they are fun.

So what did I buy...you really want to know....one hair slide. HOW RESTRAINED?! There wasn't much that I fancied but there were some little porcelin earrings like delicate flowers - orchids and roses. But then i thought to myself..."Byrne, £11 not spent on earrings is £11 more towards your spinning wheel." Now I just have to remember to put the £11 somewhere so I don't spend it on cake. I also bought a homemade pie which we had for dinner which was very nice. And Pooch has a new favourite hairdo for me too!


Some people might have thought that after all that I'd be ready to put the byrne feet up and snooze a bit. But no. I made a dive for my handspun which is now all dry and 'set'. Think I have ruined the silk by boiling it when the koolaid was sinking in but it still feels nice even if it's not lustrous. I like the colour too. The other is the blue faced leicester, camel and yak. I'm keeping that on one side til I've got enough for a scarf. Will be so soft and warm!

This was it yesterday so it's a bit of a spot the difference. Now you know me, by now, so you know that I'm not one to stick too closely to a pattern and hey if it feels good go with it. So I have started a middle band.

I'm not sure whether you are supposed to cross the threads like that in real temari so this might have to go down as a bit of a hybrid. I will know once my book arrives, and I must email Liz and ask her. I just think they're so attractive! But I have to slow down on my new-craft acquisition. I almost considered a weaving course today. Woah, that's just crazy talk.

So 'life' continues tomorrow with work work work. If only every day could be working with beautiful things. I live for the weekend!