Thank you SP, whoever you are. Spot on, gold star for you!!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Thank you Hello Nelly!
Thank you SP, whoever you are. Spot on, gold star for you!!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Funny Story (I'm not really this popular!)
The first, was from James (my favourite card, in the middle). I won't tell you what it said, but it was sweet. He's away this week, by the way, but so is sarah's husband and Karen's BF so us girls are good tonight, with a DVD.
The second was from touring car driver Jason Plato, whom I (bizarrely) have a massive crush on. It said "I insist you dump your Boyfriend and come with your horse to live with me in Monaco. I will drive you to the casino every night in my company Seat. Love Jason Plato" Wow. What a surprise.
The third was from movie star, Josh Hartnett. Again, I'm stunned. It said "Come to live with me in LA, you can bring your horse if you must. I'm only good when people write lines for me, so that's all I got. Love Josh Hartnett"
Out of all those J's who shall I possibly choose? It's a toughie!! :)
Speaking of cards, I've just listed some new horsey ones on etsy!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Best Present Ever
They're parts of little laundry bags. I don't think they're everyone's cup of tea, but I love the way they've turned out. I'm trying to find some sort of crafting identity, and find out what sells on etsy and what doesn't. So excuse me if the shop looks a bit of a mish mash! And yes, Amanda, in naming my shop, I was inspired by a certain song (and I love Dick van Dyke!!! Well, who doesn't?).
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
We're back!
This will well and truly become our iconic photo of the trip! If only my legs (far right!) where that long in real life!
Duncan is soooo lucky this wasn't aimed at me!! He was our designated driver, and was thrilled to be driving a new renault mini MPV. Until he put it in a snow drift! We were half way up Puy Mary, one of the tallest mountains around, when we pulled over to the right (luckily away from the sheer drop!) to avoid an oncoming car and the car dropped into a snow covered ditch. Funnily enough, he was trying to avoid a ditch we could see! So, we all got out to push, and promtly sunk about a foot into the snow! The driver and his wife got out of the car we had being trying to avoid and helped too. And, crisis overted! Although we spent the rest of the day with wet socks, and the road we had been trying to get to was closed anyway! Happy, happy days! :)
We saw this house whilst out and about, and I want to live here!
Since they don't have to do it every day, lighting the (amazingly large) fire is still a novelty!!
So, we found some knitting magazines in the supermarket, with absolutley stunning cabled patterns. All charted, so that's helpful. However, on the continent they tend to write the patterns in prose, rather than line by line statements as we do here. I was trying to explain this to James, and say that this was going to make it more difficult to translate. That instead of writing
row 1: K,
row2: P,
row 3; K,
row 4: P1 P2Tog P to last 3 stitches P2tog P1, etc for example,
they would write in prose as follows, continue in stocking stitch for 4 rows whilst decreasing at each end of the final row blah blah etc. He thought this was really funny and said, what could they add some adventure in there too? Like, "She knitted, whilst the terrorists crash through the window, and as gun fire blazed she decreased at each end of the row". I of course, thought this was hilarious and woke the whole house. Guess you just had to be there :)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Au Reviour, a Mardi!
We're back on Tuesday, hopefully well rested. We have lots of books, knitting and playing cards. There's no telly. We're so looking forward to it. Lets just hope Ryanair are on the ball today.......
See you on Tuesday!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Sun Ray Shawl and Guerilla Warfare Chic
I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it. I already had the yarn, which I bought in the States, and it was earmarked for a second scarf/shawl, like my version of Icarus. I just needed to find a pattern, something a bit more involved than Icarus, which only has rows of eyelets for the main body of the shawl. The pictures that are online with the pattern, are nice, but they have it knitted in a funny yellow (presumably to follow the name of the shawl), which doesn't do it justice, I don't think. I was attracted to the stitch pattern, I love the way the stitches change direction and flow along the shawl. I think it is more wave like than sun rays.
To knit, this is a great pattern, very easy and I couldn't put it down. All that is involved is SSK, yo and K2Tog. No purling 6 million stitches together or anything fiddly like that. It is a 20 row repeat, so it requires a bit of concentration but once you get going, it become obvious which stitches go where. The pattern was originally designed for a chunkier yarn, on bigger needles, to produce a much larger shawl. I am tempted to do it again following the pattern, to make a lap blanket/throw type thing. The pattern calls for 5 or six repeats of the main chart, I did six, which was where I ran out of yarn. Another modification I did was to leave out the garter stitch edging, before the picot cast off. The pattern directs six knit rows before casting off. I like the smoothness of the stocking stitch so the garter stitch edge didn't really follow for me. Instead I continued in stocking stitch for 2 rows, then cast off. As a result, the edge does curl slightly. I like the picots a lot, very simple, although time consuming and the look is effective. There is no cast on edge, which is a clever touch, the designer obviously thought carefully about it. You cast on three stitches, with a crochet cast on, knit 18 rows, then knit these 3, pick up and knit 9 along the selvedge, then pick up and knit your cast on rows. Hey presto, no cast on edge. Sounds complicated, but when I had it in my hands it was easy.
The yarn is just yummy, the colour is closest to this picture (sorry a bit out of focus!) a really true, strong jade. I think the yarn is discontinued, it seems to only be on sale at a few places and is cheap (bag some if you can!!!). The stitch definition is great, being cotton, and the silk gives it a wonderful sheen, which is what I was looking for. It is woven, not plied (please someone correct my lingo if it's wrong!) so doesn't split at all. It blocks wonderfully too. I quickly washed it in woolite and warm water, then squeezed it out in a towel, which seemed to 'flatten' the stitches a bit - in a good way. I pinned it out over night, and it seems to have worked well. The curl at the cast off edge is a bit annoying, but worth it for missing the garter stitch.
As a scarf, this is no way as cuddly as Icarus, the yarns are just polar opposites. But, this has better stitch definition, so the stitch pattern is more of a proper feature. I just love it.
My colleague, the lovely Richie, said how lovely it was, and that I had the Guerilla Warfare Chic look going on. I take this as a great compliment, as he's trendy and cool. And loves blogs, so I'll have to tell him he features on one today!
And, lastly, thasnk so much for your amazingly generous comments on my last post - my etsy shop is up (keep checking back as I increase my stock!).