A Celtic stitcher

WIPocalypse so far

2012-01-09T23:10:00.005Z

This month, I'm trying to concentrate on 2 stitching projects - Winter in my Garden and Autumn in my garden. Both are Mirabilia deisgns.

At the start of the month, Winter in my garden looked like this

And Autumn in my garden looked like this

Winter in my garden now looks like this

Autumn in my garden looks exactly the same as it does at the start of the month however as I haven't stitched on it yet.

My other big achievement is that I've finished a secret project that I can't share pictures of right now but will be able to in a week or so once the recipients have received them.

New year, new post, new plans

2012-01-01T23:38:00.003Z

Happy 2012 to everyone. I'm very glad to see the back of 2011 as whilst there have been lots of good things to the past year, my family and myself have had lots of problems and dramas to deal with, particularly in the last couple of months.

Still new year, new start and it's going to be an exciting one. 3 of my cousins are having babies, a very good friend is getting married, I have a big birthday (my 40th) and in a few weeks I begin studying again. I'm starting a Masters degree in Oncology via an online course in addition to working full time so I'm going to be busy.

I want to get back to Cross stitching more this year too. I have a lot of cross stitch projects which are in progress and I really want to get back to them. As a bit of motivation, I'm going to join in with 2 stitchalongs with the stitching community.

The first is 2012 WIPocalypse organised by Measi, where you work on your existing projects and report back at each full moon. It's a no pressure SAL which really appeals.

I'm going to combine it with Theme-a-licious 2012 organised by Heather, firstly because I have projects that fit in all the themes and secondly it has the best SAL graphic with the lovely Nathan Fillion.

I'm hoping to get some knitting done this year too plus there's quite few sewing projects to get to also. 2012 is definitely going to be a busy, busy year.

More knitting

2011-10-27T22:43:00.002+01:00

Time is pretty much flying by at the moment. My job is really busy at the moment so I'm pretty brain dead when I get home hence the lack of posting here.

I have been knitting away. Here's my latest finish - Stevie by Sarah Hatton from a recent Rowan studio in Rowan wool cotton.

I've also been trying out some colourwork in the form of mittens. Mitten one is done so far. The pattern is by Garnstudio/Drops and was originally fingerless mitts but after the last two winters, I think mittens will be more useful.

I'm planning a relaxing weekend of crafting so hopefully I will have more progress to share soon.

Of sewing, secret knitting, splints and framing

2011-09-12T22:46:00.005+01:00

The past couple of months have been quite busy with an annual stitching weekend away with friends, Knit Nation and just general life busyness.

Prior to Knit Nation, I had agreed to test knit some lovely new sparkle yarn from Old Maiden Aunt yarns, ready for it's launch at Knit Nation. The yarn is merino sparkle in the shade Dreich and the pattern is Undine.

Another thing that has been taking up my time of late is sewing. I grew up with a Mum who made a lot of my clothes. My mum spent many years working in clothing factories as a sewing machinist. I have sewn clothes in the past with her help but I decided recently that I'd like to try to sew on my own.

So far I finished a Wrap style blouse in some very basic black fabric. This was my testing garment to see if I could do it.

Last week, I moved on to a tunic top with a concealed zip. The pattern is Juliet tunic by Serendipity design studio. It was a little tricky as I had to adapt adjust the skirt part of the tunic to fit my hips and lengthen it. The having to lengthen the skirt section blew my mind as I'm really not tall, only 5ft tall. Usually I have the exact opposite problem. But it now fits really well.

My most recent finish was another wrap blouse from the same pattern. I've altered it somewhat at the arms and shoulders so it fits better.

I've also managed to frame up a recent cross stitch that I already had the frame for.

The only downside lately has been a further recurrence of my previous hand problem so my right hand has been strapped up in a splint for the past month or so and I'm currently having more physiotherapy to try and resolve it. Thankfully it seems to have improved over this weekend so I'm feeling a bit more hopeful about it that I was last week.

Race for life update

2011-06-06T22:33:00.004+01:00

Well the Race for life was yesterday and it went very well. I managed to finish in 48 minutes 50 secs which I was very pleased with as I thought I was going much slower than last year but I ended up finishing quicker.

My Sister and I before the run.

Me crossing the line.

My sister, my mum and I after the run. My mum couldn't run this year but is planning to take part next year.

The post race scene.

There's still time to donate and win a prize in my Race for life draw. My donation page is at Race for life and I've listed the rules/prizes for the draw in my last post. As of tonight, including some off line donations that aren't on my online page, my total is sitting at £243, which I'm very pleased with. A very big thank you for all that have donated.

Prize Draw for Cancer Research

2011-05-24T22:17:00.004+01:00

Just like last year, I'm going to be participating in the Race for Life 5km for Cancer Research. Its a 5km women runner only event for Cancer Research, the leading UK charity for research into the causes and treatment of all cancers. Cancer Research does amazing work and they have a great website full of useful and accurate information for Cancer patients and their carers. I use their site a lot in my work with cancer patients so its a cause close to my heart.

Last year Lilith of Old Maiden Aunt yarns donated a gift voucher for her webstore as a prize for a draw for anyone who donated to my sponsor page. I'm very pleased to say that Lilith has repeated her offer again and has offered some prizes for anyone who donates.

The first one is a kit for Fugue, a design by the very talented Kate Davies, knitted in lovely OMA yarn.

The prize is for the full kit. She has also offered a couple of skeins of her lovely merino sock yarn as separate prizes.

In addition, I'm offering a prize of a pair of hand knitted socks to fit the person who wins this prize. I'm hoping to have a couple of more prizes to offer which I will sort out in the next day or so.

So how can you win one of these lovely prizes. Well its pretty simple. Donate to my Race for life page using the link at top right of my blog page or visit my fundraising page to donate. Due to the rules regarding Gift aid, you can't gift aid your donation if you wish to be entered into the prize draw. Any donation of whatever size would be greatly appreciated. The race is on the 5th of June and I will keep the draw open for a week after the race.

More knitting finishes

2011-05-22T17:48:00.005+01:00

The knitting production line continues here at the moment. The Baby Yoda outfit went down very well and the Father to be is very pleased with it. He went looking on line to see what I might be knitting for a baby that was Star Wars related and I have apparently exceeded his expectations.

I've finished the remaining baby knits and handed them over. The mum to be has promised a picture of the baby wearing the Yoda outfit once he makes his appearance.

First up, another pair of tiny shoes in Yoda green

And a Ten stitch blanket in some James Brett marble chunky

Karoline asked in the comments, what pattern I used for the light saber in the last post. Well I used this one that I found on Ravelry. Its really just a jumbo felted icord.

As well as the baby knitting, I've also managed to finish knitting something for me. The Pattern is Milkweed by Laura Chau and the yarn is Handmaiden Camelspin.

I was hoping to perhaps get some stitching done this weekend but my body has managed to conspire against me. On Friday night on my way home from work, I managed to trip up on the stairs and on my way down, I put my hand out to save me. Unfortunately I put out my right hand that I fell on last year and I also had my keys in my hand. I've managed to flare up the previous injury again. Thankfully I can knit/write and type but anything that involves pinching my thumb and first finger together is uncomfortable and painful. That rules out stitching for a few days until it settles. Hopefully it will settle soon.

May the fourth

2011-05-04T21:40:00.004+01:00

Today being Star Wars day, I have a very appropriate knitting finish to share. One of my work colleagues is due to have her first baby very soon. Both she and her husband are fairly geeky (like me) and her husband is a huge Star Wars fan. When I mentioned that I planned to knit some things for the baby, she was very keen and the idea of some more non traditional knits appealed to her.

So I knitted a outfit very appropriate for a new born Jedi - Baby Yoda Hat and sweater with felted baby sized light saber

I knitted a couple of other things also

Tiny Shoes designed by Ysolda Teague in Old Maiden Aunt Sock yarn in Lon Dubh

And one of my favourite baby knits - Little pumpkin hat from Itty bitty Hats

I'm in the process of finishing a blanket and some baby socks, pictures to follow. The Mum to be is finishing up work in a couple of weeks so I'm planning to get the baby knitting finished for this weekend so I can hand over the gifts next week.

Whoosh

2011-04-17T22:53:00.004+01:00

Time seems to have been a bit of a blur since my last post at Christmas. Lots of things going on - lots of knitting, beading and some sewing. I have one less tooth that I did the last time I posted as the dental problems I posted about last time got much worse and I was pretty ill for a few days. When you combine that with lots of horrible weather, work stress and lots of other things including an issue from my last job, it adds up to several weeks of me not really coping with life so well. I had a very down spell which I've thankfully come out the other side of now.

Life is onwards and upwards now and I'm looking forward to some time off that I've got coming up courtesy of the Easter Holidays and the Royal Wedding. Hopefully that will mean lots of knitting/sewing/general crafty time. Meanwhile here's a picture of the Laminara shawl that I finished in January. It definitely converted me to Estonian lace knitting. The yarn is some Shetland laceweight that I bought at the Iknit day 2 years ago for the bargainous price of £2.99 for 640 metres.

Happy Christmas

2010-12-25T00:57:00.002Z

Several things have kept me from posting lately. They can easily be summed up in three words - teeth, snow and work. Work has been very busy with training someone new. Ongoing problems with one tooth has meant 6 separate dental appointment, 2 different dentists and 2 days in bed very unwell. Thankfully things seem to be settling now and I have a dentist I can trust.

As for the third thing, snow. Well this has mostly been the view out of my window for the past few weeks. Britain has had a very severe winter so far. The snow is a little less deep now but its been very cold where I live - the high most days is around -7 C and its been falling to -12 C and lower at night.

I will leave you with some pictures of wintery Paisley. Firstly the view of Paisley Abbey this afternoon as the sun went down.

And a picture of the old mill building at the end of my street. The river is only partly frozen today but earlier in the week it was completely frozen over. I was hoping to catch site of the otter that has made its home in the river of late but no luck.

Finally I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

This weekend have been mostly...

2010-11-01T21:11:00.005Z

...making jewellery. Before cross stitch or Knitting came into my life, I made jewellery. As a teenager, I made very 80s earrings and bracelets and its the first crafty thing that I remember buying the supplies for myself.

Over the years, its come in handy for presents and to make something that's just right for a special occasion. A lot of the pieces I make tend to go to my mum and sister. On Friday, I went with my mum and aunt to the local craft and stitching show and my mum saw some red and crystal beads that she thought would go perfectly with an outfit that she has made for herself for a special occasion that she is going to. So I offered to make a choker, bracelet and earring set from them.

Whilst I was on a jewellery making roll, I thought I would use the left over beads plus some others from my bead stash to make a few more things plus a long overdue beaded watch that I had promised my sister and also one for her MIL.

The weather has been pretty miserable here so it has been a mostly indoor weekend except for visits to the supermarket and the gym. This week I'm really looking forward to the second part of a class that I'm taking at a local craft shop. The class is about learning to use resin in jewellery for making pendants and other items. Last week we learnt how to make up the resin, how to pour it into moulds and how to imbed items in the resin. This week we are learning finishing techniques.

Flying by

2010-10-20T22:13:00.003+01:00

Life seems to be going by very quickly at the moment hence the lack of blog posts. Work is keeping me really busy plus I've been out and about socialising a bit more lately, which has been nice.

There has been some knitting finished.

Purple socks for one of the Race for Life draw winners. The pattern is Angee by Cookie A. I've concentrating on sock knitting this month for the Socktoberfest KAL

And some simple gloves in Colinette jitterbug that are coming in very handy now winter is starting to make an appearance in Scotland.

On Sunday, I spent the day at my mum's learning to sew something based on a top I own. My mum spent most of her working life working in clothing factories and bridal shops plus she has always sewn clothes for herself and the rest of the family. She was showing me how to use a top that I own to make a pattern to make another top. She then helped me to use the pattern to make a top. I'm pretty pleased with the results. She helped me a lot with the sewing also as the fabric was pretty tricky. I can see more sewing in my future.

London, V&A and Knit Nation

2010-08-22T21:34:00.003+01:00

Late July, I took a trip down to London for Knit Nation, a fun show of classes on knitting and spinning plus a great marketplace. The event was held at Imperial college in London and I stayed in the student halls. The other big attraction for me in the area was the chance to go back to the Victoria and Albert museum. I think its my favourite museum. I took a ton of pictures which I've made into a slide show below.

Imperial College itself was a lovely venue for the Knit Nation event.

I loved the glass panels outside.

The market place opened on the Thursday evening with a preview night. Most of the early arrivals headed for the Wollmeise stall.

The stall was pretty crowded but mostly good natured. I'm not very tall and I got jostled a little in the crowd plus at one point, I bent down to look at yarn and before I got up again, skeins of wollmeise yarn started falling on my head. Ironically in the subsequent two marketplace days, you could walk right up to the stall for good parts of the day and browse in peace.

On the Friday I took a all day class with Cookie A on top down sock design, during which I completely forgot to take any pictures. The class was amazing and Cookie A is a very inspirational teacher. I have a sock in progress which I designed during the class that I'm knitting away at very slowly.

Another fun aspect of the weekend was the Ravelry pattern on the Saturday night which was a lot of fun. Jess and Casey from Ravelry were exactly how I pictured them and bought lovely project bags as a gift for the attendees.

The whole Knit Nation experience was really good. Alice and Cookie A and the volunteers all did an amazing job of organising the event and making it a lot of fun. As did all the stall holders who did well to keep functioning seeing how long the event was. It was sad when it was all over.

Hello again

2010-08-22T21:12:00.002+01:00

Life has been a bit busy lately for a variety of reasons.

First up, the final total that I raised for Race for life was £250, which I was incredibly pleased with. The voucher for the OMA yarn was won by Anna from my knitting group and I'm busily knitting a pair of socks for the sock prize winner. Time has slightly run away from me lately but if you donated and I haven't been in touch yet, I will be as I would like to give a little something to everyone who did donate.

Work has been keeping me busy. I can't quite believe I've been in my new job for 9 months already and it all seems to be going well. They've been pretty understanding with hospital appointments as the thumb problem that I had earlier in the year has continued to cause difficulty and I've been attending physio sessions for the past two months. Again I have a delightful thumb splint to wear and will probably have to wear it on and off in the future as my physio has discovered that the injury was aggravated by the fact that I have hyper mobile thumb joints. Its not just the thumb joints but also my ankles. The ankle joint effect has caused me to fall 3 times in the past couple of months so I've been a bit bruised and battered.

Thankfully the thumb problem has not stopped me knitting although it has affected my ability to stitch at times. I have finished a couple of things, including a long term sock WIP.

Oh and there was also my annual stitching weekend with friends in there, a trip to London from Knit Nation, a visit to the Knit Camp market place and a Ravelry meet up picnic but more on them in the next few days.

Race for life report

2010-06-15T13:42:00.002+01:00

Well I survived my race for life and managed it in a not to shabby for me 50 minutes. I managed to run in bursts, which I was pretty pleased with.

Here's my mum and I prior to the race. The Race for life is for Cancer Research UK for all the different cancers they research. They seem to put a big emphasis on pink and breast cancer, I guess because it is a women only run. So there are a lot of people wearing pink. Not me however. My Mum is wearing a t shirt printed with pictures of friends and family affected by cancer.

We were joined in running the race by my sister and one of her friends. My sister is the only with the red hair.

At the finishing line.

And my sister, Mum and I after the race with our medals.

Big thanks go to everyone who has donated. I'm going to do the draw in the next day or so and will be contacting those whose name is drawn to see which of the prizes they would prefer.

Race for life, now with prizes

2010-05-27T21:48:00.004+01:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm taking part in the Cancer Research Race for life 5 km this year. The date is now approaching really rapidly - 6th June.

In order to try and raise the maximum amount of sponsorship, I've come up with a few prizes for anyone who donates. Donations both large and small are welcome but unfortunately due to the rules surrounding Gift Aid for UK taxpayers, you can't gift aid a donation if you wish to be entered for the draw. I'm willing to post prizes to anywhere in the world also.

I contacted the designer of Ishbel shawl, Ysolda Teague and she has very graciously allowed me to use the pattern to knit a shawl as a prize. The yarn I've used is Malabrigo sock in Tizano red. I would have liked to keep this for myself but I can always knit another.

Another prize I have to offer is for anyone who would like a pair of hand knitted socks but lacks the ability to knit them for themselves. I will knit the winner a pair of socks in a colour they would like and to fit their feet or perhaps you would like a pair of socks for someone else.

For those who prefer to knit for themselves, I have some yarn based prizes also. The lovely Lilith of Old Maiden Aunt yarns has donated a voucher for her lovely yarn store for the amazing amount of £50.

Another friend has donated some lovely Rowan Summer Tweed.

There are a couple of more prizes to come - beaded bracelet and watch and some lacy fingerless mitts. I should get details of them posted over the weekend.

If you would like to donate, the link is in my sidebar. The draw is open to anyone who donates, subject to the rule about gift aid. If you donate and want to enter for the draw for a prize, either add a comment to your donation, leave a comment here or email me at paularaceforlife at me dot com (replacing the at and dot for the appropriate symbols)

Keeping busy

2010-05-18T23:18:00.004+01:00

Time has really flown by lately. My new job is keeping me busy plus I've been out and about a fair bit. There has been quite a lot of knitting lately also.

I finished my Citron shawl. The pattern is from Knitty.

And a long term UFO - a felted bag from the Rowan Felted collection book. I'm planning to add some decoration to the front of the bag once I figure out what I want to add.

Then I finished some socks for myself - the pattern is Heart and Sole by Ysolda Teague and the yarn is from the Yarn yard.

There has also been some gift knitting - Socks and a little cardigan for a friend's new arrival

And some stripy socks for the daughter of a friend who was keen on getting some hand knit socks.

Finally a little lace cardigan for me which is my latest finish. The pattern is Liesl by Ysolda Teague and the yarn is Malabrigo worsted.

Quite a lot of knitting done really. Commuting on the train has really increased my knitting time so I seem to be making more progress. Not much stitching going on however. I'm still getting some pain in my thumb following my fall earlier in the year and stitching seems to aggravate it a little so I'm having to take it easy. Hopefully it will settle down soon.

The other thing going on is that the date for the Race for life 5k for Cancer Research is coming up very soon. More on that shortly as I have a couple of prizes to offer up for anyone donating.

Woosh

2010-03-28T14:24:00.003+01:00

March has just flew by this year. I can't quite believe its nearly over. Its been a pretty busy month all round. Work has been mostly busy and I really feel I'm settling in to my new job.

The big thing this month isn't work related though. Over in the side bar of this very blog, there is a Just Giving widget. I had one last year for my sister who ran the 5km Race for life for cancer research. This year, the widget is marking that I'm running the Race for life. I'm not entirely sure it was a completely sane thought but I'm partly doing it in solidarity with my mum and sister who are running it also. My mum was diagnosed with diabetes several months back and has done a tremendous job in changing her lifestyle to attack it head on. She now goes to the gym 3 times a week and has lost loads of weight. So when she said she had thought about running it, I really had to agree to do it too. Cancer in all its forms has touch my life both personally and professionally over the years so its a good cause.

I'm planning some prize incentives for donations, which I will reveal soon and if you are reading this and would like to donate a prize, please get in touch via the comments. Any donation of any sort is very appreciated and if you aren't in a position to donate, then good thoughts for a successful and safe run are helpful too.

I've been knitting away most of the month but alas I can't share some of things just yet as they are presents. I did finish a pink version of the snapdragon tam that I knit for myself. This one is for my sister.

Right its time for the gym and some more training. I do have some fairly snazzy shoes to wear.

Hello March

2010-03-01T21:29:00.003Z

February has been both a good and bad month for me. The bad was mostly my body deciding to let me down with the fall and the thumb injury and then on Wednesday, I was struck with a particularly nasty bug which I'm only just getting back to normal from. Throw in lots of cold weather plus yet more snow and this all means I'm so ready for spring now.

However there were lots of good things. The Winter Olympics was just fabulous and I loved watching so many of the events. Britain didn't win a lot - just one Gold in the Skeleton Bob but Winter sports aren't so big here. I know there has been a lot of press in Canada about British criticism of the games hosting but that was mostly just the usual nonsense that the nasty British Press spouts. Everyone I have spoken to about the Olympics over here though Vancouver put on a fantastic games and I really think it showed Canada in general in a great light. My Cousin and her family have just moved from Scotland to Lake Country in BC so a trip over there will probably be on the cards at some point, via Ontario as other family stay there.

As I mentioned before, I was taking part in the Knitting Olympics and I managed to finish my socks.

The pattern is called Socktopod socks by Cookie A. Its called after the shop that ran the Sock club, Socktopus run by the lovely Alice. I was lucky enough to visit the shop in September shortly before Alice decided to stop running the shop. A lot of my sock yarn stash and sock inspiration came from the shop so it was sad to hear that the shop was closing. Alice is, however, running a big Knitting event in London during the summer, Knit Nation, which I'm planning to attend.

The stash reduction plan continues. This month, I did have quite a bit of yarn in - 4102metres. I had a splurge at 100pure wool with some lace yarn and yarn for another hat or two for me plus I had the remains of my leaving present from my old job in vouchers for John Lewis so I bought yarn for a Summer cardigan.

However all was not lost as my knitting group had a Swap night, where I managed to trade/sell quite a few skeins of socks yarn. Added to that, I gave some leftovers to a friend for a blanket project and I finished two pairs of socks. That all added up to 4117 metres, meaning I ended the month with 15 metres less yarn than I started with. Now that is a good result.

Olympics and knitting

2010-02-15T23:09:00.003Z

The Olympics have always really held a fascination for me, whether its the Summer or Winter version. So many memories of times past - Allan Wells winning gold in Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 with Zola Budd/Mary Decker, Daley Thompson, watching Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent winning so many golds in rowing over the year and lots of late nights watching including the British Women's Curling team winning Gold in 2002. I was born during the Munich Olympics in 1972 in the hours just after the violence affecting those games. My mum tells me it was all everyone was talking about as she was in labour.

For most knitters these days, the Olympics means a knitting challenge of some sort. I was a fairly new knitter in 2006 when the Yarn Harlot had the idea of the Knitting Olympics but it caught my imagination and I finished my project, a Clapotis in Lorna's laces Lion and Lamb.

In 2008, I took part in the first Ravelympics during the Beijing Olympics and challenged myself to knit a pair of Wrist warmers and 2 hats. I didn't manage to finish one of the hats but I did manage to start and finish the other projects.

This time around, the challenge is to knit a pair of socks using the pattern Socktopod by CookieA. Its going well so far.

As you can probably tell from the knitting progress, my hand is recovering well and the possibility of a fracture is thankfully not there. The splint is off and whilst I still have some pain in my thumb and wrist, its so much better. I'm not sure I would have coped very well if it had to stay on longer as I was really struggling with just doing the basics.

Socks and a little hitch

2010-02-10T23:09:00.003Z

The knitting still continues. At the weekend, I finished a pair of very pink and fluffy socks for my sister.

Unfortunately on Sunday, something else happened.

I managed to fall off my computer chair after it over balanced. I didn't think I had done any damage until my hand got painful on Monday and I started having problems using it. The Doctor I saw doesn't think I have a fracture, just some soft tissue damage. The splint is to stay on until the weekend. If it hasn't settled, I might need a MRI to check for a fracture in a tiny bone at the base of the thumb which can't be seen on X ray. I'm really hoping its going to be okay as not being able to use my right hand is really tricky as I'm right handed plus I'm off sick from work. Plus there is the small matter of not being able to stitch. I can still knit in very short bursts but trying not to do much to make sure I give things the best chance to heal. There is also the whole challenge of getting dressed, cooking, etc with one hand.

January progress and finishes

2010-02-03T23:25:00.004Z

Since the start of the year, I've been keeping busy with knitting projects. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working towards a reduction in stash size this year. I'm going to track it in metres of yarn used which will hopefully help me keep track and add it in as I finish projects.

In January, I finished a couple of knitting projects

Cranford mitts for a former colleague

Snapdragon Tam for me

A Shawl in Old Maiden Aunt Merino Cashmere nylon 4ply in the colour Dreich

And finally a case for my Ipod touch to use the yarn left over from my hat

All in all, that meant I used 595 metres of yarn. The only yarn that has arrived in my house this month is my first Knit love club parcel which contained Alchemy Juniper sock yarn. 424 metres of lovely soft golden orangey yarn. So I end up the first month with 169 less metres of yarn. Fairly good for the first month, I think. Hopefully I can keep this up during the year.

All these knitted things have come in handy recently as the weather hasn't been the best this winter. The long cold snap in December has been followed by yet more cold weather in January and its has been snowing today again. I am so ready for Spring now.

2009 crafty summary and 2010 plans

2010-01-01T22:50:00.003Z

Well I guess that is 2009 over. In 2009, I've not managed as much knitting and stitching progress as I thought I would. I am, however, quite pleased with what I've achieved.

Knitting wise, I finished 29 things.

At the end of the year, I was left with 14 knitting WIPs which is really quite a lot. On a slightly better note, only 3 of those WIPs were started before the start of 2009. Quite a few of the WIPs are nearly done so hopefully 2010 will see some early finishes.

Stitching wise, I didn't do well at all. I started 2009 in a bit of a stitching slump which has continue for most of 2009. although I've been stitching more in the past 6 months. I managed 16 finishes of mostly small things. This has left me with 37 stitching WIPs, 30 of which were started before 2009.

My plans for 2010 are fairly simple. I want to enjoy my knitting and stitching. Ideally I want to get the number of WIPs down a bit. 2010 is going to be a year of stash reduction for me. I have a lot of yarn and stitching materials and I would like to reduce the size of the stash. However I'm pretty realistic about my will power so the plan is to make sure that I use more yarn and stitching supplies than I buy.

Happy Christmas

2009-12-24T23:07:00.005Z

The past month or so has been pretty busy with a couple of trips away to Harrogate and also to a GTG with some stitching friends. There was of course, the small matter of leaving one job and starting another job. The new job is going pretty well so far but there's been a lot to learn so my brain is a little fried just now. Added to that was another delightful episode of sinus infection, which is thankfully settling down.

Its almost Christmas here, so I thought I'd share my Christmas tree and some other decorations. I have stitched a couple of ornaments for exchanges and received some lovely ornaments too. More on them shortly.

Behind the Christmas tree in the picture, you might just be able to see a very white coloured view out the window. The UK is having a spell of very snowy and wintery weather. Initially it was just cold and icy here but on Tuesday, we got about 3-4 inches of snow. Since then, the temperature hasn't gone above zero Celsius and mostly hovering around -6 so there's a lot of snow on the ground. These are views from my train journey home today at 3pm. We've been sent home early a couple of days running because the local train services have suffered major failures and problems due to the weather. In some areas of the UK, people have been trapped at work or out shopping.

I'm having a quiet family Christmas and really looking forward to my first complete Christmas off in 14 years. I'm off until Tuesday. I wish you all a safe and Happy Christmas.

Life and other stuff update

2009-11-18T23:38:00.007Z

I didn't really intend for it to be so long between updates. Thanks to everyone who commented on my recent finishes and also to those who gave me get well wishes. I'm fully recovered from the icky flu that I had and since my last post, I've been vaccinated for both seasonal and H1N1 flu.

Part of the reason for the gap in posting is that I've been very busy preparing for a big life change. In just over 2 weeks, I'm starting a new job. During the whole flu episode, I applied for a office based Nursing role working with a private medical insurance company with Cancer patients. To my great joy and relief, I got the job so I'm about to go from working shifts and lots of weekends to a Monday to Friday job with no more public holiday working. The role is also much lighter as its office based so will be much less stress on my back compared to my current job. Of late, I've struggling with back pain a little more frequently because work has been very physically demanding so this has been a very welcome piece of news. So for the past few weeks, there's been lots of form filling and buying clothes - I've always worn an uniform to work so I didn't really have anything suitable.

This week, I have some time to catch up as I have a weeks holiday. I've come down to Harrogate to spend a few days away and to attend the Knitting and stitching show. Kate of www.sparklies.co.uk is attending the show as an exhibitor so that's really exciting as Kate has been a friend for some time. If you are at the show, please check her lovely fabrics out in Hall A stand 540.

To relieve some of the stress I've been under, I have been knitting a fair bit and have even finished some things.

A Grey Odessa hat for someone's Christmas

Another pair of socks in Regia Bamboo yarn

And Veyla fingerless mitts by Ysolda Teague in some Malabrigo sock leftovers.

I have quite a few more things on the needles - I've promised to knit one of my current colleagues a pair of Cranford mitts as she has admired one of my pairs for a while. I also have a few Christmas knits in the works too. With my new job, I will be commuting daily by train for 20 minutes each way so I shall gain a little knitting time each day.

Stuck at home progress

2009-10-15T23:11:00.003+01:00

The past week has been pretty much home based for me as I've had a heavy brush with the flu. Not sure if its the H1N1 or regular flu but I do know that its knocked me for six. One week on, I'm still off work and feeling below par. I did the sensible thing and quarantined myself at home with plenty of fluids and lots of rest. Thankfully I'm getting back to normal and hopefully I will be back at work at the weekend. Which will be just in time for me to get my flu jabs at work as apparently the vaccinations start next week.

As I've started to feel better, I've been managing to knit and stitch a bit. Mostly still stitching as it seems to be calling the loudest. And I managed to finish something - Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy by Mirabilia. Its on 32 ct raw linen using the recommended Crescent colors threads.

October is Socktoberfest in the Sock knitting world. My aim is to try and finish some of the socks I have on my needles. First up, the Pumpkin socks I started last September. I've finally managed to finish the first one and I've made a start on the second.

Hopefully I can get them finished before the end of the month.

Secret knitting and actual stitching

2009-10-05T22:22:00.003+01:00

Its been a busy time since I came back from London. The next weekend, I travelled down to Swindon to meet up with a group of stitching friends. Inspired by seeing lots of people stitching, I actually stitched rather than knitted. I've been spending a lot more time knitting rather than stitching lately and I'm starting to really miss stitching. I actually finished something whilst I was there - Pumpkins by JBW design using Sparklies thread in Titian.

This past weekend I was also at a stitching get together at Pat's in Preston. I did this GTG as a day trip as its only just over 2 hours away by train. It was a great day and we even had a very tiny attendee in Rach's new baby Henry, who is only 3 weeks old.

It meant I got the chance to give Rach the presents I had made for Henry in person.

2 pairs of socks in Lorna's laces Shepherd sock in Georgetown and Rainbow.

And a pair of booties - the pattern is Tiny Shoes by Ysolda Teague and they are knitted in Malabrigo sock in Abril and Lettuce.

Baby Henry has an older sister so I thought I would knit her something too - Poppy, also designed by Ysolda Teague.

Not all my knitting lately has been for gifts. I also finished a pair of fingerless mitts in lovely Merino DK that I bought at the IKnit weekender. The pattern is again by Ysolda and is the Cairn mitts from her book Whimsical little knits. I do knit pattern designed by other people honestly.

On the train back from the GTG on Saturday, I stitched for the whole journey so I've actually finished two more bits of stitching.

Happy fall to thee by Merry Cox.

Brew by R & R reproductions.

Both these designs are from the Shepherd's bush retreat I went to in 2006. I'm thinking I will finish them into little ornaments or pinkeeps. Hopefully this is a sign that my stitching mojo is returning, its been very sadly missed here.

London Part 2, Iknit and the OMA trunk show

2009-10-05T21:15:00.004+01:00

Finally getting around to blogging the rest of my London/Iknit trip. At the end of my last post, I had been sightseeing around London.

On the Friday, the Iknit weekender started. One of the big appeals of the IKnit event was the chance to take a class with Marjan of Yarnissma fame. Most of the socks I have knitted in the past are cuff down ones but I've been getting pushed into the direction of Toe up socks due to a combination of the Socktopus sock club and loving the look of Yarnissma's patterns. In the class Marjan explained the ins and outs of toe up socks and she also bought along all her sample socks. The sample socks were amazing to see - I have a couple of the Yarnissma kits so it was very inspiring. I completely failed to take any pictures of them however. I did finish my little sample sock

After lunch with some of the Gourock knitters and Catherine from the Glasgow group, it was back to shopping. Later on, I also got to meet up with Joy from Knitting goddess yarns and some of the other knitters from her Ravelry group. We all had a great chat and I got to catch up with Scully, who I have known for such a long time and haven't seen for a while. Some neighbouring knitters got enabled into Ravelry and Ysolda of Ysolda Teague designs wandered by too. I really love her designs so it was more than a little cool to meet her.

After all the shopping and chatting, I was only really up to relaxing on Ravelry and eating Sushi - two of my favourite things lol.

Saturday was yet another lovely day so I went off for a wander again before heading to Iknit. Piccadilly Circus was busy as always

I had more of a wander around Whitehall and Westminister. Lots of statues to see but sadly very few were of women. I did find one of Florence Nightingale.

And one to the Women of World War 2.

And then I was off to the Iknit weekender - the one and only picture I took there.

Once inside, I bought more yarn and some really brilliant buttons. I also finally managed to have a chat with Natalie from the Yarn yard who I keep missing at other events. Slightly ironic that we both travel from Scotland to meet there.

Speaking of the Yarn yard, I was also lucky enough to win some yarn in the P/hop raffle at IKnit. P/Hop stands for Pennies per hour of pleasure and is a fundraiser for Medecins Sans Frontieres, a rather excellent charity that provides health care in areas where its is really needed. I had a very interesting chat about their work that gave me a little to think about.

This is the yarn I won. Very me colours.

On the Sunday, it was time to head home but before heading home, I met up with another Raveler and travelled out to the Old Maiden Aunt trunk show at Socktopus. I met Lilith of OMA in my knitting group. She doesn't get the chance to attend these days but I do see her sometimes so I really wanted to go the trunk show to support her as I knew she was getting stressed about it. Also I've been a customer of Alice of Socktopus since she opened her shop and I couldn't miss the chance to meet her too and visit her shop, especially as she is moving to within Stash. We arrived a little early and thankfully Alice and Lilith let us in.

There were a lot of people keen to get in.

And then shop for mostly purple yarn

Carefully examine the yarn and eat Brownies and jelly beans

And just knit and socialise.

The trunk show was fab and it was great to met lots of people who I only know via Ravelry. Also I got the chance to catch up with another Joy from Crafty threads and yarns as we completely missed each other at Iknit. Alice is so lovely and I'm so glad I got to visit her shop before she moved to Stash.

I bought some of Lilith's yarn at the show, which is a little ironic considering that I live fairly near to Lilith's studio. But holiday yarn is the best sort.

Catch up and London trip part 1

2009-09-18T22:51:00.003+01:00

Currently I'm in holiday mode as I'm coming to the end of a fortnight off work. I've been keeping pretty busy with lots of knitting and a trip to London.

Right at the start of my time off and just in time for my birthday, I finished a second Ishbel shawl in Yarn yard merino tencel in the shade Lavender Water.

I spent most of last week visiting London, partly for the Iknit weekender plus I added on a few extra days for sightseeing. Due to a bizarre coincidence, my parents were also in London during the same week so whilst I was down there, we joined forces for some sightseeing. On Wednesday afternoon, we all went on a tour around the Houses of Parliament.

The only place within that you can take pictures is in Westminister Hall, where figures of state have lay in state prior to their funerals. Beyond this point, photographs aren't allowed, which is a pity as the buildings are gorgeous.

The guide we had was not so good. She said quite a few things which I knew where inaccurate and also let her political opinions cloud some of the things she said, which was pretty sad but the buildings more than made up for it.

On Thursday, I had plans to meet my parents later in day for a late lunch followed by going to see The Mousetrap - the longest running show. Given the beautiful weather that London was having, I decided to have a walk around central London followed by a open top bus tour. The hotel I was staying in was in Pimlico so I set off to walk towards Trafalgar square.

At the moment, there is a public art project called One and other, where members of the public are getting one hour on the fourth plinth on the square to do whatever they want (within reason). I arrived just as a changeover was taking place.

Its all filmed so you can watch it on the internet at any time.

From there, I went off on a open top bus tour and then it was off to lunch in Chinatown and the mousetrap. Rather than post all the pictuures, I thought I would link to a slideshow.

life and more knitting

2009-08-17T23:30:00.001+01:00

Work is a little busy and stressful at the moment plus I've ended up on Facebook too in order to keep up with my extended family around the world. So its time for a catchup post. Over the past weeks, there's been a family party too - My cousin and her family are leaving the UK to settle in Canada. We are all going to miss them a lot but I am sure they will visit plus its nearly 20 years since I last visited Canada so it might be time to plan another trip.

As work has been a little crazy, I've been in need of relaxation and destressing when I'm at home. One of my favourite things about all the craft things that I do is that I find that they all help to reduce stress. I have a tendency to let things bother me and get me down so things that relax me are really vital. At the moment, its mostly knitting thats grabbing my attention. I've finished two projects since my last post.

Firstly Shur'tugal socks in absolutely divine Malabrigo sock in the shade Abril. The colour is even more purple in real life. These took a while to get done but it was worth it.

My second knitting finish, on the other hand, just flew off the needles. 18 days from start to finish and I didn't knit on it most days. The pattern is Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. I've knitted a lot of her designs largely because they are so pretty and so well put together. She seems to put a lot of clever detail into her designs. The yarn is Habu naturally dyed laceweight cashmere. I bought this yarn several years ago when I first started knitting as I loved the colour but wasn't confident enough to knit it up into something that would do it justice until now.

I love this little close up in the window as it shows how light and airy the lace is.

I now know why people knit lace as it is so addictive plus blocking a lace shawl is just like magic. Blocking boards aren't available in the UK so following some advice on Ravelry, I used children's foam puzzle tiles which worked out fairly well.

3 finishes

2009-07-24T23:30:00.000+01:00

Life continues on its usual routine around me. Mostly work and sleep, although I have managed quite a bit of knitting of late.

First up, I finished Marigold from Rowan 45. I had originally intended to wear this to a family wedding which I attended recently but I didn't quite make it. The yarn used is Drops Safran, rather than the Rowan cotton glace called for as the colour was perfect.

After finishing it, I thought I'd give some attention to some of my other knitting WIPs. I managed to finish the Red hat that I promised my mum earlier in the year. The pattern is ROse red by Ysolda Teague and the yarn is Orkney angora St Magnus in ruby.

I gave it to my mum today. Its her birthday tomorrow so as I'm working this weekend, I took her birthday presents over to her today. Thankfully she liked it and the presents. My dad bought her a Wii recently so my sister and I clubbed together to buy an additional controller and some games. They are both rather obsessed with the Wii since they got it so I'm sure it will bring hours of fun to them.

Finally I finished my Over the garden wall socks from the Socktopus sock club. This socks have been a fairly challenging knit, largely because of the really different construction plus I'm not that experienced at knitting toeup socks but I really glad to have knit them. I actually kind of fancy the idea of another pair in a different coloured yarn, perhaps purple or red.

The sock knitting is fairly appropriate as the Summer of socks KAL that I took part in last year is running again just now. This year's theme is no stress which fits perfectly with how I feel about my knitting just now. My plan is to try and finish some of the socks that I have on the needles just now and perhaps start another pair or two when something catches my eye.

More Tiny! ten adventures

2009-07-15T22:40:00.003+01:00

Tiny! ten has now left Scotland to continue on his travels but before he left, there were a few more photo opportunities.

This past week, Torchwood was dominating the BBC1 schedules so it was only natural to watch it with Tiny! ten. No spoilers here as I know its not been on elsewhere in the world. All I will say is that it was really, really good.

We also went to knitting group and sat in the Conservatory with a variety of artwork.

There was also a little bit of Paisley sightseeing. Down by the old Anchor thread mill and the Hamills - a local waterfall.

And back towards the mill from beside the river.

And a rare blog picture of me with Tiny! ten.

Tiny! ten has now travelled to England to continue his adventures and I hope that Andrea has as much fun with him.

The adventures of Tiny! ten

2009-07-06T23:14:00.003+01:00

Its probably obvious from previous posts that I'm a bit of a Doctor Who fan. Anyway last year on the Who knits group on Ravelry, I signed up for a swap called the Travelling timelord pass along which involves a crocheted tiny version of the Tenth Doctor travelling between various knitters across the world. Tiny! ten arrived with me last week and I've been out about taking pictures of Tiny! ten in various locations.

We went to Stirling and visited the Castle.

Stopped by George Square in Glasgow.

Visited the Police box in Buchannan street in Glasgow.

Went off to Edinburgh and visited the Royal mile.

Climbed up to Edinburgh Castle.

Tomorrow I'm off for a wander around Glasgow and Paisley for more pictures and then off to Knitting group for the evening with Tiny! ten in tow.

A day out to New Lanark

2009-06-24T23:50:00.000+01:00

Today I've spent the day out and about. My aunt is visiting from Canada and my uncle and aunt are visiting from England so I joined them and my parents on a day out to New Lanark. Its a World heritage site village which had working cotton mills and was run by a social reformer called Robert Owen, who believed in better working and living conditions for his workers. The mill buildings now house visitor centres plus they also spin and dye yarn for sale.

I took a ton of pictures whilst I was there. New Lanark is in the Clyde valley and the falls of Clyde are nearby, making the surrounding area really pretty.

The view towards the mill.

Across the River Clyde.

Wool bobbins being wound

A huge carder for cotton fibres.

I bought some yarn whilst I was there - some DK weight wool. There's only one ball here but I did buy more than one - enough to knit a cardigan in fact.

Here's a slide show of all pictures, including some pictures of my various relatives acting a little silly.

All in all it was a great day and really interesting to hear about this side of Scottish history. It was also good to have a relaxing day as so far this week has been pretty busy. I was working nights at the weekend then I'm back on night shift again Thursday/Friday. Then its a couple of hours sleep and off to a cousin's wedding on Saturday afternoon so its going to be a little hectic for the rest of the week too.
Oh and back on to nights on Monday night. I think I might be a little worn out next week.

Knit in Public day 2009 Glasgow style

2009-06-14T23:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was World wide knit in public day. In previous years, various things have prevented me from taking part but this year, various Glasgow based knitters joined together to have a knitters' picnic in Kelvingrove park in Glasgow. Prior to the event, the weather reports were unpromising and rain was suggested. However, the weathermen and women got it wrong yet again and it was a sunny and warm day.

Umbrellas were surprisingly used as parasols and cupcakes were eaten.

There was knitting in the sun.

There was even Knitters pass the parcel with prizes from Purplejen

And a thrown yarn prize from Karie after the planned yarn and spoon race was cancelled due to no one being able to move after all the cupcakes and other food.

Karie has a group shot on her blog Glasgow knitting picnic

All in all, a great day and it looks likely to happen again, hopefully some time later in the summer.

Post weekend update

2009-06-09T23:00:00.001+01:00

I'm back after a fun weekend of stitching, knitting and relaxing with friends. The weather was pretty awful whilst we were away but we all had fun anyway.

The place that we stay at is a working farm with Alpacas and all sorts of other animals. The alpacas have just recently been sheared so they look a little bald.

For some reason this duck was trying to swim across a really shallow puddle on its own.

Prior to the weekend, myself and the other people at the GTG had been commissioned to make a wall hanging by the owner of the farm that we stayed on. The floral stitching that I shared recently was what I stitched for it.

The wall hanging seemed to go down pretty well. Whilst I was away, I managed a couple of stitching finishes.

Tending the blooms by Shepherd's bush

Santa's coming by Shepherd's bush

I'm hoping to get a lot more stitching, knitting and even some sewing done during the remainder of this week. I don't go back to work until Monday night so that leaves me with a decent amount of spare time.

Weekend update and some shameless begging

2009-05-31T23:01:00.000+01:00

This weekend has been lovely and relaxing. The west of Scotland is currently having a little spell of lovely summer weather which is happily happening whilst I'm off work. Today I've spent most of the day at my parents' house sitting in their garden, enjoying the weather.

They have a little garden room thing in their rather small and wild garden, which is absolutely stuffed with plants. At the moment, they also have family of Blue tits in a nesting box in the eaves of their house. The chicks are about to fledge out of the nest and its been lots of fun to watch them sticking their little heads out plus watching their parents try to keep up with their food demands. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of them.

Later we had a barbeque and I did a little outdoor knitting whilst everything got going.

Yesterday I was too tired to do anything very much so I ended up stitching for a few hours on the sofa. Rather than work on anything too challenging, I stitched up a Shepherd's bush kit from my stash - Keeping the bees. I'm thinking of finishing this into a pinkeep.

I'm hoping for a lot more stitching and knitting progress whilst I'm off on holiday and I will of course share pictures of the wall hanging that I talked about in my last post once I've seen the finished article.

You might notice that there is a new thing in my blog sidebar just now. My little sister Nicola is running in the Cancer Research race for life next weekend. She's been training for quite a few months now and has done so well. She started coming to the gym with me around this time last year after she stopped smoking and I'm very proud of her. Cancer has affected her life with her FIL being diagnosed with cancer and nearly dying just before her planned wedding date. Thankfully her FIL is still alive and fighting cancer as is a favourite Uncle of ours who was diagnosed with lung cancer over 5 years ago. Advances in treatment have meant that our Uncle is still alive today to meet his first Great grandchild, who was born last year. This is especially amazing given that he was given 18 months to live at diagnosis. So if you can spare a few pennies, I would really appreciate a donation. I see how cancer changes lives everyday at work so its a cause that is close to my heart. Unfortunately I can't be there in person to see her run but I wish her, and the hundreds of other people who have given up their time to run, lots of luck.

Socks and stitching

2009-05-27T23:18:00.003+01:00

One of my favourite things of the year is the weekend GTG that I'm going to in a couple of weeks. A long weekend in a lovely group of cottages on a farm with lots of stitchers and crafters who I've known for quite a few years now. Last year, the owner of the farm sounded us all out about making a wall hanging for her farm in return for a discount on this year's visit. Different people are doing different bits of it - Kate of Sparklies has designed the cross stitch section for instance and Joy has been organising us all plus putting it all together along with several others. I've stitched a small section and I really can't wait to see it all put together.

Flowers aren't my usual thing but I volunteered to stitch the french knots as I really like stitching them and most people aren't too keen. My stitching motivation still isn't too great so it took me a lot longer to stitch this than it should have.

Knitting motivation is still going strong however. I've finished my Kai-mei socks from the last post. The pattern is by Cookie A, who is definitely my favourite sock pattern designer. She writes such lovely patterns. The yarn is Malabrigo sock in Lettuce and its even greener in real life.

I've also made some progress on my Socktopus March sock club socks. The first sock is done and I've moved on to the second.

I quite like the embellishments even though its not particularly practical. Hopefully I shall finish the second one this weekend.

Next week brings the first week of two weeks off work which I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping for lots of stitching, knitting and crafting plus there is the GTG and lots of things to do around the house.

Star trek

2009-05-15T15:54:00.002+01:00

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at the cinema yesterday watching the new Star trek movie. As a child, I very occasionally watched the original Star trek series but I really wasn't a fan. I've seen bits of some of the movies but I really wasn't keen. Mostly I was put off by William Shatner. Later on, Next generation came on to Sky and I was hooked on it. My real favourite is Deep space nine, mostly because of its continuing stories and dark, dramatic side. When I heard about the new movie, my interest was peaked, particularly once casting information started coming out and Zachary Quinto was named in the part of Spock. He's absolutely fantastic in Heroes even when he's being ubur creepy.

The whole film just blew me away. Its stunning visually although I did find it a little loud as I can be a little noise sensitive. The casting is, without exception, perfect. Zachary Quinto is just Spock without being an impression of Leonard Nimoy. Chris Pine is a better Kirk imo than Shatner. My favourite was Simon Pegg as Scotty. He does a Scottish accent thats like the original Scotty but is more like a proper Scottish accent. He also has the best facial expressions and stole a couple of scenes in the background just by the way he was looking at everyone. I might just go back and see it again as I enjoyed it so much.

But not this weekend sadly. Its back to work tonight and I'm also working tomorrow. Its only a couple of weeks till my holidays and the weekend GTG that I'm going on.

May Monday progress

2009-05-11T16:45:00.003+01:00

This past weekend has been a lovely time of rest and relaxation after a very stressful week at work. I've cooked myself some lovely food - Asparagus cannelloni due to the bargain aisle at Tesco and then couscous, pittas and houmous yesterday. Having time off also meant I got some stitching and knitting time in.

Yesterday I got some stitching time in Autumn watergarden, which I've fallen behind with a little. I've now managed to get part 1 finished, beading and all and got a fairly good start on part 2.

I've also been stitching on my part of the group wallhanging that I'm part of and that's almost done too.

Knitting wise, I've been knitting on a couple of pairs of socks. First up, the Socktopus club socks from last month's parcel have made some progress. The people in my knitting group have heard my frustrations with these socks at the last meetup I made it too as I was having problems with one of the pattern lines that was in turn causing problems with the stitch count. It turns out that one of the written pattern repeats had an extra yarn over in it but the chart didn't. I had been using the written pattern, hence my problem. After getting over this, I made quicker progress. The first sock is knitted and I'm now on to the icord embellishments of that sock.

Whilst I was really frustrated by the problems of that sock, I cast on the first of a pair of socks from the new Cookie A book - Kai-Mei in Malabrigo sock in Lettuce.

I have done a little yarn buying over the weekend though. I've been trying to find a little cardigan to go with my dress without luck. I did, however manage to find the right colour of cotton yarn to knit one so hopefully with a firm deadline, I hopefully should get it done. The yarn is Drops safran and I'm planning to use the pattern Marigold from Rowan 45.

April progress and May goals

2009-05-01T22:25:00.003+01:00

For April, I said I would

1. Finish a Lacy cardigan that I'm currently knitting. I've only got the sleeves to go.
- Yes I finished it.

2. Finish at least one pair of socks
- I finished my Jungle stripe socks

3. Start and finish my Socktopus April sock club socks once they arrive.
- I've started them but I'm having a few problems with the pattern on one of the rows and with the stitch count.

4. Finish at least part 1 of Autumn Watergarden and try to finish part 2.
- Didn't even manage a stitch in it.

5. Finish the box side of Japanese Octagon box and start the next part.
- Yes and I've made quite a bit of the progress on the next part, the first side of the scissor holder

6. Stitch my part of a group wall hanging project that I'm part of.
- No

For May, I plan to

1. Stitch my part of a group wall hanging that I'm part of.

2. Finish the first half of the Japanese Octagon box scissor holder and make a start on the next part.

3. Finish Part 1 of Autumn watergarden and start part 2

4. Knit 1 pair of socks from the new CookieA book for the Cookie A KAL that I've joined on Ravelry.

5. Finish my Socktopus club socks provided I can get the pattern problem sorted.

Tuesday geekyness

2009-04-29T19:05:00.002+01:00

As anyone who knows me in real life or who has been reading here for a while, I love Doctor Who. I started watching it when I was only about 4 and Tom Baker was the Doctor. So when I found out last year that a Doctor Who exhibition was coming to Glasgow, I knew that I had to get there. Its being held in the big local museum, Kelvingrove, which is a gorgeous building with lots of different exhibits. My favourites are a Salvador Dali painting Christ of St. John of the cross and Rennie Mackintosh/Glasgow style galleries.

I had a great day and took quite a few pictures which I've embedded a slide show of below. I've also included a picture of the random old police box that sits on one of Glasgow's busiest streets and always cheers me up a little when I see it.

Friday progress

2009-04-24T16:36:00.002+01:00

I'm continuing to make some progress on my goals for this month but I fear I may run out of month before I run out of goals.

I have finished one of the pairs of socks that I currently have on the needles - Plain stockinette socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Jungle stripe.

I've also made a start on the latest Socktopus sock club socks - Over the garden wall toe up socks by Loumms creations. The yarn is Artist's Palette sweet feet in sweet pea.

Toe up socks are a new thing for me so I'm learning a lot. Mostly that they are easier than I thought they would be.

Finally I've finished the side panels for Japanese Octagon box. I really want to get this all finished up soon as it will look perfect in my bedroom which has a lot of oriental bits and pieces. Last week I finished redecorating my bedroom and this would just set it off perfectly.

Tuesday update

2009-04-14T23:30:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in the last post, I've finished the Blue lacy Cardigan that I've been knitting this past few weeks. Its another design by Ysolda Teague - Liesl. and its knitted in New Lanark aran so a truly Scottish production.

There's more pictures of it on my Flickr page if you click on the picture.

On Monday evening, I knitted up a little bracelet kit that I had bought last year at the local stitching show. Its 0.3mm wire threaded with beads and was really easy to do.

Part of what inspired me to knit up the bracelet was that I'm planning to wear it later in the year. My cousin's son is getting married in June and I'm invited to the wedding as my sister and I were very close to him as children. My mum's extended family is huge so family weddings get a little big if everyone was invited. On Monday, I spent the day shopping for something to wear to the wedding with my mum and sister. I'm not a big fashionista or particularly girly so I needed their help to find something as they both are. After a lot of looking, I was persuaded to try on a dress. I'm more a jeans/trouser sort of girl so I was really surprised to find that I really liked it. Now I need to find or make some sort of cardigan/shrug type thing to wear with it.

Whilst I was in the shop, I also tried on a embroidered top which appealed to my cross stitching side. I'm hoping that we have a summer this year as I decided to buy it and want the chance to wear it.

An Easter bunny

2009-04-12T23:01:00.000+01:00

Happy Easter everyone. I've spent today relaxing with some chocolate and knitting. This week I've finished a little Easter project - An egg cosy.

I also finished my lacy blue cardigan today. Pictures to follow once its blocked. I'm hoping to have a few finishes this week as I've got some time off.

A variety of finishes and some progress pictures

2009-04-03T01:27:00.002+01:00

I've been catching up this evening with some of the things I've been making lately. First up, a finish from last month, Violets by Shepherd's bush. I'm not sure as yet how I'm going to finish it.

At the weekend, I made one of my previous finishes into a biscornu. The design is a freebie that I got with a package of Dinky dye fibres from West End embroidery at the Harrogate show a couple of years ago.

A couple of weekends ago, I made my first visit to a new and very lovely bead shop that has opened in Glasgow along with a couple of people from my knitting group. Its a fabulous shop and I'm planning a return visit soon. Whilst I was there, I picked up some purple beads that I've made into elasticated bracelet. You can see two of them below.

Whilst I was there, I also bought a watch face, some glass beads and silver spacers that became this watch and bracelet set. Its a slightly late Mother's day present for my mum which I hope she like. She doesn't read my blog so its safe to share here.

In my goals post, I mentioned that I've made some progress on Autumn watergarden and Japanese Octagon box so I thought I'd share some progress pictures. I'm enjoying my stitching again thankfully.

Not much else going on here. I'm working this weekend on night shift then flipping back on to day shift on Tuesday, which I am very unimpressed about but I'm off work the following week. On Wednesday, I saw my GP and I've got sinusitis, which would account for the facial pain and general washed out feeling I've had lately. I have some antibiotics to take which are making me feel pretty sick but at least they are helping.

March progress and April goals

2009-04-02T23:01:00.000+01:00

For March I hoped I would

1. Finish my Central Park Hoodie - I only have a little bit of each sleeve, the hood and the button bands to do so its achievable - Yay I managed this as you can see from the last post

2. Finish one pair of socks currently on the needles - again achievable as I'm on the second sock of one pair - Again I managed this as per my last post.

3. Stitch at least the first part of Autumn Watergarden - Not quite but I made some progress.

4. Finish stitching the box side of Japanese Octagon box and make a start on at least one more section - Well I've almost finished the box side.

In addition I managed to start and finish Violets by Shepherd's bush and make a previous finish into a biscornu. I've also been doing a little beading of some bracelets and a watch strap.

For April I plan to

1. Finish a Lacy cardigan that I'm currently knitting. I've only got the sleeves to go.

2. Finish at least one pair of socks

3. Start and finish my Socktopus April sock club socks once they arrive.

4. Finish at least part 1 of Autumn Watergarden and try to finish part 2.

5. Finish the box side of Japanese Octagon box and start the next part.

6. Stitch my part of a group wall hanging project that I'm part of.

Knitting progress

2009-03-25T22:43:00.003Z

Earlier in the month, I decided to set myself some goals for this month, largely because I have a lot of projects just drifting along.

My first two goals were knitting ones - to finish my Central Park hoodie and to finish at least one of the pairs of socks on my needles. Well its going pretty well.

I finished my Central park hoodie on Thursday. I'm really pleased with it as it fits really well and the yarn has softened to a lovely texture on washing. I even managed to find buttons that I liked. I don't have a good modelled shot of it so here's a picture of it in my spare bedroom (hence the slight mess in the background)

I've also managed to finish the pair of Monkey socks that I had on my needles. The yarn is Panda Soy in Positive purple that I bought at the Iknit day last year. The yarn feels lovely in the finished socks but it was fiddly to knit with as it splits very, very easily.

The stitching goals are coming along pretty well too. I'm almost finished the side panel of Japanese Octagon box and part 1 of Autumn Watergarden so I should manage it by the end of the month. I've also managed to finish a Shepherd's bush design called Violets which needs to be ironed before I share a picture of it.

Life is sort of bumbling along at the moment. Work is pretty busy as per usual but I've got a four day weekend off this weekend which I'm really looking forward to, largely because I have nothing particular that I have to do. The downside is that I'm having a few problems with pain in my face and nose which I think is sinus related and I think might be related to a fall that I had several years ago. I hurt my face fairly badly then and its left me with a nose which isn't quite right. I was seen by a ENT doctor at the time but the appointment was slightly too long after the incident according to the Doctor that saw me to tell if anything was broken. I'm a coward when it comes to going to the Doctor about things but I think I really need to go soon. Meantime I've been dosed up on Sudafed for the past few days and I can at least breathe better.

Sunday stitching progress and some goals

2009-03-08T21:13:00.005Z

Lately the title of this blog has been a bit deceptive as there's not been a lot of stitching going on around here. The yarn and knitting projects have been calling pretty loudly. My stitching WIP list is huge though so I've been spending a little time stitching this week.

I managed to finish one of my WIPs, Spooky spots by Shepherds Bush.

I did start another project though - Autumn Watergarden by Chatelaine designs. I moderate two forums on the Chatelaine BB and one of them is for this design so I thought I'd better get cracking with the stitching as I'm already a little behind. I've only managed a little bit so far as I had to buy some threads to go any further.

Finally I've been spending a little time working on another WIP also by Chatelaine designs - Japanese Octagon box. The bit I'm currently working on is the side of the box. I might make this my stitching focus for a while as I really want this finished and on display.

I'm going to try setting myself some goals for this month to see if it will help me make more progress on the things I want to do.

This month I'm hoping to

1. Finish my Central Park Hoodie - I only have a little bit of each sleeve, the hood and the button bands to do so its achievable.

2. Finish one pair of socks currently on the needles - again achievable as I'm on the second sock of one pair

3. Stitch at least the first part of Autumn Watergarden

4. Finish stitching the box side of Japanese Octagon box and make a start on at least one more section.

Mondays are for..

2009-03-02T23:01:00.001Z

..going to the gym and updating my progress on some projects this week. I'm lucky enough to be on another 2 weeks of holidays from work - I have to use up all my holidays by the end of March and I was given back a ton of holidays back from when I was off sick in the summer. Mostly I've been spending a lot of time sleeping as I was having some insomnia problems prior to being off.

There has been a bit of knitting going on though. I've finished two pairs of socks. First up, a pair of socks in Old Maiden aunt sock yarn dyed by Lilith from my knitting group. The pattern is Marlene by CookieA and was in the last issue of Knit 1 magazine.

The second pair are the Om Shanti bed socks from the first month of the 2009 Socktopus sock club. The yarn is Chameleon colorworks Evolution which I've used before.

I had a very weird issue with the second sock as the yarn just after I knit the toe was slightly thicker than the rest of the yarn and it striped differently. This produced a weird change of size/gauge which I only noticed when I was much further on. I decided not to rip back as I had already had to reknit the leg and cuff of the first sock after I shared a picture of it last time as I couldn't get the blooming thing on properly. My ankles are a little on the chunky side compared to my feet, especially my left one which has been prone to problems since my back problem appearred.

Here's a close up of the gauge/size weirdness.

Tomorrow it is off to knitting group night where I am hoping to make some progress on a Hooded cabled cardigan which has been in progress forever ( actually only 2 years). Hopefully the other knitters will push me on and not distract me too much with other shiny things. I did resist the crochet projects at the last meet up.

Lots of little things

2009-02-14T23:01:00.003Z

I haven't fallen down a hole since my last update. Its just there's been a lot of little things keeping away.

First up I finished one of the knitting projects that I mentioned in my last post - my February Lady sweater in lovely New lanark aran yarn. This yarn is made fairly close to home, is cheap and its a lovely mix of blue and purple.

Late last year I joined the Socktopus sock club and the first package arrived recently. The pattern this time is for a toe up sock which is something I've never tried. The first sock is done although the ankle is a little tight as my ankles are a little on the bigger side.

The yarn is Chameleon colorworks Evolution.

For the past week, most of my time has been taken up with the preparations for a job interview which I had on Friday. I had to prepare a presentation and do a ton of reading up for the post which would have been a promotion. Sadly I didn't get the job - I've been told that the candidate field was of a very standard and I was slightly under the required experience for the job. I've taken some solace from that as I really wasn't sure I would get an interview for the post in the first place. Still it would have been a good job. I have my eye on another vacancy though.

On a slightly more geeky note, I've been spending a bit of time spring cleaning and upgrading my computer in the past few weeks so I now have a shiny new operating system to use, OS X Leopard plus a nice tidy computer which has all its files backed up. I've also joined the Twitter bandwagon today, largely just to see what its like.

I reached another milestone in my ongoing health and fitness plan today - I have now lost 3 stone/42 lbs/19 kgs in weight since I started working out in August 2007. I didn't really start the whole thing for anything other than working on helping my back originally so the loss in weight is a great side effect. Plus in what was a total surprise to me, I actually enjoy going to the gym and the way it makes me feel. Not something I would have said 2 years ago.

Overcoming a fear of sewing machines

2009-01-21T23:00:00.001Z

Ever since I was a very little girl, I've been around sewing machines and fabrics. My mum was a sewing machinist to trade and spent many years working in a variety of different factories, making wedding dresses, waxed jackets and evening wear amongst other things. Times change and there aren't many factories making clothes around here. Although I've always been around sewing machines and have made some clothes in the past (with help from mum), I've always been really a little scared of sewing machines. At school I hated the home economics sewing lessons we had as the teachers expected me to be a natural because of what my mum worked as. Alas I was really very uncoordinated as a child and although I'm a little better now, I'm always scared I will hurt myself on it or destroy the fabric.

In recent years, I've been finding myself wanting to sew more, especially to finish some of my stitching into something. Up until now, most of this sort thing I've done by hand sewing. A couple of years ago, I bought a mini sewing machine but it really wasn't that good so last year I splashed out on a full sized Janome machine with lots of features. At the moment, I'm off on holiday so I thought I would get cracking with overcoming my sewing machine fear with the side effect of trying to reduce my to be finished into something pile.

I started off with some simple cushions with the cross stitch bits hand sewn on to the front of them.

Happy holidays by Lizzie Kate.

Scatter sunshine by Shepherd's bush

Scatter Christmas cheer by Shepherd's bush.

I then moved on to a cushion with the cross stitch sewn into it.

On the haunt by Shepherd's bush

And a banner type thing.

4 square peep by San Man designs.

Finally and much instruction reading, I put my very first zip in a cushion - normally I either get my mum to do it or just hand sew the side up. Its not perfect, it was a little scary to do but I like it. The stitching is a dragon round robin that I was in a number of years ago.

I don't think I'm ever going to be the most confident sewing machine user but it was a little less scary than it was before. I did do some hand sewing based finishing by making Pumpkins by Little house needlework into a pin keep.

Other than sewing, I've mostly been using my holidays to sleep and catch up with a lot of household things that I've neglected of late. The weather here has been pretty wet, wild and cold so its been ideal. There's also been some knitting but no knitting finishes. There has been a fairly large amount of progress on a variety of projects so I'm hoping for a few big knitting finishes soon. The weather just now is certainly knitwear weather.

Handmade Christmas

2009-01-01T18:33:00.003Z

For Christmas, I made a few gifts for various people. First up, I made several beaded bracelets inspired by my sister wanting a bracelet that looked like one in Accessorize. The one she wanted is the third one down and I also made a pearl version of the same idea (the fourth one down). The remainder of the bracelets were for my mum, two of my cousins and the two work collegues who were working Christmas eve with me. Thankfully everyone seems to like them and I've been asked by my sister to make something similar for her MIL.

My sister also got a pair of socks made from the yarn that Tuula gave me in the summer. There's still enough yarn for another pair as my sister has only UK size 2 feet (which is very small for those outside the UK). She really like them too and wants another pair.

She also got a pair of pink fetching mitts which were originally for my cousin but I miscounted and they are shorter than they should be. My sister also has very small hands so these are just the right size.

Two of my cousins received Fetching mitts also. In both cases, these are fetchings that I finished earlier in the year and put aside for possible gifts, in case I ran out of gift knitting time ( which I did)

Finally a Christmas gift which I knitted for someone at work to give to their BIL. Its an adipose from Doctor Who. Her BIL is Doctor Who daft and its for her children to give to him for Christmas. Hopefully it is well received.

I also made a stitched gift for someone. I took part in a secret santa amongst some UK based friends. I sent to Gina, who is really into her reading at present so I made a blue version of the Purrfect bookmark by Cats whiskers design studio.

2008 crafty progress and 2009 plans

2009-01-01T16:32:00.003Z

First up, happy new year everyone. I'm hoping that 2009 is going to be a better year for me and those around me that have had a trying year. For myself, my main hope is for a new job in an area that I will enjoy working in. I'd also like to stay healthy and relatively pain free.

With the change of year, I've been going over my knitting and stitching progress for 2008.

At the start of 2008, I had 38 stitching projects in progress and as of the end of 2008, I had 36 projects. During the year, I started 30 projects and finished 32 projects. Only 5 of the finishes were of projects that were in progress at the start of 2008.

Projects in progress at the end of 2008.

1. TW The storyteller
2. TW The ministrel
3. TW Paisley corner
4. TW Night
5. Mirabilia Autumn Queen
6. Dimples Le Epoch Nouveau
7. Pinn Chinese Goddess of Mercy
8. Just Nan Barnabee's quest
9. Lizzie Kate Needle Nick
10. Jungle babies birth sampler
11. Balinese dancer
12. Merry stitches stocking
13. Newton's law The future's so bright
14. Geisha Bride
15. Quilt afghan
16. Chatelaine Mystery 8
17. Chatelaine Egypt garden
18. Mirabilia Fairy roses
19. Country companions Tom mouse
20. Star trek trio
21. Chatelaine Japanese garden
22. Chatelaine Christmas mystery 3
23. Chatelaine Japanese Octagon box
24. TW Castles by the sea
25. Mirabilia Winter in my garden
26. Amy Mitten Such an undertaking
27. R &R reproductions A Witches pocket
28. Noah's submarine
29. Britty Christmas puppy
30. Mirabilia Enchanted dreamer
31. Margaret Sherry Trimming the tree
32. Pine tree hill
33. Lizzie Kate Thanksgiving flipit
34. LHN Capaccino
35. Shepherd's bush Spooky spot
36. Shepherd's bush Elizabeth's stocking.

Out of these 36, I've decided not to continue stitching on 4 projects for various reasons/

1. Jungle babies birth sampler
2. Merry stitches stocking
3. Newton's law the future's so bright
4. Star trek trio.

That leaves me with 32 WIPs at the start of this year. I'd really like to get at least 5 of these projects finished in the coming year. For the past year I really haven't stitched as much as I have done in the past but in this coming year, I'm going to make a concerted effort to stitch more.

Knitting wise, 2008 was a really good year. I finished 44 projects.

This breaks down as

7 pairs of fingerless mitts (Fetchings and Cranford mitts)
4 Adipose stuffed toys
18 pairs of Adult sized socks
2 pairs of baby socks
2 Scarves (1 clapotis and 1 Bertie scarf)
4 adult sized hats
2 baby sized hats
1 baby cardigans
4 adult sized garments (Neaty, Tomato, Anise and Matilda Jane)

I'm really pleased with what I've managed to knit this year. For the coming year, I'd like to knit more adult sized garments for me.

At the start of 2008, I've got 11 knitting WIPs

1. Central park hoodie
2. Andi Messenger bag
3. Twister socks
4. Kid classic cranford mitts
5. Panda Soy monkey socks
6. Shur'tagal socks
7. Blue February lady sweater
8. Little pumpkin socks
9. Bamboo two at a time socks
10. Jungle stripe socks
11. One skein gloves

I should get all of these finished this year. Only the Central park hoodie, the messenger bag and the twister socks were in progress at the start of 2008.

Exchanged ornaments

2008-12-28T23:26:00.003Z

As promised, I'm back with pictures of the ornaments that I sent out in exchanges this Christmas. The first four I sent out in the Teresa Wenzler BB annual ornament exchange.

First up, 2 ornaments designed by Teresa Wentzler - Celtic inspirations and Lady of Shallot corner respectively.

Then a Jeanette Douglas design from one of JCS ornament issues. I adapted the colours in this one slightly to suit the threads that I had to hand.

A Norweigan reindeer ornament in red. I'm planning to stitch this one again for me.

Some UK stitching friends and I also had an ornament exchange this year. I stitched for Kate . The design is Santa's Christmas surprise by Dragon Dreams.

In return, Pat sent me a really pretty intial ornament which I think is from the Chatelaine 2007 advent calendar. I really need to get a better picture of this one - hopefully there will be more light later in the week when I've got a day off.

Happy Christmas everyone

2008-12-25T08:24:00.003Z

Happy Christmas everyone. I was working night shift last night so I'm off to bed for a few hours sleep prior to going to my Aunt's house for Christmas dinner. I've not had a lot of spare time to blog the past two weeks with the Christmas preparation but I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with pictures of the ornaments I sent out in exchanges this Christmas plus some pictures of the gifts I've made for various friends and family.

Until then, I will leave you with a picture of my Christmas tree and the various stitched ornaments that I've made and also received in exchanges. I hope everyone has a good day and Santa leaves you lots of nice presents.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-16T22:40:00.000Z

Christmas is fast approaching and I'm not quite ready. I still have a few gifts to buy, a few gifts to finish making, presents to wrap and cards to write. I'm not panicking just yet but I might be soon. Work is crazy busy too in the lead up to Christmas as all the doctors try to get as many patients' treatments finished before the end of the year.

On a much more pleasant note, one of my favourite things about this time of year is taking part in the Ornament exchange on the Teresa Wentzler BB. This year I've exchanged 4 ornaments. Not all the ornaments I've sent out have arrived at their destinations yet but I've received the ornaments from those who are sending to me.

First up two ornaments of a freebie chart from Teresa Wentzler - Father Winter ornament. These are from Sara and Penny respectively.

Then a lovely ornament from Anu in Finland, which has designs on each side and I think the designs are by Margaret Sherry.

And finally a lovely Christmas tree from Susan

Time to get back to finishing the Christmas preparations.

Harrogate report and a finish

2008-11-24T22:51:00.006Z

Well I did finally make it back home but nearly an hour later than I should have and a lot colder too. And this morning it was back off to work for a day at work that I would rather not think about as it was truly horrid. Not the worst ever but pretty high on the list.

Anyway on to nicer topics and my trip to York and the Harrogate stitching show. I've been going to the show for the past few years and I have to say that it was the busiest that I've seen it there for a number of years. Ironically I spent less than I have in the past inspite of lots of temptation. I didn't buy any yarn at all - there were a few things that tempted me but I just didn't see anything that I couldn't live without. Some yarns I liked but the colours that were on show, weren't something I liked.

That's not to say that I didn't buy other things though. First up, I discovered that a favourite beading company have written a book of gorgeous beaded jewellery so the book had to come home with me along with a kit for a beaded bracelet.

I also bought some dyed silk rods to try and make some corsage type brooches that I saw instructions to make in a recent stitching magazine. Hopefully I can get to work out. Oh and some overdyed green thread for an upcoming Christmas project.

I also found a rather fab stall selling brilliant unusal Japanese fabrics and buttons. The stall holder told me that she has lots more Japanese prints on the way as she's going be the importer for several firms. Plus she had wool felt which is tricky to get. The fabric is on the Eternal maker site and the buttons are from the button company.

I bought some other lovely buttons from another stall, The button lady, who doesn't seem to have a website.

I also spent a little money with the ladies of the Nimble thimble who always have lots of Shepherds bush and Lizzie Kate designs to tempt me and also Trudy Anne who had a great range of JBW and Little house charts.

I actually spent two days at the show, partly so I could see everything also I really can't manage to spend the whole day at the show anymore as being on my feet for more than a couple of hours at a time tends to cause a lot of back pain and problems so I tend to spend just a short spell at the show each day so I don't cause myself problems.

On Friday, I caught up with Karoline and her gorgeous little girl plus her lovely MIL and also other friends Pat and Scully. It was lovely to see them all.

On Saturday after the show, I made the time to go the local Oxfam shop in Harrogate. The Oxfam shop there has a little craft based sale timed to the same weekend as the Knitting and stitching show. Last year I got some embroidery threads. This year it was all about buttons. I think they save up the crafty stuff they get donated for this sale. I was pretty lucky with the buttons I found with the bonus that a charity gets the benefit too. I particularly like the grey buttons.

One of the good things about the Harrogate conference centre is the old part of it - the Royal Halls. For the past couple of years, its been out of use due to renovations and dangerous areas of the building. This year, the renovations are finished and the cafe that was always there was back. Its really lovely to look up from your cup of tea to see the pretty surroundings.

On Sunday morning, I got a little surprise when I looked out the window of where I was staying - snow had fallen overnight. It wasn't particularly deep but it was a little challenging to walk to the station.

Whilst I was away, I managed to finish the Country companions Christmas project that I shared the WIP of recently. Not sure if I'm going to frame it or finish it in some other way.

Notes from a train journey

2008-11-23T14:04:00.002Z

I'm currently making very slow progress back from the Harrogate knitting and stitching show. Update about that later. The exciting bit is that I'm actually posting this from the train as National express have introduced free wifi on their train. Its just a pity they can't run the services to time, have decent heating or introduce the concept of manners or reading seat reservations to some of their passengers.

When I got on as is typical, some woman was sitting in my seat. On my last train journey with Virgin trains, they caused mass confusion by turning off the power to the displays with the seat reservations and carridge letters, then turning them on again at the next station so all the passengers could have a mass game of non musical chairs. Anyway when I found my seat today, I politely asked the lady to let me have my seat and she started to whine about her laptop and how she needed the seat for the plug. Which was exactly the reason why I had booked that seat and after again politely explaining this, she grumped off to another seat, moaning all the way about how she had only just decided to bring her laptop. Okay that is really not my fault plus why do these people never read the blooming reserved seat tags. One of the national stereotypes of the British people is apparently politeness but it was obviously not decided by anyone who travels regularly on British trains.

Somewhere around Newcastle, the heating seems to have been turned off and mysteriously the train staff are nowhere to be seen to ask them to do anything so its coats, scarves and gloves for the passengers. The absence of the train staff is probably also due to the fact that we should have been in Glasgow 15 minutes ago but are still nowhere near it as there is line problem which means the train has to make a bit of a detour.

Still I've got free wifi and the internet to amuse me for how ever long it takes.

Break time

2008-11-18T15:29:00.002Z

Thankfully I've finally reached my scheduled holiday week. Later this week, I'm off to York and Harrogate to visit the Knitting and stitching show but for now I'm just sleeping and doing lots of crafty stuff.

Of late, most of the crafty stuff thats been going on around here has been knitting related. This past week, the knitting time has been mostly hat related. I'm not really much of a hat wearer but my sister loves hats so I've knitted a few for her.

First up, I finished the Rose red hat that I was knitting for the Ravelympics earlier in the year. My mum has tried the hat on too and declared that she would really like one too so I need to go and buy some more orkney angora which will really not be a hardship. Its gorgeous to knit with.

Then it was on to an Odessa hat knitted in RYC extra fine merino DK. Its the first time I've used this yarn and I'm a fan of it now. It knits up really neatly.

Having satisfied my knitting urges, I've spent some time stitching. I finished Poppy by Mirabilia/Nora Corbett. I love the style of this design range. The design is on 32ct SMF linen in Kronos.

I've also been getting into some Christmas stitching. Elsewhere on the internet, I help run a yahoogroup for fans of Country companions designs. Recently we started having a pre Christmas SAL for Christmas designs. I started this one a week or so ago. Hopefully I should finish it this week.

Catch up post

2008-10-26T21:43:00.003Z

I've been procrastinating as usual so this post is going to be a little full of news and pictures. The past couple of weeks have mostly been a hum drum mix of work, various crafty stuff and sleep. There was the minor excitement of my knitting group appearing on a local TV news show - if you are in the UK, you can see it at this link for next few days. It features about 4 minutes in. I'm in the background in a purple shirt, knitting a sock. It was a quite bizarre but fun thing to do.

Since my last post I've heard that two exchanges I've sent have arrived at their destinations. One of the exchanges was very overdue so it was a big relief to find it had arrived. I stitched Tending the blooms for Carol as part of the SBEBB SB exchange. The picture isn't very good sadly.

I also heard that Becky had received the Halloween exchange that I sent her as part of a personal Halloween exchange. Rather appropriately as Becky sent me a lovely SB Halloween needleroll, I sent her a SB design in return - Halloween ABC pinkeep.

I have managed to have a couple of stitching finishes for myself in the past couple of weeks. Both are Shepherds bush designs. First up The Gobelins.

And then today I finished Scatter Christmas cheer.

I've also managed a couple of knitting finishes. First up a knitted jacket called Anise from Rowan/Simply Knitting magazine, which I mentioned that I had finished in my last post.

Secondly I finished a design called Matilda Jane by Ysolda Teague. Its knitted in Rowan Wool cotton and took exactly a month of knitting. Its knitted in one piece from the top down, which is a fabulous way to knit things with there being so little sewing involved.

The weather has been truly awful here this past week with absolutely no natural light for pictures, hence the dark pcitures. Autumn has hit with a typical series of rainy, stormy days with gale force winds and horizontal rain. There's even a possibility of snow next week which is just awful.

Exchanging, knitting and life

2008-10-02T20:46:00.005+01:00

The past two weeks have been filled with a few ups and downs. Getting the downs out the way first, well there was telling my boss that the job trial was not working out. However it did have the upside of the people working there telling me that they were disappointed that I wouldn't be staying and telling my boss that I am good at my job. So that was really great to hear. The major thing that happened was that my aunt died sort of suddenly. My mum is one of 11 children orginally. Her youngest sister died as a young child but all the rest of them have been fit and fairly well until recently when my mum's oldest sister developed some heart problems. She ended up in hospital and seemed to be doing well, then she very suddenly became very ill and died. The funeral was just over a week ago and was a little surreal as my aunt was a Roman Catholic nun. She spent most of her life in Nigeria so part of the service had Nigeria hymns. In recent years, she worked in several Glasgow parishes so as a consequence, the mass was said by 6 priests plus the Archbishop and with around 30 or so nuns in attendence. At times my Aunt had expressed the occasional doubt about the life she had chosen so it was lovely to see how many people she had touched during her life. Quite a lot of my extended family attended the service too so it was lovely to catch up with lots of my family plus I got to meet the family's newest member - a little baby called Jack who was born on the 6th of September this year and is my mum's first great great nephew.

On to other things. Since my last post I've heard that an exchange I sent has been received plus I've also received an exhange.

I sent this to Suzanne as part of the SBEBB biscornu exchange. Its the Sunflower biscornu by Helga Mandl.

I received this from Becky in a personal Halloween exchange. Its the Halloween needleroll by Shepherds bush.

I've been on holiday from work for the past 10 days and I've been trying to finish up a few of my many WIPs. First up I finished a scarf which has been lingering on the needles for a while.

And then this afternoon, I finished the pair of scoks that I cast on at the Iknit day. The pattern is Monkey by CookieA once again and the yarn is Shelridge farm soft touch ultra. I am a little addicted to the Monkey sock pattern I think.

Last night I finished knitting a cardigan/jacket but its currently drying off after a little blocking so I should have pictures over the weekend. The weather has turned colder this week so its the perfect time for finishing lots of knitting.

Iknit, London, an exchange and other things

2008-09-14T23:02:00.004+01:00

I've been back from London since Sunday evening but a combination of a bad cold, tiredness and a different job have kept me a little occupied.

When I got back on Sunday, I had a lovely exchange parcel waiting for me from Nicki. Its a Shepherds bush design called Pumpkin Hill and its beautifully finished.

My trip to London and Iknit was fantastic. The hotel I picked was about 10 minutes walk away from the Royal Horticultural halls where the Iknit day was being held. Readers in the UK might recognise the hall from some BBC channel idents from a few years ago. Its a nice and spacious venue even though I think they underestimated the catering a little. I'm not sure they thought that there would be as many attendees so the sandwiches ran out early on and there were fairly big queues for the catering generally.

Some of the charity knitting stalls

Lots of lace shawls to ooh over

Lots and lots of knitters

After a couple of hours of yarn buying, it was off to the other hall to see the Yarn Harlot, who was a fantastic speaker. It got off to a weird start with a little microphone misfunction.

And then it was on to the now traditional sock picture.

And finally the talk which lasted around 90 minutes and was followed by lots of questions. She is a great and funny speaker and I would love to hear her speak again in the future. She did say she would come back to the UK again so hopefully I will get the chance. This picture isn't the best.

It was then back to the main hall for some more shopping and chatting with fellow knitters. A combination of the Glasgow and Gourock knitters had laid claim to a table in the hall and we all popped in and out from the table to shop with breaks for chatting and eating. In a weird coincidence, someone in my group ended up in conversation with Jackie and Kate from the Crafty threads n yarns forum that I belong to and I was sitting chatting to Jackie when I realised that I knew her already from the forum and we were in an exchange together. I managed to meet up with a few people that I know though various places on the net, including the lovely Joy, who I recognised by her lovely shawl lol. I did miss quite a few people though but that was probably just as well for them as I had developed a pretty bad cold by Saturday and was gradually losing my voice through the day. Apologies to anyone at Iknit that I gave the cold to. By late in the afternoon, I was flagging badly so I decided against queuing for the Yarn harlot book signing. Stephanie was a real trooper as she signed books for several hours after her talk, which is very impressive.

Saturday night, the combined Gourock and Glasgow knitters went off for a lovely meal in a very nice restaurant somewhere in Kensington. My London geography is a little lacking but thankfully I was guided there and back by my fellow knitters.

Sunday morning, I managed to fit a little sightseeing in before my afternoon flight back. I was staying at Victoria so I decided to have a walk down towards the river. My walk took me by the Houses of Parliament

The streets were closed up for the start of the Tour of Britain so there were lots of men in shorts.

I then walked across Westminister bridge and being a little geeky, all I could think about was the first episode of the New Doctor Who series with the Doctor and Rose running across it towards the London Eye. Its an amazing sight, the London eye and the views from it must be amazing.

Opposite the Houses of Parliament, there is a small patch of Sunflowers which seem to be randomly planted at the riverside. Its a lovely contrast to the city surroundings.

All too soon, it was time for me to head back to Glasgow after a not particularly pleasant flight which the take off seem to be a little steep and the cabin pressure gave a lot of the passengers ear ache. I was really badly affected and it took several hours before it settled and a day or so before my hearing was back to normal. I had taken a decongestant before the flight but it didn't particularly help. I've only ever had some mild ear popping on a flight before so this was an unwelcome surprise which was related to the cold I have. I'm only really getting my voice back fully now.

This week I've been on my job trial this week. The job itself isn't particularly exciting but it does use a lot of the skills I've built up over the years. The people there are lovely also. Sadly there is a but coming as towards the end of the week, I noticed that my back was getting more painful than it has been. This job, whilst its not as heavy as a ward job, involves more standing and worst still, more standing on the same spot than the job I already have and my back is not coping with this. Its pretty disappointing to realise over this past weekend that its not going to work out but that's life I guess and so its back to the job hunting again. I've still got a further week of the trial to go so things might change but it seems unlikely.

Off on my travels

2008-09-04T21:30:00.002+01:00

Straight after work tomorrow, I'm off to the airport for my flight to London. Luckily its only about 10 minutes away and hopefully the work day will not be too stressful tomorrow. I have my doubts about the lack of work stress as this week so far has been hectic. Sometimes being a ward nurse is a weird cross between Mother and shepherd when dealing with Doctors and this week has involved a lot of me running around making sure one of the doctors is doing everything he should be.

In other work related news, next week I'm off to a different hospital for a few weeks. A vacancy, which my boss thinks is suitable for me long term, has come up in a different hospital. Its in an outpatient department and it sounds like it might work out. I've been given the chance to have a no strings attached trial at the job without giving up my current post, which is rather good. So Monday is the first day of the trial. I'm a little nervous but hoping it works out.

Anyway I'm off to finish packing for London, iknit and the Yarn Harlot. Its all very exciting.

Summer's end

2008-08-31T23:32:00.002+01:00

Its almost September which always signals the end of Summer for me and sort of the start of a new year too as its my birthday next Sunday. This year I'm spending my birthday partly in London as I'm going to the iknit show next Saturday and I will be flying back up on Sunday afternoon, hopefully after spending Sunday morning doing a little sightseeing. Its been quite a few years since I visited London other than passing through Heathrow, partly because I really can't handle the underground. I have a bit of a phobia of height but really more specifically Escalators, which the underground is full of. It doesn't matter so much this time as I've got the trip worked out so I don't have to use it and I'm staying very local to the show. The very exciting bit of this trip is that I'm going to see the Yarn Harlot speak. I really enjoy her books so it will be a thrill to hear her and there's going to be a lot of lovely yarn all in one place.

In Knitting news, I've finished another pair of socks, the 7th pair for Summer of Socks. I'm hoping that I might finish another pair but given that the deadline is Monday night, it is perhaps unlikely.

This pair are knitting in Lorna's laces shepherd sport in Georgetown. Very observant readers of my blog or Ravelry pages might note that I seem to have a thing about this shade of Lorna's laces as this is the 3rd pair I've finished in this shade and I still have more in my stash. I just love this shade.

More China pictures. As was pointed out in the comments, I was a little mistaken about the balloons, which are of course lanterns. After our mountain visit, we moved on to a local village called Buyang. Its a sort of model village place that they take tourist too but its a real village as well. We all spent a night there. Myself and one of the others (Gillian) ended up staying in the house of Director Sui, who is the village communist party chief, which was a interesting experience given that my Mandarin extends to Please, Thank you, counting to 5 and asking a taxi driver to switch on the meter in a taxi and the villagers didn't speak or understand any English. Inspite of that, we had a fabulous time and were treated so nicely. The food was amazing and we all got a bit drunk with the constant cry of Gambei (Cheers). Here's a picture of us all with our hosts.

It was then on to Qufu, Confucius's birthplace, where we visited his grave and the forest where his decendants are buried, each generation represented by stone animals, like those below.

And Confucius's grave itself. We also hired bikes, which was apparently illegal for us to do but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We spent an hour or so cycling around the garlic fields out to a Mausoleum in the countryside and provided a lot of entertainment for hundreds of Chinese children on their way home for lunch. Apparently westerners on bicycles is the funniest thing ever lol.

The final picture today is of the next place we went - Nanjing and the Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum. The weather was very Scottish that day and made me feel quite at home.

Its time for bed here. I've received a couple of blog award things which I've gratefully for and I'll write about them next time.

Two out of three

2008-08-24T23:19:00.002+01:00

Olympic knitting has continued around here for the past few days. I had set myself the target of knitting 2 hats plus a pair of wrist warmers during the Beijing games. It was quite an ambitious target given that I went back to work.

I almost did it. I've already shared my finished wrist warmers. Yesterday I managed to finish the first hat but late last night, I conceded defeat on the second one.

This is the finished hat. The pattern is Gretel by Ysolda Teague and its knitted in Kid classic by Rowan. I love both the yarn and the pattern.

I'm only about half way through the other one but hopefully I should get it finished by the end of the week.

I had originally planned to have finished posting China pictures by the end of the Olympics but I appear to have run out of Olympics before I ran out of pictures so I'm going to post the remaining ones over the next week or so.

First up more street scenes from Xi'an. The balloons are for some sort of special event in a department store.

And next a classic Chinese mass bicycling picture from Xi'an.

After visiting Xi'an, we went on to visit Tai'an in Shandong province and went up Mount Taishan. Some of the tour group climbed these steps to get up the mount. Given that it was 35 degrees celsius that day, some of us (including me) took a cable car. Everything that is used or consumed at the top is carried up the steps by porters.

This is a picture of the tour group. The two blokes were the guides and the rest of us are a multi national group - two Australians, two English women, a Singapore Chinese woman and me from Scotland. This picture shows how steep the stairs are.

I had a slight moment on top of this mountain. Very occasionally I get vertigo with heights and I had a full blown panic attack on this weird path where the path dropped down suddenly. Thankfully I recovered quickly as the scenery was amazing.

Catching up

2008-08-19T22:43:00.003+01:00

I've been playing catch up for the past week as I finally went back to work last Wednesday. I'm not doing full time hours just yet but I'm completely worn out and I've spent the past few days catching up on sleep and household stuff.

Oh and I've been knitting a bit too. Ravelympic knitting has been taking up a lot of my time. For those who aren't on Ravelry, which is the best knitting website ever, the idea is that you set yourself some projects to start and finish during the current Olympics. There's lots of different events and teams to join. I've got one project in the Mitten medley event and two projects in the Hat dash. Teams aren't compulsary but I'm part of Team Tardis, which was started in the Doctor who themed Who knits group within Ravelry.

I've now completed the first one - My wrist warmers for the mitten medley event.

And I've started the 2 hats. Both designs by Ysolda Teague.

Gretel hat

Rose red hat. This is the same pattern that I knitted in purple previously.

Hopefully I will get these finished before Sunday.

Most of the rest of my time has been devoted to watching the Olympics. The British Olympic team have performed spectactularly well this Olympics and there has been lots of medals to celebrate. The cyclists have been amazing, particularly Chris Hoy, who has won three gold medals in this Olympics alone. Considering that at the Atlanta Olympics, Britain only won one gold medal, whereas they've already won 16 golds this time, is awesome. And only 4 years till the Olympics arrive in London.

Today's pictures from China are from the city of Xi'an. Xi'an was such an interesting place to visit. Its most famous for the Terracotta warriors, which are an amazing sight to see. Everyone is different - different hairstyles, clothing, rank etc. You can't tell from the pictures but they were originally very highly coloured. You can still see tiny traces of colour on some of them

Xi'an has a significant muslim population who've been oppressed in the past. Apparently you must apply to the Communist party if you wish to join any religion, which is pretty bizarre. The Mosque in Xi'an is beautiful. The picture below shows one of the buildings.

Another amazing place in Xi'an is the Forest of Steles museum. Steles are stone carving of important documents and poetry so its kind of a library on stone. Its certainly the most amazing library I've ever visited.

Finally I have to thank Joy who nominated me for a blog award. Its lovely of her to do so. I think everyone that I would have nominated probably has one but I have a little thing on my sidebar which shows all the blogs I look at and I'm inspired by all of them in different ways so please all consider yourselves nominated.

I should also answer Dani's questions about the socks I knit. I almost exclusively wear knitted socks except at the gym. They are the comfiest socks I've ever worn and I don't find them any hotter than ordinary socks although Scotland isn't exactly the warmest country in the world. I do like the colourful aspect of them, it kind of cheers me up to see the bright socks on my feet.

Monday craftyness

2008-08-11T23:30:00.000+01:00

I've taken a break from my Ravelympic knitting last night and today to finish up some other projects that are lingering around my flat.

First up is a necklace for my sister. It was her birthday last week but she's been away visiting her inlaws so I haven't seen her. Hopefully she will like it.

I also finished up these felted flower pins for her too. They've been lying around for a week or so waiting for the pin backs to be attached.

And finally something for me. I found a bracelet that I'd started making a while back so I thought I'd finish it up.

I did get down to some knitting tonight though and I finished up another pair of socks. Its another pair of Monkey socks in Yarn yard merino tencel in the shade birthday. I really love this pattern and the yarn is so very soft.

Finally more pictures from China. Today's pictures are of some recognisable places. First up, the Great wall.

I visited two different sections of the wall at Jinshanling and Simatai. Both of these sections are further out from Beijing that those that you often see in tourist programs and during the current coverage and as such they are less developed. The best thing about that is there are less people so its less hurried. Also its a lot less noisy. One of the major things that I noticed in China is just the sheer amount of noise. No one really seems to have a concept of quiet, probably simply due to the amount of people that are always around. Personal space also seems to be a bit of an alien concept too - it was a little disconcerting how close strangers wanted to get and at times, some people just walked up and started commenting on your appearance or the fact that you weren't Chinese or just start to ask lots of personal questions. Glasgow is kind of known for people coming up and telling you their life story on the bus but we are amateurs compared to the average Chinese person. Having said that, I don't think I met anyone the whole time I was there who wasn't polite, so very friendly and genuinely pleased to meet anyone visiting their country.

Secondly Tiananmen square.

I found Tiananmen square a very spooky place to visit. Perhaps it was just my imagination combined with the knowledge of what has happened there in the past but I felt uneasy and a little sad whilst I stood in the square. As you can see in the picture, the air is pretty smoky. You can feel it in your lungs and on your skin.

Ravelympic progress

2008-08-09T21:32:00.002+01:00

Today I've been mostly knitting and watching Olympic events on the television. I've been watching some of the swimming and gymnatics so far but I'm really looking forward to the Athletics and the Tennis starting I did also spend a bit of time tinking back last night as I forgot that my painkillers that I take at night for my back don't really mix very well with knitting cables as I'm apt to lose my place.

However I did manage to finish the first wrist warmer this evening. Again the colour is off on the picture, its much deeper and much more purple in person.

Today's China pictures are from the Summer palace in Beijing. Its where the Imperial court went in the summer to escape the city. The grounds of it are absolutely massive and really popular with visitors. It was lovely and fresh there too - everything you hear about pollution in Beijing is true, you can just see the pollution in the air in the city centre. The building in the first picture is the stage of a theatre where actors would perform for the members of the court who were in a similar building nearby.

Nihao Beijing

2008-08-08T21:59:00.005+01:00

This afternoon I've been watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing. I've always been interested in the Olympics and usually watch a lot of the events. I was even born during the 1972 Munich Olympics, though as I was being born, the Olympics were facing their darkest days after the murder of athletes during a terrorist attack.

I would have loved to be in Beijing today for the opening ceremony. In 2000, I was lucky enough to spend 2 1/2 weeks visiting China and having spent time there, I knew that the opening ceremony would be amazing and it was. It was a little bizarre that they had a Scottish pipe band playing during the ceremony but most Chinese people I met were very interested in Scotland.

As part of the Olympics, I'm taking part in the 2008 Ravelympics. I've challenged myself to knit a pair of cabled wrist warmers and 2 cabled hats during the Olympics and I'm hopeful of success. I cast on the wrist warmers this afternoon.

The colour in the picture is off. The yarn is actually a light lilac/purple but my camera isn't the best at picking up purple for some reason. The pattern is Rose's wrist warmers and its a free pattern based on the wrist warmers that Billie Piper wore as Rose in Doctor Who.

Seeing Beijing on the television for the past few weeks has made me think about the trip I took there and I dug out the pictures that I took whilst I was there last night. I thought I would share some of them on my blog during the Olympics.

Both these pictures were taken at the Temple of heaven in Beijing. Like most older buildings in China, they were constructed without nails, just held together with the wood joints.

Exchange and update

2008-08-05T22:55:00.002+01:00

I've received another exchange today. This is the first of a set of three that I've got coming up in the next month or so. I've sent off my half of the exchange to its recipient today a day late because I remembered late on Monday that I couldn't post it then in my town as it was a local holiday. I could have gone to the city post office if I'd remember early enough in the day as they have this holiday on a different day. Scotland has this weird summer bank holiday in July/August which is taken on different Mondays in different places and some businesses even now take the English bank holiday at the end of August instead to confuse everyone even more.

Anyway I was lucky enough to receive a lovely needle case and some other goodies from Tuula. I suspect she might have noticed my sock knitting habit given that she included some very pretty yarn.

Speaking of knitting, I've been keeping my needles busy since my last post. First up, I finished a cotton top - Tomato by Wendy Bernard (Ravelry link)

And then there were some more socks.

Plain stockinette socks in Regia yarn

Some Hedera socks in Yarn yard sock yarn (Ravelry link to pattern)

I must confess that I was so glad when I finished the Hedera socks. I love the way they look but I found them a bit tedious to knit by the end. The pattern reminds me of the lacy white socks I used to wear when I was a little girl.

That makes 5 finished pairs of socks for July which is pretty cool and certainly means I'm going to have plenty more socks to wear.

Stitching, knitting and exchanges

2008-07-21T22:35:00.004+01:00

I have been meaning to post but just not getting around to it for the past few days. Given that I'm not really short on spare time at the moment, I'm not really sure where the time goes each day. Mostly it disappears into more sleep time, doing strange stretching exercises and general household stuff. I have been catching up on a lot of household tidying over the past 2 weeks as I seem to be further along the road to recovery than I was a few weeks ago. Returning to work soon is looking a lot more realistic just now and I should hopefully have a better idea after a round of different hospital/GP appointments this week.

Saturday I got a lovely surprise in the post. I took part in a Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB earlier in the year but something went wrong and I didn't receive an exchange. On Saturday, I got a lovely replacement stitched by Cathy B who stepped in so I got an exchange.

It is a lovely sweet LHN design finished as a little pillow and she also included some DMC threads and some sampler fabric which will be made into something soon.

A slightly better picture of the pillow

I've also finished some stitching. First up a little biscornu pincushion which I stitched to try out the finish as I've signed up for an Biscournu exchange.

The design is a freebie from Barbara Ana which I found via a link on her website. I also signed up for her newsletter which sends out some lovely freebies. I can see a few more biscornus in my future.

I also finished a Shepherds bush design On the haunt. The fabric is a lot more orangey in real life.

The sock knitting continues also. I've finished knitting the two pairs I was working on and cast on for some more.

I haven't actually finished any socks in the past week or so. I've been doing some secret knitting for someone and also knitting some squares in leftover sock yarn for a charity afghan that I'm taking part in the Who knits group on Ravelry. Speaking of knitting, this coming Saturday, the Guardian has a knitting supplement featuring designs from a knitter that had a Doctor Who related run in with the BBC

Thanks for the nice words about my baking. I do appreciate it and the biscuits and cake were lovely. I do agree with Lena-lou about the shape of the Dalek cake though. The Dalek cutter came from a kit that you can buy in a local supermarket and I've saved it for further use.

Daleks and other things

2008-07-07T21:44:00.002+01:00

Well I think I've just about recovered from the excitement of the series finale episode of Doctor Who. Sunday was nearly as exciting as I spent most of the afternoon watching probably the best tennis game I've ever seen - Federer v Nadal in the Wimbledon final. I was supporting Federer and it was such a shame for him at the end of the match as he looked absolutely heartbroken. Nadal was amazing and is a worthy Wimbledon champion.

Anyway back to Doctor Who. Whilst my mum taught me the basics of cooking and baking, I've not made icing for years and I had never made buttercream icing before. I did have a ton of fun making them.

Dalek Cake minus plungers as I forgot to buy anything to make them with.

Dalek biscuits. The icing went everywhere.

Over the past few days there have been a few event anniversaries that have been on my mind. Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the creation of the UK's National Health service. I'm slightly biased as I work for the NHS but I think that inspite of any problems it has, its an amazing organisation. Staff from the NHS helped to bring my sister and I into the world, cured my sister's hip dysplasia as a child, saved my Dad when he nearly died from Cardiomyopathy/heart arhythmias and made sure he stayed alive with life saving drugs. The NHS has helped most of my family in some way - My uncle who's beat the odds and survived more than 5 years post lung cancer diagnosis, My aunt who is now more mobile after knee replacements. I've been helped to become a nurse by lots of dedicated staff and helped by some great physios to get better from my current back problem. All without having to worry about how we will pay for it. Happy birthday NHS, here's to many more.

The second anniversary was on Sunday - 20 years since the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion off the North east Scotland coast. I've lived and worked in Aberdeen where many people from the UK oil industry are based and I worked in the hospital that the victims were taken to, years after the event. Aberdeen is such a small city that everyone knows someone who is in the oil industry and I worked with staff who were in the hospital that day. Its hard to imagine how they coped but coped they did. Hopefully they won't have to do that again.

The week so far

2008-07-04T19:04:00.003+01:00

The needles have been pretty busy this week. I broke away from the sock knitting just after my last post and knitted my very first adult sized hat.

The pattern is Rose Red by Ysolda Teague and is wonderfully written. The yarn is Orkney angora St Magnus DK in violet and its so very soft.

Tuesday I was back to sock knitting though. For no apparent reason, insomnia hit on Tuesday night and I barely slept. After struggling to sleep for a while, I end up getting up and getting my knitting out for a while.

Prior to bedtime, I finished my first pair for summer of socks - the Uptown no purl monkey socks from my last post.

And then I finished the first sock of my second pair in the early hours of the morning when sleep just wasn't happening.

Its just a plain stockinette sock in Garnstudio fabel and I'm knitting away on the second one. I couldn't resist starting a third pair on some slightly thicker yarn.

The yarn is Evolution by Chameleon colorworks and its merino yarn stretched and heat set. It feels absolutely gorgeous and cashmere like. The pattern is by Gilraen.

I was also cheered up this week by a very short haircut which I'm gradually getting used to. I'm not sure that the hairdresser and I shared the same definition of fairly short but it will grow again lol. I also got a very sweet letter from my Great Uncle in Australia. He's 97 and I've started writing to him recently as he loves getting letters. We've never met but I have met his son who my dad didn't know existed and its turned out last year that he lives in Glasgow. My Great Uncle was apparently a bit of a rogue in his younger days but he's had an interesting life so there's always little interesting bits in his letters about moving to Scotland from Ireland and then on to Australia.

The weekend brings something that I'm very excited about - the last episode of the current series of Doctor Who. I shall be glued to the TV on Saturday night and probably sobbing on the sofa after it. In honour of the finale, I'm going to have a go at Blue Peter's instructions for making a dalek cake. Pictures to follow if it turns out.

Socks, socks, socks

2008-06-29T17:23:00.003+01:00

Summer of socks is now underway so its socks, socks and more socks around here. I had said in my last post that I was going to try and finish my current sock KIPs prior to the start time. Well it almost went to plan. I finished the multicoloured monkey socks.

And then I went on to knit the second sock of a pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in rainbow.

Which left me with one sock on the needles - a purple/grey/blue pair. They are still on the needles and sleeping peacefully there to be finished at a later date.

Then I got ready for Summer of socks. I wound some yarn.

Printed lots of different patterns.

And got underway with a favourite pattern and favourite yarn - No purl monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Uptown.

The first sock is finished as you can see and the second one is now at the heel.

I've also cast on a second pair. Plain stockinette socks in Garnstudio fabel.

Which I've now turned the heel of the first one.

I had hoped to have a little more progress but I've been a bit stressed and down this week. I had a discussion with my manager about what I'm going to do re my job and back problem. Currently I work on an acute surgical ward and for all my nursing jobs so far I've had similarly heavy nursing jobs. My back is, to be frank, not really up to that long term so I'm now waiting for an assessment by the Occupational health department and what that will bring. Hopefully I should be fit enough for work in a few weeks but I'm not sure what my work schedule will be as I think I might be eithermoved to another area if a job is available or more likely, a back to work programme in my current workplace with shorter shifts. Either way, its all a little uncertain and I'm not good at coping with uncertainity. I'm also coping with the frustration of feeling up to working out more/doing different exercise but my body rebelling and not letting me do it. Very frustrating. I can feel myself getting down about it too and know I need to fight that as things are better than they were. I can do more that I could when this all flared up again in April, the numbness in my foot is gone and the pain is a lot less. If keep reminding myself of this and keep myself busy, I know I can get through this frustrating time. It helps just typing this all out.

Anyway if you managed to read though that, thanks.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. Someone asked what fabric I stitched Happy Haunting on. Well I used the fabric that came with the kit when I got it at the retreat. Having seen Joy's WIP recently, its obvious that the fabric in the kit in the shops just now is different. The fabric I have is much more yellow/green.

Yay stitching

2008-06-15T21:02:00.003+01:00

I've just about recovered from last weekend's stitching GTG and now its the weekend again. The GTG was lots of fun and I really don't think I've laughed so much since the same time last year. During the weekend, I dyed a couple of pieces of linen which I'll share pictures of once I've managed to get around finishing rinsing them and ironing them. Ironing is really not my favourite thing to do but I'l force myself lol. I also made a small trip to Wye needlecraft but I didn't go mad - I only bought a small piece of linen plus two mirabilia charts which were a particularly good price. We also had a stash giveaway in which I managed to give away a good amount of used charts and I gained a couple of pieces of fabric and two chart. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Anyway being around lots of stitchers certainly helped my stitching mojo, especially with all the finished pieces and WIPs that I saw. It helped so much that I actually finished a fairly long term WIP Happy Haunting by Shepherd bush.

I actually finished it on the train whilst the train got very close to Glasgow. Its one of the only good things about public transport - the ability to stitch on trains.
This was the retreat project from the 2006 Shepherds Bush retreat. I had planned to go again this year but being off work and still having back pain, I had to email to cancel. I'm a little disappointed but I had to be sensible.

Inpsired by one finish, I decided to pick up one of the numerous small projects that was waiting to be started and so I started, finished and finish, finished the Purrfect Bookmark from Cat's Whiskers. Its stitched on 40ct.

I'm off now to try and finish my multicoloured monkey socks. Next weekend sees the start of the Summer of socks KAL. I've joined in to try and use up some of my frankly too large sock yarn stash but I need to try and finish some of the socks currently on my needles as only socks started and finished during the time of the KAL count towards it. Currenty I have 3 pairs of socks at various stages of completion on the needles and it would be nice to start the KAL with none on the needles. That hasn't happened in a while.

New month, new look, new projects

2008-06-06T04:00:00.000+01:00

June already, it seems this year is going very quickly. Anyway for the new month, I decided on a new look for my blog. I found a few different layouts I liked so there might be a few different layouts during the rest of the year.

There has been a lot of Little house needlework designs being stitched around stitching blogland lately so inspired by that, I've finished up one that I started earlier in the year.

Pumpkins stitched on 32ct lambswool linen. I plan to finish it into a pinkeep.

I've also stitched and finished a little kit given to me by Simone as part of the Here's to ewe SBEBB exchange. Its a dutch kit which came with all the bits to finish it as well but all the instructions were in Dutch too so I guessed when doing the finishing. I used the kit picture as a guideline.

I also managed to finish the first sock of another pair of monkey socks. They are knitted in Shelridge farm soft touch ultra like one of my previous pairs. It is so very soft but without being too fluffy and the stitches are very well defined in it.

This weekend, I'm off on my travels. Myself and 15 other stitchers are headed for a weekend away in some farm cottages. There will be lots of stitching, knitting, eating and drinking plus some shopping hopefully and a dyeing class by Kate of Sparklies fabric. We had a similar retreat last year which was lots of fun so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully when I return on Monday, I will have lots of lovely stitchy progress to share.

A little updating

2008-05-25T18:34:00.003+01:00

So I haven't fallen down a hole and vanished. I've just been a bit blog uninspired. Anyway I'm happy to report that my things are a little better. I have started physio which is working as I can now feel my left foot properly but it has had the temporary effect of making my back more painful. I'm still off work and have been told by the physio not to go back just yet as it could just make things worse. Thankfully I'm lucky enough to have paid sick time.

The Anniversary sampler got finished just in time. The designs are by M designs and were stitched on 28ct Antique linen using Gloriana silk in Cranberry.

There was a family party to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary held in the local Cricket club. Scotland is not really known for Cricket playing but there are quite a lot of teams and my dad does enjoy watching it. There were a few refreshments taken by my parents to celebrate. They even made a wee speech

Not sure they were really fit for speeches though. Just before the party, my sister managed to get in contact with one of our childhood friends who we hadn't seen for about 16 years. We met her for lunch and she came along to the party. Balwinder is on the left and my sister is in the middle. Obviously I'm the other one.

There was also a bit of dancing. My Aunts, cousin and Mum couldn't resist a little conga.

In amongst party preparations, physio appointments and gym going, there has been some crafty activity. I paid a little visit to Edinburgh just after my last post and met up with Karoline and her lovely daughter for lunch and stash shopping. We visited K1 yarns which recently opened and bought some lovely yarn. Alas I forgot to take pictures.

I've been knitting more socks during my time off. These are No purl Monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown.

And some very bright plain socks in Regia Nation shade 5399. Trust me, these are even brighter in real life. My camera doesn't capture purple that well.

Stitching wise, I have finished a couple of things which need finishing. I'm hoping to get a bit of finishing done this week and the strong desire to stitch rather than knit is coming back. Its a pity I can't stitch and knit at the same time.

Productive sick time

2008-04-28T15:28:00.003+01:00

The only good thing about being off with back pain is that it means I have a bit more knitting and stitching time. I'm still sleeping a lot more than usual due to the painkillers, which have also had the less desirable effect of causing me to have a series of nightmares last night. I think I might have been knitting too much as the nightmare I could remember involved being trapped under lots of yarn . I was watching Heroes before I went to bed also and that seemed to be in there somewhere.

Anyway on with the knitting. I've finished the second sock of two pairs of socks.

The first one is in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Liberty.

The second ones are in Opal feelings.

I've also finished the first of a new pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown. The pattern is No purl Monkey, which is a variation of the Monkey pattern by CookieA where all purl stitches are knit instead. I'm rather fond of this pattern.

Most of my stitching time has been spent on an Anniversary piece for my parents, who were married 40 years ago next week. Its M designs Celtic heart combined with their intials. Thankfully I'm on the final stretch with it.

Now I've finished this post, its time for me to head off to the gym for some more therapeutic exercise.

Exchange update

2008-04-19T00:20:00.002+01:00

I can now share what I stitched for the Here's to Ewe exchange on the SBEBB as its now arrived with Carol.

Its A Lamb's egg by Shepherd's bush stitched on 40ct linen finished into a little ornament/fob. I must confess that I now quite like stitching on 40ct. I don't think I want to stitch a big project on it but I love stitching small things on it and smaller versions of things I've already stitched are really interesting to me.

The rest of this week has been a little trying for me. Sadly the back problem that I first experienced last year has flared up again and last weekend at work, I was really struggling. I've been to see my GP this week with some new symptoms - altered sensation and tingling in my left leg plus an increase in pain. The visit has resulted in some x rays being taken, me being signed off work for 2 weeks and some strong painkillers being prescribed. I've also been advised that I should change jobs in the long term, which is something I've been looking into anyway. The strong painkillers have codeine in them which have been helping me to sleep in comfort for the first time in a while but have the side effect of making me sleepy for a long time - around 12 hours at a time. So unusually for this night owl, I've been asleep before 1am the past couple of nights. Hopefully things will settle down more quickly this time as I don't think I could take another 3 months on sick leave as I went a bit loopy the last time.

Exchanging and knitting

2008-04-09T20:56:00.003+01:00

Most of my stitching time this past week has gone into stitching an exchange - the Here's to ewe exchange from the SBEBB. I can't share any pictures yet as its not reached its destination.

I have however received my exchange from Simone

On the knitting front, I've finished my second ever full size adult cardigan. I've mostly just knitted socks so far.

I'm fairly pleased with it. It does gape a little at the front and I think it would sit better if the buttons were smaller with more of them too. Now I just need to get stuck into my Central park hoodie which has been neglected of late.

I finished another pair of Cranford mitts last night after I got home from my knitting group. This pair have the same colours as the first pair but in reverse.

Finally I have finished stitching something that I can share since my last post.

Its a Country companions design by DMC. I haven't stitched many of these designs lately but this range was thing that started me stitching in the first place in 1990. I've stitched 66 of the designs within this range over the years and I own almost all of the Country companions ever released. So I guess thats a little obsessive but I doubt I'll run out of things to stitch.

I'm off now to watch more Doctor Who. I am so happy to see it back again. The first episode was really fantastic and its going to interesting to see where the story will go. The second series of Torchwood has just finished and it came to such an amazing sad ending. I cried so much with the last episode but then again I do tend to be a bit of cry baby with sad films/tv shows.

Meeting and knitting

2008-03-24T14:54:00.002Z

Most of the past two weeks has been fairly unremarkable with not a vast amount of knitting or stitching going on. There have been a few good bits though.

A highlight was getting the opportunity to meet John Barrowman in a local bookshop during a book signing. For those who don't watchit, he is the star of UK series Torchwood and also appears frequently in Doctor Who. He speaks in TV with a very American accent but he was born in Glasgow so this was a home town event so there were a lot of people there and he naturally reverted into his very lovely native accent. He was very friendly to everyone and stayed until everyone got the chance to get a book signed. There were a lot of people there. Oh and he's even more handsome in person. I got a couple of pictures but it was pretty difficult as it was so busy.

I'm a big fan of Doctor Who so was a thrill to met someone who has appearred in the program. I'm eagerly awaiting the new series of Doctor Who which starts next month.

I did manage to finish my Cranford mitts inspite of not having a lot of knitting time. They are knitted in Yard yard organic merino in Mysteron and Sooty cherry. I have already started another pair in the same colours but with the colours reversed

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post with my finished Grape thread keeper. Everyone made such lovely comments and they are very much appreciated. The pattern is indeed by Chatelaine designs and was an online class. Its not currently available to buy but the online classes do eventually come out as charts.

Grape threadkeeper HD

2008-03-11T14:27:00.003Z

The title says it all really. I finished the stitching in January this year and I finally completed the finishing on it last night.

I made a couple of changes on it. No initials on the front and no year inside. Partly because they were stitched over one which I don't like doing and also because I felt it looked fine without it. I used a premade cord around the edges rather than making it mainly because I had the perfect colour in my stash. I also found some random oddments of Vikki Clayton silk in my stash to wrap on the thread rings.

Here is the outside.

And here is the inside.

I took some more pictures in the daylight today which I think shows it better.

Tonight I'm off to a local knitting group for a meet up. I'm hoping to finish the Cranford mitts that I'm knitting.

Holiday crafty progress

2008-03-09T16:29:00.002Z

Well my time off work is nearly done. I'm back at work on Thursday for 2 days and then luckily I'm off for 6 days after that due to my roster and the end of the holiday year which means I have to use all annual leave.

The weather has been truly horrible. We had some snow at the start of the week and thereafter its been rain, rain and more rain. Still its Scotland in March and really its not that surprising lol.

As a consequence of the awful weather, there's been a lot of house based holiday activities. I have been spring cleaning which is not really my idea of fun but a necessary evil. I also have been spring cleaning and tidying my wardrobe so the local charity shops are going to benefit a little from my efforts.

I have been knitting a bit too. I finished my blue Monkey socks in the Sheldridge farm yarn.

I also have done a bit of internet shopping at the Yarn yard. Natalie had uploaded a lot of merino plus a lovely pattern for some lacy mitts designed by Jane. I started them as soon as the yarn arrived. This colour combination is Sooty cherry/Mysteron. I'm hoping to get them finished in the next day or so.

As well as the knitting, there's been some finishing being done also. I finished stitching You've been hatched by Teresa Wentzler in 2005 and since then I've been looking for a box to mount it in. I finaly found one in The Viking loom in York in November last year and yesterday I mounted it in the box top.

Today I framed up a Shepherds bush kit that I bought in Utah - Boo to you. The mount came with the kit and I had a frame made to size locally.

This evening, I'm continuing with the finishing kick. I started the finishing on Grape threadkeeper yesterday and I'm hoping to get it completed tonight. I'm working slowly on it as I don't want to mess it up.

February's crafty progress

2008-03-01T00:37:00.002Z

Since my last post, the postal service has finally cooperated and delivered the Valentine's exchange that I stitched for Edgar. He is a fan of Quaker designs so I thought I'd stitch a quaker heart freebie for him. I used Gloriana silk in the shade Cranberry.

My only stitching finish for February was Autumn Silhouette, which I shared in my last post. I only started one project this month - Celtic heart by M designs. My parents celebrate their 40th Wedding anniversary in May and I'm going to stitch their initials separated by the Celtic heart design for them. Its a design idea that someone on the Wagon stitching board stitched for a wedding I think. My parents both like the stitching that I've done before and in fact quite a few of my framed pieces hang on their walls rather than mine due to lack of space.

Other than that I've still been knitting away. I finished a Clapotis that I started last year. Its knitted in Rowan Tapestry yarn.

I've also been knitting more socks alas not finishing a pair though but it should give me a head start for March.

This sock is in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Rainbow.

And this one is the first of another pair of monkey socks in Sheldridge farm soft touch ultra, which is lovely to knit with in lacy patterns. I'm half way though the second sock and I might get it finished this weekend. I'm working on Saturday night and if the patients are sleeping, I can knit away.

After Saturday's night shift, I'm off work for just over a week on holiday which I'm in need of just now. I'm hoping the time off will give a chance to catch up with lots of household things that need doing plus just to get out and enjoy myself a bit. Last week I went to a local knitting group for the first time and really enjoyed it so I'm hoping to make a few of the meet up whilst I'm off. Oh and there's also a Craft show on at the local exhibition centre which I'm planning to visit too. The weather isn't looking too promising as there seems to be a chance of snow next week. We've only had a little bit of snow this year and I'm hoping we don't anymore.

Work, sleep, knit, repeat.

2008-02-16T23:11:00.003Z

And throw a little internet surfing, a tiny bit of stitching too and that sums up life for the past month. There was also a rather nasty cold which floored me for a few days. Finally though the dark days of winter are starting to be over and it was actually light at 5 this afternoon. Its a downside of living in Scotland that the days are so short in winter, which is thankfully balanced out by long summer days.

There has been a little stitching in the past month. First off a stray Christmas ornament that I finished the stitching on in January and I did the finishing on yesterday. Its French country mitten by JBW designs on some Lambswool linen using Gloriana silk in Cranberry.

Then this afternoon I finished Autumn Silhouette by Blackbird designs. I used Crescent colors thread in Pansy purple for my version and the fabric is some R&R reproductions linen in Light expresso.

There is another project which I completed but its for an exchange so I can't share it until it arrives at its destination. Its a little overdue already so I hope the postal service hurries up.

Most of my off time in the past month has been spent knitting. I've finished a pair of socks using the remains of a skein of Lisa Souza sock yarn which I had already used to make a pair of monkey socks. One skein of this yarn seems to go very far, partly because I have small feet.

I've also been doing some baby knitting for a stitching friend. Sadly work stopped me getting to a GTG to give the knitted items in person but I was able to send them to Joy who was hosting the GTG.

The hats are knitted from a pattern in the book Itty bitty hats which I've used before. The socks were knitted using some of my sock yarn leftovers and took about an hour to knit the pair. And finally a Tulip baby cardigan which I bought the kit from Socktopus, my current favourite yarn supplier. If you knit and haven't bought from Alice yet, I would recommend Socktopus very highly. Many of the yarns she stocks aren't available elsewhere in the UK and the customer service is second to none.

Tomorrow I'm back to work which is not much fun at present as my workplace is being renovated around the staff and patients by the world's slowest workmen. I've got a week off coming up at the start of March which can't come too quickly at the moment.

Back online

2008-01-17T22:30:00.001Z

Tecnically I've actually been back online since the 5th but I've spent a fair bit of the past 2 weeks catching up on various places that I visit and working quite a bit too. Today was my 9th 12 hour shift since the 3rd of January. Everyone at work seems to have had some sort of cold so unsurprisingly I've started to come down with one too. I get the feeling this weekend will involve lots of lounging on the sofa and sleeping.

Whilst I was off line I got some knitting and stitching done.

I finished two pairs of socks - the first is in some Regia crazy sock yarn in shade 5404 which had already been knitted up into a sock and ripped out last year. I'm much happier with the second attempt.

The second pair is another pair of Monkey socks. Its one of my favourite patterns. The yarn is Lisa Souza sock in the colour Lime and violet.

I also managed to finish up stitching Grape threadkeeper by Chatelaine but as yet I've not done ths finishing. I might give it a go this weekend if I'm feeling inspired.

As well as lots of sock yarn, my knitting stash is the home to yarn for some bigger projects . I've been knitting the Central Park hoodie from Knitscene magazine since earlier last year. So far I've only finished the back. Its in Rowanspun aran which is a lovely yarn to knit with.

The other main big knitting WIP that I have just now is Neaty from Rowan magazine 42, which is knitted in Rowan Cocoon. I started this last week and because its a chunky yarn, its knitting up quicker. This is the back plus part of the left front.

Its not even quite 11pm yet but its time for bed for me. All these shifts are sending me to bed earlier than my normal night owl ways.

Happy Christmas everyone

2007-12-25T01:24:00.001Z

Christmas day has just arrived in the UK so I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy and safe Christmas. I'm just about to switch from one ISP to another one with what is looking likely to be a few days in between due to the annoying behaviour of my current ISP and the festive season causing delays.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my Christmas tree with and without lights.

Whoosh

2007-12-22T00:26:00.000Z

That is the sound of time flying by of late. My desire to blog wandered off last month following my desire to stitch which largely wandered off earlier in the year. My desire to stitch has returned thankfully as has the desire to post here. The lack of daylight here at present is making me want to sleep all the time but the shortest day has just passed so whilst the weather is cold and frosty, at least the days will get longer now.

Just after my last post, I spent a few days visiting York and I also went to the Harrogate knitting and stitching show. It was s cold whilst I was there and there was even a little snow. York is a great city to wander around on foot and there are lots of lovely shops to visit, including some knitting and stitching shops. The last time I visited, York Minister was being renovated but this year the work is nearly done so I was able to see it as it should be

During a walk in a park in York, I came across some very friendly squirrels who ran up to me and seemed to want to pose for pictures.

I did buy a fair bit of sock yarn at the Knitting and stitching show but I also bought the book and yarn kit to knit Autumn rose by Eunny Lang, which is the loveliest fair isle jumper. I've never knitted fair isle before so this will be my challenge for 2008.

Earlier I mentioned that my desire to stitch has come back a bit. Whilst I was away, I got stuck into a couple of my long term WIPs and I've finished two recently.

Firstly Venice Windows 2

And then a Country companions cover kit which was left half done in spite of being very small..

At the moment, Christmas preparations are taking up most of my time outside work. I had big plans earlier in the year to stitch some Shepherds bush stockings for some of my family but that isn't going to happen this year. I've not even made up the stocking that I stitched for myself earlier this year. I did make a couple of presents though.

A stitched dress on a DMC doll for a small child of a friend. There wasn't much stitching in it.

And a little hat for the younger sister of the small child

The hat is from a book called Itty bitty hats by Susan B. Anderson and its got some lovely baby hat patterns. I knitted another one earlier in the year for another baby - the Little pumpkin hat

My Christmas tree is up and ready for the season. I've only got one night shift to work this week on Sunday and I'm off on Christmas day this year thankfully. Even though this is my 4th Christmas in my flat, I've never woken up here on Christmas morning. The first year and third year I stayed at my mum's and the second year I was on night shift. This year I've decided that I will wake up here on Christmas morning and go over to my parents later. All the family are going to my mum's for Christmas dinner so there will be a full house. Usually I premake myself something for Christmas dinner as I haven't eaten meat or chicken/Turkey for 18 years. This is going to be different as earlier this year, my dad decided to stop eating meat and poultry so there will be fish on the menu for the two of us. My dad has spent the past couple of years studying Buddhism and he now feels that eating animals is wrong for him. Its come as a bit of a surprise to us all as he used to eat all sorts of meat including Venison.

Lest we forget

2007-11-11T22:36:00.000Z

Today is Rememberance Sunday in the UK and as such it is a time to remember those lost in conflicts past and present.

The person that I remember here is not someone I have met as he died longer before I was born. Indeed until this year, I had no idea of his extistence. I'm currently researching my pateral family tree and earlier in the year, I obtained my pateral Grandparents" marriage certificate. On getting the certificate, I discovered surprisingly that firstly they married in London (they were both Irish) and secondly that my grandmother's father had served in the army. My grandmother is sadly no longer around to ask and even when she was alive, she did not talk about her life other than the odd snippet so there is not anyone to ask about him.

So today this post is in memory of Private William Fitzpatrick of the Irish Fusilliers/1st Dorsetshire regiment who died July 5th 1915 around Ieper after only 3 months in the Army. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T23:06:00.000Z

I'm running slightly behind myself today as Halloween is nearly over here. Nothing special planned here for Halloween other than a day off work and 2 episodes of Heroes on the TV. We are only just getting to the end of series 1 here and its almost my favourite program of all time. Just in case you are wondering, it is narrowly beaten for all time favourite by The West Wing, Doctor Who and Black Books.

Anyway autumn has arrived in Scotland. The weather has turned cold and windy. Oh and wet also. I actually like this time of year though as I'm not a hot weather person and at least you can dress to keep the cold out. The only downside is that its dark so very early. At the height of winter, its often dark until 9am and dark again shortly after 3pm.

Inspite of not having anything planned for Halloween, I decorated a book case that I have in my hall. I've got a fair few different seasonal bits and bobs and I change what's on it depending on the time of year.

Here is what it looks like right now.

I heard last week that Carla had received the Halloween exchange I stitched for her.

I had hoped to finish Happy haunting by Shepherd's bush prior to Halloween. I started it at the retreat last year. Here's where I'm at just now.

I did find the time to finish some appropriate coloured socks though

I hope everyone has had a happy and safe Halloween.

Where I'm at

2007-10-17T13:07:00.000+01:00

Time has raced by during the past few weeks and I'm afraid my blog has fallen by the wayside. The combination of work, my sister's wedding, general life and the fact that my Ravelry invite arrived has taken up all my time. For the non knitting readers, Ravelry is a very cool social site for knitters, where you can chat to others and browse countless projects and yarns. Its a bit of a time sucker but lots of fun. My user name there is pjmck so if you are a member, please stop by and visit my projects.

The bigggest thing that happened since my last post is that my little sister got married. If you've read my blog for a while, you will know that the wedding had to be postponed as the groom's father became very suddenly and seriously ill. A few days before the new wedding date, we got some superb news as the liver cancer he was diagnosed with, has been successfully removed with no signs of cancer still remaining and his liver is functioning normally. Everyone was so very relieved and happy.

However the day of the wedding was not without drama. The groom's mother had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance on the morning of the wedding and after tests, was found to have had a stroke. Sadly it meant she could not attend the wedding and the groom's father missed the ceremony. He did join us for most of the reception. The registrar gave special permission to film the ceremony and after the ceremony and pictures, the bride and groom took a short trip to the local hospital to see her. My sister said it was a very surreal experience. Its not often you see a bride with a groom in a kilt in the middle of a hospital.

Here are the happy couple plus best man and bridesmaids just after the ceremony. I'm the middle bridesmaid with the dark hair.

And here is the happy couple cutting the cake.

My sister along with my parents on the right and my dad's cousin and his wife with me at the front.

Inspite of the drama, which also included the 4th bridesmaid pulling out of the wedding at the last minute, the day was lovely and lots of fun. My mum made the wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses and she was thrilled to hear lots of compliments. I applied the beads to the dresses as my mum can not hand sew due to arthritis. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the groom's dad managed to enjoy himself inspite of his wife's illness. She is now thankfully back at home and well on the road to recovery.

At the weekend, I received a lovely halloween exchange from Suzanne.

I've been managing to do a little stitching. I stitched a fob design that I got at the Shepherd's bush retreat last year.

And I managed to stitch a little scissor case design.

I've also been knitting away at more socks

Apologies if there are any spelling mistakes in this post. I finished night shift this morning and I haven't been to bed yet. I'm trying to stay up as last week I completed mucked up my sleep patterns and ended up sleeping during the day on my days off. Which is not so good when you have things to do when you are not working. Plus its a little antisocial when the rest of the world is awake.

Good things

2007-08-20T22:52:00.000+01:00

There are a few things which are making me happy just now.

Firstly the back is behaving itself with me back at work now. The first week back was awful and there were a few tears of pain. There was also a few words exchanged with my boss re inappropriate work schedules. But it seems much better now as I have a few holidays to use up so I'm only part time at work for the next few weeks. And then I have a 2 week holiday off so full time will not come until late September.

Exercising is going great. I'm still enjoying the gym and keeping up the twice weekly sessions. Best of all I've lost 5 kgs (11 lbs) in the past 4 weeks without dieting.

I received a lovely exchange from Melissa on the SB BB

I sent her this fob in exchange

I spent the weekend stitching and finishing the Red lace needlebook by Drawn thread.

Here's the front

And the back

And the inside

I also finished my first pair of socks for August. They are knitted from Lorna's laces shepherd sport yarn in the shade black purl.

On a slightly odder note, I'm more than a little happy that this weekend Apple are opening their first Scottish store this weekend. I switched to a Mac nearly two years ago and I've become a big Mac fan since. It also means I'll have somewhere to go to get my Mac or ipod fixed if any problems occur and somewhere to buy Mac software and accessories locally as the only local place just now is John Lewis.

The good thing about this time of year is that all the yarn manufacturers are releasing their new yarns and designs. I got my copy of Rowan 42 recently and I've been drooling over some of the designs and new yarns. After lots of looking, I decided to treat myself to some of Rowan's new yarn Cocoon to knit the design Neaty from Rowan 42. I've got my eye on a few other things but I seem to have developed a bit of a yarn stash so whilst I'm not putting myself on a yarn diet, I'm going to try to use up some of it. Famous last words I think.

Exchange stitching

2007-07-27T16:41:00.000+01:00

I really like getting things in the post. When I was much younger, I had quite a few penpals. Sadly I've lost touch with them now for a variety of reasons. Since joining various online communites, I've been taking part in variety of exchanges and at times, I've even run a few of them. In the first online group I joined on what is now yahoogroups, I ran quite a few but after a while, there were problems in the group so I stopped.

Most of my exchange stitching today is as part of the Stitching Bloggers exchange board. I really enjoy taking part and sometimes the best bit is that I stitch things that I wouldn't normally. My last exchange parcel has arrived at is destination just as I received mine in return.

In a strange twist of fate Leena and I stitched for each other.

Leena sent me a lovely bourse using a design by Long dog

The outside looks like this

Leena chose Cats as her critter in this exchange. I'm not really a cat person so I've not stitched any before. I ended up stitching a Sweetheart tree design, Catnip kitty fob

This is the front

And this is the back

I had a lot of fun stitching it and I'm happy as it turned out that Leena had been wanting to stitch the design for a while so it worked out well.

The exchange stitching isn't finished though. I've got a SB exchange piece to finish off for mailing on Monday and then after that, I've signed up for a Halloween exchange and my favourite exchange of the year - The TWBB Christmas ornament exchange.

Thanks for everyone's comments during my recent time off work. I'm pleased to say that my back and foot are back to normal finally and I'm starting back at work next week. I have a few extra days off at first as the two weeks annual leave that I should have took whilst I was off gets returned to me unused. Its going to come in handy as my physio has signed me up for a gym based program of exercise, which I started last week. The aim to attend the gym and follow an exercise program at least twice a week. In the past, I've not really been much of an exercise fan. I've swum a bit and walked a lot but I'm not very well coordinated when it comes to sports. This program appears to have changed that and I'm very surprised to find that I actually enjoy going to the gym and working out. The best effect so far is the reduction in back pain and I've been able to stop taking painkillers. I've got an assigned advisor to help make sure I'm doing everything right and to help tailor the program for me.

Flowers and finishing

2007-07-17T22:47:00.000+01:00

The title says it all really. There's a tradition where I work that if you are off work ill for more than a few weeks, you get flowers. Today I answered the door to be presented with some lovely flowers.

At the weekend, I bought a new digital camera as mine has decided to stop working properly. I had put some money aside for it as my camera has been gradually failing. I asked around and Gill mentioned the Fuji finepix S5700 that she got recently. It had all that I was looking for and it has a very good macro/supermacro setting. I had a little play with it using the flowers. Its very cool. The colours seem much better too.

I finally got around to doing the finishing on some projects that have been waiting for too long.

This is Lizzie Kate's Official snow guide on Silkweaver hazelnut lugana.

Lizzie Kate's Sweet Christmas. I stitched this previously for an exchange and had to stitch it for me. I used the supermacro setting to take the picture and its great for taking pictures of stitching.

And Best Witches by Shepherds bush.

I'm still stitching on exchanges so I can't share pictures of them yet but I've got some pictures of a previous exchange that I hadn't shared before.

I stitched this for the SBEBB Monochromatic exchange as a replacement for another stitcher who hadn't received their exchange. Its a design from the De fil en aiguille tout rouge issue and its stitched in a thread called Solitaire SF0060 from Sparklies

This was the orginal monochromatic exchange that I sent to Leena

Stitching and other things

2007-07-07T17:49:00.000+01:00

Life is pretty much still a mixture of stitching, knitting and doing exercises at the moment. My physio think I might be able to return to work in a couple of weeks. Whilst not working is nice, I'm a little bored at home all the time. The internet and especially friends at various BBs and on blogs have kept me sane.

On Thursday, I was out and about with my aunt and her grand daughter. Its school holiday time here so there are children every where. Her grand daughter is only 7 and loves Doctor Who so when I heard there was a fan staged exhibition at Paisley museum, we had to go.
At the top of the stairs, we saw this

It was built by someone who builds them as a hobby and it looked pretty good.

There were also Daleks from different times in the series.

All in all, it was pretty fun. Its on for the rest of month and whilst it was pretty small, there's also the Paisley shawl and weaving exhibits to look at. I'm planning to go back and have a better look soon. I really like the motifs in paisley pattern and I would like to design some sort of stitched paisley pattern piece in the future.

Paisley and Glasgow have been in the news quite a bit this past week after some people decided to drive a car into the local airport aiming to kill people and blow up the airport. I live a very short drive away from Glasgow airport, which is actually just outside Glasgow in Paisley. Its been very shocking for everyone locally that this happened here. The west of Scotland hasn't got a lot of experience in having terrorist attacks here, although the proximity of Ireland means there have been connections to terrorist attacks. I guess I'm still in shock that it happened so close to home in what is a fairly small town.

Given that people have seen the not so nice side of Paisley this week, here is a picture of a lovely bit of Paisley's history.

The building is the old Anchor thread mill, which is now converted into flats. It lay in disrepair for a long time after it closed and its so lovely to see it restored. The mill is just past the end of my street. Because of the past history that Paisley has with weaving and threads, many of the streets are named after fabrics - Gauze, Lawn etc.

I didn't get too much finishing done last weekend. I managed to framed two things I finished recently.

Mirabilia's Miss Valentine fairy

When the chips are down by Hobb Nobb designs

I did, however, finish Miss New years fairy by Mirabilia, which started during my recent not blogging time.

During that time, I also finished a couple of Shepherds bush monthly musing designs which need finishing into a cushion and an ornament respectively. I also finished the Halloween fairy.

This week, I've got a couple of exchanges to work on so that will keep me busy.

An update from me

2007-06-29T21:53:00.000+01:00

I've not been a blog writing mood lately. Partly there was the foot pain thing and I didn't want to be too negative. Thinking too much about my foot and what if it doesn't get better hasn't made for particularly positive thoughts. Last weekend was pretty much made up of a lot of pain and a lack of sleep. Anyway that's my whining over. Life could be much worse and I get paid when I'm off sick.
I've started physio and its going fairly well. The interesting thing is that the physio thinks that the foot pain isn't really plantar fascilitis but its a back problem. I was a little doubtful at first and got upset during my first physio session, largely due to the pain I was in at the time. Two weeks on, I've got a load of exercises to do and my foot isn't really sore anymore. I have had a horrendously sore back for the past two weeks though but even this seems to be better since I had an ultrasound treatment to my back on Monday. The strange thing is that I didn't have back pain until after the physio started but the physio reckons that the foot pain was masking the back pain. My boss is not so casually hinting that she hopes I'm back soon but I'm not letting her rush me back and I'm going to take the physio's advice about when I should go back.

I've been keeping busy whilst I've been off and I've been knitting and stitching away. I did also manage to make it to a weekend GTG with a load of other stitchers which was a lot of fun. I've finished a few stitching bits so I'll have some pictures of them over the weekend as I'm planning to do some framing/finishing this weekend.

Meanwhile I've got some finished socks to share.

I've almost finished another pair which are in Garnstudio's fabel sock yarn.

Hopefully I'll get them finished tomorrow. Other than a brief trip out to get a few bits, my only other plan for tomorrow is to watch the very exciting last episode of this series of Doctor Who. David Tennant, John Barrowman and John Simm together in one TV program is almost too good.

Good news update

2007-06-04T13:27:00.000+01:00

The good news is that my sister's soon to be FIL is better, although he is still in hospital. The wedding has now been rescheduled for September 14th. Thankfully there weren't too many problems with that other than with the wedding band and some guests who can't come but that's life I guess.
I've been signed off work for a month. The foot is a little better but I've been told physiotherapy is the best thing for it. The bad news about that is that there is a 13 week waiting list at my local surgery for NHS physio. Where I work has an occupational health department and they have referred me for physio via my employer so hopefully the physio will take place sooner. I'm trying to make the most of my time and I have a lot of stitching projects which need attention. Halloween fairy is nearly done so hopefully I will have a finished picture soon.

Not a good weekend

2007-05-29T00:05:00.000+01:00

The title says it all. Late last week, my sister's soon to be FIL was rushed to hospital very seriously ill. He had major surgery which he wasn't expected to survive but he did. He is however still seriously ill. This coming Saturday, my sister was due to get married and today she and her fiance had to make the sad decision to call off the ceremony. The wedding was to be in my hometown and the groom's father is in hospital several hours drive away. Everyone is understandably upset and its particularly difficult when its supposed to be a very happy family time.

Happy dancing

2007-05-22T14:37:00.001+01:00

The only advantage of having enforced time off is that I'm getting more stitching and knitting done. I'm going to be off for at least another week and then I was supposed to be on holiday anyway so its going to be mid June before I'm back at work.

I finished Mirabilia's Miss Valentine at the weekend. I'm not really a girly girl but I love the pink of this design. The mill hill beads were a tight squeeze on the fabric though.

I've got Halloween fairy in progress too and I'm hoping to get it finished this week too.

Knitting wise, there are more socks in progress. I started a pair of Pomatomus socks earlier in the month and now the first sock is done. They are in Shepherd sock in the shade Tahoe. I bought the yarn from Hazy last year and as soon as I saw the Pomatomus pattern, I knew that I wanted to use this yarn to make them. The second sock is in the works.