Oh no you did not

Holy Crap Madge! I'm speechless.

Loose ends

I've been flap, flap, flapping around the house this week trying to tick things off the craft to do list. I knew things were a bit out of control when I was sitting at work being stressed about coming home :) But now:

• Loose ends have been woven in:

• Glue has been applied (with a paintbrush of course):

• Things have been hung in their new homes (this is what you see when you walk in the front door. Well, this and cats.)

• And the last of the birthday brooches have been made and sent!

The universe obviously felt I deserved congratulating for all that ticking off (we won't mention the poms) because I got a little surprise in the mail:


Yarn pirate. Oh how I have coveted thee. Well the lovely Melissa must be my fairy-yarn-mother (or something) cause we're having a little sock yarn swap and this is what she sent me. I often drool over the yummy yarn on US knitblogs (koigu, socks that rock, yarntini, sundara yarn and yarn pirate are all on the shortlist) so I'm super psyched to have some of my own. Thanks so much Melissa, excellent choice. And I must have been extra good, because look what else I got - gorgeous little hand made coasters.

• Oh, and your parcel's in the mail Melissa.

Tick.

Ed: I know I said it in the last post, but the cross-stitch pattern is from Subversive cross stitch and there's instructions for the framed fabric at purl bee. Oh, and the brooch pattern is from mollychicken. Didn't want it looking like I was taking credit for other people's ideas!

Swimming in a sea of socks

If socks were food I'd be eating pretty well at the moment.

For entree we'd have some freshly frogged pomatomus. Whilst one may prefer them in a more advanced phase, sometimes they are much sweeter after a trip to the frog pond*. There's always the chance that they'll spontaneously multiply, which is a real treat. The subtle tonal striping forms the signature mark of this dish.


For mains we'd have some charming Baudelaire. The sophisticated colour compliments the difficulty with which the dish is prepared. The standout feature the utilisation of the Turkish cast on, a brilliant device that isn't half as complicated as one may first think.



For desert one could not go past the jitterbug jewel, which has now become the embryonic stages of badcaul. Oh come on! All the cool kids are doing it.


I need some knitting viagra so I can actually finish the job on some of this stuff.

One Less Project

It's here:
And it's lovely. Unlike this:

The cape i've mentioned before, that one over there in the sidebar. We've been on non-speaking terms for a while. Ever since the increase sections started to look like this:

I've tried to ignore it (maybe i'm not reading the pattern* properly? Maybe it will look better if I block it? Maybe if I drop the stitches I can weave them back together in a cleaner way?) Nope. The increases are just messy. Too messy. Frog-it messy.

Anyone know what I can do with 9 balls of Jo Sharp Wool?

*The pattern's fluted ribs from Wrap Style

Clap for scarves

Well it's taken a while but I finally finished the clapotis scarf.

This was the only piece of Christmas knitting I did, so it makes sense that it would take me until the middle of January to get it done.

I think I'm a bit over this pattern now (that almost seems like knitting blasphemy, ha!) It took me twice as long to knit this scarf version than it did the other two full versions. But I like it. I used the Lion & Lamb I had left over from this and I think the yarn is great with this pattern (funny that.)

It's a bit short, there'll be no wrapping it around your neck a couple of times, but it will flick over one shoulder nicely.

Gosh I'm so sorry, it's all a bit boring really!

To make up for it, how's this for yarn porn:

Colinette JutterBug sock yarn in 'popsicle'

Makes me all hot and steamy...

Oh dear.

A friend of mine is getting married towards the end of the month. No, not a friend. A person I have shared a significant part of my life with. The type of friend that over a lifetime you can usually count on one hand and that you are thankful for every day. The type of friend you would do anything for, even if there was only a slim chance you'd pull it off. Especially if you're the designated assistant for her wedding and head of the A-List (otherwise known as a bridesmaid) and the said task involved knitting.

My challenge is this: There are now 11 days (including what is left of today) until the wedding (is that a gasp I hear, V?) In the next 11 days I need to knit and block two lace shawls. Yes, two. One for me and one for the extremely talented (and now bald) friend who is making our dresses.

Now we could get in to an endless quagmire of discussion about why exactly I have 11 days to make 2 shawls (left it to the last minute), there may even be a sob story in there (yarn took twice as long to arrive as it should have) but I suspect it was self-sabotage. Thing is I like a bit of deadline pressure. I realise that this is possibly slightly masochistic in this instance, but i'm secretly a little excited by the challenge.


But i'm also realistic. Being ridiculously stubborn may not be enough in this case. So please, if you have any to spare, send your good knitting vibes my way. I suspect i'm going to need them.

Note to self

Trust the little voice in your head that tells you not to wind your skein after Friday night drinks.