Works in slow progress

Carding



(I've spun this up now, just working out the plying. It looks like somebody ate a clown then threw up.)

Gardening



I planted these last year, and have completely forgotten what they are. NOT like me. Someone enlighten me?



The baby daffs have poked their heads up at last!

I've been gathering patterns on Ravelry. There are SO MANY things I want to make, but everything seems to be going slooooowly at the moment. Except the days. They are flying past. I think this is a sign of getting old. Heh.

~*~

Going Green

It's all about the green around here. Project Spectrum? Well, I'm still on Phase One really. I think we're up to South and Red by now, but I'm still North and Green. Well, I never was one for following the herd :-)



That's a Romanesco cauliflower! I actually planted it last year, far too late, and I didn't really expect it to do anything. Shows how much I know.



Green fuzzies, for the Green Ripple Afghan. I'm not normally one for the squeaky man-made fibres, but I do like a bit of texture in a ripple blanket.

Oh and look! Look! I finished something!



Yep, a Hemlock. Blocked to 48", which is smaller than I'd hoped but the length of the rounds was driving me batty. Finished with a crochet edge - through 2 stitches, ch 5, rinse and repeat until you go cross-eyed. It will be big enough to keep my feet warm on the sofa this winter I guess :-)

~*~

Nibbled by Zombies

Sorry, another month has passed and I am a bad blogger. June already. I've been up here in Scotland about a year! I can hardly believe it. And would ya believe, I'm sick again. My neck has swelled up to icky proportions on one side, enough to send me scuttling to the doctors in horror of glandular fever or swine flu or the plague or summat. Typical quack - reckons I've got an infection, or possibly a dodgy tooth, or maybe a bite. Or maybe she doesn't really give a fuck. Pah. I reckon I've been bit by a zombie. Sods get everywhere.

Anyway.
Project Spectrum has fallen somewhat by the wayside - I just can't get excited about yellow. I'm trying real hard but it's not working. Also...the weather's been nice! Fabulous in fact. I'm having to water the garden. It can't possibly last, so I've been making the most of it so crafting has taken a bit of a back seat. Also, I found a new time-suck - Folia. It's like Ravelry for gardeners. Great fun, and I've found that their database has at some point been fed some rather out-of-date info on my favourites, Rhododendron. So I'm busy updating and correcting information on the genus and learning lots at the same time. Yes, I am a geek. A taxonomic geek at that. Well, I like things to be right, you know? It's keeping the "I wanna be a gardener!!!" vibes calmed quite nicely at the moment.

I also had to invest some fairly serious time tidying up. Because I had a visitor! Yay me. I get very few visitors (feel free to be sympathetic at this point) so it's a bit of a treat but means I have to make the place look presentable. Jules is one of mah bestest buddies (i.e. he's one of the few people on the planet who can actually tolerate me for long periods) and my former boss. He's only been trying to get up here since January, but bearing in mind his history of punctuality, May wasn't too bad considering. (Ohai Jules! *grin*) He wasn't staying here (I think he's worried I might keep him) so at least I didn't have to try and elbow enough room out of the spare bedroom / sewing room / painting studio to accommodate the airbed :-) instead he stayed at the Seamill Hydro down the road where we had a very nice dinner on Friday night. Jules - you can come up any time if you bring the sunshine with you like this time, and if you take me out for dinner :-) I don't get out much these days y'know.

Meet Jules' very unsubtle car:



Cool innit?

And we went to Largs on Saturday, enjoyed the sunshine (next time Jules, tell me when my back is going pink, ok?) and stuffed ourselves at Nardini's before coming back and stuffing ourselves again at the local restaurant Chu-Chus. I haven't eaten so much in weeks.

Look! Sunshine! (This is Jules on a work call. While he's on holiday. *sigh*)



So a jolly, if rather fattening time was had by all.

And next weekend...it's the UK RAVELRY DAY!!!!! Lock up my credit card someone.

~*~

Where the hell did April go?

Jeez. It's the 26th already. I think I lost a couple of weeks somewhere. I got slightly broadsided by hurting my back, leading to working from home most of last week. It was nice, but annoying as I couldn't really do much around the place as I didn't want to aggravate my back. It was only a pulled muscle so all better now pretty much, but another sign of my increasing age :-) It was interesting to watch what goes on when I'm not normally at home, mainly the hens running riot in my front garden. If they carry on that game I'll put one in the pot. Probably the noisy cockerel first.

Anyway, apart from plotting the brutal murder of the livestock, I've managed to achieve a few things. I had a Project Spectrum moment, when I realised we're nearly into May and the next Cardinal Direction, and I haven't finished half the stuff I wanted to do for March - April. I may have to alter my timescales a bit, but that doesn't really alarm me too much. I did manage to snap a few photos for East already, we had a few really nice sunny days so I took full advantage. (I also did gardening which was what did for my back. Win some, lose some.) Of course the weather now has turned, it's raining, windy and I've had to light the heating again. So I started an afghan, for Project Spectrum North. This is all manmade fibres for easiness of care and because I wanted fluffy bits. I like fluffy bits in these sort of things, it adds a nice variety of texture both visual and tactile. I am an equal-opportunity yarn crafter.



I love green, which is why PS North has been good for me so far. Funny for someone who supports Hearts to like green, but hey. I can't help my tastes. There's also lots of springy new growth busting out all over, so photography has been really easy. PS North is actually put under Winter as its season, but I guess that's aimed more at people in the Northern US. Here Spring has definitely sprung.

I've one more project I'd like to do for North, which is a vest / sleeveless top in some gorgeous Scottish Tweed DK in a lovely sharp green. I think I've tracked down the pattern I want (finally!) - Vestish by Robin Dodge. It's very cute with the pockets and neckline flowing into the straps. I'll probably knit in the round up to the armholes though. Hate sewing up, you know? :-) It seems very wearable as well, I can picture this over a shirt for work, or over a flowery blouse with a cute twirly skirt.

I've also had a couple of distractions from Project Spectrum. One is lace. Remember I said I was going to do the Fountain Pen Shawl? Well I'm not. Let us speak no more of the matter. I've swapped over to the Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis Pattern (rav link) from Victorian Lace Today. I'm still using the Old Maiden Aunt laceweight merino in the Gothic colourway, which is gorgeous. I'm working it on a 4mm needle which, in all honesty, may be a little bit too large for this, but I am not frogging this yarn again as I don't think it would like it very much. The original pattern calls for a slightly heavier yarn, though I notice Rav has it listed as 4-ply which is interesting (and I think is a mistake - many people are workinging this in 2-ply / laceweights). I thought it was more like a 3-ply weight but meh. I'll just not block the finished article too hard. I don't have a picture as it currently looks like a small piece of tangled pinky-red-black spaghetti.

I also saw this on Flickr. Go on, click. I'm never too sure if I can post someone else's work on here, so I've just linked. This is inspired by the work of Anu Tuominen, a Finnish artist. She does some wicked things with crochet potholders. Seriously. Do a Flickr search and you'll see them. So of course, this has triggered a potholder kick, which in turn sparked off a general dishcloth / facecloth / tawashi exploration, which now means I have a load of dinky flower-shaped facecloths sitting in the bathroom. (Pattern here) I also may have bought some more crochet cotton. Ahem.



Mmm, Peaches 'n' Creme, finally available in the UK from here. The colours are to die for, however it is a true worsted weight which means it may not be suitable for UK patterns. It's between a DK and aran, I would say.

It's not been all yarn here either. Today I started a drawing for the first time since, well, I actually can't remember it's been that long. I will take some pictures once it's a bit more advanced. I've also been patchworking, piecing the top for my quilt. Experienced quilters may wish to look away now. There is no plan. no overall design, my seams are best not discussed in detail and I can't cut a straight line to save my life. However, I am enjoying the process. It's nice to work with fabric again.





Somewhere I have a quilt that I never finished, that was falling apart because I didn't know about proper seam allowances. I must dig it out and see if anything can be done with it.

And finally, this big box arrived:



What could it be?

No, surely not. It's not a...



It is! It's Roomba's little brother, the Scooba!

Here it is in action:



I tell you, with a bad back it was a ruddy Godsend. Yes folks, I am the proud owner of a £300 mop. My parents now think I am insane, I dread to think what the bf will say when he sees it, but to be honest, I do not care. My floors are clean and that is awesome. I plonk it in the room to be done, shift any stuff out of the way, press "go" and off it potters. I can then go and do something else far more interesting. It even plays a little tune to tell you it's finished. Awesome. I reckon this saves me 2-3 hours work easily. At that rate it's paid for itself after a few uses, and it's far more effective than sloshing a mop around. Also it's rather compelling watching it. I have yet to introduce it to the cat. That could be quite funny.

~*~

New Uses for a Crochet Hook

or "Ah yes, now I remember what having long(er) hair is like."

Yep, new use for crochet hook #273 - De-squicking the Bathroom Plughole. Mmmmm. I can of course only blame myself, He Who Shall Not Be Named is not here that often so cannot really be blamed for plughole fur.

Apart from my plumbing issues, I realised that February has been a very spendy month. March will not be...however, I do have new lovely swag to share. A flying visit down south meant a detour on the way home, via New Lanark:



Nom nom. Limestone and Bramble DK for a Norwegian-style sweater, and 1000g of Donegal Aran Tweed for...something. Dunno yet. It's tweed, okay? Do I need any other reason? I also snaffled up a few balls of Sirdar Tweedie in Stafford, which is rather nice and not squeaky at all. I also grabbed a couple of balls for swatching at Cotswold Needlecraft, one of Sirdar Balmoral a wool / alpaca / silk blend, which is very nice indeed, and one of Patons pure merino which did not charm me immensely. I think it's the method of construction, I simply don't like the multi-end yarns. I have a ball of Stylecraft Pure Merino which is virtually identical to the Patons which I also didn't like very much.

I also stocked up on reading matter:





The Fair Isle book there is one that was brought to our knit night a couple of weeks ago, and I was smitten by all the charts. Some of the colour combinations are truly horrific mind you. I got my copy second-hand from Amazon, it's out of print, and only paid a couple of quid. Bargain. The Nicky Epstein is also inspired by Knit Night - Ange, you are such an enabler. Stop it already. I actually picked this one up at Borders in Glasgow a few weeks ago. It is lush.

In other news...spring has sprung.



I didn't plant these, so it's a lovely surprise to have them popping up. I'm guessing they're "Tête-à-Tête" or a similar very dwarf variety.



~*~

In Tune With Nature

Today I did gardening. I have been putting it off for far too long, and I'm nowhere near done, but I realised how much I enjoy taking a scruffy, overgrown weed patch and sorting it out, how satisfying it is to drag 10 feet of bramble (no word of a lie, easily ten feet long)out of a poor Rhododendron ponticum. I planted hardy geraniums, romanesco caulis and pak choi, more in hope than expectation :-) and I realised how out-of-tune with nature I'd been just recently. So I made time to just sit, look and experience it all again. There are two robins squabbling mightily over territory, singing their hearts out and chasing each other in and out of the escallonia and up and down the path, to see who will have the rights over my garden for the winter. A peacock butterfly came and investigated my marigolds, one of the very few butterflies I've seen all year. Enormous bumblebees mistook my compost bag for flowers, and I happily watched them sliding off the shiny plastic, buzzing confusedly. The gorgeous purple hebe in the garden was thick with bees and hoverflies. Then I saw one of the most emotive sights, especially for a gardener. The swallows are starting to gather on the telephone wires over the farmyard. Autumn cannot be far away.

~*~

I am Woman...Hear Me Roar

Or whimper, as the case may be. Quick catch-up, as I have been remiss with the blogging. Training course - complete, good, hard work, waiting to see how much has been retained. Good dinners. Marginally more clear on what I'm actually going to be doing for a living :-) and the training course only covers the techie part, which is not my first responsibility, the rest I have to figure out as I go. Won't be the first time.

Coming back was interesting to say the least. Virgin Trains from Euston to Glasgow Central at an unholy hour of the morning (06.44, ffs) No WiFi!!! WTF??? Anyway. Uneventful. Knitted quite a lot. Passed Lichfield, felt sad and wanted to get off. (Train didn't stop - probably a good thing, but in hindsight, shame it didn't) Went through Stafford without stopping, wanted to get off to see old workmates and my Mum and Dad. Nearly got off at Crewe, but thought, no, get home, car's stuck on railway car park all on its own, house could have blown away, best get back. Got to Preston.

You know how some days you're the windscreen, and other days you are the bug? This day, I was the bug. Crew changed, and we're still standing at the platform. Tannoy announcement - Flooding at Carnforth. Ah. Problem. Eventually, they terminated the train (sounds painful) and we were summarily turfed off. I went for a fag to consider my strategy, and got rained on. Heavily. Eventually, buses were announced. I damply pondered this. Trains were standing at every platform, confused passengers roamed aimlessly, some sat on suitcases, many glued to phones and cups of waiting room coffee. Bus was going to Lancaster. I considered some more. No trains going North, trains terminating at Lancaster...= bedlam there too. So, I did what any sensible girl does in this situation. I damply phoned my Dad. "Daaaaaaaad, what am I going to dooooooo?" He immediately suggested something that I had already thought about - jump a service back to Crewe, get picked up by him and write the day off as a loss re: travelling, spend the night there (Mum's cooking - excellent) and try again on the Friday. Excellent plan. Enquiries about services to Crewe met with blank expressions from the staff (admittedly, they were having a bad day) and eventually I found one myself. Back we went, I duly hauled my ass across Crewe station and was scooped up by Dad outside. To discover his car was terminally sick and we barely made it back to Stoke. *sigh* Car was dropped in at the garage to the inestimably marvelous Tony, and I settled down for an afternoon of Olympics, watching Dad fall asleep on the sofa, eating biscuits and having a very welcome visitor, if only briefly. Following morning, car fixed by Tony (fuel filter, very easy but seemed terminal at the time) I was ferried up to Crewe by Dad, who was treated to a huge cup of tea and a very large raspberry muffin for his trouble, he indulged in a bit of trainspotting and eventually I hopped onto the Glasgow train. Apart from sharing a carriage with a loudly exuberant African extended family, who had brought enough food, drink and luggage with them for a small army (including a suitcase full of mugs, jars of coffee and a very large Thermos)and who kept sitting on me (I nearly stabbed one with my needles when she sat on me again for the nth time, but they were my KnitPicks and they're expensive)I finally pulled into Glasgow ten minutes early, and very nearly kissed the platform in joy. A short wait, onto the local service, back to my station, car collected intact and started no problem (I love Japanese cars) and the house hadn't fallen down. In fact, it had improved. Not only have they tarmac-ed the road up to the house, the landlord had fixed my wonky laminate and re-set the front step which was wobbling alarmingly.

On the doormat, and delivered by the neighbours were some treats - my NCIS DVD's (Seasons 1 & 3), printer cartridges and my Tesco Clubcard points vouchers. So, I decided to go shopping. I bought some new work clothes (all my old trousers are too big, to the point of only being held up by my hips) and I also bought this:



so I can have this:



Porridge with blueberries, pumpkin seeds, sultanas, cinnamon, ginger and maple syrup. Lovely. I also treated myself to this:



I then realised that the lawn had grown to the point where I was expecting to find David Attenborough out there with a film crew, and there was no way my poor little mower was going to manage without some heavy-duty help. Its mainly the edges, suffice to say that there are Issues with my lawn. So, this morning, at 9.30 (on a Sunday, please note) I trooped up to B&Q and bought:



Yes, its a strimmer. Its only a little girly electric one - I was very tempted to get the big manly petrol one, but it would be a bit overkill, the lawn's bad, but not THAT bad, and it was taller than me. I probably wouldn't be able to start it anyway. So I spent a happy hour or so zapping about the very wet lawn edges. I discovered that strimming is Hard Work, makes your arms all achy, and you get grass in places you would not believe. I also realised that what my lawn really needs is digging up and starting again (Not going to happen) but it looks marginally better when you cut the edges and strim off the three foot high bits. If it will stay dry for a couple of days I may even manage to mow it. I felt quite smug at being the proud owner of a strimmer - "Look! I Am Woman Who Know How To Use Power Tools. Respect Me." However, I've decided that strimming is definitely a job for the boys. Too much like hard work and you get grass in your hair and green fingernails. I'll stick to knitting. Speaking of which - we have hats!





For the Mission to Seafarers.

~*~