The Sensible One Returns

An eighth of a fairytale

2010-01-21T21:45:00.004Z

Finally completed after months of hibernating, and spells of industious knitting, may I present Snow White. (After the rows and rows of rib, even if the seven dwarfs were a pattern, I wouldn't be knitting them!).

Knit in Woolcraft Aran Knitting, size Large, Weight 500g.

It's warm, it's big, and it's comfortable. It also looks like nothing on earth when it isn't being worn. The rib pulls the garment in so that it looks like some kind of mutant legwarmer when it doesn't have a body to cling to, but once it's on, it looks rather nice.

I have to say, Ysolda Teague must have a streak of genius in her somewhere to even conceive of the shaping in this, and for that, I give her full credit. It really is interesting the way it all comes together at the end. That being said, I wouldn't rush to knit another due to the repetitiveness of the rib throughout the whole garment - it does get tedious until you hit the shoulder shaping.

Welcome 2010

2009-12-31T23:20:00.004Z

Probably a bit of a cliched title, but appropriate for the date!

I've just said goodbye to the last of today's visitors after having a little get together with family this evening, and am currently sitting curled up on the sofa chilling out before I go to bed. I'm not one for ushering in the new year with champagne and fireworks, but it does seem an appropriate time to look back 0ver the last year, and forward to the next.

Let's face it, making resolutions is a fool's errand. There's no way that in the next year I'm going to be able to knit up all of my stash, and refrain from buying more yarn. Neither am I going to go on a fitness regime and end up with the body of a supermodel. I may manage to lose half a stone - I may not. It isn't the be all and end all of life. All I can say is that over the next twelve months I fully intend to knit 8 pairs of socks for next Christmas. There are other things on my to do list, but they're more maybes than definites, and if there's one thing I've learned over the last few years, it's that putting pressure on yourself unnecessarily is foolish to say the least. We all have enough to worry about in our lives without adding stress to what is supposed to be enjoyable.

I'd like to wish all of my friends a happy and healthy new year. Every year has its challenges, but it's friends and family who help us through in the hard times, and with whom we celebrate the good times. I'm thankful for my family and friends - you truly make my life a better place to be.

And then there were two

2009-10-28T14:09:00.003Z

Two February Ladies in less than two months. I'm pretty impressed with that!

Buttons

2009-10-17T16:55:00.003+01:00

After finishing my February Lady (Ravelry link), I wanted buttons. I went to several shops, and although I bought some lovely buttons, they just weren't quite right for the colour of yarn.
Furthermore, I'm part way through another cardigan for Mum's birthday, so something that was just okay wasn't really an option, they had to be perfect.

So last week, I dug out some Fimo from my stash of miscellaneous craft items, and had a go at creating my own.

These are a mid brown, with a dark blue vein running through them. When they're next to the yarn, they're neither too stark nor too similar - in fact, they're perfect.

All I need to do now is sew them on.

We're jammin!

2009-09-30T17:44:00.003+01:00

Last week my mum and I drove out to see a friend of mine who has a couple of damson trees. Armed with my trusty pink bucket, we collected a fair few damsons, so on Sunday, the jamming began!

Before....

Naturally, I turned to Delia for a helping hand with quantities, so here there's about 2kg of damsons and 1.5kg of sugar. (This is after mum took her share of the fruit!)

Last time I made damson jam, there was a slight risk involved for anyone eating it, as I didn't quite manage to get rid of all the stones. To save people's teeth, this time, once I'd stewed the fruit, I sieved it to just get the flesh and juice before adding my sugar. Unfortunately, I can't see my wooden spoon losing its rather gory red tinge any time soon!

After bubbling away for a while, I poured it into my lovely new jars and ta-da! we have jam. I reckon the jars hold around double that of a regular jam jar, but this size was the cheapest in the shop, so me being me, that's what I got! Plus I still have two unused jars that I'm earmarking for home made mincemeat in a week or two.

Not quite as impressive as Laal Bear's jam exploits, but I'm still rather proud of it!

February Lady

2009-09-06T16:33:00.003+01:00

Ever since seeing KraftyKoala at our knitting night on Thursday, I have been obsessed with making a cardigan just like hers. She's recently finished the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne, and so she turned up wearing it. I wanted one immediately, but had set a little embargo on casting on any new projects until I had finished the two baby garments that I was mid way through.

So, last night, while Captain Jack Sparrow was prancing about on the TV, I completed the second baby garment, and happily cast on. I'm only knitting in a cheap aran that's 75% acrylic/25% wool, but I'm really pleased with the results so far. I really can't see this taking me too long to complete, which is just as well, since I want it NOW! I can even see my making one for mum for Christmas if I can find the time.

How to lose a bank holiday in one idea

2009-08-31T20:32:00.002+01:00

This post is not as cryptic as it may seem. When Chris asked me on Friday what plans I had for the weekend, I has a list of maybes. The one firm plan I had was to spend Bank Holiday Monday in practising my sewing skills and making the Bette dress from Sew Magazine. Well, you know all about best laid plans! I then proceeded to think that this weekend would be an ideal time to finally clear out the junk that has been collecting stealthily in our attic, and do a car boot sale.

Sunday passed in a blur of loft ladders and long forgotten posessions, and by the time tea time rolled around I was dead on my feet. This morning I prised myself out of bed at the unholy hour of 6am (even earlier than I get up for work) and set off to a well known car boot sale. Only to find that due to the inclement weather during the night it was cancelled.

However, the car boot angels were obviously working for double pay this morning, as a fellow car booter wound their window down and offered to show me another venue. Off we went along the M55 and I found myself on the outskirts of Blackpool by 7.15.

Five hours later, I had £129, a rosy face from the wind and rather less junk than I had set off with - not bad for a morning's work!

If only there was such a thing as Bank Holiday Tuesday, I might actually get that dress made!

Sensible September is nigh

2009-08-29T19:58:00.002+01:00

Chris and I have decided that the time has come to have a few weeks of sensibility in terms of food. We both lost a considerable amount of weight a few years ago, and since then have sat back with our chocolate and crisps and watched it creep ounce by ounce back onto our bodies, all the while never intending allowing it to stay. However, there comes a point in time (usually where you find that your baggy jeans look like poorly fitting skinny jeans) where you have to say enough is enough, and take action.

Today we sat down with a diary and several recipe books (or rather, I sat down with the recipe books while Chris played Madden 2010 and contributed with the occasional "mmm, yes") and planned out our meals for the next two weeks. Armed with a shopping list we hit Morrisons and bought all of the necessary ingredients.

Doing well, you might think. Not quite - we then had a rather big sandwich each, followed by a cake. Then we hit the hut for our tea.

Got to enjoy our last few days before September hits! Tomorrow its the roast chicken and stuffing that we should have been eating today.

River Rapids

2009-05-06T16:50:00.001+01:00

Completed and photographed, and rather nice if I do say so myself!

New beginnings

2009-05-05T18:49:00.002+01:00

In less than a month I'm starting a new job. It's a twelve month secondment in a team that i've wanted to work in for a while now, and I'm really looking forward to it. I don't think it's really sunk in yet that I'm leaving the team that I've worked in for six years, and am merrily going through my working days leaving everything tidy for whoever takes on each responsibility once I've gone. I know that I'll be sad when the time comes, but at the moment it doesn't seem to have had any impact on me at all. The thought has occurred to me that I may use this blog as a communication tool with all the people I'll miss, but whether they'd be content to weed through the knitting talk is another matter entirely.

On that note, I've been working on a few projects over the last few months; River Rapids by Sockbug, using a Regia/Kaffe Fassett yarn, and Flame by Kim Hargreaves, using Rowan Linen Drape that a lovely lovely lady from my knitting group gave to me. The socks only need a toe grafting, and the jumper has around 10cm of the neck left to complete. Pictures to follow!

Creativity

2009-02-25T19:30:00.005Z

These are a pair of mittens for my Nana's birthday this weekend. Now, they're special to me for three reasons:
1) They're for my Nana, from me and I made them.
2) They're Rowan Soft Lux, which is my current favourite yarn.
3) I made the pattern up myself.

Yes, I did italicise that on purpose. I can't say that it was all my own work (I took and modified a cable pattern from a book, and also, ahem, 'borrowed' the shaping from another pattern) but I still feel a certain sense of achievement in that it wasn't a straightforward working through of a pattern, and therefore I feel that I am allowed to say I made it up. Put it this way, it's the closest I'm going to get to designing something - I got the logic genes, my sister got the creative ones.

Anyway, here they are:

There are a couple of errors in there, but I'm afraid that they'll just have to add to the handmade charm of the gift. I'm sure Nana won't mind a dodgy cable when her fingers are toasty warm!

Why Howies rock

2009-02-13T19:16:00.002Z

Enough said.

Stash Busting 2009

2009-02-02T17:28:00.005Z

I have what's known as a stubborn streak. It doesn't come out all that often, but at the moment it has chosen its course and is not permitting the purchase of yarn (or even the visiting of yarn shops). This means that I'm going to actually knit up some of the yarn that I have. I've already cast on some gorgeous pink/purple Natural Dye Studio alpaca laceweight to make the Model 1 cardigan from Sandra magazine, and have earmarked some more of my stash for 'real' projects. By real, I mean actual garments that I can have use from. Don't misunderstand me, I like mittens and hats and socks as much as most knitters, but sometimes it's nice to know that you're making something that you'll get wear from, rather than a hat that will be worn three times this winter, only to be replaced by another creation next time it goes cold. With that in mind, my current vogue is for cardigans and jumpers that can be worn in real life, at work or at home.

The only problem at the moment is that while my stubborn streak is active, my knitting mojo is somewhat intermittent, so how likely it is that my stash is knitted before the stubborn streak gives in is as yet unknown!

Hello France!

2008-12-02T14:59:00.002Z

All I want to say here is I DID IT!!!!!!!!

And after swimming 22 miles, I deserve all of those exclamation marks! (and that one too). I finally finished the swim on Friday night, when I tootled up and down the pool for the last 48 lengths, full of a cold but determined to complete on schedule. (I may now be paying for that foolishness given that I'm off sick and on antibiotics for the worst cold I can ever remember having.) Ah well, I've raised £296.50 plus gift aid to date, and there are still a couple of people who've said they'll sponsor me but haven't put pen to paper yet. All in all, I reckon that that was worth doing.

P.S. Anyone reading this who hasn't sponsored me and feels like throwing a few pounds in, click the sponsor button on my blog! Thanks x

Splash!

2008-10-11T18:50:00.003+01:00

Woohoo! Yes, that's me swimming a mile! I did it! Lots of exclamation marks because I'm pretty proud of myself!

I managed the full mile on Thursday morning, and then a further 60 lengths on Friday afternoon, so that's this week's quota all done. I'm getting into it now, and am usually surprised at how quickly the time goes. Now that the psychological barrier is broken, and I know I can swim more than 40 lengths quite comfortably, I'm raring to go. Plus, no volleyball match this Monday, so that's only half the muscle ache that I'd usually have before I even start on the swimming. I have the feeling that things can only go well this week!

Oh, and before I go, Woohoo! again!

A brief update

2008-10-08T21:29:00.002+01:00

Well, swimming so far hasn't been too bad. I managed 90 lengths in week 1, which was less than schedule by 30 in the interests of personal wellbeing. Note to all - social swim sessions on Saturdays are no good unless you're under 15 and like to divebomb, do handstands, practice underwater swimming, or are not bothered about being accidentally kicked, jumped on or swum in to.

Week 2 was a little more fruitful, I managed 130 lengths, which ate into the deficit a little. Last week was week 3, and due to the start of the volleyball season, I only managed the scheduled 120 lengths. This week I haven't been at all (again, blame the volleyball) but tomorrow I have a late start for work so intend making a splash (ha ha!) and cracking on with this week's quota. I quite fancy going for a full mile, but that might be overstretching it a bit (64 lengths). We'll see.

Anyway, in the interests of maximising knitting and dvd time, that's all for now!

Less than sensible?

2008-09-15T21:47:00.003+01:00

So, I might have done something a little less than sensible this week. I've been trying to make Friday night swimming night, in a vague attempt to get some modicum of fitness back. I say get it back but it's been gone for a considerable length of time, so really, it's a brand new bit of fitness that I'm seeking. Anyway, while I was at my local pool, I saw a banner advertising the aspire channel swim. The aim of the game is to swim the equivalent distance of the channel in your local pool over a twelve week period. Now, this is good for two reasons:

One - By telling people I'm doing this, and getting them to sponsor me (hopefully!) it means that I have to do it, increasing my swimming attendance threefold, and

Two - Aspire get much needed funds to provide support for people with spinal cord injuries.

I think that this is a win-win situation, hopefully other people agree with me!

Now, the not so sensible part of this is that I must now swim 120 lengths of the pool every week for twelve weeks - my current distance is more like 30 lengths a week. Eeek!

So, should you think that I might actually manage this, (ha ha), would you fancy spending a pound or two to both help the folks at Aspire with their good deeds, and to spur me on to actually doing some exercise? If you would, I'll be carrying around a traditional sponsor form, or alternatively, I'll be setting up an online sponsor form at http://www.justgiving.com/julieratcliff
(which isn't entirely set up yet, but please don't give up that easily!)

Progress?

2008-08-17T12:25:00.004+01:00

Well, after my foray into spinning, I had a little twinge in my elbow. Nothing too horrendous, just a little pins-and-needles sensation for the rest of the weekend. However, after working on the following Monday, my hand decided to join the club and go numb every now and then - not great when you have to drive at least 60 miles a day and use computers. So, feeling like a fraud, I saw the GP and was promptly signed off with tennis elbow. Great. 10 days off work, and I couldn't use my arm. Not the best when your hobbies involve needlecrafts.

I'm now six weeks or so on, and I'm back on track. I decided not to stretch myself and enter for anything in the Ravelympics, but nevertheless have managed to complete both pairs of socks that were WIPs, and have made great inroads into Chris's jumper - which has to be the biggest thing I've ever made. The man's a giant! It is, however, taking all my willpower not to cast on anything new at this point. I just got my copy of the Fall Interweave knits, and am itching to cast on some lovely socks with my Nino sock yarn from the Natural Dye studio, but due to a large tangling issue on Thursday, have managed not to do this (thanks by the way to those who spent forever undoing my mess of a ball last week!) I suppose it was a blessing in disguise, but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time!

I suppose it's only fair that I include gratuitous pics of my achievements to date - the blue toe on the Francie socks (Rebekkah Kerner) is a feature, and a lesson not to use Colinette jitterbug for any socks with a long-ish leg. I think the plan is that my next use of that yarn will be toe-up socks that will be carefully weighed to ensure I have enough to complete sock number 2! The darker pair are the Retro Rib from Interweave favourite socks, and I like them a lot. They're for my Dad for Christmas, so they'll shortly be being buried in a secret place for the next four months. Chances are I'll rediscover them around February.

Spinning

2008-07-05T17:24:00.004+01:00

I recently acquired a spinning wheel from a lady - curiously through taking to a stranger in a pub. It was in a state of slight neglect, but after a few squirts of Mr Sheen and a smartening up with an Ashford maintenance kit, I am now the owner of a dark-stained Ashford Traditional. I confess, I'm not sure whether this spinning lark is my cup of tea, but I'm willing to give it a fair try, so today the wheel and I joined a couple of friends and trekked along the A59 to Gisburn to a spinning guild friendship day.

Once we finally found the village hall, we were greeted by lovely ladies and had tea and biscuits pressed upon us. Moving into the main hall, I was amazed at the number of people - men and women - who were sitting in companiable chaos amongst an amazing collection of spinning wheels and spindles. I finally learned the basics of spinning, and now have a small length of Corriedale spun onto a bobbin. To be honest, it probably ranges in thickness from laceweight to aran and back again, and in some parts looks like a coiled spring, but the point is that I did it myself.

I am proud!

Despite remaining unconvinced that spinning is for me, I splashed out on some merino fleece dyed a lovely teal colour, for practicing with, and came home with a sense of achievement. Apparently my local spinning guild meets every month, so maybe I'll make it along there on Saturday, and see whether I'm in it for the long haul or not.

Evening Star

2008-07-02T22:07:00.000+01:00

Well, I've finally managed to finish my Evening Star bolero/cardigan (call it what you will). I think I like it, but to say its supposed to be a size 10-12 it's quite roomy. I'm not too sure about one of the shoulders - it's all knit in one piece, so you start at one wrist and work up the arm, along the back and across the front, putting waste yarn in to fit the second sleeve later, and it's this sleeve that doesn't seem quite right. However, it does look a tad Per Una-esque, which can't always be such a bad thing, and given that the pattern wasn't already listed on ravelry, there can't be that many people wearing one!

I used Sirdar Medici in a beige/blue colourway, which I have to say is rather nice. It took about 4.5 balls to complete.

My next challenge is to finish something else that's already on needles rather than succumbing to the lure of the lovely new yarn and casting on something completely new. I'm trying to be diligent and work on the Francie socks (Rebekkah Kerner) but the lovely fluffy stuff from the Natural Dye studio keeps calling to me. I've already managed to start a new (extremely long term) project by knitting one tiny fish that will eventually become a blanket of tessellated fish made from my sock yarn leftovers. I tell myself that this doesn't count as a new project as it's really using up the leftovers from other projects.

I think I need help.............

The reason for my return

2008-06-30T18:19:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a while since I deleted my last (paltry) blog, and if you know me, you probably wonder why it is that I've set up another. The truth of the mater is that I feel that I need to manage down my stash and by writing about it, I might find that I achieve it. Then again, I might not and then delete the blog in disgust. The stash doesn't look huge on Ravelry, but it's now got to the point where I'm starting to fret about all these odd balls of yarn and what to do with them (you know me!).

After hiding more than half of it all in the attic, I pushed the matter from my mind and started to collect more to fill the basket in the living room, but now that's full again, and there's a small overflow under the stairs from the Woolfest purchases. The trouble is, I love it all, and want to be working with it all, but I only have one pair of hands!

I think job one is to establish a temporary ban on yarn purchases, with the proviso that if I see a ridiculous bargain (like the famous Rowan at 99p bargain) I can still buy, but unless it's absolutely necessary to finish a project, I won't be buying more until what I have will fit in the basket. (Excluding the 99p Rowan of course - that's far too bulky to go near the basket!)

Job two is to complete a few of my projects that are in progress - dad's socks, Francie socks and my Evening star bolero. Then I can crack open the Woolfest stash! Isn't it pretty?