An eighth of a fairytale

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

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

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

Buttons

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!

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

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

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!