Nice New Things

Christmas is coming early, and I've already started my first present project! It's the Danica pattern from Knitty that I was thinking about last week. Now, I usually find that scarves are just about the most boring thing in the world to knit, but this one is an entrelac scarf, and that makes it much more interesting. You only ever knit ten stitches at a time, and you really just have to trust in Jesse Loesberg's brilliant pattern without thinking too much about it, so that you get this...The other nice new thing in my life is a very exciting gadget for my iPod. It's called Nike+ and it is just about the most funky little gadget in the world. You simply plug it into the bottom of your iPod, go out for a run, plug your iPod into your laptop when you get back and it gives you a graph of how far you've been and how fast you've run. It's brilliant! It even tells you how you're getting on during your run. I can certainly see myself getting out and about more often. (And that's no bad thing at all!)

Finished Flicca

The day is finally here, and although I was beginning to think that it would never happen, I am delighted to announce that my Flicca cardigan is finally finished. It's taken just over fourteen months (in which time I have finished quite a few other projects) and I really think that it's been worth it. I still need to sew some velvet ribbon around the collar and rib to strengthen it and to tidy it up a bit, and I also need to block it. (I hope that the kitchen table is going to be big enough...) I'm really looking forward to wearing it, when the weather turns cooler. I can just picture myself curled up on the sofa in Flicca and my pyjamas with the cat and a good book!

This now means that having finished one project I can start another. I still have four balls left over from Flicca of the Sirdar Click, so I've just checked out on Ravelry what I could use them for and I think I've settled on a really interesting scarf from Knitty for my dad called Danica. I think that he'll really like it, and it looks a lot more interesting to knit up than a plain scarf.

I spent quite a lot of time yesterday looking for a new project for nine balls of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply. So far, it has attempted to become Ysolda Teague's beautiful Arisaig and a very pretty lace-knit tea top by Erika Knight, which was featured in the first issue of The Knitter magazine. I think that part of the problem is that the wool is so lovely and delicate that I really want it to turn into something that I am going to love to wear. I did find a gorgeous design by Helga Isager called Olive, but I just can't track the pattern down anywhere, so I guess I'm back to the drawing board. In the meantime, I shall keep on with the blanket for my study. It's probably going to take me another fourteen months to get this one finished (and goodness only knows how much wool) but it'll be very satisfying to make something so huge, and such a great stash-burner!
Speaking of which, I've really been enjoying a couple of knitting podcasts, most notably Stash and Burn by Jenny and Nicole, which is brilliant. It's really nice to hear people talking about patterns that I'm familiar with and their easy banter makes 20 minutes on the treadmill at the gym fly by! I've also liked Cast On by Brenda Dayne which is great. It's interesting, informative and unusually, it's recorded in the UK. Number one on my iPod (joint with BBC Radio 4's The Archers) has got to be Threadbanger. It is an absolutely brilliant video podcast that makes you want to make every single project that the feature. It's on twice a week but as far as I'm concerned if it was on everyday, that would be just fine!

I'll just round up this week with a couple of reading recommendations. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is every bit as good as The Shadow of the Wind, and is an intriguing thriller, that will definitely stand up to a second reading. I also read the second title in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy The Girl Who Played with Fire which was almost as good as the first title, no mean feat as I loved the first title. One other series that I've really gotten stuck into over the last couple of weeks is the Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare, which gets a special mention for being gripping, glamorous and perfectly trashy! Brilliant!

Mostly Books and Picnics!

The last couple of weeks have been really lovely. I spent a wonderful Monday evening strolling up and down the Charing Cross Road choosing which lovely carft books I would spend my birthday book tokens on. After um-ing and ah-ing between Foyles and Borders I finally settled on Homemade by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson and The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara R. Call. I also got a little cookery book called 200 Cakes and Bakes by Sara Lewis, and I've already tried out the very tasty Oat and Ginger Crunchies - yum! The last addition to my crafty library is an absolutely super book called The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket. I'd seen it in my sister's local yarn store, but hadn't bought it and regretted not buying ever since. I was pretty sure that it would be a great way to spend my book tokens, but everywhere I looked it was sadly out of stock. Luckily, my brother-in-law was kind enough to go to Jolie and buy a copy for me. He even took the puppy in with him- I would've loved to have been a fly on that particular shopwall! It was definitely worth the ritual humiliation of my dear big brother as it is a brilliant book. Really funny and I feel as if it was written just for me - there's a whole page on the benefits of combining knitting, reading, wine and chocolate. Heaven!

I've also been to the library to top up on my reading for the train and in the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday. It's quite a dark tale of one man's life as he descends into mental illness, but it's told so eloquently and gently that you end up really rooting for Mikey and his wife, and I found myself wishing that the inevitable unhappy ending could somehow be avoided. I'm now reading a non-fiction title by Linda Grant who wrote The Clothes on Their Backs. It's a part biography, part history, part social commentary and all wonderful. If you have any interest at all in clothes and fashion heartily recommend The Thoughful Dresser even if, like me, you don't usually read much non-fiction.

There's been a picnic a week since I last blogged, one last Sunday at a local event called Parklife, which is held once a year in the field that used to contain the old swimming pool by my house. There was live music, charity stalls, ice-creams and everyone just brought their own food, wine and blankets to chill out on the grass. D and I were joined by Piney, Jez and Libby, and I swear, if I'd eaten just one more party ring, it all would have ended terribly! Piney and Jez gave me the rather adorable egg cosy that you can see in the photo, which I used this morning to keep my boiled egg cosy, while I took it back to bed with me! They also gave me some fab eggs that Dotty had laid. There's nothing better for breakfast than eggs from a chicken that you've actually met! They came in a fabulous decorated box and each one seemed to have something to say!

Picnic number two was on Friday when I met my mum, dad and sister on the Southbank for a delightful lunch. I'd taken the afternoon off work to spend some time with them and we had a brilliant trip on the London Eye in the sunshine followed by a stroll along the Embankment and afternoon tea at in the cafe of The Museum of Garden History, where we sat out until they had to run off and get their bus back to Gloucester. I can't think of a much lovelier way to spend a Friday afternoon.

On the crafty side (apart from doubling the size of my library!) I have just finished my first foray into the art of crochet. The Noe Noa scarf by Bente Barosen was surprisingly easy and I really enjoyed getting to grips with it. It's a really beautiful scarf and I look forward to wearing it when it starts getting a little bit cooler. The pattern is available on Ravelry so get clicking and rustle one up for yourself! I've also spend some quality time with my Traffic Skirt kit from Clothkits that my sister gave me for Christmas, so watch this space for a finished object in the next post... (Don't you just love my sense of optimism?!)

On a final note, I must say a huge congratulations to Mister Jeremy Whitworth on his 1000th blogpost. Check out his blog here for an insight into the creative genius/madness that is Jez!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I've had a particularly lovely couple of weeks since my last post, which included my birthday. I really do love a birthday (it doesn't have to be mine!) and I felt particularly special and really quite spoilt this year. The birthday started last Thursday with tea, cake and flowers at work and I still feel as if I'm celebrating as I'm yet to spend my birthday book tokens - this is always such a treat. I'm thinking about buying The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket, Homemade by Ros Badger or The Journey is the Destination by Dan Eldon.

My present from David was a swanky new iPod, which is now pretty much surgically attached! I've gone from being a podcast novice to a subscriber of not one, not two, but eight different podcasts. These range from The Archers to the Topshop fashion videocast. On the knitting front I am loving Stash and Burn, Let's Knit2gether and I am really quite hooked on Craft and Make (after the magazines). It's a whole new world out there and I love it! It had been looking a bit touch and go as my lovely little BabyMac laptop, at the tender age of five and a half, was looking too old to take the upgrade that would allow me to use my new Nano, but luckily a very kind IT guru from work found an old Tiger lying around and sneakily put it onto my computer. I am now the proud runner of OSX 10.4.11! Thanks, Mark! The Mustard colour iPod cosy was rustled up this afternoon, while watching cricket for the first time. India vs England in the ICC Twenty20 at Lord's. I am really quite surprised by how much I got into it!

I've also started a blanket for the sofa that will go into my study/studio when I finally finish the decorating and am ready to move in. It's based on the same pattern as the baby blanket that the Walker Knitting Club made for little Oscar. I love that it's all knit on one piece (not least as I hate finishing things off) and I'm going to be reducing my stash dramatically as a result! It's going to look pretty random as I'm using every shade of pink or red, regardless of how well they go together, but I think that will just add to its charm and it'll be just as warm to snuggle up into in the winter regardless of how much it clashes with itself! I'm slightly concerned about the size of the finished object - I'm guessing that after a while it'll be far to big to take in to Knitting Club! Speaking of which, Libby's mum made her an amazing birthday cake in the shape of a purple ball of wool, which Libby kindly left a chunk of on my kitchen table, so I shared the love and took it in for the knitters to share. Brilliant - I can't think of anything more perfect for a Squiblet birthday celebration!

I've Been Away...

I've just returned from a wonderful week in Tuscany, staying in a friend's stunning apartment in the hills 30k south of Pisa. It was at least 30˚c every single day and the pool was invitingly cool, although I did need to spend any time out of the water under a sun umbrella to avoid turning too pink!

The week was a lovely mix of day trips to Pisa, Volterra and Siena interspersed with days spent swimming and sitting by the pool, reading and soaking up the sun. Our first full day was spent in Pisa, which was much more beautiful than I was expecting. It was such a surprise to actually see the leaning tower it in all its glorious and it was simply amazing. Pisa was also the home of the tastiest ice creams, and we really did try the gelato in every town that we visited. We'd visited Volterra on our last Tuscan holiday, and it was as lovely as I remembered, and I treated myself to a copy of Stephenie Meyer's New Moon from a bookshop in the town as part of it is set in the ancient hill town. Siena was a new destination, and possibly my favourite. It's a very small town, but it is completely packed with history and culture. Siena was founded by the son of Remus and is made up of seventeen districts that compete in the two annual horse races held in Il Campo. I was particularly taken with the one which is represented by the snail, that you can see throughout that district on buildings and flags.

Non-adventuring days were spent relaxing by the pool that over looked the valley the apartment was located in. D worked very hard on his swimming techniques, and I took it easy with the wonderful reading. Claudia had very kindly sent me a box of books just before I went away, and there were some absolute gems in there. The Bride's Farewell, a sort-of re-telling of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (one of my all-time favourite books) by the ever brilliant Meg Rosoff was real treat. Threads by Sophia Bennett which is set in the world of London fashion was an absolute delight. On a more serious bent The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid was an amzing book, that will stay in my mind for a very long time. (Thank you Caroline for such a great recommendation.) Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer were books that I really should have read before now, and I enjoyed them both enormously.

In addition to the ice-cream, D and I ate very well indeed. We had bread, cheese and the sweetest Italian tomatoes for lunch every day and dined on fresh vegetables, Tuscan bread salad, and bean and pesto pasta, all procured from the local market. I think over the course of the week we also managed to drink our own body weight in Prosecco, Peroni and Chianti!

Before our travels, I had been pretty busy on the knitting front, and had finally managed to finish Corinne's little cats. I also finished the Anthropologie inspired capelet by Julia Allen in a beautiful soft green Rowan Little Big Wool bought from a lovely shop called Jolie in the village where my sister lives.

I've also brought the great grey behemoth cardigan (aka Flicca by Anna Bell) out of hibernation. It's quite cumbersome, but having finished a couple of projects, I feel inspired to finish some old projects. I've kind of set myself a one-in, one-out policy so that I only ever have two projects on the go. (Let's see how that works out...)

I think that my next big project will be Arisaig by Isolda Teague. But then again, knowing that I'm such a slow knitter, I should probably start thinking about Christmas presents already!)

Other great news is that the folks have finally returned from their travels in India! I saw them briefly when I collected them from the airport and delivered them to my sister's place, and now that we're all in the same country again, I'm really looking forward to spending some time with them and hearing all about their adventures.

Nearly There

Although the cats still aren't quite finished they really are moving in the right direction. Everything bar one tail has been knitted and the last eight limbs are all sewn up. In theory I could get them finished this week as they just need faces, stuffing and finishing off. Never say never, I say!

I have been slightly distracted from the cats by my current projects, Noe Noa and the soft green Anthropologie-inspired capelet. The scarf is pretty much finished, I just need to work up a handful of crochet flowers to embellish it. I'm thinking of making them up in pink cotton, which should go well with the grey of the scarf. The little capelet, turned out to be rather too little for my liking so I have frogged the rib and am adding in a handful of extra rows just to finish it off. Here's hoping that next week, I'll have lots of lovely finished objects to show you...

Happy Easter!

The sun is shining, the sky is blue and we've got a long weekend to do what we please. There's chocolate to be had and life is good! Easter is upon us and I'm having a wonderful weekend. Friday started off pretty promisingly as I set out to walk from Salisbury to Winchester along the Clarendon Way. I got to the halfway point (about 13 miles) just in time for lunch, but then I lost the path, the heavens opened, and I called on my handsome boy to come and rescue me! I was really enjoying being out and about in the fresh air, so I'll definitely finish it off in a week or so - but I think it might be better with a map! After a long hot soak in the tub, I was tired but happy and ready to enjoy another three days off!

Saturday was a real treat, as the boy and I went to one of our favourite places, Lyme Regis. As ever, it was absolutely beautiful and the light was amazing. I spent quite some time trying to get the perfect shot of the newly painted beach huts on Marine Parade. I was particularly taken with hut number 16, which was pink (of course) and had the most charming rose-printed curtains. We enjoyed a lovely cup of tea with Victoria sponge cake, walked along the Cobb in the sunshine and had some delicious chips while sitting on the beach looking out at the sea. What a lovely way to spend the day.

We also popped into Susie Cole, which turns out to be a rather lovely little shop. I'd bought an old lace nightdress from there a couple of years back, which hadn't fitted very well and after quite a bit of wrangling they'd reluctantly issued me with a credit note. Luckily, a much lovelier lady was working there this time and she let me use the credit note even though it probably should have expired by now. The result was a great haul of two wooden bangles, a gorgeous vintage pair of dusky pink satin gloves, a green leather rose bracelet and a pair of old 5.5mm needles made of pale blue plastic.



I also took the opportunity, while we were out in the sunshine on the Cobb, to photograph my Noe Noa scarf, which is now in it's third incarnation! Having frogged it once (do you frog in crochet?) because it wasn't particularly neat I realised that it was actually in the wrong stitch, so with the help of the ever-trusty Debbie Stoller and her Happy Hooker I set about correcting it. I still don't completely understand what I'm doing, but at least the American version of double crochet is twice as quick!

Easter Sunday itself was spent in a rather more prosaic fashion when out of the blue, the boy suggested that we have a spring clean. Now, anyone who knows me will know that cleaning is not exactly my idea of fun and I'd rather just scoop up the balls of cat fur when they get big enough to be mistaken for another cat. Still, it did turn out to be strangely enjoyable as I took the opportunity to sort out my stash, frog a couple of long-dead projects and start thinking about actually finishing something! I also dug out my Clothkits Christmas present and have spent this morning cutting and trying to edge the pieces on Libby's sewing machine so that they don't fray.

And finally, in the midst of all the chocolate loveliness that is Easter, I just wanted to show you something truly special from my sister. Check out this fabulous alternative Easter egg that she gave me! Isn't that just the best Easter gift a girl could ever want to receive?