Bulbs are starting to spring. This is the rest of my BAMS7 parcel - Dutch smellies. Nice!
Greebo looking happy with yarn, and Patrick Moore on the telly. Why? trying out taking pictures of the telly with my camera..... And he is a national treasure.
I love the Books and More Swaps on Ravelry. My swap parcel arrived this week from the Netherlands. I love everything in it! As well as all the yarny goodness you can see here, there was a huge bar of milk chocolate, and some nice bathroomy soapy things which I don't yet have pics of, as they are still in the box.I just had to take the yarny things to Cnturion Knitters this morning.
It's only on seeing this pic that I realise how much the red has faded on my hair. I shall book an appointment to be enreddened immediately!
Anyway these are new new specs - my eyes are slowly getting worse and I needed new lenses and the frames were half price so why not? They are Vivienne Westwood, and very nice too. Narrow enough to peer threateningly over the top of.
My haul from the Books and More Swap 6 over at Ravelry. Soccermom's generous box contained 3 balls of Noro Kureyon, 3 balls of Elann Bamboo Fusion (bamboo, cotton and acrylic) in a delicious rich tweedy red, 2 balls of Elann Adara, a mercersised cotton and linen mix, a little bottle of gorgeous maple syrup, pens, a little notebook with a magnetic clasp, an unusual knitted brooch, and two bags of sweets. The licorice allsorts were scoffed right away, and the strawberry licorice was much more to my mother's taste than mine, so she took it away with glee. And of course the lovely cotton shopping bag that is my handmade item knitted in Elann Sonata, 100% mercerised cotton.
My book is Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature, which is fabulous.
All I could afford after my yarn purchasing, was this iittala ego breakfast cup. I was going to buy the saucer too but forgot. I may have to add to it in the future. But oh what a lovely thing to drink tea from! I can't stop looking at its sublime lines and pleasing shape. If you hook your hand under the handle and cup the vessel in your hand, it is so soothing. Perfect for nice warm drinks of chocolate and hot tea as autumn closes in.
Ably aided and abetted by the delightful company of midori and Ganeshas from the Ravelry Helsinki Knitters, I have visited four yarn shops and bought far too much yarn this afternoon. I have also made a lot of progress on my sockhat, when I spent 4 hours knitting with the Ravelry Helsinki knitters in Cafe Ursula on the top floor of Aleksi 13. As you can see it has grown quite a bit. We had a great evening, talking, knitting eating delicious food and drinking bubbly. The staff were really nice, the knitters were universally delightful and lots of knitting, yarn fondling and chatting went on. And one knitter was from Springwell - about a mile from my house.....
Yarn galore! This is a GREAT city for yarn shopping. More shops than I could manage in the time we had, and a fantastic selection including some beautiful scandinavian and local wools. From Lankamaailma Nordia, our first stop, I bought:
2 balls of Hjertegarn Incawool in a really vivid cobalt blue. 160m a ball. Not cheap, but not expensive either, and I think a certain someone might really like it.
2 hanks of Ullteppegarn, undyed, 100% wool sock yarn, which smells really sheepy, and is a gorgeous natural light grey and at €2 a hank, was a steal with 400m on each hank.
2 hanks of Jäsbrogarn, which is another 100% wool, this time laceweight, with 600m on a hank for €3.50 each.
Then we headed back into town. Lunch was called for. We ate in a lovely italian place called Leonardos right opposite the railway station. My Pizza Alla Norma was so good. With aubergine, fresh basil, garlic and parmesan. My mouth is watering as I type this with the memory of it's tastiness. Post lunch we headed off to visit Priima, which is a lovely shop. And then we went to Menita where I bought:
6 balls of Drops Alpaca in a beautiful vivid mossy green. Bought to make a cardie for me. Will clash deliciously with my red hair!
6 balls of Drops Lin in a warm white - pure shiny linen. I can't wait to knit a Clapotis with this.
3 balls of Drops Kid-Silk, in a pewter grey which will make a divine shawl.
1 hank of Grignasco Merinosilk, with 1400 metres of laceweight for €14.20, this was a bargain. And the aqua colour will look beautiful in my bedroom as a little bedjacket or shawl for listening to The Archers in on a Sunday morning in bed.
We strode off with purpose after this to Cafe Engel where we had tea and cake. I chose the house tea which was yummy, and a white chocolate and buckthorn cake. Which I am told is very Finnish. It was scrummy. And I had eaten it before I even thought about taking a photo.
A couple more little yarn shops, and then we returned to our respective places of rest. I had a fabulous time - thank you to all the Helsinki knitters, but especially to midori and Ganeshas for being such warm hosts on my yarnventure.
Tomorrow I head for home. I definitely want to come back to Finland.
If this had been around when I was a teenager, there is no doubt I would have been doing it alongside gymnastics. It looks such good fun, you can do it anywhere and it makes for exciting watching. If you are in London today you could try and catch it, but I understand all the tickets have gone for the final. More information from worldfreerun. You won't see many videos of women doing this (there are some and very good they are too) but I suspect that many more women would enjoy this and be very good at it. I know I would have loved it. Too unfit to even think about it these days. Probably too old too. Sadly.
Fantastic videos over at Urban Freeflow's YouTube channel. And a nice film by Karen Palmer, woman film maker and free runner:
And Scumkitten said, you shall darn with only the finest silver.....
..... and it shall be all bent and twisty and will look most enchanting and mattress stitch most excellently well. And you shall be the luckiest knitter in Christendom and be entranced into finishing many projects...... And the wait for your present until July shall be decreed for evermore as the best time to receive such birthday gifts.
Everyone was so inspired by the surroundings, the company and the teachers, it was no wonder that they all came out with such marvellous explorations of colour. I didn't get pics of everyone's projects, and Sue was a much more careful photographer than I, with her permission here are some pics of the marvellous projects people came up with:
This is Scumkitten's: channelling Chateau colours!
This is glittrgirl's: a mind-boggling mix of beading, intarsia and fairisle, the crazy girl.
Glittr and I can thoroughly recommend the week long knitting workshop attended by the Knitted Terrorists a week and a half ago. Run by Sue from Kangaroo , ably helped by her husband and kitchen slave Calli, it allowed us to stay in the glory that is the Chateau de St Julien L'Ars. More on the workshop later. But first, look at the Chateau (top L and picture courtesy of Kangaroo Sue)! Don't it make you feel all kind of princessy? Turrets!
The dining room (top R) was a masterclass in soft French cream and iconic use of mirrors, and other rooms had interesting colour combinations that just shouted inspiration to me (bottom L), which is rather lucky considering the workshops were on the use of colour. As the weather was rather lovely (including one boisterous thunderstorm and accompanying frogs), much of the time was spent knitting outside. With wine. Oh how tedious it must of been for us, eh?
Chateau St Julien L'Ars: faded grandeur and glorious inspiration
Glittr and I have many photos we could put up from our knitting workshop in France- but we'll be gentle and not overwhelm. However, I'll continue the rolling ball (as set in motion by Glittr), with some photos of the Chateau that inspired us for the whole week:
From top L clockwise: the best bath in the world; a room with a view- the library; one of the many roses growing in the 56 acre grounds; a view up the centre of the main staircase.
After an anguished day or so and some fiddling about behind the scenes by our hosting company, we have successfully upgraded our installation of MT - the second time, it worked.
We have been unable to login for a day or so since we got back from Chateau St Julien l'Ars in the Poitou-Charente region of La Belle France.
We can now bring you up to date with the immense amount of creativity (and wine and cheese ingestion) which went on during our week away.
Watch out for pics and updates.
In the meantime download the free David Hockney phone art from the BBC website- limited period only!
Is tomorrow, and because I am rubbish, my card won't reach him in time. In addition, I am away for the next few days and can't email him. Therefore, Graeme, this is my 'just in time' Hallooh, to say
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIL' BRO, and I'll buy you some peanuts sometime...
From top to bottom, left to right: tent side of camp; collecting wood I; collecting wood II; we know how to build a good fire; hairy man; we're going to catch a massive fish for our tea; our own cornish deity; going home. Photos my either myself or John.
OK so they are not this season, but they were a good buy on eBay and they do cheer me up no end. Irregular Choice, fabulous heels, quirky soles, wide across the toes, comfy and tres chic.
And specially for Glittr, our diving fish.... it wasn't supposed to be a fish, but I have to admit to not being able to remember what it WAS supposed to be. Anyway, I like the fishy's smile.
We went to an Earth Hour party in a cornish village called Forder on Saturday. Much fish stew and rice was eaten, much cider drunk, and the lights turned off at 8.30 pm, GMT.
DJ Mikey helped us do some light painting out by the creek:
Not bad for a first attempt.
Too much cider had been drunk at this point, and some of the artists were getting silly.
I've bought a bike. The first bike I have owned for 13 years (I used to do a lot of commuting cycling). It's a Certini Specialized Crosstrail Sport and is gorgeous. I've been quite sensible and bought the most basic bike in the range (still £325 in the sale though!), but I was allowed to take it out for a bit and I love it.
It should be able to cope with the Cornish lanes, trails and some gentle off-road and it's aluminium framed, so very light. DJ Mikey has borrowed a £1K Tricross from the same company, and has it for 3 days. It's a road hybrid and has scared the bejesus out of both of us (I tried it too, today), because it is so easy to go fast on flat smooth roads (although not many of those around in Cornwall!). Luckily for our bank balance I don't think he will go for that bike.
Our group of Cornish friends have undergone a bike buying frenzy- I'm the 5th person to buy a new bike in the sales. We can ride out to the coast in a gang!
La sigh... the photos of my christmas hat knitting frenzy have been 'reformated' from the camera by DJ Mikey, so instead I give you....
Some stars! Or snowflakes, if you prefer. Made using this 3D snowflake tutorial, they are very easy and very effective, whether you use plain white, coloured or hologramatic paper. I made 8 medium sized ones and one MASSIVE one as decorations for my 40th birthday party, and ended up running craft tutorials on how to make them. Not easy fuelled by Sangria and Moscow Mules, let me tell you...
I am teaching a Naughty Knitting and Kinky Crochet workshop with Suemoon at the Dog Chicken and Aardvark Knitting Safari in Brighton on Saturday, organised by Loobles McLainch. Suemoon and I have been uber busy designing patterns for knitted and crocheted pasties and garters. The knitted ones will be made available to download from this site, and Ravelry, once the workshop is over.
We are donating our time and some materials to the event which is being run in aid of breast cancer awareness. Come along and critique my technique.....
There will be workshops, stalls, cake, tea, cake and more tea and a lot of knitting and crochet. Details on flyer:
Venue: The Methodist Hall, The Ridgeway, Woodingdean
Date: Saturday 8 November 2008
Time: 12-4pm
Free entry.
Known as 'A Matter of Life and Death' in the UK, I also think this film is brilliant wet and snotty sunday viewing. And it's on Film4 now and again- was on this week, in fact!
What are your favourite films to watch when you are feeling poo?
Thanks to the Knitty community I heard about the revival of Clothkits, an '70s iconic clothing company, and, being a) really rubbish at sewing (my last decent sewing effort was an ill-advised dress when I was 17 that made me look like a dental nurse. I wore it to the Proms. I'm still ashamed to this day) and b) having just been given an old sewing machine that had no instructions, I decided that the best thing to do would be to spend a load of money on a fantastic work of textile art and buy a clothkits 'Rob Ryan' skirt to make. Rob Ryan is a rather fantastic artist whose speciality is 'cutting out' (his words)- I believe he was in the Observer's '50 coolest people' list recently, much to his embarrassment. Anyway, the skirt kit sat there for a while, along with a number of other bits of material bought to 'make' skirts (haha). Luckily Glittr came to stay, and took me in hand, cuffed me around the ears a bit and as a result of some fantastic experiential learning we have...
a beautifully fitting, fully lined 'Dirty Birdy' skirt, so called by me because the design gives you something Glittr and I have termed a 'fanny bell'. This doesn't put me off it in the slightest- I think it is a feature to be proud of. No need for a sporran, just point yourself in the direction of whichever young man or woman (depending on your preference) you like and they'll get the message soon enough.
Goes nicely with red, I think, and just so you have some sort of perspective, this was made to a proper UK Size 12 (not your 'modern day' size 12 which is really a size 18, or whatever it is some shops (M&S) do these days).
My next project will be another Clothkits collaboration with 'People Will Always Need Plates' in eau de nil and VW orange. It's not the kits themselves, but the fantastic prints that you won't be able to get anywhere else that draw me. That's me in skirts for the foreseeable future then.
In addition to knitting, baking, watching good films, listening to whip-ass music, and a glass of wine, there's nothing us Knitted Terrorists like more than a bit of south west coast path walking....
All photos copyrighted to Skitten.
From the top right, going clockwise, we have: flowers at Mawgan Porth; the south end of Perranporth, taken from Droskyn Head; Skitten staring down into the azure sea from Cligga Head; a garden tiger moth having a sunbath on Skitten's sunnies, at St Agnes beach; summer heather and ling; Glitter looking back northwards towards 'green island'.
That was a *good* weekend. We took a train ride to Penzance, went to a party down on the Tamar Estury, which had more sausages than we knew what to do with, a camoflage-tent bar and chinese paper lanterns that were filled with hot air and sent sailing in to the twilight. Their glow was made all the more lovely by the potential of a nuclear-fuelled 'military misunderstanding', what with the submarine naval base just around the corner...
Can recommend the walk from Droskyn to St Agnes. Easy walking and good food half way round. Really wanted a swim too, but too many people on the beach.
One of my favourite days out in Cornwall: park for free in Liskeard Station car park, catch the train to St. Erth, and then change for St. Ives. You get sea, sand, a cold glass of pinot with some mussels and fresh bread, the Tate St. Ives for art, the Barbara Hepworth Studio for sculpture, and loads of hilly, winding streets to walk around, with lots of art gallerys and shops to poke around in.
Greetings from Chez Purlpower, in Orgiva, Spain. Once more I have left the camera at home, so have no pictures to share, and Purlpower's camera seems to be on its last legs, but if we can get some life into it, I will post some with her permission.
Anyway, as you might expect, the weather here is marvelous, and a drastic change from the damp British summer I have experienced so far. It is a real pleasure to be so hot I can't do anything in the afternoon.... and the locally grown fruit and veg have so much flavour I feel as though my taste buds are having a sensory overload! Tomatoes, avocados, peaches, nectarines and cherries are absolutely delicious!
The first picture is Dochas MacKenzie, the second a new lamb, name currently unknown. I believe both sheeps live at Achnacloich on the Sleat Peninsula, Skye. Yarn from their native sheep and goats can be bought from their Ebay shop Elvincraft
Thanks to Cary MacMahon for photos and information.
I took part in a Books and More Swap on Ravelry. The idea was that you received a book, the yarn to make a project out of it, and a few other nice things....
I think I did pretty well.... A copy of Interweave Knits Lace Style, two balls of dark blue Regia silk to knit the lovely Floral Lace Anklets by Evelyn A Clarke, the needles for the project in bamboo, and a lovely chinese silk Lantern Moon needle case in turquoise and red. The card was lovely too with a seahorse on it. Thank you so much to my SP.
I also benefitted from someone who was asked to stand in, as I was slightly late in getting my parcel - so I ended up with another book - Glamour at home by Erika Knight.
Because of my continuing viral conjunctivitus and inability to wear contact lenses, I have decided to fully embrace my speccy-ness and buy two new pairs of glasses (2 for 1, can't go wrong!)
This poor cashmere cardi... not hand knit, bought in second hand shop in Aspen, CO, worn so much it got holes in its elbows... and now moth holes. But I refuse to give up on it, hence an attempt at steeking the arms to elbow length, crocheting an edge on to each using Debbie Bliss Silk, with a picot trim, and nailing those moth holes with embroidery flowers. I have amazed myself.
I was a stand in Secret Pal to etcgirl in a recent round, and she seemed to appreciate what I sent her. She seemed to appreciate it a lot! This generous parcel arrived this week, and I only just got the chance to take pics. I was quite speechless! What a generous Thank You! I have never knitted with any of these yarns before, so am looking forward to knitting them immensely! There is a cute cowboy chicken card at the back, and the rest were......
Top row: Two balls of Australian Merinos Lame, with the comment that she couldn't send me a package without anything glittery in it.... Two skeins of Koigu KPM in shade 2339, a lovely limey chartreusey green. A bag of little soap samples in a choc mint smell that scented the whole parcel beautifully. Bottom row: A red Panic button. I rarely panic, preferring to bluff my way out of situations rather than panic, so I shall donate this to someone who does. A packet of Love Hearts - I will be intrigued to see if the sentiments are different on Canadian ones than they are on British ones. And last but not least, another skein of Koigu KPPPM - I can't make out the handwritten dye code, but its a candy coloured extravaganza of pink, purple, orange, yellow and green.
Knittiotherapy makes marvelous project transportation devices, and she gave me this one for my birthday. It is a lovely, lovely thing, and has been much admired at local knitting groups. You can buy one of your own over at her Etsy shop. Highly recommended. Really well made and finished, and very thoughtfully designed. Get one now!
As part of the 'we're going to either pay of our mortgage in two and a half years, or, if we don't get a renewal in contract, bugger off to New Zealand' megasave, I've been tasked with sorting out our food expenditure.
Interestingly, we seem to be bang on with the zeitguist, as suddenly the Times is doing stuff on 'how to run a pantry', write shopping lists and not throw away so much food, as is the Waitrose magazine. I've also discovered the lovefoodhatewaste website which is great for looking at if you have a small number of ingredients and have no idea what to do with them without giving up and going out and buying a Chinese Takeaway.
We're doing well on the 'not throwing stuff away' at the moment, although me being up country for the last five days did throw DJ Mikey into a bit of a spin, despite having soup, lamb casserole, home made bread, eggs, cheese and left over chilli available to him. He didn't eat the cabbage. The cabbage had to go in the bin when I got home. He was sad about that, so hopefully has learned something from it... the lesson is, if I've left you a casserole, eat the cabbage with it ;)
KnitNurse from RecyclingSheep made me this knitted Russell Brand for my birthday. The basic pattern was adapted from her book of Knitted Icons, this is otherwise completely her own work, and made especially for me! How utterly fantastic to get a present custom made just for me, and with such thought! It must have taken a good old while. And it makes me chuckle. And chuckling is never a bad thing.
Edited to add: PJ pointed out that there is a syringe just behind Russell's arm. I feel I should point out that this one of a set of mad knitting needles gifted to me by my sister who found them at Whitby Gothic Weekend some time ago.
A huge hug to Glittr for her birthday present to me: a box of my favourite chocolates, from Plaisir du Chocolat. There is just something so special about receiving these chocolates- they are not the sort you shove down in sugar desperation, or because you are feeling sad about life in general. They look so beautiful, and each flavour has a back story. As I'm going away for work on Thursday, DJ Mikey and I have been sharing a few every evening (and they are made with such pure ingrediants, you have to eat them within 5 days anyway. Quel horreur!)- we cut each one in half so that we can both have a taste of each flavour. Even the packaging is beautiful and can be reused for all sorts of things (we keep photos in ours). I'm due up in Edinburgh at the end of January, so am aiming to try out their new Salon when I am there.
Barcelona was fantastic. It was so relaxing. I love that city. It is so cultured and stylish, there is everything you could possibly want all in one city:
Art galleries - in abundance. Check.
Beach. Check.
Good food. At reasonable prices. Check.
Parks and green spaces to walk. Check.
Marina and lots of boats. Check.
Well priced places to stay. Check.
Music. Lots of it and really interesting. Check.
Fantastic unusual shopping. Check.
Amazing architecture. Check.
Easy to use public transport system. CHECK
Interesting street life and cafe culture. Check
Agreeable climate. Check
Weird traditions that make you go - eh? CHECK! (More in a forthcoming post)
I want to go back. Again.
Many thanks must go to the Zoros for putting up with us on board Avalon, and for feeding us so healthily. They were great company and made for a delightful stay in Port Vell.
The Fundacio Joan Miro was a place I had not visited in previous sojourns, but it was an amazing place to go to, and well worth the entrance fee - easy to get to and hours of intrigue there. Mind you I was a Miro fan before, but I am even more of one now.
The Sagrada Familia is always worth the money to see - it is staggeringly beautiful. This time we paid for a guided tour - and it was worth every cent. I have been there four times now, and it never ceases to amaze me. There is something new every time. The progress is quite quick these days and I defy anyone not to enjoy their visit there.
And, for the yarnoholics amongst you, you will, I am sure, be dying to hear if we purchased any yarn. Well, yes we did. From a lovely lady at La Barcelana in the Born area, Brosoli 1 to be precise, nearest Metro Jaume 1. The yarns were gorgeous. Sold by weight and in the most delicious colours. I ended up with two skeins of chunky, lofty, uneven gorgeousness which will be a soft warm very green scarf, and two skeins of unbelievable soy silk in the oiliest, darkest, shiniest, slatiest blue grey you can possibly imagine. Pictures soon - as soon I can do them justice. In the meantime, I ended up with over half a kilo of yarn, for about 26 Euros. Great value. And the lady spoke enough English to make the visit easy. And they weave the most lovely things in this tiny little shop. A friend found this shop for me last time I was there, and unfortunately I was not able to purchase then. But I made up for it this time. And I will go back next time. Marvelous! There are more yarn shops in Barcelona, and you can find out where they are, as well as catch up with a knitting group there over at Barcelona Knits! Unfortunately their regular meeting did not coincide with our visit, but next time I will try to catch up with them. And the other yarn purveyors!
I have had a surfeit of travel this week. I dread to think what my carbon footprint would be if I calculated it. Anyway the last day of train travel was today for a couple of weeks, and boy, was I glad to get home.
When I have had a week like this, I like nothing better than to come home, make myself a nice bowl of carbonara, and then slip into a warm, rose scented bath where I like to soak for a while with some soothing music and a nice glass of rioja.
Then I like to wrap myself in warm, white fluffy towels, with another glass of wine, and read a chapter of a good book. Sometimes I have so little energy I like to read a chapter of a book I have read several times before....
Then comforted, satiated and in a gentle haze of fuzziness, I like to cuddle the cat, lying on the sofa, and watch really crap telly. Tonight the epitome of crap TV is on - the BBCs annual Children in Need fundraising extravaganza. It really does have painful moments, but for sheer amazing amusement, I do secretly enjoy watching newsreaders making fools of themselves.....
The real thing ;).Thanks to Daddytype for allowing me use of picture
Desperate for an iPhone, but don't want to spend 48 hours queuing whilst people cheer those coming out from the shop as if they have just won Wimbledon? I am old grumpy lady, and I don't know what the world is coming to, but I am very keen on this knitted iPhone, complete with instructions, thought up by Daddytype's clever mummy.
Hurrah for mummy power, that's what I say! And say NO! to Apple and YES! to knitting your own- it may not work, but is it really going to be that much of an issue if it doesn't?
I never win anything.
Imagine my delight win something.
Something handknitted.
Something handknitted by the wonderful Suemoon. Something handknitted by the wonderful Suemoon in candygirl KidSilk Haze, from Victorian Lace Today.
It's beautiful!
I feed the birds on my balcony. It amuses my house kitty, Greebo, who enjoys my provision of cat TV during the day whilst I am at work. Sometimes I get to watch the birdies too. I chirrup less than Greebo.
We find watching the territorial ways of the goldfinches particularly amusing, bossy, fussy little things that they are, flashing around their colourful plumage, as they chuck away all the things they don't like, making food available to the less agile birdies who can then pick up their cast-offs from the floor.
Note the difference between the American goldfinch and the European.....
The sunshine was being split into rainbows by the prisms in my crystals in the kitchen this morning, making gorgeous bright little rainbows all over my kitchen - lookie!
A new knitting magazine has been launched in the UK entitles Let's Knit! and glittyknittykitty has been profiled on page 9. Many thanks to the editorial team for highlighting our silly little blog! Having had a good read through I am quite impressed with this first issue - let's see how it continues over the next few issues.
I'm not usually in to advertising up and coming films etc., but I am very, very, very excited about this. The 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman is the sort of series that I would have read again and again as a child, and into adulthood (as I have done with Susan Cooper's 'The dark is rising' series, CS Lewis's Narnia books and anything by Alan Garner). Luckily for me, adult that I am, Pullman has been vocal in his thoughts that His Dark Materials was not specifically written for children. You can see that is the case in the themes and the way he has written it: so much richer and more complex (and better edited ;) ) than other childrens' books.
But I have to admit to feeling a welling of childish (and I don't use that word in a negative context) excitement at the coming film, especially as Pullman has been heavily involved in its production. I have no issues with the colour of actors' hair or eyes, or necessary changes to the story line that have to be done to fit the book into the length of a film. If Pullman thinks it is ok, then so do I...
Armoured Polar Bears, for god's sake! Witches! The snowy North and the Aurora Borealis! It doesn't get better than that. Enjoy the trailer, and go and see who your Daemon would be at http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/
The European Union is set to confirm it has abandoned what became one of its most unpopular policies among many people in Britain. It is proposing to allow the UK to continue using pounds, miles and pints as units of measurement indefinitely.
Ah, great to know I can still get a pint of beer and a pound of cheese.
We were given a random chair a few weeks ago, by a friend who had acquired it from the local tip for 0 pence. It's simple enough, but it had horrible material stapled to the seat. I found some tremendous fabric on Ebay that just suited DJ Mikey's brief for coverage: 'bright' he said, 'but weird'. I think this Alexander Henry Calaveras fabric (which also comes with the backgrounds of pale or bright pink, or black) is suitable on both counts. The quote from DJ Mikey is 'it looks like flowers from a distance, then you get close up and it's skulls'. What you can't tell from the photograph is that the cheery skulls have glittery accented teeth, noses and eyebrows. So bright, about death AND glittery. What more could a girl/boy ask for? Apart from a skirt or maybe a sundress in this material, maybe. I'd like that, yessiree bob.
My pals Heather and Lawrie got themselves three new kitties a few weeks ago. As you can see, they are pretty much plotting to take over the world (clicking on the thumbnails will give you nice big pictures). What is it about torties that just have that 'I am in charge and have many tortures to inflict on you in the future'? I'm thinking of Crazy Aunt Purl's Sobakowa in particular- I certainly follow that cat's plans of world domination with a nervous eye.
I went to Alnwick Garden on Tuesday, and the sun stayed out just long enough to get some photos. The garden is an ongoing project, and you can read all about it on the website - so far there is a lot to see, with the promise of more to come.
It is very easy to spend a whole day there playing with the water, smelling the flowers, tasting the fruit, watching the fountains and promenading around the lovely beds. I love going to places in Northumberland, it is a chance to blab on and on about this most beautiful of English counties.
Actually I think Scumkitten in Cornwall and me near Northumberland (my spiritual home) gives you, lucky reader, a chance to see the two loveliest counties in England. And I am careful to say 'England' because Scotland and the rest of the countries which make up The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have their own gobsmackingly gorgeous places too. And they are all very, very different. Don't ever think you can 'do' the UK in a couple of weeks, because, well, you can't. We may be small, but we have more differing types of landscape and varieties of vistas than you would believe possible in such a small set of islands. You need a long time to get round 'em all. Back to pics of the Duchess of Northumberland's garden at Alnwick (yes, the Castle is where some of the scenes of Harry Potter were filmed).
I've got a bit of a cupcake thing going on at the moment. I've made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache, chocolate cupcakes with plain icing and a minstrel onatop, and lavender cupcakes made with lavender sugar. I must start taking photos of them, because they are a thing of beauty. There are some great cupcake blogs around too, best of being The Urban Housewife and Bake & Destroy. This last link put me on to these beauties:
Not edible, not knitted, but ipod/computer speakers!!!! Made by Semk, literally just out. I want them! I don't have an ipod, but if I had these I'd buy some. Man, I'd use them at work, I've got my own office now... (why do you think I'm hardly ever here? I'm doing two fricking jobs at the moment. Cupcake speakers would help and make me less teasey).
Well, a couple of days ago, a tutorial on how to make these very bangles was posted. So I expect that my Scummy friend will be wanting to play with plastic and boiling water this weekend.
Thanks to whipup.net for the heads up, and to Jodie at ric-rac for posting the tutorial.
A box of goodies arrived just in time for Easter....
The yarns are all gorgeous, but I must apologise for the blue tint to the piccies - I took 'em pretty early in the morning as I was opening the parcel breathlessly, the moment the postman delivered it.
Lovely lovely yarn, delicious choccie (munched) and cute easter ducky cards! Thank you so much!
After seeing that Brenda bought some gorgeous Liberty fabric, I couldn't help but head over to the seller she linked to and score three metres for myself...... Great service - delivered the day after I ordered it....
We had a lunar eclipse last night, with clear skies. It wasn't even that cold, so we were able to stand outside with our camera and take some photos. Thanks to DJ Mikey for these. Fabulous.
The question is, do you see a man in the moon, a hare, or Snoopy? I usually see a hare, but I remember as a kid seeing an episode of Charlie Brown where they equated Snoopy to the pattern on the moon: and it stuck with me. Think of Snoopy dancing, with his head and ears thrown back. Thanks a lot, Charlie Brown.
On a different note, I love how the last reddish photo makes you fully appreciate the spherical nature of the moon. Removing the reflective glare, and having the light source at one point, really does render the moon into 3-D. Usually I do have a tendancy to just view it as a flat disc in the sky. Obviously it isn't, but...
Here is what glittyknittykitty looks put put through The Pornoliser (not for the easily offended).... HILARIOUS! Thanks to The Kewl Doodz & Chyx for reminding me of it.
Back last night from a spendid weekend with the lovely Lainch and her gorgeous boys. Please can you clone them, and Conkers and send copies up here? I understand Suemoon wants clones too. Mr Lainch OFFERED to IRON. And he ferried us all over the place with a smile and good grace.
Newsflash
I bought yarn.
In my defence it was pointed out to me that a yarn diet is cutting down how much you buy, and that this was not the same as a yarn fast.
Feverishly, I looked back at my previous posts.
I never said I was doing either. I took a public pledge. Which I have broken.
I managed from July 06 to February 07 without buying any yarn at all (other than the exceptions stated in my pledge), which isn't bad. I plan not to buy any more until Woolfest 2007. So perhaps you could say I had a Pledge Holiday???? Please?
I know you will want to know what I got, dear reader, so as a teaser, I indulged in some sock yarn (some of which is intended for Knitty SP8age) and two skeins of Hand Maiden Seasilk.... in this gorgeous colourway which looks liked aged pewter, and I think is Ebony from the subtle series. Scrummy. Irresistible. And it will likely become a camisole for me.
Haven't got a photo, but some good news: Jodie is now WORLD CHAMPION Women's Kneeboarder!!! She's been out in San Fran in the competition, and won. I am so chuffed for her. Natalie came second, so we got a women's landslide. More photos on Kneeboard Surfing UK.
I'm not feeling too happy at the moment- pretty much since mid-December. Work, illness, bad weather, general malaise, whatever the cause, I obviously don't really have anything to moan about at all. Just a case of 'Black Dog on my shoulder' I guess. DJ Mikey bought me some flowers on Thursday to welcome me back home after being away for work. He took a photo of them today, to make me smile. This is also a thanks to Glittr for allowing me to ring her up and be negative, without giving me a verbal slap across the chops. 'Cos that's what I need. I think I'm off for a walk by the seaside now. That'll clear the head out.
You can't have them. They are all mine. MINE I tell you!.... Oh well, perhaps if I distract her she will forget about the presents.....
He tried so hard to stop me playing with my presents, or showing the haul to you, but I managed to get them away from under the guardkitty eventually. Well. Almost....
I haven't uploaded closeups of everything. This does not mean I have favourite presents. It just means I can't be arsed to take closeups of everything in difficult lighting conditions.
Click on the main haul to see everything - here is what I got.....
You can't see the shell pink silk satin baby dolls trimmed with oyster lace, because I am wearing them.
REN rose damask body moisturiser.... a colouring book (of the 90s, scary....) a CD by some rock hare krishna monks... a skull and roses bag enabling knitting whilst dancing (handmade by Suemoonstone)... some black kitty stitch markers .... some handmade knitting cards by purlpower, a habu textiles bag kit with a cone of silk and a cone of paper linen ... a skein of Tilli Thomas Disco Lights in forest green ... an incense box containing incense and a burner ... a teeny china teacup in the shape of a narcisuss ... a set of Blue Sky Alpacas dpns in a little decorated tin ... and a hatbox of Stella perfume and body lotion. And there was champagne and chocolates, now demolished. And a large bunch of lillies. And there is some Blue Sky Alpacas yarn on its way to me.
I feel very spoiled indeed. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me cards and presents and stuff - you all helped me have my best birthday ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So it is my birthday today. Some so called friends have been taking the piss and telling me that I must be proud to share my birthday with Aled Jones. Well, I may just have the last laugh.
I also share my birthday with:
Madame de Pompadour
Jon Voight
Marianne Faithfull
Cozy Powell
Dexter Holland (born the same year as me) of The Offspring
Jude Law
Alexis Amore (a Peruvian porn star, apparently...)
.... amongst others. Obviously I have been selective from this list.
Famous deaths on this day:
Thomas Becket
Jacques-Louis David
Christina Rossetti
Grigori Rasputin
Rainer Maria Rilke
Jean-Claude Forest
Harold Macmillan
OK, it may not be very 'proper' to big up one's own birthday, but I'm going to do it. 38 today and now the proud possessor of a pair of Namaste glass needles courtesy of my glittery friend. I've had a glass of champagne and a morello cherry cup cake whilst sitting at my office desk, and I'm a happy Skitten. So a big Salut to you all!
Walking on Hadrian's Wall, having a picnic overlooking Crag Lough, wandering through trees and forest, seeing swans from the top of the wall, getting rained on so hard the drops were painful, falling over a wet rock and laughing so hard my stomach hurt, realising my front was sopping but my bum was dry, photographing clouds lying on my back, laughing more and marvelling at how lucky I am to live so close to this stunning part of the country. I had a great Sunday.
The lady who owns Sunnyside Croft sells her hebridean fleece to weavers on the Ilse of Mull. For £2-3 a fleece. She had some waiting to be sent over. She sold me a first shear...
Blimey. Am sitting contemplating it now. It is a gorgeous shaggy thing. Soft. Full of lanolin. Deep dark chocolate brown. Not sure if I really want to get in to spinning... I have an idea who might like it though ;)
Make has planned offspring in the form of Craft, which launches soon. In the meantime the Craft blog has launched, so follow the progress of the new mag. Knitting features quite heavily along with other fibre arts and crafts. The Make blog blog is one of my favourite internet reads.
Yet again my not-so-secret-anymore ;) secret pal has hit the motherlode. A fabulous parcel. Two very exciting short story and poetry books, a CD with Bruce Cockburn complilation (Scum has been bad and had indeed forgotten to tell her SP which tracks she particularly liked on her other CD gifts- well, you must have ESP, because Bruce Cockburn was one of 'em! And I'm not kidding :o. Some gorgeous yarn was also included: two skeins of koigu merino in deep blues. hmmmm. I've never had koigu before. And some baby alpaca (Misti alpaca)! So soft. In olive green, sigh. Three skeins. And here comes the slightly surreal bit: I only show one skein because the other two are being washed. Washed of the exploding herb salt that had unfortunately smeared itself over the inside of the box at altitude, I guess :( However, you'll be pleased to know that the Wasabi covered peanuts got here in one piece....
Here we have, from left to right: trepidation; action; actuality; aftermath.
I finally found the dressing gown I've been hunting for, for two years, bought online from Clothaholics. I bought a one off, vintage inner kimono (juban) in crimson silk , lined with a different crimson silk, with a white cotton lapel, for £40. Staggering. It is beautiful. A few hints of foxing on the lapel and a few amazingly neat hand stitched mends here and there (the whole thing is hand stitched), but that's vintage for you. I love it.
I also bought a kimono belt (obi) as a wall hanging, red silk with metallic stitched flowers...
DJ Mikey and I and all our Cornish pals got to celebrate the wedding of the UK Women's No. 1 kneeboarder and... Cliff a few weekends ago. Much fun was had by all. Don't it bring a tear to the eye?
Hens
Scumkitten did her knitted terrorist duty and remained hidden... can you spot the top of her head?
From left to right: the wedding cake; Matt and the wedding supper; a dancing foo'.
Is that the face of... the Scumma?
And with a blurry Skitten, we also see the gorgeous Dee and a grinning loon (otherwise known as her husband).
I had a ball of a weekend. The weather here in the UK is the best we have had for about a hundred years, and there are opportunities aplenty for making the most of the clear skies, the balmy evenings and the elevated mood of the majority of the populace. Smiles abound, parties spring up out of the blue, impromptu barbecues and chilled fizzy wine are the order of the day and it simply feels good to be alive.
Flowers & fizzy
Friday night saw chezGlittr host it's first ever barbecue-on-the-balcony, which prompted spontaneous balcony clearing, tidying, sweeping and overdue planting up of redder than red geraniums. Once that was done, Angorared and I prepared salads, lit the BBQ-in-a-foil-tray and sat back in the evening sunshine with a class of delicious Cremant de Bourgogne to watch the clouds.
WOW! Look those clouds look just like jellyfish! (A bit)
I took photos, thinking, yeah, well, once The Cremant Effect has worn off, they will look like cotton wool ball clumps of nothingness. But no! They DO look like jellyfish (a bit)! Lord only knows that weird atmospheric things were going on in the sky. I am no meteorologist, but hey, those weird effects made for some entertaining cloudwatching. If you, too, like staring at shapes in the sky, you might like to consider joining the Cloud Appreciation Society.
Waking up on Saturday morning I felt a little thick in the head. The Cremant Effect had obviously slipped into Phase Two. I sat around staring at the clear blue infinity above my bed trying to get it together to Do Something. Anything. Just something to stimulate me enough to want to get up and leave the seductive cool white cotton cocoon in which i was happily enveloped, busily cogitating emptiness. Bacon sarnie and tea. That'll do.
Then I realised I was on a deadline to knit something from the Fiesta Tea Set for Jen, who was hosting a Stitch 'n' BBQ at her place.
Yarn.
Chosen.
Needles.
Found.
Cast on with a fresh cup of tea, and knit like crazy, you disorganised hedonistic idiot.... (did you like my Gordon Ramsayesque description there?)
Photo by Jen
I did finish a spring green cotton pitcher/tea/coffee pot in time, but had to work on the lid on the way over, and then quickly finish it in Jen's garden. So she got it unblocked, and unstiffened. But she got it. And it looked good (if a little floppy) next to the more superior finishing of Pebbles and her blue cup and saucer.
The evening was delightful, with Pimms, and lots of great food and company. And a rugby game involving a pound ball of white acrylic. Don't ask. Needless to say none of the males playing said game will make it to the England Rugby Team.
We all took a nice ball of yarn and a nasty ball of yarn, wrapped up and ready to swap in a Yankee Auction. I am not sure we played correctly, but hell, we all ended up with a different nice ball of yarn and a different nasty ball of yarn. The pale pink, slightly fluorescent, ball of acrylic that became mine will be donated to my nother and her charity knitting circle. The blue bamboo is mine. And will remain mine. Always. Full descriptiuon with pics (including my saggy green pitcher) over at Jen's blog.
Semi-upended Millenium Bridge
Sunday was another busy day socially, having arranged to meet up with Purlpower to go to the last day of the Americana festival at The Sage Gateshead. A free outdoor stage provided perfect backdrop entertainment for us to indulge in more perpendicular cloud appreciation, watch the award winning Millenium Bridge go up and down, and marvel at the range of straw stetsons on display. I was quite disappointed more men were not wearing cuban heels. I am a big fan of watching blokes try to walk in a manly fashion, in heels, epscially of the cuban variety. Sigh. One day my fantasties will all happen together and I will die a happy woman. Until Then .... there were cool drinks and delicious sandwiches to consume, and Jeb Loy Nichol and then the 13 ukelele players of The Ukelele Allstars to watch.
The afternoon had a ticketed option, and we saw Joan As Policewoman and Adem in Hall Two. A fine afternoon's music ensued, and they both played blinding sets. Though neither could be classed as Americana per se - well other that Joan As Policewoman was dressed country and is American, and the guitarist in Adem did play a miniscule amount of very competent slide guitar. No matter. 12 quid well spent.
From there i went to my third barbecue of the weekend at my parents' place, and managed to chill out and relax whilst watching clouds again. Perfect.
The other Knitted Terrorist was enjoying an equally blissful weekend dipping her toe into the Channel. Both Glittr and I, we are so lucky to live so near to such beautiful coastlines. Admittedly Cornish waters are a little warmer than the North Sea.... but I think Northumbria makes up for it by having fewer people fighting for its views. So this weekend I mainly: swam a lot, especially at a little cove. Have mentioned it before- sand, glistening satin rocks, jade green water, vivid undergrowth over the cliffs. And look at [edited to protect the innocent] twinkling in the distance. And this photo? Yes, the sea is that colour in the sunshine.
I managed to go snorkelling with some surfy pals, which was fab: wrasse, spider crabs and buckets of sand eels were the main fellows I saw, though I also came face to face with a cormorant. A chocolate ice-cream was enjoyed before we headed home- nothing as fancy as Glittr, but welcome, none the less. Sunday and Monday night saw me go fishing with DJ Mikey (as well as a bit more swimming) and I caught a Sea Bass last night, which we will be eating tonight (teriyaki sauce and barbequed, I think). We also saw the local star-gazing seal, which is always amusing. You can tell it's hot here- our postman asked to come in for a glass of water this morning at 8.00 because it was already 25 celsius.
Life is good, eh Glittr?
And by the way: chicken, champagne and raspberries sounds like my favourite meal ever, although I have been heavily indulging in white wine spritzers on coming in from work ;)
I had a fantastic day out yesterday with one of our trainee Special Agents - Angorared. We jumped in her MX5 and drove with the top down in the unbelievable sunshine. We headed into Northumberland, and stopped first at the Morwick Ice Cream Parlour for a double helping of cold creamy yumminess - mango yoghurt flavour and turkish delight flavour for me, and raspberry and hazlenut flavours for my erstwhile woolly companion. Then we headed to Warkworth, but as it was a bit full, carried on up the Northumberland Coastal Route to Alnmouth, picturesque little fishing village with splendid soft sandy beaches. After soaking up rather too much sun, and deciding we were too chicken to brave paddling in the North Sea - Hey, it wasn't THAT hot with a North Sea breeze to keep us cool - we headed back home for champagne, chicken and raspberries in the garden. Superb!
So here's a question for you: can you name a seminal moment in your childhood where television suddenly transcended its usual meat and two veg content. Saturday Superstore, a kiddies programme hosted by bearded funster Noel Edmunds in jumper after hideous jumper (sweater, to you Americans, although the thought of Noel in a pinafore is a good one) was usually noteable viewing, most particularly for one instance where, during a phone-in to 80's band Matt Bianco (Get Up Out of Your Lazy Bed, I believe, being their only hit?), a caller told them they were 'wankers'.
Well, it turns out that that caller was a compatriot of our Navy friend Martin, and that Martin was sitting in with the caller as he abused the lead singer of Matt Bianco, as usual (for Navy boys), drunk as farts.
As I said, seminal moment in my childhood when it happened, even more fabulous once I realised it was a naval boy high as Mary on beer in some dodgy mess hall somewhere....
As I mentioned in my previous post, my lovely SP sent a package for the girls: here are the promised photographs (click on thumbnails for full Blythe action), with Reenie MacAbre and Franke 'Maddog' Honeybaume modelling a Blythe-sized Airy Scarf in baby pink, a corset and shrug in a gorgeous emerald green cotton and a beany in a shiny chocolate brown with amber and blue beading.
Got back from a harsh day at work to find a parcel filled with... little parcels in brown paper, all wrapped up in string, ok, no, wool, but I wanted kittens and mittens too...
What a lovely thing to come home to. I put it to one side until we had eaten...
Parcels, unwrapped.
then went at it hell for leather. A CD made by my SP with some cool CA tunes and a doggie in a basket on the cover; hmmm, bittersweet fairtrade chocolate; a sweet moonstone and silver pendant (looking for a leather thong now!); homemade cards, covered in tulips (not bees); hanks and hanks of soft as cloud Bernat in a greyblue (oh, so my colour); a sheepy tape measure, coming out of its bum; Kiss Machine: The Revolution Issue, brilliant poetry and short stories (and there is knitting in there too!); and some knitted wonders for the girlies, pictures to come- including a Blythe-sized Airy Scarf!!!!!!
Jerky
And finally, DJ Mikey got a parcel containing CA beef jerky. His message to my SP: "tell her it's lovely, but wrong"
Hmmm, no Henry Winkler maybe, but certainly our Palm tree has come up trumps again, bee-wise. After last year's humongous flower, which we thought couldn't be bettered (and which, we were informed by a gardener-friend who works at Eden meant it was about to be an ex-palm), it has now produced two, yes two, massive flowers, covered in bees.
Can you smell the perfume?
And the smell- man! Every morning and evening the tropical smell wafts up through the bedroom windows. It is so intense. These palms are very popular (and very happy) here in Cornwall. You'll pretty much see them everywhere. Thanks be to the gulf stream, that's all I can say. Otherwise, we'd be in Newfoundland. Shivering. Covered in bees. Are there bees in Newfoundland? The question of the day.
fine T-Shirts and other excellent items of clothing to the depraved, the confused, the sick, twisted, nerdy, needy, naughty filth-mongerers such as your good-upstanding-selves
Perfect. And that was before I even ordered anything!
But you know the best thing about DeathGob t-shirts?
It's MINE!
They are PERSONALISED! Man, that makes ordering from then a complete pleasure. I got 2 t-shirts. An ex-goth one, and a pink skull with crown. Have a look at their great range of girly tees. The quality is great, they wash really well, and, you get your name on them! So no-one can nick them. Because they have your name in them. Great idea. Highly recommended.
My sister rang this morning and asked if I would like to go to Bamburgh with her, her SO and her dog. Now, Bamburgh is one of my most favourite places in the world. So of course I said yes.
I have a lot of nostalgic memories of family holidays here.
There is a special rock there that we always spent our long summer days on the beach at Bamburgh near to. I forget the legend of Stag Rock, but I always visit it when we go to this part of the NOrthumberland coast. By the end of the day Sonny was exhausted. And so were we. But we had a lovely day in the sunshine.
I have lovely flowers blooming on the balcony right now. The hanging baskets are starting to burst and boil over with colour from trailing petunias, the lobelia is just starting to flower, and the pansies are spewing more blooms than I keep up with dead heading. Summer colour on the balcony is gorgeous this morning.
Tinside Lido, bang on the Hoe in Plymouth (for those of you from afar, the Hoe is the sea front of Plymouth, home to the patch of grass where Sir Francis Drake played his bowls before nipping out to wap a bit of Spanish Armada arse), is one of a number of English Institutions: namely, the Lido. Where else in the world would you get a rash of outdoor, unheated swimming pools but England, where most summers you're as likely to find us huddled under umbrellas in at least 3 layers of woollens as basking in temperate sunshine? Tinside Lido was originally opened in 1935, all Art Deco glory 'n all, for the folk of Plymouth. It fell into disarray, but luckily a few years ago was renovated by the forward thinking Plymouth Council.
Tinside Lido, now. Right now. Really ;)
Having just spent my last two lunchbreaks ploughing a lonely furrow through the slightly brackish, slightly chlorined water (not as unpleasant as you might think), can I say "TA ever so" to those who decided to do it up again? It is fab. I am intending to move my office down here and not to any work again, ever. You can even hire floaty tire things. And there is a fountain. What more could a girl ask for?
Marks & Spencer is a wonderful institution. They started in the last few years diversifying into stocking own brand franchised goodies. The best so far has got to be a M&S chocolate lolly, with Captain Jack Sparrow on it. Kids stuff? Pfah! Depp fans will be piling on the pounds as they lick away at the star of Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Quite right too. Slurp.
Apologioes fro the picture quality - camera on mobile phone emergency. You think this lolly would have waited til I got home???
Graeme, my baby brother, is back from his climbing trip to Alaska, where he has been camping on Mount Denali, on the Kahiltna glacier... sounds like a good time was had, the toilet having good views, the plane ride in and out 'interesting', the avalanches terrifying and the accomodation...
Home, sweet home.
left a little to be desired. He and his pal Jason survived powder plumes, ice fields, bad food and now know how to navigate over glaciers in the arse end of nowhere.
White out
Now I like a good walk, don't get me wrong... and I'm not above getting my kecks dirty or mud under my fingernails... and you all know I love rolling around in snow given half a chance (as long as I've got a board strapped to my feet), but this would be a little too much for me, I think.
DJ Mikey took this photo whilst having lunch today- two little fledgling sparras obviously fascinated by Kewpee (who is looking remarkably hot in that UKnitty jumper), apparently both bundled into the window, then started pecking the glass trying to get at the doll....
15°C - It will never get warmer than this in Finland, so let's start
here; the Spanish put on their hats, winter jackets and gloves. The
Finns are sunbathing.
10°C - The French desperately try to start the central heating in their
houses. The Finns plant flowers in the garden.
5°C - Italian cars won't start. The Finns are cruising in cabriolets.
0°C - Distilled water freezes. The water in Aura å (the stream in Åbo)
gets a little thicker.
-5°C - People in California get frostbites. The Finns have their last
barbecue before winter.
-10°C - The English turn on the heating in their houses. The Finns start
wearing long sleeved sweaters.
-20°C - Australians escape from Mallorca. Finns stop celebrating
midsummer. The autumn has come.
-30°C - People in Greece freeze to death and the Finns start drying
laundry inside.
-40°C - Paris cracks to pieces in the cold. The Finns are queuing at the
hot dog-stand.
-50°C - The polar bears evacuate the North Pole. The Finnish army
postpones their winter survival camp, in hope of real winter weather.
-60°C - Korvatunturi freezes over. The Finns rent a video and stay inside.
-70°C - The fake Santa Claus moves south. The Finns get frustrated
because they can't store Koskenkorva outside anymore. The Finnish army
starts their survival course.
-183°C - The microbes in food can't survive. The Finnish cows complain
about the cold fingers of the farmers.
-273 - ALL atom-based movement stop. The Finns start saying 'Perkele, it
feels cold outdoors today!'
-300°C - Hell freezes over. The Finns win the Eurovision Song Contest.
Last night I watched a programme about the Creative Archive, a project that has helped the BBC's Southwest film archives from the 1950's to the present day become digitised and freely available under creative license to anyone. As long as you are not intending to use it for commercial purposes, you can register on a local Creative License site (either Devon or Cornwall). This will allow you access and download to over 50 films, including footage of the Torrey Cannon disaster, the flooding at Lynmouth, building the Tamar Bridge, wrestling at the Women's Institute, the Beatles coming to Plymouth, Pilchard Fishing and many more. The majority are narrated in the most fantastic Queen's English, interspersed with storming South West accents.
Really worth a look, wherever you come from, as a fantastic historical resource. I love this sort of stuff- the minutie of people's lives....
So I'm at my desk writing a report on Internationalisation in Geography, and Pandora has just picked out 'Fantastic Day' by Haircut One Hundred. I haven't heard that song for decades... a summer song, no doubt. Go rummage in your record collection and put it on now. And whilst you're at it, find some Prefab Sprout too and listen to 'Moon Dog'.
There. That's told you.
It's pulled up 'Sexuality' by Billy Bragg now. I'm on an '80s trip! In fact, I saw Billy in the flesh when I was a young teenager (12, I think) and my mum and aunt took me to Greenham to go on a peace march. I still have vivid memories of that day, including my aunt giving a lift home to an insane (in a fun way) woman wearing a full length mink coat (it was, after all, an outside event, and it was spring). See, Greenham attracted all types.
Gnarly surf, flying dude, photo and copyright DJ Mikey
Sunday saw a bluebird day and beeeg surf, as in 5-6 foot on the sets. I had the misfortune of managing to get out back then wishing I hadn't. It took me 30 minutes of frantic full-on paddling and washing-machine duck-diving to get there, where upon I poohed my pants, then spent the next 30 minutes either paddling in towards shore to try and catch smaller waves, or out to the horizon to avoid the monster sets that just kept on coming. In the end, like a little drowned puppy, with my bikini bottoms somewhere up near the arctic, I gave up and allowed myself to be washed in.
DJ Mikey's point of view? I was a shithead for even trying... but hell, earned a lot of kudos bonus points. Out of my depth? Oh yeah!
I had to visit Prague for a meeting to do with work. I managed to hook up with a knitting group there, and visit MarLen, a marvellous knitting and textiles shop in Prague. If you ever go, it's worth checking out as the tiny shop is stuffed to the ginnels with yarn and fabric. And it is very reasonably priced. I was spoiled for choice, but picked up some 100% cotton tapey stuff in khaki/grey/black for myself, a ball of gorgeous wintery black and green mohair and wool mix, and some 100% cotton finer slubby stuff in a slatey blue. All lovely. Oh and I picked up some bits a pieces for my mother, 100% cotton in a coral colour, about 3 ply. And some stuff for Pebbles, Flossie and Purlpower. Cos I had to stand them up. And I hate standing anyone up. Prague was lovely, but I would have liked longer to explore. However, I think I got enough of a taste to make me want to go back and visit again. Big thanks to Nikki and the girls from the Wanton Knitters group in Prague. I had a lovely time meeting them, knitting with them, buying yarn and drinking cocktails with them. Thanks a lot to them for making me feel very welcome and at home to Nikki, Vera, Eve, Gosia, and Martha (I think I have named checked everyone I met). No pics as the camera is not with me right now. More soon I hope.
Found this via Boing Boing. What a great idea - space saving, convenient, multifunctionality - but where would you rest a cup of tea? It makes me wonder what a knittychaise would look like.......
If any of you were wondering how DJ Mikey is getting on post-op, here we have a photo taken 5 days afterwards, showing his mighty sling, known as 'the tug', 'the baby', 'the boogie board'. 'the muppet' and 'the sofa'. We are also considering hollowing out the foam to insert mini-chedders, and in setting up a tequila slammer mixing desk on the top- lime, salt, a holster for gold-label, that sort of thing. Poor honey: he's up and down at the moment. The wound itself (steri-stripped, dressing changed etc.) is doing well, but we're having issues with muscle spasming down his back and along his arm, due to the odd position he's in (and will be in for the next 3 months). Also, it makes him very large. One has to manouver around him. But big hugs to everyone who has visited and rung and ... sent him presents (glittr)... which leads me to...
Jethro, what you doin'?
... the beauteous fly-fishing hand knit socks sent from Glittr. He wore them solidly for five days after coming out of hospital because his feet were so cold. I finally managed to pry them off when we attempted a bath. How did we do it? (Bearing in mind you are not allowed to get the dressing wet at all and have to keep the arm in position- and the sling is very spongey) We used a washing up bowl and a car roof strap to keep the arm in position, a jam jar for washing purposes and lots of towels for coverage. Nice. p.s. I didn't make him stand like this, it was his own idea to show off the socks. I was wincing.
So, I can finally post pictures again, hurrah! Thanks to Glittr for the most OUTRAGEOUS chocolates from Plaisir du Chocolat. We finished them last night and they were truly a joy to behold and to eat. My favourite? Guerandes, which was caramel with fleur de sel- a special type of salt. Caramel, salted butter and vanilla. Ooophf. Oh, and Bergamot, flavoured with Earl Grey tea and bergamot. Double Ooophf. There wasn't a duff one in there. And the decorations on the top! Lord. Anyway, they weren't mine, they were Mike's present. So thanks to Mike for letting me try them.
So I'm back from Canada, still unable to speak (the cold developed into Laryngitis in the cold Rocky air), but feeling a little more chipper after 15 hours straight sleep. DJ Mikey is doing remarkably well considering they had peeled his shoulder open like a banana only 4 days ago and that he only got out of hospital on Wednesday. Photos to follow soon (nothing gory, only of his monster sling, known as 'the baby').
Just a quick note to say- despite the loss of voice, I was able to do a reading at Heather and Lawrie's wedding (held on the slopes at Norquay- truly. In thick snow), following some serious overdosing on anaesthetic throat lozenges and a sip of whiskey. Couldn't do the whole thing, unfortunately- too long and I was fading fast- but everyone seemed happy with my abridged version. Anyway, here's the whole thing, for a bit of childhood nostalgia:
'Us Two' by A.A.Milne (taken from the book 'When we were six')
Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
"Where are you going today?" says Pooh:
"Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too.
Let's go together," says Pooh, says he.
"Let's go together," says Pooh.
"What's twice eleven?" I said to Pooh.
("Twice what?" said Pooh to Me.)
"I think it ought to be twenty-two."
"Just what I think myself," said Pooh.
"It wasn't an easy sum to do,
But that's what it is," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what it is," said Pooh.
"Let's look for dragons," I said to Pooh.
"Yes, let's," said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few-
"Yes, those are dragons all right," said Pooh.
"As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That's what they are," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what they are," said Pooh.
"Let's frighten the dragons," I said to Pooh.
"That's right," said Pooh to Me.
"I'm not afraid," I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted "Shoo!
Silly old dragons!"- and off they flew.
"I wasn't afraid," said Pooh, said he,
"I'm never afraid with you."
So wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
"What would I do?" I said to Pooh,
"If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said: "True,
It isn't much fun for One, but Two,
Can stick together, says Pooh, says he. "That's how it is," says Pooh.
Glittyknittykitty has only been in existence for just over a year (well a year and a half - we started in October 2004). We are about to reach our 1000th comment. Providing it's legitimate, we are prepared to offer a small prize to the person (not me or the Scumkitten) who provides us with the 1000th..... It could be you.....
Calm Seas on the East Indian Ocean. Picture: Barnaby Zoro
My cousins Barney and Cass Zoro are currently sailing with my Aunt and Uncle on their round the world voyage- full blogging details with great commentary on the Zoro Adventures website. Barney has sent some great pictures, including this one of a calm sea.... thought I'd share it.
Highlands, Aspen, darling! Picture: Scott Firestone
Actually, we got back on the 20th of february, after a rather traumatic journey due to bad weather in Dallas and last call connections. But all 4 travellers and their luggage made it back to their respective homes (almost) in one piece.
For those of you not paying attention previously: Skitten and her entourage have just spent 10 days in Aspen, Colorado, snowboarding.
I say 'almost', because DJ Mikey is now the walking wounded. Last hour of the last day on the slope, and he took a big ol' tumble down a black, resulting in a dislocated and fractured shoulder. The poor bunny is now nursing his broken paw back at Casa Skitten, mainly watching the Winter Olympics, I think. He has some spiffy drugs for the night time, which make him all woozy, but lets me have a whole nights sleep without having to minister to him. Oooh, plus he's had about 50 phone calls from well-wishers and visitors gallor.
And boy. That trip to Aspen Valley Hospital. They were nice, and all, got the shoulder back in lickity split, but lord, the bill! $2500 for the privilege, including a $600, 2 mile amublance ride. The sling cost $27, putting him IN the sling cost $149. At least, according to the bill split that they gave us. I'm holding out for our insurance payback, please, please pay me back! (Yeap, it was me that forked out, to stop him having to washing petri dishes for 5 years).
It was a very good trip, despite that last incident, and I also managed to stay out of the one yarn shop in Aspen, which I ventured into last year, only to leave feeling that I might as well have been a piece of shit on the owners shoe. And anyone that knows me, you KNOW that I generally have a very spunky vision of my place in the world ;). So I boycotted (like that's going to mean anything to them!).
However, Mike's ma, Mel, found a fantastic second-hand clothes shop that had rack after rack of cashmere (jumpers, not yarn), so I bought myself two cashmere jumpers, one black, one teal, for $80 total, to make up for my christmas jumper shrinking incident. Second hand, maybe, but you wouldn't know it. Aspen Op Shops. Gotta love 'em.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture of DJ Mikey doing what he does best:
Sweet edges! Picture: Scott Firestone
More power to you, sweetheart, and we'll get you up and running again in no time flat ;)
I was looking out of my lounge window a few nights ago, and the sky was really red and pink. A gorgeous winter sunset. I grabbed the camera and took this. It doesn't really represent the intensity of colour I saw, because I couldn't get a long enough exposure (haven't reached that chapter in the manual yet), but I liked the picture.
Have you come across Pandora? I'm playing with it now, and it's fabulous. Pandora stems from the Music Genome Project, which started in 2000 with the aim of creating the "most comprehensive analysis of music ever" (their words). With Pandora, you type in the name of a musician you particularly like, and Pandora will analyse the characteristics of the musician and then 'create a music station' that will play songs from individual artists with the same characteristics. A very good way to listen to artists you have never heard of before. Typing in Emiliana Torrini has already given me 5 singers I have never heard of. A really cool way to pass the time ;)
Edited to say: Arse! They ask you to register to keep using, but you must have a US zip code! Nuts to 'em, eh?
I'd like to nominate the GlittyKnittyKitty blog. "An endlessly surprising mix of unspeakable cuteness, human warmth and sexual perversion" is how I would describe the blog, and also how I'd describe its two progenitors, GlittrGirl and ScumKitten.
Now then you may wonder why - NEPOTISM! Yay! Dr Pop (aka Parting Mosh) scratches our collective back and we ......... run for the flea powder! We didn't win Link Of The Year (this time) but we quite like being nominated! Of course he forgot to mention the soup. Oh yes. Soup. We like soup. A lot.
But unspeakable cuteness? Cute??? Us???? Where? Endlelssly surprising is good. Human warmth I can cope with. Sexual perversion for sure. But unspeakable cuteness?
Just discovered that Glittyknittykitty has been nominated as potential 'Most Entertaining Knit Blog'- there are some really hot contenders there, so even if you don't go and vote, there's a fabulous list of knitting blogs to go and check out.
If you do feel like voting however (not just for us; there are a number of categories), then hot foot it over to Queerjoe's Knitting Blog (which is a special blog in itself) and vote. I won't hold it against you if you vote for someone else. I won't, but Glittr might. That in itself should tell you which way to slide. She hurts. She has a mean streak. She has ninja powers. I'd vote for another blog if she didn't have a juju doll of me in her possession (so many pins!).
Actually, just run.
RUN! (N.B. note to self- typing RUM where I had meant to put RUN maybe tells me something about New Year resolutions and what they might entail).
EDITED UPDATE: We're coming last with 1%! YAYAYAYAY! For some reason that makes me HAPPY!
Well the cold weather means that my bird feeders have been well frequented. Greebo loves watching them through the window.
Cat TV!
Here is a goldfinch, stuffing his little face. Fearless little things these. Nothing seems to bother them once they have their faces in the feeder. We have been getting chaffinches, robins, blackbirds, sparrows, goldfinches, blue tits, coal tits, and great tits regularly.
Festive bird pic
And here, because we are still in the festive season, is a pic of a cheeky territorial little fat fluffed out robin. Do not be fooled. These birds are bullies!
Was had by all in Cornwall, mainly because we couldn't be bothered to cook ourselves a christmas dinner together. So instead we all went to the local for our dinner.
Defense and DJ Mikey
DJ Mikey attempts his Defence of the Realm impersonation and ends up looking like his Da. Colin looks on. Many worrying photos were taken on Defence's camera whilst he was out of the room talking to his 'sister' on his moby. Body parts were involved, mainly DJ Mikey's.
Lady Annabel and Scumkitten
The question is, what are we looking at? I can't for the life of me remember. Possibly Cap'n Matt's sausage, possibly not.
Lady and the Tramp
Possibly a little harsh, but why does Jonno always insist on the ladies around him sitting on his knee when he feeds them pudding? Lady Annabel will do anything for a bit of sticky toffee apple crumble.
How you doin'?
Class in a glass of scrumpy. Cap'n Matt showing us his new facial growth, specially developed for his role of Village People Biker on New Year's Eve. That handle bar can only get longer, ladies.
My Japanese/Plymouth Adventure: restaurant review time!
Yukisan, the manga character, apparently.
Hmmmmm, sushi. Yes, having had my first taste of Japanese food in Japan (Yamaguchi-ken, staying in a house-hold) 5 years ago, DJ Mikey and I finally got ourselves to a Japanese restaurant in the UK: and what a find it was. Yukisan is the only Japanese restaurant in Devon (that strikes me as an obvious, yet surreal tag) and is on the same street as our beloved Thai House (also known as 'the only restaurant we ever go to, ever'- that is, Notte Street, Plymouth, near the Barbican). But every time we go to the Thai House, we walk past Yukisan, and it has always intrigued me.
All that red and black and gold. All the swishy writing. Lobster. Sushi. Class. So as it was my birthday, I begged. I got on my knees (ooer). And I persuaded DJ Mikey to take me and his ma and pa to Yukisan for a change. We booked a table on the top floor, which is traditional low tables and floor chairs (the other two floors are western seating) and.... I was not disappointed!!!! Just. So. Classy. Ok, Richard had issues with his knobbly feet sticking into the wooden floor... ok, so it maybe isn't the place to wear a short skirt (no, I didn't... thought ahead!), but as far as I'm concerned it is as good an excuse as any to keep that Yoga up. And the food was good too: we shared sushi, vegetable tempura and meat gyoza (little dumplings) for starters, all with the little bowls and chopsticks and various accoutrements. Man, I love all that stuff.
An aside: in amongst the tempura was a perfect, flat palm sized leaf, lightly covered in thin veins of batter. It was a crispy as if it had been dipped in liquid nitrogen (expect it was hot, rather than 'ouch'!). How do they do that? I was so sad that I had to eat it. Although not so sad that I didn't.
Then we had between us Wasabi Steak (ummyumm), Monkfish with ginger and spring onions, Teriaki Chicken, Sweet and Sour Tofu and stir-fried vegetables, with sticky rice. All exquisite, flavours full yet subtle, perfectly cooked rare steak, just.... fantastic! And Mel and I shared some sake, and because it was my birthday, I had a Cherry Blossom cocktail, consisting of Plum Wine, Sake and Sour Cherry Juice...
Finally, we ended with green tea ice cream and deep-fried coconut and bananas: and this last dish was the biggest surprise- light, delicate, small. None of this greasy, dripping, oversweet nonsense you get elsewhere. Gotta love Japanese food. No wonder they never get fat (until they start eating burgers, that is!).
As Scumkitten told you a little while ago, we recently had a few days in the Highlands of Scotland. One day we went to Skye. We drove round, had a little leg stretch and marvelled at the scenery. Then on the way back we found a little yarn shop. A Stash Enhancement opportunity presented itself....
Yummy yarn from The Handspinner
Here you see two lofty skeins of merino silk mix in black and greys, a skein of gorgeous green chunky kid mohair, and two skeins of mulberry silk in a beautiful aubergine purple. The merino silk and kid mohair are spun and dyed on Skye by Di Gilpin, and bought through The Handspinner. The silk is dyed there. The choice was really difficult as you will see when you get a look at the Skitten stash. Greebo couldn't resist investigating as I was taking the photo.
The Talisker Distillery, Skye
We also went to the Talisker distillery, which because of winter, wasn't open at the time we were there. The smell was great though, and it was great to see where this lovely whiskey is produced.
This wee fella is Lachy, a 10 month old mongrel who belongs to Crofter Willie who lives in the house next to Mel and Richard up in the Highlands. A few weeks ago, the day Glittr and I were due to turn up at the house for some Highland fun, Richard had a visit from Willie who told him 'You'll be looking after the dog...'. So Richard duly looked after the dog, taking him up a local munro in the snow (after being bitten twice whilst picking Lachy up to put his lead on. Drew blood and everything! This dog does not like being picked up!). Lachy pretty much dragged Richard up the mountain and all the way back down again, but here we have two pictures showing his Dingo heritage and the hero gaining the summit...
The reason you can see the lead in both photos is that Richard dared not take it off in case he never saw the wee fella again. Glittr and I did not make close aquaintance with the doggie- all he did was bark at us and back away (barking) whenever we were around. No surprise for Scumkitten, being of the feline persuasion, but I can imagine that Glittr was quite hurt by it.
The text below came from an Ebay item that recently sold... a pair of men's leather trousers (the seller calls them pants, but we are British. We shall call them trousers).
n.b. picture above obviously a lady in leather trousers, not a man. I hope. Picture provided just to give some ambience.
"You are bidding on a mistake. We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.
And we buy leather pants.
I can explain these pants and why they are in my possession. I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman whom I believed to have taste. She suggested I try them on. I did. She said they looked good. I wanted to have a relationship of sorts with her. I'm stupid and prone to impulsive decisions. I bought the pants.
Article continues
The relationship,
probably for better, never materialised. The girl, whose name I can't even recall, is a distant memory. I think she was short.
Ultimately, the pants were placed in the closet where they have remained, unworn, for nearly a decade. I would like to emphasise that aside from trying these pants on, they have never, ever been worn. In public or private.
I have not worn these leather pants for the following reasons:
I am not a member of Queen.
I do not like motorcycles.
I am not Rod Stewart.
I am not French.
I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.
These were not cheap leather pants. They are Donna Karan leather pants. They're for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men. In fact, I'll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.
Again, they're men's pants, but they'd probably look great on the right lady. Ladies can get away with leather pants much more often than men can. It's a sad fact that men who own leather pants will have to come to terms with.
They are size 34x34. I am no longer size 34x34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown - perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate - I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.
These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren't worn onstage. They didn't straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.
Someone, somewhere, will look great in these pants. I'm hoping that someone is you, or that you can be suckered into buying them by a girl you're trying to bed. Please buy these leather pants."
They sold for $102.50. The Q and As at the bottom of the page are really worth a read....
Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation playing a blistering gig at the Sage, Gateshead last night. Great night out. The man still has a fantastic voice, amazing stage presence and gave really good value for money. And wore leather trousers. And rock god posturing. And he can still hit the high notes with no visible means of support.
Pity the Sage couldn't get its act together to serve the people wanting a drink at its numerous bars - running out of white wine, and refusing to serve customers because you ran out of change...... erm hello???? Not enough staff, and the ones they did have didn't seem to have been briefed properly on what was going on that evening. Even Robert Plant himself commented that it would have been nice to get the first few rows of seats taken out of Hall 1 so that a few people could dance.
Still the band were excellent. Made up for the recent rip off that called itself a Goldfrapp gig - I don't call the 45 minute set they played value for money. Get a grip and lose some of the ego people. Take a leaf out of the book of Mr Plant and his band. They will still be around long after Goldfrapp are merely a mildly amusing memory.
I did my PhD many years ago on oil body production in sunflowers (I was always invited to parties, with that background) and got to spend many hours tagging individual sunflower seeds with little flags to date their fertilisation (ah, a sunflower, me, a small brush. Plant sex, it's a joy): but I was always taken with the beautiful spiral pattern shown on the sunflower heads by the stamen and the seeds.
This pattern, linked directly to chaos theory and fractals and the Julia and Mandelbrot sets that one sees around and about, comes up time and again in the plant world. I saw it this morning, whilst I was making soup, in this romanesco cauliflower...
Via Craftster, where you can see the whole process of building it. It was first posted in 2004, but I was so impressed I thought it deserved another airing.
Saturday morning saw the end of the week long hurricane swell that hit the South West... hitting triple overhead on the west-facing beaches, DJ Mikey, myself (plus camera) and the in-laws headed for a secret hidden spot, resulting in solid 4 foot waves...
Here we have DJ Mikey in his killer whale outfit... our pal Duncan showing how hard it all is and then how to float, a cute grom on a red board....
And finally, the perfect wave....
Click on thumbnails for full glory.
All photos copyrighted to Skitten and not to be used without my permission, thank you.
It felted well - here it is drying (it actually has a load of books on top to flatten it right now) after loads of pulling into shape. I didn't go too far with the stretching and blocking, since I am going to cut it into a better shape, and add some embellishments. Post felting measurements: 18 inches by 12 inches.
Here at glittyknittykitty we would like to pay tribute to the marvellous John Peel on the first John Peel Day.
John played a major part in the development of my love of music, and his weeknight show on Radio 1 was the highlight of every day for years. Thanks John for sharing your passion with us, and for engendering, encouraging, and facilitating the hundreds of bands you did for our listening pleasure. John Peel the glittyknittykitties salute you. We will probably pay another tribute on the anniversary of his death on 26th.
It was a bright and sharp early start at South Fistral yesterday morning. The carparking cost over £5 for the day (shame on you, Newquay) and there were only two entrants in the Women's British Kneeboarding Championship, but it was still a day to remember.
At 10.00 start time, the tide was high and waves 5-6 foot and boingy beyond belief. Scumkitten was placed in the first men's championship heat with 3 guys (as you'd expect in a men's championship) and having spent 10 minutes NOT getting out back, decided to turn and take one of the 2 foot reform waves. What she didn't realise was that all the hooting and hollering on the beach meant that that wave put her in the lead of the men's heat for 10 minutes... ahead of the eventual winner of the International section. And, much to her shame, if she had managed to get a second wave (which she didn't, because she was feeling sea sick- never put a kitten on a kneeboard!), she would've gone through to the next round....
Anyway...
Here's a picture of Jodie Troth, the defending Women's Champion, taking one of the biggest waves of the day.
Click on the thumbnail for a big ol' shot.
We won't mention that she took the drop, then exploded into a mass of spray!
Big up to Jodie for retaining the title... If only Scumkitten hadn't got washed into the rocks and had to spend 15 minutes extrecating herself, she'd've given you a run for your money...
I still got a tropy though!!!
p.s. no photo of me on my wave, because DJ Mikey was too busy whooping and cheering and couldn't believe what he was seeing.
I have some notoriety now!
p.p.s. Just to put some perspective on the picture above- when Jodie hit the bottom turn it would've been triple overhead for her- probably double over head for a standup surfer, which is a big wave (obviously not a Hawaiian or Californian monster, but still...). If you look at the right of the picture, at the lip of the wave coming down, remember that one square metre of water weighs one tonne....
It's been a busy day here chez glittr, with some lantern conversion activity. I found a lovely Morrocan lantern, which I knew would add to the souk/bordello feeling slowly developing in the front room of the flat. I needed to convert it to an electric light fitting. I think we were reasonably successful - it looks nice and works.
While we were playing with electricity, Merrell was nowhere to be found. I caught her on the phone. How does she manage to pick up and dial the darned thing? She's a doll for [insert preferred deity here]'s sake. Anyway it turns out she had been on there hours. I was suspicious of the phone whore job rearing its (very) ugly head again, so listened in a while and caught her on camera....
.... sounded like she was talking to a girlfriend, but as there was a lot of whispering I can't be sure. I sure as hell am confused though. She has a friend? How?
At my work we get sent many adverts for academic conferences. Few attract me. This one was an exception, and, I think, possibly up for an Ig Nobel next year? N.B. Here follow quotes from an advert, with references removed to protect the innocent.
Hudographies: co(a)gent spaces of companionspecies
We have yet to develop a sustained set of geographies of human-animal relations in their specificity. The proposed sessions aim to advance the study of animal-human geographies through a focus on two species and their complex ways-of-relating: humans and dogs.
Inspired by discussion of the hudogledog (human + doglead + dog), we want to use these sessions to explore what is called 'the inescapable, contradictory story of relationships' between dogs and their humans; relationships which are co-constitutive, 'in which none of the partners pre-exist the relating, and the relating is never done once and for all'.
Got that? I could go on (and on)
Possible topics are given as (and I'm only chosing the weird ones, obviously):
Dogs and (human) identity, dogs and human work (including space exploration- anyone remember laika?), sporting hudographies, dog cybercultures, legal hudographies, media hudographies.
It's that time of year again! Along with the Darwin Awards, there is nothing we like better at Glittyknittykitty than some funky research. So here we have the winners of the Ig Nobel Awards, presented at Harvard University, U.S.A., last night (awards text quoted from The Guardian, 07/10/05):
Physics: John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, for an experiment that began in the year 1927, in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly dripping through a funnel at a rate of around one drop every nine years.
Medicine: Greg A Miller of Missouri for inventing Neuticles - artificial replacement testicles for dogs
Literature: The internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for using email to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters, each of whom requires just a small amount of money so as to obtain access to the great wealth they will share with you.
Peace: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University for electrically monitoring the activity of a locust's brain cell while it was watching selected highlights from the film Star Wars.
Biology: An international team of scientists and perfumiers for smelling and cataloguing the peculiar odours produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.
Economics: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, thus ensuring that people get out of bed, theoretically adding many productive hours to the work day.
Nutrition: Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo for photographing and then analysing every meal he has eaten over 34 years.
Chemistry: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for settling the scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?
Agricultural history: James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his scholarly study, The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers.
Fluid dynamics: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany, and the University of Oulu, Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Lorand Eotvos University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh - Calculations on Avian Defecation.
Scumkitten's back from a week in Guernsey! Seven days of blazing sunshine, bike rides, daily swims in the sea and lashings of ginger beer.
For those of you interested, a small picture of the bride, Helen, wearing the shawl (only photo of it, but the bride is more important than what she is wearing, after all!). Click on thumbnails for bigger pictures...
Don't she look purty?
So for those of you who want more...
The 7 days in Guernsey allowed us a day to visit Sark (land of Mervyn Peak, writer of Mr Pye and The Gormenghast Trilogy, amongst others). It was pretty crowded with tourists, but it lived up to my expectations because of ...
The sunflowers (I did my PhD on Sunflowers.... wacky, huh?)
The diving opportunities... (we went awalkabout and found the 'Venus Pool' on Little Sark, which was cool, but the sea on the other side of the rocks was even more diveable)
The view from Le Coupee, the thin band of rock linking Sark and Little Sark.
The reception for the wedding took place on another island, Herm, which is teeny. A few more photos for the album- I won't go on...
ScumK explaining makeup to Amy, one of the bridesmaids...
Oh, be still my heart! Does it make you want to cry, Heather?
Those of you have had the misfortune to visit Chez Scumkitten, may have noticed the 5 treasured prints hanging around the stairs on the first floor. Having played with Mitten for a while, it has reminded me of the reason I bought these prints in the first place and I thought I'd share that reason with you... Scando art....
Illustration by Kay Nielsen.
The above is a section of an illustration by the artist Kay Nielsen, who worked for Disney in the time of Fantasia, but also did a lot of work illustrating children's fairy tale books. Take a look at his biography here and view more of his illustrative plates here. Such colours, such detail, such beautiful imagery. If anyone ever comes into lots of money and wants to buy me a present, I'd not say no to an original Kay Nielson, ok?
Here's a visual memory for those of us stuck with grey skies today- the view of our secret beach in SE Cornwall that allows for skinny dipping, camping and fishing- taken Sunday just gone. You have to earn it tho'- a 1/4 mile vertiginous path through stinging nettles and brambles and half of it with rope. But my ma and pa made it down AND went in the sea. Proud of them? Yep.
And a 'hello there!' to the mysterious snorkeller who snorkelled past me whilst I was swimming, completely ignoring me, then got into his little orange boat and rowed away towards France. V. strange.
p.s. Glittr- this is where we all stood last year, with twilight falling, and watched the pod of porpoises out to sea....
So Glittr and I are both on a bit of a Blythe trip at the moment- we both own three of the monkeys and very happy we are too.... except. I've been more than a little obsessed with one particular madam since I got Franke in May. Her name is Mitten and she is a limited edition (hence hell on earth price) plus almost impossible to come by, certainly in her full incarnation. Here she is:
She's based on a Russian children's animation character (and very few people know that I've been mad about russian fairy tales every since my mum and dad bought me an illustrated book on them when I was little) and comes with a petite blythe dressed as her little red dog. Wanting her is insane. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't justify her, however much I wanted her (and I don't believe we should always get what we want in this world- I think that is one of the problems of our current western society, this assumption that we CAN have everything we want).
But DJ Mikey, he went ahunting on the web. Secretly. And Mitten is winging her way across the atlantic as we speak. This is an advanced birthday/xmas present, you understand. Apparently it would'be been snowboard boots and bindings, but I'm going to get those anyway, so....
Mitten, yay! But no customisation there, no sirree. I'll have to be careful with her.
As well as an OSW knit-along, Glittr and I also managed to go skinny dipping at a secret spot of mine on the south coast. It's right off the rocks and very sheltered, so you have the choice of warm water heated by the sun on the rocks in the cove or to swim further out to sea where it gets deeper and cooler. I've been swimming countless times here and have never seen another person (apart from a friend who turned up with his entire family in a boat). You have to do a bit of scrambling to get to it, so you earn the swim! Glittr took this on her phone camera, giving it rather a romatic blur ;)- plus it means you can't see more than you should.
This was a few weeks ago- I've been back a few times and it just gets better and better- today I went in at another spot a few miles down the road, which is sandy- I swam for 40 minutes in cool, green, utterly smooth water. Bliss.
I think I'll stay here.
And while I was there (this is glittrgirl writing now) we took knitting to Newquay - you can see Tolcarne Beach in the background behind this pic of my OSW WIP also in Hipknits silk, but this green is called Frog....
and knitting by Dani - who we recruited to the dark side heh heh heh.....
Well it's not quite finished - still a bit of painting and the kickboards to plane and replace - but here are some rather boring pics of the new glittrkitchen.....
.... granite worksurfaces, glass shelves and an aqua and black colourscheme....
... sleek and italian looking.....
... this splashback has glitter in it..... (if you look carefully you can a reflection of me in the knitted bikini)....
.... nice sink with dishes.....
.... Greebo loves his bowl from knitmonkey... and the floor is glittery too.....
.... ignore the bare MDF it needs painting, but here are the table and lovely Phillipe Starck chairs.....
... and then there was light (space between units and floor will be filled by kickboards in dark grey....
.... and a nice new radiator too - window needs a bit of dressing but haven't decided what yet....
which contained a card, some notelets with flip flops on them, a little book of Knitticisms and Other Purls of Wisdom, a skein of gorgeous Alchemy Yarns bamboo in Forest Waltz and an ingenious and very lovely bracelet that doubles as a row counter, with matching stitch markers.....
... and a beautiful mobile/windchime...
... which kept me happy .....
... and a small box entertained a large cat! Always amusing. Thanks Amy for the lovely box, I always feel a bit blue when I get back from nice times abroad with chums, and this parcel really brightened my return! I have no idea where you find these lovely knitty things, or how long you must spend choosing the things to send me, but I really do appreciate the thought and care you put into each fabulous parcel.
I got back from a pretty idyllic 9 days in the south of France yesterday. We spent 2 days in Nice, and 7 at a beautiful house called La Source near Cotignac.
Just to let you know how glad I am to be living in deepest, darkest, have a butchers at some photies taken by DJ Mikey and mesel'n down near Portwrinkle, our nearest beach spot...
First, an abstract breaking wave (and yep, the colours are true)
The holiday cabin situated in a field at the top of the cliff...
And a close up of the interesting rock stratigraphy- the whole of the south-east cornish coast is just one big squidgy pudding of folds. I believe that IS a technical term that geologists use...
And just to rub it in further, the beach this is taken at is a natural swimming pool-sized ampitheatre, and is hard enough to get to (a scramble and use of a rope) that it warrants skinny dipping when the temperature raises enough.
Well I thought I got a package from my SP4. It contained: A carton of Girls' Night Out Muscle Man Drink Charms (Cabana Boy anyone?), some Sweet Vanilla Sugar Shimmer Lotion, which smells very yummy, and I shall try it out right after my shower later. There was also a Reeses Peanut Butter Cups scented lip balm...... and a Ms Manicure quick fix emery board kit. Great! Thanks! But its a RAK! Thanks whoever you are!
Well, my first experience of Secret Palling (see Knitty Web-board for further details) has been rather lovely, due both to Westozcaat, sending me fun and funky stuff, and my own SP in Canada, the one and only Carpenter... boy, did I fill my boots on sending stuff to her!
And in return, the sweetheart has sent me these...
.. because she is a sleuth and remembers stuff and has got me down pat with what I like. They are little glass fish stitch markers, each having their own little personality and jingling and jangling together as they are so happy sitting against KSH (in yet another airy scarf- and no, airy doesn't NEED stitch markers, but I had to show them off somehow). The markers are made by Kim Hart Designs- I think she is the sister of one of the Knitty Boarders.
So after eating Saturday lunch on Upper Street, we said a fond farewell to Lainch and Mike, who headed back off to Brighton. The wen trudled off by bus to Knightsbridge to the shop of Patricia Roberts. How we ooooo'd, how we aaaaaah'd and stroked and fondled. Lovely yarns. Some of us gave in and bought ......
After that we headed back to the apartment, for tea and cake. Knitting. Then Doctor Who with wine and nibbles, take out pizza and more knitting and chatting.
Subday morning saw realrebellion as, freed from the constraints of setting an example to the kids, mother eagerly stuffed themselves with chocolate and cake for breakfast.....
We walked to Covent Garden, found The Bead Shop (closed on Sundays boo hoo) and then tookour places at an outdoor cafe in the sunshine and knitted once more. From here we split up - Yorkie, glittrgirl and Skitten went to the Lamb and Flag for lunch. Then met up with Pebbles, said goodbye to Scunkitten, and got on the train home. We knitted there too. Pebbles gave me a lovely aqua coloured shell charm bracelet to say thanks for a nice weekend...... Thanks Pebbles!
WHAT a fantastic weekend! What an amazing bunch of people! I don't think I am crowing too much, but wasn't it GREAT?!
Have already finished the scarf kit that Glittr gave me- it'll forever be my UKnitty scarf.
So I'll start the story off with meeting up on friday at Trafalgar Square (where we stayed) with Sparkley C and friend Pauline (who made me a lovely kidsilk haze flower in Candy and Marmalade- whilst I watched), Glittr, Yorkie, Wollymind and her sis (sorry, that's your name now!), Pebbles and Purlpower. We scared the French receptionist, drank WAY too much wine, had a Siress Yorkie altar of Green and Black's chocolate, a sock masterclass in one corner of the room and generally got along far to well for a bunch of people who had only just met....
That's the first installment....
The second installment:
As well as a sock masterclass on Friday night we had two people making flowers, a dpn adventure and a casting on comparison going on. All fuelled by chocolate and wine. Skitten and I threw together some pasta and salady things, once we figured out the cooker, ably assisted by Sparkley C.
We retired late - about 1.30am I seem to remember, though everyone thought it was much earlier!
Reveille at 8am, so that we had time to get ready and get to the British Library by 10 to meet more knitters and have outdoor knitting in the spring sunshine.
Breakfasted and anxious to get out in the fresh air, Scumkitten, Purlpower and yours truly set off at a goodly pace to walk from Trafalgar Square to Euston Road, and arrived at 10.10am, where there were already knitters in the courtyard, basking in the sunshine and drinking tea and coffee.
Once we had been questionned by a member of the British Library staff - who seemed rather surprised we had chosen to meet there - and a lady who runs a knitting machine guild, we gathered up our belongings and knitting, and all of Yorkie's presents (she got so many things! Cult of Yorkie ingratiation?? No! We just love her posts on the knittyboards!) we started walking to the Crafts Council, where we were blown away by the Knit 2 Together exhibition. It's touring, and you can see other venues its coming to here.
Then it was on to Upper Street to find somewhere to eat. And knit. Again.
OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG! Knitmonkey - will you marry me????
Phew. Breathe. Calm.
I got my final box from my SP - knitmonkey today.
I nearly cried as I eagerly opend the box on the bus, tearing mercilessly through the lovely little butterflies decorating my package.
Inside was a veritable treasure chest of loveliness. So many beautiful things, handmade and full of thought. I feel very, very spoiled. As the lump in my throat grew and my eyes filled up, my vision blurred, and I began to rip open the tissue paper covering a multitude of gifts.
Here's the loot:
My what a lot! can you see the Green & Black's Maya Gold? My favourite! And Monica is hooked too.... I sent her some in the last SP round....
Loads and loads of lovely lovely lovely things..... and all for me.....
.... a pink and orange wet felted pincushion, a green glittery egg full of handmade stitch markers in green and pink - so useful as I needed some smaller ones.... and a pattern for some ski masks so that Scumkitten and I can complete our knitted terrorist identities.... the latest Interwaeve Knits, a gorgeous girly catalogue which has inspired me to take up my needle again and go back to handsewing and customising my own clothes (it's called Anthropologie, the catalogue)...
..... a sheepy Pez dispenser and some Pez sweeties (Ihaven't seen these in years!), some very girly butterfly paper hankies, and a marvellous green bowl with a cat on it so that Greebo has a new bowl to match the new kitchen..... you can just see some patterns for knitted flowers too.... my this girl has done her research....
.... a beautiful handmade flower, which I intend to turn into a hair decoration....
... to match the piece de resistance.... I'm truly speechless. Gobsmacked. Just look at this bag......
Thanks you so much for all of this Monica. I am flabbergasted. Truly and utterly my gast is completely flabbered. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This has been the best SP ever!
I got an internal package at the University today. I contained these wonderful handmade cards.... from Purlpower, who works in the same Faculty as me, to say thanks for helping her out with her blog. Gosh today is like another birthday! Happy un-Birthday to me!
Plus a red glittery pen. Thanks so much Purlpower! You didn't need to send me anything - I was happy to help!
My lovely Secret Pal has sent her final package (to me, that is- I didn't mean for that to sound like a threat). Lovely to receive however, including a lovely pair of dangly earrings (turquoise, hurrah!), more chewy Koala sweets, some softsoft Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair, some sock yarn, a DVD (!) for me to weep to when Mike is out being manly and a fun map of Oz... and a special envelope that I cannot open until April the 15th.
The anticipation....
And so, on to something that has nothing to do with knitting whatsoever. Last weekend (Easter) there was some pretty funky surf around, tho' the weather conditions varied from scorchio to dull and Cornish damp. The only photos I managed to grab were in the latter conditions, but a couple turned out ok.
Mike at *coughcough* (edited for surfing sensibilities and to prevent crowds, sorry- ha! as if any surfers will be reading this..), a reef break that only starts to work over 3 feet...
The fat green mullet board that he is riding in this picture had to be sent to the board hospital after this session, as our newbie pal John managed to whack a fin into the side. Quite a spectacular wound and done on his first proper stand-up green wave. The boy done good.
Here you can see the start of the crash sequence... I feel so proud!
And some oyster catchers that flew past as I was watching the surfers. They are very handsome birds, I think, with their stark black and white plummage and sharp orange beaks.
For Glittr, who has been spoiling me rotten recently... she's gifted me the furry collar and cuff shown here, but I need to adjust it slightly for my neck-size (apparently twig-like! I know! I'm as surprised as anyone!). I promise to photo and put up once I have adjusted. I also got a lovely mag and a lamb full of chocolate eggs. I was supposed to save them for Easter, but I ate them in front of the TV during the conference as i was feeling so poo.
Our work annual conference is this week. Scumkitten and I (and DJ Mikey) all work for the same people. We get to see each other tomorrow and Wednesday! Photos to follow.....
My SP (you are wonderful btw...) has sent me another box.
I would have photographed it, but I was so excited I opened it on the bus. So you will have to make do with my verbal description.
It was a good sized cardboard box. Exciting enough in it's own right - but this particular cardboard box was decorated with little glittery maps and stamps. Maps of places far, far away with exotic sounding names. Maps that enticed and hinted at secret kingdoms yet to be discovered, full of treasures unseen by western eye.
I tore open the box, noticing that the addressee was in Seal Rock, OR.
I know someone who lives there.
Someone I gifted in the last round of SP - the tutu round.
Knitmonkey. And I know she sews.
In my secret box was a gift. Wrapped in candy coloured tissue, of hot pink, banana yellow and red. With an orange tie.
And a card.
A handmade card.
In a transparent blue envelope.
With a mermaid on it.
Embroidered to look like the mermaid is winding a skein of yarn around her tail.
It's beautiful.
I am going to frame it.
I rent the tissue open to find this little reversible cotton hand sewn bag.....
Spring.....
Autumn....How creative! How well stitched! How very - ME!
The bag was full of more pink tissue.
Sealed with little stickers in the shapes of flowers. Inside that was...
BIKINI YARN! Yay!!!!!!!
Cascade Fixation in hot pink - 5 balls of it. And two contrast colours because my SP can't decide which one. Again. That's how I ended up with 4 MaryElla kits!. One in a beautiful turquoise - vibrant and lovely, and matching extremely well with my Cozy shawl..... hmmmm. Hot pink and turquoise. Jarring nicely, vibrating my vision and causing a nice 3D effect in it's contrast. But the other is red. And pink and red together is one of my favourite combinations. Hot. And that combination matches the little bag which just seems made for carrying my suntan cream in...... Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.
If there is more than one knitty person in Seal Rock I must visit because it seems a very cool and creative place with cool, creative people. If knitmonkey has been using a pal to send for her - she is a minx!
Whoever my secret pal is a bid THANKS to you! You have made my day! All that effort in making my bag, decorating my box and wrapping my gifts so beautifully, makes me feel very very spoiled. And I like that. A lot. :)
As someone who can just about sew on a button, badly, can I bow down to your craftswomaaaaan skills and say...
Wow!
What a lovely present for little old me, from the deliriously talented Knitmonkey... all made from recycled materials etc. What got me (and DJMikey) most was the fantastic stitch work/geometric patterns made on the centre panel...
Thank you, thank you for your thoughtfulness and sense of fun...
Unfortunately the two packets of chewy Aussie sweets have been eaten and the surfing mag is currently locked in the toilet with DJ Mikey.... so no photies of those. My lovely SP also gave me a knitting mag, which is VERY exciting as I have never had one of those before (I always get side-tracked by Vogue. I know. You wouldn't guess that would you?). However, what I am going to show you is
a) some pink (well, how else would you describe it?)
I'd tell you what it is, but I'm stuck up here and Pink is stuck downstairs. And I have no leg bones. It's like a pink tribble.
b) some Aussie cookie cutters, with which I made
"Streuth, mate. If we stand still in front of this ReadyBrek packet, that ugly Sheila might give us a miss...."
"Mummy, I am very frightened."
"Meep" (that's Koala-speak for 'shut it shorty, or we're buggered')
I was walking through Marks and Spencer this morning and look what I found...
A cute little cuddly sheep! Just the thing for a knitting friend I thought! So I picked one up. Wasn't expensive and was suitably knitty related..... and then I realised it held a secret....
An Easter secret......
It's a lambsie purse filled with choccie eggs!!!!!
Having just sailed into Falmouth last night, a big up GlittyKnittyKitty cheer to the wee 28 year old lass who is now the fastest sailor to circumnavigate the globe.
And to all those prissy meedya types and Daily Mail readers who seem to have nothing better to do than take the proverbial...
I had a lovely surprise waiting for me today, nestling amongst the cauliflower and broccoli sitting in my porch- a parcel from my Secret Pal.
It included two balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed in a beautiful and subtle grey (according to Trinny and Susannah, grey is MY colour!) and two balls of very soft merino in black. I am already thinking of mittens...
You can also see (hopefully) a leaflet of cocktails (already picked a few out to try), a ducky for my bath, some lovely marshmallow lip salve and a sweet, sweet card.
Thank you SP- you may be a newbie SP (like me), but you done good.
And for your further entertainment, we have ducky glowing...
and with Fernando welcoming him to his new home.
And lastly, a haiku to ducky:
The duck glows brightly,
Floating on a lonely sea.
Below, reflection.
p.s. Ooooh, I've decided- the black merino will become the Stitch 'N Bitch Kittyville Hat
Yesterday I went out on the Northumberland moors with a friend to clear the cobwebs, get some fresh country air and stretch our legs. We had a lovely day and the weather held off, though rain threatened with thunderous looking steely grey skies for part of the day. I took a few piccies on the way.....
... we met some goats. They LOVE Polo mints.....
... the water from the recent floods is starting to recede.....
... grey skies didn't stop us having a lovely time!
The colours and textures of the mosses and lichens were simply spectacular.....
... I wonder if I can translate them into some knitting or embroidery????
Well, the Great International Knit-a-blog Challenge is about to start. I have posted the Order of Creation both here and on the knittyboards, and sent the addresses to each participant so that we all know who to post to next.
I am very excited by this project. I have posted a reminder of the rules too.
If you have any queries or problems, please post a comment on this blog and either Skitten or myself will get back to you.
Have fun, let the muse do her darnedest, be creative and let the juices overflow!!!!
1. The knit-a-blog is a community based collaborative knitting and decoration project intended for fun and to stimulate creativity and wackiness and to provide a conduit for tangential knitting, textile art and good humoured tactile banter.
2. The idea of a blog is central to this challenge.
3. A knitted conversation will be started by Skitten and passed round as a knitting WIP to a number of people signed up to take part in the challenge.
4. The challenge will end when the FO is returned to glittrgirl and she has worked with it for 7 days.
5. On receipt of the WIP you will photograph the piece as it arrives with you and send by email to Scumkitten (skitten68atgmaildotcom)or glittrgirl (glittrgirlatgmaildotcom) for uploading to the glittyknittykitty blog where the progress of the WIP will be tracked. The knittyboard will be updated as the blog is updated so that everyone can see what's growing.
6. Each recipient can keep the WIP for up to one week (7 days) by which time it must be posted on to the next recipient.
7. Recipients may add to, embellish, graft on to, attach, change colour, pattern, yarn or in any other way increase the modalities of conversation in the WIP.
8. Recipients must NOT frog, remove or alter any work done to date of receipt unless there are specific instructions to do so, which you are entitled to ignore if you so wish.
9. Recipients must ensure that the WIP is passed on to the next person in a state that is easily picked up - ie stitches placed on a holder, pattern instructions included (which may be ignored or altered) and the WIP securely packaged so as to ensure that no 'words' in the 'conversation' are lost. The current knitter of the WIP should post a message in this thread about what s/he did as well as the first name and last initial of the knitter.
10. You may use any materials or embellishments you like but by agreeing to take part you agree to add at least one row of knitting to the WIP.
11. During your one week custody of the WIP you may invite as many people locally as you like to take part in the project - their contributions must be within your one week day allocation. Take it to
your SnB and get everyone to add something! You can do whatever you like to the WIP - add a sleeve, pocket, soft toy, use whatever size needles you like, increase, decrease, short rows, create a 2 dimensional or a three dimensional addition, add buttons, bows, ribbons, shiny things.
12. By agreeing to participate you agree to contribute freely your time, ideas, yarn, embellishments and postage to the next person.
13. By agreeing to take part you are putting your work and ideas into the public domain, and as such should be prepared to allow your work to be altered and added to by others. By agreeing to take part you give over the right of others to alter and redistribute your work under a Creative Commons license within the rules of this knit-a-blog.
14. The Finished Object (FO) will be raffled between participants, and the funds donated to the Knittyboards to fund their longevity.
Am visiting my parents at the moment, in deepest darkest Surrey: and lookee here at what I found lurking in the back field behind my parents house. 30 Llamas, all looking at me in a very snooty manner as I ran past! There are also some Alpacas, but they were all congregating in the far corner, so I couldn't get a good shot. There was also a lone chocolate-coloured sheep, who looked mighty pissed off at being amongst such high company.
I've asked my mum if she could go and do some secret early morning alpaca belly combing for me.... a month of that and I might have enough for a scarf ;)
I know who she is! It's Megera from the knitttyboards! That lovely lady sent me two knitting magazines, a lovely Christmas decoration, and a card and calendar of her wonderful photography. I feel very spoiled...... :D
Ah. Wine and cake at work, what a fantastic combination. Lots of good things have happened today: good news at work, celebration of my birthday to-be (tomorrow, 36, aargh) and happiness at prospective snowboarding trip to Aspen in february. No knitting projects involving mountains or boarding unfortunately, so merely a photo from previous jaunt to Colorado. I'm the one on the right with the ears. We're at the top of a black powder run.
The Great International Knit-A-Blog Challenge is REAL!
The Great International Knit-A-Blog Challenge, instigated by Rob, will begin on 17 January 2005.
We will blog the progress of the Work In Progress (WIP) here. 20 recruits each have the WIP for a week before passing it on to the next person. So far it will bounce between the UK, Finland, Italy, Germany and several States of America, before ending up back in the UK. The Finished Object (FO) will be auctionned and the proceeds donated to the Knitty Coffeeshop.
Please comment on the progress of the WIP as the pics appear, and if you have suggestions for content, do feel free to make them!
We cannot guarantee that anyone will take any notice, but it will be very interesting to see what you suggest!
We have had to start a reserves list of people wanting to take part. If we get enough interest we may start two WIPs and send them round the world in different directions!
Just a quick gloat about my pal Jodie, who won the Women's British Kneeboarding Championship at Fistral, Cornwall, a few weeks ago. Here she is working it in fairly bad conditions.
Today Scumkitten and I went to the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop near Leyburn in North Yorkshire. We had heard that this rare breed of sheep yielded a silky lustrous yarn which was unusual and sought after. We arrived at a little stone built farm shop to find a real treasure trove of the most beautiful yarns in a range of weights and gorgeous colours. We can't wait to knit it up. 100% wensleydale longwool, at very reasonable prices (about £30 for a double knit medium sized womans jumper). The lady there was lovely, and she does mail order. Not only does she sell the yarn, she sells the roving, and fleeces, both washed and greasy. She also sells a range of self designed patterns, ready knit garments, handmade buttons and birch needles and crochet hooks. We bought birch needles too, as they are pretty hard to find in the UK. These ones are actually made in Brittany in north western France.
All in all a great day and I for one am desperate to get some stuff off my needles so that I can begin knitting with my weekend treats - self dyed wool, and rare breed wool.
Fabulous! We added a link as it quickly became a place we like....
knittivism: n1 a doctrine emphasising vigorous or militant knitting activity, e.g. the use of knitting in mass demonstrations, urban interventions, in controversial, unusual or challenging ways, esp political, causes. 2 the systematic use of knitting for political ends. knittivistn and adj
Don't use our bandwidth. Download these badges and host on your own servers, please.
It's only on seeing this pic that I realise how much the red has faded on my hair. I shall book an appointment to be enreddened immediately! 
My haul from the Books and More Swap 6 over at Ravelry. Soccermom's generous box contained 3 balls of Noro Kureyon, 3 balls of Elann Bamboo Fusion (bamboo, cotton and acrylic) in a delicious rich tweedy red, 2 balls of Elann Adara, a mercersised cotton and linen mix, a little bottle of gorgeous maple syrup, pens, a little notebook with a magnetic clasp, an unusual knitted brooch, and two bags of sweets. The licorice allsorts were scoffed right away, and the strawberry licorice was much more to my mother's taste than mine, so she took it away with glee. And of course the lovely cotton shopping bag that is my handmade item knitted in Elann Sonata, 100% mercerised cotton.
All I could afford after my yarn purchasing, was this iittala ego breakfast cup. I was going to buy the saucer too but forgot. I may have to add to it in the future. But oh what a lovely thing to drink tea from! I can't stop looking at its sublime lines and pleasing shape. If you hook your hand under the handle and cup the vessel in your hand, it is so soothing. Perfect for nice warm drinks of chocolate and hot tea as autumn closes in. 
Ably aided and abetted by the delightful company of midori and Ganeshas from the Ravelry Helsinki Knitters, I have visited four yarn shops and bought far too much yarn this afternoon. I have also made a lot of progress on my sockhat, when I spent 4 hours knitting with the Ravelry Helsinki knitters in Cafe Ursula on the top floor of Aleksi 13. As you can see it has grown quite a bit. We had a great evening, talking, knitting eating delicious food and drinking bubbly. The staff were really nice, the knitters were universally delightful and lots of knitting, yarn fondling and chatting went on. And one knitter was from Springwell - about a mile from my house.....
Yarn galore! This is a GREAT city for yarn shopping. More shops than I could manage in the time we had, and a fantastic selection including some beautiful scandinavian and local wools. From Lankamaailma Nordia, our first stop, I bought:
..... and it shall be all bent and twisty and will look most enchanting and mattress stitch most excellently well. And you shall be the luckiest knitter in Christendom and be entranced into finishing many projects...... And the wait for your present until July shall be decreed for evermore as the best time to receive such birthday gifts.
Everyone was so inspired by the surroundings, the company and the teachers, it was no wonder that they all came out with such marvellous explorations of colour. I didn't get pics of everyone's projects, and Sue was a much more careful photographer than I, with her permission here are some pics of the marvellous projects people came up with:
Evening workshops in crochet and yoyo corsage construction resulted in this trio of gorgeousness.
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