Gallivanting and knitting

We've been to Barcelona! It was only a super-quick visit for a couple of days to take advantage of Ryanair's 1p flights (best not think about the imapct on our carbon footprint...) - and it was lovely. I'd never been before, and I was thoroughly impressed - but two days really isn't enough. I want to go back and next time I would like it to be for a week or so. We were very lucky with the weather - it has apparently been quite cold there a couple of weeks previously, but it was a glorious 21 degrees during our visit (although getting chilly in the evenings), which is fantastic for us coming from a Welsh January!

Here is a picture of me being impressed with Barcelona, on top of the tourist bus.



I haven't done much cross stich recently, I seem to have been bitten by the knitting bug again. I did make and complete one mini-project, which turned out to be horrible, so I'm never going to mention it again, and will never photograph it.

This next project is shaping up quite promisingly though - can you tell what it is yet? I've only completed 3 squares so far, there will be 25 when I've finished, in four different colours.


And I'm still working on that other big project, but I'm not ready to share it with you yet - a couple more weeks should do it, I reckon - at least for a WIP pic.

Going potty

We went to pottery last night. It was good, we picked up some of our pots from last term, I started to make a cake stand, and J's making a fish bowl. I think I'll have to make several cake stands before I figure out what it is I'm doing, but it's ok because it's all fun. And cakes stands are pretty. Especially with cakes on them.

These are the pots I collected from last term... Before I show you though - I want to make it known that this was my first ever time on the wheel. Ever. And I am very proud of myself.

From back left (going clockwise) are: Wobbly pot, which is off-centre and wobbly but I like its glaze; The pot which I didn't make, but which I glazed so I'm going to take some credit for it; The pot that was kind of ok (if you squinted), until I applied a glaze to the outside which is frankly sub-standard and which has completely ruined it; The little blue pot which I adore; The pot which fell apart on the wheel, but which I glazed anyway and now think it looks kind of cool; And the pot with the 'artistic' dribbly edge, which I had thought would be much redder (like blood), but which came out dark-blue, which looks ok.

We're going back to pottery on Friday. I can't wait. I have loads of ideas, and want to play and experiment with clay.

Here is a cheesy picture of a cuddly toy with the nearly-completed brown sock. I had to pose it with something cutesy because it's impossible to photograph a dark brown, stockingette stitch sock attractively. It can't be done.

Wow - it's been nearly two months since I blogged!

I have intended to blog, but the longer I've left it, the harder it's been to come back - kind of like if you haven't done your homework for an evening class...

We've had a couple of birthdays since my last entry. We went to Londong for my 33rd in August, went to see Spamalot and Avenue Q in the West End, met up with some friends, and did the whole tourist thing, it was lovely.

J lost me for quite some time in the embroidery section at the V&A museum - I took loads of photos for reference which was a bit difficult in subdued lighting without a tripod, but I coped by bracing myself against frames of embroidery and holding my breath for the long exposure times. I absolutely feel head-over-heels with one piece of embroidery, a detail of which is below.

A couple of weeks after my birthday was lovely J's birthday, we went exploring the west Wales coast in the camper van. The weather was a little bit less than ideal, but we had a fabulous time, and I would definitely go again. Here is a picture of Molly, on the dashboard, watching the rain at Aberystwyth sea-front.

Our gifts for each other were the holidays (hotels, camp sites, meals, etc.), but I couldn't resist making a little present to give him on the day...

Craft and hobbies-wise, I'm afraid I have nothing much to report. I've returned to a boring pair of brown socks which I've been knitting for over a year and which I WILL finish before the end of the month (I've nearly finished sock #1 as I type). After that I want to finish the green bag and a cross stitch of my mushroom pattern (there's a link to the free download on the top right on my blog), which I haven't touched since I discovered a mistake in my counting. Silly me.

Tomorrow is the start of a new term of evening classes, and the return to pottery. Yay! This term I will get good at working on the wheel, and I will make cake stands.

Pooped!

Phew! I am pooped!

I've spent the past 3 days on an extremely intensive course for work - which was both mentally exhausting and extremely useful. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do this course, but I'm happier still that it's now over (and even hapier again that there are only 2 days until the weekend!)

So I am now pooped. Properly, thoroughly and undoubtedly pooped. I'm talking about 'drooping-asleep-over-my-cup-of-tea' - tired.

But I'm not too tired to do a little bit of knitting, though. Here is my green bag - I haven't managed to do very much this week, but happily it's thick yarn on thick needles, so the little time I've had to spend on his has resulted in a fairly satisfying growth. I hope to be able to finish and felt it over the weekend, and to amend the pattern accordingly and pop it back up here.

Last night was the last pottery class until September. I spent my last lesson glazing the pots I showed you a few weeks ago, and I hope I will be able to collect them after they've been in the kiln - probably in a week or two. The other bits and pieces I've made are either waiting to be fired or waiting to be glazed, so I have no photos of them to show you yet, either. But when I go back in September, I should be able to glaze and fire them very quickly.

I'm going to spend the summer planning pottery projects, so I can go into my classes with a purpose, rather than just staring at a lump of clay waiting for inspiration. (I've found that inspiration can be elusive when you only have 2 hours to find it!).

So, no pottery next Tuesday. (Booo!). However - there will be a felting course next week at the same centre (Yaaay!) which I have booked onto, along with some of the ladies from pottery. I am looking forward to that bery much, and will try to remember to take my camera.

It will be fantastic.

Anyone on Ravelry.com yet? It's brilliant!

Free knitting pattern

I've written the pattern and I've put it up. (Look over there on the right....)

Yay me!

I must admit that I haven't tested or proof read the pattern yet, though... If anybody knits this and notices any mistakes, or needs anything clarifying or explained - please let me know and I'll try to make it better.

And just for lovely Ruth, because you asked so nicely, and because I like you so very much, (frantic, cheerful waving), here is a close up of the bag to show some of the felting.

It hasn't felted absolutely and completely - maybe because of the amount of acrylic in the yarn, or maybe because I didn't felt it for long enough. Having said that, I like that you can still see the knit stitches, and it's a nicely dense and robust fabric now, that should be able to cope with carrying all my stuff without having pencils or car keys poking through and jabbing me in the leg.

One to cross off the list

I finished the bag! It was #1 on my "list of things to do", and it's all finished, sewn up and felted. Yay me!

The decision to felt the bag was all abit of an experiment. I couldn't really be bothered lining it, and I though if I felted it, it would be dense enough that I might be able to get away without having to line it. I diodn't know whether the yarn would felt, either, due to a high-ish acrylic content (Rowan Spray, 60% wool, 40% acrylic), and while it hasn't made a super-dense felted fabric, and it lost a lot of colour in the process, it's ok and I'm pleased with it.


I will write out the pattern when I have a moment, and post it here in case anybody's interested. I will try to do this by next weekend.


We spent the last couple of weekends at the Hay book festival, which was fantastic. The highlights for me were seeing Don McCullen discussing his photography career, Terry Jones lecturing on Richard II (the man's a legend!), Jo Brand, and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, who were fabulous. I'm looking forward to next year's line-up now... Next time I'm going to book even earlier, because there were a couple of events that I would have liked to have seen but was too slow to get tickets.

So much to do...

I feel I've become very slack recently, both with my blogging and my crafting... So this morning I'm forcing myself to make a public note of where I am, what I've been up to, and what I want to do.

I am full of good intentions regarding finishing my unfinished - but newer, younger and shinier projects and activities keep attracting my attention. I am an activities / crafting / hobbies tart. I don't think I can help it. The best I can do is recognise my weaknesses and try to mitigate for them... or something.

The main work in progress is The Cross Stitch. It could have been long finished if I'd have continued with the same enthusiam that I had when I started. Of course, that level of dedication isn't really sustainable, and may have had detrimental long-term implications on the health of my neck, back and shoulders, my eyesight, and my relationship. But I haven't abandoned it. Here it is as of this morning, you'll notice that not much has really changed since my last post. But it will. For the coming week I pledge to dedicate a portion of time to the stitching every day.

(Edit: I pledge to try to dedicate a portion of time to the stitching every day.)

I'm afraid I have many, many hours of stitching ahead of me! :o)

Also above, is the bag I blogged about last week. It's getting there, but I'm caught in a cycle of knit/frog with the handles, which aren't quite working out for me. I want a cable pattern running the length of the handles, but I haven't settled on a pattern and width that I'm happy with yet. I may have another go at that this evening...

Below is my first attempt at embroidery. It isn't very even, elegant or refined, but I have an excuse already prepared - I didn't want to iron the vintage iron-on pattern my mum gave me, so I very cleverly traced it using and iron-transfer pencil, but I can't have pressed hard enough with the pencil because the transferred image is the faintest purple line I have ever seen in my life. Don't believe me? See for yourself! I was spending more time squinting for the line than concentrating on even stitches.

However, despite this, I am secretly a tiny bit pleased, and am even happier again that I've cracked the french knot, which has eluded me since childhood. Apparently it's all in the twist. No pic of my French Knots here today, though, sorry...

The next embroidery will, I hope, be a little bit less clumsy, and I will show it proudly on this blog as and when it is stitched.

Moving away from fabric and yarn for a moment... we went to pottery class! It was brilliant! We made these....

I think they're pretty ok for a first attempt at the wheel... The pots at North, Centre and South-West are mine, at North-East, South-East and South are J's, at East is the teacher's. The catastrophe located at the Western corner is one of mine, which I swear was an absolute masterpiece - the entire studio had gathered around to 'Ooooh' at my natural skills and ability at the wheel (at least they had in the fluffly pink warmth of my imagination), when something happened which had absolutely nothing to do with any lack of skill on my part, and it fell over. I tried to rescue it, but just made matters worse.

We're going again on Tuesday, I'll let you know how it goes.

It was an accident... I couldn't help it

I popped into Dunelm Mill this morning to pick up a pot of oil for my sewing machine, and look what I found in the bargain bin...



The Rowan Spray I bought weeks ago was still there, and were still 99p each - and there were other colours and other yarns in there as well.

I'd come to a pause on the bag I was knitting on the other day, because I didn't have enough yarn to finish it just the way I wanted to, and have been mulling over an alternative that didn't feel too much like compromising. Happily now, I don't have to - because I accidentally bought a new ball of red, and three balls of green (because I quite fancy making another).

But I don't know whether I'll do any knitting today. I have so many projects on the go, and so many burning ideas for new fantastic projects, that I don't know where to turn. My list of projects to finish and start are...

1. Finish the red knitted bag
2. Knit a green bag
3. Finish the Kewpie cross stitch
4. Do the mushroom cross stitch (the one in my free pattern, link on the top right, over there)
5. Make an embroidered notepad cover
6. Make a key fob for my sister
7. Design and embroider a banner for this blog
8. Design and embroider a banner for for Etsy
9. Make some stuff for Etsy
10. Make a hessian shopping tote with felt applique
11. Learn how to do pottery and ceramics

As it's now the weekend, I could make a good start on this list, but it's gorgeous and sunny outside, too warm for knitting, too bright to take my laptop out (I'm doing the Kewpie cross stitch straight from the computer because I don't have access to a colour printer), and impractical to take the sewing machine outside. So I might do something else instead. I don't know yet, I haven't decided.

(Wouldn't it be lovely if I could win just enough on the lottery that I would never have to go to work again, and could spend my days doing interesting courses, making stuff, pottering about and being happy. About £3million or so should do it.)

It's been a little while since my last post, I'm afraid. I haven't really felt I had much of interest to blog about - not that I haven't been busy... Oh, deary me - no. Quite the opposite, in fact.

For example, I am fast developing a square arse due to the number of hours I'm putting into the cross stitch. There's a big, me-shaped dent on the sofa under the lamp.

I hadn't really thought how long it would take me to stitch this pattern. I was so excited at having the shiny new software, that I launched straight into making a humungous pattern from the first photo I could lay my hands on. It seems it might take me a long time. Not much has been done on it since I went back to work after the Christmas break - but happily I have another 2 weeks off work now (I'm using up my annual leave from the old job before starting the new job).

There are many exciting things due to happen in the next fortnight, including my first Japanese lesson, a long weekend in Malaga, and preparing the house for the damp-proofing man to come and make my house watertight. I suspect there may also be some time for cross stitch during this time, so I hope to show you some progress by February.

In a recent post I lamented the fact that I can't allow myself to get any other little projects started until I finish the cross stitch beast.

Well, "Pish!", say I. I can't be excpected to plod through a mammoth project like that without some little fripperies to keep me amused and entertained!

So, I covered my diary. It was a miserable, black leatherette diary with "Unison" emblazoned across the cover. It was an ugly diary. The sight of it made me sad and un-inclined to go to any of the appointmets within its miserable plastic covers. (I don't know whether un-inclined is a real and valid word, but I'm using it anyway.)

Here is my new, pretty diary. It's covered in red and cream floral cotton, and is tied up with a purple embroidered pink ribbon, which attaches around a button and an embroidered white felt flower. I replaced the dreary grey ribbon bookmark with a cheery pink one to match the cover. If I had easy access to my entire fabric-and-bits stash, it would probably have looked very different, but I like it very well as it is. And it didn't involve any cross stitch!

Modelling it for me are Jini (in a hat which I knitted for a friend's baby 3 years ago, but I got the tension all wrong resulting in a teeny-tiny, itty-bitty little hat, so Jini got to keep it. There's a lesson in there, somewhere), and these little monsters that I knitted some time ago. They're good little monsters, and posed very well for me in photomarathon 2006 .

I do have more I want to say... I want to show off the lovely gifts I got when leaving my old job, and I still want to show off the exciting stuff I got from my parents house at Christmas, but I haven't photographed them yet.

And I need to go now to shower and head into town to do some shopping.

(And yes, I do know that it's gone half past ten on a Monday morning, but I'm on holiday and perfectly entitled to play on the computer in my pyjamas if I want to. So I refuse to feel any guilt whatsever.)

A present!

I have much to blog, but not much time in which to blog it, so I'm going to make do with this image of a present T brought back for me from LA...

It's a money box! It's fantastic! She also bought me a lovely cotton embroidered tote, but I haven't photographed that.

Next time I will try to upload pictures of my new (old) knitting machine, which I haven't yet worked out how to use, a clock, and any other stuff which might be interesting.

But not tonight. I'm going to have a cup of tea instead.