Myla's cool-kid headscarf

I just need to do the ties now and weave in the ends, maybe a small bit of blocking.
And then on to the next one.....

posted by tangelled angel @ Friday, June 30, 2006 2 comments

Secret Pal shines through again!

Secret Pal- you are THE best again!

What a brilliant postcard!!
❀ ☺

posted by tangelled angel @ Friday, June 30, 2006 1 comments

I am knitting...HONESTLY! (Or should this post be called The Pink Post)

Okay I just have to show you this.
Its the simplest of patterns and I think I may be a little bit in love with it.

This is where I got the pattern from and I adapted it slightly to casting on 70 stitches instead of 86 that was called for.
I did this because its forMyla and she doesn't have as big a head as a grown up person.
So even though the pattern said it will fit little people, I don't think they were talking about REALLY little people.
AS you can see, I have used one of the stitch markers that my Secret Pal sent me.
I had to... it was pink.
And matched.

Now, should I continue in this pink until its finished or should I do a bit of white at the end point....any thoughts fellow bloggers?

I am going to do this one with a white tie, to close it, and if I like it enough when its finished, I may decide to do another one with a button closure.
We'll see!

Meanwhile, my one year old self-fertilising cherry tree in my backgarden has produced loads of cherries!!
There were perhaps 5 or 6 of them last year, and this year there are bunches of them.
Look!!
We had to pick a few of them off in case the birds decided to change their breakfast habits.
And because it flowered so nicely, here is a picture of one of my roses. This rose bush came from a cutting from my sister's wedding bouquet from last year. Isn't it lovely?

posted by tangelled angel @ Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3 comments

Spinning n Bitchin

So blogless Holly and Cheryl were unable to make the monthly Stich n Bitch meeting due to having to look after their kids, so it didn't take too much persuasion to join them over at Cheryl's house.

I took along the Ashford spinning wheel and some un-dyed fleece that my spinning teacher Juliet gave me, and joined them in a little relaxation. Cheryl provided some lovely lunch in the midst of it all, and the kids happily watched SpongeBob in the other room, after exhausting themselves doing that play thing that kids do.

Cheryl has posted very nicely about what we got up to on her blog, and I managed to sneak some pictures of Holly spinning and Cheryl drum-carding on my phone. As luck would have it, I brought my camera but didnt bring batteries-->typical Sara!

Unfortunately, the vodafone website STILL hasn't received the photo's that I sent,despite sending them twice yesterday, and once this morning, and emailing them about it, so I'll have to post them seperately, whenever that will be! In the meantime, Cheryl has posted very elequently about the day on her blog. Go check it out!

In the afternoon, I snook off to Alpacas of Ireland and bought me some alpaca fleece!!
Again, pictures to follow. Alpaca's are both weird and wonderful to see up close. They are amazing creatures.

Those of a sensitive nature, please don't read any further
Did you know that the females gestation period is 11 months and they can get pregnant almost immediately after giving birth? And that ovulation doesn't take place until AFTER mating!
Once a male comes anywhere near the female and she's ready to mate again, she just lies down and goes into a semi-trance like state until the deed is over.

There were 2 alpaca's having a go when I was there, in a pen, and they really weren't getting the method right....thats all I can say on the matter! Xandria of Alpacas of Ireland said that she doesn't know how they manage to reproduce in the wild.
Okay lesson over with. I can't wait to have a try at spinning the alpaca.

And for those of you out there who are worrying about me neglecting my knitting for spinning, I started on something over the weekend but I can't post about it because its for my Secret Pal, but I can say that the yarn I used is one of the Merino handspun from Holly....watch this space

posted by tangelled angel @ Sunday, June 25, 2006 3 comments

A small amount of time spent spinning

OK, I suppose I'm not doing too bad really, considering--> 2 posts in the one busy week.
Going to focus mainly on pictures in this post:

Using a Louet spinning wheel my spinning teacher lent me, lot easier than the previous one I found. The blue stuff is the wool! Blue merino roving, harder to spin than the plain ole sheeps wool I got previously! As I'm a newbie to spinning, I'm sure you can forgive me forgetting the type of sheep it came from :-)
This is plying the wool on the spinning wheel. I used 2 different colours of merino roving, because I was excited that I had 2 colours to use!
I'm very easily amused.
And finally, a close up of the plyed yarn. I haven't got a Niddy Noddy (great name eh?!) so at the moment I have been winding the yarn on my Royal Ball Winder to make it into a cake.
No pics of the scrumptious cake, but here's a close up of the plyed yarn on the bobbin instead

posted by tangelled angel @ Friday, June 23, 2006 6 comments

Work/Life imbalance

I am posting here quickly (writing it in word and copying into blogger) to say that my work/life balance is seriously tilted at the moment.

It’s as if I am on a seesaw and the other person has put a heavy rock on the other end, leaving me stuck in the air.

I don’t like heights.

So, that’s the reason I haven’t been blogging much.

Its even affecting my knitting, I just don’t have the enthusiasm in the evenings by the time I make it home L

I did ONE round of Budd the sock yesterday evening while waiting for my bf.

ONE round, folks!

I have been doing a bit of spinning though, its relaxing me when I get home after a hectic day on my feet.

I will show photos soon, honest!

In the meantime, have a look at these, I discovered them lurking under the bushes in Airfield when I went to pick up my fleeces.
And here is the artist and Title (and phone number if you want to contact her!)
Sure would beat having to dye the fleece all those wonderful colours eh??

posted by tangelled angel @ Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2 comments

Get Stash-Get Knitted

Okay, a busy week in work, with only time to eat and sleep, and not even enough of either of those activities.
But, to soothe the nervous activity that comes from those occasions , you know- when you get home and you keep having to DO something, because you've been hectic busy all day, and you can't sit still.....we have stash. Great stash. In fact, a welcome addition to my ever-growing stash!
Koigu....mmmmMMMmmmMMmhhhhhh
Even nicer in the flesh (so to speak)
And Lorna's Laces.....another MMmmmMMmmm
(Note to self: please knit something with this to see if you ACTUALLY like knitting it and not just smelling and drooling over it)
Last but not least- Debbie Bliss Maya....in case Get Knitted run out before I get round to ordering more from them.....
The curse that is The Stash- I actually discovered I already had 2 skeins of the stripey Maya that I had forgotten about (oops!)
And of course...the free pen, sweeties and candles! Yum!

Go to Get Knitted now and have a look!!

posted by tangelled angel @ Friday, June 16, 2006 0 comments

Have sock heel, will travel

Hi, Budd here again. Just wanted to show you the progress that Sara has made on me. As you can see, she has finally managed to turn my heel. Don’t know what has been keeping her really! She may get me and my partner finished in time for winter…and she’s knitting us in Rowan Calmer, the eeejit.

She has put me down for a rest while herself and Micheál travel back from Co. Clare in his newly acquired jeep. Its pretty comfy I can tell you!

Note from Sara:

I have signed up for the Have Socks, Will Travel, which is great because I have been keeping a little sock travelling diary anyway! Click on the button and you can see what the others are getting up to.

posted by tangelled angel @ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 2 comments

And here's me thinking it involved a bike

I did something really exciting last night.

What did you do Sara? I hear you all think.

I had a spinning lesson.

Not a spinning lesson in the gym and bicycles, as some may think, but with a spinning wheel and wool. Real wool, from a sheep’s back.

There is some sheep shivering somewhere now because of me.

Actually there are 3 sheep shivering, as I have 2 fleeces waiting for me to collect them this evening

Here's me practising at 11pm last night (told you I was excited!)
(quality of picture is due to taking with my mobile phone camera)


Where oh where am I going to find time to do this on top of everything else? The housework is suffering as it is!





But isn't it so pretty? My first skein:

And just in case you want a different angle, which of course you were just about to ask me about.......-->

posted by tangelled angel @ Friday, June 09, 2006 5 comments

Spinning in the Roman times

How could I forget to show you this!!
Roman times spinning items. For spinning. Wool.
And weaving.

Just thought you'd like to know.

posted by tangelled angel @ Thursday, June 08, 2006 0 comments

Belated Bath and Bristol

Message to Donni who left a comment on the previous post, I'm having problems with publishing your comment for some reason. I'll try again later. But yes, it is Aussie wool and yes I am a very lucky girl!! :)
Meanwhile, we have balloons. In Bath, UK.
Lots of them.
Can you see what's being advertised on this balloon? Click for larger image.

And while there we were very disappointed that we weren't allowed to go for a dip in the Roman Baths, brought along our swimwear and everything!
(I'm joking, can you imagine going for a swim in that green water?)
The water wasn't always green its the algae that has turned it like that, formed by constant exposure to the sun/weather. There used to be a cover over the baths and the water was clear.
There were a few lifeguards on duty, in case anyone got into trouble.
No, we weren't the lifeguards. I'd probably sink someone by mistake.

We went on to Bristol
Bad picture taken out of the car window of the Suspension bridge, but gives you an idea of what it looks like.
Isn't this really picturesque? Bristol is a lovely place, I hadn't seen more than the airport, from car windows, and my rellies houses before this trip.
Somewhat unpatriotic? Click on the picture to see what the board says close up. Considering the amount of England flags and banners etc we saw around...I would say so!
To my delight, Angela was really interested in the fact that I knit, and had done a beautiful baby wrap herself for her daughter while she was pregnant.
I showed her a few links to get some patterns from the web, and the lucky thing is near Get Knitted so will be able to take advantage of that once they open again on the first Saturday of the month. They normally have an open day the first Saturday of the month but were closed for the summer months when I was there :(
But don't worry, you can still order online!!

posted by tangelled angel @ Thursday, June 08, 2006 3 comments

I'm a lucky girly

As I work during the day, every time I expect a parcel, I give my parents address. This means that it gets delivered safely, and there is no hassle with it, like getting home to find a note from An Post to say I need to go and collect it from the Post Office and the opening times are aimed at people who don’t have to travel from 13 miles away that takes them sometimes an hour and a half: i.e. they close at 3pm, very realistic time!

ANYway, getting off the point there.

I have an uncle over from the States, and we went up to my parents place last night to meet up with him for the evening and wine and dine.

Sitting on the hall table was a parcel.

For ME.

From my SECRET PAL.

I was so excited.

I had to wait though until I got home to open it, I didn’t want the questions asking all about it, I wanted to enjoy it in private.

Firstly, I want to say a big THANK YOU to my Secret Pal, you went to a lot of trouble and got it sooo right!

First up, I opened the parcel (no before photos, I wanted in there!) to find this gorgeous decorated box

As you can see, my SP decorated the lid with this cat and wool silhouette. Very nicely done.

And I do like my orange also (how did you tell?)

When I opened the box, there was a handwritten note from my Pal

And nestled underneath the note were these:

They seemed larger than 50g each, 100% wool and my secret pal said they would felt nicely. I already have the beginnings of a plan for them. Obviously I will need to add to what I have, but if needs be I can use this information to obtain more or I can use a different type of wool:

But wait, there’s more!

Some fantastic handmade stitch markers, and all who know me know how I like handmade stitch markers!

These will be used very very very soon, let me tell ya!

And, just in case I needed some refreshing smells, which I always like, some lovely smellies

I have a cold at the moment so despite ferocious sniffing; I couldn’t smell them for the life of me! Something to look forward to when the cold lifts a bit.

So thanks Secret Pal, you are THE best!

posted by tangelled angel @ Wednesday, June 07, 2006 4 comments

Short posting but KIP on bus...

It’s been a long weekend in Ireland, and I spent it in Bristol and Bath, UK. Hence lack of posting the last few days (I took Friday off also)

Lovely weather.

Very hard at work at the moment, and busy out of work also, so this is short and sweet today: look, I managed to get a knitting on the bus pic in! This was this morning, and conveniently, there was a Dublin bus ticket stuck into the seat in front…. just to prove I was there with my knitting!

I will post some more pictures during the week.

Ta ra for now

posted by tangelled angel @ Tuesday, June 06, 2006 0 comments

Intestine?

Finished Curley Wurley scarf for a friend of Micheáls
Yarn: Patons 3 ply yarn (ebay purchase) (darker pink)held together with a recycled yarn (the lighter pink), finished off with Noro Blossom , which is the dark pink moving into the green.

Her husband had been sent some of those freaky knitting photo's that were going around the internet, so he promptly named this the Intestine scarf...

posted by tangelled angel @ Thursday, June 01, 2006 1 comments