Nollaig Shona from Baile Atha Cliath
Happy Christmas to one and all!
I hope you have a fantastic few days and don't indulge toooo much of the egg nog and mulled wine.
Here are a few Dublin Christmas tree's and decorations.
Labels: General Ramblings
Weird or what?
I've been tagged along with The Other 4.
Hmm interesting. 6 weird things about me.
This should be good.
How honest should I be??
Well, like
Holly and
Isobel, I don't really like tagging people or passing on those emails that say you have to pass on to 5 million people or else your feet will fall off. As my friend Christina knows, i never do it, yet bless her heart, she still passes them on to me.
My feet haven't fallen off yet.
In saying that,I think I did do a meme before and tagged a few people.
Sorry.
I've only managed to do this a couple of days after being tagged, and have only had the chance to catch up on some of my bloglines reading also, and noticed that
chocolate trudi not only has the same weird thing about her as her number one, but she went and used it as her number one. What the hell, I'll go with it, just in case you guys are too lazy to go and check out what her number one is.
Ahem
1. I can move my eyebrows independantly of each other. Very Spock-like, or 007-like. Used to cause hours of fun. It still helps with entertaining occasionally.
2. When I type, no matter how much I concentrate on it, I always leave the I in lower letters. This means I usually have to go back and correct it before I finish documents/send emails or post to my blog etc.
3. My brother and I were born in Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, of Irish parents, and we lived in Zambia until I was 3.
4. My banana bread tastes exactly like the avoca banana bread (which it should because its from the avoca cookbook no.1). I know, because i finally bought some from avoca yesterday.
5. Dyslexia runs in my family, I have a number of cousins who have various degrees of it. I think I have a form of it when it comes to typing because I regularly type words backwards, or all mixed up, but with all the correct letters in it. I usually know I have typed it incorrectly 'cos it doesn't feel right when im typing, but its only when I see it on the screen that I realise. As I have never been taught how to type, I usually only check the screen after every few words.Is this even possible??
6. I love to dance. I have had both salsa and tango lessons and danced salsa for about 3 years. I was never a whizz kid salsa dancer, I danced because I loved it. There were a lot of people where I danced that took it so seriously that you would wonder if they got any fun out of it at all. Not me, I laughed if I tripped over myself and felt like a child then when my dance partner frowned at me for laughing and giggling.
An additional no.7 from my boyfriend: I love to buy teapots. I have a bit of a fetish for them. I use them all, I choose whichever one I'm in the mood for using at that time! I have 5 at the moment, all rotated, (and 3 coffee pts)and would have a whole lot more if I had room for them! Micheal thinks this is very weird when one teapot would do...however, he brought me home a teapot from Holland so he's only fueling my fetish...if thats an appropriate word to use for a teapot from Amsterdam....
There you go, thats it. You are tagged if you're reading this!
Note: While every attempt has been made to correct the "i"'s in this posting, I cannot guarantee that this is 100% completed
Labels: Weird and Wonderful
Some Christmas Knitting done and dusted
2 finished objects, neither recipient reads this, so.....
(excuse the dodgy flaking windowsill, the only way to get a good picture in the light is to bring it into work with me)
This is a hat in alpaca for my Dad, this alpaca is lovely to knit with, especially on the addi turbo's, it just slides through it.
The finished hat. Its nice and stretchy, which is good as my Dads head will (hopefully) fill it.
This aplaca is both warm and light, which I really like.
Here's a close up of the top of it, showing the decreases, a simple knit 2 tog. I'm going to do a ssk on my next hat, similar to the
elf hat, as I like the effect of it on the top of a hat.
The next FO is a scarf for Micheal's sister, if you remember I showed you
previously.
Its been finished for a few days, just getting round to showing you here.
I love love love these colours. So pretty.
I have to block this still, as its still got that just finished look to it.
Its short enough, as I only had the one skein of Noro Silver Thaw in this colourway, but I think its a nice length, and may be just right for the recipient.
Wanna see another close up?
Course you do!
(This is my favourite colour bit)
Labels: Christmas knitting, Knitting
A few of my favourite things
Okay, here's a bit of a different post from me.
I've been reading a lot of crafty blogs recently, and can't get over the amount of cool decorations that are being made in blog world!I must be totally void of imagination, because a lot of them look so easy and I keep thinking, why didn't I think of something like that!
Here are a few of them, my favourites so far:
- jezzeblog does some amazing ink cartoons and knits fab small dolls
- Tania is the source of lots of inspiration for me. Just look at her latest WIP!
- julieree -more inspiration, along with her sister’s book blog booklog where she has a great thing going on for the Christmas season, namely the advent blog tour!
- shimandsons has some cool paper globe decorations plus other great ideas
- Tiny Happy makes some beautiful childrens cloths. Oh to be able to sew!
- Little Birdshas the most amazing amazingly easy (looking) Christmas tree pattern that seems to be springing up all over the blog world. Go make some and show me on your blog!!
So, what are your favourite crafty blogs this time of the year?
Labels: General Ramblings, Inspiration
Spin In
So
Holly and I were invited to a spin in at our spinning teacher Juliet's house, where we would meet up with several other spinners, all there for the same purposes. We were supposed to bring along some food items, and I had great plans, which were foiled by my bf getting some urgent calls into work as we stepped foot inside my door after coming down from his place.
It takes 45 mins approx to get from his place to mine, so it meant a quick grab of spinning wheel and some fibre, and a stop in at a local shop for supplies.
Holly brought some great grub though, including a yummy cinnamony oaty apple dessert.
So, Juliet had asked us to have some single ply ready, in order to learn how to navajo ply.
I used some koolaid dyed galway cross, love these colours.
My spinning wheel is doing a great job of posing outside on my bf's balcony eh? vain thing.
Juliet showed us how to navajo ply almost as soon as we sat down and got ourselves comfy.
Mary in the meantime, showed us how to use long draw to spin.
I had tried this with Juliet when learning to spin, but I'm rather lacking in the hand-carder front, and these are needed in order to make the rolages which are used for the long draw, so I havent been able to practice this method since.
These spinning wheels are gorgeous, aren't they? Mary and Peter had been using them until the long draw teaching session.
Juliet had some fabulous silk blend roving that she was preparing to spin. The photos don't do the colours justice.
There was a carding and rolage making factory going on here!
While a bit of handspindling was also going on
Holly tries out the navajo plying on my single ply, as there was a difference in thickness betweek both our spinning, mine was finer. I wasn't too sure that I liked the navajo ply to begin with, it was like learning to spin again, bulky and uneven, but I think that I was treadelling way too fast and this impacted on it big time. When I slowed down, I stopped treadelling and then remembered to treadle and went fast again. I got home that night and tried it again, and produced a nicer result and tried it again the next night, just using up ends on the bobbins. I'm a lot more confident with it now and it does give a nice finish.
I'll have to take a photo of the finished product and post it here again. Its like my first attempt at spinning, a bit all over the place. The pointy outy bits in the photo above are mine, not Holly's! She was very good at it.
Meanwhile, we have another photo of my elfy pointy hat, just cos I like it so much!
You can see the shaping at the top in this one, and the amount of yarn left over from the skein.
Before you ask, yes I have worn it, when and where I can, and yes people have
stared at me.
Some people can be so rude, tee hee hee
;-00
Labels: Inspiration, Spinning
Imperialism at its best
Oh I just had to watch this over and over again!
Stolen from
Cheryl's blog, have a look at this, and I dare ya not to like it!!
Baa Baa Imperial SheepLabels: Weird and Wonderful
What to do when you are under pressure to finish Christmas presents
What to do when you are under pressure to finish Christmas presents
Cast on and knit myself something.
Pattern: Elven Pointy Hat
Sticks: Size 6.5 circulars
Method: Totally magic loop
Time: Ahem clears throat about 5 hours
Satisfaction?: Guaranteed!
Leading to lots of references to elves and pointy heads by my dearest boyfriend and leading me to thinking that maybe he should be calling me (at times) --->
| Your Elf Name Is... |
 Grumpy Cartwheels |
Labels: General Ramblings, Knitting, Pointy Hats
Shocking post, please look away now if you are of a sensitive nature
Can you believe it, I've made a sale!!
Labels: Weird and Wonderful
Getting there with a colourful scarf
The colours in this ball of Noro Silver Thaw are lovely. Really lively and warm.
Unfortunately, it has angora in it, which is going up my nose and into my eyes and down my throat, so luckily its a quick knit for my bf's sister for Christmas.
Here's a close up.
Its an easy pattern of ssk,*yo,K1,to end stitch then increase one st in last st, next row knit across dropping all the yo's.
Excuse this final photo, its a bit blurry, but it kind of shows you the way it knits up.
Got this yarn in London a while back. Local shops in Ireland don't seem to have this colourway, which is unfortunate.
Labels: Knitting
Going Down Under
I think that
Cheryl got here before me, but what the hell.
Sharon left us on Monday to go down under to New Zealand, stopping first in Hong Kong for a week. Lucky lucky her!
Before she left though, she managed to squeeze some quality time in with the SnB'ers.
I figured that she could do with a little Christmas cheer to get her going, and Cheryl reckoned she needed help with her row counting...
Managed to get a few pics of the WIP's around the table.
This is Brid's WIP, didn't get what she was making though-->
Holly was making a beautiful pair of socks from
Hello Yarn, using I think Sundara yarn? Gorgeous.
Eileen was making a cardigan in lovely soft mohair, nice vivid colours.
Cheryl was showing us her recently mastered knitting 2 fetchings on one circular needle, magic loop (I'll probably be needing a coaching session whenever I attempt that!)
And Cheryls daughter Kate was making a fabulous (darling) hat using circular needles, without a whimper of fear. Aged 10. Isn't she great?
Our new friend
Chic with stix Diane was making socks, sticking to the tried and tested dpn's (yay for dpn's)
and then showed us what she could do with the scarf on tour
and last but not least, its
Sharon again. She's managed to finish all of her WIP's in preparation for leaving, except for this one, and thats doing really well, isn't it? She's bringing this one with her, for airport knitting etc...
Here's the progress she's done so far on it. Just one more to go! The jaywalker pattern looks great in that yarn.
Me? Well I did a bit of work on my Buddy, and have a ball of yarn lined up so i can actually finish it this side of Christmas....yayyyy.
Of course, Sharon had to contribute to the scarf on tour also.
What's the scarf on tour I hear you ask?
I was contacted by Lauren to ask if we would participate as the Irish contingent, so we are bringing the scarf around to all the knitting groups in or around Dublin and we are all knitting a few rows. Hence the scarf on tour title! Its a-touring around between all the groups. Wonder what length its at now? I should get it back next week sometime hopefully.
Labels: Budd2, Friends, Knitting
Etsy
Well. I discovered this fantastic site a while back and have since grown to love it. I've bought a couple of items only recently from it for Christmas presents, and today took the massive leap of creating my own shop!
2 hour it took me to list some items on it but here we go....here's the link and I'll be adding to it as I can...wish me luck!
Ok, blogger is behaving strangely tonight, but here is the actual link which will get you to my shop...-->
http://www.sweensie.etsy.com
Tangelled Angel
Labels: General Ramblings, Inspiration, Weird and Wonderful
The Cat has got the Cream
Blocking. Insert is a cat feeder which has a timer on it.
Haven't figured out how to use it yet...It makes a great blocker though!
Yes, the cats approve.
Although seeing as Reggie had taken over the shop bought cat bed, you would think he would let Ronnie have the kitty pi.....
No, he had to have it. He'd tested it out before it was felted, and reckoned it passed muster.
Ronnie thinks that this gives him great scope for getting more cuddles though, and he's right.
Please note that the photos containing the most cuddling were not included as were not deemed appropriate to this post.
The Kitty Pi turned out well I thought.
In hindsight (and I did actually think about it when I was knitting it) I should have continued knitting a little longer so that the sides were a bit taller. I didn't because it was a bit of a pain to knit the yarn on the smaller needles that I used , as I said in the previous post. I was a bit relieved to be able to cast off. In saying that, this Homespun is great to knit with on larger needles. If you don't believe me, go and check out my post on the electric picnic and check out how many people chose this yarn over the rest.
Also in hindsight, I shouldn't have used the pink so close to the top of the kitty pi, its very visible there. I started off with 3 skeins of Homespun, in autumnal colours, green, dark wine and aubergine, and I planned on just sticking to these. then I managed to get my hands on some "scraps" of the homespun in other colours and went a bit mad. Its not a bad combination, but pink...., for boys?
You can also get this yarn here, if you fancy going to have a look. Craftspun also have a new range with multicolours, I have a couple of skeins but haven't used them yet. Too busy petting them. I was going to make something for one of my sisters with it bt have decided that I'm going to treat myself instead! And next year is all about me. Totally selfish, but I'm going to knit ME some items.
Labels: Knitting
Be good and have some lovely days with family and friends
The finished hat. Its nice and stretchy, which is good as my Dads head will (hopefully) fill it.
Wanna see another close up? 
My spinning wheel is doing a great job of posing outside on my bf's balcony eh? vain thing.
Mary in the meantime, showed us how to use long draw to spin. 
There was a carding and rolage making factory going on here!
I'll have to take a photo of the finished product and post it here again. Its like my first attempt at spinning, a bit all over the place. The pointy outy bits in the photo above are mine, not Holly's! She was very good at it.
Cast on and knit myself something.
Pattern: Elven Pointy Hat
Leading to lots of references to elves and pointy heads by my dearest boyfriend and leading me to thinking that maybe he should be calling me (at times) --->
Its an easy pattern of ssk,*yo,K1,to end stitch then increase one st in last st, next row knit across dropping all the yo's.
Excuse this final photo, its a bit blurry, but it kind of shows you the way it knits up.
Managed to get a few pics of the WIP's around the table.
Holly was making a beautiful pair of socks from Hello Yarn, using I think Sundara yarn? Gorgeous.
Eileen was making a cardigan in lovely soft mohair, nice vivid colours.
Cheryl was showing us her recently mastered knitting 2 fetchings on one circular needle, magic loop (I'll probably be needing a coaching session whenever I attempt that!)
And Cheryls daughter Kate was making a fabulous (darling) hat using circular needles, without a whimper of fear. Aged 10. Isn't she great?
and last but not least, its Sharon again. She's managed to finish all of her WIP's in preparation for leaving, except for this one, and thats doing really well, isn't it? She's bringing this one with her, for airport knitting etc...
Me? Well I did a bit of work on my Buddy, and have a ball of yarn lined up so i can actually finish it this side of Christmas....yayyyy.
What's the scarf on tour I hear you ask?
Blocking. 
No, he had to have it. He'd tested it out before it was felted, and reckoned it passed muster.
Ronnie thinks that this gives him great scope for getting more cuddles though, and he's right.
Please note that the photos containing the most cuddling were not included as were not deemed appropriate to this post.
Indiana Gothic
