Wednesday 30 August 2006

Music for the soul

Being an avid listener of Cast On, I have to thank Brenda Dayne for introducing me to the fine music of Adrina Thorpe. I kept listening to the clips on the Podsafe music network and was compelled to buy the “Elusive” CD with some of my birthday money.

I couldn’t find it anywhere here in the UK so I bought it a few days ago from CDBaby in the USA. After great communication and easy PayPal payment, it arrived yesterday and I LOVE it.

The track “Round the Bend” makes me shiver every time I hear it. Fab voice. Have a listen!

Thursday 24 August 2006

Life Laundry..

Firstly thanks for more belated birthday wishes - much appreciated. :-) Also it's good to hear that some of you will be going to the NEC on the same day as me, so hopefully we'll get to meet up.

General decluttering is what our household is about right now. The autumnal weather has obviously confused our brains and we’ve tumbled into spring-clean mode! DH is overhauling the extension/office, I’ve been scouring the house and garage for items for the car boot sale, and I even got the girls to sort through their sprawling mounds of toys and groaning dressing-up box.

I did this year’s final (for me) car boot sale last Sunday – no knitting done, but I had a great time chatting to my fab almost-SIL – well she will be my SIL when they finally get around to getting married. I sold a boxful of old knitting magazines, books, and patterns, and my lower-priority stash is going on ebay shortly. The remaining few bags of unsold items will be whisked away to the charity shop tomorrow, and we can get on with renewing and restyling our home.

I bought a fab new duvet set for our soon-to-be-new bedroom, but we still haven’t decided which blinds would be best for our 8ft-wide windows. We're thinking of verticals, but I'm a bit worried about them not cutting out enough light as we want to go for a neutral colour - that way I can easily change the room colours with the duvet covers and accessories. Can anyone share any experiences on vertical blinds in bedrooms or a good supplier?

I don’t fancy crocheting any window dressings, but I am tempted to crochet some boxes similar to the ones
Ikea are selling currently.

One of my other WIPs involving crochet – Phoenix – is taking shape nicely. I’ve sewn in the knitted sleeves using a coordinating mercerised cotton, as the Rowan Summer Tweed was just not up to being pulled so enthusiastically without breaking constantly.

The neckline is edged in shrimp/crab stitch – i.e. reverse double crochet.

The sleeve and side seams are next, then I’ll decide on what kind of crochet edging they should have. I think I’ll repeat the crab stitch around the sleeve hems and then work something deeper on the body.

When it’s finished I’m planning on giving it a good soak in my Tenestar Silk Wash to soften it up, and then hopefully wear it lots! Right.. where did I put that Chibi..?


Friday 18 August 2006

Party aftermath

Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to leave birthday wishes for me - they are very much appreciated. I did have a wonderful birthday; some great pressies, a lie-in, a relaxing lunch with my DH and daughters, then a great evening party with friends and family sharing champagne and lots of good food!

No doubt the refuse collectors get a good idea of what's going on in people's lives from their job; it was obvious from the excess of empty bottles and cans what had happened the night before at our house!

No pics this time as we're having computer problems - but trusty DH is on the case and normal service will be resumed soon. :-)

I did receive some gorgeous yarn as a pressie from my lovely friend
Fiona - but you'll have to wait for pics. I also received a great Amazon gift voucher from my brother and his family - which I immediately spent on a dyeing book and a sock book. Can't wait for those to arrive.

The other gifts were either chocolate, wine, more champagne, or money. The chocolates have almost gone, the alcohol is being enjoyed more slowly, and the money is earmarked for more yarn of course! I may be visiting the Knitting and Stitching Show at the NEC on Friday 15th September - are any of you thinking of going along on that day?

So that's that. Being 40 seems to be ok so far. I get to have a toy-boy for a while again too - DH isn't 40 until next January.. ;-)

Thursday 10 August 2006

FO frenzy

I've been trying to post a new entry here for a while but events seemed to be conspiring against me.. Anyway I'm here to show off a FO frenzy..

First my new ribby cotton blend socks, which I've been wearing all today - they're real comfy and haven't fallen down once. I used the basic rib pattern from Spun magazine with a ball of Regia Cotton Surf yarn - and I have 35g left!

Next is my own attempt at a little crochet box, using some 3-ply cotton I dyed a while back with 2 colours of Dylon Cold Dye. The box is rather floppy, so I'm in the process of making a liner for it with felt-covered plastic canvas. Not strictly finished, but near enuogh.

Then there's a geat quick-fix oddment project - a beaded crochet hairband. I used a strand each of 4-ply wool and 4-ply alpaca; very quick and easy, and eldest DD loes it.

Finally a new poncho for youngest DD - another quick and easy one done in garter stitch with chunky yarn doubled up - a great stash-buster!

I'm going to slink away quietly now - I've been nursing a migraine for 2 days and although I can see ok now, I still feel badly hung-over. Hopefully it won't last too much longer.