Grrrrranny Square Jacket tadah!

You would think from my latest posts that I had given up on crochet – no mention at all, that would be WRONG!

The trouble is I have so much else I want/have to do that the hooky bit gets somewhat crowded out.  Here then is one of my latest finished projects – the first actual garment I have ever crocheted.  Then I created my own edging, collar and lined pockets (everything has to have pockets) – fun to do and I really love it.

The basic pattern used is taken free from  Ravelry and is very easy to make. You need to be a member of Ravelry to  use their site but it is so worth it.  So without any further ado -

fire time..

I am eating one of the apples off our tree.  It is the kind of apple that when you bite the red bleeds into the white, which is kinda cool. I am also drinking a mug of tea – a new type of PG Tips that I got free in a mag, it is surprisingly nice, or maybe I am just really thirsty..

Two days till Mabon, or if you like – the Autumn Equinox and you would need to be blind not to be able to tell that the year is into wain.  I presume that even if you were blind you would be able to tell the special smells that go with this season. One of the few smells I really don’t care for is that of coal burning and I have had a whiff or two of that in the last couple of weeks.  We have already had one load of wood delivered and another arriving next week, it will feel nice knowing that if all outside power sources go we will still be able to keep warm, cook food and have hot water and light.

Fire, my favourite element?  Mmmm..  Certainly will be for these next couple of seasons..

I have a little shrine on my lounge windowsill and  on it I have  one of the cards from the Goddess Sabbat Cards set designed by Wendy Andrew that grace every seasonal celebration.  At the moment it is still showing the harvest card for Lammas on the 1st of August.

 

I have been unwell again, as you might have noticed by the dearth of blog posts, none for September so far.  Feeling ok today however and more inclined to reach out to you lovely people again.

We were supposed to be going to London for a week at the beginning of October to celebrate my birthday but have called that off as I cannot be sure that I will have the energy to do all the things that one does in London.  Instead we have taken a caravan at a place called Pennard Cliffs on the South Wales coast and will relax and walk the dog ragged (some hope with a terrier).  I am looking forward to it, instead of being anxious about it when London was still the plan.. I have been assured that London will still be there when I am more able.

I am working on far too many crochet projects,  I broke my own rule and now have seven items which need finishing, including my Japanese Flower Shawl which I should have finished months ago.  I have this idea that if I sewed all the motifs together and blocked it I could wear it on my birthday!  Just a week and a half to go, we will see..

wot i is woking on

 

Flowers from Mr T to brighten my day..

 

a laptop and a lapdog

 

 

stir the stumps..

It’s late.

Late for me anyway, it’s usually pumpkin time around ten – ten thirty.

But I’ve been an eBay listing fool for the greater part of the evening as well as cooking a chicken dinner for His Nibs when he got in.

So what with one thing or another, blogging got pushed to up to the time where my eyes are sand paper  and I keep making mistakes… CONCENTRATE!  Ah – that’s better..  I’ve just been handed a mug of tea.. enough to keep me going at least till I have finished this.

Now I have the eBay listing out of the way I have only one day of work tomorrow and then my time is my own until next Wednesday.    I have a possibly mad hope that I will get all the flower motifs of my shawl sewn together some time soon.  It really is a pain in the bum to have to do and next time I make something like it I swear I will join  them as I go along.  The thing is I suspect that it is going to look fricking fabulous when it is all put together and also – once you have actually crocheted 34 motifs it would be a crying shame  not to finish it.   Sooo..  I need to stir my stumps..

Two photos for you before I hit the hay..

Thirteen joined up so far

Mother Clanger

I have a small obsession for Wombles, Moomins and others of that ilk, including The Banana Bunch.  From another age when I was A LOT less cynical about television.  Anyway, I found this fair maiden at Past Times in Hereford the other week and just had to have her.  She even whistles when you squeeze her tummy – how cool is that!

Sparkling..

A sparkling day today… one of those days that seem to be trying to make up for the fact that it was minus seventy billion degrees celsius last night and there is still, at 10.30am, enough frost on the pavement to make walking on the road a safer bet.

I set out to do a few essential tasks, mostly enjoyable, filling in my time sheet at work, visiting the bank, picking up fresh sour dough buns from Kate our own personal baker around the corner.  Took a few photos while I was out, just to show you – nothing special mind, just where I live..

The last of the photos are to show you some of the rest of my day.  Our Ikea trip last weekend was highly successful and our house is now full of shelves.  Which have all been erected but not without the odd melt down or two and a threatened divorce.   I spent part of today setting up the lights I got along with the shelves – still on a quest to fill our little house with light.

My good friend Julie is arriving on Wednesday night.  She is from New Zealand but spends several months each year working in Norway, this time she is stopping off on her way home to spend a week with us.  I can’t wait – it will be so good to see her.  I will be busy for the next couple of days getting the house ready as well as working.  Not long to go..

One of the shops I used to work in

The sister shop I used to work in as well - twenty paces down the road from the other one

A little dog who would like to get out and meet the other little dog who has just trotted past..

Henry the seventh on the Cheese Market wall has been joined by Christmas decorations already up for the big turn on in two weeks

Mouse Castle woods from the top of my road. I have been watching it slowly turning golden and rusty.

My quest to fight the dark goes on - this is my new glass lamp from Ikea

More Ikea lights - the ones against the wall that is.

Spiced apple chutney made by my own fair hands this afternoon..

Remember You’re a Womble..

I have a sore spot on the roof of my mouth, it has been there for a few days now and has discouraged me from eating my usual marmalade on rye sourdough toast for breakfast – too sharp.  Instead I got to eat my first porridge of the year.  Porridge with full fat organic honey, Greek yogurt, banana, and a large spoon of dark muscovado sugar.  Mmmm, soft, warm, rich and sweet, feel sorry for me?

The sourdough has been a recent addition to the household.  My neighbour Rosie kindly introduced me to her baker – a woman who lives on the next street over and makes bread to order for collection every Monday.

I have started, rather cautiously, making things again.  My recent attempt at chemical relief resulted in a complete non-interest in any sort of creative endeavor at all.  I did keep trying for a while, with rather disastrous results.  I had to pull apart my knitting several times, then I just chucked it into a corner.  And the bag I was making!  I had to unpick THREE TIMES, and when I did it wrong again, I chucked it into a corner as well.

A couple of evenings ago I picked up the knitting again, figuring the drugs must have worn off enough by then, and sure enough, no problem.  The same with my bag.  I got it out yesterday afternoon and a couple of hours later it was finished – not perfectly mind, looks a little ropy – as you would if you had been pulled apart and put together that many times.  But I was determined..

Made from vintage curtain material and lined with grey blanket

There are a couple of things I learnt from making this bag

• Next time I will alter the pattern and make the bag deeper, so I can lose things easier and..

• When you are making something for the first time do NOT use your most favorite vintage material which is probably IRREPLACEABLE.  So that if you DO cock it up and can’t fix it, it won’t be such a big shame.  Duh!
• Remember you’re a womble, and lighten up

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A few more photos of the wedding..

Kath looked wonderful and THE DRESS!  Just lovely and made of silk..  I will never forget the moment during the wedding breakfast when, in the middle of a conversation, she hit her hand on her knife handle and flicked tomato pasta sauce onto the bodice – her recovery was masterful!   She is my good friend and absolute honey – I am so glad Julian had the sense to marry her..

Signing the register

A Name for an Owl..

Busy, busy – but not to busy to show off my newest creation.  This is my first stuffed toy (really a toy for grownups) and is made from bits and pieces of unwanted fabrics, old doilies etc, that people have given me or I have found in charity shops.  She was a learning curve that’s for sure as I only went to trusty google after I had made lots of mistakes.  Such as – always, always pin your pieces together before both cutting and sewing! (which meant going out and buying pins as our boxes haven’t arrived yet).   And for gods sake CONCENTRATE! – and then you won’t sew the toes up the side or the ears around the wrong way.  Really this is a credit to my ability to unpick seams. 

I also need to mention that the reason why she is a bit lumpy is because I don’t have any proper soft filling yet and so she is stuffed with socks and balls of wool – just so I could show her to you all.

Any suggestions for names (apart from fugly) gratefully accepted..

This is what I think too..

“Objects made by hand convey emotion, so handmade objects contain emotional elements, quite different from mass-produced objects.”
~ Ma Ke, Chinese fashion designer

Small, Pink and Knitted..

Back in the eighties I was really into this guy -

I thought our love would last forever, but it has palled and my memories have faded

These guys though will live in my heart forever – Ah! sweet childhood memories, always the best..

I have added a page to my blog with a knitting pattern I found to make your own Clanger if you so wish.   I would love to but it is a bit too challenging for my knitting skills, which are basic in the extreme.  One of the things I want to do when I get settled in a new home is to learn properly,  I don’t really want to knit jerseys and such but I would like to produce the odd clanger or two!

And here is one I haven’t already made -

some other much cleverer person created it..

The Pants of a Clown..

I have been keeping it a little bit quiet, but I have been sewing myself a pair of wide leg trousers.

As you may recall from earlier posts, due to a childhood trauma (caused by my complete crapness at the art), sewing and I do not see eye to eye.  Since those days I have studiously avoided it whilst keeping an envious eye on those who knew how.

Anyhoo  – in the last few months the feeling has crept upon me that it might just be possible that my earlier crapness may have just been callow youthfulness and maybe, just maybe, I might not be quite so ham fisted as I thought.

Queue visit to material shop with Phillipa my birth mother (the adopted mother being far too impatient to teach me).  Cloth purchased, extremely simple pattern chosen, I made a shaky start and have, over the last couple of days, managed to put together a recognizable pair of pant.  The trouble is they are huge – really huge.  I could fit another person in with me without wrestling.   Queue gales of laughter as I tried them on..  (and no, you are not seeing a photo).

Still, better too large than too small huh?  And Phillipa is visiting me tomorrow so a little remedial tutorial may be the order of the day 

I will show you a photo when they are presentable.

In Which I Show my Ignorance of the Pronunciation of Quinoa, Shock!

Thanks to Nigel Slater, last nights main course went down a treat.  I had committed the sin of attempting to cook for a dinner party a recipe that I had not tried before (and then nearly trebling it to account for five people instead of two).  But fortunately, it was so simple that even I couldn’t cock it up.  A Stew of Mushrooms with Onions and Fennels Seeds will be made again in this household. (scroll down his article to find the recipe)

Another revelation was the accompaniment of quinoa (which I have been pronouncing qui-noa and that is apparently pronounced keen- wha) that my friend Yvonne bought along.  She cooked it in veg stock and it was yum.  I think I prefer it to rice.

Our craft group was a bit quieter today owing to the school holidays but we had some good nattering as usual.  I am in the process of making two spiral scarves, one for my Mum and the other for my friend Miriam who I am doing a swap with.  You would think that they would be enough to be getting on with but no,  I raced home this afternoon to make a brooch similar to one I had seen one of my craft group friends wearing.  It is using up an old piece of lace that I had which I loved but never thought I would find a use for.

Mum's scarf

Miriam's scarf - swapping for one she is making, fun.

New lace brooch