Wednesday 31 July 2013

meanwhile ... knitting!

Here are my current knitting projects:












I'm calling this 'Beachy Waves Blanket'. The blue's come out a bit brighter in these pictures than it is in real life. I'm about halfway through - it'll be 13 stripes when I've finished! I had to take a break from this recently as it was too hot to sit under it & knit but I'm back on it now. 


This is a k3, p1, ribbed sock, the first of a pair. I'm nearly at the toe now.


-x-

Tuesday 30 July 2013

aaah

I just went thru a couple of months' worth of knitting & crochet projects clutter, emptied & refilled a knitting bag I hadn't used for a while (mostly occupied by a jumper I can't face making up & a terrifying number of needles) and had a general tidy-up. 


That feels GOOD :)


-x-

Monday 29 July 2013

Kelmscott Manor

Early in June, when the weather wasn't as good as the last few weeks but was better than today, Mum & I went to Kelmscott Manor. It was William Morris's country retreat and where he got a lot of the inspiration for his patterns and designs. 
It was an absolutely lovely afternoon, the house is laid out like a house, not a museum, and it wasn't crowded with lots of things that needed looking at. The atmosphere was incredibly peaceful.  And the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. 








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Sunday 28 July 2013

Grandma Ruth's blanket

A recent conversation with Mum about crochet, which I've started and she now wants to do too (is it bad that I don't like the way she 'copies' me? especially how what she does has to be exactly the same?!?) led me to reminisce, briefly, about the blanket I played with when I was a little girl, which my Grandma Ruth, my father's mother, had crocheted for me. 
And of course Mum still had the blanket (NO comment here on her keeping stuff her ex-Mother-in-Law had made!) and yesterday she found it & gave it to me. Here it is:

 

I don't know what it's made of, it feels too scratchy to be all wool. I don't remember her making it for me, all I remember is playing with it (it was particularly good for Wild West imaginary play!) with a child's total lack of respect for its handmade, crochety fabulousness!

-x-

P.S. I just found these photos of Grandma Ruth, Grandpa & me (& Tessa the dog!) on my pooter:

 aren't those glasses awesome?!?





Saturday 27 July 2013

Half-treble headache

(this written on my fone but without photo, let's see if it posts...)
The Voyage of Crochet Discovery continues with, after purchasing the right size hook yesterday, the first crocheted square in my Knit&Stitch patchwork collection. It's in half-treble, which is a new stitch for me after mastering single crochet over the last few days (I suspect I'm muddling up UK & US terms here). The photo instructions were fine for the half-treble itself but I don't quite get what I should be doing at the end of the rows, for which, of course, there aren't any pictures! My first attempt, already unpicked, was clearly wrong as the rows seemed to be getting shorter. The instructions say to work "the last half treble into the top of the 2 chain" (from the beginning of the previous row) but I can quite see where that is.
Also, the wool is BEASTLY! I don't hate the very dull grey colour but it's acrylic and really scratchy and splits all the time.
And the weather is what mum described as 'very close'.
So my head, neck & shoulders are stiff & sore but I don't really know why...
-x-

Friday 26 July 2013

Disaster!!!

Photo

Again, this was supposed to post yesterday from my stupid fone, but never arrived.
Sigh.

The good news is, I found the same size hook in some of mum's never-used, prehistoric crochet stuff (another post there, methinks!) and today I bought a nice bamboo one to replace it.
Also, I didn't actually fail to post yesterday, just the technology let me down ;)

-x-

Lunch at the Trout at Tadpole Bridge

A very ordinary risotto but look what was in the corner of the ladies'!

Photo

I love the shape & of course the roses :)

-x-

Wednesday 24 July 2013

The Kindle Saga: Part III

I've got a new Kindle! Which is very exciting!!!!

This is because I left the last Kindle on an armchair (my fault) & Mum sat on it (not my fault) and it, well, the screen, stopped working.

After some deliberation, a reconditioned Kindle Touch 3G was ordered from eBay/Argos (the Internet ROCKS!), paid for by the person who sat on the last one. It arrived today! Much rejoicing!

I've just discovered that I can 'import' my collections from my last Kindle :-) but they're empty and when I download an archived item it doesn't put it back in the collections :-p booo!

I'm sure I was able to keep the collections when I went from Kindle I to Kindle II, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong, it was a while ago.

-x-

My First Crochet

Photo
Look at me mummy - I'm crocheting!!!

-x-

PS this was supposed to post yesterday from my fone, which is still apparently publishing it. If you want something done properly ...

Tuesday 23 July 2013

a blog post a day for 30 days - and this time I really mean it!!!!

I've been browsing thru lots of absolutely gorgeous blogs recently, such as this one and this one, which I uncovered while looking, as always, at knitting stuff. To be fair, most recently I've been looking, quite desperately, for dummies-guide-to-crochet stuff, about which more later.
So anyway, I've been looking at all these lovely blogs (here's another one) and wishing "I could do that" and I suppose the best way is to start.

SO!


A Blog Post a Day for 30 Days. Be it a long ramble about the state of my soul, or a photo & a bit of nonsense. Or even a link.

I mean, how hard can it be? (another candidate for Autobiography Title there!)

The 30 Days thing is based on this 


Today:


I crocheted! I crocheted! I crocheted!!!! photo to follow (from fone)


There is a new Prince of Cambridge. Good. Still hope they call him Bilbo.


My Tarot card for the day is The Devil - eek!


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