A good yarn

A good yarn- in both respects :D These are two of the gifts that I was given for my birthday by my best friend. There where others, and indeed, other gifts from other people but these two are (looks around furtively) ~whispers~ my favourites. Just don't tell the DH that as he bought me the camera that I have been wanting for ages which also rocks mightily but there is something about the ones above that make them extra special.
Firstly, the yarn; multiple greens, deliciously squishy, hand spun by my best friend!!! She has obviously been practicing hard and mastered the art of spindling. I'm not kidding when I say that this yarn rocks. I got hugely excited about it once it was free of the pretty paper and then once I found out that she had spun it for me I nearly started hyperventilating. I am going to have to think of something very special to make from it- something all for me and me alone.
Secondly, the book; ~snort, chuckle, chuckle~ was pretty much my response. Yes people- it is exactly as it appears, somebody has taken Pride and Prejudice and added in Zombies. I just finished reading it last night and I have to say that it is magnificent. It takes all the best and most loved bits out of P&P and mixes them in with a zombie plot line. It's both sympathetically and cleverly done and the outcome is really quite funny. It's a smooth and griping read and I really, really enjoyed it. This is quite impressive given that I am mortally afraid of nearly all things Zombie related- don't ask me why, I'm quite happy with other members of the horror genre but there is something about Zombies that really gives me the creeps. I can't stand most Zombie movies, the only exception here being 'Shawn of the Dead' and I think it's because the Zombies are not as green/rotting/falling to pieces as they are in other things, nor do they run fast or have much in the way of intelligence so are thus easily avoided and/or defeated in battle. I feel I could survive a major zombie incursion if they are that kind so therefore I am fine with it. The zombies in P&P are much the same and are used mostly for a bit of comedy. There are one or two significant changes to the story lines of a few of the characters but nothing that alters the main course of the book or in one or two instances, add to it. My only complaint if it can be called such a thing is that the zombie plot line doesn't in itself develop all that far. I was kinda left with a feeling of wanting more though I wasn't disappointed in anyway. This may just be part of that feeling of regret that I get whenever I finish a good book. I always find the sudden parting with characters and injection of reality upsetting and from this book I even miss the Zombies.

Origami cranes

I have to admit to being a little tiny weeny bit of an origami fan. It's not ever something that I have done that regularly but whenever I do find the time or happen across a piece of origami paper I love to sit down and have a little fold. I won't profess to having any major talent or getting much beyond the basics though I have managed to make a few origami insects that I'm quite proud of.
My latest passion however has been for cranes. I'm not sure how this came about but I think it's an amalgamation of ideas that have been swirling around in my head for a few weeks now. The first part came from wanting to make something other than by knitting which I realise is a shocking and scandalous thing to say. I used to do a lot of different arts and crafts though and whilst I'm not particularly inclined to pick any of them up again at the moment due to time commitments or cost I still thought it might be nice to just have another little string to my harp (that phrase should be 'string to my bow' but it never made sense to me as it meant you could only ever use one string at a time and people are much more complex than that).
The second part I think came from reading about a friends personal spiritual and emotional journey using Buddhist teachings. I was quite touched by what she had to say and it gave me a reason to sit and read around on a subject that I haven't ever really taken the time to explore. From this came a desire to spend more time on me, doing some meditation and generally having a purposeful relax. I realised that whilst I spend a lot of my time at home sat on the sofa knitting away I wasn't actually necessarily relaxing whilst doing it. This is especially true of recent times when I have been working on a lot of projects that have deadlines.
The third part is a little silly but it was a good reminder. I was watching Season 1 of Heroes the other day with my DH in which there is a scene where one of the characters, Hiro, folds a thousand origami cranes and hangs them in the blink of an eye to prove he can stop time.

(Photo linked from the Origamisources website)

It served as a good reminder that I do have one interest/hobby that doesn't take up much time, room or cost a lot of money. It has the extra added appeal of something that requires precision and just enough concentration that I am forced to stop thinking about problems and just think about folding and breathing.
I knew about the Japanese legend that promises that anyone who 'folds a thousand cranes will be granted a wish by Crane such as good health, long life or a cure from illness'. I didn't however know the full story behind this legend or about other stories/practices that have arisen around it.
At this point Wikipedia came to my rescue. To read the whole article go here but the essence of it is that the crane is one of Japans Mythical Beasts (along with e.g. dragons) and strings of cranes have thus become popular gifts in Japan and China. A thousand cranes are often given as a wedding gift, for the birth of a child and when hung in the home are thought to work as a kind of lucky charm.

Strings of paper cranes (very pretty)

A thousand paper cranes have also become a symbol of world peace, mostly bought about by the story of Sadako Sasaki who developed leukemia after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Sadako started to fold paper cranes with one wish in mind- to live. There are conflicting accounts of whether Sadako managed to complete her thousand cranes before her death at the age of 12, but her story has spread through the release of a book entitled 'Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes'. There is a statue of her holding a paper crane at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial as well as in Seattle Peace Park and she has become a symbol for world peace.

A quick search of the Internet will produce many other uses for paper cranes ranging from peace initiatives to art installations- well worth a look in my opinion.

With all of this this in mind, I have decided that I will make an attempt at making a thousand paper cranes myself. I figure that it will give me a few minutes in the day where I have to relax and I can take those minutes whenever and as often as I like. As I make them I'm going to try and keep my mind clear, focus on my breathing and if I can't do that then I'll think of someone to send some love to as I fold my little crane up. It will also give me a nice little goal that I work towards in my own time and at my own pace. On top of this it is great practice at origami and I hope that by the end of it my creases will be razor sharp.
I've already made a start at stockpiling cranes- I have 10 done already. I think I will be stringing them up with beads in between (so not piled up like they are in the photo above) and hanging a few around my house. The rest I plan to give away. I might even make some mobiles from them just for something a little different. One of the other things I'm really going to enjoy about this is the chance to geek over the paper. I plan on making my cranes in a multitude of colours and patterns. I know that it is possible to get origami paper with Japanese prints on the sheets (which I love) so expect to see pictures of pretty colours here soon. Just to start off with here's a photo of some of my 'early works'.

Wedding plans

Not my wedding, I hasten to add- been there, done that. This is for some of our friends who have recently announced their engagement and have scheduled a date for August 2010. This gives me enough time to sort out a knitted gift for them (as I mentioned previously in another post) and seeing how I have gone to all the effort of doing all this thinking I figured I'd share it with y'all. Apologies in advance for this being heavy with Ravelry links . I have tried to put in ones from others sites as well. I should also point out that any books I have linked are merely for the purposes of illustration and not ones that I have actually read/used. They are just things I came across in my travels as I was thinking all this through.

First up my thinking led me down paths of 'things I could knit for the bride'
*Knitted wire jewellery- this was an obvious first step. I remember my tiara type thing that I wore being exceedingly expensive and although I've not done wire knitting before this seemed like the sort of gift that would be appreciated not only because it would save money on the wedding day but because it can be personalised very easily and kept as a keepsake afterwards.
*Knitted garter- one of the ladies at my knitting group just finished making a lace silk garter with blue ribbons through it for a friend of hers that is getting married this summer. A perfect project if you want something small that you can splurge on fantastic yarn for.
*Knitted shrug/bolero- there are some fantastic lace shrug patterns around again this wouldn't need much yarn.
*Knitted gloves- probably not much use for someone who is getting married at the height of summer but a good gift for a winter or spring scheduled wedding.
*Knitted bag/clutch- you could even flex your felting muscles with this.
*Knitted shawl/wrap- I was thinking lace here, possibly with beads.
*Knitted veil- yup it could be done. If you can knit lace then knitting a veil would be a piece of cake, especially if you went for something plain with the odd bead on it.

After that I started thinking about things I could make for the couple. I discounted making anything for the groom as he's just not that kind of guy but I did come up with a couple of ideas:
*Knitted socks- you could even knit in a motif with the couples names and/or wedding date if you wanted.
*Matching waistcoat for groom and best man

Things for the couple are, let's face it, going to be home goods. Almost any of these options could have a motif of some sort incorporated into it. You could even get really carried away with adding in details- put in specific things to bride/groom relating the their interests, use photos and pictures from their homes for colour ideas, get other family members or friends to add a piece in as well etc.
*Cushions
*Heavy weight rugs (think extreme knitting here)
*Dishcloths/scrubbies
*Table cloth/place mats/napkins etc
*Sofa throw/Blanket/Afghan

If none of this is setting the spark off then there are still a few other options. There are whole books on the subject of knitting for weddings just to get you started. You could also try thinking of something a bit more unusual- maybe the bride would like her bouquet made of felted flowers so that it can be a keepsake as well (with matching buttonhole for the groom)? Perhaps you could knit up some bunting to decorate the reception hall? Or, if you know the couple well, maybe you could go for something a little bit naughty?

Scritches for Fenway

Everybody must send scritches- and mice, lots of mice. My little black cat has had to go into to hospital with a poorly tummy. His symptoms are, rather disturbingly, very similar to the ones that landed me in hospital a few weeks back. They don't know what is wrong with him either at the moment though he is having a endoscopy done this lunchtime which might give us some clues. That and the rest of his blood tests that are due back as well. The vet has ruled out poisoning and 'foreign bodies' which is the little bit of good news. The current working theory is that he has some form of gastroenteritis. I'm going to visit him at the vets later to see how he is getting on. There is a good chance that he may be in for a few days so I'm going to take him one of the little cat blankets that I knitted for the cats when they were little tiny kittens so he has something that smells like home.
Hoshi of course is completely loving the fact that her pesky little brother isn't around to steal all the attention and pinch the best snoozing spots on the sofa. I keep telling her that she shouldn't be looking so smug as Fenway is very ill but it's not making any difference. I insisted that we take her up to bed with us last night (kitties normally sleep in the kitchen) and she spent all night moving around our king size bed and purring in our ears. I think she will start to miss him after a day or two though as they have always been together. The longest that they have been apart for before now is a day. Anyway, it's extra fish and cream in our house for a bit.
Looking after sick kitties has rather taken the fun out of my week though. I had a lovely weekend in Devon last week. The sunshine was glorious (I burnt the back of my neck though which was exceptionally irritating. I much prefer to remain out of the sun and be pale, as does my skin), the bees where buzzing in the hedgerows and we got lots done- including lots of fantastic shopping. My mum took me to Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey where I tried not to get carried away and buy up all the shop. We also went to a fabulous little sewing shop that I hadn't ever been in before despite having had ample opportunity. They had a whole shelf full of beautiful Japanese print material that I would merrily have given my right arm for. We also visited the wonder/abomination that is Trago Mills. I can't even begin to describe what it is like but imagine a factory outlet rolled into a theme park, sprinkle it liberally with every cheap advertising trick and cunning retail ploy you can think of and top it off with a little junk shop wonder and you're getting close. Trago is one of those places that proves that you can love and hate something in equal measure and at the same time. It is my very favourite place to go for people watching as sooner or later, everyone walks through the doors.
We also visited Burnham Nurseries which is a specialist orchid center. I love going there- it smells wonderful and the flowers are just so beautiful- it's out of this world. The best bit was that they had a lot of orchids out ready to go to the Chelsea Flower show which I looked into going to this year but couldn't afford the ticket. Seeing all the flowers in store was like a mini flower show just for me which went some way to making up for not being able to go to the big show. The orchids were what I wanted to see most anyway. I bought myself a spider orchid (can't remember the species) as a special treat. All but one of my other orchids are in flower at the moment so I was feeling a bit chuffed and confident in my skills so I stretched and got a slightly more expensive plant for once. It's a new kind to me though so I hope that it is easy enough to look after. Also something else to hope for is that the plants are still in bloom when I get my camera for my birthday. Not long to go now... :D

Yellow silk shrug

I started yet another project last night- I seem to have startitis at the moment. It's going to be a shrug (Ravelry link) but so far I've only managed to get ribbing around the neck line done. It's going well but there's a little tiny problem. My gauge is twice that that is given for the pattern. That's not a problem in itself as it's an easy calculation to fit my gauge into the pattern. What I am worried about is that I might not have enough yarn to complete said project now. I only have three balls of this yarn in my stash and the yardage isn't great. I really don't want to have buy anymore- not only because matching the dye lot would be next to impossible now but also because the yarn is 50% silk.

Now I know that y'all know about my 'views' on silk (if you missed the previous rant on this subject then check out this post) so let me quickly explain myself. The yarn that I am using here is Lang Silk Dream (second link is a Ravelry one) which my mum bought for me last year for my birthday. It got included in the haul as I was on a bit of a yarn high at the time. My mum took me into a wonderful little LYS that I hadn't been to before called Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey, Devon and basically told me to keep piling yarn up on the counter until she said stop. They had so many brands that I hadn't seen before that I got a bit carried away looking at the colours and picking things up and petting them that I didn't really pay any attention to what was going on the heap as far as content was concerned. The Lang made it based purely on the colour. Yellow is my very favourite colour. I know it's one of those colours that really polarises people and I think that's because it's very easy for yellow to look horrible. It can be very difficult just to find a nice plain yellow yarn- it gets even more difficult once you start combining it with other colours. One of my friends summed this up succinctly the other day but I'm danged if I can remember how she put it so I'm just going to hope that you get what I mean. Anyway, my point is that the buttery yellow colour of this yarn is just beautiful- it's almost my perfect shade of yellow, hence I own some.
So after having 'sat' on it for the better part of a year I finally got around to doing something with it. It was choice #2 from my 'posh' stash that I was going through the other day. I picked the Hacho (Mirasol) over it but only because I couldn't think of anything to make with it. Well, it obviously played on my mind.
Oddly enough, I picked a shrug pattern out because it felt like the right thing to make with the yarn but it wasn't until this morning that I realised just what a good choice this had been. I think I've been processing this all subconsciously. Just recently I've been thinking about weddings- I have to go to one this summer and some friends of mine recently announced their engagement (so the inevitable planning of a knitted wedding gift has started). Specifically though I've been thinking about that I will wear to this years wedding. It occurred to me the other day that I don't need to buy a dress (woohoo) because my mum has made a fabulous one for me from some Alexander Henry* fabric which is, I think, called Yellow Bird Seed and looks a bit like this (the colours aren't exactly right I'm afraid):

I had forgotten about it as she still has to fit the straps to it and I haven't seen it since Christmas. Well, maybe I hadn't totally forgotten about it- weirdly enough I think that the shrug will be the perfect accompaniment to the dress. I'm going to see my parents at the weekend so I will take the yarn with me to see how well it matches the dress but if it does then that is both a strange and wonderful coincidence.

*BTW Alexander Henry fabrics are my absolute favourite- I have a secret hoard of fat quarters of different prints from the collection. I'm a complete sucker for it every time. Whenever I have a few pennies spare that I don't need for yarn I buy another little piece of fabric heaven. I have no idea what I will do with all of it as I'm not really much of a sewer but I do love it so. I have plans to one day go on a course and perfect my sewing skills to the point where I will dare to use some of it. For the moment though it has it's own special box all to itself :D

Is it a bad thing...

that being presented with the following made me immensely happy? Or that I then had to immediately arrange them and take a photograph? And blog about it? Or should I be checking myself into a padded cell as I type?

Sock Madness

I wasn't feeling terribly happy with the world at the weekend and so, after mooching round the house for a bit I found myself diving into my stash of posh yarns. I have a fairly large stash of fibre based goodies that I geekily arrange according to type and grade. My 'posh' stash lives in a wicker basket in the lounge, in a cat-proof cupboard, away from light, smells and guinea pigs. All my very best yarn is in there including that yummy yummy angora that I bought as a treat for myself. I have to admit that I don't often go into it. It's more a place to put things after I have finished petting them than anything else. Most of the yarn is merely for having. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, buying really nice yarn as a treat or on a whim and then squirreling it away like some kind of fibery nut. Usually I haven't got a clue what I would make with any of it but really, that's not the point of owning it. It's the skein version of a comfort blanket. Which is how I found myself digging through it at the weekend. Surrounded by beautiful fibre and glorious colour I started to feel better and well, comforted.
Whilst I was going through it skein by skein I suddenly realised however that if I was ever going to use any of it then there was no better time than right at that moment. It would give me something to do, something to concentrate on other than the gloomies, plus it would be as much of a treat to work with it as it would to own and hold it. So I had a really good rummage and spent a happy half hour picking out which one to use and then working out what I would make from it.
The yarn that I eventually chose was 'Hacho' by Mirasol.
I had 2 skeins of this in my stash that my mother had bought for me as a birthday present last year. At the time I thought I might make socks with it- this was mostly driven by the colour. I mean look at it! It has a little bit of everything in it. It's not sock weight- in fact I think it's classed as an aran weight yarn but that only makes for thick spongy socks for hiking. At first I was tempted to try and think of something other than socks to make with it. It kinda seemed a shame to use such nice wool for socks in a way. In the end I just thought 'what the hell' and went with the sock idea anyway. I mean, I only had 2 skeins so I wouldn't have been able to make anything very big without combining it with another yarn. All the planning and swatching that goes with that just wasn't appealing. I wanted to be using it right there and then! I don't need any more gloves or scarves or hats at the moment and I wasn't convinced I'd wear them anyway as the yarn is so colourful so socks were the logical and indeed, only choice.
After having made up my mind to just go for it and make the thing that I wanted to make I set to it with fervour. I was very happy to find that it also gave me a chance to use some gorgeous wooden Lantern Moon dpns that my mum had bought me for Christmas this year. At the time I had thought "whatever am I going to use 4" 3.75mm dpns for?" and it turns out that it was this!
I went with a toe up attack as I wasn't sure how much yarn it would take- this way I could just knit until it ran out. I used a short row heel/toe as I always do- there is no other way as far as I am concerned. Finally I added in a bit of staggered ribbing to make it interesting to knit and ta-da! my newest socks were born. Here's the first one in all it's finished glory:

Bit of a pain to photograph as I was trying to wear it at the same time as taking the picture :)
A real easy and fun knit though- the yarn made it delightful in fact. It's super comfy to wear, fits nicely and has all those pretty colours for me to distract myself with. The cast-off was a bit of a pain. I had to do and re-do it a total of 4 times, eventually working up to a 10mm needle just to get the gauge right. But it's done now and I love it. Number 2 is on the needles as I type, and yes, it did make me feel much happier!

Playing catch up

There are a number of things that I have to admit to being horribly behind on. Two things in particular need some attention right away and those are my traveling scarves. Both my TSG #27 scarf and my Red Sox scarf are home now. I have had them for about 2 weeks and haven't yet, I have to admit, finished them off. I think I was a scarfed out by the time they got back which is a real pity as both of them are beautiful.
So, in an effort to start the process of completion off, I'm going to put up all the photographs of the last pieces that I knitted for other peoples scarves. This then leaves me with just my own scarves to report on- hopefully being so close to finishing will prompt me to get them onto the needles and get them done. The theory is that a public shaming will prompt me into action!
First up then is the final section that I did for a Red Sox traveling scarf:

This section was an absolute pain- not the finished item that is as it was a relatively straight forward and quick knit to do in the end but getting the tension right! Oh! Painful, painful, painful. The owner of this scarf is a complete polar opposite to me as far as tension is concerned. Where mine is relatively tight and thus gives small, close stitches, theirs is much looser giving a light airy material. The challenge was to use the same stitch count and match the width of the scarf which required much, much swatching with different sized needles and different thicknesses of yarn. Nailed it in the end though!
TSG scarf #7- first an overview:

Check out the section 2 back from mine- I love how the variegated yarn has turned out for this section.
And then a close up of the section that I knitted for it (awful photo I do apologise):

I think I used this stitch on another section that I did for the Red Sox Traveling scarf that I have been working on. It uses those twisted stitches that I love so much (guess why I picked that then) but they do tend to pull in a little. It had lots of bounce though so I'm sure it will block out to the required width.
TSG scarf #6- first an overview:

It was really nice to see a colourful scarf going round- some of the blues in this are just beautiful.
And then a close up of the section that I knitted for it:

This is a simple float stitch motif. Again it has a lot of bounce so should block out. I enjoyed knitting it but I was disappointed that the yarn didn't look nicer after I had finished. For some reason the stitches just end up looking messy. I'm not sure whether it has something to do with the fibre content in this case. It's a wool blend mix I know that much but the original ball band had gone walkies.
I knitted 2 sections for scarf #4 as it had skipped a person en route. I don't have a picture of the finished scarf as I forgot to get the camera out before I posted it back to its owner so the following two photos of my sections are courtesy of them. My thanks go out! (It was bugging me terribly that I had forgotten).
Here is the first section that I knitted:

This is a slanted slip-stitch. Great fun to knit once I had got the hang of dropping a stitch, not panicking and not insisting on putting it on a third needle. I think I'll use this again.
And here is the second:

Just a simple stockinette with some nice purple stripes to balance out the scarf. The rest of it had bits of colour through out and this just seemed to compliment it all. I was especially pleased to find the purple in my stash as this scarfs owner had said that they liked it after I used it for another section on someone else's scarf.
And that's all folks! I think that now makes me all up to date on my traveling scarf adventures. Now to finish them off- just in time for the hot summer weather. D'oh :)

A few changes

So, what do you think?
I've been having a little play with the settings and format (as you may well have noticed) and tweaked a few things. Some of which will be immediately obvious such as my title bar- I finally got around to working out how to make a picture fit up there. Others are a little more subtle. A few are on trial such as the buttons that I added in under the posts. I have to admit that I ripped this idea off of a friend albeit very slo-o-o-wly as it's taken me weeks to work out how to do it :)
Of course, after having found said setting I couldn't decide what buttons I wanted so I tried to think of the ones that I would like to see on other peoples blogs. There's a good chance that they will change about or maybe even disappear but for the moment you call all have some clicky fun. I spent a substantial amount of time just worrying over the colour. I've always plumped for a plain white blog until now as I know that colour can polarise peoples reactions, i.e. if you are someone that doesn't like colour X then you aren't even going to bother reading a post before deciding that you don't like the blog. In the end I went for just a little bit of colour. I'm on a green kick at the moment because it's spring time and all the leaves are starting to peek back through so that was an obvious choice. That and all the yellow options were horrible!
Nearly all of the changes that I have made I'm still undecided on so if anyone has any comments or thoughts I'd love to hear them whether they be good or bad.

Eco Tote FO

So you remember that skein of Lily Sugar'n Cream that I was gifted recently? Well, this is what happened to it. So if you could just take your eyes away from the stunning wood door and beautiful inlaid brass lock and focus on the bag for a second I'll take you on a little knitting tour. Now I've mentioned this before but the pattern that I used for this is called Elisa's Nest Tote which can be found at the Purl Bee (or via Ravelry if you are a member). I also think I have spouted on about just how pleased I am with this bag so I'll try and keep the gushing to a minimum and just try and persuade you what a great project this is to make by adding in extra pictures.

Okay, so I'm not fooling any of you by saying I'll stay away from the keyboard but I'll keep it to a minimum and only point out three things.
Firstly check out the stripes. I used a combination of Rowan Cotton Glace with the Sugar'n Cream. I love how the variegated yarn has come out to so that the stripes there aren't solid. This yarn was lovely to knit with. It's one of the softest cottons I've used and didn't dry the skin out on my fingers like some other cotton yarns I've used. Plus it has yellow in it which is my favourite colour- I think it makes the bag look even more summery.
Secondly, you need to know that the Cotton Glace that I used is 'recycled'. It's part of a stash that I got on Freecycle last year. I'm sure the previous owner would be just as pleased as I am to see it going into a project like this.
Thirdly, the final part of the beauty of all of this is just how flexible the pattern is. Because the gauge doesn't really matter unless you want a very specific size of bag you can substitute any yarn that you like and change the size really easily. I made my slightly wider than suggested by casting on an extra 10 stitches. The size was otherwise determined by how much yarn I had- I just kept knitting until I ran out of the Sugar'n Cream (I was delighted to find that by the time I had woven in the ends and snipped the excess off I was left with less than 3" of yarn- how's that for efficiency?). The only drag was adding on all the i-cord as I find it utterly boring to knit but the applied i-cord does give the edge of the bag a really nice finish and the handles are, I have to admit, quite comfy. I only used 4 stitches for the i-cord instead of the recommended 6 because of the difference in thickness of yarn from that of the pattern. It made the i-cord much much quicker to knit though which was brilliant. Otherwise I may have gone mad. The thicker yarn also makes for slightly smaller holes so I've found that I can put my keys in the bag with fear of loosing them.
So to say that I'm pleased with this would be a bit of an understatement as I'm sure you have all worked out :)