Your Knitting and Crochet Time - 2KCBWDAY7

Ah, today on the final day of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011 (I nearly wrote 2007 then. I always thought I was a bit behind) I'll be talking about my precious knitting and crochet time (2KCBWDAY7).

Last year I talked about how I was an exhibitionist knitter but this year the subject has more of a twist and requires more depth. Not just where am I, but what do I do to really set the scene.

There are two key places where I knit and crochet at the moment. The first one is at home, on the sofa. Not having a job leaves me time to mosey around at my own pace and pick up my work whenever I feel like it. The key ingredients to my knitting success at home relies on two things: throw away TV and a nice mug of Masala Chai (I no longer drink regular tea, it's so incredibly dull!).

The throw away TV usually tends to be something trashy and of the reality kind. I'm a seasoned Jerry Springer fan. I know, it's utter trash and some people tell me it's not real but that really doesn't matter to me. I love Jerry Springer, I love the car crash brainless entertainment it provides and it's perfect background noise for my knitting and crochet endeavours. This video is quite tasteless, but I must admit it's perfect creative viewing for me (don't judge me, please).

Other new television trash I'm into includes anything with the Kardashians and Holly's World.

The second place I find myself being creative is in the car. Not what you'd expect but I'm always the passenger, so when I'm traveling between Oxford and Bournemouth to visit my friends I have a couple of perfect hours to kill. This usually involves crochet, rather than knitting and I can finish more than a couple of hexagons in this time. Here, the scene doesn't really need to be set, I can lose myself completely to it, so long as my other half doesn't taunt me with his much loved Timmy Mallet tape.

So that concludes it for another year. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and the few of you who left comments. It was great to discover new blogs to read and I hope to keep up with you all until next year!

Something to Aspire to - 2KCBWDAY6

As soon as I saw today's topic, Something to Aspire to (2KCBWDAY6) I knew immediately what I wanted to write about. Charts.

I first attempted to knit from a chart about 9 months after I'd started knitting. It was the beautiful Tiger Eyes Lace Scarf.

 

This is not my scarf.

I remember it was over Christmas, I was at my parents house in the Highlands in Scotland and I had shut myself away in my room determined to master the pattern. I'd researched how to read charts and was confident but for some reason I just couldn't get to grips with it.

It may have been that I just hadn't been knitting for long enough but it was enough of an ordeal to make me avoid charts until this very day.

Now, this is becoming more of a problem. There was a pattern that I was particularly interested in recently; a crocheted bikini, but the written instructions were in Russian (I think) and the only other way I could have completed the pattern was by following the chart. Needless to say, I didn't do it.

Writing this now has inspired me a bit. I'm not usually one to sit down and accept defeat so easily. Maybe it's time for me to treat myself to some more lovely Araucania cotton and finally master this pattern.

Embellishments - 2KCBWDAY5

Today, whilst I take up the wild card of discussing embellishments (2KCBWDAY5) most people will be doing something different in their blogging: videos, poetry, pictures only etc, but I just couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be too time consuming. I wanted to make a puppet style show with some of my finished projects (including headless dude of course) but I would need a script and time to edit the video, and as it's my boyfriends birthday today, I just don't have time (we're currently laying on the futon watching Anaconda - much more serious business than being creative!)

Instead, I've decided to focus on something that I truly believe for all my creations. The eyes have it. You can make any old toy, but if you don't get the eyes right then the toy is not right. They add character, personality and depth to the creation.

Here's an example of not quite getting the eyes right. For me, they lack depth and look a bit boring. Later I added some circles of felt behind/around the eyes and they looked much nicer but I don't have a photo of it.

And here's an example of using the same eyes, with a little addition which makes all the difference

It's amazing how a little extra detail around just one eye can make the world of difference.

But then sometimes simple can work. I just get a feel for whatever it is I'm creating and let them do the talking, like my little cyclopse monsters. The orange one is Kurt, who still lives with me and is famous for being my blog mascot.

As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you all tomorrow (hopefully a little earlier than today!). Until then I'll be laying around, watching crappy horror movies tonight and eating Chinese. Nom.

Where Are They Now? - 2KCBWDAY4

I have fond memories of making the project that is the subject of today's blog (2KCBWDAY4), in which I'll be talking about an old project that has gone to new pastures. It's a neckwarmer I made for a friend of mine and is based on the popular Manly Lace Scarf pattern.

I'd used the pattern already once before and it's great. Challenging enough to keep you interested and easy enough to remember the pattern a few repeats in. One thing I had hated about it though, was that it just took toooo long and making a full length scarf was out of the question for Little Miss Zero Attention Span here. Lucky for me, I'm inventive and so I stopped as soon as it was at the length of a neckwarmer, added some buttons and used the lace as button holes.

This friend had seen my original version and liked it but wanted a chunkier, more manly version with a vintage feel (or maybe his girlfriend did, I'm not sure... ;) ) and this was the final product, using bulky yarn, 6.5mm needles and vintage New York military buttons from Etsy.

 

I remember being on the train to Bristol knitting this project and getting a comment from an older lady who was really impressed with it. It's nice to get random compliments from strangers.

So, where is it now?

I got in touch with Chris and he still has the neckwarmer! I'm impressed that it still looks so great and, more importantly, how great it looks on him! I'd sent it in the post originally so this is the first time I've ever seen it on him.

Shameless plug: If any of you want to see or hear more of the lovely Chris he's in a band called An Axe, who have been described as a blistering Surf Noir Rock band. Find them on Myspace, on Twitter or at a venue near you.

See you tomorrow for a blog about something completely different!!

Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

It's day 3 (2KCBWDAY3) and today we're talking about how we organise our stash and stuff! I've been living in this house for 6 weeks and right now I must admit I have no organisation for my yarn stash or my projects. Most of my stuff is in boxes or bags and, being jobless, it means that buying nice storage solutions is not really an option right now. I'm also, by nature, quite an untidy person. It is how it is...

Some picture proof...

Presently, a large amount of my stash is in a big plastic bag which lives in a cubby hole in my bedroom. I got the bag from my laundry lady in India. It's been very helpful, although it actually looks like some kind of death trap with those needles sticking out of it. I need to get my needle holding vintage footstool from my old place.

 Some of it is in a bag on the stairs right now.

My rather round looking hexagons are living on the bottom tier of my coffee table.

And the headless dude is living in a sealable plastic bag that was once used for cotton wool (also from India).

I dream of having a lovely wicker basket tucked into the corner of one of my rooms, filled with my neatly balled yarns. Le sigh.

In my old place I had a divan bed and it was ace. I kept all my yarn in one draw and in the one next to it, I kept all my fabrics. It was the most organised my yarns had ever been and I really hope once I'm a bit more settled that I can reach the same level of organisation again.

See you tomorrow, when I'll be reminiscing about an old project that's long gone.

Skill + 1UP - 2KCBWDAY2

Today, I should be talking about how I've improved so much. How I have learnt new skills, pushed myself and finished amazing projects but alas, it is not the case.

I'm out of work at the moment and prior to this I was volunteering and traveling in India. I have time on my hands but for some reason I just can't find the motivation.

The most challenging thing I started when I was traveling was crocheted hexagons but, having had a problem with the pattern I've been using for a while, I finally realised last week that I'd written it down wrong and had put the ch2 in the wrong place, meaning the corners weren't really corners. They're more circular than anything.

Still nice though huh?

I'm also struggling to find the inspiration for a head for this guy

I've had some ideas for his head but when I've tried to put them into practice they haven't come out as hoped. I guess that's the problem with organic craft rather than following patterns, sometimes inspiration and ability runs dry and you have to start following patterns to learn more.

I'm not going to make any empty promises for the future. I know that I'm so busy with other projects I might never live up to my fancy aspirations as a knitter or crocheter but what I do make is made with love and is of quality, which I guess is all anyone can really ask for.

A Tale of Two Yarns - 2KCBWDAY1

Welcome to the start of the 2 Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. If you're wondering what the weird code is (2KCBWDAY3), it's a tag so that other bloggers can find those of us who are doing the same thing!

I'm not the most impressive knitter/crocheter and I have my fingers in a lot of other pies but I loved being part of this last year and I'm hoping to enjoy it as much now in 2011.

Today's theme is a tale of two yarns. I'm going to discuss one yarn I love and one that I kinda like, but sometimes is just not right.


The One I Love

First off, let's talk about Araucania. These guys make some delicious yarns but my favourite colourway has to be this one:

Cottons are famous for not having that much give when knitting so when I decided on the pattern I used a slightly larger needle and it's coming along nicely, it's easy to knit with and has a lovely drape. The only problem is that it seems to be in hibernation... I am really bad with sticking to a large project. I started this in July last year and I haven't got really far at all. Maybe I should have just kept it as a stashed yarn and taken it out to marvel at it's beautiful colours every now and then.

The One I Kinda Love

Acrylics. I know, it's naughty especially for an environmentally savvy girl like me but sometimes I just can't help myself. I'm not the richest chick in the world and as a result, sometimes I buy nice bright and soft acrylic yarn can ease my yarn buying blues. They're great for crochet and knitting and I've made some fab projects with acrylics.

Sometimes though, it's just not good. Sometimes a pattern can be so nice that you need to invest in a quality yarn to help it's beauty shine through, like this one from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch:

So there you have it. My love affair with Araucania and my love/hate relationship with the boring old acrylic.

See you tomorrow!

A Positive Lent: The 7th Day

So, I hear you ask, how's this Positive Lent malarky going? You'll be pleased to hear it is going rather well!

Let's break it down in to sections, because they're easier to read:

The Mushroom and Walnut Pie
My folks visited last week and for the first time since I've been vegan (nearly 2 years) I had the chance to cook for them. The recipe is from this book, which is jam packed full of over 90 delish dishes. I substituted some of the oyster mushrooms for chestnut mushrooms as I'm a bit short on cash and I also forgot to get the pastry out of the oven to defrost (cue hungry family members and a wine-guzzling, empty stomached and drunk me, doing my best Keith Floyd impression) but, eventually, it was a success!

Crafting
I somehow haven't managed to do much crafting. In fact I don't know if I've done any. I might have sewn some limbs on to a currently headless amigurumi creation but that's about it.

I'm in a bit of a creative funk I suppose. It happens, it'll pass. I have a knitting group I go to called the Oxford Bluestockings on a Wednesday night so that should help, even if I do only crochet hexagons whilst there.

Job Hunting
Still no job but it's not like I'm banging down people's doors and begging. I handed my CV in to Holland Barrett last week for a part time position. It'd be perfect for me but now I guess I just have to do the waiting game. In the meantime I'm sucking up my distaste for office work and am going to put my CV on job sites and go to local agencies for part time work. It's been a month since I got back from India and I need money and routine now. I also need a hair cut. The sub-tropics have not been kind to my locks. Le sigh.

More Exercise (and everything else)
I need exercise, both physically and mentally and have created a little chart to help run my life a bit better whilst I don't have a job. The chart includes exercise 4 days a week and also reminds me to do things like cleaning and crafting and baking. To some it might seem a bit mad but to me it's like a tiny slice of heaven. I need order and routine in some parts of my life because so many other parts are all over the place (like my brain). 

 

The 'Vegan' bits don't mean these are the days I'm vegan, I'm vegan all the time! These are the days I'll fit a little advocacy or organising of advocacy into my life whilst I have the time. I do this quite often anyway. In fact this weekend a friend who I hadn't seen for ages asked me for some help in transitioning, which was awesome. Hello and good luck if you're reading - you can do it!

Date night is special time for me and the man. No distractions (apart from Tony Cat, but that goes without saying).

Finally, today I dropped a cake in to a local cafe to see if their customers like my cakes. If they do there's a chance of setting up a partnership and spreading vegan delights to the unassuming tastebuds of Oxfordshire!

Well, that's about all for now. I hope that whatever you've decided to do for lent that it's going well (apart from the guy who has pledged to subsist on beer alone. Whatever your reasons, you're a bit of a numpty if you don't mind me saying)

Ooooh. As I was writing this closing passage I got a phone call for a potential job!! Watch this space...

Meet Percy the Parrot

Meet Percy. He's s simple little man with a personality as bright as his feathers.

In our short time together we had many adventures but today he has gone off to a new life, as the companion of a young and brilliant pirate, 20 month old Cecelia.

Farewell Percy!

Basic Maths: Knitting + Cake + Pub = Love

A couple of weeks ago I was selling a few bits and bobs at a local in-pub jumble sale (in-pub = the best kind of jumble sale) and, as usual, was knitting away all by myself. I was approached by somebody who asked if I'd be interested in helping to set up a knitting club there as part of a monthly Sunday afternoon event.

Obviously I jumped at the chance and this Sunday saw the very first knitting club at Twee By the Sea, in 60 Million Postcards (Bournemouth). In a nutshell, it was AWESOME.

There was cake, including some delicious Happy Herbivore black bean brownies that I had made for us vegans and A Girl in Winter, chai and a whole lot of yarn. New knitters came along for the ride as well as us who are a bit more experienced and we even got two men involved.

Note to men: More of you need to knit, it's incredibly sexy. Fer reals.

Our novice knitters made some adorable little owls with the bits and bobs I'd supplied and all in all I think we had an attendance of around 12 people. A roaring success (or as roaring as a knitting club can be).

I'm very excited about next month's event already. If you are in the Bournemouth area and would like to learn to knit (or crochet) please come along. We have plenty of needles, hooks, yarn and patterns to get you started and I have an almost infinite vat of patience for teaching which I have only just discovered. Also, if you're old hat at knitting and fancy coming down to drink cider or chai and have a chin wag please do. The more the merrier. 3rd Sunday of the month, 60 Million Postcards from 3pm.

If you're not in this area, wherever you may be I would recommend setting up a group. With Facebook at our fingertips it's easier than ever to spread the word, it's oodles of fun and you get to meet new and lovely people.

What a Yarn: knitcroblo7

Just over a year ago I went vegan, which will of course make this final blog (knitcroblo7) in the Knit and Crochet Blog Week a little different to most.

Being vegan means that, as well as not eating animal products, I also don't use them in any other form. This includes wools from any animal and silk products, any mixed yarn that may contain any amount of either of those products and also yarns (often cottons) that include milk proteins.

Over time, with the help of my local yarn store and our beloved internet I have found a wide range of yarns (mostly cottons) that are amazingly soft and a joy to knit with.

Obviously, now I've got you here, I would like to get you thinking about where your yarns come from. For me, I feel that it is not right to own any animal and use the animal for it's products, no matter how great the welfare standards. Have you ever considered how silk is produced or what happens to sheep during their lives when producing wool (see mulesing) and afterwards (see the supermarket)?

I believe all animals, human and non, have the right to be free and equal and that is why I choose to buy and make knitted and crochet products which are 100% vegan. I hope next time you come to buy some yarn you take a moment to consider it's origins.

Revisiting a F/O:knitcroblo6

I write this blog (knitcroblo6) from my bed. Quite appropriately, I feel like somebody pooped in my head this morning and so have decided to write as few words as possible. I'd like to reintroduce you to some old friends of mine, who are still going strong and still as loved as ever.

In chronological order, meet the poops.

Mike

Rose (Mike's Girlfriend)

Jeremy Poopling (who has the honour of living on my toilet cistern and watching everyone poop. Jealous?)

Team Winnet and The Toilet Roll

Having made the most of my last day of processed foods (e.g. booze) last night, I am now going to lay down again. Hope your day isn't too crappy (come on, somebody had to say it).

Location, Location, Location: knitcroblo5

Trains, planes and automobiles! Add coaches to that too. And park benches, the staff room, a café, my desks at work and at home. I’ll knit and crochet pretty much anywhere. In short, I’m an exhibitionist.

So many people still think that knitting is something your grandma does and I think that showing off your skills in public is a fab way to throw two fingers (and two needles *chortle*) up to that stereotype.

I recently sat outside a café in Oxford, drinking a soy chai latte and knitting and I could feel people’s eyes on me. I certainly don’t look like a grandma and I love to imagine what people might be thinking about me.

That said, there was a time when I did dress up as a grandma and I did take my knitting out with me. So much for breaking those stereotypes, huh?!

To see more posts on this topic by fellow crafters just type in knitcroblo5 to Google (or click my handy link) and away you go!

A New Skill: knitcroblo4

So today, on day 4 of Knit and Crochet Blog Week (knitcroblo4) is about a new skill I'd like to acquire. An underlying theme that I have noticed this week during my posts has been that of patience, which isn't necessarily a skill but is it is something that can be learned?

My little inner hippy says yes, it can be. From past experiences, some very recent, I have realised that great personal change is possible if you want it, and patience is something I am aspiring to relentlessly, day in and day out, at work, at home, at play and with the ever chatty (read noisy mofo) Tony Cat.

Patience requires forethought, a calm and rational mind and very importantly, remembering just to breathe. It means not throwing your needles across a room or swearing yourself in to oblivion and taking a moment to think things through and realise that no matter how much we may love it, it is only knitting after all (yes, I just said, it's only knitting. GASP!). A stressed mind will achieve nothing.

As my patience continues to grow I may eventually embark on larger*, more challenging projects; I may try once again to chart read (below), to make myself that tank top (above), or a cardigan. But then again, I may just continue to knit and crochet poos.

*I am actually in the process of crocheting a ginormous continuous granny square blanket which currently measures around 5.5 feet squared. It's my largest ever project and I love it.

One Great Knitter: knitcroblo3

So todays topic is One Great Knitter. As soon as I saw this topic I knew who I wanted to talk about. It's somebody I know personally and I hope that she doesn't mind me writing this about her.

The person I'm talking about is the lovely A Girl in Winter. She is part of the craft group I go to at my place of work and is one truly talented lady. She knits at the speed of light, whilst I still chug along like a steam locomotive, and makes the most stitch-perfect, beautiful garments. She has the patience (there's that word again - I think I've mentioned my lack of it in every blog so far!) to create large intricate pieces and an eye for the perfect yarn.

I admire her work so much but I also love the fact that we are so different in styles. I've stopped kidding myself that I'll ever be interested in making the same things she does, and so I go on knitting and crocheting critters and poops and let her create the things of beauty.