Cowling in fear...

OK, that last blog got a bit more attention on twitter than I expected!

I'm glad so many people found it helpful/ interesting, but I might just huddle down here for a minute while I process the fact so many people read what I wrote! So please forgive me while I distract myself by going back to the subject of this blog... Knitting!

A few weeks ago I made the 'Treads' fingerless gloves (see a few blogs ago for the pattern). I had a skein of the lovely yarn left after I finished, and as such decided to try and make a matching cowl. I'm quite pleased with the result, as such I thought I'd jot the pattern down here for others to find.


Complimentary Treads Cowl.

Materials: 
75 meters of worsted weight yarn.(I used Mirasol Miski)
size 5.5mm needles.
Stitch marker and tapestry needle.

Pattern: 
c/o 100 stitches in long tail cast on,
Join in the round and place stitch marker to note the start of the round
Rib K2, P2 for 1.5 inches,

Knit 1 round of Lateral Braid. (instructions on how in italic if you need them)

To begin, m1r and then replace this newly made st onto the lh needle.   
* Bring yarn to back. From the back, knit into the back of the 2nd st (the one to the left of the newly made st), and then, keeping that st on the needle and yarn at back of work, bring needle around to front, and knit into the front of the first st.  
Slip both of these first and second sts off the lh needle.  You should have 2 newly made sts on your rh needle, replace the leftmost st back onto the lh needle. 
Repeat from * for the rest of rnd. When rnd is complete, slip the first st of the next rnd back onto the rh needle point ** and pass the last st of the rnd over that st (as you would do a bind off).    
Replace the first st of the rnd onto the lh needle point.  

Knit 4 rnds,

Begin Linen Ridge stitch:

Row 1: purl
Row 2: *(wyib sl1, p1), repeat from *
Row 3: purl
Row 4: *(p1, wyib sl1), repeat from *
Knit 2 repeats of rows 1 to 4 of the Linen Ridge Stitch,  then repeat rows 1 to 3 of the Linen Ridge Stitch, ending with a purl row.

Knit 4 rounds,

Knit 1 round of Lateral Braid,

Rib K2, P2 for 1.5 inches,

Bind off.

The finished cowl comes to 5.5 inches. If you've got more yarn to play with than me, then I would suggest ribbing for 2 inches.

You could also make the cowl longer by adding more knit rounds in, or having two bands of linen stitch separated by 2 rows of knit stitch.

But it's that simple, matches the gloves nicely and looks great.

Here's the cowl.










Here's the cowl with the gloves

And here's the Other Half modelling them to check the fit, the cowl does also work as a headband, but he won't let me take a photo of that! ;)

Looking for the positive...

Recently I've been thinking a lot about mental health, the work/ life balance and how to get the most out of my life.

I've realised that I'm very blessed in that I am generally a positive person. I'm also a planner, and a do-er, these are all great attributes at work and have helped me do well in my career, but they are also things that can help me at home. 

At the moment, whilst I love my job, I have a horrid commute. A while ago this was really getting me down, and left me feeling drained, and pretty cranky at home.

I'm lucky enough to be on a career development programme at work, and so I discussed how I was feeling with my peer group and got given some ideas on how to make things better.

The first solution was 'Stop doing the commute, find another job'. Simple in theory, not in practice. So there were some other suggestions for the meantime, until another job comes along. The first two were both eminently obvious and practical...

1. Have a proper breakfast, and eat lunch. I was skipping breakfast or eating a cereal bar on the go, and quite often working through my lunch. Not good, it was making me feel more drained as my body was burning up my energy reserves instead of food. So yes, I've stopped doing that. (Ok I'm still working through lunch sometimes, but not ALL the time, and I am at least making sure I eat my lunch while I work). And I definitely have more energy during the day, and am usually in a better mood once I get home.

2. Relax on my day off. I don’t work Fridays, I tend to do about 40 hours + on my 4 days in, so originally this was my day with The Boy, but now he's at school I was tending to work even on my days off, checking emails, taking phone calls or analysing the next weeks work to try and get a head start on it. This meant I was never properly relaxed. 
Stopped that. Unless it’s an emergency I've stopped working on my days off, I now try and exercise or relax by knitting etc. on my day off. Much better. 

But the third thing a peer suggested really made me stop and think.

Cut out negativity in your life.

Now as I said I'm a positive person, and on face value I wouldn't say there are many negative things in my life. But actually the more I thought about it, the more I realised how draining things around us can be. Especially the media; both main stream and social.

So much on TV at the moment is negative or depressing, and I don't just mean the news. So many TV shows are just depressing, fantasy shows about people disappearing, or the apocalypse happening; crime shows about kidnappings and death. Gotham is a great example of this for me, now obviously given the source material it was never going to be the most uplifting show, but it was just so 'grim'. It was just getting me down.

Social media is also really good at surrounding us with negative, depressing stories. There are some people out there who only seem to post negative things. I realised that on twitter especially I tended to be more negative than I naturally am (especially when it comes to complaining about my commute!)

So actually this suggestion to cut out 'negative things' had merit.

As such I've cut out ALL depressing TV shows. No more Gotham, no more the Walking Dead etc.... 
I've also started checking ng social media less, not stopping, but stepping back. I've also unfollowed or muted people who ONLY seemed to post negative things. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but hey, sometimes we have to be selfish especially when it comes to our health! 
I've also stopped checking the news several times a day, no more reading stories on Facebook that are obviously going depress me, and no more constantly checking my emails etc...

Now obviously I can't cut out every negative thing. Friends go through bad times and I'm certainly not going to mute them just because they're down! Nor can I ignore all the news out there. World events are important; Negative things will still happen; things will still go wrong every day.  But I can look for the little things more.

One tip I got told was to try and find 5 little things (or big things) that made you happy, or were positive a day. And it really does help. It helps you start to see the good things, and stops you dwelling on the bad.

So please, people of the internet, try to find 5 good things a day, and cut out as much negative stuff as you can. It won't solve all your problems, or banish your black dog, but it might just help you cope a little bit.

And knit more, it's relaxing (most of the time)...  ;)

3 down, 1 to go...

So its now December, which means Christmas is edging ever closer. 

We stuck on some festive music and put our Christmas tree up yesterday. Which means I have officially declared it Christmas in our house!

Unfortunately the Boy is now asking daily if today is Christmas Night (I'm guessing he means Eve) so I keep having to disappoint him. Tonight after he goes to bed, we're planning on getting our wrapping done. At the moment our house looks a bit like an Amazon warehouse.

Anyway, I now have 3 of my knitted presents done, and only one to go. Phew! Present number 3 was definitely the trickiest of the lot, as the gloves featured a new stitch for me, but I'm rather pleased with them.

Here's the pattern if anyone fancies having a go! 

http://oftherain.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/treads-a-tipless-gloves-pattern/

ALL THE KNITTING

Today I've had the day off, the Boy has been at school and the other half has been being domestic. As such I have used the day to knit.

I finally got the Neverending shawl finished and it's now blocking on the board.

I've now cast on some fingerless gloves for my mum's boyfriend, he's currently repairing a boat and it tends to get cold, so I thought some fingerless gloves would be useful.

The pattern I'm using is lovely and features a stitch I've never used before, the lateral braid which is cool and I'm really happy with how it turned out for my first attempt!

Choices choices

You know it's been really hard to choose between Oshun and Blackwood Sugar, thery are both gorgeous perfumes.

I've spent the last few days alternating between the two trying to choose. 

Although they both have slightly spicy under notes (both containing clove & cinnamon) the top notes differ. The amber in Oshun gives it the scent of a deep and exotic incense, as you would expect to find burning on the alter of a goddess (or Orisha) of love and beauty. While the sugar and ginger in Blackwood Sugar makes it smell like the ingredients for a spicy, warming and tasty cake. 

I've finally decided that Blackwood Sugar is my favourite of the two, and will be my 3rd perfume.

So that's Blackwood Sugar, Cherry Kiss and Cinnamon Bird. 

On the knitting front, I have now named the shawl, the never ending shawl. Honestly it just goes on and on. Although, I am actually really near the end now, thank the gods. It's because its a bottom up shawl, each row is bigger than the last! 

It's the right house baby I was sorted this way!

So today I have been wearing Honey Badger again, and it's been interesting. I definitely picked up more on the musk scents this time, the musk was actually quite strong first thing, before it calmed down at which point you could pick up the honeycomb and the chocolate. It's actually quite a feminine scent.

I do like it, but I'm not sure it'll be a good counterbalance to Cinnamon Bird.

So, this one stays firm at 7/10

However, it does give me chance to say I was sorted this way!

Seriously, if you haven't checked out Not Literally go do it. You can thank me later.

Decisions decisions

So I shall definitely be ordering a big bottle of Cinnamon Bird,

And a small bottle of Cherry Kiss to wear for Christmas.

But I also want a third bottle to alternate with Cinnamon Bird... And I don't know which to pick. So I'm going to re-wear my top picks over the next few days and pick my last choice.

The three I want to try again are Blackwood Sugar, Honey Badger and Oshun,

Although Pumpkin Nuit and Caramel Chai both also scored high, Pumpkin Nuit really was perfect for Samhain but not one I'd probably get a lot of wear from, and Caramel Chai, although gorgeous faded too quickly.

I've spent the day baking, cooking and knitting... very domestic! But I desperately need to get this bloomin' shawl finished!!!

Last but not least...

It's the last of my samples today.

Today is a lazy day in our house, it's been a really busy week, and I'm just knackered. 

Today's perfume is Bastet, a mix of honey shea butter, saffron,  rose, coconut & chai.

The scent is obviously named after the Goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, and love.

I wasn't a big fan of this in the sniff test, but its actually really pleasant on. More floral than I would usually wear, but the shea butter and honey counter balance the rose and coconut nicely. Its soft, floral and feminine, but not too sweet.

8/10

I'm hoping I can get back into the knitting tonight, it's November now, not long to go till Christmas!!

----

Ok. Need an addendum to today's entry, after its been on a while, the only thing you can really smell is the rose, and as my OH politely pointed told me, it smells a bit like a bathroom deodorant! Not quite what I was going for!

5/5

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

So in honour of Samhain, today's perfume had to be Pumpkin Nuit. The scent contains pumpkin, woodsmoke, caraway, sage & cumin.

A pleasantly spooky mix, its a deep mellow scent. My other half thinks it smells like sweets, I think it smells like pumpkin soup. But either way its nice.

Another warming scent, perfect for dark cold nights.

7.5

Today were off on an adventure by the sea, and then its the Boys Halloween party tonight.

Have a spooky one everyone!

A nice cup of Chai

We've had a lovely day by the sea, the Boy has been playing in rockpools and we've even had one of those old fashioned family photos taken.

Today's perfume was 'caramel chai' which is made up of caramel, chai tea, cardamom, nutmeg & gingerbread. It's a lovely gentle scent, very pleasant, but quite subtle, I had actually expected it to be a bit stronger.

Its quite warming and soothing, but almost too subtle, I kept forgetting I was wearing it, and could bairly smell it a few hours later! Which is really a shame, because it is a lovely scent.

7/10

Fly high little cinnamon bird

I'm currently running around in a mad panic, trying to pack, trying to sort out my costume for the Halloween party. All in all its a bit chaotic here this morning. As such I'm treating myself with this perfume. 

The scent is Cinnamon Bird, which contains Hay, saffron, cinnamon stick, cinnamon bark and almond milk.

It is gorgeous. The smell reminds me of those firey cinnamon jelly beans. Fiery but delicious. My son also thinks it smells like sweeties, and even my other half likes this one, it's his favourite so far!

Honestly I could just roll myself in this scent. Definitely one to wear if you're feeling blue and need cheering up, or you're gloomy because of the cold wet weather and want somerhing to make you think of the sun. 

10/10

I'm also feeling rather proud of myself for a knitting achievement last night, I managed the russian join on my leightweight shawl! Such a handy join, you can't see it at all, and no ends to sew in! Huzzah!!

Witchy powers!

After a delicious home made meal last night (with leftovers that will be reheated for lunch) the very bizare witchy dreams I had last night, and the fact I'm listening to the playlist Ive created for the kids Halloween party I'm taking my son to on Friday; Kitchen Witch felt like the apt perfume for today. The scent is a mix of Salted caramel, brown suger, bay, rosemary, thyme & smoke. Tasty.

It's one of my middle tier perfumes from the sniff test. When I first put it on the scent of the smoke seemed quite strong and over powered everything else, but the scent seems to be settling in now,  and I'm getting hints of the caramel, and the herbs. The perfume definitely invokes the scent of the kitchen, where a delicios feast is being prepared (with those herbs its actually quite earthy in a way, but with that tantalising wisp of smoke over the top). It's a lovely perfume, but I'm not quite sure its me.

6.5/10

Today is the my last day of work before a few days off. We're taking the Boy to Blackpool to see the lights tomorrow which will be fun. But that means knitting time will be slim, which is a pain as I really want to get the shawl finished! Best crack on now while I have chance.

Powdered Suuuugggeeer!

Ok, I know... That reference only makes sense if you've seen the Bad lip reading Walking Dead Video. If not, well you're missing out!
"The Walking (And Talking) Dead"

Today's perfume is 'Blackwood Suger' and I wanted to give this one a test drive today as a friend of mine fancies the scent so I promised her Id review it! It's one of my top 5 perfumes from the sniff test, and for good reason. The scent contains white & brown suger, ginger, clove, cinnamon & oakwood. It is inspired by
Shirley Jackson's classic Southern Gothic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Its a really gorgeous smelling perfume, the ginger makes it seem warming and everything else just makes it smell extra tasty, with the oakwood keeping it from being too sweet. Definitely a scent you want to wear if you're feeling a bit low and need a pick me up.

Unfortunately it just loses a point because the other half isn't a huge fan, but honestly I blame his nose for being stupid rather than the perfume. Although, to be super duper fair to his nose, I am asking his opinion stupidly early while he's still half asleep! 

8.5/10

I had promised a progress picture of the shawl I'm knitting, so here you go. Honestly it doesn't do it any justice.  The yarn is super fluffy and soft, and has a glimmer of hot pink running through it that the photo doesnt capture. I'm really pleased with it.

Declaring Christmas!

Ok. I hate it when all the Christmas stuff is out in the shops before Halloween is even over.

But today's perfume makes me want to declare Christmas already! Its Cherry Kisses, another medium tier perfume from the sniff test, but my goodness now I'm wearing it, its absolutely gorgeous.  It smells exactly like those lovely Christmas candles I always buy by the dozen as soon as they go on sale.

The scent is made up of Cherry, Clove & Mixed Spices. It really makes me feel festive, I definitely want some of this to wear on Christmas day.

My son thinks it smells like sweeties, and my OH approves as well, so thats a thumbs up from all of us!

9/10

Im still plowing away on the shawl, I'll take a photo this evening as I'm just short of halfway now.

Get out your badger paws

Today's perfume is Honey Badger.

I ordered this one for the name alone, it felt like the perfect perfume to celebrate my Hufflepuff pride.

The scent is beeswax, coca, honeycomb, dark chocolate, black & white musk.

When the scent arrived I wasn't that impressed, and put it in my bottom two. But wearing it today I like it much more than I did. It's the opposite of yesterday, which was a disappointment.

This is also the first perfume my other half is liked, which gives it an extra point.

So, all in all, for name value, scent and partner approval this one gets 7/10. 

I'm currently knitting away, making a shawl for my Gran In Law. It's the first time I've used a lace weight yarn. But it's lovely and fluffy. I'll take a photo in a few days when I've got more done, but it's knitting up nice & quickly which is a bonus.

Constance and the hand made leg warmers

Today's perfume is Constance, it's one of my mid tier favorites. The scent is made up of Cookie Dough, bread, butter cream, butter, tea and sugar. Sounds good enough to eat right?

Unfortunately for me the scent is just too subtle, maybe its the scent of the tea in the mix, but I just don't really get the scent of cookies. I've had a cookie scented perfume before, from a different maker, and that was gorgeous, it really did smell like freshly baked cookies and I got compliments every time I wore it. This doesn't have that feel, which is a shame as I really wanted to like it more. I actually liked the scent more in the bottle than I do on me.

5/10 for me.

On the knitting front, I've got one Christmas present completed, yay!! Here are the leg warmers I've made for my Grandmother, she wanted some to wear while walking, so they're made from the lovely soft worsted weight llama wool I bought a few weeks ago. They are very simple, but supper warm and snuggly, and I think I have enough yarn left to make a matching gead band (If I have time before Christmas!)

*sniff test*

One of my treats to myself every now and then is artissan perfume. My best friend loves Black Pheonix Alchemy Lab perfume, and whenever I used to visit she'd drag out her huge collection of perfume bottles and let me try some on.

Unfortunately living in England BPAL perfumes are an expensive treat, as the shipping alone is pricey. So I started looking around for an artissan perfume seller closer to home and found a few which I tried out. Over the years I've found some I loved, and some I was utterly unimpressed by. But I think I have now finally found THE ONE!

The seller is Common Brimstone on Etsy, and lives in the UK so postage is cheap (thankfully) and she seems to share my taste in scents.  I decided to buy one or two bottles, but struggled to pick just one. So I decided to buy a sample pack of 10, and still struggled to get my choices down to 10!

But eventually I did, placed my order and sat down to wait... Yesterday my perfumes arrived up, and my do they smell nice.  To be honest, normally with a sample selection there's a couple that, when they arrive, you just don't like after all, or they don't seem 'you'. This time that isn't a problem, the problem is I like all of them!

After a lot of sniffing yesterday I finally separated out my Top 5: Oshun, Black Wood Sugar, Cinnamon Bird, Caramel Chai & Pumpkin Nuit

Middle 3: Cherry Kiss, Kitchen Witch & Constance

& the bottom two: Honey Badger & Bastet

But honestly its a very close thing, now I need to try out each scent and see what I think.

Today is the first scent, and one of my top 5. I had planned to save this one till later, but after an awful nights sleep last night I needed a pick me up!

The scent is called Oshun, which is apparently named for an Oshiri (goddess?) of love,  beauty of diplomacy.  An interesting mix, as is the scent, which apparently contains warm clove, amber, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey and pumpkin.

I really do love this one. Its warm, deep and comforting, without being too sweet or cloying. I want to wrap myself in it and snuggle in front of a fire with a good book.

9/10 (Honestly I'd give it full marks, but that seems daft on the first day!)

Oh and to keep it knitting related,  today Im trying out the socks I finished for the first time, they didnt need a sniff test though! ;)

The good, the bad, and the squishy!

A bit of a mixed bag last week.

I'm always a believer in starting with the bad news, which last week involved the news that my local favourite yarn shop (purl city yarns) is closing. Boooo.... :(

But this horrid news had an upside, which was that they had a huge sale on to clear their stock before they shut forever.

This meant I was able to do my Christmas Yarn order for a bargin price (well as bargin as you get for lovely yarn, which admitedly isn't really ever a bargin, but who cares, it's lovely!)

So on Saturday morning the postman delivered my lovely order full of pretty yarn.

Oh so pretty, and soooo squishy!

So I know have 6 skeins of  worsted llama wool (in 2 colours) I've never used llama wool before, but my goodness its soft.

I also have 2 skeins of lace weight mohair yarn, which is both gorgeous and squishy.

And finally a lovely self striping dk yarn.

*Sigh* yarn heaven!

Planning for Christmas

I know, I know, I said the 'C' word. Sorry.

But still, it's time to start planning what I need to knit for Christmas presents.

At the moment I'm finishing off the socks I started last month.

I've got one done, and the other is almost finished. Above is sock number one. The pattern is mermaidia, which is a really pretty pattern based on a mermaids fins. I wanted something either wintery or aquatic, as the wool give me the feel of either deep dark winter or deep dark water, and I couldn't find a snowfall pattern I liked enough.

Anyway I should have the socks finished by the end of this week, beginning of next at the latest, so what then...?

My Grandmother has requested some leg warmers for when she is out walking, and suggested some finger-less gloves for my Granddad similar to the ones I made for her last year.

I was planning on making a cape for the boy with the remainder of the red wool from my shawl, however I can't find a single 'superhero cape' pattern. I can find lots of 'little red riding hood capes' but no superman like ones! Bah!

What has everyone else got on the books for Christmas knits this year?

Shawltastic!

After having said that I lost my knitting oomph, I finally found it again!

I made two lovely shawls in time for Nine Worlds...

The first one was the Firefly inspired saffron a shawl for leaving the maiden house

Not perfect, I made a few mistakes along the way, but still, it looks good on. And, as a first attempt I'm happy with it, and I'm not the only one...

The Boy loves it. So much so that I'm think I need to make him a cape, just so I can get my shawl back! 

The second one was the Time Turner Shawl which was inspired by Hermione's time turner in Harry Potter. Although, because I used a self striping shawl, you can't actually see the pattern, which is a bit of a shame. But then again, it does look really pretty anyway, so I don't really mind!

So, I think I have now cracked shawls. Now, onto socks!!!

Knitting Lethargy...

I seem to have totally misplaced my knitting oomph.

I can't make myself pick up my knitting needles at the moment for love nor money.
We've got Nine Worlds coming up, with a whole track on knitting that I'm really looking forward to, but at the same point my urge to knit has gone.

My lovely Owl cardie sits unfinished in the bag, and I had really wanted to make myself a shawl in the colours of House Martell, but.... Ugh. I got nothing.

Little things are the cutest

Just finished a baby cardigan for a friend of mine last week.
It's just rather cute, its so tiny and bitty and adorable.
It's in a lovely pale green (as we didn't know what flavour bump would be)

If you fancy making it yourself you can find the pattern here... http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/puerperium-cardigan

Game of Thrones - Here be Dragons, and SPOILERS (Books vs TV)

So Im lying here, trying yo go to sleep, and tonights Season 4 finale of GoT's is circling around in my head. (Please excuse the poor grammer/ spelling, I really should have been asleep a while ago!) And yes I know this isn't knitting related, but I was knitting as I watched it, so that TOTALLY counts! 

I know at this point they're making a lot of changes between the books and the TV show, and in order to stay sane and still enjoy both I should treat them as two srperate entities, but Im rubbish at compartmentalising.

So here's my thoughts, from a book readers perspective...

1) Other than the wisdom of riding your cavalry through the woods, I loved Stanis turning up at the wall. It looked amazing.  Properly breath taking.  No issues here at all (Ok, except Davos being there, which is fine 'cos I loves him,  and seriously did Stanis hace his wife and daughter in amongst his cavalry men as they got there pretty damn quick? Oh and no Val, Dala, baby etc... but again, understandable)

2) Brienne/ Arya / The Hound
Ok, I could quibble about this, but Im not going to. It was brutal. Properly gory. And finger bitting to watch. They've made us love Brienne and The Hound, so there was no winning here, which I loved. And the scene with Arya and The Hound... Perfection.

3) Daenarys. I want her gown. I had the feels when she locked the dragons away. It was done brilliantly. (Although, as an aside, isnt Viseryon white in the books?)

Then I run into trouble.. and if you havent read the books, skip this bit.

4) The Mountain & Qyburn - Because theyve introduced Qyburn to Kings Landing early, you have him trying to save The Mountain. In the books its Pycelle trying to save the Mountain and failing. We believe in the books the mountain dies, his head gets sent to Dorne (we believe) its only later we begin to doubt this. So they're changing things around here, and Im curioys to see how that will go. Not a complaint.  I can live with the changes, and I understand them. But it does raise questions.

5) Beyond the Wall - No coldhands?! Killing Jojen?! And was it just me who felt the reveal of the three eyed raven was rushed?! Plus, he was not nearly gross or horrific enough! The fight with the skellingtons was cool, but it just felt too rushed for me. Also Bran in the show is pretty much fully caught up with book Brsn so what now?

6) Tyrion - Now for me this felt really rushed, and my biggest complaint.  No mention at all of Tysha, which I get (cut charachters/ save time)  but Tyrion & Jaime parted as friends. This means Tyrion still believes he gas Jaime in his corner. No coversation about "Where Whores Go", all in all it just didnt feel tragic enough. Plus, Varys, you suck at disguise! Like no one will mention to Cerci that they saw you boarding a boat with a big box!!

7) The missing charachter.  Well I'd kind of forgotten we were expecting her, and I frankly dont care as it means other storylines can continue for a while. She'll turn up when she's ready!

And thats it. Im done. Maybe I can sleep now.

Spot the owls!

My current WIP. Getting there slowly but surely. 

Knitting Blindness

Sorry I've been so quiet, I managed to mess up my current project, and I spent two weeks staring at it unable to figure out I'd got wrong.

Turns out I was miss counting what row I was on and that I hadn't gone wrong at all.

Don't know how it'd got me so confused, all I can think is that I had knitting blindness!

Anyway, back on track now, thankfully, and I shall upload some WIP shots later on.

Geeky Yarn!

So as well as a knitter, I'm a huge geek, and I love it when my 'loves' combine...

There's lots of blogs and posts out there with geeky knitting patterns in, but a friend recently found these Firefly themed yarns and they're gorgeous. I really need the Crazy Ivan in my life, the colours are just beautiful.

Which got my wondering what else is out there in terms of Geeky yarn...

I used to by lots of handyed yarn from 'Snugglebots' a work at home mum, she has some fantastic colourways, the best is 'the Dr Who colourway' which is great fun. 

On my trawl I also found this Iron Man yarn from Yarn Geek Fibers, unfortunately an American store so not much good for me unless I want to pay a tun of postage, but the colours are lovely! 

Knitandfibercreation have some ace geeky yarns as well. Check out this lovely Tardis yarn, and this Bellatrix yarn, but for me the winner has to be Effie Trinket yarn, its subtle and gorgeous. It's another American seller, but I don't care, honestly there's so much Geeky Yarn to be had I may as well just send them my next few pay checks! 

So have you found any geeky yarns that I've missed? Which is your favourite? Is there a geeky colourway that you would like to see made, and if so what is it?

New Projects

After much humming and haahing I finally cast on my next project, which is a gorgeous Ginny Owls cardigan in a beautiful sea green wool.

And because having just one project on the go is too straight forward, the boy has also asked me to knit his 'baby' (doll) some clothes.

I let him search through my spare yarn collection to pick some wool he likes. He chose a lovely rainbow yarn for some booties, and some pink yarn for a dress. The doll is a bit smaller than most dolls, so a pain to knit for as everything has to be tiny, but at least the boy will be happy!

I'll stick some pictures up in the next few days,
But for know, what's everyone else working on at the moment?

To cast off, or not to cast off...

I had intended to do this next, I bought all the wool for it before Christmas, but I don't know if I want to do another huge project straight away. Ho hum...

And the other hand, my son is obsessed with Space, and his favourite planet is Jupiter, I'm wondering if I could try and knit him a Jupiter cushion? I've got some red and orange Aran wool spare, and some cushion stuffing left over from when I made my Lekku last year. I'm guessing I could use a standard ball pattern and tweak it.

Ugh, to Ravelry for some inspiration.

And it's finished!

Finally after 3 months worth of knitting, my Heliopath vest is finished!

It's now soaking so I can block it this afternoon, but I've got to say I'm rather chuffed with it. It's officially the most complicated thing I've ever done, but at least I've proved to myself that I can do complicated knits.

And here's the finished article...

For those who are interested, the pattern can be found here... heliopath-vest 

So, fellow knitters, what's the most complicated thing you've ever knit? 

And more importantly, what should I knit next?! 

What else are knitting needles good for?

So on twitter the other night we established that if the Zombie Apocalypse  a good pair of metal (or carbon fiber)knitting needles could be used to kill a zombie in an emergency. Similarly, a pair of circular needles could be used to garrote someone should you need to.

See, if Rick had some knitting needles here he could cull the zombie population a bit quite easily! No fuss, no muss!

But is there anything else you could use your needles for (excluding knitting obviously) or do you already use them for something else one might not expect?

Progress!

I had to take a break from the vest, as it felt like I was getting no where, so I just kept putting it off.

But last night I made myself pick it up again, and in the last 24 hours I've made a huge amount of progress. The body of the vest is done, and two & a 1/4 of the straps are done. That's 1&3/4 straps, and the edging left to do.

It's a real relief to finally feel like I'm getting somewhere now. Hopefully this time next week it'll be finished. Although given that I have my mother arriving for a visit tomorrow, maybe this time in 2 weeks is a more achievable target!

But anyway, do you ever put off a project because you feel like you're getting nowhere? Have you ever picked something up again and realise if you'd carried on you'd have been finished by now? Or are you all much more dedicated knitters than me?! ;)

So Slow...

Yeah, in other news, I've come to the conclusion I am a ridiculously slow knitter.
I think the issue is that the pattern I'm doing is complex enough that I have to pay close attention to what I'm knitting, but repetitive enough that I'm getting bored now. I know in an inch's time the pattern changes up, so it'll be a bit more interesting again, but that inch feels like it's taking forever at the moment!

Back to the knitting!

See I promised some WIP shots.

If I may deviate from Knitting chat for just one moment...

I know this blog is for knitting, and while I may be a knitter, that's not all I am. I'm also a mum who is constantly on the watch for bullying towards, or by, my son. Social media seems to be a place where bullying can and does happen under many guises.

I've spotted a bit of social media based bullying occurring on both Twitter and on Facebook ,but it seems to happen a lot more on Twitter, perhaps this is because I have my FB quite locked down, and only really see those posts made by my friends or family, whereas on Twitter I see tweets from a much wider group, probably thanks to re-tweets and the like.

Recently there has been some bullying on a friend's Twitter feed, and while I may like a good b*tch as much as the next person (ok, probably more than most) I am not OK with bullying.

My friend was really wound up by it all, and I've offered my blog as a place to vent (especially as they are far more eloquent than I could ever be and I agree wholeheartedly with what they have to say...)

So please bear with me, and welcome Jack!


Online Bitching on a Public Forum – It’s bullying and people are watching you do it.

Those of us who are into our social media usage and have groups of friends online follow the usual rules. We lock our Fb profiles down so employers can’t snoop, we don’t threaten to bomb Robin Hood airport on Twitter and we don’t (generally) troll celebrities. Twitter is an open platform for your thoughts, opinions, gossip, rants, squeeing and boredom. You follow people you have an interest in or something with common with. People follow you because you sound interesting and they like what they read. They see everything you type. If they follow a group of you who all chat – they see whole conversations.

Picture the scene. You've got fed up with a member of your group whose been a pain in the ass for the last few months. You get the gang round for a cup of tea and a rant. The gang joins in, rallying your support and agreeing that the person in question has stepped over the line. Ranting ensues. Threats are threatened and bitching is bitched. You’re the victim of their abuse. You and your mates arn’t going to take it anymore. You share the texts you've received. You tell the person in question that they've done it to themselves. You have been vindicated, your points validated; your opinion supported. And then you look around. You’re not having a cup of tea with your mates. You’re sat in the canteen at school. Loudly shouting bitchy things about that girl over there who’s been horrible to you. Whilst showing their texts via a Powerpoint presentation on the wall. Everyone is listening to you all. Everyone is watching you all. All those people, who quite respected you, have now seen you; not victimised or forgiving. You've become something else now. You've become the bullies. You shouldn't feel vindication. You shouldn't feel validated. You should feel shame. 

There’s a difference between airing your negative views about someone in a private forum with people you feel comfortable with, and shouting them out to a crowd. It’s not nice to publicly hurt someone’s feelings, even if you don’t like them that much. There’s freedom of speech and then there’s tact. Tact involves venting your frustrations to your friends in private. It’s far more dignified to conduct your negative affairs out of the public eye than reenacting the latest episode of Eastenders via social media. If you have a problem with people on social media then it’s healthier to walk away. Healthier on your mental state, and healthier on peoples opinion of you. If you have to keep running back to social media to check what validation you've received with regards to your most recent drama, then block. If someone is behaving negatively towards you online, then block. It’s a simple mechanism with a widespread affect. 

We forget that Twitter is a soap box for everything we say. We forget the amount of people who read the crap that we write. We forget the difference between positive and negative updates and how they affect other people who are reading them. Positivity, via the way we communicate online, can have a massive impact on those around us – whether it be coping with our mundane day to day life, rallying to a particular cause, or discovering a new scientific breakthrough. Post at least one thing every day that is positive. Like our Mums always used to say, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Unless it’s about Jar Jar Binks. Share all the hate you like about Jar Jar Binks.

The internet is the most dramatic revolution of communication in this century. We have the power to watch 
someone talk to us from a space station, crowdsolve medical mysteries and post up hundreds of pictures of cats. 

We can influence our world in a way that was never before thought possible. Let’s try and use our powers for good ok?

By 

Jack of Diamonds

Knee deep in knitting

Sorry its been oh so quiet on here recently,

My currently knitting project is a big one, and a bit all consuming, so much so that I actually found myself avoiding it for a few weeks after Christmas, I felt a bit knitted out!

But I'm back in the throes now, and rather enjoying it. It's the most complicated thing I've ever attempted - It's the Heliopath Vest from the Unofficial Harry Potter knits book. (link here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heliopath-vest)

I'll try and put up some work in progress photos later, just to prove I am actually making progress on it! ;)