grumpy old cow...

...thats me

a mix of the summer holidays coming to an end (where did it go?), back to school nerves (sheer horror / terror / confusion / disorder / panic), a run in with a patronising cow when i tried to return a (very expensive) cardi that was shedding so much it was coming off in lumps and making me sneeze (its got mohair sweetheart, its what it does, you should read the label) to which my reply was can i have head offices number please, i am not your sweetheart so please dont patronise me, and where on the label does it say this garment will shed all over the place, ruin what you are wearing underneath and make you sneeze

cow
and with my luck today she will be my one and only reader
in which case - i think you are a patronising cow
so there

ahem

on a knitting front:

have started this beauty:

from this lovely assortment (the rowan is as dark a charcoal grey can get without actually being black, i would have preferred black but this is leeds and one takes what one can get)

(unless its a very moulty expensive cardi)

have finished one side front (and how confuseled was i? AT THE SAME TIME increase 5 million stitches whilst standing on your head listing to the left AT THE SAME TIME decrease 3.456 whilst whistling the national anthem AT THE SAME TIME blah blah blah

got there eventually, 2nd time around
and one sleeve almost done, loads of snowdrops to sew up later on... love love love the colours together

knit. stay sane. knit. drink wine. knit. and ignore patronising cows.....

colour

just an assortment from the last couple of days... i almost missed the bus getting this shot today! from the bottom of the hill near my house, right next to the bus stop of prettiness (theres isnt much thats pretty near here, except for this nice countryfied bus stop with a chunky wooden bench (the rest of the area is manky as hell!)


a bunch of these and white (dying rapidly) freesia in my living room at the moment - i always wanted to be able to afford to have fresh flowers in my house all the time, and i can - i dont have much, but i do have the flowers!
these nasturtiums are ENORMOUS! they are trying to trap the postie i think, with their curling stems and cheeky little bright faces spreading aroiund the path

all gone now, but this summer (yes, that week that the sun shone, that was it) i had a mass of purple and lilac violas and pansies, really really lovely

and last but not least - adventures in kool aid - this has been posted off to my swap partner on ravelry, i really like it- sadly theres a touch of brown where the greens and pinks met, but apart from that i am pleased with it (i LOVE pink and green together)...hope you like it aksunflour!! (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sulkycat)

where did the time go?

my summer holiday mission was to learn to spin on my drop spindle - that has not happened, and only one week to go - where did it go? why has it rained almost the entire time? why is the house still a mess?

but something i DID manage to do over the holidays is this: thanks to the monthly adventures group on ravelry, i learned how to salvage the wool vomit below into a ball (spit splicing, excellent! i legitimately get to gob on my wool!)


yes this is what happens when you decide you know it all and that theres absolutely no need to wind a skein into a ball before you start to knit from it.... took hours and hours to sort this mess out


and this is the result - luna moth, my first piece of lace knitting apart from a floaty wisp (which is so straightforward it barely counts)

yes its taken in the toilets (after seeing mamma mia at the cinema), yes we are damned classy like that

not everyone gets to show off their new lace shawl in a toilet, ohhhhh no
i love it, love the colours, love the wool, love the pattern - am half way through a second shawl in a different pattern, am hoping to finish it by this time next week

i have, however, also just cast on for the snow drops cardi in the auntumn vogue, its gorgeous (and complicated) (twit that i am)- will add some piccie another day

meanwhile, this is whats going on in the teeny tiny garden - trial and error with my camera, i twiddled a few knobs (ooh er missis) and i LOVE the dahlia picture, one good thing to come out of all the rain... theres a few more of the dahlias (which are about 4 foot tall, and covered with flowers), i want a couple of them enlarging onto canvas for the living room


...and these, these are massive and sprawling all over the path (not my favourite plant but the smell takes me back to being a nipper) - used to be covered in caterpillars if i remember correctly

i wish i could make photos larger on here, never mind
i wish i could work out how the hell to make the links to crafster and ravelry actually work, and be in pretty little professional boxes at the side, never mind
i wish someone would actually read this blog!....

....never mind

long time no see....

i think the easiest way for me to cope with this silly picture loading / manouvering is to load them and then write - so bear with this being so disjointed (i simply cant be bothered tonight!)
this is the sky on the last day of my holiday at scarborough (yes, throughout this blog there are several piccies of scarby, its my favourite place)- it was really warm but the sky looked fantastic, really dark and moody...

midweek it poured down for the afternoon - again very very warm, so i sat on the beach under my brolly, hence the black frilly top edge to this pic
i ended up all on my ownsome, which suited me! i only left this little spot (my favourite place and worth the walk - theres absolutely nothing there apart from sea, sand, rocks and grass) when the tide came right in...then walked a long way and sat on a wall watching the sea crashing against the sides, heaven
this would be the perfect place to move to (er, not this actual spot on the beach you understand), if i could get a decent job here i would move like a shot...one day ,maybe, one day

i LOVE this - they walked so so slowly, one clutching her back all the way..i overtok them several times, i kept stopping to look at the view and play with my camera, they overtook me, then i would overtake them....just where the path dips infront of them is a very steep walk down towards the sea, i bet their poor knees felt every step

thank you girls, you made my day!

i have no idea what pattern this is - i started it absolutely ages ago and finally got round to adding the beads to the points - its in debbie bliss cotton angora i think (i think, could be totally wrong, although i know for sure its debbie bliss something) in a deepish purple, i really like it - i altered the patter to have a band of lace and a panel down the front instead of it being all over, and i like how it turned out - not too keen on the wool though, it split quite a lot

i finally found how to do macro piccies with my little camera, and i like this - i jotted it all down somewhere and one day i might find where i put it - its in a 'safe place', which is rarely a good thing

i would love to be much better at photography than i am, but cant really justify buying a better camera - the one i have is my 2nd decent one, and i am trying to do what i can with it

its just one more thing on my very very long list of things i want to do well (this is a problem i have - i cant settle for doing things 'okish' and simply enjoying them for what they are, i always feel this need to do better and better......and seem to be jill of all trades, mistress of none!


and this is my lacy wotnot that i am working on for ravelry - and about 5 minutes before starting to update this blog i realised it was very very wrong for the last few rows...no lifeline, very fine fluffy wool, unpicking this back a few rows is not going to be easy or fun
gulp

i also have a luna moth shawl halfway completed in a totally different wool - bfl from yarnpirates (thank you martha!) in shades of black, grey, purple and jade green, very very beautiful - the 2 types of lace seem to sum me up pretty well, pink, fluffy & girlie, and dark gothypunkiness!




2and a half weeks into the holidays and i dont want it to end!