Plodding on!

One Great Knitter
Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

knitcroblo3
 
Lordy, I know which designer I am NOT going to mention here, although I suspect many others will! Nearly caused an uproar on Ravelry when I dared say I found her irritating, smug, and her designs overpriced and twee, and utterly overhyped. Rather sad - and indicative of the pack mentality - that people messaged me to say they agreed but didn't dare say so in the threads because of the vicious backlash. Good heavens, it's a free country, something is wrong if people can only be lovey dovey without fear of recrimination.
 
Anyway, I digress.
 
I lost all my bloglist etc when my laptop crashed, so can't even check through that for inspiration.
Designers I like are Kim Hargreaves (despite the repetition and minimal tweaking of a lot of her petterns, I love the styling in her books, the Yorkshire link is always going to be abonus in my head, and I love the riding jacket, tousled hair, froufrou skirts style, perfic!
For similar reasons I also love Louisa Harding, romantic, slightly froufrou, loadsa cardis (I love my cardis!), lovely. Stick thin models are a down side but never mind.
And Norah Gaughan, although I personally don't rave over all her designs, I do love the mathematical element to many of them, and the fact that most of her designs are instantly recognisable as such.
 
Links to blogs? Nah, not my thing (and I don't know if any of those designers have blogs, I have never checked - but please do have a nosy at their designs if you are not already familiar with them).
 
Kim Hargreaves
I have piccies to upload, but for some reason blogger is playing up and gives me a choice of loading a photo from my blog (er, doesn't that defeat the object somewhat?). Weird, if it resolves itself later today I will add some colour to these words.

Time to slap some makeup on and head to the gym, week 2 of Couch Potato to 5k ... wish me well.

and again ...

Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!
TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo2


Well I am on day two, and think I might give up after this - there's a huge part of me that rebels instantly when I feel duty bound to do something, maybe I am simply not a team player( does this make me a Really Bad Person??)(do I care?), but I certainly don't like following the crowd. Or the sheep.

Also my crafty life is revolving less around knitting and more around my sewing and quilting lately, which makes me happy.

Such as this bundle of loveliness, of which more information will come tomorrow when I take some photos of the blocks I have finished so far ... pink feathers, perfection.

But back to the blog theme - an inspirational pattern?
It's a weird one really - not the pattern, the concept.

I find many many patterns inspirational - I can look at many stunning patterns on Ravelry, or finished items, and think they are beautiful, and appreciate the talent and dedication that has gone into the concept, the design process and the finished item, But I don't feel driven to emulate many of them - partly because I prefer quirky, more obscure designs (back to not following the crowd maybe), partly because despite the gorgeous skeins of hand dyed laceweight I have upstairs I know I don't have the patience (or skill) to do it justice. Or the time.

The most challenging knitted item I have on the go (and haven't even looked at in about a month) is a gorgeous piece of colourwork, a shawl:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summer-shawl-2, which I think is beautiful. I don't like using circular needles, and don't usually do long term projects, so in several ways this is out of my comfort zone. It's lovely to knit (once I tweaked the pattern a bit to make the roses more gently curved), I just got bogged down with other things. I would love to have this finished for my birthday, so must get back to it asap.

Inspiring? I don't know. Beautiful yes - very difficult or challenging? Not really. Aspirational? Not really - mainly because I don't aspire to be a professional pattern designer (I am still toying with designs to go with the craptastic book!).

I do, however, admire the mind that comes up with something like this:

(aplogies to the creator of this wondrous wotsit, I don't have the link to your site or your name). I love it.

And on a completely different note - this cactus has never ever flowered, and when I was giving it a drop of water the other week I noticed it was covered in teenytiny deep pink buds - and just look at it now!

This was taken last week, and there are probably double the amount of flowers at the moment, its stunning!

As for what's going on in the teenytiny garden and the teenytiny greenhouse - well, that needs a camera and sunlight to do it justice, so that's one job for tomorrow.

Right now, I think an early night is appealing (it's almost 11pm) and the last few pages of The Owl Killers, which is good but I preferred her first book.

Toodles!

A bit of all sorts ...

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? Was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
 TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo1

This is not really the sort of thing I like doing - I tend to shy away from the madding crowd. But I hoped it would give me the kick up the derriere I need to post more regularly so here goes, in brief.

My much loved and much missed nan, and my lovely mum both taught me to knit, when I was too young to remmeber! They were both creative: sewing, knitting and crochet (although I don't think my mum ever did any crochet), and I remember being fascinated by my mum doing that twisty wool ties using the door handle, for my baby sister's loopy hat (so I must have been 4).
My little chubby hands (both adjectives still apply) would get all hot and bothered, and my knitting would get tighter and more and more squeaky, until mum would take it from me and knit a few rows at the speed of light to loosen it up again. I suspect she did this to save her sanity when the nails-down-blackboard irritation of the squeak became too much ...

I doubt this picture is anywhere near a true representation of me. Someone throwing it and having a paddy is probably more like it. Nothing much has changed.

God only knows what I must have knit - I suspect misshapen, grubby 'things' to cover assorted dolls and teddies.

I can't remember not knitting really - I certainly knit when I was at college, insanely large mohair things that shed everywhere at college (I was an art student mohicaned punk, York in the 80s), and I remember a rather 'special' loosely knit monstrosity / jumper / dress / tent that we used to burn holes in and reknot in the pub.

In my defence we were drunk a lot.

I idolised Toyah when I was young, so imagine this armed with needles and wool. I was the only polite punk in York - I simply could not for the life of me burp.

I knit a lot for my daughter, so that's going back 23 years, and have my nan's and my mum's needles. And now I get to knit mostly for me, although my daughter absolutely loves getting anything hand made, as do my friends.

And on a completely different note, and a bit late.
It was St George's day on Friday, the patron saint of England. He of dragon defeating wit and wisdom.

So Leeds was full of these:
My favourite was the drunken one, with his drunken friends, trying to pick a fight with an equally drunken fally down man. Lots of squaring up and puffing out of chests (I was over the road at the bus stop, doing that 'I am not really watching your faux fight' thing), but my favourite thing was the knight's fake chainmail leggings kept drooping right down to the floor and he kept trying to pull them up without falling over. Tough work being a knight.
There was a group of them sitting in the window of Akbars Indian restaurant, scoffing their tea - now that definitely made me grin when I went past on the bus.

It's true some days, you just couldn't make it up ...

Sunshine

and showers!
Yesterday was A Good Day. I had a craft fair in Leeds, at Granary Wharf - this used to be home to the Dark Arches, a mishmash of independent shops and eateries under the railway arches, but all of this was shut down years ago (presumably due to funding or lack of).
Recently the whole area has been redeveloped, and for one it looks like it has been done well. The new buildings (and I am not a fan of new builds usually) sit well with the canal and the existing arches, and this space is where the Pannier Market was held for the first time yesterday.

I went from 'ah well, it might be a good way to meet nice people' to 'oh lordy I hope my stuff is good enough'. But the sun shone, the wind blew ( a bit too much at times, the nice lady next to me lost two of her hand made pots when they blew off her stall)(I did a lot of running round the front of my stall to anchor things down) and most importantly the people came!

Constantly - there wasn't a quiet time all day, and whether they bought or not they tended to stop for a chat.
There's something childishly lovely about people saying that they love what you make, it's good for the soul. I think that as soon as any craftsperson puts their work out on public display, on whatever scale, there's a part that hopes people will like it.

My 'shop' name got a lot of comments and grins, which was fun.
The much hyped artist - the next big thing apparently - was decidely average, he spent the day drawing and painting some very derivative work. My opinion of course and I am sure plenty of people thought he was great. There was a mournful harmoica player who was thankfully changed to a fiddler before everyone cried or slashed their wrists.

I would have liked to have a closer look at the canal (I love water and boats) but I didn't have time - I took two books, a magazine and some knitting, and only flicked through the mag and did a bit of knitting (every time I picked up my needles someone came to the stall, magic knitting!).

Anyway, I covered my costs including the taxis, and paid for next month's stall, and had enough left for tea -life in the fast lane or what!

I am now going to get dressed (lazy Sunday morning and a lie in, lovely) and nip to the tiny Tesco down the hill, then back home to have a much needed tidy. Then I plan on starting my quilt, and finally doing some knitting, it feels like a very long time since I sat and did and 'real' knitting.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend!

Hang onto your hats -

I have photos!

This beauty is the first jelly roll I have ever bought!

Not cheap (this was about £22.50 plus postage, which seems about average) but it is stunning, It is Plume, by Moda, and is destined to become a quilt for the first quiltalong on the UK Quilters group I recently started over on Ravelry.http://www.ravelry.com/groups/uk-quilters

We are a very mixed bag (oo er madam) of experienced and innocent faced new quilters, and people are very enthusiastic which is great! Do come and have a nosy.

I love the shapes and colours, I am dying to have a nosy but don't want to spoil it. I am not madly keen on some of the patterns (I also have a charm pack and half a metre of the fabulous pink feather print) or the browns and mint greens, so might leave those out, but having had a nosy at other Plume quilts they really look gorgeous. Go on, google Plume by Moda, have a look! Pink swans! Keys hanging from trees! Pink feathers! More exclamation marks!

I have also finished about half of what I plan on taking to the craft fair on Saturday. That gives me tonight, tomorrow, and some of Friday to get finished with sewing, stamp the bags (just in case I actually sell anything), price everything up, make a sign or two and pack it all into a suitcase with wheels.

It's colourful, I am currently finishing off some stuffed birdies in linen, and some bags - no idea what I think I will finish in so little time!

Do come and have a look if you are in Leeds on Saturday, it is being well promoted (I saw a man with it advertised on a huge sign on his bike in town this afternoon):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds/2010/apr/05/granary-wharfe-pannier-market

I really like the changes to blogger, this is so much easier to use - and I can link things at last. Large photos, links, faster (particularly uploading photos) - much better.

Lapsed

posting due to utter exhaustion!
I started work yesterday, just part time and not teaching or in lessons at all this week, and yesterday was pretty tough (my job is not the easiest in the world, or with the nicest people, and at one point I found myself literally on the periphery of various groups chatting in the staff room - which I suppose is to be expected after six months off work). I am shattered, truly shattered.

Anyway, camera batteries are charging up as I type, some yummy fabric arrived this morning and more is due tomorrow, I am sewing up a mini storm for this Saturday's craft fair, minimal knitting sadly but this will pick up next week, and my house needs a damned good blitz.
My teenytiny garden looks pretty when the sun is out, and assorted seedy things are sprouting in the teenytiny greenhouse, so plenty of photo potential.

I just need to wake up!

Watching

the last week of freedom vanish far too quickly!
I start back at work on Monday, in a non teaching capacity, then part time for two weeks, then back to it. Very mixed feelings - I need to use my brain, I need to be with my lovely friends, but the utter dread that is work is definitely creeping up.
The job hunt goes on ... anyone want an outstanding teacher and behaviour specialist in a school near the sea? A nice school? Yes?

I am heading out to lunch today, it's my daughter's birthday, so that will be a good afternoon. And I am meeting a good friend and colleague tomorrow for cake and coffee, so that's good too! One will be chat about nothing much, one will be mainly about work - both will be full of giggles.

Knitting - have just finished some robot mitts (totally the wrong thing for spring, but what the hell), and then back to trying to finish the cardi of boredom - piccies to come if we get any daylight (it's very dull out there).Then hopefully get enough spinning done to be able to cast on for something from Misty, Kim Hargreave's new book. And sewing, lots of sewing - I have a craft fair next Saturday (more info on that soon too).

Enjoy your day!