Cake ala Avoca Handweavers.
Machine knit, and not as nice as these!!
October 31, 2006
October 30, 2006
Spinning like a mad woman
Its been quite a while since I posted about my spinning on this blog.
August to be precise. Can you believe that?
Its not that I havent been doing any, I have, just havent been posting.
This will rectify that!
If you remember, I posted about the Madder and Safflower dyed Galway Cross that I carded together, to get this lovely combination of colours.
This is what it looks like spun up
I love this combination.
I got great yardage from this lot, which was half of the original seperate colours that I dyed. Now I will have to card together the other half and spin that up too as the more I have of it the better!
This is one of the koolaid dyed Jacobs fleece that I spun
I took a part of the fleece that had a lot of the black in it and only a small amount of white, and carded it together so that it was blended together, then dyed it. I loved the way the colour turned out in it. unfortunately I only dyed a small amount of this so I only have the one skein of it, and I spun it so thinly that I used all of the roving in order to get a good yardage on it.
I think it really needs to be plyed with something, so I may have to see if I can dye up another lot of Jacobs to match it.
What else, well I have been doing a lot of trials and testing with other roving that I’ve either dyed, or using straight from the fleece after carding. As I’m still a leaner spinner, and dyer, all of this is good practice for me.
70/30 combination of Jacobs and Galway Cross dyed with koolaide
I certainly have a lot of fleece to be practicing with, and I want to get my hands on some blue faced leicester after seeing what Holly did with hers.
She is bringing it to the knitting and stitching show in the RDS and I’m a bit jealous of how good she is (hear that Holly?!).
I have a very small amount of blue faced leicester that I got on ebay one time, so I may have a go at that before making the decision to buy more as I have tons of fleece to spin with as it is! I know who can supply me with some also….which makes it even more tempting..yikes!
Only a knitter can understand
We were at the Knitting and Stitching show in Birmingham, of which I never blogged about because it seemed a little pointless so far after the event, especially after subjecting everyone to endless posts about the Electric picnic so far after the event again, (take a breath..) and one of the items that myself Isobel and Sharon were keeping an eye out for was one of those nifty gadge/ruler/needle sizer things that Cheryl had with her, as she had whipped it out to check her gadge on her fetchings in the hotel bar as we sat and knit earlier.
We were disappointed. There wasn’t so much as a hint of anything that looked anyway like this, not to mention any other little item we were desperately (well not really) searching for.
I was at Stitch N Bitch last weekend, and it was winding up and people were getting themselves and their knitting together to go, when Cheryl pulled these out of her bag and said she had a friend coming over from the States and she asked him to get his hands on one of the gadge sizer thingy’s for us. She threw in the T blocking pins also as he had brought over more of these than she had asked for. I was very touched. Wasn’t that nice of her?? Thanks Cheryl!
October 29, 2006
Inspiration?
I have been a very bad girl.
I’ve let my heart get ahead of myself, and the head is now telling it how bold it is.
I’ve been busy buying magazines all round me.
First up is 2 magazines from Phildar.
I ordered the english version, which means I got the french full version, plus a seperate english version minus all the pictures and adds etc.
I love love love several items from each of these. Its going to be hard not to want to knit them all.
Next up is the new Yarn Forwardmagazine.
Its not bad, its the first magazine and has some good articles in it about shaping your knits to suit your body shape, how to spin using a drop spindle (Isobel?) and has a good selection of knits in it. There are a couple of patterns I may try.
Next is Knitscene Fall issue.
I loved the previous issue of this, it had several items that I would make, none of which I have made (yet) but this one didnt capture my attention the same way, in fact it looked as if there were less items in it than the previous one. Actually, I’ve just checked and there are only 30 in this issue compared to 44 in the last
Still, there are a couple of items that I have marked to try out and I will be doing so (I’ll just add them to the list!)
Finally is the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts
I haven’t really had a good look through this yet, but on first glance through it, I like the Spiral Hat, the Larkspur Hat and Scarf and the Ooh La Loopy Hats for kids. Nothing else really took my attention and there looked like there were one or two items in it that I’ve seen before.
I ordered this before I read about and commented on the issues that Donni was having with receiving issues of Interweave press, these last 2 magazines were ordered together and luckily only took a week to get to me, which was surprising given all the problems with Interweave.
I still havent received my winter issue of Interweave, although I’m not expecting it for another while, seeing as I live on a different planet, being in Ireland and all!
Okay, I drafted this post a couple of days ago and didnt get to post it until now, and since then I have received another, yes another magazine through the post.
This is from one of my subscriptions, and I was very happy about getting it as it came with a knitting calender for next year,
until I went to Borders yesterday and discovered that they hadn’t sent me the Rowan magazine that was supposed to come with it also……
October 28, 2006
Yum to wristwarmers
Now I know that everyone is in love with Fetching, and I am too, I plan on knocking a few more of these babies out for friends/family/myself.
I am however, a bit swayed by these:
I bought the pattern when I was at the Knitting and Stitching show in Birmingham, along with one 100g ball of their 100% Alpaca. I got it from UK Alpaca. I should be able to get 2 pairs out of the ball of wool.
I really like this pattern, it took me approx one day to knit and was easy peasy, although I felt a bit nervous initially at dropping stitches as per the pattern. I think it could progress into a nice scarf to match.
I think I will pick up some stitches along the selvedge edge i.e. the top of the wristwarmer, and knit an i-cord bind off though, as I can see the tops streching fairly soon.
Its not been cold enough really here to wear them much, although I’m sure that I’ve just jinxed the whole country into a bitter winter by saying that!
October 27, 2006
beta blogger
Just in response to Cheryl’s comment on the last post:
Pro’s of Beta:
I have a gmail account already and when I want to moderate comments from there it brings me straight into my blog without having to log in again. Like now.
You can apparently change your template/or customise the way you want it to look. the jury is out on this one, I havent attempted it yet….but plan to. I’ll update when I try!
No difference in leaving comments on peoples blogs if they have other provider like wordpress etc or if they have also upgraded to beta
I can add labels for each post I create, similar to wordpress.
Cons:
It won’t allow me to post as me on bloggers blogs who havent upgraded to beta yet.
Oh yes, Ive just found another one when I tried to post this post. When signing in directly to blogger (as I can’t remeber the beta blogger address) I have to sign in to blogger and then am asked to sign in again using my gmail account address, although it does default into my username. An extra step.
Thats the only con I’ve found so far, but it is a pain.
I will have to test drive the knitting bag soon, I have been feeling strange about bringing it outside so far, its as if I want attention to the fact I’m a knitter or something!
Maybe I should walk down the road knitting, with the bag over my arm or something ala subway knitter person on the 1st of Sept post.
Oh, and check out the retro fabrics at Yarn.ie, they will be at the knitting and stitching show in the RDS next week….yummy fabrics…
October 26, 2006
E-bay purchase
An impulse buy on ebay.
Its not bad, it will probably house a lot of yarn very soon, and I think it may be a good one to bring to SnB and my own knitting group that I’ve recently set up in my home town. It has a lot of room in it actually, and plenty of room for long needles.
I’m pretty excited about 2 new store opening up fairly nearby, but both in opposite directions to where I live.
First of all, we have a shop called Borders, which I know a lot of you people out there in blog land have right around the corner from you, but here in Ireland it is the first one to open. Can you believe that? Well the main reason I’m excited is actually because it is going to incorporate a Paperchase, which again is the first in Ireland, and again I know a lot of you are scratching your heads in amazement that we don’t have one of these wonderful AMAZING STORES IN OUR LAND.
Well, now we do!
I know where I’m spending part of my weekend…..
The other part of my weekend may just have to be spent here, in Avoca. They have just opened a new flagship store in Rathcoole, which isnt that far from me. This is the store that I have regularly taken my Canadian friend Sherri to, in Dublin and in Wicklow, and she loves it. I do too, they have the most amazing food, and clothing, and throws, afgans, shawls, scarves.
Sharon posted previously about the handweaving part of Avoca in Kilmacanogue in Wicklow, they even let her have a go. Go and find the post about it on her blog!
Anyway, I plan on stopping by for a coffee at least….and maybe a bit of a fondle of their throws….
October 22, 2006
Sheep Challange
Black Sheep Ale bottle, found at Biddy Early’s Brewery in Co. Clare.
Photo taken through the window of a cabinet.
I don’t think they are making this anymore.
This pub does the best food ever in its restuarant, and is very reasonable too. A pot of tea for one euro?? Where would you get that?
Unfortunately they have closed the restuarant part for the winter now, and will reopen it St Patricks weekend. Pity, its one of our favourite places to eat in Clare and we actually detour to stop there if we are heading home.
Don’t worry, the pub itself is still open!
October 19, 2006
Homespun Mouse
Remember I showed you the baby shoes I made with my homespun?
Here it is before I started knitting with it
Reggie was impatient with me taking photo’s of the yarn, he wanted to be the Star attraction!
And here it is. The finished mouse. Squeek squeek
Little does it know what fate has in store for it
Oh yes Reggie, get in there, you big mouser you! Look at him licking his lips!
Needless to say, the mouse is a HUGE hit with both Ronnie and Reggie, and is now minus its tail, but still going strong. Reggie picks it up and carries it over to a corner to play with it himself. A pure Ratter.
October 18, 2006
Lists of favourites as requested….
I was asked by our Secret Pal 9 Hostess Shelby to list my favorite:
Actor -Aidan Quinn, hands down
Actress -Jane Horrocks (think Absolutely Fabulous for those non Irish/UK people reading this….or Little Voice)
Animal - The Kitty Cat of course!
Band - Juliet Turner (at the moment) or Damien Rice
Book -The Time Travellors Wife
Bubble Bath - Lush bath bombs
Candy - Green and Blacks organic chocolate or Cadbury’s Flake “Only the crumliest flakiest chocolate…”
Color -Orange
Drink- good old ordinary Tea! With only a drop of milk please.
Flower - Fresia, or daiseys
Food - Chocolate!!!Or okay then, Lasagne as chocolate wouldnt really be classed as food really…love Lasagne
Lip Balm - Boots Spearmint Lipsalve, tastes as if you could eat it, or else Clinique nude balm or good old vaseline
Lotion - The Sanctuary products
Movie - Amelie
Place-Co. Clare, Ireland
Song - Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
TV Show - Coronation Street(!) or Strictly Come Dancing
Yarn- Noro yarns, but love all of them, can’t get enough!!
Vacation Spot - Rome or Paris….or Australia, or Scotland…or…or…or