Shadows at the parade
Hey Ma, I’m able to reach my nose with my tongue….are YOU ???
(no)
(Man, the patio needs weeding)
Paper mache head on one of the floats at the Celbridge St Patricks Day parade
March 31, 2008
March 30, 2008
A new online magazine
I am still catching up on a lot of bloglines reading, and have left some , okay a lot, of blogs where there are a lot of posts until I can actually sit back and read through them properly and catch up.
One of these is Ruth, of Woolly Wormhead, and after finding out that she’d had her beautiful baby boy, she also has been interviewed in Cast On, of which I have yet to download the latest episode and pointed me the way towards a new online magazine the inside loop with some fantastic new articles and patterns in it.
It features one of her famous hat patterns, and also one of the Etsy sellers that I have bought from in the past, Middle Earth Knitter, there is a pattern using her yarn, and it looks really nice knit up, and also has an interview with her.
The magazine will feature mainly UK yarns, but also yarns that can be bought in the UK. It will be nice to see patterns knit with yarn that we in Ireland can also obtain pretty quickly, as sometimes I find it a little frustrating seeing patterns knit up in something that I know I can’t get my grubby little mitts on without spending a fortune in shipping.
This online mag looks really promising, and I’ll certainly be checking it out regularly!
Right, now to download the latest podcast from Brenda….
March 29, 2008
The Clare Post
In my last post but one, I mentioned that we’d been to Clare.
We were there for a whole 6 days. Bliss.
Well, we travelled down and back on 2 of those days, so a whole 4 days really.
I admit, I didn’t do too much in the way of work.
My good man repainted the kitchen and did a really good job too, and braved the elements, including a gusty wind, to put flashing around the chimney breast.
What did I do? I knitted. And read, and then knit and swung in the swingy chair, as I call it.
And took photos. Lots and lots of photos. I won’t bore you with them all.
And went for a couple of walks, though it was too cold and windy on the beach, we had to turn back.
We also went to the local establishment and drank too much with the landlord, so we had to delay returning home from the cottage until the following day (Monday) instead of sunday like we had planned. Oops.
But I did knit, and seeing as this is supposed to be a knitting blog, here is the result of some of it:
I finally got down and put my mind to finishing the first sleeve of Bridie, and then immediately cast on for the second and got about a third of the way into it, so I’m homeward bound now.
I also did a little bit of knitting on a shawl that I had started before going to Clare, and got a bit done on that.
Its being done in the green ?merino from a cone that I got in Avoca
Suffice to say, I also came out with a bag full of yarn and material.Cheryl suggested that I knit a shawl from the green to go with the green linen dress that I will be making (ahem, hoping to ) from some of the material I got from Avoca and I decided that it was a splendid idea!
Thanks Cheryl!
Details to follow at some stage when I get up off my derriere to find the book!!
March 28, 2008
Publicising knitting locally
I got a text from Marina (blogless) from my local knitting group last night asking me if I’d seen the Farmers Journal?
No, I don’t usually read it, but I suppose I should have been keeping an eye out for it as I’d been interviewed way before Christmas about our local knitting group, the Witty Knitters, that I had set up 2 years ago.
The photographer had taken a million photos so I’m quite pleased with the one they chose, I don’t look too neurotic in it 
The interview was supposed to have been published around Christmas time but there you go, its out there now and hopefully us knitters will get a bit of recognition from it.
Here’s the interview, though I can’t quite remember saying some things, like whatever!!
and they also published some of the local places to buy yarn, though unfortunately they left out Craftspun, the Yahoo group and also my blog, but they did include the blog for the group so thats pretty good!
All in all, I’m pretty chuffed!!
I’ll have to widen the door….. 
March 27, 2008
Wedding things and Etsy finds
Things are ticking away chez Tangelledangel and the real countdown to the wedding is kind of beginning.
We’re feeling the pressure slightly to get the invites out, as we have put an RSVP date on them for the 12th of April (? why?? I don’t know!)
We must have spent a good 2 hours last night writing the evening invites alone.
We wrote the full day invites before we went to Clare (last week) but havent posted any yet as we had been wrestling with the do we/ don’t we aspect of wedding lists. As in, do we create one, or don’t we.
We’ve decided to create one, and thats mainly my doing, as the house we live in has been my house for the last 4 plus years, and I have an Awful Lot of Stuff in it. So, we don’t need toasters, or towels, or other standard weddingy presents.
we do need a new iron, we do need decent glasses, and I would like a water filter kettle, as the water in this area is so hard that I seem to spend a lot of time washing out the kettle of limescale particles (yuck). It may be nice also to have some matching towels and suchlike.
BUT, on the plus side, we’re up to speed on a lot of things and getting there on others.
Am I mad to want to do the flowers ourselves???
Anyway, onto other things, …and like I have time to carry some of these things through at the moment, …I have been doing a little bit of purchasing from Etsy.
Its so hard not to, when I’m on it regularly because of my shop, and because the dollar is so weak at the moment, its almost as if I’m getting a bargain everytime I buy something.
Not so much of a bargain though when I’m trying to sell something myself. It backfires on me goodo then
I think that I may do a little bit of an etsy feature here whenever I come across lovely things, why not encourage other people to use it!
Yesterday I went for a walk and ended up at my parents place, well okay, I was aiming for there.
Any parcels I buy online these days I send to my parents address as I’m not in during the day. If I don’t, the postman gets to my house during the day, and as I’m not there, he brings it to a localish (next town) postoffice depot place, where their opening hours have been very wisely chosen as between 10 and 3pm. Yes, you heard me. So, no chance of anyone who works Mon-Fri to be able to collect from there without taking time off work.
I know, it makes total sense to someone out there in cuckoo land.
I diverse.
Yesterday I received 3 packages (yayyy, get a real buzz from getting packages in the mail!)
The first was this one, from MaxandBella with some stickers for me to use in my Etsy shop. I love them, and I could have gone mad in this shop buying loads of different designs but I stuck to just 2 different ones.
I love the bird on these ones. Oops, I had to hide my address from you- sorry!!
Secondly I bought a pair of gorgeous earrings from BirdzNBees
and then because I could, I bought the fabulous necklace at the start of this post, which doesn’t go with them but can easily be worn seperately.
Lastly, all the way from Japan in just 4 days, I got this pair of Japanese sewing books.
Because I’m fluent in Japanese and because I’m such a seriously skilled dressmaker…. NOT!
I love the designs though and think that some of them would definately be do-able based on the illustrations they have painstakingly drawn out.
As well as the pattern pieces.
These came from this great shop-Pomadour24, and there are lots more there available!! I had a hard time making a decision on which to get and I’m glad I got these.
Just need to set aside a few hours now to get cutting out and pinning and sewing…..
March 17, 2008
Presenting the finished BSJ
I know that I’m flogging this one to death but I just have to show the finished BSJ and then thats it, no more pics of this one!! I got a great reaction from the receiver- well Mum of the receiver really , and I enjoyed the end process of it so I think that I will be making another one soon enough.
What I didn’t like was the garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch- yawn. Just seemed endless to me. But it is a fantasticly constructed pattern, even though the few lines that its written in make you think that you are going to seriously fudge it half way through and not know it until the end when you attempt to fold it up and find out that you only have half a front section or something
Luckily, I made it through.
Sharon helped also, as she has made one also for her bump, and a fine jacket it is too. I fudged a little on the buttonholes. I didn’t do the maths too well (or at all actually) and I ended up with 4 buttonholes on one side and 5 on the other, but didn’t really mind too much, I reckoned it would work itself out. The whole point of having buttonholes on either side is that the BSJ pattern is written for either sex, and goes on the premise that the sex of the baby isn’t known until its born so you can then be prepared and sew on the buttons to the proper side for the proper sex, OVER the buttonholes you had created on that side. The wisdom of Elizabeth Zimmerman knows no end.
Can you see my eye in the button on the top? Lol
Yarn: Jaegar Baby Merino DK, 100% pure new wool, machine washable, 131yards in 50g, think I used just over 2 balls, and finished off the final row and cast off with Rowan Baby Soft yarn, havent got the deatils here unfortunately.
There you go! Im getting there with the updating, slowly.
Still havent really got the blogging mojo back, but trying!
Happy St Patricks Day to all who come here
March 12, 2008
Ive been knitting more socks
What do you think, are they me? My colour…..my size?
Nope, they are for a small person.
Much smaller person!
I never thought my feet were so big
I’m only a size 4!
And look, it fits into the palm of my hand.
They are bound for little Rebecca along with the stripey pair. In fact, they have already gotten to her.
Here they are in context again.
Tiny! Fun to make!
March 7, 2008
Feeling the love
I’ve just discovered that one of my Etsy items was included in the EtsyAddicts Blog!!
Check it out HERE
Great feeling!!
March 6, 2008
Etsy things
I’ve been a little absent in the blog world of late. Can’t get back into the blogging for some reason. lots to say but just don’t know how to put it down here.
One of the reasons is Etsy.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on it and have sold a few items. One of the women I sold to, sent me a photo (at my request , only if she wanted to) of the coasters she bought from me in use.
I think they look great with her lovely red cup, don’t you?! Makes me proud! *sniff, wipes a tear*
I have quite a few things ready to put up on Etsy in my shop, but havent been able to coordinate time for photography and putting them into the shop. One of the things they advise on Etsy is not to put loads of stuff up all at the same time as it lessens exposure to your shop and thats what i will be doing. i also happen to have a cat on my lap which is seriously hampering my typing skills so reckon I’d better sign off now. more on this later!
March 5, 2008
Welcome baby girl!
My soon to be Sister In Law had her baby girl today, Rebecca, 8lbs 8oz.
All well with Mum and Babs.
Such excitement!!
Guess I’d better get these to her soon or she’ll soon be too big for them!
I wanted to mark the date.
More to come…an early night for me….