The past two weeks have been mad. I have spent a good year really trying to slow down my pace of life, but that doesn't really work when you have 4 kids and a husband who doesn't drive. It is my own fault, I keep finding things for them to do. At least I have found lots of free stuff.
R and C are each doing two free performing arts groups a week. Naturally they are 4 different ones on 3 different nights, and two of them are on the same night as my knitting group meets. But I am glad they have things to do and most of the time I wish I had loads more money so I could pay for more things for them all to do. And pay for somebody else to take them. :-)
But I can already feel myself waiting for half term, so I can have a break from all of the taxiing around. At least our days are mostly quiet. And I am needing some time to do some exercises to keep my back in shape.
I was at the osteopath on Thursday, having been to Pilates on Monday and Tuesday, and spending all of Wednesday in pain. He cracked my back, and unlocked a couple of things and it just felt immediately soooooo much better. Now I have to keep up with exercising to keep it that way. So I am off for a little walk soon, in my earth shoes, and to do a very small amount of yoga, and then to hope for the best. I can feel the muscles in my neck and back on the left side are not used to where they are supposed to be and want to pop back, but I am going to try to keep them sane. And myself as well. Which is getting harder to do. :-)
I am thinking of loads more exciting stuff that I could be writing, but can't be bothered. Maybe blogging isn't for me. hmmmmmm
Peace
Julie
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Gloves seemed like a good idea....
I have been making some fingerless gloves, so I thought I would bite the bullet and make some with fingers. After all, I can turn a heel, so why not a finger or 10?
I am using my lovely sock club yarn, Christmas Congo, as I do like the colours and they will look nice with my green jacket. (That is the jacket that used to be Al's that I have always wanted, and he has given to me now that it is well broken in cuz he got another one from Oxfam.)
I have been looking for patterns, and finally found one on Ravelry which is perfect. It is the right yarn, in appropriate sizes, and just looks lovely. Sock it to me Gloves.
So I measure my hand and start knitting, and I get this far.
It is looking good, the thumb is perfect, it has nice long ribbing, and it is too baggy. You can see in the photo that the back of the hand is all folded and loose, and I using slightly smaller needles than are called for.
So I sat around and looked at it for 24 hours, willing it to shrink so that I wouldn't have to start over, which didn't actually work. :-( In the end, I phoned Martine who told me what I already knew in my heart, that I would have to......start over.
Which is what I have done. I have started in the next size down, the Medium. You see, I don't consider myself a medium anything. Everything about me is large, so why do I need medium gloves. Maybe I should just be glad, as I will use slightly less yarn. :-)
And for something different....here is M doing a science experiment with boiled red cabbage water to ascertain the acidity or alkalinity of various things in the kitchen. And to make a big pretty bubbly concoctions. :-)
Oh yeah, and lots of other stuff is going on, which I don't have time to write about, cuz I am knitting some other stuff....
Communication was always my strong point
I am using my lovely sock club yarn, Christmas Congo, as I do like the colours and they will look nice with my green jacket. (That is the jacket that used to be Al's that I have always wanted, and he has given to me now that it is well broken in cuz he got another one from Oxfam.)
I have been looking for patterns, and finally found one on Ravelry which is perfect. It is the right yarn, in appropriate sizes, and just looks lovely. Sock it to me Gloves.
So I measure my hand and start knitting, and I get this far.
It is looking good, the thumb is perfect, it has nice long ribbing, and it is too baggy. You can see in the photo that the back of the hand is all folded and loose, and I using slightly smaller needles than are called for.
So I sat around and looked at it for 24 hours, willing it to shrink so that I wouldn't have to start over, which didn't actually work. :-( In the end, I phoned Martine who told me what I already knew in my heart, that I would have to......start over.
Which is what I have done. I have started in the next size down, the Medium. You see, I don't consider myself a medium anything. Everything about me is large, so why do I need medium gloves. Maybe I should just be glad, as I will use slightly less yarn. :-)
And for something different....here is M doing a science experiment with boiled red cabbage water to ascertain the acidity or alkalinity of various things in the kitchen. And to make a big pretty bubbly concoctions. :-)
Oh yeah, and lots of other stuff is going on, which I don't have time to write about, cuz I am knitting some other stuff....
Communication was always my strong point
Friday, 16 January 2009
And fun was had by all....
Well, actually fun was had by me and Al. In May, we shall have been married for 20 years. Our eldest daughter turned 18 last month and Al turned 40 this month. For his birthday, we went away for the first time since we started having kids, without any of them in tow!
Of course, we are skint, so instead of that weekend in Italy I would have liked to treat him to, we managed a £12 Travelodge special in Liverpool City Centre. Not very glam, but then again, neither are we. Or at least me.
We had time at the Walker Art Gallery, had a fantastic meal at Alma de Cuba, which is the most beautiful restaurant I have ever been in, gave up the idea of the cinema because of the bottle of wine, 4 cocktails and lots of lovely food meant we would have fallen asleep anyway. So we went for a little walk, had some ice cream from the Ben and Jerry's vending machine, and went back to our room, where there were no kids up waiting for us, plying us with questions or demands. It was quite nice. And I hope we do it again some day.
Happy Birthday to Al, who is still not as old as me. :-)
Peace
Julie
PS I didn't knit him anything for his birthday!
Of course, we are skint, so instead of that weekend in Italy I would have liked to treat him to, we managed a £12 Travelodge special in Liverpool City Centre. Not very glam, but then again, neither are we. Or at least me.
We had time at the Walker Art Gallery, had a fantastic meal at Alma de Cuba, which is the most beautiful restaurant I have ever been in, gave up the idea of the cinema because of the bottle of wine, 4 cocktails and lots of lovely food meant we would have fallen asleep anyway. So we went for a little walk, had some ice cream from the Ben and Jerry's vending machine, and went back to our room, where there were no kids up waiting for us, plying us with questions or demands. It was quite nice. And I hope we do it again some day.
Happy Birthday to Al, who is still not as old as me. :-)
Peace
Julie
PS I didn't knit him anything for his birthday!
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Happy New Year!
So I am finally getting around to writing Happy New Year. Well, it is only January 4th, and I have been busy. Had a great time with best friend Martine and various members of her family. We had a lovely Italian feast and a few drinks, and of course, Jools' Hootenany on the telly. In the background mostly because we have a new CD player, one that actually works, so can play loads of music. :-)
Things I have been making include fingerless gloves. When S turned 18 there was a friend of hers here who had a nice pair and I thought I could copy the pattern. Well I have made some different ones. Haven't got a photo of the first pair, which looked very nice.
Here are the ones made for C according to his wishes. It is my first attempt at colourwork and I used a pattern by Zortified on Ravelry.
Here is a hat and scarf I crocheted for myself before Christmas. Bigga wool and crochet means it took me about 2 hours in total, making it up as I went along, and that includes making the hat too small to fit around my head, and redoing it. It is lovely and soft and warm, so I have been enjoying the cold weather. :-) The only problem is that since I cut my hair short, when I take it off I have a rather interesting hair do that doesn't look nearly as good on me as it does on Laurie Anderson.
Another lovely soft warm thing I made is this neckwarmer.
I still think of it as a snood, but they appear to be called all sorts of things, snood, cowl, neckwarmer, collar, etc., so I will just go for functionality and call it a neckwarmer. And it does keep my neck warm. I had this Sirdar yarn lying around, having bought it from ebay ages ago to make something for R. She does have a hat made from it, (and so does S but she never wears it cuz it is too big) and we may get around to a pair of legwarmers soon, and some wrist warmers.
In the mean time, I used some of it to make this for me.
I just cast on 100 stitches, worked in stocking stitch for a few rounds, decreased by 5 stitches in 4 rounds as I went up, to end up with 80 stitches. I cast off with a crochet hook, nice and loose, then crocheted a row of cord stitch at the top. I then added yarn to the bottom and crocheted a row of double stitch and a picot edge, just so it would be easy to tell the top from the bottom. I dampened it and lay it out overnight, but the bottom still curls a bit. I don't really mind. It is warm and soft which is the important thing.
Also, best friend M got me 5 hanks of undyed wool yarn and some dyes to dye it with! What fun!!! I have done one of them this morning, and this is what it looks like.
I don't know much about dying, but this was quite easy, and seems to be good fibre reactive dye, although I did use a lot of it. I am trying to decide if I want to do socks or legwarmers, or maybe wristwarmers with this bit. I will have to see if anybody else in the family wants something, but I like these colours, so it will probably be for me!
I think that is all for now. Back to finishing off a bday present for a friend. Oh yeah, and feeding the children....
Peace
Julie
Things I have been making include fingerless gloves. When S turned 18 there was a friend of hers here who had a nice pair and I thought I could copy the pattern. Well I have made some different ones. Haven't got a photo of the first pair, which looked very nice.
Here are the ones made for C according to his wishes. It is my first attempt at colourwork and I used a pattern by Zortified on Ravelry.
Here is a hat and scarf I crocheted for myself before Christmas. Bigga wool and crochet means it took me about 2 hours in total, making it up as I went along, and that includes making the hat too small to fit around my head, and redoing it. It is lovely and soft and warm, so I have been enjoying the cold weather. :-) The only problem is that since I cut my hair short, when I take it off I have a rather interesting hair do that doesn't look nearly as good on me as it does on Laurie Anderson.
Another lovely soft warm thing I made is this neckwarmer.
I still think of it as a snood, but they appear to be called all sorts of things, snood, cowl, neckwarmer, collar, etc., so I will just go for functionality and call it a neckwarmer. And it does keep my neck warm. I had this Sirdar yarn lying around, having bought it from ebay ages ago to make something for R. She does have a hat made from it, (and so does S but she never wears it cuz it is too big) and we may get around to a pair of legwarmers soon, and some wrist warmers.
In the mean time, I used some of it to make this for me.
I just cast on 100 stitches, worked in stocking stitch for a few rounds, decreased by 5 stitches in 4 rounds as I went up, to end up with 80 stitches. I cast off with a crochet hook, nice and loose, then crocheted a row of cord stitch at the top. I then added yarn to the bottom and crocheted a row of double stitch and a picot edge, just so it would be easy to tell the top from the bottom. I dampened it and lay it out overnight, but the bottom still curls a bit. I don't really mind. It is warm and soft which is the important thing.
Also, best friend M got me 5 hanks of undyed wool yarn and some dyes to dye it with! What fun!!! I have done one of them this morning, and this is what it looks like.
I don't know much about dying, but this was quite easy, and seems to be good fibre reactive dye, although I did use a lot of it. I am trying to decide if I want to do socks or legwarmers, or maybe wristwarmers with this bit. I will have to see if anybody else in the family wants something, but I like these colours, so it will probably be for me!
I think that is all for now. Back to finishing off a bday present for a friend. Oh yeah, and feeding the children....
Peace
Julie
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