Brace Yourself!

So, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there hasnt been all that much knitting going on in these parts recently...

Well you would be wrong! Its been happening in secret behind the scenes since there are so many birthdays between march and june I've kinda been saving up for a big expose!

So kinda in chronological order but kinda not...

First up Mavor's pressie a 8 foot long scarf!!
Yarn is Colinette One Zero in Crayon and Graffitti in Velvet Leaf (or maybe Olive not 100%) Pattern is the drop stitch wrap (modified to make it narrower i think 12 st not 18?). This believe it or not took me a night, thats right 8 foot of scarf in a night (woo drop stitches!)

Next! Kezmoan whom does swing dancing thus a nice bright (damn bright) shawl for herIts the Red hat Lady shawl in knitpicks sparkles in sunset. took rather longer than a night to knit, a large portion was knitted in the canteen at uni!

Then mothers, which was a biggy this year, i shouldnt divulge what but lets say it ended in a zero ;) thus she got a big gift
A cardi from a sirdar pattern exactly which escapes me right now knitted in Sirdar Supernova Super chunky in damson tweed (3 days after i finished this she declared she didnt like cardigans...)
So its just as well i had plenty yarn left and decided to do this as well
Boogie Vest in the same yarn, mmm twinsetty
I also did this
A grooming mitt (not that its much use to her now but thats against the point) Knitted with baler twine, i modified a basic mitten pattern, omitted the thumb used seed stitch to make it more bumply used big needles. (if you want an exact pattern get in touch email addy is up there). Could be made as an exfoliating mitt if finer twine were used...

Technically if we are going Chronologically Danny is next but well he's not you'll see why in a minute.

Next is Jacqui who hasnt actually had her birthday yet but got her pressie early
Clemintine from Spring IK, yarn is blue sky alpacas alpaca silk in ruby. I liked this its squishy.

Now we can get to Danny who despite it being his birthday nearly 2 months ago i only finished his pressie yesterday but boy am i glad. May i present the Sweater of Doom in all its finally finished glory!
Very kindly modelled by my dad! This thing took ages!!!
Yarn is patons washed haze aran in dark denim pattern is Leo
Soon this will be laufted to Edinburgh to its final home!

Great Vegetable Experiment 07, Day 92

Hmm its been a while since i gave you veggie progress...

Start with inside where the photography when a little wonky, think there may have been odd lighting levels no matter
Big tomatoes (and me in my jammies)
Some tomatoes! Top ones on wee plant bottom on big chaps again apoligies for the cruddy photoes.
Courgette with a big yellow flower! About the 4th flower i think but since they only seem to flower one at a time i dunno whether the earlier ones would be fertilized, to this end i have harvested pollen from this one to put on the next one
Pepper being kinda crowded by the other plants, with wee beginnings of flower buds
Cotton (with courgette polleny paintbrush...)
flax, a mite leggy, but we see.


Now to outside!
carrots in there barrel, should prolly be thinned at some point...
Onions, still being oniony
Garlic!
Potatoes! lotsa biggies, banked (i think) they are early variety so i think thats meant to be harvested in June but given that we are apparently 3-5 weeks behind the rest of the country means it'll prolly be nearer July


Since its June theoretically there shouldnt be any more frost (haha famous last words) so the cloches came offPeas, with little white flowers


Um Cauliflower, Cabbage and Broccolli (dont ask me which is which havent a scooby) something does appear to be having a wee bitty of a munchity crunchity but nothing major.

Fibre Pron Friday!

Had another little accident on ebay...
Now we have this wheel might as well get some more things to spin on it!

Tussah silk:
cherry truffle, mmmHighlanderParrot
Mardi Gras

Different Sheepies:Masham, which apparently is a Yorkshire cross breed but it looks like it will be nice, quite silky and long fibres, will see how it spins...
Corriedale, rather squishyWensleydale, i dont think this picture does justice how rich this blue is, its loverly!
Zetwarble, a rare dutch breed.

Non sheepie
Possum! interesting no..

There is a couple more bits but as they are mothers I'll let her show em off

Lastly, so that we can spin these and anything else in the future i also bought a maintence kit
Now i must away and make my self beautiful!

To Recap

Yes i havent posted in a week or so, I have been collecting photoes tho...

First an FO hurrah i finished something!!Dream swatch scarf from knitandtonic in SWTC bamboo in Serendipity. Quite glad to finish this, tho i need to block it again.

This week i made pancakes according tothe recipe Sarah sent me along with the mold
Pancakes went down very well father thot them to be especially tasty, thanks for the recipe!

I also had a wee spinny on the wheel:
Seems to be going reasonably well so far, shall keep you posted.

Monday, damama and i took the auldies to Peebles for their hodilays and had a wee wander round, I may be beaten for this...
I was instructed to buy myself something nice, that wasnt from a charity shop thus i bought this:
Sheepies!
Which leads me to the other purchases i made this week
Yarn pirate!!! wheeeeee
Jelly lounger! this one and a green one for my dear friend, we shall take them on day trips and lounge in the sun (haha)!!

While you were out....

I came home to find parcels! Firstly from my fabby SP highlanddancemom03 a wee parcel with some very nice pink yarn which looks like it may be handspun? There wasnt anything indicating anything about it in the parcel but my squidge sensors suggest some alpaca content? Whatever it is its loverly!
Also some very nice roving:Which was very handy seeing as how just befre i went away i had a wee accident on ebay and well bought this:

Its an Ashford i believe tradional but its quite lovely, might need a wee bitty tinkering with, and for me to learn how to use it properly but well i ave a wheel wheeeee
It also came with the usual bits and bobs
Lazy Kate and niddy noddy and some fleece for playing with!

The train keeps a rollin'

10 trains, 4 buses, 3 tubes and 4 cars later and I'm home!!
Went on a little adventure, partly to visit my friend Kerrie and partly to hook up with some Knitties!

My main stop was Oxford which is very nice! Spent most of Thursday on a train getting there so it should well be, had cheap dinner and that was about it! Observed Kerries envy inspiring garden:

Yes thats the bottom of the garden with a river and boats!!

Friday i went into London to meet up with Sue and toggle. First tried to find a shop which as it turns out missed by a hairs breadth! Also looked at granny square blankets in Cath Kidson (£125! Acrylic!) Then we went to the natural history museum, via the V+A for luncheon.

Sue outside the Natural History museum, I'll leave the rest of the picture to your imagination..
L-R Sue, toggle's girlchild, toggle on giant lips!

We went round the NH museum looked at dinosaurs (including the 2 wang o saurus) animals and shiny shiny rocks!! All in all twas a splendid way to spend an afternoon!!
Friday evening I went scuba diving!! Just a try dive thing in the swimming pool, it was surprisingly fun and i didnt drown, I also got a certificate!

Saturday we did Oxford things, Kerrie's boyfriend Chris joined us. He is an Oxford Don (something in the Uni) so we got a fair look round the uni and i have lots of nice piccies of Oxford from atop a tower.
First we went punting as thats like the law or something, thankfully Chris also used to race punts so we didnt have to worry about trying to do it ourselves, we saw at least 1 person who got it wrong and ended up in the river!!

Kerrie and Chris apunting
Then we went to try and find yarn shops, there arent any it seems... Then had yummo bangers and mash.
Saturday night there was a special evening at the Natural History and Anthropology musuem in Oxford, which was really quite fun there was Tibetan monks

African gumboot dancers, and a torchlight trail round the anthropology part, glow in the dark scorpions and lots of other things to see, it really was worth going to and i think may require a further visit as we didnt see everything!

Sunday it was back onto a train to sunny (surprisingly it was) Yorkshire to visit the delightful Yorkie and her family in her very very nice house! Was a very much whistle stop visit, Sunday night was knitting and gabbing (is there a finer way to pass an evening). Monday we went for a wee walk round the very quaint (hahahahahaha) village, up the hill:



to an old ruined church with a grave of a woman who died in 1743 aged nearly 120 which is quite an achievement if you ask me!

All in all a splendid weekend, tho if someone can invent a matter transporter before my next trip i would be most grateful

Love Thy Knitty

I've been doing me some more shopping at the mall of the knitties. I bought these:
Lovely lovely stitchmarkers made by Ana that she sells in her shop I got me a little selection of her wares tho i could be tempted to order me some more especially of the wee pink ones most pretty!!

Next specially for CKPictures of my flax seedlings which are positively shooting up this is a week of growth!! Seem to be fairly basic Dicot leave layout.

Lastly, I was sat here last night when i heard a squealling looked out the window and there were a couple of kittys in the garden possibly fighting or at least giving each other a good square go but whatever one of them was giant! look at this beast:This was as much of a close up as i could get from my window, i tried to zoom more but they went blurry but ya get the idea, thats one big assed kitty!!