Posts Tagged ‘handdying’

Imagine that!

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I have a blog!

Who’da thunk?!

In all seriousness though, life has exploded in a sticky and messy way over the last few months.

I started dyeing up a storm.

busy-bee1

My lurvely sock yarn is now being stocked in This Is Knit in Dublin, which is awesome. I still get a big goofy grin on my face when I see the yarn wall in there.

As well as having yarn hanging on every available surface in my house, we also moved at the start of July. I cannot stress how much I hate moving house. We essentially lived out of boxes for two weeks, then had some amazingly wonderful friends help us get everything from old house to new house in one weekend. Bear in mind that no moving van was involved. Just my (small-ish) car and the (compact) car of one of the movers.

It was exhausting, but felt really good.

moving-blues

Wow…there’s a sleep deprived face with a mop of bad hair on top.

It never ceases to amaze me how much damn “stuff” accumulates over a couple of years in a place. You can move in with a box and two cases, and leave with a van’s worth. We moved in with rather more than a box and two cases (unless we’re just counting stash here!), but not what we thought was an entirely unreasonable amount considering that we’d just been married and had received a shed load of gifts.

We moved out with a substantially larger book collection (we had moved from one case to 5, having gotten a load of stuff out of storage) multiple book cases and dvd racks, a big ass television, and a huge solid wood bed with a huge orthopedic mattress.

The chaos took a good week and a half to clear (and there are still a couple of archive boxes lurking around, if I’m honest), and was followed by a very happy wedding of two of our close friends. A fabulous day, and a pig on a spit which seemed to excite the boys like Lego at Christmas.

It took three weeks to get our internet sorted. *snort* Still not done with the sorting..I hate eircom even more than I hate moving house, but they are the best option for us at the moment. Can’t wait until our contract is up though, so we can get an ISP that doesn’t take 14 phone calls to get our name and address right, and who won’t sell us stuff that they don’t have.

Sorry…..the whole internet-getting thing has been stressful.

The couple of weeks without internets were strange at first (and by strange, I mean “like caffeine withdrawal”. Or possibly far too much caffeine). It was very odd being offline, but I was very productive in the knitting stakes - though less good at photographing everything.

dreamcatcher

A dreamcatcher for Leah, in Malabrigo lace. Ended up using a wire coathanger as the frame as the drink cup thing just wasn’t working out.

I also got the Gabriel’s wings that I’d been working on finished, which turned out really well, imho.

noro-wings1

It’s now off with a new owner who is very pleased with it.

I knitted up about eleventybillion washcloths, and two fab mobius scarves - one in handspun from DudleyKnitter and the other long enough to be worthy of Doctor Who . Reknitted my colourscape Urchin. Was on a roll so also reknitted my Star crossed beret. Finished off the blackberry clapotis that has been sitting in the knitting basket since Spring. Reknitted the peach tree socks for my mother, who asked that they be made a bit longer so that she could wear them with boots.

By the time the internet was reconnected, I was feeling rather contented in my book-and-yarn-filled cocoon. The manic pace didn’t take long to start again though, as myself and HusBeast were involved in a games convention here, and started running a huge gaming event for 150 international gamers the day after the con ended. Insanity, I tells ya!

Can't sleep, proxy will eat me...

Can't sleep, proxy will eat me...

Last week HusBeast’s sister got married, and we’re currently living in their house, babysitting their 3 and 5 year old as they swan around the Med on a cruise ship for 2 weeks. If sleep is for the weak, then just call me a sissy and pass the blankie.

The one in which I’m sponsored by Kleenex..

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Have managed to get myself well and truly lurgified. HusBeast has been unwell over the last couple of days and spiked a huge fever on Sunday night. I thought rather smugly, that I’d escaped. Woke up this morning feeling like I’d been punched repeatedly between the eyes as I slept. Still managed to crawl out of bed and over to the station in time to catch the train, but left town early and am now ensconced on the sofa, complete with hot drink and blanket, and several projects are surrounding me and begging for attention.

The accidently teeny hat is still sitting on the same bread plate that it was last week. It’s really pretty, but unless I’m planning on shrinking to the size of a five year old, it’s gonna need frogging.

accidently-teeny-hat

The yarn and pattern are both great though, and work really well together. I just had a slight fail on the needles is all.

The main reason that it hasn’t been blocked is because of this beautiful creature, which is currently nestled asserting dominance over my knitting basket.

blackberry-clap

It’s the infamous Clapotis, in Mmmmmmalabrigo silky merino, which is amazingly like the yarn I used for my first clap in all aspects bar the price. Even with the silly shipping rates, this stuff is still pretty damn affordable. (BTW, if you Dubs haven’t been into This Is Knit to fondle their Malabrigo yet, I suggest you do it quickly!) These skeins were a prezzie from the lovely Lesley (who came to visit…more below!) and unfortunately I’ve run out just as I get into the last section. Seems that getting this done on 3 skeins was just a tad on the over ambitious side.  Being the epic person that she is, Lesley messaged me as soon as she got home to say she’d secured another skein in the yarn shop that she works in (Fibre Space in D.C.)

Seeing as there was a visiting knitter in the house, Friday was mostly spent trawling through the many yarn shops in Dublin, which go from the awesome to the “3 skeins of baby acrylic on a shelf” variety.

I’ve been resisting buying yarn for months now, partly because I’ve got a lot and partly because I can’t justify buying even more yarn when I’ve got *coughovercoughthirtymilescough* of the stuff already. I got a gift voucher for my birthday in October and picked up some lambs pride to make a Sylvi out of. On Wednesday I technically broke my no-yarn-since-October kick when I had to pick up two more skeins of the same stuff that I’d ordered in October. Friday saw me fall off the wagon rather dramatically, as I found myself returning home with this

rowan-splurge

It’s Rowan pure wool aran in a fab charcoal colour. I’d been lusting after it for a while to make myself a Vivian and when I saw it on sale, I crumpled like a cheap suit. In an amazing turn of events, I even started a swatch at SnB this morning. I may die of seed stitch, but it should look awe-fricking-some.

The sock of the moment is still on the go, and even went to Kilkenny castle with us at the weekend.

well-travelled-sock

It’s not a colourway that I’d have chosen for myself as I’m the least pink person out there, but it came as part of the Lorna’s Laces sock club. I love their sock yarn, and I love knitted socks, so who am I to deny myself? They may be resigned to being boot socks though.

Being at a tourist spot, with a tourist, it was time for a cheesy photo op as well

say-cheese

Classy birds, us!

I’ve got yet another project on the go now as well. Gabriel’s wings is the pattern, and it’s using a fabulously coloured skein of Noro sock yarn that I got for my 29th but didn’t want to turn into socks. The two are working rather well together.

gabriels-wings

It’s early days yet, but I’m liking it so far. Should be pretty cool when it’s all blocked and stuff.

In other news, I’ve done an etsy store update - or the start of one at least. Sock is up, lace and DK will be going up tonight, unless I’m forced back to bed by my irate tonsils. As usual, all colourways are repeatable in all bases, so if you see something you might like feel free to drop me a line.

This is one of Lesley’s knits that she brought with her..it’s Ysolda’s Ishbel, and it’s knitted in my organic merino DK.

lesleys-ishbel-1

lesleys-ishbel-2

It’s always really nice to see my yarn knitted up into much-loved garments. It’s just the confidence booster a girl needs on a dull and sneezy Wednesday afternoon.

Time for more of that ginger, lemon and honey concoction, methinks.

Lions and tigers and bears…oh my!

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

Well, something like that anyway.

The lions were off being lions and were distinctly not cooperating for the camera. Bloody celebrities.

The bears were cute as all hell and I’d like to take one home.

redpanda

Yes, technically the is a bear. A red panda bear!

The tigers, much like the lions, were off sleeping and being far less pose-y than is necessary for blogginess. Durn cats.

The day at the zoo was fab. It’s so much removed from the last trip I made there when I was 12 - it was really like a different place. Huge open areas for animals, and plenty of places for them to hide from the bad weather when it arrives. Or cameras, in our case. We had a picnic lunch with a rather fabulous guest

pretties

…and naturally had to stop off at the city farm, where the pigs were sleepy

piggies

but the sheep were more than helpful.

sheeps

Yes, I realise that this makes me a massive knitting nerd, because I went to the zoo and saw sheep. Personally I found it more than a little disturbing that a “city farm” has become part of the zoo because some people have never seen a sheep up close. Or a cow. Or a pig.

I am a firm believer in knowing where your food comes from, especially if that food has a face. I die a little inside when stories about kids thinking that hamburgers come from McDonalds or Tesco and are shocked when it has to be explained to them that actually, it’s a bit of a cow (though given the meat content of a lot of sausages and burgers, not that much. Urgh.)

But I digress.

My “welcome to the umemployed club” paperwork arrived this week, which was strange. Even though I knew it was coming, it made things all the more real. This reality was added to in bright technicolour when I spent most of Thursday in the social welfare office, sitting around and waiting to be seen by someone who would tell me that I didn’t need to fill out an AB form, but an aB form and could I go back to the end of the queue. After three hours of sitting around feeling like I was in the waiting room from BeetleJuice, I was starting to despair in humanity and the Irish Government. Surely if these offices are that understaffed in every major town in the country, they could, oh, I don’t know……hire some of the huuuuuuge numbers of people who are standing around twiddling their thumbs to do some of the work?

The upcoming elections here are going to be epic. Absolutely epic.

Other things I’ve been doing over the last week or two (other than blogging…..no biscuit): cleaning. Lots of cleaning. Huge amounts of decluttering. Quite a bit of knitting.

shrug-folded

It’s another One Skein Wonder, in my own organic merino. ‘Cos I may as well get some squishy for myself!

I’ve also taken up the Tangled Yoke again, and it’s going fabulously well. I didn’t manage to get the photo off the camera before the battery died though, so that will have to wait til my next post.

I’ve been doing some dyeing as well, both custom orders and some new skeins for the store, which will be going up this evening. Here’s a sneeky preview

cathbad-2

A strange, up-and-down sort of fortnight, overall. I’m not sure if things like “getting all (yes, all!) of the neverending laundry finished” and “going dust bunny hunting under the bed” count as being blogworthy though. While I’m feeling rather accomplished about tackling these tasks that I’ve been putting off for an embarassingly long amount of time, they hardly rank as exciting.

Well, maybe just a little…

A little light larceny in the morning

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

I am still camera-less, almost a year after my cybershot was lifted by some toerag in the Louvre. We’re hoping to replace it when we get HusBeast’s tax back, but I’ve been making do with my less-than-optimal camera phone of late.

Which is why when the opportunity to point to someone elses piccies arises, I take the chance. My etsy shop is still brand spanking new, and I realise that some of the photos aren’t great. I didn’t realise how not-great until some good lighting and photography at Saturday mornings stitch and bitch made me go “oooooh”.

I bring you Márta

marta

…from GaietyGirl Fibre Arts.

There’s an assortment of other yarn in the background. This particular skein (along with the yummy cookie) is courtesy of KneeHigh and TeaandCakes on Ravelry, as is this fab pile up piccie..

yarnpile

More photos of our various shenannigans are over at the Dublin Knit Collective page.

The fun bit about the next picture is that it’s my yarn! These are Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang, as knitted up by the lovely MorningSprite.

mebh

The purple yarn is my sock (fingering) weight, and the colourway is Mébh.

It’s just so cool to see piccies of things that I’ve made up in the wild, as it were! It more than makes up for the exhausting weekend (though I did get to see Watchmen) and the late night last night (due to gaming) and the 700+ spam messages that I had to clear out of the blog this morning.

I’m currently downing coffee like it’s going out of style in an attempt to stay awake, but for the first time in a long, long while, I’m feeling that wonderful flutter of confidence in myself and my plans for the future.

Dyeing to meet you

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

This week has been insane with work, and with preparations. If all goes to plan, things should be a lot more fun and a lot less……brain melting once the New Year rolls around.

Step one. Prepare dye bath.

step one

Step two. Add a pint of O Pos dye.

step two

Step three. Scarlet superwash sock yarn, en route.

step three

Things are progressing well, if slower than I’d like.

Only eleventybillion more skeins to go.