Posts Tagged ‘summer’

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.

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Purple monsters and fingers

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Rowan all seasons cotton is very nice. Very nice indeed. Knitting it in the round on 3.5mm needles is distinctly not advised though.

I’m taking a break from knitting my purple monster (and from the resulting hand cramp. There are a hella lot of ssks and k2togs in that pattern!) to do a quick update. Again, photoless due to  my camera battery being dead, and my photoshop trial being over *sob*

A quick jaunt down to Waterford took place at the weekend, where I got to catch up with some people that I haven’t seen since the wedding. Shameful, I know. Large amounts of yummy food was consumed, along with multiple mojitos. The weather even obliged and allowed for my first al fresco meal of the year.

Shockingly I didn’t get near the new yarn shop in the city centre, due entirely to the aforementioned mojitos and company. I’ll be back down there in a few weeks though, so will give a full report then. The things I do for my readers!

Last night, myself and HusBeast headed into Dublin and went to a Bill Bailey gig. I got the tickets back in October - I’d failed to get them every other time he was touring here for the last five years  - and they were an anniversary prezzie for himself. I won’t post spoilers for those of you who are still to see the show, but suffice to say that it was fantastic. I had serious issues with not being able to breathe because I was laughing so much. Clever funny as well. Not just an assortment of “tit and bum” jokes, which is all too prevailant in stand up these days. Just to sound like an old fart.

This morning I was rudely awakened by the postman. At 7.15am. Has to be some kind of record for earliest delivery by the Irish postal service. I had been hoping that it was a package from the States for me, but alas, it was for The Lodger. It seems that the best way to get me out of bed and down stairs in 15 seconds or fewer is the promise of peanut butter M’n'Ms.

The finishing touches on my BSJ were completed at SnB this morning, which left me feeling rather chuffed. It’s a very cute looking thing, and finished just in the nick of time. Pity the intended recipient will have grown out of it in about ten minutes, but he is a baby and that is their way. You turn your back for just a moment, and poof!, they’ve grown another inch. I’ll console myself knowing that Becky will like it, and will possibly be able to reuse it at some stage in the future as it’s in a nice gender neutral colour.

Wow, I used the term “gender neutral”. I may have earned a gold star from the PC police, horror of horrors.

Apart from suffering from hand cramp (mind out of the gutters, thanking you!) there’s not much going on chez moi. I’m trying to get the stuffed purple monster body done this evening before bed, so am ensconced on one end of the sofa with some tea and Tom Waits on the stereo while HusBeast and The Lodger are currently saving the universe from alien invaders on the other end. For my part, I’m being encouraging by making comments loaded with double entendre and singing the Faceplant song every time one of them gets splatted. It’s a pretty regular thing, but they’re getting better.

Many things are getting better.

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Sunshine and lollipops

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

I managed to miss Woolapolooza entirely this weekend. There was a rather hasty exit beaten to Tipperary on Saturday morning, and we didn’t get home ’til Sunday evening. Nothing big and bad, just family stuff that couldn’t be dealt with over the phone.

It was a fantastic weekend, weather-wise. My cat didn’t appreciate it though. Perhaps it’s something to do with all that fur he has.

kitty

He found shelter in some of the many, many plants and bushes in my parent’s garden.

The butterflies, on the other hand, were loving the sun. I’ve been noticing a distinct lack of butterflies in recent years, but they’re all over the place at the moment.

butterfly

Yesterday was a bank holiday here, and to be honest, I didn’t get up to much. Made the apparently obligatory visit to a garden centre, where I ate ice cream and bought some organic herbs and compost to repot at home. I hate buying little packets of over-refrigerated herbs in supermarkets when they’re so easy to grow. Even though we’ve a big back garden, it’s basically a wilderness, so the herbs are in a plantpot garden. They seem to be settling in well.

lemon-thyme

Lemon thyme

and tarragon

tarragon

You may think that I’m being a little over the top in calling our garden a wilderness. I assure you, I am not. The grass is more than waist high, as are the dock leaves and buttercups.

buttercups

There’s a whole ecosystem going on in there. So much so that I’m feeling pangs of guilt at even contemplating phoning the landlord to have him come along with his lawnmower. …or tractor, at this stage.

Today has been most productive, due in no small part to the still-sunny weather. It’s a complete shocker to have a long weekend in Ireland where it’s not raining like monsoon season. Having good weather for it, and good weather with no end in sight, is a revelation!

drying-off

Yarn was dyed…

bread

…bread was baked.

Not much of that bread left, mind. My first attempt at proper yeast bread. Very nice it is too, especially with some real butter and honey drizzled on top.

Speaking of which…..

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The one where I hang my head.

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

On Friday, it occured to me that I hadn’t blogged in a while. When I realised that it had in fact been a whole month, I felt rather embarassed. Not embarrassed enough to, y’know, remember my password or anything, but still.

On a day to day basis, my life has been rather mundane. Work seems to take up a large amount of my waking hours and thoughts. The last few weekends have been a bit nuts as well. This one is no exception, apart from the happy-making fact that it is gloriously sunny outside. Not hot, just a little warm with a hint of a breeze. Perfect yarn drying weather.

Yup, proper busy little bee, me.

Mmmmdk

Mmmmdk

This bit of lovelyness went up on my etsy store about 2 minutes ago. Organic merino in dk/worsted weight. My washing line is weighed down with more skeins, and they’ll be going up as soon as they’re dry.

Signs of summer are all around at the moment, it seems

blossom

Being the eternal optimists, we’re all hoping that this year we’ll get what’s termed a “proper” summer. Meaning that the temperature will get into double digits (celcius!) for more than a couple of days, and that we’ll get less rain than during the winter months. Seeing as our summer technically starts on Friday next week, I won’t be breaking out my short shorts. I may be brave and put away my winter coat though. Ooooh daring!

I’ve been doing sod all knitting since my last post. My Tangled Yoke is still untouched in it’s project bag, and the scarf and blankie that I started have both been frogged due to apathy. I’ve been reading a huge amount instead though. Mostly what I refer to as “trashy vampire novels”. Since my last post I’ve gone through the first four Blood Ties books (and stopped because I don’t have any more of them), the first of a Kelley Armstrong series (number two arrived on Friday), The Spooks Mistake (waiting for the next one in paperback now), the first two Sookie Stackhouse books (three is in the post, 4 is on my bedside table) and I’m currently wading through Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

Still with me?

I tend to go in cycles with both my knitting and reading. I don’t tend to both at any one time - I’ll either be knitting up a storm or going through books like a crazy woman. Maybe at some point I’ll hit a balance. Not right now though, methinks.

For the first time in a few weeks, I took up my knitting needles on Friday night, and for just long enough to get the toe done on a single sock. Yesterday I got some more work done at it at Stitch and Bitch, and by the time dinner rolled around I’d turned the heel.

bfl-sock

Ain’t it pretty? It’s some gorgeous BFL sock yarn from The Natural Dye Studio. In truth, it has been sitting in my stash for a couple of years now, and I would pet it on a regular basis. Seeing as I’ve become a lot less precious about my stash of late, I thought it high time that this became something that would show off it’s fabulousness instead of hiding it in a blanket box. It’s so much fun to knit.

It’s also the first time I’ve used one of the Knitpicks Harmony needles, or KnitPro as they’re now known in Europe. They won’t replace my Addis I think, but they’re rather nice. I’m hoping that they’ll also mean that I’ll get my sock in progress through airport security in the Autumn. I don’t really like reading on planes. Or should I say that I’m usually trying to watch as many of the “not out in Ireland yet” movies that I can in one sitting, so a nice sock would be a happy accompanient to that.

That’s a while off yet though, so no use overthinking it. Will see how long it takes me to get this pair done first.

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