Assorted randomness

Did you know that if you work on things, they get done? 

Insightful, I know. 

Somehow, I tend to forget that when it comes to finishing projects, nothing works quite as well as sitting down on your ass and putting the hours in (and no, spending those hours on reading crafty blogs does not have the same effect.  Unfortunately.)

Guys, I've been a good little knitter and while I don't have a Finished Object to present just yet, I can definitely report some progress. 

Item A - lace scarf (Iris, if you're curious)

Look, it's growing!

I tackled this unloved and forgotten baby a few days ago and magic happened - suddenly I'm enjoying working on it!  Seriously, while a few weeks back I had to force myself to knit a single 8-row repeat, now the repeats are flying off the needles at lightning speed.  Suddenly I'm not bored by the pattern, thin yarn doesn't irritate me anymore, I'm not even intimidated by the apparent endlessness of the project.  Must be spring or some other charmed vibe in the air.

Touch wood, I can visualise finishing it within a week or so.  IF the magic holds. 

Item B - beach tunic

It's blocking!!!  No, the ordeal is not over yet.  The pieces are not sewn together, I just layered them like that to save space and make sure I block them to the same measurements.  I still need to join the two pieces, weave in the ends and nicely finish all the edges.  Plus, I'm contemplating adding something pretty and lacy along the bottom edge.  A few hours - at least - still need to be invested here, but I can see the finish line.  Just a little further... 

While I'm in my craft room...  hey, do you want to see my stash?

Just a quick pic, to give you a general idea :)  It doesn't look like much but believe me, this shelf is pretty deep and there are tons of yarn hidden in there. 

I get a mood boost just opening the cupboard and peeking in. 

Speaking of mood boosts - if all goes well, pretty soon I'll have a whole lot of cuteness to enjoy (and share!).  Look:

We bought a rooster a while ago, to see if we can raise some chickens for the pot.  He performs his duties admirably, but the ladies are not very interested in motherhood and refuse to go broody.  Technology to the rescue, we invested in this tiny egg incubator and a brooder.  So far so good, keep your fingers crossed for good hatch rate.

15 more days. 

Do sunshine and crochet mix?

That was a rhetorical question.  In my, not at all humble, opinion, they most certainly do not.  I made decent progress on my striped beach tunic, but today the sun came out and, well, not a single stitch so far... 

I'm not ashamed.  This is Ireland, which means that you have to make the most of rain-free days.  There aren't that many. 

I'm in the process of filling my brand new raised beds.  As you can see from the picture below, this is a slow, gradual process.

At the moment, I can't quite afford to buy topsoil, so I have to do things the hard way.  In a far corner of our new property, there is a small hill covered with grass and nettles, and once you strip the greens you find plenty of topsoil mixed with building rubble.  Once again, this is Ireland, rural Ireland, so by 'building rubble' you can substitute 'stones'.  Lots and lots of stones, big ones, small ones, mixed with some rubbish and even bits of broken glass.  I sift through it all shovelful by shovelful and then trawl buckets of topsoil across the garden and into the beds.  See?  Slow process.  It takes me about two days to fill one bed but hey, I'll get there in the end. 

I'd get there sooner, but someone keeps scratching my precious soil away. 

I didn't catch the culprit red-handed but I'm 99% sure it's the chickens*.  They act fast, the little monsters.  I finished filling less than an hour before taking the picture! 

Anyway, there's still some crafting planned for the evening.  I'm a few rows away from finishing second part of the tunic.  At this stage, I have to juggle between four balls of yarn which drives me up the wall.

Just one thing worries me.  It's hard to see on the picture, but the tunic looks very, very small.  A child's garment, rather than adult woman's.  NOT funny.  I'm putting a lot of faith into fabulous stretching qualities of cotton - how much do you think it will grow in blocking? 

I have a plan B up my sleeve - crocheting little inserts on the sides to make the tunic more roomy - because no matter what happens, I am NOT frogging this thing.  I never had a chance to tell you (what with the Internet starvation and the Big Move), but this is my fourth attempt at this design and I simply can't stomach another.  No can do.  Whatever I end up with this time, stays.  Please send stretchy thoughts my way.

* Or neighbours' dog.  But since he's probably the only thing standing between our chickens and Mr Fox during daytime, I won't hold grudge. 

Wanted: project bags

Before I say anything else, let me quickly explain that I'm not going to steal beg for ask you to share your precious collection of project bags.  I'll make them myself, my soon-to-be-recycled fabric drawer is overflowing anyway.  I just badly need a few, and the urgency chimes well with the idea of a wanted poster.  I'd make one such poster if I could draw but really, stick figures are the peak of my artistic ability in non-fibre media, so the dramatic post title will have to do. 

You see, I used to be a faithful knitter.  I would take one and only one project onto my table, and then I would plod away at it until it was finished, even if the very sight of the same yarn for (e.g.) three weeks running made me sick.  Among other things, it meant that projects got finished - if only because I so badly wanted to work on something else, or get my hands on some new yarn or whatever.  Something about the neatness of such strategy worked for me, and when I say 'neatness' I mean this metaphorically and, well, literally.

Just look at this mess.  Here I am in the new house, trying to keep it as nice as possible, and suddenly I find myself with three projects going and yarn/fabric/thread/notions EVERYWHERE.  Skeins keep falling on the floor, rolling happily in my dog's hair (which, I am convinced, hides somewhere whenever it sees the broom and resurfaces happily after the danger's passed), and there's no free chairs anymore because, well, yarn sits there. 

A long time ago, I started a lace shawl for my Other Sister.  I'll be frank - I was sick of it almost instantaneously.  The pattern is simple but so. damn. boring.  I have this much...

...and I'm adding a few rows now and again but on the whole the project is not exactly speeding by. 

No wonder then that when a friend commissioned a crocheted beach tunic, I jumped with joy and forgot all about the blasted lace.  I'm improvising the pattern, working in the general direction of a picture I was shown but I was given a free rein so the piece is definitely going to be unique.  I do hope it's also going to be wearable...  but that's another story. 

The tunic is worked in two pieces and today - oh, glory! - I finished the first one.  

As you can probably guess from my tone, by now I'm slightly fed up with project no.2 as well.  Hey, it's a big one.  And there's a mountain of new sock yarn in my stash, singing siren songs to me. 

For now I'm resisting and socks will wait.  However, another project jumped the queue and changed status from 'I'll deal with it one beautiful day' to 'need to finish soon'.  You see, about a year ago I designed and knit a dress (I will show it to you one day, I promise).  I had some yarn left over, so I added matching boot cuffs.  Yarn still there, so I crocheted a tote bag to finally use it all up.  The bag turned out rather nice, but it needed lining and I'd rather knit than sew so I packed it up and forgot about its existence. 

Last week I had my sister here for a few days and she sewed some 80% of the lining for me (thank you!!!).  I'm a few hours away from the bag being done, dusted and usable.  It would be a sin not to finish it now.  So there you go, project no. 3.

With all this, various tools and pieces are slowly taking over my living space.  Project bags, guys, I badly need project bags!  But - and this is a huge but - sewing project bags would mean starting even more projects and this is simply too much mayhem for me. 

Deep breath in.  Finish what you have.  Sew project bags.  THEN go to socks and the myriad other projects that float through my mind.  Become a faithful knitter again.

That's the plan.  We'll see how it goes. 

Happy days

Happy days are those when there's a lot of yarn coming in. 

My postman (postlady, actually) was busy recently, delivering load after load of woolly goodness.  Let's take a look at my haul.

This pretty thing...

is a mixture of alpaca, merino and mohair, with a tiny bit of synthetic thrown in for durability.  It's very thin, somewhere between lace and fingering, and the jury is still out on whether it's scratchy or not.  I bought it for next to nothing, together with this fiery baby:

It's just as thin, but less fancy - half wool, half synthetic.  The best part?

I have plenty of both!

Seriously, that's a lot of yarn in there.  Both red and cream clock some 350-400m per ball, so we're talking of kilometres of yarn here.  Now, what to make?  A shawl (or five)?  A light sweater?  Decisions, decisions...  Maybe I'll ask my Puppy for help.  She seems interested:

The second package is a belated birthday present from my Mum and I smile at the very thought of its contents.  Look at this gorgeous mountain of sock yarn:

There's enough for 9 pairs in there.  9!  Plain colours are destined to become Fireweeds - the pattern has been haunting me for almost a year now.  One colour is chosen by and booked for my Other Half (guess which...) and one will become socks for my purple-loving sister.  The rest?  The rest is all mine, mine, my precioussssss.  For now. 


BTW, you may have noticed how I don't mention specific brand names when talking yarn.  I do this on purpose.  I don't mind sharing fibre content, weight and other details, but I have this thing against brands in general.  If you recognise the make from the picture alone, good for you.  If you don't, but you really really want to know, send me a quick email and I'll tell you.  But I'll let people do their own advertising.  Unless, of course, they persuade me otherwise :)

A spoonful of sugar

Just a quick one to add some cuteness to your day.

The promised picture finally arrived and now I can show you the three piece baby set I made a while ago, modelled by my smiling niece.

Ain't she something?

Back online!

I'm back after a (longish) break. 

You see, I moved.  Remember, a while back, my bitching about landlord putting our house up for sale?  Well, he sold it.  And, by the most amazing twist of fate, I moved to a little piece of paradise that I never thought I would live in. 

My new house is situated on a mountain in Connemara, with Lake Corrib a stone's throw away.  The scenery is smashing, the area peaceful and the house itself much better suited to our needs.  I hear pheasant's cry more often than car engine!  I could wax lyrical for ages but suffice to say I can hardly believe our luck. 

Due to some tech complications we were offline for over a month - it's not so easy to bring broadband up a mountain! - and let me tell you, this was quite a challenge.  All is resolved now, blogging should be back to regular schedule form now on. 

You haven't missed much, with all the move-related rush I didn't feel like knitting much.  Still, I have some WIPs to report, some new yarn coming in...  Any day now :) 

Stay tuned for updates.