Writing frightening verse to a bucktoothed girl in luxembourg

[susie_flo]

Happy weekend to you, lovely fiends!
  
It's one of those miraculous bank holiday weekends where you feel positively guilty if you're not doing outdoor activities...   I believe it's technically the LAW to expose one's sorry, pale, English skin tones to the sunshine.  So... I guess I might pop out for a bit later, if I must.  (I'd go for a bike ride if only my bike tyres had air.)
   
The thing is, right now I'm feeling very happy and peaceful all alone at home.  Just me and the cat, my ever-faithful companion.  We have all of the windows open and there is a soft breeze blowing over my embryonic new projects which are spread out around me.  I'm all zingy with creative juices - I love it! 
    
 
First of all, I completed yet another set of stripey armwarmers...  this time for a gorgeous 11 year old with a 'thing' for Tim Burton.  I hope she still likes them by the time it's cold enough to wear them...
 


(Ravelry link with more pics: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/flockhartsl/dr-seussesque-stripey-wrist-warmers-3) 

   
Secondly, I want to make a felted bag.  Preferably a big, oversized bag that can accommodate all of the junk that I insist on carrying around with me daily.  I have got as far as purchasing yarn and felting a swatch.  But here's the thing...   
    
A while ago I bought this pattern... which is, to my mind, unadulteratedly gorgeous and MUST be made:



 
But then... another part of my brain is wanting to design my own bag, and I started thinking about how this could be an excuse to learn intarsia (aka 'picture knitting').   It occurred to me that designing picture knitting must surely be no different to designing a tapestry...  e.g. if I made up a chart out of little squares, where each square represents a stich, then surely the world is my oyster... no?    

As far as I can work out, the only thing I will need to take into account in the design is that felting shrinks the length of the knitting more than the width.    So... as always, I have launched straight into a design based on bare trees, which I consider to be the most beautiful forms that nature has to offer.  

So here is my embryonic chart design...   I have no idea whether this will really work, but could be worth a try?




In addition to the above, last night I cast on stitches for two new projects...  yes, I really am getting carried away.

Firstly, a lace shawl, using the unvelievably beautiful kidsilk yarn in 'ripe cherries' that I was winding on my nostepinne a couple of weeks ago.   This is going to be a project that takes for EVER to complete and only gets worked on in a silent room with no disturbance.   (I suspect it is going to challenge me, so I may just see how it goes....   the combination of this yarn and Addi Turbo lace needles has potential to be a slippery-dropped-stitch-hell waiting to happen!) 




Secondly, a pair of fair-isle socks, using cheat's yarn that does the fair-isle pattern all by itself.  Its like total magic - just wait and see!  This will be a mindless project for when I am on the tube or watching TV -  and hopefully quite quick.

  

Ravelry link:  http://www.ravelry.com/projects/flockhartsl/crofters-fair-isle-sock

 

So... enough about that.  What are you all up to?  Are you all being thoroughly al fresco and happy like good little weekenders?

I am pondering what to have for lunch.  I have a tin of glorified cat food (mackerel fillets in tomato sauce)... what can I do to make them interesting? 

Comments

[whiteshadow.livejournal.com]

I am going shopping for a hookah ... it seems my friend now want a hookah for her flat so she can practice in private, apparently it's and early birthday present for her (um, her birthday is in december so I really have not figured that one out yet!)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Heh... sounds like your friend is onto something there. I might try that ruse myself..

"Hey... guess what? My birthday is a few months away, and my Amazon wishlist is feeling over burdened, so y'know... early pressies = very welcome. Ta."

(Good luck finding a hookah...)

[whiteshadow.livejournal.com]

Let me have a link to your wishlist, if I see something interesting there ... well you never know your luck!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh... really, I just couldn't!

Unless you also show me yours... (oo-er)

Hey.. this could be a great game, Eevrybody buy random presents off each other's wishlists... and get presents back. All for NO reason at all - hoorah!

[whiteshadow.livejournal.com]

Ha, It would make a great game *but* I don't actually have a wishlist, sorry - so maybe it could be kicked off by you um, showing you er, yours!

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

I once bought a hookah for someone's wedding present - it was a double one and we got their names engraved on the bowl.

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

I'm sunbathning on my balcony and writing cards for people. It's delightful being nude and solitary in the sun in central London. I've got radio three on in the background and a novel to read when I have finished writing. I have grapes and olives to snack on. Life is sweet.

Could have done without the really bleak text message from N, though. As if trying to guilt trip me would change my mind.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Sounds fab... you're so lucky to have a balcony in central London that isn't overlooked!

Hope the N thing passes without too much distress... :-(

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Yes to the bag and to the bare trees, as a matter of urgency.

Today we popped down to Scotney Castle, near Lamberhurst. The main house is a dull, typical early 19th century mock-fortified house, But in the garden is a ruined 14th century castle with moat, which is utterly gorgeous. I keep forgetting that there are umpteen gorgeous places on my doorstep like this, all about an hour away.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, it's been years since I did a day out like that... sounds fab. (I probably would have liked the Victorian mock-medieval house!)

One of these days I really must go to Hampton Court, given that it's just down the road...

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

We set off fairly early but still (in true british bank holiday fashion) sat in traffic on outskirts of York but we then had a lovely picnic and wander round the ruins of Kirkham Priory and then we went onto my favourite deserted medieval village (well alright it's the only one I've been too) Wharram Percy before coming home for steak and boozage of some description.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

A proper British bank hol day out! Sounds lovely... like the days out of my childhood. (S'funny how we all turn into our parents in the end)

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Watched the Grand Prix today with R and other friends, and a lot of lovely pasta, olives, antipasto, and tea and blue riband biscuits.

Then headed out to do some shopping, then after that a drive into the N Yorks countryside to go to the Durham Ox at Crayke for a drink and chill. Dropped in to see my aunt on the way home, then headed out again for a drink at the local.

All in all a very nice day.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely day! (I can't believe blue riband biscuits still exist)

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

They are so deliciously chocolatey though! And nice quality chocolate too. There is something very moreish about wafer biscuits - I had three :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Your bike tyres do have air, and your chain has been oiled. I had a bike maintenance day a few weeks back. Unless there have been new developments you're good to go.

G

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are a total dreamboy!
xxx

[(Anonymous)]

Re: your lace project and the inevitable slippage, consider doing a lifeline now and again - when you're confident you've done a row correctly (esp an easy one), thread some waste yarn onto a needle and then thread that through your stitches. Then. if you have to rip back, you rip only to the lifeline, not all the way, and can pick up your sts easily enough.

This saved me when I was doing a lace wrap in kidsilk haze a couple of years ago, can't count the times i had to rip back!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Hello there, pleased to meet you... (or have we already met?)

Thank you for that stirling suggestion, lifelines would be a very good idea indeed. I am a little scared about this yarn - I fear it may prove to be utterly unfroggable... it's even more inclined to stick to itself than kidsilk haze, yeesh! I guess time will tell...

Спасибо за инфу

[zanderbul.livejournal.com]

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