5-year draw results!

Hello all: thanks very much to all 24 people who commented on the 5-year-anniversary entry! So good to read all the positive things people have done and made, particularly at a time of year where it's easy to be dull and gloomy

And sorry for being a very crap blogger over the last couple of weeks. Work has been really busy, I've been knitting away like mad over a Christmas present which is routinely kicking my arse (can't show you as the recipient reads this), and on the rare occasions I've been home it's been much more tempting to curl up in front of the wood stove in the dining room with knitting and a good book than venture out to the living room to blog...

Some knitting has been done though - and it's been received so I can show you. These are for Baby Eliza (I blogged about hearing about her arrival while SusieH and I were in Norwich Cathedral).



One baby blanket (the Chalice pattern by Lykkefanten) in James Brett Marble. E's big brother got the "heirloom" type one so this time I was going for washable, practical, soft and likely to get used over the winter. And the same consideration came into play with these three burp/dribble-cloths. No point in not having pretty ones, though!



OK - back to the comments draw.

The winner in the random number generator is Comment #11 by wuthering_alice (AKA Steph - you can't fool me with your clever Victorian wiles, my dear...) Congrats, Steph! PM me on Ravelry with your address, or use the link in my profile to send me an e-mail, and a packet of goodies will be winging its way to you in the next few days.

The winner in the completely non-impartial "comment I liked" is Valerie, who pointed out very sensibly that it's better to make as much time as you can for an activity rather than whining that you haven't time; but accept you're never going to do everything you want to all at once! I might know you in real life, Valerie (and your freeform stuff sounds very intriguing) but I don't think I know how to contact you online. If you're on Ravelry, I'm greensideknits - drop me a PM with your postal address - and if not, my e-mail address is in my profile (button on the top right of the blog).

I've foolishly signed up for NaBloPoMo again this November, so will definitely get round to telling you about my personal bests then.

Five; and a giveaway...

Well, it's five years today since I opened my Blogger account, and 505 posts down the road, here I still am. I didn't put up my first post for a few days, so it's not quite my full five-year anniversary, but I'm at home today on a day's holiday so I thought I'd celebrate early, having spent the morning fiddling with the template.

I thought the blog needed a bit of a freshen-up for its birthday though - so I've stripped the Victorian wallpaper and gone for a cleaner look. Let me know if you like it!

I've done some stuff I never thought I would over the last five years; I've gained friends, and even family (3 little ones to knit for this Christmas!). I've met some wonderful knitters both online and in real life, gone to some excellent and/or interesting events, visited Venice, and Canada, and Vienna (which weirdly, I really didn't blog despite taking huge numbers of photos - here's the Flickr set though!).

I've also changed jobs for one which is both much more fun and much more structured, and where I'm finally using my qualifications fully; I've become a commuter, and Establishment, and have surprisingly found I enjoy both of those things. I've overhauled my garden (the back bedroom is next on the list) and learned to spin yarn which is actually knittable (more on that later, I hope).

Anyway, five years is a long time; and as with all these things, deserves some sort of contest/giveaway thing, to thank you for reading, and for continuing to read, particularly when I'm just maundering on about my garden, or showing you the next foot of unblocked lace in a big heap with a cat sitting on top of it.

So, please add a comment to this post before the end of October 30, telling me about the best thing you've made in the last five years. It might be a sweater, a baby, a pie, a decision... I'll use the random number generator to choose one prize, and give the other one to my personal favourite comment. The prizes are secret (largely because I don't know what they are yet) but will be yarn-related and fun.

Over the next few days I'll blog about two or three of the best things I've made over that time, too.

Two FOs!

A fair amount of knitting has been done, but both of the main pieces have been stealth projects (as is the current one...) I handed both over this week, though, so here are some pictures and details.

This is Mam's birthday stole, the Melon scarf/shawl from the cover of Victorian Lace Today

It's worked in GGH Kid Mélange - the yardage on this stuff is even better than KidSilk Haze (which I really dislike). It was fiddly to do, and I should have known that a 6 row pattern with the instruction "repeat 62 times" might drive me batty a few times, but the result is rather beautiful, and it was much appreciated...

The second project is rather different. I’ve loved the damask flower motif from Kaffe Fassett for ages and knitted the peplum jacket from the cover of Glorious Knitting when it came out. But then I saw sew200’s cushion and thought ‘I want one of those’, and thought Jan probably would, too.

I used the charts from Kaffe Fassett's pattern library - the Small Damask flower repeated twice on the front,

and the Large Damask flower on the back, with a made-up chequerboard pattern as an edging as I wanted it to be a mass of pattern (the symbol at the corner means M1,K1,M1 in the same stitch).
The cast-off is a three-needle-I-cord-bind-off, with the yarn doubled and right sides out. Cast on 4 sts, slip one stitch from the left needle containing the stitches from the back to the left needle containing the stitches from the front, knit 3, k3tog, slip the 4 I-cord stitches back to the right hand needle and repeat the instruction in italics to the end.

I was enjoying this one so much it was frustrating not to be able to post it on Ravelry, or Flickr; thankfully I was able to e-mail in-progress shots to a patient and encouraging knitter friend... And here it is in situ in its new home...

Among friends

I had a very nice time with friends at the SoH gig on Saturday night - while I'm used to going to things on my own, it's really nice not to have to do it!

Anyway, it was another lovely friendly day: today it was Rosie's birthday, and her husband Graham treated her, me and Manda to lunch at the Rice Boat, and it was lovely - I hadn't been there before and the food was extremely good. I had the Syrian Christian Stew which was coconutty and flavouresome, and the best paratha ever...

Here are Graham, Rosie and Manda at the millpond; and they're looking at the mill-race, which is a little bit mad. The Cam is just about to flood at the moment - there's water well over the rollers between the Grantchester stretch and the millpond, which we skipped daintily through...

We started and finished at the GradPad, which had its usual slightly mad but very friendly bar-people working... and it was a lovely day. Thanks, Rosie!

Gloaming...

Favourite word, favourite time of day, favourite time of year... Bug seems to like it too...

In the coolness of the evening with the doors and windows open, it's easier to catch up on random things...

Went to the Sacred exhibition at the BL last Tuesday (15th) and introduced Jan and Kate (my cousin-in-law, or presumably belle-cousine in French, which is nicer...); you know you've done the right thing when you realise your presence is pretty superfluous to requirements by the time you get the coffee back to the table... Kate then took me out for a very lovely birthday dinner (I think this is probably the final one of the 40th) at Galvin, and it was fabulous. I have also been luxuriating in body sugar and shower wash from these people; thanks, Kate!.

Kate and my cousin Kevin are moving next Friday, estate agents and solicitors willing, to a very nice looking house in Hexham... and they're having a baby (various other powers willing) in August.

And in a segue worthy of Mike Reid at his breakfast-show best, I also got this via e-mail on Monday: look! a niecephew ((c) Franklin) -in-waiting, courtesy of my SIL! (names removed from this because I didn't actually ask them or anything before posting this...) Niecephew is due at the end of November... and brother and SIL are coming to stay here for a few days in June which will be excellent...

The needles are going to be burning this year. There may not be much knitting content on show here though; all parties have this blog address...

And just as a totally random photo, I saw this on the way into work today. Look at those colours...