and.sew.to.knit

So I gave in, after much debate, some whining and moaning, yes that was me. You see there was the little problem of the lack of birthday present last year, which really hadn’t been resolved, and its not like it was new, and it is kinda cute, and I had to have it cause I so wanted to be able to produce this.

Well, except I want it to be better, a lot more like this.

So between ravelry, which is making me realise how many projects I do have on the go, and spinning, there really isn’t a lot else going on around here.

Two boys are back on Friday, so really have to finish up their rooms, pronto.
I can’t wait to see them, it seems like such a long time and I have missed them a lot. It is very quiet with only one boy home, one who happens to be pretty self contained and happy to do his own thing, reading, football, chatting with his friend online. As long as there is food in the fridge he is happy.

Which leaves more time to spin, though I do want to sew a new dress and I did find homes for all those things that were hiding the table top, so no excuses……

This little cute little stripy skein of yarn was the yarn I spun at India’s house, I actually had no idea everything was so blue and stripy until I downloaded some photos, take a look.

Knitting, there has been a little, I have finished the crossover cardi, it took me longer to sew it up, than it did to knit I am sure and it still needs a piece of ribbon and a button, for that I need to be brave and go into the depths of the sewing room, maybe later.
So next is this little stripy jumper in cotton cashmere.

I also knitted another stripy shawl from more Natural Dye Studio sock yarn,here it is on a piece of wallpaper, I like it but it may be a present, I do have more sock yarn for a couple more and it is fun to knit.

Well, I managed to paper the toilet walls all by myself,more stripes, which is a bit of a task in itself as there is no room for the steps in there, as it measures a princely 1m by 1.5m and standing on the toilet seat on tip-toe did not quite make me tall enough to reach the corners.
So needless to say there was much cursing.
Jake and the dog hung out in the bedroom safely out of my way, Jim in his wisdom went off to work early, I am sure he later discovered that this was not a good move, he has been paying for it ever since!

The weather is a little strange in that we have had alternately pouring rain and then fab sunshine, very weird, so we have stripy mountains.

Next up is some sewing, I have washed some fabric to make a dress, it is stripy, just not blue. I just need to find the table underneath some things that as yet have no home, this is the problem when you have an apartment with no storage space and too much stuff/crap.
Happy Sunday…..

I want this, but where would I wear it?

It is cold and rainy and all thoughts turn to autumn/winter clothes, well for me they do, especially as most of my clothes are STILL in a box… shock, horror, I need a new wardrobe before I open any more boxes.
They are well packed so therefore if you open them to look for something, they NEVER shut again and stay in the bedroom spewing a muli-coloured collection of strange looking items that just can’t be thrown out.

Anyway I was searching for a coat pattern, which I have not found, no idea what I want, just know that when I see it I will know.
Chances are it will be Vogue or McCalls, something that is not available here and the time delay from ordering to arriving, will mean that by the time it gets here, I will have moved on to something else!!

No knitting photos as the camera battery is dead and its too wet and dark anyway, photos tomorrow……
This is a very late saturday morning sky, but the sun was shining, so worth looking at.

When driving around at the weekend, looking for wallpaper for the toilet, which I have to say is very exciting…not! I really wish I had shopped in the UK, so far everything I have found is old and boring…anyway, I drove passed this….

..can you guess what it is going to be, yep, an Ikea, I have to say looking a little bit out of place, all blue and yellow in amongst the green, but hey, it will save a trip to lyon, almost an hours drive and almost 20euros in tolls, pity its not open yet as I really need two new beds, never mind, roll on October.

After my spinning lesson with India, I came back home and unearthed a cheap spindle I had bought a while back and decided to have another go. It was great, I am really hooked, only problem is I now really need to have a wheel. I am having a little problem with an ebay seller and I HATE this kind of conflict, I hope it gets sorted soon as its making me feel very sick.

Anyway this is my new yarn, cool huh? The stuff on the right is my second attempt. Don’t know what kind of fibre it is, as I had bought the roving from Fyberspates to do some needlefelting with as I loved the colours, its a little scratchy, but I like it, probably won’t knit anything with it but I can look at it.

More unpacking on the agenda, still need some storage stuff in the kitchen, wine rack etc. Need to make curtains for the boys rooms and hang my bedroom and the living area curtains. The living room/dining room has 10 window panels that measure about 5m total or just under, so for winter I need HUGE curtains, for now I just have cotton panels for each one, simple and light, but I don’t love them so they won’t last….

The first thing I notice when we drive back to the UK is the colour, granted the places that we stop off to visit friends are notoriously wet and rainy.
I kinda like the rain, as long as its not too cold and I have to admit that staying in on a rainy day to watch a movie, is my idea of heaven.
In saying that I absolutely hate driving in the rain and we did have reasonably dry, if not sunny weather when we were home. I was really slack in the photo taking department when I was away, I do think I have to invest in a little camera as my Nikon D50 is a little on the large side for handbag carrying.

We arrived at Dover and had the shittiest drive up through England ever, we managed about 40 miles in 3.5 hours on the M25. Being in a hurry we didn’t stop to visit anyone on the way up, I did see some fab sky pictures but the camera was packed in the boot of the car, good planning there!
Also the grumpy/crabbit person was driving so there was no chance of stopping to retrieve it, there was hardly time to stop and pee!

My first stop as always was a walk on the beach with this lovely girl,

guaranteed to blow the cobwebs away and make you smile.

Then of course there was much more green at Lochgoilhead, like this

and this

The knitting really is in short supply around here, I did finish these for Jims Dad.

And have 1 monkey finished and the other not cast on yet.

There are a couple of baby things in the wings, hanging around, so when I clear a space I might get down to knitting, though I do have curtains to make as the neighbours can see in, not good!

Am home, July passed in the blink of an eye and things here have stood still. The boxes are still here to be unpacked and rooms still have to be sorted. Its going to be a long few weeks, Jake came back with us and the other two boys stayed in Scotland for a few more weeks, so its peaceful if nothing else.

When I was away I took the long overdue step of having my hair cut, so it now looks like this.

We didn’t manage to get much visiting done and certainly didn’t do much yarn shopping. I did manage to meet up with Heather and she took me to visit K1 Yarns, which is a very cute shop and I did buy a little yarn. I made it to Coldspring by the skin of my teeth ten minutes before closing, they unfortunately didn’t have the Cashmerino Aran I was looking for but I did find some Silk Garden and some Soho for xmas scarves.

I am alternating the box emptying with playing around on Ravelry, now I need to take yarn photos but its a little cloudy and dark today. One project which is a must for this winter is this Debbie Bliss cardi, cute huh? Now all I have to do is play catch up with all of you, that may take quite some time!

Well, we are in Scotland after the worst drive over ever, I have left my new apartment half unpacked, I have yet to hand-over the old apartment and things are just plain nuts. My father-in-law is very ill and that meant a mad dash across to get here, we are still waiting to speak to the consultant, so things are pretty much still up in the air. It did mean in my haste to pack and leave, I arrived with not much knitting which meant I did need to buy some yarn! Luckily my brother-in-law and his girlfriend are expecting a baby so some baby knitting was in order. I bought wool to knit 3 or 4 things from a Debbie Bliss book, that I can’t find a picture of, so take my word for it, its very cute.

So far I have managed to catch up with India and spent a lovely day hanging out, sewing and spinning, yep I had my first spinning lesson and I am hooked, it was amazing. I don’t have any photos and my first yarn is far from perfect but I love it. I still have lots to fit in including a trip to Coldspring on my way back through England, anyone been there recently?
Must dash, time up…….

I am distracting you with some weather pictures as there is nothing else going on here. This is the last morning I will have this view of the Chartreuse from my bedroom, my new view is of Chamrousse, I think.
I might be offline for a few weeks as even although I am actually only moving to the next block but one away, my new internet/phone connection is going to take about a month, that’s right, 1 month with no internet. ick!
The moving is mostly done, right now I am in the old apartment, with computer, which is good, but no coffee machine,which is bad, I do have a kettle, but no teabags.
So I made my coffee in the new apartment and walked over here with it. Luckily I didn’t meet any of my neighbours, take-away coffee is an unknown here.
I bought 4 dress patterns, which arrived yesterday, they are the reproductions of vintage patterns, 3 from 1957 and 1 from 1960, so some dress sewing is definitely on the cards once the boys leave for Scotland.
My Mum and Jake left on Wednesday and unfortunately got held up at the airport due to technical problems, so my poor Mum spent 12hours at the airport here and then they had to spend the night at the airport in London to catch the first flight to Glasgow, nightmare!
I hope that doesn’t happen to the boys when they are travelling alone.
Okay, I am off to finish packing…….and dream of finding some knitting time, or even my knitting!

I dislike packing, I really dislike painting, I hate grouting, as for cleaning, its downright bloody awful.
I have no nails left, no time to knit or sew and someone took ALL my knitting books away first, so I can’t even have a little planning session, to figure out my next project.
Is it possible to have creative/craft withdrawals? The only knitting I have is the hanging around, plain jane stockinette sock and I am on the 3rd one BUT its sooooooooo boring.
I have also finished, finally the birthday cable sock, with the HUGE mistake in it, the first one is still in London, it had a huge mistake so the second one had to match. I did think at the time it looked a bit funny but I had no time to check it out. That’s what you get when you don’t print the big colour picture for the pattern and you don’t knit it on 2 circs as per the pattern!!

It is official, I do love Wispy, its warm light, pretty and I love wearing it. I can see it becoming a staple in my wardrobe and I would probably consider knitting another, just not in Summer Tweed!
The combination of Summer Tweed and moss stitch gave me chronic hand and wrist pain. When chatting about it with some Liberty Rowanettes, the consensus was that you either loved or hated it, I am in the hate camp.
It is a shame as it comes in such pretty colours too.

Wispy took a little trip to Ikea, no photos though, I did see some fab storage items and especially liked this table, it has a perfect yarn as art drawer with glass. I just may have to go back and get it!

The packing is coming along, though I am occasionally side-tracked by a ufo, I do have a pile of sewing wip’s and I have thrown out and rearranged lots of stuff. Apparently I am the only member of the family moving out next week as no-one else has packed any of their stuff yet! I do keep giving them the countdown but apparently a week is LOADS of time and it will only take a few minutes!
My Mum is coming to visit the day after I get my new apartment keys, she is bringing her marigolds, no sun-worshipping/sight-seeing for her, she will be set to work. So her and I might de-camp to the new place and leave the boys to it.
One of the reasons I am looking forward to moving is that the new place has no fitted kitchen, okay it does have ugly tiles but it does mean that I can get this out of storage, I am looking forward to using it again.

My boys all have plans to spend their summer in Scotland, so it looks like we are driving over to see them and pick up Jake at least. Jim suggested a little yarn crawl through England/Scotland, I just might have to take him up on that, any suggestions?
If I owed you a package they were posted today, but my little notes to go inside are still here, oops!!
Back to packing……one week to go.