We're having a Food Festival on the Wirral this Bank Holiday Weekend and I had a quick visit today. It was mad busy and not overly pushchair friendly as it was that busy but we still enjoyed ourselves (at least Emily did once we found someone selling ice-cream!). Now I'm not one to really go on about my marvelous baking and am not known to buy everything as green and organic as possible but just look at these:

I got proper mucky carrots and parsnips as well as lovely apples, radishes, chillies, Cumbrian pancetta and some lovely creamy Lancashire Blue cheese.

How about this for a beer tent? I think it looks like Hagrids home out of the Harry Potter films or at the very least a cross between a wizards hat and a wigwam!

And just look at what Emily was bedecked in today:


And I was wearing my Giotto vest top:



I'll be back with more knitting news after I finish rushing round for the Bank Holiday!!

Ooopps, I've done it again!

As you may know if you've been reading Artis-Anne I've been to the Colinette Millshop Yet Again!! Some of the girls / ladies from my knitting group were going and I was invited. Tempted as I was I said No - no money and would have the baby with me (not fair to the girls to have Emily running round and whinging ruining their trip out!). I thought how strong willed I was being!!
Then my Mother-in-law (Hi Lil!), also a keen knitter, mentioned she was going to visit Colinette. My DH then said Why don't I go with her? He'd give me money to spend! What would you say?

So of course I went - it would have been rude to refuse the kind offer of yarn money my DH offered. And when we arrived who did we see coming out as we were going in but my Knitting Group! Who, after Emily had smiled her best smile and flirted, said that they wouldn't have minded Emily joining them on their trip. Well at least I know for next time!!
Emily enjoyed herself again - running round looking at (and cuddling) all the yarn and pulling them all off the shelves again. She seems to have a preference for the bright colours and 'Point 5' and other woolly yarns. I at least had a shopping list this time so knew what I wanted and did actually stick to my list.
Firstly a hank of Tagliatelle for a top for Emily:


The colour is great and will go with lots of things Emily already has including her Hippy Purple cords!
Nextly I wanted 3 hanks of 'Giotto' in a golden colourway for a moss-stitch vest top from Femme Fatale, the name of which I've forgotten. I very nearly got some which were curry coloured with flashes of rich green but then realised how much of the yarn I've bought lately has been green. I had fancied a colourway with more colors in it - I think it must have been 'Pharaoh' but being on a Sale Room budget I struggled to find 3 that I liked and that matched well enough. Then Emily found one for me, sounds daft but she pulled out a hank and I liked the colour so I've ended up with a golden curry colour.
Lastly I knew I wanted another hank of 'One Zero' for Christmas Present Hats and found one that will match someone's scarf I made last year - problem solved. Then I found a lovely hank of 'Skye' that bellowed Autumn which had to be rehomed to my stash and will probably be a hat for me!!


Not long after I got home Mum arrived for a little visit, a visit that solved by Baby-sitter problem for my Knitting Night. Mum would join me and her DH would do the honours and mind Emily (no problem really as she's a good little sleeper). Oh and Mum arrived bearing goodies - namely some luscious laceweight 100% wool yarn in the richest flamey colours (I had read of them being described as 'Molten Lava' which is very apt) for my very own Ella! Thank you Mum!!!


And then off to our Knitting Night - Mums first knitting group! I think she enjoyed herself - we've a lovely group in New Brighton, all very friendly and welcoming but I think all the conversations flying all over the place took some time getting used too! It's definately not a group that you can do complicated knitting in! Chris, my multi-talented friend did a quick spinning demo for us after we told her how little luck we'd had with it. She took one look at our attempts and said we'd been on the right track all along! We'd mistakenly thought that the yarn automatically wound itself onto the spindle. So we've been talked into trying it again and she's loaned us the spindles for longer!
Now a quick update on FO's - the Giotto vest top has been completed and Emily's vest top has been whizzed through - started Monday night and finished Wednesday (could have been quicker if we hadn't had such a busy few days!) I will update you with photos soon with a FO Festival but really want to get back to the current WIP - the 'Tank Girl' top from the 1st Stitch 'n' Bitch book - the back is very nearly done so I can hopefully present a feast of FO's soon enough!

Oh Dear!

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Acrylic.While you are very versatile, your plasticky countenance can be offputting. You are very good with children but can become a pill if left alone with them too long. You are very flexible but don't give in to manipulation.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

The Miracle of Blocking.

Madge is completed! And I like this pattern. OK, I had problems with the lace pattern at times but then I'm feeling a bit run down and tired after our holiday and haven't been concentrating fully. But the finished effect is worth the effort in my opinion. Here's the pre-blocked Madge being modeled by Emily:



As you can see there is a lacey pattern but it's tight and sits unstretched to Emily's ears. It did just about stretch to my ears. So, into the sink it went ready to be blocked. The major problem was finding something vaguely headshaped to leave it to dry on, if it was another scorching day like we had during the heat wave I'd have used my head (literally). Anyway I finally found a suitable plant pot and laid the hat out. The difference was instantly noticeable when it came out of the water - it was longer and the lace pattern was looser and more defined and the yarn smelt deliciously woolly (ah, the joys of natural yarns!). Then all I had to do was wait, which seemed like forever. So this morning it was finally dry and look at the results:





The colours are more muted knitted up than the skein appeared with flecks of mustardy yellows in amongst the greys and pinks and purples. The nice thing about this pattern from a cheapskates point of view is the amount of yarn left over - I should just about have enough to make another hat and possibly a matching pair of lacey fingerless mitts for more Christmas presents. I definately have enjoyed making the hat though and can see more hats being added to the 'To Do' list which is no where near shrinking! I think this may be next after Odessa.

Anyway I'll get back to my latest WIP - a Colinette Giotto vest top called Selena from the Akashya pattern book in colours faintly reminicant of the Lasso top I've just finished - shades of green this time paired up with plumy purples which is looking very nice so far. As for the pattern, we'll see what it's like when it's done. Looking at the picture it definately needs lengthening even for a person of limited height. Will post pictures later. I'm not really sure why I'm cracking on with it though - it does seem like summer is over right now with the weather we're having right now. I've even been wearing jumpers!! Anyway, here's hoping for an Indian Summer!!

Fingers Crossed!

Hopefully things may work smoothly now that I've changed the template to a plain simple one. So far AOL is not kicking me off the internet because of my site. I am sorry if people are being kicked off-line because of reading this - I am too and I don't know why. Let me know if you still have problems if you have previously and hopefully we can get back to normal services as soon as possible!
I should actually post a retraction of my verdict of Royal Mail. My missing DPN's being sent from Hong Kong have finally arrived after being posted out on the 14th of July. The reason for the retraction? Well they have arrived and mainly because of the lack of address the package had - just my name and the 1st two lines of the address. No County and postcode let alone Country! And yet it has arrived! And I think the seller may have sent a new set out to me unless she got my e-mail telling her they've arrived before they got in the post! So I think maybe I should say Hooray for the Postman as everything has arrived eventually including the Fall issue of Interweave Knits! (I should say bar one item from someone I will not be buying from again due to lack of Customer Service and lack of communication - she may know who she is but then again she may be too busy trying to take over the knitting world!!)
Anyway am off to carry on knitting my luscious Colinette yarns and read Interweave Knits.

Blogger is being daft.

Well you may or may not be able to read this. I myself am having problems accessing my own site as I keep getting kicked off the internet when I'm on. Please bear with me and I'll try to fix the problem if the same is happening to you. I know my Mum can't read the site either. If you can read this then ignore this post, if you can't then there really wasn't much good in posting this then was there? I can but try and see what works! Oh and for some reason all my links etc seem to be right down the page now if you're trying to find those!

Colinette Haul!

Now granted that all my purchases, apart from the pattern book, are from the Sale Room do you really think I could get all that for £10? Of course not. I failed miserably when I got pigheaded and decided that I wanted a garment as well. The thing is that despite it being a gloriously warm and sunny day in mid-Wales I was thinking about those dark days ahead and Christmas presents. Which is why I rebelled and wanted something for me, me, me! This is the 2 hanks of Giotto which are destined to become a summery vest top. The others are all destined to become hats and mitts for me to fall in love with and not want to part with! Oh and bright eyed readers might have noticed that I have bought another cone, this time DK weight, but that it's the same colour as one of the others I bought last time. Did I notice? Did I hear my Mum telling me? No, not at all. Emily, by the way, loved it all. she was delving her hands in the bargain bins and when she was let out of her buggy, ran round burying her face in the yarns and dragging them all off the shelves laughing madly - isn't that what we all really want to do deep down!

And I've started already on knitting these up:



Meet Madge and isn't she pretty? I felt as if there was some sort of harmony whilst knitting this pattern (based on a Japanese Lace pattern) as we were sat watching a Kurosawa film, with me missing half thesubtitless as I read the pattern!



Metis has been completed and taken for a test drive. Her she is in action. I love the shape of the sleeves and the feel of the jumper - so light and soft (but keep away from snaggy things!) but she rides up like a mad thing! I'm forever pulling it down so next time I'd certainly add an extra couple of inches to hide my belly a bit more!






And as promised here is the picture of my other holiday wool purchase:
Again, it's destined to become a hat (are you detecting a trend?) and will probably become
Odessa which at least everyone seems to have knitted up at some point!

Awyr Dydd Sadwrn (or Saturday Sky)

Well what a lovely weekend we've had! As you may have read on Mums blog we went camping to Aberdaron on the Llyn Peninsular and, despite the rainy start, the weather was lovely - warm and sunny, perfect for a little holiday within a holiday! The red circle(!) marks where we were. It is such a fantastic location with great views and close to a lovely beach.
Take a look at this for a sunset:



And of course we did sit and knit well into the night!



It was a rather cozy night as DH and I shared the tent with DD who cuddled up to us as we slept fitfully, wary of squashing little one. We all did sleep well eventually once we were used to the set up. In the middle of the night amid all the darkness Emily woke up and said: "Flower... Dog... Plane... Mama... Dada..." and when she had no response other than 'Sshh' and 'Sleepy, sleepy time' she added "Oh dear" and went back to sleep! And thankfully she did manage to sleep through until about 8am. At least it was light then!

All in all it's been a really lovely time. The rest of the week has been spent at various beaches and has been lovely and relaxing. We've a few more days at Mum's before we go home and tomorrow we have an expedition to Colinette! I have set myself the challenge of a strict budget and will see just how much I can get for.. wait for it... a maximum of £12!!! I know it will be very hard to do this but my budget will not really allow for anymore and I do have a huge mountain of yarn already to use up on dozens of projects and I still haven't used up all of the previous Colinette stash but how can you say no to a trip to Colinette?

What do you do on holiday?

I have spent the large part of the day playing with blogger, changing the fonts to every colour under the sun and attempting to create an individual and attractive blog. Not only have I been attempting this on my site I've been also sorting Mum's as well. My head is well and truly befuddled. We were both bored with the spots and decided to change only to find that we couldn't really get what we wanted. The ideal template was a black background but we found that this was hard to read for some and so in order not to alienate readers we changed again and are not quite satisfied so far so beware change may be ahead!!
We're planning to go camping tomorrow night with little one and we're not sure if this is wise or not - both with little one only being 14 getting on 15 months and the fact that it may piss it down all weekend! Both my DH and Mum's DH chimed up simultaneously: "It might be nice tomorrow!" Comes of them both being Bootle Boys! Anyway I will upload photos soon and show off the scenery but for now I will leave you with the tantalizing news that I've found the warehouse of the 'Wool Producers of Wales' - three bags full please? LOL!

Quick Holiday Update!

After only day 1 of the holiday I've managed to trick DH into a yarn shop and have treated myself to a holiday ball of wool! I know I've packed 2 projects but after seeing the results of 'the boring one' of Mum's as seen on her site (silly photos included!) I've decided not to continue with it especially as the smallest size was waaay too big for me. So obviously I need something else to knit as Metis is gradually working its way to being a FO.
So details of the holiday treat? 1 ball of Freedom Spirit by Twilleys of Stamford. It's 100% wool and is variegated with plum, purple, blue and yellow. Sounds mad but is lovely - photo to follow! And what's it for? Odessa!
Anyway back to the holiday!