SAL Wednesday 8: Cream's the Theme

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

The kids spent half-term with my MIL and their aunties and uncles, and therefore the week for me passed too quickly in a blurry haze. No, not alcoholic in nature, but chemical. I spring-cleaned. And now I regret the waste of time, because within a 1/2 hour of their return, clothes and belongings were strewn everywhere, and a bombsite looked clean and tidy by comparison.

You'd think I would have found time to complete the Tru Hate Wuv shawl, but no. I have some 16 or so rows to go, which doesn't sound like much, but the current row is 660 stitches long ... yes, that's a calculation from the chart as there is no way I can be bothered to count that ... so it's taking a while.
 

For light relief, I started the cricket sweater of Mini Diva's choice; and am loving the Drops Cotton Merino - so soft ! So squooshy ! So inexpensive !

And I am desperately trying to ignore the Eviller Twin, who seems to have got totally swept away by insanity and thinks that we should knit this:

Yes, you're right, it is a beautiful shawl. No, neither of us speak/read Japanese. Yes, it is charted. No, it doesn't use standard knitting symbols.

I have a taser if she comes too close. Purely self-preservation, you understand. I am already way too familiar with crazy myself, and need no 'help' that would disrupt the fine balance I struggle to maintain.

Go read what normal people are up to on StitchAlong Wednesday over at Yarn & Life ...

Xmas in the Garden of Good And Evil

Spiral Tarot

Yes, I have made it through to the other side of the first half of the festive season - and in one piece. More importantly, so have my nearest and dearest. Mini Diva and Destructo Boy have been totally, thoroughly and overwhelmingly spoiled rotten by their Uncles and Aunties - to whom I offer my heartfelt gratitude; I was very touched by their generosity.

And my Twins have sent me lovely creative things wot they have made speshully for me - Alison sent me a Lenormand Eclectique, which not only makes me right on trend in the tarot world, but it is a collaborative deck in which she was responsible for the design of card 12, Birds:

I had to laugh when I looked up the meaning online and found it means '' verbal communication, phone calls, negotiations, twins, siblings, hectic times, an older couple. The Lenormand Birds are about conversation and chatter. Think of how birds are always chattering and you’ll get a good idea of what this card means. It’s about a lot of conversations, speeches, meetings, interviews, gatherings, high energy, and hecticness while flitting to and from thing to thing, place to place.'' (with thanks to this site) as this is so totally appropriate for both Alison the Good Twin and Ania my Eviller Twin. Really, you needed to ask if I was the quiet one ?

And the lovely gift from Ania my Eviller Twin contains a vein of evil in it that made me snigger: look carefully at the detail of the fabric of this beautiful crochet hook roll that she made for me:

Do you see the cat amongst the pigeons ? This is in the way of another layer on a very longstanding joke on my screen-name ...

And as you can see she has left me lots of space to add to my collection of hooks: oh what a tragedy. 

I would just like to point out, as it is rarer than rocking horse poo for me to have the moral high ground, and for the purpose of being so amazingly pious and holier-than-them, that I am the only Twin who made is through Xmas without a hangover ...

Triumph of Hope Over Experience

Mini Diva's birthday is next week - so I thought I'd make her a cushion to go on her bed. Clever Ania made me a machine-embroidered monogram and a lilac fairy to either patchwork or - more likely - applique. I have an idea in my head, of hearts, in different colors, layered and what we here in the east call 'on the huh'.

However. That sounds all fine and dandy, but - as ever - the issue will be converting this idea into something that does not look completely like the dog's breakfast ... always a challenge. So I will centre myself, breathe deeply an 'Om', remind myself that I really should have at least one virtue - and Patience is as good as any - then embark on this stitching adventure with a cheerful and happy outlook ...

And Destructo Boy is home sick with flu, so I can't shouldn't mustn't swear need to remember to close the door properly and firmly.

So now I am off to find some heart-shaped templates ..... 

The Kindness of Strangers

This colorful 6 of Pentacles from the Tarot of Trees is to exemplify the kindness of strangers. I have been very fortunate to receive some lovely things this year - sometimes simply for the asking, and at other times, wished for but unasked - from people I have never met except online.

Quite some while back my Alabama friend Sara of Lazy Knits & Purls was having a clear out and, amongst other things, was getting rid of some Brittany knitting needles; tongue-in-cheek, I suggested that I was a worthy beneficiary.  Lo ! what showed up in my mail a couple of weeks later:

At around the same time, my Fen friend Susie from Useless Beauty was itching to jettison some Malabrigo Lace in a lovely colorway, . She didn't like the feel of it: I know ! Not in her right mind, obviously. D'you think I took advantage ? Why, yes, yes I did - I nominated myself as being is dire need of it, and Lookee ! what my postman delivered a bare few days later:

One skein of which was sent much later to my friend monkey Mimi so as to share the love, and the other I transformed into the Waves of Leaves shawl (blogged about here, here and here):

My Good Twin, Alison of Hestia's Larder, sent me - apropos of nothing - a deck I'd been quite keen on for a while, the Fenestra:

 My Evil Twin, Ania of AniaM, sent me a bunch of ebooks, mainly crime - murder mysteries. I wonder what she's trying to tell me ? By the way, I have actually met my Twins in real life.

And just this week, mi amiga Janine of Where the Nodding Violets Grow not only emailed me with a lovely comment about my last post, but said she'd found one more ball of the Sirdar Sirocco she'd gifted me, and would I like it ?

Also this week, I was surfing my Ravelry friends' activities, and noticed that m'amie Steph had posted pictures of her completed Karise shawl. Why yes, it is green (again) - why do you ask ? Since her alter-ego's name must be Kermit ....

I asked her if she might lend the pattern to me, and - Whallah ! - there it was, gifted to me and sitting in my Ravelry library ! 'Course, that means that now I really do have to knit it.

So take that Bainbridge Scholars Mister Kitten, for all those posts where your thrift shop finds made me weep and wail.

A Good Deal

Well, I am totally more of a dictator than a princess, true - but this is not the reason that tonight I would feel no pea under my mattress. I am shattered: today has been one of those days where lots of things didn't go as planned. And therefore took up more time than I had anticipated.

My computer seemed to have turned jpg. files stored on a CD to wav. files. This meant that - for instance - the 4 of Wands was a rather nifty drumbeat. Nifty, but I can't cope with my computer having synesthesia/acid flashbacks.

The new washing machine was delivered. Or rather, unceremoniously tipped onto the middle of the kitchen floor. The delivery driver couldn't wait to shuffle off. I unpackaged it and moved it myself, only to be stymied by the transit bolts: I have whinged mentioned before that my DH lives in some previous century with the other Luddites, as a result of which any spanners that I could find were Imperial, not Metric ....

Then my grocery order was 30 minutes late. And wrong (although to my advantage, if only I liked pitta bread). Add to this the usual child-related stress (on my part) and screaming (on theirs) and I am wiped out.

So while I am chillaxing with a rum and coke, I thought I'd dash off this merry, uplifting little post so as to shed some rays of sunshine into your otherwise drab lives. I trust you are suitably grateful ?

But actually, I wanted to tell you about a little offer my friend Ania and I have cooked up.

I lie. Like a dog. Like a mangy, misbegotten stray dog.

It was all Ania's brilliant idea, really, I'm just dragging along on her coat-tails. She has this idea to offer our customers a deal: a simple and easy one, too.

Buy £10.00 worth of soap from my Folksy shop, and you will receive not only some fabulous soap (I am shipping to the USA now, owing to the many requests - thank you !) but also a code entitling you to £5.00 off any purchase at Ania's website. Great idea, huh ?  

I am the proud owner of a totally unique custom-made tarot bag from her, and a custom velvet reading cloth that DH treated me to a couple of years ago for my birthday.

I received this as a thank you after my time was up as Chair of TABI. I can't show you a picture of the gorgeous reading cloth as whispers I spilled candle wax on it and haven't got around to sorting it out yet ....

 If any crafter would like to join in with our reciprocal offer, drop me an email with a link to your website/shop ...