Well Hello There ....

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

Wow.

So I think this needs a soundtrack, don't you ?

Something classy but a little unusual and unexpected, like me.




 
Yeah ... I swear it was just last week when I posted, not nearly 4 months ago ! My 2 year tenure as co-Chair (with my Good Twin) of TABI ended, I went to Witchfest for the first time in years to read tarot with my Eviller Twin, I had a temporary Christmas job which I loved, and a little sideline making tea cosies, and then I lost my blogging mojo. I'm not quite sure it's 100% back yet, so no empty promises, let's be spontaneous and uncommitted and see where the breeze blows us. 

Yes, I was a small child in the 70s, why do you ask ? It left me with a morbid fear - nay, phobia - of wide lapels, flared slacks, clompy ugly shoes and bowl haircuts done by my Mum. I can barely control the shudder.

This year looks like it might be mainly crochet - I have lots of cushions to make to replace the well-used manky ones currently on the sofas, and at least two blankeys - one of which will be a BAMCAL (Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long) with the aforementioned Eviller Twin. As far as I am concerned, it will be impromptu, because I don't want to know her Plan.

So this is a 70s-influenced post for sure - free spiritedness, crochet, and our house.

'Afghan Reincarnation'

And guess what - even more 70s-type colors:

Cow Parsley Afghan Square

Square 24 from '99 Granny Squares to Crochet'

The 2 above were made using King Cole Value Chunky and Hayfield Bonus Chunky: with a 6mm hook, they were super-quick to do, and using Chunky meant the squares came out large enough for a 16'' cushion.

6KCBWDAY3: Failed Experiment

Gaian Tarot

OK, we are about halfway through the 6th Annual Knitting & Crochet Week, and I am still here ! Let's see today's prompt:

DAY 3: Experimental Photography and Image Handling for Bloggers
 

Every Year Knitting & Crochet Blog Week tries to feature at least one day where photography takes a key role, because it has been proven many times that what captures reader’s attention for the first few seconds to hopefully hold them long enough to invest the time to read your words is your pictures, and so this topic crops up each year, but every year it yields such different results!

It is easy enough to fall into a routine of photographing your finished projects as is – clearly displayed, maybe from a few varying angles, and for a large part of the time these are what blog readers will expect to see, but every now and again it is good to throw in a picture that causes people to linger.

Refresh your skills at creating attention-grabbing pictures. Take your own creativity and run to your camera with your own ideas, or use these few easy ideas as a starting point:

Use a few background props – you will be amazed at what you can find around the house if you just pick a few items up without thinking too hard about it. These can be props that either add to the ‘story’ of the photograph or just chime well with the colours and style of the finished object.

Yeah. There's usually a photographic topic, and I usually suck at it. I suck at it so much that I don't think I've ever posted on this topic.

So.

Popping 6KCBWDAY3 into Google will bring up lots of very creative posts, unlike this one ...

FO Friday 158: Back or Forward ?

Halloween Tarot

Well, yes, I am kind of cheating, it's true. I have no proper FO as such. This is as far as I have got on my Romanesque:

Pretty impressive, huh ? I am making the large version, which meant I had to run out and buy an additional 4th ball of the Lanas Stop Baby Wool.

This close-up is what is left of the 4th ball. You'll notice in the 1st photo, the shawl is still on the needles, ie. unfinished. This is because there are about 10 rows of approx. 400-odd stitches of the last chart left to knit. There is definitely not 10+ rows-worth of yarn remaining - we are on 560m and counting, and the pattern says it needs 402 - 805m. I hadn't noticed the 805m aspect of it until just now. This shawl is going to be mehusive, and I'm probably going back to buy another ball tomorrow.

Rip it back to your lifeline and make the smaller size, you say ?

In spite of my lack of any lifeline whatsoever, I am merciful today and allow you to escape intact and alive, to go view real FOs over at Tami's Amis ....

The Countdown Begins

Spiral Tarot

So Wednesday sees the start of the new academic year: Mini Diva in 5th grade, Destructo Boy in 2nd grade. New uniforms have been bought, new rucksacks, lunchboxes - you know the drill.

As with most things, though, there is always a last minute glitch: it was my mistake to assume that the new school shoes I bought for Mini Diva in the summer half-term would still fit now, a mere12 weeks or so later. Oh no. She has gone from a size 1 to a size 3, and argues that she should be able to wear my high heeled wedges into town.

As the kids are out today, tomorrow will see me downing a double dose of whatever anti-psychotic drugs I can lay my hands on, before taking Mini Diva shoe-shopping, a task I normally shuffle off onto DH, as he has far more patience and is much calmer than me at dealing with the vagaries of onlyjust-prepubescent mood swings.

Do you think maybe that downing the drugs with a good healthy shot or three of gin would perhaps quell the feelings of dread, fear and misery ?

No ? Tell me how you know .....

But anyway, I really have no time to chat with you, much as I know you enjoy it - the front and back of Destructo Boy's sweater are complete, along with half of one sleeve; last night I had to go through my stash tubs twice, to find the ball of Stylecraft Special DK in 'Midnight' that I was absolutely positive I had, and without which I will not be able to complete said sweater in time.I have maybe two thirds of a ball. It may be enough, it may not. 

 Out of pity, do you want to reconsider your answer to the gin/drugs question now ?

Mojoless Monday

Steele Wizard Tarot

Wow, it's a bit dusty in here, and the spiders seem to have made themselves at home by draping several cobwebs over the dark unused corner that is my blog recently. Oh well, never was much of one for housework, there are always SO many trillions more interesting things to do.

 I have been burning bridges with the gay abandon of a pyromaniac starting a very successful campaign of arson by first setting light to the fire station and destroying all the fire engines.

 

Cathartic as this experience has been, bridges are a finite commodity, as are friends, and so we hope the Prozac will obviate a recurrence.

I must say how touched I have been by the emails and messages I have had asking about my absence and inquiring about my well-being.

But all this sturm und drang has left me feeling mojo-less: after a knitting sprint, I have only 1 WIP on my needles, which - natch - I'm not in the mood for knitting right now. The items in my queue that I want to knit I don't have the pattern or the yarn for. I have some lovely yarn in my stash that doesn't suit the patterns I already have. Isn't that always the way ?

I may have to turn to crochet.

The Best Laid Plans

So I have been a good girl - I haven't done any knitting, but have rather lacklustredly got on with the patchwork baby cot quilt for my SIL's Bump. Her due date was last Tuesday, which obviously wasn't quite enough of a shove for me; however, news that her waters had broken and contractions had started 21:45 Friday night did. After a couple of return trips to hospital, it was decided that an emergency Caesarian section was necessary, and a gorgeous 7 lb 12 oz baby boy was delivered safely this morning at 9:34 a.m; and everyone is healthy and fine. Which was absolutely great news for a cold, rainy Sunday morning. Well, actually, it would have been great news for any morning.

All other aspects of domestic life taken care of, today I have purely focussed on this quilt. I love my SIL and my BIL (DH's youngest brother) but nothing will prevail on me to sew anything for anyone again. I'd forgotten how much I loathe it. Not so much the sewing, I guess, as how cack-handed I am, and what a bad temper that puts me in. The plus side to this is that the kids stay pretty quiet and avoid me.


cot quilt border

Moonheart & Inky helping with the batting

Inky helping with the quilting

And this is what happens when you buy all the materials for a project ahead of time, with no real idea of the size of the finished item ....

I have already quilted the top two layers - the backing fabric being fleece, I thought the quilting would be too visible if I quilted all three layers. So where I thought I'd be spending this evening hand-sewing the binding, instead I will have to wait for DH to come home next weekend, in order to go to Felixstowe to buy more/different fabric for the backing ....

The cot quilt, like the baby, will be late ......