Sometimes, a girl needs a quickie...

And sometimes, she needs more than one. After the crazy all night studio sessions last week, this week I've been trying to let my hair down ever so slightly. What this has involved, is lots and lots of knitting. I think I'm experiencing something along the lines of the whiplash that Yarn Harlot experienced following her olympic knitting. I'm guessing my strong desire to both cast on and finish lots of knitted goodies this week is a result of the architecture project which I started last August and which won't be finished until mid-June. I think I'm feeling the need to make things, whole things, not just start them and knit a few rows, but cast on, knit like the wind, cast off, make a box, print labels, gift wrap and get in the post. All within 24 hours. Eek. I appear to have the telltale sign which shows I have been knitting too much: my right shoulder is now positioned 2 inches higher than the left.

You know what? I don't care. I have started things this week, and completed them. This is good news :o) And guess what? The things I've knitted are pretty bloody gorgeous. Here's a couple of the things I sent to Leila, who's off to Australia with Emilie on Sunday, for two months. Boo-hoo. I'm going to miss those girls.

First, you remember I knitted a sock? Well, I knitted the second one:

Next, I made a box. My usual plum coloured card was out of stock in the art shop, so I had to use grey instead. I think it looks quite cool though, especially lined with the black tissue.

Then, I made a gift card to fit inside, for a message and washing instructions:

This is the way it looks when it's shut. Pretty, huh?

Finally, the box with its label, sealed and ready to go.

That went in the post last night. Emilie and Leila are having a get together with some friends tomorrow before heading off to Oz. I've got my last shift at Debenhams tomorrow so will be arriving in London one day too late to attend :o(

I decided, at around 7pm yesterday that I had to knit Leila the lacey bonnet from Erika Knight's Baby Bloom. I finished knitting it at about 4pm, jumped onto a bus into town, ran into V V Rouleaux two minutes before it closed, bought some ribbon, which I then stitched to the bonnet sitting on a bench in the street! I got this bonnet into the post at about 5.25pm. First class to London, so fingers crossed it will reach Leila tomorrow morning and she can wear it and look super glam at the going away thingy tomorrow afternoon.

Here's the bonnet before I seamed it:

And lastly, here it is seamed and with the edging knitted. It has two 10mm purple satin bows at the front now, to be tied under the chin. Hopefully Em will send a photo of Leila wearing this. She'll look gorgeous, as always.

I wish I could be there tomorrow. I guess my knitwear being there is the next best thing :o)

Deadlines, a baby, and two pairs of unfinished socks

Last week I had no time to blog, as I had two design reviews on Thursday and Friday, which meant days in the studio which ran from 7.30am until 4.30am. Consequently, there was no time to knit...arrrrgh!

On a much happier note, Lucy, Emilie and baby Leila came to stay with me in Newcastle on Thursday. Now, there is no way I can be stressed when there is a baby around, even when they are teething and have a cold :o) Leila was presented with her new stripey hat. I know I was certain I'd also have her second sock finished weeks ago, but, well, I haven't. Oops. I'll get that done this week. Anyway, here's a back view of Leila modelling her new headwear:

And here's the front view:Leila's bedtime meant knitting time for Lucy, Emilie and me. Lucy finally learnt to purl, and started knitting squares for a baby blanket, using cashmerino aran which we bought on a little trip to John Lewis on Friday afternoon, after getting soaked in the rain walking into town from Baltic.
Finally, here is the progress on my secret sock knitting project, which is no longer a secret as I had to explain to Mumsie why her present hadn't reached her yesterday. I will do my best to finish the first sock today, and get the second one done this week, before going home next weekend. There were just too many deadlines last week.

Happy Mother's Day, Mumsie! xxx

Flossie Bakes...part 2

Today, during a half hour break from trying to draw a 1:50 construction section, I baked a batch of cheese scones, once again courtesy of Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. Not as tasty as the biscuits, but they're pretty good!

Forth time lucky?

Apologies for the rubbish quality of this photo. It was taken in a mirror, last night, using the night setting on my camera. I have better photos, but they're basically pornographic!

I'm happy with the knitting of the frill now, but it doesn't do a lot to cover me up which I'm not sure how happy I am about. The kidsilk haze tends to flop down rather than stand up, so it ruffles, which is very pretty, but doesn't provide much coverage. I think I'll ignore this for now, knit the sleeves and sew those on and then see how I feel about it. I guess I can wear a camisole inderneath, but I'd rather not :o)

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, let me know!

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

Flossie bakes

I decided this morning that I would try baking some cheese scones but the local shop didn't have any Cream of Tartar and it was so cold and snowy that I couldn't face getting the bus into town to buy some. I decided to bake some biscuits instead. I've never baked biscuits before but I think it's been fairly successful. The recipe was the children's biscuits from Nigella Lawson's 'How to Eat', which is a fantastic book. Actually, all her recipe books are brilliant. Here are two of the biscuit batches. The quantity of dough in the recipe made 48 of these biscuits. And here are the two non-burnt batches, stacked in a pretty pile :o) I'm going to make some 'Flossie Bakes' labels and gift boxes, similar to my 'Flossie Knits' knitting boxes, so that if I feel like baking more biccies, I can give them away as gifts. These are for my friends at uni tomorrow, as a few weeks ago Mark declared that Fridays should be 'Cake Friday' and that I would be baking a cake each week. I haven't. But, tomorrow will be 'Biscuit Monday'!I've almost finished the frill on the frilly jumper. This is the forth attempt and I'm halfway through casting off, so fingers crossed nothing disastrous is going to happen before I finish it, hopefully tomorrow night. Then I just have the sleeves to knit. I need to reverse a pattern so I can knit sleeves from the top down as I don't think I have enough yarn for full length sleeves.
This is me, in the Newcastle Uni student newspaper, in an article about the knitting group at the Forth pub. Please ignore the quote about 'strange sexual behaviour available at a lighthouse near you'. I'm too busy knitting to be involved in that!!

Socks

I need your opinion! What sock yarn do you prefer to knit with, Lorna's Laces or Cherry Tree Hill?

I'm more concerned with how it knits than how it wears.

Please comment with your opinion! Thank you. x

Tiny Cardi, Big Jumper.

This time though, Aloise is wearing it. I'm not sure how impressed she looks. This is possibly because it's the height of Summer in New Zealand and she's being forced to wear a woolly cardi from a crazy lady in England who can't get her seasons sorted. Oops.

In other knitting news, I am still not happy with the frill on the frilly jumper. So, tomorrow morning at the Centurion meeting in town, I'll be frogging the frill...for the forth time. Crap. This is what it looks like at the moment, before the frogging. Let's hope it's forth time lucky, because if it isn't I'm going to toss my knitting and my Addi Turbos straight into the Tyne.

Not my knitting

I've got a design tutorial tomorrow, so I'm busy trying to draw sections of my building, which means I don't have time to knit, and therefor no knitting to blog. Argh! However, Emilie sent me a photo of this little cardigan she knitted for Leila, so I thought I'd show it to you.

Not enough hours in the day

I wish I had more time to blog. Actually, I wish I had more time to knit, so that I had some knitting to blog. However, I don't have time, but here is some knitting!

This is the frilly jumper (nee tank) with the beginning of a frill. I knitted the frill twice already and ripped it out both times because I wasn't happy with it. Hopefully this latest attempt will be a bit better! I'm using kidsilk haze in Pebbles and Smoke, knitted together on a 4.5mm needle.The knitting group is meeting at the Forth this evening. I love this group and try to get there every week, even when I'm busy at uni, as it's often the only time off that I have. I haven't been for a couple of weeks, so the frilly jumper and I will be making an appearance this evening.

Saturday...continued

Right, back to Saturday. These are the yarns and fibres I bought from the Handweavers' Studio in Walthamstow. I bought them to knit or possibly weave a textile piece which represents the material qualities I want in my building, I wrote about them in my last post. There are a couple of wools, some spun flax, a bag of unspun flax, a sheet of very fine stainless steel mesh and a couple of colours of merino roving. Yum. I also bought some acid dyes, and the current issues of Interweave Knits and Fiber Arts magazines. Obviously, these are intended purely for research.
After the Handweavers' Studio, we walked up the road to a lovely little mediterranean cafe, where we had lunch and I gave lovely Leila lots of cuddles. Isn't she adorable? And look what were on Leila's feet! The bootees I made her last year. It's amazing how quickly babies' feet kick, particularly when you are trying to photograph them!
Next, we got the tube over to Islington, where we paid a visit to Loop. It was the busiest I've seen it, I'm so glad they're doing well. I tried very hard to resist, but made one non-research based purchase. A skein of Colinette Grafitti, shade Velvet Plum. I think this is destined to be a hat, for me.
After Loop, we walked along Upper Street and had hot chocolate and cake in a really nice cafe, I don't know what its name is, I'll have to ask Em. The perfect end to a lovely day. Thanks Emilie and Leila! x

Settle down with a cuppa and some knitting...

...because this could take a while.

So, after I had my freak out at uni last week, proclaiming that I'm about to fail at everything I do, I decided that it was definitely time to go home to see my parents. I hadn't been home since New Year, which I guess isn't actually that long, but sometimes, generally when work s going entirely pear shaped, all I want to do is go home for some TLC. Quite possibly because recently my Mum has been telling me, repeatedly, that it really won't matter if I fail everything because I'm going to be opening a wool shop and she is going to be 'Chief Yarn Stacker'.

Anyway, Saturday was a day of research. Ahem. No, really, although this blog is about to include copious amounts of yarn porn, my visit to the Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow was intended primarily as research for uni work.

I was lucky and there was a weaving course running on Saturday, which the lovely weaving ladies let me photograph. You see, research.

This reminds me of concrete, which is a good thing, as I will be using concrete in my design (research, see)Ooh, look at the lovely colours! I will need lots of storage for the workshops in my design, and also in the shop attached to the Centre. More research:I was totally overwhelmed by the site of all the yarn and fibres in the Handweavers' Studio. It is a wonderful little gem of a place. It made me realise why I chose the Centre project for my design thesis. I love yarn, and fibre, and I absolutely LOVE texture. Texture and structure, order and rhythm are my things. But, I hadn't realised that I really like colour too. Too much can be overwhelming, so I'm thinking my building is going to be very neutral, concrete, stone, brick, slate, quite monotone but very highly textured, with flashes of colour in a few carefully considered placed. Possibly on the inside of stairwells.

Right, Blogger is driving me a little crazy now, it won't upload any more photos, so I'll put the rest into another post in the morning. It's getting too cold here to type now (currently -7 outside, and still no heating in the flat) so I'm going to hibernate under several layers. More pics tomorrow.

Back in the (almost) frozen North

So, I'm back in Newcastle. It's bloody cold and heating has broken, so no heating or hot water. Brrrr. Just going into the studio to do some work before an 8am (!) tutorial tomorrow morning, so until I get a chance to blog Saturday's photos, here's a pic of Mum and I knitting together last night. Taken by Dad, who doesn't knit. Yet.