The cat sat on the.....

As I still haven't got my photos sorted of my Christmas projects I'm sticking with looking forward today.  Although a lot of my time (and daydreaming) is being taken up by spinning, I have finally managed to cast on for Stu's cardigan (the cardigan from Knits Men Want which I mentioned a couple of months back).  I never normally knit for men because... well because I am lazy and I don't like to knit for anyone bigger than myself - unless it's a hat or something small.  However, the silly man is going to marry me so I guess I can break the rules for him!  I started knitting about a week ago and I've got a couple more inches to do on the back so it's knitting up pretty quickly in acres and acres of grey Cygnet Wool Rich Aran I got from Modern Knitting.  Unfortunately I don't really have a good picture of it so you'll have to take my word for it.  I did take pictures, but this happened:

I suggested that to Izzy that she might like to go and sit elsewhere.  She responded thusly:

That's right kitten, make yourself comfy!

And this was when I knew it was game over for that little photo shoot.

However I do have a reasonable picture of my latest dye job, mainly because the cats haven't worked out how to photobomb a picture of things hanging from doors.

It's not a great picture, but it'll do.  This was achieved with yellow and red Wilton's, poured in opposite sides of a dish so that the stuff in the middle sort of mingled into orange and then microwaved..  The red isn't quite as red as I'd like but the overall effect is what I was after.  Hopefully it will be dry tonight and then I can twist it into a skein, because it always looks prettier like that.

2011

Christmas and New Year have come and gone, for the most part pleasantly and I'm looking forward to a year ahead full of creating and inspiration.  The holiday period boded well for this, lots of projects finished and much progress made on new projects.  More on these soon (i.e. when I'm at home and can access my photos!), but today I'm all about my new project.....spinning!  I know I promised myself I wouldn't think about it or even learn anything about it, but I couldn't help myself.  Once I started hand dying the idea of knitting something from fibre I dyed and spun myself just seemed right.  Like something I could really call my own.  So for now here is a nice little pic of what has been exclusively occupying my mind for the last few days, not bad if I do say so myself.

...and a bit more...

Now the snow has started it apparently does not want to stop, this is my back garden:

Not that my back garden is terribly interesting, but I think the layer of snow on top of the bin illustrates nicely the kind of weather we've been having!  Just for fun we sent the kittens out to play in it, they were a little trepidatious about the whole thing but they didn't want to come in at all.

So due to the weather I got to skive off work and have actually been quite productive.  We went for a long stomp in the snow and took lots of pictures whilst being continually amazed that there was snow halfway to our knees and then went to visit my currently incapacitated brother who can't actually go out in the snow at the moment.  Once at home I decorated the Christmas Tree, made marzipan for the Christmas cake, made a whole batch of lip balm for Christmas presents.  This evening I'm going to do a whole bunch of knitting and frame my latest cross stitch project - phew, I think a day at work would have been less crazy!

Here it is!

 Hurrah!  This was taken on my walk to work this morning (check out Rochester castle just peeking out in the distance), it is still snowing now so hopefully I can be home and knitting before it gets dark tonight. 

Last night I finished the curly wurly scarf, no pics yet until I'm sure that the curl can be tamed but it is a lovely colour (if I do say so myself) and is just the right length.  Worst comes to worst I can keep it for myself so not a complete disaster.  I do however have a photo of the cross stitch I finished now I have framed it, it is from the book Subversive Cross Stitch so if you are not fond of profanities this is not for you!

I love it, but inside I'm still 5 years old.

Where's my snow?

So it seems for a second year in a row Britain is in the thrall of a snowpocalpse, schools shut, people having snow days etc etc.  What have we got?  Bugger all!  There was a tantalising dusting this morning, which managed to whet my appetite for snow and then more bugger all.  Disappointment, I has it.

On the plus side I'm actually making some headway into my Christmas preparations.  Lots of stuff is ordered and on it's way, I've nearly finished another scarf for the Christmas box and I've finished the first of three cross stitch thingys for my friends.  The scarf is one of my own devising, made from yarn I dyed myself so is truly a thing of my own making.  Because of this I keep putting off photographing it in case it has to be quietly put to sleep for being crap!  At the moment it is worryingly curly but if I can block that out it will be great, watch this space....(or if you never hear about it again, assume the worst and speak of it no more).  Anyways, I'll be here dreaming of snow and hoping for a snow day to finish off my Christmas knits.

Strike a pose!

Taking photos of my projects is sometimes a challenge.  If I'm on my own I have to make do with a timer or a mirror or just take a picture of the FO artfully draped around the house.  No more!  The solution?......

Get a cat.

Pattern: Burberry Inspired Cowl Neck Scarf by Julianne Smith a really quick and easy knit which I can highly recommend.  This is going in the Christmas box and I'll decide who it is for a bit closer to the day.  Oh and the cat was loving it, she is a total camera ho and would probably have sat like that all day if I'd kept snapping her!

Photo story

Ok, because it has once again been a wee while since I updated I'm just going to add a whole load of photos of what I've been up to and try and bring this up to date.  I've got a few irons in the fire at the moment so the sooner I'm all caught up, the sooner I can talk about those.  Onwards!

So.. dying occured - it went well I think, 2 lovely skeins of sock yarn to be proud of:

I started knitting a little triangle scarf/shawl with some of the Araucania I bought a while back

 I finished my Charades and I love them

And... last but not least, my man, he knits!