roman sock

Birds

It was Ms Sock’s birthday on the 25^th, she reached the still very young age of 29 and she coped with it admirably, no birthday tears. She is just full of all this latent potential and I hope she will start to let it prove, regardless next year she will have Virgina Woolf’s full approval.

I made her these:

She is bird crazy so there was a crochet bird as well as some new bird earrings. The moomin went down well although I think there is still quite a lot of work to do on the design before it is as moomintastic as I would like.

I didn’t get the job so we are very much re-appraising our future, its so easy to get caught in the lap of the waves and forget where you are swimming to, so in my typical fashion I am going to hatch a plan. I am very relieved in a way, I almost think we will get to our goals quicker now.

When I was young and on holiday in the Maldives, my Dad and I swum out to the edge of the reef. After much fun and frolics we started to swim back but were interrupted by a shark in the water that was quickly joined by another one. He told me to swim back to the island, fast and steady while he waited until he knew they would not follow me. I must have panicked and ended up on the other side of the island, and by the time I got back to out spot on the beach he was already there. I think there is a lesson in there somewhere I am just not sure what it is yet.

I have also become addicted to Amelia Peabody books : http://www.ameliapeabody.com/. I am so tacky. I just wish I could read them while crocheting my first cardigan but I need all my concentration.

The moomins

My partner is going to be 29 on the 25th and for her birthday she badly wanted a moomin. So 5 trial moomins later I have this:

 

It was tough to ge the head in the very particular moomin way. But I managed it in the end. I now just need to finish my other projects, might need to cut back a bit. Should hear about the job tomorrow. I half want it to be a yes, half a no. I suppose in the end I just need to sit back, relax and let the future take its course and stop being so frightened.

I am also making owls to add to the bird earing collection below:

Explanation and Tutorial

Hmmmm I realise my last message was quite cryptic. I love Jane Austen and most of all I love Pride and Prejudice…..at lunchtime I some times have a quick walk around a nearby abandoned graveyard and…… low and behold I found the grave of an Elisabeth Bennet (I wish it was Elisabeth Darcy too, but I can’t have everything!) So I thought I would capture the journey. It was so beautiful with the dappled light, gorgeous flowers and birds a robin even posed for me for a couple of minutes.

And now for something completely different…. I have managed to put together a tutorial for the crocheted bag (Now christened the Desiree bag).Download DesireeBagTutorial.pdf Any problems let me know!

lizzie bennet

I  went for a walk today to discover the real Lizzie Bennet.

The rest of the photos are in the photo album. It is the most magical hidden place.

Crocheted Bag

At last my bag is finished, I feel like I have been making it for ages. Its crocheted out of pure wool and the contrast fabric was bought when I still lived in Hong Kong over 17 years ago now.

I am really proud of it. I made some crocheted flowers out of sari silk yarn but decided not to use them on it because I wanted to keep it quite simple.

 

I made up the pattern which I think I might write up because it was so easy to make. Just a monkey and some moomins to go, and then I can think of some new projects.

Download Tutorial: Download DesireeBagTutorial.pdf

birthday

So it was my birthday, turned 26. It didn’t feel as normal as I thought, it made me feel a little frantic inside. There is so much to do and I don’t really seem to be engaging in life. Just letting it cruise by, more money, more stuff, more money, more stuff…no passion.

Anyway here is my cake: It was really choctastic, the first time I have ever had a cake and wished there was more cake and less icing.

And here is a film of the dog messing about with the wrapping paper: Download dog_birthday.3gp

I suppose I am just tired of trying all the time, feeling anxious, worrying about the future or the past or about what’s happening right at the moment.

The interview in London was bizarre. The interviewer was very hard on me, but I feel like he winkled the truth from me whether I wanted to tell it or not. If you gave some banal answer he kept pushing until I just kind of spewed the truth. I suppose for the first time I really feel that an interviewer got to know me…and if they don’t want me it is because I wouldn’t fit in, and if they do it's going to be really challenging but an experience. Though I would rather be in a jungle, but its not that simple.

I had a really wonderful birthday and Ms Sock looked after me beautifully and gave me the most beautiful bags (one of which she knitted herself from a Noni pattern - finally a bag big enough to hold all my crap) not to mention the delightful chillow. I have no idea how I existed before it. Truly an experience.

the sleeper

Had trouble sleeping last night, I suppose that is the price to pay for living in the centre of Edinburgh. We are a stones throw from the Royal Mile and have the pleasure of living in a building over 400 years old, but odd things happen on the lane.

Here are some of them:

* A bizarre sing off between a group of football fans and a bunch of students - Had us in hysterics, I didn’t really think things like that existed.

* A rap-off competition with rather bad rappers that kept forgetting what they were going to say, mid way through the rap.

* A episode of Rebus filmed right outside, with screams that definitely had more ‘projection’ and ‘annunciation’ than normal.

Some bad stuff too:

* Junkie needles right outside the door, not nice when you are just taking the dog for his morning toilet.

* A spot where even the traffic wardens go to pee.

* Drunk men that either hurl abuse, pass out or wet themselves. The first couple of times we called the ambulance now we just ignore them.

* Drunk revellers that pulled out all the door ringing equipment and left us for almost a year with out a doorbell ( fixed now)

* The time that drunken football fans broke into our block of flats and started thumping on the doors.

Its strange I think sometimes people see Edinburgh as a real party city but forget that while they are singing on the street at the top of their voices, someone is in bed trying to sleep. Hey ho, nothing can be done.

Moomin

I have three projects going on at the moment, one a bag that I have no idea will work, one a monkey that is a commission for a friend, and lastly a moomin for my love. I am feverishly worried about them all. The moomins are very cute but turning them into crochet creatures is slightly worrying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins

On the plus point though… my mother is buying me a gorgeous cake from here: http://www.plaisirduchocolat.com/ for my birthday. Last time she bought us these chocolates.

I badly need a new camera this picture does them no justice.

They look just fantastic, I half want to keep them to look at, but they taste so divine it would be a sin. I can’t even start to describe how they taste except to say they taste like food ought to taste, and not how it does. Dream food.

Lovers Knot

This was supposed to be a lovely shrug but to be honest after I had made it, blocked it, stitched it and put it on - it made my arms look like they were cottage cheese poured into a pair of lacy tights…

…so thought I had better rework it. I think I am going to make it in to a bit of a shawl/scarf combination. I am really pleased with the effect though. The stitch (Solomon Knot or Lovers Knot) was really simple to learn and looks really delicate - a very desirable combination. Its made out of lovely alpaca, stunning wool!

Learn the lovers knot here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4830.asp

The warthog/Tapier cross

This little fellow was made when I was running up and down to London, 4 ½ hours on the train each way (quite quick really) to try and get a new job (which I am still trying to do).

On that trip I saw some bizarre things:

• A woman crying on the tube over the Virgina Tech shootings, who looked like she wanted to talk but everyone was avoiding her eyes.
• A woman who sat behind me on the train arranging her next stint on television, then phoning up her mum to brag, not sure who she was I didn’t recognise her.
• A tube poster that said “ Find peace through violence” a strangely compelling message that was unbelievably inappropriate.
• A group of friends who were seeing off one guy, and wrote love messages to him on post it notes, then stuck them on the window.
• A group of guys off to Hadrian’s Wall for cycling, who had obviously all been alike once and now one looked like a hippy, one a city slicker and one still looked like a student, he was going to be in an Oscar Wilde play and was rehearsing his lines in front of a train full of people.
• And a drunk actor on the tube who was explaing the process they go through when they graduate something to do with a part in a stage production and lots of CV’s with head shots on them. Nobody had taken any of his.

I also found this cool resource for Japanese Crafting books, I ordered a few of yesasia.com myself and had really fab service.

http://mollychicken.blogs.com/my_weblog/japanese_craft_books/index.html Thank you Molly Chicken !!!