101 for Innocent 2008

The big knit is back and this year I aimed for 100 all by myself. It was fun, and I got to allow my creative juices to flow.
However I can not count, and it is not at 100 that I stopped, but 101!
Wonder what the looks like?

Well here goes...

Pretty in teal..

Finally something worth blogging about : I won!
Not the Nobel Peace Prize, not the X-Factor, but a photo contest. The cynic in me believes I won by default, by being the only entry...but hey, who cares... by sending this photo of my interpretation of her sock design to Dogknitty Designs, I bagged myself not one but 2 skeins of teal coloured sock yarn handpainted by Claudia...Heaven!







Photo of the yarny goodness.

There was also a lovely trip to the Lang factory, and i accidentally took up spinning...who knew you could get high on merino and silk fumes...

Dear Britain, it has been fun...

But I have to leave you....

13 and a half years is plenty long enough, and frankly I don't think I can put up with yet another season of Big Brother, or with the statistics about underage drinking (25% of 11-16 y-o) and daily dose of teenage stabbings.

I know I will be abandoning many a friendly knitter, but I am sure the Swiss yarn obsessed will have me...eventually!

Having finally let go of the 'I do not have a driving licence' excuse as of last week, I was happily pottering about with yarn and colours when DBF dropped the news: "Can we move before the 14th?" he said...Hem...but...ahem...heu...the KIP day...and the packing....ARRRRGGGHHH panic!

But thanks with regards to the driving go to Gail and DBF for sitting in the car, and to my instructor Adam for not giving up on me...I probably would have!

So here I am, sitting on the sofa looking dreamingly at my home-dyed sock and lace yarn, have to master a way to pack EV-ERY-THING within just over a week and a half.

But hey it will be worth it. This is the view I will be enjoying from the end of next week:

There also another reason I want to go breath the fresh mountain air...the amount of pollution that clings to everything (including my lungs I suspect) as evidenced by the colour of the water when washing clothes... I have a photo. but I don't want to gross the world out!

Return of the sporadic blogger

So I am back!

It 's been a while, and surprisingly not a lot has changed... I am still here, STILL waiting to take my driving test and Zurich is still the final destination.

BUT I have kept busy.

I have been knitting, and crocheting, and meeting new future friends, and crafting some more.

Wanna see?

First, the tooth. It's a present for my dentist who spent around 15 hours sorting out my abscess and then root canal...all free of charge as I was his case patient for his post-grad dissertation! Made of wool and acrylic felt and hand stitched/embroidered. It is stuffed with polyfil. Pattern from the book "Softies".

Then a plethora of presies for a little baby girl who is almost a month old. The tree is as for the tooth and I included a rattle ( a kinder egg container with small beads sealed and nested in the stuffing) which I secured by stitching the top of the tree and the trunk all the way through the stuffing.

Then a small but perfeclty formed cardigan. Wendy merino wool on 4mm to knit the larger version of the Baby Sachiko kimono sweater, by Erika Flory (Free in the Winter 2007 issue of "for the love of yarn": http://www.fortheloveofyarn.com/Issues/07Winter/patterns/winter07_kimono.shtml
The embroidery at back is from Kyuuto Wool Embroidery and all done in tapestry wool.
So simple, yet so effective!

The front was all me !





I also discovered how big 9 inches really is when asked to knit some squares for Oxfam...I really did think it looked mu ch smaller than that ;-)

And as summer approaches...Monkey needs new clothes!

It's all going red and chocolatey...

Ok, so I have been a bad blogger and not posted for...monthS...

Well, I have no excuse, other than I am desperately trying to get all the stuff sorted because I am all by myself at the moment.

No no, fear not , nothing bad has happened to the BF, unless you count having been abducted by small purple cows and having to travel on trains that are ALWAYS on time.

Yes, it finally happened, BF has moved to the Swiss country and I now get Skype updates of -15C weather and snow-boarding forecast.

Strangely enough it has gone all Swiss here to, as the latest knitted addition to the house menagerie gears up for the move...

And the local shops have decided to provide me without interesting tastes all courtesy of Frey, the big chocolate company and my local home-bargains (how could I resist Swiss chocolate at 29p per 100g ??)

Interesting flavours currently residing in my cupboard ?
White chocolate and blueberry
White chocolate and rhubarb
Milk chocolate with carrot pieces
Dark chocolat with lemon and pepper
Milk chocolate with cinnamon and coriander (absolutely divine)

The other find of the week was next door...TJHughes had a big Pout display (RIP) with prices that did not exceed £5!! And we are talking Benefit prices normally!!

Squee!!!

So my lips will be plumped for £3 and taste of cinnamon and mint...

Even sent one to my Mum...along with some coriander chocolate...


The monkey is monkee-maker's modification of the PG-tips monkey...and there's a new purple one taking shape on the sofa... more pictures soon!

It is my last day at work !

And somehow I feel like this:

Please visit http://www.edwardmonkton.com/ for much more cartooney wisdom!

Frightening friends

Or how Utopia can be a very scary thing...

Picture it: it is Monday lunchtime, and the knitters have gathered with some lunch and projects around a small table. The Utopia hat is such a logical make, the stitches seem to have taken a life of their own in my fingers as I chat away about Christmas and holidays and vacations...
"Why aren't you using a cable needle?" K's voice resonnates in my ear.

Looking up I see the horrified look starring at my 6-st cables that alternate right and left, as my fingers still pinch 3 stitches in mid air.

"Did I scare you" I ask her? She nods. I laugh. "It's really less faff than a cable needle" I add.

Later that day I send her the link for Grumperina's tutorial on cabling without needles.

And later this week there will be a picture of Utopia finished...but not now, because the light is bad and casting icky shadows...