There's only one thing for it...

I'm stuck in Dublin airport, having arrived three hours before my flight home (because I mis-remembered the flight time). My feet hurt and I have several blisters (damn work shoes. I knew minimalist packing was a bad idea!), finding yarn shops in Dublin that are open on a Sunday is not easy (athought not impossible...), I don't have a camera cable with me so I can't use any of the photos I took, and to top it all off I've just paid 5 euros to get wireless internet access and Ravelry isn't working properly.

So I'm off to the bar!

No knitting...

...well, not exactly none at all, I did achieve about 1/2 a row on Lady Eleanor on my holidays, but I concentrated more on reading and relaxing. I'm now in Dublin attending a meeting, but I'm able to sit at the back of the science talks and catch up with a few things on my laptop (mainly pictures, blogging and ravelry).

For now, a few pictures which make me wish I was still on holiday...

La Cite, Carcassonne

Palms in Perpignan

Church door in Elne

And my favourite so far:

Holidays!

I'll be here for the next 10 days, sunning myself. And possibley working on Lady Eleanor (or just reading a lot of books!).

Ravelry is good, but I'll survive without it somehow. When I return, I'll be able really get into it...

I'm in the club!

No, not that club, I mean Ravelry, silly... username Startitis :-)

Slow progress...

Lady Eleanor continues to grow - I started the second ball around the middle of row 5, joining 2 black sections - I think it looks ok (it probably combined to make a slightly longer than average bit of that colour) and I'm finding it interesting the way the colours are distributing themselves.

With the aid of good daylight, my phone takes an ok picture I think.

There's not as much time for knitting as I would like at the moment, what with getting ready for holidays (10 days in the south of France, starting on Saturday - hurray!) and trying to get some bits and pieces done for my magic yarn ball swap. Hoping I can pick up a few nice treats to include from my hols!

I'm now #74 in the queue for Ravelry, so should get chance for a browse before I go away...

Kiri

Finished weeks ago, but only just photographed:




Kiri (pdf pattern here)

Isn't it lovely? Completion was a bit delayed when I ran out of yarn (and accidentally bought a ball of the wrong colour - there are two shades of Kidsilk haze that are very close in colour, and my memory failed me - I was using shade 592, Heavenly, but picked up 636, Mist) but took about 6 weeks in total. I used just over 2 balls of KSH and reduced the size by a couple of pattern repeats as I was concerned it would be too big - once blocked it was ok, but could have benefited from just one more repeat I think (typical!)

With my crochet bag, a new dress and my white fakenstocks, it completed the perfect outfit for a slightly rainy wedding. I was amazed at how warm KSH is, given it is such a thin/fine yarn. And I didn't find it too difficult to work with either (I avoided frogging as much as possible though!). I've even bought some more with my Liberty tokens...

Who'd have thought?

I finished both sides of the entrelac bag last week (the pattern only requires one side in entrelac, but I did both for the practice) and almost immediately started a bigger project - Lady Eleanor from scarf style. I really like this technique - interesting enough to keep me going (so far anyway) and yet simple enough that I can pick it up for a few rows and not worry about getting confused. I'd recommend learning to knit backwards, as it is invaluable for entrelac - and surprisingly easy!

Bag panels - bag itself yet to be finished:

Due to a shopping mistake last year, I happen to have 10 balls of Noro silk garden at home in the stash, which I had earmarked for this project, and I could really do with getting rid of some stash (in preparation for the upcoming Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally) so it seemed like as good a time as any to start. Mind you, I've not got to the end of the first ball quite yet. And yes, that is some kind of shopping mistake, isn't it?!

Lady Eleanor, as of Monday evening:

In other news... I ordered my wedding dress at the weekend! I really should make more of a start on the planned shawl...

Under 1000...

Like many, many other internet aware knitters, I've signed up for the waiting list for Ravelry. And waited. And waited. This is what happens when you sign up for a beta project in the knitting world. I don't mind waiting, as I know its a small project run by just a couple of people, but I really do want to get on there and start exploring! Thankfully, they''ve introduced a widget that allows you to check on where you are in line, and when I checked this morning, I saw the following:

You signed up on July 3, 2007
You are #12133 on the list.
999 people are ahead of you in line.
18561 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

Woohoo! I'm finally under 1000 (after 2 months waiting). And do you see how many people have signed up? Over 30,000! And there are people who can't be bothered to join the waiting list and are just planning to join when it is out of beta too.

In other news, I have joined my first swap - the 'magic yarn ball' swap on Craftster. (for a beautifully put together example of a magic yarn ball, see here). And decided to broaden my crafting skills by making a few new things for the swap. Because the spare room isn't full enough already with various crafting supplies, is it?! I've spent a bit of time sourcing things on ebay and apparently Hobbycraft is only 10 minutes away from work on the tube...

Blue crochet bag

Having finished my beautiful Kiri, and found a lovely dress to wear to my friend's wedding a couple of weekends ago, I was almost sorted. Problem was, I didn't have a bag to complete the outfit. I'm the kind of person who likes everything to match, so that was a distinct issue for me... I trawled Oxford Street in search of a suitable bag, but to no avial, at which point I decided I'd have to make my own. Easy, right?



I popped into Liberty and picked up a few balls of Rowan Handknit Cotton and half a metre of fabric for linin (I think it is a Kaffe Fassett/Rowan print), with a vague picture in mind of a shell crochet bag with stripes of colour. After a couple of redesigns and a quick bit of work on the sewing machine, I came up with this:



































(Please excuse the bad quality pictures, I'll take some decent ones with my camera soon, these are from my phone!)


The bag design is my own, and the flowers from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet

and The Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques. The lining contains a couple of pockets for my oyster card and mobile phone, and plenty of room for a purse and other assorted junk (aka things that might come in handy...)

All in all, it took about 2 weeks to complete (I was a bit too relaxed about it to begin with, and could have worked much faster, so in the end I was sewing the lining in on the morning of the wedding!) and less than half of the 4 balls of yarn I bought, so there's plenty left over for another project. Plus plenty of fabric, but I have plans for that...

I want to be here

... but I'm not. The view a few weeks ago on the back beach in Teignmouth, Devon. Wish I was paddling there now!

Took a tour of 'historic Kilburn' this afternoon - it was a bit rubbish, but we did find out that there are the ruins of an ancient priory in the middle of a council housing estate. Well, where else would they be?!

Tonight, we're taking my parents (who are in town for an extended weekend visit/holiday) for sushi - lets see how that challenges Dad's 'I'll try any new food once' principle (insert evil chuckle here...)

But now, back to the entrelac. I think I'm actually getting the hang of it!