roses, roses, roses

I got up at ridiculous o'clock this morning & taught for the first time in months so brain no worky now.

Here are lots of pictures of roses I've taken over the last couple of months, mostly in the Vicarage garden.

That last one is a close-up of an ironic lamp I bought cheap from Argos!

The one before is the surface of my not-ironic-at-all laptray.

Tomorrow I will remember to take the diagonals/skyline picture I've been meaning to take from the bus for The August Break. Please stand by ...

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work

I start teaching again tomorrow, well for a minimum of 1 day. There will probably be less crochet, knitting and nonsense as a result. Looking forward to getting back in the classroom.

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Is it very wrong to want to buy an album just because of its cover picture? Especially as it'll be a download anyway ...

... but I love the rose!!



The album is here (the least I could do is link to it!)

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Close-up

A norchid, some crochet & a mini Degas ballerina wearing a wool scarf ;)

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The August Break 2013

With thanks to MemeRose for bringing it to my attention, I think I might join in with The August Break 2013.

I've missed out on days 1-4, obvs. 5 is close-up. Hmm, please stand by ...

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butterfly rescue and a new knitting project

This morning I went into the living room and saw a large black butterfly flappng around. I thought it was the Vicarage's resident red admiral (which I've named Nelson, of course) but on close inspection it turned out to be this peacock butterfly:

I had to dodge it to open the window, which made me giggle :)

I've just started my version of this micro scarf, which I've been wanting to try for ages. I'm using my old faithful bamboo wool (see 1st Crochet Project!) and I've reduced the number of stitches to 12, to appease my obsession with 6's. 

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Vintage-look rose in the Vicarage garden

These were all on the same rose bush!
I particularly like the way the nearly-dead one looks sort of washed out and vintage-y.

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6-er

That's much better!

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Granny Squares

Yesterday I taught myself granny squares. With HUGE thanks to Little Tin Bird for the basic pattern, and Bunny Mummy for how to join a new colour.

The first square was easy peasy:

The second one, not so much!

Then I sat in the Vicarage garden in the ridiculous heat, listened to TMS, and crocheted granny squares!

My original plan to photograph every square as I finish it is clearly going to be overload so I'm not going to do it any more ;)

I woke up this morning with a head full of "and I could ..." ideas for other things to do with granny squares. I've already seen 2 other patterns, Bunny Mummy doesn't put chain stitches down the sides of her squares, so they're a bit more solid, and Little Tin Bird has patterns for a solid granny square and other variations AND I've been thinking that 3 colours + 3 rounds /  square is a bit dull and maybe I could try 6 rounds, or more colours (I've got other accrued, acrylic DK in my knitting box) or ... !

(gasps for breath)

I am reminded of when I started knitting and suffered, quite soon after, from eyes-bigger-than-hands/needles/bankaccount syndrome. I had to learn restraint, and to make myself finish 1 project before moving on to the next. If I don't carry on with the squares I've started & finish them, I'll end up with another box full of WIPs & UFOs.

Ooh, I could use the other DK to join all the silly little squares together.

I might try one 6 rounder, just to see what it looks like ...

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I LOVE the top in the middle! 



I will never ever be able to knit something that delicate & complicated :(

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Granny Square Colour Randomiser - what to do, what to do?

I have all these 25g balls of DK acrylic in different colours that I've accrued from 'The Art of Knitting' subscription. In a fit of irony, I've decided to use them to make a zillion granny squares - The Art of Knitting Crochet!!

I thought I'd just pull 3 balls out of the bag, use them in the order they come to hand for 1 square, then start again. If I try & think about what colours to use I'll tie myself in awful knots. 

Now I've done Granny Square #1, I realise that they don't take very long and I'll probably be forever running back & forth to get new balls (please!)
Plus I have this slight OCD thing about 6. So now I'm thinking to use the colours for 2 granny squares, starting the second square with the last colour of the first one.

Or ... 

I dunno!

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meanwhile ... knitting!

Here are my current knitting projects:

I'm calling this 'Beachy Waves Blanket'. The blue's come out a bit brighter in these pictures than it is in real life. I'm about halfway through - it'll be 13 stripes when I've finished! I had to take a break from this recently as it was too hot to sit under it & knit but I'm back on it now. 

This is a k3, p1, ribbed sock, the first of a pair. I'm nearly at the toe now.

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aaah

I just went thru a couple of months' worth of knitting & crochet projects clutter, emptied & refilled a knitting bag I hadn't used for a while (mostly occupied by a jumper I can't face making up & a terrifying number of needles) and had a general tidy-up. 

That feels GOOD :)

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Kelmscott Manor

Early in June, when the weather wasn't as good as the last few weeks but was better than today, Mum & I went to Kelmscott Manor. It was William Morris's country retreat and where he got a lot of the inspiration for his patterns and designs. 

It was an absolutely lovely afternoon, the house is laid out like a house, not a museum, and it wasn't crowded with lots of things that needed looking at. The atmosphere was incredibly peaceful.  And the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. 

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Grandma Ruth's blanket

A recent conversation with Mum about crochet, which I've started and she now wants to do too (is it bad that I don't like the way she 'copies' me? especially how what she does has to be exactly the same?!?) led me to reminisce, briefly, about the blanket I played with when I was a little girl, which my Grandma Ruth, my father's mother, had crocheted for me. 

And of course Mum still had the blanket (NO comment here on her keeping stuff her ex-Mother-in-Law had made!) and yesterday she found it & gave it to me. Here it is:

 

 

I don't know what it's made of, it feels too scratchy to be all wool. I don't remember her making it for me, all I remember is playing with it (it was particularly good for Wild West imaginary play!) with a child's total lack of respect for its handmade, crochety fabulousness!

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P.S. I just found these photos of Grandma Ruth, Grandpa & me (& Tessa the dog!) on my pooter:

 aren't those glasses awesome?!?

Half-treble headache

(this written on my fone but without photo, let's see if it posts...)
The Voyage of Crochet Discovery continues with, after purchasing the right size hook yesterday, the first crocheted square in my Knit&Stitch patchwork collection. It's in half-treble, which is a new stitch for me after mastering single crochet over the last few days (I suspect I'm muddling up UK & US terms here). The photo instructions were fine for the half-treble itself but I don't quite get what I should be doing at the end of the rows, for which, of course, there aren't any pictures! My first attempt, already unpicked, was clearly wrong as the rows seemed to be getting shorter. The instructions say to work "the last half treble into the top of the 2 chain" (from the beginning of the previous row) but I can quite see where that is.
Also, the wool is BEASTLY! I don't hate the very dull grey colour but it's acrylic and really scratchy and splits all the time.
And the weather is what mum described as 'very close'.
So my head, neck & shoulders are stiff & sore but I don't really know why...

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Disaster!!!

Again, this was supposed to post yesterday from my stupid fone, but never arrived.
Sigh.

The good news is, I found the same size hook in some of mum's never-used, prehistoric crochet stuff (another post there, methinks!) and today I bought a nice bamboo one to replace it.
Also, I didn't actually fail to post yesterday, just the technology let me down ;)

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Lunch at the Trout at Tadpole Bridge

A very ordinary risotto but look what was in the corner of the ladies'!



I love the shape & of course the roses :)

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The Kindle Saga: Part III

I've got a new Kindle! Which is very exciting!!!!

This is because I left the last Kindle on an armchair (my fault) & Mum sat on it (not my fault) and it, well, the screen, stopped working.

After some deliberation, a reconditioned Kindle Touch 3G was ordered from eBay/Argos (the Internet ROCKS!), paid for by the person who sat on the last one. It arrived today! Much rejoicing!

I've just discovered that I can 'import' my collections from my last Kindle :-) but they're empty and when I download an archived item it doesn't put it back in the collections :-p booo!

I'm sure I was able to keep the collections when I went from Kindle I to Kindle II, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong, it was a while ago.

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My First Crochet

Look at me mummy - I'm crocheting!!!

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PS this was supposed to post yesterday from my fone, which is still apparently publishing it. If you want something done properly ...

a blog post a day for 30 days - and this time I really mean it!!!!

I've been browsing thru lots of absolutely gorgeous blogs recently, such as this one and this one, which I uncovered while looking, as always, at knitting stuff. To be fair, most recently I've been looking, quite desperately, for dummies-guide-to-crochet stuff, about which more later.
So anyway, I've been looking at all these lovely blogs (here's another one) and wishing "I could do that" and I suppose the best way is to start.

SO!

A Blog Post a Day for 30 Days. Be it a long ramble about the state of my soul, or a photo & a bit of nonsense. Or even a link.
I mean, how hard can it be? (another candidate for Autobiography Title there!)

The 30 Days thing is based on this 

Today:

I crocheted! I crocheted! I crocheted!!!! photo to follow (from fone)

There is a new Prince of Cambridge. Good. Still hope they call him Bilbo.

My Tarot card for the day is The Devil - eek!

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Pigeon(s) with printed wings