Seraphina is finally finished!!! woohoo!!
What a relief!
I've spent the last few days sewing up the seams while listening to podcasts and to the audiobook of Alexander McCall Smith's The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party. I love the Precious Ramotswe stories; I feel as if I'm there in Botswana with Precious and Mr JLB Matekoni.
Now I can post Seraphina to my Mam before the weather turns really cold and crack on with something else.
and it was well worth it!!
I got a wonderful package from Canada on Saturday as part of a Dr Who swap. My swap partner Anna made me a lovely soft cosy shawlette (the pattern is Yvaine by Liz Abinante) out of her own gorgeous handspun and knitted a TARDIS cover for a notebook, so I can pretend to be River Song as well as Amelia Pond (the girl who waited).There's erasable psychic pens, fabby yarn and stitch markers as well as chocolate and Tim Horton's fudge. nomnomnom.
I'd never really understand the fad for shawlettes until I wore Yvaine yesterday. OH MY GOODNESS!! I was as warm as toast. I'm going to have to queue some patterns to make some more for myself.
I went to see a fantastic Buddy Holly tribute band last night at the Brunton Theatre Musselburgh. It was a special night out for the Day Centre's committee and volunteers, so we had dinner first in the theatre's bistro then enjoyed an exhilarating show packed with Buddy Holly's fantastic music.
This tribute band has been performing for nearly 20 years and are very good at what they do. They have a new lead playing Buddy, a young man called Dean Elliott who not only sounded like Buddy but captured a lot of his mannerisms and did a pretty good accent too.
Most of the day centre members are in their 70s and this is the music of their youth, it took them back in time and you could see the years drop away from them as they remembered when they were courting couples or first married.
I enjoyed it too, I loved the exuberant music and the catchy tunes. Buddy Holly's music has stood the test of time very well. I must get a cd of Buddy's music to listen to while I'm driving! Rave on!
I'm very biddable, so I will!!
(cue hubby rolling around on floor laughing manically!!)
A new knitting mag has just been launched in the UK , edited by one of my online pals Kate Heppell. It's a bright cheery encouraging mag, with a contemporary feel and full of patterns for the intermediate knitter (like me).
Iss 1 comes with a free circ needle and has a very useful "beginner's guide" supplement, which also contains 12 patterns. I particularly like the children's mittens which have animal faces on them.
I hope this new mag does well, it must take a lot of energy , commitment and determination to launch a new venture in the current depressed economic climate. Kate (Kitty) is very smart and I'm sure this will do well.
now then, where's my knitting? must get on, I've been told to after all!
we had a jaunt to Glasgow today, to do some shopping and feed no1 kid!
D had been presenting at a housing conference in Dunblane and travelled across country to meet up with Jen and me after we'd done some retail therapy then we took Jack to di Maggio's for an early dinner.
I thought Jack would choose steak or ribs in an attempt to eat as much meat as possible while D paid, but no, he had sea-bream, saying that he never cooks fish for himself so it would be nice to have some cooked for him! I must remember that next time he is home!
I enjoyed our dinner, di Maggio's was pretty busy, even at 5.30pm. The food was good and the company even better.
Jen and I explored a different part of Glasgow, visiting a few of the shops on The Style Mile, and I bought her an adult sized babygro/onesie/romper suit which looks like a black cat. It's not for Hallowe'en, it's just to lounge around in or sleep in. I think she's bonkers, she thinks she looks purrfect!
I splashed out on some knitting books this week and, after I grabbed them from the startled postie, I have been thoroughly enjoying three very different books:
Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague is a tremendous book for showing you how to get your sweater to fit your body properly. Let's face it, how many of us have catwalk figures? I have an ample bosom and narrow hips and am only 5' tall. I struggle to find clothes that fit me: petite sizes, to suit my height don't suit my bust line; those sizes which fit my bosom overwhelm my waist and hips. Knitting my own sweaters makes a lot of sense, but only if I can put shaping in the right places. This book looks at shaping in depth. The technical detail is outstanding and Ysolda Teague has produced a truly beautiful and incredibly useful book. I love the way her designs are shown on 2 very different body shapes and in various colours as well. I like 3 of the patterns too: Angostura, Leika and Melia.
Brave New Knits by Julie Turjoman looks at the best of the indie designer bloggers and has an eclectic mix of designs and patterns. I love the socks by Chrissy Gardiner (Chutes and ladders) and Sean Riley (Helix), Woolly Wormhead's Lenina hat and the Foxgloves by Clara Parkes. I'd love to be able to find the time to make Connie Chang Chinchio's tulip peasant blouse and Angela Hahn's Seaweed vest. This book is a lovely treasure chest of new designs and very inspiring.
All Wound Up by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a collection of the Yarn Harlot's essays and has had me snorting with laughter and wide eyed with surprise as she writes about trying to move a new washing machine through a too narrow doorway, and how to survive a walk outside in temperatures of -20C.
So now, I want to cast on loads of new projects, but I need to finish Seraphina for my mother. The weather is getting chilly and I want to keep her old bones warm! So this week I've been redoing the neckline and shoulders of the front and I'm determined to finish the damn thing this lovely sweater for her.
as the Doctor would say "allons-y!!"
thank you Chi!
One of my friends, Di, had an open day at her beautiful remodelled home (Colonsay), on Saturday to raise funds for our church's renovation appeal.
A lovely young Japanese woman, Chiharu, was there selling her beautiful handsewn patchwork. Her work is gorgeous, and has won awards in Japan; I was so impressed that I bought these two pieces (tea cosy and coffee cosy) as Christmas gifts for my inlaws. I wish that all of my Christmas shopping was as easy as this!
She is trying to get an etsy shop established and at the moment can be contacted at patchworkbychi@hotmail.com
Chi also taught me how to say "see you" in Japanese
dewa mata ne!
D and I went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at the cinema on Friday night.
I loved the original TV series starring Alec Guinness so I was really looking forward to Gary Oldman's take on Smiley. I even wore my spy's mac to get in the mood; I was not disappointed.
This is a spy movie which is understated and muted and thoroughly engrossing. It's such a long time since I saw the TV series that I couldn't remember who was the mole in MI6 so I was hooked from the start.
The acting was tremendous: Oldman was excellent, as was Benedict Cumberbatch. I loved the period detail from the 70s too- everything was obscured by clouds of cigarette smoke! I hope that Gary Oldman reprises the role in The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's people. Karla must be stopped!
well worth watching, four stars ★★★★
I posted my hats for the Innocent appeal The Big Knit today which every year raises money for the elderly in the UK.
Some of the hats are amazing and people have made some truly outstanding designs including the British Olympic Team 2012 , boogley-eyed animals and a unicorn . The unicorn pattern is available as a pdf, and it's lovely to think that there could be dozens of unicorn across the UK in November!
I did use one pattern from the site: the pumpkin is a pattern by Juliet Bernard, and it is well written and very effective too. Then again, as she's the ed. of The Knitter magazine it should be! The angel is an adaptation of an angel tree decoration from Lets Knit Iss 47 ( Xmas booklet), the others are just adapted from the basic hat pattern on the Innocent site.
I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see if I can spot any hats in the wild in Boots or Sainsburys in November.
We've had an unseasonal bout of warm sunny weather this week- the temps in Scotland soaring above 20C (24C in other parts of the UK) which made it too warm to do anything to Seraphina.
But I had a knitting itch that needed to be scratched so the Araucania wool bought in Pitlochry was wound into a ball and I began to look for a pattern. My first thought was to make another pair of Cookie A's Monkey socks, but then I felt that the purpley/green shades were water inspired rather than vegetation-like, so I thought about doing Wedge. Still not sure, I put the ball of wool to one side, after all this warm spell probably wouldn't last and Seraphina would get going again.
Then on Wednesday, while I was walking my dog by the river, Pomatomus popped into my head. I decided that the scaley pattern would look great in purpley/green and it would remind me of my day trip to Pitlochry when I ate in The Fishers Hotel and walked by the fish ladder by the dam.
So a bit late to the party (well, the pattern was published in Knitty in 2005- but I wasn't even knitting then let alone knitting socks) I've cast on and I'm enjoying watching the scales appear.
The temperatures will drop again and I'll have to divide my time between Seraphina and Pomatomus- but what a lovely choice to have!
