Monday, December 03, 2007

I go, I go...swifter than an arrow from Tartar's bow.

Tash's Bloc Party - Rewind (which incidentally did not involve any blocking whatsoever) inspired Lucy, Gail and I to go on a monumental mission to Walthamstow via Bethnal Green one windy November afternoon to get sets of our own. Lucy's traffic-stopping skirt (think Marilyn Monroe) provided much hilarity and the Handweaver's studio was a veritable Aladdin's cave of fiberous goodness.

Unfortunately, half the living room/kitchen at Chez Roonies is cordoned off when the swift is unfurled in all its glory....



This is the aftermath of a boozey Friday night when I returned home alcohol addled and thought it was a fantastic idea to wind up yarn at half-one in the morning,... which ended up entertaining me until 3 in the morning. If Gruff had been home that evening, he probably would have called the men in white coats to come take me away... and who could have blamed him?

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Where have all the years gone...?

Have bought a new computer recently which has meant that I'm going through all my old CD's and storing them on itunes,.. which has prompted a complete trip down memory lane. Strange how your music collection becomes a form of recording your history... your shifting tastes... the songs or albums that cause a time-warp to forgotten moments, phases of your life that you'd relegated to the deep recesses of your mind...

Had a pre-birthday party with P & W,.. which was lovely. Just as I was bemoaning the fact that I felt much older than my 33 years some hip, trendy-ish grime artists came on stage at the Vibe Bar. Now it's not normally my kind of music but it blew away the cob-webs from our ears and injected us with the adrenaline rush of 'yoof',... just so that we could delude ourselves for a while that we were still young with our fingers temporarily on the pulse.

Woke up the next morning, hungover to be greeted with fresh vietnamese coffee and crumpets,.. yum! We then went to my favorite dim sum restaurant and then it was off to the V&A. Lovely, fascinating place full of gorgeous stuff AND you got to take photos. Then, it was off to Neal's Yard for a massage

and then dinner on the Rootmaster. A vegan restaurant in an old Rouemaster bus. Now I'm not vegetarian let alone vegan in the slightest but I thought i'd try it out for the novelty value. My friends who know me well found it hilarious that a confirmed carnivore like me would chose to go to a vegan place but hey, life's about new experiences right? If you're looking for a lovely, unique venue for a special night then I cannot recommend Rootmaster highly enough, we had the loveliest waiter who looked after a drunken group of rowdy diners so well.

You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby, right round...

Last Saturday was one of the most sublime days of my life. Got to spend the morning shopping with a bright, 16-year old wandering around Topshop and H&M re-capturing my youth. Found myself inspired to move away from my usual sombre colors of blues and greys and try on vibrant hues like lime purple AND LIME GREEN... QUITE a departure indeed. It was exhilarating and sobering to realise that I was some kind of role model in her innocent 16-year old eyes. Had lunch on Carnaby sreet and then....

Went to Tash's for "Bloc Party - Re-Rewind" - honest to god, I don't know when I'd ever had so much fun winding yarn and getting pissed AND eating yummy home-baked stuff. It was sheer childish exuberance. Look at the fruits of our labour,....



and I wound up some lovely silk I bought at SnB to add to my manos scarf..

She's lost control...

Sorry for the slack posting... will try to account for my absence. Hmm,.. firstly,
SnB day - almost didn't go but someone had a spare ticket and I instantly broke my yarn diet. Bought some lovely Manos yarn in bright red and some fyberspates stuff and lovely, yummy, sexy silk from knitwitches..



The male fashion show was the funniest thing i'd seen in a while. Craig and Gerald who organised the whole shebang did a magnificent job. Would have lost even more control but wise Tash whispered in my ear that it was time to go, that i'd spend more money if I stayed and she was so right.

Was in desperate need of a drink as Gruff and I had had a major fight. Now I don't get angry very often but when I do - it's horrible. I end my pursing my lips so that words of bile don't spill out of my mouth. And when I'm angry - I get ex-trem-ly ex-act a-bout-what-i'm-say-ing because you want ev-e-ry-sing-gle-word to be heard... and each phrase is designed to be a stab and cause the most hurt... sigh. ..Can't help it... it's my Achilles heel, if you're my friend and survived my angry tirades then our friendship has reached the next level... far too many people are so astounded by the sudden passion and rage that they shy away afterwards... I was born in the year of the tiger if that offers up any explanation.

Flip side of all this is that I'm always mortified the next day and thoroughly repentent... anyhoos, I needed a drink after SnB and Tash took us to the loveliest gastropub with steak sandwiches to die for... nothing like a good meal to temper you raging your emotions, the company of some calm knitters to detangle your thoughts and glasses of fine wine to reflect on your own shortcomings...

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Tit-a-tete

Spent Saturday knitting a breast in aid of cancer research. I am getting slightly worried that a trend is developing here,.. yes, private bodily parts, what next?! A knitted penis in aid of Fathers for Justice?? Dearest doctor Sigmund would have a field day with me. But it was a pretty civilised afternoon all in all and I felt like an honorary antipodean for an afternoon. Tash and Pauline came to pick me up in the yarnmobile and we found our way to SW as directed by surfer dude Ken. Met a lady who was wearing an awesome felted pea necklace. and my good knittery deed for the day was showing a newbie the intricacies of dpns.

I was trying really hard not to buy any more yarn after going crazy at Ally Pally but they had some silk Habu in a lovely blue color and I just could not resist. In my defence, I managed not to crack for 4 hours whilst surrounded by temping, yummy goodness so I did try to exercise some restraint. Although, I was running around the shop stroking and groping yarn like some demented and depraved person. Hee hee!

Friday, October 19, 2007

It's a Wool-derful life!

I have been floating on a cloud of bliss after last week's yarn orgy at Ally Pally which was a citadel of craftiness. The stuff on offer was mind-boggling, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I'd missed last year's event because I was young and naive and thought that my stash of 50 odd balls of yarn was excessive. Hah!! This time round I just could not bear to abstain. A full report by one of my fellow yarn com padres can be found here To be fair, Lucy and Caroline were a lot stronger and were at least an aisle ahead of Tash and i who stopped to gawp at everything... we fell in love with some Qivuit (yarn from woolly-mammoth-like musk ox in Greenland). But honestly, we could have been told about some super yarn made specially from a three-legged yak crossed with a double-headed llama and we would have been sold.

After our intense frenzy of yarn-shopping and happily weighed down with booty, we proceeded over to Lucy's for some delicious cake and tea... and much stroking of new our stash additions.


What a perfect day in so many ways! Roll on next year....

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Sea and Sardinia

Gruff and I spent a lot of time bumming around on beaches

I played with my camera and tried to take arty shots like these.


But most of the holiday was spent knitting, drinking and eating good food.


Also managed to get through a couple of books but despite hunting high & low, I could not find a copy of Lawrence's 'Sea & Sardinia'. Would have been interesting to compare the 2 disparate experiences as our trip was also 9 days long. Oh well, never mind. The next time I feel the need to return to Sardinia, I shall try to hunt down the book again (One of the courses I did at university was 'Travel Literature' which meant that we had Paul Theroux, Basho and Jack Kerouac all on the same reading list - wicked eh? I shall go into all that some other time.)

Tonight though, I shall go to sleep dreaming of diving through crystal blue waters and the heavy scent of sweet pine.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Happy (Belated) Blogday to me,.... happy BLOG DAY to meeeee...

(meant to post this on the 27th.. oops! Will also post some photos of Sardinia in my next installment)

Well, it's been a whole year of sporadic blogging and I think I've slowly got the hang of it. It took me a while to learn the whole business of posting pictures and adjusting my template. Although I did forgot how to add links momentarily. I would love to blog more often but knitting, facebbok and ravelry all combine to demand my precious free time.

Some of my friends are very amused that I have a blog and think it a strange, furtive activity, tantamount to hanging out in on-line sex chat rooms or engaging in a virtual second-life. I do have an unhealthy and insatiable lust for reading people's blogs especially if it's about knitting and a lot of them inspired me to start my own. As my day to day job involves reading financial research, procedure manuals and regulatory rulebooks (yawn,.. i know) it is such a treat to be riveted by these windows of creativity, especially if they have luscious fibre related photos.

If it had not been for blogging and the internet in general I suppose, I would never have heard about the Wednesday knitting group or of Acechick. It was through reading her blog that I found my kindred knitters, friends that I have faithfully ensured I meet up with weekly.


Saturday, September 22, 2007

Holiday... Celebrate...

Gruff and I are going on a much needed break to Sardinia - it'll be a little adventure as we explore an unknown place. The most agonising decision was what knitting to take along as I have so many UFOs lying about the place. The practical need to travel light (I went travelling around the world with only a 40l backback) means that I am just taking 2 balls of yarn to finish some knucks and a pair of socks.

Here are my essentials;


and some holiday reading - was drawn to the re-released vintage penguin cover and although I have no real desire to read Freud, I feel in love with the font on the cover so that's coming too - it's the aesthetics that matter after all, no?


Monday, September 17, 2007

Scarf Ace...

One of the weird things you can find out on the net, is what was Number 1 in the charts when you were born. In the 3rd week of November many, many years ago, it was David Essex's 'Gonna make you a Star'... hmmm,... the only correlation that has on my life is that I always say to people "I'm Gonna make you a scarf" whenever I blow them out for whatever reason. But lately, I've been keeping them all,.. yes, the last 3 I've made have not made it to their intended receipients. (if I have promised you one and you are reading this now, they're just not the right length, color, width for you, trust me...). Like some over-protective mother, I just cannot bear to unleash them into the big bad world. I just want them clinging on to my neck and staying by my side forever. And let's face it, I can't give them away as presents after they've been wrapped around my greasy neck - that would just be pikey...

Look at this little fluffy one,



How could anyone bear to let it go? I'd sooner bury my face in its soft, mohairy Cocooness... aaaahhhhhhh..... oh look, there's another one perched patiently waiting for some strokeys and attention... this one's an Alpaca and silk hybrid for more formal occasions.



I'd better start organising a grand event for this one to make its debut.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Cakes, pirates, crumpets & socks

The fearsome pirate has come back this year to grace a home-made chocolate cake... made at half-10 at night. It's hard juggling a full-on city job with the domestic indulgences of baking. Good fun though and well worth the effort. I had to let Gruff into the secret as there was no way of baking in secret in our tiny flat. Gruff just had to pretend he couldn't see any cake-making in progress... much like how we suspend our disbelief at the theatre
Gruff's birthday socks - my very first pair so they're extra special and must only be worn once a year on birthdays and x'mases...

Also, the lovely Sara's knucks. Was going to make them say 'Snow' 'Babe' but i got the hands mixed up and ended up with I luv snow'... ah well - they'll do! I already have some brilliant and original ideas for more pairs

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Our revels now are ended...

Work have blocked access to Ravelry! Not that I've got my own account as yet, I'm still 7056th down the list but have been using P's account so far. It's just as well I guess, looking at projects and yarn just makes me even more frustrated that I'm at work and cannot knit.

I have started a new project and finished off a couple of other little ones and picked up the blue courtenay again. It was also Gruff's birthday so I was busy trying to finish off his stripey socks,... just in time for the delayed summer weather. Photos will follow soon.

Hello to Jox, Esoteric Knitter and Alice - thanks for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments. Jan has promised to put on a special show for us knitters when she returns from her holiday... much needed after the hectic-ness that is Edinburgh. I'll post details of when and where once I have them and do come along if you fancy seeing the yarngina live.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Knit-torious...

Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone.... I will respond with more answers and details on the construction of the yarngina soon. For all those lurkers out there, thanks for popping by... I hope it made you chuckle/choke. Here's one review of Jan's show so far -

http://www.thegroggysquirrel.com/articles/2007/08/07/2007-edinburgh-fringe/janice-phayre-with-occassional-showers/

too great for her but at least it wasn't a complete write-off, looks like the yarngina's causing a bit of a stir so hurrah!!

Friday, August 03, 2007

The Yarngina Monologue



I guess I should tell the full tale of the yarngina since many people have been bemused, shocked and simply intrigued by my last project which took up ALL of what little precious knitting time I had after working 11 hour days and neglecting poor, long-suffering Gruff. It's the Yarngina for my dear friend Janice's one woman show for this year's Edinburgh fringe festival. Janice was one of the first friends I made when I came to London to do my Masters more than 10 years ago. We studied here and together with some others friends on the course, have been through thick and thin together in the intervening decade.

Janice has been going up to Edinburgh for the last 10 years in shows of various descriptions, comedy double-acts, 10-minute stand-up slots, children's shows and one of her earliest sketch shows 'Sparkling' was directed by yours truely @ the Gilded Balloon where we got 4 stars in the The Scotsman for our efforts. Anyway, Janice has been working hard on the comedy circuit for the last 3 years and was runner-up in the Funny Women competition in 2004 and a finalist in the Hackney New Comedy Act competition in 2005. In all these years, I have always thought that I could write some material for her to use which was a safe way for me to come up with looney ideas without having to actually test them out myself.

For her first solo show, Janice decided to ask all her friends back in January to write a little character specially for her… except that almost everyone misinterpreted her request. Someone wrote a poem about Janice, another wrote a fictional monologue of a character she thought Janice could play and someone else wrote a little monologue all about herself (and not Janice)… anyway, I think the whole intention was to give Janice some ideas to work off.



But you see, Janice has enough looney ideas of her own and her stand-up set through the years has quickly became centred around her dysfunctional sex life and embarassing moments of discovering tissue stuck in intimate areas during the throes of passion… you get the idea I hope. So when faced with this request, I thought I would find a way for Janice to use her own ideas and material if she could tell her life story through her genital's perspective - an exercise for student pyschiatrists examining sexuality I am told. This would thereby negate the need for me to come up with ideas for her and therefore cunningly deflect her whole request. I should also mention that it is extremely hard to write comedy material that is any good as I have discovered through years of trying. When I told a friend about my cunning idea, he casually and slightly mockingly suggested that I could knit Janice a costume thereby combining helping a friend with something I loved. Said friend has also been somewhat exasperated that I have less time for hanging out and partying since I have become such a compulsive and obsessed knitter devoid of a social life. I thought this was a brilliant idea although I knew it would be frought with potential hiccups (what yarn would I use? Where would I find a pattern for a knitted yarngina? How would I create something that an audience would recognise in a instant without the need for dry explanations? What about all the million other projects I had lined up?) Needless to say, it was a bit of a challenge but one that I thought would provide some laughs along the way.



Once I'd made that promise to a delighted Janice, it was hard to extricate myself from my pledge - she also decided that it would be a great way for her to close the show, so no pressure there! One Wednesday evening at Ks & Ps, I blurted it out when I no longer cared if the group would think I was odd, deranged and perhaps frankly a little perverse. Thankfully, everyone thought it was hilarious as I kind of suspected they would, seeing as they are all unflappably cool ladies - P our unelected ringleader & Loba our technical genius offered up various suggestions for construction, Lucy very kindly offered to donate some fun brown eyelash yarn for the cause and Helen just could not stop giggling.

As the deadline drew close, the risk of failure was increasing - what if it didn't turn out 'right', what if I had to make numerous attempts, frog and re-frog and re-knit the project, what if, what if, what if - my thoughts became a tangled up mess. I became convinced that it would all be alright as long as I thought it through properly before execution - so I would draw little doodles at work, at the back of receipts trying to imagine how it should look and randomly start a thoughtful discussion with an amused Gruff about various possibilities. Time was running out and deadlines went whizzing by, in a desperate attempt to buy myself more time, I tried to persuade Janice to postpone her show to next year, but she had paid up at the venue and the flyers had been printed so there was no going back - the only other option (which I briefly entertained) was me leaving the country for a while. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that a yarngina could somehow be made but I was working towards such a tight deadline that at one point, Gail could see all of us working on it at Wednesday's Ks & Ps. There was even talk of me bringing the 'Lovebox' to the Lovebox festival at Victoria Park for some emergency group knitting but as it had rained the previous day, I did not want to run the risk of lugging a wet, soggy and heavy yarngina around in cramped music tents.



With a lot of frantic and speed knitting in the final week, the yarngina was finally completed last Wednesday with some added assistance from another good friend Martina - tasked with stuffing an old pair of tights whilst pouring out her woes about her disasterous romantic weekend in Paris. When the yarngina was unveiled however, we all fell about laughing with tears streaming down our faces - Janice is also the only person I know who can even remotely carry off wearing a knitted yarngina. It was a priceless moment and Janice was completely amazed, touched and grateful - I was just relieved that it came out as expected. Another friend who saw it a few days later was laughing so hard she had to leave the room and has sworn that she will never ever tease me about my knitting again.

I like to think that I might have shown that knitting is not a fuddy-duddy pursuit confined to elderly ladies and that the possibilities are endless with the use of just some sticks and string. Best of all, I think that Janice is going to have an exceptional show which she richly and truly deserves. If you're up in Edinburgh at all this year - please do go and see it here.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Adventures in Tavistock

Spent a chilled, food centred weekend down in Devon with Gruff's folks. Tavistock is a very pretty market town with an excellent yarn shop which had a healthy stock of Rowan, DB, Noro AND Colinette yarn. I can definitely see myself visiting again. We went for a walk on Sunday and saw some Dartmoor ponies and some demented sheep but I have no photographic evidence because I didn't take my camera with me after I'd made a specific point to pack it amongst our stuff...
I thought i'd had the knitting agenda covered when I brought 2 projects with me but I RAN OUT OF YARN!! Yes, this is a SHOCKING state of play for someone who has over 300 balls of yarn.

So on the train back, bored with the picturesque scenery whzzing by and with my fingers itching, I took gratuitous shots of my Tavistock souveniors...





I was snapping happily away on the crowded train like some yarn pervert and found it a good opportunity to test out my camera. Gruff very wisely pretended to be asleep so that he could disassociate himself from the loon sitting opposite him.

This is my cabley project from Rowan Studio,... I'd like to think I captured the undulating and rolling landscape of Devon in these shots...




Thursday, July 26, 2007

25% off @ Loop




Popped along t Loop and there happened to be 25% off everything... hmmmm -it was too good an opportunity to miss. Along with lots of DB Cashmerino Aran, I bought some Manos Del Urugray (?)





some Noro Cash Iro...









AND some Blue Sky Alpaca.... hmmmm,......

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Sheep & Wool day @ Spitalfields Farm










Simply Irresistible






The stripey stuff is for a bag that I want to make... inspired by Lisa from U-Handblog. The knitting material was just far too cute to resist. Thanks flib!

Rowan yarn,.... hmmmm








The Jaeger Aqua just because it was £1 a ball, the cotton rope was probably a mistake boo,... the Rowan Holiday's for a stripey jumper and it was all just because I haven't been buying any ayrn lately and thought I should treat myself for working so hard at my high-pressured job.... ermm,.. can I think of any other reasons.... because it was a thursday? Because I got a little lost and accidentally wandered into the yarn department?.... sigh, Gruff's eyes almost popped out. My arms were aching a little the day after from lugging all my spoils home on the Number 8 bus... yarn therapy is so much cheaper than a day at the spa.

More fabrics... I don't even own a sewing machine!













Monday, June 04, 2007

Catching up

Work has consumed my life and left me little time for blogging, knitting and generally taking life easy. Have managed to squeeze in little intense pockets of fun stuff but it's not really me or my style. I'm shattered come the weekend and find myself in slumberland at 10 on a Friday evening. Not very rock n roll in the slightest. But just a quick recap of what i've been up to (going backwards), Went to Regent's park yesterday for the Green fair and did a little bit of knitting in between scoffing yummy brownies made by Lucy and drinking organic beer. Saturday was spent with relatives as my sister is in town. We hooked up with my cousin who has 2 adorasble munchkins. They are the most gorgeous little people on this earth and I'm being truely objective here. Yay - more knittees for me to subject my little woolly creations. It was nice to hang out with my sister who looks tiny and hence delicate but she is tough as old boots, plays rugby and has climbed up to the base camp of Everest - not once but twice! We are also vastly different in that my sister is uber-straight but I love her to bits and I know that i'm the little sister she always wanted despite my (occasional) naughtiness and grumpyness. Heh heh...

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Mates & Blogs

Just finished reading a book about a friendship between 2 girls that disintegrates when they travel through India and it really got me thinking.

Part of my disenchantment with London (and the brief Hong Kong idea) was to do with how fragmented and dislocated I feel about my group of friends, some of whom I've known for practically a decade. We hardly see each other anymore and when we do it's normally to celebrate someone's birthday which means you have loads of catching up to do with what's been going on in your life. When there are about 5 of you it takes ages for us all to go into detail about our lives with any meaningful depth. We normally skim over the last couple of months by summarising it because there's just too much to cover. So after having this blog for months, I recently finally told them about this because I thought it'd be a good way for them to see what I've been up to and also find out more about me. I think I've revealed some stuff here that even old friends have been surprised with. Admittedly, a lot of it IS knitting related and might just as well be written in Greek but that's not the point. This way they can read about my life in their own time when they're not too busy. Yes, I know I can always pick up the phone to them but when you're knackered with work, the last thing you want to do is chat away on the phone. I'm not a phone person either, I'm brusque and leave long silences - I'm more comfortable writing, it just feels more 'me'. A friend protested that she didn't want to have a 'virtual' mate but I gently reminded her that it was better than having a no mate, someone distant that you've become estranged with. Yes, we're all busy people with a lot going on in our lives but sometimes I think we don't make enough time for each other. Or our schedules become too important to forsake - one excuse for not meeting up that I was given was that she had to go to the gym. Hmmmm, i'd rather see my old mate than pound away on the treadmill, wouldn't you? In fact, any paltry reason NOT to go to the gym would be fantastic let alone dinner with a friend I haven't seen in a while. Okay, I probably shouldn't be too harsh and I am delighted that some far-flung and dear friends are reading my little blog/diary/letter. (hello!! love you!!) I think this option is far better than blasting out a mass email intruding into people's inboxes no? So I think somewhat sadly that some friendships are getting weaker through the lack of maintenance but I guess that's life. Then there are friends that you see every week and yet you still take enormous delight in reading their blogs and looking at their photos. I guess with old friends you've drifted away from you'll always have the memories to treasure and that's all that you can be grateful for.

Whaoow.. heavy I know but I'm in a somewhat pensive mood today. Or maybe it's just the hangover from yesterday kicking in... hmmmm...

p.s. loved the footie yesterday especially when some yobs were chanting 'Rooney... rooney' - I felt strangely acknowledged.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Wateraid and Knit-A-River

Amazing photos from Yvonne - http://www.flickr.com/photos/61477100@N00/sets/72157600208240606/show/

all the squares were so different and beautiful. For a full story of the project and demo, read this - http://www.iknit.org.uk/2007/01/knitted-river-is-very-long-indeed.html. As I marched, thinking about the autonomy we take for granted for even being able to go on a march, it was doubly depressing and really sobering to think of the poverty that the lack of clean water causes. I can't imagine having to trek for miles just to get clean water for your daily necessities. Hmmm... so even though it was a Saturday morning and I could have really done with a lie-in, I'm glad I went on the demo. Apathy is a modern curse.

Monday, May 14, 2007

He's stalking me!

Too many adventures to tell - went for the Knit-A -River demo on Saturday and it felt good to be a knitting activista. The last march I went on was the Anti-Iraq war on the 15th of Feb 2003 and a fat lot of good that did. Shame on you Tony Blair and good f**king riddance! Great time knitting at the Dove then went for coffee and cake at Martina's followed by a yummy vietnamese meal rounded off by a Flamenco night in Hackney. But Kevin Rowland was at the restaurant so i reckon he's stalking me. Work is tough - sigh .... 11 hours days and waking up at half-6 is a bit much for my idle system. Yawn, too tired to have my dinner,.. might fall zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Monday, May 07, 2007

Encounters with Icons

We have been without broadband for a while - it's been an ongoing battle which I won't go into simply because i'll just get angry and turn green. This has meant that Gruff and I have had to resort to buying over-priced drinks at our local coffe shop in exchange for "free" wifi - bah! When I was posting the other evening about the chaos of the flat - a crusty looking bloke sitting next to me asked for help, or rather demanded it. The encounter went something like this;

Shifty bloke: (tetchily) Excuse me! Why is my internet not working? Subtext: you look like geeky technophile seeing as it's a Saturday evening and you're on the internet which obviously means you're devoid of a social life

Me: You need the IP address (trying my best to be helpful but taken aback by this man's brusqueness)

SB: I have it here (expectantly waving a scrap of paper in my face)

Me: Sorry, I'm not a Mac user - I wouldn't know what to do. Subtext: It's your bloody computer, how the hell should I know why it's not working? Don't own a computer if you can't operate it Bozo!

SB: (stares at me aghast at my lack of co-operation)

Me: You could ask the guys behind the counter - they're quite helpful. Leave me be to get on with my blogging, loser!

Shifty bloke saunters off and Gruff whispers in my ear that he thinks the bloke's 'someone famous'. Gruff has a quick look on wikipedia and it's only Kevin Rowland who sang 'Come on Eileen' which was an anthem in my teenage years. Holy moly!!! My teenage self would never have thought I'd ever in a million years ever get to be sitting NEXT TO him let alone refuse to help him out with his little computer issue. Imagine!! If it'd been co-operative and sorted him out, he'd be forever grateful and I would have made a little difference in an icon's life!! Sigh.... I really should work on my celebrity spotting so that I can coolly ignore them instead of being rudely oblivious. Have spotted Tracey Emin and Gilbert & George whilst mooching about this hood but have always been too polite to stare. Except for Pete Docherty whom I usually scowl at as he's often just in my way.

Sleeve-o-matic



I have a thing about sleeves, once I've raced through knitting up the backs and fronts of garments as per the order suggested by patterns I'm normally jaded and the thought of knitting two sleeves turns me off. I have such an aversion that I'm thinking of just sticking to sleeveless garments (it is summer after all). But even so, the Courtney dress from Rowan Studio 1 would look pretty ridiculous without sleeves I reckon - so I've resigned myself to my fate. Then I remebered a conversation with Loba at K's & P's where she helpfully suggested that perhaps I should start the projects with the sleeves and get the difficult stage over and done with. Loba's great, I am going to miss her muchos when she returns to Denmark although she is trying to persuade us to go over for a knitting symposium in September. Aside from the small fact that all of us apart from Loba can't understand a single word of Danish, it's a top idea. How would we contribute to the symposium when they are discussing the merits of toe-up socks or the state of the yarn industry is just by-the-by. Hmmm,... I have a feeling pointing and gesticulating wildly just won't lend our contingent any credit. We could always go for the scenery I guess as the symposium is apparently held on a very pretty island. I guess we could always go and nod politely at whatever's said to us and attempt the universal language of the K's & P's. I can just see us 'oohing' and 'ahhhing' as we stroke luscious yarns or gaze in awe at great knitted pieces of art.

Yorkshire Tweed DK - Blessed

Little beret I made that's in desperate need of felting. Far, far too large! Made one a while back in red for my lovely friend Martina and have always wanted to make one for myself. A suggestion was made at Foyles that I should find someone with a big head to give it to,.. hmmmm.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Weekend of Kidsilk Haze.. hmmmmmm!


Yes , you're not mistaken Juliette Binoche is using some lovely electric blue kidsilk haze as pom poms. Heh heh, who needs photoshop eh? She mirrors how exuberant I feel about my new acquisitions. Thanks again Jenny!Was having a conversation with Cassie last night about the ksh after a fantastic meal at The Baltic and she reckons that electric blue is very this season so I guess i'll have to get a move on. I've been playing with the cherry reds I got at my capitulation during lent and the swatch above is the result.

Chaos @ Chez Rooney

Gruff started his DIY mission with the fine purchase of a new cordless drill. He was beaming from ear to ear as he stroked his new toy and I tried to look interested. I guess I'm getting a taste of what he must go through when I rattle on about new yarn. In any case, the photos above and below capture the chaos of my little flat in the last week. Gruff's stuff seems to have mushroomed - I looked around with increasing despondency about where all this stuff would go and what more stuff I'd have to chuck out to make space. Thankfully we are getting there and it'll all be sorted out by this weekend because I got the JOB!! Found out yesterday and I start next week! My blissful little existence consisting of fun stuff like hanging out with flib eating ice-cream in her beautiful garden and knitting at Foyles is coming to an abrupt end.Boo... and just as I was beginning to think that I could get used to loafing about. I had to go through 3 interviews with about 5 different people just to get this job which is a temporary one! Seems pretty excessive to me but at least they're thorough. Oh well, at least it'll fund my yarn obsession