40 down,.. 86 to go!

The squares have been multiplying and I have enough for a small baby babette if I stopped now.



But I have become somewhat addicted to producing these little critters and will soldier on until I become utterly sick with these. It's a bit daunting that the next 86 are mostly the larger 3 sizes which will take me a lot longer to produce. I'm not stressing about this despite the fact that it's a such a huge project requiring stamina but will just aim to take it square by square - I'll be happy as long as it's done by October. In fact, I'm already thinking about making my next blanket. (You can tell that I'm still in a honeymoon state with my babette, can't you?) I'd choose less diverse colours for a start - perhaps different hues of one dominant shade.






Trying to mix and match various combinations for these colours is proving to be a little bit of a nightmare especially when you have the tendency to over-analyse things as I do. Being indecisive and slightly anal about things being perfect doesn't help the matter either. There are some squares which seemed a great idea in theory but have turned out looking quite lame. I haven't decided whether to give them a make-over or let the rest of the blanket swallow them up. But I do know that I'm going to sew up the different panels as I go along because I'd lose the will to live if I had to sew them all up at the end. Of course, there are advantages to the latter method because you can swap and place the squares together to ensure an even spread.

I'm off to Loop now to buy a more ergonomic hook before starting on the rest of the squares - don't want to end up with a claw-like hand!

Busy resting...

Can you guess what this is??



I've been meaning to crochet this blanket for the longest time - I went for my first lesson over a year ago, promptly forgot my skills through lack of practise which meant that I had to have a refresher at Flib's's hooker party. Now that I have an infinite amount of time on my hands... waiting to hear about auditions and the results of castings I have attended, the best way to temper the idleness, boredom and anxiety is to keep my hands busy. It's been tough learning to read the patterns and I started out with a few practise squares...



The middle one is particularly 'special' but given that ALL the squares in this pattern start with that tricky first round, I thought it best to get it right. It's been slightly easier thanks to Ravelry but it is still hard to understand these instructions without the help of someone to physically show you. I even tried drawing a diagram to visually map out the stitches but it was still confusing



I think I'm getting there though,.. have a look at these. (Note to self - do not use variegated yarn when you are trying to figure out unfamiliar crochet stitches!)



Another result of being unemployed is that it affords you the luxury of gratuitous yarn buying... especially irresponsible as I ended up going to Liberty's three times during this last summer sale week.



Guess I'd better crank up the de-stashing!!

Curtain-up & curtain-down...

You pooter along in disenchantment and then life suddenly takes a dramatic turn. The curtain goes down on one life and comes up on another one with the promise of new beginnings.

Back at the end of April, I was asked to audition for a small, fringe play. It did not initially take my fancy as I assumed it was just another profit-share (i.e. unpaid) production. This turned out to be unfounded and when I was offered the part, I traded in my soul-destroying albeit well-paying city job with a mixture of glee & trepidation to join the ranks of terminally under-employed actors.

Rehearsals started pretty much the same evening as my last day in the office and it has been a complete roller-coaster of a ride. In the midst of my elation, the news of Tash's death plunged me into the depths of grief.



It's been almost a month now and I still feel acute stabs of sorrow at the loss of such a beautiful light. It felt as if we had all become part of some crappy chick-lit story with the C-word providing some kind of lousy plot device. Tash we miss you so much!! You always loved it when I gave you a shout-out on this blog of all the good times you'd been able to facilitate and been part of.

If you hare able to get wi-fi signal up there in the great yarn-shop in the sky Tash - I want you to know that despite your physical demise, you are still very much alive in our hearts and minds. I was so chuffed when the knitting possy came to my show last Wednesday, yet your presence was so sorely missed. In any case, you'll be glad to know that I was mentioned in our Time-Out review and duly got pissed last night to celebrate.

P.S. We...

Lucy in the ply with diamonds....

The dreadful pun is in honor of Ginger Lucy's birthday... who was born in the 80's. Nuff said! Happy Birthday Sweetie!!! xxx



I presented her with 50g of the Brown Falkland I spun and plied last week but also soaked it in some orange and ginger scented shower gel for maximum sniffing pleasure.

100g of Blue-Faced Leicester was spun up in a week.



This time round I watched a clip on correct plying off Youtube. I erred on the side of caution and overplied but may have overdone it slightly. Tried whacking the curly bits out but my yarn was still pretty uneven. Boo,... another lesson I learnt was that you should wind the yarn off your makeshift lazy kate from the same direction, otherwise one single will get unplied. Although I'm quite chuffed with how it turned out, I may still ply the 2-plys together to create a cabled yarn.



In the interest of experimenting, I also plied 3-singles together as it apparently creates more 'rounded yarn'. I liked it too but I have no idea what on earth I'm going to do with my 2 new skeins... hmmm,...



The Flutter-bys are also completed and on the road to further adventures. It only took me 2 weeks to zip these up - Wowzer! Similarly mind-blowing, was the Norwegian Continental purl stitch class at Iknit - it makes ribbing a complete joy.

Yin & Yarn

So after a long hiatus away from Ewan, I dusted him off and gave him a good work-out this weekend. It was evident from his creaking on Sunday evening that he was a little out of shape. But what a productive weekend we had getting reacquainted with our beloved Radio 4 murmuring in the background.

A better student spinner would read all her books thoroughly, take careful notes and remember general guidelines. Yours truly here however, in her impatience to get on with it flicked through her manuals with a desultory glance at diagrams. This disregard for proper preparation thereby resulted in unnecessary mistakes and learning the hard way. Oh well, it was ever thus and ever will be - it's far too late for me to change.

So; lesson 1- move the yarn from one hook to the other gradually so that you get an even spread. I was building it up on each section of the bobbin which caused a whole heap of trouble when it came to plying. This is when it all collapsed into each other making a bit of a tangled mess on the bobbin... and far too much stopping and starting…and some weird protrusions from said yarn causing it to look like insects' feelers.



You are not supposed to leave singles on the bobbins for 6 weeks either as it releases the twists. I'm not entirely sure how long twists can keep but I'm sure someone on Ravelry will be able to tell me.

It had been quite a long time since our lesson with Nancy and I couldn't really remember the lesson on plying. Nonetheless, I rushed on paying scant attention to my spinning manual or online tutorials of which there are plenty. I managed to ply it all somehow, transferred it onto the swift to make skeins and soaked it in cold water to remove the sheepy aroma of the Brown Falkland. It now appears that one should soak it in warm water so that the fiber 'relaxes' - would scented candles and soothing music add ambience to the cause? I didn't 'whack' it or hang it up with weights to 'set the twist' but rather, had it 'sunbathing' by the window on our radiator…



Measured my 2 skeins and it's a total of 218 yards for 100g - didn't really bother counting the wpi as the twists weren't evenly spread out. It looks as if it has fluffed out a little and all my worries about over twisting seem to be a little unfounded. It will therefore be a miracle if my yarn attains any semblance of 'balance', the desired nirvarna of yin and yang.

Undeterred in the face of sloppy yarn, our eager student pushed on and has started spinning with the white Blue-faced Leicester which is currently producing pretty thin yarn.



Great stuff but I have no intention of knitting with size 0 needles so this may involve quite a bit of plying… oh dear. I initially started on the 6.7 ratio but the fast take-up meant my fingers almost got sucked into the orifice (hee hee). So I moved it up a ratio and pedaled slower which is somehow doing the trick. I'm sure it goes against every spinning rule so we shall have to see what transpires.

The one lesson I did learn was the coin thing for photos so people can see how thick or thin your yarn is...



and also that you should keep away from Merino until you're a tad more experienced.

On top of all my spinning, I actually got off my arse this weekend to go to Knitflicks , sherman heeled the second Flutter-by sock and got some reading done. So I haven't been glued to Ewan the whole time,.. Honest!

Wan Sok

When I was growing up in Singapore, there was a Korean girl called Buyong who was in our little gang. We were an odd bunch -unsporty, different and slightly shunned by the rest of the class. I thought of her this weekend when I was finishing up my Flutter-by. I'd decided to use the Jaywalker pattern for my Cherry Tree Hill 'Cabin Fever' but changed my mind. The zig-zag-ness of the pattern would suit a yarn with less colours. Whilst browsing on Ravelry, I found the Flutter-by pattern and it was perfect.

Knitting this pattern allowed me to enjoy the colours of this yarn, making this an exquisite experience.


Each strand twisting between my fingers was a joyful riot of colour. I'd look back on each little 'butterfly' scrutinising the rainbow like combinations and thinking they were all little unique creatures.



Little wonder then, that it only took me a week to finish creating it.



When you step back, the whole sock is a kaleidoscope of colours, a real messy affair... much like life I suppose. Socrates would say in this instance that the unexamined sock is the sock not worth wearing...

So why did all this remind me of my little 9-year old friend? Because she had a brother called Wan Sok which amused us to no end. Every now and then, we'd ask her how Wan Sok was and if he'd become two socks yet. I know, the childish mind can sometimes conjure up such idiocy. The thought did cross my mind that Buyong's mother was perhaps a knitter. Nonetheless, who knew that one sock could be so beautiful and bring such pleasure.

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Unchartered Territory

Lace is one of those things I've aimed to try this year. My new knitting skill last year was learning cables. I get engrossed looking at lace charts which are supposed to help you navigate through complex instructions. Yet the charts themselves are a hieroglyphic mystery, a new and foreign language for knitting. The framework for something that will look nothing like these squiggly signs.

Went to the new Iknit shop to pick up some addi lace needles and rushed home to try my hand at the Luscious Lace pattern.



Was gutted when I had to rip out the fifth row - this lace stuff takes a different level of concentration. No listening to the Radio or conversation for me.

On a happier note, I have finished a pair of socks for me. Hurray!!



This is my third pair but the other two made their way to other feet. The yarn is Posh Yarn's Lucia in Virtue. They certainly kept my poor little feet very warm in the chilly run up to today's snow!



My sock needles have not been left naked for long either as I have already cast on for another sock.



These are Cherry Tree Hill Merino supersock in 'Cabin Fever'. Love these colours!

* yup, I celebrate the completion of one project by casting-on for 2... and I wonder why I have so many UFOs scattered round the flat...

Easter Sunday

Could not think of anything vaguely witty for the title of this post because I am completely astounded, amazed and semi-speechless that it is snowing!! In Central London!!! as I type !!!!.... Now, if it would only settle and land on a convenient mountain near Brick Lane... hmmmm,... we can but dream. Gruff suggested that I take my snowboard up to Parliament Hill. I think he was trying to be helpful as he saw how my excitement needed to be channeled into some kind of action as opposed to running around the living-room, shouting 'It's snowing...' and peering out of all the windows to grasp the full extent of our mighty snow-storm. It would be a great plan except for the gale force winds which would make getting to the top of Parliament Hill somewhat tricky... now if we lived in Scotland however...instead I am here, blogging.
As promised in my previous post - here's my knitting update. I managed to finish 2 hats - my first Woolly Wormhead Ribba hat
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and this

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Tried to persuade Gruff that his hat needed a bobble as a finishing touch but he would have none of it. In any case, I must admit it looks a little strange because I decided to free-style it... and it turns out looking like an inverted blue turnip! I also made significant progress on Courtenay...



According to my blog archives, I started this last May. So that's just one month shy of a year. Oh dear, I fear the color may be so last-last season but I don't really care. Must try to remember where I've put the completed sleeves, don't want to have to knit those AGAIN. Cannot wait to finish it so that it gets at least one outing before summer arrives. Although given the current climate, that may still be a long way off. (goes off to do a little jig)

Where every street ends with a mountain

I'm not entirely sure where this phrase stems from but it's a pretty fitting description for Grenoble also called the 'Capital of the Alps'. Here are some shots taken from our hotel window. Whilst strolling through the city, I'd look up and see a majestic mountain presiding in the horizon promising much goodness and lifting my spirits.

With wide boulevards flanked with ornate buildings and slim, elegant french windows - I was quite charmed by Grenoble. Although much larger in size, it reminded me of Canterbury in Kent where I spent my formative, university days.



Home of Godard and Rousseau, I was eager to discover the yarn merchants and stumbled upon one within the first 30 minutes. Great!... except that it was shut for their 2 hour lunch break. I later found this place which stocked some Amy Blatt and was thrilled with their window decoration for easter.



Gruff was extremely impressed though not entirely surprised that I could sniff out the yarn so quickly.

We took off early to catch the bus to Chamrousse the next day - a 70 minutes bus journey away, Bliss! In fact, 11 other ski fields are readily accessible from Grenoble so the good people of the city are entirely spoilt for choice in terms of snow which is some compensation for the lack of yarn shops.

Chamrousse was the site of the 1968 Winter Olympics which is reflected in much of its architecture, many of the modernist buildings had a certain retro chic to them. Day 1 was sunny which was slightly unnerving but at least better than Day 2 where we were beset with gale force winds closing off most of the chair-lifts. On Day 3 though, the heavens opened and we had a generous dumping of the white stuff. I was squealing with delight and trying to persuade poor Gruff to come off-piste with me. Later in the afternoon, amidst the bad light of a blizzard, I stacked it big time and apparently turned a funny colour. That'll teach me to go too fast! After that, we had a day of rain then 2 further days of sunshine. Sweeeeeeeet!

When I told Flib where we were going, she made a passing comment that Chamrousse sounded like a place that would have lots of cheese. She was almost right. On our last night back in Grenoble, Gruff and I shared a raclette.



there was a river of melted fromage oozing over the bowl of potatoes they give you. It was a complete galore and sinfully delicious. We had hysterics half-way through when we couldn't stop giggling at the whole situation. It was the cheese that kept on giving and I think my arse has doubled in size because of it. Gruff had to concede defeat after a while whereas I just could not leave it be and tried gainfully to get through more. We had to leave a quarter of it unfinished which seemed like such a terrible waste of gorgeousness. The dreams I had later that night were certainly vivid and surreal!

Before leaving, I found another yarn shop tucked at the back of a boutique. The nasty proprietor wouldn't let me take a photograph when I asked him for permission, instead he muttered some grumpy (maybe it's just a language thing who knows) unintelligible words and shrugged so I had to sneak in this furtive shot.



It was a very nice display but I don't know why he was being so bloody snotty when most of it was acrylic! Tosser... anyway, will put in all the details of the 3 shops on knitmap

On the Eurostar back, whilst the posh couple sitting across the aisle was quaffing wine and delicately eating strawberries, Gruff and I had pikey cobbled together cheese baguettes and beer. Our journey was devoid of stimulating conversation except to bicker about whose turn it was to go to the refreshment carriage. Gruff did lots of napping...



and I got lots of knitting done. But this has been a long enough post so i'll save the knitting to when I next check back in. Have a great Easter hols in the meantime!

Whirly Gig

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking.... and spinning as you can see



My second slightly more palatable skein of handspun but only because I chose better colors. Other than that, I've been experimenting with different tensions and fibers producing this....




I have already filled one spool with 25g of this which is Brown Falkland. Great fun and extremely addictive!

Janice did her Edinburgh show for a small invited audience. I wasn't organised enough to spread the word properly but I'm sure she'll do it again. Hopefully somewhere a bit more central than Stokey which is an arse to get to if you don't live around there. Anyhoo, Ginger Lucy has an excellent account of the evening here.

But otherwise, February has completely flown by - I'd like to blame it on the shortness of the month rather than a surreal warping of time. Big thank you to Helen for voting me a YMMD-blog. The funny thing about blogs is that it was my first contact with fellow knitters before i actually hung out with them. When I met Acechick in person, it was like a re-acquaintance. It took me a while to start blogging and I guess it was mainly because I was sick of loitering along the periphery feeling like a stalker or voyeur... it only felt right that I should contribute to the great sea of blog posts. I definitely want to blog more, at least once a week... so let's see if I can keep it up.

The most exciting bit about this month has been planning our white holiday. Gruff and I are off snowboarding tomorrow and going to the French Alps by train - which not only gives us heaps of green brownie points that we can be smug about but also gives me loads of knitting time... HURRAH! I completely loathe airports for a whole host of reasons I won't go into now.

Will be back with a full report - let's hope I finish at least one of my UFOs during my time away and that I don't end up damaging my hands in any way.

Have wheel, will travel

My blogging has fallen by the wayside due to the obsession I've developed with my new beautiful wheel,.. you can see the pure delight in my face no?



The Prelude and Minstrel were pretty tempting but due to severe space limitations in Chez Rooney, it was only practical to get one that I could fold away when not in use. It's also handy that it's light and portable in case I ever need to take it with me down to the pub,... or to a gig... on perhaps on holidays? Gruff has been extremely understanding about my spinning and even had a go on it.

This is my first spun spawn - the colour combination of navy and mustard makes it look twice as bad. The ladies were very kind about it on Wednesday but it looks like something that fell off the back of a lorry onto the M25.


The Greeks would call this hubris - you win an award for your knitting but the fiber gods decide to humble you with your human failings. Oh well - I was so ashamed that I couldn't do anything else but laugh.

As Lucy said, 'Don't worry hon - it can only get better'. Must. Spin. More.

The Bobbys

Wow!! I don't think i've ever won an award by public voting. At Junior College, I ran for the Student Council elections but there was no real reward for that. Unlike the Bobbys which was voting held on a much bigger and global scale. I was so chuffed that the yarngina got so many votes - thank you everyone! I'm still on a bit of a high. It was fantastic that so many Ravelers voted for stuff and I got send so many nice messages from people,.... wow again!

I must say that there were nominations in my category that were so brilliantly funny - the competition was really hotting up at certain points. Anyhoo, here's a money shot of Janice in the yarngina. Enjoy!

So who's the black sheep now?

Finally made my mind up about which wheel to get which means that I can now concentrate on work instead of trawling Ravelry for information about ratios, bobbins and jumbo flyers… it's like learning a new bloody language. But I am very excited and have ordered some books from Amazon about handspinning which means that until they arrive - I'll be trawling Ravelry for tips on yarn, twists and something called drafting - how am I going to meet my knitting targets for the year? There just aren't enough hours in the day I tell you….

To add to my excitement as I left work yesterday, I was meeting a friend to go watch Othello at the Donmar. In what was a pretty jammy week - I'd managed to get my mitts on some tickets without having to pay ridiculous prices on ebay and also won a bottle of wine at the office raffle. I probably should have bought some scratch cards whilst fortune was smiling on me but I digress… back to Othello, I'll write a critical review with my theatre studies student hat on later but here's my knitterly perspective first;



I have a theory that old Shakey was a bit of a fiber man as a lot of his plays are littered with references to knitting - think of this sonnet or Macbeth's line about conscience and rest. In Othello, his fascination with fiber (and who can blame him) is evident from Iago's first speech where he compares the spinster to….. Given that it was Ewan McGregor who was playing Iago, all I could think about was how fine a name he had and how it would be a great name for my first sheep. After that, it was impossible to ignore all the other animal motifs of inter-breeding and the perversity of a black ram (Othello) mating with a beautitful soft white ewe (Desdemona) -line 93. It didn't help that Chiwetel Ejifor who was a wonderful Othello had lovely little dreads that would make beautiful fluffy spun yarn. To say that I could imagine the characters as sheep in a field is not exactly far from the truth. Perhaps Shakey heard about some shenanigans amongst a shepherd's flock and was inspired to adapt it into this tragedy. Who knows? It is a well known fact that old Shakey wasn't exactly very original in his plotlines so maybe he blended in different strands of source material for the play. In any case, a black sheep amongst a herd of white sheep would definitely arouse the hostility and aggression of Venetian society that Othello encounters. In the end however, it of course transpires that it is 'good, honest' Iago who has pulled the proverbial wool over everyone's eyes and is in fact the evil, black sheep not Othello. There is a lot of talk about sacrificial lambs, which is of course a heavily used motif in Christianity which figures significantly in this play - both Othello and Desdemona are good religious beings, getting down to their knees and praying lots. Again, it was hard not to imagine Iago (Ewan) as a naughty sheep as he was being taken away perhaps to the slaughter house for being so naughty…

Spin, Spin sugar

I am this close to buying a spinning wheel which means I could become an official, card-carrying spinster! I think the word needs to be reclaimed so that it looses all its negative connotations in any case. We went on a one day course which was taught by an amazing lady at the Handweaver's Studio who had years of wisdom to impart and an infinite capacity for patience to boot. My fellow Spinderellas Gail and Lucy give great accounts of the afternoon whereas I had promptly forgotten my camera. My head is still swimming from an overload of information and the anecdotes that Nancy shared with us. It feels as if I've turned a new corner in my little fiberous life.

I now have new found respect for handspun yarn because I appreciate how fine and difficult a craft it is. The whole process was so astoundingly magical or perhaps it was just the satisfaction of doing the twirly thing and watching things spin. But it got me thinking about wheels and circles and how it has been so integral to the advancement of humanity and become such a potent metaphor - think 'Revolutions', Shakespeare's 'wheel of fire', the 'circle of life'. How the phrase 'spinning a yarn' has come to mean the literal act of telling stories. All food for thought which means that I have been much more distracted these last few days. Will post photos of my roving and spindle when I get some proper shots of them this weekend.

On an entirely different note - the Yarngina has been nominated for the 'Most Unusual Project' on Ravelry! Very exciting indeed. It's up against some tough competition so please do send your votes this way if you can.

As long promised, You tube footage of the Yarngina can be found here & here. for you to see it in action. Some bits are a little untidy but I ran out of time and so had to do a hasty crochet job at the end... enjoy!

Happy New Year....

Saw in 2008 with Gail & Lucy at a party in Mile End.



Gruff, Steve and I then ended up trudging for miles to get to a party at Stokey full of similarly drunk people. Yours truly crashed out on the sofa and then got moved to the spare room at nine in the morning. My eyes were stinging when I woke up because I'd slept with my contacts in,... bad....

Finally made it home at 4 p.m as I was in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes. Then went onto watch Tintin which was amazing, I loved the comics when I was little and the production managed to stage it really well. Saw the original production 2 years ago when it was playing at the Barbican so I knew it was going to be worth it. I've got 2 friends who are in the current cast and they sorted out some comps for us. We had great seats and the millions of kiddies there were pretty well behaved and riveted by the production so they were fairly tolerable. Had lots of drinks at the aftershow party, then went for some dinner and ended up at another party because we were too drunk to be sensible. The thing is that everyone else is still lying in bed and I am the only chump who had to get up to go to work today....

So I think I might crawl home early to get some much needed beauty sleep. Feel and look like a total hag today.... it's hardly a great way to usher in 2008 frankly and at my age I SHOULD know better!

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?

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...