Dragon Rambles

I actually made it down to the shops today instead of telling myself “tomorrow”, like I’ve been doing for the last 2 weeks. I decided to stop into my local yarn shop while I was there to pick up some yarn to knit Granny’s birthday present (since OMA is pretty much sold out until she’s back from holidays this weekend and can start making us some more pretties).

Of course, I found plenty of beautiful colours and bases that would work well, but finding two skeins of the same colour was the trick.

Ooh, those two will do nicely for Catkin.

Ah, here’s two of the same colour, and in 100% BFL, so perfect for those structured patterns I have my eye on that the silk or bamboo blends are no good for. Hmm, dark purple to black. Not really Granny’s colours? Oh well, it’ll make me a nice shawl.

Btw, the photo has completely washed out the colour. It’s much darker in real life.

Ah, now there’s a pretty yarn. Ok so it’s a silk blend and there’s only one skein of it but it’ll makeup something nice and maybe I can contact the seller for a second skein that sorta matches.

Now I’m thinking about it, have I ever actually seen Granny in pink? Green, yes. Blue, yes. Pink….., um……, not that I recall. But possibly. Hmm, maybe it’ll make up into something nice for my brother’s girlfriend. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do with it.

Now, what about yarn for Granny’s shawl. Oops, better hit the online shops again.

Yesterday was Farmer’s Wife day again, so I got to give my needle calluses a work out. Yes, you can get a callus from hand sewing. If you do a lot, and I’ve definitely done a lot of it these holidays.

First up we have block 13, buckwheat.

And the second block for the week was butterfly at the cross roads, block 14.

That makes 13 blocks done now, with 98 to go. No photo of them together this week, will post one next week when 15 have been completed.

Yesterday I went to London for the Nature Careers Expo. I’d allowed myself 4 hours for it and booked my trains accordingly. Only, I didn’t need anywhere near that amount of time. I had decided not to attend the conference and just the exhibition, and well, most of the exhibitors were from universities. That left very few that I wanted to go and talk to. But I did get the chance to speak to someone from Merck and GE Healthcare. And there were a couple of interesting companies based overseas, including one in the Netherlands. Hmmm…

So by the time I was done it wasn’t yet 1pm and I had 2.5 hours to kill. I know, I thought, I’ll head over to Covent Garden. Famous last words. Did I really think there was a chance that I’d just go there for lunch?! Um, no. Instead I walked into a shop that I have very impressively managed to resist in the past, and found myself walking out 5 mins (!) later, the proud new owner of a pair of beautiful plum boots. Hush puppies too, so nice and comfy.

Now, while I was planning on buying new boots soon, the plan was for mid calf, low heel boots that I could wear if it snows again this winter. Ah well, guess I’ll just have to buy two pairs of boots this autumn

Aside from that purchase I wasn’t too bad. I bought some cool animal pasta from the fresh food markets there (it was the turtles that made me do it), as well as a yummy loaf of pumpkin seed bread, and a couple of quiches. I did eventually stop to get lunch nearby. But it was at a frozen yoghurt shop. I got mine with strawberries, so at least there were two food groups there.

Nothing else was purchased. Though I must confess that probably has a lot to do with not remembering where specific shops I was looking for were. I could remember general areas of where I’d seen them on past visits, but no particulars. After an exhausting hour of wondering around in too skinny and too high heels, I decided I should juat head to Paddington and sit down to wait for my train.

So, I guess while I was naughty, I wasn’t too naughty. But not for lack of trying

Sunday’s FWQ blocks were all “broken”, so I guess it made sense that they each had a few pieces to them.

First was broken dishes. I decided I hadn’t used enough green, so green was up.

Next was broken sugar bowl.

And here are my first 11 blocks, leaving a nice even 100 to go.

I’ve been in bed feeling pretty ordinary these last few days, so I’ve not made much progress this week on my craft projects. But I did get two more star blocks finished on Moonglow beforehand.

Here’s block 7…

And block 8.

This leaves just 3 months of this block of the month pattern to go. But 5 blocks since two of those months need two blocks each. The photos are still not showing the vibrancy of this fabric but maybe I’ll get a decent shot or two by the time I’m done.

Today is Farmer’s Wife day. I’m still feeling shady but sick of my bed, and with it looking like it’ll be a nice rainy day, a day settling in to piece blocks and “watch” dvds sounds just the thing.

About 10 days ago I shared my happy dance of finishing all 12 blocks of month 12 of Moonglow. Well, since then I’ve been steadily stitching away to complete some of the stars.

When I first bought this kit back in 2002, I started from month 1 and completed almost 3 blocks before this project was put on hold.

Last year when I picked this project back up again, I took a good look at these blocks and decided to redo them if I had enough fabric. I cut out all the fabric for the blocks (except the black background) and discovered I had heaps, so this project was completely started from scratch.

Here’s the new block 1…

Block 2…

And block 3.

Then I got to start on new ones. Here’s block 4…

Block 5…

And block 6.

The light was wierd today so would only give me washed out colours, to remind you of their vibrancy, here’s those first 12 blocks again.

Two things I have learnt while working on these…
1. I suck at joining 8 points. I really need to practice that.
2. I’m glad I ordered this kit years ago while all of the original colours were available. I’ve seen the options for the 10th anniversary pattern and I’m not such a fan.

Yesterday was the fifth week of the FWQ. Two quick and easy blocks this week.

Block 9: Box

Block 10: Bowtie

And the story so far.

9 down, 102 to go. So in 51 weeks, at the current pace, I’ll be ready to start putting the top together

I started knitting Nightingale Wing in some beautiful 100% silk yarn I’ve had for years.

I originally had this in mind for a shawl I crocheted for Granny a few years ago, but went with a variegated green instead. Now I’m back to this yarn but I’m starting to wonder if it’s too variegated for this pattern. The edges change colour beautifully, but I’m not sure about the middle.

Thoughts?

What’s that you say? It’s not my birthday? Oh well, then. Happy Tuesday?

It’s massive and heavy and has lots of yummy things to make.

Another two blocks of the FWQ yesterday. First up, Birds in the air. The points aren’t perfect but I’m happy enough with it.

And one that was much quicker to piece, Bouquet.

And my collection so far…