Knitpicks

Just a few shots of the Knitpicks order I got recently.
I got mostly one or two skeins of a lot of different yarns just to check them out plus
enough to make two shell tops maybe.





Pictures taken with my new Nikon D50 which even though I'm a long way from taking the kind of photos I want and I haven't mastered the manual settings yet, does a much better job than my old one I reckon of getting true colours.
It's the same camera I believe that Brooklyn Tweed uses on his blog (though because he's a pro. he probably uses more than the one camera) but that's where the similarity ends, as you can see!

Recently I came across a singer from Sweden called Lykke Li and I've been playing her music non-stop. I suppose if you were to catagorise it, it would be a mix of pop/alternative and electronica. She has an album out called Youth Novel that's got great reviews. I reckon this girl is gonna be BIG. Here's one of my favourites. An acoustic version of "I'm good I'm gone"
with some fellow Swedish musicians including the singer Robyn:

Sweater design

Ok so I haven't gone AWOL, just taken myself away from the blogging world for the last weeks cause I was spending so much time reading blogs and Ravelry and neglecting other things in my life. I had to get it back into perspective.
I also seem to suffer from a near paralyzing indecision when it comes to choosing new projects to start so that's another thing I'm gonna have to get a handle on. Whereas other people seem to have a dozen projects on the go at once I struggle with finding the one I really want to spend precious time on.
Socks and small projects like that are not the problem, what I mean is tops and cardigans. I've been thinking about why this is and I don't think it's because there's any lack of nice designs out there, my Ravelry queue shows this! but instead I feel I need more control over the exact kind of designs I want in a garment, so to that end I've bought this book:



I haven't read it all but I know that it's exactly what I'm looking for. She takes you through the whole process of designing that's made to measure taking into account your individual size and shape. I have no illusions of being the next Norah Gaughan (design genius that she is) but want to know how to design and work out shaping, sizing, the appropriate type of yarn to use for each project, darts, buttonholes etc. It was first published in 1990 so the sweater designs are a bit dated -batwing sweater anyone? :) but the fundamentals of how to design and how a sweater is put together properly remains the same whatever the era.
I don't want to knit only my own designs (all going well!) but want to tackle some of the things in my Rav. queue as well.
Oh and a big thank you to a very kind lady by the name of Marque Lampert Scherer from Portland Oregon who generously offered to allow me to use her postal address to place a Knitpicks order and sent it on to me super fast too. I have to add she made this offer completely unsolicited and simply I think took pity on me when she read me bemoaning the fact that Knitpicks won't ship outside the U.S. on Ravelry. How kind so many fellow knitters are :)
Thank's also to the lovely Jolynn of simple knits for enquiring into my well being having not seen me blog for a while. You're a doll ;)
I think I'm back into my bloging groove now, so more posts soon. And pics of my Knitpicks haul!
Now off to read about 500 blog posts on my reader that's been building up for the last few weeks unread!

Courtown woods

On Sunday Tony and myself went down to Courtown woods in Wexford. It's a state managed forest about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Arklow. The weather continues to be sunny and warm here. It's funny because at the first rays of sun Irish people have a habit of stripping down to t-shirts and short skirts and shorts, even if it's not quite warm enough yet for them! I guess it's because the sun is such an infrequent visitor to our normally grey and rain sodden little isle that people go a bit mad when the sun does show it's face.




At this time of year the woods are full of bluebells...





...and wild garlic which smelled amazing (if you like garlic) when we walked though it





There's a small beach nearby that we took a stroll along



We're lucky to have such lovely, and usually quite deserted, beaches here in Wicklow and Wexford and of course there's nothing like the salty sea air to work up a great appetite!
mmm, salty chips on the beach, love it!...

second hand finds

I took the opportunity to have a look in the second-hand shops when I was down in Waterford city and this is what I've come back with:



two Scottish lambswool jumpers to rip for yarn. I didn't include a shot of the second one as it's black. I also got this cardie. I'm not so sure if I can frog this one actually as it's so lovely, and the label says John Rocha! It's so soft too, a mixture of lambswool and angora.
Hmm dunno what to decide....



I also got this lovely new hand woven scarf. It's actually the first new item of clothing I've bought in quite a while.



I got it in a shop called Beyond Therapy and you'll get why it's called that when I tell you that it stocks all fair trade clothing made by small companies and co-operatives in India and other Third world countries. Clever name eh?
It seemed to be my day for finding Scottish yarn as I found this:



It was in a basket of assorted, mostly mohair and acrylic yarns obviously left in to the thrift shop by a knitter. These were the only pair of needles in the basket. It's a nice fairly soft tweed yarn, enough to make a hat or scarflet.
Waterford is a good place to go hunting for second hand treasure as there are at least 5 (that I know of) thrift shops, all within easy walking distance of each other.
Waterford's good like that, and most of the shopping streets are pedestrianised so it's relaxing to just stroll around and take a look in the shops or sit outside a cafe or pub and have a drink.
Must take my new camera with me next time I'm down.

Absent

Wow, can't believe it's been so long since I posted. It hasn't been intentional. My mum was taken into hospital last week and I've been down with her in Waterford for the past few days. She had a lot of swelling (fluid) on her legs and fluid in her lungs , so she was brought into hospital for 3 days.
Because of her age (80) her doctor thought it would be best to send her straight in.
Anyway, she got medication and blood tests done and she's almost back to normal now as the swelling has gone down and her lungs are clear.
She has to wait to get the results in a few weeks of a test they did on to check her heart, but hopefully she'll get the all clear. Phew!
It's always a worry when something happens like that happens because I live quite far from her(though we always phone each other and I regularly go down to see her), but she has a 'home help' -a state provided assistant who comes in 3 times a week and cleans the house and buys her groceries for her, and whatever else my Mum would need help with, and it's great for both of us because I'm reassured that she has everything she needs and she retains the independence of being able to live in her own home(she'd hate, and I think refuse to live in an old peoples home).
It's a great service for old people living alone. Oh and it's free. :) Well for her anyway, it's funded by general taxes.
Actually old people don't do too badly nowadays here as they get free travel on all public transport (an accompanying carer like a relative(if needed or desired) goes free too; free healthcare (even though there's a lot of improvement should be made to the health care system, but that's another story...) as well as getting a lot of state help towards paying bills. For example she only pays for the calls she makes on her phone bill, no line rental, as well as smaller gas and electricity bills.
There's also grants available to improve home insulation or to refit bathrooms to make them more user-friendly (handrails in the bath and shower and such like)
Their pensions could and should be higher but at least my mum can have a reasonable standard of living on her state pension and live with dignity.
I know old people are looked after better and their pensions are much higher than in the U.K for example, where I've heard horror stories of old people having to eat cat food because they're so poor! I saw a program on T.V a while ago about old people there having to work well past the age of retirement because the state pension won't provide enough income alone for them to survive on.
Dreadful. AND many are people who've fought for their country in WW2! What gratitude eh?

Anyway, I came back at 6 this evening and when I got in the door I found my new camera and new lens had been delivered. Yay! I got it from a lovely Ebay seller in the U.K-in like new condition. It's a Nikon D50 with a 50mm Nikon lens (not the kit lens)-for anyone who's interested, and I love it! My first DSLR!
Can't wait to start learning how to use it and take pictures.
Oh and I've been thrift shopping down in Waterford to-day before I got the bus back up and must take some pics in the daylight tomorrow and show you what I got...
The weather's been gorgeous here for the last few days so I hope wherever you are you're sharing in the good weather. ;)

titania top

I finished the titania top last night. It took a bit longer than expected but I met my target to have it finished by the end of April anyway. I steam blocked it because it's cotton and so I don't think there's any real point in washing then pinning it out as I would a wool top for example as there's no stretch in cotton.



Em, I'm very pale but not quite this pale! :p (yes, the shot is a bit overexposed)
Anyway, I'm happy with it. It fits, but just about, and because it's cotton the size is very important to get right I reckon because of the forementioned lack of stretch to it.
I leaned a lot about lace with this and I really like the lace patterns used in it.






All praise to the designer Elizabeth for coming up with such a beautiful design.

Details :
Pattern: as mentioned
Yarn: Brown Sheep cotton fleece in red
Needles: size 4mm

No modifications, done exactly as given. I found the pattern well written and easy to follow but
I'd think twice before knitting lace in cotton again. I realised I have no liking for it and because of the temperate (i.e rainy and cold. Oh and did I say rainy??) climate we have here where we're lucky to get a few weeks of warm weather in the summer, I have much more use for my preferred woolen knits anyway thankfully, (though with climate change it's been more mild than usual these last few winters).

Happy Earth Day!

It's been a lovely sunny spring day today here, and I've been out and about early.
We made our weekly (or thereabouts) visit to the local recycling and bring centre.
I actually like going up there because anyone can take away any number of books that they have on their shelves.
A lot of it is trashy fiction and so called 'Chick-Lit' but sometimes I find a good novel or non-fiction work, and hey, free books! what's not to love.
We then went to pick out some new floor covering for the kitchen -paid for by our wonderful landlord :)-seriously he's the best landlord I've ever had;
so that's arriving soon.
I then went to the thrift shops and found this: (now washed and dried but needs to be ironed)



A silk top in my favourite colour. It fits nicely and I like how it ties at the side.

Today of course is Earth Day and I thought I might mark the day by listing a few of the changes I've made to make our home and our lives greener.
This is as much for myself as anything to start to catalogue what we've achieved so far.

• I don't drive but my partner does and tries not to use the car for any unnecessary journeys. All the supermarkets and local shops are within walking distance so there's really no need to get in the car to walk 200 yards up the road. His daughter's school is very close to our house so he walks with her to school in the mornings, which she loves.
• We now eat less red meat than we ever did. It would be difficult to switch to a completely vegetarian diet for the whole family because the kids are used to eating meat in their mum's home and I think there'd be some resistance to it, but we eat vegetarian meals a couple of times a week so I'm pleased with that for now. We also buy local produced and organic food when possible and avoid fruit and veg. with high air miles, like green beans from Kenya for example, when they can be grown here instead.
  
• We unplug all electrical appliances at night instead of leaving things on stand-by. It saves us money and of course saves energy too. We started this about six months ago.
• I use some eco-friendly cleaning products like Ecover washing powder and bathroom cleaners and and find that they work just as well as 'conventional' products.
• We recycle as much as possible. Plastics, glass, paper electronics, everything we possibly can.
• Myself and T. both use natural crystal rock deodorants which work very well. I was a bit sceptical before I tried it but they are excellent and now T.'s daughter has expressed an interest in trying it :)
• We feed the birds in the garden. Migratory bird numbers are plummeting and what were once common species like the cuckoo and the nightingale are experiencing real difficulties. Why this is happening scientists and ornithologists don't seem to know yet but possible reasons are climate change and destruction of habitat in their African wintering grounds. Whatever the reason it means it's now more important than ever to help out our bird populations.
  
• I buy less clothes and when I do I try to avoid sweatshop made garments and goods with the Made in China label (difficult as that is). China human rights record is appalling and we've all heard in the news about the continuing abuses of the Tibetan people and I don't wish to support that country's economy with my money. I don't believe a general boycott is the answer (even if that were possible) as that just hurts the workers who are just trying to earn a living and provide for their families but I do prefer to hunt out and pay a bit more when I can for goods made in Europe or fairly traded, ethical and organic or second-hand clothing and goods. I can't afford to buy a lot of clothes anyway but when I do I look for quality made clothing made under fair working conditions which means I avoid most of the high street shops especially the most egregious examples like Primark. It's not easy and I don't always succeed -I buy underwear and shoes sometimes from the highstreet stores and I'm really glad H&M isn't availably locally as that would be more than I could resist I reckon :P Anyway I know it's easier for me to make these choices because I don't have a kids and I'm quite frugal anyway. For people on a low or fixed income and with kids to clothe the high street is often their only option.

I don't want to make the list too long but these are some of the most important things we've done to make our lives more sustainable and lessened our carbon footprint I hope.
We have a lot more to do but there are certain constraints we have to live with at the moment.
T. needs a car to bring his kids to their mum's home and there's no public transport option available. We want to change from oil-fired central heating to a more sustainable option like wood pellets but that won't happen until we get our own place.
Until that day comes we do what we can.

Finally just cause I think their purty, some vintage wooden spools of thread I bought recently:



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