A little something...

....for a rather special little girl, born just recently to some very good friends of ours:

I used this pattern, and a skein of Angels & Elephants aran weight in the Holly Berry colourway. The contrast is some apple green Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (lord, I love this stuff!).

All whipped up and finished (well, once I find the right buttons) in a few days - the power of crochet!

Three years.....

Yes, three years ago today, this little angel/monster came into our lives. It's been a roller coaster of a ride so far, and I wouldn't change it one bit. Happy birthday darling!

Cozy cables

Anyone who follows the Yarn Harlot will be aware of her 'personal sock club' initiative - she basically picked a bunch of yarn from her stash, paired them up with their designated patterns, placed them all in ziplock bags on a shelf in her cupboard and will be pulling one bag out at random over the next 10 months. A number of my fellow Knitting Goddesses have done the same thing - and have so have I (sheep? me? never! LOL!).

I had a very happy few hours last week - pulling out all the yarns that were screaming 'KNIT ME FIRST!' and then whittling it down to a more manageable 15 or so. Given my natural inclination to always pick a blue shade over every other colour, I tried to mix up the colours a bit - I've got burgundy, green, turquoise, mixed pinks in there to bring a little spice and variety to the coming months. I also tried to make sure I had a mix of socks (ok, there's still 50% in there!), shawls, heavier-weight projects. There's even something in there for Little Miss A....

However, before I started on any of these projects (which are all stuffed into my 'Medium Brown Bag' from Bloomingdales right in the middle of my study - so I can't miss them), I made myself promise that I would first finish off some WIPs (Works in Progress) or, at the very least, make some decent progress on them. So having finished Mum's top-secret present and made good progress on the 2nd Pyroclastic sock (I've turned the heel and started the rather complicated gusset shaping), I was finally able to start the first 'baggie' yesterday morning:

A pair of Cabled Fingerless Gloves using some gorgeous DK weight wool from Juno Fibre Arts. I have drooled over her goodies for quite some time now, but this was the clincher. Gorgeous soft colours ranging from a pale, ice blue, through pale lilac, seafoam green, faded denim blue, pewter and silver grey with the occasional 'pop' of bright magenta - love, love, love it! And it's knitting up just beautifully as you can see:

I managed four cable repeats yesterday (my knitting was interrupted by a trip to the local library and various large piles of laundry - humph!). Another four repeats and I can start the thumb gusset. I have the day off tomorrow and I hope to have a new pair of gloves by the time I get back to work :-) That's what I call a productive weekend......

Blog Award

So, what actually caused to get off my posterior and finally get back into the land of the (blog) living? My lovely e-friend Ladybird gave me this rather lovely blog award



As part of my acceptance, I have to:

1. Give a Top 10 list of things that make me happy
2. Give a Top 5 list of trivia about myself
3. Share the award with 5 other people and ask them to do the same things
4. Link the blogs of the people you are passing the award onto as well as the person who awarded it to you in the first place

So here goes:

Things that make me happy

1. My lovely, patient, super-understanding Mr A, who doesn't really care how much I spend on craft materials so long as it makes me happy
2. My super amazing awesome Little Miss A, who I hope will continue to challenge me in the best of ways for many years to come
3. The first signs of spring after a winter that has really been too cold and lasted too long
4.Starting a new project - will the colours/ideas that are in my head work in reality?
5. Finishing a project and discovering that it either fits or works really well, even if it's not quite what I imagined in the first place!
6. A really good fillet steak, cooked medium rare with a large pile of thin fries on the side :-)
7. The thought that I will be going on holiday (alone with Mr A!) in just short of 3 months time
8. Knowing that I will turn 40 in just over 6 months time - and not being afraid of it!
9. Knowing that I am vaguely helping to make people's lives a little better through my job - even if it's not my dream job....
10. Knowing I have a small group of steadfast friends who I can always count on

Trivia about Tash
1. My middle name is Alice, which was also my grandmother and great-grandmother's name(s)
2. I speak fluent French, as a result of growing up in Belgium
3. I've also lived in Turkey (for 3 years) where I 'experienced' a military coup (eek!)
4. I love home-made drop scones slathered with my Mum's home-made raspberry jam
5. I have a thing for Haribo gummy bears......

In return, I pass this award onto Quackas, Attic24 and laralorelei. I know it's only 3 - I've been very, very bad about keeping up with blogs this year......

Naughty blogger

Yep, that's me: naughty blogger. No real excuses, apart from the fact that life is just very, very busy and full to the brim right now. The job is still 'going' - I can't/don't want to say any more than that really.....working in a client-facing job is most definitely not something I want to do with the rest of my life. Oh, and I keep losing my voice, which doesn't help much either!

Little Miss A is turning into a personality-laden little Madam (yes, that's a capital M!) - she informs me at least three times a week that I am 'not her friend', usually when I've told her she can't have / do something. It's amazing watching her growing and changing so fast - I heard her telling a bedtime story to her teddy the other night - wow! If only she would stop coming into our bed at 3am and breaking our sleep.....will there ever be a time when my normal operating mode is not 'on the verge of exhaustion'??

See what I mean? When I took this photo, she said: "shhhh Mummy, I'm working!!!"""

So I'm just about keeping my head above water - cannot remember the last time I cooked a 'proper' meal or watched a tv programme the whole way through without falling asleep.....

On the creative front, I haven't managed a massive amount recently, due to my knitting time having been slashed to almost nothing. However, I have finished the following:

A crochet chevron scarf to go with Little Miss A's new pea green duffle coat

(she's got a matching hat as well, but I haven't managed to take a decent photo of it)

Then it was time for the Ravelympics over on Ravelry (you got to set yourselve a variety of challenges that would be categorised by events such as the Lace Luge, Charity Curling and Hat Halfpipe, all of which had to be started/finished between the opening and closing ceremonies). I was quite pleased at how much I got done over the 3 weeks:

a cheerful, slouchy hat made using some chunky Phildar wool that I've had in my stash for well over a year (Yay!)

I then used the leftovers from the hat to make the following squares for Knit-A-Square:

The second load of squares were a bit of a personal challenge to see how many squares I could make from two skeins of sock wool (held double) - I managed five in all, which I was pleased with :-)

I also managed to finish something light and dainty for Mum's birthday - but I can't show it yet, just in case she decides to come over here for a visit beforehand. Next week, I promise (provided Royal Mail has got its bottom in gear and delivered the parcel on time!)

I have two pairs of socks on the needles at the moment - one is Pyroclastic in Araucania Ranco Solid - a gorgeous firey red. I've finished one sock, and the other would have been finished a long time ago, except I decided to make them almost knee-high - they will be ab-fab when they're done though!

Knackered.......

I have survived my first three weeks back at work - but only just! Exhaustion doesn't even come close.....aside from the physical / mental adjustment of having to actually concentrate properly for whole days at a time, there is an unbelievable amount of information to take on board. I've spent 7 of the last 10 days in training, with another two next week - and then I will be 'live' - feel sorry for those poor customers who come face-to-face with me next Wednesday!

In the meantime, all has most definitely not been quiet on the creative front :-)

First up, some winter warmers...these were most definitely NOT planned, but given that I started work during the worst cold snap that the UK has experienced since 1963 (apparently), I quickly realised that I needed something to keep my head and neck warm when waiting at the bus stop.

So, I have finished a hat and started a scarf. The hat is made using Mini Mochi yarn from Crystal Palace (colourway Violets Rainbow). This is gorgeously soft and comes in wonderful colours - but is not something I would choose to knit with again - it feels very fragile when you're knitting it and I was terrified of it breaking....

The scarf is being made using Mille Colori yarn by Lang Wools - my lovely Mum gave me these as a 'sort-of' Christmas present. I have two balls of a grey/aqua mix and two balls of a pink/berry mix - this probably sounds like a horrible combination, but thanks to a great pattern (Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood) and the long colour changes, I think it's coming out rather beautifully:

I have also finished yet another pair of socks - these are Wanida by Cookie A, and they were made using gorgeous yarn from The Knitting Goddess. This was a custom-dye colourway that I asked her to dye for me back in the summer of 2009 - I decided it was time I finally used it, and I'm really pleased with the results!

And the charity project is still going strong - I have made a few more squares (I think my total so far is now 10 squares) and an adorable little baby jacket, using the Bombay Love pattern from Ravelry. This was made using the scrummy aran-weight wool from Babylonglegs

Oh, and Ladybird? I have started your gloves - but you might not actually get them, coz they are coming out gorgeous!!!

Giving something back

So, after the last post (which was a little self-centred perhaps?), I had a bit of an epiphany on New Year's Day....

While browsing through the boards of a new UK-based group on Ravelry, I discovered this amazing charity project called Knit-A-Square. Basically, you knit or crochet as many 8" squares as you fancy and then ship them off to Soweto in South Africa. Once they have arrived there, they are assembled into blankets which are then distributed to the many, many AIDs orphans.

To quote from the Knit-A-Square site, "the AIDs orphans in South Africa belong to one of the fastest-growing, but least desirable groups of children in need, on the earth. Every 14 seconds a child will become a orphan."

Well, if that is not enough to make you want to do something to help, then I don't know what is.....

So, duly inspired, I trawled through my stash and pulled out all the yarns / leftovers that I thought would work for crochet granny squares. I wound them all up (have I mentioned how much I love my ball winder??), doubling-up the DK weights and winding the sock yarn into quadruple thickness (does that last bit make sense? hmmm...). I now have a bag full of lovely, multi-coloured balls, ready for pulling out on a Saturday morning to be turned into a square.

Yes, I've decided that my first priority for Saturday mornings in 2010 will be to make a square before I work on any of my other projects.

Since then, I have managed to whip up a total of six squares (I've managed to amaze even myself!):

More to come over the next few weeks / months, I'm sure!