Saturday, January 12, 2008
Unravel
It seemed too wide from beginning but I kept going thinking it might turn out long enough. Now I know better. And the pattern I've selected just doesn't come out as nicely as I would like it to with this multi-colored yarn. But I mastered K3 tog so am confident, once I find time to work on lace, I shouldn't have to many beginners issues.
I'm very slowly progressing on the quilt. I'm finally making stitches of same length and spacing. At least did so last night. One quilter already told me that it takes her to get into the rhythm every time she begins after a few hours pause. And she is an experienced quilter so I now I have to be very patient with my aspirations of perfection. Luckily, I'm doing yellow on yellow at the moment so all of this travail is not that visible. And am still busy with beginners problems: where to start and finish the tread so the end is not visible but it all still looks nice on both front and back.
But this is similar to my beginnings in crochet: in which part of the chain/stitch to stick the hook in. Basics which after some reading I resolved in crochet and will now resolve in quilting.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Holidays
Also, these days we have great company during our meals.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Met zweepslag naar Parijs
I had so much fun yesterday. Was on a day-trip by bus to Paris.
At the time I ran across the advertisement for this trip, I didn't have any health issues. I asked two friends which I'm close with locally but neither could join. And didn't think this would be something for my 5-year old. Or my husband either. So I just signed up myself. After all, this was to be my third visit to this city so I knew my way around a bit. And with the guide book and street plan, should be a blast!
And it was a blast even though I managed to tear my muscle (first I heard a sound of the whip and then realized I can not step on my left leg any more, so indeed a hit of a whip, locally known as zweepslag). I still payed for the trip and hoped for the best. Now, I've never heard of this injury before, but it turns out recovery time is quite long. Which makes it extremely difficult since life goes on around and doesn't stop for my leg to get better. So, I spent the most difficult first days on the couch, then started by taking and bringing back my son from school. It felt ridiculous, since I couldn't walk normally and then only in high heels. I didn't wear those in a few years now, good I didn't get rid of them yet. Never thought they might be even handy. I couldn't bike either so had to use the car for this 2min trips to school. Oh well, if others who don't have any medical excuses can do it, why not me for these three weeks?
I feel bad most about having to abandon my tennis practice (I sustained the injury in the last 5 minutes of the game). And that I can not sit behind the computer! I feel the pain in the leg even now. So, for the last three weeks I have been mostly parked on the couch, with knitting and crochet. And managed to finish John Stocking. And lots of snowflakes which are waiting to be stiffened and hung up.
And so, the day of the Paris trip arrived. I prepared knitting and reading material in case I would need to sit down and rest the leg. None of it was necessary in the end. I managed to do what I always do on vacations in cities: explore all day long till I drop. I dropped in the end once I had to walk from the car to the house and bed, but managed those last few steps, luckily.
Day started at 3am when the bus departed from neighbouring village. We arrived in Paris at 9am and I started my tour by first paying a visit to Brentano's. I was disappointed in the extent of craft book offer. Not much interesting when it comes to knitting and crochet books and priced (in my opinion) high so I ended empty handed. There have been on the shelf also Interweave Crochet and BHG Knitting magazine. I have the first and didn't like any projects in the second. There were loads of quilting books but the few I have are more than enough at the moment. There have been lots of japanese crafts books, but again, none that I liked. So I walked out with a nice compact street register in search of other interesting spots.
One of the turned out to be La Droquerie. But with a few days before Christmas, it was a zoo. And with my limited knowledge of yarn and non-existent french I didn't dare to buy any since they sell only their own yarn. So, next stop was Le Bon Marche. Now, that was a nice surprise. This is a very high end department store with extremely nice merchandise. So, I did some "window shopping" to end in the extremely nice craft section. There was Noro, Debbie Bliss, Rowan and some other yarn by manufacturers unknown to me. I had hard time separating from Debbie Bliss silk yarn but just didn't like any of the colors available (pink, light green, light yellow). So, a final pet and on to the overcrowded Galeries Lafayette. Yarn section here was small and represented only by Phildar yarn. All of these yarn stores have nice selection of needles, buttons, ribbons and the department stores also carry needlepoint supplies. All books are in french, even the nice Noro yarn kits. Had to give it all a miss.
So, for the last I managed to visit the british W.H. Smith store. That was a nice surprise. Book selection was even smaller than Brentano's (no japanese books) but managed to find two knitting/crochet and one quilt magazines that I liked.
And that was the only score of the Christmas shopping trip to Paris. And a nice fish in one of the pricey bistro's accompanied with a glass of wine and irish coffee. Had to sit a bit for all that alcohol to work through the system before I could attempt those dangerous looking stairs to the toilet! It was a sunny but cold day so a bit of warming up from inside was more than necessary!
Feet are still a bit swollen but the leg is mostly OK so am going to try to bike tomorrow. Without high heels, of course!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Slump
First, vacation (oh, so long time ago) was perfect in hindsight. Out of six weeks maybe just a day without the sun. And that was important in the end, we didn't get to see much of that stellar body once we got back home.
My nephew came back with us, for a two weeks visit. And what is a favorite pastime of 13 old boys visiting their aunt? Roller coasters! We managed to hit three major parks in the area, this helped to double the number of times I ever sat in a roller coaster. Never my favorite, but have to admit, in the end I did have a good time. But am not asking for more unlike my 5-year old. He was at the time 121 cm high which qualified him for almost all rides. And we skipped only one, Python in Efteling. I thought no safety harness on that ride would keep him in the seat.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Two more complete
Oh, it is difficult to wait to leave this terrible weather, windy, wet and colder than 20 celsius. I did wash all jackets so now we are reduced to wearing rain gear as protection from the wind.
So, the first finished project is crocheted giraffe. I didn't know it will turn out that big (115 cm long) but it does look appropriate as a companion to our almost a year old niece. This is her birthday present, her parents like it, I hope she does as well. Of course, it didn't go smooth, the connecting piece turned out to short so I had to extend it and stretch a bit to make it all fit. And I did make the horns but they just didn't fit nicely so I didn't attach them.
The other which I'm proud of is gloves. Pattern name is Progressive Gloves. This was my first knitting project with double pointed needles. I thought I'll just make mittens, but as I progressed I realized I prefer gloves. And so it was. I like the yarn (Schachenmayr Universa Color) and bought it as soon as I noticed snowflakes on the label. I made small adjustment to the pattern by adding two extra stitches for the little finger. And I also did three rows of decreases on the thumb to exactly match mine. And now just to wait for the winter to test the warmth! And it seems I'll not have to wait long, my fingers are getting cold as I'm typing right now!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
My latest works
This is "Purple Pleasure" from "Crochet Kerchiefs" by Kely Robinson. Fun to make and fun to wear. It was perfect accessorie for my long hair during those hot days in Australia and Singapore. I just couldn't make it purple, thought beige is more coordinate friendly color.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Family day(s)
I expected I will be arranging flowers in a vase or on a foam piece but in the end it turned out to be a lot nicer. We arranged eucalyptus leaves on a styrofoam board, attached them with pins and placed everything into a metal frame. I didn't like the part of instructions of leaving the heads of the pins visible. Instead, I covered pins by laying subsequent leaves over them. I'm quite happy with the result, hope it is visible on the photo. We also did the foam arrangement which turned out quite nice as well since foam is in the ring shape.
My son also had fun exploring all shapes and sizes of slides, swings, jumping and biking facilities. He was seriously sweaty by the time I saw him after two and a half hours of fun.
And last Monday (a week ago) we visited the Hoensbroek castle. It was a holiday so we could all go together with friends and their kids. And this day was also reenactment of the medieval times which meant knights tournament and archery demonstrations. It was all geared mostly towards kids but I did have a lot of fun myself.