Last weekend...

I know. It was last weekend, and now it is already this weekend. But in the Christmas spirit, lets just pretend I had got around to this earlier....

Last weekend, as well as the usual knitting, there was much other stuff made in our house - here is just a little sample:

Elderflower wine

A consolidation of S's hobby - he swears that the goal is to put something in all these bottles but I am not so sure. In the meantime, I pretend it is some kind of installation art thing. You can still see the last stronghold of books & papers...not for long, I fear.

Bread. I am getting better (slowly)

Dinner - my version of fish & chips! It looked better when the fish was cooked, but I was too busy by then! My kitchen looks like something from the dark ages in this pic (I guess it kinda is).

And just to continue the time-lag theme, here is a picture from the weekend before! This is a brilliant place called The Apple, in Bristol. It is a boat (see the porthole?) which is why it is so blurry & dark, and it only serves cider. Not just any cider, but the best cider I have ever tasted. Except I was designated driver (see my water there!) so I only had a taste of other peoples. Now I need to go back -without a car! So - cool venue and fabulous cider - I reckon if you are ever in Bristol you really should check it out.

UK Swap

Well, I had planned to join the next SP swap, after having a little break but very much enjoying SP10 earlier in the year, but they are having a rest from hosting SP. Instead, I think I might join the UK swap - is not as prolonged as SP, and that might be a good thing for me - I feel perpetually flummoxed by the amount of stuff I seem to have to do. Despite this I seem to want to keep signing up to new things. Who knows why, clearly I am just mad.
So, UK Swap - basically, its for anyone who lives in the UK. It looks cool. You should join in. Also, you should go to their website and make a comment that I sent you - I could win a prize! Which is the important thing, really. Anyway, check it out - sign-ups open on Jan 7th.
On non-promotional topics, I took a heap of pics of all the things we made/were making on the weekend - I promise to post them soon.

Anemoisity

Despite the fact that I am meant to be knitting a cardy for me, and if I was a more generous person would be knitting more Christmas gifts, I have knitted an Anemoi mitten. I love these, and have done since I first saw the pattern. The cardy is going along nicely, but there is a large amount of stocking stitch and I am nervous of getting bored. I figure if I can do one piece per week, and intersperse that with a weeks worth of other knitting, then I mightn't tire of it too much. And so far it is working!

So this weeks knitting:

The colour choices might not be the best for bringing out the swirly pattern, but I love the colours in the Colinette Jitterbug Castagna, and these really are my kind of mittens! The pattern is there, but subtle, and kind of reminds me of woodsmoke drifting around. And, (I think) the colourway is kind of sophisticated, and definately something I would wear. I really loved knitting them, although I am not going to start the partner glove until I have finished the other front to the cardy.

I learned how to do a tubular cast on (Italian style), and learned that despite having done a fair bit of stranded knitting before, I am hopeless at using two colours frequently - I still don't have a great technique for holding both yarns and getting ok tension (which is why the first parts of this glove are less even than the later parts), but I am getting there.

Given the lack of sunshine when I am anywhere near the camera, I decided to get a shot as soon as there was a glimmer of sun today, so they aren't quite done and haven't been blocked and jiggled around yet, so the tension is still a bit uneven. But I do love that corrugated rib!

Blogiversary!

Oops - I even knew that this was on its way, but still I forgot - blogiversary was 23rd November! As it was so close to the old 100 posts thing, I think it took a bit of a back seat. And as it took me forever to get to the postbox to post out prizes, I'm not going to do anything to celebrate. Other than pat myself on the back for still doing this a year after. This would seem like a prime opportunity to be all reflective on the good blogging life, but you know what? I think I have said it all before. Except that it is always such a wonderful thing to meet great people through such interesting means! And that I agree with Anne, that whilst Ravelry is fantastic, and changed the way I look for new patterns, the blog is still what I come back to.

So in celebration - some knitting! The small hat is for a work friends premie baby, who is a few weeks old now (despite not yet reaching his due birth date), and the larger one is for another work friend whose baby will hopefully be fairly large in the head region (for my sake, not hers!). Or maybe it would be nicer to hope that he has a rapid growth spurt after his birth! Anyway, fun to knit.

Small hat: Kind of a Waffle Hat, knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

Larger hat: My improvised hat pattern, again in the old DBBC. Quick and easy!

Melbourne street art

I miss street art. In Melbourne, there was fantastic graffiti, stencils and posters. Many were pretty unnotable, some were beautiful, and a few were intelligent and insightful. One day, this turned up on the door of the abandoned dyeworks factory next door to our block of flats. I thought it was a good time to reminisce, given that Howard's reign is over (oh the joy of being able to write that!)

I know this probably makes absolutely no sense to almost anybody, but I love it. And its my blog. So there!