Public Art Brussels Style

Warning: Photo heavy post!

I loved Brussels. Every review I read and every person I spoke to warned me that it was a dull city. Maybe I am a dull person, but I thought this city was great. It was a city I could easily live in. There were big plazas and small laneways, a wide range of cuisine, everyone eating outside until the wee hours, fun and frolics without public drunkenness, a great pride in local produce, funky small boutiques and outlets, and not so many high street stores. It was clean, engaged the old with the new, and was generally a great place to be (except don't even think of driving around here - it is madness).

Anyway, there was quite a bit of public art, the most interesting of which took the form of many large, building sized murals.

And some was just odd...

We've been away...

Can you guess where?!

Funny Knitting Brains...

This is amazing....you really need to check it out. I don't care if you knit or not, it is fantastic!
http://neuroscienceart.com/

Enjoy!

Walnutty adventures continue....

An update on the walnut yarn:

As suspected, it is not chocolatey brown, but it is pretty (I think!). However, as an unremorsefully curious person, I have decided to continue on the quest for chocolatey brown, and have put one half in for another lot of dyeing. After reading some more, I saw that people were using vinegar (either as a wash prior to dyeing, in with the walnuts while 'brewing' to avoid mould, or after as a dye 'fixer'). I decided that I would give my yarn a vinegar/water bath prior to dyeing. Also, the second time I have soaked it for longer. I also used more uncracked walnuts which I think have given out more dye (it looks more blackey green in liquid form this time). Whatever happens, I think this current colour is nice. It had a woolwash wash to try and get some more of the sheep smell out and soften it up a bit, and very little colour ran from it, so I am pretty happy that it is in there fairly permanently.

ECF

Inspirations from nature...

Walnutty Adventures

Last weekend, we went to the Woodlands Festival at the Harcourt Arboretum. It was our first visit to the arboretum, and I thought it was great! The Woodlands Festival was smallish, but very good. Every stall holder that we talked to was enthusiastic and friendly, and clearly passionate about what they did (even the icecream man!).

There was a display of owls - this Barn Owl was really something gorgeous!

This gorgeous horse was demonstrating how they use horses to harvest timber in a less destructive manner than using machinery. She was fantastic!


There was a stall by a spinning, weaving & dying guild ( think from Oxfordshire, but I can't find anything about them online). There was a lovely lady who was spinning, and we talked about natural dying. They had a display of fungus dyed yarn which was incredible! Anyway, I bought a little handspun white wool (unbelievable price of two pounds per 100g), and set to work!

I wanted to dye without a mordant to start with. We have a walnut tree in our shared back garden so I collected some of the nuts that were on the ground (including some of the pieces from where squirrels had raided them), and soaked them for a while, boiled them for a while, and then popped the wool in. It sat overnight, and I pulled it out this morning. The walnuts are English (obviously), not black walnuts, and most of the instructions I found were for black walnuts. I have ended up with a lovely colour (I think), but not the 'rich chocolately brown' that others seem to have obtained. Anyway, a few shots of the process:
I have had lots of fun doing this - more than I thought I would! I have no idea what I will do with it yet, but I can see how dying could become very addictive!

Getting in early for ECF

I hope there is sunshine where you are this Friday.

Other People's Stuff

Call me nosey, but have always been pretty interested in Other People's Stuff. So here is a brief outline of some cool stuff I have seen blogwise lately:
Too Much Wool is making a Welsh quilt, and being a great blogger she is giving step by step details. Great site if you are even slightly interested in quilts (mum, I'm looking in your direction).
Brooklyn Tweed continues to be spectacular - check out this gorgeous thing, which is in this edition of Interweave Knits. I am thinking maybe a slightly smaller, more fitted version for me?
I love these, from Dragonfly, and I am definately going to have a go! I have recently bought some fabric to start making clothes again as I have no end of trouble finding things that I like in England (well, that I can afford anyway!). I promise to get some pics up soon - the fabric is gorgeous. Anyway, maybe the scraps could go into one of these bags.
Anyway, sunshine beckons!

More baby knitting

Remember the recent Hello yarns bonnet? Well, it has a friend!

My friend's twins arrived a little earlier than expected, and are still quite small, so I thought that these bonnets might be useful (also, it is still winter there so they might actually use them!). Again, it is knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, with a little bit of pink for the lovely baby girl. Again, I used my size 3 bamboo dpns, which were a gift from my Secret Pal. This time, I ran out of the contrast colour (pink), with only three inches left after the end row, so there is less of the garterstitch rows at the bottom (2 less). Also, I couldn't do the I-cord ties in pink, so instead of I-cord-ing (?) down one side and picking up stitches at the edge of the other side, I picked up stitches one row inside the edge, and then I-cord-ed (!!) in the main colour. It worked pretty well. Also, I had problems doing my initial figure-8 cast on, and ended up with a bit of a 'feature' garter stitch decoration at the top - I decided this looked kinda cool, and worked with the rest of the design. However, I sorted this out for the second one, and am firmly convinced of the merits of this technique. So I feel very smug knowing that I have a gift off for these lovely new babies before they are too old.


This weekend, we took a trip to the Cotswolds Wildlife Park. It was fantastic fun, although we couldn't see some of the animals due to the foot & mouth outbreak. Here are some pics:

Also, we harvested courgette (zucchini), peas (a few) beans (a few more, both dwarf & scarlett runners) and potatoes this weekend. Very satisfying. I hope your weekend was just as fun!

Unposted Purchases

While we were on holiday in Exmouth, Western Australia, my sister in law, my mum and I went down to the shops. There was a good newsagent with lots of stock, and mum and I found this:

(excuse the black blob on the side!) There were two copies, and we snaffled them (I would have bought more for secret pals and things, but there were only two! The sales lady was puzzled as to why I needed two, so maybe better I didn't buy more!) It is great. I love almost every pattern in there, it is lovely and glossy and delicious, and I enjoy looking through it every now and then. I haven't made anything from it yet, but I am hoping to start something soon. I am thinking of a cardigan, although many of the pictures of the cardigans have that nasty bulge between the buttons, so while they are fitted, they bow out between the buttons, not a look that I like much. But maybe I could work around that... anyway, highly recommended, and I suspect you might see more pics from it in the future.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

Another weekend, but this time something special........sunshine!
Yes, we finally had an (almost) rain free weekend, with only a bit of rain from 7pm last night to sometime this morning.

Last night we went to eat delicious sushi & drink sake & sup on miso, then went off to see a movie...the Simpsons movie. As a fairly die hard Simpson's fan, I was pretty disappointed. Its like someone who watched a few episodes wrote the movie. Thin on gags, poor continuation of character...not great. Excellent Mickey Mouse joke around 2/3 of the way through.

Anyway, a finished object...This is the beautiful baby hat from Purly Whites. Knitted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (I really should buy shares in her company, the amount I use), on aluminium 3.25mm dpns. They were horrible. I really need some bamboo or wood dpns of this size - I felt like I couldn't keep gauge (although it looks ok in the end), and it was slow going. But the pattern itself is intuitive, easy, and despite looking like it is going to fit a giant, ends up looking quite nice. I didn't do the 'stem' out the top (well, I did, but I didn't like it so I undid it!). So another thing (unwashed and unblocked as yet) put away for the coming baby influx.

Also, more progress on the black socks...

Which, in fact, has commenced. My dear friend Vincent and his lovely wife Andy had their two beautiful babies last week. They are very little and a bit early, but everyone is healthy and I would like to wish them all the best wishes. In the meantime, there is a bit of catch-up knitting to be done (they are both early and smaller than expected! Although if I wait long enough they will get to a more finished-object-friendly size...)

On a different note, some pics from tonight's meal...

Almost looks like summer, doesn't it!

ECF

I just love the colours & textures. Also, tomorrow is the weekend!!!

Can't Stand the Rain...

So much rain. At least we aren't flooded! The river near us is very very full, but we are a fair distance uphill, so we are ok. It does mean getting around the place a bit tricky.

Anyway, some things just seem to love all this water...aren't they great! Also, they are a bit bigger than they seem here - about as long as my forearm at the longest! And pretty tasty too.

Furious Political Thought

I know I usually keep this blog to knitting, our allotment, our holidays and general stuff. However, this is really starting to piss me off, and I just don't know what to do other than to let others know and ask for their help.

I grew up in Tasmania, which, for those who are unaware, is a smallish island off the south coast of Australia. There are around half a million people living there. It is known as a beautiful place, and the more I travel the more I realise that it really is spectacular. I know that everyone thinks that the place they come from is special, but Tasmania is unique in its natural beauty, and in the way of life that people continue to enjoy.

We grew up in the north, living along next to the Tamar river. Since I grew up, this has become a major wine production area. The river is a large estuary, and an important nursery ground for many fish and haven for all sorts of marine wildlife. When I was young, it was a bit risky to swim in the river. Since then, the river has been cleaned up in a number of ways and there are now seals, dolphins, pelicans, waterbirds and other visitors to the area.
So yep, I guess you get it. It is pretty special, to me and to others.

However, there is plans to build a pulp mill on this river, at one of the most beautiful parts. The local community is very much against this. The process for approval seems rife with loopholes and corruption. The mill will create all sorts of problems for the area. There are other places in Tasmania and Australia that want this mill in their community. It will impact on many aspects of the local environment, and provide further reasons to chop down our trees for chipping and pulp (a separate but related issue). Here are some links for further info about the company Gunns, and on the proposed mill (and some pictures of what the Tamar looks like), and from the Wilderness society.

I don't want to rave on too much, but it seems to me that this is another example of another small and unique part of the world being destroyed for commercial gain. While we are all looking at our own carbon footprint, and the wider ramifications of global warming, small communities struggle to maintain important local environments and in some cases need our wider support. If you think you would like to support our fight against a pulp mill in this area, there are details of who to contact and people to email here. The Wilderness society are another good source of information (http://www.wilderness.org.au/).

Thanks for reading. I am sorry I don't have any photos of this area at hand, but I will try to get some up soon.


You can find out more about Tasmania here.

Treats! More Treats!

Look - a final parcel from my great unsecret pal, Carol:


My camera really can't handle the yarn - the bit that looks blue is a deep electric violet colour, and the muddy colour here is a purpley brown. The yarn is amazing - I have no idea what it will knit up like! Thanks Carol - you have been such a great Secret Pal!
Also, a new WIP - I am getting good at having more than one thing on the go at once (especially little things!), although I feel the need to get a larger project on the needles.....

ECF

I can't take the credit - these are pics of New Zealand, courtesy of Simon from our recent trip. A heavenly place. Happy Friday!

WIC (Work in Completion)

Completed Hello Yarn bonnet in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Worked out pretty good, although clearly Lamby has a slightly unbaby shaped head (I think it is the ears), but you get the idea! The stripes had a bit of jog on one side, but not so much that it ruins it, or that non-knitters would really notice, to be honest. I just love how this yarn knits up. I know it is a bit ubiquitous, but these colours really appeal to me. And it used just a tiny bit of each ball! Plenty for more knits. Also, some pics of our holiday. As you can see, we were pretty enamoured of the New Forest ponies!

Uncompetitive Knitters!

Hey - well, after a flood of entries (two!!!), I have completed some complex calculations, and the winner is...Anne! Which is cool, cause I haven't ever heard from Anne before, and (one of) the points of the blog is to meet people. So Anne - I will be in touch. If you care to know, I now have 16 different yarns in my collection - SP10 gave me an increase of around 50%!! Well, more if you count the stuff I bought each time I went to buy stuff for my pal (he he!).
So thanks for reading - maybe the celebrations for 2000 hits will be more thrilling. Who knows. In the meantime, I have exciting weekend adventure photos to come...

WIPs

Look - actual knitting!

The first bit is both very exciting and very boring! The exciting bit is that Simon actually asked me to knit him something! He wanted plain, black socks. Plain plain plain. So I bought some black Regia sock yarn, found a nice plain pattern, and have surprised myself how much fun it has been. They are knit on 2.00mm dpns, which is always a bit like knitting on toothpicks, but it has knitted up beautifully. Even Simon thinks they look good! I just hope they will stay up (his biggest criteria) - I think I might knit one and get him to wear it a bit before starting the other, to see if it needs more rib on the leg. Anyway, I promise that the yarn is the blackest of black yarns, it just was a sunny (yes, actually sunny!) day.

And this is a partially finished Hello Yarns top-down bonnet, knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. It is just quick knitting, as there is a whole flotilla of babies due in the next 12 months and I want to be ready! It is nearly done - finished pics coming soon.

A competition...

So, as previously warned, to celebrate that 1000 hits have been registered to my humble little blog, I give you....a competition! This seems to be blog etiquette, so here goes...
If you ever read my SP10 questionnaire, you will know that at the time I completed it, I said that I didn't really have a stash. If you don't have a stash, and you think you might like one, I suggest joining in SP11 - somehow I now have a stash! It is fantastic, only my brain hasn't adjusted and I still seem to want to buy yarn specifically for projects, rather than working with what I have. Ah well.
So, the competition is this: If you can guess how many different yarns I have, you could win a little treat! Nothing huge, but something. I haven't decided yet, but I promise it will be something knitty and maybe also tasty. If you aren't a knitty reader, I reckon I could go tasty only (I know there are a few of you!).
Now, by different yarns I will include (a) different brands of yarn and (b) different colours of yarn, but not individual balls (cause some are bits and some are not wound from hanks). So, for example, I have two colours of some German wool that I lost the label from (2 balls of one colour and 1 of another) - this would count as two.
Suddenly this is sounding much more complex than intended! ANyway, if you want to play, just leave a comment and your guess. Closest guess wins, and if there are two or more that picked, then I will get Simon to draw a name out of a hat (he has a good hat for this kind of thing).
Happy 1000 hits! I really enjoy writing this blog, and it is nice to get comments and hear that people read it.

PS: Oops, forgot to say until when...lets say, next Saturday 14th.