1960s Aldermaston, 1970s Vietnam ...

....1980s Greenham Common, 1990s Poll Tax demos, 2002 UK anti war protest ...

What links these ... well the demograph of a group of knitters on a teeny tiny site (sorry Let's Knit but you are not big in internet terms) who are supporting the publication of knitting patterns. Yes ... knitting patterns.

Long story - short; a designer creates some knitting patterns based on a book (Beatrix Potter ... is this out of copyright - I don't know), he then sells these patterns to a magazine which subsequently closes. Desperate knitters pay silly amounts for copies on EBay. OK we are still in the world of knitting, despite how this sounds. A knitter, promoting "family values" and "traditional childhood" uploads the patterns on to a website. Next thing the designer is threatening legal action. Morever he goads his groupies with the following speech

“I would like to thank all of you who wrote to complain to Margaret Allcock of cabbagepatchtreasures, who was illegally offering free downloads of my copyrighted patterns. It must have done the trick because her website has been revamped today and my patterns have been removed. Yesterday Mrs Allcock wrote to one of my ‘undercover agents’ to say that over 70 members of Ravelry had downloaded the patterns, but I really hope this isn’t true and that she was simply making mischief because, in a world full of people ripping off and profiting from my work, it’s good for me to know that I can rely on my Ravelryettes to protect my rights and act ethically ….. as you have always done. I’m as frustrated as you are that many of my licensed character patterns are no longer available, but there are plans afoot to see if some can be reissued next year and I will post any news of this on my website. Again, I send my heartfelt thanks to all my loyal Raveryettes. More power to the ‘Ettes!”

I'm sorry ... did he really call his groupies Raveryettes/Ravelryettes? Do these women not mind being an ette????

Back to my opener ... the knitters supporting Margaret Allcock are from the generations who stood up and were counted when things mattered ... they are vociferous in their support of a person who felt she was merely making "family friendly" patterns, out of print and out of date, available to those not able or willing to pay eBay prices. None of them would ever have tolerated being an "Ette".

Sending hugs and love

xxx xxx

Knit, knit, forget the stress

Yesterday I took the day off - didn't knit, not one stitch.

I did play with my yarn, play with my patterns, print out new patterns and buy more yarn on ebay (honestly if I could source illegal drugs on there instead of yarn I'd probably spend less - well way less actually as I'm quite happy with the legal drug that is alcohol, but what I mean is I think yarn buying is way way way more addictive!!) but I didn't knit.

Today I had a whole day with MadMother, so tonight the knitting demon is back ... it whispers in my ear " knit, knit, forget the stress ... faster, faster, forget the stress .... more, more ..." well, you get the picture.

She had fallen over again, so today she turned up with a black eye (not that is necessarily a sign of madness, more of which in a moment) a badly cut forehead and bruising to her cheek. Honestly people have come out of boxing with Mohammed Ali or Smoking Joe and looked better. I worry, but as yet she wont have help, won't move closer and is stubborn as hell. "Knit knit ...."

As for the black eye comment, I forgot to say that last week, during the need to push the knitting beyond human endurance, I felt the need to pay lip service to the housework. So, vacuum cleaner in one hand, damp kitchen towel in another, and knitting sitting in the chair calling out to me like a sad baby ..." mommy come back" I was supercharged with the cleaner, then using my foot to press the button to rewind the power cable into the cleaner, whilst at the same time just mopping up a blob on the floor (probably coffee) the plug maliciously thwacked me - extremely hard - on the eye socket. One of the prongs cut the corner of the eye, whilst the rest of the plug gave me a lump and a technicolour bruise that would out do those adorning hardened scrappers! As you do, I kicked the cleaner ... didn't help much!

Back to MM, she was ok today, except for the fact that she couldn't find anything she wanted to buy while we were at the shops. So, the conversation went something along the lines of:

"Bread" "Got it", "Vegetables" "Got plenty", "Cat food" "plenty", "Cleaning materials" "plenty" ... and so on.

However, the minute I got her home she was desperate for a new loo brush (True I didn't mention that one), a long life light bulb (ditto) and a fuse for a plug .... Oh for goodness sake, just shoot me.

Actually, today was really a good day, and she wasn't too repetitive ... so the stress could be worse. However, having said that, the sock I am knitting tonight is sitting on the sofa behind me calling me .... "Come back, we can work together on your stress, pick me up, knit me ... feel the softness of the yarn" So, much as I love you all ... I'm off to sit with my knitting - we need each other!

Wild eyed maniac with twitching fingers .....

... seeks kind and loving nest, built out of alpaca, cashmere, silk and qiviut with wine fridge in corner. Well, that shows what a high maintenance dreamer I am!!

On the left is a slightly aging, much beloved sweater, belonging to DD. She has worn it almost to death and, as it was a shop purchased item from several years ago, there is no chance of buying a replacement. So ... under the guise of bringing it home with me for some TLC (sewing in fraying edges, shaving off lovely acrylic pilling) I decided to use the pattern and create a replica ... albeit not in lovely crispy acrylic, but in soft dreamy DB alpaca and silk DK, sadly long discontinued. Greater love has no mother than to give up some of her most beloved stash ... but, selflessly I used the raspberry, worked a whole lot of maths and ... voila ...

We have a copy. Now this is about to be blocked, so it's not quite perfect, but honestly I'm so proud of myself I'd wet my pants if I didn't show you all.

What do you think? I'm thrilled!

So that is part of her Christmas presents sorted.

On to the other gift knitting ... in this past week I have (as well as above labour of love) knitted four adult scarves (three of which are fully completed, with fringes and weaving in of ends; one still requires fringing ....

Two in pink purple Mille Colori and two in multi Mille Colori ....

I have enough yarn for four more ... I think however my brain has decided that's enough for a few days ... moving on ....

I then knitted two soft, funky, fluffy (ok they are acrylic) scarves for the maniac twins, and am contemplating some kind of matching hat thing ....

I am so proud of the twins ... they have just had a week's holiday and insisted on wearing the jackets I knitted them for their birthday all five days ... so my last photos will be them in their jackets and perhaps a spooky one or two if I can squeeze them on.

Meanwhile, I also finished a pair of socks, then started on another; this time I am using Dream In Colour Smooshy and again I think I could easily share a bed with this yarn .... it is gorgeous.

So if you have noticed a wee gap in my blogging ... forgive me, my fingers have been flying, and my needles sparking ... the keyboard was having a well deserved rest!







ps ... the dream sounds good though!

Love hugs and may your needles glide through your projects.
xx

Gardens, twins and sunshine

Well, this is the back of the house, newly painted by ourselves, taken by photographer extraordinaire (that's me, OK) in the sunshine this afternoon. I'm standing on the far side of the little low wall between the tamed garden and the field ... in olden days that little low wall was called a haha - in olden days that little low wall wasn't built, we built it not so many years ago, but hey ... ha ha it's a wall! I was gardening all day, but needed a break from tugging up nettles and brambles ... so out came the camera!


And here is DH, strimming the ditch, so that the bloody weeds won't keep blowing into the garden ... Give a man a machine that goes broom broom, operates on petrol and oil and he will be happy and content for hours!!! I can;t work out why they call an oil and petrol mix 2 stroke, but I'm sure there is a bloke joke in there somewhere.

I'm sure he thinks he is clearing brush in some jungle some place exotic ... meanwhile ....




This is the view of hubby, happily wielding the strimmer ... it's man and machine against nature ... although it's not really too much like jungle out there!!! No tigers, no lions, no alligators or crocs, no monkeys, parakeets ... well you get the picture - just a man, a strimmer, weeds and some sugar beet as backdrop.


Meanwhile I'm up to scarf no 4; 3 are competely knitted with ends sewn in - I just have to fringe, whilst the 4th is still in production. I definitely have 7 scarves on my list for Christmas mini gifts, although there will definitely be a couple of smaller ones for the twins at the end.

And here are the twins, rabbit and tiger, smiling for the camera ...

When this was taken they didn't need scarves .. but give it a month or two!!!


So, here I am with hands bloodied and blistered from gardening, arms aching and fingers numb from knitting, and heart full and happy from a couple of good days.

Cooking has been fun too ... dinner tonight was lamb steaks with portobellini mushrooms with a mushroom/cream cheese stuffing and a madeira sauce, with roasted italian vegetables and baked sweet potato; whilst the naughty sweet stuff was almond and sun dried cherry flapjacks. I really need to garden more ...!!!

I think tomorrow I must get up early and run for at least 12 hours!

Love and hugs
xxx

A cold, yoyo yarn, yoyo the cat and hoops!

Let me tell you a wee sad story; this time last year my daughter's beautiful cat, Truffle, died. He (and she) fought a long brave battle with his kidney failure, but in the end we had to kiss him goodbye.

I cannot tell you how we have grieved and mourned, but on Sunday these two tiny kittens (the picture makes them look much bigger than they are) became adopted by my DD. They had been found, worm infested and flea ridden with two other cats, one of which was dead. A kind soul associated with an animal charity took them in, and made them better. Now they are about 10 weeks old and gorgeous. They are a colour that is somewhere between faded apricot/rose and ivory.

The one looking at the camera (YoYo) is a gorgeous shy girl, while her brother is a bounding ball of excitement (and called Hoops). So, as DD was at work on Monday, I had to drive for an hour (and a bit) to her house, to kitten sit! Boy do these little monkeys like knitting. They love the needles, they love my arms moving, they love the yarn, and they love the ball band. I laughed more than I have done for ages - I very nearly stole them! Watch out, I may yet.

Anyway, back to my knitting of the past few days ... I have had a cold (only a girl cold, but still rubbish). So I knitted and knitted. I have finished my recycle jumper, but couldn't sew it up (my eyes have been streaming) and my icecream sweater is gorgeous, but I needed something to take my mind off the continual sneezing and eye watering.

So, for my second ever pair of socks, I fall in love with the Slip Stitch Delight pattern, (Thanks Terry L Ross) and decide I will knit them for my DD as a wee gift at Christmas. I decided I was knitting this with classic rib top (cuff) and not with fancy X top; I adore the mock tweed rib, which is gorgeous. However I was more than a bit dismayed at the poor quality of the Noro K sock yarn, which is a bit like a yo-yo dieter -veering alarmingly from way too thin, then ok, then way too chunky, back to way too thin, etc, etc. The colour is gorgeous … but don’t know whether this is just a duff skein or whether this is typical of the sock weight yarn (although I have shared these feelings with another user who is suffering the same weight issues!).

Once they were finished I took a snap and decided I am a better knitter than photographer … the socks look weird in photo and ok in reality .. perhaps it is being short … I can't get the perspective right.

Then I actually decided to reinforce one part of first sock with duplicate stitch, as yarn went almost invisibly thin on one part of sole and I know it would wear out in a heart beat. :( I cannot believe I am now pre-darning socks.

As a quick win I moved on to the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf by Karen Baumer, which I am knitting in Lang's Mille Colori. I have to say this yarn is gorgeous … having just finished the socks in Noro K sock yarn where, quite frankly, the yarn was all over the place in thickness, this yarn is beautiful and, consequently, the scarf is going to be beautiful. Despite being all knit stich (and I DO get bored VERY EASILY) I have mentally ordered several more scarves from myself as Christmas gifts … well, perhaps the diagonal knitting will stop me from hanging myself with 50% wool/50% acrylic.

I did see something similar in the Per Una range in Marks and Spencers at £25 … YES that’s £25!!! and that was 100% acrylic or poly. This will take 2 skeins and work out at £6 ish. (shop around and if you can't find it for that price email me and I will give you the name of my source.

Wherever you are and whatever you are knitting, I hope a laugh or two bounds into your life to make you smile.

Sending hugs
x

A sugar rush

I recognise the signs when I am stressed; I want to cook or knit or drink wine, or do all three (which in the past has led to some pretty inventive cooking - like the raglan spaghetti sweater in red wine*!)

Today we did gardening and gardening and gardening, when suddenly I got the urge to dash inside and cook brownies and teacake. Now I only do cake/dessert cooking once every decade or so, usually when I find out I am pregnant or redundant or about to remarry. None of those apply (fingers crossed), but still the urge for bakery was fierce.

The brownies are deep, dark and decadant; seriously heavy cocoa content, really soft, chewy, thick and deep deep chocolate, with chocolate chunks and dashed with chopped pecans, almonds and brazils. The teacake has sultanas, raisins, prunes, apricots and pecan. I now have a sweetly swollen tummy curve from the trialing, tasting and testing. If I am not to swell up like a balloon I need to find something hugely complex to knit. The wine was Blossom Hill, a californian soft red and dinner was slow braised lamb, with flageolet beans and small cherry tomatoes.

Tomorrow I know that, as all tomorrows shall be, I shall be good and eat nothing but salad, run miles, exercise hard and only drink water! Except that tomorrow is Wednesday, which is mad mother day, so perhaps tomorrow will start on Thursday!

Is the love I gave in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

So tell that someone that you love
Just what you're thinking of
If tomorrow never comes

Possibly

And so, after a great couple of days away, it is back to the grind of trying to catch up with everything. We finally finished painting the outside of the house last week ... and it was a lot of house.

However, we are late with everything this year: when hubby put his back out for 4 weeks it put everything on hold. So it is now time to return to trimming the laurel hedge, and there are miles of it... and the garden is in serious need of some TLC as the weeds are the bully in the playground and threatening the gentle pretty plants. So I am about to wage war on bindweed and nettles, thistles and dandelions, as well as speedwell, daisies, rose bay willow herb and buttercup. "Wild flowers" sound far more attractive when they are in a wild place ... in my garden they are just a huge nuisance!

I won't however do weedkiller ... so I am forever disturbing a surprised frog or toad as I scoop up leaves and pull up weeds. Occasionally a newt will peer at me, I am sure it will be praying I am not a predator (I'm not!) before I pick it up and move it closer to the pond.

I finished knitting the recycled sweater tonight ... tomorrow may be a "finish off" day ... or it may well be a "cast on and hang the sewing" day. I have to start planning what I should be doing, rather than letting my excitement persuade me into knitting something that may not help the Christmas gift situation.

Here I want to say that despite the fear that hubby's pension pot may have dissolved into a puddle of mud; despite the fact I am 200+ miles away from my twins, son and Dil; despite the fact that mad mother is not going to get better, and despite the fact that I miss my daughter immensely and fear she is working too hard; despite all those things I feel happier tonight.

I think it is the belief in possibilities. There is a possibility I will meet up with DD for a girly morning on Sunday; there is a possibility I may see the twins at the end of the month, sometime over half term; there is the possibility that the worst of the dreadful stockmarket may have happened and this could at least level out; and finally, even though mad mother is not going to get better, she was happy on the phone tonight and possibly she will be happy tomorrow.

Meanwhile, decision made, I think tomorrow WILL be a cast on day!

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won't be afraid
No I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me