Barbie Doll Futility

Squeeee!!!

2011-09-12T15:02:00.000+01:00

Way back last autumn, I entered a competition with Knitting Magazine to design a scarf. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but although I wasn't the winner or either runner up, I was told that my design had been successful and would be published in a book this autumn. The book is now out, and my copy arrived the other day. Imagine my delight when I looked at my pattern page and saw my name! I'll even be getting my scarf back! Here are some photos of the book:

Photos, finally!

2011-09-08T10:23:00.000+01:00

I finally took some photos of my Spriteling, they're still not great as I had to do them on my own, maybe one day I'll be able to get some better ones but for now these will have to do!

Also, here are some photos of my finished silk and mohair scarf, made from a kit bought from Artisan Yarns at Knit Nation 2010. The yarns are Colinette Tao and Colinette Parisienne, the pattern is really simple but very effective with the way the yarns are dyed.

My new camera

2011-09-06T13:33:00.000+01:00

I recently bought a new camera, as the existing ones aren't capable of the things I want to do. The new one is also a Fujifilm, but this time it's an HS 20 EXR "bridge" camera. I haven't come close to fully exploring everything it can do yet, but so far I love it.

Stephen West's Earth and Sky

2011-09-02T11:22:00.001+01:00

Now that the KAL is over, I can publicly post the photos of my finished shawl without it being a spoiler, so here they are. It's called Earth and Sky, but there's not much of that in my shawl! More like Berries and Cream, I think. I made the smallest size, the miles stocking stitch involved in the bigger versions was rather offputting!

Symetrie hat

2011-08-17T14:32:00.001+01:00

Here is my finished Symetrie hat, I finished the knitting on Saturday, didn't get round to blocking it until Monday and it was dry this morning. I love this pattern, so easy but the way the yarn is dyed really shows up well.

Current projects

2011-08-07T20:08:00.001+01:00

Or some of them, anyway!

The story here is that Wollmeise shuts up shop for the month of August, so a few people on the Ravelry Wollmeiseholics Anonymous group decided to set up some KALs under the heading "Wollmeise Withdrawal Madness Month", and I've decided to join in with some of them. We have two months from 1 August to 30 September to finish our projects, so in the spirit of biting off more than I can chew I've signed up for the General Shawl KAL, the Kitchen Sink KAL (for everything that isn't a garment, shawl or socks), the General Sock KAL and the Honeybee Cardigan KAL.

For the shawl KAL, I've decided to double it up with the Stephen West "Earth & Sky" mystery shawl KAL, which is supposed to be all done by the end of August so I'm working on the basis that once that's over I'll have more time for the others. It uses three colours, mine are Wollmeise 100% in Natur, Daisy and Himbeere.

This is all I'm going to show here until the KAL is over, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you do want to see how it progresses my Ravelry project page is here.

The other KALs aren't mysteries, so I can show you those. The only one I've started apart from the Westknits one is Symetrie by Woolly Wormhead, and this is more or less how it looks now (I've actually got several more rows done):

This is Wollmeise 100% in Rattenscharf.

The others, which I haven't cast on yet, are Nasturtium socks which I'll do in a bright orange Wollmeise twin, and Honeybee cardigan - I'll make the cropped version in Wollmeise 100% in red. I'll add photos of these when I get started on them.

Some other recent presents

2011-08-07T19:53:00.001+01:00

Some other presents I've made this year. Firstly, a Hitchhiker in Wollmeise 100%, colourway Chim Chim Chimney, for my sister's birthday:

And here is a little teddy I made for my two-year-old nephew's birthday:

The pattern is from Val Pierce's "Twenty to Make: Knitted Bears", but I changed the letter on the front from a B to a D as that's my nephew's initial.

Wire crochet

2011-08-07T19:43:00.002+01:00

For my mother's birthday present this year, I decided to try something different. I thought I'd try making a crocheted wire necklace, from this pattern by Leigh Manson-Brown. It took a couple of attempts to get the right gauge, for some reason my tension is always off when I crochet, and frogging wire proved to be an interesting experience! When I got it right, though, I was very pleased with the result and I'm sure I'll make more of these.

Spriteling

2011-08-07T19:36:00.001+01:00

Having just mentioned my Spriteling, I thought I'd post the progress photos, while I wait for good enough weather and a helper to take a proper photo of the finished shawl.

This was clue 1:

After finishing clue 2:

After clue 3:

After the fourth and final clue, before blocking:

While blocking:

The last picture is probably the truest to colour, the others were taken in all sorts of strange lighting conditions because I didn't want to delay starting the next clue just for the sake of taking photos!

Shawl pins

2011-08-07T19:25:00.001+01:00

As I was participating in the Soctopus Mystery Shawl Knit-Along for Knit Nation, and had talked my mother and sister into doing likewise, I wanted to make us some lightweight shawl pins to wear with them. The photos of my finished Spriteling will follow when I finally manage to get some good ones taken, but for now, here are the shawl pins.

Mine:

My mother's:

My sister's:

Adventures in cardmaking

2011-08-07T19:19:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd post some of my cardmaking experiments from the last year or so.

This first one is a good luck card for a friend who was going to university last September:

Sister-in-law's birthday card:

Sister's birthday card:

Mother's birthday card:

Father's birthday card:

And all three brothers' birthday cards:

Look what I just got!

2011-08-05T14:35:00.003+01:00

My beginners handspinning kit arrived today, containing a top whorl Ashford drop spindle, a book on spinning and 100g of ready to spin merino. I ordered this because try as I might, I just couldn't find my old drop spindle, and I want to get started spinning again. I can't wait to try spinning merino, it'll be such a change from the wiry, sheep-dip scented Scottish Blackface we used to use!

The other bits are a copy of Ashford's spinning magazine and their catalogue, as if I needed more encouragement to spend money!

Last Christmas

2011-08-05T13:42:00.001+01:00

"I gave you my heart" - sorry, couldn't resist! Actually, although I should really be thinking about knitting for next Christmas, I thought I'd post the makings from last year rather late.

For my mother, I made a scarf from Rico CanCan - I'm pleased with the result, but I wish I'd looked for tutorials on YouTube on knitting with this stuff BEFORE I started, there might have been less swearing as a result! I think when I make another one of these, I'll make it shorter and wider as the weight of the ruffles makes it stretch a lot.

For my sister, I made a scarf from Rico Pompon, I used a backward loop cast on and made it one bobble wider than the pattern suggested. For future attempts, I need to find a stretchier cast off so it doesn't bunch up at the end.

I ran out of time for any other knitting (disorganised as usual), but did quite a bit of baking. I made a Christmas cake at the beginning of November because the recipe said it would keep for two months. Poured a couple of tablespoons of brandy over it every two weeks, then iced it just before Christmas. Considering we only just finished eating it last week, I'd say two months is a very conservative estimate of how long it will keep!

I also made my own mincemeat, which I used to make mince pies and a "last minute" microwaved Xmas pud. The pudding was the nicest I've ever had, though I'm sure I shouldn't say so myself, because it was much lighter than others I've eaten. I even made my own brandy butter to go with it, as well.

Knit Nation - the spoils

2011-08-04T15:41:00.004+01:00

Here is my entire haul of goodies from Knit Nation:

At the back is a load of patterns from The Bothered Owl and Natural Dye Studios, some free magazines from Twisted Angle, all three of Ysolda’s books, Jeanette Sloan’s book and Best in Show (also pre-ordered the cat version). On the far left are some bags of fibre and some badges from John Arbon and a bag kit from Debonnaire. There’s more fibre at the front, this time from Krafty Koala. The yarn all piled up all over the sofa includes my lovely bingo prize, Habu mohair, four skeins of Wollmeise lace, three skeins each of WM twin and 100%, the yarn from the London in Stitches set, three skeins of different gorgeousness from Artisan Yarns, ten balls of Camelot from the Little Knitting Company in some lovely new colours, three skeins of Knit Global sock, four skeins of silk from NDS and ten balls of Papiro from LKC. On the far right and mostly hidden under everything else are several project bags acquired over the weekend. It looks pretty obscene laid out like this, but I’d been saving for ages and this was my big treat for the year! And it’s got to keep me going for two years this time, so… And anyway, for once I actually have patterns in mind for most of this, honest! The yarn is shown below in more detail.

This is Habu's mohair/silk, for Cocoknits' Maria:

Mohair from Artisan Yarns, came as a kit with a cowl pattern:

Silk from Artisan Yarns, this is destined to be Nightsongs:

Artisan Yarns' Teifi Dance, which is likely to become a Damson:

Two skeins each in two different colours of The Natural Dye Studio's Precious silk lace, which will be the patterns shown with the skeins:

Knit Global sock yarn, which is intended for a stole pattern from Jeanette Sloan's Collection One:

The Little Knitting Company's Papiro, for a pretty scoop neck top:

LKC's Camelot, in red and purple, which I haven't quite decided what they'll be yet:

Yet another skein of Wollmeise lace, this time picked up on impulse on the Sunday, in Schwarz:

I have this crazy idea in my head of it being a Shipwreck shawl with red beads, but I know it would drive me insane to knit in black laceweight - what am I thinking?!!

This is the Knitting Goddess "A Path Through London" from the London in Stitches set:

Viola sock in Ghost, part of the bingo prize donated by Loop:

Wollmeise 100% in Campari Piccolo, bingo prize again:

Dye For Yarn in Nightmare of the Blue Sea, also from the bingo prize:

Polyester cord from the Debonnaire bag kit, it's for a string bag type shopping bag:

So, that was my adventures at Knit Nation! Now I only have to knit all this stuff...

Knit Nation - Sunday

2011-08-04T15:04:00.002+01:00

Having fortified ourselves for the day ahead with the superb buffet breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to Imperial College with the intention of doing all the shopping we hadn't been able to do previously. In my case, that was rather a lot! Here are some photos of the Marketplace.

Debonnaire:

The Natural Dye Studio:

Blacker Designs:

Sparkleduck:

Twisted Angle:

Collins & Brown (Best in Show):

Easyknits:

Sweet Clement:

Loop:

The Bothered Owl:

Babylonglegs:

John Arbon:

GMC Publications:

We also had our photo taken at Ysolda's photobooth:

And had afternoon tea in the Knit-Tea Salon:

We then dragged our many purchases home to start packing for the early start on the Monday morning.

Knit Nation - Saturday

2011-08-04T14:45:00.001+01:00

We didn't actually spend much (any) time at Knit Nation during the day, due to other commitments such as seeing a show ("Wicked", which was excellent) and shopping elsewhere.

The elsewhere shopping was mainly Hobbycraft near my sister's flat, they had an offer on kits so I couldn't resist the opportunity to try some new crafts:

Soap, candle and lace making will all be making an appearance in my future! The stack of little boxes will do very nicely for jewellery findings and so on.

The only visit to KN during the day was a quick stop to deliver and collect swap parcels - this was arranged via Ravelry for members of the Knit Love Club sock club. My parcel for my swapee included this bookmark and a set of stitch markers I made myself.

I was given a parcel by a lovely lady called Mel, which included some very pretty yarn she'd dyed herself.

That night, we went to the KN bingo party in aid of Refuge. I'd never played bingo before, but somehow I managed to win a prize!

So, at the end of a very long and busy day, we made our way to our posh hotel (below) where we were staying for the night, ate sandwiches purchased at Earl's Court tube station, and collapsed into bed.

Knit Nation - Friday

2011-08-04T14:29:00.001+01:00

I've been dithering about what to post first, as so much has built up in the almost year since I last posted, so I've finally decided to do the most recent thing first and then go back and do the rest!

The most recent thing was Knit Nation in July. I went for the whole weekend with my mother and sister. On the Friday, while they did Franklin Habit's photography class (I wasn't quick enough to book myself on that one as well) I did a class with Elise Duvekot (author of "Knit One Below: One Stitch Many Fabrics") called Columns of Cables with Knit One Below. Here is my little swatch that I made during the class:

On the Friday evening, the Marketplace was opened for a preview for students. I dived into the Wollmeise related scrum at the Loop stand without stopping to think whether it was a good idea or not - it turned out not to be! I adore Wollmeise but if I had my time again I think I'd wait until near the end of the preview when it would have hopefully died down a bit, and just picked through whatever was left. I did manage to get several colours that I've wanted for ages, though, so it was worth it!

Lace in Silberdistel:

Lace in Strohblume:

Lace in 0-Rh-Negative:

100% Merino Superwash in Daisy:

100% in Mauseballett:

100% in Raku Regenbogen:

Twin (80/20 Merino/Nylon) in Wichtelwaltzer:

80/20 in Skandal Um Rosi:

80/20 in Sultan:

I also collected my pre-ordered London in Stitches set from The Bothered Owl:

And I couldn't resist their project bag made from a Doctor Who themed fabric, and the One Hand Knits pattern "Time And Relative Dimension In Socks" to go with it!

That was all I had the energy for that evening, the Wollmeise stampede rather took it out of me!

Back at last!

2011-07-28T18:32:00.000+01:00

I have a new laptop!

This means that I can actually blog properly again! Yay! Over the next few days I'll be updating with all the stuff I've been up to since I last posted.

Lace loom

2010-09-09T14:11:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd post a bit of an explanation of the lace loom I got at Knit Nation. This is the model I have, and here is a video explaining how it works.

I haven't used it yet, too many other projects on the go, but I've got some ideas for it and will post them here when I get to them!

Glows

2010-09-03T15:09:00.004+01:00

This is my first project using yarn acquired at Knit Nation. The pattern is Glows by Laris Designs and the yarn is 100% Merino Superwash from Wollmeise in Johannisbeer und Brennessel, which translates as Redcurrant and Stinging Nettle. Being a fine yarn on small needles, with lots of cables etc, it's quite a fiddly project, but I'm really enjoying it anyway. It's also the first time I've worked from a chart rather than a written pattern, which is interesting to say the least!

Debbie Bliss garter stitch jacket

2010-08-27T20:51:00.002+01:00

Here is a photo of a recently finished project made for a friend's premature baby girl. The pattern is by Debbie Bliss and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino which is gorgeous and soft and perfect for delicate skin. Being so tiny and simple, it was really quick to knit.

I also made this card to send with it, which is my second attempt at cardmaking.

Knit Nation

2010-08-18T14:23:00.003+01:00

The last weekend in July was the weekend of Knit Nation in London. I went along on the Saturday with my sister, and we had a great time. I wish I'd known how brilliant it was going to be as I would have saved up and gone for longer! The marketplace was amazing, every single stall had something gorgeous on it and restraining myself from buying (or trying to buy - not enough money to actually do it!) everything was so hard! My favourite stall was Rohrspatz & Wollmeise (below) just because it looked so beautiful!

As soon as we saw the wall of colours, we had to make a beeline for it. The yarn isn't cheap, but when we realised the yardage per 150g skein was immense, it was very easy to convince ourselves to get some. The gorgeous projects on display around the booth, which were all made with one skein or less, helped make the decision! The shawls at the front are by Arlene's World of Lace, and the gloves on top of the shelves are by Laris Designs.

Below is the haul of goodies I came away with. Not bad considering we were only there for about two hours or so! Left to right, back: Fashion Flats for designing clothes, lace loom (both from Purlescence), Kumihimo discs and book (can't even remember the name of the stall that came from!), "Vintage Gifts to Knit" by Susan Crawford (signed). Slightly chaotic pile of yarn in the middle, left to right: five balls each of Little Knitting Company Camelot in white and pink, pale pink shawl kit from Artisan Yarns, black and silver shawl kit from Be Sweet, six balls of Be Sweet Extra Fine Boucle Mohair in red, orange, purple and lime, more shawl kits from Artisan (purple and red ones), and three gorgeous skeins of Wollmeise in mostly red based colours. There are also a bunch of extra bits for my Denise interchangeable needles on the far right. Phew! It's going to take me ages to get through that little lot!

Assignment 4

2009-12-09T19:05:00.000Z

The brief for Assignment 4:

"Capture and share at least two images demonstrating your ability to control depth of field to achieve desired photographic effects.

The important point is that you should have a go at testing the theory and practice controlling depth of field as appropriate in your own images. You may wish to try some of these ideas:Close-up macro shots showing extremely narrow depths of field to pleasing effect.

Portrait or still-life shots with very narrow depths of field (it is fashionable in portrait photography to have, say, just the eyes in focus and the hair out of focus. This requires a large aperture.

Landscape shots where you have maximised depth of field.

Sports action or wildlife shots with a narrow depth of field on the subject to give a pleasing composition."

I didn't get many landscape shots for this one, everything seemed to have cranes or office buildings in it, but I'm quite pleased with the close ups. The one of the ball of wool is included as I wanted to achieve that effect with the previous set of yarn photos but didn't know how.

Assignment 3

2009-12-09T18:58:00.000Z

This was the brief for Assignment 3:

"Capture and share two well exposed images from at least two of the following categories of varied and challenging lighting conditions:

Creative motion blur in low or normal light conditions (e.g. walking, cycling, cars, sugar falling from a spoon, running water, car lights after dark). For this task you will need to steady your camera by either resting it on something or using a tripod. Avoid camera shake.

Low light, high speed (high ISO) still photography (e.g. moonlight, street lights). This can be hand-held if the shutter speed is fast enough or using a tripod or other camera support as appropriate. Avoid camera shake.

High contrast photography (bright indoor lights, or bright daylight, or highly reflective subjects)."

This is my attempt:

I'm reasonably pleased with the first one, which does have motion blur and I think is ok as far as exposure goes, but the second one isn't particularly well exposed. Not sure why apart from the ISO settings on my camera only go up to 800 - I do find balancing shutter and aperture tricky for high speed photography so it may be that.

Assignment 2

2009-10-26T14:03:00.001Z

I'm running quite a long way behind, so trying to catch up before my first computer marked assignment.

Assignment 2 was to take "pictures of someone, somewhere or something that you really like". I chose knitting as being one of my favourite activities, and decided to use some of my stash to experiment with colour and texture. For one photo, we also had to "boldly crop the image in an interesting way", so the last photo in this sequence is my attempt at interesting cropping.

Assignment 1

2009-10-08T12:45:00.002+01:00

For this assignment I had to pick two letters of the alphabet and take photos for them. I interpreted that to mean of something that looks like the letter, not of something beginning with that letter. I picked C and F.

First exercise

2009-10-08T11:25:00.004+01:00

I had to take three photos of a bottle, focusing separately on colour, light and view point in each one. These aren't even shared on the course, I think they're just for practice, but it seems a pity not to do something with them.

Time to restart

2009-10-08T11:22:00.002+01:00

I've decided that for the next couple of months I'm going to use this blog as a means of sharing photos taken for my Open University photography course with the wider world, as they'll otherwise only be seen and commented on by the other students.

I'm already running about a week behind, having had the most ridiculously hectic week last week, so I'm trying to catch up with the whole first week today. As a result, there may be a few posts today!

Sky Watch Friday

2008-08-01T17:03:00.007+01:00

For this week's Sky Watch, I'm going back just about four years to some photos I took with my then very new camera. These were taken over Cardiff Bay from our front window, during the Cardiff Harbour Festival (if I remember rightly). I'll admit to being useless with planes, I'd have to rely on my father or my other half for identifying these, and although other half did have something to say about them at the time, I can't remember what that was... I just thought it was an unusual sight to see from your sitting room, and grabbed the camera - I pretty much forgotten I had these, until Picasa decided to organise my photos for me!

For more skies, visit Sky Watch Friday. By the way, I won't be participating next week, as I'll be away and won't have time to find a suitable photo before I go. See you in two weeks!

Sky Watch Friday

2008-07-25T18:17:00.005+01:00

That time of the week again, and this week I managed to get a slightly different photo from my usual. As I came home from work on Monday evening, I became aware of rather a lot of seagull noise, and looking round from the front door I saw this:

I think the gulls were after flying ants - we'd actually had quite a hot and sunny few days, and there were critters everywhere. I keep my camera in my handbag just in case I spot something good while I'm out, so I took a photo. A little boy sitting on the neighbour's wall said "there's millions of birds over there as well if you want to take a photo of them", so I thought it would be rude not to! This was the result.

For more Sky Watch photos, visit its new home here.

Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Thunder come to Cardiff

2008-07-22T20:20:00.000+01:00

I'm posting this more than a week after the event, because my Blogger hasn't wanted to play ball recently...

On Monday 14th July, one of the girls in work was celebrating her birthday, and coincidentally Def Leppard, supported by Whitesnake and Thunder, were playing at the CIA in Cardiff that night. She's a BIG fan of Whitesnake (or David Coverdale...) so said months ago that she wanted to go to the gig and asked who wanted to come - I refrained from jumping at the chance for just long enough to phone the other half, to see if he wanted to go, and then told her with very little excited jumping up and down, that we'd both love to go. The excitement being almost entirely due to the fact that I've been a Def Leppard fan since I was 14 and hadn't actually seen them live before, or thought I'd get the chance!

Thunder were excellent, they could have done with longer than 45 minutes to be honest, as it really wasn't long enough to fit in all their best/biggest songs. Danny Bowes was hardly recognisable with short hair, but the voice was very much present and correct - I don't think I'd be being unreasonably disrespectful to the other two frontmen that night if I said he was the best singer there.

Whitesnake were initially a bit disappointing - the new album is good, but I think practically everyone there was there mainly for "1987" (it's certainly the album I know best) and after a large number of songs I didn't know, standing there getting pushed and squashed was losing its appeal! Particularly as Coverdale didn't appear to be singing entirely live all the time (he was getting a lot of help from the guy on keyboards, and there was a certain amount of "singing" with his mouth closed). Fortunately, they remembered why they are where they are, and the second half of the set was entirely made up of the big hits - the crowd perked up and the set ended well, and the lady from my office was in seventh heaven!

Finally, Def Leppard, the real reason I was there, took the stage and were brilliant throughout. Joe Elliott might not be the best singer in the world, and his voice might have been suffering a bit by the end, but they're still a great band. Highlights included "oh my god, Phil Collen doesn't look a day older", Joe in a Welsh rugby shirt, Rick Savage's bass solo and the awesome version of David Essex's "Rock On" that followed it, every one of their big hits - in fact, there were too many to list, but general opinion is that "Rock On" was the very best bit. All in all, it was totally worth £37.50 and the pain of standing up for 5+ hours!

The night in photos follows...

Thunder

2008-07-22T20:19:00.000+01:00

Luke Morley (far left) was still recognisable - Danny Bowes (centre) wasn't without the hair!

Danny Bowes: "I wanna see you all jumping up and down" Audience: "**** off, we're middle aged!"

Whitesnake

2008-07-22T20:18:00.000+01:00

David Coverdale in full flow

Doug Aldritch mid solo

Coverdale and Aldritch

Def Leppard

2008-07-22T20:17:00.010+01:00

Sav does his thing...

... the most awesome version of "Rock On" ever heard followed

Well, I had to get a photograph of "Photograph", didn't I!

In case we forgot why we were there!

Blimey, Joe's gone all Ready Brek on us!

Joe goes native

Thank you and good night (L-R: Rick Savage, Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Viv Campbell, Phil Collen behind someone's hands)

Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos, it's tricky taking decent ones when very short and standing behind much taller people, all of whom are pushing and shoving at the same time!

Sky Watch Friday

2008-07-18T18:24:00.002+01:00

For my first contribution to the new look Sky Watch, I'm using a photo taken one evening earlier in the week, facing north-north-east from just outside our front door. I took this one as a back-up in case I was unable to get a better one (I'd expected to be in Ireland by now, so had intended to post it much earlier in the week, which I thought might cause me problems getting another photo), and as it turned out, it was the only one I've been able to take. This is partly due to the weather (right now, the sky is a uniform grey - very uninteresting to look at) but also because for some time I've had the intention of taking my camera for walks at the weekend to get some more varied shots - unfortunately, that plan has gone out of the window, at least for now, as damaged ligaments in my foot are currently preventing me from walking any distance. For now, I'm going to have to make do with what I can get from outside the house!

For a wider variety of skies, visit the new Sky Watch page.

ABC Wednesday

2008-07-16T00:01:00.002+01:00

AARGH!!! My brain hurts from trying to think of a Z! Eventually I resorted to posting a photo of my still quite new Fujifilm Finepix Z10fd, which is the camera most of my photos are taken on as it's so small and easy to carry around.

For more Z posts, which are bound to be more original than mine, go to Mrs Nesbitt's Place!

Sky Watch Friday

2008-07-11T18:31:00.005+01:00

Here is my Sky Watch photo for this week. This was taken a little earlier this evening outside our house, facing East - I was lucky to get a sky photo at all - the weather we've had lately, I would have needed an underwater camera to take any pictures at all!

For more Sky Watch photos, visit Wiggers World.

ABC Wednesday - Y

2008-07-09T20:33:00.002+01:00

ABC Wednesday once again, and this week is the letter Y, which is for yarn. This is some of my yarn stash - some of this yarn is to be used in the projects that featured in my "Unfinished" photo for ABC Wednesday a couple of weeks ago.

For more Y photos, visit Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

Summer Ball

2008-07-04T19:26:00.004+01:00

Having mentioned last Friday that I was in a hurry as I was getting ready to go to my work's Summer Ball, I thought I should post a photo to illustrate why that was such a time consuming job! Below is the result of roughly two hours' labour.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-07-04T18:04:00.002+01:00

SkyWatch Friday again, and another Penarth sunset from me! This was taken yesterday evening - just as well I didn't wait until today to take one, as the sky is currently a uniform grey.

For more SkyWatch photos, visit Wiggers World.

ABC Wednesday

2008-07-02T10:40:00.004+01:00

ABC Wednesday is upon us again, and this time it's the letter X. I thought I'd struggle for something to illustrate X, then looked around the living room and spotted the display cabinet housing my other half's collection of X-Men mini busts. I didn't think it was likely that I'd better that, so here it is!

For more X photos, visit Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-06-27T16:51:00.005+01:00

Posting in a hurry as I get ready for my work's Summer Ball!

This was taken on Wednesday evening just before sunset at Llandaff Fields in Cardiff after our touch rugby training session. My poor little camera couldn't quite handle the brightness, so it doesn't quite do justice to the lovely sunny evening we had! And just a day later, you wouldn't have believed we could have had such a fine day, as the weather since has been horrible and wet.

You can find more SkyWatch posts over at Wiggers World.

ABC Wednesday

2008-06-25T17:59:00.003+01:00

ABC Wednesday again, and this time it's W for Wind - I've tried to capture that rather tricky subject by using a tree across the road from our house last weekend.

In case that didn't come out the way I wanted, I also decided to take a picture representing Wednesday as illustrated by my desk calendar! I love this calendar, as I get a different pair of shoes each and every day!

For more W photos, go to Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-06-20T08:55:00.006+01:00

Time for SkyWatch Friday again, and today's effort was taken on Tuesday evening, just after sunset, from our front yard. I like the monochromatic look of this one.

Incidentally, the road sign you can see silhouetted in the foreground is the same one shown in my ABC Wednesday a couple of weeks ago.

For more SkyWatch photos, go to Wigger's World.

ABC Wednesday - V

2008-06-17T19:51:00.007+01:00

I'm posting this early as it's easier than trying to log on first thing from work to do it!

V is for violin - this is my violin from when I was a teenager and having lessons from an irascible old Irish man - he informed me repeatedly that at around 16 I was far too old to start learning and that I'd never be any good! Truth is, fiddle Donegal-style is difficult at any age, and extremely painful to innocent bystanders while you're practicing, which my entire family and many household pets can vouch for!

When I left home, one of the things on my "to do list" was find a violin teacher and learn properly - I had hopes of maybe even getting near Grade 8 - but sadly it's still on the list as I haven't had the time or the money to do anything about it. (I think when I left home I thought life was going to be one long round of doing whatever I wanted - I didn't reckon on having to work for a living!)

Now, I think I'm doing my other half a favour by not attempting it - I'm extremely rusty and he doesn't deserve the agony! Besides, I'd have to cut my fingernails... :-)

See more V photos over at Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-06-12T16:55:00.006+01:00

I'm posting this early, as I won't be anywhere near a computer all day tomorrow. This was taken around lunchtime yesterday, in the same direction as my previous SkyWatch photo, but in much less summery conditions. It wasn't actually raining, but it looked as though it wanted to! The lack of sailing boats on the Bay makes the weather look a bit grottier than it actually was.

I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who posted comments last week, I really appreciate the welcome!

For more SkyWatch photos, visit Wiggers World.

ABC Wednesday

2008-06-11T00:01:00.000+01:00

Time for ABC Wednesday again, and this time it's U, which is for unfinished, like the various knitting projects in this photo. The red one is a hat for a friend's currently unborn baby, which is on hold while I work on something for my new niece (it won't be needed for a while yet, after all). The yellow thing is the barely started beginnings of a cardigan for myself, while the white and yellow one is something I started making ages ago for a friend's baby before changing my mind and making something else instead. Eventually, I'm sure I'll finish all of them!

See more U posts at Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-06-06T20:31:00.007+01:00

Ok, I liked the idea of SkyWatch, so I thought I'd join in - this is the sky as seen from the front window at the top of our house in Penarth, looking north and slightly east across Cardiff Bay. It was taken today at about 7.45pm. As a picture of the sky it's not the most interesting ever, but it's quite pretty and was available at short notice! Maybe I'll be able to get some more interesting shots for future attempts.

Visit Wiggers World to see more SkyWatch photos.

Thank you's etc

2008-06-06T20:00:00.009+01:00

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who's visited and left comments - I apologise for not having responded in kind, this whole blogging lark is very new to me and I currently don't have a lot of free time for it, so it's taking me longer to get involved than it should. In my quest for fitness/weight loss, almost every lunch hour is given over to a 4 mile walk, and two evenings a week are spent playing touch rugby. The rest of the time is spent trying to catch up on everything else that I wasn't able to do in that time! Added to that, my mind has been more than a little preoccupied due to becoming an auntie for the first time (sadly, as my brother and his other half are in Ireland, I haven't yet been able to meet my beautiful little niece, but will hopefully be visiting in the near future), so I haven't really been able to think about much else lately!

ABC Wednesday

2008-06-04T00:05:00.000+01:00

T is for Twmpathiau, which is the Welsh translation for "Humps", as seen on the road sign just outside our house, which is just before the junction with a road that has a lot of speed bumps and speed tables. As my other half says, the Black Eyed Peas song wouldn't be quite the same if it was "My Twmpathiau"!

See more T photos at Mrs Nesbitt's Place

2008-05-28T19:36:00.005+01:00

My first attempt at participating in Mrs Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday...

S is for Swarovski, my favourite bling, and here are my two gorgeous Swarovski pendants from my equally lovely other half:

This red heart was a present for my 30th birthday this year

And this silver one was another birthday present two years ago

See more S photos at Mrs Nesbitt's place.

Ramblings...

2008-05-11T15:16:00.005+01:00

Well, I'm still not sure I've got anything interesting to say, but I thought I should add something else here...

Actually, I thought I'd quickly explain the title - it's a line from my favourite Manics song, the same one I get my screenname from, but it also seems to sum things up quite nicely. I have neither the time nor the money to be as high maintenance as I'd like, but still seem to spend far too much of both on trying - truly futile, as the women I'm attempting to keep up with, even those within my office, are paid a lot more than me and can afford to get their hair done more than 2 or 3 times a year! It also reminds me of the slogan on a t-shirt I bought years ago - "I wanna be just like Barbie, that bitch has everything!"

And when I say I have nothing much interesting to say, that's kind of why - I can talk about shoes for hours, I can tell you all the best shops in Cardiff, and I have more red lipsticks than I can even count, but although I have plenty of opinions on things I tend to keep them to myself. That's a survival thing in a way - I learnt a long time ago that if you have controversial opinions on anything, it's best not to share them in an office as you still have to work with those people... Also, apart from shouting at the telly during the news, I find it's best to try to ignore things I don't much like as getting worked up about them is another exercise in futility! I don't believe in politics as a means for changing things as I consider all parties to be equally rubbish - the only difference is it's only Labour that's robbed me recently... And that doesn't mean that I think the other lot (or the other other lot) wouldn't given the chance. I simply refuse to take the blame for electing any of them!

Hello...

2008-05-10T16:10:00.000+01:00

Hmm... Not quite sure what I'm doing here, this is kind of experimental really. Blogging seems to be the in thing with the rest of the family at the moment, so I've sort of succumbed to peer pressure! It's very probable that this isn't going to get updated very often, as I don't think I have all that much to say...

I'm going to leave it there for now, while I have a look around and see what I should be doing with the rest of this thing.