Slice of Pi

I have finally got some decent(ish) photos of my first attempt at designing a lace shawl.  I had decided a while ago that I wanted to try and design a lace shawl and assumed that I would start with a shawlette.  I was wrong.  I ended up designing a semi-circular lace weight shawl.  I  chose this style after knitting Radience.  The shape is great for sitting comfortably on my shoulders.

I loved knitting that shawl, but decided that the colour was not quite right for me.  I ended up giving it to my friend Clare.  So in order to replace that shawl I bought another skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace. 

I decided that I wanted to make something in the same shape, but knew it was too soon to knit the same pattern again.  So I decided to make up my own design.

The shawl has three sections of charted lace, with increases carried out between each section of lace.

I have decided that as much as I love this shawl, it is not quite right, so I am tweaking it a little and knitting another version.  Which is just as well as this one is going out my door as well!  In exchange for modelling the shawl for the pattern I am writing, my friend Jo, is going to get this beauty.  Maybe I just need to treat myself to another skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace in another colour and see if I get to keep the shawl I knit out of that!

I am hooking up to the Friday link parties I used to hook up to.  It's been a while guys, go and check them out, by clicking on the buttons shown below, they are full of cracking projects!

And The Crafting is Back!

I have actually taken some photos today.  It helped that the sun was shining.  At the moment the temperatures are 10°C higher than the average for the time of year.  That's quite a significant amount.  All of my partner's colleagues are thanking him for bringing back the sunshine from Cyprus.  Thinking about it, the same thing happened when we went to Turkey last year.  Maybe he should have a whip round at work to send us away more often, so we can bring the sunshine back with us more often!


Anyway, back to the crafting.  As this is a Wednesday, I've got to share my WIPs.  I shall start with the crocheting I did on the plane journeys.  It wasn't very much.

Yup, that's it for two flights of four and a half hours each.  My only excuse is that I ended up reading a lot.  Oh and I was suffering from a nasty cold on the way back.  (If you know anyone who was on the flight from Paphos to East Midlands Airport on Saturday 24th September, tell them I'm sorry for the germs).   The pattern is a simple ripple, and is on Ravelry here.  I've never rippled before so I am enjoying it.  It will make great knit club project, or when we have company round.  I like to have projects like this on the go, as you know, so I'm sure it will get finished eventually.  It is being knit in Noro Kureyon Sock, and I am enjoying the colours as they emerge.  


I am currently storing my crochet in this little beauty.

It was waiting for me when I got home.  Take a look at the lining.

Sorry the photo isn't better, it's hard to get the zipper open enough to show it properly.  This box pouch is really well put together.  I'd been meaning to make one for ages, as it is a perfect style of project back.  But I didn't need to make it, because it was a prize from the lovely Jocelyn of Handmade By Knotty Gal.  It was surprise what I was going to win as there were around 5 different prizes and to enter we had to say which one we liked the best.  I gave a couple of options and I'm so pleased this is the one I got.  It is lovely fabric and really well made.  It's also not fabric I would buy myself, which means this is is a real treat.  I don't really buy pink, but I do secretly quite enjoy it in small vibrant doses!  So thanks Knotty Gal, I love my prize!


Anyway, back to my crafting.  I have made decent progress on the Austin Hoodie.  I am nearly up to the woven bands.

I do love the false seam, they look so smart.  I haven't really touched this since I got back off holiday though, because I have been obsessed with this:

It doesn't look much does it?  Well I believe it is going to be gorgeous.  It is my second version of my shawl design.  I finished the first version before I went on holiday and I've finally got a couple of photos of it, but I won't share those now.  I will share on Friday!  I am knitting this version in Rowan Fine Lace, which is their new lace weight yarn.  It is 70% Suri Alpaca and 30% Merino.  It is a beautifully soft and warm yarn.  There is also a very slight halo.  I think this shawl will be light and warm and versatile.  I can't see myself parting with it.  Hopefully as I finish this version, I will be able to finalise the pattern I've written sufficiently to get it test knitted.  Fingers crossed it will be done in a few weeks.  I am really proud of this pattern and I can't wait to show you the finished version.


I am also making progress on the Mitred Crosses Blanket for Japan.  I have finished knitting all the blocks and I have joined the top row together, using the three needle bind off method suggested by the pattern.  I haven't taken a photo of this, but maybe next week if I get any more put together, I will remember to get the camera out for an update.


So there we are, an update on most of my WIPs.  To see other projects in progress, click on the button below.

Back from Holiday

I just wanted to let you all know that I am back safe and sound from the most wonderful trip to Cyprus.  I have to say I fell in love with the place.  I don't normally want to revisit holiday locations because there are so many more to see, but Cyprus is definitely on my "must see more of" list.

I won't bore you with a massive list of what we got up to or millions of photos, but if you are interested in how pretty it all was, I have uploaded the photos to an album on Flickr.  I've embedded it below.  I hoped this way if you are interested you can have a look, if not, you can just ignore them!  I have given fairly full description on each of the photo, which summarises pretty much everything we did.

I will be back with more crafting soon, as my holiday has recharged my mental batteries, even if the physical ones are drained.  Hopefully I'll be back in balance soon!

If you want to see the photos individually or read the notes I made, you can do so by clicking here.  That will take you to the Flickr set I created.  I'm so glad I wrote this up while my memories were still vivid.  Hopefully it will remind me in years to come of this wonderful trip.

Please leave a message after the tone......

I feel a bit like this blog is on answerphone mode.  I don't seem to be able to get myself together to blog recently.  I don't know why.  I have lots to blog about.  I have made lots of new and fabulous things, but I just don't seem able to put the projects and the camera together at the same time.

Part of the problem is that I am focusing my attention away from the internet.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still reading and commenting on other people's blogs and still getting lots from them, but I don't seem to be able to put the same effort into my own writing.  Actually I think it is the photographing that is slowing things up.  I hate to blog without photos.

I think because I have been crafting so hard, I have not had the energy to actually do the photography bit.  Normally I have a couple of projects to talk about at a time, which means that I have a nice crafting/photographing/blogging balance.  Everything ticks along nicely.  You increase one element of that and the other elements automatically decrease.

I'm also trying to prepare for my holiday in a few weeks.  I have discovered that crochet hooks are acceptable on airlines even though knitting needles aren't.  I want to pick the brains of all you lovely crochet divas out there.  Come on don't be shy, you can admit your skillz.  I need a simple project that I can take on the plane that doesn't use tonnes of yarn, so maybe something in Double Knit or 4 ply.  It does need to be relatively simple as I am not a confident crocheter, I'm ok once I get going, but it does take a while to get back into the swing of things.

So step up people and please recommend something for me to try, maybe a scarf or some such thing.

All suggestions are gratefully received!

Festival of Quilts 2011

I have been very lax in not sharing my photos from the Festival of Quilts, held at the NEC in Birmingham, this year.  This is my second year of attending, and THIS time I remembered not only my camera, but spare batteries AND a memory card - WOOOHOOOOO!  I was also well prepared because I bought the catalogue this year, so when I took a photo of a quilt, I also took a photo of the number of the quilt - well call me clever!  I actually know what each quilt I photographed this year is called.  (I'd just like to state that last year I took a camera without a memory card, took about 3 photos and my batteries died, I also had no clue what the quilts were that I photographed - so no one can say I don't learn my lessons the hard way).

So now we have a looong post full of photos that are, at the very least credited. I apologise that the photographs are not great, but it is really hard to take photographs of large quilts when people stand in front of them and you also can't get far enough back.  To be honest I'm amazed I have as many in focus as I have! 

Winner of Art Quilts 101 - First Amateur Award
Octopussy, by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga, Kollumerzwaag, The Netherlands

444 - Highly Commended
Homage to Henri by Liz Howlett, Lewes, UK

423
La Grande Perspective by Susan Short, Fleet, UK

358
Interference 1 by Leah Higgins, Eccles, UK

365
Enchanted Forest by Helen Howes, Ravingham, UK

777 - Winner Pictoral Quilts - Judges Choice
Hot Africa, Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga, Kollumerzwaag, The Netherlands

901
Enchanted Divocean by Margaret Taylor, Durham, UK

These sea horses were a good metre high and were suspended away from the wall.  They were just so engaging and endearing, I had to get a snap.

953
Velvet Cushion by Ruth Singer, Leicester, UK

I knew this cushion was by Ruth the minute I saw it.  For those of you who haven't heard of her, she wrote Sew It Up and the pattern for this is in the current issue of Stitch Magazine (It's a US based mag I'm afraid, but it is well worth looking at).

924 - 3rd Prize Quilt Creations
Secret Garden in the Starry Night, by Rami Kim, Rocklin, USA

Ostrava Quilting Bee Pieced Together 178 Blocks from All Over Czech Republic

Stitch Your Soul did an in depth post about this quilt, which gives all the information that I couldn't find!

Marina Mamanova

These works were part of a display by one artist and they were stunning.

708
Inside Noah's Ark-All Safe Aboard by Louise Jessup, Ashford, UK

I loved this quilt.  Apparently it is from a drawing in a child's book.  We stood in front of it for ages, looking for the different animals hidden in plain view.

711 - Highly Commended - Judges Choice
Dassehra by Bente Kultorp Andresen, Hafslundsøy, Norway

This quilt has been so widely discussed in blogland, I'm not going to bother going in to great details.  Needless to say, it was breath taking and looked more like a painting that textile art.

662 - Highly Commended
Hexagons & Stars by Lucie Summers & Jenny Spencer, Worlington, UK

Despite my many selections of quilts with bright colours, I still love a clean looking and muted quilt now and again.  I just loved the embroidery and quilting on this one.

665
L'Arcobaleno Sul Mare (Rainbow on the Sea) by Rossana Ramani & Graziella Cini, S Dorugo Della Valle, Italy

668 - Highly Commended
Connected by Linzi Upton & Mo Fettes (Longarm), Banchory, UK,

I cannot convey how much more appealing this quilt was in real life.  My photos do not do it justice.  In the album there is a close up of the quilting.  I just love the artistry.

673 - 2nd Prize - Two Person Quilt
Mexican Sunset by Margit Schommers & Claudio Pfeil (Longarm) Erfstadt, Germany

7
Festival, by Yvonne Kervinen, Osthammar, Sweden

I did take more photos, but these are the ones that really appealed to me and were mostly in focus.  If you want to look at some of the other stuff I took, you can see the Picasa Album below.

2011 Festival of Quilts

I hope that the length of these post explains why it has taken me so long to put it together.  Maybe next year I'll get even better photos, and I'll be able to report much quicker!