Winter Bandwagon

It seems all the UK blogs are full of posts about snow.  I have decided to join this bandwagon, because basically I've been trapped in the house by it for over a week now and I'm going stir crazy!  Essentially if I'm forced to look at it, then so are you!

This is the view from my back door.  I took it while stood just inside my back door, cowering against the cold.  After admitted that I needed to get outside if I wanted to take decent photos, I went hunting through boxes for my old walking boots and tucked my the legs of my trousers in.  I'm glad I did, because that snow is seriously deep!

This is the spout of our standard sized watering can, buried in the snow.  Even our big barrel bellied chiminea is strangely distorted by the snow.  Nothing is recognisable.

The whole garden looks like an alpine resort.

Even the miniature conifers tree look otherworldly.  Without something to put their size into context, they could be in a forest of deepest Norway!

All the snow has meant that the wildlife is easier to see.

We have so many birds filling the trees right now.  I think they were in hiding during the actual snow fall so they are ravenous now.

We seem to have acquired a very brave fox.  He used to slink around in the dark, at the corners of the garden.  Since the snow he's being bold as brass and wading across the grass lawn, that's buried in snow.

He's actually rather a handsome beast, so I don't think he's doing too badly by stealing cat food from the local neighbourhood tabbies.  In fact he's almost too fast to snap as he rushes down the steps towards the side of the house.

I really hope I can get some more photos of this guy in the coming days because he is really beautiful against the snowy backdrop.

I'm sure, to all my Canadian and most of my US readers, this UK preoccupation with snow seems a little wimpy.  The trouble is, we are so unused to any kind of snow, the country usually just shuts down for a couple of days until it melts.  We simply don't have the infrastructure to handle it; we don't have snow tyres, we don't have snow plows and we certainly don't have the practice. It appears that is going to be on the ground much longer than usual this year.  It's already been a week and the forecast is for it to still be here on Friday, at least, as the temperature won't get above freezing.  My main problem with this weather is that I am trapped.  My scooter can't cope with the slippy ground and the gradient of the hill I live on.  To be honest it would struggle with the slip on the level, but I'm being kind.  I think if the snow carries on much longer I will begin to go stark staring mad!  I hope until it melts my crafting will help keep my sanity levels stable.  I promise no more snow pictures this week, unless they are wildlife related, because who doesn't like to see snowy animals?

Winter Pics

I went outside and braved the cold yesterday.  I took a few snaps but these are my favourites.  I just thought I'd share them, as I haven't talked about, or done, much photography recently.  I need to get back into the habit of it, because I really enjoy it.

I tweaked this one on Photoshop and I can't remember what I did.  I know I applied a couple of different effects, but that's it.  I really must make a note of these things so I can recreate them!

As we are all set for a big fall of snow over the weekend, I hope to get more Winter Wonderland type photos.  Hope I can improve on Winter 2010-11's winner.

I used the above photo in my photo calendar last year.  It was December's page.  I got my calendar from Photobox and was really impressed with the quality.  A couple of weeks ago, when I took down last year's calendar and put my new one up, I decided I would keep the beautifully printed photos and put them in a scrapbook someone gave me a while ago.  It is perfect for these images.

Getting the calendar is a reasonable way of getting good quality images of some of my favourite photos to enjoy during the year, and then to cut out and put into an album when it's no longer in use.  The picture, above, of my cat is too big to go into the album, as it was on the calendar cover.  It is one of my favourite photos and I think I will get it framed.  I  used a great framing place online for my Dad's Christmas present, and I think I might use it again.

This was my Dad's present, it was a print from a great artist, I found on Folksy called Eastwitching.  She paints beautiful images of animals that really capture their spirit and individuality.  I got this budgie because my Dad and his wife own a budgie that looks like this one!  The frame is oak but there were loads of different styles and materials to choose from at Picture Frame Express, so I should get one that will match the style of the photo of my cat.

I think that choosing this year's calendar photos and chopping up last year's has reminded me how much I love photography, and that I need to get snapping again.

An Autumn Day Out

This weekend my OH and I went to Bakewell to meet my Mum.  She had been down on a reconnaissance mission with one of her oldest friends, trying to find a venue for a reunion of their school friends.  They do it every few years, and this time they decided to stay in the Peak District, so the Northern contingent didn't have quite as far to travel this time.  My Mum lives in my home town of York which a good 2+ hours up the motorway and as I have been quite ill this year we have not visited as often as I would normally like. Having her an hour or so closer was wonderful and we arranged to spend a few hours together in Derbyshire, which was a treat, as I love that part of the world.

Mum was staying in Bakewell and we tracked her down in this lovely spot, just outside the front door of the B&B she was staying in.

When we left Leicester it was dismal and grey with rain spoiling our view of everything. You can see how lovely it was when we arrived an hour or so later. It was gorgeous, a proper Autumn day. The light was stunning.  It was the start of wonderful few hours standing in the most beautiful surroundings.

Bakewell itself is a very pretty little town, but it isn't very conducive to wheelchair use on a busy Saturday morning, nor did it have much parking near the main part of the town, even if you use a Blue Badge.  I know that to most people, the car parks are all pretty close to the main part of the town, but when you have limited mobility it was a long way away.  After some discussion we decided to go to Chatsworth House, which was just down the road.  It has an area of shops and restaurant that you can use even without going into the main house.  We thought it would be a small enough area for me to cope with.  We set off following my Mum.

Oh my, the drive there was stunning.  I wish I'd taken photos from the car, but I was enjoying just looking too much.  There were herds of deer wandering in the park, and the colours of the trees were warm and rich.  We missed the turn for the main house and ended up at the Farm Shop.  Even the car park for the farm shop was pretty.  You don't normally expect that.  They usually are muddy and bumpy places to drive through and park in!

This was a shop beyond any other farm shop I've ever used.  It was huge and filled with amazing fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and fish, fresh baked loaves of bread, MANY cheeses and much more!  It was an enormous deli type farm shop.  We bought some supplies for our evening meal and some fruit and veg and was surprised to have spent under £20.  Everything (that we bought) was quite reasonably priced.  I have a feeling, though, that if you wanted some of the sauces, dips and dressings, or the prepared meals or beer from the local micro-brewery then you could easily spend much more.  After our shop, we went to the Farm Shop restaurant. This is the view from the restaurant.

We were truly gobsmacked with the beauty of this location. It was awe inspiring to be surrounded on all sides by this magnificent countryside. We ended up staying at the Farm Shop and it's restaurant for the whole duration of our visit. We couldn't have chosen anywhere better to catch up.

It reminded us all that our countryside is very beautiful and we should get out into it more often. Just because I can't go walking anymore or go camping doesn't mean I can't enjoy the outdoors still. My OH and I have decided that we must get out of town more often and I plan on following up this decision. I'm going to research some good places to eat in lovely locations, so we can spend some time at least looking at the spaces in between cities, even if I can't stand in the middle of those spaces the way I want to.

It was a lovely day out and it was wonderful spending some time with my Mum.  More importantly it reminded me of something that used to be so important to me, the outdoors.  I'll try not to forget that again.

Poorly Blogger

I have been a very poor blogger of late.  I know this and I'm NOT going to apologise the way other bloggers do.  I'm just going to explain that over the next few weeks my posts will be few and far between.  As you are probably aware, my health has been deteriorating of late and I have been waiting for surgery, to hopefully relieve some of my worst symptoms.  I FINALLY have a date for that operation.  The 3rd of October.  Having a date is wonderful, I just wish it happened before Summer was over, however, it does means that I should have an okish Christmas this year.

Until my operation I am not going to beat myself up trying to blog about everything.  I'm not going to be able to.  The main block for my blogging is the photography aspect.  I usually like to post pretty photos of nicely finished things, and photography is the most physical thing I do - ridiculous I know, but true.

I'm also slacking off on the blocking stages of finished projects, as that is pretty physical too, crawling around the floor pinning out errant edges is not my idea of fun at the moment.

I'm still knitting away, but it is all fairly undramatic progress at the moment.

I did cast on a Spectra by Stephen West the other day.  I'm using my Countess Ablaze Count Cashmerino Sock in Grey Skies Over Manchester, that I shared with you earlier in the month.

I added a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock, to the mix, that I picked up cheaply from Hejhog.

I haven't taken a photo of yet ;-)

I normally avoid intarsia like the plague, but this is nice crisp intarsia that only involves one twist of yarn,every now and again, in a nice straight line.  It is mildly annoying but I can tolerate it for the lovely pattern.

I cast on the Spectra because I had finished the Wingspan.  It is lovely and sproingy, but it does need blocking to crisp out the points.  I really enjoyed knitting it and I love how it looks and drapes.  I am very tempted to cast on another just for me, using some of my yarn from stash.  I shall have to debate which is the right yarn to use, whilst I knit Spectra.

My hexipuffs are also stacking up.  I think I have about 10 now.  I know it isn't a huge mountain, but I am enjoying the lack of pressure I have put on myself with these little knitting gems.  I will finish when I have enough.  I don't have an end date or a final size I want to get too, I'm just knitting them for fun.  It's  quite liberating and revisiting old sock yarn projects is lovely.  I have so many beautiful sock yarn odds and ends, that make perfect little hexipuffs, and knitting with them again is a dream.  Next time I have the right light for my phone camera I will snap a few of my favourite ones to share.

I've also been trucking along with Maplewing.  I'm past the change over from the big pattern repeats at the edges, and I'm now onto the smaller repeats section, which is easier to memorise.  This section is going much faster because of the shrinking of the number of stitches and the easier to remember pattern.  I may actually finish this pattern one day - a while ago, I wasn't so sure!

As I have a large aversion to posting, without including photos, I will include a couple that I took in the garden a few weeks ago.

© Chrissy Fletcher, 2012 - Lavender Flower

© Chrissy Fletcher, 2012 - Tiny Yellow Flower

© Chrissy Fletcher, 2012 - Aquilegia

I hope you like them.  I want some yarn in the same colour as the aguilegia, if you spot it, let me know, though I think BabyLongLegs may have some that is pretty close.

So, until I feel like posting again, so long!

Post Blog Week Round Up

Phew - that was a marathon blogging week wasn't it?  I'm still shattered from all the blogging and the blog reading.  But good news - all the effort was worth it.  I have reached the final of the photography contest for Big Teal Bird and the Bird Feeder!

I recommend you go and visit the voting page and have a look at all the great photos that made it.  If you do feel like voting for my photo, after looking at everyone else's work, I won't mind at all ;-) 

With all the great blog reading, I haven't had much time for knitting, but I have started work on the shawl that has been designed randomly by all the comments left during blog week on this post.  I've got this far:

I actually did a couple more rows last night, but I can't face digging out my camera and going downstairs!

What I plan on doing with this shawl project is taking regular photo updates using my camera phone and posting to Instagram and Twitter.  On Instagram I am @stitchedtogether and in Twitter I am @ST1TCHEDTOG.  Since getting my new phone earlier this year I have started taking more "snaps".  I love Instagram since they got up an running with android and I am enjoying joining in with the photo revolution!  My phone camera is about as good as my old digital camera, so I'm more than happy with the quality, especially for online pictures, though obviously the new camera is MUCH better at everything, except doing very quick snaps and uploads.

I'm hoping that I will be recovered enough by next week to have something more interesting to show you, but the effort was so worth it and I've added lots of new blogs to my feed reader.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  I'm really glad I decided to join in, even if it was decided at the last minute.

To see if anyone else has recovered enough from blog week to post today, click on the button!

Photography Challenge Day! - KCBWDAY2

Today is the Photography Challenge Day.  Here is my entry.

Big Teal Bird Needs More Food to Get Bigger, but finds The Bird Feeder Not Quite Big Enough

This is the bird I crocheted from Stacey Trock's Woodland Animals Amigurumi Class, that I first talked about here.

I love my huge Teal Bird, I kind of wish he was staying in my house, rather than travelling down to Dorset for my niece's birthday next month.  Ah well, I can enjoy him until then, especially as I've already ordered the yarn for a teddy bear from the same class.  I have become a toy junkie!

Day 4 of Blog Hub Swap

I have got into a little morning routine this week.  I get up and do all things you do when you start your day.  Then, I go to my sofa, which is set up by the PC, and I reach for my lovely bag of wonders from Marie and I pull out a red wrapped parcel.  Then I peel back the paper and pull out Marie's little note and wrestle with the sticky tape sealing the bubble wrap.  I then smile broadly and pull out the camera.  Look what I got today!

This is fudge made with maple syrup.  Apparently this is from Wood Homestead in Stamford, NY.  I did a quick search on Google and found their Facebook Page.  I've never had maple syrup, it's not something that we get very often in the UK.  We tend towards the Golden Syrup end of the sugar spectrum.

As a purely scientific endeavour I felt that I had to try one of these "candies".  I feel I have to use inverted commas for this word, as I feel really Americanised using it.  In the UK we have sweets!  I can confirm that these are indeed delicious and sweet, but there is no overly sickly sweet after-taste, that you get with some fudge.  The flavour is really mellow and rich.  I am delighted to have a few more of these to treat myself with over the next few days!

I think I am going to hide these so no one else gets a look in!  Not only are they delicious they have really pretty shapes.

So back to my currently daily routine.  After I take my photos of the parcel, I look up the Month of Craft Photos subject and go and take my snap.  Today's subject was Day 17 - Last FO You Used.  All I had to do work out what this photo should be was to look down to see my slippers.  Remember these?

Then I looked across the room to see my cat taking advantage of another FO that gets used every day.

See that lovely fabric trapped underneath her furry backside? It was meant to be a project bag.  It was claimed by the cat, who loves it more than anything else in the world.  She plays with the ties, she chases it around the room, sliding across the floor, and then sits on it wherever it ends up.  I don't think I could take it off her if I tried!

Then I realised that this wasn't a FO that I used, it was used by my cat so it didn't count.  The slippers photo had to be the one submitted. I had to share this photo with you anyway, because I wanted you to see the face of a cat who isn't going to have her bag taken away!

So, that is today's morning routine out of the way.  I can't believe I have three more days of the Blog Hub Swap and eleven more days of the Month of Craft Photos.  So much extra work, and so much extra fun.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Serendipity

I couldn't believe it when I looked at today's subject for the Month of Crafty Photos.  I've been really good and haven't missed a single day (so far).  I have been posting them in the Flickr Group and you can see them in the album on my Photo Challenges Page.  I haven't shared the last week's because there has been other stuff to talk about, but I am going to share with you today's photograph and when you see it, you will understand why I felt it serendipitous!

Today's subject was "A New Skill".  This is a photograph of my newly learnt skill of Tunisian Crochet!  Isn't it lovely?  It's a moss stitch scarf from the booklet I received from Marie.  The booklet is the Beginner's Guide to Tunisian Crochet and is available on Ravelry.  I love the appearance of this stitch. It is similar to knitted moss stitch but has an added dimension to it.

The reverse of the fabric looks very different.  I think before I go any further I would like reassurance that I'm doing this properly!

The yarn I chose was Sirdar Balmoral which is 73% Wool, 25% Alpaca and 3% Silk.  It is a wonderfully warm and soft yarn and it is draping beautifully with this new technique. I have 5 skeins of this yarn and I think it is a perfect fit with the pattern.  I can really see the appeal of Tunisian Crochet and plan on trying more of the stitches included in the booklet and seeing where it will take me.

I'm so pleased that the above photos match up with three of my current memes; A Month of Crafty Photos, The Blog Hub Swap and WIP Wednesday!  I couldn't have pulled that off I'd tried LOL!

Other WIPs include a pair of plain vanilla Discovery Socks in Regia.  I love this yarn as it is the perfect choice for everyday socks.  It can be machine washed and even tumble dried and is guaranteed for 10 years, which is more than most shop bought socks will last for!

This is a self striping yarn so I don't see any need to add any other embellishment.  These are just socks for me to wear every day, they aren't for fullfilling any creative need, but simply to put on my feet.  I can't stand shop bought socks any more and, in order to avoid them, I need more hand knit socks.  This pattern is quick and easy and the socks it produces fit brilliantly.  I have bought another two sets of this type of yarn to knock up another couple of pairs as soon as these are off the needles.  Maybe when I get enough ordinary hand knitted socks I'll start making something a bit more decorative!

I've also working on two gifts for family members and I can't really share them here (just in case they peek).

So now the WIPs are out of the way, on to the thing I know you all want to hear about...... my next gift in The Blog Hub Swap!!

Today's parcel was squishy, but I was fairly sure it wasn't the yarn that is required for the swap as it was quite small.  I was partly wrong, because it was made of yarn!

This stunning crocheted scarflette was made by Marie using hand dyed and hand spun 100% wool from HandDyedAndSpunToo on etsy.  It's a really pretty shade of green which I probably wouldn't pick myself but still love.  This is one of the great things about a swap, you discover new things about your likes and dislikes and try things you wouldn't necessarily try if left to your own devices - such as the Tunisian Crochet.

It's a lovely design and really warm.  I don't think of crochet as a solution for scarves, especially with such large motifs, but if done in the right yarn it really works.  The scarflette can pinned in place, or one end threaded through the gaps left between the motifs.

This gift is really beautiful and something I'd never make for myself which makes me treasure it more.  I shall be wearing it when I go out later to post my own Blog Swap Package!  I can't wait to see what will be in tomorrow's wrapping paper!

To help you wait for tomorrow, click on the button to see what WIPs are being created in blogland!  It should take up some time, clicking away happily!

Month of Crafty Photos: Days 2 - 6

I thought I'd share with you my photos from the challenge I talked about last week.  I already shared Day 1 in the linked post so here are Days 2 - 6 for your visual delight!

Day 02 - Craft Tools

For this I simply emptied out my big bag of knitting tools and started making pretty patterns.  It was a really overcast day so I used my pop-up light tent.  I do think it gives me a fair chance at getting a reasonable picture, even on dark days!

Day 03 - An Old FO

The choice for this photos was actually pretty easy to make.  I dug my blanket out of storage this week as it has been rather chilly, and have been huddled underneath it whilst surfing the web.  This blanket had never been photographed in it's finished state because I wanted to block it and that has been impossible to do.  It needs pinning out on blocking boards outside in warm weather, as we have no inside area big enough that doesn't need using over a few days in Winter.

This picture of an old FO is actually the reality of how our knits are after the "pretty as a picture" photo shoots we try to do for our blogs and project pages.  I love that it is a picture of a blanket that is being used in it's intended manner, to keep me snug.  It has been on my bed all week too!

Day 04 - Inspiration Outdoors

As our weather forecast told me it would snow on Saturday afternoon I decided to try and wait until the snow came to take my photos.  We haven't had any snow yet this Winter and I thought snow would offer a nice image.  It got to around 3pm and the snow started to come in tiny little specks.  I decided to go out and start snapping.  It didn't start to really come down heavily until after dark.

In the end, the best image I captured was this one, and you can hardly see the snow at all.  The photo is of a wooden railing that runs around the side of the raised platform upon which our summerhouse resides.  The railing is covered in trailing ivy, which I love.  I really like the way the summerhouse provides a rich, deep background for the paler railing and ivy.

Day 05 - Notions

This one was a tough one, so soon after doing Craft Tools.  I should have read ahead, and realised this would happen, and chosen a different subject for my tools photo - maybe a sewing machine or something.  But as I didn't read ahead I was a bit more restricted than I originally hoped I would be.  So, I took a photograph of my felted purse that houses all my notions, that are tiny and easily lost.  This purse has proved invaluable since I first made it.  The pattern can be downloaded for free by clicking on the Downloads tab.  It's a great way of using up odd balls of yarn, left over from a project.

In the end, I like how the photograph came out.  Lots of jumbled up stitch markers with pops of colour, against the fuzzy grey felted fabric.

Day 06 - Colour 

I loved today's subject.  Colour is so important to all crafters.  Colour is one of the main driving forces in creating each project.  The subject matter of today's photo seemed pretty obvious to me.  I'm currently working on my Tribute Wrap, which involves using 9 different skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  This is a very decadent project that was only made possible by receiving a very generous gift of yarn from a bereaved mother, who is friend of my Mum.  Every colour change on this project brings me such joy as I plunge my hand into a bag of glorious yarn in delicious hues.

All I did for this photograph was line up all the yarn and start snapping.  I think nothing more needs to be said except - YUM!

-----------------------------------

This project of taking a photograph every day is challenging, but not in an overwhelming way.  I am enjoying having a topic to focus me on taking photographs each day.  It is giving me a reason to really get to grips with my new camera and also with Photoshop, which I got just before Christmas.  This is exactly what I wanted - a way of focusing my attention on my photography.

As a side benefit of focusing on my photography, I am finding that as well as snapping my Challenge photograph each day, I'm also taking other photographs that are worth keeping and adding to various project pages.  One of my favourites was this one:

As always, when I went outside, the neighbour's cat came to see what I was up to.  He is the friendliest little thing and always wants a fuss.  He kept following me around to see what I was taking photographs of.  I went to stroke him and he decided that he needed to check out my new mittens - he obviously is a fan of quality knitting!  I think he wanted to keep it.

How did it get to February????

I don't know where this year is vanishing to.  Someone is stealing my days!  I feel like I don't have much to show for January at all, but at least I have something to motivate my February.  

Last year I took part in the Weekly Photo Challenge, which I really enjoyed.  You can still look at the photos I took here.  As you can see, I trailed off towards the end, as Christmas approached.  I don't feel the need to do another tightly organised weekly challenge, as I did find it difficult being tied to the house a lot of the time.  It's really hard to take Urban photos when you can't get out of bed for a few days.  I decided that I would set my own challenges and just try and take some photos each month that are not for any purpose other than being attractive photos.  I was quite happy with that plan until I saw Andi's idea on her blog, Untangling Knots. 

Andi has decided to take photos surrounding the subject of her craft, each day of the month of February.  And she has invited other people to join in.  You can read all about it here, if you fancy joining in.  The daily subjects are show below.

I don't think I had really decided to join in until this morning, when I started taking photos for today's post and thought, you know what, I can add an extra photo as this is based around my home.  So I did.  Here is my photo of "01. You In Action".

Do you recognise the sweater?  I think this challenge is a really good idea for me.  It's something I can do, because I don't have to go outside to do it.  It is around the subject of my crafting, which I would be taking photos of anyway and it will keep me focused on blogging this month.

I probably won't post the photos on here every day, but if you are interested, I will be uploading them to my Flickr set.  Maybe later in the month I'll share some more, if anyone wants me to.

The above photo is actually quite appropriate to a Wednesday post, as today is WIP Wednesday.  The knitting in my lap is my latest project, a Lazy Katy Shawl, by Birgit Freyer.
The pattern uses a single skein of sock yarn to make an asymmetrical shawl.  I decided that I would use my BabyLongLegs, Merino Sock in Yoda, as my fingers have been twitching to knit with this yarn since I got it.

Most of the versions of this shawl, I have seen, have long colour changes, which this yarn doesn't, but I don't think that will matter too much when it is wrapped around my neck.

I quite like the pooling, but I don't know how much it will hide the lace edging.  I've done the main body of the shawl so far, and have just picked up around the outside edges, ready to start the lace chart.  This will be a chance to use the new Chart Folder!  So until I have any more progress to share, here is a gratuitous close up shot.

And yes, those are the true colours.  They really are that saturated!

If you want to look at other works in progress, click the button.