Spacecrafty » Meg’s amazing lack of willpower

[Meg] Buttons and pins

Meg — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:05:53 +0000

I went for a wander today, down to the V&A, which is my favourite of the London museums and I’m very lucky to live close to it. I was mostly hunting for presents for a couple upcoming birthdays because the V&A store has so many lovely and unusual things in it. I managed to find both the presents and some items that had strangely attached themselves to my shopping. I just had to take them home, of course and tip them into a jar.

I’m particularly fond of the sewing themed buttons and the crayon buttons but the teeny, tiny buttons are also high up there.

The rest of my afternoon was taken up with a walk through Hyde Park, the purchasing of an ironing board (haaaaaaaa!), which required me to walk home with it clutched under one arm and then some time spent at my sewing machine, getting some more practice in, particularly in regards to seams and the straightness thereof. I have signed up for a sewing course in January, so I want to be far more comfortable with sewing by then than I am now.

Out of my practising came a useful item though. It’s a pincushion, the pattern (in so much that there is one) comes from Diana Rupp’s Sew Everything, which Jam brought me awhile ago. It’s a very helpful book and I am looking forward to making quite a few of the patterns with my shiny new pincushion by my side!

Knitting wise, I am alllllmoooost finished my Cherry (by Anna Bell), just one and bit sleeves and the ribbing to go. I have also signed up for the Knitting Goddess’ sock club after Sadie linked to it (I am so weeeaaaaak!), so I am looking forward to getting squashy parcels through the post soon.

[Meg] Mmmm!

Meg — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:11:46 +0000

First stash purchases of 2009! The first three are Shelridge Farm’s Soft Touch Ultra in Robin’s Egg (1), Apple (2) and Cornflower (1), purchased from the lovely Alice at Socktopus with a gift voucher I got for Hogswatch (yay!). The final one is Artesano’s Alpaca in Maroon (2), which I purchased at iKnits, partly as retail therapy after a horrible morning involving the Misery Line (Northern) and the dentist.

The Apple is going to be pair of socks, although I haven’t decided which pattern yet and the Cornflower and Robin’s Egg is going to be whatever colour-work item I decide to do. Right now I am contemplating Endpaper mitts but there’s a beret I quite fancy as well. We shall have to see!

And because we briefly had sun today, I took some photos of the February Lady Sweater now that it is finally at a stage where it’s not a crumpled mass on my needles. It’s going quite well. I’m planning to knit about another inch of the lace on the body and then switch to the sleeves as I don’t want to leave them till the end. I might modify them to be a bit more tapered but will need to go have a poke about on Rav and see what others have done before I do that.

I really like the lace pattern – the first row went a bit wrong but the next round has clicked it into place and now I can watch tv while I knit it and I’m def. going to knit the actual baby version for my wee cousin when I’m done with this one. That kid is going to drown in hand knitted clothes, if I have anything to do with it.

FO: Cabled Rangoli Hat

Meg — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:50:26 +0000

I’m on a roll, hold the mayo! Cabled Rangoli Hat by Desi knitter in RCY Baby Alpaca DK, which was another accidental yarn purchase along with the Pure Cashmere.

It took about a skein and a half and took about two days worth of knitting time. I had a few problems with the written instructions on the pattern – the cables went a bit wrong for me towards the end and I ended up with odd numbers of stitches but I haven’t completely figured out what happened. I was also knitting it on 80 cm 3.5mm needles in magic loop because I don’t own any 40cm circs and that’s given me a bit of a stretched ladder on the joins but that’s my own fault and it’s not that massively noticeable when it is on my head.

Now to finish the second Monkey (we have passed the heel!) and then I need to consult my Ravelry queue to see what I have planned/the yarn for next.

FO: Fetchings

Meg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:05:56 +0000

Look at that – I accidentally tripped and fell in the bargain bin at John Lewis on the weekend and came out with three skeins of Debbie Bliss’ Pure Cashmere in pale blue. I was determined that they wouldn’t be sucked into my stash because I am trying to knit the damn thing back into some sort of order (and decreased size!) so I went poking about on Ravelry and decided to turn them into a pair of wrist-warmers because I accidentally left my arm-warmers Oop North over Christmas. Woe!

So I cast on for a pair of Fetchings yesterday and finished them today. I am wearing them as I type this and they’re lovely! I may have to nip back to John Lewis tomorrow and snag some more yarn and knit another pair as a gift!

Still on the needles: the second Monkey but the heel is about to be started so I’m hoping to have them done and blocked by the weekend.

Currently listening to: Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place
via FoxyTunes

Mmm, yarn purchases

Meg — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:09:11 +0000

I have been a tiny bit trigger happy in regards to yarn purchases recently. My co-blogger has been tutting at me a lot but it was all totally worth it when all my recent purchases arrived in one fell swoop and made a moderately awful week so much better. There’s just something special about getting a package of yarn that has been carefully dyed by hand. And all the little touches! I got two suitable for socks sized stitchmarkers out of this batch of purchases and a recipe. And they all have lovely personal labels. I like to know that I’m helping someone do something with the stuff they love.

Left to Right: Preschool Merino/Nylon sock yarn from the lovely Yarnchef (which came with a beautiful stitchmarker that you can see on the label and a recipe card for minestrone), 200 yards of lace weight pure wool from Shunklies, who is based in the UK and Snapdragon 100% Merino sock yarn (with tiny elephant stitchmarker attached to label) and the lovely retro-style pinup girls sock bag from White Willow (plus, my current wip sock)

There’s was another purchase but I can not say anything about it because it’s going to someone who reads this blog. Mwahaha!

And in other, non-I have no willpower news, I have started my first cuff down sock. It’s…interesting. The heel caused me some considerable problems and I found it very awkward to knit but it’s getting there. It’s using a bit of a skein of Natural Dye studio’s sock yarn that Jam gave me when I first started attempting socks and the pattern is Grumperina’s Jaywalkers. There’s not enough to knit two socks but I’m treating this one as a test run so that’s okay.

Now I’m off to ball up those skeins, so if I never post again, would someone come untangle me? I have a suspicion that a visit to Homebase will be in my future so I can make my own swift.

Lost: Ability to not spend money, answers to the name ‘Argh’

Meg — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:41:36 +0000

“I’m not buying any yarn”, I said. Repeatedly, in fact. I was merely going accompany my visitor to Loop and not buy any yarn. “I’m stashbusting”, I said. “I don’t need any more yarn”, I said. “I’m really not going to buy any more yarn”, I claimed.

I am weak.

We walked in and the next thing I knew, I was petting two skeins of Louise Harding Alpaca like they were kittens. Somehow, I found myself in the queue with three skeins clutched in my sticky paws. But it was only a minor aberration, I said. I certainly wasn’t going to buy any more yarn.

I mentioned my weakness, right?

After lunch, I ended up back in the store. It was all perfectly justifiable. I was going to design my first pattern. We were going to sit in a cafe and knit. I needed needles to knit with! I was just going to buy the needles! Honest!

Best laid plans of mice and men…

Somehow, and I’m really not sure how, I walked out of there with not only the needles but also three skeins of GGH Mystik in a beautiful sea green. Completely baffled as to how this happened. I swear!

But it’s okay. I have plans for these skeins. They’ll be my first patterns. There are beads involved. Possible a set of patterns! Definitely not an entirely random purchase, I say, back-pedalling madly and attempting to track down my wallet, which has scuttled off to hide in self-defence.

I’m serious about the patterns though.