Lace ribbon scarf for Torie

I've finished the scarf for Tor - from the Lace Ribbon Scarf, Knitty Spring 08 by Veronik Avery.

I did fewer repeats across, and sued some Hipknits laceweight silk I found very wiry, but a beautiful rich pink.

Blocking shots - sorry, I used similar coloured towels to minimise stains! (There was a bit of colour leakage in the wash, and I had pink fingers after blocking though not while knitting). So there's less contrast than might be ideal.

Birthday loveliness

Yep, it was over a week ago. I never said I was organised, or a prompt poster, but I am a grateful and happy recipient of various delights.

Fin made me a wonderful Pavlova (which I promptly pronounced incorrectly, he told me!) - My first, with passion-fruit. Delicious. No pics, we scoffed it rapidly! He also provided a rather beautiful handkerchief from India (one of his passions) properly hand-printed and everything (and apt as a I was having one of my snuffly allergy days). 

Bex dyed me some yarn - 'Emily the Car' colourway, which is funny if you realise that Kris thought I was car the first time Bex mentioned me. 

Some of the dark areas are greener than you can see here.

Sally and Lara gave me 1200m of this lovely two-ply/laceweight from Rubi and Lana

ass well as some beautiful knitty-themed fabric and a ?30s style needlework tin! 

Sandra, whose partner Mary-Helen was in NZ so not at my birthday Indian feast, introduced me to the ABC shop with a card for there - another place I keep on browsing now!

What a lucky jammer I am!

Messy - um Tues-ish-day

Sorry for blurry pic.

How I spent my Tuesday: making mess at the dining table - plunging into the C&G knitting course, module one. So far, a lots of talk, very little action, but today - ACTION! I'm going to enjoy this, Loraine.

Why, no, I haven't unpacked the shopping bags. Oh, you think that's a good idea to avoid tripping? Hmmm... I'll give it some thought.

I cooked rather lovely boiled chicken with veg and rice in one pot, made Nigella's Mum's saffron lemon sauce (a sort of hollandaise) and made lots of delicious banana bread. AND managed to scuffle round doing a quick tidy, hoovered under the bed (I promised this morning. Tried to take a pic of the dust levels there, but too dark), and washed up before Clare got back. She now phones from Central station (if she doesn't cycle) where she's about 25 minutes away; the perfect time for a procrastinator. A quick re-organise of stuff so that there are some clear spaces to eat and sit, and she feels happier coming in and the evening is happier too!

This is what JoVE talked about in her post yesterday (well, a bit of what she wrote) - negotiating shared household space and tidiness/mess. 

I'll include a pic of what Clare naturally just does with her potential mess when she gets in :

Amazing to me!

Consistency (in blogging as elsewhere) is clearly my middle name.

So - well, Sally and JoVE re the silly youtube thing - can't remember where I found it. Has the hallmarks of a web-wander from Kris's blog, land of the entertaining link, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't know how to find such things independently, honest!

Anyway - Felix, I really will post further mess tomorrow (when it is Tuesday). I am meant to be having a massive clear-up, including hoovering under the bed (Clare says it's vile; I protect myself by not looking). We'll see what delights I find for everyone. The whole tidy side/messy side is played out in our whole lives, works at the dinner table, on the sofa (where I nest with projects surrounding me. Where's the camera? I ask - on the sofa says the long-suffering C). 

I've decided not to feel guilty, c'est moi, and I am now officially middle-aged and unlikely to change such ingrained habits. Neither of my parents is very tidy, Mum perhaps worse in the creating-piles dept (or at least she was when she was stressed out working-woman). There was a famous occasion when Dad went spare (not uncommon for any of us in our household, we row, rather than stiff-upper-lipping like proper Brits should) over the massive piles of crappy post in the hall. Eventually he threw it down the garden path; whereat Mum stepped delicately over it and went to work. 

I must say I quite like her style! (Dad's wasn't bad, either; at least it wasn't passive-aggressive!)

Anyway: knitting. I have been. What is more, I have Swatched. Against my nature, but actually quite fun, I've been finding! Here is the evidence:

The pink is in progress (2/3rds done perhaps?) to be a Lace Ribbon Scarf a la Veronik Avery in Knitty, except I've used a laceweight and done fewer pattern repeats across. I plan a knitted on edging to fan out a bit at each end. This is for Torie, the beautiful Lil' Miss Chievous the Burly Babe, who's had a recent unfortunate incident involving a disc in her neck. She is now Officially Bionic, with a prosthetic disc, and plans to channel Isadora Duncan in the way of neckwear (though more safely, I trust). Hence: 

My other swatches are for Pinnacle Chevron Rib, seen in Molecular Knitting's scarf here and charted here by Angela Hahn of Knititude, where she has a plethora of patterns using interesting stitch patterns and -often - not wool (or at least compounds of wool and Other, suitable for the Souther Hemisphere knitter). Lutea Lace Shell and Wave skirt, both in recent Interweave Knits magazines are hers. I'm going to use some dark sheep yarn, from New Zealand for this - and plan on a plain jumper (or maybe cardigan) with shaping by changing needle size. My swatch includes 2 needles sizes here:

which doesn't quite do justice to the beauty of the yarn.

Then, i've been wittering on about doing Knit in Chunks by Miss Twiss as she says, a sort-of knock-off of the Pringle sweater that has influenced so many designers (even Lion Brand, I gather!) I'm actually going to do KIC but using cables from Silver Belle, Debbie Bliss's freebie contribution to the 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting. I don't like that overall nearly as much, but I do enjoy the twisting cable. See the green swatch above (started at the bottom with 6mm needles, then 5mm, ended up with 4.5mm, so that's what I think I'll use, certainly for the cable around the bodice so that it doesn't stretch too much sideways). It perhaps looks plumper in the cable in the 5mm, so may use that for the vertical cables that have less pull on them.The yarn is Rownspun Aran tweed, discontinued and available for £3.50 a 100g skein from the wonderful Cucumberpatch in Stoke.

Have I already written about all this? I feel I may have...

Maria - how's the Socks that Rock? I have never met this yarn in person, but a massive (£1800AUD) order has been sent by Australia to BMFA, the dyers, so I hope to soon (no, didn't order). I have, however, ordered some yarn from my mate Barb of Lost Flock Fibers on Etsy - some called Good Dirt I couldn't resist! What a name!

My current knit-while-Clare-practises-Poi-at-the-foreshore, or knit-at-groups project is my bodged-together pattern socks here: 

I'm rather enjoying the spiralling effect. This is the Glacier Lake colourway in Down Home sock from Knitivity, which I'm finding a beautifully, intensely dyed great work-horse of a yarn.

I prefer to buy yarns like this from Ray and barb, knitters I've met online with small operations - STR seems a bit too popular for me! (Inverse snobbery? Discuss!)

Amusing to me, anyway!

Messy Tuesdays

The entertaining and thoughtful blogger, Felix, of Felix's blog and the Missability Radio Show has come up with the idea of posting pictures of our messes on Tuesdays - me being messy is practically a feminist act, dontchaknow, not just idleness! (you've no idea how affirming I find this - I'm 40 and have totally failed to come up with a way to be tidy. V hard for C, who is!) I shall quote Felix herself:

Tired of balancing career, housework, self-care, social life, blog-life and knitting-projects beneath a veneer of carefully groomed perfection, Messy Tuesdays are a strike in the direction of The Unideal Home Blog: a celebration of things as-they-are and an affirmative reminder to everyone out there who despairs of the state of their sink/bedroom/laundry-pile thatyou are not alone! I say to hell with perfection and the careful disguising of reality in the blog. I say to hell with isolation and the negative psychological effects of aspiring constantly towards unattainable standards of domestic perfection.

A friend of mine who has a lengthy and horrific commute daily, who rises at 5am every morning to get into work, who is home by 7pm on a good day, who sews, knits, blogs etc. on TOP of this job and commute was recently, in spite of this extreme industriousness, ashamed of her untidy home when I last saw her. I found myself exclaiming that I love her messy pots, her pan full of mould and her disarrayed knitting projects covering every surface. I love them because they signify that my friend does not come into the house after a long day of work and immediately subject herself to tiring housework. I love the mess because it is the result of my friend choosing to do stuff that is pleasurable to her, rather than feeling obliged to perform tasks that are not fun during the small amount of free time available to her. When I look at the mess I see all the other stuff my friend has been doing with her time; activities that aren't cleaning and cooking and tidying and sweeping. Because let's face it, we could spend our entire lives cleaning! And why should we?! Enough of the oppressive idea that one is less of a woman somehow if one's house is not spotless. Bring on the mess. We know it always gets tidied away (if badly and hurriedly) at some point.

So here's my side of the bed - and this is how it always is apart form brief spates of tidiness when I feel guilty or whatever. There are manky hankies next to the bed and everything.

And Clare's side. This happens naturally....

And a quickie pic of one of the many things I am doing instead of tidying. This is the cablenet sock from Knitty (have you seen the new Spring one? I love the Salto sock! And the Laminaria Shawl (makes me want to dye yarn just that green),  and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. The feature articles seem pretty good, too!) Anyway - the cablenet socks - started for Mum's birthday January 2007, finishe done in time was too short - and now I've finished that one! You see it here (with the benefit of free, added mess, lucky you!) practically nearly almost done, but it is now done indeed.

It is actually rather lovely!

The big boxes you can see in the back of this picture are full of STUFF sent from Birmingham in January, and shipped via several long rests at the shipping company and then here - landed on 12th feb, got through customs and AQIS by 7th March and arrived here on the 11th. Extraordinary.

We are both very happy to be reunited with our stashes - mine is yarn and knitting books, C's is work books and KITES (and bike tyres and spare wheels, three more water bottles etc etc). Suddenly mine feels entirely fine! Perhaps I'll reintroduce you to it over the next few weeks as I pick back up on various projects started and planned.

Replies, yarn

This is the Glacier LAke and Cygnus the swan. I've just spent several hours doing what I almost NEVER do, starting, unpicking and restarting a sock with the Glacier Lake (after giving myself backache winding it from my knees onto a loo roll while awkwardly reading my blogroll). I cast one 70 stitches on 2.5mm needles, though I usually use fewer stitches and 2.25mm needles. Couldn't remember my favourite tubular cast-on (and of course have no books), so just did a backward loop. That was loose enough, but I felt the whole thing was knit too loosely, and it was really pooling for me. I took the chance to try various stitch patterns - I know I want something I can knit and chat, so simple, but I'm against stocking stitch socks (not necessarily for rational reasons!) I tried Bex's GliB socks and liked the pattern, but not sure it and the yarn go well together; then tried this Nine-to-five pattern - needs plain yarn.

Then I went online, to Ysolda's blog where she has a great video of a different method of tubular cast-on. I obviously was so stressed about doing it right, it was really tight on 2.25mm! I shall try again (casting on on larger needles) and try the Mad Colour Weave socks, I think.

Anyway, Hi Kathryn, Jo and Ruth, good to see you here, glad you like Josephine, I do too. Yep, Jo, the list is long and utterly unrealistic, you know me. I care not a jot, cos I do it for fun! (And of course I have a secret hope that I will get all these things done...). Ruth - I have enjoyed the fiesta socks so far very much (oh, yes, they're not finished either and are in transit) - and I fancy those Herringbone ones from Knitty too. 

I'll stop wittering on like someone who hasn't talked to anyone for 24 hours now, shall I?

(Company tonight, though - out for  a meal at the Universal restaurant - for the Friends of Dorothy (ha, ha) lunar night do. Christine Manfield's new restaurant - she had East @ West in London, winner of many awards, so my expectations are high!)

Josephine's done (hello again!)

So, I've finished Josephine, and all the details are Ravel'd. It was quite an easy knit, really, and I'm pleased with it. It is growing, as expected, and the only hope is that it grows no more than I allowed for (ok after 1 day's wear, fingers well and truly crossed).

The Sisters who indulged us as part of a history of Queer Sydney yesterday were happy to be pictured with old Josie, too...

I suppose it might be an idea to write here about my knitting plans, though they are being somewhat kiboshed at the moment by the non-arrival of all our shipped stuff. I'm assured it arrived in Sydney on 12th February, and we were warned it would be 2-3 weeks till it would be delivered to us, but - well, I have to admit to having bought some yarn in the meantime. Two balls of reduced something-or-other superwash heavy DK/aran from Tapestrycraft to make my Ellie, pictured here armless and one-legged, reclining on the deck. Not sure what came over me, I'm usually pretty much agin the cutesy-pie stuffed toy thing - but I suppose Ysolda managed a not-too cute but rather appealing elephant with her Elijah pattern, and the grey/brownness helps too! 

Not sure who'll get him...

I've also accidentally bought some organic wool in dark sheep colour from Ecoyarns, a site I'd stalked before coming here. I've always wanted a black sheep coloured jumper, and this is  going to be it! I think it'll be a combo of Knit in Chunks and Silver Belle; that is, the construction of KIC (but in DK as this yarn is, rather than aran) but with the cable around the yoke from SB, and probably the cables form there for the skirt/body part, too. We'll see! I do plan to leave it with just capped sleeves, as I think that'll be a good temperature for here in the winter, and home in the Spring/Autumn.

My Ravelry queue shows all sorts of plans, such as Intoxicating from No Sheep for You (awaiting yarn in shipping= AYIS); Fifi from French Girl Knits in Calmer (overdyed by me) (AYIS); Mamluke socks by Nancy Bush for Kate's 40th birthday present (AYIS); a very bright (coral, orange, tomato) Mermaid by Hanne Falkenberg (AYIS); a lightweight jumper in Kauni effektgarn EQ and (I think) Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply, in black with coloured flecks - perhaps Venezia? Or a self-written pattern. Might use the Kauni against itself, alternatively, so rainbows in 2 directions (AYIS)....

Etc, etc. I have got a bit of sock-yarn here, from Knitivity (in Glacier Lake for Clare and Cygnus the Swan for me) and I do have all my needles (except those actually committed in the dratted shipping to the Twisted Float Shrug (one arm and a few more repeats of the pattern in the HUGE circle to go) and the Cablenet socks). Harrumph.

Notre Dame was done - on boxing day...

And here it is, shown off by my lovely assistant, C. Toys and general chaos, courtesy of niecephews. 

The colour is rather brighter and less subtle than in real life, but that was in in the UK winter, gloomy and dark. Oh, here's another, with C in motion, shows the collar better. I'm pleased with the whole thing, really. Details on Ravelry.

Notre Dame bleeds and blocks

So - here are the front and back pieces of C's Notre Dame rinsing - and bleeding!!!
- and then blocking to match a sweater of hers. I'm relieved that it has easily blocked out flatter and therefore wider and more drapily than it seemed as I knit it (as did the swatch, but we all know that Swatches can Lie, so I am relieved). I notice that the rinsing shot looks darker than it really is, and the blocking paler - there wasn't that much obvious change in colour, to be honest.


And I accidentally started swatching for the Josephine top from IK Summer 2007 - with RYC bamboo soft - a little heavier than the yarn called for, but we'll see how the gauge compares when washed and blocked. Probably shouldn't just have run on from the 'all over pattern' to the lace, but WTF! Lucky I'm swatching at all! These ebony Destiny needles, by Lantern Moon, are from Purlescence, and perfect for this rather splitty yarn (the cable is delightfully flexible, too). BTW, have you seen that Robynn's planning a surprise for the New Year? (Not sure I should be telling the buying competition, but...)

Josephine and Kipling

OK, so I have a cousin (beloved) who, with his lovely partner, is ahving a baby. Just after Chrsitmas. Need to knit something! (Did Devan for his brother's kid, but I haven't started yet, and rather busy!) I found some lovely DK superwash from Fyberspates at the UK Stitch 'n Bitch day.

I hunted for patterns - thought I might do the Baby Albert from the Knit Stitch, but that's at my Mum's. Then I found the Kipling sweater. (From Yarn Abuse). It's lovely! I've gone up some needle sizes, and have added extra stitches and a little extra length (the extra stitches are 8 under each arm, in moss stitch). The striping is lovely! I'll show you when it's done, but here's a pic (sideways, it seems!) of the yarn.


When I was with Brenda a few weeks ago I bought some Rowan bamboo soft from colourway (think I spoke about it). Colour Gypsum - I'd have called it graphite, though, like the lead in a pencil. I think I'm going to make the Josephine top from IK Summer 07. I'll have to get 2-3 more balls, and they won't be the same Lot, but I reckon I could use the different ball for the bodice and the current ones for the bottom part and the sleeves - we'll see!


I've also got the Woodland BFL from Natalie at the Yarn Yard - see how she's spun it (Scroll down)! Mine will be much more basic, but I think I'll enjoy the colours lots as they run through my hands. We'll see how I do!. Very soft and intense, anyway, which is what I was after.

UK Stitch'n Bitch

Had a great time at this day put on by Knitonthenet and the Iknit London peeps. I went with my S-i-L (her birthday treat) and we had a cool time.

Here's the marketplace (S bought a 5 skeins of scrumptious - 45% silk, 55% BFL - from Jen of Fyberspates in red/purple, and my Ps (in the guise of me) bought her another 5 in in a beautiful blue/green. I got 4 skeins of DK superwash merino in rust/teal/pink to make a jumper for a new baby due at the end of the year.

S also got a skein of sock weight yarn in a wonderful wedgwood blue from the Oxford Kitchen yarns stall - which was beautiful BTW - the top left skein just here... They're all natural dye colours, and they go together bee-yootifully, like Edinburgh rock.

Jane Waller was present with all the jumpers from her 1940s book - she was very friendly and helpful, and I was enthused to knit some of the patterns form the book (which I have).

I also really enjoyed the Missability stall in the project area - I've written before about this website and podcast - do go, download the podcasts and consider joining the competition to design and knit a walking stick cosy - either purely practical but individual, or as wacky as you like! The ones they had on the stall were fabulous and inspiring. S is going to knit a cosy for her Nan's stick so she can show off in her Residential Home, and I want to develop one too. Have a few ideas...

The entertainment was great - though sometimes hard to hear, being just at one end of the large hall form the Marketplace - we missed the poet and the start of Girl and Dean, the comedy duo, but loved the part of their show that we did hear, as well as the wonderful Shellac Sisters - a

40s-dressed glamourous group who have a series of wind up gramophones and old music on original 78s - but run them together like modern DJs. Cool and inspiring!

A Shellac Sister knits...

All in all a great day!

A wonderful parcel

So, I went to get my shoes out of the shoe stand in the porch, and - there was a parcel stuffed in there! Who did that? C denies (and why would she?) - so, maybe the postman? No idea how long it's been there, but I'd been expecting it for a while.

Barb, the friend I made through the Knitter's letter swap, sent me a Swan from Threadbear Fiber studio, a lovely drop spindle. And here it is!
Well, that's the box with the two spindles she sent (one is a practice spindle she felt she didn't want) and the skein of Jubilee by Misty Mountain Farm in colourway Virginia Creeper - isn't it beautiful? Feels lovely too (all 400yds superwash merino sockyarn of it), quite bouncey!

Here's the Swan though - Barb chose the 'Timberland' wood - a beautifully dyed composite, she sussed me out totally - colour is my metier!

Also in here - a yarn tasting booklet from Threadbear Fiber - a wonderful idea, they do evenings when people can try new yarns and see patterns made up (I think) and take away a little booklet talking about both and with yarn samples stuck inside.

Thanks very much Barb! Your box is filling up too, BTW...

Organising the knitting (and the life)

So, we're in the throws of sorting out our lives for the move to Australia (which C has just informed me is 9 1/12 weeks away. Gulp!) One thing I want to sort is my knitting - we're going to ship a bit of stuff (some books and yarn and kites and so on) and have big cases to take with us too. My needles have lived in a drawer in rather a tangled mess (due in large part to my preference for circs) , and this seemed an impractical way to transport them!

Nona talked about her Ashland Sky "Stick Sacks", and they seemed a good plan! I looked for the links to UK suppliers - and KCG Trading carry the full range - but KnitnCaboodle sell easily online - and had most of the ones I wanted with a limited edition edging hand-dyed by the Twisted Sisters - so of course I went for those! And very efficient they are too.


Here they are opened out, so you can see the 'Ocean' and 'Fire' colourways, and how much space there is in the circs pack (enough for at least 20 needles), the short dpn sack (14 sets) and the long dpn sack (also 14 sets).

And packed up neat for travel!

It's a secret

Mum and I seem to be racing at half way through clue 3 - but we're not, it just turns out we're going at about the same pace. I'm v pleased to have hers to show you too, as it shows up very much better than mine in these pics - they're both lovely!



Here's Mum's in more detail - she's mortified that I didn't give her the time to remove the dental floss security line about 1/4 through from the right (though it's almost invisible here, I think) - she hasn't needed one since, and has found that she can read her knititng and see whether all is well without too much difficulty.




... And here's mine waving in the breeze!

IK Winter 2007 Preview

It's here.

Some thoughts and favourites. Bear in mind I'm off to Australia in January, which is making me keener on the light-weight stuff overall!

Alicia Tabbard - might look good on tall, boyish physiques, but not on mine!
Refined Aran Jacket - nice enough. I like the saddle shoulder detail. Probably not for me.
Bonbon pullover - don't like the name (shallow, me?) Nice enough, interesting nexk details, but not me.
Brushed Lace Cardigan looks good, but rather feminine for me. Would probably get lots of wear, though.
Selva Skirt - Um, no. Looks ok with the jacket, but bad without IMHO. Though might be better with *more* curves.
Henley Perfected - quite like it. Alpaca would make it pretty warm, but - pretty.
Sweater Girl Pullover - if you call it this, surely the model should have breasts? I think in a very different fit (ie negative ease) *could* qualify as a sweater girl sweater, but I think it'd drive me mad to knit it.
Forbes Forest Pullover - bobbles, schmobbles.
Bubble Cable Dolman - too batwingy for my taste.
Colette Pullover - nearly just said yuck. But look at the extra pics - it's a bit big for the model, which detracts from it. Interesting to have cat faces (I'm *not* a cat person, though) but I like seeing them disappear in the decreases....
Puffed Wheat Pullover - never. too short, too wide in the body for such fitted sleeves. too boring. And a horrible colour! (I know that's not your fault, Kate).
Citrus Yoke Pullover - not really.
Celtic Tote - I like how the contrast yarn is used. like it. Probably won't ever knit it (knitted bags - not so good, most of the time).
Tilting Cable Socks - I think I like them. hard to see with the colour variation.
Ivy League Vest - yum. I like the edging detail, and the different patterns. And so wearable, and fitted. - could fit my wardrobe, I think.
Subway Mittens - aren't these her CharlieCard mittens? Fair enough. Not a very complex pattern, though a good idea. Might work well for peeps in London with their Oystercards, except it's not often cold enough outside, and once you're on the tube - there's a great stripping off required, it's so warm!
Kilm Gloves - nice enough. Not my colours, and it would rarely be cold enough here for such fairly bulky gloves (and if it were, I'd wear mittens). Could look great, though.
Logan River Wrap - Hmm. Not very exciting.
El Sol Pullover - too big for her? Doing that dreaded droop around the armpits - I think a good hoick up would help - like Brenda spoke of recently, pulling back tyhe yoke of something and making it *much shorter*!
Farrow Rib Cardigan - just *not* my cup of tea at all.
Ruched Shell - now this I like! (Though I've never understood this 'shell' word in this contacxt. something from the beach, in my book). Alpaca might be rather hot for a sleeveless pullover, but something could be Worked Out, methinks. I'd like to make it.
Gathered Pullover - love it! Really like the slightly unfinished, shrunken favourite teeshirt look it has, and the flattering detail. Yup, I'd like to make this.
Rosemary's Swing Jacket - quite nice. I'd like to see it undone, as I rarely wear things done up around the neck. how would it hang? The gleam of the silk is well shown.
Jess’s Gansey: The Gutter Gansey Revisited - I'm intrigued, but don't really like it. Interested by the history, but the actual garment not my scene, I think. Too girlified, I like the gansey/Guernsey better in its native style ( saddle shoulders, dense knitting, fitted shape anyone?) and habitat. And I *really* don't like this model in any of her pics.

So there you have it. Not that I'm opinionated!

Yarn Forward Autumn 2007

Kerrie's really done us proud this time, I think (along with her team, of course). The issue looks and feels professional and beautiful.


Lovely paperstock; great, clear and stylish design; attractive pictures; appealing patterns.

After a troubled year, I'm so pleased to have paid for a subscription, and really hope that the mag will now go from strength to strength.

Yarn Forward - the new UK knitting magazine. Because we're worth it!

Books

From Robynn at Purlescence:

"this is apparently a Librarything list of the most common unread books."

Bold = read, italics = started but not finished, smallest = couldn't stand.

# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
# Anna Karenina
# Crime and punishment
# Catch-22
# One hundred years of solitude
# Wuthering Heights
# Life of Pi : a novel
# The name of the rose
# Don Quixote
# Moby Dick
# Ulysses
# Madame Bovary
# The Odyssey
# Pride and prejudice
# Jane Eyre
# A tale of two cities
# The brothers Karamazov
# Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
# War and peace
# Vanity fair
# The time traveler’s wife
# The Iliad
# Emma
# The Blind Assassin
# The kite runner
# Mrs. Dalloway
# Great expectations
# American gods : a novel
# A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
# Atlas shrugged
# Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
# Memoirs of a Geisha
# Middlesex {this one is great!}
# Quicksilver
# Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West …
# The Canterbury tales [bits of, English class]
# The historian : a novel
# A portrait of the artist as a young man
# Love in the time of cholera
# Brave new world
# The Fountainhead
# Foucault’s pendulum
# Middlemarch
# Frankenstein
# The Count of Monte Cristo
# Dracula
# A clockwork orange
# Anansi boys : a novel
# The once and future king
# The grapes of wrath
# The poisonwood Bible : a novel {another great one}
# 1984
# Angels & demons
# The inferno
# The satanic verses
# Sense and sensibility
# The picture of Dorian Gray
# Mansfield Park
# One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
# To the lighthouse
# Tess of the D’Urbervilles
# Oliver Twist {Nancy very much disappointed me! Read when I was 12}
# Gulliver’s travels
# Les misérables
# The corrections
# The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel
# The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
# Dune
# The prince
# The sound and the fury
# Angela’s ashes : a memoir
# The god of small things
# A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
# Cryptonomicon
# Neverwhere [but it's on my shelf, awaiting its turn]
# A confederacy of dunces
# A short history of nearly everything
# Dubliners
# The unbearable lightness of being
# Beloved : a novel
# Slaughterhouse-five
# The scarlet letter
# Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
# The mists of Avalon
# Oryx and Crake : a novel
# Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
# Cloud atlas : a novel
# The confusion
# Lolita
# Persuasion
# Northanger abbey
# The catcher in the rye
# On the road
# The hunchback of Notre Dame
# Freakonomics
# Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
# The Aeneid
# Watership Down
# Gravity’s rainbow
# In cold blood
# White teeth
# Treasure Island
# David Copperfield
# The three musketeers
# Cold mountain
# Robinson Crusoe
# The bell jar
# The secret life of bees
# Beowulf : a new verse translation
# The plague
# The Master and Margarita
# Atonement
# The handmaid’s tale
# Lady Chatterley’s lover
# Underworld
# Little Women
# A brief history of time : from the big bang to black holes
# Stardust
# Jude the obscure
# The chronicles of Narnia
# Possession : a romance
# Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal
# Never let me go
# The trial
# Kafka on the shore
# Bleak House
# Sons and lovers
# Alias Grace
# The Arabian nights
# Baudolino
# Confessions
# The great Gatsby
# To kill a mockingbird
# Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
# The alchemist
# Candide, or, Optimism
# Snow falling on cedars
# Midnight in the garden of good and evil : a Savannah story {yawn}
# Midnight’s children
# White Oleander
# A passage to India
# The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and …
# The house of the seven gables
# The lovely bones : a novel
# Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
# The amber spyglass
# The histories# Swann’s way
# The shadow of the wind
# Fahrenheit 451
# Good omens
# Running with scissors : a memoir
# Everything is illuminated : a novel
# The divine comedy
# Paradise lost
# The English patient
# Uncle Tom’s cabin
# The Origin of Species

A swan is coming!

So, when I stayed with Brenda a couple of weeks ago, she taught me to spin on a drop spindle. She has been determined over the last times we have met that I should try spinning, and I do long to make that barber-pole type stuff (like pigeonroof studios does so well) that I have lusted after since getting the Twisted Sisters' sock book.

Anyway, I was pretty rubbish, but it was fun, and I made yarn! Brenda says to get some BFL, and I plan to (form Fyberspates, I expect) as it is nice and long stapled too, so fairly easy to start off with. She also said I should get a Grafton Fibers spindle as they are wonderful! Who am I to argue....

I googled a bit, and found them available from Threadbear Fiberarts Studio, a place I've heard about on lots of blogs over the last few years - and would love to visit. Bit of a long way for just a spindle. But wait! I was involved in Domesticraft's Knitterly Letter Swap way back in March of this year, and have been keeping in touch with Barb with great pleaseure ever since (she's fed my desire for Diego Rivera mural pics, among other things). And Barb was waxing lyrical about Threadbear Fiberarts Studio. And said - 'do ask if you want me to get you anything'. So I did! I asked for a Swan/ Mala spindle, for her to decide.

And she's chosen a Swan, and it's bought and posted!

(And Barb will get some KSH from here in exchange, for the Modern Quilt wrap. Perfect all round!)

Thought this pic of C doing fire poi waas appropriate for discussion of spinning!