Moving home

A big thanks to Vicky and Adam for hosting my blog here, I have really appreciated it.  But it’s finally time for my blog to have it’s very own home.  And this also gives me a chance to merge my two blogs into one, so hopefully I’ll be more likely to post.

My new blog can be found at: dragonrambles.co.uk

It’s a little sparse at present but I have a few posts I plan to put up this week, starting with those recipes I was supposed to post before xmas, and the completed Blackstone that I finished while enjoying a stitching day at Nancy’s.

So farewell sweetestcondition and thanks.

January 3, 2010   Posted in: Life  No Comments

Moving Forward

I haven’t had a lot of time for knitting and stitching this month, but I’m finally moving forward on the shawl again.  Since restarting the border I knitted 17 rows before I discovered I had to go back 6 rows (not fun) but I’m back up to 22 rows into the pattern.  I’ll try to take a photo this weekend and post it here.  No stitching has been happening though.

This weekend is my last chance to enjoy my flat on my own for a while as I have someone moving in with me.  She’s just moving to Cardiff and needs a place to stay while getting settled so will probably only be here for 3 or 4 months.  That helps me out financially at the moment (duck races and trips to the other side of the world being very expensive) and I can decide if I want to get someone in again in the new year.

Stress levels are getting back under control, I’m really looking forward to the visit back to Australia and NZ in Sept/Oct and making plans for when I get back, and all is going well.  Things could always be better, but I’m not complaining and just moving forward one day at a time.

Hugs to all.

August 25, 2009   Posted in: Knitting, Life  One Comment

Spinning Wheels

Ever get the feeling that you’re just spinning your wheels?  The last two weeks have been like that for me.

The rewrite of our data analysis program at work that I thought would just take a week has had me going round in circles.  I think I finally know what I need to do to get all the bits working now, but I think I still have a few days of solid work to do to get it there.

And with that lovely shawl I was knitting – I’m back to where I was two weeks ago.  I started stitching the borders one at a time (flat knitting) but the sides with all the yarn overs were too messy and I didn’t think it would look very nice once it was stitched together so I undid what I’d done on the first side and picked up all the stitches around the sides to stitch in the round.  Of course that makes rows of 472 stitches!  What does that mean?  Well when I stuff up, I have that much more to undo.  And yes, I’ve undone a lot… repeatedly.  Broken the yarn, had the join unravel one or two rows later which caused more unknitting.  Then when I think I finally have that sorted I find I’m two stitches short in one section an end up unknitting the whole lot back to the start of the border.  And of course all this has thinned the already thin wool so much that I’ve know joined a new ball at the beginning of the border, but at least this means I shouldn’t have to join one again.  Fingers crossed it gets better from here and that in two weeks I have some border to show you all.

On the plus side (progress in something), I’ve been up ridiculously early for the last 3 mornings to attend business meetings to try and get takers for corporate ducks for the duck race and have now got some great contacts for my yearly duck races.  From next year will be great, here’s hoping this year’s one isn’t too bad.  I’ve got to get up at 4.30 tomorrow for one last one (yes I know how crazy that sounds), here’s hoping it goes as well as I’ve been told to expect.

So summing up the last two weeks, lots of time spent getting nothing much done.  Hopefully that’ll change and I’ll have some updates soon.

August 6, 2009   Posted in: Knitting, Life  5 Comments

Conspiracy

I just visited Vicky’s blog and saw all the wonderful stash she had bought at the show.  Seeing all this reminded me of the International stitching and craft show in Cardiff later in the year – I originally found out about this show by some lovely guys with a fabric stall at the Brisbane show.  Vicky will remember them, as I read that she visited them again.

Last year I was unable to go to the show as that was the weekend I was off in Dartmoor.  Thinking that it would be around the same time again (first weekend of Nov) I thought I’d be able to go this year.  After visiting Vicky’s blog I just went and checked the dates… they’ve brought it forward a whole month to the first weekend of October! No!  That’s when I’m in Australia.  

Another year with no craft show.  I think next year I’ll have to go to one somewhere else in the UK just in case the universe wants to go 3 for 3.  It’s a conspiracy I say! :)

July 27, 2009   Posted in: Life  4 Comments

Knitting up a storm

Well those magic needles are doing their job, in just two weeks I’ve managed to finish the center of the shawl (and that is despite having to unknit and reknit over 30 rows).  I’m really quite proud of myself and now am psyching myself up to start the borders – I’m anticipating many mistakes to start with as I have to get used to a new pattern.  But here’s the center so you can see what I’ve done so far (238 rows!)

July 20, 2009   Posted in: Knitting  6 Comments

Shetland Lace

I’ve started a lace knitting project for a friend.  She is due to have a baby in November and we are having her baby shower in mid September.  So I’m knitting a blanket/shawl.  It’s a shetland lace project, one of the easier ones.  The lady who designed it said she knitted it in 4 weeks of 1-2h a day.  So in Nic knitting, that’ll mean probably about 3 months.  I’ve sit down to work out how much I have to knit to get it done in time, and it’s 10 rows a day.  Here’s the start, it’s the center section which is knitted first.

July 5, 2009   Posted in: Knitting  4 Comments

Gardening

The growing of my own veggies is going well.  Some of it is trial and error, but one of the plants that are going really well are the zucchinis (courgettes for some).

I’m having a stack of fun doing this gardeing thing.  I’ve overgrown my tomatoes so they are taking longer to appear and ripen but the learning what to do is all part of the fun.  This year I started with tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, zucchinis, strawberries and potatoes.  Next year I have bigger plans.

And while on the topic of gardens, I have been working on Blackstone Garden lately.  I’ve managed to get quite a bit of stitching done now that I’m making a point of taking at least an hour each night.

For those interested it’s stitched on 28ct Pansy from Pictures This Plus.  The green knot is Dragon Opal (Vikki Clayton) with the outline in Moonglow (Room for Threads).  The other knot is in a custom variegated silk by Vikki Clayton with the outline in Mystic Pools (Dinky Dyes).  And all the blackwork, the colours assigned so far are: A – Rose Bay (Dinky Dyes), B – Noosa (Dinky Dyes), C – Deep Ocean (Vikki Clayton), D – Deep Blue Sea (Gloriana), G – Cabernet (Dinky Dyes).  So just the Rose Bay to finish and then two more colours to assign and stitch and it’ll be done.

July 5, 2009   Posted in: Knitting, Life  5 Comments

Arrgggh!

I give up. I just spent a verrrrry long time trying to fix the layout on the last post. Of course what shows up in the screen is nothing like the visual box of the editing screen, nor in any way resembles the html code I try to write to force the layout to how I want it.

So, sorry for the mess. At least the pics are there. I think I’ll need to change my theme to one that doesn’t create such huge havoc.

June 21, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

Lotsa Pics

Ok, so what have I been working on over the last 12 months?  Well there was a crocheted shawl for my Granny, which I of course forgot to take a photo of before I shipped it off.  Then there was the dino quilt that I posted of a few months ago.  I’ve since done a second dino quilt, in different colours, that I’ll post a pic of soon.

I’ve discovered the joys of knitting – basically because I want to do some lace knitting.  I finished off a scarf that has been in the works for ages (not a slow job, I just got bored with just knitting and purling), all I have left to do is to stitch in the yarn ends.

Paw Print scarf

Now I’ve started a lace knitting project, but not just any… estonian lace.  I think I had to restart this about 6 times, but I’ve got the hang of it now :)

Estonian Lace wrap


As for stitching, well I started Rhapsody in Red when I first arrived in Cardiff. This is a pic that I thought I had posted back in July/Aug last year. But since I apparently didn’t, here you go.


And HAEDs… I’ve done some work on Stella and Pumpkin Pixie.

And then the other month I picked up and old WIP, since this year I plan to finish off things rather than just keep starting them.

And at the moment, I’m working on Blackstone Garden

So that’s you all caught up. For the rest of the month, when I’m not knitting I’ll be stitching on Blackstone Garden. Looks like I might have a stitching finish this year after all.

June 21, 2009   Posted in: Stitching  4 Comments

Wierd

I’ve just come in to my blog for the first time in ages, and I’ve been looking back over the infrequent posting I’ve done.  It’s been even worse than I thought.  There are some posts that apparently I just did in my head as there is no evidence of them here :)

Like a post telling people I was heading off to start a new life in Cardiff.

And the post a few months after I got here that had stitching pics.

Well, of course none of them are there and my first post since I moved here was back in March by the looks.  So I now have a few pics of what I’ve been working on since I moved here.  They’ll come in the next post – but don’t worry the next post will be written after I’ve posted this one, it’s not like I’ll make you wait another couple of months.

So, I’ll try to write more posts, more frequently, and have less of them in my head alone  :)

June 21, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments