100 of 10 - Day 5 - Jellyfish Discovery

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100 of 10 - Day 4 - Surfing

100 of 10 - Day 3 - Drawing

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Wordless Wednesday

100 Days of 10 - Day 2 - Home from Home

Holiday projects...

So here we are, on holiday, and it's already so so good. We arrived early, after only an hours drive from the ferry at Rotterdam, so we had the full day ahead of us. I'm rapidly becoming convinced that this is the way to holiday - keep the travel time to a minimum and just arrive and dive right in. 

We have a lovely little house only 5 minutes walk from the beach, and since the weather is still absolutely amazing that's exactly where we've spent the majority of our time so far. The boys have basically turned into fish or something, and since they are all so happy and entertaining themselves (thanks for that also go to D, who's been joining in the play a fair bit) I've even got a bit of knitting time in. 

I followed your advice, by the way (how did you all get so sensible?!) - I've brought my parrot socks as an easy project and have left a couple of the more complex WIPs at home. I've found the address of a cute little yarn shop in Amsterdam so I'm hoping for souvenir yarn to take home. One little indulgence that I've brought is some cotton to knit myself a sun hat. I felt that was somewhat appropriate, considering the temperatures...

It's quite a fun project, actually, and very beach-worthy. 

I'm about 16 rows in now, so it's going well. Perhaps, when we go to Amsterdam, I can source some hat wire to actually finish the hat, but even if I can't I'm fairly sure I'll finish this project before we get back because it's far quicker than I thought.

Other than that we've been doing a lot of eating and lazing around, and cycling - you can't go to the Netherlands and not cycle, after all - and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. Noordwijk is a lovely and very lively place and the weather obviously helps, but I suspect that even if it wasn't this sunny we'd have a great time here. 

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Crafting On

A Year of Projects

100 Days of 10 & holiday-ing

I'm challenging myself to 100 days of 10 minutes photography. My theme is 'Life' so this can pretty much be anything that I feel captures life at a particular moment in time.

I may not comment a lot on these pictures, depending on what they are about, but you can expect a fair number of photographs over the coming 100 days! 

So here we go, post one of 100:

Day 1: Beach, Noordwijk, Netherlands, July 2018

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Holiday prep...

We are off on holiday to the Netherlands in a few days time.

Well,  next Friday really, but this coming week is looking to be such an insanely busy week, with school stuff, and getting all the critters sorted, and boy #1's leavers celebrations (he is off to secondary school in September! Where has time gone!?), and then an unexpected hospital appointment for me next Wednesday, which will likely set me back a day or so in preparation, that I really have to get a move on with my holiday prep now or it won't get done in time. It feels weird to be quite this organised, but I'm going with it...

This does not mean, however, that I have my priorities completely in order. I have, for example, already spent an unreasonably long time contemplating what knitting projects I want to bring. Do you find that you spend far too long thinking about things like this?! Realistically, I probably won't get a lot of time to knit anyway, and yet I find myself weighing up different projects, WIPs, looking at more patterns. Insane, when I have so much to do!

I'm currently thinking of bringing my newest project, the Mohair cowl that I'm knitting with some stash yarn that I recently unearthed. I can't even remember where I got this stuff, but it's quite nice to knit with and will hopefully make a nice light but warm jumper with a generous cowl. There is lots of this yarn, so I'm not likely to run out no matter how generous I make it.

I'm also thinking of bringing my will-it-ever-get-finished Black Acer. This cardi has been on my needles so long it's unreal, but I find it so hard to work on it. It's not so much that the pattern is too difficult as that it takes my full concentration and I so rarely have a moment during the day when I can give it that. I tried knitting in the evening, but the black is awful to work with in artificial light. Perhaps the holiday will allow me to make some headway with this project? I'd really like to wear that cardi sometime before I retire...

I'm also thinking of perhaps bringing my parrot socks?  These are usually my handbag project and I tend to drag them all over the place because they are an easy no-thinking-required stockinette stitch and therefore ideal for quickly picking-up and setting-down as required.

Alternatively I could bring my red Hedgerow socks, again a project that's been on the needles far far too long. This might be the better option because the parrot socks will get finished one day anyway, because they live in my bag and come out whenever I have to wait anywhere for any length of time. The Hedgerow socks however are again somewhat more tricky, with a somewhat fiddly pattern to remember, and if I get distracted I tend to mess it up. Or should I rather take an easy project for the beach?! Decisions, decisions...

I'm also thinking of bringing some yarn to work on the larger version of the little crochet rat I made for boy #2. Boy #3 has been asking for a cuddly larger version for so long now...

I don't know... I have so many pattern ideas at the moment that I am finding it really hard to properly focus on a project. Should I instead bring something new and exciting?!

Or perhaps I should shelve these contemplations for a while and concentrate on packing things like trousers and underpants...

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Crafting On

Ratties big and small...

As you might recall, we have a little mischief of fancy rats that we keep as pets.

They make wonderful pets. Our vet always says they are like mini dogs and he's right. They are affectionate and clever, and always want to cuddle and play. They can be trained too, though we've never bothered. To see them rushing out of their bed to greet us when we come to the cage is a lovely thing to see, and never ceases to make me smile, and that they do so even though a minute ago they might have been fast asleep is even more touching. I never realised, before we owned rats, how much our company seems to mean to them. Rats are naturally more nocturnal, yet in order to spend time with us they will regularly wake themselves up to greet us and to come out for a play. We find that within days they had learned what time of day we usually take them out for free-roaming and they are now always awake at that time, waiting for the fun to happen.

The only drawback - and it's a big one - that rats have is that they have woefully short lives. The average lifespan is below 2.5 years, and for a rat to reach the age of 3 is pretty rare. I once heard someone say that they make bad pets because 'they have huge personalities but such short lives'. While I still think that the good out-weighs the bad and they make great pets I can understand what that person meant. They do have huge personalities and they capture our hearts very quickly and because we get only such a short time with them that can mean a lot of heartbreak.

We have recently lost a few of our ratty friends, and each of them is sorely missed, but the worst death of them, probably because it was so unexpected, and because she was so very young to have to go, was our Tam. She developed a prolapse that, despite an emergency operation, reappeared and didn't improve so she had to be put to sleep.

We were so sad, and boy #2 in particular took it very hard. Tam had been 'his', and her gentle and affectionate nature spoke to him in particular. In rat circles such a special connection is often talked about in terms of a 'heart rat'. Tam was his heart rat. He still has pictures on the wall to remind him of her, but when I found this little pattern I knew I wanted to make a little 'Tam' for him as a memory of his ratty girl.

I'm now planning to make crochet versions of all our ratties, past and present, and boy #3 has also already put in an order for a large rat that he can snuggle better than the small ones (these are really small!), so I'll be busy for a while...

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Hello there?

Anybody here?!

Likely not, especially with this amazing weather still going on. Honestly, what's happening to the UK?! The last time I remember a summer that was even close to what we are experiencing right now was more than a decade ago when I was pregnant with boy #1. Pretty much every summer since has been... kind of soggy?

Anyway, much as  I seem to be unable to find a blanket thin enough to sleep with at night, I am enjoying this weather immensely.

And... I even have some FOs to report back on.

I've actually knitted and crocheted lots in recent months, but I always seem to forget to take pictures and blog. So what I'll do is do a few posts for individual projects until I feel that I'm more or less up to date.

First one up, my market bags.

I made two of those, in different sizes. This one is the larger one  - oddly it looks smaller here than the small bag, but that's because I had to sew the handle over to shorten it because it was so deep that if I had a lot of things in it it hung down to my knees. 

I've actually really loved making these. I have so many odds and ends of yarn, either leftovers from other projects, or skeins of handspun that I had no idea what to do with... When I saw this project I initially wanted to buy the 'Homespun' that the pattern called for, but then restrained myself because I'm trying to save money AND I'm still trying to reduce my unruly yarn stash. As I was wondering what to do I realised that if I pulled together 2 or 3 strands of yarn and alternated them gradually (so just changing one strand at a time) I could get a really nice effect going where different colours would gently blend and mix.

I used an insane amount of yarn, and because I could alternate between two and three strands, depending on the thickness of individual strands, I've been able to use lots of different yarns, from sock yarns to thicker handspuns. I'm so pleased, both with the reduction in stash and with the way these bags have turned out. They are sturdy, and striking and I love them!

Initially I made the larger one, and by larger I mean it's HUGE. Boy #3 fits in it. That size can be useful, but on an ordinary day it's a little too large - I'm constantly fishing around in it and can't find my phone or wallet. So I made the smaller one (picture below) by simply reducing the increases by a few rows. So simple! I took that one out for the first time today and it's pretty much perfect for what I need. Small enough that things don't just get lost, and  I still managed to fit lots of stuff in. These bags are like the Tardis, honest.

Who knows, I may make a smaller one still, as a sort of handbag?

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Finally a project for this yarn...

Once upon a time, many years ago, when D and I got married, we went on our Honeymoon to America, hired a Harley, and drove all over New England.  We had a magical time, staying in little B&Bs and on farmsteads in the middle of nowhere, and visiting Portland, and Plymouth, and Boston. 

We also visited a whole lot of yarn shops. 

Before we went off, I had asked on my blog (which, at the time, was a whole lot more busy because I was posting almost daily), if readers living in New England could recommend their favourite yarn shops to me, and we had a fantastic time visiting all those little shops. I learned spinning with a drop spindle on that holiday, and I still cherish the little spindle I took home with me. I couldn't buy nearly as much as I wanted, fleece or yarn, because although the Harley is a large bike, it doesn't allow for too much luggage, but I still managed to come home with a few little treasures.

One of those treasures was a batch of 7 balls of Schachenmayr nomotta Two In One. I quite liked the loopy texture of the yarn, although I was not sure what I was going to use it for.

When we came home, the 7 balls of Schachenmayr got stashed in one of my yarn bins and that's where they remained, for over a decade. Every so often I pulled a ball out to fondle it, or to check the yardage, wondering what I could do with it. At times I was tempted to pass the yarn on, since no project came to mind, but it does have sentimental value, so I could never quite bring myself to do it. The problem remained, though; either the yarn was the wrong weight, or the wrong texture, I didn't fancy a scarf or hat, and for most larger projects such as cardigans or sweaters 7 balls was just not enough.

At the end of last year I decided to give it one more try. I've gradually been de-stashing these past few years, because my yarn stash is really rather out of control, and I was fed up with seeing it there, gathering dust. I was going through the pattern library on Ravelry and thought I rather fancied a cowl. I found one I particularly liked, a DROPS design, and thought I might be able to make it work if I modified the pattern a bit. 

There would be no sleeves of course - there was no way my 7 balls of yarn were going to stretch to full-length sleeves. The pattern was also a little odd in places - I didn't fancy the directions to increase rather than decrease knitting up from the hem towards the waist - and my gauge was also a little bit off. Never mind I thought, I'll figure it out as I go along.

And I did! There were hick-ups of course - I had to correct the width of the jumper by decreasing by a whole lot of stitches past the first few rows because my gauge was far worse than I'd thought for example - but the yarn, although not a joy to knit with (all those loops...), turned out to be quite forgiving of such mistakes. Instead of increasing towards the waist, I went with the traditional decrease then increase towards the bust. I skipped the sleeves and instead just went with little capped sleeves, and I guesstimated the increases in the cowl (again, the yarn is forgiving), but I suppose I followed the pattern roughly. 

I had to shape and pin the folds in the cowl, because the way it fell naturally it looked like a deflated donut around my neck, but you know? I absolutely love this cowl. I wear it with a long-sleeved top underneath, and it's comfy and stylish and I seem to wear it all the time!