2nd term week 1

Well, this week I started back at my art class. A strange week, as I had hoped to paint over Easter, but life just go tin the way. Anyway, for the first hour our tutor waxed lyrical about what we would need to take to the sessions we are going to do in the field. Then he put all of the kit on the table and told us to draw it.

Oh dear! Well, I found it very difficult. I kind of switched between rough and ready, hoping to get an outline of the whole, to trying to do detail of light and shadow, to working with the perspective lines, to focusing on the boots (oh, how I long to draw boots!).

Anyway, I was not at all happy with the output (but happy to offer the excuse that it was done in half as much time as usual!) - but no, really, it is poor. I was not going to post it at all, but then I got a request today from T-bird!!! A fan club!!!! So here goes "for better or for worse..." Excuse the wonky legs (mine and its!).

Other news... the shrug is off the needles... just needs blocking and sewing! I want to do a flower fastening with french knitted cords.

The baby blackbirds have been seen this week in the garden. They are nearly full grown. It's great to see them, and think of them as ours.

I have been working all week designing the user interface for an educational product to be used by teachers to analyse class test results. It has been very engaging, and I am pleased to now have clocked up input to 5 products for the same company. They are all small pieces of work, but they add to my CV and to the company books.

Also done major family events this weekend just gone including steam trains and engine sheds! Secured 6 foot teddy bear to open our school fete, AND I have volunteered to escort my boy's class on a school trip next week (whatever came over me!).

So pretty busy - hoping for a quiet week ahead!

Nest Watch UK!

Breaking news... the chicks have left the nest. (Picture of chicks a day before they leave the nest courtesy of http://www.shire.org.uk/news/200606/nest.jpg).

Yesterday the male and female blackbirds were feeding the chicks in the nest. I was replanting our herb garden, and saw them collecting worms from the garden and repeatedly visiting the nest to the accompaniment of noisy chirping.

This morning, I hear a racket coming from the garden, it sounds like blackbirds, so I go out to see what is happening. There is the mother blackbird hovering over one chick on the grass, the male is on the wall letting out a stream of alarm calls, and there is a cat in the flower bed. I rush to the cat, as a small, out-of-control bundle whizzes past my face and lands on the sloping roof of the garage. I didn't have time to see where it went, as I was rushing the cat, who obliged by shooting off into next door's garden.

I turn to look for the chick who must have slid down the hot glazed-tiled roof, but cannot find him. So I settle myself down unobtrusively in the garden and sit and wait. The parents are still in a state of panic, hopping around, the male clattering on, the female making that soft low call to locate the chicks. I listen out hard for the answering chirp of the chicks, but cannot hear anything.

I had not been able to see if the cat had already got a chick by the time I chased it off, and I am worried about the chick that had made a crash landing on the garage. I go round to the other side of the garage to see if it had gone all the way over and landed on the drive, and also to see if there was any evidence of the cat having taken a bird. Thankfully, I find nothing, and... by the time I get back into the garden, two little chicks are bobbing around on the lawn!!

I got a good look at them... they are at about the same stage of development as last year's chicks were after two weeks of leaving the nest (for that read two heart wrenching weeks of daily care and cat rushing from me - my husband still likes to remind me how I raided the compost heap daily to put out worms in a dish of soil to make it easier for the lone parent to feed the chicks!). They have all their body feathers, but only the merest stub of a tail, they can flap and get themselves off the ground, but only to perch, they cannot really fly. They are very cute, and I am so pleased to have seen them today.

Just like Christmas!

At breakfast time this morning, there was a knock at the door, and on my doorstep stood a courier holding out a parcel...



"How exciting!" I thought, "I wonder what it can be." The postal label gave me a clue...



My little chap was keen to share in the excitement, and gave me a hand to open the parcel.



And inside we found a whole host of wonderful goodies:



My wonderful secret pal had worked her magic again, with special treats for both me and my boy. Starting with the yarn, I found two skeins of this wonderful Ironstone "Mesa" wool. "Bright colours mixed in interesting ways" my Sp10 questionnaire said, and this fits the bill beautifully. It is already on my needles and is destined to become a spring/summer shrug so that I can wear these bright and cheery colours. There was also a replica vintage pendant yarn cutter in brass, and a wooden thimble with a flower design and the word "Texas" on it. Both of these will be very useful items. The yarn cutter in particular is practical and unusual.



There were some lavender organic bath products. I have a thing for proper hand made soap... it smells and feels great.

There was also a small box decorated with a kimono, which is now in my sewing and painting room, and will hold all sorts of little treasures and keep them close to hand. A woolly sheep which made me smile, and is very appropriate for where I live, and a hand made zipped pocket which now houses my small collection of crochet hooks.

Finally there was some polka dot "sidewalk chalk" and "Incredibles" action figures for the little chap.


He, needless to say, was delighted...

Thank you, secret pal, for spoiling us both so generously and thoughtfully! I shall keep you posted on progress with the Ironstone yarn. Those colours are wonderful.

Easter progress

Well, the cotton shawl is complete as far as the knitting goes, there are just the beads to add. I knitted it on 7mm needles this time and used 100g of cotton, but it still was not as large as I had imagined it would be. I have also found out how unforgiving cotton can be. I always thought my tension was very even, but you can see every slight irregularity in the shawl, although maybe this will settle down when I was it. I'll post a picture when the beads have been added.

Tonight I started knitting a handbag which I am going to felt. I have made a row of eyelets at the top of the side, and through this I will thread the Louisa Harding sari ribbon as embellishment... in fact, here we go, let's thread some through now to see what it looks like. I am not sure I should felt it with the ribbon in, though, so I will need some thick cord to keep the eyelets open during felting. I am pleased with the idea for this bag, and also very pleased to be using some of the yarn I got from my secret pal (by means of the gift voucher).




As well as the knitting, I am considering trying to alter a couple of old dresses of mine and turning them into skirts. I'm battling with how to do the waistband for them. My Mum gave me some dressmaking books, so I shall have to see what advice they contain on this matter. I am going to try out the process on the dress with the most forgiving fabric!

I have been spending some very enjoyable time researching yarns for the next package I send to my secret pal. I know she would appreciate yarns that are specific to the UK, and therefore that she is unlikely to be able to get herself. I have found some lovely alpaca from a UK herd! And also some hand dyed silk and a silk/wool mix produced locally(ish). It's a wonderfully guilt free way to purchase exciting yarns (i.e. for someone else)!

Little chap and I did our trial run at camping last night. We set up the tent in the garden, had a sausage and beans camp tea outside, then turned in and listed to the radio and told stories until it got dark. It all went well. He slept through, and I managed about 2 hours sleep due to louder than usual traffic noise, falling temperatures (5 degrees... brrr...) and having to check on the little fella every 15 minutes to make sure he was still in his sleeping bag and not too cold. Anyway at 6:00am this morning we decided to come indoors to defrost! But I am pleased we did it, and I now feel happy about the idea of taking him camping for real later in the year.

While we were decamping, we also noticed that our blackbird chicks have hatched (lots of chirping noises coming from the nest over the kitchen window). This is both a matter of delight and trepidation for me, given the saga of the prematurely fledged chicks last summer. I shall be keeping a keen eye on the matter.

So it has been a busy few days, but it has been so good to have my chap at home. I shall find it a wrench to take him back to school next week.

Rally thrill - 99/100!!

Aside from craft pursuits this Easter, yesterday I had a very exciting time going rally driving (a "red letter" experience day treat that I received for my birthday). It was GREAT!!! The event was really close to us at Prestwold Hall. We drove a subaru road car for the familiarisation laps, and then a truly awesome Mitsubishi 4WD Evolution V for the real laps. I had the most fabulous time, and my instructor scored me 99/100 on my score card and wrote "brilliant drive - excellent control and good speed." I am obviously quite thrilled at that.


It was such a great treat... I'd go again right now! I was really nervous the night before, and during the lining up and checking in, but then when I met the other people in my little group, we all got on really well. Our instructor (John) was very patient and made it clear that what he really wanted was for us all to enjoy the experience. He gave us instruction before the driving, and during it, as he sat next to each of us and gave us a running commentary, encouragement and instructions.


Here's a picture of my driver assessment card of which I am very proud (my husband, who is a 'see-a-bubble-pop-it' kind of guy, said that of course they mark everyone high to keep them happy... but even so I am happy!!!!!!).



The bottom box was the first drive I did (after the familiarisation laps driven by the instructor). This was in a Subaru Impreza (hubby was jealous at this point!). You drive 4 laps of a 1 1/2 mile track which has 32 bends per lap including 2 great chicanes!!


For this session my instructor wrote " Good drive. Nice control. Work on Acceleration:Deceleration all round. 96/100".


Then I got to drive 4 laps in the Mitsubishi 4WD Evolution V (see picture!!!!).





For this session (middle box) my instructor wrote: "Brilliant Drive. Good speed and control, working in line all round with braking. Clean Run. Well Done. 99/100"


It was absolutely great!!!!!!!! For anyone who might fancy trying this now... here is the link.

Easter fun...

I promised to explain a bit more about the yarn I showed in my last post... My fabulous secret pal found out which was my local yarn shop and arranged for a gift voucher to be sent to me so that I could start off my secret pal experience with my own choice of yarns. That in itself is lovely, but the extra effort that she went to in order to contact a UK shop from the US, explain all about secret pal, and get them to post out a voucher to me makes the surprise all the more wonderful.

The postman delivered the voucher at 12:30pm on Thursday, and by 1:00pm I was in the shop and making my choices. I got some Noro blossom (destined to be a very fancy and luxurious wool and silk scarf), some Louisa Harding sari ribbon (to use as an embellishment for a felted bag I am making) and some fabulously crazy yarn called Filorosa, which is hand knotted lengths of all sorts of textured yarns built up into a mad colour themed ball of loveliness which I think I am going to make into an eye catching, heart stopping cushion cover.

I have also been making another shawl. I mentioned that the one I did in Rowan kidsilk haze turned out smaller than I expected, and when I am honest it is more scarf size than shawl size. So I have started another one in some lovely cotton that my Mum bought me. I have not knitted in cotton before. It is lovely to work with, it glides on the needles. It's a simple pattern, but the slight sheen in the cotton makes the item look more interesting, I am also planning to edge it with some lovely glass millefeuille beads.

As soon as the shawl is finished (hopefully by Monday) I shall start on either the felted bag with sari ribbon embellishment, or the cushion cover which is destined for our newly decorated hallway.

My yarn basket now overfloweth with good things!

Thank you secret pal - you're great!

Today I got a fabulous surprise from my secret pal.

Take a look at this, and I will tell more later....

A Tale of Two Kitties

There once was foolish blogger who decided she wanted to join in the amigurami craze, but not being skilled in crochet, she decided to try to knit one. Just Jussie came to the rescue with a pattern for knitted fortune cats.


I looked at this pattern, and was glad to embrace some techniques that I hadn't tried before, and also determined to adapt the pattern to cope with my lack of dpns or circular needles.


So I knitted it flat and decided I did not mind having a seam up the back. I managed to put the stitch markers in for the arms and legs using waste yarn. I managed to pick up stitches from the cast on edge (as I did not have a crochet hook to do the provisional cast on), and battled valiantly to find them in the fuzzy wool I foolishly had chosen. I realised I had put the ears in the wrong place (through knitting the head as a flat piece rather than in the round), and figured a way that I would put a dart into the head to bring them into position. Then I borrowed some dpns, and picked up the stitches for the arms, but then it all just got too hard. Knitting so few stitches in the round on 3 needles just was not working for me (perhaps I should have done them more like an I cord?). It was all turning into too much of a struggle and the sparkle was wearing off the idea. So I just gave up. I wish I could say I had frogged it, but no, the whole thing just went in the bin.

However, I am pleased to have grappled with some issues, and "thought out of the box" at least a little bit.

I've never been much of a fan of knitted toys, but the amigurami cats were very cute. I don't think I'll try the fortune cats again, but since then, I have also found the pattern for a knitted "hello kitty" by Valerie.



So I might be brave enough to dip my toe back into the water.