Book Shelf

Just a single shelf of my knitting books. Apologies for the non quality of the photo, but until I can afford a phone with a decent camera or a new camera I am stuck with my old mobile. A blog looks much prettier if it contains photos, so I will try to include them when I can even if the quality is not so good. I kind of had a quick tidy up of my books this morning (they were all over the house) and marvelled at how many books I actually have. I love buying books, knitting books in particular, we are very lucky in having a fantastic charity book shop in the village and I find a lot of good books in there, most of them are from the 80's, occasionally I get a more recent print, but I have managed to increase my collection without spending loads of money, most of the books I pick up for £1 or less.
The books on this shelf from left to right are;
First Knits - Liuise Roberts & Kate Haxell
Bright Knits for Kids - Debbie Bliss
Thrown Together - Kim Hargreaves
Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting - Marianne Kinzel
First Book of Modern Lace Knitting - Marianne Kinzel
Nursery Knits - Zoe Mellor
Yarnplay - Lisa Shobhana
Retro Knits - Edited by Kari Cornell & Jean Lampe
Knitting Now - Gabi Tubbs
Special Family Knits - Debbie Bliss
Cotton Collection - Sue Bradley
Cotton Knits - Edited by Sally Harding
She Knitting Patterns - Edbury Press
The Best of Interweave Knits - Edited by Ann Budd
Folk Mittens - Marcia Lewanddowski
Folk Socks - Nancy Bush
Wrap Style - Pam Allen & Ann Budd
Good Housekeeping Knitting
Folk Shawls - Cheryl Oberle
Artic Lace - Donna Druchunas
Victorian Lace Today - Jane Sowerby
Big Just got Bigger - Rowan
Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders - Edited by Judith Durrant
101 Designer Yarn Stash Wonders - Edited by Judith Durrant
Yarn Stash Wonders - Edited by Judith Durrant

Hazel Housewife

I have been playing Hazel Housewife today, the hoover actually got turned on and used, and I outdid myself at dinner and did Roast Chicken with all the other roasty bits, and even did the washing up straight after we had finished.
Not much knitting has been happening today, just playing around with a toy animal pattern, not even sure what type of animal it will be yet, I will just have to see how he shapes up. What I really want to do is a Clapotis, but for some reason I can not get past the first few rows without making a mess of it, just get total brain freeze every time I pick up the pattern, and I can never make my mind up which yarn I will do it in, I change my mind every time I think about it.
I picked up The Knitter magazine today, nothing in it I would actually knit this month, but I like the articles they feature and it is such a pretty magazine, beautifully presented. Mind you flicking through it again there is a gorgeous Shetland Lace Shawl pattern that kind of floats my boat may even have some yarn that may be just right for it, think I need to go stash diving.

Little Bunny

This is Little Bunny, he does not have a name, and yes I know he is wearing a pink jumper, but he likes pink, he's a very enlightened bunny. Little Bunny does not have a face, I do not like faces on my toys, I will put faces on for other people but I like mine without a physical face, I can see his face in my mind.
I designed the patern for LB last year, I may still have the pattern notes floating around somewhere in my knitting room, in one or two of the hundreds of notebooks I seem to collect, my mum is the same cannot resist a notebook, does not even have to be a pretty one, just as long as it has got lots of pages.
I only got around to photographing him yesterday, not the best photo either, but I only have my mobile camera at the moment and it is pretty pants to be honest.
You may have noticed I slipped in a remark about my knitting room, yes I have a whole room for all my knitting bits and bobs (and other crafty bits I dabble in). When my daughter finally left home I was left with a spare room, various discussions were had with Mr Roadside over what the room could be used for, guests, our grandaughter, storage etc, but I got my own way as usual and took over the room as my little escape from the rest of the house, and also to keep my stash and knitting book collection from spilling over the rest of the house, it still spills but in a more controlled way. This room is the only tidy room in the house, I love sorting and putting everything away in it's own little cubby hole, shame I cannot say the same for the rest of the house.

Lets Start Again

I have decided to give the blog another try, how long it will last I really do not know, but I can give it a go.It has been a long time since I wrote anything on here and so much has happened since I hardly know where to start.
The biggest news is that I am now a Nana, two years ago last month my wonderful daughter and her husband had the most beautiful little girl, I cannot tell you how much I love this little Bubba, only another grandparent will know how it feels, and it is so much better than having your own children, all the fun and none of the sleepless nights, unless they stay over, but the odd broken nights sleep is so worth it.
I was laid off my job in January this year, haven't worked full time since, but have helping out some friends in their Diner (really posh burger van) and other assorted vehicles, it has been great fun and has kept the wolves from the door.
This Friday I start a short free course for women wanting to start their own business within the crafting industry, not to sure what to expect, but hopefully I will learn a few tricks that I can apply to what I hope is a new direction.
Right, the new direction. Not much knitting has been going on in recent years, lots off casting on and sticking unfinished projects to one side to start something new, then upon rediscovering the projects they have been frogged because I could not be bothered to work out what point in the pattern I had gotten too. I have been tinkering around with a few design ideas and would like to take myself off in this direction. Now knowing how good I am at starting something and not following it through I have no idea how long this will last but hey ho lets give it a go.
I would like to start with maybe a few simple free patterns to see how they are received and to also iron out any pattern writing glitches, then build up a library of patterns available to buy, more than likely through Ravelry and linked to here. How far I can take this idea is anyones guess, like all budding designers you dream of becoming a knitting guru, that other knitters talk of in awed tones but that in all reality is unlikely, but I can dream.....

I Love Mrs S

Lovely pink stuff from Hipknits arrived yesterday, it's a shawl kit. It's a peachy pink, the chunky one in the foreground is destined to be a hat for me, it is pinker than the others and I don't think it goes so I am whipping it out, the rest will be made up into a shawl though. There was some cashmere sock yarn too but I didn't take any photos of that today, maybe tomorrow.

I have done a little more to the beanie today but not much, that's the only problem with dk, it seems to take forever to grow, and it's for a nearly grown up head, I like newborn baby hats.

My bestest pal Mrs S came round today, she bought me stash. She bought me two balls of Sirdar Blur in a lovely lilac colur and some patterns, one of which is a Jean Greenhowe book of soft toys, I love her toy patterns. Mrs S did have an ulterior motive though, she is the Bursar at the local infant school and they have just got some chickens for the school, they came in their own egloo and they laid their first eggs today. Anyway back to the point, Mrs S asked if I would make a couple of the easter chicks (not sure if they were for the children at the school or for her), how could I refuse, it's more knitting. I Love Knitting. Mrs S loves the chickens, she wants to call one Audrey. I want a pig and I want to call him Boris.

Yay It Snowed

I love the snow, it's like Christmas. I was out walking the dog at eight this morning, unheard of, Stanley does not do mornings, but he was all excited, he has never seen snow before, we had a lovely time playing in it. Of course it is all melting now, and by tonight it will just be sheet ice on the roads, the council are pretty good at gritting, but we live in a fairly rural area so only the main roads are done, not the small minor roads that many of us have to use to get about, good job I have got a four wheel drive, not that I will be going out unless I really have too.

I will be making a huge pan of soup for lunch, but I did have to buy my boy some Heinz Tomato Soup, it's the only soup he will eat, don't understand him, when you compare tinned stuff to freshly made own stuff, it just doesn't compute.

Not much knitting going on at the moment, the leg warmers are finished, and I have started on a matching Beanie. Mr Roadside has asked for another Beanie, his apparently does not come far enough down his ears, he shouldn't have such a big head, it fits me beautifully !!

This is a picture of a the lace scarf I recently finished for a friend, it is done in Debbie Bliss Silk which is lovely, so soft and, well, silky. It is the Cathedral Lace pattern, a 32 row repeat, which is worth the effort, but I would recommend using stitch markers between stitch counts and most important of all, a life line, I would have thrown this in the bin several times over if I had not used a life line, it was frogged back several times until I used stitch markers between the stitch counts on each row, they made it much easier to keep track of where I had got too.

Hopefully there will be an improvement to the photos soon, I have pinched the Mr's camera, but cannot find the lead or disc to load it up yet, oh and it hasn't got any batteries in it either!

I met up with a few of the AY girls on Saturday, we had lunch in Pizza Express in Lewes, at one stage you could barely see the table for the books spread across it, my list of books to get has grown significantly since Saturday. Folk Gloves is currently heading my list of must get very soon, in fact I need it yesterday. It was great meeting up, putting faces to names and to spend time with other people that actually like talking about knitting, rather than my lot who just roll their eyes and nod their heads occasionally while trying to escape not too obviously!

Looking forward to the next meet up.

Bargain Friday

I love charity shops, you never know what you will find. No yarn today, but I picked up two magazines and a book for £2.25.

The book is the Debbie Bliss New Baby Knits and although it was published in 1991 the patterns would still be lovely for a baby today.

The two magazines are Anna, Burda Knitting and Needlecrafts, loads of these back copies are floating around on Ebay for not very much. One is 1990 and the other 1984, again a few patterns that would pass muster today and others you would fall around laughing your pants off they are so naff.

Again apologies for the quality of the picture, must find the misters new camera and pinch it ! I wonder where he has put it. Mine really needs binning.

Still working on the legwarmers only got about another inch of the ribbing done last night, I had a darts match, we lost as usual, we always have a great night out, we play a game we love and get to have a really good laugh, we also hold the record for the number of times we have won the wooden spoon, 6 years in a row, and looking at the league tables we could be on track for our seventh year. It's only a game.

Well I have narrowed down VLT project to three possibles, if I could get it down to two I could toss a coin to decide.