road trip ….

At the beginning of autumn I ventured out for a 700 mile round road trip.  It felt like a big step to head off on my own, but also great that I was strong enough to travel by myself.  I drove south to Wales to attend a retirement dinner; to revisit old haunts.  I picked an eclectic mix of music to play as loud as I wanted, and drove with the windows down :-) 

The Macabees
Ash
Daughter
Turin Brakes
Arctic Monkeys
The Horrors
The National
Delphic

It is 24 years since I first arrived in Bangor; I thought the city would look different and in some ways it did, but so much was the same; just the trees were bigger!  It was wonderful to spend time with old friends, to walk along well known paths and discover some new things too, like Hanks - a beautiful yarn shop in Menai Bridge.

The colours of yarn on display were lovely; I couldn't resist the plum malabrigo, which I used to make some 'Not-so-tiny-slippers' (pattern is by Ysolda), I made some insoles to go in the slippers to give them a bit more structure.  It's a great pattern, quick to knit and the slippers make a great gift, I hope to make more for Christmas.

knitted goodness

There's something about knitting, something that goes beyond just knit and purl. Over the last couple of years I've read a few comments on blogs and instagram about knitting being good for the soul.  For me the wonderful illustrator and artist Katie Green sums up what I fell about knitting in an illustrated article in pompom quarterly Winter 2014.

Image from pompom quarterly winter 2014 - illustrations by Katie Green

Her beautifully illustrated article (called knitting saved my life) describes how knitting became a lifeline for her during a period of deep depression, that she found the familiar repetitive motion of knitting soothing and that creating something gave hope, knitting meant learning new skills, patience and learning to enjoying the process of creating.  

It's now been over six months since I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and time and time again, especially during the very dark moments, I have found myself knitting.  The rhythm of knitting calming my mind as it raced ahead as to what might be. There is so much more to write about knitting, especially how learning to knit has helped me let go of perfection! I enjoy knowing that each item I make contains some stitches that aren't in the right place and how, to me anyway, those imperfections mirror life but most importantly that it's ok that something isn't perfect, it truly is the process of creating something that is fulfilling!

Here is some of the knitted goodness I've been tinkering with over the last six months:

Lamb hat - this was a knit along by Jenny Gourdy of Wiksten, details can be found on her instagram feed, more images of lamb hats can be found at #wikstenlamhat

Puerperium cardigan - this was for my newest nephew, who was born in April, I made lamb hat for him  too and a little pixie cap to go with the cardigan.

Small cable sweater - loved this pattern, this jumper also was for my nephew, credit for the yarn/colour should go to magimix on Raverly - she knitted this jumper as a sample for her lovely shop  Be Inspired Fibres.

A second wee envelope (the variegated green above), also for my nephew but in a larger size and yet to be gifted !

Granny's favourite - for a friends daughter

And as I can never seem to settle to be a monogamous knitter, here's a list few other projects I have on the go at the moment! 

Miffy, Owligan, Knitted socks, Loch ness monster, Red roof croft house, Lila and Hediye

god daughters and easter

I have the wonder of being a god mother to two beautiful god daughters; here's one of them wearing some fairie wings I made for her, who doesn't want to be a fairie when they're seven!

I get slightly uncomfortable around this time of year, with Easter being such a celebrated time within the 'church'; as a god mother I feel I should somehow be contributing to my god daughters spiritual well being.  However, belief in anything at all should be their choice and not something I should discourage or equally foster upon them.  Last easter, after reading this article about the life and work of the Finnish artist and author Tove Jansson, I gave my god daughters Moomin Troll books.  

Tove Jansson image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson

In the world that Tove created in her books, the Moomin trolls live very closely to nature and embrace diversity; I think this quote from Frank Cottrell Boyce 'one of the things I really took from them was the importance of small pleasures, that life is really worth living if we're just nice to each other and make really good coffee, and the pancakes are just right - then nothing else really matters in any substantial way' perfectly sums up the Moomins and I hope my god daughters picked up on that.

This year, I decided to keep things simple and went for the standard easter imagery - bunnies!  I guess with a nod to the coming of spring, after the darkness of winter, that brings longer days and new life that reminds us of the miracle of nature.  I'm not sure if my god daughters will have picked up on that - but hopefully they got the bunny and spring connection!  

The pattern was from Mollie Makes issue 51; I added a scarf as it's still quite cold and frosty up here in the mornings!  I changed the pattern a bit for the second bunny and used a woven wool fabric instead of felt, both had Liberty Tana Lawn for their ears and tummies.

made … Riddari

Lopapeysa love! 

It feels good to have completed something in the last week, to have made something; a jumper for my mister. I cast on a week before Christmas, as I sat on a hospital bed waiting to go down to the operating theatre for surgery.  A surgery that should shave been straight forward; and in many ways it was.  The procedure went well and after a couple of nights in hospital I was able to go home to recover and take things very easy, free of the ovarian cyst that had caused so much pain and happy to be able to get on with a pain free life again.  Over the next few weeks as I worked on the jumper I had no idea of what was brewing! Ha! But this post is about making and knitting and not the other nonsense that has hijacked things, the pattern is Riddari by Védís Jónsdóttir and the yarn is Istex Létt-Lopi; I love knitting with this yarn!  It's taken a while, there was a lot to knit ;-), but now it is done; my notes can be found here on Ravelry. 

P.S. the antler coat hook is by Alexander Taylor and the fish is made by the lovely Jo Waterhouse. 

making ...

There has been a distinct lack of posts about making, so to even things up a bit here is a ginger cake I made over the Christmas holidays.  Not just any old ginger cake, this was an awesome ginger cake even if I do say so myself!

The recipe was from Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen, a copy of the recipe can be found here

to do lists….

To do lists….for me can be both good (as a reminder of things I want to get done) and bad (as they remind me of the things I didn't get done)!  So this year over Christmas I decided to keep things simple, I put two things on my list; to sew something and to make some bread. The recipe for the bread, a Cardamon Wreath, was from SCB at 3191 Miles Apart; I never usually get round to making bread, it always feels like there isn't enough time, but this recipe was straight forward.  As suggested I made the sweet dough the night before, left it in the fridge and it was ready to go in the oven the next morning, so breakfast was warm sweet cardamon bread…yum.

And I managed to get my sewing machine out!

The pattern for the doll is by Emily Martin (the pattern can be found at this Martha Stewart link, which Leigh from Found, now home posted);  Emily's gorgeous dolls can be seen on her blog, Inside A Black Apple.

I also made a whale to go with this lovely book The Storm Whale by Benji Davies; I made the pattern up, hence the whale has a slightly large head, I'll shave a bit off next time. I was tempted to keep the book, it is such a lovely story!

made ….. and gifted

A few things made it off the needles in time to be gifted for Christmas.  The pattern for the gloves was from Pom Pom (issue 6) - Hierro by Kelly Ashfiled; the mini pine tree pattern is by Julie Tarsha; the Home Sweet Home tea cosy pattern is by Julia Marsh and the wonderful owl pattern (I hope to make more) is from Ella Austin of BomBella .

made......

Pleased with this little guy, I have plans to make more! Maybe a whole parliament more!