Progress and Stagnation

It finally looks like a hooded jacket. Whoot!

Still some sewing and knitting of button bands to do. That’s not going to happen unitl exams are over though.

I won’t have the focus or brainpower until afterwards.

At the moment, I need chug-along knitting. So I’ve cast on the Rico Designs yarn to begin the vintage vest.

It’s the bright green beside my stagnating projects which include:

Justin’s Waistcoat

Gerry’s Scarf

My log cabin throw

My Sedgemoor cardigan

Little Daisy Cardigan

They *will* become finished over the next couple of months.

 

Back from Portlaoise!

No sooner was I in the door from the journey home than I made a beeline to the kettle.

The best thing about being home (okay, one of the best things besides fresh clothing, greetings from the Teen and whatnot) is a MUG of tea.

While on the subject of tea, let me tell you about a lovely place in Downtown Portlaoise (yes, it has a down town) called The Old Bank Tea Rooms. It’s just what it says it is. Tea rooms located in what used to be an AIB bank.

When you step inside time just slows right on down. It was a lovely oasis of calm and cosy after travelling on the bustling train from Limerick. It’s chock full of lovely features. Even going to the toilet is a treat what with the antique radiators, local artwork and attention to comfort therein.

The fire made for a lovely cosy feeling while not overheating the room.

Look at the tea set! It had no sooner been set down in from of me than I thought of Hazel and how she’d adore it. I had to send her a picture of them and sure enough she loved the set. Maybe our SnB group can abscond to Portlaoise and have high tea at some point

I found my way to The Old Bank Tea Rooms thanks to it being recommended as a lovely place for coffee by the proprietor of “The Wool Shop”. As it turned out, “Knit & Sew” is the ‘old’ yarn store that ceased trading some time ago. Now the only yarn store in Portlaoise is “The Wool Shop”.

It’s accessed via a lane way into Tara Court. As I was heading down there I realised that there is no way that I would have noticed that there was a collection of store down the lane if I hadn’t been intent on finding the LYS.

Taa-Daa!! I found it!

*happy dance*

It’s a fairly small retail space and jam packed with yarn from laceweight to chunky. I came away with 3 skeins after some browsing. Yarn browsing was not made easy by the size of my backpack.Thankfully, no stock or patrons were sent flying by my ginormous backpack while during my pursuit of yarny goodness.

Wondersoft Pearl dk by Stylecraft in ‘Biscuit’ 1360 Dyelot 65664

Creative Micro by Rico Designs Partie 6 Farbe 006

The above yarns are already destined to become garments for newborns. They’ll be added to the Hope Chest when they’re done to await gifting.

“Beautiful Baby Knits” was a free supplement with Knitting magazine – Issue 53 August 2008. I had the supplement with me in Portlaoise when I was humming and hawwing over different yarns. I figure, if I’m going to add to my stash, then I want the additions to be bought with specific projects in mind.

Little Daisy Cardigan is already on the needles and is a stash busting project using Tivolli Blizzard.

Wondersoft Pearl sk by Stylecraft is destined to be a Tiny Tots Jacket. I cast the back of this garment on this morning before leaving the Bloomfield Hotel. By the time I reached Limerick I had half the back knit.

The green creative micro dk yarn is earmarked to become a Utility Vest.

After the travelling and training over the weekend my brain is now mush & I require some zone out time in front of the goggle box before doing some final revision for my first exam tomorrow.

Happy crafting folks!

 

There now….

Log Cabin blanket minus cat!

 

I’ll be back to regular blogging once the ‘zams’ are over & I have treated myself to a new little camera that plays nicely with my laptop.

Tomorrow, I’ll be travelling to Mullingar via Portlaoise. Since I’ve never spent anytime in Portlaoise, I’ve decided to get there a tad early & have a wander about. The internet tells me that there’s a yarn store in the town called “Knit & Sew”. True to form this store doesn’t have any information about itself online (that I have found).

I only know it exists thanks to this. So I’ll be endeavouring to find “Knit & Sew” on Coliseum lane tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

It’s a great pity that Irish craft stores (and Irish business in general) have side-lined themselves by not having a web presence. This Is Knit being a wonderful exception.

Business Computing is what I’m studying & “This is Knit” provided a lovely Irish example of a ‘Click & Mortar’ business for one of my course projects. They’ve been shortlisted in the “Best Blog of a Business” category of the Bord Gais Social Media Awards. Fair dues to them.

I’ll have a modest amount of money to spend in Portlaoise tomorrow. I want to spend some of it in an LYS. If it weren’t for the portlaoiseontheweb DOT com site I wouldn’t know about “Knit & Sew” and most likely would have continued onto Mullingar without taking the time to find it. As it is, I don’t know what kind of yarn they stock & if I’ll find anything to my liking (a gamble that I’m willing to take) or if they’re even still in business! I have their number noted just in case & it’ll be nice to be able to say that I’ve actually been to Portlaoise and not just passed through there.

When I travel I enjoy supporting the Local Yarn Store, both as a knitter and as someone who would like to work within the yarn industry. It’s lovely to see how different owners layout their stores and see the differences in colour palettes and yarn types stocked.

What does it say about the amount of craft tourism lost to smaller Irish towns if a motivated crafter like myself finds it difficult to get online information on LYS?

I’d say it’s as bad as the tourism lost to Limerick City due to the lack of a backpackers hostel. Sure, we are over-accommodated with hotel rooms but back-packers don’t look for hotel rooms for a variety of reasons. I’m more likely to stay in a place if I can get a hostel room. Partly due to the fact that I’d rather spend my money on yarn purchases, travelling to local amenities and trying the local cafes than spend it on a hotel room. Hotels are great for privacy and comfort but there’s a lot to be said for a friendly, well-run hostel with communal areas where you can strike up a conversation with a fellow visitor. I’d love to see a proper hostel open in Limerick city. It would boost the city centre no end.

Anyway, that’s my kvetcing over with for today.

Back to the Business Information System Development study.

 

 

Progress!

I’ve not been feeling very productive recently……for a variety of reasons.

Taking up a new sport has eaten into my craft time more than I anticipated.

Plus, my laptop doesn’t play nice with my camera memory card so there’s the extra step of having to use the Teens pc to read said memory card, transfer pics to a USB key and then upload them to the blog.

Entering the Teen cave too many times can seem counterproductive to the balance of household hormones!

Now onto Little Giraffe’s Vintage Vest

From this.....

 

To this!

 

All that remains to do before I can declare this finished is to procure suitably cute buttons.

 

 

 

 

And life moves on…..

As the wider family bade farewell to our lovely mother/granny/aunt/greatgrandmother/sister/thoroughly lovely human being, my smaller family celebrated the Teen turning 14.

With the genetic heritage that has been shared with her, she has many decades in which to make her mark.

Maybe she’ll take up the piano like gran dreamed…..

Sunday brought cupcakes from the lovely Hazel

Vanilla, breakfast and Red Velvet cupcakes

Along with Flake cake, dancing, keepsie upsie with a balloon and much attention given to our pets.

I’m wishing that I had given a tad more attention to my latest work-in-progress.

You may recall that I had an urge to cast on a baby knit or two……

Well, I did. It went swimmingly and giving the desired dose of satisfying payback……..when I noticed that the second page of the pattern was missing. Noticed only after completing the entirety of the back and a sizeable portion of the left front side.

*sigh*

Oh well, back to the knitterly drawing board.

Sirdar Pattern 3956

 

Froodie’s Throw Progress

There hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot of progress on this since I’ve gone back to college.

Button’s rates it highly however.

Whereas Jasmine approves of my stash containers.

 

Handwarmers thus far

So, I’ve knit up one of the handwarmers and gone as far as seaming it.

I still, however, have not formed a firm opinion as to whether I like the thing.

As can be evidenced from the fact that I’ve not cut the yarn and left it in such a way that I can easily frog it.

Hmmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

 

Stashbusting Bear

I’m following a pattern I found in Yarn Forward Issue 27 from August 2010 on page 28.

It’s called, simply enough, Little Teddy Bear and was designed by Laura Long.

This little softie is meant to be about 19cm (7.5 inches) tall.

From a tangle of various DK yarns……..

It’s not looking much like a bear yet.

Do you see a bear yet?.......No? Me neither.

But stay tuned and there shall be a cuddly bear.

 

 

Today I clean

It seems appropriate what with one year ending and a new year beginning.

That……and the fact that I’ve managed to use all the cutlery & every one of the mugs that I enjoy drinking tea and coffee from.

Yes, I’m particular about my mugs. We all have issues. That just happens to be one of mine.

Speaking of which (mugs, not issues), the teen and I enjoyed a meal in Marco Polo restaurant a couple of days ago.

Lovely decor, comfy seats, friendly staff, yummy food and the best of all…….they served their cappucino in mugs!

In proper mugs. I was ever so pleased. No dinky cups. No boat like containers wherein the liquid is tepid as soon as it arrives to the table.

A proper, though diminuitive in comparison to my home collection, mug of cappucino that stayed appropriately hot.

Whatever about the food, I shall be returning to Marco Polo for cappucino!

From cappucino I move onto latte. That’s what the lovely Hazey Fantazey made for me when I popped around to give her the Log Cabin blanket she earned by getting married to her lovely man. I say she earned it because she poured such tender loving care into creating a wedding day that not only reflected her relationship with her man and their relationship to her daughter, affectionately referred to as Dolly, but it also reflected how big a heart she has. She created a welcoming  space where those in attendance were received with warmth, rather than duty, and were made a part of their binding together as a married couple. I felt honoured and privileged to be a part of their day which declared their committment to their family unit.

So yes, she earned this symbol of  warmth and happiness, of snuggles, time & commitment.

How does a blanket symbolise committment?

Think about how many knitted rows it took to create this blanket.

Think about how many stitches it took to create each row.

Think of how much time I’ve committed to making this for my lovely friend.

So many hours that they equal days or possibly weeks (I haven’t kept count….even I’m not *that* pedantic).

She deserves my commitment of time. Why? She’s Hazel. She’s lovely and I get to call her my friend. That’s why.

Hazel puts considered effort and an eye for perfection into everything that I’ve seen her do or seen the results of.

I’m not so structured, methodical or fastidious in my approach to almost anything.

So it was that I procrastinated hugely on casting off the final 10 stitches (only 10 stitches) which kept this gift a work-in-progress for oh-so-blooming-long!

You see, dear readers, after casting off those 10 stitches would come the sewing in of ends, which I’ve already posted about.

The sewing in of ends is a chore for many knitters. I don’t mind it though. However, I can be haphazard with it if the project is destined for use by me.

Not so for this offering to my lovely, eye-for-detail, fastidious friend!

It had to be perfect! In the end, I decided that I’d rather get it to her this decade rather than dawdle over it waiting for perfection to appear.

Ends got sewn & neatly (as I could do) snipped. Blanket was gently washed (not for reasons of blocking but due to the practical realities of living with cats who gladly share their coats).

Project was coaxed neatly (with the minimal of swearing and maximum of teen amusement) into a box that Hazel had lent me over the summer.

So it was that Hazel finally (FINALLY!!!!!!) received her wedding gift from me. Then promptly fed me cupcakes and latte. Nyom!

In her own words, she goo’ed over it.

Yes! I have achieved. It passed muster & she declined to spot even a smidge of less-than-perfect sewing in.

Huzzah!

*happy dance*

This is where she’s put it!

In their marital chamber.

Now if you’d all be so kind and take a wander over to Hazels blog, I’d be much obliged. It’s chock full of lovely creations. You do like cupcakes dont’ you?

Happy crafting folks!

 

When it’s yuck outside…..

Then you know it’s got to be crafty & creative inside.

A friend suggested that it’s a day for eating.

The cats think it’s a day for sleeping.

Froodies Throw had grown a few more rows since yesterday.

While I like crocheting these throws (once the swearing stage is past), I do find crochet to be more work than knitting.

I surmise it’s the fact that I have to look at what I’m doing when I crochet whereas I can knit away merrily without so much as a glance down (depending on yarn type & pattern level of course).

So, even though I have a crochet project in progress, a scarf to knit for a friend & a waistcoat-in-progress for another friend…..I’ve cast on another knitting project.

It’s from Knitting January 2012 Issue 98.

From page 54 – Weekend Knits by Sarah Hazell.

My father brought me back a stash of yarn from San Francisco including Jo Sharp Silk Road Tweed.

It’s been patiently waiting in my stash collection while I’ve wondered how to do it justice.

These handwarmers may deliver that justice.

This is what else I’m doing……

You can’t beat a jigsaw on a rainy day and it has been far too long since I’ve put one of these together.

Happy crafting folks.