Saturday 30 April 2011

News!

Well the big news is the wedding weekend of course. Yes, I saw a wedding yesterday. I have no idea who they were. But they looked happy and were came in this!!!

In other news I just spent a lovely morning and early afternoon with SavvyGirlMelanie from the Savvy Girls Podcast. It's one of my favourite podcasts as these girls travel and have so much stuff to talk about as well as knitting, you should go take a listen. We had gorgeous brunch at Ottlenghi's and then went and terrorised the girls at Loop! Look out for me 'guesting' on their next episode. She'll be guesting on mine soon as she's coming back and I'm very excited because she was lovely and so much fun to hangout with. Yay for podcasting/ craft community!

In even more news (I've not been blogging enough, I know) I will be also appearing as a guest Blogger on RosmadeMe. If you're into crafting, you'll love this blog. She does great tutorials and has a lovely warmth in her writing that I enjoy. My post will appear 2nd May 2011.

And lastly, and very sadly, my package is STILL being held hostage. Listeners of the podcast will know they've been keeping my birthday package from me. I'm convinced their fondling my yarn and eating my sweets but the man swears this is not the case. The quest to get it returns on Tuesday when I have to ring the 'helpline'. I ALWAYS question anything called a helpline as I've never found one remotely helpful.

Sigh

More soon!

Thursday 28 April 2011

Episode 3: Feeling a bit BBC


Show notes:
Friends of Aplayfulday:
Brass Needles Podcast
September Yarns
Purlescence Yarns. See the offer here 
Knitting events
Knit Nation 15th-17th July 2011

On and off the needles:
The 'SS' project
Two toe up Socks on One circular Needle by Kirsten Bellehumeur in Knit Picks essential kettle dyed. 
Also in Aspen Moon Superwash Sock and Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid in Mint

Recipes
Elderflower fizz: 
1. Take 25ml Gin, lime wedges (to taste), 25 ml Edlerflower Cordial and place in a champagne flute. 
2. Top up with champagne/ Prosecco
3. Rub the rim of the glass with lime and garnish with mint. 

Modified Coconut and Sweetcorn Soup by Tana Ramsay
1. Pour 1 tbl spoon olive oil into large pan and add diced onion to soften for 8-10 mins. Add peeled and sliced wet garlic and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.
2. Add 3 sliced carrots to also soften.
3. Add 400g of sweetcorn (tin, fresh or frozen), pour in 400 ml coconut milk. Add 1/2 pint of homemade chicken stock (despite loathing Jamie Oliver, this is quite a good stock recipe) then reduce hit and live to simmer with the lid on until the carrots are tender.
4. Once cooked, blend in batches till at prefered texture. Season and enjoy!

Songs: 
Fly, Fly, Fly by Adrina Thorpe, available on Music Alley
Home by  GeorgioGitmolowlands, available on Music Alley
Contact me at: aplayfulday@gmail.com 
RSS Feed

Tuesday 26 April 2011

HOME

We arrived back home last night, having left Brixton 4 days before and touring round for Easter and birthdays. While new adventures and loved ones are much appreciated, it's good to be home. 

I flung open windows, laid down new sheets, put laundry on, unpacked and ran a bath. I woke this morning and set about admin, tasks and the endless, endless job hunting. I then gleefully skipped to the library, whispered how I missed it to all the shelves and lost an hour or two in North London. I found the community garden I might have to play in and grinned. I'm home. 

So what first? Photo shops 330 photos? Tidy? Sort bills? Podcast? Cook? Bake?

Catch up on blogland in my favourite position on the sofa with my knitting. 

HOME

pppsssstttt this isn't my 'I'm home' song but this is where I've been home the last few weeks- with my man beast. We love this song.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Episode 0: Where it all began

Bonus episode this early in? It must be love. Hope this sound suits you better!!





Show notes:
Friends of Aplayfulday:
Asa Tricosa (designer and all round lovely)

On and off the needles:
Details on the original post here
(go, there's yarn and bag porn and blog loving!)

Recommendations:
Frae organic Yoghurt (oh how I love your Green tea goodness)

Songs: 
Fly, Fly, Fly by Adrina Thorpe, available on Music Alley
Cheerleader by Deirdre Flint also available on Music Alley
Contact me at: aplayfulday@gmail.com 
RSS Feed

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Home vs New Settings

I've popped back to the flat, having been housesitting for 2 weeks. I still have a little time left and I'm itching to get back to the cats and the garden. However, because I'm home and my RSI isn't too bad today I thought I'd take the opportunity to download and share some pictures about why I have been lost. 

There is a great familiarity about home that you can wrap around you like a safety blanket. Home smells right, you know which cupboard you keep your favourite coffee in and you always have your favourite mug (we all know how I feel about mugs by now, rest assured, I found one I could tolerate at the house). This is all great and I revel in it often. 

However, there is joy is exploring the new. Chasing light around a new garden....

Finding new knitting spots.....

Rummaging on book shelves....

The joy in a new discovery of something quite enchanting....

Sharing meals with different tableware which are someone else's idea of comfort...

And making new friends.....

More to come. I just wanted to say hi for now. I miss you all. I got lost here these last few weeks.

Monday 18 April 2011

Episode 2: Stash Liberation!!

Horrible sound problems this week, I've been having technical nightmares sorry! I'll see what I can do for next episode.

Show notes:
Friends of Aplayfulday:
Purlescence Yarns. See the offer here

On and off the needles:
Calorimetry (or I name I refuse to say) by Kathryn Schoendorf in Ewes Full Acres
Two toe up Socks on One circular Needle by Kirsten Bellehumeur in Knit Picks essential kettle dyed. 
Also in Aspen Moon Superwash Sock and Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid in Mint
Round or Circular Pinwheel blanket by Genia Planck in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK, colourway happy and Dungaree Denim.
Yarn Store I forgot the name of and Jared Flood's 'Turn a Square' for jogless stripes wonder

Other stash liberators worth checking out:

Crochet things:
Martha can be found at the Yarnandspices Blog or as QuinceTart on Ravelry
Without Seams Blog where you will also find the Chevron Lace Cardigan

Songs: 
Fly, Fly, Fly by Adrina Thorpe, available on Music Alley
Alexander's Rag Time Band, available at music archive
Contact me at: aplayfulday@gmail.com 
RSS Feed

Friday 15 April 2011

And the winner is......

SUDDENEXPRESSION!!!

She is the winner of the beautiful Atalanta Shawl. Please get in touch over the next two week's so we can send you the lovely patter!

For all those of you who took time to comment, say hi, blogged, linked and all sorts, thank you. I'm running low on prizes at the moment so please do get in contact if you would like to be a friend to the readers of aplayfulday!


Wednesday 13 April 2011

Featured: Robynn Weldon

Good morning all. 6 hours sleep. New record. Well atleast I have the pleasure of bringing you a new featured along with a promo! Robynn is offer readers of the blog 20% off these adorable pattern wallets by entering the code 'playful' at check out. The offer will run until the end of May 2011. Happy shopping!

Tell us about yourself
I run online shop purlescence.co.uk, “keeping knitting delightful since 2006”. (A Raveller once thanked me for “keeping knitting delightful” and I thought that was just the best compliment, and neatly encapsulated what the shop was about!) I’ve also dabbled in design, with two patterns published so far – my first was the popular Twist & Shout jacket from Knitty’s Fall 2008 issue.

Twist and Shout
How did Purlescence come into existence?
Like most knitters I spent years building a fantasy yarn shop in my head, but I never really meant it. But one Christmas, Armin (my partner) gave me a pair of Lantern Moon needles, and I found I just couldn’t go back to plastic or metal. At the time they weren’t available locally and the US websites were all rather horrible to navigate. I whinged for a long time, asking “why isn’t anyone importing these,” before starting to ask “why aren’t I importing them!”
I’ve always been a bit terrified of starting a business (each of my parents had at different times lost a lot of money trying it), so I had to trick myself into it. The first step was to mention my idea out loud to my husband, knowing that he’d be fired with enthusiasm and basically make me do something about it. Then I just kept telling myself it was only going to be a tiny little venture, no big deal at all really, even as it kept growing.
Starting up was hugely exciting, but also overwhelming, and because of this rather shambling, improvisational approach, I made a lot of mistakes. I would advise anyone else to plan big from the start, and structure the enterprise accordingly (in terms of tax, financing etc). The other thing I always tell people talking about starting a yarn business – especially online – is to think very hard about what makes your idea special. Why should a customer come to you and not another shop that perhaps they already know? The answer has to be obvious. With a bricks-and-mortar store maybe location is enough; they’ll come because you’re there (we all know that there’s a dire shortage of yarn shops in the UK). But on the web there isn’t any passing trade. You have to earn your Google ranking somehow and generate a lot of word of mouth. Great customer service is essential but it’s not enough: you also need a clear focus in terms of products on offer, or an exceptionally user-friendly website, or whatever. (Of course, offering the best prices or free shipping would be a great draw too. But competing on price might be just too difficult for a start-up, unless you’re very well-funded and sure you can generate enough turnover to make the numbers work out.)

Do you have a future plan?
I’m actually in the process of handing Purlescence over to a lovely new owner. Selling up has been as scary and exciting as starting was! Another web shop owner advised me to advertise the sale as publicly as possible; she said: “It will feel like walking down the street naked but it’s important to get the maximum interest.” She was right on both counts. I felt horribly exposed, but got a lot of enquiries, which ultimately led to a good deal. Also, and maybe even more importantly, inviting offers from my most loyal customers (my Ravelry group) meant that potential buyers were people who understood what is special about the business, and cared about that. I am so excited about the buyer because I really think she gets it, and will do a great job with my baby. (Letting go is soooo hard!)
Future dreams revolve around design. But with a toddler in the house, severely limiting my opportunities for the concentration-intensive work of pattern writing, I’m not making any promises.

Where do you find inspiration?
I’m a sadly literal person. I just design what I want to wear. I’ve always been more into making it up for myself rather than following a pattern; ideas usually start with the yarn, and are guided by what’s missing from my wardrobe and ideas I’ve been harvesting from fashion and films. No inspiration here from the bark of a tree, or a lichen-covered rock, or origami birds… just clothes. Dull!
Similarly, for the shop, I usually choose products that I want for myself… I have tried to branch out a bit and choose colours to appeal to different personalities, for instance, but it usually doesn’t go well.

Favourite Childhood Game?
I remember making up a game, something cross-bred from stick-in-the-mud and spying games, and teaching it to my classmates at at least three different schools. (I moved a lot at that time.) But usually I just had my nose in a book.

Are you an early bird or midnight owl?
I think it’s unfair that there’s no term for those who shine in the afternoon. Wait, maybe there is… “lazy”?
I really like my sleep! I’m definitely not a morning person, but unlike my husband, I also don’t like to work all night. I can’t seem to knuckle down to any serious work before around 11am. In an ideal (childfree) world I am most productive from around 3pm to 7pm, but I can work well after supper too, till around midnight. I just don’t like to.

Tell us about a dream you recently remember
To misquote that Emma Bridgwater tea towel, I had a really nice dream once about George Clooney… Oh yes, that stuck with me. Largely because it’s quite unusual for me to have a (coff) special dream about someone actually fanciable. Also, because he was exactly the way you’d expect him to be: a lot of fun. Ever since then I’ve felt remarkably fond of my man George.

Comfort food of choice?
Chocolate. Or Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked. I’m a simple girl, and very predictable.

When you daydream, where do you tend to end up?
Concocting elaborate plans for the best knitting cafe in the world… no, Purlescence hasn’t yet got that out of my system!

Tell us something fun about you or something you’ve seen this week
I took a rat to my university graduation. No really. I kept pet rats, and frequently carried them with me to class; one of my lecturers joked that after all that the rat deserved to graduate too… and lived to regret her words. (The following year, instructions to graduates specifically included the new rule “NO WILDLIFE”.)

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Sleep (or lack of)

Hello all

I've been resting my poorly RSI arms and seen great progress. In the meantime I've been snapping away, planning posts, podcasts and more fun besides. Today I meant to publish one post and draft the following: a feature with a discount code, a You Capture post, prep the giveaway announcement post and the shownotes for the podcast. All fun ready to publish in a flurry of recovering RSI glory. 

I did not sleep however. I now have not slept properly for an entire week. I am so tired I just poured brown rice on my yoghurt instead of muesli. I have tried tea, coffee and DOING THINGS. Nothing is working. 

I am falling asleep fine. I then wake somewhere around 2-4 am and stay awake for hours, pondering things in my head. About 2 nights ago, the early stages of night terrors started. Does anyone else get that? Completely random and terrifying half dreams that come for NO reason. Really. I'm practically on holidays at the moment, the sun is shining and man beast and I have had so much fun. I should not be struggling. 

But I am. So forgive the continued 'mehness' on the blog. Love will flow as will pics. Right now the camera lead is upstairs and my legs are not carrying me there. 

xx

Friday 8 April 2011

This post will change your life

Friends I interrupt my resting from RSI to bring you the most important news I think I've ever shared. There is a frozen yoghurt shop of goodness and yesterday, in the late afternoon sun, I sampled some. And it was heavenly, 

The yoghurt of choice was Green tree flavoured with Granola and raspberries. Yes. You read that right. It looked something like this:


I will not tell you where I got it. It's mine. All mine.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Featuring: Asa Tricosa Designs

I'm being something of a lazy blogger. Between Blog Week and podcasting I've been nailed to my laptop every spare minute. So this week I've made others do the work- ha! The lovely, lovely Asa not only agreed to be featured but is also offer you gorgeous readers a chance to win a design! Also, excuse the formatting, I've got that early tingle and very painful tingle for RSI so I'm not fussing over the fact this isn't showing up how I want.

All you have to do is peruse her delicious patterns either on Ravelry,
www.ravelry.com/designers/asa-tricosa or on her very own website, www.asatricosa.com. Choose your favourite and comment here with it to let me know you'd like to win!

But wait, there's more opportunities to win:
1. As above, comment, telling me which pattern you like best for ONE entry.
2. Comment again if you are a follower for TWO chances to win.
3. Comment to let me know where you have mentioned me or Tricosa on a blog, podcast or something similar for a THIRD opportunity o win. 

You ave one week- winners will be announced this time next week so comment before midnight GMT Thursday 14th April 2011. Don't forget to check back to see if you've won!



What are your favourite hobbies?
I bake enormous sourdough breads. I also love to sleep. Then there’s the extremely slow running.
Favourite Childhood Game? OR playful pursuit that you still can’t resist
I must have suppressed this. Maybe brännboll in forever-twilit Swedish summer evenings. Thwaaack!
Where do you find inspiration?
Other knitters.
Seeing a “problem” and working out a solution. For example, I dislike abrupt transitions from one stitch pattern to another unless used as a distinct and cool feature. I also like to minimize the tedious  tasks (fastening loose ends, seaming), so I try to make designs without tediousness and with interesting solutions. One problem I haven’t quite found a solution to is that what I most like to wear are fairly plainly knit things, so some tediousness may be unavoidable. As in life.
Beholding fantastic yarns in all their colourful glory is another important source of inspiration. Probably that’s where it really begins, often Posh Yarn (three shawl designs started with Posh Yarn). I also love Fyberspates, ArtFibers, Blue Moon, and, more recently, Yarn Addict, Alchemy Yarn and Sanguine Gryphon.  Mmmm…
Are you an early bird or midnight owl? 
Owl, definitely. I can see the beauty of early, quiet mornings, but they hurt.
Comfort Food of choice? 
Good bread with stinky, Danish cheese – all sorts of interesting cheeses, really.

When you dream or daydream, where do you tend to end up?
My dreaming takes place at night. Often filmic, lots of water and snow or waiting tables. I wake up exhausted, wondering whether I could perhaps sleep some more to recover.

How did you first start designing?
Illicitly. I mean, I was avoiding writing a dissertation (aka The Monster).
So I did two designs for p/hop, a fund raiser for Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). I think that’s what made me actually write out a pattern about a year ago. Then there were two particular colourways of a sock yarn, Clan (a Yarn Yard yarn), that inspired a glove because I failed to make gauge with glove patterns I had bought. And then came the shawls. And that’s where I’m stuck at the moment.
What have been the highlights/ what’s your favourite design?
My life in design is too short to have highlights, really.  But OK,  I’m going to pick not my most popular pattern, but the one where I felt I was really on to something, and that was Galathea. I thought (still think!) I was a perfectly annoying clever-clogs smarty-pants with its unusual, cast-on, one I haven’t seen anywhere else. It keeps the symmetry of a traditional edging pattern – and with only two yarn ends to sew when done.  While on the home stretch of knitting my own Galathea I stumbled upon a Galathea statue in a park in Germany. A good omen.  (OK, I’m also inordinately pleased with the smartly designed baby kimono, stina.)

Finally, any plans for the future?
Yes! I have just (very) recently decided that The Monster and I had to walk our separate ways -- I’ve made the switch from being a stealthily knitting pseudo academic to a knitting designer who reads and knits openly and freely. So I aim to knit. Lots. And submit patterns wildly and incessantly to those cool & lovely online pattern sites we all know.


Tuesday 5 April 2011

Featuring: Abstract Cat Crafts

As promised a feature on the very talented Laura from Abstract Cat Crafts. I discovered this dyer about a year a go and was half tempted NOT to share to keep all the yarn for myself.....
Abstract Cat Crafts can be found online at either http://abstractcat.folksy.com or http://abstractcat.misi.co.uk. Stay tuned for the upcoming website, http://abstractcat.co.uk. And if you make a purchase, please do say hi for me, her favourite stalker!!

Tell us about what you do?
I'm a dyer and seller of hand-dyed yarn, and heading towards being full time with it although the workload varies greatly. Currently I mostly sell online through Folksy and MISI, but have recently started supplying The Yarn Cake in Glasgow, a fabulous wee knitting cafe/cake and yarn shop. I also had a stall at Knit Camp Marketplace at the University of Stirling last year and hope to do more fairs in future, however I'm dependent on public transport, so can only do events close to home.

How did it all start?
After two years of being stuck in the graduate employment trap (no experience, no job → no job, no experience, and too many qualifications) something had to be done. I've always dabbled in crafts, and wondered if some of my experiments could be turned from a hobby into a business. At the same time, I couldn't find the perfect shade of red yarn for a shawl I wanted to crochet so I dyed some myself using a beginners' dyeing kit I'd bought a year previously. The rest, as they say, is history.
I tend to work by trial and error and a lot of what I've done has been a good lesson in how not to do things! The bravery to strike out on your own is essential, as is finding your niche, and a business plan is probably very wise, but do as I say not do as I do...

Do you have a future ‘plan’ for your crafting related enterprise?
Creation of a formal business plan is something is something I really ought to get round to so I can gain a bit of focus. Loosely, I'd like to expand. I'd like to expand the wholesale side of my business and sell through more outlets, but as I like to maintain personal contact with my customers, I think I'd be quite selective about where my yarn was sold. I'd also like to sell at more fairs, but there are very few events in my area just now, and I have to be able to reach them by public transport. And of course I'd like to increase online sales, increase the variety of base yarns I use and sell more luxury and British yarns.

Where do you find inspiration?
Growing up in the Scottish Highlands and being a homesick Highlander, it's probably inevitable that much of my inspiration comes from those landscapes. I have to resist the urge to dye yarn in every possible shade of misty mountain purple and curb my desire to name colourways with unpronounceable (to non-Scots) Gaelic names. Skein of 'Braigh Coire Chruinn-Bhalgain' anyone?

Favourite Childhood Game?
Not so much a game, but exploration. One of my best friends lived in a big house in the country near Loch Ness, and we'd spends our weekends and holidays tramping across fields and through woods, exploring for hours, sometimes taking interesting items home – we had an extensive collection of broken pottery, and other highlights included picking orchids (we didn't know they were protected), taking home a newt (it escaped by the next morning), and running away, terrified, from a calm but curious cow.

Are you an early bird or midnight owl?
In summer I'm an early bird - I wake with the daylight so I sleep with blackout curtains otherwise I'd get no sleep after 4am. In winter it's a different story. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) so am only properly awake between about 10am and 6pm, heavily propped up my therapeutic light box and caffeine.
 
Tell us about a dream you recently remember 
Most of my dreams are loosely connected vignettes and I forget them soon after waking. I can remember one that was something to do with translucent, jellyfish-like lobsters that opened the sides of their claws when they got angry, to reveal rows of cats' teeth. Also something about being in New York and men crocheting wire gloves round my hands (I have been dabbling wire crochet recently, and thinking of my family in New York...)
 
Comfort Food of choice?
Pizza. If I didn't have to worry about weight gain, I'd probably eat pizza seven days a week. If not pizza, cheese. When I have 'chocolate' cravings they're usually fat cravings that can be satisfied with cheese.

When you daydream, where do you tend to end up?
Being happier and calmer than I am now, with a lot more control over my environment, and being creatively satisfied. Not any particular 'place' so much as internal satisfaction and contentment.

Anything else?
Recently my partner and I have developed a new obsession – watching roller derby, a full-contact, usually all-female sport that is gaining popularity in this country after experiencing a revival in the USA in the last ten years or so. It's played by opposing teams skating round an oval track. Points are scored by a 'jammer' who is trying to lap members of the opposing team whilst they try to prevent her from doing so. It's fast, furious and very entertaining, but I'm not tempted to try it myself and am staying firmly in the audience – I don't think my hips could handle it!

Sunday 3 April 2011

Your knitting and crochet time (2KCBWDAY7)





Well hello everyone, how are we all holding up? How's your Sunday? Good? Mine's painful- I got playful last night and am coping on 5 hours sleep and nursing a nasty hangover. I am getting too old for houseparties and swigging wine like it's Ribena. When will I learn?
So it's not hard to see how I failed to remember I haven't completed my day 7 blog today. I launched the podcast, and fell back onto the sofa, weeping and begging for paracetemol. I am truly loathesome. 

My knitting time varies. The main two ways I knit is in my knitting nook, with a podcast, some tea or some blog reading. Or it's while I'm commuting somewhere. This really influences what I knit. I usually have 2 projects on the go- a harder one at home and something small that requires little pattern checking for travelling. I thought I'd share a story about what happened to me the other day. 

Man beast and I were on the way to his Dad's for Sunday roast and hopped on the underground. I was knitting a baby hat as it's nice and transportable. I'm knitting away and man beast chuckles. I look up at him and my fingers remain knitting. He laughs and says, 'Now you've really blown their minds, you're not even looking at it.' I follow his gaze and the entire row opposite are watching me. Two girls with achingly trendy 'scruffy hair' look horrified, a man is watching my fingers intently and his wife is watching him watch me. A nice old man is beaming proudly at me. The husband leans over and asks 'We all would like to know, what is it going to be?' I suspect the girls didn't want to know but they leaned closer, eager for something to mock later over lattes.

I smile and say 'A baby hat' and the wife says 'ooooohhhh thhhaaaaaaats why you're knitting.' Like this explained everything. Because why else would someone dare to be seen knitting in public unless she was pregnant? People are so strange.....


To see everyone's postings for today, please click here.

Episode 1: It's official


Show notes:
Two toe up Socks on One circular Needle by Kirsten Bellehumeur in Knit Picks essential kettle dyed. 
Calorimetry (or I name I refuse to say) by Kathryn Schoendorf in Ewes Full Acres
Asa Tricosa (designer and all round lovely)
The Lollipop Stop (purveryor of delicious knit bags and giveaway enabler)
Last Yesterday blog (friend and fine blogger)
Songs: 
Fly, Fly, Fly by Adrina Thorpe
Dog Days by Amy Speace

Both available on Music Alley

Contact me at: aplayfulday@gmail.com 


RSS Feed

Saturday 2 April 2011

Something to aspire to... or hide under the sofa and avoid (2kcbwday6)


Firstly, a HUGE thank you for all those of you who took the time to listen to me prattling on and give some feedback. It was lovely and very heartwarming to hear. For the record, I opened a libsyn account yesterday. Stay tuned....

For those of you who have not yet got into the full flavour of blog week, please, if you do nothing else, look at yesterday's posts from everyone. They were absolutely brilliant. It never fails to amaze me how talented a bunch we bloggers/ Raveler's/ Crafters are. WOW

Today's topic is terrfiying, 'Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant?'. Eep. As I said, I've not been knitting that long and everything has been a new skill, hard fought and won. I loved learning cables, reading charts, lace (shudders at the many memories of tinking) and two at a time socks. (For the record I just got to the second heel then knee highs are go).

The thing that I would love, more than anything to conquer is colourwork. This is the thing I keep flirting with the idea of and running from. Stripes, colour changes, no probs. But good, proper stranding, fair isle or heaven forbid, steaking just leave me weak at the knees. I have made myself this little promise that if I stashdown enough, I will pick a pattern of colourwork, buy the yarn and dedicate many foul mouthed nights to it. I'm sure I could match something in my stash but this is a good excuse that I'm happy to hide behind thank you very much.

In the interest of not leaving this post imageless, here are some of my favourites, tagged so as 'COLOURWORK' on Ravelry so I know why I am too scared to put any in my immediate queue. All images are from the original designers with thanks.
Swedish Fish Socks by Spilly Jane

Alice in Wonderland Mittens by Jennifer Lang

Bohus Forest Darkness by Annika Malmstrom-Bladini

Paper Dolls by Kate Davies

As always, please do take a look at everyone's entries for todays. I've had an amazing week where people's creativity has blown me away. Knock YOUR socks off here.

Friday 1 April 2011

And now for something completely different (2KCBWDAY5)


I'm not entirely sure how to adjust the width etc so it looks prettier in the box but I'm pretty chuffed I got this far. Fingers crossed I can make it work again.... let me know if I should!

Show notes:
Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz
Thrown Together by Kim Hargreaves


I really enjoyed putting this together, please do let me know what you think, good or bad (be gentle) as I'm really considering releasing something in Itunes soon!

As always to find more creativity for blog week, click here