Z is for...

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Seriously.  This blog has been in hibernation mode and for that I give you many apologies!  Snoozing has occured primarily because I was on tour, then back here in Scotland for the Festive Season.  Sadly, I have no way to download photos here, so I have no freshly minted piccies of my newly-finished WIPs (that were victims of panic-completion-mode just in time for Christmas - nothing like a dead-line to make you appreciate every single hour there is in a day) to show you.  I think I'm going to have to trawl my flickr account to see if I have anything left to show instead...  Methinks we may have a miscellaneous grab-bag of a post in the offing...

Ah, well, I've found one already!  Not long ago, in the Very Longest Thread on Ravelry, we were discussing heraldry.  Well, actually, I believe it stemmed from my posting of the VLT Pledge in Latin.  (Remember - the VLT is in a group called the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group, so there are usually no reasons for the a lot of things there...)

Actually, it's best not to ask.

Anyway, comments came back about how excellently the last line (sic succurro mihi bob or so help me, Bob) would look on the CPaAG heraldic shield.  Which led me to thinking.   (A dangerous pastime at the best of times...)  This thinking led me to google.  (Huzzah for Knight Google.  And yay, verily, etc.)  And then onto my cheap-ass Compaq poor-relation of Photoshop.  Actually, I couldn't figure out how to take shapes and transfer them to other pictures, so a lot of this was filled in 'by hand' as it were... (particularly noticable on the cat.  On the right.  Mind you - the cats in the middle aren't that hot, either, but I digress...)

cpaag heraldic shield aka one coffee too many

So, what else?  (Apart from the fact, yes FACT, that blogging using Internet Explorer is a royal pain in the behind...)  Oh!  The Bebeh Munkeez for Baby E.  I forgot to post about them when I was posting about the bootees...  Such a cute design, based on the marvellous Monkey Socks by Cookie A.  This was by Nikkiana and named 'Baby Monkey Socks'.

bebeh munkeez in a&e sock yarn in sea spray

Aha... and here's another photo...  a montage of some squares I knit up for some super seekrit skware, erm, things.  Yeah.

the loveghans project

Can't say any more about those, or your computer would have to self-destruct in 5 seconds. 

OH!  I never blogged about my visit from the CPaAG Cake the Nellyphant, who is currently on a whistle-stop tour of the world!  I hosted his tiny multi-coloured self in August this year and it was fun to show him the sights!

cake in (and on) tour(s)

Actually, I have a whole lot of photos from that visit, so I may do a proper Cake blog post some time next year...

And talking of next year... May I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009 when it arrives! 

Y is for...

Yikes...

What with travel, concert and rehearsal days to take time away, I only have 4 real days left to finish my Christmas knitting...

Things still to finish (or, indeed start...)

• unmentionable pressie for DS
• fish hat for J
• golf club socks for DB
• toy for DS's cat
• hot water bottle cover for Mum

Why, oh why is it that all I really want to knit right now are socks for myself?

:: sigh ::

I have no knitting to show.  Nada.  Zilch.  Rien.  I'm a failure!  But my friends are not... In the space of the last two days, I've received a parcel from the US and another from Norway FILLED to the gunwales with goodies.  I am a lucky so-and-so, that's for sure!

nomilicious bounty

G, aka the lovely dizzybea, kindly sent over her pattern for some felted clogs, the pattern over which I have been drooling for a while... She also included two skeins of lovely LOVELY Knit Picks lace-weight yarn - 'Alpaca Cloud' in Peppermint and 'Shimmer' in Morning Mist and a tonne of chocolate... oh MY!  The yarn is so soft!  I'm now beginning to understand the frenzied love of Knit Picks I read about in teh Rav!

E, aka itisalwaysraining, sent me some of her home-dyed yarn. Can you believe she used beetroot for those marvellous pinks and oranges?  She also sent some Garnstudio Drops Alpaca in a beautiful deep purple, a divine little note-book and some more chocklit! 

So yes, in fact I can blame these two for my lack of finished pressies... I'm too busy savouring the delights of the cacao bean, thank you!

Obsession

I am obsessed.  No, truly, I am.  I don't know if it's the cable pattern, or the chunky yarn, or... or if it's just my addictive nature coming to the fore, but I just can't stop myself...

 

denimesque cabled glovelets

I know - I KNOW!   Yet ANOTHER pair of glovelets?  Well, I saw the yarn, you see, and I knew my life would not be complete without it adorning my person in some form or other!  It's Phildar Ondiaflamme in the Islande colourway. 

I think I fell for the yarn colours because I'd been playing with the macro setting on my camera that morning and had some interesting photos of denim in close-up.  (What do you mean, I was really trying to figure out how the damn thing works and accidentally took some shots of my skirt?)  The colours - I was entranced!  Blue, yes, but also green and purple and cream...  Very pretty! 

obligatory arty-farty close-up shot

(Of course, I just happened to shoot a close-up of the cabled part with the most colours showing!  Cunning!)  I decided to go for a more in-tune coloured bead for the inside of the cables - a pretty purple faceted glass bead that picks out the purple in the yarn.

Oh, but that's not all...  I saw a hat pattern.  Just a basic watch-cap thingy with ribbing all the way up... I got to wondering, as you do, how that would look if I added a cable or two from the glovelet pattern.  Told you I was obsessed.  And maybe not just a tad crazy.  Why?  Well, 1) because I've never knit a hat before, never mind try to make one up, and 2) did I tell you I really don't suit hats?  Really, I don't - I just look silly in any and all styles.  I know this as I think over the years I've tried on every style known to man.  And beast.  (Best not to ask...)  But I just couldn't let it lie...

Fingers twitching, I finally decided to use the green Madil Iceland yarn, mainly because I am vain about having red hair and know that the green will set it off nicely!  Oh, and my green eyes!  Heh!  If I'm going to make a hat that I probably won't suit, I may as well try to get it to highlight other decent stuff instead, no?!!

woohoo - matching set

And now, I think I can safely say that I'm cabled-out...  Erm, until the next time...