Anyhoo, yes, tunisian. We learnt 7 stitch variations, from simple to lace, accidentally discovered how to increase and decrease and Alison invented the "Alison's Weave" which is knit stitch but between the uprights instead of through.
Heike was brilliant as the tutor and put up very well with the various problems we all had, and my pointing out inconsistencies with the notes (blush). It was her first tunisian workshop, I didn't believe that because it just flowed so well! The atmosphere was great, SFY has a lovely space and I was overwhelmed by the yarn choices. I did come away with some Mirasol Miski in a blue-green, it's baby llama fuzz and is gorgeous soft, I just hope it doesn't shed too much when I work it. I have plans for a nice wrap for me.
I'm currently working on the little bag we had as a tryout, I grabbed two colours I really wouldn't go for normally but are actually really good together, a pumpkin orange and a mossy green, the orange is Rowan Cotton Glace and the green is Rowan Wool Cotton. I said I had the feeling my cotton ball was hiding a knot, dunno about mine yet but Alison's does! I was looking at it on the way home and yep, one neat knot. Sorry Heike, Rowan do knot their yarns!
The food and drinks were superb! The staff were very friendly and helpful, they kept us all watered/OJ'd, we got biccies mid morning, a brilliant selection of sarnies, salad, satay sticks and then strawberries and cream for lunch and then mid-afternoon we got danish! I didn't think I liked danish but I managed to consume half a custard one and half a mixed berry one so they can't be that bad ;) I regretted the refined sugar but hey, the flavour was fantastic.
So, thank you Heike, thank you staff of Stash Fine Yarns and thank you weather for being so nice!
Thinking of tunisian work....
This mess:
Turned into row 1 of 7 for the nautical afghan:
Each row of flags is 196 sts wide and 28 rows tall, but in tunisian 1 row is 2 passes, out and back. It's 196 rows tall too or thereabouts to that's 392 passes. That's a total of 76,832 tunisian simple stitches or, as they're called in the book "afghan stitch". Then there's the border!
Can you tell I love my parents ;) I've got until July 2011 to finish it but I'd like to be done by Christmas, we shall see. I keep getting sidetracked by other projects that don't require three pieces of A4 and 16 balls of yarn! The second flag row is the most demanding with 16 balls, it drops down to 9 or below after that.
If you're on Ravelry you can follow the progress of my afghan there: Jacqui's Nautical Afghan
Someone has already completed this: Nautical Afghan
Mine will be slightly different as I want to be accurate to the flags so the yellow with a blue circle will be black circle on mine and the black triangle on white will have a stripe of blue to make it from an unknown flag to an Alpha. Also, mine is the reverse of hers because I didn't think which way when I started so I chained right to left on the chart BUT, the chain is not the first row! So by the time row 1 is done I actually need to read the chart Left to Right! I am a glutton for punishment.
As I'd be out from 8am and hubbie wouldn't be back until 4.30pm at the earliest I asked my fantastic pal Sarah to dog-sit. She was very happy to and took Pips on a 3mile walk about which the doglet is dreaming now. I still got rammed (read: humans are Pips' breaks!) when I got home and I swear if I was shorter she'd have jumped into my arms! I was told never to leave her alone that long again, even if I do get someone in to be with her! Honestly, for a little old lady this dog knows some pretty naughty words! Doggy swearing is somehow worse than human swearing, possibly because you never know exactly what the words are, just that they are rude!
Oooh yes, since I last updated this I have designed and made a new pattern, the Mariner's cowl:
I've put the pattern up for sale on Rav. and the original has gone to my Dad for his birthday pressie. Hopefully he has it by now! I've not heard but he may be keeping it to one side until his birthday on the 11th.
It's given me the designing bug again and I'm now working on a new one. I've done the charts but I need to test knit it because I've used charts, slightly altered, that originally were not meant for knitting so the pattern may not agree with the technique. It's for a hood with a collar, based on the shape of the Mariner's cowl above but this time with a hood knit from the top with an intarsia'd swan on the back. I've called it Serene Hood but somehow I see myself swearing at it before the test is done. Alas, it will be intarsia all over except for one pattern band on the collar so it will be a lot harder than the cowl.
Thinking of making things, Madam gets a bone or two from the butcher on Thursdays and she likes to take them to her crate to chew on. While she does have two beds and so two covers this left the issue of an uncovered mattress while the cover is washing and drying. As this can take 2 days with bad weather I made a third cover just for the living room bed:
It took her a little while to believe it was hers but she decided it might possibly be comfy once fluffed:
Okay, maybe very comfy!
That's now her living room bed, the two cotton covers are alternated on the crate bed, I change them Thursday evening when I food-waste the bone(s). She spends most of her time in the living room with me anyway, unless the sun is out in which case I am ordered to put her crate bed out in the sun so she can lounge and tan her tum:
She is very good and avoids burning by alternating sun with shade about every 5 minutes. It helps she has dark fur too. Her belly has gone from bright pink to a deep browny-black. I do laugh sometimes though, she'll start whining and I go out to find it's because there are PIGEONS on the ROOF (her shouting, not mine). When the daft birds try and land in her yard you can say to her "get the pigeon" and she will Charge out the door at them. Silly girly. She also snaps at flies and tries to catch them, flies are fine but we've had the odd bumble bee and I keep telling her those ones will hurt. When the lavender blooms will be the test of the doglet, last year we had loads of bees visit and if that happens again I foresee forcing whatever it is that counteracts bee stings into madam's mouth! Thinking of which.....Bee stings are acid, wasp are alkali. So, if Pippa chomps a bee I need to get bicarb or baking soda into her mouth, oh fun! I'll get someone shouting "Rabid dog!" when the froth starts even though the UK is rabies free at the moment.
I love the fact that Calderdale Council recycle the food waste! They provide starch compostable bags and two bins, one is a little one that the bags fit you keep in the kitchen for food scraps and stuff as and when, the other is a big lockable one you keep outside and put the tied off bags in as and when, the Council guys then collect those every week and take it away. Bones the dog has cleaned, peelings, bones from roasts, scrapings, food that went off in the fridge, teabags, anything that isn't a liquid. On top of that they take plastic bottles, card, paper, tins and glass so not much goes in the bin-bin. Which is lucky because we're limited to 5 liners every two weeks and between the pets they can fill one liner a week.
I looked at our rubbish recently, the main bulk is the plastic that meat comes in from the supermarkets, mass-produced plastic tubs that the council won't recycle even though it's the same PET number and so our bin bags are bulky but not very heavy.
Thinking of recycling, I should probably put that out now as I will not be awake at 7am tomorrow when they come to get it.
Anyhoo, that's about it really. I'm going to go back to my little bag once I've chucked out the recycling.
Later peeps.
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