String fellow

A while ago I crochet myself a string bag, with string funnily enough. A packet of blueberries burst over it the other day so I put it in the washing machine. My logic was it's cotton therefore it won't felt. It may not have felted in a fuzzy way but it most certainly shrank. These two began life as twins!

Like my string hand bag? At least it's one way to solve the problem of the leeks falling through the holes.

Jacket in

It's finished! And I hate it! Well, not as much as I thought I would actually. I took a huge seam on the sleeves to narrow them down and remove the woolly 'bingo wings'. Bad enough having those floppy pockets of skin hanging from your upper arms without them being enclosed by their very own cardigan sleeve extensions.

The reversing of the stripe colour gives you a weird white stripe on one shoulder only. But it's soft and warm and short. Mercifully short!

Puppet school

Just finished a session of puppet making with some special needs children. The simplicity of the mop and clothes line puppet and the paper plate frog were just the job. The kids were very into riping the fabric so we did that rather than cutting it and secured it with ribbon ties and elastic bands. Some of the puppets have a quaint kind of Jane Austin feel about them.



I'm deeply suspicious of the guy in the black PVC mac.

strongly suspect he had something to do with that plague of frogs.

Not as green as I'm cabbage looking

I was going to take a big, thick piece of polystyrene to puppet school tomorrow. It's to be a river bank in which we will stick our very excellent pipe cleaner bull rushes in order that the baby Moses will have somewhere to hide. I meant to buy green spray paint but completely forgot. I'm off to school early in the morning and was in my workroom puzzling about what to do why my eye fell on some vegetable net the fruit shop had kindly given me. It included some green net bags of just the right size. Three of those, one on top of the other and voila, instant grass, just add bullrushes!

Heart felt message

The children from felt school made me a thank you card. Wasn't that sweet?

A sunny day in Rothesay town

Welcoming arms

A vase full of potential puppet arms

Waiter!

Lousy service in this restaurant. Even the plates are getting crabby

Red and yellow and pink and blue....

Homework!

Two for the price of one

A double photo delight for you today, but I'm cheating. I was going to work while my dearly beloved was off down the marina so he took on the roll of photographer for the day. I'm off for a weekend yoga seminar where obviously no photos will be taken. Catch up with you Monday.

Stash Enhancement

Major stash enhancement! Found a local wool shop closing down and offering 60% discount. Excellent value because I will of course knit every inch of it.......maybe take me this lifetime and they next but, hey, what else am I doing?

All the details of my stash on Ravelry if you want go see. Check out tinyshinythings. That's my alter ego.

You'll be pleased to hear I've turned the corner

My current knitting is proving to be a real trial of patience and fortitude but with the help of my new friends in Ravelry, I'm getting there. It curves very cleverly all by itself thanks to the short rows but keeping the cables going during this process has proved almost impossible....for me. Bring the pattern up in Ravelry (Concentric Vest) and you have two pages of people saying 'fast and easy!' and other equally frustrating comment. Enough to make me grit my teeth and frog it for the tenth time. This is the furthest I've come so far. If you think my cabling intervals look a bit wonky, you could well be right.

Durassic what now?

Working in the shop this afternoon. I sell a lot of amber. Don't you just love it.

Hunterston

Flushed with yesterday's success I stopped the car on my way to the next village to snap the sun on the ........iron ore terminal. I live in a beautiful part of the world. Where else would you build an ore terminal?

I was on my way to sign up for a beginner's yoga class in the next village. I'm a trainee yoga teacher about to start my own beginner's class. I'm hoping I'll be able to learn on the job.

Yoga plagiarism. Is that naughty?

It's for yoohoo!

We took a trip to Balloch on Loch Lomond side today and I forgot my camera - so no change there then. I had a half hearted go with my phone in a very cavalier point and squirt fashion because I had no confidence I would be able to download it. But it's easy when you can get your hands on the cable that connects it to your PC. I'm most impressed. Might even try and unload some of video of my feet with a soundtrack that says thing like ' Give me the phone.....I know how to work it.....no, you're doing it wrong!' It's called happy schlepping.

Inner warmth

Cold a wet outside today. Just the weather for an apply, blueberry and raspberry crumble shown here with it's secret ingredient!

According to that link it's supposed to be an aphrodisiac. Hot, hot, hot!

It's only just begun...

I've invested in my first paid or rosewood knitting needles. The woman in the shop actually tried to put me off, saying some yarns caught on them but I like them so far. I find plastic needles slip out of the stitches sometimes. These are less slidey and I just love the way they look. The pattern is challenging, a combination of short rows and cables, but there is plenty of advice on Ravelry. I'm still at the frog it and do it again...and again stage until I get it into my head. Then I'll want to knit several. It's certainly fun and fast. The yarn I'm using is Patons Inca, made in China, finished and packed in Oz. *Sign* ....and here I am surrounded by fields of Scottish sheep.

Maybe....

Many of my internet chums are committing to blogging a daily photo. I'm filled with admiration and would love to follow their good example but I know that my particular road to hell is defiantly paved with good intentions. The holidays are over and my wardrobe remains full of summer clothes, the shower stall still sports it's mouldy corners and piles of filing remains just that, piles of filing. So perhaps I will and then again......

In the meantime, puppet preparation remains top of the to do list.

Work in progress

The horrendous jacket nears it's conclusion. Decided to reverse the stripe colours on the second side, just for the hell of it. Not entirely convinced but reckoned it couldn't make it any worse. I was terrified to block it, mainly due to the instructions on the ball band which said DO NOT IRON in frighteningly large letters. Have pinned out bits of it and sprayed them with water which seemed to calm it down slightly. Going to force myself to sew it up before casting on the next one otherwise it will be forever in bits.

Groundhog Day

Here we have Moses caught in a bizarre time warp, carrying himself as a baby, albeit rather precariously. I think this will work as carrying mechanism once I've made a proper Moses' mother puppet, who by the way seems not to be named in Exodus.

Passover puppets

Here we have Moses and a frog before and after. I'm pretty ignorant on the religious front so I've had to research the relevant bible stories. Google image search is great for visual ideals and from the various bits and pieces I found I've cobbled these two together so far. I've done lots of experiments with paper plate locust but none of them is believable. Moses beard is Merino tops and it did occurs to be lightly felted rolls of tops on garden canes might make passable bull rushes. Off to crochet a basket of bull rushes (garden twine) for baby Moses to float away in.