Go Outdoors! called a few days back, agreeing completely that my tent did indeed have a three foot gash in the built in ground sheet and that this damage probably happened before it left the factory. I headed over on Friday night after work and picked up a replacement and fingers crossed that this time, it's as it should be.
Now we just have to find time to do a test pitch and this time, inspect it thoroughly!
I bought a couple of new books this week, Making Handbags and Chic Bags, both bought from The Book Depository. My thought was to have a go at making bags, since it would keep my sewing hand in but each bag should be relatively quick to make. Of course I hadn't reckoned on how hard it would be to find suitable supplies in Coventry.
I flicked through Making Handbags, which is a fairly basic book compared to Chic Bags (which has some very, very nice bags in it) covering basic bag designs - namely the tote, the clutch, the drawstring and the beach bag - and variations on each. I'd decided to have a go at making a basic drawstring bag, which is not disimilar to a tote, but with gromits set into the top and finished off with a clip on strap.
Sadly it was not to be.
I found some upholstery fabric offcuts I liked without difficulty after sticking my head into Busy Fingers in town. I rather fell of the wagon there, buying fabric, despite the fact that I've probably got suitable fabric in my stash, but it was pretty... And I justified the purchase after Dave commented that the fabric would make excellent breeches, so it has a secondary purpose already.
Then I walked up to Hobbycraft, thinking I'd pick up some grommits and either dog leash clips (as the book describes them) or key ring split rings. This is where I was thwarted. Hobbycraft had 8mm grommits which are possibly too small but no starter kits or die sets, to fit them. The 11mm grommits, were sold in starter kits but it was a case of you can have any colour you like, so long as it's black. Clips and keyring split rings were not to be found.
After scouring the store, I sought out a shop assistant... who proceeded to patronise me and act in a generally terse and aggressive fashion. She did try to help I suppose, but only after I stopped acting like I knew what I was talking about and apologised for expecting her to do her job.
I left the store without buying anything at all, which demonstrates just how frustrated and generally demoralised I felt by the time this woman was done with me.
So, no gromits and no clips which means I'll need to hunt down the required bits online.
On the plus side, we popped over to see Esther and family yesterday for a natter. I got to hold the latest addition and received some tips for the kind of store to search for. So far, the places which seem promising are Corsetry Suppliers (a store I already use here), leather working suppliers, saddlers and pet shops. I did look at online chandlers, who sell all manner of interesting clips but nothing quite like I was looking for. Bead shops sell lots of other things I'd like to buy and are very tempting, so I'm going to have to return for a second look. And of course, camping suppliers...
I did find out the proper name for a dog leash clip is a trigger hook - which helps no end when trying to do a search.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, May 05, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
So now I have a spindle or two...
So far this weekend is turning into one of those expensive ones, where I seem to be falling over myself to spend money.
Yesterday afternoon, with a few hours off work at my disposal I headed off to the camping shop to stock up on gas and buy a new single airbed, so we're sorted for the beginning of season.
Then I had an unexpected visit from an electrician to deal with a dodgy socket and light switch. Unexpected in that I'd actually booked him for Monday, but he had an empty slot so wanted to come there and then.
Next up, I hurried over to a cycling shop where I took a good hour or so to pick out and buy a bicycle. This is something of a gamble for me, since I haven't been on a bike since my teens... Then, low and behold if Dave (who'd dropped in to see what I was up to) didn't decide to buy one as well!
Then today, to top it off we headed to the Re-enactors Market where I acquired these...
I picked up two spindles of differing weights because I wanted to see what they feel like, along with a little booklet explaining the basics and a couple of 50g bags of wool 'tops'. I've no idea at this point whether I'll take to using a spindle, but I'm determined to have a go.
I also picked up a costume book called "Historic Costumes and How to Make Them" which caught my eye. It's a generic instruction book covering the fifth century through to late eighteenth so I'm hoping might be useful.
Hopefully that's about it for spending money for a while!
Knitting wise this week, I've been working on this...
It's a mock cable scarf in pink mohair taken from Stitch N'Bitch Nation, which is a book I bought right back when I started to teach myself knitting. I remember when I first looked at most of the patterns in this book, I classified them as scary - meaning they looked far too complicated for me to even consider. Having picked it up again, it's comforting to be able to say that there are actually things in there I'd think about making now, which shows how far I've come since Christmas 2006.
Anyhow, I picked out the mock cable scarf because it's pretty, pink and girly, which I'm hoping will suit the intended recipient. It's a fairly mindless knit, which has suited me well this week as I'm feeling rather brain dead after being force fed project management jargon for three days. All of which means, that half way in I'm pleased with it so far.
Yesterday afternoon, with a few hours off work at my disposal I headed off to the camping shop to stock up on gas and buy a new single airbed, so we're sorted for the beginning of season.
Then I had an unexpected visit from an electrician to deal with a dodgy socket and light switch. Unexpected in that I'd actually booked him for Monday, but he had an empty slot so wanted to come there and then.
Next up, I hurried over to a cycling shop where I took a good hour or so to pick out and buy a bicycle. This is something of a gamble for me, since I haven't been on a bike since my teens... Then, low and behold if Dave (who'd dropped in to see what I was up to) didn't decide to buy one as well!
Then today, to top it off we headed to the Re-enactors Market where I acquired these...
I picked up two spindles of differing weights because I wanted to see what they feel like, along with a little booklet explaining the basics and a couple of 50g bags of wool 'tops'. I've no idea at this point whether I'll take to using a spindle, but I'm determined to have a go.I also picked up a costume book called "Historic Costumes and How to Make Them" which caught my eye. It's a generic instruction book covering the fifth century through to late eighteenth so I'm hoping might be useful.
Hopefully that's about it for spending money for a while!
Knitting wise this week, I've been working on this...
It's a mock cable scarf in pink mohair taken from Stitch N'Bitch Nation, which is a book I bought right back when I started to teach myself knitting. I remember when I first looked at most of the patterns in this book, I classified them as scary - meaning they looked far too complicated for me to even consider. Having picked it up again, it's comforting to be able to say that there are actually things in there I'd think about making now, which shows how far I've come since Christmas 2006.Anyhow, I picked out the mock cable scarf because it's pretty, pink and girly, which I'm hoping will suit the intended recipient. It's a fairly mindless knit, which has suited me well this week as I'm feeling rather brain dead after being force fed project management jargon for three days. All of which means, that half way in I'm pleased with it so far.
Monday, February 04, 2008
With all due diligence
Another weekend seems to have flown by and I'm sat here trying to remember what exactly I got up to. The answer is quite a lot, in that I was busy throughout the weekend although in truth not much progress seems to have been made.
Saturday morning, we headed into Coventry to try out the swimming baths and I at least was pleasantly surprised. I haven't been in a pool since my mid teens after a childhood full of bad swimming experiences which have pretty much turned me into a non-swimmer. Despite being worried about how I'd get on, I actually quite enjoyed myself.
As I'd expected, I appear to have forgotten how to swim but after ten minutes or so of acclimatising, I was managing to swim back and forth with a float... something I did repeatedly for an hour, which is why yesterday and today I ache a lot. But as I said, it was fun. Dave was very patient and we both spent a lot longer in the pool than we'd intended as a result of losing all track of time.
We popped into town briefly, where I resisted buying yarn but found and bought a crochet book (Vintage Crochet) as my willpower momentarily deserted me. I have a list of books I'm keeping my eye on but not buying on Amazon while I try to save some pennies, so really I shouldn't have bought this but perhaps the exercise got to me. Anyhow, I now have another crochet book in my collection.
At home that afternoon, household chores were the main theme which kept us occupied for the rest of the day. I did take a brief break to finish the toe on the first of Dave's socks, something which took me longer than I liked as I had issues with dropped stitches while I was trying to graft the toe shut. Not to worry though, I finally got there and Dave tried on the sock which appeared to fit well.
Dave also took two loads of stuff to the local charity shops, fallout from the ongoing de-cluttering exercise. Of course no sooner had we cleared the pile of items to go out, than we started again and so a new pile of stuff to go to charity has already started to grow.
We did have one tiny and annoying glitch in that one of our neighbours, who was obviously having a clearout of his own, decided the ideal place to dispose of his rubbish was in our garden. This is a bit of an ongoing issue for us and a few years back, we spent a whole summer clearing as much of the rubbish that others had dumped over the fence as we could easily get at. We put a great big shed in front of the junk we couldn't easily move but haven't fenced it off as I worry that will just encourage our neighbours to think it doesn't belong to anyone. Over the past couple of years, random bits of rubbish appear and we do our best to remove them.
This weekend, we came came back from swimming to discover a discarded patio set, some fence panels and a huge plastic tub or tank thrown behind our shed. Dave had words with the neighbour in question. Admission of ownership and platitudes were offered, but the rubbish remained and so Dave has stacked the stuff back in its original owner's garden. We shall see how things develop. One thing is certain, we have enough of our own junk without neighbours adding to it!
Talking about our own junk, yesterday I diligently spent a couple of hours going through the contents of a cupboard, sorting through old paperwork and arguing with the shredder which kept jamming. I didn't get as far as I wanted to, but at this stage I'm taking the attitude that if I keep chipping away at the clutter I will eventually win.
Yesterday afternoon, I dug out my various lucets and reminded myself of the basics in readiness for the workshop at the knitting group on Wednesday, successfully whiling away a couple of hours.
And other than casting on a second sock, that was about it for the weekend.
Saturday morning, we headed into Coventry to try out the swimming baths and I at least was pleasantly surprised. I haven't been in a pool since my mid teens after a childhood full of bad swimming experiences which have pretty much turned me into a non-swimmer. Despite being worried about how I'd get on, I actually quite enjoyed myself.
As I'd expected, I appear to have forgotten how to swim but after ten minutes or so of acclimatising, I was managing to swim back and forth with a float... something I did repeatedly for an hour, which is why yesterday and today I ache a lot. But as I said, it was fun. Dave was very patient and we both spent a lot longer in the pool than we'd intended as a result of losing all track of time.
We popped into town briefly, where I resisted buying yarn but found and bought a crochet book (Vintage Crochet) as my willpower momentarily deserted me. I have a list of books I'm keeping my eye on but not buying on Amazon while I try to save some pennies, so really I shouldn't have bought this but perhaps the exercise got to me. Anyhow, I now have another crochet book in my collection.
At home that afternoon, household chores were the main theme which kept us occupied for the rest of the day. I did take a brief break to finish the toe on the first of Dave's socks, something which took me longer than I liked as I had issues with dropped stitches while I was trying to graft the toe shut. Not to worry though, I finally got there and Dave tried on the sock which appeared to fit well.
Dave also took two loads of stuff to the local charity shops, fallout from the ongoing de-cluttering exercise. Of course no sooner had we cleared the pile of items to go out, than we started again and so a new pile of stuff to go to charity has already started to grow.
We did have one tiny and annoying glitch in that one of our neighbours, who was obviously having a clearout of his own, decided the ideal place to dispose of his rubbish was in our garden. This is a bit of an ongoing issue for us and a few years back, we spent a whole summer clearing as much of the rubbish that others had dumped over the fence as we could easily get at. We put a great big shed in front of the junk we couldn't easily move but haven't fenced it off as I worry that will just encourage our neighbours to think it doesn't belong to anyone. Over the past couple of years, random bits of rubbish appear and we do our best to remove them.
This weekend, we came came back from swimming to discover a discarded patio set, some fence panels and a huge plastic tub or tank thrown behind our shed. Dave had words with the neighbour in question. Admission of ownership and platitudes were offered, but the rubbish remained and so Dave has stacked the stuff back in its original owner's garden. We shall see how things develop. One thing is certain, we have enough of our own junk without neighbours adding to it!
Talking about our own junk, yesterday I diligently spent a couple of hours going through the contents of a cupboard, sorting through old paperwork and arguing with the shredder which kept jamming. I didn't get as far as I wanted to, but at this stage I'm taking the attitude that if I keep chipping away at the clutter I will eventually win.
Yesterday afternoon, I dug out my various lucets and reminded myself of the basics in readiness for the workshop at the knitting group on Wednesday, successfully whiling away a couple of hours.
And other than casting on a second sock, that was about it for the weekend.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Fluffy and sparkly fun
This week things seem to have been a bit frantic at work and I've been going home rather on the frazzled side, so it's with some relief that I note that this is the first weekend in ages that I don't have to be anywhere in particular. Oh I have errands and shopping to do and I'm popping over to Esther's, but I don't have to drive miles away, nor do I have to get up at the crack of dawn this weekend which I'm looking forward to immensely.
I've not made much progress on the washcloths this week due to the lack of knitting time, but I have turned the heel on my first ever sock! I'm now working on the decrease around the gusset before I start knitting down the foot towards the toe. I'm also beginning to wonder about this grafting thing and whether I should knit a couple of swatches and have a go before trying to graft the sock's toe.
I headed off to Knit-Wits on Wednesday where I got many admiring glances for the now finished cable scarf (more on that one later when I've managed to take some photo's) and the fun fur hybrid pictured here.
This scarf was improvised from scratch and knit with 25 stitches on 6mm needles. It is garter stitch all the way and worked with one strand of Marble (a DK yarn) held double with any one of a multitude of fun furs. All of the yarns are left over from other projects with only a couple of balls of each available, which wasn't enough to make a full scarf in any one of them. Hence the reason I thought I'd try stripes. It was an easy and fun knit, although I did spend nearly two weeks combing it when done, to fluff it up to my satisfaction.
When seen in person, this scarf shimmers and catches the light whilst having an air of fluffy luxury about it. It's soft, pretty, substantial and not at all scratchy; the consensus of opinion was that it was one I should maybe think about keeping. Not so, I'm afraid since it's intended as a gift for my teenage niece where I hope it will find a happy home.
Finally, the first part of my recent book order has arrived. Since I'm possessed of the desire to understand what I'm doing, I picked up Getting Started Knitting Socks. To round out the parcel, I've also got When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters and The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules. These arrived late yesterday afternoon and I've not had a chance to do more than flick through them as yet, but what I did see looked promising. I just hope I find some time this weekend to do some reading...
I've not made much progress on the washcloths this week due to the lack of knitting time, but I have turned the heel on my first ever sock! I'm now working on the decrease around the gusset before I start knitting down the foot towards the toe. I'm also beginning to wonder about this grafting thing and whether I should knit a couple of swatches and have a go before trying to graft the sock's toe.
I headed off to Knit-Wits on Wednesday where I got many admiring glances for the now finished cable scarf (more on that one later when I've managed to take some photo's) and the fun fur hybrid pictured here.
This scarf was improvised from scratch and knit with 25 stitches on 6mm needles. It is garter stitch all the way and worked with one strand of Marble (a DK yarn) held double with any one of a multitude of fun furs. All of the yarns are left over from other projects with only a couple of balls of each available, which wasn't enough to make a full scarf in any one of them. Hence the reason I thought I'd try stripes. It was an easy and fun knit, although I did spend nearly two weeks combing it when done, to fluff it up to my satisfaction.When seen in person, this scarf shimmers and catches the light whilst having an air of fluffy luxury about it. It's soft, pretty, substantial and not at all scratchy; the consensus of opinion was that it was one I should maybe think about keeping. Not so, I'm afraid since it's intended as a gift for my teenage niece where I hope it will find a happy home.
Finally, the first part of my recent book order has arrived. Since I'm possessed of the desire to understand what I'm doing, I picked up Getting Started Knitting Socks. To round out the parcel, I've also got When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters and The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules. These arrived late yesterday afternoon and I've not had a chance to do more than flick through them as yet, but what I did see looked promising. I just hope I find some time this weekend to do some reading...
Monday, July 02, 2007
One soggy weekend later
With the hoped for dry weather failing to materialise over the weekend, very little got done outdoors and I seem to have had an expensive few days.
I've reluctantly decided that I need to join the rest of the online world, connecting from a broadband ISP... I've also come to the reluctant conclusion that I may need my own computer. Hence, this weekend I placed an order with BT and parted with hard earned pennies so there is at least one decent computer in the house, rather than the hand-me-downs that I normally make do with.
Said newly acquired computer is now at work so I can configure it prior to discovering the joys of a proper internet connection at home.
I also headed into town and in a moment of weakness bought the only new craft offerings on the shelf in Waterstones. I had a couple more book tokens left over from Christmas - I do tend to hang on to them for months and months and months - so it wasn't as bad as it could have been and I walked away with a copy of Knitting Loves Crochet and Crocheted Accessories . The first one in particular looks fantastic, if I had the skill to make anything listed in there of course!
Saturday night, I finished the ribbon scarf I've been working on.
This one is pretty rather than practical and when it catches the light (demonstrated with a flash here) it really does come alive. Drop stitch knits up quickly and the ribbon wasn't too troublesome to use, although I did have tension issues when starting a new yarn. With such a loose stitch (8mm needles) and shiney, slippery ribbon it really didn't hold together too well. Fortunately, going around with a needle and carefully weaving through the ends took care of that though, as I was able to add tension to that first stitch with the new yarn.
As always, click on the images to see bigger versions.
I revisited the bump as planned, but discovered one downfall of making things so sturdily. My intention is to take the larger bump apart, reversing the final construction phases - which make it wearable - so I can get back to the padding. Then I'll start increasing the padding once more, before putting a new shell over the top and reattaching the straps. The theory is sound methinks, but when I sew something together I intend it to stay sewn together despite any rigours that it might suffer due to the stresses of LARP. Hence it took me a good two and a half hours yesterday with a seam ripper to gently remove the straps and outer layers.
I finally got there though and the bump is now divested of everything which makes it useable... Heres hoping I get it suitably grown and wearable in time for the next event!
I've reluctantly decided that I need to join the rest of the online world, connecting from a broadband ISP... I've also come to the reluctant conclusion that I may need my own computer. Hence, this weekend I placed an order with BT and parted with hard earned pennies so there is at least one decent computer in the house, rather than the hand-me-downs that I normally make do with.
Said newly acquired computer is now at work so I can configure it prior to discovering the joys of a proper internet connection at home.
I also headed into town and in a moment of weakness bought the only new craft offerings on the shelf in Waterstones. I had a couple more book tokens left over from Christmas - I do tend to hang on to them for months and months and months - so it wasn't as bad as it could have been and I walked away with a copy of Knitting Loves Crochet and Crocheted Accessories . The first one in particular looks fantastic, if I had the skill to make anything listed in there of course!
Saturday night, I finished the ribbon scarf I've been working on.
This one is pretty rather than practical and when it catches the light (demonstrated with a flash here) it really does come alive. Drop stitch knits up quickly and the ribbon wasn't too troublesome to use, although I did have tension issues when starting a new yarn. With such a loose stitch (8mm needles) and shiney, slippery ribbon it really didn't hold together too well. Fortunately, going around with a needle and carefully weaving through the ends took care of that though, as I was able to add tension to that first stitch with the new yarn.As always, click on the images to see bigger versions.
I revisited the bump as planned, but discovered one downfall of making things so sturdily. My intention is to take the larger bump apart, reversing the final construction phases - which make it wearable - so I can get back to the padding. Then I'll start increasing the padding once more, before putting a new shell over the top and reattaching the straps. The theory is sound methinks, but when I sew something together I intend it to stay sewn together despite any rigours that it might suffer due to the stresses of LARP. Hence it took me a good two and a half hours yesterday with a seam ripper to gently remove the straps and outer layers.
I finally got there though and the bump is now divested of everything which makes it useable... Heres hoping I get it suitably grown and wearable in time for the next event!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Of lace and wikis
I've just spent my lunch hour making a good stab at trying to sort out the Shards wiki which moved from its previous home a few days ago. I'll not go into the whys and what-the-hell's that I could do at this moment, since I've already done my fair share of tearing out metaphorical hair. At the moment I'm concentrating on trying to clean up the spilt milk rather than ranting.
Allegedly, the entire wiki has been copied from Schtuff to PBwiki with it's links intact. Sadly, this does not seem to be entirely true. Most of the data is over, but the context has been lost. The tags are now meaningless and since a lot of the pages were dynamic, based on saved searches, those are also completely lost. Cue me trying to piece together what is or is not missing and then build static pages to substitute for those missing searches. There may of course be a way of rebuilding the searches using PBwiki's tools, but lack of familiarity means that for now I'm not trying to be clever - I just want to get it all back online.
Worryingly I've also come across the odd page which seems to be missing entirely. Fortunatley, the original site is still up so all I've had to do is nip across and copy them over, but time is running out on that score. I'll continue as I am for a few days while I get the measure of it, but then I'm going to need a general announcement methinks... Only the main boards are down as the website is also down and I don't think everyone is using the Yahoo Group.
On the positive side, I have managed to put the beginnings of a sidebar in place to act as a menu. The character pages are beginning to take shape and of course I now have some idea of what is missing. The colours are still yucky and I don't like the template, but without the admin password there's not a lot I can do about that.
On to more fun stuff, despite wanting to do nothing more than curl up and go to sleep, I headed out to Knit-Wits last night which had a good turnout. Steelbreeze had made some latch hooks out of old machine knitting needles, which look not dissimilar to the latch hooks I've used in the past for rug making, only a lot smaller. Steelbreeze went on to demonstrate how they can be used for picking up dropped stitches in your knitting, which sounded like a fine idea to me. So I must admit I snaffled one of these fine inventions for myself.
Steelbreeze also showed me how to do cables, which from her quick demo do not look anywhere near so scary as I thought they were.
With those and the how to fix dropped stitches, I think I really do need to do some sample swatches and have a play. The Stitch n'Bitch book has a section in it about fixing mistakes and I think I might need to deliberately make mistakes and repair them before having a go at lace knitting, because that sure does look fiddly and accident prone.
I took along Victorian Lace Today, which did the rounds and got a lot of oooh'ing and ahhh'ing. Every time I look at that book, I want to make something and by the attention it got, it went down well with everyone else as well. In my case, what can I say... It's finicky, detailed, fussy and requires a lot of attention to finish... Just my cup of tea!
The Sweetpea Shawl also went with me last night and I'm now getting through those rows with frightening speed. I don't think it will be long before I finish it and then comes the dreaded blocking...
Photo's taken by Steelbreeze - as usual, click on them to see bigger versions.
Edited to add: This link to a review I found out there in the blogosphere for Victorian Lace Today. Scroll down and look at the pictures, to see why I like this book so much...
Allegedly, the entire wiki has been copied from Schtuff to PBwiki with it's links intact. Sadly, this does not seem to be entirely true. Most of the data is over, but the context has been lost. The tags are now meaningless and since a lot of the pages were dynamic, based on saved searches, those are also completely lost. Cue me trying to piece together what is or is not missing and then build static pages to substitute for those missing searches. There may of course be a way of rebuilding the searches using PBwiki's tools, but lack of familiarity means that for now I'm not trying to be clever - I just want to get it all back online.
Worryingly I've also come across the odd page which seems to be missing entirely. Fortunatley, the original site is still up so all I've had to do is nip across and copy them over, but time is running out on that score. I'll continue as I am for a few days while I get the measure of it, but then I'm going to need a general announcement methinks... Only the main boards are down as the website is also down and I don't think everyone is using the Yahoo Group.
On the positive side, I have managed to put the beginnings of a sidebar in place to act as a menu. The character pages are beginning to take shape and of course I now have some idea of what is missing. The colours are still yucky and I don't like the template, but without the admin password there's not a lot I can do about that.
On to more fun stuff, despite wanting to do nothing more than curl up and go to sleep, I headed out to Knit-Wits last night which had a good turnout. Steelbreeze had made some latch hooks out of old machine knitting needles, which look not dissimilar to the latch hooks I've used in the past for rug making, only a lot smaller. Steelbreeze went on to demonstrate how they can be used for picking up dropped stitches in your knitting, which sounded like a fine idea to me. So I must admit I snaffled one of these fine inventions for myself.Steelbreeze also showed me how to do cables, which from her quick demo do not look anywhere near so scary as I thought they were.
With those and the how to fix dropped stitches, I think I really do need to do some sample swatches and have a play. The Stitch n'Bitch book has a section in it about fixing mistakes and I think I might need to deliberately make mistakes and repair them before having a go at lace knitting, because that sure does look fiddly and accident prone.
I took along Victorian Lace Today, which did the rounds and got a lot of oooh'ing and ahhh'ing. Every time I look at that book, I want to make something and by the attention it got, it went down well with everyone else as well. In my case, what can I say... It's finicky, detailed, fussy and requires a lot of attention to finish... Just my cup of tea!
The Sweetpea Shawl also went with me last night and I'm now getting through those rows with frightening speed. I don't think it will be long before I finish it and then comes the dreaded blocking...Photo's taken by Steelbreeze - as usual, click on them to see bigger versions.
Edited to add: This link to a review I found out there in the blogosphere for Victorian Lace Today. Scroll down and look at the pictures, to see why I like this book so much...
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Oooh... Pretty Lace
I'm still in the land of the living after spending the weekend at Candleston doing Shards. While the event was great as always, I think the weather did for me. As the forecasts predicted, it started raining overnight on Saturday and continued into Sunday. While it did let up a bit as the day wore on, the temperature also dropped and the wind picked up. All of which meant that I froze and as anyone who knows me could tell you, I really do not cope well with being cold.
Naturally I was back at work yesterday, where I found my long anticipated books waiting for me in the Telephone Exchange. Facing a backlog of work - and mad traffic queues having delayed my arrival - I resisted opening the multiple packages until the end of the day. When I did, I quickly flipped through the first two, images from which were driven from my mind by the contents of Victorian Lace Today.
Of this book, all I can say is wow!!!! Talk about eye candy... I flicked through and I can't say there is a single project in there that I didn't like. Several got a flicker of interest to the point I stared at the patterns - which I can't actually understand, but hey, give me time and I *will*. Each piece is beautifully photographed in historical settings and the author writes a bit about the original publisher which makes it interesting reading... Ultimately though, wow!
So... I guess I need to give lace knitting a try.
Naturally I was back at work yesterday, where I found my long anticipated books waiting for me in the Telephone Exchange. Facing a backlog of work - and mad traffic queues having delayed my arrival - I resisted opening the multiple packages until the end of the day. When I did, I quickly flipped through the first two, images from which were driven from my mind by the contents of Victorian Lace Today.
Of this book, all I can say is wow!!!! Talk about eye candy... I flicked through and I can't say there is a single project in there that I didn't like. Several got a flicker of interest to the point I stared at the patterns - which I can't actually understand, but hey, give me time and I *will*. Each piece is beautifully photographed in historical settings and the author writes a bit about the original publisher which makes it interesting reading... Ultimately though, wow!
So... I guess I need to give lace knitting a try.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Books, books, books...
Half of my eagerly awaited book order turned up yesterday. I spent last week monitoring Amazon's stock and came to the conclusion that the other half was holding up the delivery, so I cancelled. I promptly re-ordered those books from their Marketplace sellers, so hopefully they'll show up in the next day or so.
One gripe with the Amazon Marketplace sellers is that they don't seem to combine postage, so rather than offering you savings on multiple purchases, they send each book out individually packaged. This adds to the price of the books, is an unnecessary increase on packaging and can mean that books ordered at the same time turn up at different times. Still, I have my fingers crossed they show up today otherwise they'll sit in the Exchange until Tuesday.
Last night, I skimmed through Crocheted Hats and spotted a couple that looked fun. Dave quickly homed in on a crocheted helmet which he says looks quirky and would make good kit.
I also took the 200 Crochet Blocks book to Knit-Wits, so that the ladies there could browse it. Two observations about this book... Firstly it uses British stitch descriptions, something only obvious when checking the stitch tutorial at the back of the book. This is the first time I've ever seen a book which does so, as most use American stitch names which are nearly identical but describe something entirely different. Hence when I make something from this book, I'm going to have to remember this!
The second observation is that the author is counting changes in colour towards her count of 200 Chrochet Blocks. Now to me, that is plain cheating as a change in colour scheme is not a change in design, sorry.. That all said, it did look interesting and useful and I'll be taking a second look after the weekend.
The other two books which showed up were both full of quick projects using one skein of yarn (One Skein and One Skein Wonders)... I flicked through and while I was taken with the projects, I think they're stretching the definition of One Skein on most of them! Projects which require over 1000m of yarn to complete and are knit with two threads, do not fall into what I'd normally think of as one skein!
One gripe with the Amazon Marketplace sellers is that they don't seem to combine postage, so rather than offering you savings on multiple purchases, they send each book out individually packaged. This adds to the price of the books, is an unnecessary increase on packaging and can mean that books ordered at the same time turn up at different times. Still, I have my fingers crossed they show up today otherwise they'll sit in the Exchange until Tuesday.
Last night, I skimmed through Crocheted Hats and spotted a couple that looked fun. Dave quickly homed in on a crocheted helmet which he says looks quirky and would make good kit.
I also took the 200 Crochet Blocks book to Knit-Wits, so that the ladies there could browse it. Two observations about this book... Firstly it uses British stitch descriptions, something only obvious when checking the stitch tutorial at the back of the book. This is the first time I've ever seen a book which does so, as most use American stitch names which are nearly identical but describe something entirely different. Hence when I make something from this book, I'm going to have to remember this!
The second observation is that the author is counting changes in colour towards her count of 200 Chrochet Blocks. Now to me, that is plain cheating as a change in colour scheme is not a change in design, sorry.. That all said, it did look interesting and useful and I'll be taking a second look after the weekend.
The other two books which showed up were both full of quick projects using one skein of yarn (One Skein and One Skein Wonders)... I flicked through and while I was taken with the projects, I think they're stretching the definition of One Skein on most of them! Projects which require over 1000m of yarn to complete and are knit with two threads, do not fall into what I'd normally think of as one skein!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Book List
I'm feeling a tad frustrated at the moment as last week I gave into a momentary weakness and ordered several books from Amazon. What can I say, I had an unspent gift voucher - if such is an applicable term for an online bookstore - and I've been eyeing up several craft books of late.
A week on and the projected delivery date is set for the 21st of the month, so I'm still waiting and will be for at least another week. This is not good. Once I have decided to purchase a book, I like to get my grubby little mits on it as soon as possible. Part of me is itching to cancel the order and buy the books via Amazon's 'New and Used' marketplace, but since the only reason I bought direct from Amazon was those gift tokens it kind of defeats the purpose.
The titles I ordered were all knitting or crochet pattern books, i.e.
I do now however have one of these, having ordered it from Cotton Patch who have always been very helpful in the past. I anticipate a weekend filled with cutting things out!
A week on and the projected delivery date is set for the 21st of the month, so I'm still waiting and will be for at least another week. This is not good. Once I have decided to purchase a book, I like to get my grubby little mits on it as soon as possible. Part of me is itching to cancel the order and buy the books via Amazon's 'New and Used' marketplace, but since the only reason I bought direct from Amazon was those gift tokens it kind of defeats the purpose.
The titles I ordered were all knitting or crochet pattern books, i.e.
- Crocheted Bags
- Victorian Lace Today
- One-Skein Wonders
- 200 Crochet Blocks...
- Crocheted Hats
- One Skein
I do now however have one of these, having ordered it from Cotton Patch who have always been very helpful in the past. I anticipate a weekend filled with cutting things out!
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