Robbie's new video

What a fun video from Robbie. I must say, I am very impressed with the sound of the new album and can't wait to get a copy this week.

A 'New' Love Affair Begins

I'm not sure if it will go down as a 'love affair' or merely a 'brief tryst', but quite suddenly of late I have found myself KNITTING after quite a lengthy (decades really) absence in my life. And for a few days, I haven't been able to put it down.

I popped into Michaels the other day for some beading supplies and found myself standing quite by accident beside the supply of cotton. It wasn't my fault, it was on the end aisle. All those bright pretty colours just calling to me!

With the combination of the facts that my grandma knits lovely dishcloths and Lynn had just been working on some fabulous bee design dishcloths - of her own design, I found myself putting several balls of this lovely cotton in my basket.

I briefly tried a crochet pattern on the ball of wool and found that it was nice, but a little too thick. That's when it struck me, why don't I try knitting again. So, I climbed on a chair to get to the knitting needles, and look at what we have.

This was the first pattern I tried, can't really call it a pattern as it couldn't be more simple. Cast on 37 (I prefer 35) stitches, and garter stitch until it's square. For the really bright vareigated wools it remains one of my favourite patterns despite it's simplicity.


This is one of the more traditional patterns, in fact it's called "Grandma's favourite". I'm not totally happy with the corners. It's knit on the diagonal and the pattern calls for you to begin with 4 stitches, but I think it would work better starting with less. In future I'd begin with one stitch to make sharper corners.


And this one is a box pattern stitch of knit and purl. I think it would be very nice in a solid colour where the pattern could be the star.

Lynn has finally talked me into joining Ravelry, and I must say I'm very impressed. Great resource for thousands of free patterns, but also really helpful to see what other people have done and how things look in various types of wool.

I've also found some other great resources like Knit to Donate to Charity or Care to Knit or Knit a Square for knitting and crocheting for good causes. I think my Grandma and Auntie Carole might also like these.

Related articles of Interest

• The obsession returns from time to time. It's my time. (crazyauntpurl.com)

The Room of Unfinished Projects

My craft room goes by another name. It is also known as 'the room of unfinished projects'. There are rather a lot of those - and a wide variety too. Quite a lovely room really.

I'm not sure if it was a recent stint of intense 'working' (for which I need a 'balance'), or the incessent rain (which always seems to inspire creativity) but something of late has sparked my crafting side and I'm revisiting all sorts of things I haven't done in ages - and tackling some projects I started in the decades before this one.


This is just one of my 'major' cross stitch projects that is 'on the go'. I can't remember when I started this but it's been a few years at least. I've done very few cross stitch projects in recent years and only small projects like Christmas ornaments. Although it is large, the counting is quite simple with nice large blocks of colour, so it is very relaxing to work on, and fun to watch the picture 'develop'.


Okay, it's going to take a while, and no doubt it'll get put away again 'for a rest' during the process, but it I have found it quite enjoyable to be tackling a larger craft project, and it's pretty rare for me to just sit and stitch, which I probably should do more often.


Hopefully this should give me incentive to give you updates now and again so check back from time to time to watch it grow! and other projects develop.

Next time I'll take a picture of the pattern so you can see where we're headed. I know you're curious.

More Articles of Interest

• Crossstitch recreation of Sistine Chapel ceiling (telegraph.co.uk)

All Hail Summer!

Hail? Summer? Such crazy weather. Although the day started warm and sunny, it ended up covered in ice ... Poor wee planties. So destructive. Not the greatest picture through the glass and pouring rain but there was no stepping outside for this photo.


Although we didn't get the worst of the winds that are in the area, or the loony sized hail reported not far away (that's like a 50p hail for the british followers) it rained like crazy here, and we got some very heavy smaller hail.


At one point I saw a poor little skunk caught in the deluge digging itself cover under our fireplace. Hmmm, that's not so good though I've known for a while there are some living nearby.


Considering we live on sandy soil, it was pretty impressive the way the lawns were becoming lakes, and even our deep front ditches were completely full of water. It's a shame we can't send this rain to British Columbia where it would be very helpful.

Pretty silly of Rob to park the car so near to a river, don't you think?


And now, half an hour later .... sunny and blue skies. How strange is that?