Author: bryonyramsden

I’m on Ravelry 😀 I’m off!

What better way to ease a mixture of hangover (a third night out for birthday celebrations!), a dodgy tum from eating the wrong foods (they were very very good though), hayfever and a poor night’s sleep by knitting socks with a snoring kitty by your side and the first season of X-Files on tv? Yup, my first Sockapaloooza sock is finished 😀
Here is the token patio door shot:

And here is a better shot of the detail.

Today was the perfect day to take these pictures – the sun is out and where our patio doors are is a sun trap and wonderful place to get photos mid-afternoon when the sun has just sneaked past the window. The weather has meant that not only were photos possible, the colour is about as accurate as I can get it without fiddling with the pics 😀 The pooling is obvious in that striping, but it looks so pretty it is totally forgivable, with the stripes within the stripes, and the lucious pink and purple blending with the gold, sand and almost a taupe wonderfully. The yarn is fab to knit with, so I can only imagine what it might be like to wear! And yes I know that is my foot filling the sock, but that was for picture taking only – the sock has yet to be blocked, so the foot method of demonstrating a pattern is still currently the best.
Oooo, I hope they fit my pal… Oh, and thank you for all the lovely comments on the sock in progress! I haven’t had much time at home this week (hence the hangover and funny tum etc etc), so I’ve not had chance to email any of you, but rest assured your compliments are appreciated and I will contact you all personally 🙂

Ok, as promised, here are some pics from my birthday, including one of the posters from work (please ignore the more freakish ones 😀 they were action shots!)…
Lisa’s pics
A couple of pics from DB

I think I’ve done this before, but I’ll do it again anyway 😉
4 Jobs I have had in my life
– Sales assistant for Cadburys on a little stand in Leeds city centre. Mmmmmmm
– Making those stick on signs for the inside of cars. Not the baby on board one, but really trashy tacky nasty ones. I didn’t work there long 🙂
– I spent one day when I was 14 working in a cafe that my mum later informed me was owned by a suspected paedophile, but only after I was sacked for not doing what they wanted me to (i.e. looking at the counter through the corner of my eye rather than right at it like they asked). It was shit money too.
– I was hoping to think of a 3rd really scummy job, but I can’t. I can tell you I volunteered to build a badger set once, and it was knackering but good fun 🙂
4 films I can watch again and again
-Breakfast at Tiffany’s
-My Neighbour Totoro
-Goodfellas
-Goldfinger
4 places I have lived
– Wakefield – I was born there and lived there till I was 18
– Manchester – I studied there for a year
– Huddersfield, where I live now
– There is NO 4th place (I couldn’t help think of Monty Python and the Australian lecturers sketch there :D)
4 TV series I watch
-Heroes – it is rapidly overtaking my love of Lost
-The Simpsons – though less so now. I’m waiting eagerly for the film…
-Family Guy – still hasn’t quite jumped the shark 😀
-The IT Crowd – can’t wait to see series 2, even though it took a while to warm to this one.
4 places I have been on holiday
This list looks much healthier this time round :D.
-Rome – beautiful but smelly
-Minneapolis – very cool and full of crafty and shopping excitement 😀
-Barcelona – well, we all know about that trip…
-Prague – where I have left a little piece of my heart.
4 things I do every time I go on the Net
-check my email
-check Bloglines for new posts
-check the weather
-have a quick nosy on Facebook for exciting things
4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world
-Lemon Meringue – vile stuff that we were fed at school and made me gip
-Rice pudding – see above
-Poo – kind of obvious that one but I was starting to get stuck 😉
-A tub of Mayo – gack
4 places I would love to be right now
-With my mates in Burghley, with none of us worrying about work
-In the pub with my local mates
-Expecting fully paid leave for the next 6 months to develop my knitting skills and nurturing myself
-Eating something – it is nearly half 4 in the afternoon and I only just realised that I haven’t had lunch today.
4 people to tag
I tag:
–Cath, seeing as she has only just started on her blog again and needs extra motivation ;D
–Tara, because she is still young and new in the blogworld and hasn’t answered these yet
–Another knitting Ruth (the world can’t ever have too many knitting Ruths), as I don’t remember seeing it on her blog.
I can’t think of anyone else right now 🙂
Look out for a mildly interesting PS2.0 post next weekend. This next two months, as I’ve mentioned before, will be finishing with a small amount of colour themed knitting, which means I’ll post eye-candy from the stash. Just to, you know, justify my membership and make you drool.

Oops! I got a bit held back there on posting, thanks to a 3 day week which involved the installing of a multifuel stove in our lounge (and it is FAB), and the arrival of a long term guest (if not very very long term, but time will tell).
Anyway, what you really want to know about is knitting isn’t it?
Here are a couple of socks I have on the go at the mo. The first is the wonderful Jaywalker in Schaeffer Anne leftover from Cherry’s dragon scale socks. It still pools, but it also still feel lush and silky soft and lovely, and I’m hoping I’ve gauged the leg right for length so that I a) have enough yarn and b) don’t have too much left.

I also have these:

These are for my Sockapaloooza pal 😀 The yarn, in case you hadn’t guessed/noticed/read any of my older posts, is from the Knittery and is Orchid Merino Cashmere sock yarn, and it is sooo buttery and smooth to knit with. The pattern is of my own design based on a stitch pattern from good old Barbara Walker, and is supereasy to memorise and knit in front of the tv with a cat snuggled up to me.
I’ve also done a load of knitting on the Ram’s Horn cardi, and have a 3rd pair of socks just started, but given that I’ve had issues finding a good pattern for them, I’m holding back on pics in case I jinx them 🙂

Well, I feel like I’ve been a bit absent this week. The big day was on Friday, so I’ve had a weekend full of non-knitting activities, including pub teas, drinking, pub teas, a bit more drinking, a walk to the farm shop with two empty rucksacks, a walk back down with two full rucksacks, and a trip to Manchester shopping yesterday where we only visited 4 shops in total in a 5 hour trip (guess which ones? Primark, New Look, Schuh and Debenhams. And a food court). Was FAB. I’ve had lovely gifts, lovely cards, and work decorated the lending counter and my desk with posters, balloons and banners and a little Bagpuss. Unfortunately the posters mainly comprised of photos of me that DB had sneaked them without me knowing, and they were largely pics of me with alcohol… Luckily, everyone was very nice and told me I don’t look 30, which made me feel much better 😀 If you are all very good, I’ll take pics of the posters for your amusment.
That means the cardi will not be finished by Thursday, naturally 😉 Nor will anything else. BUT, Shona’s sister has had a little baby boy and the bunny and socks have gone to him to keep him warm and happy 😀 And the Great Tit chicks in our garden nestbox have fledged today too! What a wonderful way to get no knitting done 🙂 I’d best make the most of my afternoon… 😉 Photos of the chicks are on Flickr here if you want to get all warm and fuzzy inside 😀

I’ve inevitably been tagged for the 8 things meme by Roo 🙂
1) I like background noise when I’m at home, but peace and quiet when I’m at work, regardless of what I’m doing (studying, doing complicated calculations, sat on my hands etc etc).
2) The Queen is visiting where I work today, and I will never see her, because I will be locked in the building for about 5 hours.
3) I have a special room for all my books. Sadly it has been taken over by other stuff too, so I can’t get to all of them. 90% of the books I own are still unread, but one day, one day… 🙂
4) I am very messy, both at work and home. And my books aren’t in any order in the above room either. I doubt it would make much difference if I could get to them 😉
5) My brother is a published author and wrote about a librarian who goes mad.
6) I buy most of my stuff from Amazon, but still insist in leafing through fiction books in shops before buying.
7) I’m writing this at 6.45am because I get up at 6 in order to shower, read bloglines, and relax before I set off to work and have breakfast there. I hate rushing, and while 6 is vvv early considered how long it takes to get to work, I’d rather do that every time than get up later and run round like an idiot.
8) I enjoy watching the BBC weather on Breakfast Time because the weather ladies have such nice clothes and I wonder where they get them from.
These aren’t very good I’m afraid 🙂 My brain hasn’t been up to full capacity this week for various reasons, one of which is that my genes are kicking in and my age is introducing them to developing stupidity that runs on the female side of my family… 😉

(But very happy Mars have reversed their decision on changing to animal rennet in their chocolate!).
I don’t have anything finished this week, which seems to make a change! Not one sock. BUT, I do have a few more new purchases and some WiPs to show you, for the sake of posting some pictures and stuff.
I’ve been doing a lot of baby knitting recently because several people I know are pregnant, and so naturally the friendly neighbourhood knitter gets pulled in to make lots of very cute small things 😀 I’ve already sent off a few socks to their recipients to be, and have a nearly finished bunny on my hands.

From a Debbie Bliss pattern in one of the baby cashmerino books, and it is very cute. Quite a quick knit when I put my mind to it, but its the stuffing and sewing that takes quite a bit of time up – most of it had to be sewn as I stuffed which can be a pain when the stuffing is a bit fibrous. As you can see, it isn’t that far from being finished, she just needs a face really 🙂 I might make another one for someone else too.
Second WiP worth mentioning is one I’d really really really like to finish before the end of the month. Probably won’t though. I have a green cardi on the needles – yup I decided the Knit Picks Andean Silk should go on the Ram’s Horn Cardigan from Knitting Nature, contrary to popular opinion and advice to go for the SKB pattern on Stitch Diva. As much as I love it, I won’t wear the SKB, so I went with something more practical. The back is almost done after maybe 2-3 weeks not very regular knitting, so if I put my mind to it and ignore the Queen on Thursday (she’s visiting where I work but the fuss it is causing for the sake of a couple of hours! The security arrangements are currently unknown, but the rumours flying are a bit mad and I best not reveal them in case they aren’t rumours and I break some rules), I might get a lot done before the end of the month and the current PS2.0 phase. Here is a pic which isn’t very interesting as it is all st st.

The next phase of PS2.0 is red, black and metallics, and I don’t have much in the stash of any of them, so I might just squeeze out one sock or so, and use the time to catch up with my older PS2.0 projects and clear some room in the project basket (which is very much overflowing right now).
Stash! I bought some stuff for a friend, and decided to add to my own stash to make postage worthwhile. It would be rude not to really 😀

Here we have Posh Yarn Emily (a lambswool, cashmere and angora blend, which has lots of softness, but is still quite a firm sock yarn) in Elephant, which I thought was less varigated than this, but nevermind! There are also two hanks of yarn from the Knittery (and it arrived pretty quickly too) – the merino/cashmere sock yarn in Passion Fruit and Orchid. The orchid is for my Sockapaloooza pal 😀 I’ve already started swatching it up and trying to work out a pretty stitch pattern, so if it is pretty and looks nice, I might see if Ruth wants it for the Facebook group (particularly as I’ve been bad and not done the swatches for the pattern ideas I had yet). We all know about how nice Posh Yarn can be. The Knittery yarn is a new one on me, after reading about it on Black Dog Knits for forever. I chose the merino/cashmere as, with it having a bit of nylon in it, and my pal wanting something quite sturdy, I figured this could do the job quite well. And it is very very nice. The cashmere counteracts the way nylon can sometimes make yarn feel rigid or slightly scratchy, and makes it a complete babe to knit with. And the yarn and postage is such good value for the other side of the world! It was just less than 20 quid including 4.75 for postage, and both hanks were with me in just less than a week. When you look at how much buying yarn in the UK is, that’s very very good. Shame I’ve guilted myself with the carbon footprint I got for it, but I suspect the plane would 1) have flown with the yarn, and 2) two hanks of yarn didn’t make the fuel consumption any more than normal. Still have some green remorse though as they aren’t really very good excuses 🙁 Having said all that, I would buy locally if I could from locally sheared and spun sheepy yarns but sadly their are none, so my yarn footprint is still not fab no matter where I buy from. I know one local yarn producer (remember the alpaca breeder?) and will hopefully be meeting with her soon so I will see what weight yarn she is producing too…
Anyway, a busy week ahead, what with the baby things, cardi knitting, the Queen, and the dreaded new decade of doom on Friday… Don’t expect me to post till I’ve sobered up ;D

Forgot this parcel, but trust me it wasn’t on purpose, it was just nearly 10pm after a pub tea 😉
This is the parcel from Amber Moggie, from her stash sale. Two hanks of STR lightweight. The left is Mustang Sally, and the right is Cobblestone County 🙂

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. No plans yet, but there will be. There will be.
Oh, and I forgot to put my email address in the post yesterday for that yarn swap – just stick my name in front of hotmail.com and the net will do the rest 😀 I never realised how crappy that knitted up bit looked, and would like to remind you that 1) I only knit 2 inches of sock and 2) that is actually the smaller of the two cakes… I’m so not good at selling stuff ;D

Well, my parcels turned up, thankfully! Only after my kind but forgetful friend dropped off the post office card 😀 Thanks to that, I have TONS to show you, plus some knitting 😀
First up, is pride of place really. My final parcel from my sockret pal, Brooke arrived. It contained the following:

The latest edition of Vogue Knitting (with a cardi I really really want to make :D), a gorgeous pretend cabley sock pattern from Schaeffer, and some Sour Raspberry Altoids (yum yum!).

Two GORGEOUS yarns – Cherry Tree Hill Super Glitz (a dk sock yarn) in Gypsy Rose, and some amazing handspun from Kristie Haynes on Etsy, a totally unique yarn called Raisin Cane made from wool and mohair, but with chunks of velvety bits and glittery bits 😀 I haven’t been able to take a good picture of it on its own as the weather has been poor here but trust me, it is HOT. I have no idea how to knit it up to do it justice!

Finally, the best for last. SOCKS! They fit perfectly Brooke – see?!

I love them – they are CTH in Dusk. What makes them particularly special is that they were knit while her son was ill. She had a lot of waiting to do, and these were her sanity knit. That makes them mean so much more. They are my sanity socks. I wear them when I get home from work and change, and they give me comfort. I was also wearing them this evening when I saw what I thought was DB logging into MSN upstairs, decided to surprise him with an online kiss, and it turns out it was someone else who had his old email address, with the same name. Much comfort is needed after that…
Good thing I finished these too then:

Not a great photo, or a clean carpet, but these are the finished Monkey socks for Basia! Knit in Piece of Beauty sock yarn custom dyed for me, and so quick and easy a knit, I can guarantee I’ll be making more. Lovely yarn, lovely colour, lovely pattern 🙂
Finally, does anyone want to do a sock yarn swap or buy this yarn from me?

It is Curious Yarns sock yarn in Heathertop, a colourway I liked a lot when I bought it with it’s greens, purples, soft browns and a light dusky orange-brown for the colours of the moors, and indeed liked it till I wound it up, but now it just won’t speak to me anymore. I have TONS of yarn, and so can’t justify keeping something that I don’t really want to knit anymore. I took it with me to Spain to make a pattern from Favorite Socks, but it still wouldn’t grab me, so I’m offering it out. There is a full hank here, wound into two cakes (unevenly I’m afraid – one is slightly larger than the other. I could say something inappropriate here but won’t ;D). One cake has been knit a little and can be rewound properly if required, but I just wrapped it round as I was frogging it for the photo – I only got about 2″ into the first sock, but when you know, you know. I have an open mind – just post a comment or email me if you fancy it with your swap option. I have some nice oddments that would work well for baby socks if you have a hank larger than 100g that you want rid of. Just say 🙂