What's for dinner, darling?

 

A plea for a book....

 

Does anyone have an unwanted copy of Knitting Marvellous Mittens: Ethnic Designs from Russia by Charlene Schurch? I've been trying to buy it but it is now unavailable, so if you have a copy and would like to sell it please leave a comment and I'll get back to you :0)
Hopefully, India
Edit; Thanks for all your help, folks. I now have a copy winging its way yo me ;0))

Snap!

 

Great minds think alike, eh Sarah? However, as you can see from the pic, I am putting in colour panels for the cables. Now, some of you may be fooled into thiinking that this is some amazing design-enhancement on my part (OK, I know you won't be, but let me delude myself for a little while...) but the reality is that I don't have enough of the pale grey and I am desperate to knit Rogue

I have a horrible feeling that it's all gonna end in tears....

One of those days....

 

You know the kind...

The kind of day when you spend ages creating a post - uploading pictures, finding links, writing out recipes/patterns, that kind of thing.

Then Blogger eats the post

It's the kind of day when you go to make some toast - and you burn it

The sort of day that finds you heading to the bread bin - and realising that you just burnt the last of the bread....

Oh well, back to the drawing board. The Last Post has gone - goodbye, farewell, I may try to resurrect your glory on the future.

Meanwhile, I've been saving up lots of this

And doing some of this......

...to get this

Looks pretty gross, right? And it was actually, MR India said he would divorce me if I ever did it again would I please not boil up coffee grounds when he is in the house.

So, what I have actually been doing is trying to dye yarn with coffess grounds. Apparently coffee contains a natural mordant, so 'all' you need to do is boil the saved up grounds for a couple of hours, strain the liquid off and then boil your fibre in it for an hour or so.

The big challenge now will be to rinse the coffee out without felting the fibre. To this end, I am letting the fibre cool completely so it won't get the kind of nasty shock that makes all of the scales cling to each other in fright.

Another problem is going to be those little coffee grounds that escaped when I was filtering. But then, these little hiccups are 'part of the irregularities that add to the charm of a handcrafted product.'
Right?

Calling all knitters - in the West of Scotland, anyway

 

Kathleen is a very lucky young woman, in more ways than one. Not only is she about to give birth to a beautiful bouncing baby, but she is also the proud owner of a yarn shop!

Now, I'm going to leave it up to you guys to decide which of the two is the best :0) She does have one knitty-gritty problem, though. What to do about maternity leave cover? So, she is on the lookout for someone to help part time in her shop, Fankle.

So, what are you waiting for - pop on over and check it out.

A spot of free advice....

 

When you are adding a blog to your blogroll, make sure you add the feed for the blog, not the feed for the comments. Especially when it is a very popular blog.....

Still life with Clementine

 

It's all about size at the moment, or so it would seem. Isn't that the cutest little espresso maker? I've got a 6-cup espresso gadget, but I usually want just one shot to put into a large mug of hot milk and this fits the bill nicely.

Why did I put a butter dish in the 'composition'? Just becasue I wanted to, ok?

Anyway, moving along, there has been another FO. Yeh, I know, there's no pictorial evidence. You'll just have to trust me.... I finished another Tithe , but this time in Rowan Summer Tweed. Strangely, this time the garment feels too short. Happily, I have an extra skein (no, not the one in the different dye lot that I used in error for a sleeve...) so I plan to unpick it at the bottom and knit on a couple of inches. Neat, huh?

What flavour of knitter are you?

 

I know that I've never been plain ol' vanilla. I share far too much in common with EZ. Now, those of you who know me will know that I am probably not talking about the knitting here ;0) Never one to hide my light under too big a bushel, I can sometimes be persauded to voice an opinion or twenty two on sundry topics of conversation.

So in flavour terms I think I will have to be 'Tiger tail' or Chilli Chocolate - i.e not to everyone's taste..... We've all been there - your innocent comment that you're '... not sure I agree with X's policy on green issues' somehow becomes translated into 'You are a complete a***** who can't form words of even one syllable and wouldn't know an emerald green policy if it jumped up and sludged you in the face!!!!!

So, c'mon - what flavour of knitter are you. And why? India
PS And I think I am gonna tag some people with this......so, Heather, Kathleen, Elaine, Lilith
consider yourself tagged - and go ask someone else 'What flavour of knitter are YOU?'

Got gauge?

 

Heatherwould be proud of me - here is the proof, I've swatched. But as I don't need Yarn Harlot to tell me that gauge swatches lie, given that I've had plenty of evidence in the past, I can't for the life of me think what drove me to do one this time. But there you go, I've done it. I think I am going to knit the garment on slightly smaller needles than suggested. Bet it ends up fitting a three year old.

So, I'm swatching for this camisole, the pattern being available from Get Knitted. In time I plan to knit this pattern in this yarn. Believe me, the photo doesn't do this Fyberspates silk yarn justice. It positively glows. But I'm stashbusting, so I had to 'make do' with some cashmere instead....it's a hardship, but sometimes one has to suffer for one's art....

The crime scene

 

Absolute carnage, I'm sure you'll all agree.

The suspects: As if you didn't guess....

A summer knit

 

I fancy the look of this simple lacy number. And I like it in the yarn used -something with a sheen and a slight variegation. However, I am stashbusting so I think I'm going to use a slightly-variegated cashmere. Yum India

Dying with embarrassment, all over again....

 

There I was, perusing one of the more embarrasing moments shared by Ree, on her blog Confessions of a Pioneer Woman when I felt that warm glow of empathy, starting at my feet, working its way up my body until I was glowing like a Belisha Beacon. So I thought I'd 'fess up. SOme of you may have heard this before.

Once upon a time, a violin tutor paid fortnightly visits Chez India. She was a nice tutor. She was co-habiting. She had a little bit of a 'tummy'....

Now, India wasn't completely stupid. She had an amusing conversation with Mr India about the pitfalls of congratulating women on their 'pregnancy'. She wasn't going to go within 5 miles of 'there'.

India had also spent some time pondering over the way a woman's body becomes public property when she is pregnant, remembering with particular wrath the way complete strangers and sundry others would come up and pat her tummy (.... bet you can see where this is headed)

So, what India would like to know is - 'WTF made her reach out, spontaneously, and pat the nice violin lady's tummy?'

As I live and breathe, I don't know who was more shocked. I am a cringing, crimson heap as I relive this. And what about the poor tutor? Look at it from her point of view. In a (very!!!) strange woman's house. Being touched - what the hell was going on? Was I coming out? Was I inviting her to a 3-in-a ....no, not going there.

No, I had simply acted on an uncontrolled impulse to 'congratulate' her on her pregnancy.

But it gets worse, just when you think it probably couldn't. Being aware of how inappropriate it was to have touched her, 'pregnant' or not, and not wanting to add further insult to sheer terror, I got the JCB out and really started digging. Instead of 'fessing up to the real reason, I started gabbling on about me being on a diet, and.. and..and...well, you get the picture.

We both endured a very uncomfortable 30 min lesson before she scuttled off. Man, I was in a cold sweat by this time. My son and his friend were in the house - they really did roll about the floor when I told them.

In the end, I decided that even though it risked more offence, I was better off telling the truth. My tutor, thankfully, didn't bat an eye and she taught me for a few months until I could no longer face the embarrassment afford the lessons.

Which just makes me wonder - given that she was so unfazed, what the hell else had happened to her when she tutored at other folks' houses????

And me - whenever I see a 'pregnant' woman, I sit on my hands!

So THAT'S why they made the new Shuffle

 

Let's me 'read' in the bath.....

Some good news..

 

On the eye front - the results from the scan are in, and there are no problems on that front! Yeehah! Great news! Still doesn't explain the problem, but at least my macula is intact. Hopefully an appointment with the eye specialist will get to the bottome of what is going on

Appointment with a cardiologist today - seems it is likely that my chest pain is...chest pain. i.e. cardiac related as opposed to intercostal cramp. I'm not surprised, since painful as IC cramp is, the pain in my chest has been something else.

Next steps - waiting for appointment for 5-day cardio tape to try to catch my heart misbehavin'. Then hopefully having caught said misbehaviour, treat it with non-lipid soluble betablocker. The kind that doesn't get into the brain and cause confusion and horrific nightmares. And it will treat my high BP - which has also been a cause for concern.

In the meantime, on with my current assignments and not much time for knitting ;0( Hope y'all have a good weekend. India