I can see you...

Thursday 21st February 2008
Originally uploaded by Scarybez

Performing Rights

It seems the world is going mad and wanting to shut down all kinds of important departments at academic institutions across the country. Here is Guillermo Gomez-Pena (of La Pocha Nostra) speaking at Performing Rights, Glasgow, in support of the Contemporary Performance Practice (CPP) course at the Royal Scottish Accademy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) which is currently facing an uncertain future.

February present

Last year I wore my lovely Rowan tapestry Calorimetry more or less every day when I was skiing. It was perfect for keeping my ears warm and protected from the sun whilst still allowing me to feel the wind in my hair. I vaguely promised my little sister that I'd make her one for her next ski trip but I didn't get round to making one until a few weeks ago.

I had originally intended it to be a birthday present (November) then a Christmas present but I failed on both accounts so it became a February present instead.

Pattern: Calorimetry from Knitty.

Yarn: Rowan tapestry, from John Lewis in Glasgow.

Needles: Possibly 4.5mm - can't remember.

This is a nice easy, bite-sized knit which can be completed in a few days or even hours, depending on how much time you have to spare. I'd also recommend using this yarn - I made mine almost a year ago and it hasn't lost its shape at all.

In other news....

• My friend Hugh sent me a link to the human calendar which I like a lot (you might have noticed the addition to my side bar).
• I'm excited to hear that the wonderful K1 Yarns is opening up a new store in Edinburgh...
• ...but sad to hear that HK Handknits is closing down. As did Fankle a few weeks ago :(

(day 32 of 366 - dusk)

• I saw 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' the other evening and thought it was wonderful - beautiful images - highly recommended.
• On the off chance that someone in Bristol is reading this... I would strongly recommend going to see 'love letters straight from your heart' at the Arnolfini by the performance company Uninvited Guests. I saw it at the National Review of Live Arts on Saturday at the Tramway and thought it was amazing. Don't miss it!

(day 29 of 366 - the tramway)

Retro

It's with a mixture of pride and shamefacedness (if I can be so bold as invent a new word for the purposes of this blog) that I present to you my finished retro Baby Yoda cardigan.

Why pride? Because I think it's amazing! And pretty darn cute to boot. I know it's not very British to shout about your own achivements but every time I look at this I feel a little glow of knitterly pride that I made it.

Why shamefacedness? Because... I started making it back in October for a certain yet-to-be-born-baby and I finished it... a few weeks ago, over a month after said baby was born. This wouldn't be so bad if JSF (as he is known) wouldn't be so selfish as to keep on growing so that he probably won't even fit into this little cardigan made for a newborn. Tut! Ah well, I'll just have to find me another baby worthy of it... any volunteers? And of course I'll get knitting something of a more suitable size asap... :)

The details...

Pattern: Free from the Dogs Steal Yarn blog. I followed the pattern to the letter but added in the colourwork to make it a bit more interesting to knit.

Yarn: The white stuff is Debbie Bliss (can't remember what kind - I lost the ball band - something aran weight and washable) bought in the John Lewis sale a while back. The blue is a charity shop find.

Needles: 4.5mm

Oh, and my Ravelry username is, not Scaryeye as the mysterious Beck suggested, but Scarybez. See you there!

New distraction

I'm on Ravelry! I don't really know what this means yet and I don't really have time to start playing with it now but you can look me up... if you can guess what my username is... ;)

Treats

I have two links for you today...

1) The first is a video my sister sent me. I recently finished reading all the Harry Potter books back-to-back - I started reading in September and finished a few weeks ago - possibly the last person in the world to read the Deathly Hallows. I also love puppets so I just adored this little video.

2) The second thing is a plug for my friend Kate's new radio show, 'Suck my Left One'. To quote the blurb on the website, it's "a riot of 90s punk and hardcore, trashy feminist electro-pop, 80's post-punk, and new unearthed ladyfesters from around the world. It's going back to the subversive side of 60s girl groups and forward to unearth new music from queers, grrrls, zinesters, punks, freaks and electro-geeks carrying the torch of Revolution Girl Style Now!" Sounds pretty cool, eh? Trust me, it is. You can catch it on the listen again option on the Subcity website - go Friday on the listen again page, and then click on the date next to 'Suck my Left One'. Enjoy!

Wake up time

After several months of blog and knitting snoozing I'm back!

I haven't been knitting much over the winter months as other (mostly good) things have been sucking up my time. However recently I've been teaching the lovely Lauren to knit and it's re-inspired by creativity...

(check out her first finished project - cast-on on Sunday evening and finished on Thursday morning. Pretty speedy, eh?)

This (my desk at university) has also been taking up a lot of my time. I'm now into the last 9 months of my PhD and the pressure is on to get writing... maybe another reason for the return to blogging (blogs are a great diversion tactic...). The photo on the computer screen is of Knoydart, where I welcomed in 2008.

I finished my first project in months on Monday evening. Socks for Lauren's birthday - only four months after the big day.

They're a basic stockinette pattern with 60 stitches cast-on on 2.5mm dpns, using Cherry Tree Hill yarn bought from IKnit London many months ago.

The nice thing about making these was that they were for size 3 feet, rather than my elephantine size 8s, so they were finished a lot quicker than usual. I made some Monkey socks from this yarn in a different colourway last March which I love love love but alas they seem to have shrunk a tiny bit - not enough to be a disaster of felting proportions but enough so I really have to yank them on and so hardly wear them any more. Hopefully this won't happen to this pair.

In other knitting news, I still need to photograph and write about my Rogue, finished months and months ago. And I have a baby cardigan (haha - look what I found when I was searching for the pattern for this - an actual baby yoda!) made for a beautiful baby who is probably now too big to wear it (sorry DancingNic! I'll get going on something else soon...).

I also started working on my very own Project 365 (or should that be Project 366?), taking a photograph every day for a year. I first read about this project last year on Tigerlilith's blog and thought it was a fantastic idea but wanted to start it on January 1st so thought I'd wait until 2008... needless to say I completely forgot about it until the 12th of January this year. I'm only on day 19 so far but I've been really enjoying the challenge and have managed to take a picture every day except Saturday when I had a good excuse. You can check out my photos so far here.

This was my first photo from the project, taken on Saturday 12th January at Glenshee ski resort. Isn't it beautiful?