How did that happen?!

I didn't realise I hadn't blogged for three weeks until I logged on just now to share this post. Time has flown, although I'm not surprised it has been a while, I've barely had time to craft anything lately never mind actually blog about it thanks to the insanity that is September at my work place.

But, it's a new month (hello October!) and seeing as I missed all the sunshine, and it rained on my only day off yesterday, I got some scrapping (and some knitting) done. Here are the recent layouts I have to share with you...

This was done using Shimelle's most recent sketch. The idea was to use a photo strip, which was my original intention, but once I'd stuck down the papers this picture just seemed to work better. I'm so pleased with the title and the fact I could actually be bothered to machine stitch around the border and to matt the photo.

This was another Shimelle inspiration - started using her new 'starting point' feature, which I am really loving as that's the part I always get stuck on! And I just love this photo of the boys, it's going to have to go in yet another frame on the landing!

This layout is of our summer visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I had wanted to go see Jaume Plensa's work there for months, and finally we went - and it was just amazing. This piece, entitled 'Twenty-nine Psalms' was my total favourite, probably because not only could you look at it, but you could also touch and hear it too. If you live near the park, you have to go see it - and best of all entrance to the park is free (you just pay a small amount for parking). This was also the ideal layout for diving straight into my new Studio Calico kit (not that I really needed any excuse!)

And finally, this quick vintage-inspired layout was done using photos I was allowed to take home from my grandma's 90th birthday party on Saturday. My granddad was a keen amateur photographer, and I just love all the photos he took of her and their children throughout the decades. She was so smart and glamorous, and pretty, and the photos have a lovely vintage feel to them. This one ended up being first because the papers caught my eye while rummaging through my most recent SC kits, and I knew they would match up with this photo. It's not very often I scrap old photos, but I just couldn't resist this.

Right, better get sorted, get Alex to his childminder and me to work - yep, I'm on the late shift yet again. But I don't mind too much as I'm only working 4 days this week, and have Wednesday off to finally get to knit night and catch up properly with the girls, yay!

xXx

Love Wool - yes I do!

Just popping on quickly on my iPhone to show you what I got up to this weekend...




On Saturday I met up with knitting group friends Naomi, Kate, Hannah and Jenny at a Love Wool UK event in the stunning Leeds Corn Exhange, where fellow knitter Steph was selling her fab stitch markers and Rachel was helping teach visitors to knit.








Aren't they just fab?! I have a couple of her sets, including one gifted for my birthday (yay I'm so lucky!) and I adore them.

There were other fab stalls at the event, including the fabulous Baa Ram Ewe at Headingley and Armley Mills - a visit there is actually really long overdue, and more so now I have discovered they have a Saturday knitting group!

It was fab to catch up with the girls - something I haven't been able to do lately because of the extra hours I have to do at work this month. Rubbish. And it was also fab to eye up all the pretty items for sale, as well as sit and knit while ooohing and aaahhhing over everyone's works in progress and finished items too. Inspirational as always.








(these pics are borrowed from
rachel's brilliant blog post over at http://rewardingmemories.blogspot.com - sure she won't mind, I'll sit on the naughty step if she does lol!)

And later on, we saw the awesome, amazing Leeds' very own Kaiser Chiefs at another historic city location - Kirkstall Abbey.

To see them live finally at one of my favorite childhood places to visit (we lived just around the corner til I was 16) was just absolutely fantastic and I loved every minute of it.







(stage is right, historic medieval ruins to the left!)







Not amazing photos as they were taken on my iPhone but we were about 4 people short of the front and it was Just wow, wow, wow!

And today we just chilled out, visited my grandma and I ploughed on with my Lauriel - I'm on the first sleeve now having knit the border already and yay, the end is finally in sight! Hope to show you soon :)

xXx

All work, and no play...

... makes Natalie a very unhappy bunny. But that's the way it is this month at work, I'm either working (crazy long hours) or trying to make little bits of time here and there for my poor neglected boys. It's pretty rubbish.

Despite this I have managed to make some progress on Lauriel, not as much as I would have liked or thought I would have by now, but it's certainly not to be scoffed at. So I thought I'd pop on and share with you all, seeing as once again, already, it's WIP Wednesday!

Colour most accurate on this last photo - rhubarb not purple!

As you can see I have cast off the whole body section, hurrah! I'm going to knit the border next, and then I can use the rest of the yarn left to knit the sleeves, hopefully as long as I like them. I'm a bit nervous about knitting the border and sleeves, as picking up stitches and knitting in the round is not my best skill, and I really don't want to muck this up (again). At least I wouldn't have to frog back the body this time I guess. I think I might wait until I can get a quick pointer from my friends at knitting group, although it's likely I won't be able to go until October because of my long work hours. :(

So in the meantime, to keep me busy and out of trouble, I have cast on my Tembo. This is a gorgeous autumn winter cardigan that I hope will knit up a bit quicker than Lauriel, seeing as it calls for aran yarn. It's so blumming cold here in the UK already, I actually neeeeeed it right now!

So that's me, I better get ready for another 10-hour shift at work, groan. Can't say when I'll be back with more updates, but hopefully I'll have something more to show you soon. Thanks for stopping by as always.

Natalie

xXx

P.S. I finally remembered to randomly pick a winner for the lovely Olivia Rubin scarf I promised to give away for my birthday - sorry for the delay. And here's the winner... (drum roll please!)...

 Sarah (Crafts From The Cwtch) said...

Lovely FO! It would work with a long sleeved t-shirt in the cold too - very nice!

My favourite fragrance..? The smell of rain on a hot day!

Have a lovely weekend
x

11:29 AM

Congratulations Sarah! If you could please e-mail me your address I'll get that out to you asap - although I'll try get in touch this evening in case you don't see this.

WIP Wednesday - Lauriel (again!)

Hi everyone,

just wanted to return with news of my Lauriel second attempt. Well. Third actually as the second time I tried to knit the yoke pattern it still didn't look right. So my lovely friends Hannah and Jenny came to the rescue with an emergency knitting meet-up and set me straight. It turned out I should have been cabling every few rows, and I had just simply been knitting the stitches in brackets. Next time I will read the instructions better!

So, now I'm well on my way again and it's taking shape. And best of all, the yoke section is finally perfect, yay!

See? A million times better! Thank you everyone for all the encouragement to rip it out and start over - I needed that push and I'm so glad that I did it now as I'm finally happy with it :)

Also, thank you for the birthday wishes yesterday, I had a brilliant day. I had a yummy cooked breakfast served with cards and gifts, followed by shopping (for gorgeous new shoes no less!), followed by bowling - and yay, I won this time!

Then the day was rounded up perfectly by a lovely family meal with both parents, their partners, one of my sisters and my boys too.

And then I got sang to and served cake (oh the shame!). Here I am with my shameful cake lol!

Best go get ready for work - late shift AGAIN. Groan. Back soon!

xXx

Sssssshhhhhh!

*whispers* it's my birthday :)




So, another year older, another year wiser?

Older? Yes, 29 now, next year will be the big 3-0 {hides}. Wiser? Doubtful lol!

Which reminds me, I'd better pop back on later today and pick a winner for the giveaway I offered in my last post. There's still time to enter, but not much time so don't hang about!

xXx

FO Friday - and a big thank you :)

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who left me a kind comment on Wednesday's WIP frog or not-to-frog dilemma post. It really helped to read all your lovely comments, and you'll be pleased to know I did frog the Lauriel and I have now re-started it from scratch. It was hard to do, but it was never going to be right in my head, and I wanted it to be perfect or not be anything at all - plus getting to use my new yarn winder certainly helped soften the blow a little.

From this...

I had a little moment when I almost threw it across the room again yesterday, as the pattern just wasn't knitting in properly, again. But my lovely friends Hannah and Jenny came to my rescue with an emergency after-work knitting meet-up and I now know what to do, and it's looking a hundred times better already. Phew! Thank you girls!

... to this (can you see the continuous lines? Yay, me too!)

Can you tell I'm feeling a little better today? Maybe it's because I realised I'm lucky to have what I have, and to also have some good friends looking out for me - and I'm ready to say a big "screw you" to everyone and everything else. I'll find my own way. Ok, it might take a bit longer, and it might not be the scenic route, but I'll get there, just you see, and when I do it will be fabulous darling!

Anyway, the reason I'm supposed to be here is to share my latest FO with you. This one was a quick and very easy knit called Sophia and had two aims - using up some very cheap and easy wash yarn (Super Saver Solids I think) and to make a nice autumn-friendly top. Yes, I said autumn, it's in the air already I can just feel it.

And talking of garments, and washing, that leads me nicely on to my giveaway. The lovely people at Bold have launched a new 2-in-1 floral fragrance - Rose Blush & Peony. Oh my, it is absolutely lush! I have the powder (you can also get liquitabs and gel) and thanks to its unique scent-release technology it leaves my clothes smelling so summery all day long (I'm making the most of it before autumn really does set in!)

And to celebrate, for a limited time only, Bold are giving you the chance to win a lovely, exclusive floral print scarf by the London fashion designer Olivia Rubin. For your chance to win one, and get yourself a money-off coupon, simply visit www.supersavvyme.com/Bold

And to thank all you lovely followers out there, you can also grab a second chance to win this one right here simply by leaving a comment on this post telling me what your favourite fragrance/smell is and why. Closing date is next Tuesday 23rd August (oooh that's my birthday, but I'm giving you the present!) at 23.59, and I'll announce the winner as soon as possible afterwards. Entries welcomed from any country - I'm happy to post wherever. Good luck :)

xXx

WIP Wednesday - Lauriel

It's Wednesday, so that means time to share another Work in Progress over at Tami's Amis.

My current WIP is Lauriel, from my recently-acquired and already much-treasured copy of Ysolda Teague's Little Red in the City.

This colour in this picture is more accurate than the two photos below

I had chosen some lovely yarn - Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK - which cost more than I would normally spend on yarn for one garment, but I wanted this to be really lovely. And although it was knitting up slower than I thought/hoped it would, I was pleased with how it was coming along. Note the word 'was' there.

Yesterday, during our weekly knitting meet-up, I noticed the yoke pattern on two of my friends' WIPs was a lot more defined than mine. I thought mine looked a little different due to the wool variation. But now I know it's not right, and I've realised why. I thought I was being clever by using the eastern style of stockinette stitch right from the start of the pattern, as Ysolda suggests to use as it makes your gauge more constant and the work neater. But unfortunately, this also means that the action to 'KBL' or knit through the back loop is cancelled out by the fact the stitch was already back-loop forward facing. Does this make any sense?! Anyway, it's not right.

This has really disheartened me. It took me hours to do the yoke and I really took my time to ensure every stitch of the pattern was perfect, and I was so proud. But I wasn't totally happy with it, and now I've seen how it should look it's just going to bug me forever. But I've spent hours and hours and hours getting half way down the body and I really don't want to frog it and start over now. I never complete anything as it is, getting so little time to knit, and I'm not sure I'd ever find it in me to pick it back up or finish it. Sigh.

So, a question to those more experienced knitters out there. If you don't mind? Please? Would it be possible to go back later, un-do the cast on edge, frog the yoke section and either re-knit it upwards? Or knit the yoke separately and re-join it, perhaps using the three-needle bind-off technique on the wrong side? Or am I just kidding myself? Maybe I was kidding myself trying to take on something so pretty. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Sorry for the negativity. Just having a bad time right now, nothing major, I really should be grateful for what I have, my gorgeous boys and husband, but silly things like this are just the straw that broke the camel's back, everything is really getting to me and upsetting me - I really didn't need this. :(

Oh well, going to try and enjoy my last day off before a run of seven days at work tomorrow and head to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and hopefully forget my worries for a few hours. Or try at least!

xXx

P.S. I've scheduled a FO Friday blog post for Friday - and there'll be a giveaway too. Hope to see you then :)

Three of a kind

Here's another layout done, scrapped thanks to the challenges Shimelle has been posting on her blog this weekend.

This layout was done for the '3 is a magic number' challenge - to use three of the same thing on your layout. Can you guess what I have used three of? Well done if you got it right, I used three banner stickers (two across the top, and the blue diamond one below the main photo).

Here's the challenge link.

Oh, and I've finally found a way of scrapping without having to listen to the angry shouts of hubby on his stupid PS3 (yes, I am one of the millions of Call of Duty widows out there!). I have borrowed the computer headphones, plugged them into my iPhone and I'm blasting out my own tunes to scrap to! I'm having my very own silent disco in here, lol! Tonight I've been listening to Adele's latest album - man I love her music and song-writing. And it's helping my scrapping. Yay! 

So, I might go to bed now... or I might go see what Shimelle's next challenge is. Hmmm. Well, I do have another three days off work, so it's not like I have to be up early lol!

xXx