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Showing posts from 2008

Christmas Knitting

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I didn't get a lot of knitting done for Christmas gifts this year. I don't think I planned to really. Anyway these are a few that I did manage to do. A clapotis and matching mittens for my eldest daughter, and she was thrilled with them. I also knit a similar clapotis for my younger daughter in a different colour. The yarn used for both was Phildar Lambswool. It's 50% lambswool and 50% acrylic. It's really really soft. Hope it washes ok later! This is a gorgeous gorilla who came naked and needed a handknit cardi! I think he was very happy. Good way to use some more of my stash. Gorilla in another pose! Three pairs of 'sofa slippers' for my sisters, knitted in Noro 'Silver Thaw'. Hope they deep the toesies warm this cold weather. Must keep knitting from my stash!!!!!!!!!!!

My Mam

My Mam, Carmel, passed away on the morning of Nov 21st last after a short illness. She was gentle, kind, loving, caring and giving. We will miss her terribly. I don't think it has dawned on us yet. I will miss the long phone calls, the chats, the gossip, the visits. May she rest in peace.

A Walk on the Beach

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a most relaxing weekend in Co. Wexford with two friends. Despite many stressful things at present, it was really lovely to go away. Walks on the beach, short drives and shopping in Enniscorthy with plenty of coffee, wine and good food thrown in. I'm no writer, but one morning while walking on the beach in glorious November sunshine and crisp air, I was inspired. Flimsy, frothy, floaty bubbles Whirl about on the pebbly beach Left by the sandy grey sea Breaking, snowy, foamy white, to the shore A sunny crisp November morning Walking, crunching the pebbles Fresh, clean, crisp air Exhilerating the senses Ger

Fave things swap

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My package for the Fave things swap on Ravelry arrived yesterday. A lovely red scarf, Knitting Rules book, yummy sock yarn, scented candles, dpns, some coffee, lovely stitch markers and some doggie treats for my dog. Thank you Kellie so much for my lovely parcel.

Innocent!

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Hi there! Haven't had time to blog for the last week. Life's been so hectic with family member in hospital. However, I have been knitting lately, for my sanity, with the Big Knit involving teeny tiny hats for Innocent Smoothies/Topaz oil. These little hats will top Innocent Smoothie bottles sold in Topaz oil shops from November 4th next. www.innocentdrinks.ie/thebigknit . For every smoothie sold with a little hat, Innocent/Topaz will give 1 euro to Age Action Ireland. It is hoped that 20,000e will be raised by this venture. Good Luck to all involved.

Anniversary Draw Winner

And the winner of my draw is..................................................Laura, at www.cinnamonpatrol.blogspot.com Congratulations Laura. I will contact you shortly. I put a number representing all those who commented in a bowl and Laura's number was first one out. Thanks again to all my blog readers.

100th Post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Hello Everyone! My 100th post. A big Thanks to all of you who have made my blogging life a pleasure, reading and commenting. I haven't forgotten about the draw I promised for all who comment on this and my last blog post. I will draw next Monday, October 13th! I can't believe that been it's over a month since I last posted on my blog. I've been really busy with lots of things. Been on holidays for 2 weeks to France in early September, hence the pictures posted on the blog this morning. Facing autumn and winter, I thought it would cheer us up to see some pictures from Monet's house and garden in Giverny, west of Paris. This is truly a beautiful village and the house and gardens are really gorgeous. On the day we visited it rained, but despite the wetness, we spent a very pleasant few hours. The colours in the gardens are beautiful and are my favourite pastels and sunflowers. Any artist would be inspired. On the knitting front, I've been neglecting the knitting l

Finished Projects

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Despite my lack of blogging and photos, I have been busy knitting and indeed crocheting recently. A little baby jumper, knitted in lovely soft cotton/soya mix, by Sirdar. This is really lovely yarn, but it sometimes splits while knitting. The pattern I designed myself, and am really pleased with it. I may publish it one day. My scarf in lovely soft Alpaca yarn, which I bought a couple of years ago at the Knitting and Stitching show. I tried a couple of patterns which were not successful, and finally settled on one free from Interweave Knitting magazine. And finally a lovely blanket which I crocheted from various sock yarns with a 3.5mm crochet hook. This is really great, and my daughter is delighted with it. The photos don't do it justice though, and I had difficulty with the lighting in the bedroom. I got the idea from one I saw on a blog www.fluffyknitterdeb.blogspot.com . I'm off on my holidays this evening, so thought I would post these before I go. As this is my 99th po

Some Wexford Pictures

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Sunday August 24th 2008 I know that the date above reads the 9th August, but that's just because I saved the photos that day. Just if I've confused anyone! My last post described our few days in the 'Sunny South', but it didn't rain quite all the time we were there. Before we reached our campsite, we stopped at the Wexford Wildfowl sanctuary. This is a really lovely peaceful place where every amenity is supplied to watch the many birds that live and nest here. And great 'hides' to climb up to and watch. Its really lovely and very informative. Views from the Observation tower. You really could spend a few hours here just watching. One of the evenings, the sun came out, and while walking a beautiful sunset greeted us as we turned a corner. A lovely sunny few hours at Kilmore Quay and some of the trawlers in the harbour. Seagull, waiting to swoop for fish. Waves crashing on the rocks at Hook Head. A really great place! While walking around the back of Hook

'Sunny South East'

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Just back from a few days in Wexford in the 'Sunny South East'. We chose this area as it is known to have more sunny dry weather than the rest of Ireland. And so above is the view from our new tent. We arrived to pretty good weather and had a barbecue the first evening. But no sooner were we asleep when we awoke to firstly heavy rain, then a short time later to howling winds and rain. We had to stay up for most of the night and even had to hold the front of the tent up, the wind was so strong. A really miserable start. Next day was just a tiny bit better, rain in the morning and a little drier after lunch, but more rain that night too, only the wind was not so strong. On Wednesday we drove to Waterford city, as it was raining once again, and so we spent the morning browsing and after lunch we went as far as Kilmore Quay, which is a lovely little village and harbour. Guess what!!!!!!!!!! The sun came out for about an hour and it was so glorious. Quite an enjoyable day. Did not

Recent Reads

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This is a completely wonderful book. Well written and a compulsive read. I will certainly read this one again. 'Death' is the narrator of this novel - it is set in Nazi Germany and tells the story of Liesel, who steals books to read. She takes amazing risks to get her hands on books and the pleasure of reading and telling stories sustain her during the awful war years. This is also a story of struggle, real friendship, fear, love and beauty of the person and literature. I would highly recommend it. This is a dark, haunting book, full of secrets and blackmail. It tells the tale of a newly appointed judge, Simone, who is the family breadwinner after her husband faces bankruptcy. The family had to move to a remote seaside village. Simone is haunted by her past and her relationships with Michael an American Vietnam war veteran, and his friend Calvin. I enjoyed this atmospheric novel, and it is quite a pageturner, which leaves you still wondering. This one is based around No 44 S

Kooramock by The Isohels - (Curamach - Irish for Careful)

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Last week the Isohels (the band my daughter plays in) played their 'final' gig with a party atmosphere at Whelans of Wexford Street in Dublin. A brilliant performance!! Having been together now for 4 years, they have entertained at gigs around Dublin and Kildare, and their album which has been worked on for the last few months only released on the night of the gig, just an hour before show started. Go on over to www.myspace.com/theisohels to hear a sample. I have thoroughly enjoyed going to their gigs, and indeed have gone to more music venues in the last couple of years than I did all my life.Good luck to you all as you journey now in different directions and I hope you will all get together again for more rocking entertainment. I'll miss the gigs and will have to look for other excuses to attend them!! The Isohels The audience enjoying the gig A road sign advertising the album. On another note but with the same theme. Be careful (Kooramock) where you park your car whi

Mix n Match Swap

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I recently signed up for a Mix n Match swap. My swap was Erica from Sweden. www.stickis.blogspot.com . A wonderful parcel arrived yesterday as you can see from the following pictures and I am delighted with the gifts. A beautiful pink silk covered notebook, lovely fruity tea, which I will try later, some biscotti style biscuits with a hint of mint flavour, very unusual and delicious, that green cone-shaped package contained delicious chocolate (notice the past tense on the chocs). A lovely pink linen dishcloth, 4 beautiful bluey pink buttons and fabulous coloured what I think is cotton sock yarn. (I can't read the Swedish label) This is the lovely yarn and gorgeous buttons

Flickr Success

I felt after yesterday's rant that I should blog today to say that I had success in uploading my pictures and posting them on Ravelry. Just logged on to Ravelry this morning and thought that it would be just the same as last evening, but Bingo!! uploading worked!! Seems like there was a glitch on Flickr's system and others had the same problem. Onwards and upwards. I am not very techno aware and last night was the last straw. You know how it feels when you think your doing something wrong computerwise? Well everytime I tackle something new, I always have the jitters and think that I won't be able to do it, and also afraid that I'll make a complete mess. And so when something does not work, I just assume it's me doing something wrong. But today I feel better and the success at publishing the pictures on Ravelry gives me the impetus to carry on. End of rant!!

Flickr Anger!!!! WIPs and Finished Knits

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Current wip. Alpaca scarf from a free pattern at Interweave Knits. Its little arrowhead lace and is quite an easy knit. I bought the yarn at the 2006 Knitting and Stitching show!!!! Its been in my stash since. Its really soft. Finished blue cardi/jacket. This took me about 3 months to knit. Its in Jaegar Matchmaker Merino 4ply and knit on 3.75mm needles. I'm really pleased with it especially since I washed it and blocked it. Before that, the stitches looked uneven, but now are quite flat. The yarn is really soft, but the weather is too warm to wear it at the moment. I've had to blog about these projects, as I've spent the last 2 hours on Ravelry trying to add the photos from my Flickr account to my Ravelry project base. I've no idea what is going wrong, but when I drag the picture to place it in the required 'box' it wont go into the box at all, but then I get a number of the pictures all over the page. Don't quite know how I'm still sane or have not l

A few days in Paris - April 2008

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View from Sacre Coeur, Montmartre over Paris. As you can see the weather was great. Had a great few days in Paris in April. I had not been before although I have been to other areas of France and really loved it. Would really love to go back again. How to advertise!! Le Grand Bistro, where we had dinner. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! And really delicious Cotes Du Rhone wine with dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!! A view of Notre Dame Cathedral in the beautiful evening sun. Funky fashion just inside the door of Galerie Lafayette On Sunday morning we wandered down to the the area known as the 'Marais'. Lovely little streets and plenty of little shops open too. In the Place des Vosges there were a number of little Arty shops and I was really fascinated to see these wonderful sculptures in one of them. You may have to click the picture larger to really see them. La Tour Eiffel at night (obviously) but when the lights all dance on the hour. R

Knit Lit

Recently I've been reading some Knitting fiction. First up was 'The Friday Night Knitting Club' by Kate Jacob .This is the story of a single mother, Georgia, who has her hands full with her yarn shop and raising her teenage daughter. Her Friday knitting club is the place where friendships are made and problems are discussed and helped. This book was slow to get going and indeed I was half way through before I really got into it. I suppose I was slightly disappointed in it having heard all the hype about the movie being made with Julia Roberts starring. I will go and see it though for the curiosity. Next was 'A Good Yarn' by Debbie Macomber .This is the story of Lydia who has had health issues. She sets up a sock knitting class in her yarn store and through it we meet the lovely people who attend it, and their interesting lives, and the lovely friendships created through it. This book also includes patterns for knitting socks. The characters in this book are well dra

Quack Quack! and Woof

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A 'duck' on our garden pond this morning. This is a cool watering can, a gift from my daughter. isn't it lovely. And our golden labrador, Eorna. Posing under the arch in the sun. She is almost 10 years old. Its a really beautiful morning with the sun shining. Hope it lasts, but from the weather forecast, I'm not sure. Anyway will enjoy it while its here. Have a good day.