Vest fest

From tomorrow, I should have a camera charger again, but for now, blurry webcam pictures must suffice.
We have a boring grey cabley vest! I hope it'll fit my dad. Now I can concentrate on the crochet beard to keep my chin warm.

Me, crochet?

Yep, indeed. I'm making a suprise present so I won't write too much about it but here's a sneaky peek - can you tell what it is?



I also started crocheting myself a beard from a kit from Prick Your Finger, possibly the bestest shop ever. I went there yesterday to see some artwork by Kirsty from my Bristol S'n'B and was simply blown away. Apart from Kirsty's beautiful pin and fabric pieces, they have all sorts of strange yarns, like ones made from cut up jumpers, or banana skins. The best bit are probably the kits for making your own knitted lipstick or finger puppets, or crocheted beard. I've wanted a beard for ages so here's my chance!



Apparently, the guy at the bottom is the writer of this book (very short but funny review).

Another guest SnB

Today, I thought I'd try the knitting meeting at I Knit in London! It was a nice shop, very friendly people, and I got my photo taken for their blog! I finally finished the second piece of the boring dad-vest, now I just need to sew them up and do some garter stitch edging.

The stitch n bitch at I Knit is, unfortunately, quite a bit like the rest of London - a little bit too busy and crowded. I remember being a bit disappointed that not so many of the 20 odd people who came to the first S'n'B in Cafe Kino became regulars, but I think I may have preferred it that way. Anyway - I may go again next time. I somehow neglected to actually introduce myself to anyone today, probably because I came with a friend.

London

Been living in London for a couple of days now, not sure what I think yet. Haven't really done anything hugely exciting so far, but went for a long walk through northeast London today, and had some very nice lunch and tea:
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I was also sorely tempted by a miniature tea set (cups, saucers and teapot) with polkadots, but reason prevailed in the end. Instead, I got a late Christmas present in the form of a cupcake recipe book. I don't think I'll get to try them out any time soon though... I just had to cook a frozen pizza for about 45 minutes for it to be luke warm & soggy.

I heart teh Ravs.

Thanks to Ravelry, you can now be pretty much anywhere in the world and still find an active knitting group where you can just turn up. It definitely helps against feeling lost and uprooted when you can find some nice people who are just as excited about the latest issue of Knitty or whatever as you are.

I've tried two different groups in Hamburg and the second one was a definite success. An interesting international medley of nationality and languages spoken, people with exciting and unusual jobs, a cute little girl with my name, some beautiful knitting and very friendly attitude. I didn't take pictures but I drew one later, slightly drunk and rushed:

Wanderdüne

I have a new MP3 player which means I had to go through all my music and it reminded me of Herman Düne, who I annoyingly managed to miss on their current tour by moving from Bristol to Germany via London at exactly the wrong dates. Bought their new Album at Hamburgs best and almost last record shop Michelle Records today and though you can't deny a hint of sameyness, I love it. I think it must be the jangly guitars once again. I'm a sucker.
Here's a video.

Recreation

The emerald cardi I made my mum for Christmas was a great success - so unfortunately I have no chance of stealing it back! I felt that my dad was getting a bit short-changed so I offered to make him a sweater vest to replace one he's worn for at least 10 years. My mum claims that I knitted it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't, it must have been my gran! Which would make it at leas 15 years old, actually. Anyway, I made a tiny version as a voucher:



And have started on the full-scale version, including a nice simple cable rib. Strangely, the original has absolutely no shaping - it's just two square pieces with a triangle missing for the v-neck. I guess that's what they call drop shoulders. It does make it a fairly boring knit.

Happy New Twee!

Haven't been feeling the Twee much for the last week - There are a number of decisions demanding to be made, and in some cases I don't even know what the question is that I need to answer. So polka-dotted fluff is taking a bit of a back seat.

However, this is all going to change. 2009 is going to be a fun and exciting year. I am going to try to do as few sensible things as possible and delay any grown-up decisions until 2010 - the idea being that somehow decisions will make themselves this way. In making-things-news, this means I will try to open an etsy shop in january, while I'm living in London temporarily. I don't know how much I'll have time to make and sell in the one and a half months until I go travelling (Yes, I will actually do it) but I'm determined to have fun doing it. Damnit.

I also want to finally buy a PSP so I can play Loco Roco, the happiest game ever. I firmly believe that playing this game regularly will make me a more content person.