Alternative Knitting

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Knitting Bookstore
to browse and drool

Anne's s*t*a*s*h! (blush)

Trager in Brighton

52 or 79 things I have discovered about me, life and knitting. Or fewer. Or more. Currently 84

What Anne does for a living

Work on needles

Technically, one pair of socks for Chris and one stripy top for me. All very boring and have been queuing up for ages. Let's face it, Chris' socks have been 'on the needles' for so long, they may be rotting. And the stripy top is just... not... lace... that seems to be the problem.

Anne's finished projects 2007

Lacy muffler for D
Ocean silk lace shawl for D
Debbie Bliss silk shawl for me in deep fuchsia with a scarlet border
2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

Online yarn stores and resources

Knitty
Threadbear
Ozeyarn
Martina for sock yarn
Kangaroo
House of Hemp
Ford Barton
Laughing Hens
Hip Knits
Posh Yarn
(Posh Yarn's colours)

Secret knittery About to start another... yes another lime green sweater, this time for my friend, Joolz in Edinburgh. You can find her here...

Bodywork and other training
I've done a shed-load of training in the last few years, some in new areas, some pretty advanced. These are the training establishments I recommend for outstanding integrity, professionalism and allround excellence:

Trauma Healing - Somatic Experiencing

Brain Gym

Jean-Pierre Barral
Visceral Osteopathy

John F Barnes
Myofascial Release

Human Givens
A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking

Upledger Institute
Craniosacral Therapy

Jing Advanced Massage
Advanced Clinical Bodywork
Remedial Massage
Myofascial Release
(I also teach with these guys)

Pilates Training Solutions

August 19th

The vagaries of online grocery shopping...
I've recently got into ordering my groceries online from Ocado, who deliver Waitrose goodies... perfect! Very often, in fact every time, the delivery happens when I'm not there, I'm either in Town doing a clinic or, as was the case yesterday evening, having a Trager session in Brighton. At home were DH, DS1, DS2, DD and DD's BF. They have, of course, not the foggiest idea what I might have ordered, and they embark on a voyage of discovery every time they unpack and put away the Ocado man's offerings...

This time, the offerings went a little over the top: 15 mixed peppers... 5 bags of potatoes... 2 strings of fresh garlic - that's about 20 individual garlic heads... 24 mixed peaches and nectarines... 4 large bags of spinach... 4 cabbages of varying shapes and sizes... and so on, resulting in hysterical mirth from unpackers all. They thought I had finally lost my marbles, gone over the edge, or had decided to host an extremely large vegetarian dinner party.

Not so. I definitely did not mean to order all those goodies, but they WERE items that I have ordered before, and what must have happened is that I used a previous shopping list to edit and somehow, somehow, Ocado kept items I thought I had deleted ... but 5 bags of potatoes... pleeeeease! I've never ordered 5 bags... or 4 bags of spinach... so I reckon they must have somehow added previous purchases from a whole host of previous lists...

Anyway, DS2 is a chef (back at the Hilton now, couldn't cope with 17 hour days, 2 hours travel and 5 hours sleep if he was lucky... it's a long story) and he swung into action 'cooking off' (I love the technical chefing terms...) 6 peppers with chicken thighs and couscous (yum!) and ideas for using the rest of the quickly perishable. I shall phone Ocado today and see what happened...

I can actually recommend them highly, up to yesterday the delivery and goods have been fantastic.

August 8th

I think I'm going through a lace phase
But I've finished only the silk shawl I have been knitting for myself. Garter stitch diamonds, bobbles in the surrounding triangles and cat's paw for the outer reaches. A wavy lace border in scarlet, et voici!

I have to note that six increases every other row on the equivalent of stocking stitch was actually too much for a half hexagon, although it didn't matter as the shawl wraps beautifully around my shoulders. If I used the same yarn again and wanted a true half hexagon I'd use 5 increases, or even 4, and fiddle it somehow... or 6 increases every 3 rows...

I'm still knitting away madly on the nutmeg alpaca shawl (here it is again), and I think I have almost reached the point where I shall start the border. Now this border is going to be about 12cm wide all the way round. Part of me is whispering 'this will take a week or so, or even just a couple of days... how long can it take to knit a row 12cm long around a shawl...'. Well, those of you, and me included, who know how long a border can be, and can do the maths and work out how many square cm that little border is going to end up as, will know that this is not a week's work. But if I continue to whisper very quietly, I'll cover up common sense with delusion and happiness will reign... 'just another couple of days...shhhhhh...'.