|
Lizards
I need to know about lizards. Odd info, anecdotes, personal appreciations, myths, stories. Please get in touch. No, I'm not going to keep them as 'pets'. Thanks. |
|
to browse and drool |
|
s*t*a*s*h! (blush) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beaded top in hemp
Hemp yarn from House of Hemp in 'gosh', kingfisher blue / green. Very, very nearly there 
Sleeveless top for Toz in duck-egg blue Rowan DK Soft. Toria started it and has run out of steam. |
|
Raglan baby sweater Scarf in charcoal grey Rowan Polar Top-down raglan Tee in HenLi Wool 2004 2003 2002 |
|
|
|
Every now and again... I've just come across this fine site microRevolt , an organisation which developed the web application 'KnitPro' which "generates knitting patterns of sweatshop offenders as a protest tool". Cool. Apparently also useful for cross-stitch patterns of your dog. Eh? It's been snowing For the first time in years, it snowed during the night and the snow lay for a few hours this morning. However, the sun is now out and it's all rushing away in rivers off the fields and down the barn roofs. Kittens went snow-flake chasing frantically for a short while, then decided the warm side of the window was more appropriate to looking elegant and serene. DH Mike rushed out with DS1 Chris in the landrover to get photos. I've booked my tickets to Minneapolis in May, for a myofascial release course with the amazing John Barnes team . I spent most of my childhood being dragged around the world as unwanted hand luggage, so although I am used to traveling, it always makes me feel slightly insecure going somewhere I've never been before. What if I get left behind? Byaccidentonpurpose? Not likely, eh? Unless I leave myself behind, which is leading us into parallel universes and the like. I am ***SO*** looking forward to this trip, despite the ontological considerations. Shaky I haven't blogged this yet, for I was a little shaky and raw with it. James, DS2 had a car crash on Thursday, on his way to a job interview. The car in front of him stopped, James stopped, the car behind him didn't. James' car was rammed into the car in front. Main thing is, James is OK, possibly a little whiplash but nothing apparent yet. The car is a write-off, but insurance wheels are grinding away. Nobody else was hurt. James was more worried about the job interview than anything else, but phoned the company immediately and has rescheduled the interview for Monday. Leeds is cool! We (Mike and I) took Toria, DD, on a university visit last weekend. Thursday to Leeds, and Saturday to Leicester. Leeds is really impressive, the university students very sharp and the department walking away with top academic and research grades. This is not somewhere that offers beauty and hairdressing with media studies. The city is really lovely, beautiful architecture, a serious art gallery and a Harvey Nicks! My type of city :) I picked up some good postcards in the gallery, available at www.leedspostcards.com. This one , text by Joyce Stevens, is very familiar but I have never seen it as a postcard, so I bought loads. DH not impressed. That still surprises me. Maybe he thinks feminism was a 'phase'. February 20th The nature of Blogging I've been thinking about the nature of blogging, of writing in general, the different roads writing can take (believe me, I've been down some tedious ones) and the 60 million dollar question, 'Who's the readership?' Now that I have been averaging well over 100 readers a day for the last year, miniscule by some standards, but evoking a certain sense of responsibilty in me, ought I pay attention? As blogging journeys go, mine has veered between what's on my heart (not everything about what's on my heart!) and... er... knitting. Although that is also on my heart. And sometimes I wonder the following: 1. Do people read my blog for the knitting content despite the other stuff, or do they like the other stuff and happened upon the blog because they knit, or are they totally bamboozled by the knitting (one emailed me 'the knitting's a spoof, isn't it?'), and read it for the non-knitting content? 2. Do I write the blog for the people who read it, or even to attract readers? (angst arising from being too many publications down the line where sales matter over everything else). I certainly don't stage publicity stunts, like some others. (Meeeow? Yes, Meeeow. I'm considering holding grudges against unprovoked attacks.) Or do I write for me? (Might as well journal, then I can go to town on the really juicy bits). Or is it to practise my writing skills? (What writing skills? I'd better get going then.) Or is it something else...? 3. Whose blogs do I read. Really read. Look forward to? What are they like? The blogs and the people? Is it for the knitting only? (Don't be stupid! Of course not!) 4. What about congruity, integrity, my writing reflecting who I am? Getting a bit deep here, I know. Philosophy. Bear/bare with me. Answers: 1. Haven't a clue. Who are you? 2. I think I blog to work out for myself what is important, and how much I can say of that in a public arena. And to keep a log of my knitting. 3. I read blogs by interesting people. I'm not interested in run-of-the-mill nuclear families, living the requisite local suburban dream, although I wish them all well. I am intrigued by people who do something different with their lives. And blog about it coherently. I like the knitting content, too. 4. I'm not going to analyse who my readership is - although I love comments and emails - keep them coming! I write about what's on my heart. If people don't like it, they don't have to read it. If they are challenged, can read between the lines and take on board the obvious as well, let me know what you think! Or lurk and keep on reading. But I'd rather you engaged. (Last time I said something like that, I got some *weird* emails, I think they were from a different planet, but they were intriguing. I think the senders were fundamentalists of some kind, but I could never work out what they were being fundamental about). Bear with me and I'll bare (some) with you. I might blog about knitting next time. Or I might not. February 16th Meltingly soft toffee... ... alpaca and mohair yarn, in reverse stocking stitch, top-down raglan. This is so warm and snuggly, one could forget oneself in it. Phoebe thinks I have become a proper kitten-mummy, having acquired the correct texture and colour of fur. She spent most of last night snuggled in inside the sweater, purring deliriously. Cleo helped to knit it by adjusting the tension whenever she saw the yarn twitch.  And here are the raglan and shorts set for little Laurie, Melanie and Kate's baby. Aren't the shorts sweeeeeeeet?   February 11th Unexpected inspiration I've only just got Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New and my knitting will never be the same again. Really. This takes knitting way beyond the 'Design Your Own' stage and straight into the 'What The ***~%^*"~#*** Have I Done Here?' phase. I like the unexpected and I like being surprised. Needless to say, but I will - not shall, will, say it - I'm smitten. I'm doing a cellular automaton swatch at the moment and I'm playing with labyrinths in my mind. Basically, it's maths. With texture. With colour. Yum. Emma , have you got this tome? The strangest afternoon Just as my mind was being gently entwangled by layers of cellular automata, our friend Adrian turned up. Ade stores some of his 'stuff' in our barn - he's a sort of event manager and technical genius. He can do anything. Including dowsing. Dowsing? Dowsing. For water. We had mentioned but a few days ago, that given the layout, age and dearth of documentation about underground and underhouse streams (2, we think), exact location of the (filled-in and built-over) well, drainage systems of the last 575 years and sundry attempts at water supply over the same period, we may have to resort to dowsing to work out what the hell is going on here, wet-wise, before it gets really wet. So Ade turned up, unannounced as usual, with a couple of thin brass metal rods, bent at a jaunty angle one quarter of the way down, and started dowsing. One of his brothers is a horticulturalist, and in the best of traditions, they don't care about irrigation plans, they keep rods in their back pockets at all times. Bro showed Ade, and he's been doing it ever since. Comes in handy when event managing traveling circuses pitching on dodgy ground, I'm told. This dowsing thing could almost be as addictive as knitting and bodywork. The feeling when the rods swing is like a little whoosh of something up the spine and through the meridians. Wrigglesome. DH Mike knows where some of the drainage systems and water pipes are (he put them there) and where one of the underground streams bursts out when the water table is high enough. Ade hasn't a clue, but he found every spot and mapped one or two pipe runs from the house to the barn. Can anyone do this? I think so. DD Toria, very intellectual, didn't get a thing. DS1 Chris took to it with gusto, arriving half way through the fun, and found exactly the same spots Ade did. So did I. DH Mike couldn't quite trust himself. I may be out there tomorrow :) Mouse count Mouse count last night was two heads and a short lived squeak. And a shrew. No picis. February 5th I'm bewitched by the Secret Pal phenomenon. My secret pal is so different from me in many ways, it's been really fun trying to think my way into her skin to send the first little parcelette. It's off and winging it's way now, and I hope it hits the spot. I tried! Isn't it odd how one starts to look out for things that might provide a small delight? Phoebe, Cleo and JamTart updates The kits are catching mice as if there were no kitten food available in the cupboard. They have also learned how to open the cupboard. I'm expecting them to find out how to open the dried food bag and wet food pouches soon. They have mastered the art of opening mousies to get to the really squidgy parts, and we are training them to keep mousies outside, particularly when they are still alive. JamTart is now chasing C and P around the house - albeit rather slowly. They run on ahead, hide behind furniture and wait for her, then dash off again. Then they stalk her, two against one. There has been no hissing for ages, and JT is becoming svelter with the new exercise. February 3rd The Grauniad does it again Another knitting article from the maestros of working out what's going on. Stupid quizilla quiz I am like Sparrow? Who is Sparrow? Is one supposed to know this sort of thing? I can hear GF laughing at me right now, uncontrollably. Hrrrrmmmmpphhh!. SPARROW
You're most like Sparrow. You're usually the calm |
|
Archives:
2005 January Knitting Archives 2003 Knitting Archives 2002 |
|
Send an email to Anne
|
Knitting books now:
Unexpected Knitting - Debbie New This is incredibly inspiring. It's much cheaper from amazon.com
|
||
|
Read this month:
Er... not nothing. Just haven't put it up yet. |
|
|
Explore a quality, original, independent web site here: The Infinite Stitch Money, religion, politics. Yes. |
<< Prev | Next >> 
< Blogging Brits ? > < Girls Blog UK ? >  Prev l List l Next 
Previous | Next 
Balade -Marie Fleur des Prairies - Val Histoires d'aiguilles - Isabelle Sockhaus Strick-Tagebuch KnitDad's Blog - Larry 
Anne's amazon wish list |
