Puffs of the Day

So the sunflower I did yesterday, before the Endless ones, but didn't post about it because I was way too excited about the other ones. It was made using duplicate stitch at the center of puff and then random daisy stitches for the petals - am loving how it turned out.

The rose and the cup have a bit of a story to them - the yarn came from the stash of my maternal grandmother and the embroidery patterns are from an old book of my paternal grandmother’s (just cut-outs pasted into a notebook, but I’ve known some of these since I was small). I thought it was a very nice way to remember them by combining what they've left me in this way. Both of them were instrumental in teaching me needlecrafts, so it's entirely appropriate that they be part of my hexi-blanket. Can't wait to show these to my mum!

Technical note on the cup puff - the original chart wouldn't fit on the puff, so I counted one half knitted stitch as an embroidery stitch and used the back stitch, and then it worked. Yay!

Endless hexipuffing....

I had an idea (one of several) this morning to do puffs inspired by The Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. The idea was to have a 'D' in the middle and the color scheme based on each character.

So here they are, from the top and clockwise, in the order of age:

Destiny - pale green for his garden and opaque white for the unturned pages in his book
Death - grey/white on black, because she’s just such a cool person.... I initially wanted to put the faint outline of the ankh in the background, but that will be for another puff.
Dream - gold for the dream dust, on midnight blue. I initially wanted to put beads into this for stars, but then didn't bother once I had done Death's puff without the ankh. Maybe there will be deluxe editions of these. Haha.
Destruction - orange brick-like stitch on brown for rust and debris
Desire - I didn't have enough red yarn to do a puff, because the first plan was for a golden 'D' on dark red, but I had some embroidery floss that goes from bright to dark red, which I used on top of the puff, so that the 'D' itself is in a sort of relief (desire taking over). The colours were chosen for the red of the heart's blood, and the gold of Desire's eyes.
Despair - grey on grey. You can barely see the 'D' for which I used cross stitch, but you can feel it if you run your fingers across the puff.....The background grey was a colour to get lost in while I was knitting.....
and in the middle Delirium - green and blue for her eyes, on vivid lilac. I used sort of random stitching for the 'D'. I had also thought maybe I'd embroider tiny butterflies on this one, but yeah that will be for another version as well....

Hobbit Door

Of course I had to have a hobbit door hexipuff! I'd previously done a chart of one, but when it came to embellishment, I was too lazy to go and look at it, so I made it up as I went along - but I think it looks very cute!

Squeeeee! Off to make more hexipuffs!

New Obsession!

Hexipuffs are taking over! I am making a Beekeeper's Quilt (Tiny Owl Knits pattern, check it out on her website or Ravelry), and at first glance I thought it was going to be a loooot of work, what with weaving ends and sewing and all. But it's not! These wee hexagons are so quick, so easy and so much fun to do!

This is what I've got so far, using charts for embroidery that people have posted on Ravelry.

So from the top going clockwise we have a charcoal one with Cassiopeia on it, one lilac one in leftovers from a dress for Anne, one in Socks That Rock courtesy of Julie, one in merino/silk leftovers (8 strands - it's VERY thin), one in grey with embroidered forget-me-nots (and I just noticed that it's upside down in the pic, ooops!), one in my looovely Koigu leftovers and in the middle a plain grey one.

I did the decrease part wrong on all but the Socks That Rock one (well, the second one - Julie let me do two and the first one has the mistake in it as well, but it's not worth redoing any of them. Learning curve :) ).

PS. In Dreams is finished, all I have left to do is block it and weave the 2 ends.... Yay!

Still In Dreams

'In Dreams' is nearing completion, but argh these last rows are taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r, what with all those WS increases and stuff. I just want to get it done, off the needles and blocking! So, stop blogging and get knitting then... Toodles :)

And for those of you not on Ravelry: 'In Dreams' is a semi-circular lace shawl, designed by Susan Pandorf and inspired by Galadriel's crown as worn in the Lord Of The Rings movies. This is my second one, which is for someone else.

Oldie, Not A Goodie

I'm on a continuous quest to weed my cd collection, and a new prime candidate for expulsion is George Michael's 'Older'. It's incredibly dated, I think - sure, it's got 'Fastlove' and 'The Strangest Thing' - but that's about it. 'Faith' is a much better album by far, and 'Listen Without Prejudice' has already covered some of the territory he's revisiting here on 'Older', but with an awful lot more substance (I mean, come on - 'Star People'? 'Freedom 90' towers head and shoulders above it).

My rule of thumb is I have to like at least 3 songs on an album in order to keep it (that doesn't apply to soundtracks with U2 or Tori Amos songs on them though), so I guess this one will not be getting much older in my house.....

The Road Rising To Meet Me, The Wind At My Back

I learned something about myself today, and it's made me totally happy :) I am, fundamentally, an optimist! Sure, there are days when things don't look all that great, but this is my springboard that I use to get me through them, and oh what a wonderful feeling to discover the truth of this. I spent so long trying to make myself fit this image of who I thought I had to be in order to be good enough, and now it's fantastic to uncover bit by bit who I actually am, ie. find my own image, find the colours that match, and start to fill in the blank spaces. Yay! Happy Friday :)

The Long Winding

Woah, posting TWO days in a row! Ha, I bet you can't keep this up, Pia :D

Anyway, this is a knitting post, so any non-knitters, prepare to yawn or stop reading.

A while back, I bought some loooovely but extremely thin yarn on a cone. The fact that yardage said 6500 yards/150 g might have been a clue to the thinness, but no, didn't register. I soon figured out that to finish a project with just one thread would require a decade or two, so I needed thickness. I found a good project and decided that four strands would be enough, but I don't have a ball winder, so off I went winding off a small ball with enough of one strand to complete the project twice. Then I cut the yarn, and wound a new 2-strand ball with the strand from the ball and a strand from the cone, until I had used app. half of my 1-strand ball, now leaving me with the 4 strands I needed: 1 from the 1-strand ball, 2 from the 2-strand ball, and 1 from the cone. My hands and shoulders were not happy, from all this winding, but now it was done.

But, project completed, I still had more than half the cone left. Winding 3000+ yards by hand again? No thanks! So, my friend Julie has a ball winder - yay! - this winds yarn into pretty cakes. The big advantage of the cake as opposed to the ball and the cone is that you have access to both ends of the yarn, so my plan was to wind first all the yarn into a cake, and then use that cake to wind a 2-strand cake, and then use that to wind a 4-strand cake. But, this yarn is so slippery and fine, it ended up trying to escape the ball winder, which was the cause of much laughter, and when I tried winding the 2nd cake it quickly emerged that the first cake would tangle hopelessly. So, I would a 2-strander by hand instead, and I've just this minute completed winding that one into 4 strands (which involved winding half the 2-strander into a ball first). How do I know when I've reached half, you say? Well, I weighed the initial ball on my crappy kitchen scale, so that I'd know roughly how much to wind off. I ended up being wrong by less than 50 yards, which is okay - the scales are REALLY crappy.

So, now I have this looooovely ball of 4 strands, ready for another project, but next time I buy thin yarn, I will also pay extra to have them wind it into a thicker yarn - I am never doing this again!

Yo, Pia, this blog is taking over your life....*heavy sarcasm* Eh, and a concert report....

Well, it's been a while. In fact, it's been years. And what do you have to say for yourself, Pia? Actually, not a lot. I'm on Facebook and stuff, but this whole sharing-everything-with-the-world thing is not very attractive I find. I started this blog with the intention of keeping friends and family in other countries in the loop in an easier and more entertaining way than simple email or actual letters. But often, I don't have much to say that I would be comfortable putting out onto the Interwebz, and so the blog has been hibernating.... Now, let's see how long it will be before my next post. MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

All jokes aside, I guess I could do a wee concert report on Tina Dickow, who played in Tivoli last Friday. I was there with my sis, just the two of us, which was just great. The weather forecast had said 'rain', and seeing as my lovely Storm brolly is broken and in dire need of copious amounts of duct tape, I figured I'd wear the full rain suit (pants, jacket, wellies), because I so did NOT want to get soaked. Of course, we didn't get a drop. And I couldn't take off the trousers, because in order to not roast completely, I'd worn only thin leggings underneath, which were not fit for public wear by any standards. So I roasted, but not too badly. Tivoli was fairly muddy though, so the wellies sure came in handy.


I'd seen Tina in concert a few years ago in Dublin, quite by accident, because she was supporting Cara Dillon in Vicar Street. I'd never heard of her, but could tell from her accent that she was Danish, and her set was a lovely surprise and very good, just her and her guitar. This time around, it was full band, and boy, did they all play up a storm! And oh! The woman can sing! She's very much at home on the stage and has a commanding presence. All in all a truly great experience, and I'd most definitely go and see her again

Set list is from setlist.fm:

Break Of Day (my new favourite)
A New Situation
No Time To Sleep
Sacre Coeur
Welcome Back Colour
One
Nobody's Man
Count To Ten
Home
On The Run
Paper Thin

Encores:
Copenhagen (she was teasing the crowd and asking if we all knew the lyrics properly)
Open Wide
The Road