minor blogging hiatus

... not for any real reason, life just gets in the way sometimes.

I'm still crocheting, still working on the E and C moleys I have, and I'm still thinking, if not actually making, so don't anyone worry!

I've stolen this from Leslie (who in turn stole it from Erin), so feel free to grab the offer while it's available:

The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me. (You do not have to have been tagged.) This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. What cha get, is what cha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It'll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. It may be baked goods.
5.I reserve the right to do something extremely strange, if inspired to do so.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make something for me and the first 5 to respond to your note.
7. Send me your mailing address if you don't live close to me!

Also, I'd kinda like you to take the project on too, so post a link to your blog when you take it on, and leave a comment in the box if you want something. It may be felt. It may be crochet. It may be some crazy freeform sculpture. It may be a painting or sketch... who knows?

And in sad news, my auntie finally decided to give up the fight last night and passed away peacefully in her sleep. While it is sad, and I am upset, believe me, it's also a relief that she's not suffering anymore and we can finally grieve for her. If only everyone in my family felt a bit like me, it would be a lot nicer... but that's another story...

agonies and packages

I've been a lucky girl the last few days- lots of RAKs!

Alas today, I was woken up in agony at 5am- it felt like I was being crushed and stung at the same time in my chest and back. It hurt so bad I actually cried. I couldn't even take my reliever inhaler because it hurt too much to breathe in deeply... long story short, I've been prodded, poked, tapped, had my chest listened to, had an E.C.G and now I have to go for a chest x-ray in an hour. Oh joy and wonder.

Anyway, here's some pics of my recent RAKS:Yellow UK RAK (March) Random Act of Kindness from Kris.

A US care package from the wondeful DMXOX- the taffy is now down to two pieces, one of which I MUST save for the boy... please send more ;) Also, I've never had a Twizzler that wasn't red, so this will be fun! Especially when I eat the blue one... blue colouring= craaazy Lini!

A close-up of my hot sauces from DMXOX- Tabasco (<3), Mega Death sauce and Kick Ass sauce... can't wait for chilli night to try them!


And my lovely RAK from Gina, another of the fabulous Chicklets. I only wanted the Crochet Today mag! ;)

I have been well and truly spoiled and I feel truly blessed. Thankyou everyone.

awards, scarves and daily rudeness...

I got an award, thankyou Leslie!

The text accompanying the award reads as follows:
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

So, I'm picking the following people:

1. Martha
2. Caroline
3. Frewen
4. Kaz
5. Kris
6. Bianca
7. Kirsty
8. Kristina

Just because I didn't pick you, doesn't mean I don't love you. Hopekins, Leslie, Gina, Rebecca et al, you were got to first, so I thought I'd share the love with others!


Ok, so I'm making a scarf for myself out of the frogged Twilley's Spirit (was armwarmers that looked CACK), but it's a work day project, i.e- I'm only doing it at work when there's nothing to do. I've worked out a pattern (ten rows dc -sc for you USAliens- and five of htr -dunno what that is? Double?-) and it's starting to look quite groovy! Hopefully will get snaps this weekend. I'm also making a scarf for my godmum's birthday (ok, it's the 9th so it probably won't be on time) and to cheer her up because she's signed off work sick at the moment after being in a bit of a fender bender. Nothing too serious, but a bit of whiplash and not feeling too great. I'm making it out of a lovely middleing pale orange crochet cotton, which was a RAK from the lovely Nicola. I'll get a pic of this one too at the weekend. When she said it was a cone of cotton, I thought it'd be one of those little three inch high ones. Noes- it's HUAGE! It must weigh at least 300g! So thankyou Nic, from me, my mum (she's reminiscing again- two mum friendly RAKs in one week. The first was two vintage patterns from the 1970s) and soon too my godmama!

And the daily rudeness I'm alluding to is the commute into London every day for work. I hate it. I will tell all one day... but for now, I'm just going to seethe lol!

My Red RAK

THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU CAROLINE!
(craftyfox on Ravelry)

My RED RAK is absolutely wonderful!
I got:
Red Quality Street sweeties (on nom nom strawberry cremes)
A bag o'Skittles (luuuuuuuuuv Skittles!)
A dotty red pen
Red teabags
Red-purple fyberspates wool
A lickle red sock keyring
A heart cushion thingamajig that is now by my bed, holding on to my mini moleskine and phone of a night
The leftover wool from making said cushion dooberry
And a lovely thoughtful card!

FANX!

the essex cooker, ha ha...

Yep, I had another nummy cooking triumph. And here it is:
Caramelised red onion tarts with goat's cheese and toasted pine nuts. I was amazed how easily it just came out of my head, and how good it tasted. Need to probably slice the cheese a bit thinner next time though. I bought the puff pastry for the first time ever (I like making pastry, but Mark's kitchen is not good for doing it- 5 boys, and only 2 know how to be hygienic!) and it turned out ok. Jus-Roll, I will purchase your goods again!

I did make some more felt, but it's going in the IME E= and CCC moleskines I'm working on... so no spoilers!

IN ADVANCE:
Probably no blog on Wednesday as that's gonna be me and Mark's fake Valentines.

snow is melting away...

Yep, there's nearly no more snow. Sad. I love the snow, I do.

I'm back onto the felting again, have done a couple of wet felts this morning, and am waiting for them to dry off a bit before I can take a pic.

I got a Red February RAK from Caroline (craftyfox on ravelry) but I haven't opened it yet because I'm saving it as a treat for when I've done these horrible job applications. Blugh- I swear I'm getting RSI!

Mark's on holiday this coming week, so I get to sort of live at his, yay! But that means I need to think up/look up some cheap easy recipes for dinner every night as we can't (but could very easily!) live on stir-fry, Chinese/Indian take-away and pizza for a week!
I was thinking of doing a roasted butternut squash risotto, but then realised that he hates risotto. I'm sure he wouldn't mind it if it was ME making it... surely?

I woke up in the middle of the night with 'Ae Fond Kiss' by Robbie Burns going through my head... I have no idea why. "Had we ne'er loved sae blindly" indeed...

hellooo

Hello good people of the internet, how're you? Good. I'm ok, thanks for asking.

This is going to be a quick post as I need to pop out, and see if my felt experiments are dry yet. I need to buy some foam or something for needle felting, as the block of stuff I've got is poo, and bits keep getting in my felty things. Grr.

I've ordered some more fluffies in different colours from World of Wool and Texere, so hopefully, more colours soon! I want to felt a pebble...

Have you seen Fleece Dog? They're sooo cute! I want to do one! But it'll suck because I've only been felting a week!

Things I have learned this last week of felting:
1) Shetland wool doesn't like Merino wool. How to fix this? Felt the Merino first, then felt the Shetland onto it later. Then we don't end up with big holes which I still need to fix.
2) Don't use polystyrene or oasis block for needle felting, it makes bits fall into your work. How to fix this? I don't know...? High density foamboard? I'll ask the market foam man if he still has a stall.
3) Tesco (discontinued so cheap at 75p a pack) 'Shiny Shred' looks good but doesn't felt in very well and breaks when you try to needle it in. How to fix this? Um, secure it with Merino wisps? Not bother lol?

Does anyone know where I can get shiny stuff to put in my felt? I got a lovely felted bowl as a RAK from Zoe (woolbird) and it has some shimmery shizzle in it, and I'd love to know where to get some!

Ok, that'll do for now. Sorry my crochet blog has turned into my felt blog, but I'm just so excited!

hello again once more

I'm still here, not snowed under in the garden and froze.

I'm making Mark's hat, hoped to have it done by now, but now DMXOX and Leslie have got me caught up in the race for 400 posts on ravelry! Curses!

Proper update tomorrow I promise!

new year's eve...

...is upon us!
So here is a pic of what I've been doing since yesterday. Crocheting a rectangle out of 100% wool wool with the intention of making a felted pouch as my first felting adventure. YAY! See it's stripey goodness! The wool was a bit on the expensive side (£2.63 for 50g) but it'll be worth it for the felting adventure! Ms. Frewen says I need glycerine soap, so will have a squiz in the cupboard and if I haven't got any, I'll pop into town and have a dekko when I pick up 'Coraline' for the I.M.E Chicklet Book Club (lol). I'm gonna take a peek at the 52 books in 52 weeks group and see what it's all about. If it's not structured (like telling me which book to read and when) I might join in!

Quick update today cuz of needing to bath and do my moleskine for round 2, but should be back on January 2nd with more stuff!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

hello hello hellooo

Hey y'all!

I.M.E groups for round 2 are up on ravelry! I'm in E (which will probably end up being called the eclectic elephants or something!) and some of the chicklets have made it into the same group, so YAY! I haven't been parted from my beloved frewen, FPK and DMXOX thank the gods! But there are also new peoples to meet, and I look forward to that too!

I hope you like the pics up there by the way. Aren't they groovy? They're of peoples' christmas lights (in the dark) taken with a slower shutter speed. I could offer them as weird futuristic prints to people! And I have more! Top one is a row of lights, middle is some blue net lights (think they were over a tree or soemthing maybe?) and bottom one is -believe it or not- a row of streetlamps! I was in a moving vehicle with a slow shutter, so there ya go!

I has a mole on my right shoulderblade and have all my life, and now it seems to want to annoy me. It feels different. It looks a bit different... I'm wondering if it's doctor trip time?

This is not crochet related. I am a bad Lini.
I'm wondering what to make for my Y RAK receive-ee Bianca... hmn, I have some nice yellow DK so I could make something cute and cool. I mean, you don't HAVE to make something, but I guess it'd be nice if I did. There's no way I'm gonna come close to Zoe's F RAK I got, but I can try!

So I was thinking of making something useful... maybe like a pouch or something? Lion Brand has some dinky bits, like a coin purse and an ipod sock (but does she have an ipod? And could it be used as something other than an ipod sock?)...

Ok so here's the links:
ipod sock
coin purse
(you may need to login/register)

Answers on a postcard PLIZ!

three days until xmas

Hello everyone out there in internet land.
I hope you're all having a very merry festive period, be it Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanzaa, or something else entirely.
I'm not. I'm still unemployed, had another rejection email, and my extended family are all morons. But on the plus side, I did get a big box in the post today, which appears to be my ravelry UKRAK secret santa. Oh yus.

The scarves we made for my cousins were well received on Sat, as was the beanie for the kid. Not going to say anymore as it will bring back the angries, and I've only just managed to make them go away... suffice to say, the day was crap and ended up with me losing my temper and having to go away to my room for half an hour and have a good rage until I felt better.

Anyway! This is not talking about crochet is it? NO!
I've found a really nice free pattern from Lion Brand (you may need to register to see) that I might look into making in the new year. I've never done a "big" project before. The dog coat I made was a medium project, but I'm more used to making one shot wonders like beanies, scarves, bonnets etc... so this'll be a challenge! I love the colour of it, but not too sure if it'll suit now I have dark hair again... I bet you're all waiting with baited breath, so here we are, without further ado, the Cowl Neck Sweater pattern! The only problem is, I don't know what weight Lion Brand Wool Ease is... I'm sure I can find out from somewhere. Maybe the website? We'll see...

Finally, I've made another beanie. It has ridges lol. Also, working on another one and finishing mum's xmas scarf (had to stop for a week cuz she was on holiday from work but now I'm running out of wool! NO!)

And in non crochet news, I hear my forum friend Leslie hasn't been very well of late, so GET WELL SOON! I hope you heard me in Colorado!

And before I forget, frewen, please make me some felted booties! ;)

new haircut :D

Hey y'all. I'm back again. This time with a new haircut and colour! I've gone from long shaggy blondeyginger to shorter choppy chocolate brown. I might upload a picture if the fancy takes me... I think darker hair suits me actually. I'll have to upload a pic now or you'll all think I'm being vain!
Here we are...

Anyway- only a short update to say that I've finished off the dog coat for good now (hopefulyl a pic of her in it later) and I'm going out to give it to her mummy in a little while.

I'm checking ravelry as we speak, so hopefully will be caught up on what the chicklets have been up to!

TTFN homegirls and homeboys!

wrist bones turning to dust...

Yeah, you can tell it's winter when I get my wrist straps out!
A few years back I had an accident at uni which meant that I tore the ligaments in my left wrist- v painful! And when it gets cold outside, it gets all painful again! So I dig out the big strap thing the hospital gave me (complete with metal plate down the palm-wrist) and away I go getting my yarn caught in the velcro. Since last year, my other "good" wrist has started to twinge in the cold, so I got some strapping for that one too... so another place for the yarn to get fluffed up! Must be the onset of the familial arthritis. Great. I was hoping I'd at least be 30 before that happened! It would explain the ever worsening shoulder too... joy. And I've got thread veins in my legs. NOT FAIR! My body's getting old before its time!

Ok so we scrapped the Kathleen hat idea and mummy is very kindly making a scarf according to the stash diving pattern I posted yesterday. She's doing it cuz my hands hurt lol!

So I'm making a Trevor for myself, just as a nice easy "all done in a DC spiral" amigurumi thang. He's an alien. You can find his pattern here. My Trevor is neon pink, and will probably only have two feet, as I think four is a bit excessive, especially considering that he's got two arms as well. I can't decide what colour to make his arms and feet... I don't really want to use boring black but I may have to for coordination's sake (his eyes are big 10mm safety eyes like smooth coal lol!)... bluh whatever.

In other news, I posted my IME moley yesterday, and frewen got it today! Well done Royal Mail. FPK's is on it's way from Colorado to me, so it should be here soon! God bless ravelry!

So yeah, I'm off to see my mummydearest and take my godmum's xmas present to her. Woot.

getting better

I'm nearly snot free, yay!
How nice for you to stop by and hear me talking about mucus as the first part of the blog post. What a lovely person I am.

I have a follower now! I'm literally spazzing out with excitement! Thankyou to my friend FiberPirateKniter/Leslie for coming aboard! <3 Literally, I'm squee-ing. YUS!
Hooray for ravelry- I am hooked!

And now on to the crochet aspect of the blog, lol!
I'm currently breaking my fingers making a hat for my friend in the US. She lives in Montana, which is like right next to Canada (sort of) so I bet it gets cold up there! Hopefully I'll get it done before the weekend and be able to mail it Friday or Monday at the latest. Royal Mail are being a bit bumface about the last int'l shipping dates, so I'm not taking any chances! I also need to get my UK RAK random letter (G) off to Birgit in Finland. Am having trouble deciding what to send though... a G size crochet hook? Gum? Gnu? Gravy? Ginger?

I still need to finish some other things off properly before xmas, including the bows and stuff on Tink's dog coat, Ani's hat matching pouchette (how I'm gonna make it do up, I don't know!) and get started on another flap hat for Jessa. My hands are so itchy and rashy from using mohair in this hat, it's horrible! The hat is just horrendously pretty :D If you're a raveler, check out the colours here!

These hooks from Resplendent Creations are simply beautiful! You know what else I want for crimble now!
I'm also going to make a nice hook roll using this pattern if I get the time between now and the new year.

My crimbo list is basically comprised of hooks and clothes... oh and a really nice pair of boots, but I'm not allowed any more shoes >:|

Back unto the itchy allergy triggering crochet breach, once more!

what lini wants for xmas

This is what I really want for sexmas. This lovely bag (pattern by Bernat, you may need to log in or register to see it!)

Maybe someone will make me one. Maybe I can make it myself, but not for a while.

On the noncrochet front, I'm starting to feel better, yay! I made some chocolate covered pretzels for me and boyfy to share tonight in front of the telly. Don't know what we'll watch as his aerial is out, and his housemates are using the downstairs TV for a "big gay Shield party"- his words not mine!

Back onto the crochet front, I've promised I'll help one of my friends on ravelry learn to crochet Hello Frewen!
I'm not the best teacher in the world, so I'm looking for things to help out here. I've photocopied a page from one of our basic books, but I don't know if that's enough... we'll have to see!

We'll see if I can teach someone something!

meme!

I like memes, and when I found one over at SleepyEyes' blog, I wanted to do it.
I've been checking out the guys who're in my I.M.E group so I know what I'm up against!

So without further ado, here's a meme. And don't worry, I'll get something actually crochet related up today too!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 13! I was in year 8 of school, and I was the girl you picked on. I had been friends with my best friends (who're STILL my best friends now!) for just over/about a year. My obsession with Japanese things had begun (origami I believe), and I still believed that by 25 I would be married and have a good job. Nowadays the job seems plausible, but the marriage not so much. I was also probably still able to eat Opal Fruits and Pretzel Flipz (see below)... but not Marathons.

2. What are 5 things on my TO-DO list for today?
Return my books to the library (including the Tunisian crochet one, I give up), put in a repeat prescription request for my asthma medicine at the doctor's, finish the pink hat I'm making, find some inspiration to do my I.M.E book and avoid my relatives who're coming over from Spain.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Pretzels (especially chocolate covered), tortilla chips with guacamole, toast with butter, buttery/salty popcorn, corn nuts, Bhuja spicy peas (expensive but SO good and so easy to eat!), Opal Fruits (NOT Starbursts... stupid name for a candy- also, bring back the lime ones!), wasabi peas, mainly anything vegetarian and crunchy and spicy!

4. Things I would do if I were a billionarie:
I'd buy myself a house in the country with some acreage and get my dream pets (including the alpacas and angora goats) installed, and section some land off for a horse sanctuary. I'd also buy my mum the car she's wanted since I can remember (Land Rover) and invest in inner city artists. I'd also buy Martina a horse and pay it's bills. I'd buy Ani the Hello Kitty car from Japan too.

5. Places I have lived:
Hornchurch/Romford hinterland, Essex.
Surbiton, Surrey.
Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey.
Many a holiday to St. Osyth, Essex too, so I spose I did live there for some portion of my life.

6. Jobs I have had:
LUSH shop assistant.
LBR summer temp.
Uni ASC writing advisor.
Temporary porter (BAD!).

7. Bloggers I am tagging for this MEME:
Well you don't have to do it, so I'm not going to tag anyone.
If you do want to do it though, let me know- I'm interested in finding out more about people!

i.m.e

The lists have been posted for the Ravelry IME (International Moleskine Exchange) so I'm going to start on mine and send it on soon! I know who I'm sending it to, as she's in one of my groups, yay!

For now, I must away and go shopping but here's a nice pattern for a pet bed! I might make one for Tink or Chaos if they're both good girls.


Check out the Crochet Today patterns, they're written in American, but they're still good!