don't let the door hit you on the ass

...so much for rekindled love.

this is what it looked like as it was walking out the door. again.

wearing the jolie rouge hat.scarf set that he begged me to make him.

which means i'll be doing what i always do when life sucks.

run away.

i'm packing my hooks and getting on a plan to stockholm.

there's a shop in gamla stan that sells the best sock yarn, so i'm going to be making lotsa these yoga socks for dance training.  because i've got alot of rehearsals for upcoming shows and events...both tribal fusion bellydance and gypsy.

hating leaving the puppy, but it's too soon to get his passport sorted and he'll be well looked after. next time he is coming with me!

it's been a long time...

Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back, let me get it back
mm-baby, where I come from...

...yup, I have been a bit pre-occupied.

New/old rekindled love and a puppy have stolen all my free blog time!

But I am still hooking - have made The Dicktator a hate hat (ooo a bit freudian there!) and one of my special jolie rouge deep red skull and crossbones scarf - and I'm still working on the yarneater CAL with Sarah London (who despite my new/old bf, I still love love love in the biggest fangirl way ever).  My yarneater is actually getting too big to carry around, so I need to do some doggy crochet as our little 13 week old puggle Elvis needs more chewy toys!

I used to make really nice crochet doggy bones out of worsted weight cotton and stuffed with my old t-shirts, gave them to my puppies at the salon in Stockholm and also the tattoo shop in Ibiza town...now I gotta get back on the bone and make some for my own little one, but this week has been pretty harsh - we've had literal blood sweat and tears (and a few police) and today is the first day I can read properly - so maybe I'll leave any new projects for a couple days.

Oh, and if it's not past midnight yet for you = happy Sadie Hawkins day!

And if it is later on - happy St David's day!

Miss you all xxx

crafternoon today!

still not sure what you are up to this afternoon or you are going to be around crouch end anyway?
well the lovely ladies of happily ever crafter have crammed me in a last minute stall at their crafternoon today because they "frickin love" my skully pirate crochet stuff...

so if you'd like to buy some or just hang out then pop on up to the hornsey vale community centre this afternoon...and experience the spectacle of cherie matrix outside zone 1 for two weekends in a row!

of course this means another saturday evening that i miss my gypsy dance rehearsals for the brixton hafla in december. i'm really torn as now my crafty vixen time is really fucking interfering with my bellydance time. however, with the latest knee problems i wonder more and more if i should slow down/give it up altogether? i "frickin love" the bellydance girls and musicians that i've met, and would miss them too much. luckily, the crafty vixen communtiy is just as interesting and loving so i'm replacing one with the other - FOR NOW.

sometimes there just really isn't enough hours in the day to squeeze in everything that i'm interested in - when this happens to you, how do you choose?

how much should a hooker charge??

he-elp!

so i made some awesome bunting for my lovely friend salena's birthday today...

...yes, i know that i've gone a bit bunting mad lately! but i think it might be the novelty of not having had it back home. we get 'garland' but it's not like this. and there does seem to be a bit of a bunting resurgence, doesn't there?

which it looks like i can cash in on a bit if i want to.

as someone at the party has a shop that only stocks and sells limited edition hand-made items and they wanna sell my birthday bunting. which is awesome and i'm excited as i've been thinking about selling my crochet properly again for awhile.

but this is where i need the crafty handmade blogosphere's help...what do you all think that i should charge for a crocheted bunting of about 7 flags? it's not my usual granny triangle stylee - but something alot quirkier...and i have no idea how much they would retail or wholesale for - and i know that some of you crafters sell your wares, so i'd really appreciate your guidance.

so sorry!

so so so so sorry i've not been blogging for you all lately (does anyone still read me?)

but i have been very very very busy with creating crocheted bunting, and have just delivered a very very lovely version to my good friend james wallis for his local fete that he organises - it was just going to be yarnbombed anyway, so i hope they raise alot of money on the raffle.

also been working on my skull and cross bones jolly roger multi coloured big oversized yoga/bellydance costume bag that i need to have finished for september when i next go to brighton to train with hilde - and vagabond princess!

and continuing with my freeform projects - the all black has had some barnacle looking bits added to it last night, and the all pastel ff has been growing alot too - and the more i work on it the less i hate it...

and i've been teaching my work colleague to crochet - she's so impressed with how well she is doing, so next wednesday us bitches are going to be making stitches and iknit. so who else will be there??? it'll be my first night back since i had such a horrid time. hopefully being there with my colleague will shield be from the backstabbing and bitchiness...

who is going to iknit wednesday night???

so i found out for sure my friend nicole of blink is having a boy, and finished a project in time to take to her lovely baby shower, it was at a really nice pub that i'd love to go to again - except i can't walk there, so in reality will probably never go again. i took a photo of what i made, but the photos aren't very good so i'll wait til the mom sends me another before displaying here...but at least i finally found a use for some of those skully squares i made awhile back!

now i'm back to finishing up my mom's shrug, but really need another project i can carry around with me...hmmm. because i really really need something to bring with me tomorrow night to keep me occupied while waiting to meet my dead ex husband's birth mother. yup, she tracked me down about six months ago - and it's horridly upsetting that it was about a year after he passed.

she's in london this week for a wedding so i'm going to meet her down the southbank - then at least i'll be close to iknit if i need a bit of moral support afterwards. it's a strange place to be in as we were already separated when he died, but i still wish so much that he was still around just to see how my daughter ravenisis gets even more amazing - especially to hear her sing the blues. he'd be so proud of her too...

...so yea, a strange place.

just spent hours trying to find old photos for his mom and maybe only found twenty that aren't packed away so deep they need a miner's lamp to find. i'm going to try to find a little photo album to put them in tomorrow, something to make them a bit more special than a brown envelope.

so who wants to buy me a beer this time tomorrow night?

finished...for now!

finished sorting my black dreadlock scarf.
now what?
am still looking for dark charcoal to pull together all the skully squares, and some bright bright pink to finish off the aum piece of work.

so in the meantime i guess i could start on the heart shaped box!
(and now i want to crochet a uterus as well)

this is a cute idea too: http://kelguen.livejournal.com/857.html

thinking...

i'm thinking of making hearts for a valentine's yarnbomb...
really love this cute pattern i found online at bella dia - what do you all think?
because i need something to work on until i score a bunch of dark charcoal DK to finish off my skull and crossbones afghan as i've finally finished squaring off all the pieces and making them the same size...they are ready to join up!

bloody xmas

finally feeling a bit better...still really burning up with fever from the abcess on my rib, but i can move around a bit more! the doclady bandaged it up for me last night and told me to leave it, but i'd already bled through within 3 hours. luckily for me, she trusts me to take care of it myself because of all the body modification that i've done to myself in the past...just wish i could get an immune system so i can do more!!!

until then i'll have to satisfy myself with crocheting designs instead...
finished the jolly roger hot water bottle cozy for the new lil bro-in-law and have started on a nice aum version for my blondeboy. using nice bright blue and a deep fuschia with a bit of varigated thrown in. will be nice for him to take when he is off working away. altho hopefully he'll be getting some london jobs when cardiff finishes as i really really want him here at home to cuddle.

ok - now back to the christmas crochet.
have decided instead of crocheted sushi for the pink tree that i'm going to make black snowflakes for it this year...which means no matter how threadbare the poor thing is getting its going to have to last a couple more seasons!!!

fuck love

alix was great spinning on the plinth last night!

and i've now got quite a few ohms...they are definitely the new skulls

love it to death!

finally had the time and space to lay out all my skully squares last night...thinking 77 is the magick number for this blanket. altho it looks way too pink to give to the fiance as a moving in present (who knows where or when with everything happening right now) but i guess all the reds and pinks are quite valentiney and will go well with his proper big red oxblood chesterfield chair. but just to be safe i've been crocheting deep darkish red and purple day of the day squares to add into the mix = which will leave me a few extra to use as washcloths and for a bit of graffitti.

i may try again to do a bit of bombn' on my way to work if its quiet...
or around hoxton tonight. i wonder if the knitters are meeting at juno still later on> x

PS - is anyone planning on going to this valentines crafty night at the make lounge ?
it looks quite fun and we can make anatomically correct heart pincushions!
how voodoo is that, lol

plans plans plans

this week has been quite mad!

finally got my vacation time signed off so i can go ahead and go home to california for xmas. so been busy busy planning that! want to go up the coast to sfo with the fiance as he's never been there so have been looking into nice sightseeing train rides as hard to chill out when driving, so any california craftsers around then i may drop in on you lol, x

then my daughter decides she is comin back to london for a quick tour and will be here friday! which is great except her room has been gutted and we are trying to get all the wood stripped so we can stain it all - but instead now looks like we'll be staining what we can and the rest will be a quik paint and just get whatever black carpet we can find in there by the end of the week, phew...will be nice though to have it sorted and then move into that room and do mine up when im back in january.

thinking black and white with accents of bright bright green in for mine now and the fiance is starting to warm to the idea - anything too plain tends to remind me of suburban swinger bedrooms so i want it to be very very over the top! lots of shine and mirrors and funky 70s accoutrements so it is fun! right now its very boudoir so k for me but maybe not to share once we are married!

o dear how are we going to fit a wedding in this year!
latest idea is to do it in istanbul where we got engaged, but who knows!
and i still want to take him to venice for valentines day (reminder to self - look at calendar now!)
as even though he is italian, he's from naples so never been there and i love venice - its such a fairy tale city...

so lots of planning and thinking and re-planning.
like the sitting room decor - i'd been making the skully blanket to go with a black and burgundy room but i think now avocado green may take over the colour scheme, which means the jolly todger blanket is no longer going to go with the room i am afeared!

i mentioned that i should just sew together what i've done and give to my niece manni-rosie maria donna alvarex holt (or something like that) but the fiance said NO he definitely wants it and i think he's worried if i stop now he'll never get an afghan out of me. but try stopping me! i looove making blankets - just wish the ones i like making took less than a year to do. ugh. really i should try chunky yarn and a loose stitch one day...

but its so not me to do it the easy way!

just barely back from milan...

newly tattooed and freezing to the bone!
it wasnt' that much warmer over there but i'm really feelin' it today - so off to have a nice lovely facial over at the beauty lounge in a bit...and as its just underneath my local shop 'all the fun of the fair' i shall definitely be popping into there - especially as i'm missin' the launch at iknit today.

so much to do but i need to rest before i head out.
hardly slept at all last night as was out with our tattoo artist til around 2am and then up at 4:30am for the car to the airport...but it was worth it to see the 'black keys' play in such a small venue and to score such lovely tattoos.

i now have butterflies and flowers added to my back to start filling it in, and rafrasilecs has a pretty pretty cherry blossom and tibetan flame shoulder piece...and i even snuck in enough stitch and bitch time while he was getting tattooed that i made another 4 skully squares for me afghan!

photos to come...xxx

knitclub

...the first rule of knitclub is you HAVE to talk about knitclub!

yes i finally made it down to iknit's thursday night to catch up with an old friend, make lots of new ones, and ensure my knit date finally learned how.

it was a really great, relaxing night and i am really looking forward to heading back there again!

spent the time making another skull and crossbone crocheted square for the afghan that i want to finish before the fiance moves in...we were going to use this weekend to go look at flooring and furniture/storage for the spare bedroom, but the weather forecast is looking good here in london so instead the days will probably be spent in one of the royal parks.

indoor pursuits can wait til winter...*wink*