have your cake and don't eat it.

now i've got a pile of granny squares just waiting to be shipped out, i thought i'd go back to working on the cupcake scarf i started when the amazing twinkie chan was in town...i need something easier to carry round as i'm off on a gypsy dance weekend with hilde over easter! i'm on a super hardcore diet right now, so will be nice to be travelling on a day that chocolate is supposed to be consumed...

...although it's going to hard to avoid the wine!

military precision

so i have kept on making the granny squares, but used up so much of the stash that my colourways are getting narrower and narrower to the point that i'm not that happy with them. why o why are yarn stores not open til at least 22:00 ???
(that's 10pm for all of you that have never been in the military...)

actually, there is drink-shop-do over on caledonia road that might still be open. hmmm. *ponders while surfing their site AND updating my blog at the same time* it's not that far away...but i'll be over that way in the morning anyway as i want to be the first in line at jolie rouge tattoo shop for the sunday service for japan. each tatoo artist has designed a sheet of japanese inspired flash, and will be tattooing designs off of it with all proceeds going to the relief efforts.

now off to have a lovely lavender bath...

sleep is so not for the week!

well hello thursday...

i crammed so so much into my birthday weekend that it just pretty much has not stopped and is about to become a week long celebration. but yesterday i did manage to create some granny squares for the crochet a rainbow blanket project - finally. made the one square (above) while waiting for the radiator guy yesterday morning (sounds like beginning of a porn film doesn't it???) then a few more last night after my tribal belly dance class with hilde.

granny squares are a bit of a weird project to work on because they are sooo easy that you can pretty much do them in your sleep BUT they require so many balls of yarn they are not very portable...kinda the same as a my all black freeform project that is using all different types of black yarn. so i need a portable project to carry with me again...maybe i'll dive into my wip pile and see what can be resurrected!

i also need to get some little packs together as i will be helping people to hook at this lovely "university" day in june - craft day at the underground restaurant run by the lovely ms marmitelover

look at me, posting more than once a week - but i am about to burst with happiness as i got to meet up with the cutest hooker ever yesterday - the talented twinkie chan!!

it was a wonderful afternoon, hosted by the crochet girlie at atfotf - with cupcakes and crochet and making new friends. i have even wrangled the girls from her publisher to start coming along to our sitchups in the clock house on leather lane.

then i came home, and spent some time cruising on the internet - watching the aftermath of the march yesterday unfold on twitter, and looking at more ways to get involved with the relief efforts for japan. so far i have done/plan/thought about the following ways to help:

1. set up a donation link to shelter box for anyone wishing to buy me a birthday present. i'd love 100 of my internet friends and family to donate at least $10 (£6) to this charity that supplies emergency shelter - because if we did that would be $1k...

2. charting an afghan square to create a whole crocheted blanket to auction off for donation to the japanese red cross.

3. start making squares for the 'crochet a rainbow' effort to distribute blankets across the tsunami area of japan. am going to get a date in the diary soon to get my usual stitchers together to make squares one night (with beer of course kids do not worry!!!)

i'm not sure why this disaster has upset me so. maybe it is the memory of katrina and how helpless i felt while my dad's family were back south taking in tons of strangers and maxing out there credit cards to help others. yes, i do come from good stock...my family wouldn't take any help paying off their cards and instead asked people to donate to the salvation army "because they are the charity that stayed when the tv crews left".

yes, i do come from good stock. guess i better do some shit to prove it!

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?

frogged

i hate that term.

it sounds lame.

but i did it.

the hat i was making came out too big!

so i pulled it out.

and will try again witha smaller hook.

the pattern didn't have a tension square, so i'm not feeling too bad about it.

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

world aids day 2009

i took the time tonight, after working late and while waiting for my tesco man to bring 12bottles of my favourite dry cava (it was on special - 3 for £10) for xmas.nye...anyway, i took the time tonight to crochet a red ribbon. i sat there and really thought about it and wished i'd done more to support world aids day this year. i'd like to start planning a project now to culminate next december 1st, but not sure exactly what just yet. i'm thinking that maybe i could get my stitch and bitch groups to all come together for the night - each do a square, then auction off a blanket?

but would anyone want a blanket of red ribbons squares...
maybe a better idea would be to all make afghans and only use one red ribbon square per project and auction them all off. or just take on the project meself and create something all on my own.
hmmm...

i've been moved and i don't want to lose this desire to do something and create something, and earn some £££ for a good cause.

any ideas?

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

run run runaway

i'm sorry i won't be making this evening at iknit...i'm not really up for going it alone just yet and i should go home and pack anyway for my runaway punker weekend with fishwhiskers!  i've got alot to get together...my toiletries and milk thistly and prozac and codeine and vicodin and any other medication for a broken heart that i can find...and dandelion tea.  altho why bother?  i'd rather my liver exploded the life i have right now.

and i must pack ALOT of crochet...fishie is another crochet fiend and i don't want to run out of anything.  will work on my dalek and take some other patterns/ideas like cherry pie slices and big flowery scarves and other things...i'm still working on skully squares even though now i've no idea if it will ever be a living together present - so i've come up with an alternative plan that's been inspired by the hoxton girlies...

crochet graffiti...so if you see little bright skulls and crossbones sewn to street furniture you know that i'm definitely single (which means also drunk and pain-dulled).

but still not a bad idea is it?

o and i also need to try to haul fish's gear she when she was here for pirate halloween...so probably won't be taking any sort of laptop  -  unless i buy that little small samsung that i've been lusting after since before xmas!

just barely home...

at least its in time for 24 - even though i'm sky plussing it anyway as thought i'd make it to cafe stitch tonight...but no.

so must must must must must make it to hoxton knitters tomoro night. although i reckon i'm now just making superfluous skully squares.

i REALLY have to find another pub project asap.

shoes boos and tattoos

last night so far has been my best most favourite stitch and bitch ever!

well...besides the iknit sunday knitroast at the pub in soho but it only loses marks as its freezing in there...but i finally went along to prague bar and it was so nice to be around alot of women that i just immediately felt comfortable with! that's not say i don't cherish the others i've met up with elsewhere - especially my lovely celia in anaheim.

so i was sitting there with everyone in the window of prague bar in shoreditch crocheting another skully square (more below) and my lovely friend fanny minka saw me and popped in!  fanny is the one i'm going to leave alll my shoes to when i die as we are exactly the same size and she looks so good in them...i just wish i was as thin as her and with the same sense of style!

squares:

i must have enough to finish off the blanket now for rafrasiles!

but whatever will i take along for my pub crocheting when this is done?

all i can think of is to maybe make a lovely sampler afghan of crochet stitches as there are sooo many lovely stitches out there that i want to try and may never incorporate into a project otherwise.  i also want to experiment more with texture and doing embossed type alpahabets (thanks to ppl on ravelry for patterns!) to do some crocheted thank you cards.

and reminder to self:

collect plastic carrier bags from everyone at work for recycled crochet projects!

i think i want to make some bowls for the office/x

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

easy like sunday morning...

went to sunday knitroast today and had a nice chilled relaxed time with the iknit crew...
ate lovely and VERY nutty nutroast and managed to finish off 3 more jolly roger squares for the skull and crossbones afghan. the fiance rafrasilecs managed to create a very phallic purple thing while freestyling his crochet...have a feeling that might get unravelled soon! made some lovely new friends that i hope to bump into really soon again (xmas party anyone?)

so home now, cuddled up on the sofa and about to make a pink o pink square for the blanket while planning in my head what yarn to pack to take with me to milan this week!