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?

thanks for the weekend!

BIGGEST warmest loveliest thanks to ms marmite lover for the fun weekend at her underground farmer's market. Juicy Lucy and I spend an entire weekend in bed together wrapped up warm while the rest of the market had to battle with the elements. And that we had a bar set up on the ironing board was just a bonus. And on Sunday with had the lovely Jo and Amelie from Rubyshoes Rocks Bunting on the bed with us learning to crochet...so basically my usual weekend just with more interesting alcohol and more hookers!

Here's a link to a video of the weekend.

A London Plinth write up.

Oh! and PIE, not just any PIE, but the bestest american PIE, by Miss American Pie...who has pie crust to die for and makes something called a 'thing' that just drips with eagle brand milk and coconut.  This on top of Paul A Young continually plying me with brownies in hopes I'll make more brown and purple bunting for his shops - definitely means that I went over my usual calorie count for the day...but can I say that thanks to all the reprogramming I've done to my brain with the Beck CBT method I was still fully in control and enjoying every last morsel.

Still will be interesting to see my weight at fat rehab this Thursday night!

Oh, and as this weekend was such fun it has inspired me to do more of the crafty markety thingies, and maybe to organize my own as well...so watch this space!

AND ONE MORE THING

I'm doing crocheted mustaches for movember...they are a minimum £10 each or 6 for £50 and all the money will go to charity - so please buy buy buy! Email me to place an order, thanks.

don't forget! underground food rave this weekend!

yes, my poor little blog has been sooo neglected! and i'm so so sorry to the few of you that still pay me any mind...but i've been busy hooking things to sell to your good selves that are attending ms marmite lover's underground food rave this weekend.

i am also putting together some learning materials for those lucky enough to join me and juicy lucy in bed to learn to crochet! but for those of you intent on coming, i need to remind you of the RULES...same same as any other awesome underground rave...you GOTTA BUY YOUR TIX IN ADVANCE to get the address...and i swear on my bag of antique hooks that it's not in some field off the M25 (shhh...kilburn)

so to make it easy for my little lovelies click the date to reserve your space now!
Friday starts at 18:00
Saturday starts at midday

well that's my service announcement
its going to be such an awesome event that you'll be a smelly dogshit covered fool to miss it!

enough. from. me.
i've had really bad stomach flu so i better get my ass offline and back to blocking out some crocheted skulls to tempt all ya'll to part with some big fat british pounds...but make sure you bring extra! because my friends  paul a young will be there with their chocolates too!

#henparty

so my london geeky girls are kidnapping me this weekend for a bit of a post-wedding paarty - so watch out margate! and this time not just because of the yarn bombs i will be leavin' behind, but you will have an extra 15 uber-smart ladies drunk on champagne and cake and tea wondering your seaside attractions this weekend.

i am so touched - really touched - that the girls have gone to such trouble for me. it's amazing. still, it's also really hard to get myself together and let go this morning. my daughter is back in the fucking tabloid papers through no fault of her own! and also maybe also because i'm just a bit embarrassed that my latest crochet project isn't high-brow enough for the ladies...

...a neck warmer of bright purple acrylic.

you see, as well as being my geek sisters, we also have our own stitchup group called stitch and fish as a spin-off of our digi industry mailing list:

haddock

. this mailing list is awesom - it's basically ravelry for a group of 69 or so friends to talk and share everything all day everyday for the last 15 years. whoever thought a list created to book baby foot games with wired magazine journos would spawn such amazing friendships.

this weekend - i feel very very lucky indeed.

remember remember every november!

so last weekend was my family, this weekend his family...
just got back from bristol, where strangely enough i didnt actually do any yarnbombin' but i did notice that all my crochetti i left six weeks ago are now gone. not sure if that is good or bad as not sure anyone saw them.

anyway - spent alot of this weekend working on my mom's shrug.
it's just like the one i made for my sis in law, but sis' is black and i worked in front loops on a J, while my mom's is grey and worked in back loops on a K...next will be mine and i know i'm going to workit on an ecven larger hook so its even more loose and floaty for more easy layering!

o and the hooks i'm using are fuckin' divine.
mom got me a set of ebony hooks as an eary xmas gift!

and here is my new netbook cozy!

another weekend - another post

so i've been thinking ALOT about how to keep a project list handy.
this is because i'm heading back home soon to anaheim for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary (how awesome are they) and a visit with the lovely 'all things string' stitchers that hang out at a local starbucks...and to buy lots and lots of yarn that i can't easily get here in central london - as much as i love sock yarn, its not the only thing i want to buy, really.

this means i need a system - a mobile system that is easy - just a list of projects i want to make and the yarn/supplies needed and i'd love it if i could easily share it with you all here on my blog...easy enough ja? nein.

right now i've got options but they all kinda suck...

option 1 - ravelry queue
is ugly
cannot be viewed outside rav
i don't own a printer

option 2 - listography
looks awesome
cannot be viewed offsite
i don't own a printer

option 3 - craft notebook
old schoool
cannot me shared on my blog
fits in handbag

option 4 - build something
but why? surely it exists - there is enough shit out there already!

ugh...so what do you all use to keep track of projects you want to make?
help me!

i'm off to crochet together more 'om' squares while i ponder.

holiday time

well tis a bank holiday weekend and it's been all work work work and no play play play or even hook hook hook...am so looking forward to just getting on the beach in ibiza and crocheting and tanning for hours and hours!

well...its finally out!

and hopefully we can move on from all the horrid family stress it has been causing.

here's my daughter's side of the story in the news of the world this morning.

it's bad enough to find out your partner is cheating, but to have it spread all over the global press has been horrid for my daughter. i'm so glad that she finally found the strength to end it all and speak out. very very brave of her.

looking forward to life getting a bit more back to normal, whatever that is!

and my weekend of quiet crafting?
not happened.

yet.

but i still have tonight!!!

ooo...daddy!

happy father's day out there to all the daddies!
it's been a strange weekend around here as my mister has been away working...
so i've had alot of time for training and practising - hard gym session yesterday then yoga yoga yoga today - now i've started tribal, i need as much yoga in my life as possible...the rest of the time i've spend working on a lovely crocheted hip scarf out fo the gedifra amara shiny shiny chocolate yarn. i love this yarn - it is totally my favourite, but i really really wish that i'd bought beads with much bigger holes...reckon i'm giving up on these and will just get on with hand fringing.

which is not any easier as i'm healing my new crochet tattoo!!!!
damien voodoo did such an awesome job, it is definitely the best illustration of a crochet hook i have ever seen - i'm so happy that held out and had him do it for me. i'm back to see him in a couple weeks to start planning the rest of the tattoo - based on the crocheted yarn bombing flowers that i make and leave everywhere...like a yarny gretel, lol!

mayday! mayday!

so as the weather is sooo shit in london this weekend, and i was stuck in waiting for my oldest friend to turn up from back home, i finally got stuck into the doris chan book n started a project from it! n i am so oo glad that i did, as it's been extra warm and cozy to be playing with mohair on such a rotten day...it is so cold here that we actually wished we had gloves when we were out shopping and pubbing today!

and what's really great is even though i started it this evening when we got back from the pub, i am pretty much halfway finished and it's only just got 1am...if it was light enough in our bedroom i'd be working on it now - i had to vacate the sitting room as the old friend gets the big over-stuffed goosedown sofa for her few hours snooxe...she has an early flight so i reckon i'll be awake again in a few hours - that's if i get to sleep at all. i'm starting to get back to my old insomniac self.

which is oky - as it means more time for crochet!

dead men do crochet!

okay i have been a bit slack with my crochet this weekend, but it's my birthday and i've just been plum tuckered out! tattooing always really takes it out of my body and wipes me out and makes me sleepy...but not too sleepy to love any new crochet invention/april fool joke!

seriously though - this guy's work is amaxing and i love the story of the crochet hooks he creates, i would love to bid on the hooks currently on his auction, but with not knowing a bout jobs and stuff it is probably best if i keep my ££££ on lockdown for now...and maybe one day when i'm passing through on my way back home i can actually see this famous deadman creek.

(i really hope that doesnt make me sound like a stalker!)

black christmas

i can't believe how difficult it is just to buy regular old black crochet cotton in central london. i ended up having to pay £5 a ball for the 'silky' stuff at john lewis and i/m hoping that it will workup into some lovely black snowflakes to put on our bright pink xmas tree!

and a big word of warning to anyone who goes shopping down oxford street - their credit card system has been fucked since last weekend, so take cash...

up up and away

i am going away and i've not packed any crochet - at all.

i'm not travelling as light as the other weekend as wanted to bring the white boots that i bought last time i was there...and i need my 50s style one piece bathing suit for the sauna!

so this is strange.

but i did add more human hair fringe to my scarf last night!

out of towner

my life is such a rush now - even more so than it was before. and i was bad THEN. now tis worse - but i'm loving being out of london and out of the house every other weekend. especially as it means hanging out in bristol's yarn shop...and in a fancy bed made of jungle vines. it also means less time for hooking, and making sure i have little mobile project that don't take up much room as i like travelling light!

which means unless the weather really turns this weekend, i won't be taking the new yummy black silk and alpaca and human hair scarf i've been working on...damn it's beautiful - i cn't wait to get it photographed properly to show you all. i've used my old hair as the black human hair fringes and it is lush...i even worked on it a bit more when i got home from movida last night, and i can't wait until there is time to make more more more. in the meantime i'll be carrying around and continuing to make bright coloured aums.

while drinking cider on boats.

yarn.

well i finally did it.

i made it to cafe stitch at the wellcome institute today!
and i loved loved loved it.

there was a really nice group of women there and lovely apricot crumble and gree tea.
yum.

i dint take much yarn with me as i knew i was going to have to run off to the gym, but am thinking of moving my usual saturday training sessions to either earlier or later so i have lots of time to hang out as no one seems to show up til around noon. not that it matters, it's the type of place i might even go sit alone and have cake - and we all know how much i HATE to do anything alone.

in fact, this weekend has really been my first solo weekend in london for a long long long time.
i did get a bootie call around midnight - but i declined so its now tea at claridges with a lovely rockabilly man...think this one will just be a friend though as i'm still not sure what to do with the scandotoy and am still currently really hating my ex assface fiance....

and its 3:36 in the morning and i'm wide awake!

another weekend with hookrs

friday night with the joroach was lovely - she had the best dirty martini birthday drinks ever at the charlotte street hotel and her and i and the ravenisis all showed up with our bright coloured acrylic crochet...then we all spent saturday yarnbombing the tunnel down waterloo...photos to follow when i can get them from camera to lappie!

o what a weekend!

that was surreal for sure...

started out friday quite drunk on red wine as all the directors were out of the office...what is funny is even though we are supposed to finish at 4pm on a friday we all still hung out drinking and playing pool and talking shop til i had to catch my train. the fiance was there too - his job thing is bad (but i think its for the best) and he's officially out lookng now - so if anyone has any digi-wigi-doo-dah head of production type jobs please let us know!

as he was there and as well as losing his job his house was also broken into the same day, we had NOther bottle of wine, and i'd had some codeines for my neck so was quite wiped out by the time i got my train to bristol to stay with fishwhiskers...still i managed to make more skully squares on the ride, but in the end we didn't manage to yarnbomb bristol at all...guess i'll have to go back in the spring to string up my skully graffitty all over like little fresh blooms.

but that seems a long long way away. i reckon i got the last train into london last night! the streets of london were so pretty and snowy. my daughter and i had a nice drink then at midnight decided we needed nibbles so went out to yarnbomb and buy chocolate and chilli crisps (still my fave!) but instead ended up building snowmen with strangers. sooo fun!

snow though meant that pretty much all transport was down all day in london, so my office was closed...been working from home which means i'm home at a decent time to settle in and continue all my finishing of bits and body parts i crocheted this weekend...i managed to make:

• a purple dalek
• 2 slices of pie
  
• 2 corkkscrew scarves
• another little pile of skully squares

i dont think i've forgotten anything...so off to stitch and stuff the night away!