Photography weekend

Hello,

Last weekend we drove to the Brecon Beacons in South Wales for a photography course that we booked ages ago. The weather was not great, but hey we were there to learn how to use my brand new camera..No knitting or progress with any of my projects, but a real chill out weekend en amoureux...

Here are some of the pictures...

The Gospel Way

The Brecon Beacons and playing with camera brightness settings

Playing with the shutter speed settings

The cat and the postbox

Llanthony

It feels like Christmas!

Hello,

I am back for one night to London between business trips to the Netherlands and France. And, at the door, a lot of things were waiting for moi!! It made coming back to the flat on my own much easier (M still in the Netherlands)!

Waiting for me were: the pouch made especially for me by Pilli Pilli (http://abitofpillipilli.blogspot.com) - SO lovely, the crocheted jam jar cover made by Simone (over a mug with no handle, http://simone-lindengrove.blogspot.com) - love the coulours, buttons for the blue cushion, some stitch markers, lace and woven trims for future projects (OK I could not resist and I am not sure what I am going to use them for yet)... I am officially in love with TextileGarden online shop (http://www.textilegarden.com). If you are looking for quirky buttons, do check it out!



Anyway taxi is taking me to the Eurostar terminal tomorrow at 5.30 am, so better get ready!

March projects, a lot of lace

Hello!!

I have not finished any of my ongoing projects :( ... but made quite good progress with some, and I thought it deserved a post - if nothing else to make sure I finish them.


I have been working on a lace crochet pattern which will probably go to my Mamy. It is Grandma's day in France on Sunday, so she will get it either by post (soon but not on Sunday) or when I am next home - so April. Seems a bit late.. Oh well, I am sure she will love it!




So I need to add the pineapples one by one. I have done two actually, unlike the picture shows... So I am getting there. And then I will try the picot-edging round.





I am using a 2mm crochet hook, with Anchor Artiste BABY SOFT Crochet Cotton BEIGE. This a free pattern from Coats and Clark, a lot of raveler have done it, so worth checking it out. You will have noticed that my first round is not exactly small... I would have done that differently (as in reduce the number of chains). Anyway I hope to post the finished project soon.


My other project is a knitted one - the Anice Shawl by Sharon Miller - , and one that I fell in love with straight away. It took me hours to find the pattern, as it was in one of the Rowan's Magazine (41) that is not in circulation anymore. Anyway Rowan used the pattern again in its Greatest Knits that I received the book a week and a half ago... I looked at the pattern, and honestly I got so confused I thought I would never be able to do it. To be fair, I was warned by other ravelers who were talking about yrn, yfwd, yrnd, yon... All these terms apparently mean the same thing but the pattern differentiates them. I spent a whole Sunday afternoon on You Tube trying to get it, and I could not... I asked Catherine (Hirst) to help me out, and guess what she did and got me started. Although her first reaction was when she saw the first row (R1 (RS): P1, yrn, P1, yon, K2tog tbl, yfwd, k2tog tbl, P2, K2tog, yfwd, K1 (12sts)), 'What do I think? I think it looks like a nightmare. :)'...

I have not managed to upload the pictures yet, but I am getting there. Well I finished the border and I am on row 10 of ... 600, easy!
I have 'a deadline' for this one though - I want it for the wedding (civil ceremony not the Church one) at the end of May...

Should be easy to fit the projects around, moving M back to England (from the Netherlands), finding a new house in North London and of course selling the flat in Greenwich... Easy Peasy!