Sighs and Cheers

It has been one of those nights. I was ready for a quiet night with my two knitting projects, sat down and I've had one minor mishap after another. My Norwegian Woods, which you can see to your left, started to go seriously wonky. If you follow the pattern link, look at the top part. See how the lace "branches off" to alternating sides? My lace didn't alternate sides and I didn't realise it until I had done a full 20-something repeat because I was very silly. No lifelines, of course, so I'll be tinkering/unknitting tomorrow (and possibly during the weekend too). Then I tried on my top-down sweater and stitches came undone and I'll have to play "catch them live stitches!" tomorrow as well.

One of those days..

..

.. except I just checked my email and was bowled over when I realised that T. (a good internet friend of mine) has bought a plane ticket from dark and gloomy Scandinavia, so she can help me celebrate my birthday next month! We've never met, so it's extra super-exciting and brilliant.

Happiness Is A Warm Neck

One finished object to show off! I'm very, very happy with this one, actually. Finally getting my clammy hands all over a hank of Noro Cashmere Island, I managed to whip up this cowl in two evenings. I used a simple feather and fan stitch, found some perfect vintage buttons in my stash and .. it was done!

It feels divine, it's wonderfully warm and it matches my green coat (as much as the multi-coloured Noro yarn ever matches anything). Woo!

Next up: a pair of mittens.

PS. People have asked which secondhand shops I peruse here in Glasgow. "Relics" down Ruthven Lane is the Daddy-O off all secondhand shops anywhere (I scored two vintage silk scarves there yesterday, for example, but they rarely do clothing). I also like the shops along Dumbarton Road - the further out you get, the better stuff you find. As with all secondhand shops, you need to visit regularly to find good stuff.

Joss Whedon Is Crafty

It's an age-old war. Like the werewolves and the vampires. I think Underworld was actually originally about crocheters and knitters but they thought it would be too controversial so they changed it to vampires and werewolves.

Buffy, Firefly, Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog and Angel-creator, Joss Whedon opens up about his crafty side.

As a huge Firefly geek, it's particularly thrilling to hear Joss Whedon explaining Jayne Cobb's hat .. but the entire interview is awesome..

Like I'm saying, the sort of people who understand the DIY mentality are more about the doing than the having. So I think that ultimately, my advice is what my advice always is: Make stuff. You know. Right now, because of digital technology, you can make crafty little movies, you can make crafty little things that go up for millions of people to see. You can sort of combine the two ethos-ethoses-ethosees... And grab a video camera, tell a story. Be stupid, be something, just ... It is no longer the time of sitting around and thinking about doing something. If you're going to do that, you can, you know, crochet, and you're already doing it.

.. yes, awesome. Joss Whedon is awesome. Yes.

Folding Stars

And the new stars will go straight into a certain little box.

Danes love doing these paper stars for Christmas. You can find a tutorial on how to fold the stars here. I will doing some Danish woven Christmas hearts later this month as well.

Thank-you for your well-wishes. My left arm is not doing well and I'm thinking of getting it X-rayed if it continues being this painful. And thank you to David who helped typing the last entry (and who has hovered over me tonight).

Vintage Buttons

Sometimes you get lucky. Before David's birthday dinner, we went walking around Glasgow's West End and eventually dipped into our favourite second-hand shop.

Dave spotted a tin filled with old buttons and asked the owner how much they'd be. "Oh, I have plenty more.. haven't really looked through 'em. So many, you know. Was going to throw most of them out," the owner said, in his characteristically abrupt way. And a few seconds later he emerged with three more tins and a big shopping bag.

You know what happened next.

At first I reckoned I had scored maybe 200 vintage buttons but I was way off the mark. I have tentatively sorted maybe half of the buttons (the big 'uns first!) into three boxes. The large plastic bag remains uncharted territory. You can see some of the already-paired-up buttons in the picture on the left. Judging from the style and a few Canadian(!) coins I found, the button collection appears to have been amassed between mid-1930s to late 1970s: a few buttons have a distinct late Art Deco feel to them, some are definitely made from Bakelite and some are still on the original cardboard.

An early Christmas gift from me to me. How much? You wouldn't believe me..

Notebook

I have ideas.

PS. I have also had the great pleasure of being referred to as a "filthy-minded dog" by the good Mr Stephen Fry on Twitter. It's an honour, sir.