Caturday II

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I had enough interest in my inaugural Caturday post last week to encourage me to add a Mr Linky!

The plan is simple, every Caturday (Saturday) I will show off a picture of The Kitten, and maybe some other random felis catus stuff I encounter (Suggestions most welcome in this respect).  Then I will invite you to show off your furbaby by adding a link to a recent post!  It would be great if you post on Saturdays too, but I'm not going to get my knickers in a bunch if you link to something else. 

Today's photo(s):  The Kitten is lounging around in the sun on a mat in my bedroom.  The Kitten loves mats.  She hates tiles.  She will either sit on the edge of the carpet, or trot briskly to the bathroom mat where she will proceed to roll around, look at you upside down and stretch.  She will also grab the mat with her claws and move it around so its a veritable shmozzle when next I enter the room of bathing.  

The Kitten at her best.

Today's topic:  puking. 

The Kitten does her fair share of puking.  One of her favourite places to puke is one of these aforementioned mats (there see, my ramblings had a reason!).  I would love one day to make this lovely needlework pattern on a cushion. 

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Bonus: fortuitously, one of this week's cat vs humans comics was on topic!
 

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Is your kittty a puker? 

Please add your kitty related link below!

FO: Dahlia the third and pins

I completed my THIRD Dahlia and gave it to its most deserving recipient, my Crochet Biatch, R.  Only one week late for her birthday.  I think she liked it!  She peeled off her scarf and two cardigans she was wearing to keep herself warm from the chilly office aircon.  Even though this is not a shawl for warmth, more for decoration!!

Here are some before and after pictures.  I just love the transformation from bunched up to lacey and drapey that blocking does to this shawl.    


Including the obligatory 'photo including feet' which is just so fashionable in blog land.

  Oh, you'd like some stats?

Pattern:  Dahlia Shawl (duh)
Measurements: Blcoked to the recommended 70" x 35"
Yarn:  Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 2ply cone.  Great yarn, I will be using more of this.  Just so economical and wonderful results!  It turned our really lovely and soft.  I only used 140g of the 200g cone.

And finally, modelled by the lovely Crochet Biatch R herself!!

Blocking is great isn't it?  Although this blocking this shawl is always a pinning marathon.  I used 226 pins for this sucker!  (Yes, I have a thing with counting...)  On top of that, I couldn't find my tin of pins, you know the one, with the pictures of pins on the tin?  So I had to go to TWO different supermarkets to find some more.  Seriously, first world problems. 

And to make matters worse one of the heads of the pins fell off while I was madly pinning and I it stabbed me! And I had a couple of anomolies.  Meet Blunt Pin and Two Head Pin.  I was trying to use Blunt Pin and getting increasingly frustrated until I actually looked at it and realised it was blunt.  Gah!

Yes, I really did take close up pictures of pins.  I thought you'd be interested. 

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So, with number three finished I am putting my foot down and instituting a "No moar dahlias" rule! Onward and upward to different things!!

Maybe just one more..

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Go to Tami's Amis for more lurvely FOs.  Now!

Also linking with Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia :D

WIP(s). Taking Stock

Holey Moley I have a lot of WIPs.  A LOT.  I think I lamented this fact a while back, but again, the amount of little project bags dotting my living space has made me feel anxious.

So today I wanted to air them out, and hopefully full disclosure will set my mind at ease!   I warn you that you might actually be bored to tears by this, and I'm sure a lot of you will be all 'TL;DR' but whatevs!  This is mah blog and I'll do what ah wahnt!!

Imma start with the newbies.

1.  Blissful Flowers Shawl.  Making this for my crochet biatch, Ang for her birthday in May.  Her choice of pattern and colour (the colour is very difficult to photograph, its a lot nicer in real life).  Such a clever construction!  A way to make a billion motifs without having to cut the yarn!  Genious!  I am enjoying the challenge of a new pattern.  The pattern is from Kristin Omdahl's  Seamless Crochet.

Brought to you by my super exclusive and very fashionable Pandora vinyl tote!

2.  Baby set.  Another first, my first time working a Japanese pattern.  At first I was like waaahhhhhhh??  I'm usually quite good with diagrams, but the back of the bonnet had me stumped.  For a day.  Then I was all, whatevs, I got skillz, Imma do this!  And I did.  

Brought to you by my awesome Dark Days Down Under tour tote I picked up at the book signing!

3.  Neat Ripple Scarf.  Just grabbed a left over skein of King Cole to try this Lucy pattern out. I'm planning a ripple blanket (pfft after I get through my current WIPs) and seeing which ripples turn me on.  Though I love Lucy, this pattern just wasn't pressing my buttons, so I think i will opt for the ripplier Ripples of Happiness.  Happiness > Neatness anyway, right?

Bow down before my blurry photography prowess!!

4. Amigurumi BTTF Delorean.  Seriously, no joke.  Freestylin' this for my man.  I got so excited he actually asked me to crochet him something, I thought, woooo fo' sure!  I made the bonnet and the windscreen, then run out of puff because I couldn't work out how to make a slope.  Watch this space though! 

Brought to you by my spiff Yarn Bucket!

To clarify, this is a Delorean from the Back to the Future Animated Series. Yes, there was an animated series! 

What up Marty? (via)

And some other stuffs you may have seen before.

5. Hitchhiker.  Nothing new here.  Move along.  

wait wait WAIT! I keep this project in one of my home made GRAB BAGS.  Yerr I made these myself.  Pattern here.  If I can make this, being a spaztasitc sewer, so can you!

6. Gauzy Gathers Scarf.  Haven't actually touched this is aaaagggeesss.  Such a shame because it will be such a cute scarf.  I did a few rows when I got my new bamboo needles, and the yarn likes the bamboo much more than ickle plastic, but it's so fiddly I moved onto different garterlicious knitting projects and left this one to hiberate.  Sweet dreams little scarf.

Brought to you courtesy of this lovely plastastic flower tote!

7. Stepping Stones Cardigan.  This is a FAIL, with a capital F.  I can think of other 'F' words I'd like to use in relation to this cardigan too.  It's not that bad I suppose, but just so FFfffffrustrating that I spent SO LONG on it only to discover it doesn't really fit.  I am just leaving this one alone in it's bag so it can have a think about what it has done.

Presented to you inside a lovely pink foldable flower tote!

8. Aran Toggle Wrap.  This was supposed to be a gift for mum, for her birthday in SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR.  Oh I am a terrible daughter.  Butbutbut there's only so much green mock seed stitch a girl can take! 

Shamelessly presented in a Glassons shopping bag, which is slowly growing too small for this behemoth of a project!

9. Pink Bear.  I made this during some lessons I was giving to my crochet biatches.  Crochet biatch R chose the pattern, but I don't think any of us finished it!  Mine just looks weird, like a cow's udder, so I am not feeling very enthused to keep going.

Again, courtesy of a home-made grab bag!!

10. TARDIS. Oh the TARDIS.  This is one of the first things I ever started making when I taught myself to crochet.  But then I got distracted by all the pretty pattens.  A running joke in my family is someone asking me 'so how's the Tardis going' and then me punching them in the face.  Never fear, my Tardis is going to be epic when it's finished.  I will have a wooden box made for the inside, and the top will come off as a lid and I will put things in the box! 

TARDIS lives in a shoe box.  Sowwy TARDIS.

11. Summer Garden Granny Square afghan.  Another project started early on in my crochet career, when I was dazzled by brightly coloured grannies and had no notion of the agony that is weaving in ends.  I now have a deal with my mother, She gets this as a gift if she weaves in the ends!  Fair enough right?

Kept in a rather fetching The Age shopping bag, available annually with your copy of The Age (probably the Sunday edition)

So, all my WIPs in their respective project bags lie in wait in a tub in my lounge room, next to a much lovelier looking tub filled with recently acquired yarn that will one day become a ripple blanket.  If and only if I can make some headway with my current projects.  But then again, there's no crochet police so maybe I will just start it anyways...

Linking with WIP Wednesday at Tami's Amis.. go go go!

ETA:  Linking with Ambassador Crochet too - why not!!

What time is it?

 Cake time!!

schmowzow!

My sister and I (and the rest of the internet) love Adventure Time.  She had a birthday recently, so I made this awesome cake for her!

Inspired by this one, my cake was not perfect.  The buttercream icing was not white enough (you can see the different shades of yellow on the left v right of the cake as the icing got warmer) and the cake itself was a bit undercooked!  I felt very off my game!  But my sis was suitably impressed, and that was what I was going for.  So, do you think I got the likeness right?  

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Here's a progress shot.  I made two muffins for his 'ears'.  Are you impressed?

And here are a bunch of other adventure time cakes courtesy of the internet!!

Row 1: 1, 2, 3
Row 2: 1, 2, 3

I'm linking up with Make Something Monday over at Sarahndipities because, why not!!

Caturday I

I am going to start celebrating Caturday here at My Grandmotherly Ways.  Any excuse to show off my little bundle of furry joy, The Kitten.  The plan is simple.. every Sat.. err.  CATurday, I will post a picture of The Kitten and/or other cat related internet garbage, because, as we all know...

 

The Kitten's stats:
DOB:  28 November 2009
Breed:  Burmese
Occupation:  Being cute



Oh hai.

Quite often, while I am busily squirrelling away at work, I will get a text from A with a photo along these lines:

And continuing with the feline theme, I recently acquired these and wanted to show them off :)

The French Cat by Rachael McKenna.  Amazingly gorgeous photos of kitties just doing their thang around France.  I showed this book to A, who immediately commented that 'it was nice, but The Kitten is cuter than all those cats'.  Indeed!

purrrrrr

The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett.  A Pratchett book I haven't read!  I've never seen this in shops around me, so picked it up from book depository.

Cats vs Humans by Yasmin Surovec.  I only recently discovered Yasmin's super awesome blog , so if you haven't seen it check it out!

Not my picture.  Go here please.

Would you participate in Caturday with me?  I'm tempted to add a Mister Linky but I don't want to be presumptuous!  But I would love to see your furbabies!  Let me know if you want to jump on my Caturday bandwagon :)

Naff said

I'm not fashionable, or cool.  Never have been, and I never will be.  Most might consider my taste in household goods as a bit naff.  But I wear the label proudly, because who wants to be like anyone else?

My latest naffy obsession is vegetable shaped soup tureens.   Since Christmas I have managed to acquire these two.

I know you're jealous, you can admit it. 

Do you have any of these?  Have you seen them before?  I think they are just amazing.  I nabbed the cauliflower one from the Women's Auxiliary shop down at the Hastings RSL, and the other was found in a Hastings op shop by A's mother.  The cauli is a little more detailed and refined, but the aubergine is just as charming.

I am working on expanding my collection, and hope to add at least a pumpkin and a corn tureen.  Stay tuned!

Speaking of naff, I picked this little souvenir up at David Campbell's performance last night.

Wash me up before you go go?  Oh my sides have actually split!

It's a souvenir tour tea towel!  Yes, a TEA TOWEL!!  I have never seen such merchandise ever sold at any other concert.  I had to have one.  And, most awesomely, Mr Campbell was graciously signing stuff after the show, and yes, that is his signature there.

It seems that much of Mr Campbell's audience were grannies, and then there was me.  All I have to say to that is, My Grandmotherly Ways indeed....

WIP: concerning crochet and knitting

A couple of new things to show you today.

In crochet, I am making my third Dahlia Shawl (see one and two).  This time for the birthday one of my crochet biatches (who I will tell you about another time). 

Great pattern.  I've not completely memorised it, but the bulk of it is the same, with different bits in the middle and at the ends.  I've made myself a little cheat sheet chart so I can easily refer to where I am, so I don't need to think very much.  My first time using 2ply wool, so I am looking forward to seeing this block up.

Finally found a pattern that inspired me enough to crack open the Zauberball I acquired a while back.  I do love me a bit of garter.  Gartergartergarter.  I made some good progress with this hithhiker at first, but progress has slowed when the rows got longer and other projects were beckoning.  But it's pretty eh?

If you're an avid reader of my blog (and I'm sure you are) you might remember the great CITY WATCH AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE!  The last time I checked in at Yarn Along I was onto book 3 of 8.  I've now read 7/8, and have decided to save number 8 a little while longer, seeing as I just read it a little while ago. 

Super short reviews:

• Feet of Clay  - Loved it the second time around.  I found it wasn't particularly memorable, but there were some good Vetinary and Vimes exchanges which made me laugh.
• Jingo - Very humourous (and poss topical atm) look at racism. Vimes gets his big promotion in Jingo - one of the things I love about Vimes is his utter disdain at being part of this aristocracy. 
• The Fifth Elephant - Another great story, I love it when Vimes gets caught up in politics.
• Night Watch - Quite excellent.  Vimes transported back in time to become mentor to a young version of himself.  Wonderful. Almost love this one as much as Guards Guards.  Almost.
• Thud! - So great, I especially loved Vimes' sentiment around being a father, and his evaluation of what's important.  I also read Where's My Cow.  Also love the "Gooseberry".

In between, for a little break, I read Going Postal and Making Money.  Both are really fantastic books, fast paced and very funny.  I'm becoming a bigger Vetinari fan too.  And Moist is super likeable.  I picked up the screen adaptation of Going Postal which I think is the best representation of Pratchett on screen yet.  Ankh Morpork was portrayed perfectly! 


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Although I've already read all the Discworld books, I just cant get enough of Pratchett right now, so I'm going to re-read all of them by listening to all of the Pratchett audiobooks.  I've now started the Death books.  Mort is brilliant so far (duh), really love it!  Death going fly-fishing, fiction doesn't get better than that!
So, yeah,  WIPs at Tami's Amis and Yarn Along with Ginny!

FO! Gettin' knitty with it

Well well well... it has been a while.

Blog land has taken a back seat for me of late.  As have my little crafty crafts.  I've been lacking motivation a bit, which makes me sad.  Anyway, boohoo, lets move on!

I finally got around to weaving in the ends and blocking my Different Lines.  Mind you, I got the urge to do it on a 33c degree day!  Nice one Tanya, very clever. 

And how annoying is it to weave in ends on knitting?  I did a very poor job of it, hopefully it doesn't unravel.  Methinks I have to make learn russian joins. 

Unblocked measured 102cm (BO edge) x 42cm (short edge) x 127 cm (curvy edge)
Blocked it measures 124cm (BO edge) x 52cm (short edge) x 161cm (curvy edge)


L to R: on the blocker; arty close up shot, the shape after blocking.

I used 8ply, rather than the 4ply as called for in the pattern.  Next time I'd make this as per recommended.  It came out quite small, so I stretched it to within an inch of its life to get the measurements somewhere near those stated for the finished item in the pattern. 
It's certainly a weird shape, but I did a bit of experimenting and found a way to wear it that is comfortable and seems to sit ok.  The triangle sits at the front.


Still can't bring myself to show my face here.  Ugh.

And with the serious business out of the way, here is a gratutious picture of The Kitten.  In my house, about once a day you'll here me say 'Quick, she's being cute!  Where's the camera?'


Yes, I am gorgeous

Of course, linking to Tami's Amis.