Filmknitter

Mittens and movies

Here's the latest on the knitting: I am currently making a pair of 'Solar Mitts' from the Rowan RYC Accessories book.  I'm amending the pattern slightly as I have too many fingerless gloves so my version will have a complete thumb and then a little flip-top to stop my fingers getting too chilly.  So I finished the first one a couple of weeks ago, here it is minus the flippy top, which I haven't quite worked out yet.

Then I started the second one but had to postpone it whilst I worked on another, more urgent project.  So last night I finally got going on it again, I sat down in front of Sense & Sensibility and knitted up from the cabling, finished the thumb and was about to move on when I realised the horrible truth:  I had just knitted another right-hand mitten! Nooooo!  I was so annoyed, I had to rip it back to the cabling again and by that time it was 11.00 and I was ready for my bed so this mitten is now right back to where it was when I started, angh!  Fortunately the weather is just drizzly at the moment and not really cold enough for gloves so the lost time isn't a major problem, but still.  Tonight I am going to sit down and concentrate and follow the pattern for the left-hand mitten.  This is what comes of being overconfident with mittens...

So, other than that disaster I also had a rather large success in that I made my first bag on my sewing machine.  I had soo much fun making it and it's gorgeous, I will have to take some glamour shots tonight and post them up here because I'm so pleased with it.  It's all I can do not to stop strangers in the street and say "Look, you see this, this glorious example of a bag, I made it", whilst beaming proudly.

And, while making the bag, I caught up on some films I've been meaning to watch for ages and never got round to.  The first was Howard's Way, which was on Film4 on Friday so I recorded it.  It is a long film, almost three hours, but despite this I rather enjoyed it.  It's so beautifully made and Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson are just fascinating as the two bourgeois sisters who are at the centre of the film.  It also made me wish I was living in the Edwardian era as the costumes are divine.  If I could dress just like Emma Thompson in that film I would be happy.  Give me a bustle over a miniskirt any day!

I also watched Raising Arizona, and despite not giving it my full attention (I was doing something tricky with bag handles at the time) I also liked this very much.  I tend to enjoy the Coen brothers and had been told that this one was a classic.  Even Nicholas Cage wasn't as annoying as he usually is.  It's light-hearted without being cutesy and contains a whole heap of amusing quotes, my personal favourite was "Son, you got a panty on your head" which may say something about my state of mind at the time.  But the whole script is genius and the Southern accents and dialect are a delight! 

A visual treat

After two glorious weeks of home cooking, extensive knitting time, general merriment, and various social gatherings I am back in Oxford.  While I feel a little sad to have to leave my family (and the cat), it's nice to be back and I had a rather pleasant afternoon yesterday sorting through my presents and unpacking everything.  This also means I am able to download some photos, finally.  So here, for your viewing pleasure, is some of the stuff I've been working on recently:

This is a reindeer, in case you were unsure.

This is a heart.  I made a whole bunch of felt decorations but most went to other people as presents.  I was rather pleased with how well they turned out and it reminded me how much I enjoy making things from felt, it's so much more forgiving than normal fabric!

Stripey wrist warmers, in all their glory.  This isn't the best picture as I had to get my flatmate to model them very quickly before I headed home for Christmas.  I loved knitting with this yarn though, it's Rowan Pure Wool DK and the colours are just gorgeous.  I had half a ball of each colour left over and I'm pondering making a little felted purse from them.

A very dim photo of the beginnings of some gloves for me.  I've actually got a lot further with them since I took this photo but they've been put on hold while I speed-knit a birthday scarf.  I shall post about them in more detail soon.

And here it is, my precious.  It is a Husqvarna Viking Huskystar E20.  It's very beautiful and very fancy and I still haven't used it properly.  However, I have my newly purchased Laura Ashley fabric at the ready and intend to start designing my new bag this weekend.  The machine is currently sitting in the middle of my living room in its box, looking rather huge.  I'm still not entirely sure where to put it, all the spare space in my bedroom is taken up by wool and crafty stuff so I'm going to have to find a nook in the living room.  Maybe once we take the tree down I'll find a hitherto undiscovered sewing-machine-sized space... you never know.

General update

Hurrah, I got my email this morning to say I've been accepted to Ravelry.  I've been hearing about this site for ever and I finally gave in and applied to be a tester and woohoo, they accepted me! For the unenlightened - Ravelry is kinda like knitter's Facebook with all sorts of special knitting gadgets, you have your own projects page where you can update your works in progress, you can post up your own patters and look at patterns other people have posted, you can search for any yarn and see what people say about it and what they've been knitting with it.  I haven't had chance to ecplore it fully yet but it looks tremendously exciting and I can't wait to update my page.  For any knitters out there who are on Ravelry my username is Filmknitter (of course), there's nothing to see at the moment but I shall be busily updating as soon as I get back to Oxford next week.

I've also tested out my stripy wristwarmers on my bike and they work a treat, I had lovely cosy wrists on my cycle into work last week.  I was planning to upload a picture on here today and then realised although I have brought my camera, power cable, software etc I completely forgot the USB cable so I can't actually upload anything from here (my parent's house), grr.  I'm so annoyed with myself!  Ah well, it's good to be home anyway.  Although I've been struck down with the Cold from Hell since I got back and today's the first day I've had the energy even to blog.  I'm still coughing up a lung any time I do anything vaguely energetic. 

This also means that I still haven't been to the cinema.  However I plan to see Enchanted this week with my mother, and also St Trinians.  I probably won't be blogging until I get back now so Merry Christmas to everyone and all the best for the New Year!