Getting to know me...

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6.45am
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Either Narnia or Wallace and Gromit – can’t remember which!
4. What is your favourite TV show? Mmmmn, too difficult to pick one – Eastenders, CSI (Vegas), ER, Invasion and Lost
5. What did you have for breakfast? Crunchy Nut Clusters with Summer Berries
6. What is your middle name? Frances
7. What is your favourite cuisine? Chinese
8. What foods do you dislike? Mint and bananas – YUK!!!
9. Your favourite Potato chip? Pringles cream cheese and chive
10. What is your favourite CD at the moment? Keane – Hopes and Fears
11. What kind of car do you drive? Vauxhall Corsa
12. Favourite sandwich? Coronation Chicken
13. Birthday month? December
14. Favourite item of clothing? Jeans
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would You go? Indian Ocean
16. What colour is your bathroom? White and green (strictly not my bathroom, but the landlord’s)
17. Favourite season? Autumn
18. Where would you want to retire to? English countryside – to a perfect village
19. Favourite time of day? Early evening
21. Favourite sport to watch? Tennis at Wimbledon or England playing football
22. Coffee or tea? Most definitely tea
23. Favourite movie? Dirty Dancing closely followed by Pretty Woman (sad I know…)
24. Milk or dark chocolate? Milk
25. Coke or Pepsi? Coke
26. Are you a morning person or night owl? Night owl
27. What size shoe do you wear? UK 5 1/2
28. Do you have pets? Sadly not
29. Do you like it to be hot or cold? Cold
30. When you were young, what did you want be when you were grown up? Doctor in a hospital
31. Favourite Candy Bar? Cadbury’s Twirl
32. What is your best childhood memory? Too many to think of one right now
33. What are the different jobs you have had in your life? Medical writer, Assistant Editor, Data Manager, Laboratory Demonstrator, Silver Service waitress, Checkout Assistant
34. What colour is your kitchen? Cream
35. Nicknames Mone (probably meant as Moan)
36. Piercings? Ears x2 in each
37. Eye colour? Blue with central yellow ring
38. Ever been to Africa? Yes – Israel
39. Ever been toilet papering? I guess not if I don’t know what it means
40. Stick shift or automatic? Manual
41. Been in a car accident? Yes – on a family holiday to Scotland years ago
42. Croutons or bacon bits? Neither
43. Favourite day of the week? Saturday
44. Favourite restaurant? Les Deux Garcons in Horsham
45. Favourite flower? Aquilegia (Columbine)
46. Favourite ice cream flavour? Pralines and cream or strawberry
47. Glasses, contacts or none? Contacts
48. Favourite fast food restaurant? Yo Sushi!
49. What colour is your bedroom carpet? Purple unfortunately (we’re renting)
50. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Two!!
51. What colour is your hair? Dark brown with copper tones
52. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Monsoon
53. What do you do most often when you are bored? Surf or knit/sew
54. What time is your Bedtime? 11pm
55. How many tattoos do you have? None
56. Last person you went to dinner with? My lovely husband
58. What are you listening to right now? A very quiet off ice at the end of the day
59. What is your favourite colour? Bluebell blue
60. Lake, Ocean or river? River

Sock planning

Even though I'm still knitting my first sock, I've decided there will be more and I have the sock wool ready and waiting. Taking advantage of a free shipping offer from the US, I bought Fleece Artist, Cherry Tree Hill, Opal Handpainted, Cascade Fixation and Sisu glittery sock wool:


Of course I need sock patterns to make socks and I bought Sensational Knitted Socks, Vintage Socks and Folk Solks to get some inspiration. Just need lots more time now to knit them!

I also decided to knit a Fickle Fingers scarf from Interweave Knits Winter 2005 magazine. The only place I found to buy the Zitron Ethno wool was in Germany and a couple of balls of Trekking sock wool also found their way into my basket. I like the subtle tweedy effect and should be able to use these for a lace type sock without detracting from the pattern too much.

Curly Wurly Scarf

Hot off the press - I just finished this Curly Wurly scarf in time for Mother's Day. I used Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb in Watercolour and a free scarf pattern from Get Knitted. I started out using 60cm circular needles and had to switch to 80cm because the 700 stitches on the needles didn't fit! I also changed to a cable cast on because the colour changes looked much better along the edge with this method compared with the thumb cast on.

Organised chaos

This week's SBQ:
Do you have an organisational system for your patterns? If so, how do you organise them? If not, have you considered organising them?

I keep my charts in plastic box files and sort them by designer. For the miscellaneous ones I tend to organise them by theme, eg bunnies, seasons. I have small box files for smaller charts, eg Lizzie*Kate flip its. Magazines are stacked up in chronological order by title. I have a small bookcase with knitting and sewing books on the bottom shelf, magazines on the middle shelf and box files containing patterns on the top shelf.

Rhapsody in pink

I'm now the proud owner of a hat and scarf set:

I used Rowan Chunky Print in shade Rhapsody to knit a moss stitch hat and a chunky rib scarf. Both patterns were from 'hats gloves scarves' by Louisa Harding. The hat was a little taller than I expected and I adjusted the seam position to take out some of its coneheadedness. I have to wear the brim turned over to be able to see though! The scarf is seriously long at 2m - it could double as a draft excluder if necessary. It was a relief to knit something fast and simple as a change from the lace pattern scarf and I really like the colours together.

My next project is going to be the Daisy scarf from Rowan magazine 38. My brother bought me the wool for Christmas and I'm using the same Kid Classic in Battle as the scarf shown in the magazine. The 'cluster 5' pattern seems to be quite challenging, so I have done my homework and found some additional intructions before starting. Just need to finish off my Leisel scarf - only a couple of pattern repeats to go now!

Stitching magazines

This week's Stitching Blogger's Question:

What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them? What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?

I've had a subscription to New Stitches for about 3 years. I like this one because it has in-depth articles and a techniques masterclass. Plus it covers a mixture of stitching types, such as blackwork and speciality stitches. I haven't stitched many designs from it, but the designs are classic and won't date too much. My main dislike is that the designs use Anchor rather than DMC. As a consequence I've ordered the kits to save me having to buy Anchor threads I won't use for anything else.

I recently started reading Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly. I enjoy reading the articles in this magazine and find it interesting to see the photographs of the antique embroidery. Until December 2005 I had a subscription to World of Cross Stitching. I cancelled this because many of the designs seemed repetitive and not to my taste. I didn't like the style of the main designers they were using.

My perfect publication would include a mix of stitching types eg, cross-stitch, blackwork, speciality stitches, with interesting and informative features. It would also contain designs from designers I like eg, Just Nan, Mirabilia, Little House Needleworks etc.

Just what I've been waiting for...

A new knitting group has just started up near where I live and I went to their second meeting last night. I had a great time and met some lovely people. We're going to meet every month and I'm looking forward to the next meeting. There were 7 of us and we met at a country house hotel where we had a room to ourselves with comfy chairs and sofas. It was great to chat with other knitters about knitty stuff!