Dead Computer

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

It is with great sadness that I have to report that my computer has died again - and this time I think it's really had it. A new one is being ordered as we speak - clever brother is trying to sort it all out. You all know how useless I am on this infernal machine, so I don't know how long it will be before I get the new one all set up. I have a little man all ready lined up to come and help me, so fear not, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

It is giving me chance to knit though - Tipsy is not quite finished, but I will be wearing her later on tonight, just the sewing up left to do. Blanket number 2 is coming along (mum is helping to make the border this time) and I've managed another 'square' of Lizard Ridge.

Oh. Update here. I'm writing this post at my neighbour's house and my husband has just phoned to say that the computer is working. The broken computer. The one that has died. Drat this technology business. It's frustrating isn't it. And how typical is it that my husband, who only knows how to turn the computer on and play cards,manages to get the darn thing working. ARGHHHHH!!

What day is it?

I think it's Thursday isn't it? I get so confused at this time of year. I mean I know it's the 27th but is it Thursday? Wednesday? Tuesday? Just incase it is Tuesday and I've got it all wrong here's a picture of Tipsy for 'Tipsy Maybe Tuesday'. She is very nearly done, hoping to wear her on New Year's Eve. But there is one teeny setback. I don't have a 2.25 mm circular needle. Have got to cast on hundreds of stitches for the border and my little straight needle just won't cope. I can't believe I've got this far and am now falling at the last post! We have 1 shop in March that sells needles, so I'm really hoping they come up trumps for me...

Did you all have a good Christmas? I had a very nice time. Ate, knitted, slept. What more could a girl ask for?

Oh, has anyone else out there been to see Enchanted? I read the reviews in the paper and the critics seemed to love it. The trailers on the tv looked very funny, so we decided to go and watch it. It was rubbish. It was very nearly as rubbish as Shark Tale (our only other major cinema disaster). Do not waste your money people - we nearly walked out after 20 minutes to see if we could sneak into one of the other screens to watch something else. It was that bad. But am I wrong? Did you like it?

And last but by no means least - Happy Birthday to my Mum. She has been very poorly over Christmas (flu) but is slowly on the mend, having given all her germs to dad. According to mum, this is the very worst day for a birthday. Everyone clears up today, the sales all start, the rubbish gets sorted and we go back to the same old tv programmes. So we are all going over to cheer her up today - just what she needs to speed up the recovery don't you think? A daughter, son-in-law and 2 grandchildren who are noisy mud-magnets. But at least we're taking lunch (trifle for pudding too which always goes down a treat!)

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Over here at the Stash Basket, as we are all recovering from the inevitable pre-Christmas dose of the dreaded sickness bug, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

It has been a special year for many of my friends who now have bigger families than this time last year (hello Evie, Sammy, Trinity, Isabel and of course our very own new baby Bartholomew Archibald Bunny).

Here we have made squares, blankets, scarves, gloves, jumpers and cardigans. We have failed in our attempts to get Tipsy finished in time to wear on Christmas Day. OK, enough of the Royal 'WE'. I have failed. Miserably. There is loads left to do, but maybe sometime in the New Year you might see a finished picture. Oh ever the optimist...

So whatever you are doing this Christmas and New Year, whatever your beliefs, wherever you are, may your festive season hold nothing but happiness and fun. Let your New Year sparkle with excitement and let it be a very happy and healthy one for us all.

Thank-you for sticking with me and for joining me if you're new-comers. See you again in 2008 - if not before...

xxx

The Blanket has been won!

Drum roll please everyone - the blanket has been won by Elizabeth Durand.

Elizabeth was one of the first people to buy any raffle tickets (I know that because she has white ticket number 64, the first book I bought was white). Congratulations Elizabeth, I hope you enjoy your blanket. (In all honesty I am gutted I didn't win, all that i-cord and I'm giving it away!!!!!)

I have your address, but if you'd like to e-mail me just to confirm, it might be a good idea. I shall post it to America after Christmas. Once I've had chance to save up for the postage (why couldn't I have found one of the few UK tickets in the Big Bag Of Tickets?)

I'm having a rest from blankets for now, but at the rate Kathryn's mum is knitting, I might even have 2 blankets to raffle in the New Year. For all of us unlucky enough to not win, don't despair, undrawn tickets stay in the big bag until all prizes are used up.

And the winners are...

The winners of yesterday's mini raffle draw are:-

M Webb
Karen R
Terasa Perkins
Clara Dorsch

Tune in later to see who's won the First Blanket (if I can bear to part with it!)

More prizes

I can't wait to draw some more raffle prizes, so here are some that I'll be giving away later on tonight. First some Regia Bamboo sock yarn which I bought in the summer full of good intentions to knit a lovely pair of soft squishy socks. But I'll let one of you have it instead. Cos I'm nice like that!



Next up is some recycled sari silk donated by the ever marvelous Kerrie at Hipknits (sorry, the link thing isn't playing the game today)



.. and some beautiful thick and thin wooly stuff again from Kerrie. Sorry for the lack of technical terms here, I seem to think it's blue faced leicester, but am not entirely sure.



And last of all is a big shawl that I've made using my favourite colour of the moment. It's made with silk, cashmere, mohair, cotton and 'wool' wool.

So do you fancy winning any of these? I will probably wait until after Christmas to post them, would hate any of them to get lost in the madness of the Christmas rush, but I really want to start pulling names out of the hat! Ticket sales have gone bonkers since I posted the picture yesterday of the blanket.

Blanket Number 1

We have a border of i-cord using Posh Yarn's Emily. That's a border of 4 stitch i-cord, a whole 1,250 rows of it. A drag while it's going on, but oh so worth the finished result!



We have mitred squares (that one was mine!), lacy squares, knitted squares and crochet squares. Plain squares and stripey squares. Square squares and rectangular squares (although you'd never tell unless you turned it over).



Squares of silk, cashmere, cotton, pure new wool and alpaca (and one or two 'man-made-fibres'). Lace-weight, sock-weight, double knit and even - dare I say this - dishcloth cotton!!!




And here it is in all its glory. Blanket number 1 is now complete and ready to be raffled off. I shall pull the name out of the bag on Wednesday to give you chance to buy another ticket, but until then, I might just see if I can find another few prizes to tempt you. Thank-you so much to you all for helping in this. I love this blanket and will be very sorry to see it go.

New Kitchen

So here it is - what do you think? This top picture is taken from the back door looking towards the oven, fridge (cleverly disguised as a cupboard) and breakfast bar. The bottom one is taken from the dining room door looking towards the microwave and my fantastic gas hob and extractor fan.



My mum and dad have been over today helping do some finishing touches - Dad has decorated and mum has done all my ironing. Love my parents! There are a few bits still left to do and the kitchen fitters are coming back to sort them out next week, but on the whole it is now finished. And I love my new kitchen!

The fitters even sent me a big bouquet of flowers today to say they hope I like my kitchen. Like it? You bet Mr Kitchen Man. Now I have no excuse to sit and knit, I must get on and do some serious baking ready for Christmas.

But first I have a blanket to finish. Soon, people, oh very soon now...

Can you spot your squares?

Here is blanket number 2 all ready and waiting! 167 squares sofar, but if more turn up, the blanket will be bigger. I promise to use every one sent. I know that I haven't shown you number 1 yet, but be patient my friends - I'm trying as hard as I can!

This week has been crazy to say the least (and oh dear it's only Wednesday!) School plays, tiling, broken printer, Christmas Cards, grumpy husband, oh it's all happening chez Stash Basket.

I still can't figure out what's happened to Blogger - is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures? Why have they disappeared from the 'create' page but miraculously turn up on the blog page? This is all too much for me on top of everything else.

Still no pictures of the kitchen I'm afraid as it's still not done - the tiler will be here all week doing the walls and floors. Today we are in an even worse mess than ever as the dishwasher, washing machine and freezer have all moved from the laundry room to the kitchen while he does the floor out there. I can't even get to the fridge anymore to find the milk for a cup of tea. Oh dear. What a shame. Looks like being Cointreau today. Two weeks ago I was nearly teetotal. This week I'm clearing the drinks cupboard at quite a rate. Still, it's nearly Christmas isn't it?

I'm back!

So my brother was right - I'm back! Many thanks to him for standing in for me (incidentally, my family have always called me Kylie, not sure why, they just have. I do not resemble Ms Minogue in any way shape or form. Except in my dreams!)

No pictures of the kitchen just yet I'm afraid. It looks a whole lot better, but the tiler is coming today so hopefully there'll be some better views tomorrow.

Just a couple of pictures of some squares today. This top one is very blurred - it's early and there's no natural light so I'm blaming that. This is the i-cord edging that I'm doing and it's taking FOREVER, but will be worth it in the end. Sadly it means that Tipsy is on hold for some time - the Christmas deadline has been thrown out of the window. Not a chance of wearing it on the 25th. Perhaps I'll wear the blanket instead!



This little square has been sent by Arianne. She enclosed a note saying 'please have this square, it's not very good'. Arianne, modesty prevails. Your little square is beautiful and your mitring fantastic. Thank-you. Any more 'not very good' ones will be very welcome!!!!!!!

I have a big bag of squares ready to sew up into blanket number 2. Any that you have, please post them to either me or Kerrie asap and I can start sewing up all over again!

I'm off line for a while :-(

Dear People.

Have I mentioned my wonderful brother to you all? No ... well, let me put the record straight right now!

He's charming, whitty, very intelligent and quite the best person ever, anyway, enough of my wonderful brother why am I posting this ...

My Puter has broken :-(( its gone bang and I will not be around for a while (as long as it takes the little man to replace the fuse I imagine). So, please in my time of silence rest a little because in the words of the great Arnie ... I'll be back!!!!

Emma, please phone me ... I'd phone you but I don't have your number!

Kylie

A view of the kitchen from the other side this time. Units are starting to be put into place. We might even have an oven by the end of the week! No Monkee Maker, no stainless steel for me - far too clinical. Our house is over 200 years old, I really didn't want to go all modern in there. Mind you, the oven is going to be pretty modern and I don't think they had microwaves 200 years ago, nor fridges or spot lights, but I have to relinquish myself to the 21st century at some time!

No raffle prize today, but the winner from yesterday is Teri Gaudet. Just as soon as I can get to a post office, I'll put your silk in an envelope Teri. You lucky lucky person!

The blanket is coming along slowly because stupid me decided to do an i-cord border. I like doing i-cord and thought it would be a good idea at the time. Ah well, at least it will look good!

Tell me it will be worth it...

This is my kitchen at the moment. Excuse me while I just lie down in a dark room and cry will you. I am a cook. I cook. I practically live in my kitchen. What on earth will I do for the next 2 weeks? The wind farms round here will be going nuts over the next fortnight, as we'll be living off beans on toast until I can get to a cooker! I must convince myself this is all for the greater good. But it's very hard looking around at the mess and the dust. Oh, and as I wanted the oven moving, to be able to sort out the electrics, they've had to pull up our bedroom floor.

Gin. Need gin. Or chocolate. Or both....


So I will remain calm and think about the raffles taking place this week. Well, some of them will be taking place. You'll have to check back on a daily basis to see if I'm being nice or not!

This prize has been donated by the ever marvellous Kerrie. 500g (I think, my scales are lost somewhere in the rubble) of aran weight silk. It is beautiful, a very pretty smokey grey. Yes I know it looks blue, but trust me, with all this chaos here today, you're lucky to see anything!

And once again Blogger is mucking me about. I've uploaded photos, but instead of seeing them on the 'create post' page, all I've got is rows of letters and numbers. And I can't provide a link either. Arghh! Frustrated. Noisy. Dusty.

No gin left. Or chocolate.

Brandy anyone?