What direction is this going in please???

I am loving the Atelier that's on my needles, but honestly I'm still not absolutely sure how this works. Having read lots of project notes on Ravelry I realise that its quite an unusual construction, and lets face it I'm pretty obtuse myself, so the fact that it's not glaringly obvious what direction I'm going in does kind of appeal :)

The thrill of just following the instructions and going with it is quite refreshing, I'll certainly keep you posted! At the moment I have to be honest that it resembles a pair of old mans combinations (or long johns in todays speak). What do you think?

Joining in a little late with the fabulous Ginny for  Yarn Along and Tami for  WIP Wednesday .

My book this week is a bit of a departure for me. Despite loving action packed, thriller type books for a long time, I've never read a James Patterson book. My Mum is constantly saying how good he is and how she's read every book he's ever written. Now I normally trust my Mum's reading judgement, but it's not working terribly well for me. I'm not enjoying the writing style, it feels formulaic, sensationalist and frankly not that interesting. I'll try and push on as I know from vast experience that my impression of a book in the first part does sometimes change. I'm up to page 89, lets see how it goes.....

My new arrival!

She's here finally, my lovely new sewing machine! Well bless her she was new once, probably sometime around 1970, which frankly still makes her younger than me. I'm sure she'd appreciate a clean up and a bit of oil, again a bit like me as I'm sure a bit of sewing machine oil would do my creaky knees the world of good. She's obviously made of strong stuff as I could barely carry her into the house and up the stairs, portable machine she certainly will not be, but that's fine as the idea was to get a tough, all metal workhorse.

 

 

She's mighty lovely and I'm very pleased. Now just got to be brave enough to plunge in and start sewing. You know what this means don't you? Yes, more craft, more addiction, more stash! There I am trying hard to clear the stuff from my life and now I've just added more.....

Ooh hello, remember me!

I don't really do telling myself off for not posting, as sometimes life just gets in the way and there's no point making myself feel bad is there?

So anyway moving on from that, I've had a really interesting few weeks following the New Year. Plenty of knitting going on, trips taken, new craft love developing and turning over a new leaf... That is quite a mixture even if I say so myself.

The knitting is ok, if a little lacking in over the top enthusiasm, which I would like to say is nothing to do with the projects themselves, but more to do with my general indecision over what to knit. In cardigan land I finally settled on the gorgeous Atelier, mainly due to its interesting construction method. Watch this space to see how it moves on, I'm hoping if I follow and believe, that all will be well :)

My other project is the Buttony Quilt which I'm loving as an ongoing 'knit it when you need a little change' project. I'm knitting it in dk weight rather than 4ply and with a 3.25mm needle, so each of my squares is about 50% bigger than the designer's. Hopefully it will grow a bit faster and also helps me use up the huge amounts of dk that I have, either as leftovers, odd balls, or even larger quantities that I bought some time ago and now no longer have any ideas for. Its great, I love it, even the sewing!

That last comment brings me on to my new craft love. Sewing. I have technically sewed since I was a child, taught by my Mum, using both a machine and by hand. It just never grabbed me, it was never my best friend. I could alter clothes in a basic take a hem up, run a seam in, sew on a button way, but I never actually enjoyed it. Bizarrely as soon as Fiona has disappeared off to Uni with our shared sewing machine I get the urge to start sewing! Sods law they call it :) So I've been searching the treasure that is ebay for a second hand solid machine to let me have a bash at some projects. Very excitingly I 'scored' a Frister Rossmann this afternoon, and will be happily going off to collect her on Sunday. More space to watch it seems, although its more likely to be 'upcycled' projects rather than new items from me.

Turning over a new leaf is a pretty common occurrence at New Year, so initially I didn't have high hopes for my new determination, but hey its so great and helps me so much that I'm hooked forever. Yes my friends it is 'meal planning'! I know, you're disappointed I can tell, sorry about that. But honestly its fabulous. No more wondering what on earth I'm going to cook when I finally get home from work, much better and more interesting food on offer, and it saves me money, as I go through my fridge, freezer and cupboards before I write my shopping list. Its deadly simple and brilliant. So you ask what's on the menu for tonight Tracy? Well, erm, actually I'm off to visit my parents and they're feeding me tonight bless 'em......

Lovely to be back amongst you. What new leaves have you turned over?