impressions

I've probably said this before, but the light in this city is astounding. I don't know if it's the time of year, the latitude, the atmospheric conditions, the profusion of limestone buildings, or a combination of all these things, but the light does things here that I've never seen anywhere else. Except possibly in Impressionist paintings.


holy lens flare, batman

Sometimes the days are so gray and rainy and awful; when the sky is clear and the sun is shining, I can't stop myself from going out to wander around in it. One good thing about being unemployed is the freedom to do that, I guess. These photos are from a few days ago, but they don't quite capture the whole gloriousness of the day.


Me and my shadow

Still, they come close enough for my memory to fill in the rest.

Giraffes

Not much to say today, but these guys make me smile.

Wool on Wednesday

I got an exciting package in the post today.



Six balls of Troon Tweed, by Texere Yarns.



I plan to make Idlewood, by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. This is reckless queue rearranging on my part. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it right away, and that tweed was imperative. I'm not even sure if this kind of tunic suits me, but I love it as is, and don't even have plans to make longer sleeves. We'll see how it turns out; hopefully no heartbreak in this corner!

The yarn is pretty in a neutral brown-gray sort of way. I don't have anything this colour yet, and I'm trying to branch out. It's slightly rough on the ball, but hopefully not too scratchy. Can't wait to swatch... Anyone else out there tried Troon Tweed and have any input?

FO repurposed

A few years ago, I knit monster slippers for my boyfriend and gave them to him for Christmas.



Long story short, they did't felt down enough, were too big, and he never wore them. In fact, he got a well-fitting pair of slippers from someone else the same year, so his slipper needs were met. After some initial disappointment, we both forgot about them.

Fast forward to this August - when packing up his room to move to Edinburgh, I found them under his bed, and reclaimed them as my own. A little chopping, measuring, and sewing... and they now keep my feet warm. One great thing about felted wool is that it doesn't come unraveled when you hack at it. I like happy endings.

Have you salvaged a failed knit?

Tasty things

I suffer from a common blog ailment that causes me not to take pictures of things at suitable times when there is enough light. This happens especially frequently with food, which is why I don't blog about food much. To begin with, I tend to cook and bake when it's already dark, and this time of year at 55°57'N doesn't yield a whole lot of daylight. I blog, but I'm not committed to changing my lifestyle in order to have better photos for the blog, so it's probably going to stay that way. Another reason is that I make mostly unphotogenic food at the best of times. Mmmm one-pot-meals.

On that note, here are some unphotogenic cheesy bisuits I made the other day. (Biscuits in the American sense, in this case).



I think they look like cheesy beasts of doom.


Raaaarrrr.

Cheese-beast Biscuits aka Baking Powder Biscuits

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt (optional)
1/3 cup olive oil
3/4 cup milk
Extra mature cheddar

Stir together dry ingredients. Add oil and milk, and stir quickly. Add grated cheese: I didn't measure how much I used, stupidly, but it depends on how cheesy you want the biscuits to be. Experiment. Knead the cheese in gently 10-12 strokes on a floured surface. Divide into 12 parts, roll into balls, and pat down to 1 inch thick on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle extra grated cheese on top, if so desired.

Bake at 350 F / 180 C for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Mysterious spiky tree

I like plants and trees, but I'm not the best at identifying them. Perhaps someone out there can help me figure this one out.



From afar, I thought it was some sort of conifer with needles, but up close I realized the needles were actually large, stiff, bromiliad-type leaves, like pineapple tops.



Any ideas?

more spectacle!

Last night was bonfire night, aka Guy Fawkes. Remember remember the 5th of November? Yeah, that 5th of November.

We thought, naively, that it would be fun to watch the fireworks from Arthur's Seat, so we headed out with flashlights, a thermos of tea, and raingear, only to find that Arthur's Seat was completely engulfed in fog. Also it was pouring. We climbed up to he ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel instead, which gave us a good view of the fireworks from the stadium. What I hadn't counted on was a view of little fireworks displays all over the city as well, and even big ones across the Firth of Forth. Pretty cool.

All the pictures I took look like this, even though I rested against a wall.



Time to invest in a tripod, methinks!

swag

I'm a big fan of John Allison's comics, and he comes up with some fun designs for t-shirts and other products. A while back, he came up with a crochet-genius character, the glamourous Margo Plodz, who saved the day through quick-thinking and crochet.

Today I saw the Knitting is Zen tote bag, now available from the Scary Go Round store. Awesome.


image copyright John Allison

Daisy Wooton from Allison's new mini-comic Giant Days is maybe a little less glamourous than Margo Plodz, the world's pre-eminent crocheter, but I suspect she'll kick ass in her own way!

imagination vs reality

These buttons need a project, and I have the French Press Felted Slippers in mind for them. I may be a little late to the party, but I can't get the image of forest green slippers with apple green buttons out of my head.

There's one problem: I can't find feltable yarn in the colour I'm imagining. I often find that the colour I envision isn't available in the yarn I want for a project, and this is no different. Ah well, I know I'll find some yarn, and it may even be better than the thing I'm stuck on now.

Thanks for all the comments on my WIP Wednesday post - 6 is kind of unheard of for this little blog. I guess Mr. Linky worked his magic. :)

WIP Wednesday

I have a WIP I can show you, and it happens to be Wednesday. Hurray, knitting content!



This is the ubiquitous Selbu Modern. I've had it in my queue for possibly a hundred years. Okay maybe just three. It's going Slooowly. I haven't done any stranded colourwork since last winter/spring, and it is taking me some time to get back into it. As such, I'm not enjoying the process as much as I thought I would, and that's making things even slower. Ah well, I'll finish it eventually. Although my tension is awfully uneven, I'm cautiously optimistic that blocking will fix it.

Yarn is this old random wool I bought from Lewiscraft a few years ago when they were going bust. The purple was originally fuschia, (same as I used for my Endpaper Mitts), but I overdyed it with Wilton's Royal Blue, and I love its current colour.

See more WIP Wednesday posts here.

I have a bike / I am a wuss

Recently, I bought a bike.



I got it second-hand from The Bike Station, an organization that refurbishes old bikes and sells them at discounted prices. They only sell adult bikes on Saturdays, so after I heard about them I wandered down one weekend, only to find that they had already sold out for the day. They warned me to come early, so a few weeks later I showed up an hour before they opened and shivered with other prospective cheap bike owners until they finally opened the doors. I ended up being 12th in line, and by 10:30 there was a long line of people behind me.

Once inside, I stared at the array of about 40 bikes of all shapes and sizes, ranging in price from £45 to £120, unsure where to begin. After trying a few, I decided on the purple one, not just because it's purple, although that is why it caught my eye. ;)



Edinburgh has lots of bike paths. More commonly called cycle paths here, but whenever I say that people seem to think I'm saying "psychopaths" because of my accent. True story.

Anyway, I went out exploring on a bike path by the river the other day.



I find it fascinating that unlike those of many major European cities, Edinburgh's city centre isn't located on its river. Cycling by the Water of Leith, I sort of felt like I was in the forest at times.



Bike paths are awesome because I'm sort of wimpy when it comes to cycling in traffic. This is nothing new, and I stuck to bike paths / quiet streets in Ottawa whenever I could; however I'm even wimpier when faced with traffic driving on the left. As a pedestrian, I've gotten used to dealing with wrong-side traffic by now, but since I don't drive a car I haven't had to contend with being on the actual road until now.

It's nervewracking. Something I hadn't even considered before getting on the bike was that when cycling on the left, one must shoulder-check over the right shoulder, rather than the left. After years of checking automatically over my left shoulder, teaching my neck to do it the other way is harder than I thought it would be.

Moreover, there are roundabouts. Oh, roundabouts. Apparently they are safer and more efficient than other kinds of intersections, but because I'm not familiar with them yet, they scare me. I haven't cycled around one yet because I'm freaking terrified. This is something I have to get over, but man. So much fear. My boyfriend drew me a helpful diagram about which lane to be in for which exit, and it's great, but I still haven't gone out and tried it. One day. For now, I'm sticking to the paths.

Halloween/Samhuinn in Edinburgh

Let's start this NaBloPoMo with some pyrotechnics! That's what I like to hear.



Last night, the Beltane Fire Society put on a show through the streets of Edinburgh to represent the arrival of winter. As we waited for the parade to come through, I was suprised and bemused to see it preceded by a zombie walk - I'm a little annoyed I didn't have the presence of mind to take some video as a gory zombie walked towards me mumbling "Staaaarbuuuucks" and grabbing at my chai latte. Priceless.


St. Giles' Cathedral looking spooky

The Samhuinn parade itself was impressive. It started on Castle Hill and wound down to the big show at West Parliament Square in the shadow of St. Giles. Body paint, costumes, puppetry, dancing, drumming, and, of course, fire pervaded the scene. Although I'm not very familiar with the mythology of Samhuinn, and I couldn't always follow the story or identify the characters, it was really fun to watch.


Fiery crowns



Apologies for the quality of the photos - they are all screen captures from the mediocre video I took. Here are some of my favourite moments, and you can see all of them here.


A red character accosts my boyfriend with a mysterious note.


The denizens of summer march to the oompa loompa theme

What did you do for Halloween?

It's nearly November

There's a beautiful bush in the shared garden of our building that I keep trying to photograph.



Today it was really windy and most of my attempts came out blurry, but I caught the colour. Just thought I'd share.

I'm going to be participating in this month's blog posting event of doom, occasionally known as NaBloPoMo, traditionally done in November, apparently all year round as well; I don't know if I'll actually register on their site, but will see. When I did it last year, I learned just how bad I am at planning, so this year I'm going to make an effort to come up with stuff to post about a few days in advance so I don't get stuck. That may fail. Anyway, should be fun. Anyone else doing NaBloPoMo this November?

details

In a fit of housekeeping, I've finally changed the blog url to match its title, neglecting to find some way of redirecting from the old url. Whoops. Ah well, I'll try to be findable.

New url is http://goodenoughknits.blogspot.com.

I've also changed my ravelry username, so don't be alarmed if you have a mysterious new friend called notpanicking. It's only me! The Crudmonkey handle had been following me around since grade 7, and it was time for something a little more representative of me. (dontpanic was taken).

Meanwhile, I went on a long walk about town the other day, and took lots of pictures. I was focused on details - there are lots of interesting curlicues, ironwork, windows and doors. Here's what came of the outing.



It's been awhile since I went out solely for the purpose of photography, and I should do it more often. I feel like I'll never run out of details to capture in this city, even if I traverse the same old streets.

gift knitting and job hunting

I don't have much to show for my efforts these days. I have gift-knitting projects on the go that I'm keeping quiet for now, and although I'm applying to everything even vaguely related to my field, I don't have a job to show for it yet. The job hunt is getting me down! Other than being jobless, my life is pretty damn sweet right now, so I'm trying to be enthusiastic about the awesome bits.

Today I started taking advantage of my free time to start something I've been meaning to do for ages.



(That's Marnie MacLean's tutorial about using Excel to chart colourwork open in one window)

I'm envisioning some fingerless mitts. Will anything come of this? Who knows, but for now it's a good personal challenge.

Does sock yarn count?

I'm usually pretty good about buying yarn with specific projects in mind so that it doesn't languish unused and unloved for ages. I take this approach to limit my yarn buying because I don't have the time, money, or space for a big stash. Sock yarn poses a problem, though. It has been said that sock yarn stash doesn't really count as stash. I mean, each 100g skein is enough for a whole project, be it a pair of socks or a lacy shawlette - and I have enough of both in my queue to use up twice or three times my current sock yarn stash. It's different from sweater stash, which by necessity comprises at least a few skeins of yarn per sweater in potentia and takes up a whole lot more space. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) Not that having a stash is a bad thing, it's just that I don't want to have an extensive one right now.

On that note, look what I got! This past weekend I trekked out to the Morningside Makers' Market and spent a while squishing yarn at the Yarn Yard table. I was mesmorized by the pretty colours and took ages to decide on one to purchase, but finally decided on this one.



This is Cairn, 80% merino, 20% nylon. There are green streaks through the dark blue that aren't showing up well in the photo. Despite blue being one of my favourite colours, I haven't knit anything blue in a while, so I thought it was time for more bluish yarn.

I have no idea what I'll make with it, but I'm not letting that bother me. It's sock yarn, after all. I can always make socks.

Swap day 7: the last day :(

Today I'll show off the last of the lovely gifts from Stephcuddles. As so many other participants have already said, this was such fun and I didn't want it to end!

On to the goodies.



Little owl coin purse, with a lucky penny inside. At least, I'm calling it lucky since I didn't expect to find it there. My love for owls is on trend, but no less diminished by that fact. I'm not often on trend with things. But then, Everyone is fond of owls. Hehehehe.

Next, more stitch markers! These ones are shaped like tiny slices of pie and cake. Yum.



I should have expected this, since Stephcuddles has an etsy shop devoted to handmade stitch markers. They are so cute. Plus, these ones open for easy removal, which is always handy.


Mmmm cake.

So many new goodies to play with. Ahhh. Thanks again to Stephcuddles for the wonderful, thoughtful, and fun goodies, and also thanks to Eskimimi for organizing the whole thing.

Edited to Add: Apparently, I was confused and the pies/cakes are wine charms, not stitch markers! Whoops. Now I look a bit silly. Heh. Is it bad that I had never heard of wine charms before? Clearly don't get out much. At least now I know they can have many possible uses. Thanks for clearing that up!

Blog Hub Swap Day 6

Apologies for the terrible photos - it's raining and gray and dreary out, and the light isn't cooperating. All the cunning poses I tried ended up looking rather uninspiring, but believe me: this soap is inspiring! Now that my sense of smell is returning, I can confirm that it smells nice, too.

Handmade soap and bath bombs from It's Soap.





It's all so pretty and fragrant, and handmade/not mass-produced, which makes it extra cool in my opinion. I'm excited to try it out. Again, thanks Stephcuddles!

Day 5, belatedly

I missed posting about day 5 of the Blog Hub Swap yesterday because I spent the whole day trying to drown a sudden cold in herbal tea and soup. Things are well in hand today, but I'm going to keep up the tea guzzling just in case. Also, the weather was terrible yesterday and there was no light for photographing things. But today, there's even a little sun!

So. Day 5 in the package from Stephcuddles contained fun gadgets.


(Yes, the backdrop is my ironing board.)

A knitting spool and a row counter. I had a knitting spool when I was little and had so much fun making a family of snakes. I have visions of super-fast i-cord happening with this one, though. What fun!



A closer look at the row counter reveals that it has a handy stitch-marker attachment. I've had row counters before, and they always seem to run away, (okay, so I lose them), so maybe the little ring will make it stay put for longer. Brilliant!

Blog Hub Swap Day 4: Embellishments!

The fourth package from Stephcuddles brings goodies related to embellishments.


A button tin! I definitely need one of these, as I fear I will quickly amass a large button collection.


And inside, the beginnings of a button collection! Little clay elephants that have stolen my heart - I do love elephants - and some sweet little shell hearts. Other than these, I currently own two buttons, which will soon take their place in the tin with the rest. I also love the green spotted ribbon. What shall I use it for? Hmmm. I know I'll save the cute strawberry label after I find the use for the ribbon, though.

Close up of the adorable elephant buttons:

Blog Hub Swap Day 3

First order of business:

Soxonfox, aka Pip of the Sock Yarn Shop has received the package I sent her in the Blog Hub Swap and is blogging about it here complete with really great photos. I'll admit I was a bit intimidated when buying yarn for a sock yarn connossieur who sells it for a living! The legendary K1 Yarns came to the rescue, since they stock some really beautiful yarns.

Second: I survived 8 hours on the coach to Birmingham, 8 hours following my boyfriend around a bit cluelessly at UK Games Day (we both have life-consuming hobbies and obsessions - one day I'll take him along to a knitting festival), and 8 hours on the coach back to Edinburgh. Whoosh.

Third: Swap day 3!

I think Stephcuddles is determined to destroy me with sweets. Heh. (This is clearly not a bad sort of destruction). Day 3's bundle contained one large chocolate bar...



And several teeny tiny ones in the form of cute stitch markers. Aw.



Now little chocolate bars will garnish my knitting. A good combination, I think. Thanks, Stephcuddles!

Blog Hub Swap: Day 2

As it turns out, package #2 is the squishy one, so I didn't have to wait long before encountering exciting new yarn.

Contents:



1 ball of Zauberball in the Cranberries colourway. So pretty! And soft. I've wanted to try Zauberball for a while, so this is excellent mind-reading on the part of Stephcuddles. (Or rav-stalking, whatever).

I also received Eskimimi's lovely Simple City scarf from Stephcuddles directly in my ravelry inbox yesterday, which calls for one ball of Zauberball... Brilliant. I see where this is going! I actually have a load of Noro Kureyon Sock that might work for this scarf as well, but it's not nearly as soft and neck-friendly as the zauberball. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll make it with both!

But there was more:



Haribo! Yum. I'm going on a long long long coach ride tonight, so I'll bring this along for when I need a bit of sweetness.

On that note, Day 3 will have to wait until Monday, because I'm spending all night on a coach to Birmingham... And then much of the following day on the coach back, it seems. Quite possibly the longest coach ride of my life so far - we'll see how it goes.

Blog Hub Swap: Day 1

Today has been awesome, especially in terms of mail. This morning, our router came finally, so I am on the internet in our flat for the first time since moving to Edinburgh. Excellent. Then, this afternoon my swap package from Stephcuddles arrived! Extra exciting.



I eagerly opened the box to reveal several numbered colourful parcels, and a note from Stephcuddles saying that I could eschew the order and open the squishy one first if I wanted... Heh. Tempting, but I decided to follow the order Stephcuddles has set up.

Package number 1 contained these goodies.



Candy and a fun little notebook! Candy is always welcome. Mmmm. I find blank books very useful, and small ones like this are perfect for carrying around with me everywhere. Unfortunately I have a habit of forgetting to look at the lists I've written... but it's a start, right?

I'm excited to see what number 2 contains tomorrow!

Thanks Stephcuddles! And thanks again to Eskimimi for organizing the swap.

Swap!

I'm participating in a swap in the Blog Hub group on Ravelry, and have finally gathered together all the various things for my swap partner. I hope the recipient enjoys this as much as I have!

Here's the pile before being stashed away in their box.


Peruse a pile of polkadotted packages!

Off it goes, at the mercy of Royal Mail. Cross your fingers for me...

I had lots of fun with this, my first ever swap. Shopping is not my favourite activity, but shopping for knitting things, bits, and things that are not strictly required is quite fun. It also gave me a chance to poke around and discover shops I might not have found right away. A good introduction to more places to spend money in Edinburgh. Maybe that's not a good thing, after all.

Yarn!

Enfuriatingly, I still have no internet access at home. I am considering taking matters into my own hands somehow. I'm also still unemployed, but that's to be expected at this point.

But! A friend came up to visit me last week, and she gave me yarn from the Isle of Skye. It was really good to see her, and it was fun to have someone to hang around with now that my boyfriend has started working fulltime. (I will get a job soon, I promise)

Anyway, about the yarn:


It's greenish-black, tweedy, and wooly. The yarn label says Skye Knyts, but the internet doesn't yield a whole lot of information about this company. Does anyone know anything about them?



Still, very pretty! I don't know what I'll use it for, since it is fingering/sport weight and quite rough - maybe something with a lining. Any suggestions?

WIP tease

Still no internet access at home, but I have been testing out the flat as photography space. Here are some teaser images of my current WIP. Socks: two at a time, toe up, and knit in Tanis Fibre Arts Blue Label.


Looks grayer than real life. Imagine Vibrance!

This is the sole: these will be a gift, so I don't want to ruin the surprise.



This is my first use of Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, and I'm really enjoying it so far. The colourway is Mallard, which of course gets distorted since I photographed it on the kitchen table. It's blue, teal, green, and even pale yellow-green in spots. Mmmm hand-dyed semisolid goodness! Am kicking myself for not buying more than one skein when I was in Montreal, but there are more lovely yarns on this side of the pond to discover.