Another critter from twitter

I've just renewed my Natural History Museum membership as it's one of my favourite places in London. A few weeks ago we went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. I dabble in wildlife photography and fantasise about having one of my pictures in exhibition. That fantasy is soon brought back to reality when I look at the superb entries in the show. It's worth a visit if you are in London. If not follow the NHM on twitter. Throughout December they are tweeting a link to a fantastic image every day. I love this one of a springtail on a snowflake.


Photo by Urmas Tartes Springtail on a snowflake via Natural History Museum

I must dig out my SLR and macro lens then maybe one day I'll join the hallowed ranks of photographers with the perfect decisive moment.

Mew or Rarrr from Laurie Pink

A few weeks ago I entered one of those random competitions which pop up on twitter. All I had to do was tweet "Rarrr" or "Mew" to win a dinosaur or kitten badge. Tweet I did, then forgot about it. Turns out I was one of the lucky winners so this arrived through the post from the lovely @lauriepink. The cute kitten badge was the main prize but the undercover chicken makes me chuckle. So thank you Laurie and keep up the good work.

Knitamorphosis

Remember the blood bath? Well that turned into this...



and this...



which then then knitted up...



into these for my best friend's birthday present.



The pattern is a p/hop pattern, the popular Cranford Mitts by Jane Lithgow. They are a pleasure to knit, the lace pattern is easy to memorise and the increases for the thumb merge seamlessly into the design. I made a few small modifications, I knit the mitts all in one colour, used a 2mm needle for the garter stitch around the fingers and knit a couple of extra rounds for the thumbs.

I'm currently working on a pair for myself, more on that later, but these were given the thumbs up by Louise who refused to take them off in the pub. Cheers. Happy birthday Lou and Happy Birthday p/hop.



PS The yarn is 4ply Bluefaced Leicester, I used about 36grams for the mittens.

100 days

I've just signed up for the 100 days project.

I thought of many positive things I could take up for 100 days, from the obvious exercise more and drink more water to things I've been longing to take up again but somehow haven't managed yet, things like drawing or learning to play the guitar. I know I wouldn't manage to keep one thing up for 100 days, I just don't work that way, but it did make me think about why I don't always achieve the things I dream about.

I'm a terrible procrastinator, so much so that I only signed up for the 100 days projects with 5min to go of the first day. My goal is to procrastinate less and therefore achieve more. This covers all sorts of things I want to do.

I like the idea of positive change, I'm looking on this as a secular equivalent to lent. I find the idea of giving things up depressing so the 100 days project is so much better than the miserable "I'm not eating x,y or z for 40 days". I prefer to replace bad things with good and try the unexplored.

So what will I try?

I will try to:

Draw more, even if it's just a quick doodle. I used to draw all the time when I was a kid, right the way through university. I stopped when I started work, I'm not really sure why but I've found it hard to get going again. I've bought several art books and I visit galleries all the time but by the time I get home I fail to get my sketch pad and pencil out. Actually they are out but my man pinches my pencils for his sudoku (he likes a 4B) and I use the paper for other things. This will change (though my man can still use my pencils).

Get boring paperwork out of the way rather than leaving it for weeks and months irritating me. Nuff said.

Strum my guitar and maybe learn a few more chords.

Learn a few phrases in a foreign language each week. I can speak French, Spanish and German badly. I'd like to improve in all three.

One of my ultimate goals is to finish writing a knitting pattern. My brain is full of ideas, my needles are overflowing with various projects but I get halfway through writing them down and my mind wanders and I get bored. I need to just knuckle down and finish one. There's also a fear of putting my work out there in public. While knitters are usually kind and friendly some aren't afraid to say exactly what they think in non-constructive ways. I know designers find this hard to deal with so I shouldn't be surprised that this puts me off. I'm going to have to lump it.

I am exercising more, I just need to stick at it and be patient with my healing leg.

I eat well already but I think I eat just a bit too much. I'm gong to watch my intake a bit more and see if that will help shift the extra weight I've gained this year.

I would add be tidier but I've been trying that for years, it's not going to happen.

Seeing how badly my blog every day project went I'm not expecting huge changes, just a few small ones, which is enough for me.

PS, I forgot to add, blog more. Durrr.

Blood bath

I did some dyeing today. I'm naturally drawn to reds, although I was aiming for a more burgundy shade the final rinse in the bath looked like a scene from Sweeny Todd.



This is the first time I've dyed non-superwash wool, it certainly doesn't take dye up as well. I need to do some reading up on this as the paler shades are OK but I prefer bright colours. I'll see how it looks in the morning. Let's hope I don't have nightmares.

Remedies

I've had a horrible cold this week which has turned into a chest infection. While I'm taking all my usual asthma medication I'm also trying to listen to my body and work out what else I need.

I haven't got much of an appetite which isn't like me but I do have a craving for hot drinks and soup. I decided to make a massive batch of vegetable broth and used Grow Your Own drugs by James Wong as inspiration. He had a TV series on BBC2 earlier this year combining horticulture, pharmacology and ethnobotany which I found interesting from both a gardening and science point of view. There's a recipe for Chinese chicken soup in the book which I adapted for my vegetarian needs.

Here's my recipe:

Fry two loosely chopped onions in rapeseed oil for a couple of minutes in a big saucepan. Add 8 cloves (yes, EIGHT!!!) of crushed garlic, 2 inches of grated ginger and 1 chopped medium heat chili. Fry on a low heat til the onions start to soften but not brown. Add loads of chopped veg (carrots, spuds, squash, celery, whatever you have in) stirring regularly . After about 10 min add water til the pan is almost full. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 1 hour.



I've used the broth as the basis for my meals this week, reheating small amounts and adding different flavours and veg protein to vary the flavours. Eg I added veggie hot dogs and mustard for a Germanic soup, fried tofu & mange tout, lemongrass, lime, coconut and soy sauce for a far eastern flavour, and curried chickpeas for, yes you've guessed it, curry. It's really cut down on cooking time but helped with eating well. Despite still feeling a bit groggy I feel quite healthy too, if that makes any sense.

Monster Monster

A few weekends ago I went to visit my best friend from school and her seven year old daughter, B. They've been having a rotten time this year so I made B an early Christmas present of a big box of crafty goodies. The box had this book which is very cute and full of clear instructions on how to knit, embroider, sew, make pom poms and lots of other fun little projects which dress the doll on the front. I put in kids size knitting needles, pieces of felt, buttons, ribbons, small balls of wool and lots of little bits and pieces from my stash.



The box was a success and B immediately started drawing a monster on a piece of felt. With a bit of direction from me she cut him out, we then made a backing from another piece of felt, chose buttons for the eyes and colours for the mouth and hair. I did the sewing (basic running stitch) and B helped with the stuffing.

Voila, one monster, done and dusted in under two hours.