Skip to main content

NaNoWhoWaHa?

I've just been reading my friend Natalie's blog over at The Yarn Yard. Apparently November is NaBloPoMo - National Blog Post Month. Seeing as I've become rather slack at blogging over the last few weeks I think I'll take up the challenge and try to write a post every day. I'm the sort of person who is motivated by last minute deadlines rather than steady consistency so I imagine I'll be bashing out blog posts at ten to midnight every evening.

Part of the reason my blog has been neglected is I've been busier than usual. I've got loads to write about so watch this space for some retrospective blogging in a RetroNaBloPoMo.

As for the other NaNoBlahBlah things going on this month, there's NaKniSweMo. National Knit a Sweater Month. Well I knitted a sweater in ten days in October and I'm not doing that again, unless I'm knitting for myself. As Natalie pointed out, November is the month for preparing for Christmas. I can't see my family being to pleased on Christmas day when I open up a parcel for me, made by me while everyone else has nothing.

It's also NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, in which people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Seeing as I struggle to write on here frequently I think I'll give that one a miss.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lashing and lashings...

As well as talk of Clementine Cake on twitter there has been talk of brewing Ginger Beer. Ginger beer is my drink of choice and I'm always in search of a good one. I find many commercial ones too sweet. Once on holiday in Brasil I had a ginger beer made with freshly squeezed ginger which is the gold standard at the moment and a tough act to live up to. @eskimimi (who has a lovely blog ) linked to this River Cottage recipe last week . I had to hunt around for brewers yeast as the brewer's yeast you can buy in chemists and health food shops is deactivated so won't work for brewing, despite the name. (trade descriptions act anyone?). I ended up buying my yeast online after consulting my brewing guru Bioniclaura . As well as knitting Laura brews her own beer, which I got sample when I stayed with her and her lovely dog and husband in Dublin when I went over at the end of October. More on that later. I couldn't wait to get started but had to wait til we returned from Hasti

Donegal Aran Socks

When Bioniclaura came to stay for KnitNation she very kindly gave me some Donegal Aran Tweed Yarn . The yarn is made in Ireland in a mill in Kilcar, County Donegal and I bought a little more of it when I visited the Knitting & Stitching show in Dublin with p/hop in October. As I'm supposed to be making 52 pairs of socks this year of course I made socks. The yarn is lovely to work with and though it feels a little rough at first after a gentle wash in some soak it softens up beautifully. I made these socks toe up, using Judy's Magic cast on for the toes. I cast on 18 stitches and increased every other round using YOs knitted through the back loop to 36 stitches on 3.75mm needles. They have a standard heel flap and gusset and were very quick to knit, taking one evening per sock. I gave this pair to my Mother in Law for Christmas and she is very happy with them. Though she loves all my knitting and often contemplates nicking things I have made for other people like some yarny

Ceilings

Over Easter we went to Istanbul. It's one of those cities that's been lurking in the corners of my mind, from tales of Roman Constantinople, to bordering Europe and Asia with its dreaming mosque minarets. So I booked a bargain of a city break two days before we left, chucked some clothes in a bag, picked up a guidebook and off we went. There are more blog posts and photos on the way, as we had an excellent time there, but as you can see I was quite taken with ceilings and spent most of our four days there looking up.