Walking the Dead Monkey

Last year when I went to Dublin with p/hop I stayed with my good fibre friend Bioniclaura. We had the traditional viewing of the stash, in Bioniclaura's case, the yarndrobe, browsing of pattern books and general knitchattery.

Laura is an excellent knitter and crocheter. However she was lamenting her inability to knit socks (she has crocheted a fine pair which you can see here on Ravelry).

When I returned home I decided to knit her a pair as a thank you for having me gift. Monkey is a classic pattern and great for variegated yarns. The yarn I used for Laura's socks is some I'd dyed myself. When I was knitting them I was watching a lot of zombie films, mainly the Ramero living dead series, The Walking Dead and Simon Pegg Classic, Sean of the Dead.

The way the yarn knitted up reminded me of gory zombie inflicted wounds. So dear reader, I give you Walking the Dead Monkey socks. Grrrrrrreat.

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Champagne Bubbles

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I was surprised to see that visitors to London's galleries and museums are down as the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), cited as having the largest drop in numbers, was busy when I visited earlier in the week. The busiest part was the Portrait Award exhibition and while the pieces were technically brilliant only a few grabbed my attention. People often get hung up on art, what should they like, what's the correct way to talk about it. I say ignore all that and look with an open mind. If something takes your fancy, great, if it doesn't, move on. Someone else will like it. If you can't make it to the NPG you can see all the entries online . Here are a couple I like. I'm not going to say anything about them. It's up to you what you think about them. If they intrigue you there's more info on the gallery website. Patchwork by Paula Wilson © Paula Wilson The New Religion by Conor Walton © Conor Walton It is disheartening to see visitor...

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