New project!

Yay new project. And nope, not feeling guilty about ignoring the numerous UFOs. Why am I not feeling guilty?

1. Life's too short, and
2. It's a sweater, so it's going to be very useful

Ok, so maybe there's a tiny bit of guilt, but I've never made myself a sweater! Which possibly should add to the guilt, but it's not... Perhaps it's just because the pattern name is Wicked, and I'm feeling a little contradictory... Hmmm.

Yarn: New Lanark
Pattern: Wicked by Rachel Bishop

Cheese and Wool

My two favorite things.

Have I ever mention that during college I was the president of Cheese Lovers United for three years? Not only the president, but the president and founder. And yes, there were other members. Yay liberal arts education! The cheese club is a whole 'nother blog post though.

This time I'll just leave you to ponder the pincushion I just listed:

mmm. Cheese.

Small World

Well, actually I mean small town!

I was selling at another craft fair yesterday and ran into two people I knew fro craft clubs, one person I took a class with, 2 people who knew me from the bead fair and one who had bought a pincushion from me in the last fair.

It must be crazy for the people who've actually lived in this city for more than a year!

Do you live in a small town? Do you ever get used to running into people you know?

Dabbling Wednesday

This is going to be my last Dabbling Wednesday until the new year. I have too much to do, and don't expect to have enough time to ... dabble.

So I thought this week I'd do a bit of cross-stitch. I wanted to do something I could keep by my crafting corner. Something short, something relevant, something that would inspire me and motivate me.

And this is what I came up with:


Let's see how effective it is :)

Craigmillar Castle

Today we hopped on the bus for half an hour and took a visit to Craigmillar Castle. The castle in its original form was built in the 14th century, and up until the 1700s had major additions and changes. It was abandoned in the 1700s and now stands as a surprisingly big castle with an hours worth of rooms to explore and run around in.

The day started off clear, bright, crisp, and very cold. And then it turned into cloudy and cold. It feels like winter already!

This is a wonderful doorway!

The coat of arms on the top is of a unicorn and two lions.
Really I think everyone should have their own coat of arms. Mine perhaps would be a hedgehog and a piece of cheese.

It's amazing to think that people once lived here.

Queen of Scots stayed at Craigmillar a few times! Though once you visit a few castles though you realize that nearly all of the surviving castles had housed royalty at one point or another.

Huge fireplaces!

No idea what I was doing here, I just like the picture.

Am I the only one who thinks old latrines are fascinating?

Ya, I thought as much.

This is the inside of a dovecot:

It's where they kept the pigeons. Nope, not as pets, but as food.

So that was Craigmillar Castle! Where to next?

Dabbling Wednesday

Apparently today was cupcake day at my house! If there isn't already a national cupcake day, there really should be one.

The other day I saw these individual silicone cupcake molds at Pound Land (and for my American friends who are wondering - yes, it really is called Pound Land). I haven't made cupcakes in ages. Or at least I don't remember making them. I do oddly enough remember having cupcake liners at one point, but I don't actually remember making them. Perhaps I didn't make them with icing (why would I bother to remember naked cupcakes?) ...

In any case, I poo-poohed any concerns I had about getting cancer from baking in 99 pence silicone and made some cupcakes this evening!

Apparently mixing coco powder and green food coloring in your butter icing produces yoda cupcakes! (cupcakes I like)
As you can see I was too eager to consume it to actually apply the icing in a neat and pleasing manner. Tasted good though.

And then I made a little pincushion, one with considerably neater icing. And sprinkles. And it's full of fibre. And I don't have to actively ignore it's fat content (or lack thereof).
(it will be on sale on etsy tomorrow).

Autumn Leaves

I recently made a felted leaf for a competition. The theme was "Autumn Leaves".

My first attempt looked brown and withered. I'm a California girl. Back where I'm from we have green alive leaves and brown dead ones.

And really, when Autumn arrives here I'm usually too obsessed with the change of temperature than the change in trees.

See:

Cold.


But the leaves are quite pretty, aren't they?

Do you notice the changes in season?

Back from a long sleep

My battery charger has arrived!! And it's working! And I'm on the computer at home right now! Phew! That was a long month...

And I wasn't completely idle and bored for all of that time.

Here's a few of the things I made:

And I read a book (Oliver Sacks) and I'm half-way through two others (another Oliver Sacks and Subversive Stitch (it's about the history of embroidery and femininity)) and I'm a bit better at the ukulele.

So now, looking back, I'm wondering what all that whining was about. Um, no, wait. In half an hour I'll have to recharge this battery and won't be able to use the computer for a few hours. *whine*.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's blogs again, and see what I've missed these past few weeks!

Dabbling Wednesday

The crafting narrative that I've formed about myself has, up until today, started with a latch rug kit around the age of 10.

But today's dabbling made me realize that wasn't correct.

Before the latch rug I must have started with a knitting spool.

And I can vaguely remember what it looks like too - a mushroom with a white stem and red top.

I got this little spool at a charity shop on Tuesday, and after 5 minutes of the normal thing you do with these (I was surprised that it really was knitting! but with metal loops instead of knitting needles, which, you know, makes sense since it's called a knitting spool ...) I decided it might be a little more interesting to try and knit around one of my felted cords with sewing thread.

I'm not sure what I expected, but this isn't it:

Hmmm. Looks a little like some worm from another planet.

But I suppose you never know until you try!

It's the little things

I don't know why, but it's often the tiny little changes in life that interests me.

The other day I noticed that the biggest grocery store chain in the UK has updated their grocery bag. Assuming this is a Scotish-wide change this couldn't have been just a whim on their part.

One side is largely the same, with the same text, but a little more spaced out and a best before date! I've checked, and the old bags have one too, but it was in such a small text I never bothered reading it. But apparently the store thinks this more important than the possibility of children suffocating on it.

The other side now has a Saint Andrew's Cross! (Scotland's flag)

Very interesting.

And just a little update - nope, I still do not have a computer, which might actually explain why I'm now finding plastic bags to be fascinating and blog-worthy...